I've been doing a bit of research on the diff coolers. I checked my original order with Z1 and the LSD came with Motul 75W90 oil, but looks like there's 75W140 oil available for competition use. Any idea is that in itself would keep the diff from overheating and spraying out?

 

worth a try! im running the OS Giken fluid and never had any issues

 

Nope I was wrong, actually I'm running Motul 75W140 already. Oh well, all the bits for cooler install should be here tomorrow.

 

nice, post up some pics of the install!

 

I think I have everything I need....

 

nice setup. interested in the install pics. I'll prob be doing this soon as well.

 

heres what my buddy did for his e36

 

Yeah, I saw this bimmer kit. I'd rather not have another heat source in the cabin, it's hot enough in there as is. I'll mount the cooler under the car, but might mount the pump in the trunk

 

Hello.
Just binged your whole thread. some good info. I bought a 2004 Touring last July, put in solid subframe, solid diff bushings, spherical bushings, Z1 adjustable arms, a lot of similar parts to yours. I'm not very good at suspension tuning, yet. Installed Tein S-Tech springs/shocks. Enkei 18x10.5 with NT01 275/35 tires. I ran 2.14 at Sonoma last month. Not great by any stretch but my personal best so far.

I was going to ask your advice but I think I just need to have someone drive my car and give me some feedback on the setup. still learning but I've only been doing this since last summer. 9 track days.

One thing that's holding me back in California is smog so there's not a lot I could do with the engine or exhaust. I just bought a 2003 Track Edition already track prepped with Cusco coilovers, Nismo 1.5 LSD, Brembos, roll bar, CF hood, CF rear hatch, new CD009, JWT clutch. got a good deal on it. couldn't pass it up even though it was a bit premature...

reason I did is I want unlimited options for the trailered track car. I'm really looking forward to tearing into the 2003 and going all out. in the meantime I can enjoy the 2004 and keep it street legal. such is life out west...

Do you think the Tein suspension is a severe limitation at this point? I've only got nine track days under my belt so far. HPDE3. sure it's relatively cheap but decent for the street. if it's just no better than stock I should probably replace it.

 

Congrats on the purchases. I have no experience with Tein, so I can't give you any feedback there. With more experience and seat time you'll likely be able to answer this question yourself, you'll learn the characteristics of the car handling and you'll gain the ability to predict what adjustment will have what sort of effect on it. It does take time to get there, in the meantime I would stay away from any extreme mods that might make the car faster overall but will likely reduce the safety margin and the amount of useful feedback you receive when you drive it. R comps, slicks, super stiff suspension setups come to mind. I've been doing track days for over 15 years and hundreds of days and as you can probably tell from my writeups I'm still learning new things. Cheers!

 

good advice there, just get more time on track and you will see. nice setups!

 

TYVM for the advice. I'll stay out of the track prepped car until i know what I'm doing. 😆 learning a lot just from examining it...

 

Mounted the pump and the cooler. Decided to use the space between the subframe and the beam that runs under the trunk floor for the pump, it's a tight fit but keeps it out of the way of any possibly debris under the car. Added studs around the diff mount to mount the pump to. The cooler is hanging off mounts directly of the trunk beam, should be plenty of airflow while still being high enough up not to get hit by anything.



Next step is to cut the hoses to size and mount the fittings, then just one power wire going to the front and fluids and it'll be good to go.

 

Plumbing done. Diff drain -> cooler -> pump -> over the subframe -> diff upper port. The only issue I ran into is tha the axle speed sensor doesn't fit straight on now, might need to mount it slightly rotated and either redrill the mount hole or maybe modify the bracket.

 

nice! that turned out pretty good. hopefully it works keeping temps down. did you wire it to a relay?

 

I'm surprised that you ran into that trouble because I thought for sure the Z1 rear diff cover was already tapped for a diff cooler?

 

Haven't done the wiring yet. And yes, the Z1 cover does have ane extra port for the cooler return (in the 3rd pic you can see the return hose is attached to the top port and the lower port is the one used for filling and setting the level. Unfortuntely the speed sensor has a 90 degree wiring boot that goes straight up and runs directly into the hose coming out of the upper port. It fits fine if I rotote if off vertical a bit as you see in the pic, but then the attachment bolt doesn't align.

 

Is anyone planning on hitting Watkins or Pitt this season? I'd like to get back out to further venues this year, it's been a while since my car and/or my truck allowed me to travel further than VIR.

 

This might be an optional sensor on your base model Z. if you had the VDC button then you could turn off traction which uses the speed sensor. for a base model I believe it is only used for the odometer. (I'm not sure if that drives the speedometer as well). point being, if that track car will never see the street again....

 

No VDC, it's a base model. I don't care about the odometer, but I'm guessing the speedo probably runs off it too. I'd like to keep that.

Also, I wasn't happy with the clearance of the hose coming off the drain so I just ordered a banjo connector to replace it with, should give me much better clearance.