MyE28.com

Frankly, the less said about the STPR divisional event, the better. After flat towing the E28 up behind Josh's remarkably nice Lincoln MKC for some 5 hours, we ended up only getting 5 not very fun runs. The course was pretty slow and didn't seem to flow very well, and was very rough in the first section. The car seemed to feel okay, but there was a little uphill section that seemed way too taxing on the motor. I was at WOT going up a little hill in second gear and the car just wouldn't pick up speed, it just maintained. M52Josh experienced the same thing, and event felt the car kick off for a split second on one run. Even after hitting a cone on his first run, Josh ran away with it by 5 second after 5 runs, and I ended up in second. Back in the paddock I go to re-check the battery only to find the positive wire falling out of the terminal. That might explain a lack of power to the ignition....yeah. Great. This CAN NOT happen again.......

Here's a video of my second and fastest run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLaKZWU ... e=youtu.be

I don't have pics of the battery uploaded yet, so for now enjoy a pic of my dead plug wire:


I also glossed over an incident the week before the third event. I was re-teaching my then fiance (now wife!) how to drive stick in the E28, as it's damn near impossible to stall. She used to drive stick, but that was more than ten years ago, and she's rusty. I would eventually like to get her to co-drive with me (that way when I spend money on parts I can say "It's for US!" )

After 20 minutes of practice she had only stalled out two or three times, and we were driving back to my house through the neighborhood. When we got to my corner, she said she couldn't get the car in first gear. Uh oh. I hopped in and sure enough, the pedal wasn't coming all the way back up. We pushed the car home with her Escape and I started frantically calling people trying to diagnose the problem. Josh was bored and nice enough to come over the next day. We started by bleeding the clutch slave cylinder, as we figured it was a vacuum problem. When the pedal was pressed, it would come back up about half way. If you pressed it down again, it would come up less, then suck itself back down to the floor. Unfortunately, the bleeder screw opened up too much and all the fluid drained from the line. Apparently the E28 system requires pressure to get fluid back down in the clutch line, and I didn't have a pressure bleeder. On top of that, I didn't have any flare nut wrenches to start disconnecting the hard lines.

With only days before the third event and no flare nut wrenches, I gave up, and had it towed to my old shop and had them install new German-made FTE clutch master cylinder, slave cylinder, and clutch line. You might remember that I had to replace both the line and slave last year when the line blew out at an auto-x practice event, but due to time constraints, we had to use non-German parts, and I wanted parts I could rely on.

When I went to pick up the car, the clutch pedal felt a little funny. They said they bled the hell out of it, and couldn't think of what could cause the pedal to feel funny. Well, after the STPR event I was poking around the pedals and noticed they forgot to reinstall one of the nuts that held the master and pedal bracket to the firewall. Yeah, that might do it.



A trip to the hardware store later, I had a nut and a healthy clutch pedal feel.

Ahhhh... Yeah, loose nut'll do it.

Great posts as always! Looks like you have alot of fun at these events!

Do you still have the maxima ?

I still have my 4th gen LOL

-Neel aka Stillnmax on the .org

Neel wrote:Do you still have the maxima ?

I still have my 4th gen LOL

-Neel aka Stillnmax on the .org

I will always have my 4th gen! I'm racing that thing too

http://maxima.org/forums/autocrossing-r ... sults.html

my brother has stripped my max of all the Stillen parts I have, and they are now on his 4th gen. He still drives my car and mods his with my parts, while I am in CO...

Its funny because I would've done the same thing LOL, that bastard

Dude I love this build. I think this is what is going to happen to my second E28. I'd love to try to get into rally-x or legit rallies.

Time for more overdue updates!

First up is a leaky exhaust gasket. I've had the cat-back off a few times since it was installed, and the gasket hadn't been replaced and was leaky.



Enter the new gasket (with a little help from a friend)



The fitment of the flange isn't great, and I wanted to ensure a tight seal (this damn car is loud enough without exhaust leaks) so I smeared a ton of that shit all over the place.





Hooray, no more leaks!

Next up was the battery. These terminals were not up to the task.



We put on those terminals last year, but the results were not so great. Problems included the wires coming out of the terminals and the terminals coming off the battery posts (mostly due to not having a tie down). It was time for some real serious shit. Enter the marine terminals and a "proper" tie down. Yes, it's rubber. Yes, I think it will be fine.



Up to this point, the battery has been flopping around in a battery box secured by four measly self tapping screws. No, there was never a tie down. Apparently we decided to mount the battery directly over the gas tank, so we were rather limited in our screw choice and placement.





Well here's a problem. The battery is too wide to fit inside the box with the tie down bolts, so out came the box. Of course, the trunk isn't smooth and level, so I cut up some speaker spacer material and quickly made some supports.





Full disclosure: I suck at soldering. See the laughable results of me trying to get some solder into the terminal for examples of cold solder joints.





Hopefully it's better than nothing.

We cut off the ends of the wires as they had seen better days.



The terminal boot covers I bought on Amazon didn't turn out to be quite big enough to cover the entire metal assembly, so enter bungee cord number two:





I think the look suits the rest of the car. Thankfully it feels about 100 times more stable and secure than it did before. This thing ain't going nowhere.

So to recap, I now have 6 securely attached plug wires, and a strong current coming to them courtesy of a battery that will actually be connected the entire race and/or drive to the event. My alternator is already thanking me. You're in trouble now Josh!

Please excuse my appalling tardiness in updating this thread, but life has been rather busy lately!

Our 4th event of the year in the DC region coincided with one of the Northeast Region's championship events, so it was doubly important! The STPR event I went to earlier in the year up in PA was another one of the NE championship events. I came in second there to Josh, so I really had to beat him at this event to have any chance of winning the DC season and NE championship.

Unfortunately, my 3 year old GoPro2 refused to stay on, so I won't be able to post up any videos until I get around to buying a new one.

It's been about two months since the event, so my review is going to be light on details. Basically, over two days of racing Josh and I were neck and neck, with us trading the lead a few times. With two runs left and Josh ahead of me by 0.1, I had no choice but to go as fast as I could. Josh had been climbing back all afternoon due to some cones on my part, so I somehow knocked off more than 2 seconds from my previous best and laid down two very fast runs, managing to pull back ahead of Josh by 0.2 seconds. That's two-tenths over almost 19 minutes of racing! With a victory secured, Josh and I were tied for first with two wins each for the DC region, and tied for first in the NE region with one win and one second place each. Who would prevail in the second half of the season?



Now for some awesome action shots















Now I'm only two events behind....

95maxrider wrote:

Love it.

So fun!

I've also been negligent in keeping track of the work we've been doing to this car. Time to do some catching up.

I believe it was during the fourth rally-x that I noticed I could see sunlight underneath my gas pedal (reflecting off the ground; I wasn't upside down). You might remember that we reattached the gas pedal hinge about 2 years ago when it started separating from the floor with a door hinge. All was well until this event, when I quickly realized the cheapo fix was apparently not a permanent one. I noticed the problem halfway through the morning runs, so I babied it until I could park for lunch. I started tying what was left of the pedal hinge to the roll cage and seat framing with metal wire, but then Chris found a ratchet strap, and we used that to secure the pedal to the seat frame. Things were a little awkward under my right foot with the strap all over the place, but I made it though the day and made it home, so all was well.

Fast forward a week or two and Josh is once again gracious enough to help do work on my car that I can't do myself, namely welding in a new floor section under the gas pedal. Here's what the hilarious mess looked like:



Josh doin' stuff








Apparently the door hinge we installed wasn't really attached to metal...more like a very thick undercoating. Fantastic!



While we were there, Josh decided the rats nest under the driver's seat needed to be cleaned up.



We then replaced the inline 30a fuse for the aftermarket thermostat/fan as it decided to melt at the prior race while not breaking, so thankfully the fan kept going, because the fuse holder and fuse had become one giant mess and the fuse couldn't be replaced.



While Josh was cutting and welding, Bobby and I were replacing the fuel vapor lines coming off the fuel filler neck that go to the little plastic tank in the trunk. We had been smelling fuel very strongly after we filled up all the way, and people said this should be the first place you look. Turns out they were right, because one of the necks had rusted and basically fallen off, leaving a nice big hole for fuel and vapor to escape from. Enter new hoses and clamps!



This is what was left




And with that, the car was a little bit more reliable. Thanks Josh!!

Another day, another thing to fix on the car. As I was leaving Josh's house the gas pedal didn't want to come back all the way, so I had to keep pulling it back while I was stuck in traffic on the highway. It was rather warm out and after 30 minutes of that, the clutch pedal started making a weird squeaking noise. Upon inspection, I noticed a rubber bushing for the gas pedal that had ripped, so I ordered a bunch of new bushings for all the pedals.



All of the bushings for the gas pedal were shot:





And Josh's lovely paint had cured and we had installed two screws to bolster the rivets.



We didn't get to the clutch pedal bushings, but the noise hasn't returned yet.

Next up was a rather large project that we had been putting off for about a year, which was to paint the roof. We decided to go with a gray Plastidip spray, and I think it turned out reasonably well!









More to come!

95maxrider wrote: Full disclosure: I suck at soldering. See the laughable results of me trying to get some solder into the terminal for examples of cold solder joints.

Get a tub of flux, like this. I can get the exact brand I use at work later on if you want. I don't remember it. Shouldn't matter though.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BQO4AK/
Also a thing of flux-core solder.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057DCJ2W/
Between the two, you'd have to try fucking up for something like that. The wire braid will just suck it up if you flux the crap out of it.

95maxrider wrote:Next up was a rather large project that we had been putting off for about a year, which was to paint the roof. We decided to go with a gray Plastidip spray, and I think it turned out reasonably well!

Plasti Dip is a cool product, but you sprayed that on too thin, it looks like. You'll have a fun time getting that off if you don't make it thicker.
Learned from my own mistakes on that one..

Owndapwn wrote:

95maxrider wrote: Full disclosure: I suck at soldering. See the laughable results of me trying to get some solder into the terminal for examples of cold solder joints.

Get a tub of flux, like this. I can get the exact brand I use at work later on if you want. I don't remember it. Shouldn't matter though.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BQO4AK/
Also a thing of flux-core solder.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057DCJ2W/
Between the two, you'd have to try fucking up for something like that. The wire braid will just suck it up if you flux the crap out of it.

95maxrider wrote:Next up was a rather large project that we had been putting off for about a year, which was to paint the roof. We decided to go with a gray Plastidip spray, and I think it turned out reasonably well!

Plasti Dip is a cool product, but you sprayed that on too thin, it looks like. You'll have a fun time getting that off if you don't make it thicker.
Learned from my own mistakes on that one..

Thanks for the tip, the flux-core is in my cart! I'm not exactly clear on what it does though....care to quickly explain?

As for the Plastidip, how could you possibly tell how thick I applied it from those pictures? I used three whole cans on the roof in three separate applications. Is that not enough? Can I just go back any time and make it thicker if I plan on taking it off?

95maxrider wrote:Thanks for the tip, the flux-core is in my cart! I'm not exactly clear on what it does though....care to quickly explain?

As for the Plastidip, how could you possibly tell how thick I applied it from those pictures? I used three whole cans on the roof in three separate applications. Is that not enough? Can I just go back any time and make it thicker if I plan on taking it off?

Flux-core solder isn't a replacement for flux. You need the flux for sure. The flux-core solder is kind of a cruise-control to noob soldering. 1000x better to learn on because it actually sticks. It sticks to stuff better than regular solder, but you can't get it as perfect as solid solder. In my work, which is mostly under-microscope soldering, I can't use flux-core. But for what you're doing, it'd be fine. You'd take something (Plastic knife would work fine) and smear the flux from the tub on the wire leads, then fill the spot with the flux-core and wash the flux remainder off with isopropyl alcohol.

The way it did the striping, it just looks thin. I don't know what to point out specifically. But yea, the aerosol cans aren't meant for big stuff. Like, to do wheels thick enough, you're looking at 1-2 cans per wheel. For body panels you're really supposed to spray it on with an actual spray gun. To do an entire E28 in a solid base colour, you're looking four gallons for someone who knows what they're doing and five gallons for a first time dipper, to allow room for mistakes.
I used a full can of matte clear on each of my tail lights and pulling the extra stuff off was a tiny bit on the thin side. At least, thinner than I'd want to do on a full body panel. Broke into a couple of pieces on the way off.
The quote I had to get my car done in Balloon White was two to three gallons of matte white (Guy was basing size off of an E30 he did. He'd want to see it to decide), plus two gallons of the DYC Top Coat, with the Balloon White pearl mixed into the first gallon, plus a gallon of black for the bottom lip on the valance and skirt.
But yes, you can always add more. Just make sure to look up a guide to adding more to dip. You have to clean it with something. I want to say naptha, but look it up.
I think you should consider getting the whole car sprayed something like Anthracite or Blurple (Gallons). Sprayed properly, it'll hold up to the rallying for quite a while, and be easier to redo than an actual paint job, which is just as likely to get messed up.

Here's what thick dip looks like on an E28.

It's been a while since event #5, so details will be scarce again!

We discovered at the fourth event that the car was spewing out gas onto the mud flap, which meant our replacement of the fuel vapor lines did little to fix the problem. We always knew the car reeked of gas when we filled it up all the way, but we didn't realize it was spitting out a bit of fuel on hard turns until the fourth event. We didn't have time to fix it before the fifth event, so I raced with half a tank and didn't have any problems aside from the usual odor. Aside from that the car was running well, and I was eager to race with a properly secured gas pedal with new bushings. I felt pretty good about my chances!

Basically, I jumped out to a small initial lead, but I believe by lunch Josh had a few second lead on me. As the afternoon wore on, I fell further back to the point where little Eric in the haggard ETA E30 was ahead, and I ended up in fourth. TurboJosh was co-driving Josh's 318, and was in first for a while in the afternoon before a mistake pushed him back to second. Here are the disappointing results:



This might be my lowest finish in a very long time, but at least I was only about 5 seconds back from first.

I'm going to try to keep track of cones for the top guys in my class to motivate myself to drive cleaner. I've been rather sloppy lately...
Me- 5
Josh- 4
TurboJosh- 10 holy crap
Eric- 4







I turned on the headlights at some point on the drive home, which led me to realize my turn signal stalk had gone bad again. Whenever I used the turn signal the headlights would quickly flicker to high beams, which caused Josh to pull over, thinking I was trying to signal a problem to him or something. Time to get another used one and hope it lasts longer. I have a feeling it has something to do with contorting yourself to get over the roll cage and removing the seat through the tight space in the cage on a few occasions.

More stuff!



Hooray, no more flashing my high beams at people when I switch lanes!

I also patched up two holes in the floor with that aluminum HVAC tape, and covered it with duct tape. The impetus was getting splashed with mud on my glasses at the last race when it came through the floor.



We went through quite a few large puddles at the last race, so I wanted to see if any got up in the intake.



Yup, it sure did. Thankfully the filter didn't look too bad, but it made me wonder...as for the rest:



Maybe I should get around to building those splash guards for the engine bay like I keep meaning to.

Then I added a little extra protection to a coolant hose that was rubbing on some metal part of the motor.



It's the little things....

Due to some complications that I will get into on my next post, the E28 was not able to make it to the sixth event of the year. As luck would have it, Josh's 318 couldn't make it either due to some charging problems, so we were both without cars to drive. Our buddy Jason (who used to race an E30 with my buddy Patrick) has been fixing up an NA Miata for rally, but it wasn't quite reassembled, so that wasn't available as an option to co-drive. That left a few RWD cars I could hope to get a ride in, with some being better than others.

-There's the immortal but ratty ETA E30, but that car has three guys beating on it every event, and I felt bad asking. Naturally, all the guys are good sports and said it would be okay, but I had another car in mind.
-Then there's a relative newcomer to the RWD crew, an E36 318 sedan that has like 5x the rust damage my car has. It however has beat one of our best drivers (Shawn in his Miata) on one occasion, so I knew it could be fast. This car usually runs in the class below mine, PR.
-Then there's Eric with the E30 325i, who has usually been quite a bit behind Josh and I, although the car seems to be pretty well put together.

We get to the event and Josh gets a co-drive in the E30 325i. To make up for it, he puts on his rally tires instead of the truck tires Eric usually runs. I managed to get a co-drive in the E36 318, but I had no idea what I had just signed up for. I knew it had rust issues, but I didn't know it had an 8 pound flywheel, a welded diff, and no power steering. I had never driven any car with any of those mods, and certainly never a car with all three, so I had my work cut out for me. I quickly adjusted to not having power steering, but the clutch, and especially the diff took much longer. In the morning I was launching the car around 2000 and going nowhere. Only at lunch did I find out the owner dumps the clutch at 3500. After trying his technique, the car was MUCH faster off the line. The diff pretty much fought me all day. On my first run the car just refused to turn in, and I couldn't figure out what to do. On that run alone I was some 5 seconds slower than Eric. I realized the only way to steer the car was with the throttle, so I got more aggressive as the day wore on, but I don't think I really got it mostly right until the last run of the day. The car had very abrupt transitions, and was very uncooperative when driven at anything below full crazy mode.

Due to the unpredictability of the car, I was hitting cones left and right. Here's the count for the day:

Me (318i E36): 9
Josh (318i E30): 4
Little Eric (ETA E30): 7
Big Eric (325i E30): 2
Corey (Turbo Volvo): 5

Ugh, another 4th place finish....



Anyway, big thanks to Jeremy for letting me co-drive his car, it was an eye-opening experience!

That E36 sounds like a blast, once you get some practice runs down and figure it out.

Sometimes, smelling gas fumes can be quite enjoyable. But not inside your car. The car has smelled of gas to some extent for quite some time, and it got worse when the tank was full. It wasn't until a few races ago that we saw gas on our mudflap after runs, and we knew we had to do something. I had a feeling we were going to find rust when we dropped the tank, so I bought a bunch of awesome supplies. Restoration appeared to be the only option, as new tanks were all $600-$800.



Let's see what we've got going on...





The tank would have been much harder to remove due to a rounded/rusted off bolt had it not been for these awesome tools



It took a while to get all of the baked on dirt off, but here's what it looks like bare.





WTF? This isn't rust!?!




This is what really scared me, since this is the side that faces the exhaust.



I envisioned spending a few days restoring the tank, as products would need time to cure, and not really looking forward to it. I decided I should check again for a new one. The first link I click on was ECS Tuning, and lo and behold, they were having a blowout sale for $275. Sold.



Time was running out before the next event, and the only day Bobby and I could get together was the day before the race. Naturally, disaster ensued. It freaking rained so hard that the tent wanted to collapse and I had to keep pushing the water out. My cardboard work mat was destroyed. We were lying in a muddy stream of water under a dirty car working with fuel lines. Doesn't get much better than this.



While working under the car I noticed a fuel line that felt damaged. Sure enough:



So we fixed that. Then we had to improvise for the heat shield as the holes on the new tank didn't line up with one heat shield hole.



We got everything buttoned up, and the car started right up! We checked for leaks all over and didn't see a drop. Hooray! A few hours later I decided to go fill up the gas tank, as I had only put about 2 gallons in from its old supply. I filled up the car and decided on a whim to check the access hole in the trunk to the top of the in tank pump for any leaks. Oh crap. It's a pool of fuel. No amount of massive wads of paper towels from the dispenser would absorb it or stop it. I stepped back in terror to assess the situation, from a distance, where I noticed a steady drip of fuel from the tank to the ground. This is going to get worse before it gets better.

I had my wife bring me my hand pump thingy and an empty fuel tank to drain off some of the tank. After taking some out I could see that the leak was from all around the in tank pump as well as the level sensor unit. When I disassembled my old tank and the pump, there was no gasket, which surprised me a little, but I figured BMW knew something I didn't. I also didn't see one for the level sensor. Upon further inspection of RealOEM we figured out that yes, there are definitely gaskets in there. Double crap. It's 5 pm on a Saturday afternoon, and no dealerships are open. I start calling around for parts stores with rolls of cork gasket material, but everyone says no. Upon my next trip to the local store, I quickly find the stuff and shake my head. Back at the gas station, I walk across the street to the hardware store and find some gooey fuel-safe gasket maker stuff that I can't remember the name of, but people said it works. My wife then brings me my hand tools and Bobby arrives to lend a hand. We get the goo installed, which had rather vague instructions for cure time, but they seemed short. We felt like 45 minutes was more than enough and I drove it home with Bobby following in his car. Turns out I was spewing fuel the whole way, but hey, I can't leave the car in the gas station parking lot overnight. Thankfully, I made it home safely around 9. I had been at that gas station for about 4 hours! It was then that I called it quits for the night, and started looking for another car to drive the next day. Cue Rally-x #6 review post, one post above this one!

So it turns out we did have the gasket for the level sensor, it was just totally smushed and hidden. But no gasket for the pump.



I felt much better about everything when the new gasket for the pump arrived!



And while we were at it, we replaced the gasket for the fuel cap. It fit tighter after replacement!



FINALLY, everything goes back together, and actually stays sealed after being filled up and beat on! And for the first time in a long time, there are zero fuel smells around and in the car! I was also very happy to have my 1/4" torque wrench, as the nuts and bolts have very specific, and very low, torque settings for the pump and level sensor.

Well at this point there is no point in updating this thread, but dammit, I'm gonna finish what I started.

First things first, we had to secure this battery. The rubber tie down seemed to be working okay, but I still noticed some play in the battery, so I wanted something really secure. Enter two tie down kits:





And some hose to ensure a tight fit



And just like that, we had the most secure battery of all the rally cars!

Next up were some little things in the engine bay. I've been chasing down a rough idle ever since we bought the car, but no matter what I did, it was still there. One day while poking around I decided to check out the vacuum hose that goes from the valve cover to the throttle body under the IM. Turns out 30 years of heat can turn rubber into plastic, and plastic doesn't conform to other shapes very well. Ours was so hard that I snapped it in two pieces!

No bueno



Muy bueno



I also found a broken hose clamp on the return fuel line coming off the rail. I poked the hose and fuel came out. Again, not really a good thing. A new fuel hose clamp later and we were in business!



And guess what?? The car actually had a smooth idle for the first time in 3+ years! Vacuum leaks be gone! It felt so good to not have the car rocking and shaking at idle, I just couldn't believe it.

Back to the gas tank: All the nuts and bolts that held things together were pretty gnarly, so I decided to play with some new chemicals and see if I couldn't get them cleaned up. I threw everything in a tub of Evaporust for a day and let things sit. Holy cow does this stuff work!

Before pics:





In progress



Half done





All done!









Damn that stuff works!!

Then it was on to the heat shields. They had seen better days, so I figured I would clean them up with a wire brush and get some POR 15 on them.

Before:





After the wire wheel





I then hit everything with the POR grease remover, then the metal prep stuff. Once it was all clean and ready to go, it was time for the POR 15!





Aww yes! That's nice. I bet these things will last another 30 years!

Next up was more rust repair/prevention and playing with chemicals.

The battery box had a pretty sizable rust hole in it, and I wanted to keep things from getting worse. I also had to get some protection on the metal Josh welded in for the gas pedal. First up, I hit everything with the VHT Rust Converter spray (not shown). It sprays on clear unless it contacts rust, which it supposedly neutralizes, and then turns black.

Battery tray before



Gas pedal metal before



After the VHT spray:



And some POR epoxy putty to keep water from getting in anywhere



And finally the 3M rubberized undercoating spray





Aww yes, more rust protection!

Next up was a project I had been putting off for too long, which was rigging up some plastic to keep water and dirt from getting into the engine bay. As the before pictures will show, it was a straight shot from the front tires to things like the alternator, belts, radiator, and indirectly to my electric fan thermostat. I had some left over fender liners from my Infiniti, so I hacked them up and got busy with the zip ties!

Very unprotected



Much more protection





Other side before





And after











And just like that, I kept all sorts of crap from flying into the engine bay.

And now for the last repairs and mods this car will ever see.

After getting the gas tank sealed up, I went for a drive, only to find out my electric fan wasn't turning on. Hooray, another problem!

Being as incompetent as I am with electrical diagnosis, I first threw new parts at it, hoping one would stick. First up was the relay for the aftermarket thermostat. The one in the car had some corrosion on one of the tabs, so I figured it could have gone bad inside, but no dice. Next up was the power wire coming from the thermostat to the fan. The connection looked rather nasty (corroded?) so I put a new one together.





Still no dice. Thankfully, I know a lot of people who are a lot smarter than I am, and they're all quite generous when it comes to helping out with my car. Our buddy Stephen who co-drives the ETA E30 with us at rally came over a lent a hand reading the improperly printed instructions for the thermostat and making sure we did things right. We yanked out the old probe from the radiator and hit it with the heat gun, but no fan. At this point we were pretty sure it was the thermostat, so we wired up the new one. This time instead of giving it constant power, we sent the trigger wire to one of the things in the fuse box that only gets power when the ignition is on, so the fan doesn't run for 15 minutes after I turn the car off.

All wired up, and the fan works again. Hooray!!



The following pictures shows two things: the amount of water that comes into the engine bay without any plastic protection, and a curious clean spot towards the back of the motor. What could that be from? Oh look, the tee for the windshield wiper fluid was pissing all over the place!



A simple vacuum tee to the rescue!





Boom, done! Now with about double the pressure and fluid output. Another win!

With the plastic shields in place, I decided to clean things up and see how effective they are after a race.







And then....

At this point, I'm just going to say that the car felt better than ever, and was a blast to drive. I drove pretty well and ended up in second behind the relative newcomer Corey and his turbo Volvo. I let the two Golden brothers co-drive the car, and it never skipped a beat. Josh has first locked in for the season, and with this I should lock second, if I didn't already. There was one mini pond we drove through that thoroughly coated the cars with some real photogenic mud. My center grille fell out at one point, but thankfully didn't get run over. The hood latch on the drivers side sheared off in the morning, and we had to ratchet strap it closed for the drive home. Our not OEM at all bolt solution didn't seem to latch.





Check out the new CAI!









On the way home, I got hit by an 18 wheeler when traffic in front of me slammed on their brakes at 65 mph. I realized I wasn't going to stop in time without hitting the car in front of me, so I started to pull off onto the left shoulder. As I'm coming to a controlled stop next to the car that used to be in front of me, the semi slams into the back of both of us and sends me flying down parallel to the road in the very wide grass median. My gauges turned off, but the motor was still running. I was bolted in tight to the harness, which I had luckily tightened up a bit about 10 minutes before the accident. Had I not pulled off the shoulder like I did, I would have been sandwiched between the Mercedes SUV in front and Volvo semi behind.







The semi driver admitted fault, so I had my car towed home and slept for 9 hours. I assessed the damage today.



















My plastic shielding worked through all the mud!!



I just couldn't resist!



This is probably the end of the E28

Glad you are safe. That's the most important thing.

This. Very thankful you are OK, but what a disappointment. My wife and I have been following this thread for awhile with a lot of interest - so much hard work and creativity went into the project. If you need any help with anything, please shoot me a PM.

-Charles.

cek wrote:

Glad you are safe. That's the most important thing.

Hey, look at it this way. You can swap to a 533/535 and you have a parts car. Just hope the insurance company doesn't decide to give you $100 and tell you to go fuck yourself with it.
Glad you had that harness on, though.