BMW 330CI E46 Build thread
Discussion
Oulton Park 2nd March 2018
Early start to the morning started when I woke up at 5:30 ready to head down to Oulton Park which is only a 40 minute drive for me. I was awake so decided to hit the road about 6am and have a relaxed start to the morning getting everything unloaded without rushing around, giving more time for catching up with friends. Within our track group we had 10 cars booked on with another additional 8-10 other friends and relatives with us who had come down for the day to take it all in and share the fun as a passenger.
Conditions for the morning were wet, overcast skies so it was sighting laps and the first session on wet tyres.
Some of the family come down to see what was going on on circuit, for some of them it was the first time at a track day, I persuaded my sister into getting a passenger wrist band and coming out with me for a few laps. Obviously for this I had to have the passenger reaction cam running.
Full video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnPODPlVTMQ&fe...
Here's a little highlights video including a couple of moments I had on track during the day.
Youtube Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzvXRZbAQ20
LSD
The day was going really well, the car running flawlessly, the additional control and grip from the diff was really noticeable, no longer was the car searching for grip coming out of the chicanes and spinning the inside wheel, I was able to get onto the throttle a earlier, this was also made possible too with the changes to the driver request map for the throttle making it much easier to feed in the power coming out of corners, as well as that being able to balance the car a lot easier with much smoother throttle response. The diff actually made the car more predictable to drive but as you can imagine it also makes the car that bit easier the slide. At the moment the Quaife seems pretty good, I know how I can make the Quaife spin one wheel by hopping kerbs and unweighting one of the wheels but that isn't my driving style. Will be able to give a better report on it in the future after a bit more testing in wet conditions. I only got to run to the car in the wet for one 15 minute session before a dry line started to appear and it was time to get the semi slicks on.
Oil Cooler
With the oil cooler fitted the car was much better at being able to do extended periodsof time out on track. Previously 4 hard laps was enough to send the oil temps climbing up into the mid 120's. Yesterday I had the ability to run the car for over 40 minute stints with the oil temps sitting around 110 degrees after that period. They climb up to that after around 5 laps and seem to settle there. I did at one point manage to run them up towards the 120 degree mark on one session in the middle of the day weirdly, which I did anticipate as where I have fitted the cooler some of the main section of the core is actually covered by the bumper. I will probably do the usual hack of drilling 3-4 holes in the front of the bumper behind were the reg plate mounts which will give some more air flow as the ambient temps increase through to summer.
Coolant temps didn't climb above 110 degrees over a 40 minute stint but I think I will replace the radiator before the next track day just for piece of mind.
Finally I did have a little bit of breathing from the power steering res but I think this will be the next temperature issue I come across on track. Especially with my plan to move to 9J front wheels I will be fitting a 10 Row cooler in the power steering return line to make sure it doesn't become a problem on track in the future as the car starts to get driven harder as I get used to driving RWD. At this point I'm still learning.
Brakes
I've since starting to track this car I've never been wowed over by the brake set up. I've doe all the usual things like new lines, discs, CL RC5+ Pads, also fitting cooling ducts to the front brakes for this track day to try and keep everything running perfectly. I had a little bit of an experiment with the brakes over the course of Saturday. Firstly starting off with my usual set up which is with ABS plugged in and working and traction control completely unplugged and disabled. This set up is fine if you're very smooth on the brakes but the power i'm able to put through the brakes feels to be constantly being limited by the ABS, in the past I've removed the RC5+ pads from the rear and gone back to standard brembo pads to ensure that the rear wheels aren't locking slightly causing the ABS to kick in anymore than it needs to. I often feel like I get a very firm pedal and pushing as hard as I want for more braking doesn't apply anymore force.
For the afternoon session I went out with the ABS controlled unplugged. Driving it that was a great, I was able to put more force through the brake pedal and brake a little later and never locked up except for one occasion as I was trail braking into Shell. I was much preferring the feel of driving the car without ABS however and this a very strange with the ABS unplugged the car started detecting a miss fire on the long uphill straights. I Initially thought it was a miss fire, swapping oils over, swapped spark plugs, thought it could have been fuel surge from the chicane before the straight so added an additional 40L of fuel to brim the tank, kept getting the engine light and miss fire detection repeatedly in the afternoon. In the second to last session I buzzed through the pits, jumped out, plugged in the ABS Controller and set off again. Ran for 45 minutes till to chequered flag without any issues what to ever. It appears there is something going on due to the fact the Engine ECU isn't getting a wheel speed signal from the ABS controller because it is unplugged. I know the ECU relies on this for a number of things due to the fact I have had to raise the RPM limiter in the ECU which is put in place in case it doesn't get a wheel speed sensor a lower RPM limit if around 4k is applied. However something else deeper is going on. I've got some things I'm going to change and experiment with inside the ECU as yesterday without the wheel speed sensor it wasn't cutting fuel on over run and sounded like a machine gun when I let off. I have already corrected that in the ECU just need to flash that file to it and test however the miss fire was detected at full load up hill just before the limiter around 6500RPM. So I know changing the overrun wont be the solution. At the moment I think i'm looking towards improving the front brake set up and continuing to run with the ABS. I don't really have a plan for this, possible Porsche 996 calipers, or after market calipers with a slightly bigger rotor to improve the braking performance of the front brakes then experiment with the same rear pads or refitting RC5+'s to the rear to increase the braking from the rear if the front was improved. My final thought is to go back to DS1.11 brake pads which I always ran on the Clio and the were fantastic and compare a different pad to the RC5+s.
Would be really interested to hear peoples thoughts and opinions on all the points above. I know there are some very knowledgeable and experienced people on here.
Early start to the morning started when I woke up at 5:30 ready to head down to Oulton Park which is only a 40 minute drive for me. I was awake so decided to hit the road about 6am and have a relaxed start to the morning getting everything unloaded without rushing around, giving more time for catching up with friends. Within our track group we had 10 cars booked on with another additional 8-10 other friends and relatives with us who had come down for the day to take it all in and share the fun as a passenger.
Conditions for the morning were wet, overcast skies so it was sighting laps and the first session on wet tyres.
Some of the family come down to see what was going on on circuit, for some of them it was the first time at a track day, I persuaded my sister into getting a passenger wrist band and coming out with me for a few laps. Obviously for this I had to have the passenger reaction cam running.
Full video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnPODPlVTMQ&fe...
Here's a little highlights video including a couple of moments I had on track during the day.
Youtube Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzvXRZbAQ20
LSD
The day was going really well, the car running flawlessly, the additional control and grip from the diff was really noticeable, no longer was the car searching for grip coming out of the chicanes and spinning the inside wheel, I was able to get onto the throttle a earlier, this was also made possible too with the changes to the driver request map for the throttle making it much easier to feed in the power coming out of corners, as well as that being able to balance the car a lot easier with much smoother throttle response. The diff actually made the car more predictable to drive but as you can imagine it also makes the car that bit easier the slide. At the moment the Quaife seems pretty good, I know how I can make the Quaife spin one wheel by hopping kerbs and unweighting one of the wheels but that isn't my driving style. Will be able to give a better report on it in the future after a bit more testing in wet conditions. I only got to run to the car in the wet for one 15 minute session before a dry line started to appear and it was time to get the semi slicks on.
Oil Cooler
With the oil cooler fitted the car was much better at being able to do extended periodsof time out on track. Previously 4 hard laps was enough to send the oil temps climbing up into the mid 120's. Yesterday I had the ability to run the car for over 40 minute stints with the oil temps sitting around 110 degrees after that period. They climb up to that after around 5 laps and seem to settle there. I did at one point manage to run them up towards the 120 degree mark on one session in the middle of the day weirdly, which I did anticipate as where I have fitted the cooler some of the main section of the core is actually covered by the bumper. I will probably do the usual hack of drilling 3-4 holes in the front of the bumper behind were the reg plate mounts which will give some more air flow as the ambient temps increase through to summer.
Coolant temps didn't climb above 110 degrees over a 40 minute stint but I think I will replace the radiator before the next track day just for piece of mind.
Finally I did have a little bit of breathing from the power steering res but I think this will be the next temperature issue I come across on track. Especially with my plan to move to 9J front wheels I will be fitting a 10 Row cooler in the power steering return line to make sure it doesn't become a problem on track in the future as the car starts to get driven harder as I get used to driving RWD. At this point I'm still learning.
Brakes
I've since starting to track this car I've never been wowed over by the brake set up. I've doe all the usual things like new lines, discs, CL RC5+ Pads, also fitting cooling ducts to the front brakes for this track day to try and keep everything running perfectly. I had a little bit of an experiment with the brakes over the course of Saturday. Firstly starting off with my usual set up which is with ABS plugged in and working and traction control completely unplugged and disabled. This set up is fine if you're very smooth on the brakes but the power i'm able to put through the brakes feels to be constantly being limited by the ABS, in the past I've removed the RC5+ pads from the rear and gone back to standard brembo pads to ensure that the rear wheels aren't locking slightly causing the ABS to kick in anymore than it needs to. I often feel like I get a very firm pedal and pushing as hard as I want for more braking doesn't apply anymore force.
For the afternoon session I went out with the ABS controlled unplugged. Driving it that was a great, I was able to put more force through the brake pedal and brake a little later and never locked up except for one occasion as I was trail braking into Shell. I was much preferring the feel of driving the car without ABS however and this a very strange with the ABS unplugged the car started detecting a miss fire on the long uphill straights. I Initially thought it was a miss fire, swapping oils over, swapped spark plugs, thought it could have been fuel surge from the chicane before the straight so added an additional 40L of fuel to brim the tank, kept getting the engine light and miss fire detection repeatedly in the afternoon. In the second to last session I buzzed through the pits, jumped out, plugged in the ABS Controller and set off again. Ran for 45 minutes till to chequered flag without any issues what to ever. It appears there is something going on due to the fact the Engine ECU isn't getting a wheel speed signal from the ABS controller because it is unplugged. I know the ECU relies on this for a number of things due to the fact I have had to raise the RPM limiter in the ECU which is put in place in case it doesn't get a wheel speed sensor a lower RPM limit if around 4k is applied. However something else deeper is going on. I've got some things I'm going to change and experiment with inside the ECU as yesterday without the wheel speed sensor it wasn't cutting fuel on over run and sounded like a machine gun when I let off. I have already corrected that in the ECU just need to flash that file to it and test however the miss fire was detected at full load up hill just before the limiter around 6500RPM. So I know changing the overrun wont be the solution. At the moment I think i'm looking towards improving the front brake set up and continuing to run with the ABS. I don't really have a plan for this, possible Porsche 996 calipers, or after market calipers with a slightly bigger rotor to improve the braking performance of the front brakes then experiment with the same rear pads or refitting RC5+'s to the rear to increase the braking from the rear if the front was improved. My final thought is to go back to DS1.11 brake pads which I always ran on the Clio and the were fantastic and compare a different pad to the RC5+s.
Would be really interested to hear peoples thoughts and opinions on all the points above. I know there are some very knowledgeable and experienced people on here.
Edited by tombate911 on Sunday 3rd March 20:11
Edited by tombate911 on Sunday 3rd March 21:58
Mikeeb said:
Is it worth trying to disable the ABS by unplugging one front wheel sensor rather than the whole module. That way the ECU with still get road speed.
I've got a list of a few things I want to experiment with next time I'm out on track in relation to the ABS, ECU and brakes. I have ran with a rear wheel sensor unplugged which did cause the ABS to stop working as well as the speedo so in this instance I am assuming there is no speed signal going to the ECU too. Will try front right which I have seen recommended before. I also found when running the ABS completely unplugged that the car was detecting miss fire. At this moment in time I want to check if this is somehow related to the lack of wheel speed signal or down to the fact that the 99RON ECU map I am using had some pops and bags mapped into the ECU under certain conditions. I have removed all of this pops and bands rubbish from the ECU file now to see if that is somehow causing the car to detect missfire. If this is the case I will be able to run without ABS without issues. However if it is related to the missing wheel speed sensor I will have to do some more investigation. I will update more about this with what I find over the coming weeks.
Joshsl said:
Love the thread and love the car, in regards to the braking have you looked at the ABS pump/ECU from the e46 m3 or it might be from a CSL, they have a programmable ECU on them, one of the driftworks E30 build videos they discuss it. I will try and find the video and send you a link to it.
Found the link
https://youtu.be/Mlk3_P5Af50
I did have a look at the MK60 Master cylinder and ABS pumps but I think in the long term I would prefer to spend the money on simplifying the brakes on the car and moving to some form of pedal box system. I have watched that driftworks build thread week by week as they were released. I'm not ruling it out for the moment but I've got a few other things I'm going to experiment with first to try and improve the braking on the car. Obviously these cars were running well in the 330 Challenge with the standard ABS systems intact still so they've got some potential.Found the link
https://youtu.be/Mlk3_P5Af50
Edited by Joshsl on Tuesday 5th March 14:35
Mikeeb said:
Bosch ABS system usually use a rear sensor as the primary source for the speed signal (O/S from memory??) so that will relate to the loss of speedo. They can then use the opposite front to check against, so if you still have problems with the O/S/F disconnected it would be worth a second trial with the N/S/F in case it's using the N/S/R as the primary.
So a little test yesterday proved that this is probably what I'm looking for in the short term, Unplugged the front right and still maintained wheel speed. Obviously the one sensor in the past which has caused me problems was the back left which is the primary. With this causing no speed signal to the ECU I was under the presumption that if any of the wheel speed sensors weren't seeing a reading the ABS stopped and didn't output a wheel speed signal. Thanks for that.Few other little jobs achieved. Getting the car ready for an MOT on Saturday, I've now fitted a horn button to the centre of steering wheel and also the track wheels have been removed and fitted the rainsports again. While I had the car on axle standard it was a perfect chance to test fit the new Team Dynamics
Potentially a little bit of arch rolling required on the inner lip of the wing.
Little bit of clearance between the inside of the 18" wheel. In the process of having two tyres mounted up so I can test fix them with tyres now to check for clearance.
Also checked the wear of the front tyres when they were removed. Front left took a beating at Oulton with a very worn outer edge and some hot spots, Was running 3 degrees of camber and 32PSI hot.
Front right actually faired much better with it being a clockwise circuit with actually more wear on the inside edge from all the right hand bends.
While having the wheels off I've bled all the brakes and the clutch with some fresh fluid, no air in the system but a fresh fluid after 4 track days wont harm and piece of mind that the brakes are spot on for the next time out.
Final job achieved was updating the ECU map with one with less pops and bangs on overrun if the speed signal from the ECU isn't detected, set all the overrun related maps back to standard.
ndg said:
Looks like a nice build, and you're clearly having fun.
I'd make two suggestions though if that's okay. First is to add a support to your oil temp sensor housing. That's a fair amount of mass levering the AN fitting and cooler, it would be disastrous for it to fatigue and break. Second would be to add a little dead travel to the top of your pedal map. It's not unusual for throttle pedals to report 5-95% travel, so with no dead travel at the top end you could be missing out on a bit of the performance. Of course you can check this with INPA or whatever - if it's reporting 100% with the pedal down you're all good.
Just need to justify an LSD for my 330i touring now....
Of course you can, I appreciate any comments along the way, the hose with the temp sensor in it is now fixed to the AN fitting on the right to support the weight of it, it’s surprisingly light but at least being supported it can’t move around on track like you say. I'd make two suggestions though if that's okay. First is to add a support to your oil temp sensor housing. That's a fair amount of mass levering the AN fitting and cooler, it would be disastrous for it to fatigue and break. Second would be to add a little dead travel to the top of your pedal map. It's not unusual for throttle pedals to report 5-95% travel, so with no dead travel at the top end you could be missing out on a bit of the performance. Of course you can check this with INPA or whatever - if it's reporting 100% with the pedal down you're all good.
Just need to justify an LSD for my 330i touring now....
That’s a good point regarding the throttle map, the throttle only runs between 0-81% which you can probably see on the graph. I actually copied the top section of the graph from a standard BMW none tuned file, next time I have the computer out i’ll Just take a measurement like you say of the throttle pedal reading and also see if I can see the actual position % of the throttle body.
The diff was great at Oulton, shame I only got one session in the wet to test it. For a helical diff at the moment i’m happy but more test driving with it is required.
330ti said:
Coolant temp high ? Can oil temp ever be lower then coolant temp ? Mine runs at steady 95 deg C on road and actually drops a little on track , about 86 deg C. ???
Never had any sign of overheating or low oil pressure during long track stints.
Coolent temp runs between 100-110 on track over a 40 minute stint, that’s watching the temps on the hidden menu. Off the back of that i’m going to remove the Air Con and condenser from in front of the rad to get better flow directly to the radiator.Never had any sign of overheating or low oil pressure during long track stints.
Also in the process of making a little splitter that comes back as far as the front of the subframe to the bottom of the radiator to box in the air that comes through the kidneys and the bottom bumper grill. Currently there’s a massive gap under the radiator. This should force more air through the two oil coolers and the radiator.
Do you have any way of monitoring oil temp? I wouldn’t know it was that high if I didn’t have the gauge in front of my face. Wouldn’t see any oil pressure loss at those temps unless there is something wrong with the oil pump/sprocket. Few little modifications with it should get another ten degrees out of the oil temps next time out.
330ti said:
Also using hidden menu for coolant temp. I haven’t checked oil temp on track as I’ve had no concerns but I’m going to use my diagnostics to flight record oil temp next time I get a chance. Also thinking of going from 5w40 to 10w60 for summer track days.
Be interesting to see what you find with your temps when you actually log them on track. Everyone I've spoken that's used a M54 on track has found they run hot on track,Couple of mid week mods on the go....
Mounted up a set of old 255's onto the Team Dynamics for the purpose of test fitting and checking clearances
Shows the difference between the 225 and 255, an additional 60mm of tyre contact width on the floor on the front axle should be interesting.
Delivery of some fresh RSR's for mounting to the new rims, will only do this when I've test fitted the fronts and made sure there's suitable clearance on the shock, will need to do a little bit of rolling of the arches but will only know when they're fitted.
Wheel weighing
Cracked out the bathroom scales to give everything a quick weigh in. Not the most accurate but gives a good indication.
10kg Bare TD 9J
12.5kg 255 RSR
12.7kg Bare Mv2 (Had two of these hanging around so thought I'd measure them too)
Rears
24.7kg MV1 with RSR 8.5J
23.0kg TD1.2 with RSR 9J
Fronts
23.4kg MV1 with RSR 8J
23.0kg TD1.2 with RSR 9J
Not a much weight saying as I originally thought but at least I've managed to move to wider wheels on the front and maintain the same overall weight and reduced a few kilos of rotational mass on the rear wheels.
andyjmak said:
hi moving your oil cooler from infront of your radiator should help with coolant temps, as heat from oil cooler will be getting push through rad
i have a 3.0 compact but have never monitered water temp other than dash gauge need to have a look next time out
nice car by the way
Thanks! Mounting them at the sides in the arches would give better cooling but they're a bit less protected and harder to mount there so for the moment I am focusing on improving the airflow through the front, i have a 3.0 compact but have never monitered water temp other than dash gauge need to have a look next time out
nice car by the way
Starting off by removing the AC and with that goes the condenser which sits in front of the radiator.
With that out of the way there should be improved air flow, I was always planning on keeping aircon on this car buy after it throwing the AC belt off at Oulton and it luckily not getting caught in anything I'm taking the usual approach to this now that simpler the better!
As I thought the radiator is looking a little bit worst for wear so that's been ripped out and a new replacement ordered while I'm at it.
Aesthetics and Cooling.
So looking back through some track day videos I've noticed the car doesn't look as aggressive from the front as I'd like it so. So I've mocked up a plywood splitter for the front, made from marine plywood, 3 coats of varnish and 3 coats of satin outdoor paint should protect it from the elements, at this stage I am no way thinking about aero on the car mainly aesthetics and cooling. I've never ran the under tray on the car as it was oily and battered when I got it so threw it away in the bin. With the additional changes above I want to try and force more air through the coolers and the rad especially for warmer days, the plan with this is the splitter goes back as far as the subframe at the moment pretty close to the bottom of the radiator and the lower oil cooler. The remaining gap I will box in stopping the air going around and under the coolers/radiator. The sides are well boxed in it's mainly under which is wide open.
I've also made up two chassis leg mounts for the splitter to make sure it is held in place securely and not able to bounce around in the wind at over 100mph!
This is prototype V1 for me to get an idea of what I want it to look like and how it can be developed further in the future.
Today I have been busying removing the existing power steering return line cooler loop, mounting up a 10 row oil cooler and making new lines from the power steering rack through the cooler and back to the PAS reservoir. With that done I am just waiting on the splitter legs and the new radiator to get it built back up. Ready for Cadwell in April.
Another Saturday obviously means another update, the weather was great today and I had everything I needed to get the car back together so ended up spending all day on it.
During the week I spent a little bit of time making up some brackets that will mount the splitter to the chassis. I didn't want this just hanging off the bottom of the bumper when it's going to be used on track only, you can imagine the force from the wind on it at 100mph. Thick wall tubing welded to 6mm plate with nuts welded on to easy of fitting. Kept it nice a simple with some slots where it mounts to the front of the chassis legs should I need to be able to adjust them up or down.
Coat of primer and a couple of coats of black paint
First job on the cards was the replacement of the radiator and putting back together the front end.
Putting the front end back together with all of the AC condenser removed as well as the old power steering cooler loop. Power steering cooling now taken car by a 10 row cooler at the bottom in the low pressure return line. New lines have been made from the power steering rack to the cooler and then back up to the PAS Reservoir. Splitter brackets set to the right height and bolted into position.
While the front end was off I did look at alternative ways of mounting the coolers, mainly considering rotating the oil cooler so the main body of the cooler was more in the air flow behind the kidney grills. This made the mounting of the coolers a little more difficult with the fittings at the bottom and would require new mounting brackets made. Rather than doing this I decided I would drill some holes in the bumper behind where the reg plate is normally. Started by drawing out different diameters and placements before drilling into the bumper. Settled on the red markings
With the hole drilled I painted the back of the bumper and the crash bar which is part of the bumper and normally bright silver. While that was drying I had an hour to mess with the wheels. Fitted the fronts to check the clearances against the shock and also see if I would need to start messing, rolling or cutting the front arches
Fitment on the front is perfect.
Front end all put back together with the bumper and splitter, looks a lot more purposeful now and you can see from the photos how much more exposed the radiator is, combined with the splitter running close to the bottom of the coolers/rad and the holes in the bumper it'll be interesting to see if the temps are further reduced at Cadwell in April.
Did a little bit of work on the interior too. Decided to finally make a plate for the drivers footwell. The bumpy standard floor didn't bother me when I was driving but the mixture of painted floor and strips of grip tape was annoying me as it didn't look at good as it could. I also ripped out all the USB wires for the cameras ready to rerun them with some velcro fasteners I've got rather than having them looped around the bars like they are currently.
Final couple of things to sort out now is the radiator fan is running at 100% all the time from when the car is started. Obviously related the AC being removed/unplugged as I've double checked everything has gone back together correctly on the cooling side of things. Will have a look at this in a bit more detail tomorrow and I also still need to swap the tyres over onto the TD's so I've got 4 new tyres fitted for the next track day.
During the week I spent a little bit of time making up some brackets that will mount the splitter to the chassis. I didn't want this just hanging off the bottom of the bumper when it's going to be used on track only, you can imagine the force from the wind on it at 100mph. Thick wall tubing welded to 6mm plate with nuts welded on to easy of fitting. Kept it nice a simple with some slots where it mounts to the front of the chassis legs should I need to be able to adjust them up or down.
Coat of primer and a couple of coats of black paint
First job on the cards was the replacement of the radiator and putting back together the front end.
Putting the front end back together with all of the AC condenser removed as well as the old power steering cooler loop. Power steering cooling now taken car by a 10 row cooler at the bottom in the low pressure return line. New lines have been made from the power steering rack to the cooler and then back up to the PAS Reservoir. Splitter brackets set to the right height and bolted into position.
While the front end was off I did look at alternative ways of mounting the coolers, mainly considering rotating the oil cooler so the main body of the cooler was more in the air flow behind the kidney grills. This made the mounting of the coolers a little more difficult with the fittings at the bottom and would require new mounting brackets made. Rather than doing this I decided I would drill some holes in the bumper behind where the reg plate is normally. Started by drawing out different diameters and placements before drilling into the bumper. Settled on the red markings
With the hole drilled I painted the back of the bumper and the crash bar which is part of the bumper and normally bright silver. While that was drying I had an hour to mess with the wheels. Fitted the fronts to check the clearances against the shock and also see if I would need to start messing, rolling or cutting the front arches
Fitment on the front is perfect.
Front end all put back together with the bumper and splitter, looks a lot more purposeful now and you can see from the photos how much more exposed the radiator is, combined with the splitter running close to the bottom of the coolers/rad and the holes in the bumper it'll be interesting to see if the temps are further reduced at Cadwell in April.
Did a little bit of work on the interior too. Decided to finally make a plate for the drivers footwell. The bumpy standard floor didn't bother me when I was driving but the mixture of painted floor and strips of grip tape was annoying me as it didn't look at good as it could. I also ripped out all the USB wires for the cameras ready to rerun them with some velcro fasteners I've got rather than having them looped around the bars like they are currently.
Final couple of things to sort out now is the radiator fan is running at 100% all the time from when the car is started. Obviously related the AC being removed/unplugged as I've double checked everything has gone back together correctly on the cooling side of things. Will have a look at this in a bit more detail tomorrow and I also still need to swap the tyres over onto the TD's so I've got 4 new tyres fitted for the next track day.
Edited by tombate911 on Saturday 23 March 22:27
Mgd_uk said:
I know how to fix the rad fan on full speed with the ac removed, I had the same problem and it annoyed me for ages.
You need to fit the AC pressure switch back into the loom, it’s just behind the drivers side headlight.
I connected it back in and run some black tape over the sensor and left it connected.
Problem solved.
Cheers! I actually didn't check on here this morning and thought back over what I unplugged to remove the AC. It was only the feed to the compressor and the sensor so assumed it was something to do with that, removed it from the pile of junk about to go to the tip, refitted it to the loom behind the headlight, started it and all sorted, nice and simple! You need to fit the AC pressure switch back into the loom, it’s just behind the drivers side headlight.
I connected it back in and run some black tape over the sensor and left it connected.
Problem solved.
Come back to check the build thread and you've posted the answer for me as I found out. Cheers!
While messing this afternoon I had the car jacked up and thought after talking with friends today about wheel bearings I'd check the how the front left wheel bearing was after having to replace it before the last track day after it failing after 2 days on circuit and yep, it's failed once again after only one day on track!
Checked the hub nut torque and that's fine at 300nm. I've been using Meyle wheel bearings. Both fronts were replaced at the same time but the front left wheel bearing has failed twice in 3 track days! Going to see if they'll replace it again under warranty but it's slightly annoying changing wheel bearings after each track day at the moment.
helix402 said:
Meyle parts are a bit rubbish. FAG are the best for BMW bearings if you don’t want gen BMW parts.
That appears to be what I've found out here, know some people who have run the same bearings on E36's for years without issues. Heard nothing back today regarding the 2 year warranty they're supposed to come with so I think i'm going to order a FAG one to replace it with, wheel bearings only lasting one day on the 225 front tyres is shocking! Something else to strip down and replace.Dropped 6 wheels off at the tyre centre this evening on the way home from work so will have a full set of Tead Dynamics now mounted up, can't wait to see what it looks like with them fitted on all corners. Also looking forward to getting this final jobs finished then I can leave it parked up for a few weeks without having to touch it or work on it knowing everything is done ready to run.
Here's another weekend update with the final few jobs needed to get it ready to go to Cadwell at Easter.
Removed the tyres I was using for test fitting the wheels originally and replaced them with some brand new tyres 255/35/18 Federal RSR's
Before finally fitting them I spent an hour yesterday sealing the wheels, putting that bit of extra work in to try and keep the brake dust off them from the RC5+ brake pads
Also replaced the old Meyle wheel bearing with a Fag replacement, ready to send back under warranty once again.
Drift works wheel studs transferred over to the new hub and the front left of the car bolted back together, hopefully for the last time, it's been stripped apart after every track day recently with this wheel bearing issue.
As it stands now, due a good wash but i'm going to leave that till a little closer to the track day and do it the week before.
In other news....
About 6 weeks ago I took my van for mapping but never posted about it on here but thought I would add it to the build thread while I'm rambling away.
2018 VW Transporter T6 with a 7 speed DSG Gearbox.
Took it to Celtic Tuning who did the mapping on my previous van and was very happy with the results so decided to use the same people for the new van, they had the van for a full day while I hung around and watched, took longer than expected due to the van having a brand new version of software on the ECU they hadn't seen before which had a lot more limiters set in the map preventing the engine making the power it was capable of at the higher RPM, quite a few hours later data logging and mapping it was left at a safe 194bhp & 335ftlb/455NM.
Not only did they map the engine they also did their usual adjustments to the gearbox map and it's made a very noticeable difference, shift points are earlier when on part throttle, it no longer holds on to gears longer than required under heavy loads/full throttle, full throttle in sport mode used to be pathetic with the standard engine and gearbox map, gear changes are slightly faster and the sport mode down shifts are noticeably smoother. Worth while upgrade to the van especially when towing the E46 as rough calculations show the trailer weighing in around 2.2t fully loaded, the extra torque with the DSG makes towing much easier and without the trailer it's safe to say it also flies (for a van)
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7828/46784642084_2a0bebf989.jpg")
Removed the tyres I was using for test fitting the wheels originally and replaced them with some brand new tyres 255/35/18 Federal RSR's
Before finally fitting them I spent an hour yesterday sealing the wheels, putting that bit of extra work in to try and keep the brake dust off them from the RC5+ brake pads
Also replaced the old Meyle wheel bearing with a Fag replacement, ready to send back under warranty once again.
Drift works wheel studs transferred over to the new hub and the front left of the car bolted back together, hopefully for the last time, it's been stripped apart after every track day recently with this wheel bearing issue.
As it stands now, due a good wash but i'm going to leave that till a little closer to the track day and do it the week before.
In other news....
About 6 weeks ago I took my van for mapping but never posted about it on here but thought I would add it to the build thread while I'm rambling away.
2018 VW Transporter T6 with a 7 speed DSG Gearbox.
Took it to Celtic Tuning who did the mapping on my previous van and was very happy with the results so decided to use the same people for the new van, they had the van for a full day while I hung around and watched, took longer than expected due to the van having a brand new version of software on the ECU they hadn't seen before which had a lot more limiters set in the map preventing the engine making the power it was capable of at the higher RPM, quite a few hours later data logging and mapping it was left at a safe 194bhp & 335ftlb/455NM.
Not only did they map the engine they also did their usual adjustments to the gearbox map and it's made a very noticeable difference, shift points are earlier when on part throttle, it no longer holds on to gears longer than required under heavy loads/full throttle, full throttle in sport mode used to be pathetic with the standard engine and gearbox map, gear changes are slightly faster and the sport mode down shifts are noticeably smoother. Worth while upgrade to the van especially when towing the E46 as rough calculations show the trailer weighing in around 2.2t fully loaded, the extra torque with the DSG makes towing much easier and without the trailer it's safe to say it also flies (for a van)
Cadwell Update - 18th April 2019
As usual the week before a track day the track car gets a good wash ready to be thrown around a race track once again. Love how the car is looking and sitting now with the changes that have been made over the past few months.
While being off work this week I loaded up for the track day and drove over to Cadwell Park the day before the track day, arriving at the circuit at 5pm it was nice to get everything unloaded and set up the night before the track day, also meant I could have a lie in till 7am.
It also meant I had a a couple of hours to kill in the evening so took a walk around the circuit while it was closed (with permission from security of course)
Entry to Hall Bends
Park Straight
Looking back up Park Straight
It was a damp and misty start to the morning but the track was bone dry, sighting laps we well under way at 9am and the track opened nice and swiftly in the morning and the car noise tested at 96db static
This was the first time I'd driven the BMW at Cadwell and only the second time I've ever been there so the first few sessions in the morning were taken quite easily and building up the pace, getting used to the new wheel set up with 255 tyres all around, with that the car feels much more neutral and turns in a lot more but with that the car also feels a little bit easier to slide having more grip on the front which I did find out at the end of Park straight mid morning having a little spin off there onto the grass, spinning around more than 720 degrees. I'll add a video of that to end of the compilation video i'll get around to over the new week.
Parked up ready to go along side my mates E36.
The car was running well but I still wasn't feeling confident in the brakes to be able to push on as hard as I'd like to especially under braking.
With ABS on (Traction Control unplugged) you can constantly feel the ABS kicking in to prevent the rear wheels from locking, every time you're braking heavy the traction control is kicking in, this is running RC5 front pads and standard Brembo road pads in the rear, it is also the same with RC5 pads all around which I what I ran for the afternoon session for comparison.
I did a little more experimentation.
ABS on - As above.
Front wheel speed sensor unplugged - Started to get a weird inconsistent pedal feel sometimes it was really hard sometimes fine.
ABS pump unplugged - Ran fine as it did at Oulton Park however with more mechanical grip from the front 255 tyres under heavy braking the rear just locked up far too easily so the bias is well off in that situation.
In the end I settled back to running with ABS and just taking it easy on the brakes and letting the ABS sort out the rear wheels.
Off the back of this though due to not feeling confident in the brakes from the last few track days I've decided I'm going to completely remove the ABS brake lines and replumb the car running a bias valve inside the car but for the moment keeping the ABS pump in place. More to come on this over the next week, I've already started removing the existing brake lines from the car this morning.
Aside from the brakes not being as good as they could be the car performed amazingly out on track and it was actually my bravery through the circuit that was holding the car back, partly down to it being the first time their in that car but also because it's such a high risk track to really be pushing it too hard especially in a RWD car.
The changes I made to the front end with cooling set up saw the engine temps reduced dramatically, oil temps were down to a solid 100 degrees over a 30-40 minute session, I didn't get to log the coolant temps like I did at Oulton but I would imagine that have dropped considerably as well with the oil temps. Also no more breathing from the PAS reservoir with the 10 row cooler fitted into the return line, especially with the 255 front tyres.
Had some really good afternoon sessions in the car though throughout the afternoon.
One was with a Peugeot 106 with a GTI 16V Engine who i stumbled across out on track which was lapping at a similar pace. Ended having a really good 20 minute stint out on track with the owner, after chatting to him in the paddock he sent over the footage from inside his car so I've put the two videos together this morning to make something a little more interesting that your usual track day video.
BMW E46 330ci vs Peugeot 106 16V GTI Engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjX7W461cek&fe...
Overall, such a good circuit and I absolutely love driving this car, it feels amazing when you get it right as well as giving you a great feeling of excitement with all the drama of rear wheel drive. Few changes to iron out over the next two weeks and then it's back to Anglesey for the bank holiday weekend.
As usual the week before a track day the track car gets a good wash ready to be thrown around a race track once again. Love how the car is looking and sitting now with the changes that have been made over the past few months.
While being off work this week I loaded up for the track day and drove over to Cadwell Park the day before the track day, arriving at the circuit at 5pm it was nice to get everything unloaded and set up the night before the track day, also meant I could have a lie in till 7am.
It also meant I had a a couple of hours to kill in the evening so took a walk around the circuit while it was closed (with permission from security of course)
Entry to Hall Bends
Park Straight
Looking back up Park Straight
It was a damp and misty start to the morning but the track was bone dry, sighting laps we well under way at 9am and the track opened nice and swiftly in the morning and the car noise tested at 96db static
This was the first time I'd driven the BMW at Cadwell and only the second time I've ever been there so the first few sessions in the morning were taken quite easily and building up the pace, getting used to the new wheel set up with 255 tyres all around, with that the car feels much more neutral and turns in a lot more but with that the car also feels a little bit easier to slide having more grip on the front which I did find out at the end of Park straight mid morning having a little spin off there onto the grass, spinning around more than 720 degrees. I'll add a video of that to end of the compilation video i'll get around to over the new week.
Parked up ready to go along side my mates E36.
The car was running well but I still wasn't feeling confident in the brakes to be able to push on as hard as I'd like to especially under braking.
With ABS on (Traction Control unplugged) you can constantly feel the ABS kicking in to prevent the rear wheels from locking, every time you're braking heavy the traction control is kicking in, this is running RC5 front pads and standard Brembo road pads in the rear, it is also the same with RC5 pads all around which I what I ran for the afternoon session for comparison.
I did a little more experimentation.
ABS on - As above.
Front wheel speed sensor unplugged - Started to get a weird inconsistent pedal feel sometimes it was really hard sometimes fine.
ABS pump unplugged - Ran fine as it did at Oulton Park however with more mechanical grip from the front 255 tyres under heavy braking the rear just locked up far too easily so the bias is well off in that situation.
In the end I settled back to running with ABS and just taking it easy on the brakes and letting the ABS sort out the rear wheels.
Off the back of this though due to not feeling confident in the brakes from the last few track days I've decided I'm going to completely remove the ABS brake lines and replumb the car running a bias valve inside the car but for the moment keeping the ABS pump in place. More to come on this over the next week, I've already started removing the existing brake lines from the car this morning.
Aside from the brakes not being as good as they could be the car performed amazingly out on track and it was actually my bravery through the circuit that was holding the car back, partly down to it being the first time their in that car but also because it's such a high risk track to really be pushing it too hard especially in a RWD car.
The changes I made to the front end with cooling set up saw the engine temps reduced dramatically, oil temps were down to a solid 100 degrees over a 30-40 minute session, I didn't get to log the coolant temps like I did at Oulton but I would imagine that have dropped considerably as well with the oil temps. Also no more breathing from the PAS reservoir with the 10 row cooler fitted into the return line, especially with the 255 front tyres.
Had some really good afternoon sessions in the car though throughout the afternoon.
One was with a Peugeot 106 with a GTI 16V Engine who i stumbled across out on track which was lapping at a similar pace. Ended having a really good 20 minute stint out on track with the owner, after chatting to him in the paddock he sent over the footage from inside his car so I've put the two videos together this morning to make something a little more interesting that your usual track day video.
BMW E46 330ci vs Peugeot 106 16V GTI Engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjX7W461cek&fe...
Overall, such a good circuit and I absolutely love driving this car, it feels amazing when you get it right as well as giving you a great feeling of excitement with all the drama of rear wheel drive. Few changes to iron out over the next two weeks and then it's back to Anglesey for the bank holiday weekend.
Two videos from Cadwell Park
BMW E46 vs Peugeot 106 - In car footage from both perspectives.
https://youtu.be/FjX7W461cek
Compilation of a few decent laps
https://youtu.be/PSXkQANx0RI
Glorious weather this weekend and the next track day only 2 full weekends away I've cracked on with some jobs to hopefully improve the car for Anglesey.
First job on the cards is to add a little more clearance to the rear arches. The 9J wheels have a tiny bit more poke with ET35 and even with 2 degress of camber I had a tiny bit of scrubbing on the outside of the rear tyre. I have pulled the arches by a few mm to give a little more clearance.
After that I got stuck in rerunning the brake lines to the rear calipers. instead of going from the ABS pump through to the rear calipers I have brought the rear braided lines through into the rear of the car through a grommet in the rear bench. I was quite lucky that when I redid the underside of the car I fitted two long braided lines around 2.5/3m in length to replace all the steel lines that ran under the car. I have been able to bring these through into the car to a proportioning valve.
Because one braided line was longer than the other due to the standard line routing I have been able to keep it neat and run the lines down one side of the car, along the case was the neatest route as they're out of side rather than across the bottom of the rear bench.
Both of these lines go a T piece I have tucked in against the cage once again trying to keep the inside of the car tidy. The single line runs off to the proportioning valve on the exhaust tunnel. I need to order that this week and get it fitted but the single braided line is ran there ready to go.
I then focused my attention to the front of the car to run the lines to the front calipers. First job was to remove as much as i could from the engine bay to be able to make as much room as possible.
While doing so I found that the intake boot had perished and actually had a hole in it so another one of those has been ordered to replace it. it will be interesting to see if this air leak makes any difference to how the car runs as it's quite a bit hole.
Quite a large chunk of lines removed for each of the 4 wheels and 2 lines which used to feed the ABS pump from the Master Cylinder. Also traced back a few lines which are no longer needed now the carbon canister has been removed from the rear arch
New copper lines were ran through to meet the front braided hoses for the front calipers
In the engine bay I have mounted a T piece with a front feed from the Master Cylinder going to the two front calipers all ran in fresh copper pipe with new fittings.
Not the easiest job I have done on the car since I built it. Very awkward working around the back of the engine and the engine bay due to the fact there is so little space in this engine bay to work. Also had to remove the passenger seat from inside the car to be able to get inside of it to route the rear brake lines.
When everywhere gets back to normal after the bank holiday I just need to get the line from the master cylinder to the bias valve made up as well as picking up a bias valve and making a bracket for it, I will probably go down the route of 3D printing a mounting bracket for it as they're so simple to make.
Future upgrades in the pipeline, Hopefully with some help from a friend I'm going to look at fitting a Canbus Data logger to the car to be able to get some quality logging on the go as well as forming the basis for data overlays for videos. Also going to change the camera set up inside the car for a power on mobius camera rather than the go pros. Making it a little easier when out on track having everything turned on at the press of a switch.
BMW E46 vs Peugeot 106 - In car footage from both perspectives.
https://youtu.be/FjX7W461cek
Compilation of a few decent laps
https://youtu.be/PSXkQANx0RI
Glorious weather this weekend and the next track day only 2 full weekends away I've cracked on with some jobs to hopefully improve the car for Anglesey.
First job on the cards is to add a little more clearance to the rear arches. The 9J wheels have a tiny bit more poke with ET35 and even with 2 degress of camber I had a tiny bit of scrubbing on the outside of the rear tyre. I have pulled the arches by a few mm to give a little more clearance.
After that I got stuck in rerunning the brake lines to the rear calipers. instead of going from the ABS pump through to the rear calipers I have brought the rear braided lines through into the rear of the car through a grommet in the rear bench. I was quite lucky that when I redid the underside of the car I fitted two long braided lines around 2.5/3m in length to replace all the steel lines that ran under the car. I have been able to bring these through into the car to a proportioning valve.
Because one braided line was longer than the other due to the standard line routing I have been able to keep it neat and run the lines down one side of the car, along the case was the neatest route as they're out of side rather than across the bottom of the rear bench.
Both of these lines go a T piece I have tucked in against the cage once again trying to keep the inside of the car tidy. The single line runs off to the proportioning valve on the exhaust tunnel. I need to order that this week and get it fitted but the single braided line is ran there ready to go.
I then focused my attention to the front of the car to run the lines to the front calipers. First job was to remove as much as i could from the engine bay to be able to make as much room as possible.
While doing so I found that the intake boot had perished and actually had a hole in it so another one of those has been ordered to replace it. it will be interesting to see if this air leak makes any difference to how the car runs as it's quite a bit hole.
Quite a large chunk of lines removed for each of the 4 wheels and 2 lines which used to feed the ABS pump from the Master Cylinder. Also traced back a few lines which are no longer needed now the carbon canister has been removed from the rear arch
New copper lines were ran through to meet the front braided hoses for the front calipers
In the engine bay I have mounted a T piece with a front feed from the Master Cylinder going to the two front calipers all ran in fresh copper pipe with new fittings.
Not the easiest job I have done on the car since I built it. Very awkward working around the back of the engine and the engine bay due to the fact there is so little space in this engine bay to work. Also had to remove the passenger seat from inside the car to be able to get inside of it to route the rear brake lines.
When everywhere gets back to normal after the bank holiday I just need to get the line from the master cylinder to the bias valve made up as well as picking up a bias valve and making a bracket for it, I will probably go down the route of 3D printing a mounting bracket for it as they're so simple to make.
Future upgrades in the pipeline, Hopefully with some help from a friend I'm going to look at fitting a Canbus Data logger to the car to be able to get some quality logging on the go as well as forming the basis for data overlays for videos. Also going to change the camera set up inside the car for a power on mobius camera rather than the go pros. Making it a little easier when out on track having everything turned on at the press of a switch.
Edited by tombate911 on Thursday 9th May 02:21
Photos from Cadwell with MSVT
Over the last week I've been finishing off some of the jobs ready for Anglesey on Bank Holiday Monday.
Finished running the lines around the car for the ABS delete and the Proportioning valve. Mounted it to a plate on the exhaust tunnel. Took the car out for a little test drive, tested the brake bias with the valve in it's more brake position and the rears locked up first as usual. Throwing the lever to the front of the car gave enough pressure limiting capacity to be able to lock the fronts only, happy to have the ability to run the lever in the middle of the adjustments. Nice to be able to brake properly without the ABS kicking and constantly preventing the rear brakes from locking, something i'm really looking forward to testing at Anglesey as I found the brakes really poor with the ABS constantly going off at Cadwell finding the standard front to rear bias being completely off especially with 255 tyres at the front exaggerating the problem with more mechanical grip on the front axle.
Did a little bit of wiring to replace what was already behind the dash, putting some ins fuses with permanent and switched feeds, powering a bank of 4 switches as well the the oil/pressure and temp gauge. While the dash was out I also ran a pair of wires to the Canbus wiring behind the clocks
Drawn up a dash panel to replace the android head unit. Drawn out the CAD file and then cut the plastic from a piece of black acrylic using a laser cutter
Also with a bit/a lot of help from a friend who pops on here from time to time we've fitted the car with an Arduino which is using the Canbus as a data logger for the car now with the add on of a GPS aerial, logging the available information to the SD car in the format of a .csv file which I can now open in race render to overlaying over videos and also helpful for logging temps and timing etc.
Did a little test run down the road this evening.
https://youtu.be/qRodvP1SMTA
Few minor little jobs to do before the weekend but we're pretty much ready to go and get out on circuit once again.
Over the last week I've been finishing off some of the jobs ready for Anglesey on Bank Holiday Monday.
Finished running the lines around the car for the ABS delete and the Proportioning valve. Mounted it to a plate on the exhaust tunnel. Took the car out for a little test drive, tested the brake bias with the valve in it's more brake position and the rears locked up first as usual. Throwing the lever to the front of the car gave enough pressure limiting capacity to be able to lock the fronts only, happy to have the ability to run the lever in the middle of the adjustments. Nice to be able to brake properly without the ABS kicking and constantly preventing the rear brakes from locking, something i'm really looking forward to testing at Anglesey as I found the brakes really poor with the ABS constantly going off at Cadwell finding the standard front to rear bias being completely off especially with 255 tyres at the front exaggerating the problem with more mechanical grip on the front axle.
Did a little bit of wiring to replace what was already behind the dash, putting some ins fuses with permanent and switched feeds, powering a bank of 4 switches as well the the oil/pressure and temp gauge. While the dash was out I also ran a pair of wires to the Canbus wiring behind the clocks
Drawn up a dash panel to replace the android head unit. Drawn out the CAD file and then cut the plastic from a piece of black acrylic using a laser cutter
Also with a bit/a lot of help from a friend who pops on here from time to time we've fitted the car with an Arduino which is using the Canbus as a data logger for the car now with the add on of a GPS aerial, logging the available information to the SD car in the format of a .csv file which I can now open in race render to overlaying over videos and also helpful for logging temps and timing etc.
Did a little test run down the road this evening.
https://youtu.be/qRodvP1SMTA
Few minor little jobs to do before the weekend but we're pretty much ready to go and get out on circuit once again.
helix402 said:
It’s certainly loud in the stripped out state!
It certainly is on circuit. I always wear ear protection now inside my helmet to take the edge off the noise. But It does sound fantastic. 96db static, at the moment I don't know what it is on the drive by.So this bank holiday weekend I had the car out once again at Anglesey Circuit for a mixture of both the GP International layout as well as the Coastal Circuit.
With it only being a few weeks since the car was last out it was great to get back into the seat again on a circuit that I'm very familiar with and get back on with the job of learning how to drive the car. Cadwell was a little different as it was only the second time I had driven the circuit so took it a little easier.
The car felt totally different at Anglesey since driving it here when I first built the car 10 months ago. Obviously a lot has changed since then but straight away I have noticed the difference changing to a square 9j set up with 255's all around has made to the car, the turn in and grip on the front end if fantastic but it has also changed the balance of the car a little bit making it a bit more prone to oversteer when provoked with the throttle. However this was a great opportunity for me to start to learn how to drive the car properly and find the balance point of the car.
I can safely say this has been the best track day I've done from the point of view of having the most fun in a car I've ever had. Also I can say it's the track day I have learnt the most and seen a massive progression in my driving in just one day! Very happy!
Brakes
As posted in the previous update removing the ABS from the car has made a massive difference in the driving feel/experience but also given me a lot more confidence on the brakes without having to constantly be fighting the ABS which was consistently trying to prevent the rears from locking. Running the proportioning valve a couple of clicks from minimum pressure to the rears gave the car a nice balanced feel under braking and only locked the rears a few times when trail braking into corners, under straight line braking the difference was much better and I could just focus on driving not whether the car was actually going to stop.
Temperatures
One thing I have been focusing on developing over the previous few track days was the cooling of the car. Even though I had fitted the 19 row cooler at Oulton earlier in the year I was still seeing oil temps rising as high at 120 degrees and water temps hitting 115. I made some changes at Cadwell and noticed the drop in oil temps to around the high 90's to 100 degree mark but the increments on my oil gauge are are bar based rather than numerical. With the adding of the Canbus logger I was able to log the water and oil temps throughout the day.
The highest oil temp which was logged all day was 99 degrees and the highest coolant temp was 96. That's a difference of 20 degrees taken from both the oil and water temps with the changes made. New rad, removal of AC Condenser and using the splitter to box in under the radiator and coolers.
Videos
Couple of clear laps around the Coastal Circuit from the afternoon session. Posting times in the 1:21 region which I am very happy about, still a lot of improvement to be done yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNmJUhXqXtM
Followed by a few laps from the morning session around the International GP Layout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ivroGvpykQ&
What's next?
Off the back of Anglesey I don't have any track days booked at the moment but I have come away from the track day with a couple of things I want to work on and improve.
-One of them being the set up of the car. I'm going to reduce a little bit of the oversteer characteristics that has developed since moving to the 255 tyres all around. I will be looking at fitting slightly softer rear springs and potentially replacing the rear tyres. They've ran for 4-5 dry days now in comparison with the fronts which only have done 2 days which may be contributing to the handling slightly but they still have a good 3-4mm left.
-Removal of the standard heavy battery from the boot and replace it with a lightweight battery mounted somewhere in the car. While doing this I''ll have to strip back some of the interior loom to remove the battery cables so will probably reduce down and tidy up the interior loom
-Rear windows, I still have the glass rear windows in which have 3D Printed mounts holding the actuators which were prototypes at the time. The heat from the last few weeks in a closed stripped out black car has caused them to warm up and sag slightly and the rear windows haven't been the most water tight solution this year so going to replace them with some lexan windows.
-Increase the capabilities of the logger by adding in the pressure sensor wiring to the pressure sensors on the master cylinder for the front as well as fitting a pressure sensor to the rear t piece so line pressures can be logged to look at braking effort.
-Also for piece of mind and protection for the engine I am going to fit a pressure sensor to the fuel rail to be able to log fuel pressure. At the moment I am keeping the car above 1/3 of a tank just to make sure there isn't any fuel starvation going on on circuit. Would be happier to be able to see what's actually going on when it's an easy fix to add in now.
Finally - A few people has commented about how lively the car is in the youtube video already so here is an overview of the car set up at the moment. I am planning on making adjustments to settle it down slightly, I have a few things I was to try which I did briefly mention above.
Front - 8 clicks from full
Rear - 16 clicks from full
750F/400R
Front - Zero toe
3 degree camber
Rear - 14’ in toe
2 degree camber.
Less rake (rear is lower)
9J 255 square set up.
Tyre pressures 30F/28R
Edited by tombate911 on Sunday 19th May 23:27
Couple of interesting things going on at the moment so thought it would be a good time to add an update.
First job on the list at the moment, I was asked by a friend could I make up some custom subframe bushes for his E36 if he supplied the material.
Starting off with a nice round 3" stock of aluminium
The aim of the game with this was to solidly mount the subframe but also lift the subframe right up against the underside of the car to add some correction to the wish bone angles in an attempt to correct some of the roll centre on the rear to compliment the front set up he's running, Interesting project, will see how it goes when it's out on track in the future.
Back to my own car, I've had it parked up for a few weeks since Anglesey and have been planning making a few small changes to the car before the next outing. The main planned change was to get rid of the standard battery from the boot, relocate and replace it with something smaller and lighter.
First step was removing some of the interior to be able to get in the car to work on it
While I was in there removing the standard battery wiring which is wrapped inside the rear loom I thought I would start with removing any existing wiring which isn't being used in the car in it's current form
This obviously meant I could only cut the wires back as far as the A pillar. Not being happy with this and seeing how much potential there was for removing wire I started to dig deeper into the car.
Out came the cage
With the cage out of the way it was easy to pop out the dash and continue to trace back any wires which weren't needed.
The deeper you dig the more you find... with the main loom running completely around the back of the dash and behind the heater box I just had to keep digging.
Out came the heater box which enabled me to split the wiring loom open properly and start to rip out what wasn't being used anymore.
With everything now being so easy to access I've removed all the wiring for the doors, the heater controls, the electric windows, all radio wiring, all wiring to the EWS, an awful lot of wiring has been cut out.
I've taken the time to take it right back to the fuse boxes and the body control module and depin all the wires that aren't being used.
With that done you can see how much simpler the wiring to the rear of the car is now. Having it laid out on the drive way at the side of the car I could start to shape the wires back into the correct shape.
It was then placed back into the car and I checked the length and locations for the joins in the looms to make sure that when it goes back together everything exits and joins in the right place. I spent a long time tidying up the loom, heat shrinking and removing the massive commoning eathing blocks for something smaller and tidier
All roughly put back together at the moment held together just with insulation tape till new bits of wiring are added and tested. Decided to take this time to make quite a few changes to the wiring by adding in facilities for modifications in the future too.
When everything is hopefully checked and working correctly I will go back and finish wrapping up the looms but for the time being i'm still adding in new wires.
To finish of the progress for today, I've mounted a battery box behind the passenger seat and a new 250 mega fuse on the A pillar in the passenger footwell. From there the main feed to the fuse box only makes a short run. Rather than going right across the car to the other side to go through the bulkhead I've gone straight through the bulkhead through a grommet directly to the starter and removed any additional wiring from the engine bay that isn't required. I've saved an awful lot of weight just in reducing the wiring runs around the car. I've saved everything that's been removed from the car for a final weigh in when it's built and finished.
I've spent a few hours chopping up the standard heater box to remove all the insides which aren't needed to leave me with just the fan. Will do a more detailed write up about what my plans are for this when I've finished making the rest of the parts to go together with it. But i'm going to make my own front end of the heater box to duct the air from the fan into the dash vents for the driver and the screen.
I've added a new wiring loom in from the switch panel to the fuse box with an additional 4 relays, some of these will get used, some of them will be saved for future use but at least all the switching and power feeds are wired in now.
2 relays for a heated screen
Additional fuel pump relay for a second pump
Fan relay to bring on the fan from the heater box.
Couple of custom swirl pots made up. The larger one for my friends E36 build and the smaller one which will be for my E46 to mount in the Engine bay. Still plenty more work to be done on this but it's going in the right direction.
First job on the list at the moment, I was asked by a friend could I make up some custom subframe bushes for his E36 if he supplied the material.
Starting off with a nice round 3" stock of aluminium
The aim of the game with this was to solidly mount the subframe but also lift the subframe right up against the underside of the car to add some correction to the wish bone angles in an attempt to correct some of the roll centre on the rear to compliment the front set up he's running, Interesting project, will see how it goes when it's out on track in the future.
Back to my own car, I've had it parked up for a few weeks since Anglesey and have been planning making a few small changes to the car before the next outing. The main planned change was to get rid of the standard battery from the boot, relocate and replace it with something smaller and lighter.
First step was removing some of the interior to be able to get in the car to work on it
While I was in there removing the standard battery wiring which is wrapped inside the rear loom I thought I would start with removing any existing wiring which isn't being used in the car in it's current form
This obviously meant I could only cut the wires back as far as the A pillar. Not being happy with this and seeing how much potential there was for removing wire I started to dig deeper into the car.
Out came the cage
With the cage out of the way it was easy to pop out the dash and continue to trace back any wires which weren't needed.
The deeper you dig the more you find... with the main loom running completely around the back of the dash and behind the heater box I just had to keep digging.
Out came the heater box which enabled me to split the wiring loom open properly and start to rip out what wasn't being used anymore.
With everything now being so easy to access I've removed all the wiring for the doors, the heater controls, the electric windows, all radio wiring, all wiring to the EWS, an awful lot of wiring has been cut out.
I've taken the time to take it right back to the fuse boxes and the body control module and depin all the wires that aren't being used.
With that done you can see how much simpler the wiring to the rear of the car is now. Having it laid out on the drive way at the side of the car I could start to shape the wires back into the correct shape.
It was then placed back into the car and I checked the length and locations for the joins in the looms to make sure that when it goes back together everything exits and joins in the right place. I spent a long time tidying up the loom, heat shrinking and removing the massive commoning eathing blocks for something smaller and tidier
All roughly put back together at the moment held together just with insulation tape till new bits of wiring are added and tested. Decided to take this time to make quite a few changes to the wiring by adding in facilities for modifications in the future too.
When everything is hopefully checked and working correctly I will go back and finish wrapping up the looms but for the time being i'm still adding in new wires.
To finish of the progress for today, I've mounted a battery box behind the passenger seat and a new 250 mega fuse on the A pillar in the passenger footwell. From there the main feed to the fuse box only makes a short run. Rather than going right across the car to the other side to go through the bulkhead I've gone straight through the bulkhead through a grommet directly to the starter and removed any additional wiring from the engine bay that isn't required. I've saved an awful lot of weight just in reducing the wiring runs around the car. I've saved everything that's been removed from the car for a final weigh in when it's built and finished.
I've spent a few hours chopping up the standard heater box to remove all the insides which aren't needed to leave me with just the fan. Will do a more detailed write up about what my plans are for this when I've finished making the rest of the parts to go together with it. But i'm going to make my own front end of the heater box to duct the air from the fan into the dash vents for the driver and the screen.
I've added a new wiring loom in from the switch panel to the fuse box with an additional 4 relays, some of these will get used, some of them will be saved for future use but at least all the switching and power feeds are wired in now.
2 relays for a heated screen
Additional fuel pump relay for a second pump
Fan relay to bring on the fan from the heater box.
Couple of custom swirl pots made up. The larger one for my friends E36 build and the smaller one which will be for my E46 to mount in the Engine bay. Still plenty more work to be done on this but it's going in the right direction.
Progress continues. Not at a massive rate with trying to keep up with other hobbies outside of motorsport but also due to the weather we've been suffering with lately.
First job at the moment was to get a batch of S50 > M54 adaptor plates laser cut. I was asked to make 6 of these for a company I've gotten to know through racing so had a larger batch made and sat them on a shelf for future reference.
Mocked up the battery box location and added in Riv nuts to to the floor to hold it in position with P clips throughout making sure everything will be held in place properly when the car goes back together. Putting the battery behind the passenger seat to reduce long runs of battery cable. Passenger foot well would have been better but I regularly have passengers in on track days to keeping that clear.
Built up and test fitted the dash to make sure all the electrical components worked with the modifications to the wiring I had made. Got the car running, tested all the functions and drove the car down the drive.
Switch and relays for the heater screen.
Switch and relay for the fan/blower
Fuel pump relay tapped into the standard fuel pump wiring to power the new pump in the same way the car controls the intank pump which will be used as a lift pump now.
Notice the reduction in side of the heater matrix.
With everything working, new battery cables ran down the passenger side, mega fuses mounted to the bulkhead and cables ran through the bulkhead for the starter motor. I've removed all the dash again ready to finish off wrapping the loom and painting the interior again.
Pulled back the passenger side of the engine back wiring back through the bulkhead with the ECU wiring so I can be pulled back and out of the car. the loom is still a pretty big item but half the size that it was before. Quite a bit of weight saved but more on that shortly.
Yesterday I started wrapping the loom back up but rain stopped play yesterday afternoon, the bits I have done so far look so much better, will have some more photos when I've finished.
Eagle eyed viewers will have noticed how much smaller the heater matrix box is now I've cut up and removed all the bits that aren't needed anymore just leaving the motor/blower in position in the scuttle.
I'm going to mount a plate the passenger compartment side of the blower with 3 ducts on it which will go to the screen and the driver. I've got it all wired in with relays now and a switch on the centre console panel to be able to turn the fan on to either clear the screen or cool the cabin if needed.
With the changes to the brakes I've been going in the right direction and feel like I'm close to getting to where I want them to be, Anglesey was so much better with the ABS removed running RC5+ all around and the proportioning valve set pretty much all the way to the front the braking was pretty balanced with the exception of the odd off camber corner or when trail braking a little too much. Looking for a little bit more power from the fronts to increase the bias I'm going to move to RC6 brake pads which have a co-efficient of ~0.5 compared with ~0.4 for the RC5's. Something else to try at Cadwell in August which will be the next outing for the car when it's finished.
Weight saving
So when the car went to Oulton Park it weighed in at 1330kg with 30l of fuel which isn't bad considering the car is running a pretty comprehensive 16 point roll cage.
Since then the following weight has been removed.
3kgs -MV1's > TD's
15kg -Air conditioning related parts
20kg -Standard battery - Oddessey PC680
15kg -Wiring from looms
07kg -Half a heater box
02kg -Rear window seals
62kg -Total saving at the moment
1330 - 30kg (Fuel) - 62 kg = 1238kg
My target at the moment is to get to 1200kg which will take me to 200bhp/ton on the nose. By no means was this current rebuild to save weight, it's just something I'm doing as i'm working through the car tidying up all the little things I've noticed over the last 12 months as well as the things I wish I had done the first time I built it, which is coming up for exactly 12 months ago.
Weight saving jobs still to do:
-Rear glass swapped to Lexan
-Front windows thermo formed Lexan
-Gut front doors and remove metal and window mechanisms.
First job at the moment was to get a batch of S50 > M54 adaptor plates laser cut. I was asked to make 6 of these for a company I've gotten to know through racing so had a larger batch made and sat them on a shelf for future reference.
Mocked up the battery box location and added in Riv nuts to to the floor to hold it in position with P clips throughout making sure everything will be held in place properly when the car goes back together. Putting the battery behind the passenger seat to reduce long runs of battery cable. Passenger foot well would have been better but I regularly have passengers in on track days to keeping that clear.
Built up and test fitted the dash to make sure all the electrical components worked with the modifications to the wiring I had made. Got the car running, tested all the functions and drove the car down the drive.
Switch and relays for the heater screen.
Switch and relay for the fan/blower
Fuel pump relay tapped into the standard fuel pump wiring to power the new pump in the same way the car controls the intank pump which will be used as a lift pump now.
Notice the reduction in side of the heater matrix.
With everything working, new battery cables ran down the passenger side, mega fuses mounted to the bulkhead and cables ran through the bulkhead for the starter motor. I've removed all the dash again ready to finish off wrapping the loom and painting the interior again.
Pulled back the passenger side of the engine back wiring back through the bulkhead with the ECU wiring so I can be pulled back and out of the car. the loom is still a pretty big item but half the size that it was before. Quite a bit of weight saved but more on that shortly.
Yesterday I started wrapping the loom back up but rain stopped play yesterday afternoon, the bits I have done so far look so much better, will have some more photos when I've finished.
Eagle eyed viewers will have noticed how much smaller the heater matrix box is now I've cut up and removed all the bits that aren't needed anymore just leaving the motor/blower in position in the scuttle.
I'm going to mount a plate the passenger compartment side of the blower with 3 ducts on it which will go to the screen and the driver. I've got it all wired in with relays now and a switch on the centre console panel to be able to turn the fan on to either clear the screen or cool the cabin if needed.
With the changes to the brakes I've been going in the right direction and feel like I'm close to getting to where I want them to be, Anglesey was so much better with the ABS removed running RC5+ all around and the proportioning valve set pretty much all the way to the front the braking was pretty balanced with the exception of the odd off camber corner or when trail braking a little too much. Looking for a little bit more power from the fronts to increase the bias I'm going to move to RC6 brake pads which have a co-efficient of ~0.5 compared with ~0.4 for the RC5's. Something else to try at Cadwell in August which will be the next outing for the car when it's finished.
Weight saving
So when the car went to Oulton Park it weighed in at 1330kg with 30l of fuel which isn't bad considering the car is running a pretty comprehensive 16 point roll cage.
Since then the following weight has been removed.
3kgs -MV1's > TD's
15kg -Air conditioning related parts
20kg -Standard battery - Oddessey PC680
15kg -Wiring from looms
07kg -Half a heater box
02kg -Rear window seals
62kg -Total saving at the moment
1330 - 30kg (Fuel) - 62 kg = 1238kg
My target at the moment is to get to 1200kg which will take me to 200bhp/ton on the nose. By no means was this current rebuild to save weight, it's just something I'm doing as i'm working through the car tidying up all the little things I've noticed over the last 12 months as well as the things I wish I had done the first time I built it, which is coming up for exactly 12 months ago.
Weight saving jobs still to do:
-Rear glass swapped to Lexan
-Front windows thermo formed Lexan
-Gut front doors and remove metal and window mechanisms.
With such bad weather through the middle of June progress has been limited up until last weekend when we finally got some good weather to be able to crack on with the car,
The weekend start off with a lot of prep work, in order to paint the car properly I wanted to completely remove the interior look from the car but it goes through the bulk head on both sides as the interior loom also contains the ABS wiring as well as wiring for the front lights but it had to come out to do it properly and finish off the last bits of wrapping the wiring loom.
Lots of time went into lightly rubbing down the inside of the car, panel wiping and hoovering to make sure it was as clean as possible ready for painting, the idea was to get it prepped ready for when we got a couple of good days weather together,
Glass removed from the rear and all the exterior and interior sections that I didn't want covering in paint masked up.
Checking the weather forecast on the Friday afternoon it was forecast warm, dry and no wind. Perfect weekend to get the inside of the car painted. Last time I did it i borrowed my friends unit which was great, however it's much more difficult to get the car a rolling shell to get it there on the trailer then having to get it out of the unit on the Sunday for them to go back to work on the Monday morning, because of this I decided I would buy a cheap gazebo from ebay and make use of the wide drive way at home. Friday night I got the Gazebo up over the car without the sides on ready to start early saturday morning.
Saturday morning the weather was perfect to get on with the painting. I set to putting the sides onto the Gazebo to make sure all the over spray was contained and gave the neighbours a heads up just in case.
Final wipe down and a hoover and it was time to put some paint down inside the shell.
With the painting done it was a case of leaving it in the Gazebo over night till the Sunday when i then turned my attention to getting the shell water tight before the thunderstorms came which had been forecast for Monday.
First job on the list was fixing in the rear windows, in the past I had 3d printed adaptors for the rear motors, will all the wiring and motors removed I've gone for fixed glass windows for the time being. I made swap them for the lexan i've purchased for the job at some point but for now I'm going to keep the glass, keeps it water tight and doesn't scratch.
I then left the car for the week making sure the paint was left long enough to ensure it was fully hardened and reduce the chance of it getting marked when putting the car back together.
First job was putting back in the roll cage and the strut brace, takes a little while to get all the mounting points lined up when fitting this cage. there's 16 tie in points in the shell in total so a couple of hours work to get all the bolts in and torqued up.
Carrying on with the refitting of the interior, or lack of it now I should say, brake lines ran back through the car and the shifter fitted.
Continued to P clip all the wiring throughout the car, looks so much better with the wiring fuller wrapped and held in place properly with black plastic P clips and stainless fittings. I spent a little bit of time today cutting away the remainder of the lower dash now I had decided how i was going to finish it.
I had also 3D printed some more duct adaptors to fit into the built in air ways in the dash board. You can see in the image below the small lengths of air ducting connecting the outlets I made on the fan motor to the dash, much better without the heater matrix taking up so much room.
Battery mounted up behind the passenger seat and battery wires ran down the to Mega fuse I've mounted on the A pillar.
This photo really shows how much cleaner and tidier the inside the cabin area is now it's being built for a second time, looks so much better with the reduced wiring, no lower dash and removed heater matrix.
Refitted the switch panel to the dash which now has the additional wiring for fuel pump, heated screen, switched 5v camera feed via a USB and the interior fan switch. Also mounted the logger to the centre console in the same position to provide quick access for downloading data during track days.
Dashboard all back together now, I've tried to pay a lot of attention to parts when refitting them, down to the likes of painting the handbrake before refitting.
Final jobs for the day were to refit the brake pedal as well as the drivers floor covered in grip tape.
Also finished off running the cables down from the dashboard to the dash bar to tidy it up a little more but forget to take a photo with those bits done as my phone had died.
That pretty much makes the interior of the car finished except door cards, seats and door bars but I'll do all of those right at the end when I know I don't need to get inside the car again or under the dash.
I can turn my concentration now to the mechanical changes I've got planned for it, will be mounting up the swirl pot in the engine bay as well as mounting the high pressure fuel pump when it arrives.
Fitting a set of softer springs to the rear of the car in the hunt for reducing a little bit of the oversteer which is apparent when pushing the car a little harder.
Set of 350lbs rear springs to experiment with for the next track day, currently running 400lbs
Will also get the Carbon Loraine RC6 brake pads fitted in the evenings this week and get the brakes bled up, just waiting on a new brake hose for the engine bay between the master cylinder and the front T piece to make it a little tidier rather than running a piece of copper to it.
The weekend start off with a lot of prep work, in order to paint the car properly I wanted to completely remove the interior look from the car but it goes through the bulk head on both sides as the interior loom also contains the ABS wiring as well as wiring for the front lights but it had to come out to do it properly and finish off the last bits of wrapping the wiring loom.
Lots of time went into lightly rubbing down the inside of the car, panel wiping and hoovering to make sure it was as clean as possible ready for painting, the idea was to get it prepped ready for when we got a couple of good days weather together,
Glass removed from the rear and all the exterior and interior sections that I didn't want covering in paint masked up.
Checking the weather forecast on the Friday afternoon it was forecast warm, dry and no wind. Perfect weekend to get the inside of the car painted. Last time I did it i borrowed my friends unit which was great, however it's much more difficult to get the car a rolling shell to get it there on the trailer then having to get it out of the unit on the Sunday for them to go back to work on the Monday morning, because of this I decided I would buy a cheap gazebo from ebay and make use of the wide drive way at home. Friday night I got the Gazebo up over the car without the sides on ready to start early saturday morning.
Saturday morning the weather was perfect to get on with the painting. I set to putting the sides onto the Gazebo to make sure all the over spray was contained and gave the neighbours a heads up just in case.
Final wipe down and a hoover and it was time to put some paint down inside the shell.
With the painting done it was a case of leaving it in the Gazebo over night till the Sunday when i then turned my attention to getting the shell water tight before the thunderstorms came which had been forecast for Monday.
First job on the list was fixing in the rear windows, in the past I had 3d printed adaptors for the rear motors, will all the wiring and motors removed I've gone for fixed glass windows for the time being. I made swap them for the lexan i've purchased for the job at some point but for now I'm going to keep the glass, keeps it water tight and doesn't scratch.
I then left the car for the week making sure the paint was left long enough to ensure it was fully hardened and reduce the chance of it getting marked when putting the car back together.
First job was putting back in the roll cage and the strut brace, takes a little while to get all the mounting points lined up when fitting this cage. there's 16 tie in points in the shell in total so a couple of hours work to get all the bolts in and torqued up.
Carrying on with the refitting of the interior, or lack of it now I should say, brake lines ran back through the car and the shifter fitted.
Continued to P clip all the wiring throughout the car, looks so much better with the wiring fuller wrapped and held in place properly with black plastic P clips and stainless fittings. I spent a little bit of time today cutting away the remainder of the lower dash now I had decided how i was going to finish it.
I had also 3D printed some more duct adaptors to fit into the built in air ways in the dash board. You can see in the image below the small lengths of air ducting connecting the outlets I made on the fan motor to the dash, much better without the heater matrix taking up so much room.
Battery mounted up behind the passenger seat and battery wires ran down the to Mega fuse I've mounted on the A pillar.
This photo really shows how much cleaner and tidier the inside the cabin area is now it's being built for a second time, looks so much better with the reduced wiring, no lower dash and removed heater matrix.
Refitted the switch panel to the dash which now has the additional wiring for fuel pump, heated screen, switched 5v camera feed via a USB and the interior fan switch. Also mounted the logger to the centre console in the same position to provide quick access for downloading data during track days.
Dashboard all back together now, I've tried to pay a lot of attention to parts when refitting them, down to the likes of painting the handbrake before refitting.
Final jobs for the day were to refit the brake pedal as well as the drivers floor covered in grip tape.
Also finished off running the cables down from the dashboard to the dash bar to tidy it up a little more but forget to take a photo with those bits done as my phone had died.
That pretty much makes the interior of the car finished except door cards, seats and door bars but I'll do all of those right at the end when I know I don't need to get inside the car again or under the dash.
I can turn my concentration now to the mechanical changes I've got planned for it, will be mounting up the swirl pot in the engine bay as well as mounting the high pressure fuel pump when it arrives.
Fitting a set of softer springs to the rear of the car in the hunt for reducing a little bit of the oversteer which is apparent when pushing the car a little harder.
Set of 350lbs rear springs to experiment with for the next track day, currently running 400lbs
Will also get the Carbon Loraine RC6 brake pads fitted in the evenings this week and get the brakes bled up, just waiting on a new brake hose for the engine bay between the master cylinder and the front T piece to make it a little tidier rather than running a piece of copper to it.
Update August 2019.
With the build thread only being a diary of post from myself I've not been on posting any progress posts for a while but I've uploaded some more photos to flickr so thought I would pop on a post a few for anyone interested.
Start off with a bit of simple progress which was to finish off the dash, I got new trim clips to hold the dash trims in place properly, in the past a few have been missing or come out from hitting kerbs on track, I also trimmed the one around the switch panel to make it fit correctly as it never did even when i bought the car
Finished P clipping all the wiring looms around the car. Looks so much better now all the loom inside the car has been reduced and re wrapped as well as the effort I went to drilling holes and riv nutting the length of the car to hold all the looms and lines in place makes it look so much more presentable inside.
Mounted the Ardunino Logger to the centre control again keeping it easily accessed in the centre of the car for removing data from. note the duvets in the foot wells trying to ensure the inside of the car doesn't get marked when putting it back together
Fresh grip tape on the drivers foot plate, grip tape onto the passenger floor to so the seats and harnesses could be refitted.
Drivers side
Passenger side
With all the interior put back together I then focused my attention on the fuel set up, much easier to do it now while the whole car is in bits and had the chance to run all the wires.
A lot of race cars I've seen over the past two years following the racing around the UK have horrible boxes in the boots or fuel pumps and pots on the rear shelf of the cars and it just looks unsightly. Decided to go a little bit different with this something tidier that doesn't involve running fuel lines inside the car.
Starting off with a custom swirl pot and 044 pump.
Marked up a car template in the little bit of space behind the intake in the engine bay
Transferred the template to a sheet of stainless steel
Cut out and test fitted to make sure the brackets for holding it secure are in the right place.
Painted the bracket and mounted it with the swirl pot
Main pump now mounted under the car tucked in against the chassis leg. All of this will be plated over to protect it under the car anyway.
Tried my best to keep the plumbing under the car nice and neat but with 4 addition lines having to go to the swirl pot, two from the main tank, one return from the reg in the filter and one from the new pump it wasn't the easiest of jobs to pack it in a small space.
Finally the other end in the engine bay all plumbed in
Final job for the day today was the bleed the brakes and fit the RC6 brake pads to the front, I've replaced some of the copper lines in the engine bay with a braided line from the master cylinder to the front T Piece to tidy it up and use a banjo bolt o the cylinder.
While the wheels were off bleeding the brakes gave them a quick wash, such a great looking wheel the TD1.2
That pretty much brings this summer rebuild to an end. Only thing I've changed which I haven't documented is that I've changed to Mobius cameras which are now wired on a switch on the dash to record on power on with the logger which should make things a lot easier.
Pretty much ready for the next outing which is the 25h August at Cadwell Park
Final job for this week is a little bit of sealing under the car and some paint on the underside in a couple of areas where holes have been drilling and repainting the front splitting to make it look a little more presentable as a long term fixture as it's serving a purpose for the moment.
With the build thread only being a diary of post from myself I've not been on posting any progress posts for a while but I've uploaded some more photos to flickr so thought I would pop on a post a few for anyone interested.
Start off with a bit of simple progress which was to finish off the dash, I got new trim clips to hold the dash trims in place properly, in the past a few have been missing or come out from hitting kerbs on track, I also trimmed the one around the switch panel to make it fit correctly as it never did even when i bought the car
Finished P clipping all the wiring looms around the car. Looks so much better now all the loom inside the car has been reduced and re wrapped as well as the effort I went to drilling holes and riv nutting the length of the car to hold all the looms and lines in place makes it look so much more presentable inside.
Mounted the Ardunino Logger to the centre control again keeping it easily accessed in the centre of the car for removing data from. note the duvets in the foot wells trying to ensure the inside of the car doesn't get marked when putting it back together
Fresh grip tape on the drivers foot plate, grip tape onto the passenger floor to so the seats and harnesses could be refitted.
Drivers side
Passenger side
With all the interior put back together I then focused my attention on the fuel set up, much easier to do it now while the whole car is in bits and had the chance to run all the wires.
A lot of race cars I've seen over the past two years following the racing around the UK have horrible boxes in the boots or fuel pumps and pots on the rear shelf of the cars and it just looks unsightly. Decided to go a little bit different with this something tidier that doesn't involve running fuel lines inside the car.
Starting off with a custom swirl pot and 044 pump.
Marked up a car template in the little bit of space behind the intake in the engine bay
Transferred the template to a sheet of stainless steel
Cut out and test fitted to make sure the brackets for holding it secure are in the right place.
Painted the bracket and mounted it with the swirl pot
Main pump now mounted under the car tucked in against the chassis leg. All of this will be plated over to protect it under the car anyway.
Tried my best to keep the plumbing under the car nice and neat but with 4 addition lines having to go to the swirl pot, two from the main tank, one return from the reg in the filter and one from the new pump it wasn't the easiest of jobs to pack it in a small space.
Finally the other end in the engine bay all plumbed in
Final job for the day today was the bleed the brakes and fit the RC6 brake pads to the front, I've replaced some of the copper lines in the engine bay with a braided line from the master cylinder to the front T Piece to tidy it up and use a banjo bolt o the cylinder.
While the wheels were off bleeding the brakes gave them a quick wash, such a great looking wheel the TD1.2
That pretty much brings this summer rebuild to an end. Only thing I've changed which I haven't documented is that I've changed to Mobius cameras which are now wired on a switch on the dash to record on power on with the logger which should make things a lot easier.
Pretty much ready for the next outing which is the 25h August at Cadwell Park
Final job for this week is a little bit of sealing under the car and some paint on the underside in a couple of areas where holes have been drilling and repainting the front splitting to make it look a little more presentable as a long term fixture as it's serving a purpose for the moment.
d_a_n1979 said:
Fantastic build; good to see the car going round Anglesey too; sounds great 
Whilst you were driving, I was fishing round the corner in Rhosneigr and then even more round the corner at the Oyster Catcher having lunch and a pint haha
Sounds great, I was actually over there yesterday while my friends were doing a motorbike track day I took the road bike for a lap of the island to a few of the beaches. Great to see the island from a different perspective. Glad you think it sounds good, never heard it from outside of the car!! Something I need to do which means giving it to someone else to drive.Whilst you were driving, I was fishing round the corner in Rhosneigr and then even more round the corner at the Oyster Catcher having lunch and a pint haha
Max M4X WW said:
Still enjoying the updated to this as it is way beyond what I have done to my E46 'track' 325ti.
The big red cable in the photo below, does it go from the battery to the terminal in the engine bay only? Looks like easy weight to remove if so but I've not managed to fully trace the cable yet. Any knowledge welcome!
From the battery there is two cables. The big red cable in the photo below, does it go from the battery to the terminal in the engine bay only? Looks like easy weight to remove if so but I've not managed to fully trace the cable yet. Any knowledge welcome!
The larger one goes down the driver side of the vehicle to the bulkhead fitting, through the bulkhead under the ABS pump through another bulkhead fitting to the jump start point infront of the ABS pump then it goes across the engine to the starter motor over the top of the scuttle.
The smaller one goes down the drivers side and behind the dash behind the heater matrix wrapped up inside the loom where it is the main feed to the fuse box.
What I have done is take one battery cable from the battery on the passenger side to a fuse on the A pillar. From the fuse one feed goes through the bulkhead straight to the starter motor taking the shortest route. I was actually able to reuse the standard wiring which goes from the starter to the jump start point on near the ABS pump. a second wire takes the short run up to the main feed of for the fuse box. By doing that I have removed over 3/4 of the large diameter battery cable from the vehicle and reduced it in size slightly. The main saving was getting the battery out of the boot and into the passenger side.
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