Bit more of an update. Gained some more tyre stock a few weeks back - 8 x Michelin Pilot Sport Cups in 205/50/15, and 4 more slicks to go with the 4 I already had from the Clio.
Obviously I didn't make it to Oulton Park last Friday due to various issues, mainly down to suspension. After originally fitting it I never bothered to fit the wheels as I didn't need to move it at the time, but the weekend before Oulton I did. Fitted DS2500s to the rear with refurbished calipers and new discs...
It only needed wheels on to be moved now - and as I was taking it to get the exhaust made on the trailer, I went to fit them. Although, the car would hardly move.
It turned out the front wheels were rubbing on the adjuster rings on the front coil overs, so it was pretty tough to get onto a trailer. The rears are spot on, no issues at all and plenty of space. I had some 5mm universal spacers that I thought would sort it for the time being, but once it was up on the ramp it was apparent it needed more than 5mm, well, more than 10mm!
And the side with a 10mm spacer..
Needless to say I wasn't impressed. The wheels were bolted up with the standard 318iS discs as the new front brakes had not arrived at the time, but that would make no difference anyway. I expected standard wheels to fit at least, considering I have a number of them and I had spec'd the front brakes to fit under them specifically.
After posts on the E30 forum, contact with Gaz and speaking to other people it turns out spacers have to be used on E30's with certain types of coil overs. If I had known this I wouldn't have bothered, as I have always disliked spacers. Even more so, the stud converted front hubs (even with extra long studs) only have enough thread to accommodate a 10mm spacer. Ideally I would want to be running 15mm at a minimum, with a decent amount of thread coming out of the end of the nut. I could run shorter coilover springs (the current are 9" free length), but this would then limit the amount of height adjustment I have - as there is only 1 inch of thread down, and 2 inches of thread up.
Following on from this I have just accepted the fact I am going to have to run spacers, but I only want to do it with single piece studs - none of this bolt the spacer to the hub then the wheel to the spacer b*llocks. Obviously the two new front hubs are now useless/scrap, and I am going to have to start again with them.
I'm waiting on hearing back from a supplier that has been able to source me some ARP wheel studs (from the USA), same fitment with approx 100mm length instead of 60mm. Quite commonly used in a lot of production race cars running up to 50mm spacers it seems - I hope they will work well for me. Once they arrive I can drop a CAD file off at my local machine shop and he will come back with some spacers that are the perfect size for the spigot, 4x100, with a second spigot to locate the wheel in whatever thickness I require. More on that when it gets done.
Considering the messing about that went on with the wheels, the exhaust never got made (another reason why Oulton was cancelled). Although, I managed to get the downpipe finished, which now comes out under the gearbox in the transmission tunnel - pretty much the stock E30 location..
Nice amount of clearance on everything, including the steering linkage..
The last job before bolting it up with the gasket is to make a brace from two of the gearbox bolts to take some of the strain off the manifold/turbo - I will probably get that sorted in the next few days.
With the aftermarket exhaust manifold fitted I clearly had an issue with the master cylinder reservouir..
I wanted to remote mount it to give more space for a heat shield, and to ensure it didn't melt within 30 seconds of running. I spent many evenings reading, but didnt really find anything that would work like I wanted. Many cars use remote reservoirs, more so some 5 and 7 series BMWs. Although, finding parts proved hard and information was pretty scarce.
Most OEM setups are a reservoir with push fit pipes, then the master cylinder has push fit fittings in the seals. Finding the push fit fittings for the master cylinder proved near impossible, not to mention they might not be the right size for the 172 master cylinder (seals) I am going to be using. In the end I drew up some from scratch copying the design of the 172 reservoir, and turned them into fittings.
They are a very tight fit in the seal, just as I wanted them to be. The push fit is for an 8mm pipe (as most OEM remote setups seem to be around this) with a small barb on the end. Obviously the 172 reservoir was now useless, as I needed to find one that would fit in the space I had to the top right of the engine bay, and have push fitting pipes. After more searching, I found Mk2 Punto's have a remote reservoir setup. Nipped down to the scrap yard over the weekend and managed to get one...
Even better that it has 3 outputs, as the third can be used on my clutch which is a push fit as standard on the E30 anyway.
As can be seen above, it fits well in the engine bay and just needs a small 90 degree bracket making to support it before plumbing in.
Last bit for now, the front brakes turned up a few days ago. I decided on a custom billet 4pot kit (WMS 4P025) that is commonly used on the E30/E36 through the forums, even better that they were deigned around the standard 15" E30 wheel for competition use. They utilize a 1.38" Piston and 280x22mm VW G60 disc, comparable fitment/size/performance wise to the Wilwood (Billet) Dynalite.
DS3000's to go in those also. More on them once they are fitted.....