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Well, I finally ordered a dry sump. There are still some large-ish purchases left related to the rear end, but that was the last one that really feels like a punch in the gut.
Will you be at the ridge with the e46? We'll be showing up with 3 cars, two e46s, one an M3, and a Coyote swapped SN95. Hope is to bring the fight to English Racing finally.
@arca Yeah, **** sucks trying to get under the dash lol. I am very much looking forward to not ******* with those anymore haha
@curly As long as you don't make them cry too much on FB, god damn, talk about some whiners lol. The coyote swapped sn95 perks my redneck interest up, but, no Greta?
We won't be at the ridge unfortunately, we're gonna do pacific this year since we haven't done a race there yet. We've had to dial back the budget a bit because it's basically me paying for everything at this point. My teammate is trying to buy a house in Ballard (yikes) and they're basically saving every penny they have. We're still working on it together and he's contributing what he can, but I can only do so much. For races he's going to be playing crew chief, which will actually be kinda nice. So the aim is Pacific in June and the Ridge in September, we may throw ORP in there as well, but I have my doubts.
On the BMW note, we added a slightly darker gray to the cage and are now done with paint!! That only took us.....months lol. We're gonna start re-assembling the interior this weekend and I'm building a new fuel filler set up so that we can hopefully bring our fueling time into the 5gal/2Xsec range. Our pit stops sometimes run slightly over the 5-minute minimum and I think this could get us more reliably inside that window. We're currently at 5gal/43sec.
I've been really lacking on updates lol. Between work and the BMW, I've been getting my *** kicked. I'll try to do another update in the next week or so. I also have track video from Brad that I need to upload in the other thread. *Sigh*
Just don't use that Wix Racing filter. They are just rock catchers, that's why they flow so much. Some of the cars that I have seen use them, all the bearings looked like **** when the engines were torn down. Standard Wix filters have way way better filtration and still flow a ton in the larger sizes.
I made a racepak mount and then made another with holes for gauges for a guy I knew from instagram, although I'm forgetting what his name is here, I know he's on here. I can cut these out if any other people want them, can also do other configs that aren't racepak mounts.
I've spent a small amount of time working on the LS car. It seems every place I go to do something, I need to buy a tool or other parts to get anything done, so progress has been slow and I'm trying to save a bit of money for some house stuffs I wanted to get done. Also moved my dad in for health reasons, thankfully he's doing much better on this side of the mountains and actually having some social contact vs being in the middle of ******* nowhere Eastern WA.
First thing I did was fit my new dry sump pan and immediately found out that while it was supposed to fit with the steering rack, it definitely doesn't. It does fit with a manual rack. I've got a couple options here besides modifying the pan. The first being I just run the manual rack I've been hoarding on a shelf for 7 years. I've run a manual rack before and the ratio is pretty meh in my experience compared to the PS rack. The other solution is notch the PS rack since it's depowered anyway. This would be kind of a pain in the *** especially since the big aluminum cast part where it mounts is below the pan too which would mean cutting into that. Idk, probably gonna just run the manual rack and see just how much I hate it for right now.
Anyway. I pulled my trans so that I could take measurements off the clutch to see the size of a slave I needed to order from Tilton. Clutch is smol. I need to order a new slave before I can permanently bolt the trans back in.
Last thing I did was bolt the dry sump pump up to the engine and pull the crank pulley off. I need to attach the ATI damper still, but of course, needed some new Torx Plus bits and a solution for installing the damper since the FLAPS rentals aren't compatible with LS engines. Also been hoarding this timing cover gasket for like 4 years...nice.
We had a bit of a heat wave in the PNW. It hit 108 at my house and 113 where I work. The interior downstairs of my house peaked at 95* because we don't have AC like many houses in the area. We didn't even dare go upstairs. I rigged up our team's chillout systems quantum cooler in my living room and played video games. The poor kitties were really hot. We continuously refreshed their water sources with water from the fridge and gave them ice cubes to help them deal with it, but they made it out alright.
Lol, iirc Katy was at her mom's or something that day, I've got the spare shirt and a bit of hose from our original system so that's definitely an option in the future hahaha
Being smaller than humans, cats have both a higher surface area/volume ratio and a higher body temperature. This means that they find our 72 degree "room temperature" kinda cold -- ideal for them is about 85. So I suspect they weren't anywhere close to as uncomfortable as you were before you put the cool shirt on.
Only two races this year, my teammate was trying to save money for a house and Katy and I were spending some money on upgrades to our house, so it worked out alright.
The first race was Pacific in June. Albert and Geoff came up for this race, which was awesome to see them. The conditions were kinda ****, damp and cold Saturday. Downpour on Sunday. They ended up ending the race early on Sunday because attrition was eating a large part of the field.
Real disappointing end to Saturday when we were in 2nd place when we found out that we can't go a full 2hrs at Pacific, even in fuel conservation mode. I was shifting between 5000-5500 and had to bring the car in 12 mins before the end of the race. Previous stints had had some sort of yellow and mine was very limited yellow if any at all. Sunday I think we finished 4th.
I don't know what to do about the fuel thing. The proper solution is a cell. Doesn't really seem to be additional tanks that we could pull out of another BMW. We can do a 1/2 gallon surge tank (max) which would get us something and possibly get more fuel out of the tank before starving. We do have the dual pump setup currently. I've tried to go through Smokey Yunick style tricks, but can't get the capacity we really need.
The Ridge was our 2nd race. Another tournament style like last year. First race we didn't do that great. We were still stinging from our last race's fuel issues and were in fuel conservation pretty much the entire time. Shifting at 6.5k instead of 5-5.5k is worth about 3 seconds, so we were a little off pace for B class. I think we ended up at like 8th or something, idk. I don't remember the next race at all lol.
Next day was a 3.5, 2.5, and 1hr race. We got 2nd in the 3.5 and 3rd in the 2.5 which was cool. I was super excited for the 1hr but it turned out to be a bit of a bust lol. For one, they dumped the top half of B into A class, which meant we had no chance. Then the exhaust hanger came loose halfway through. Then I got punted by a CRX that I can only assume took the grass braking line into the top of the ridge. So that was a total bummer since I was excited about that race. But hey, that's the way she goes sometimes. There was also not our normal photographer which was a super bummer since he got literally 0 pictures of our car on track. So, no pictures from that race :(
Kinda salty about the contact, not because it happened, that's racing. But it's in the ******* quarter panel which is literally the only panel where I can't just throw a new one at it. So I need to try to repair that and there's nothing that I hate more than bodywork lol. I guess we already had a donut on that panel, so at least it was the same panel as previous damage?
I guess I did do a third race this year, not in our car. Went to Thunderhill (5 mile) with Aidan, Geoff, and Albert (Gordon came and helped too!) We drove Albert's Integra which used to run in TT4. Super fun car to drive, although, much more effort than the e46. Also fast as ****. Gearing is short, lots of rippums, and plenty of power. Had a lot of fun hanging out with the guys and learning a new track/car/drivetrain layout.
I'm still working on the LS car, though admittedly slower than I'd like. Maybe got in over my head for my motivation levels anymore, just not what they used to be when I was younger. Work has been **** lately too which hasn't helped, the last year has gotten a lot worse and I'm just pretty tired all the time. That said, I'm trying to put more time into working on it lately.
One of the unknowns left in the project was what slave cylinder size I needed (height). So I took some measurements for that a while back and I think Katy got me it as a Christmas present lol. I then needed to figure out how exactly I was gonna route the fluid lines out of the bellhousing. Tilton provides these useful 3/8-24 threaded ports in the side of the bellhousing, so I found some extra long threaded bulkhead fittings in -3AN and it looks like those will work.
The next part of my plan involved hardlines inside the bellhousing. Previously, I've used the part store flaring tools, but I've never liked them. Since I need to do a **** ton of hardlines (literally every one on the car but the rear crossover) I asked my friendly neighborhood Albert what he likes. He pointed me in the direction of the 71450 Mastercool set that he had and even an auction on eBay. I picked that up and a 37* kit so that I can do AN hardlines which is neat. Will also be helpful for nitrous things on my other car because I'm stupid as ****.
That's it. That's what I've gotten done in the past 6 months. I don't really have any plans for Christmas or New Years, so I'm hoping to take the time to spend some time on the car and maybe make some progress. I'd love to get the lines inside the bellhousing done and do some more cutting of the trans tunnel for the starter and shifter. Then I could probably bolt the trans up for a while. I'd also like the get my sadfab delrin install finished up. I did all the rears, but the fronts require cutting the swaybar mounts off because V8r designed them so that the long bolt can't be removed lmao. Oh I also bought 15x11s on a impulse during last years group buy. I doubt I'll actually use them, but figured I could always sell them for what I got them for down the road.
03-30-2021, 06:29 PM
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