My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by derbo

:bravo.

I only got to page 11. Will continue more when I have time.

Truly amazed at the conversations here.

Thanks! If you got through the 3-part War and Peace novel on differentials, you pass the test as a hopeless motorsport junkie!!!

[dogbone]

In a previous post on the 9668 Essex AP kit, I was talking about the Quick Release bridge clip versus the bridge bolts and block spacers. I had the Quick Release setup in there, but when I switched over to the new 25mm pads yesterday, I removed the Quick Release clip and put the bridge bolts and block spacers back in. I like the sturdiness of the bolts and spacers. Let's see how that goes.

Here's how the two setups look:


One other installation note: I was not able to move any pistons with my hands. It required using my orange GiroDisc pad spreader to press them back into the caliper. Even with the GiroDisc, this kit is so wide that the spreader can't push on just the backing plates to push the pistons all the way back. The spreader just doesn't go that wide. I had to push on the inside faces of the semi-worn pads to push the pistons all the way in. I'm going to keep those semi-worn pads around as a piston-pushing spacer in case I run other pads too narrow and the spreader can't push far enough. I'm glad I pulled these out now because they're the perfect thickness to push the pistons all the way in. I used to be able to push the Stillen AP kit pistons with my hands without issue. I could not get any single piston to even budge with my hands.....(I was told later that perhaps opening the cap of the brake fluid reservoir could make it easier, but I've never had to do that before.)

[admranger]

dogbone - back in the crustaceous period when I raced, I had a temp sensor in the transmission of my stock class E36M3. Trans fluid temps would routinely hit 300 deg F. Only way I could solve the problem was to put black electrical tape over the gauge...

Change your transmission fluid early and often.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I have always heard good things about PFC brake kits. I've never driven one.

I started down the path of AP Racing 6 years ago because I had an opportunity to get a used kit. At that moment, the Stillen AP kit was by far the best bang for the buck BBK I could afford. And the "used" kit was actually not really used----the fronts were entirely new--replaced by AP for the original owner, and the rears were completely refurbished by AP in England. So, the kit was in incredibly good shape for the price. That Stillen kit always treated me well. It was the most reliable mod on the car. I'm going to keep it and put it on my street E92 M3.

hehe 28mm pad on the PFC....super beefy!! I just installed the 25mm pads into the front calipers of my Essex AP kit today. I hope that they last a decent amount of time.

Check this ridiculousness out: It looks like I stuck a thick-cut piece of banana bread in my caliper!!!!


As far DCT issues, yeah.....it's a bummer....but in fairness to the car, I am pushing it beyond what BMW intended, and stuff like the transmission is completely stock, which is pretty impressive when you consider the fact that all the track days on this car have been done with a supercharger on there. I give BMW a lot of credit for making a car that has held up so well to all of this nonsense. Hopefully, I'll be able to drive the car later this week and see if our first round of maintenance helped the situation.

Regarding a baffled pan, I have also been wondering about that. As I have been reflecting back on this topic, I'm seeming to realize that most of the shifting issues happen after left turns/bends. It's not 100% of the time, but it's probably more than 90%. I've started asking where the suction from the pan occurs, wondering if it's on the left side of the pan and maybe as the fluid sloshes to the right that the system is starving, but I've been told the suction point is in the middle.....dang...I haven't given up on this line of thinking yet though....As I mentioned, we overfilled the system, so we'll see. I talked to SSP Performance last week. Nice guys. We had a good conversation.

I really like the 28mm thick pads. Just the look on people's faces when they do tech inspection and mutter 'holy shit those are some fat pads' is worth it hehe

It's understandable to stick with what you know and works well. When it came time to get a second bbk for the car that is seldom used at the track I didn't even think twice about it and just got another PFC kit.

You have a second e9x? Wow, that makes you, BOOF-M3 and I with two! I want a third one though :P

It's really impressive how reliable M cars are. Everyone in track days is scared of running slicks on their 200k 991 GT3's and here you are, in a 'lowly' M3, running full race slicks without much issue. I always say it but I'll sat it again: if you want a reliable car to have fun in at the track, buy an M3.

That baffled pan slonik sells looks pretty cool although it's expensive. It's just a shame you can't get the DCT to behave itself. Hopefully you'll solve the issue!

Cheers!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by admranger

dogbone - back in the crustaceous period when I raced, I had a temp sensor in the transmission of my stock class E36M3. Trans fluid temps would routinely hit 300 deg F. Only way I could solve the problem was to put black electrical tape over the gauge...

Change your transmission fluid early and often.

I love the black electrical tape see-no-evil approach!

Yeah, if this round of fixing works, I'll change the fluid more often.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

I really like the 28mm thick pads. Just the look on people's faces when they do tech inspection and mutter 'holy shit those are some fat pads' is worth it hehe

That's hilarious!

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

You have a second e9x? Wow, that makes you, BOOF-M3 and I with two! I want a third one though :P

It's really impressive how reliable M cars are. Everyone in track days are scared of running slicks on their 200k 991 GT3's and here you are, in a 'lowly' M3, running full race slicks without much issue. I always say it but I'll sat it again: if you want a reliable car to have fun in at the track, buy an M3.

Yeah, I have a 2009 E92 M3 Space Gray. I bought it about a year-and-a-half ago. It's been great. Very reliable. It was already modded when I got it--Valvtronic exhaust, Vorsteiner wheels, high-kick spoiler, lowering springs, window tint, a couple other carbon bits.

The coupe is strictly a street car at the moment. Although-----it might get some light track duty in the not too distant future. Gotta get those old AP's on the coupe before that can happen!

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

That baffled pan slonik sells looks pretty cool although it's expensive. It's just a shame you can't get the DCT to behave itself. Hopefully you'll solve the issue!

Cheers!

That Slon-Workshop DCT pan looks very cool. I knew about the SSP pan, but had not heard of this one. I like that oil pump suction spacer. Thanks for the heads up!

[roastbeef]

Oh man, in the best color, too. <3

[BOOF-M3]

Too funny, derbo has been talking about dogbone build for awhile now. For me to be mentioned in the same breath as SYT_Shadow and OP in this thread is an honor. I started reading along last night and can't wait to get to the end.

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: *sigh* what’s with all the dirt? *double sigh* what do you mean my car is too loud?

I went to Laguna Seca last week with Speed District. They put on a nice day as usual. Josh aims to please!

I was hoping to put down some good laps since I had good tires and the weather was good and the car count was light. But, in the end, the dirty track was inconsistent and making me nervous, so I was braking carefully, not assertively. I had tested some hard braking early in the day and my efforts were NOT rewarded. The track was quite slippery. When a track feels off like that, my internal mental nannies kick in and then it’s really difficult for me to push hard.....even later in the day, I'm wary.....

And when I say Laguna Seca was dirty, I mean there was dirt everywhere right from the get-go—berms, apexes, braking zones, middle of the track, hot pit. And a lot of the dirt seemed stuck to the track all day long---like it was mud that dried on the track, instead of dirt that was blown onto the track or dragged onto the track by a car returning to the pavement. I'd never seen Laguna Seca so dirty. Is that dirt normal in the Winter? And why couldn't/didn't they clean it? Laguna Seca is a world-class facility, but on Friday, it looked like Chuckwalla after one of their famous desert sand storms......

Here's a few pix comparing the berms from Friday to the berms in August 2017. The top half of each photo is from August and the bottom half is from Friday. I mean c'mon----you can't even see what color the berms are....how are you supposed trust those?








And then there’s the 90db sound limit. I haven’t had any issues with the sound limit in a few years since I’ve been using a fresh OEM rear section exhaust that I only run at Laguna. Well, first session, I was blowing the sound limit when going full throttle up the Turn 5 hill. C’mon……I was here last August full throttle up the hill without issue. But on Friday, if I tried to go up Turn 5 at full speed, the Meatball flag would come out immediately and I was blowing 93.4db and 93.7db. Some guys who are familiar with the recent history at the track were saying that the track recalibrated the sound-checking system and now many more people blow sound. Bummer.


Ok, enough griping. It was a fun day—very social, lots of open track. And I still ran some ok laps---ran a 1:35.3---1 second off my best. So, I figured we could take this opportunity to look at an AIM chart and study it a little bit. Let’s look at my braking behavior on Friday, along with the time delta between my Friday fast lap and my August personal best. Did my lap time suffer due to my braking? Where did I lose or gain time on my personal best?

The following AIM chart compares my fast lap from last August (1:34.3 in Blue) and my fast lap on Friday (1:35.3 in Red). The top chart shows my GPS speeds. The middle section is the brake presses. You can see how far down the track I press the brakes and how hard I press the brakes. The bottom chart is the time difference between the two laps. As the Red line moves up, the Red lap is getting slower compared to the Blue lap. As it moves down, the Red lap is getting faster compared to the Blue lap.

Starting with the middle chart, looking at how I pressed the brakes——in every braking zone on Friday, I braked early. The Red lines from Friday start to the left of the Blue lines from August, meaning that I was braking earlier on Friday.

Before diving into the chart too much, I want to take a moment to explain how I look at net losses or gains over a complete section versus just looking at a single moment and dwelling on that. When comparing one lap to another, I don't think it's fair just to look at a braking zone and say, "look how much time I lost when I got on the brakes early here." It’s more involved than that because getting on the brakes early usually means that you can also get onto the gas early, so the time it looks like you may have lost might be gained back by getting on the gas early. So I like to look at, not just the braking into the corner, but also the acceleration all the way until the next braking zone. That way, you can see the complete effect of all your actions. I think this is a more accurate way to judge overall gains and losses of time.



One other setup note: The car was accelerating very well on Friday in the 55ºF air. In August, it was 77ºF during my fast lap. This helped cover some of my early braking woes as we’ll see in Turn 4.

-At 840 ft when I touch the brakes on the Red lap - The red lap was actually 0.1 sec faster at the braking zone of Turn 2 thanks to the cool air and great acceleration. But I get on the brakes early (90 feet earlier than the Blue lap) and the time delta of the red lap shoots up, and by the braking zone of Turn 3 at 2100 ft, my net loss is 0.5 sec. Argh! Now if you were just to consider the braking zone of Turn 2 by itself, I lost 0.85 sec, but then I gained back 0.35 sec on the earlier acceleration out of Turn 2. You could also say I over-slowed for Turn 2, but it was not grippy there, so that slowing may have been necessary due to a not ideal track surface.

-Turn 3 - At 2100 feet, I again press early and by Turn 4 braking zone, I've lost another 0.1 sec.

-Turn 4 - Again, I press early, but the strong acceleration in the cool air covers that by Turn 5. No loss. Again, another over-slowing here too.

-Turn 5 - at 4400 ft, I braked early and too hard. Over-slowed the car. On the speed chart at the top, you can see the Red line dips below the Blue line at 5000 ft. From 4500 ft of Turn 5 to the braking zone of the Corkscrew at 7400 ft, I lost 0.3 sec due to starting from a slower speed and babying the throttle. It would have been even worse in warmer air.

-Corkscrew up to Turn 10 braking zone - I was experimenting with different lines going into Turn 9 and it seemed to pay off. I actually did better here than last August and picked up about 0.25 sec by the braking zone of Turn 10, but then I brake early and too much.....blah....just no confidence in the pavement....or the car…..or the tires…..or myself I guess….hehe

-Turn 11 - This zone wasn't dirty, but I just wasn't going to try to kill it here because I hadn't been killing it anywhere else, so I lost another 0.3 sec by the time I got to the finish line. In looking at it, I'd say the pavement is getting wavy in Turn 11. In the montage below, you can see the change in the pavement since last August. You could see the uneven tire markings just slightly last year, but on Friday the undulations in the pavement from the tire markings were quite clear. This also did not encourage me to brake really late going into Turn 11. When looking at minimum speeds in Turn 11, in the top left corner of the chart where it shows mins and maxes, you can see that I actually picked up 2mph at the apex of Turn 11 (38.3 vs 40.3mph). That's cool!



So, looking at this chart confirms that my conservative approach to braking resulted in most of the time losses. No surprises there.

(It's also worth noting that I was braking harder on Friday in most places. This seems to be in line with what I've been seeing with the new calipers on the front. (Although braking harder AND earlier is not the recipe for success......))

Unfortunately, I do not have any video from my 1:35.3 lap……my bumper GoPro has been shutting itself off and I somehow missed recording this particular session with my in-car GoPro…..*one more sigh*……


Regarding DCT shifting—I didn't have any shifting issues until 4PM when I was cresting the hill on the front straight, the car unweighted and I tried to shift into 6th and the car just freaked out. The gear icon came on and this time it would only shift into odd-number gears......at Buttonwillow, it was even-numbered gears.....hehe....ok whatever. It only happened that once. Given how well the shifting worked all day, I'm fairly convinced the clutches are still ok. I may consider something like the Slon-Workshop pan. I like their suction extender idea. I see they have a group buy going. We'll see.

So, it was an interesting day out there on Friday. Glad I went. But seriously Laguna Seca…….what’s with all the dirt?

[SYT_Shadow]

It would be so interesting if the slonik pan fixes your issues

What's keeping you from doing the ssp pan? Personally i'm worried it hangs too low

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

It would be so interesting if the slonik pan fixes your issues

What's keeping you from doing the ssp pan? Personally i'm worried it hangs too low

To be honest, this wasn't on my radar until a couple weeks ago when the car was really struggling at Buttonwillow.

I haven't done enough homework to know how low the SSP pan sits. Do you know how low it is?

The Slon-Workshop one does look interesting with that extender. They claim it doesn't require any cutting or removing of the underbody cover.

Are you considering the Slon-Workshop group buy? There's only one name in on it so far.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by dogbone

To be honest, this wasn't on my radar until a couple weeks ago when the car was really struggling at Buttonwillow.

I haven't done enough homework to know how low the SSP pan sits. Do you know how low it is?

The Slon-Workshop one does look interesting with that extender. They claim it doesn't require any cutting or removing of the underbody cover.

Are you considering the Slon-Workshop group buy? There's only one name in on it so far.

I don't know how low it sits, but the answer is likely 'too low'

Oem is 1L
GIntani which we know is too low is 2.65L
SSP is 2L. They say you don't have to remove the felt tranny guard. They say the exhaust hangs lower which does little to relax me as i've scraped the exhaust many times
Slon is 1.8L

Slon says you don't need a gasket which makes it very attractive, but who has tested it?

I like Slon, but the GP price still seems too expensive. I bought the viton seal from SSP but not the pan.
As I'm running RE71's most of the time I have zero issues with the DCT. This season I'm moving to R1's so perhaps after an hour something creeps up.
You're running much harder, with stickier tires and aero, so I don't think I'll reach the same limits as you.


Thinking a bit more, this is only 500 more than i'm paying for the ssp viton seal so it seems like a no brainer

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

I don't know how low it sits, but the answer is likely 'too low'

Oem is 1L
GIntani which we know is too low is 2.65L
SSP is 2L. They say you don't have to remove the felt tranny guard. They say the exhaust hangs lower which does little to relax me as i've scraped the exhaust many times
Slon is 1.8L

Slon says you don't need a gasket which makes it very attractive, but who has tested it?

I like Slon, but the GP price still seems too expensive. I bought the viton seal from SSP but not the pan.
As I'm running RE71's most of the time I have zero issues with the DCT. This season I'm moving to R1's so perhaps after an hour something creeps up.
You're running much harder, with stickier tires and aero, so I don't think I'll reach the same limits as you.


Thinking a bit more, this is only 500 more than i'm paying for the ssp viton seal so it seems like a no brainer

Quoting myself:

I've cancelled the SSP Viton gasket and will put my name on the Slonik group buy

The DCT is an incredible transmission and we're basically beating the shit out of it. Everything we can do to keep it healthy seems like a smart plan


Join the GB as well!!

[warp10]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

Quoting myself:

I've cancelled the SSP Viton gasket and will put my name on the Slonik group buy

The DCT is an incredible transmission and we're basically beating the shit out of it. Everything we can do to keep it healthy seems like a smart plan


Join the GB as well!!

Is the group by active?

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by warp10

Is the group by active?

Yes! Hurry!!

www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?p=22916696

[dogbone]

Ok, I'm willing to go in on the group buy on the Slon-Workshop pan.

But I don't really want to wait for 10 people. The 5 people price is fine with me.

If Warp10 and I go in, that's 4 people.

I PM'd Slon-Workshop. They said there's no end date to the group buy......I don't want to wait too long for some indefinite period of time.

Are you guys willing to get to 5 guys and the $950 price? Maybe we need Slon to put an end date on it.

[inTgr8r]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Ok, I'm willing to go in on the group buy on the Slon-Workshop pan.

But I don't really want to wait for 10 people. The 5 people price is fine with me.

If Warp10 and I go in, that's 4 people.

I PM'd Slon-Workshop. They said there's no end date to the group buy......I don't want to wait too long for some indefinite period of time.

Are you guys willing to get to 5 guys and the $950 price? Maybe we need Slon to put an end date on it.

Sorry, but it's too soon for me to buy with so much else in the works.

I agree re the end date.
From my experience with GBs , you need deadlines or people just keep putting off the decision.

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by admranger

dogbone - back in the crustaceous period when I raced, I had a temp sensor in the transmission of my stock class E36M3. Trans fluid temps would routinely hit 300 deg F. Only way I could solve the problem was to put black electrical tape over the gauge...

Change your transmission fluid early and often.

that's like before jurassic period velociraptors!

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Ok, I'm willing to go in on the group buy on the Slon-Workshop pan.

But I don't really want to wait for 10 people. The 5 people price is fine with me.

If Warp10 and I go in, that's 4 people.

I PM'd Slon-Workshop. They said there's no end date to the group buy......I don't want to wait too long for some indefinite period of time.

Are you guys willing to get to 5 guys and the $950 price? Maybe we need Slon to put an end date on it.

I'm not in a hurry but I'll support the 5 people price

I didn't see your name in the thread!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

I'm not in a hurry but I'll support the 5 people price

I didn't see your name in the thread!

Ok, I'm in on the Group Buy for the Slon-Workshop pan. The list is up to 7 people already. Four of them are in for the 10-buyer price, 2 are in for 5, and one is unknown.

Can we get three more people in? Step right up!! hahaha!

[kyippee]

Ok now I have FOMO, I took myself off the list as I can't wait for the part. Bought at a single-item price. I hope you guys get the deal!!!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by kpewpew

Ok now I have FOMO, I took myself off the list as I can't wait for the part. Bought at a single-item price. I hope you guys get the deal!!!

Wait....what? I didn't see you on the list. Ack! You would make 8. We would only be 2 people away! haha! Hang tight!