The last update we left off with us screwing around in the garage pretending to drive a formula 1 car powered by our e30 drivetrain. We’ve come a long ways since then.
The motor is all back in, and to our surprise it started up on the first try with no drama at all. Well except that we didn’t have any exhaust and we woke the entire neighborhood. If you follow our Facebook page, you maybe have seen some of the video uploads of the car shooting flames from its 3inch header collectors. After the motor/trans was re bolted in, the rest was a slow process of tinkering and ordering parts. New throttle cable and gas pedal bushing thingers, power steering parts, brake booster check valve, seat brackets, exhaust components, and a plethora of other nonsense items. If you’ve ever done a project like this, you may understand what we mean. It’s the countless 1-2 hour night of working on the car, finding out you need something, order the part, wait a few days, then install it. This process repeats itself a few times before the car is drivable.
Well fast-forward a few weeks. Exhaust is 80% complete (straight pipes), seat all installed, floor replaced with some new metal, plus 99 other problems fixed. We take the car out for the first time, and it seems to run just great. We drive it around town and get about 20 miles on it. Our plan was to take it ice racing with a nearby club (about 40miles away). We got to about mile 20 and the car just shuts off and won’t start. EF! But to our relief, we had the S2k with us to tow the e30 all the way back home.
So that night we were determined to find the problem. We went out to the garage, turned the key to start it, and she fired right up. WTF! It seemed to run perfect again, no problems after a dozen restarts. We started to check it all over and replace a few ignition components just to be safe.
After an hour of scratching our heads, we decided to just drive it around until it would act up again. With the car being a bit on the loud side, we had to head out of town and drive it up to our test track about 20 miles away. (We took the S2000 just in case we needed to tow it back again.) We arrived at our test track right as the BMW decided to die on us. PERFECT! After hours of banging, hot-wiring, and circles, we found some loose wires in the tangled up mess underneath the dash. It was a glorious moment for the team. We drove the car home without a hiccup.
The next day, more testing on the ice. We put almost 100 miles on the car and it took it like a champ (or should I say chump). Here is where this video takes place:
The following weekend we hit the ice again. We setup a half mile track and kept the car going until it ran out of gas. 5 laps per person, driver change, then another 5 laps. This continued on for hours. Not a single problem (except for Mike hitting a snow bank which removed our front valance).
We are extremely pleased with the car and our work thus far. Car drives great, we have regained full compression on EVERY cylinder, doesn’t burn oil or coolant, and it fires up every single time even in -20*F weather.
The car isn’t complete yet. We still have a ways to go before the car is ready for chump racing. Cage, fire system, new race seat and mounting brackets, battery cutoff, brakes, and the list goes on.
Thanks for reading, and stick around for more updates.
