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

[caprimentle]

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

my opinion, if you dont do it now, your'll only end up doing it later, while the engine is apart it makes sense to do it now, the extra gain in horsepower is only going to make it better, its not going to make it catastrophically worse handling wise, nor is it going to make it unreliable if your keeping the revs the same, i will admit, handling is extremely important but things like lowering the back which you want to do is free, so spend some money beefing up the engine imo

[Graham]

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

re the handling, its far from bad, if it were i would of never held bill off lap after lap, and at lydden the other year i set overall fastest lap of the race in both races, handling wise im looking to lower it, if i sort a better lsd too i should be on the money because the car has been stiffened up in the pursuit of traction which wont be needed with a better slipper, so if i back the spring rates off a bit and wind a bit most caster into the front end to offset the slightly increased body roll it, i should get more "feel" which is something i crave,

[robt100]

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

How about slightly smaller wheels? Go back towards the 15", lower unsprung weight - better handling. and lower the car a touch. and an excuse to get some nice new grippy tyres

[lee76]

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

I would be surprised if next year Gavin and Bill are as unreliable as this season. With a little bit of work Iam sure the BMW will have the pace over the Mini on the long tracks.The other thing is hopefully the championship will get more entries next season as more people will look to regional championships rather then national due to costs.

[Graham]

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

I would be surprised if next year Gavin and Bill are as unreliable as this season. With a little bit of work Iam sure the BMW will have the pace over the Mini on the long tracks

im sure your right lee, i shall just have to raise my game again

[Roadsport]

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

Don't we all. Every year.

[Graham]

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

Don't we all. Every year.

yep, trouble is its rare we actually take a significant step forwards because everyone else has also upped there game

[Roadsport]

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

Exactly. And even the greater undertakings must be finished before the next season or you'll loose some edge of those improvements.
Say you need to be one second faster every year. Your project takes two winters to finish, you need to be two seconds faster than you originally were just to keep up.
Of course the case is not exactly like that but close. I know, been there done that.

[lee76]

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

have you looked at the aero on your car as well? The Mini and Pug are brick like so maybe some gain there better rear wing and splitter maybe.

[Graham]

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

i've only really considered it in the context of getting the whole thing 2 inches closer to the deck, that must help as an e30 has all the areo properties of a barn

[lee76]

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

Its just a cheap thing to do a bit of ply from the front bumper extending backwards.It seemed to help with the tyre life and high speed understeer on the Honda.

[Graham]

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

tbh i had one on it last year or maybe the year before, it actually got ripped off following a bit of of roading at lydden, loosing it made sod all difference, other than it was a sight easier to get the car on and off the trailer without it!

[Graham]

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

made an interesting discovery today, after removing the inlet manifold complete with throttle bodies i opened the throttles an saw they were going past full throttle by quite a chunk, that must account for a dose of my missing power, the stop on the TB had bent, which was strange and as the pedal has a stop, difficult to understand, until i remembered the pedal braking earlier this year and having to improvise a repair which was minus a stop

[Roadsport]

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

That must count for alot of those missing horses. Might not need the freshen up. Does it breathe oil or has it lost any oil pressure or compression?

[Graham]

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

i watched the breathers as it was run up, there was a bit of blowby, but using pistons with only one compression ring its bound to show some, i'll do a cylinder leakage test on it.

i was always going to do a bearing check, as i cant afford to risk a bottom end failure