E30 S65 powered chromie

[Karan]

Continued with engine positioning today and aligning the gearbox to the centre bearing.
Have managed to fit the bonnet on just at this height.
Was very time consuming to make sure everything Bob on and to allow clearance for steering rack pinion











More pics updates tmro eve hopefully with mounts completed!

[Karan]

Main structure of engine mounts completed today
Will be braced further so don't take the mickey out of the design just yet

[Rav335uk]

Nice, looking forward to this

[B7]

Karan comes back BIG time!!!!

Nice work that man.

[steve_k]

could this be the GUG mk2??

keep the updates coming

[glenn]

excellent.
good to see you wielding spanners at another e30 project karan.

I know someone who can flash the dme for you....if you wanted to do away with most of the other modules.

[Karan]

Thanks Glenn!

[Karan]

Had a couple of hours this morning so did the Beginnings of gearbox mounting

[Karan]

[Karan]

So I've been planning the exhaust and ordering various bits and bobs.
Made a start on some of the tig welding for the v bands.... Takes a bit of practice to get the eye in but my tig is getting better every time now and stainless always looks pretty!

Here's some pics anyhow

[Theo]

will it do a wheelie?

[Karan]

I hope so!!!

Today I had some Help from my brother and we came up with a good idea for the subframe,
Rather than make a whole new cross section we decided to just reverse the subframe and this way it would only require notching and boxing in, so we got to work

All unnecessary brackets removed from frame, then notched out and lower engine bracket tacked in place- checked on car



The lower engine brackets were then all boxed in nicely
















So need to reinforce and box in the main cross section bit

I've also cut the prop and tacked it together with a e60 530d front flange on there. This will be sent this week for proper retube and balancing.

[Karan]

So spent most of yday and today getting the rack position right and working out where the column should come through the bulkhead all whilst avoiding any complex changes to the manifold

We ended up with a combination of 1 series, e92 m3, and e30 joints. All connected with some 24mm Steel rod from a ps13 anti roll bar

[brettski]

Watching with interest good luck with it Karan!

[gooseygander110]

Looks awesome Deffo watching this

[Karan]

So on 31/4 we had a little baby boy so things obviously slowed down on this!
However he's been in the garage with me and we've been at it again.



In the downtime I had much pondering was done and it was decided to M3 body the car. I won't go into how I'm going to do this just yet but it I'll be predominantly carbon/Kevlar panels bonded to the steel skeleton.

Also with a view to the sheet metal work coming up I purchased a bead roller



Which I will be motorising with a foot controller

I also built a pretty chunky sheet metal brake





Purchased a press which I should have done years ago really
I needed to get the subframe and diff mounted to allow building the exhaust.

Old beam bushes out.


New Delrin ones in



Front 5 stud conversion bits from Epytec in Germany allow use of e36/46 front hubs



LSD internals to be built into e30 case using 4 Porsche LSD plates, 2 way circa 80% lockup like my brother has on his

[Karan]

Couple more hours today! I needed to triple check the gearbox/engine diff alignment to prevent any vibrations from the prop.
Got an empty diff casing onto the beam but I didn't have a diff bush to hand so I tigd on an ally plate to locate the diff bolt. This was then fitted to the car.





I checked the angle of the gbox flange to diff input flange. These need to be as close to parallel as possible to avoid vibration. The difference was 0.5deg, happy days.

Now I could get to work on the shorter position. This needed to be about 50mm rearwards frombthe stock location. I'm using a simple PMC shifter as I like the neat look. The neatest solution I came to was to make a new section out of 18gauge sheet I had. This would cover the stock hole and once welded and blended in look nice and smooth









Gonna keep chipping away at it!

[Karan]

Few hours today

First I finished the shifter plate. Mig welded then ground down and filleted smooth









Then the obvious next thing to deal with seemed to be the tunnel. I made a rough template with some cardboard



Then transferred this to 18 gauge sheet in 3 sections and bent the flanges to the floor and bulkhead. These will be drilled and plug welded but the join at top and side of the tunnel will be overlapped and welded like the shifter thingy was and smoothed in the same way.
I'm just using this as a mock up piece which will be untracked and flattened. Then the final one will be made out of one piece rather than 3. I just couldn't get the cardboard accurate enough so had to do it this way. I also didn't have a sheet big enough so will need to order some.










Prior to bending I will bead roll with a rectangular 2x6mm die to give the strength in the following design:



The motivation is strong at the moment so hope to plug away a little every evening

[gareth]

Kids do kinda slow progress on projects down a tad, so extra kudos for making headway with it!

[jimmyspeed]

good work, i was gonna moan at you for the lack of preparation (cleaning) on your ali welding but saw it was only a jig !

but i reckon the neatness of your stainless weld would benefit from larger rods. I'm not saying there gonna brake, they're pretty good. Though there is some undercutting and close stacking (top photo left hand size) where you can see lots off feeding.

i don't know the size of the weld so its hard to tell what your using but if your using 1m maybe try a 1.2 or if using a 1.2 try a 1.6

the 1.6 takes a bit of get used too, as you need to keep it close and warm so it melts freely but it makes for a less frantic feed and bigger fuller ripples

an if you didn't know stainless warps like a mofo so try and heat sink or clamp the face to a block where possible. We often airline sheet panels and spray with water to try keep flattish

[Karan]

good work, i was gonna moan at you for the lack of preparation (cleaning) on your ali welding but saw it was only a jig !

but i reckon the neatness of your stainless weld would benefit from larger rods. I'm not saying there gonna brake, they're pretty good. Though there is some undercutting and close stacking (top photo left hand size) where you can see lots off feeding.

i don't know the size of the weld so its hard to tell what your using but if your using 1m maybe try a 1.2 or if using a 1.2 try a 1.6

the 1.6 takes a bit of get used too, as you need to keep it close and warm so it melts freely but it makes for a less frantic feed and bigger fuller ripples

an if you didn't know stainless warps like a mofo so try and heat sink or clamp the face to a block where possible. We often airline sheet panels and spray with water to try keep flattish

Thanks I was using 1mm filler 316l for the pipe
I'll try some 1.2

I've not been using TIG for very long and don't do it often so need more practise.... also easy to get out of practise with long gaps in between stints of work.

[jimmyspeed]

No worries - anything round always makes tig a bit more challenging !

It does take years to get it all together, and practice like you say is the key. Especially the more difficult stuff because you don't learn as much on easy stuff with nice consistent gaps

If you don't have a foot pedal but do have a pulse setting give it a go. It makes it easier to control the heat on thin metal when you cant back it off via a pedal.

[Supafly]

Hi Karan,

Great progress so far and an amazing build. Congratulations on the new baby, I have two now and all work on my cars has ground to a halt.

How are you planning to do the front hubs/brakes?

I've got the epytec adapters too and I want to run 16" style 5's without having the front wheels poke out of the arches.

Ideally I would like to run e46 328i brakes all round to keep a balanced system but the height of the front disc is 16.5 mm greater than the e30 disc. E46 m3 fronts unbalances the brakes leaving approx 70/30 split f/r.

I've been looking to try and find measurements for the e30 vs e46 wheel bearing but can't find an overall height anywhere.

I plan to use z4 rear hubs and adapters from 'ngampleh'...

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthr ... ost4810298

Have you crossed this bridge yet?