A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

[david_white]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Good work, some top diagnostic skills there and what people dont realise is that you are similtaneously trouble shooting for other racers over the phone. I think you saved us a load of work and headaches today too

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

not much progress to show today, a work college came over and repaired about a dozen chips in the screen, after which i stuck some new decals on, i went to change the clear film over the headlamp lenses because it was pretty grotty, and both glasses basically fell to bits, so que fitting two new headlamps, and a few other bits of tidying, stil got quite a few other jobs to do, but its looking a lot better

[david_white]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

I know theres not much space but i'd like to see a pic of the whole car so we can see the new ride height..
Looks pretty low from that pic.

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!



that gives a clue, i cant jack it up under the diff from the side of the car any more, the body of my bradbury jack wont clear the sills, niether can i get it under the front x/member, so if i want a whole end of the car up in the air it needs one jack either side

[david_white]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Yeah, thats lower alright lol

[stephen bahr]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]53275[/ATTACH]

that gives a clue, i cant jack it up under the diff from the side of the car any more, the body of my bradbury jack wont clear the sills, niether can i get it under the front x/member, so if i want a whole end of the car up in the air it needs one jack either side

is it me or is the back of the car on the wonk?

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

some of it may be camera angle but yes the o/s quarter has been squashed down

[stephen bahr]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

some of it may be camera angle but yes the o/s quarter has been squashed down

that's a shame, was hoping for a masterful plan on making the n/s edge of the wing higher up, clever aerodynamics

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

that's a shame, was hoping for a masterful plan on making the n/s edge of the wing higher up, clever aerodynamics

its already higher

what i might do though is remake the end plates so its a bit flatter and will cut the high speed drag

[stephen bahr]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

its already higher

what i might do though is remake the end plates so its a bit flatter and will cut the high speed drag

i remember you saying it was really noticeable at thruxton, so like you say it could be more drag than downforce at it's current angle.

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

over the winter i sold a fuel pump to a mate, it was to be my spare pump, but i couldnt find it so he actually had the one off my car, eventually i found teh spare and fitted it, but as its a different pump doesnt fit as neat, then i found i didnt like some of the hose and came over all safety conscious,



shit load of money later i have this lot, which will replace the high pressure plumbing from main pump to regulator on return line, i'll prob change the rest at some point, but money is deffo talking and push fitting on my tank and swirl pot dont easily lend themselves to areoquip

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

righto update time,

stephen came over friday night so we spent all day saturday working through a shed load of finishing touches, shifting gear, cars and trailers,

a couple of the jobs was to fit new pads all round as ebc had made me a set of their new orange stuff to try out, change the brake fluid, to tidy the back of the car up, i stripped an outer skin from a rear bumper cut it down and attached it to the car, i have to say im well impressed with how much smarter it looks, i had to chuck a new set of headlamps in, as when i tried to peel off the protective film which was looking very dirty and scabby, all the glass came off with it, as the film was all that held the glass together, i made some new end plates for the rear spoiler so as to lay it over more, and improve the areo a bit and reduce drag slightly, and spanner check the suspension, track it up and give it a general clean.


brands was surprisingly warm and sunny for the time of year, heading out into practise i was a bit nervous to say the least, with a full grid of 32 cars and a bout 28 of them being way faster than mine, it wasnt the time to find out the ride height changes had screwed the handling or that the new pads wouldnt work, with no particular plan i hit the track, the engine pulled ok, although felt sluggish, then i remembered its still on the cobbled up 3.9 diff not the preferred 4.27 so i forgot about that and got on with it, sort of, two things occurred the car felt solid like someone had upped the spring rates massively without me knowing, secondly that the orange pads certainly delivered what was promised they had massively more bite than the yellows that were in there, so the decision was to do a few sensible laps and then take things as they come, a few laps later it smelt like the car was on fire! remembering i had been told that when first used the pads might go "away" then come back when cooled off, i pitted, to let them cool and check nothing was actually on fire, Stephen checked it out and took some tyre temps, temps were weird! outside edge of the n/s/f which is always hottest was some cold, and i mean cold 14 degrees C!!! ready to go out again the session was cancelled after someone went off big time. which meant i had a grand total of 3 laps under my belt, and qualified with a pedestrian 1.00.1 sec lap, in actual fact i was surprised i'd actually gone that fast! with such a short session most of the field was way off the pace, although jezz was a very notable exception

back in the paddock i didnt do much, afterall i'd only done 3 laps! i did knock the shocks off a bit to soften the car, pondered why it now feels too stiff on the same springs and why the oil pressure seemed a tad low, and started recall thinking it seemed to of dropped of little by little the last couple of races last year, but at the same time not being totally sure that actually was the case.

, class wise i was laying 3rd out of 4, bill richards and gavins blisteringly quick 205 ahead of me and a bmw mini behind, i was already pretty sure i wouldnt catch either ahead of me, lining up for race one i spotted another e30 a bit further up the grid, it looked like a tidy road car on trackday tyres but i knew it had 6 cylinder 3.2 m3 lump, could my lighter car slick shod car make up a 100bhp deficit, not that it mattered he was in a different class, i had to stay ahead of the mini and out of trouble,

there wasnt much to report about the race, id started, 26th out of 32, and finished 23rd, more as a result of finishing than anything else, my pace was almost identical to the other e30, more things notable about the car though, the brakes really were much sharper, its now easy to lock up, the car still felt too stiff, the front end in particular, just rather vague and refusing to have any bite to the turn in, also of concern was the oil pressure, i was seeing 50ish psi once hot, and at times the gauge flickered as if i had oil surge which i cant have, strangely despite pressure being lower than normal at high revs at the end of the race i still had 30+psi at idle, which is normal Stephen measured tyre temps again, they were odd again, in that despite practically no camber outsides were cold! not having any other springs with me, i decided to try and make the suspension more a bit more, backed the dampers off further, softened the roll bar and lifted the ride height up a bit, the theory being more body roll might work the tyres more.

did it work, well sort of, race two, the car felt a bit better, though still didnt really turn in and pushing through clearways it would gently wash out, i was doing the same lap times as the previous race, which doesnt sound great, but it was last race of the day so it was a fair bit cooler, and with the engine now down to 45psi under load i knocked some revs off, so i guess the same lap time was a great improvement, post race scruitineering saw the car weighed it came out at a very lardy 1014kg with me in it, i know im carrying some excess baggage myself but that still makes the car 918kgs, , that means its put on quite a few kgs over the last two years, glass screen complete with heavy rubbers, rear bumper, alternator etc etc, hmm that rear bumper might be coming off again! other things, the cobbled up diff seems to be making nasty noises, and i havnt quite got my head around why the car now seems so stiff, it has been suggested its on the bump stops but im sure it isnt, lowering a car usually makes them suffer more body roll, unless in this case its dropped the COG so much its had the reverse effect, one thing that its clear is that using the ecu to control water temp did stop the engine getting overly cool, though it was still a bit on the cool side, and post race checking the battery still shows 100% charge so the electrical power saving is deffo worthwhile,

meanst while lots of pondering is needed as to why im sort on oil pressure at high revs but lost nothing at low revs, i think i sussed it one the way home, i'll report back when i get to check it out, but i dont actually think the issue is bearing wear IMHO if teh bearings wore so much in a single race to rob 15+psi of pressue im sure the engine would of chucked a rod out of the block or somint, because although i knocked the revs back i still pushed it to 8k early in the race and still over 7 at the end

[Group4_Mark2]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Dont be keeping us in suspense, what was up with the oil pressure. Great to see you back out racing again, even if you have a few teething problems with the car.

[Toymex]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Good write up Graham,its a shame the ride height changes didnt work out but im sure you will sort it

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

to tell the truth mark as of 5 mins ago i dunno!

what i thought possibly happened was that the hose from the bottom of the oil tank to the pump had de-laminated internally and was restricting the oil flow as i cant think of any other reason why i would have normal oil pressure at idle on a stinking hot engine at the end of a race but low pressure at high revs, but i've just cut that hose wide open and theres nothing wrong with it, so whats going on?

im pretty certain if the bearings or the pump pressure rotors were shot i'd see low oil pressure all the time, its now got me wondering if the pickup mesh in the sumps blocked and the sumps actually filling with oil over the coarse of a race so the oil in the tank is actually running low, dammed sure it would be leaking oil if that were the case, i guess im just going to have to pull everything apart and check it