Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:I love people who make the best of what they have. Props to you.
Can you send provide a link and or pics for this please? "Rear IRS Balljoints deleted for Poly Inserts (they're unpredictable, multiple inserts that rotate freely around a single axis are not), Solara Front Strut Bar." I think you're saying it's basically a heim joint made of urethane and rubber, but not sure. It sounds interesting.
One note, I'd build some shielding around your intake, right now it's a hot air intake grabbing E36 M3ty hot air from the engine bay. Try some shielding around it and ducting from the wheel well to get cool air. Heck, you've already stripped the car so why not a NACA duct on the hood, still shielded.
I may not love the base car, but I love what you are doing.
Welcome.
Thanks for the welcome :)
The original ball joints were Heim joints embedded in a rubber insulator, which tended to deteriorate within 5000 miles. Once the rubber wasn't entirely holding the joint, the rear wheels would change toe angles whenever the joint took forces, because it would move into the missing rubber void and then or push the wheel that way, and upon changing directions I would get significant rear end instability.
What I did when replacing the rear with poly was shave down some extra poly sleeves with a hacksaw and utility knife, pressed out the heim joints with a 20 ton press, cleaned and lubed the bore, then spent 2 hours trying to press the shaved sleeved inserts into the far rear lateral arms. These inserts hold a 10 inch bolt which connects each side of both lateral arms (4 10" bolts total) and force the wheel to put the cornering forces through alternative suspension components and the tire. The result is the ability to swing the rear around without it being mushy and instable while decreasing dynamic rear slip angle slightly.
It would be beneficial to shield the intake for sure. I built a ghetto dryer duct intake which was under the front bumper fully exposed to air, and it was slightly stronger at high rpm, but the throttle response sucked compared to this DIY short ram intake, so directed flow ice box is an option but forcing intake air through a longer route is out. Although I don't think the intake air is actually hot, just warmish, the header wrap works and the y pipe is wrapped as well, plus the solara strut bar isnt made for this car so there is a quarter inch hood gap, and I've removed the windshield cowl weatherstripping, so there is 1-2 inches air can flow out of the bay over the windshield as well as the gap on the front and sides. and a 1 sq ft hole above the torque converter where it's sucking cool air from the wheel well and bottom of bay. Cooler air is always better though so I'll probably do that.
Just did some autocross runs balls to the wall today with the accusump and didn't even have valve train clacking a single time which is a relief. I'll post some videos with a build thread later, but I just wanna say for anyone who reads this thread that my engine didn't blow up when going to the g-force limit of 200TW tires with a heavily modded suspension while staying in first gear and above 5000 rpm for 60 seconds straight while flinging the car all over the runway like a madman. 6 times.
Edit: Here's a clip of 2 best runs, I need to learn to drive, and buy better shocks.