Shit is getting real for the next step:

The stuff in the bubble wrap is the quad throttle body kit. :)
There are two flywheels because I ordered the new one with the ITB kit. It takes a slightly larger six cylinder clutch (228mm vs 215mm).

Then the aluminium one came up with the clutch kit for $170 inc post.
At this point, the aluminium one is going onto the rally car, and the chromoly one will go into the road car.
The two FWs weigh about the same, but the smaller 4-cylinder clutch makes the aluminium one lighter overall.

Also researching 6-speed conversions for both cars. Stupid wreckers are wanting too much for the boxes though - best price so far is $1200 for box with shifter. Bit hard to swallow the usual quotes of $1500+ when dealers are advertising tidy, low kay 120s for $4400 negotiable.
So I probably won't do the gearbox coversion on the road car - it's a $1500-2000 car to sell, so another ~$1800 to convert it to 6-speed gets me most of the way to buying a 120i, with all of the expected benefits of a newer car.

And here's a photo of the road car, just for context/proof of life.



Since owning a 1978? 2002 back in the day I really got to like the snub tail hatch on that car!
There's a BMW wrecker beside VISY paper in Reservoir I drive past, have you tried them?
Or I could drop in.
L.
20 days later
Throttle bodies half assembled - can't do the rest of them until they are ready to be fitted to the car.
Which I will do tomorrow (if everything goes to plan).





Let the balancing begin! Well soon I suspect.

They look fantastic.
Soon, hopefully...

A few head scratching moments, but going together nicely at this stage.
Had to bend the hard line to the fuel rail, and the return hose was a mongrel to get onto the tail.

Not sure about the coolant feed/return to the stock manifold - should I loop them together or block them off? Inclined to loop them.

A few other apparent niggles (dipstick tube, intake pipe length) that I am not worrying about until it is all together.

Unthreading the wiring out of the original manifold was a fun job...
I reckon looping is safer, unless you want to trace the line back and remove them?
bowie;c-143991 wroteI reckon looping is safer, unless you want to trace the line back and remove them?
One end is easy to find, the other less so...

---------------------------

It starts, runs and drives.
Feels like about the same the improvement that the exhaust gave me - more torque, revs up more quickly and makes more power.
People have been saying that a stocker makes around 70kW ATW, and an exhaust, the ITBs and an aftermarket ECU each make about an extra 10kW ATW. My butt dyno agrees.

Also has an air leak that I couldn't find in the dark...



Photo that I forgot to take yesterday.
Still a few rough edges, but functional.
Spac;c-144022 wrote

Photo that I forgot to take yesterday.
Still a few rough edges, but functional.
And dead sexy!

Though I did expect you in one pic, standing naked next to car holding the ITBs....
Maybe if it wasn't winter...
Inlet to shiny, make dirty and try again :P

Nah man not even jealous. No doubt it will help it go like the stink, and It's going to sound ace.
2 months later
Overdue update on the rally car. We did the Orange rally a few weeks ago and it ran like a bucket of pooh all day. Especially annoying because it was wet and I seem to do pretty well in the wet events.
Swapped air flow meter at service and it went a bit better, but still not great.

We finished, but frustrated.

Parked the car in the shed and ignored it.
Since then, a local bloke has started investigation into retuning the stock ECUs, so that could be good.

Have also made this thread my generic BMW thread, rather than just the Rally Car.

So here's other BMW news in my life...
I bought this today:


It's a 2006 120i. Manual, of course. It's an M-sport if you're into that stuff. High kays, but has been looked after.

The short version of everything is that the green 318ti road car is going to replace the S40 as the Cheap Car, and this replaces the 318ti as the road car.

As a road car, the 120i has much better safety, 6-speeds for better fuel economy, and similar performance. The extra doors stops the kids whinging (although they do seem to enjoy the novelty of a 2-door about half the time).

The second engine failure in the S40 burned us a fair bit, and I think that it is time for a change. I bought a fairly tidy Phase2 NA manual S40 for $300 a few weeks back:

After replacing the 'faulty' brake master cylinder, and then replacing the actually faulty split brake hose, I put some of the well-worn race tyres onto it and took both it and the Green TI to Marulan for a track day.

Short version of it all is that the BMW was faster and more fun to drive.
And it didn't spew power steering fluid everywhere...

So it all sort of made sense.
Right?!...

The rules for Cheap Car are changing next year, including the need for full rollcages (the fast cars are going quite fast now), so it makes sense to build something that meets the Cheap Car regs and is useful for other events like the Wakefield 300.

The fly in the ointment is that I really like the green car and am flinching at the idea of having it biffed and battered on the race track... ?
The other option is to build up one of the 316i parts cars as a 318ti, but there's a lot more work in that.
Time will tell, I guess.








21 days later
I couldn't bring myself to mess with the green car. Got as far as putting it in the shed, then chickened out! Did fit the E46 17" wheels to it, which made me even less keen to turn it into a race car...




So the blue 316i was the obvious candidate.
I paid $250 for it a few months back, with a dead auto. Had been smoked in, so was predictably stinky.
And the body is sound without being amazing. Apart from the extra work to swap the twin cam manual in, it was pretty much the perfect starting point.



The goals are:
Be a competitive, legal Cheap Car (noting that the fast cars are just getting faster - the pace at the front is way up compared to when we were plodding around in the Laser)*;
Total budget around $5k (not including anything that was already in my shed);
Be "not embarrassing" at some of the endurance races like the Wakefield 300;
Be legal for the Improved Production class (although it will be significantly outclassed as an IP car, this keeps the car legal for virtually everything);
Have a decent upgrade path if we move away from Cheap Car.


First step was to strip the interior. Finding an opened condom wrapper added to the 'excitement' until enough of the the interior was stripped out that I was confident that I wasn't going to find the used condom.



Unlike the silver rally car, I removed the entire heater/AC setup. Total weight is somewhere between 22 and 25kg (depending on how much coolant and gas is in the system), which vindicated my decision to leave all that in the rally car.

Fitted the old Momo race seat that I had hanging around. Decided to make El Wifeo use a booster cushion rather than mount the seat on rails, because it was going to add a massive amount of work to give an inferior result.



Then made the dash fill panel and the false floor.




I probably mentioned earlier that I had bought a set of cheap and nasty coil overs for the strut tops (complete set of coil overs = $210, four tops = $230).
They failed the bounce test (far too much compression dampening, too little rebound dampening), so I was never going to use them, but my curiosity got the better of me.




I fiddled with the shims and now they feel like they might not be utterly terrible. So they went in, along with the matching springs.


Ride height is down by about 30mm compared to the road car, and about 35mm compared to the rally car which has had similar weight loss.
If nothing else, the body length adjustment of the cheapy coil overs is useful for helping me work out lengths and travel and stuff.
I have a strong suspicion that I will be buying a set of Bilstein B12s(?) and matching Eibach springs from Germany in the longer term - I don't have the $1300 spare to do it now!

The outer ball joints are rubber mounted, for NVH reasons.
These arms are the originals from the green car that I removed because a RWC inspector didn't like the flex in the rubber - although the new Chinabay replacements feel identical to drive on...
The actual ball joints are still in excellent condition, after 20 years and 297,000km.

Meyle make "heavy duty" outer ball joints without the rubber. I paid about $40 each for them from the UK - and bought another pair for the rally car.

Anyhow, smoko was productive today.



/\This photo shows the rubber flexing under not much load.




The rear bushes in the front control arm are known as "lollypops", for obvious reasons. I have a pair of new, urethane bushes with offset holes (to increase castor/reduce camber) that are earmarked for the rally car.

But here's an experiment that will be completed "not today":



If it works, then the commercial bushes will go into the blue car, and the DIY bushes will go into the rally car. My DIY bushes won't be legal for Improved Production, which is why I want the softer/IP legal bushes in the race car.




Other stuff that I have done but don't have photos of:
Auto all removed;
Manual pedal box fitted;
Lots of excess wiring removed (still more to go!);
Exhaust removed. CCC rules have been clarified to be 'stock exhaust manifold and stoxk rear muffler, but free between thise two points'. I will get an aftermarket system fitted once the manual gearbox is in;
Wheel bolts converted to wheel studs;
Safety harness mounted - a much easier job after working out how to do it inthe silver car.
25 days later
Update.

Green car sold yesterday. :'(
Blue car has manual conversion about 90% completed.
Bought another pretty clean auto 316i for $300.

I was well down the path I have been calling "Compact Theory", where every motorsport car was a compact:
Silver 318ti = rally car;
Blue 318ti = CCC car;
Blue 316 = rallycross car;
Manual maroon 316 = khanacross car.
Auto maroon 316 = spare shell.

Oh, and then the MX5 would be the mistress on the side.
Sounded like a solid plan in my own head.

It all was derailed when I was offered the 2017 CCC Championship winning car (an Integra) at a decent price, so I flinched on buying the blue 318ti and it was sold to someone else.
Going to look at the Integra this weekend.

Numerous possibilities from here. Among them:
1. Buy another 318ti to turn into a Cheap Car and revert to Compact Theory;
2. Convert the blue 316 to 318ti specs and use it as a Cheap Car, build one of the maroon 316s into the rallycross car;
3. Build the blue 316 into a 1600cc Cheap Car for the new 1600 class for next year;
4. Build one of Volvo 960s into a rally car;
5. Fix the S40 Cheap Car;
6. Sell the S40 Cheap Car;
7. Drink lots of beer.
8. Build a Echo Sportivo as CCC and/or 1600 RX car.
9. Build a 1.5 121 Bubble car as a 166 RX car (this might not be the smartest move but would have the most lols).


Current thinking is #1, #4, #6 and #7.






So you turned up to 11 and neglected the option of buying another 960?
PaddlerEd;c-150351 wroteSo you turned up to 11 and neglected the option of buying another 960?
Nope. Dragged this home from Temora yesterday...
I like the 120i.
I cant think of a decent reason why a 1 series wouldnt be a good dd.
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