Common e30 problems? (Page 1 of 3)

Crappy drivers

common e-30 problem ... thinking they are crappy enough to bring to a Lemons race!

Oh yea and hitting me!!

Yeah, drivers.

Just say'n...

BECAUSE by dougkirchberg, on Flickr

But, to show a bit more Lemony good will...

Electrical... no real tips here, but as judge phil offers... bring relays and a rocket scientist
Guibo gear/flex disc... they have two states: bad and going bad.  check for cracks/tears
Wheel bearings... see previous item.  I believe you need a press to change these out, so check/replace before you race or you're done for the weekend
Water pump / timing belt - if you end up doing any top end work you might as well replace them. Be sure the tensioner has Z127 stamped on it.
Check yer compression:
Minimum: 10-11 bar (142-156 psi)
Maximum difference between cylinders: .5 bar (7 psi)
Distributor/rotor: they crack, check it and replace if necessary
Motor mounts: replace 'em with hockey pucks
Head gasket: if there's any question, replace it; i've been told run of the mill Felpro's work very well against the rigors of overheating

There are other things depending on which engine you have... e/i.

Good luck.

This is spot on.  Our ECM needed a hard reboot every couple of hours and our fuel pump relay wasn't giving full voltage.

Phil I remember you had a writeup on the most and least reliable Lemons engines,  but for my life I can't search it up.  Got a link?

I may be overstating the obvious here but if your goal is to build a bullet-proof race car you may be looking to compete in the wrong race series.

If you have an E30 then put a good theme on it then come out and have some fun. If it blows up or breaks you will know what to fix. If you want it to last longer with less wrenching drive it so it will last.

Backing off a notch and enjoying the entire weekend on the track is far cheaper than making it bullet-proof. It will likely lead you to fewer black flags too.

One of the major electrical problems you'll face (ECM munching) is mainly due to running high duty cycles on the transistors. The heat dissipation design of the ECM is not sufficient for continuous high RPM duty. If you want to run over 5k RPM reliably you could consider designing a water-cooling setup for the ECM. That would be a the kind of totally ridiculous solution to a problem that is in the spirit of the event. Putting a megasquirt in there and trying to hide somewhere would not be in the spirit of the event.

Also remember if you are applying for a race that fills up you may not get in with an E30 vs something else. You aren't guaranteed a spot by just applying. This is where a great theme and the right attitude helps.

We've had lots of issues with our E30 instrument panel. At our last race (Sears Pointless, which was VERY wet) it did not function at all. The (stock) fuel tank has enough to last ~2.25 hours or so of track driving and the last ~20 minutes of my shift were distracting as I had no idea when I'd run dry. I bailed into the pits on a yellow (though Sears Pointless was run ~60% under Yellow anyway) with zero idea how much gas I had left - turns out I would have run out within a lap or two so I count myself lucky. A few hours later the instruments all worked again! Go figure.

Beyond that, rear wheel bearings have been our most worrying issue. Not an easy race-day repair.

And of course the Judges assuming we have a cheater car. In a way they are right (as otherwise it has been very good to us), but we're all such terrifically mediocre drivers - our penalty laps are all unearned. The lap leaders have nothing whatsoever to fear from the Clowntown Roadshow!

You could do that with our eta and be fine, then you could rev it about another 500 RPM and have to shift. It's a viscious cyle of bog bog bog bog POWER,  shift, repeat.

E30's usually come off as the loser in pretty much any crash. So bring crash parts; steering racks, control arms, stuff like that. Oh, and as Racing Nemo found out to their chagrin do not hit a T Bird from behind.