My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

Hanging out with Gabe dogbone for the weekend was great. We seem to bring him good car-luck as the car wants to work well when its around us! lol

It's incredible to see what Mr Bone has achieved with a DIY track car, following no template other than his own intuition. The E90 is incredibly fast and Gabe is a fantastic driver. The PCA people know what's up and other than an actual 911R (GTD class IIRC) there is nothing out there that can touch it. It's hard to overstate how remarkable this is.
In the PCA paddock you see much newer, infinitely more expensive machinery and then you have this E90 which is a bit like a dinosaur. Already two generations old in the M world and never a really expensive car to begin with, a car frequently called a 'grocery getter' by others. It sits there watching how evolution is taking place and how newer, fancier, more expensive cars are built and tracked, but it would be a mistake to ever discount the E90, because it may be a dinosaur but it is a friggin T-REX!

and GasBurnlife(landapanda) were also there to complete the forum presence!

Those are some mighty kind words! Had a great time hanging out with you guys! And yes, I think you guys are good luck charms for my car! hahahaha

I left the rig at VIR and flew home. I have signed up for NASA HyperFest at VIR, May 13-15 and will compete in NASA TT at that time. Looking forward to it! Who else is going to HyperFest?

[dogbone]

My original E90 motor is being put back together. The topic of Vanos covers came up and I had just seen that Slon Workshop made some interesting looking skeletal aluminum Vanos covers. Got a set of them and took them up to the shop today. They fit great! Clicked very nicely into place. The shop was impressed with them. So, I'm happy to get the 13 year-old plastic covers off.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by dogbone

My original E90 motor is being put back together. The topic of Vanos covers came up and I had just seen that Slon Workshop made some interesting looking skeletal aluminum Vanos covers. Got a set of them and took them up to the shop today. They fit great! Clicked very nicely into place. The shop was impressed with them. So, I'm happy to get the 13 year-old plastic covers off.

Billet aluminum vanos covers = win!

These are also going into my engine next time valve covers come off

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by dogbone

My original E90 motor is being put back together. The topic of Vanos covers came up and I had just seen that Slon Workshop made some interesting looking skeletal aluminum Vanos covers. Got a set of them and took them up to the shop today. They fit great! Clicked very nicely into place. The shop was impressed with them. So, I'm happy to get the 13 year-old plastic covers off.

Shame we can't get them anymore with sanctions. They look great though.

[slcook54]

Originally Posted by redpriest

Shame we can't get them anymore with sanctions. They look great though.

Yes you can. Move Over Alex can get them to you directly.

[Move Over]

Originally Posted by redpriest

Shame we can't get them anymore with sanctions. They look great though.

I got you!

[admranger]

roastbeef has some ideas on lightening up that vanos cover.

[DRLane]

Originally Posted by dogbone

My original E90 motor is being put back together. The topic of Vanos covers came up and I had just seen that Slon Workshop made some interesting looking skeletal aluminum Vanos covers. Got a set of them and took them up to the shop today. They fit great! Clicked very nicely into place. The shop was impressed with them. So, I'm happy to get the 13 year-old plastic covers off.

[IMG]http://www.epicscore.com/online/Slon-Vanos-Cover-01.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.epicscore.com/online/Slon-Vanos-Cover-02.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.epicscore.com/online/Slon-Vanos-Cover-03.jpg[/IMG]

I looked at your original covers a couple weeks ago. That motor has been sitting in pieces for ages I will say the originals looked pretty stellar. No cracks or signs or stress which was cool to see.

I too have his covers as part of a complete valve cover replacement to install. Man, I have endless work to complete and only get a handful of hours each week. Maybe it's time to accept defeat and pay for labor. 😖

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by DRLane

I looked at your original covers a couple weeks ago. That motor has been sitting in pieces for ages I will say the originals looked pretty stellar. No cracks or signs or stress which was cool to see.

I too have his covers as part of a complete valve cover replacement to install. Man, I have endless work to complete and only get a handful of hours each week. Maybe it's time to accept defeat and pay for labor. 😖

I agree mine looked fine. But they were 13 years old and we were re-assembling the engine and closing it up for who knows how long. Do they last 15,18, 20 years? Didn’t seem like an experiment worth doing. Just replace them and hopefully be done.

haha yeah, sometimes you just don’t have the time to do projects. Or, look at me—-I travel to far off places and have tech problems and have to throw my car at a local shop who I don’t know that is willing to juggle their schedule to get me in.

I would like to say though that ACI Motorsport, right next door to Road Atlanta, was great. Really appreciated their efforts and willingness to get the job done. Would have no hesitation recommending them. Warp10 pointed me to them.

[DRLane]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I agree mine looked fine. But they were 13 years old and we were re-assembling the engine and closing it up for who knows how long. Do they last 15,18, 20 years? Didn't seem like an experiment worth doing. Just replace them and hopefully be done.

haha yeah, sometimes you just don't have the time to do projects. Or, look at me—-I travel to far off places and have tech problems and have to throw my car at a local shop who I don't know that is willing to juggle their schedule to get me in.

I would like to say though that ACI Motorsport, right next door to Road Atlanta, was great. Really appreciated their efforts and willingness to get the job done. Would have no hesitation recommending them. Warp10 pointed me to them.

100%, and honestly I had recommended those to Cory when these first came on the scene last fall. But I didn't think it was something you'd go for. Preventative maintenance and all. I know you prefer to react

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by DRLane

100%, and honestly I had recommended those to Cory when these first came on the scene last fall. But I didn't think it was something you'd go for. Preventative maintenance and all. I know you prefer to react

Prefer to react?----not exactly sure what you mean, but aside from the engine, I don't believe I sit around blindly waiting for disaster to strike the car before I act. Here are some of the things that have been replaced before they failed:

-replaced all hoses
-replaced all belts many times
-replaced rod bearings
-replaced all control arms
-replaced many bushings
-replaced reservoirs
-replaced the JRZs
-replaced the APR aero
-replaced the old AP kit with the AP Rad-Cal kit
-replaced all hubs and studs and lug nuts many times
-replaced all the coolers/radiators
-constant fluid replacement. I doubt many people replace motor oil more frequently than me.
-replaced the clutches
-replaced the alternator and voltage regulator
-replaced the whole steering system without knowing what was broken. The pump seemed to be the culprit, but everything else was swapped.
-rebuilt the Vortech blower with all new internals
-replaced the diff
-replace spark plugs long before they need to be replaced
-replaced all wheel speed sensors more than once
-replaced O2 sensors and other sensors
-replaced DCT pan and have the Slon side cover coming now because I've replaced the side cover a couple times in the last few months
-replaced gas pedal
-replaced race seats
-replaced harnesses
-replaced grounding straps
-replaced valve cover gaskets
-replaced all Apex wheels with Titan-7 forged wheels

Now, if you're only talking about the engine and its internals, well yes, then I just wait for that to explode. It's hard for me to see the value of spending $15,000 to preemptively pull a working engine out, tear it down, order all new internals, reassemble it and then put it back in the car when the thing is still working. I had a spare engine in my E92 that I got to drive around and enjoy while I waited for an E90 engine failure. That's why I bought that car. And the plan worked. And looked what failed in the E90 after all this time and all this abuse----the head bolts were most likely stretching and the head gasket failed.......the internals of the engine were still totally fine, and we're putting it back together. So doing a hard dive into the engine is not super attractive to me unless it's needed.

You mentioned earlier that my engine has been sitting around in pieces for a long time......well that has nothing to do with me. I gave the shop the green light to rebuild the E90 engine as soon as the swap was done. (And I pay my bills as soon as I get them.) Between supply chain issues and the shop being small, the engine project has been on the back burner. Not much I can do about that. All the parts are in and there's more staff now. I hope to have the car back by Summer.

[DRLane]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Prefer to react?----not exactly sure what you mean, but aside from the engine, I don't believe I sit around blindly waiting for disaster to strike the car before I act. Here are some of the things that have been replaced before they failed:

-replaced all hoses
-replaced all belts many times
-replaced rod bearings
-replaced all control arms
-replaced many bushings
-replaced reservoirs
-replaced the JRZs
-replaced the APR aero
-replaced the old AP kit with the AP Rad-Cal kit
-replaced all hubs and studs and lug nuts many times
-replaced all the coolers/radiators
-constant fluid replacement. I doubt many people replace motor oil more frequently than me.
-replaced the clutches
-replaced the alternator and voltage regulator
-replaced the whole steering system without knowing what was broken. The pump seemed to be the culprit, but everything else was swapped.
-rebuilt the Vortech blower with all new internals
-replaced the diff
-replace spark plugs long before they need to be replaced
-replaced all wheel speed sensors more than once
-replaced O2 sensors and other sensors
-replaced DCT pan and have the Slon side cover coming now because I've replaced the side cover a couple times in the last few months
-replaced gas pedal
-replaced race seats
-replaced harnesses
-replaced grounding straps
-replaced valve cover gaskets
-replaced all Apex wheels with Titan-7 forged wheels

Now, if you're only talking about the engine and its internals, well yes, then I just wait for that to explode. It's hard for me to see the value of spending $15,000 to preemptively pull a working engine out, tear it down, order all new internals, reassemble it and then put it back in the car when the thing is still working. I had a spare engine in my E92 that I got to drive around and enjoy while I waited for an E90 engine failure. That's why I bought that car. And the plan worked. And looked what failed in the E90 after all this time and all this abuse----the head bolts were most likely stretching and the head gasket failed.......the internals of the engine were still totally fine, and we're putting it back together. So doing a hard dive into the engine is not super attractive to me unless it's needed.

You mentioned earlier that my engine has been sitting around in pieces for a long time......well that has nothing to do with me. I gave the shop the green light to rebuild the E90 engine as soon as the swap was done. (And I pay my bills as soon as I get them.) Between supply chain issues and the shop being small, the engine project has been on the back burner. Not much I can do about that. All the parts are in and there's more staff now. I hope to have the car back by Summer.

I'm just teasing you based on our conversations about wear items and potential failure over the years. I know you've poured $$$$$, time, and emotion into the race car and that this e92 rebuild isn't waiting on you. "React" was a poor choice of word.

[SYT_Shadow]

As far as engine rebuilds, based on my very expensive experiences so far, no one is ever 'rebuilding' any of my engines, ever again. I will do rod bearings and otherwise just wait for it to explode.

[dogbone]

I think I've mentioned that I've been going through data from the East Coast trip. There's a few minor things that are worth sharing. I'll do it over separate posts.

First up: Road Atlanta, I had a wheel bearing go bad that allowed the rear hub to wiggle which caused an ABS warning on the dash. Turns out the AIM Solo was able to see exactly when the error happened as well.

I'll give you exactly one guess to tell me where it happened.

[Bartledoo]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I think I've mentioned that I've been going through data from the East Coast trip. There's a few minor things that are worth sharing. I'll do it over separate posts.

First up: Road Atlanta, I had a wheel bearing go bad that allowed the rear hub to wiggle which caused an ABS warning on the dash. Turns out the AIM Solo was able to see exactly when the error happened as well.

I'll give you exactly one guess to tell me where it happened.

A bit down the back straight!!..Oh wait I wasn’t actually supposed to guess right?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Bartledoo

A bit down the back straight!!..Oh wait I wasn’t actually supposed to guess right?

haha yes!

[dogbone]

I noted on the first day at VIR that I caught a white Porsche at the end of my 1:57 PB hot lap and had to back off the throttle before the finish line. Well, on Day 2, on my first hot lap that was, at the time, a new PB of 1:56.9, I caught the same car again at the same spot----right before the finish line! How crazy is that? You catch the same car in the same place on a PB lap? Twice in 2 days? Crazy. On the second day, he was just a few feet further away which allowed me to stay full throttle.

I made a gif (my first gif!) that shows the difference between the two days.

[DrFerry]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I noted on the first day at VIR that I caught a white Porsche at the end of my 1:57 PB hot lap and had to back off the throttle before the finish line. Well, on Day 2, on my first hot lap that was, at the time, a new PB of 1:56.9.
.

.
Wow. Now that's wild. I wonder if the Cayman dude was watching and waiting for you somehow (or trying to pace you). Is the telemetry clock wrong? The video and .gif show 1.54s as opposed to the PB times mentioned of 1.57 and 1.56? Just wondering...

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by DrFerry

.
Wow. Now that's wild. I wonder if the Cayman dude was watching and waiting (or pacing) you somehow. Is the telemetry clock wrong? The video and .gif show 1.54s as opposed to the PB times mentioned of 1.57 and 1.56? Just wondering...

haha Crazy right?

In response to your questions:

-Yes, timing in the videos is accurate. I'm not at the finish line yet. See the little triangle roof that's popping up over the trees? The finish line is right after that. So, I'm still a few seconds away. The two gif images are from the exact same place on the track and the two times are slightly different because I was slightly faster on Day2. I just picked that spot on track because it was easy to identify as the same spot, and that's where I let off the gas pedal on Day 1 when I was getting too close.

-As far as whether he was watching or pacing me---with a little math, we can approximate where the Porsche was on the track when I started my hot lap. Ironically, he blew past me right as I was coming onto the track. This is useful because the Start/Finish line was right there where he passed me. So in essence, we both crossed the Start/Finish Line at the same time-----I was in the pit lane coming onto the track, and he was on the front straight.

Here he is passing me as I'm coming out of pit lane.


And here's where the Start/Finish line is in relation to the pit lane exit.


So, this gives us an easy starting point---we both crossed the Start/Finish line around the same time when I came out on track, and then two laps later we both cross the Start/Finish line again at the same time.

My out lap was a 2:37 and my hot lap was a 1:56.9 (let's just say 1:57 for conversation purposes.) It also took him the same time (274 seconds) to complete those laps. Let's assume he was on hot laps both laps, that means his average lap time was 2:17. Since, I did a 2:37 and he did a 2:17, then he was around 20 seconds ahead of me on the track when I started my hot lap. When I look at my video to see where I am at 20 seconds into a lap at VIR, I'm approaching Turn 4. There's no way he could have seen me at the Start/Finish line if he was even in the middle of Turn 3.

So, all of that to say, I think it was just random. I first caught a glimpse of a car in front of me as I was rounding Turn 10 and he was going around Oak Tree, but I didn't know who it was. Once I turned onto the back straight, I was like----wait----didn't I just see this guy in the same place yesterday?! Talk about déja-vu!! hahahaha

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: ummm don't underestimate a cool down lap?

I've been digging into the data of the fast lap at VIR. One of the biggest questions I had was----how was it possible to do such a lap so late in the session? The fast lap was the 3rd hot lap of the session. Usually, the engine and tires are a bit fatigued later in the session and the car suffers in some way. And the engine was absolutely suffering on the 2nd hot lap, which I will show you. But in this case, on the 3rd hot lap, the engine and tires were in absolutely prime shape---fantastic grip and the engine was pulling like it was fresh. How is this possible? In the end, I'm not sure why the car performed so well on the 3rd hot lap, but I can show you the data which was interesting.

The way the session went was:
-Out lap - 2:37
-1st hot lap - 1:56.9 (when I caught the white Porsche.)
-Cool down lap - 2:03. But it wasn't a total cool down lap because I had to work to pass someone.
-2nd hot lap - 1:56.8 - engine suffering.
-Cool down lap - 2:27
-3rd hot lap - 1:55.4

After the first hot lap was over, I took an off lap since I needed to pass the white Porsche. There was also a yellow Corvette I needed to get by, so I couldn't totally rest the engine. And the result of that was totally clear in hot lap #2.

Hot lap #2 (1:56.8) was really good up to the Oak Tree turn. It was only 0.2 sec slower than my 1:55 up to that point. I could see on the predictive timing of the AIM that it was a really good lap. But as soon as I got on the back straight, the predictive time started to steadily creep upwards. The engine was hot and unhappy. And the predictive timing kept getting worse all the way until the end of the lap. It was so disappointing to see a good lap evaporate due to overheating. As I was going through the roller coaster, I was worried that the lap might not even be a 56 because the predictive time was creeping up so much. I salvaged a 1:56.8 out of it, but I was not all that hopeful that I could do any better this session.

I decided to hang in there and do a cool down lap and see what happens. The cool down lap was a proper cool down lap---a 2:27 and no one was around. Literally, no one passed me while I was chilling around the track. I could see the temp needle (which you can see in the data overlay) had dropped significantly on the cool down lap. So, I decided to go for it one more time.

As I got into Turn 3, the AIM indicator lights told me I was off to a good start, outrunning the previous laps. This meant the car had pulled strong down the front straight, so I continued to push the car and the predictive timing continued to look really good. But I had seen good predictive timing on the previous lap up to the Oak Tree turn, so as I got onto the back straight, I was worried that heat would ruin this lap too. That's when the car really surprised me. As I went down the back straight, the predictive timing was getting better and better! I got through the Roller Coaster as fast as possible, got onto the front straight and hoped the car still had something left. It kept pulling like a freight train all the way to the Finish line! I literally could not believe the final time on the screen!

Alright, so let's look at some data.

The first thing to look at is oil temps. The picture below presents a bit of data that I can't explain. For some reason on the 1:55 lap, the oil is being cooled on every major full throttle straight. The car never really does that. I mean, here and there, you can find the car cooling a bit on a straight, but it was so obvious on this lap, it stuck out like a sore thumb.

In the picture below, at the bottom is an overall history chart that shows parameters across a whole session. In that bottom chart, there are three parameters to look at: Oil (red), coolant (blue) and GPS Speed (fluorescent green). So, we can track these parameters across the entire session. The first session of the day shows laps 1/2 thru 1/8. The second session shows laps 2/2 thru 2/8.

As we look at the behavior of the oil throughout the whole first session, we basically see that it climbs the whole time except for one moment in lap 1/4 where it takes a brief dip. And I would call that normal behavior for the car. Temps seem to generally climb consistently throughout a session. And in the second session, we see the same thing thru lap 2/5. It climbs consistently from 2/2 thru 2/5. My 1:56.9 lap was lap 2/3. The 1:56.8 lap was lap 2/5. The 1:55 fast lap is 2/7. Lap 2/6 was the true cool down and we see temps go down. Then, on lap 2/7, the 3rd hot lap, I get going, annnnnd the oil cools down three separate times throughout out the lap when I'm accelerating! What the heck?! It didn't do that in the first two hot laps or pretty much anywhere else in my data from other tracks. Why is it doing it now? Can't explain it.



So, does it mean anything? Well all I can tell you is that on lap 2/7, the car was out-accelerating all the other laps. Let's take a look.

First we'll compare the 1:55 fast lap (Blue) to the 1:56.9 1st hot lap (Orange). In theory, the car should accelerate best on the first hot lap. The blue lap at the very least matches the orange lap and in several cases is out-accelerating the Orange lap. What? Makes no sense.

The final turn onto the front straight was kind of a sad moment for the 1:56.9 lap. Took the corner slow and the acceleration wasn't any better than the blue lap. Maybe I was distracted by the white Porsche. Who knows.



Now let's look at the 1:56.8 2nd hot lap (Red) vs the 1:55 3rd hot lap (Blue). In the picture below, there are several things to look at. First we can see that on every major accelerating period, the Red lap is suffering compared to the Blue lap. However, I want to point to the yellow circle that highlights from 7000-9000ft in the time delta chart. In that 2000 ft, the Red lap gained 0.28 sec on my fast lap. ouch! I did that section better on the Red lap than at any other time. Anyway, by the time I was accelerating onto the back straight, the Red lap was only 0.2 sec slower than the 1:55.4 lap. Annnnnnnd then the back straight starts, and the Red lap just couldn't keep up. Looking at the yellow-highlighted section from 9000 ft (Oak Tree) to the end of the lap, the Red lap sadly just loses time consistently for the rest of the lap.



So, I don't know what was going on, but the engine and tires just had something good going on during that Blue lap. Wish it drove like that all the time! I guess what I'm taking away from this is that a true cool down lap can give you a shot at a good lap even late in a session. But I'm still walking away from this confused about how the car was able to cool the oil only on that lap......

I rendered a data overlay over the entire session. If you have insomnia and need help falling asleep, or you feel like wasting 17 minutes of your life, then have I got a video for you!

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: When in doubt, LEAVE THE TRAILER KEYS!

Sooooooo, I'm sitting here minding my own business and my cell phone rings, and Caller ID says it's VIRginia International Raceway. I'm like, uh oh. The only reason they could possibly call me is because of my trailer that's parked there.

It's the head of security and he says that they just got approval to put down gravel in the dirt parking lot that my trailer is in, and they need to move my trailer as quickly as possible. Of course, my trailer is all locked up with a locking wheel chock that is wedged between the two wheels, a tongue lock, a hitch pin lock......and the keys are with me. (They didn't see the wheel chock....glad they called.)

So, now I'm running down to FedEx to overnight the keys to them......

You know, I gave a good long thought about whether I should leave the keys with them when I parked it. When I was in Atlanta the week before, I left the trailer keys with the race shop. But at VIR, I had been given specific instructions about where to park. So, given that conversation, plus, seeing that some of the other rigs had clearly been sitting there for quite some time, I decided to take my trailer keys with me. Wrong decision!

Anyway, I'm not super excited about someone moving my rig around an uneven dirt lot. I have my passenger seat and a loose rim stacked on some wheels in the front of the trailer....don't need that falling on the front of the car. But......whatever.....gotta deal with it. Hope they're careful.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Let's file this one under: When in doubt, LEAVE THE TRAILER KEYS!

Sooooooo, I'm sitting here minding my own business and my cell phone rings, and Caller ID says it's VIRginia International Raceway. I'm like, uh oh. The only reason they could possibly call me is because of my trailer that's parked there.

It's the head of security and he says that they just got approval to put down gravel in the dirt parking lot that my trailer is in, and they need to move my trailer as quickly as possible. Of course, my trailer is all locked up with a locking wheel chock that is wedged between the two wheels, a tongue lock, a hitch pin lock......and the keys are with me. (They didn't see the wheel chock....glad they called.)

So, now I'm running down to FedEx to overnight the keys to them......

You know, I gave a good long thought about whether I should leave the keys with them when I parked it. When I was in Atlanta the week before, I left the trailer keys with the race shop. But at VIR, I had been given specific instructions about where to park. So, given that conversation, plus, seeing that some of the other rigs had clearly been sitting there for quite some time, I decided to take my trailer keys with me. Wrong decision!

Anyway, I'm not super excited about someone moving my rig around an uneven dirt lot. I have my passenger seat and a loose rim stacked on some wheels in the front of the trailer....don't need that falling on the front of the car. But......whatever.....gotta deal with it. Hope they're careful.

never a good conversation to have. Hopefully everything is ok after they move it!