My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[dogbone]

I had fun at Speed District's Laguna Seca day, but there was a bit of last minute drama prior to the event due to a transmission oil fluid line leak.

On Monday, I took the car to Minicorsa for an oil change and to get my stock exhaust installed for Laguna Seca. When I arrived at the shop and opened up the trailer, I saw a fair amount of liquid on the trailer floor. I suspected transmission oil because I've been dealing with a slow transmission oil leak for a few months.

Nothing was actively dripping at that moment, so I drove it out of the trailer, parked it and left it running to warm up the oil a bit. I looked behind the car and there was a big stripe of oil that followed the car out of the trailer. I looked under the car.....and transmission oil was POURING out the bottom of the car....ack.

The culprit was that the temp gauge boss that was installed down at the inlet/outlet of the transmission a year ago had forced the oil lines into a compromising angle. And after a year of running it, a flange on the oil line was distorted which allowed fluid to start leaking.

Knowing that time was tight, Minicorsa jumped on it. A new DCT oil line was a BMW dealer-only part, so we were at the mercy of the dealer's delivery schedule. They said the part would arrive the next day. Tuesday, a part arrives. And the oil line is for a manual. I need a DCT line....The part numbers in the catalog were reversed......hehe I guess these lines don't go bad very often. The dealer apologized and said the part will be here Wednesday. I was supposed to leave for the track on Wednesday. Not much more room for additional problems. To the dealer's credit, the part arrived 8:30AM Wed. Minicorsa put the car back together, and I picked it all up and drove straight to Laguna Seca. hehe I have never done that before---leave my house to go to the track without my track car!

Conclusion: If you're going to put a temp gauge for your transmission, put the gauge boss directly on the DCT cooler, not down at the transmission. I found out recently that the gauge boss was intended to be used at the cooler's inlet/outlet, instead of the tranny's inlet/outlet. It does fit down at the tranny, but with the lines down there forced into odd angles, the integrity of the seals is ruined over time. I have removed the gauge boss completely for now. Perhaps I'll re-install later at the cooler, but I really only installed it to test the do88 DCT cooler, and to be honest, I never look at it when I'm driving; I would analyze it later on video. Ironically, the Laguna track day would have been an EXCELLENT day to monitor the DCT temps because I was getting the car super hot. Ah well....

I'm happy to say that the car worked great at Laguna Seca. I set a new personal best at 1:34.3. I'll chat more about the track day in another post.

For now, here's video of my fast lap:

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: "Note To Self: Check Engine Mounts Frequently"

I forgot to mention another tech issue that was discovered when I had my rod bearings done. In June of 2015, when the cage was installed in the car, I had Vorshlag engine mounts installed. During the rod bearing job, EAS reported back that both engine mounts were broken. Both bolts had snapped. And I guess it had been like that long enough that one of the engine mount brackets was in bad shape. Aren't these pictures lovely? Blah.....



I contacted Vorshlag. They were helpful. They quickly shipped out two new bolts. But EAS said there was going to be a fair amount of labor involved in getting the old broken bolts out of the engine mounts.

I chatted with Steve at EAS about what we should do. The engine mount bracket simply had to be replaced. It was messed up. They were able to change that out pretty quickly. Great. One problem done.

Next question: what do we do about the engine mounts? Do we fix the Vorshlags and stick them back in? Or do something else? The main thing to consider here is that the supercharged engine puts out a lot of power. Would the Vorshlags simply snap again? It's hard to do anything to prevent the bolt snapping. And it looks like they had been snapped for quite awhile. I remember that when the Vorshlags were installed in 2015, they were replacing OEM mounts that were torn. But at least the bolts didn't snap. We debated about what to do---go back to OEM mounts since they are more flexible and will probably hold on or stick with the Vorshlags. I wasn't concerned that the OEM piece wasn't a "performance" part; I just wanted to put something in that would hold.

I decided to go back to OEM mounts. I figured they had survived longer than the Vorshlags. And when they failed, the rubber was tearing but they were still somewhat intact. At least the bolts were able to still hold things together. When both Vorshlag bolts snapped, what the hell was holding the system together? Magic fairy dust? Steve said he was surprised the car had been running as well as it was......And don't forget, I was just out at Auto Club Speedway on June 3 and 11, right before the rod bearing job. The Oval at ACS is the fastest section of track pavement you can find in California. I know of no other track in CA that achieves higher speeds than on that Oval.......yay.

So, I have OEM engine mounts back in for now. And I guess the lesson here is that we need to keep a MUCH closer eye on them from now on. And of course, I would suggest that anyone tracking their M3 should also keep an eye on the engine mounts, regardless of how much power the engine has.

[roastbeef]

Why not solid mounts? I have read they aren't that bad. Plus it's a track only car and you wear ear plugs. Was that discussed?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

Why not solid mounts? I have read they aren't that bad. Plus it's a track only car and you wear ear plugs. Was that discussed?

The Vorshlags are not 100% solid, but the urethane is quite stiff.

There's no free lunch when it comes transferring force. Putting in a solid piece just means that other parts of the car will have to deal with the forces. Are the other parts up to the task? In the case of the Vorshlag mounts, the engine mount bolts were clearly seeing high stress with the mounts being more solid. I have to imagine that this would still be a problem with a fully solid mount......in fact, it would be worse. So, a solid engine mount would have to try and address the bolts seeing more action by----I don't know----making the bolts stronger/thicker? Is the hole in the engine mount bracket large enough to accommodate a larger engine mount bolt? I do not know the answers to these things.

The car was not designed with a supercharger in mind, and I'm guessing aftermarket engine mount solutions are not necessarily thinking of that extra power either. To be honest, I haven't searched for an engine mount that advertises being able to deal with high horsepower.....is there one?

I have seen fully solid aluminum engine mounts like Turner's. They don't cost much different than the OEM mounts. Perhaps I'll give them a try, along with the solid transmission mounts at some point. For now, the new OEM rubber mounts are hanging in there. They were fine at all 3 NorCal tracks as far as I can tell.

[VictorH]

The Bimmerworld Group_N type motor mounts are a bit stiffer and for my car have held up well. I have 30K miles on mine, still much firmer than stock but not excessive. If you're really track only then I suppose solid is an option but every car I've driven with solid mounts were really noisy and I'm not sure you get any extra performance out of them.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by VictorH

The Bimmerworld Group_N type motor mounts are a bit stiffer and for my car have held up well. I have 30K miles on mine, still much firmer than stock but not excessive. If you're really track only then I suppose solid is an option but every car I've driven with solid mounts were really noisy and I'm not sure you get any extra performance out of them.

Appreciate the heads up. I may get a set and just have them on hand.

[warp10]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Appreciate the heads up. I may get a set and just have them on hand.

Bimmerworld sells one that is similar to group n and not as much $

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by dogbone

The Vorshlags are not 100% solid, but the urethane is quite stiff.

There's no free lunch when it comes transferring force. Putting in a solid piece just means that other parts of the car will have to deal with the forces. Are the other parts up to the task? In the case of the Vorshlag mounts, the engine mount bolts were clearly seeing high stress with the mounts being more solid. I have to imagine that this would still be a problem with a fully solid mount......in fact, it would be worse. So, a solid engine mount would have to try and address the bolts seeing more action by----I don't know----making the bolts stronger/thicker? Is the hole in the engine mount bracket large enough to accommodate a larger engine mount bolt? I do not know the answers to these things.

The car was not designed with a supercharger in mind, and I'm guessing aftermarket engine mount solutions are not necessarily thinking of that extra power either. To be honest, I haven't searched for an engine mount that advertises being able to deal with high horsepower.....is there one?

I have seen fully solid aluminum engine mounts like Turner's. They don't cost much different than the OEM mounts. Perhaps I'll give them a try, along with the solid transmission mounts at some point. For now, the new OEM rubber mounts are hanging in there. They were fine at all 3 NorCal tracks as far as I can tell.

i'll just flat out say that i don't know what the solution is, i'm just trying to provoke thought and discussion so that if the time comes for me, i have a game plan.
i get what you're saying with the force simply being transferred to other parts of the car with solid mounts. however, do you think that there might be more strength in those brackets to the frame? i wonder if using solid mounts would effectively transfer the load to those larger brackets that could take them. there has got to be some guys on here with solid mounts that can give some insight...
what does turner run in their race cars? maybe they swap their mounts after every race?

[burnrbr]

Have you considered Vibra-Technics?

http://www.vibra-technics.com/bmw/e9..._engine_mount_

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by burnrbr

Have you considered Vibra-Technics?

http://www.vibra-technics.com/bmw/e9..._engine_mount_

Thanks for the heads up.

Ironically, I just learned about these yesterday when looking at this thread: http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1412336

They look interesting. They claim that they can handle more power, and are "completely fail safe".....whatever that means.

Do you have any personal experience with them?

[roastbeef]

i have the vibra technic road-going mounts. i assumed you knew about them for some reason. sometimes i feel like i say the same thing over and over... they are great so far, and i'll be keeping an eye on them

[///Mobbin]

I had the vibra-technics and installed them myself when I did my rod bearings. Unfortunately, one of my mounts failed after only one track weekend. I got my money back but it was costly as I assumed it couldn't be my new mounts and paid a shop to diagnose and fix the issue. I also had to send them back to the distributor I bought them from for a tear-down before I got a refund, distributor was great, apparently the manufacturer was hesitant to give a refund though. I also had an installation issue with the BW mounts as one of them broke a bolt on install, BW was also great and gave a full refund, though again here I was out of pocket for shop time. Back on a fresh set of OE mounts after all this and no issues so far.

All about trying new mounts but my luck hasn't been great on this front!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by ///Mobbin

I had the vibra-technics and installed them myself when I did my rod bearings. Unfortunately, one of my mounts failed after only one track weekend. I got my money back but it was costly as I assumed it couldn't be my new mounts and paid a shop to diagnose and fix the issue. I also had to send them back to the distributor I bought them from for a tear-down before I got a refund, distributor was great, apparently the manufacturer was hesitant to give a refund though. I also had an installation issue with the BW mounts as one of them broke a bolt on install, BW was also great and gave a full refund, though again here I was out of pocket for shop time. Back on a fresh set of OE mounts after all this and no issues so far.

All about trying new mounts but my luck hasn't been great on this front!

Wow. Sorry to hear you had all that trouble. Thanks for the input.

My takeaway from all of this is that engine mounts need to be monitored regularly----at least more regularly than I originally thought.

At this point, I don't care about the engine mounts being a performance part. I just don't want them to break/tear/rip/snap/get destroyed. And if I can't prevent ruining the mounts because of the extra forced induction power, then I think I prefer to partially rip the rubber of OEM mounts versus snapping the bolts of aftermarket mounts. Snapping BOTH Vorshlag mount bolts is a situation I would like to NOT repeat.

[Richbot]

I would not want solid engine mounts in a solid mounted subframe without safety wire or loctite on everything important

[burnrbr]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Thanks for the heads up.

Ironically, I just learned about these yesterday when looking at this thread: http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1412336

They look interesting. They claim that they can handle more power, and are "completely fail safe".....whatever that means.

Do you have any personal experience with them?

Not yet, I have them in the garage and will install them when I do my rod bearings.

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I have the APR GT-250 model. On the APR website, it says it's available up to 71".

A lip plus a splitter that sticks out 5" or more is COMPLETELY impractical on the street. You would be destroying that thing everywhere. The mildest driveway ramp would scrape you something awful. Going shorter than 5" might be a tiny bit better on the street, but you won't be getting the aero effect you want. You would be better off buying a second bumper for the street. (A long time ago, when my car did both street and track duty, I wondered if someone could fabricate a quick release setup for a lip/splitter, so you could quickly put-on/take-off the front aero. No one was interested in trying to make something like that....)

When I look at mods now, I consider what is the upside versus the downside. Losing weight in the car is great, but ruining the balance, not so great. Adding power via a supercharger is great, but adding 100 lbs to the nose of the car and having a lot more heat issues, not so great if you want to run long sessions/race. Running stickier tires or better brakes is great but is harder on the engine because you can push harder and makes you overheat more quickly. Most mods have a bit of give-and-take. And of course, you also need to weigh the value of the mod versus how much it costs. You can drain a wallet very quickly on things that add marginal benefit (i.e. subframe bushings.)

Aero is another one of those give-and-take mods----you get faster in corners, but you get slower on straights. So, with aero, I guess it is tempting to go with a huge setup to "get your moneys' worth", but if you don't have the power to compensate for the drag, or you have not lightened the car enough to help offset the drag, you may find yourself lagging on the straights. I have to tell you, I've heard more than once that for some people, aero makes the car boring to drive----much harder to slide around. So, the question is: what is the right aero setup?

I can't give you the proper specific advice you seek, but I do recommend you talk to a shop that has a reputation for building fast cars. Find guys who put fast times down and find out who their shops are----that's who I would go talk to.

I'm installing a gt4 lip plus my apr splitter. Thinking smaller wing like you said since can't run 5" splitter on street like you already said lolol

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by M3 Number 86

I'm installing a gt4 lip plus my apr splitter. Thinking smaller wing like you said since can't run 5" splitter on street like you already said lolol

Oh---didn't I read recently that you got a GT300 wing?---which is among the most downforce you can find in the APR line? haha!

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Oh---didn't I read recently that you got a GT300 wing?---which is among the most downforce you can find in the APR line? haha!

Yeah I'm gonna switch it out for gtc250. I don't want to be slower than FRS on the straights

Are you doing SV 9/24? It's #1ccw and Nissan vs BMW challenge. Need GTR killers. Most are slow though it's gonna be a destruction ha

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by M3 Number 86

Yeah I'm gonna switch it out for gtc250. I don't want to be slower than FRS on the straights

Are you doing SV 9/24? It's #1ccw and Nissan vs BMW challenge. Need GTR killers. Most are slow though it's gonna be a destruction ha

The GTC-300 is a beautiful work of art, but something tells me we don't need that level of rear downforce on cars. I don't run a steep Angle of Attack on my GT-250 and I'm quite happy with how the rear of the car is planted at speed. I guess I could dial more in, but as always, there's no free lunch in that department.

And with the car being lighter after the cage build/gutting, I didn't lose any speed on the straights with the aero. In fact, I would say I gained 1-2mph on straights compared to the original-weight/non-aero setup.


I'm not planning on doing 9/24. It's still hot. I'm just sorta holding out for cooler weather at this point.

What is a Nissan vs BMW challenge? Is that a new thing?

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by dogbone

The GTC-300 is a beautiful work of art, but something tells me we don't need that level of rear downforce on cars. I don't run a steep Angle of Attack on my GT-250 and I'm quite happy with how the rear of the car is planted at speed. I guess I could dial more in, but as always, there's no free lunch in that department.

And with the car being lighter after the cage build/gutting, I didn't lose any speed on the straights with the aero. In fact, I would say I gained 1-2mph on straights compared to the original-weight/non-aero setup.


I'm not planning on doing 9/24. It's still hot. I'm just sorta holding out for cooler weather at this point.

What is a Nissan vs BMW challenge? Is that a new thing?

You know how sv has a handful of challenges? They are doing a Bimmer Challenge vs Corner 3 Nissan Challenge thing on that day.

They are talking crap on social media (it's fun and games) but in reality they are going to be destroyed. Lolol.

[dogbone]

My recent day at Laguna Seca was a nice day. I have a few minor things to share.

-I always scour through the AIM data after a track day looking for interesting tidbits. One of them was that for the first time, the AIM showed my car pulling over 2G's in a turn. The AIM reported 2.11 G's in Turn 9. There were several other laps near 2G in the same spot (ie. 1.97), but this was definitely a first for me anywhere from what I can tell. I looked back through my track days at other tracks where I set personal bests. I couldn't find any other instance of 2G's. And interestingly, it happened right at the end of the day. I was getting more comfortable and pushing harder. Anyway, I think 2G's in this car at this weight is pretty cool.

-I was pushing fairly hard in Turn 9 all day. I was on a 1:34 pace lap and went all 4 wheels off there. The Off wasn't too dramatic, but I've always said to myself Turn 9 is a crappy place to go off. What's funny to me is that I went all 4-off and then cruised real mellow to the Finish line and it was still a 1:38...hehe I've been taking the entry of Turn 9 a bit tight and kinda forcing myself into an early apex situation which is probably not the best idea. I'm just trying not to get out too far wide and make the track longer than necessary. My thinking is that I'm not really going that fast after exiting the Corkscrew, so why go super far outside if I'm not going that fast? Anyway, I think I could stand to go out a bit wider. (I really should go to Laguna more than once a year so I can experiment more. Ah well.)

Here's the Off and the sad cruise to the finish. Data's on there so you can see the timing at the end.

- I was going through my 4 Laguna Seca sectors in the AIM software, and it turns out, my virtual best was a 1:33.92. Dang, I've driven the pieces of a 1:33! Gee....I only need to wait another year before I go back!

I tried to carefully make the sectors at this track and I think they work pretty well. All the sector changes occur on straights. (I put the Map on the pic so you can see where the sectors are.)



-Since I show up with a trailer, people are constantly coming over and asking to borrow tools. Generally, I try to help people out. But I do have limits. I found my limit at Laguna Seca. In the AM, I had already loaned out some sockets, crescent wrenches, air gauge and 3/8” drive extender, etc. Then, a guy came over and asked if he could borrow my torque wrench. He had a couple track wheels to swap on, but didn't have a torque wrench.......hmmm.....I was not comfortable with this request. No one ever asked me for that before. You show up to a track with wheels, but don't have a torque wrench? Do you have a floor jack or impact gun? When it comes to wheels, I never want to be responsible for someone else's lug nuts/bolts. (Even when I help my track buddies switch wheels, they are always responsible for the final torquing on their wheels.) I was realllllly hesitant. But I didn't want to be a jerk. I thought to myself, if I put the torque wrench to the proper ft lbs, then maybe I might be ok with it—maybe watch him do it. So, I asked him what ft lbs he wanted the torque wrench set to. He paused and said, "ummm like 18 ft lbs?" (he had a BMW)........I politely declined. And I was bummed that my 3/8" drive extender was returned with a bend in it. Blah.

I'd be curious to hear other guys' track tool lending out stories/policies/rules.

-The photographer at the track [Brian from Caliphotography] had quite bit of time on his hands because there were so few cars out there. He was hanging out in the pits chatting with people and looking for shots. He came rolling through my trailer setup and captured a couple pics of me doing boring tech stuff. I was taping wheel weights when he showed up, and then I adjusted my wing. Anyway, I enjoyed chatting with him and thought his Pit pix were a nice diversion from the normal track pix you get. And of course, hats off to Speed District for including pictures at every event.







Anyway, with the hot weather in SoCal continuing for awhile, I will be taking a bit of a break until it cools down.

[Datka]

Dogbone, nice save there at 70mph.
For the first time ever I am going to test BFG R1S tires 275/285(I know you like these tires) and aero:APR 250 wing 61 inch, and self made splitter from epanel in addition to the lip, similar to yours.
Taking it to WGI with Group 52.
This is a very fast road course with high speed sweepers, I hear aero makes a difference on that track.
Any recommendations for R1S tire pressure, also I have never driven a car on the track with aero.