E30 Zone

-- update --

Woohoo. Finally made some good progress. fitted all the pipework and I/C and did some basic mapping. Managed a best run on the dyno of 209bhp @ 5800rpm.

It still needs some fettling for daily use though. Need to improve the bypass system and get more air over the I/C.

Dyno charts and pics will be posted soon.

-- update --

Finally got around to putting Megasquirt back on and fixed up some problems with it - pics and details on bottom of page 3.

Supercharger is bolted on and now the only real problem is getting the pipework sorted which should be easy.

-- update --

New dyno chart on page 2 - stock ecu and no supercharger. Finally it's making the correct power (143bhp) after the cam timing was sorted. Still no supercharger yet though.

-- update --

dyno chart lower down.

-- Update --

Well, I'm over 250 running in miles. A bit of oil dripping that I need to identify and it seems to use some water so I need to keep an eye on that. Hopefully neither are too serious and I'll be bolting the charger back on soon.

Still got to sort that saxo PS pump out as well.

I just have no time :'(

--Update--

Well.. After I don't know how much pissing about dan and I finally took her out for a spin. Put about 15-20 or so miles on I reckon, nothing above 3k for now. Here's a youtube video of her idling. The ticking is just the injectors, it's so quiet it makes them sound loud. Maybe that's normal but for me it's a novelty as now it's quieter both inside and outside, even without either the bonnet or gear-stick rubber seal. So nice.

In fairness I shouldn't get too excited. It's now time to get some miles on it, change the oil and flush the coolant etc then see if there's anything serious wrong.




Oh - I think it's time for a re-shell so if anybody knows a minter pls let me know

----

Hi all,

After fitting the supercharger that I've been working on for god knows how long, and making a bit of a bodge of it. I decided it was time to start doing things properly. First up was a complete engine rebuild. I used Dan318iS's old engine as well as some parts from my own. Last week we spent too many hours working on various things including the rebuild.

Still got a few more things to do before turning the key but it should be happening in the next few days.

I've got loads of pics to put up but he's one of my ugly mug trying to stick the engine back in it's rightful place.

Major thanks to Dan for his help with this!!!

More, more!!

Did you get the reset issue sorted?

And cooling? ( IC )

Fozz.

Hey Mark - loving the mag shots!

I didn't get the MS resets sorted but I think I had compression problems on the old engine and potentially crank issues as we noticed the crank sensor wire was chewed. Hopefully on the new engine these things will just clear themselves up - I'll find out after running in when I refit MS. Cooling will be taken care of by the little R5 IC I bought - if that doesn't stand up to the job I'll look at another solution.

How about the recirc charger bypass too

OT, how'd you get on with the Emerald the other night mate?

hoshy wrote:Hey Mark - loving the mag shots!

I didn't get the MS resets sorted but I think I had compression problems on the old engine and potentially crank issues as we noticed the crank sensor wire was chewed. Hopefully on the new engine these things will just clear themselves up - I'll find out after running in when I refit MS. Cooling will be taken care of by the little R5 IC I bought - if that doesn't stand up to the job I'll look at another solution.

Cool, whats this about emerald? You aint going to the dark side are you?

If you're IC aint up to it I can get my hands of a GREDDY MX5 IC that my mates just removed from a MX5 turbo, it's abot 12x12 and maybe 2.5inchs thick.

Otherwise the cossie IC's are small and compact, if that's not enough then go for the Volvo IC, I'm yet to hear of one of them blowing out, so they must be good ones.

Did you see the PPC article?

Hey Alex - The recirc is going to be two 25mm diverter valves connected direct to the inlet manifold for gear changes/idle -- that way if my cruising bypass system fails I've got a "hard-wired" backup to keep things safe.

The cruising system will the same two 25mm valves but connected via vacuum solenoids to the brake servo so I've got an a electronically controllable vacuum source.

Hopefully that will work properly but I guess all that kind of stuff is still open to development.

Thanks for the Emerald software - Dad and I has a mess about with the car (Triumph TR5 IIRC) straight-6 on throttle bodies. It was awfully under fulling so after ruling out fuel pressure we gave it a load more fuel across the board and she jumped up to about 150 brake. Unfortunately there's no idle control and the throttle body linkages are pretty poor so before any really tuning happens Dad wanted to sort them out. I'm not sure what the current state of it is as I've not spoken to him.

Don't worry Mark - as you can see I'm still with MS

I'll keep that in mind about the ICs. I didn't see the whole article mate - just been looking at your sig pic and remembered you had the shoot. Got an electronic copy kicking about?

I'm still far from fitting MS and the charger though. These next two evenings and Sat morning I've got to get some water in it. Sort out the intake manifold/afm/ idle motor some wiring, exhaust and heat shield before I turn the key. I'm quite nervous. Never done an engine rebuild before but Dan and I really learned loads about the M42...

Oh and how it's a REALLY bad idea to loctite bearing shells in place. Dan and I built up the bottom end, got all the lower timing chain case stuff done and then discovered that the engine wouldn't turn. We had to strip it all down again and clean it up. Such a crisis

PM me your external email addy

I've just picked up a M42 with a running issue to play with at home in the garage, haven't worked on one before.

Planning to strip and see what is what, then maybe build it up for the Mrs car or my go-kart!

Got the exhaust manifold and a spare so I have plenty of bits to cut & shut....winter project has landed.

Keep the pics coming!

Fozz.

Will mail you now mate. Sounds like a fun winter project Feel free to call me and I'll help any way I can. tim_s is also your man - he helped dan and myself out no end.

more pics will be coming - that one was taken on the phone but most are on my digicam at home.

New rack (e46) in place. Engine bay not yet cleaned up. We later gunked it and it came up lovely. Especially the washer bottle!

We also fitted a new steering guibo and heatsheild too.

When we put the engine back we found that we needed to cut a small, and somewhat useless, tab off the m42 lower sump.



The car itself - minus engine.



Two pics of the manifold cracks - these got welded up.




My old engine with supercharger.



Some shots of Dan's block which we used as the base of the build.





When it came time to take my crank bolt off... this is what happened to the 1meter breaker bar (with 8ft of scaffold pole on the end)



Box cleaned up a bit and waiting for it's z3 1.9 shifter and all new bushes



Saxo PS pump. Still needs to be fitted



A wire wheel on an angle grinder. Bloody useful bit of kit!



Engine bay cleaned up a bit.



Block painted up and honed.



Some new bits



A few shots of the bottom end build. Learned some lessons there!





Scary box of dirty bolts.



Chain in place having been cleaned and greased + new chain guides and tensioner.



Brand new lower outter timing chain - should be 90odd... Zimmer had one on the shelf for a tenner!



The rest of the engine build:

We even managed to get the thing cranking and started last night. Some problems though. Three main things

1. Very noisy - suspected chain tensioner not popped so hopefully that will sort itself out when we run it a bit more
2. Clutch doesn't fully disengage. Very annoying, maybe more bleeding and some driving will help but we'll see tonight.
3. Worst problem of all I think - Water is leaking from somewhere - not exactly sure yet

C'est la vie. These things will be sorted in due course and at least there were no really horrible noises.

Youtube videos to follow soon

As promised...

First Crank with no fuel and spark:
First Start - discovered water leak and very noisy (hopefully) timing chain:

Top work there Gents. Looking forward to seeing this at Pod.

Cheers Dave. I'll be at the pod for sure... Car is 50/50 currently. If she is there then I doubt she'll be charged

Great re-build. Keep the pics coming, cant wait to hear it running properly, and with the charger.

Good work fellas, Does sound a bit like a diesel atm!

Yeah - we basically discovered no oil getting to the top end. Fucking nightmare. Plus there's still the clutch issue.

Gonna spend more time this weekend. Really just want her running properly to get a few miles on then I can get the s/c back on

cracking thread,i like the S2000 outside the garage i think there cracking cars

Well fuck me. It lives!

Release bearing was on wrong and got totally mullered so after putting the oil to the head right and sorting the bearing (a lot easier to type than do!!!) I actually drove it, early days to tell for leaks and all the other nastyness I'm scared of but she idles beautifully smooth and quiet. I'll get another youtube video sorted out tomorrow for you all.

Had some tappet noise for a while which I thought I might have to live with (didn't actually replace the lifters) but that's cleared up too which is great.

All in all I'm tired, relieved, pissed-off but reasonably satisfied and both dan and I learned plenty of lessons along the way!

Take it it wont be blown for the pod then???

great work sofar, were did you get the big end shells from?

Hey Matt - cheers.

Yes it's not gonna be blown by the pod. I'm really gutted cos wanted to do our like m42/m45 challenge.

I got the shells from BMW. Expensive!

Rings are ECP jobbies.

were they oversize ones of just standard? did zimmerbimmer do them for you?

Yeah I got them from Paul. Not oversized mate - Having looked at 4 m42 cranks and shells from 2 different engines I would say bottom end rebuild is low on the list of things to do both Mine and Dan's engines were really mint.

Now on about 800 miles. Did a dyno at 500miles and it came in about 110brake so about 25 down. Not greatly enthused by that to be honest but we'll see how it goes after some more loosening up. I've got a track day coming up which should help

Ash, well done on getting it this far. It does look a bit down on power, but it pretty easy to see why IMO.

Its massively overfueling at the top end, in fact all the way across the dyno looks a bit to rich, but 10.5:1 is far to rich to be making anywhere near optimum power.

Is this on a normal ECU? Or emerald or the like. Injectors the same?

Actually opening the graph in another window, WTF are all the straight lines which are joined dot to dot? Target AFR or something. I have made the presumption that the bottom curved line is the true AFR? Is that right?

Where is Dan the man, still messing about with Emylns old e36? He hasn't posted for a while He was thinking about converting it to LPG last time we spoke.

Just had another look, they are the power ones by the look of it and comparing them to my iS dyno plot. They just looked far to linear on the graph scale. I am getting so confused looking at that graph! But I think I have figured it it. The one that runs to from the bottom left to the top right is the torque curve which orignally looked too straight. The wavey one which I first thought was torque is the AFR isn't it?

What is with putting all the other lines on it!

There's 4 lines mate. AFR is the wavy one. Then there's wheel power, estimated fly power, and torque. To me the torque seems very flat, I don't really see it come on cam. It's 100% stock except that the fuel pressue is upped from when it was on MS so that might account from some of the over fuelling. But it's not over fuelling that much, because the plot is done in 4th gear starting at about 1500rpm the engine bogs down, so it gets loads of fuel to keep it going. As the power rises above 3.5/4k - the fuelling is around 12.5-11.9 which is about right because remember it's a WOT run.

I'm gonna run it up again this weekend and do some other stuff too. Would be nice to get her up to full power before putting the charger back on.

Its starting to make even more sense now! The fueling is ok isn't it. In an ideal world, you might want 12.9/13 to get max power, but its pretty safe where it is right now. But considering you are supercharging it, the current fueling makes little or no difference. Have you got a wideband for your MS to help once the charger goes back on? They are getting quite cheap now. The angle of the torque plot at 2600rpm does change, but perhaps not as significantly as one might expect.

At 2000rpm my iS was making 88lft at its lowest of the five runs and 98lfts at the highest, although I do think the rollers overead somewhat. Its maximum torque was at 5500 rpm with 134lfts and then it dropped off after that falling to 121lft at the red line. Your torque curve is still rising which is unusual in my opinion, both my 205 and mi16 drop off quite considerably and its only the increased revs that enable you to make more power at the top end.

Yeap, I've got an innovate LC1 for Megasquirt.

I hear you on the torque curve. I also think it's quite strange that it's still rising, almost like it's not found it's peak yet Might double check that I've definitely got the intake and exhaust cams the right way around - lol. Not sure if they're the same profile or not though to be honest.

Wonder if there could be some cam set-up problem. It's clearly way down on torque as well as power from the figures you're quoting. Hmm.

Where was it r/r'd? The graph appears bizarre

When I said both my 205 and mi16, i meant both my iS and my 205 mi16.

I for one have yet to see a graph where the torque curve is still rising at the rev limiter! If you could push that torque up all the way along the graph, raise the rev limiter it would be fecking potent! But alas I fear something could be wrong as that is far from a normal characteristic.

I dynoed it at my father's place. On the same dyno that sheps has.

Yeap - it's definitely weird for the torque to be like that.

Woo hoo. Finally working properly

Jon_Bmw wrote:
Where is Dan the man, still messing about with Emylns old e36? He hasn't posted for a while He was thinking about converting it to LPG last time we spoke.

I am here mate. Final year has taken over though im afraid. Well its not even final year for me but the work load is catastrophic already. I have got a braking system to design & my final yea project involves designing the suspension from scratch for the new caterham chassis, on CAD. On top of that i have two other modules (one is control systems ) so am non stop at the moment!

hoshy wrote:Woo hoo. Finally working properly

Good news ash, good to see she is making power, glad to see it was perhaps just the engine needing a good thrash?

hoshy wrote: As the power rises above 3.5/4k - the fuelling is around 12.5-11.9 which is about right because remember it's a WOT run.

I have to disagree with this point though mate. Most race cars aim for a lambda or .88 - .92 all the time which equates to about 13:1 AFR. Anything around the 12 mark is going to just cool your engine down, and like the salisbury council mesiter says just overfuel it in my opinion. Have you got rid of that dodgy regulator yet or are you on MS or wha?

that looks impresive Ash

are you still planning on keeping up with us 6 pot boys in Scotland then