M42 Rotrex (for sale!) + track build

[robbo86]

And here's my white board of thoughts and daily jobs:

Simple idea, but f****** genius. Why did I not think of that or find that out at the <b>start</b> of my m40-m42 swap

[smith4130]

fair play... lovin the build....

[rix313]

Getting there, thanks for the support

Had a stab at the super charger bracket. Had a play with a thin sheet of aluminium and a piece of wood t make some sort of holder.

My idea is to have a 'square root symbol' shaped bracket to use the 4 OE alternator mounting points fot the charger to essentialy 'sit' on. The base of the 'stand' will have the out let of the charger sitting on it and subsequently have a pipe leading away from it to connect up to the FMIC pipe work. Here's some pictures any way:










My first random stab proved to be a bit too high as the pully hit my shiney new SFS hose :




With a bit of modification I lowered it a tad so it cleared the hose nicely:




There is bundles of room under neath for the pipe work to exit and connect to the rest:




I have an idea for an adaptor box to fit onto the back of the charger and 'convert' it to a 63mm hose to then attach the air filter, excuse the fact its lacking all meaning of the word technical but you get the idea (I hope):



A version of that random thing will the go here (all bit it with a bit of fettling):

[rix313]

I started my COP (Coil On Plug) conversion. Big thanks to Odbod for doing the buy on the mounting plates. For those unfamiliar I used coil packs from an M52.

To bolt them on I put a washer between the bolt and coil pack, coil pack and plate (to protect the coil pack and the plate) and a washer on the other side with a nylock to help secure it:






Plug 1 needs to be modified to allow it to fit in between the rocket cover:




Now the wiring was something I was really looking forward to

I marked the plugs according to their number (1,2,3,4) and set about connecting them up to see how they fitted. Was tight but not un-comfy to get them in there as standard, but wouldn’t really suit long term IMO.

So back came the cable wrap. Irritatingly coils 1 and 2 are furthest away but have the shortest wires.






I ran coil 1 over the top of coil 2, then taped them together:




Ran them both past coil 3, taped them together:




Then up and past coil 4 and did them all together:




I then decided I will use a P clip bolted to the sticky outy bit to hold it in place.






Trouble is I’m left with all this:



Not sure what to do, whether to cut it and them crimp it back together but I feel all shuddery doing it due to the job they carry out, what’s the thoughts?



UPDATED PICS:

Ran over the connectors again with some more insulation tape:




And attached the P clip:

[robbo86]

Dont bother, it wont kill you.

Good to see a COP write up, was considering one of these myself.

[odbod]

Yep, Looking good Rich...

Robbo86, I'm ordering a couple more of these, another one for Rich and one for me to replace the one that never made it to ireland If you're interested drop me a PM.

[robbo86]

I will do. Need to see how the funds play out this month though

[odbod]

The guys in the states take the connectors apart to shorten the loom, sounds like a mission, I considered buying a 12 way MIL spec connector from RS, but the wiring diagrams show that the big black wires are shielded so this could turn into a right headache, so probably not worth it. I wouldn't cut and splice them back together, you can always lopp the cable and wrap it up, especially if you strip the covering off back to the main loom and lose the loops under the wiring cover.

Unless you are going to take the connectors apart I wouldn't bother, that said taking the connectors may be not so bad, have a look here...

http://bmw.e30tuner.com/articles_condis1.php

And rather than trying to re-use the terminals, one of these will fit just fine... just not sure which one

http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/V ... gterms.php

[odbod]

I've emailed VWP to see if they can identify the right part...

Alternatively the BMW Part numbers (depending on cable size are here on realoem (Part #2)http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=61&fg=15

or here #14 or #15?

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=61&fg=15

if you want new plastic bits terminal holders from BMW I think they are part nr 12521724478

[rix313]

I think would save alot of time and cause no bother to just loop it and tape it as you suggested wont hurt any one by doing so and saves buggering it up. There is loads extra though.

[odbod]

d'oh, edited...

Having been doing wiring for a couple of weeks on and off on my LPG I'm not so worried about trying this as I once would have been, it's not to bad if you are working with new terminals, PITA using old ones though...

[rix313]

I've got soooo much to do I'll live with a foot or two extra or wire lol. Will be a future to do thing.

[GrindCulture]

Looking good so far! Good to see you putting the COP conversion to good use. I must crack on with mine soon, and the temptation to stick a snail where the old coil packs were is huge.

[rix313]

There is some nice space left there now indeed


Just a small thing. I finaly got hold of an oil pressure valve for my take off plate. Was having no luck getting one from my housings and Cotswolds sorted me out with the correct part. For the record its part number: 11 42 1 432 228 and at time of purchase was £4.88 all in it also does come with O-rings fitted.

Just lubed up the plate with some oil and pushed it in:



Then got that SOB bolted on

[robbo86]

How much is the COP plate rix???

[rix313]

£20 via Mr Odbod. He's ordering me another one as he said above so get ya order in with this batch plus how ever much you find some coil packs for, paid £10 each for mine.



(Just incase, that oil take off plate came from Think Automotive)

[rix313]

Right, Saturday.

Had a 'early' start (as in early for a Saturday 8 am ), had to get down to the local tool hire place and get an engine crane. It certainly was a flippin crane, was massive, the legs weren't too short of 2m and it could like 2 tonne only had my lil M42

Any way, got the engine on the stand (only took 2 months lol!). Earlier in the week I borrowed an impact gun and compressor and got the 'carrier' bolted to the back of the engine:






I've also gone about removing the coil pack brackets as I don't need them as I've done the COP conversion.



When I take my engine out I'll give the entire bay a rub down and re paint as its all crap tbh lol.


Finaly got my remote oil filter head fitted. Cut up some bits of Ali and took it to a local fab shop to have it welded up, gave it a paint with some brilliant red and bolted it in:








Also fitted the take off plate:




Got the car back in the garage after a big tidy up (can you tell ):




This isn't as bigger update as I was wanting to write. A local fixings supplier let me down by sending my order to their branch in Poole not Westbury. I was expecting some Loctite 272 to fit these:



And some nuts and bolts to fit my COP plate

C'est La Vie.

Also found out the injectors I bought were a bit too small:




Finaly for to day (yes only a few more dreary words) i took some pictures of the front end of the car complete :

[e30_singh]

Your work looks fantastic, this car must really pull well through the gears!

I did this to one of my cars, a few years later when I removed the manifold and heat wrap, the manifold was pretty rusty; not penetrated just surface rust, but if I had left it any longer it would probably have penetrated.

I do not really condone heat wrapping after this experience, unless it is changed annually with new fresh wrap. Also this wrap tends to break down and deteriorate over time, and make a mess!

[rix313]

It is very difficult stuff to stop fraying will see how long it lasts but I have a spare one just in case

It's stil got the knackered gearbox and the smokey Joe engine in it so I don't know yet . The new setup will be dropped in, in due course

[magpie]

she's gonna fly

good work m8.

[rix313]

Had a good hour and a half this morning.

Spent alot of time trying to mount my battery junction box in the right place. The right place was found and it was fitted nice and snug:




Then I had a look and a faf with routing the cable. I chose to run it behind my remote head, through the bulk head in the top corner of the foot well, down and around, then 'P' cliped the cable back in a small recess and the wraped the cable to protect it:









Beyond that I'm not sure what to do, I'm thinking of fitting a token battery switch as it's a track car. My boot is also rammed with parts and crap so I can't mount it in there yet.


Had a look at re-wiring the oil pressure switch. I had a look and Vehicle Wiring Products have the correct 2pin male and female sockets which match the OE loom connectors. What I'm going to do is simpley make an extension which plugs into the loom plug and then runs round to the switch......




Also removed the crank pully wheel in preparation for the new one Mr Appletree is making me. For some reason I had it in my mind, that this was going to be a mamoth job. I was under the assumption the big mother bolt had to come out, so, in preperation the other day, I undid the 8 smaller ones for the hell of it. After having a look today, I rammed my screw driver down the back and it poped off so com'on Matt post it to me

EDIT: I got excited too early, it is a mamoth job




Lastly I glued in some interior switches. One will be for the lecty fan so I can run it with out the engine, one for an interior light and then two spares just incase.

[Gunni]

What is the gauge on that cable?

Doesn´t look large enough for some serious cold starting.

[rix313]

I'm not 100% but its heavy stuff. I got it from my old job, we used to use it to run from battery at the front to the engine at the back.

[appletree]

Sorry rich, but you have to take the big bolt off to swop the washer/spacer its holding down for the one ive machened down for you as the spacers not think enought to fit and have a locating sholder for the fron pully

Hard to explain but when you get it you will see, it should be with you tue/wed

Wait till you get the pully before you take it off thought then you will understand, or you could just grind/file yours in situe

[rix313]

How the hell am I meant to undo it?

[appletree]

Weld a bar to a old front pully bolt it to the one in your pic. Then get a big breaker bar or a windy gun.

Probly got a spare one if you need one postin with the pully

[rix313]

Out of interest and this is what I thought; why can't the spacer go between the current spacer and the new pully wheel and around the big bolt?

[appletree]

it does but the spacers not thick enough to go over the bolt and have have enough material to make a locating "step" for the next pully i can machine it off for you if you want but then you wont have anything for the next pully to centre on other than the 8 bolts.

pics



Because the counter bore is the same size as the bolts spacer (thats what the other pully locates on) if i bored it through enough to cover the spacer it would come throught the other side and you would loose the step. its up to you, its a ball eche to get the bolt off and the locateing step is just belt and braces

[odbod]

To remove it get 2 strips of steel ~ 1/8-1/4 inch thick 1 inch wide, one about 1m long, one about 300mm long, drill 8mm holes in each at the ends close enough to the sides to bolt to the pulley, and a hole in each about 250mm from the end hole, bolt them to each other to form a scissor and bolt them to the pulley, then take a breaker bar and a bit of steel tube and you can undo it by standing on them!

My crank pulley tool has served me very well!

Cheers

[rix313]

Got a pic there Si?

[odbod]

I'll try and sort one later tonight...

[appletree]

Pully will be with you tomorrow mate.

[rix313]

Cheers mate


I'm going to get the old one cleaned for welding and then take it to local fab shop to have a fat bar stuck to it then see how far I can get with constantly drowning it in WD40, hitting it and attacking it with an impact gun Don't feel I'll get very far but I have to have the engine in, in two weeks.

Also found a local company who do on the move vehicle wiring shizzle so going to get them to come anc crimp my battery cables.

[appletree]

its only the old power steering pully i welded a bar to not the crank pully, make sure they weld it off centre so you can still get a socket through the middle

dont give up, just think of the charger whine when its done

[rix313]

Was thinking of something like this:



('Technical' drawings on paint FTW)


Was having a bad day when I wrote that lol, I'm still here battling on