BMW project car#915

[Protege2886]

Hey guys,

I just stumbled onto this section of the forum and thought I'd post up a link to our project car build.

Those of you that made it out to the first MCO auto-x event this season, got a chance to see Shawn and I whipping our BMW around (sometimes in circles )

What most of you don't know is at this time last week, that car wouldn't even roll, let alone race.

Check out our website http://www.eurotrashmotorsports.com to see some pictures from our crazy week last week.

[vwgolf2lwk]

Nice work guys

[GoesFilled]

Nice - I've been thinking of getting a 93 325 that's nearly identical to that one... for a driver / fun car.

[ScotcH]

Looks good. Let me know if you need help with parts, or some build advice!

Arek.

[Protege2886]

I'll definitely keep you posted!
Thanks Arek!!

Jeff

[John Powell]

From the photo in your sig, either that's a big car or you have a nice, neat little trailer.

[Protege2886]

It's a little of column A and a little of column B

U-haul car haulers FTW !

[John Powell]

Interesting. What's the load rating, how does it handle, does it have electric brakes, is it a 7 pin connector, and how much do they charge? Things like this are nice to know if I have problems with my old Miska with no time to fix it.

[Protege2886]

Here are the specs for the trailer: http://www.uhaul.com/guide/index.aspx?e ... otransport

U-haul charges a flat rate of 40-50$ I can't remember the exact amount.
If you need to rent a truck, it's 19.95$ +0.49$ / km.

Hope that helps!

[John Powell]

Yeah, thanks. The way things have been going for me the last few years I've found that backup plans are necessary. Last year I had to rent a ride to get one race in because if issues that interfered with getting the RX7 out, and I had trouble with my trailer then too.

[sb_600]

Well for those of you that raced with us in Solo II last year, you know that Jeff and I had a blast and we're now hooked. He's off this year with his own car (1999 Mazda Protege), and I'm still working on the BMW.

Last summer Jeff and I did: brake pads & rotors, tires, and shocks & springs (just performance - not coilovers), as well as gutting the interior

Over the winter, I've been extremely busy:

(1) sunroof delete - I took out the OEM panel and screwed in a piece of sheetmetal
(2) A/C system delete
(3) We seized the transmission at shannonville last fall so I installed a new (used) tranny. While we were in there, I upgrade to a Stage II 8.5lb single-mass flywheel and an M5 performance organic clutch.
(4) Poly engine and tranny mounts
(5) Shortshifter
(6) X-brace
(7) Catalytic converter delete
(8) Front control arm bushings - rotational bearings with high-durometer bushing
(9) Stainless steel brake & clutch lines + all new hardlines (while deleting ABS and adding a rear proportioning valve)
(10) reinforced rear subframe & trailing arm pockets, solid diff bushings, poly rear control arm bushings
(11) heater core delete & rerouting cooling lines (just finished last night )
(12) mechanical fan delete, lower temp thermostat
(13) maintenance items - spark plugs, valve cover gasket, tranny & diff fluid flush

I've still got a bunch of work to do before the season starts - currently the rear end of the car is still in parts in my parents garage waiting for my backordered poly bushings to come in. I also have a SPAL electric fan to wire up, swaybar kit to install, and then bleeding the brake and cooling systems.

This is my first build and the first time I've ever worked on a car other than basic oil changes, etc. I've been learning as I go, and asking as many questions as I can - I just want to give a shout out to Arek who has been a huge help lately with any random questions i've had Also to Ralph & Luc (luker) who have also provided their expertise and used parts no longer needed

As most of you know, Jeff and I started documenting our racing "careers" on our website - http://www.eurotrashmotorsports.com. We've posted all the pictures along the way in the gallery, and have been blogging about all our work done and our events completed. Feel free to check it out!

Shawn

[el_torpedo]

That's awesome Shawn - when you get a project you sure don't fool around!

[sb_600]

Thanks Pete!

In all honesty, everything kinda snowballed this winter - I wasn't planning on doing anything in the rear and then I heard horror stories about the rear subframe ripping itself or the frame under hard driving (known weak spot in e36 bmws), so while having that out to reinforce, might as well upgrade too! Same thing with the transmission - that wasn't the plan, but since i had to open it up (and it's a big job), might as well do it properly so I don't have to do it again anytime soon! Same with the brake lines - while under the car I saw there was a LOT of corrosion (very scary actually!) so that was added to the list!

I've been really having a blast though, and my dad is now hooked too (he's going to start lapping and a bit of solo II in his car this summer), so he's very understanding of me leaving my car in parts in his garage, since I live in an appartment.

I've said it many times and I'll say it again - all the MCO folk have been extremely welcoming and helpful, and it's only fueled my addicition. I blame it all on you guys, but I'm not complaining

Shawn

[DEye]

With all that work there had better be some improvement in times !!!

Way to GO !

[vwgolf2lwk]

I've been really having a blast though, and my dad is now hooked too (he's going to start lapping and a bit of solo II in his car this summer), so he's very understanding of me leaving my car in parts in his garage, since I live in an appartment.

I've said it many times and I'll say it again - all the MCO folk have been extremely welcoming and helpful, and it's only fueled my addicition. I blame it all on you guys, but I'm not complaining

Awesome, another addict in the making!

[sb_600]

With all that work there had better be some improvement in times !!!

No kidding!

I was looking at my list of stuff I still have to do before Calabogie and I'm starting to get a bit worried... I still have to reassemble the rear suspension/subframe assembly (but only when my bushings come in), bleed the brakes and clutch, wire my electric fan & close up the cooling system, install oil pressure and temp and water temp gauges (may be left out for now), install the driveshaft & exhaust, swaybar kit, bleed the cooling system, bring it to CT for an alignment

It doesn't sound like too much but I basically only have sunday and evenings left to do it all since next weekend I'm out of town. Basically on Sunday all I can do is the cooling system since the rest is all pending on the bushings. Worst comes to worst I can install the subframe with the OE bushings still in, but then I'd have to remove it all again later and that would suck.

Should be an exciting couple of weeks!

Shawn

[sb_600]

reassemble the rear suspension/subframe assembly - check!
bleed the brakes and clutch - check! and no leaks
wire my electric fan & close up the cooling system - check! (temp switch seems to be non-functional - will be using a manual switch for the weekend)
install oil pressure and temp and water temp gauges - check!
install the driveshaft & exhaust - check!
bleed the cooling system - check!
bring it to CT for an alignment - done!
install swaybar kit - swaybars in, endlinks going on tomorrow night

I'm done (almost )! A few little things left (linstall endlinks, adjust brake bias, reweld exhaust flange) and then a once over + a wash and the bimmer will be ready for the weekend!


Shawn

[ScotcH]

Nice work!

wire my electric fan & close up the cooling system - check! (temp switch seems to be non-functional - will be using a manual switch for the weekend)

Is this the new switch? Are you sure you got it hot enough? It's actually pretty hard to get the fan to turn on unles you're driving hard, then stop. You have to idle it for like 30 min!

You should be able to test it in some boiling water.

[luker]

I had issues getting the SPAL fan to run off the radiator temp switch. The low side cuts out when the high side comes on and turns the fan off. Not good. And the high side has a phantom ground somewhere that made the fan run all the time. Moving to a manual switch hopefully Thursday night. And installing my parts car aux fan sometime in the next month or so.

[sb_600]

Nice work!

wire my electric fan & close up the cooling system - check! (temp switch seems to be non-functional - will be using a manual switch for the weekend)

Is this the new switch? Are you sure you got it hot enough? It's actually pretty hard to get the fan to turn on unles you're driving hard, then stop. You have to idle it for like 30 min!

You should be able to test it in some boiling water.

No this is my old switch - i was pretty disappointed to find out that the new switch that came with the SPAL fan is too big to fit in the OEM bung (although i should have known that). I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to tap into the thermostat cover just yet, so I figured I'd wire it to the aux fan switch. I'm sure it was hot enough - my coolant gauge was reading 210F. Pulling the connector and jumping the terminals activated the fan so I know my wiring is ok. I'll try and test it in some water tonight, but I may just buy a new switch from BMW (I'll get the alternate one that turns on at 80/88 instead of 91/99)

I had issues getting the SPAL fan to run off the radiator temp switch. The low side cuts out when the high side comes on and turns the fan off. Not good. And the high side has a phantom ground somewhere that made the fan run all the time. Moving to a manual switch hopefully Thursday night. And installing my parts car aux fan sometime in the next month or so.

Since I don't have an aux fan anymore, I'm going to wire both the high and low sides to the SPAL fan, so it should solve the cutting out issue. For testing I only tried the low side though, so i have no experience with the phantom ground Worst comes to worst, I'm routing the manual switch in parallel, so even when I replace the rad switch, I can still have manual control.

Shawn

[Protege2886]

I've said it once and I'll say it again, I'm jealous

Work on the protege seems to be going well though

[schmoo]

Interesting. The MSM has what appears to be a unique fan set-up among miatae. Both fans work at low speed when the car hits a certain temp level. The only time the fans go to their high speed setting is if you're above that temp threshold AND you turn on the A/C.

Luckily, one of the mods on the MSM boards discovered that pulling a wiring harness from the A/C compressor allows the A/C button to act as a fan control switch. With the wiring disconnected, hitting the A/C button in the car turning the HVAC fan control to anything other than "off" forces the fans to full speed operation. I'll be testing it out this weekend at Bogie, but I'm hoping my new rad and oil cooler are enough to keep my water temp under control.

[bjackson]

I'm hoping my new rad and oil cooler are enough to keep my water temp under control.

I hope that you got your new T-nut hose clamps installed to keep the oil in the car

Bruce

[sb_600]

New rims and tires installed... a little bit of body stretching still to do to make sure there's no rubbing, but it'll be ready for next weekend for sure

RIms are D-Force LTW5s (17x9), and the Tires are 255/40R17 Starspecs. There are more pics on our website!

Shawn

[Protege2886]

Make sure to keep checking out the website, we seem to have accumulated a few more cars and a handful of more drivers since last year