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08-05-2015, 08:12 PM | #23 |
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The Hotchkis bar is a good question - I did quite a bit of research on this topic, as the E9X and E8X bars are supposed to be all interchangeable, but there is little research on the topic. I have used Hotchkis bars before and always been impressed with their quality - I also like that they include brackets as well as bushings and endlinks with all their bars.
I bought the front and rear combo which is designed for the E9X, not the 1 series. With that said, the front is universally understood to be interchangeable between the 1 and 3, it's the rear that seems to cause more issue. To be clear, the Hotchkis 22834R E9X 3 Series Rear Swaybar bolted right onto the 128i with no issues whatsoever. I will install the matching front when I do the coilovers, it just made more sense to do the rear at the same time as doing the subframe bushings and LSD swap. Mark
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08-05-2015, 08:18 PM | #24 | |
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Regarding the LSD, this is what I wrote in another thread:
Quote:
I will say that this is a very aggressive spec and for an autocross car where rotation is key, this is in my opinion what I want, but if I were build a track car, I would consider less steep of a ramp so that it didn't go so open on coast. What that would accomplish is more stability under braking and less likelihood of the car trying to rotate. A well setup car would respond to trailbraking in the desired way but would be a bit more stable while throwing it around. The helical/Torsen style (ie a Quaife or the mFactory) is a great option for a street car, but is very seldom the optimal for race because once you are really throwing the car around, it's easy to unweight a corner to the point that you lose traction on that wheel and at that point, the torsen exhibits the same characteristic as an open differential that you are trying to avoid - sends all the power to the wheel with NO grip. I really like a helical for a front wheel drive but it would never be my choice for a real competition RWD chassis. With that said, they are better behaved on the street and require no maintenance outside an occasional fluid change, there are no clutches to wear out, so this is definitely a consideration too. Mark
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08-10-2015, 12:14 AM | #26 |
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Front Suspension Install
Finally, some progress! Today, the goal was to tackle the front end of the car to install the Hotchkis swaybar and TC Kline coilovers. I forgot to take a photo of the Hotchkis accessories, but they are top notch - most bars give you bushings, but Hotchkis actually gives you new brackets, because they (along with the bushing) are fitted with grease fittings so you can grease your bushings without removing them. The little things go a long way - these parts are top quality and I am always happy to pay a bit more to fit them to my cars. Stock 128i non-sport on top, Hotchkis 22834F below In addition to the bar, it was finally time to fit some front coilovers. Obviously this photo is not set for the car yet, but all the goodies are here - Vorshlag camber plates, TC Kline DA coilovers, and Hyperco 350lb / 7in springs. To clear the tire, I set the top of the perch to exactly 8" above the knuckle and it should just clear the tire nicely, 8 1/8" will give a bit of extra comfort but is towards the very top of the adjustment on these particular shocks. Fortunately, not too much preload at that height so should be sufficient droop travel. The trick to racecars is not to be good with tools, just have lots of friends who are... my good buddies (and BMW mechanics) Jeremy and Kyle are on hand with long prybars (what a pain getting those front struts out!) and lots of jokes about my abilities... Waiting on some spacers still and then will have the wheels on. The rear is going to be done next week and then off for alignment and corner weighting. It's a little funny driving around with the rake, but it ironically doesn't look that different! Setting my ride height based purely on tire height, my fender to ground clearance went from 26 1/2" to 25 5/16" with maybe 25" being possible without interference from the wheels/tires - will have to test once the spacers are here. On to the next task! Mark
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08-10-2015, 12:15 AM | #27 | |
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Strut Tower Woes
How about two posts in one day? After installing my front coilovers and swaybar today, I came across this: Shame on me for not thinking about this in advance but now the problem is immediately obvious... my rebound adjustment is literally inaccessible with the OEM strut tower brace - an unacceptable outcome moving forward. As some of you know, I am preparing my 1 series to SCCA's STX class so while I know I will be replacing or modifying this brace, there are some rules to consider. Quote:
My requirements for a strut tower brace: 1) 3-point style 2) 3-bolt/full circle mounting to each strut tower 3) Complete access to the top of the shock Options I identified: 1) Mason Engineering (Steel $550, Aluminum $600) 2) HPA Custom / M3 Based ($452) 3) OEM BMW 1M ($248) The Mason engineering option looks to be a robust and well engineered solution and is a contender, but at $600 for the aluminum version I think that's well above what I am prepared to spend for somewhat of a trivial upgrade. As far as I can tell, the HPA solution was introduced before the 1M part was available off the shelf, but now that it has, I have a hard time seeing the value in paying $452. It uses the same strut tower mounts and caps that are used in the 1M package for about $125, so the remaining $327 is for the two "arms" and the attachment point to the firewall. I notice that the HPA solution has slots in the arms which is somewhat similar to the slots in the end of the 1M arms, I’d really prefer if both options had drilled holes. I am not sure this is an issue, but from a design perspective I would prefer to have fixed holes even if only for "theoretical" purposes. On the other hand - the firewall mount looks to be quite a bit more robust on the HPA/E9X M3 than the 1M OEM option, but I am not sure that this is necessary, and in addition it may require cutting some plastic, etc for installation per their website. On that basis, I am going to proceed with the 1M solution for my car for the combination of OEM fit/finish and price effectiveness. 1M Strut Tower Brace Complete Part list: Strut Tower Bar Driver’s Side - 51618055091 Strut Tower Bar Passenger’s Side - 51618055092 Strut Bar Driver’s Side - 51618051973 Strut Bar Passenger Side - 51618051974 Firewall Bolt - 07146954965 Mounting Stud (Qty 4) - 51717898374 Locknut (Qty 4) - 31316769731 I priced the whole kit at ECS tuning at $175.59 excluding the caps to cover the strut towers which are just extra weight and something I have to remove if I want to adjust my shocks. They are however super inexpensive if you would prefer to have them. Ordering parts this week, keep everybody tuned! Cheers, Mark
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08-10-2015, 12:54 AM | #28 | |
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08-10-2015, 09:34 AM | #29 |
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I just unbolt that stupid bolt, shove the bar off to the side and adjust my rebound with tools.
Also, what's that nut ontop of the camber plate? Seems like you're going to sacrifice some camber because of that |
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08-10-2015, 12:16 PM | #30 |
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I have the HPA strut tower setup, since I started down the STU rabbit hole before the 1M came to market.
It's just sitting around doing nothing, I'm certainly open for offers. One thing to note on that OEM choice, unless something changed between the 1m version and the M3 version for the piece that sits on top of the strut tower, those 3 nuts that go through that piece to mate to the studs are special. They have an extended sleave to get more threads to engage. I'm sure folks have figured that out, etc. or found it not to be an issue somewhere. You can see the 6 sleeved nuts in the HPA pictures. It doesn't look like your parts list includes these 6 bolts (or they are included within the other parts? Usually oem parts don't do this...) |
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08-11-2015, 04:30 AM | #31 | |
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6 / 51717895241 / Hex Nut, M8 |
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08-13-2015, 09:31 AM | #33 |
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Definitely not - the car doesn't even have the wheels/tires yet - everything is taking absolutely forever. With a little luck spacers will show up tomorrow so will get the wheels/tires mounted up, still need to do the rear suspension next week and in theory it's ready for its first test. With that said, the front suspension is giving me some troubles - the adjusters do not seem to be turning at all. I am still digging into it - I left TCK a voicemail 3 days ago and still no call back...
Mark
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08-14-2015, 04:58 PM | #34 |
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08-15-2015, 04:18 AM | #35 |
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08-15-2015, 10:47 AM | #36 |
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It's all good man. My buddy and I actually did an autocross in his 128i on brand new PSSs a few weeks ago and it only took one (hot) day on smooth asphalt to show some wear on his tires. They seem to be awesome street tires but they aren't the fast autocross tire and yet somehow they seem to wear like one...
Mark
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09-12-2015, 07:11 PM | #37 |
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Front Suspension RE-Install
Let me tell you, if they gave out trophies for being behind schedule, there would be no need for me to actually compete at autocross. The combination of an incredibly busy season at work and numerous setbacks with parts availability for the car has been frustrating to say the least, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting a little closer. As I had bought this suspension used, I was assured it was a complete 1 series setup - it appears the camber plates are a hodgepodge of E36 (!) and E8X/E9X parts and all very old in the scheme of Vorshlag's offerings. When we did the initial install, we ran into an issue where the stock strut tower braces interfered with the top of the shocks which made adjustment impossible and worse yet, physically made contact so it was extremely noisy and generally not satisfactory. With some help from our friends at Vorshlag, we were able to order some parts to retrofit this old style to the newer style bushing setup. Unfortunately to fix this, of course that meant undoing all the work from last week... at least we had a hoist this week. Once we pulled them out, we retrofitted one strut and compared the two: As you can see, you can now actually access the adjuster and it is a much lower profile overall solution. The assembly is slightly different in stack height but it's close enough to be virtually moot. At the same time, when we reinstalled them in the car, we added the 1M strut brace. It is worth noting that this retrofit got us vertical clearance and is a much cleaner and superior solution but did not yield any extra camber as the diameter of that nut is basically the same as the overheight "before" top nut. You can also use the factory covers if you like for a clean looking "stealth" installation if you do not plan to regularly adjust your shocks: Then we went to install the rears... and found that we did not have all the necessary bushings to install the rear shocks. ARRGH! It is just a never ending cycle of $50 in shipping to overnight $15 worth of hardware to Canada. So for now, I have a "hot rod" with some epic rake: The goal is to run our first autocross on Sunday the 20th, but it will be a mad rush to get it ship shape before then. We need to figure out what hardware we are missing and receive it, install, align the car, and ideally flush diff fluid and brakes while we are at it. Oh well, without goals, where would we be... Until next time! Mark
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09-12-2015, 09:01 PM | #38 |
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Well, at least you're making progress! I feel you on the shipping charges - I've had numerous small orders this month for really minor things (wires, bulbs, etc.) that I didn't think far enough ahead on to consolidate.
The worst though was this one time when I ordered these obscure T-hooks that slide into the car's lower frame and allow the car to be lashed down to a trailer. I was getting ready for a cross-country move the next day, and the way I thought I was going to secure the car was NOT going to work. I got the hooks from Bimmerworld in VA (I lived in CA at the time) and was able to select "Next Day Air Early AM" as a delivery option. It was stupid how fast they shipped - I think they arrived on my doorstep within 12 hours. But man, I paid through the nose for it. The things we do for these cars. Oh well, live and learn. Anyway, good luck with your build! |
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09-26-2015, 05:26 AM | #39 |
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Strut tower caps = looks good but are impediment to making adjustments. Nice progress. Sorting out the right plate configuration is definitely worthwhile.
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09-26-2015, 10:01 PM | #40 |
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I've managed to change my strut tops (once), springs (twice) and so on, without taking the entire strut out of the car.
- Loosen the top nut of the strut whilst everything is together (and car is in the air) - Support LCA - Remove top nut, carefully remove strut top/spring (might have to lower the collars if on a long spring). - Fit top plate into car (finger tight) - Fit strut nut - Tighten shit carefully using two people - Adjust height/camber - Follow standard torquing process **do at own risk, this worked for me when working with minimal tools and facilities** |
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09-28-2015, 01:35 PM | #41 |
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Mark,
The switch to the 1M strut brace is what enabled you to adjust the shocks on top, correct? Just wanted to confirm before I make an identical purchase to create space for my JRZs adjustment. |
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09-29-2015, 01:22 AM | #42 |
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Yes exactly. I ordered mine from ECS Tuning.
Mark
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09-29-2015, 07:05 AM | #44 |
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