so the car is basicly ready HOWEVER is completley untested and what i mean is all i have done is drive it about 5 miles on the road since ownership. The car is an E30 M60b40 manual 6spd. and the guy i bought it off was a bit of a pleb, his welding was shocking.. although thats been rectified what im asking is what can i EXPECT to go wrong on the day, never skidded a BMW but always see lots at skid days with bonnets up and steam coming out...lol... the car does sound healthy and fires up straight away everytime but i cant trust everything this guy said to me after seeing his welding on the old exhaust... ive fitted a water temp gauge as stock one didnt work and plumbed it into a temp home made adapter (top rad hose) im trying to gather a small list of what items to take with me that could fail "mechanicly/drivetrain", unfortunatley i will NOT have anymore time to test the car (maybe a short drive for fuel) so am taking with me whatever i can to keep me on track... its a long drive and dont want to waste the awsome track time as im only coming for the sunday i really dont want one practice lap then find something ssmall has failed and thats my day over, doesnt help i suppose pembrey is middle of no where so finding something quick may not be an option... on my list so far; freshly welded diff drive shafts new top rad hose ???? ???? this may sound like a bit of a "newbW thread and i guess in a way it is as im coming from jap stuff and never had one failure in 2yrs of skids, in 2 different cars thanks in advance ps gaynor is you see this soon enough im sure you can fill that list quickly enough
Spair drive belts for water pump might might be a good shout (I'm getting a spair on monday) and coolant hose & clips. To be honest with you, there are a fair few BMW guys at Pembrey and all are prety willing to help where they can! Not sure how long a diff change would take, but it might take longer to change the diff than the morning drifting which would probably put you out the final!
never done a diff on an e30 but have on an s13... with 2 folks could be done in an hour all swapped over i reckon
Has it got fresh oil? The m60 gets reet tappy if the oils not decent and fresh. Besides that cooling is your main concern. As long as all that's checked and good you should be ok with your spare shafts and odds and sods. Have a good Listen for any timing chain rattle, I'm not sure if this is just for m62s but duff tensioners are the only killers I can think of.
check plugs. replace even if not sure. £20 for 8. plug in a scanner, check for fault codes and delete any. check water temp reading to ECU reading on scanner too! im sure they read about 10* different in the top hose of one of these. the stock gauge sender is right next to the ECU temp sender. best place to take reading from furrrr sureeee also worth replacing the fan belt, and checking water pump for play whilst in there.
e30 is pitta to get out due to subframe design, get car tested on private land or put some road stress into it instead recording movies how v8 sound lol
My E36 has steamed before at DWYB. Caused by old brittle plastic mountings on the OEM rad, where the coolant hose mounts. Plastic just gave up and hose popped off pissing coolant all over the engine. Spent the rest of the day bodging it on and bleeding the system, NLT for it to keep popping off. Since sorting with a new rad. Mine has not overheated once, and its running all standard cooling. As mentioned Plastic Water pumps give up eventually, but that's on all 6cyl engines, not sure about the V8's.
My e30 has a couple of dirty big electric fans and 535 rad which sorted the cooling right out. The diff is my main weakness, broken quite a few now