Martins 2nd attempt at a rally car build

[Tris-m3]

Nice work mate, you should have room for an exhaust in there too!

When you say engine refresh are you thinking of a full rebuild or just an inspection with fresh oil and a torch

BTW, i am activley hunting for some geabox mounts so i can get yours back to you

[martine30rally]

Not a full rebuild, but some new rod bolts, shells and oil pump wouldn't do it any harm.

I'm going to be doing an order fromm AKG motorsport for some new lollipop bushes as I'm wide-tracking the front with E46 bottom arms. Postage to europe is $47 flat rate so it you want to make an order for some fresh gearbox mounts and other bits we could order together to spread cost?

[Garry.M]

how much are the lolliepop bushes working out at ? ,,,might be interested

[martine30rally]

how much are the lolliepop bushes working out at ? ,,,might be interested

The ones for the E46 wishbones or the rose-jointed ones I bought originally?

[martine30rally]

Got the bulkhead and the engine mounts done today, I cut out more that was needed from the bulkhead as when trial fitting the engine I found that I had to dress the area above the tunnel quite a but to clear the LHD water rail that runs round the back of the head. As the metal had been worked quite a lot and was very thin It made sense to form a 1.2 mm plate to shape and patch it in. This got rid of the holes from the original pedal box and steering column too so looks neater I think. Got the engine mounts moved back and inch and slotted the holes downwards slightly as the motor was a little higher than it needed to be. This way everything should be nice and snug.



View from the inside

[Garry.M]

how much are the lolliepop bushes working out at ? ,,,might be interested

The ones for the E46 wishbones or the rose-jointed ones I bought originally?

sorry , the ones for doing the E46 wishbone conversion onto an E36

[martine30rally]

they're $80 so about 50 quid plus post

[martine30rally]

Had a productive weekend and some evenings in the week so got a few things done. I'm going to 5 stud suspension so have been preparing the car accordingly, ive bought some 118d rear flanges which use the same bearing ID as a standard e30 325 flange. I also got some wilwood 4 pots for the rear with an intergrated handbrake mechanism and some 294mm vented e46 rear discs which I'll use for the rear. Ive stripped down some standard e30 arms which ill strengthen as per the early group A arms.



Got hold of some e36 m3 bilsteins which are 53mm diameter, had these machined down and welded some 50mm adjustable collars on them.



Had a bit of a dilemma with top mounts, mainly due to compbrake being utterly useless to speak to in terms of advice. In the end I bought some 90mm Citroen C2 R2 rose jointed ones and had some top hat spacers made up to suit the bilstein struts. I made a filler plate to TIG into the standard strut top hole seamlessly and added some slotted holes for adjustment, I'll make a thinner plate to weld on top of this to play safe.
Because the top mounts are nice and small this gives plenty of room for them to be adjusted and I havnt lost any travel as per the usual 2 piece off the shelf mounts that fulfil this purpose.





Finnally I made a start on chopping about the crossmember yet again. I will be making adjustable arms with a bit of posher design than my previous effort. I've had some steel sleeves made up to house a standard outer balljoint (thanks for the drawings is-si) and the rest will be 32mm CDS. with a compression strut and polybushed connection between the two.

I added 2 settings - 1 for gravel use should I ever choose to use it where I need the car very to have plenty of ground clearance, this is the standard position of inner balljoint, the other one is an inch higher up for when I want it low for tarmac. I'm going to make the lollipop end adjustable too so that I dont get any funny handling characteristics switching between the 2. The rack mounts will also need revising to be adjustable to correct bump steer issues. Once this is done I will make a jig off this crossmember so that I can knock one up with much less fuss.

[Peredur]

are you not using the e46 arms any more then?

[martine30rally]

Not anymore now that i've converted to 5 stud

[Peredur]

Would they not work with E36 struts then? I'm just looking into a similar setup before committing to anything

[is-si]

plenty of progress there martin
you mention a polybushed connection between the C.strut and the TCA, having done this i'm not sure its worth all the effort. i'll risk my fillings and use a simple pin connection next time if i have to do them again

[mef]

I'd of expected the link between a compression strut and TCA to be solid like a Mk2 Escort, once the angle is set it gets nipped up to form in effect a solid bottom wishbone.

Martin

[martine30rally]

Had a good few productive evenings in the garage and got the crossmember T.C.A brackets done, aswell as the replacements for the lollipop brackets. These are dive adjustable to compensate for the raised rollcentre of the TCA's - just need to make up some spacers later on. I have a feeling I may need to notch the inner edge of the chassis legs ever so slightly to make room for the chunky compression struts on full bump but will see when its all dummy built.





There's a 12mm ID CDS tube welded through the chassis leg make sure to make sure the brackets are super stiff



Started on the TCA's, just need the brackets for the compression struts making and welding on. Ive decided not to rubber mount the compression strut to the TCA out of fear it may feel a a little loose, just waiting on some 16mm ID CDS and ive got everything I need to finish these off.

[martine30rally]

First bottom arm done, ended up bushing the compression strut, memories of the crashing and banging over pot holes from the ones I made for the old car prompted it. These look tough enough to survive a nuclear blast. Just need to make the other one and the tube to be delivered so I can make the spacers for the rose joints. I have also finally found a new big workshop which I will be moving a lot of my stuff into next weekend. The plan is to get the underseal stripped off this car and the rest of the fabrication done in my garage at home, then prep it and paint it up at the new shed. (there is a bodyshop next door which rents out their spray booth and oven at weekends so may take an advantage if this)

In the meantime I also aquired a rather tasty M3 bodykit. I wasnt sure at the beginning but Im now pretty sure that It will make it onto this car too so that needs doing aswell........ More bloody work oh well, it will be worth it in the end!