1991 BMW E30 318is: Rally Build

Hey GRM!

So this build has been on hiatus for well over a year..

The back story is 2 years ago I went to the Oregon Trail Rally and got hooked on E30's, subsequently bought one and started rebuilding it. Then life happened and the car became a bench in the garage collecting dust, coats, fishing gear and anything else we threw on top of it. 2018 OTR is on the 20th of April and that reignited my drive to continue the build. (I'll be there this year as a spectator so let me know if any of you will be there) 

Progress through 2016 (the last time I worked on the car):

Basically when I bought the car

Installed all new front and rear bushings and ball joints and completely refreshed the suspension

New intake manifold gaskets (removed the "mess under the hood" junk)

and temporary seats 

How the car sits today:

*to be added*

Parts that need to be installed/purchased:

*to be added*

Nice, another M42 rally e30 :)

If you haven't already, go find my build thread. It has about 2000 posts worth of stuff about building/rallying an M42 e30 :)

Of course, I'm always looking for new ideas as well so will definitely follow yours!

In reply to irish44j :

You probably don't remember me but I used to chat with you on RallyAnarchy, I just finished going through your build thread for the 2nd time! I like the new Condor livery, it looks cool.

In reply to formyhealth :

Oh indeed....man, it's been a long time since I visited over there, haha. I thought JVL had scared everyone away :)

Thanks, I thought it was time for some cosmetic upgrade, haha. That's what I do because it's free/cheap and I don't have any money for real modifications now that I have to pay stage rally entry fees!

btw, what seats are those? They look like they might go well in my Porsche, since I really don't love the stock seats in there with lousy bolstering :)

An explanation for this picture will be provided after I get started on the work I need to do (it's mostly good)

In reply to irish44j :

they are the Sparco R100's I got them for cheaper than they are on Amazon. They're pretty comfy and the side bolsters are supportive enough. I don't know what they'd be like on longer drives though since I haven't sat in them much since they were installed.

In reply to irish44j :

I wasn't really a regular there, I saw your post of the build there and that kind of helped me choose a direction for the e30. How much are your rally fees? I'm waiting to hear about this years rallycross events in Oregon, I haven't seen much on the calendar yet. I need to get my feet wet because I have next to no track time and very little seat time in the e30.

A quick update for today;

I bought a new battery, the old one was flat dead and wouldn't even take a charge. Started up just fine after just over a year of sitting in the garage. On the downside it puked fuel from right above the fuel filter on the drivers side, running down from the top of the tank. So I ended up ordering a new fuel tank today as well. I'll go through all of the fuel lines and replace all the rubber with fresh viton hose. 

Also it looks like I'll be selling the Sparco r100's soon because I spoke with a few cage builders and will need to order seats that the cage will be more or less built around.

I'll take some pictures later this weekend as I remove the front subframe to fix what I broke up there.

So 1 year ago me had just finished up the z3 rack installation and started fitting the subframe back up into place when he made some bad choices. 

1. Decided to reuse rusty subframe bolts

2. Proceeded to use said bolts, snapping one off subflush in the body

3. decided best course of action would be to try and drill out the bolt without dropping the subframe.. because effort.

4. Subsequently broke off said drill bit inside of the hole

5. Said berkley it (am I using that right?) and tack welded the subframe to the body

6. let the car sit in the garage because he was frustrated for over a year

Which brings us to today's project, I ended up dropping the subframe after grinding off the large tack weld I put in place of a rear subframe bolt. This allowed me to do a few things including seeing the damage I caused to the subframe bolt hole, and clearancing the u-joints on the steering input shaft since it binds occasionally due to the z3 rack.

Unfortunately I drilled the hole off center in the bolt, so I am weighing my choices on whether I try to salvage the original bolt hole or drill out the entire bolt up a size, both of which hinge on me being able to get the broken of drill bit broken up and out of there.

Practiced my tig welding today and added motor mount reinforcement. It needs work but they are stuck together, I'll do the underside tomorrow maybe:

Finished welding in the subframe reinforcements, getting slightly better at tig.

In reply to JaneSnapp :

Thanks! It's a labor of love.

Today I decided to drop the upper and lower oil pan. I had a sneaking suspicion that a few of the upper pan gasket bolts were residing in the lower pan due to a metallic rattling noise I hear intermittently. Lo and behold:

That's not one but two of the upper oil pan bolts, which on more than one occasion came in contact with the oil pickup tube due to very pronounced thread imprints on both the oil pickup and the lower oil pan. To make matters worse (silver lining is I'll be getting a new engine in the future) there were lots of bits of plastic from the disintegrating timing chain guides.

So Ive decided that I won't put much more money into this particular engine as the block is over 300k at this point and there are better options out there. When it dies I'll pull it and build it up if the block is in good shape and can be rebuilt.

That's about all for now, I got the new fuel tank but may replace all the fuel line first to see if that is why I am getting leaks, other than that I've got new power steering lines showing up so I can get the car out to the alignment shop, after that it's going to get a full cage.

I THINK I am buying a new engine today, I'll post pictures if I do, it'll be unique.

In reply to formyhealth :

I did it.

I bought a 2016 2.0 Ecoboost with 9,000 miles. I am looking into Bell housing options and am leaning towards the 6 speed t56 transmission. Just need to fab mounts, get in contact with dss to get a custom driveshaft, buy the plug and play harness from Ford racing and we should be in business. 

I was at OTR! Too bad I didn't see this thread until now... I was Crew Chief (and the entire crew) for the CRX, so I didn't get a lot of spectating in.

And now that I've responded to your first paragraph, I will read the rest of the thread :)

Next subject: stage rally fees.

OTR for the CRX was $650. That was with the first event discount, otherwise it is $850. You get $100 off if you're from anywhere but OR and WA. Oh and there is a $300 Subaru discount for the first ten Subarus to sign up

Olympus Rally is $800 it looks like. No discounts that I see.

Back to the thread :)

In reply to ValourUnbound :

That's awesome how did you guys do? I didn't see the crx on stage, was that this weekend?

At PIR it ran third, in Goldendale and Dufur it ran 5th from last. (They swap the order for PIR) So if you just paid attention to the big names you'd miss us.

Time wise, we finished not last and in one piece, so I'd call that an amazing first event. 15 out of 56 cars DNFed for one reason or another. Lots of flips, some cracked suspension, one car even burnt out. Rally is crazy yo.

Just a note that some Rally series require the shell and the engine to come from the same manufacturer, although that rule seems to be going away. So a Ford into a Volvo is okay, but a Ford into a BMW won't work.

You may be limiting your ability to run in certain series. NASA you will be okay and I can't remember ARA or RA. CARS (if you are near Canada) has definitely retained that rule, for now. It won't prevent you from running, you just can't collect points.

The rule may go away as CARS and ARA are working to bring their rule sets together.

In reply to ValourUnbound :

That's awesome! 

I saw Tino's car all burnt up, I was bummed for him. Will you be going to Idaho rally or tour de forest? Thanks for the response on the rally entry fees, it's gonna be spendy.

In reply to NGTD :

Thank you that's good info to know. I will be retaining my factory drivetrain and will be building the new engine mounts and trans mounts in a way that will allow me to swap back and forth (other than the wiring headache)

On the docket right now are Olympus, Doo Wop and Tour de Forest. Idaho is a maybe.

All of these depend on securing a truck and trailer for each event. Oh and a co-driver.

I was just reading through the ARA rules for fun, and I think O2WD is pretty free. I'll double check.

Edit: ARA rules for O2WD are as follows:

Car must be 2WD.

No, I didn't skip anything. So for ARA you're good.

In reply to ValourUnbound :

Regional group 5 ARA looks open too (unrestricted engines etc.) I'm hoping for Tour De Forest in October, my understanding is that as a first time stage rally the car has to be n/a so I am not sure about this and how I will be able to proceed, I'll need to make some phone calls.

In reply to formyhealth :

make sure to check the thrust bearing surface on the crank, if you can (on both the old and new engines). Due to the 180-degree design of the original main bearing they tended to wear out a LOT and allow some crank walk. Check to see if anyone ever upgraded to the 360-degree bearings and/or if yours has low wear. If it has low wear, make sure to keep it! Same goes for the timing gears - if the teeth are still squared off, they're valuable. If the teeth are sharp at the tip, trash em...

It's usually way more about the crank and gear as to whether it's worth rebuilding the engines. The blocks hold up pretty well.