Project GRM Challenge E30: 09.11

I haven't updated in a LONG time. A ton has happened since the last update, so I'm going to try and keep things on the correct timeline... here goes.

Back on May11, we received our custom valved shocks from Bilstein. I assembled them with Ground Control struts, some drilled rotors, Hawk HT10 race pads and stainless steel brake lines.

Mark Massa from ground control provided me with the new front springs some stickers and a cool bottle opener.

While they were out i went ahead and cut off the brake dust shield to try and keep the brakes cool while on the track.

Unfortunately I received my Cometic metal head gasket AFTER assembling the stroked M20 for the magazine shoot... so over the course of the next few weeks, I pulled the head off..

Installed the metal gasket, and slapped the head back on the car.

John and Ben were able to source some cheap high-flow injectors at the junkyard. I went ahead and modified them to fit the fuel rail and prepared them for install.

Other than the head gasket, another "insurance" item on my to-do list was adding a Spal fan I had picked up at the junkyard a few years ago. I mounted it up and it works great. Its wired to a switch on the dash.

Another issue we had had with the car at the 2010 GRM CHALLENGE was uncontrollable boost. It wasn't a bad thing when the car only needs to last 2 days, but now that we were prepping for the UTCC, things needed to be kept under control. So, while everything was apart I added a wastegate flange to the turbo spacer plate we had made last year.

A pic of the new flange mounted to the HX35.

I also had to figure out a way to keep the stock wastegate flap from opening, so i drilled and tapped a small hole on the exhaust housing, and using a small piece of steel and a bolt locked the internal wastegate closed.

My next mini-project was to create a dump tube for the wastegate. Basically this directs all the extra HOT turbo gasses underneath the car. I took some scrap tubing john had lying around and i tack welded this together.

Once i knew it would fit, i threw it on the welding table and did all the final welding.

In order to keep the engine bay temps in check, I wrapped it with heat resistant header wrap.

Its a lot closer to the turbo oil drain than I would have liked , but I was running out of time to finish things up. I wrapped the drain with a Spark plug sleeve and hoped that the temps would stay cool.

Right around this time, I received the used Goodyear Race slicks I purchased online. I was still waiting on my Diamond Racing 16x10 race wheels... more on that later.

Its all in and at this point she's almost ready for the 2011 Ultimate Track Car Challenge!

Jay and Jason stopped by to lend a hand.

A few days later Ben and I did some tuning of stock Motronic... or I should say, Ben did the tuning while I drove, watched and asked a lot of questions.