Eurotrash Motorsports

A few weeks ago at the Calabogie evening event, my hydraulic belt tensioner pulley bearing seized and blew up, almost leaving me stranded on the track.  I lost my alternator, power steering, and water pump.  Fortunately, I was able to get off the track before the car overheated too badly.  After a bit of shopping, I ordered two new idler pulleys, a new hydraulic tensioner, and a new belt to get ready for this [last] weekend’s Solo II race.

Taking the pulleys off would have been easy however my electric fan that was bolted to the radiator prevented the long bolt from coming out.  But after removing the rad, the rest was a piece of cake.  I had ordered new bolts and caps as well so all was fresh and ready to reinstall.  Nothing was seized, and I didn’t strip any bolts.  Because the tensioner is hydraulic, I don’t need to set the tension in the belt (it’s auto-adjustable)

A few hours later, all was back together and the car was running!  I was a bit worried about a blown head gasket or valve, but the engine sounded strong, and there were no issues.

I was ready to race!  Well, almost – I just had to wait for the scars from my appendectomy to finish healing…

Check out the gallery for more pics!

Shawn

As part of my prep for my first auto-x event of the year in Picton, I decided to install my GTspec Lower Tie Bar. The bar connects the two front control arms and is designed to provide added stiffness, decrease wheel-hop, and provide better turn-in feel.

The install was fairly straight forward and the prep for the install actually had more drama than the work itself.

Here’s a lesson in safety kids, Rhino Ramps on an inclined driveway don’t work out so well. While trying to put my car on ramps, my driver’s side wheel spun and launched the ramp under my car leaving the protege 3-wheeling. I had to jack the car up, place the ramp back under the tire, and lower the car back down. The rest of the work was performed on the street at the bottom of my driveway with the car on jack stands.

As I mentioned, the process for installing the bar is fairly straight forward. Before starting any work on the car, it wouldn’t hurt to spray down the two bolts on your lower control arms with either WD-40 or breakaway spray either the night before or a couple of hours before starting.

Tools you’ll need:

• 17mm wrench
• 17mm socket
• breaker bar
• jack and jack stands

Start by jacking the front of the car up and placing it on the stands. Next, locate the main bolt on each of the control arms. The bolts thread into a welded nut on the opposite side of the control arm. This is where the wrench comes in. If your car is 11 years old and fighting a losing battle with rust like mine there’s a chance that the welds on those nuts may break. Place the wrench over the nut to make sure it doesn’t move. Using the 17 mm socket and a breaker bar, remove the bolts.

Once the bolts are out, it’s just a case of holding the bar up in place, putting the bolts back in, and tightening everything up. Note: The nuts should be torqued with the wheels loaded otherwise you’ll get a clunk.

Check out the gallery for all the pictures and stay tuned for more work

It’s a new season with a new car which means a new round of regular maintenance needs to be followed. First up, new plugs and wires.

I’m a little ashamed to admit it but in the 6 years that I’ve owned the car, I’ve never replaced any of the plugs or the wires so this maintenance may have been a little overdue – better late than never right?

When it came to choosing a brand of plugs and wires, there were a few brands to choose from but after doing some reading and talking to my parts guy, I decided on some NGK V-Power plugs and NGK wires.

The V-power plugs lower ignition system voltage requirements and offer overall superior performance and reliability over the standard OEM replacement plug. At just over 3$ a plug they aren’t going to break your budget either.

The install is fairly easy and only requires the appropriately sized spark plug socket and a spark plug gaping tool. Before installing your plugs, make sure to check your service manual or the spark plug manufacturer’s website for the proper gap specs.

The scariest part of the install was when I went to remove the plug from cylinder 3 and found that it was SIGNIFICANTLY less torqued than the first two plugs. I wonder if I was loosing any compression there?

Check out the gallery for pictures.

With the bigger tires, I had a bit of rubbing even after rolling the fenders at the rear, and I was worried about the fronts rubbing during hard cornering.  To fix this, I had to flare the fenders even more than I already had.  It didn’t turn out pretty, but it seems as though it will be functional.

My flaring tools consisted of a C-clamp and a rag (to protect the paint of course!).  I clamped down on the fender and then pulled it out.  I proceeded to do this all around the fender, on all four corners.  I was a bit worried about the driver side front, since there was a lot of bodywork that went into that fender and sure enough, it cracked – but not as much as I would have thought.  As you can see, they kinked, but overall the shape is good, and the tires tuck in nicely with some clearance.  All in all, for a track car, I’m happy with the results.  Maybe next winter I will put a bit more time into them and install proper fender flares or do some bodywork to make them look nicer.  For now, I’m ready for the track!

Our first autocross is this saturday, so keep an eye out next week for the results of the shakedown!

Shawn

OMG.

Here are the specs:

Wheels:

From UUC Motorwerks – D-Force LTW5 – 17×9,  16.4lbs

Tires:

From TireRack – Dunlop Direzza Star Spec – 255/40R17, 28lbs

The overall package is about 8lbs/corner heavier (32 lbs total), which is significant.  However, the gain I will be getting in overall grip should more than make up for it.

They look so awesome, and they give the car such a mean stance.  I may have to cut the front fenders, and possibly flare the rears, but it’s not a huge issue.  I owe a big thanks to Canadian Tire on Carling - Ralph and Phil set me up with -2.8 front camber, and -2.5 rear camber, with 1/8 overall toe out for the front, and 1/8 overall toe in for the rear.  The car should handle amazing now.

The first event in June 5th, so I’ll be able to tell you all how it went!  More pics are in the gallery so don’t forget to check them out!

Shawn

As some of you know, the weekend that Jeff and I spent in Calabogie a few weeks back was incredible and a great way to start the season.  Unfortunately for me, I destroyed my tires sooner than I had thought, but on the other hand, it allowed me to go out a purchase some new rubber and new rims that will be arriving hopefully by the end of next week.  Lets just say for now that they are going to be bigger than what I’m using now, so some modifications to the car will be required.

First off, the wider rubber is going to require the use of spacers in the front to clear the shocks.  Next, to get the rears to fit, fender rolling as well as more-than-stock camber will be necessary.  So my checkbook came out once more and I purchased some adjustable rear control arms from Bimmerworld and some used spacers for the front (I got a set of 10mm and 15mm and will return the ones I don’t need).  Because of the spacers, I also had to get something longer to bolt my wheels to the hub, and I opted to buy some extended studs and nuts and converted the BMW to this system instead of the original bolt system.

Now if I add too much camber in the rear without changing the front, then my car will lose its neutrality and will have a tendency to understeer.  Because I had just spent a lot of money, I didn’t want to spend more on camber plates just yet, so I opted for shimming the front hubs where they bolt to the shock.  I did a bit of reserach and it seems that you can add up to about 5mm of shims to the two bottom bolts safely, and that will add about -2 degrees of camber to the front wheels.  This would give me about -3 degrees total!  The only issue is that the top of the wheel is now even closer to hitting the shock so a larger spacer may be required.  Unfortunately I won’t be able to tell which size spacer will be required until the new rims come in, but for now, the stock wheels fit with no spacers.

Installing the studs was pretty easy – an allen key and some locktite and they were all set to go!  Next – rolling the fenders!  With the help of one of Jeff’s friends from the Ottawa Mazda Club, we rented a fender roller.  Using a heat gun to make the paint more maleable, we were able to roll the rear fenders fairly easily.  When we tried to do the fronts though, we saw right away that there was not as much support on those and it couldn’t be done with that tool.  So we switched to a more caveman approach and used a hammer and pliers.  A few minutes later and voila!  All the fenders were rolled.

After that, we tackled the rear control arms.  In theory, there was two bolts holding them on and all we need to do is take them out and replace the arms.  In practice – wrong!  The bolt that holds the arm into the subframe is blocked by the differential, so it wouldn’t come out all the way.  To remove the diff, we would first have to:

-remove the muffler

-remove the swaybar

-disconnect the axles from the diff (12 torx bolts!)

-disconnect the driveshaft

We really didn’t feel like doing all that.  After looking at it a bit more, we realized that if we were just able to move the diff back a bit, we should be able to get the bolts out.  With the help of Jeff’s friends, we disconnected the driveshaft and took off the swaybar and then unbolted the diff.  They moved it back and held it up while Jeff and I quickly removed the two bolts and installed the new arms before putting them back in.  All in all, it wasn’t too bad.  Once the diff was back in and torqued down, the driveshaft was reconnected and the swaybar was put back on.  Everything was torqued down, and the day was over!

It was a productive and fun day!  Now all that’s left is to get the rims, have them mounted and balanced and then get the car realigned.  More pictures are in the build journal, and keep your eyes open early next week for an update on the wheels & tires.

Shawn

Finally complete (almost).  There’s one day left before race day and only a few little things left to do.  The past two weeks have been crazy busy, but it’s been worth it.

Tuesday April 20:

Tuesday was reassembly day.  I got my bushings in from Bimmerworld so I was able to start working on reassembling the rear subframe.  Removing the old bushings from the subframe ended up being pretty time consuming since they’re very thick.  It took breaking a few drill bits before they were all smashed out!  Once the new ones were in, the subframe went back in the car!  With some extra hands from my brother and dad, the rest of the rear end was also reassembled that night (suspension, differential, axles).  It was a late night, but it was done!

Wednesday April 21:

The next night, I finished working under the car – I attached the driveshaft to the diff, the new rear swaybar from UUC (not the endlinks yet) and then reinstalled the exhaust and muffler.  After that, I removed the front suspension to install the bump stops on the struts, since Jeff and I had forgotten to do it last year.  Next, the wheels!  For the first time in over a month, the car went back on the ground.  With that, I decided to end the night on a hig note.

Thursday April 22:

Tonight was gauge night.  I had purchased a used oil distribution block (Edge Motorworks) from a fellow racer from 8-Legs Racing which would provide me with the ports for the oil senders.  After visiting a few local hydraulics stores, I had all the hardware I needed to plumb my gauges.  The first step was to remove the intake manifold (again!).  With that out of the way, I could access the block off plate that I had installed on the back of the block.  I removed it and proceeded to tap a 1/8in NPT hole into it to install my coolant temperature sender.  After that, I set up the ODB.  Because the pressure sender is large, the vibrations from the engine can cause it to break.  The solution to that is a 3ft braided stainless steel hose that allows the sender to be remotely mounted near the strut tower away from the vibrations.  I installed the ODB using a banjo bolt in the OEM oil pressure sender port.  Once all the hardware was in, it was time for the electrical.  Using leftover wire from the SPAL fan, I wired everything up and ran all the signal wire through the firewall into the cockpit.  After that – the dash panel.  I had originally started making a wood/fiberglass panel but quickly gave up on that.  Since I had to buy some metal for the firewall block off plate anyway, I bought a little extra to make the dash panel.  I used an 80gauge piece of aluminum and cut and bent it into shape.  Using a hole saw, the holes for the gauges were cut.  Since I was on a roll, I decided to finish my night by installing the firewall block off plate as well.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were spent visiting family out of town, so my work resumed on Monday April 26:

Monday I finished wiring all the gauges in the panel.  Then, using silicone, I then sealed up the firewall plate to prevent any water from getting in.  Once that was done, the dash went back in!  Following this, I refilled the oil with AMSOIL 20W50, and the cooling system with distilled water.  It was finally time to try starting the car.  After a few long cranks to build fuel pressure, it started!  That night was one of the best feelings ever!  All the work I had been doing, and the car still worked :).  Nothing was leaking, and my gauges worked (except my oil temp gauge which didn’t move – it may be just because the oil didn’t get hot enough though).  That was a good thing because my alignment was scheduled for the next day!  The only issue was that my electric fan didn’t seem to be working.  I jumped the terminals and it started right up, so I determined that it was the OEM switch that didn’t work anymore.

Tuesday April 27:

Tuesday, the car went to Canadian Tire on Carling for its performance alignment.  As always, the service is excellent there, and I was more than satisfied.  Once the car got back home, I did a bit more electrica work – It’s not shown in the pictures, but I mounted an external switch for the gauges since the power source I had tapped into was always live.  I also installed a manual switch to bypass the temperature controlled switch for the electric fan.  This is a temporary/backup fix, since the new temp switch will be installed on thursday.  I then installed the front swaybar and got it ready for the new endlinks that were coming in on wednesday.

Wednesday April 28:

Today, after a trip to Ogdensburg, NY, I installed the front and rear endlinks and reinstalled the strut tower brace.  The rear endlinks were part of the swaybar kit from UUC and were adjustable.  To match those, I purchased 3/8in male and female rod-end bearings from Pegasus Auto Racing to make my own adjustable front endlinks.  Unfortunately I made a mistake in my order and bought left-hand threaded rod-ends, so I didn’t have any jam-nuts to lock them.  A trip to the hardware store tomorrow should solve that.  Finally – the car was roadworthy.  At this point it was starting to get dark, so I just had the chance to wet my feet a bit.  Tomorrow night will be the big night for adjusting the rear brake bias, and installing the new fan switch.

After over a month of hard work, long nights & weekends, and a (thankfully) very patient girlfriend, the spring overhaul is complete.  And not a minute too soon – the 3-day lapping event at Calabogie this weekend will be the perfect opportunity to get a feel for the “new” car.

As always, the gallery has all the pictures.

Stay tuned next week for results on how the car held up (hopefully it’s still in one piece)!

Shawn

Well you saw part 1 – here’s part 2!  Part 3 will be coming sometime next week and will be the last build update before the race season starts.

Wednesday April 14:

Wednesday night I tackled the cooling system.  My goal was to bypass the heater core so that it could be removed.  First I had to take the intake manifold off the car.  This involved disconnecting the fuel rail, the MAF, throttle body, and various electrical plugs and vacuum hoses.  Once the manifold was out, I could access the coolant lines that ran into the firewall.  I then disconnected all the lines and removed the heater core valve.  i was then left with two hoses – one leading from the back of the engine to the valve, and the other leading from back of the thermostat to the valve.  You would think to just connect the two and be done with it, but it that configuration, it would allow hot coolant to recirculate through the engine without first going through the rad.  That’s why bimmerworld makes an aluminium block off plate with a gasket to plug the hole on the engine.  The other hose was terminated using a steel plug and cap from Home Depot – I was hoping to find a brass plug, but they didn’t have one so I had to be a bit more creative.  Seemed to have worked!  Once the coolant lines were all set, I reinstalled the intake and went inside the car to attempt to remove the heater core.  After removing the cluster and dash, several bolts and lots of broken plastic later, the core was out!  All that is left to complete the project is to install some sheetmetal to plug the hole in the firewall and a bit of silicone to keep the water out!  Another successful night, and one step closer to being ready for the spring!

April 17-18 weekend:

Saturday I wasn’t able to work until the evening because I was writting my Professional Engineering exam.  Once that was over, it was time to get my hands dirty!  I started wiring up the electric fan.  Following the instructions and a DIY on bimmerforums, I completed the wiring (successfully I hope).  I haven’t tested it yet as the cooling system is still empty, but hopefully it will work.  I also started working on a dash panel to close up the hole where my radio and vents were.  I also heard some bad news from UUC this weekend – their subframe bushings were backordered so I cancelled my order and purchased the Powerflex race bushings from Bimmerworld.  I also purchased some Autometer gauges from Summit Racing: oil temperature and pressure, and coolant temperature.

I started off my day on sunday with some welding.  I had received my swaybar reinforcement tabs so I proceeded to weld them onto the subframe and repaint.  Once that was complete, I worked on reinstalling my cooling system.  I strapped the electric fan to the radiator, and dropped it back in the car.  I also had my new gasket for the thermostat cover so I put my 80degC thermostat in as well.  One more check off the list.  I then installed some creative ducting:  using an old crazycarpet, I fabricated a duct from the front bumper into the rad to hopefully improve my cooling efficiency :).

I also did a bit of work on the fuel pump wiring.  When I was drainnig the gas, I noticed that one of the pins in the pump had gotten loose and wasn’t creating a circuit when the connector was plugged in.  So I removed the pump and soldered a longer wire which was then hard-wired to the wiring harness.  Problem solved!  Next, I reinstalled the driveshaft and the midpipe.  With everything torqued down, I was almost complete.  I did a bit more bondo work on the panel, and a bit more welding.  When I had removed my muffler last time, one of the clamps that held the muffler assembly to the midpipe had snapped.  With my new-found welding skills, that was fixed quickly!

I’m finally at the stage of reassembly!  It’s been a busy month, and the next two weeks will be even more so.  I should be getting my gauges and bushings tomorrow, so by the end of the week, the car should be back on its wheels and startable.  Next week will be for road testing and alignment.  Part 3 will be up as soon as that’s all done.

List of things to complete:

-replace rear subframe bushings

-subframe and differential install

-rear suspension install

-swaybar kit install

-rear muffler install

-firewall blocking plate install (where heatercore was)

-electric gauge install

-brake fluid fill & bleed

-coolant fill & bleed

-oil change

-alignment

-sleep

-race

Like I said – it should be a busy two weeks!  Check out the build journal gallery for more pics.

Shawn

Spring is here, and it’s crunch time.  With a three-day Calabogie lapping weekend coming up at the end of the month, it’s time to get cracking!  Originally I was going to make this one giant post, but with the time it’s taking I decided to split it up.

Day 1 – Friday April 2:

Last friday i finished up the front brake lines & clutch line, and today i tackled to rear of the car.  To get to the rear lines, I have to drop the fuel tank.  Since I am going to reinforce the rear subframe and replace all the bushings (subframe, differential, rear trailing arms), basically the entire rear end of the car needs to come out.

The first step was to disconnect the existing brake lines (including the parking brake cables) and all the wiring (wheel speed sensor on the diff, & abs sensors).  Second was to remove the rear sway bar.  It is then suggested that rear end be completely dismantled in the car (axles & differential removed), but I decided to remove everything as one complete assembly.  This was done simply enough on the lift by loosening the four subframe bolts & the trailing arm bolts while it was supported on jacks & stands and then simply raising the lift to pull the car off it.  Success!! (it was a bit more complicated than that, but that’s pretty much how I did it – with the help of my brother & girlfriend as spotters).

Once the rear was out of the car, I removed the trailing arm bushings.  This required drilling out as much rubber as possible until I could rip the inner collar out.  After that , a screwdriver and a hammer were used to bash the rest of it out.

Day 2 – Saturday April 3:

Saturday, I tackled the removal of the fuel tank.  As I had stored the car with a full tank of gas over the winter (to help prevent moisture accumulation), I first had to drain it.  My planned methodology was to disconnect the line at the fuel filter and bypass the fuel pump relay.  Unfortunately, I tried it and it didn’t work.  After about an hour of trying to figure out why, I noticed that a pin on the fuel pump was loose so when i plugged the connector back in, no contact was made.  After figuring out this problem, the tank was drained.  With the help of my brother, I was able to disconnect all the hoses and remove the fuel tank.  With a bit of time left, I drilled out a  trailing arm bolt that I had snapped off in the frame.  I was a bity worried that it would hard, but everything went really well and I didn’t damage any of the threads.

Day 3 – Monday April 5:

With an empty rear-end, I started plumbing the rear brake lines.  I had to grind off the old fittings from the rubber hoses as they stripped easily – even while using a flare wrench.  Once the new lines were in, I started to weld.  Having never welded before, I practiced on some scrap metal first, and then i went to work on the car.  I first ground off all the paint and rubber undercoating near the subframe mounting points and rear trailing arm pockets.  I had purchased reinforcement plates from Bimmerworld.com, and got them all welded in without too many issues (and only a few fires ;) ).

Day 4 – Wednesday April 7:

Wednesday night, I reinstalled the gas tank.  Since all my welding was done, I could put it back in.  With the help of my brother again, we were able to reconnect all the hoses and install it fairly well.  I also removed the diff from the subframe.  After that, I sanded all my welds and painted the reinforcements flat black.

Day 5 – Saturday April 10:

Yesterday, Jeff came over to work on his brakes on his Protégé.  With his help, I disassembled the rest of the subframe.  With everything apart, I drilled out the old differential bushings.  Next, i completed  all my brake lines.  I got my proportioning valve to adjust the rear brake bias, and I installed it in the front to rear brake line.  I drilled two holes in the floor of the car and mounted the valve on the transmission tunnel in the driver cockpit so that I can make on-the-fly adjustments if necessary.  NO MORE BENDING & FLARING!  All the lines are complete :)  After that, a installed my new fuel filter and closed off the fuel system and I put the driveshaft back in.  Things are finally starting to come back together!  Plus, I got my swaybars in, so as soon as the car is back on the ground, they can go in too.

Day 6 – Sunday April 11:

Today, I sanded and painted the subframe, and then pressed in my solid differential bushings.  After that, I started working on the cooling system. – I had purchased a 16″ SPAL electric fan & relay kit as well as a 80 degree Celcius thermostat from Bimmerworld.  All I had time to do was to drain the coolant from the engine block, remove the thermostat housing, thermostat, and radiator from the car and mount the fan to the rad.  Hopefull I will have time this week to complete the electrical setup for the cooling system so I can refill that as well.

Thats it for now! As you can see, it’s been a busy 2 weeks.  As always, there’s more pictures in the gallery.

Shawn

Well this is exciting! My 2010 motorsports season kicks off tomorrow at Shannonville Motorsports Park and I will be driving my “new” race car.

Before taking the protege out on the track there are a few things that need work, the most important being the brakes.

Unlike the BMW the protege has front discs and rear drums which makes finding performance parts a little harder. Some would say that upgrading the rear shoes isn’t a high priority and that upgrading the shoes may make the car a little twitchy but I figured it would be a worthwhile experience either way.

After doing some research online, I came across CARBOTECH Performance Brakes. Not only do they make upgraded performance pads for disc brakes but they also make performance shoes for drum brake applications. Before making the investment I wanted to make sure I had all the information I needed and Mike Jr. at CARBOTECH definitely helped me out. In fact, he himself had once owned a protege and provided a lot of useful information and even offered to honor their SCCA discount since the MCO is a CASC affiliated club which is basically the Canadian equivalent of the SCCA.

Satisfied with the information I was given and the customer service I experienced I decided to pick up a set of AX6 pads for the front brakes and some 913 shoes for the rear.

I would definitely recommend talking to Mike Jr. at Carbotech before making your next brake purchase.

The Install

When it came to the install, I have to admit I was a little nervous. I have changed disc brakes a number of times but drums were still a foreign concept to me. Now that’s it’s done though, I have to say that it’s not that bad. The hardest part was stretching the springs into place.

A word of advice, jack the entire rear end up in the air, remove both tires, and remove both drum covers at the same time. This way you can use one drum for reference while you work on the other.

Check out the gallery for pictures of the work.