Jai's S50B32 swap thread... MOT Passed!!!!!!

Sat Mar 21, 2009 12:34 am

Apparently in Brighton it has a very specific meaning...

Sat Mar 21, 2009 12:51 am

nice one Jai, I like the shots of the Z3 M on my drive, really lifted the look of the neighbourhood!!

Sat Mar 21, 2009 1:11 am

Haha Ian, Dave and Jai.. Cheers for that..

This is why I had my trousers leg rolled up..

Sat Mar 21, 2009 1:54 am

Well, sunshine came..

I actually managed to be out there and working at 9, which is a coup in itself for me!

Firstly I tackled the beam. I want to have as much rubber on the road as possible and correct geometry, even with the -30mm lowering the H&R springs will offer. Dan recently organised a group buy on some camber and toe adjusting tabs, as well as ARB re-inforcement plates for the trailing arms.

I first cleaned off the E30 tabs and held the new ones in place with a pair of mole grips. For the adjustment of toe I wanted to be able to add or remove some, depending on ideal. This meant that I centred the original hole in the new elongated one. More methodical types use a spirit level to make sure it's 100% bang on level but I couldn't find one so eye'd it up from a distance. For the camber adjusters I only wanted to remove the ammount you get with a lowered E30 so the original holes were lined up to the bottom of the elongated ones. A quick blast with the welder later and all eight tabs were on there, permanently! My welding isn't pretty but I got enough heat in there to melt a polar ice cap.

Next came the ARB re-inforcement tabs. Uprated arb's (which I will fit at a later date) put more strain on these; indeed the MRoadster ones had already bent mine! Dan's plates fitted best when 'upside down', so I chopped the existing strengthening rib off and slotted the arm. With a bolt through the holes to ensure they line up, I went freaking nuts with the welder and (IMO) did a pretty good job. The welds well and truly filled the space around the tab and the whole thing is strong as feck now. It's something I think BMW should have done to the already strengthened ZM arms.

The pictures show the tang's stregthening fold pointing up, till I realised they'd fit better poining down, notched the arm and flipped and welded them that way.

I then moved onto the oil cooler setup. I intended to fit the M20 oil cooler, modify the pipes and get new lines crimped onto the 15mm OD pipes where I'd cut the crimps from both the S50 and M20 lines. Unfortunately the fecking pipes were seized solid into the cooler to the point both Dan and I nearly burst a sodding vessel trying to get them undone. Trashed. I rang Rally designs and ordered a suitable sized mocal, two 90 degree conectors and 2 metres of pipe. Unfortunately the pipe is 12.5mm and mine are 15mm OD but I hope I can use the strength of the bear and get them over the BMW S50 pipes. I'll then have crimps fitted. We shall see about progress there!! Worst comes to the worst I can have a local machine shop turn me some rip-offs of the turner motorsport design. They'd go into the BMW cooler setup, through the existing clamp plate and have barbed ends that I can use jubilee clips on them. The oil system only runs at 5 bar or so so I can't see that being a problem at all.

I also noticed that I have sold the goodridge hoses from my rear brake setup with the M3 stuff.. Great. Not the end of the world as the ZM/E36M3 calipers have the pipe exit the back, rather than the bottom of the caliper. I ordered the fittings and 3 metres of braided hose from rally design to make lines that run from the caliper to the T piece on the E30. I'll devise some way of clipping them to the trailing arms. I also got the unions to make a new clutch line as the E36 one has a horrible limiter that slows the take up of the clutch in order to make pull away smoother. In reality all that happens is you smoke clutch plates when trying to get off the line. Plus the braided hose will hopefully give me a better clutch pedal feel.

My brake pads turned up today.. Very nice! Well, as exciting as pads can get I spose. Performace friction Carbon Metallic pads, all round. Delivered for £120. Not too bad I spose. Dan was more excited than me. I also recieved UweM3's adjustable topmount clamps, the day after I sent him the money.. The star!! When I fit these I shall do a proper write up too fr anyone thinking of getting them. I might even adapt the offset E36M3Evo topmounts I have to allow me more castor. I shall see how they fare when chopped about.

I had my Toyo Proxes T1-r tyres fitted to my 328i sport BBS split rims (7.5j et 41 all round).. YEY! tyres are sexy. Whilst there we also pressed in the beam bushes.. Something that all only cost me a few pints and saved me hours of swearing and trying to make tools!

Getting closer.. I'm going to (GULP) tackle the wiring tomorrow I think. Possibly. Maybe.

Sat Mar 21, 2009 1:32 pm

OOhh nooo not the wiring - good luck Jai!

Sat Mar 21, 2009 1:49 pm

good stuff jai! be good to see this done..

Sat Mar 21, 2009 5:14 pm

Jai,

I think the idea of the right angled bit on the reinforcement plates it to triangulate it to the body of the arm. This is where most of the extra strength comes from. You may want to build it up with weld, or weld some extra material in there before you paint/powder coat the arms.

Ian.

Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:02 pm

I thought of building the weld up just after I coated it all in black Hammerite.. Oh well. Before I finished it I gave it a few serious whaps with a hammer to see if it is rigid. Seems to be OK, certaily a lot better than the standard tin can material they used! There is a lot of weld built up around the area as it is. I also considered traingulating the camber/toe tabs abck to the beam to re-inforce them in case of rear wheel to kerb contact but didn;t have any decent guage steel to play with so left it.

I'll post some photos and an update later, just off to B&Q for some bulbs for my lights so I can do some wiring when I get back!

Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:53 pm

Update coming this evening.. LOADS of photo's.

It's been the rear beam that has taken all of the time, modifying it and getting all bufty and making it look good.

Taster:

Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:54 pm

You were not kidding when you said the dinner plate - saucer analogy!

Nice work mate, Weather is delightful in our area today isn't it! Just started blowing a gale and raining as I type this

Sat Mar 28, 2009 2:42 am

Right guys.. Once again I'm absolutely knackered!!!

No time for an update but I have been getting a lot of photo's and making notes on what I've been up to.. Rushed off my feet. Trying to get the car done and gettin ready for moving out and starting a ew job on Monday is killing me! Been out workin gin the crappy weather from 9 am till at least 10 pm. The neightbours must have loved me cutting, grinding and welding at 10.30 tonight!

A quick taster of what was keeping them awake:

Yes I did chop and weld onto a £300 cross pipe! It took some guts but I back purged the weld, used Argon gas and stainless wire and did it all with a mate who can seriously weld.

Phew! I think it turned out extremely well and in total cost less than £200 for the bits and materials to do! Good job, I ran out of project money so haywood and scott/Fabricators were out of the picture anyway.

Till Sat night: Adieu!

Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:42 pm

jaistanley wrote: Yes I did chop and weld onto a £300 cross pipe!

I didnt have the guts to do that yet, just got mine clamped up for now.

Looking good though

Ive probably missed it earlier in the thread, but whats planned for the rest of the system?

Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:36 am

The system is going to be made from a blue flame E36 M3 backbox chopped about and made to look nice (straight cut 2" tailpipes at the right angle), 2 90 degree bends, a twin 2" centre box, two sections of 2" straight pipe and two 2" to 2 1/4" stepped reducers:

When fitting the 90 degree bends I hope to use clamps but the BTB x pipe comes quite far across the transmission tunnel meaning it's extremely difficult to get the centre box in the centre of the transmission tunnel. We had to shorten all the 90 degree bends (in the BTB and the Jetex bends) so it's sit nice. This meant butt welding the two pipes together. I spent a lot of time with a file getting the gap to an absolute minimum. My welder although being small gets extremely hot. In order to make sure the welds didn't intrude on the flow we back purged the welds with argon gas, a small regulator and a length of liner pipe. It was still hard going and I let mark do the welding (he used to weld for a living). It's just a shame I didn;t have access to a TIG as he'd have done that for me. As it is the welds came out extremely well. There is likely very little/no intrusion on the pipes bore as the back purge meant the welds built up on the outside (ready to be ground back so the pipes look continuous and so we can check the integrity).

I'm extremely pleased with how this centre section has turned out. I initially though this would be a 'get me by' system but now I think I'll just save up and get a supersprint backbox at a later date for an upgrade. I'm going to clamp it as it exits the centre box so future systems I make can carry on from there. What we have made so far is certainly better than anything I've seen from the likes of powerflow etc!

Wed Apr 01, 2009 10:47 am

great work

Wed Apr 01, 2009 5:20 pm

Great work, nice attention to detail there, the new washer bottles look great compared to the old ones dont they, nice to see your doing the whole package not just get power sorted sod how it looks.

You must be knackered, half your updates are between 1-3AM

dont you sleep? or do you just need an oil and filter change??? :lol:

Wed Apr 01, 2009 6:52 pm

The washer bottles aren't new.. They're typical of the kind of condition that the car was in when I got it! The thing was nigh on mint.

Yea, I tend to keep myself busy in the day then remember to do updates in the evening. To be fair though, I dont sleep that often.

I'll write a long update soon. I only have two hours of internet free an evening so might have to post it tomorrow after work.

I shall be back playing with the car at the weekend. Got loads to do, but the bulk of the work is done now.

I would have spent more time making things all shiney and new but I was in a real hurry.. To be honest I'm the type that would never get finished unless I had a deadline!

This should prove I'm a bit of a bufty:

Tada!

Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:19 am

OK. Here’s the update I promised all those times before! I’ve been running around like a blue arsed fly for three weeks and have started (and been away) on a new job at the same time. Here’s to hoping tomorrow is as nice weather as today!

First off I wire brushed down the rear beam after welding the tangs on for the camber and toe adjustment. I know it’s a bit bufty but I really like my cars to look good underneath and I wanted to give the new welds a bit more protection from the crappy road salt and grime.

Here is the beam brushed off:

And here it is with a lick of hammerite hammered finish black:

After getting busy with the beam I turned my attention to the diff. It had got a little rusty and rank looking after being sat in the garden for a while so naturally it got wire brushed and painted in the same colour:

Before:

After:

Yes. Diff oil did go everywhere. I’m not sure the grass will ever recover. Mother dear was not amused. Plus the garden now stinks and I’m on the environmental agencies hit list”¦

All this spraying got me excited (I really like the dark metallic grey the hammerite comes out as) so I did the wishbones too.. Only time will tell how long the finish lasts on british salted roads, but ho hum. Looks nice and shiney for the MOT.. LOL

I also had some black smooth finish hammerite so gobbed it all over the trailing arms. I’m not exactly proud of myself but it made them look OK for now and will stop the re-inforced tabs rusting up in ten minutes.

The trouble with letting me play with dangerous tools is that I become blasÃ© and things like this happen:

Yes it did smart a touch”¦ Stupid 1mm cutting disks got through skin faster than steel, that’s for sure.

Wanting to know roughly what it would look like with my new wheels I got all photoshop: (well, paint)

I do like the BBS wheels on the E30.

The next day:

I somehow convinced mum to steam clean the four door silver sport seats I managed to get from BBB. They were covered in oily fingerprints and rather than go at them myself I got her involved by whinging for hours. They came out really well but will need another shampoo when I’ve converted them to two door seats by fitting the backs from a knackered pair I picked up at the same time. For now they’ll get bolted in so I can sit in them at least! It also leaves me with some nice headrests to fit to the rear when I can be arsed.

Yes my mother does resemble wurzel gummage after a botched ”˜gender reassignment’.. LOL

Now the diff was dry I set about fitting the bits needed to get it into my car. Namely the E30 rear plate (my ZM one had the eye smashed off annoyingly!), the ZM drive flanges and the new ZM rear bush. I can live without the cooling fins, and I’d probably only smash them on a speed bump or something.

The next day:

Today the braided lines turned up, and I set about building up the beam ready to fit. What fun. I also had to file out the tabs so they could be adjusted and give it another lick of paint. Oh my god.. I can’t tell you what a pain in the arse it would have been without a long shanked be-burr I managed to find in my toolkit. Even with the tool from the gods it took the best part of a day to finish. Luckily my Seinnheiser earphones go right in your ear so you can blast Isis/System of a down/Pelican over the noise of a screaming drill/de-burr!

Here’s the finished beam. Rather shiney!

I had to get someone to help me lift the whole assembly onto the car without scratching the paint. Easier said than done on a stone driveway! We worked up until about midnight. Good job I invested in one of those machine mart 2 * 500W lighting thingies!

The next day:

I spent a lot of time sorting the handbrake mechanisms from the ZM out. Backing plates were straightened and painted (I didn’t see the point till they were on the car and not going to get crushed by the weight of the beam again). They were all cleaned up and copper slipped, and the E30 handbrake cables were fitted into the ZM arms. Not brain surgery but fiddly.

The brake disks were cleaned up and sprayed lightly with some heat resistant paint. More to make them look good for the short term than anything else. I went at them with the wire brush on the grider anyway and the VHT paint is dry in minutes so thought, sod it. You can see the size difference of the ZM rear disks to the E30 325i one I propped next to it”¦ Cool eh?

I also invested in a full set of performance friction pads as I can imagine I’ll need all the help I can get to stop this bugger! Dan blued the E30M3 disks he has all round after the first day!

When I was fitting the beam I noticed the floor of the car could do with a coat of undersealer. If I had a better workshop and a more friendly bank manager the shell would get dipped and all BMW style undersealer applied. With my budget and time constraints I stuck a tin of bitchumen based sealer in the cooker for a half hour and gobbed it on with a bush. NOT a fun job, especially with the rain peeing down on your legs and tar in your hair. It was at this point my new H&R manager decided to ring me and tell me I’d only be in a hotel for two weeks for induction, not the full 1 month so I let rip at her (regrettably). I do rule sometimes.. lol.

I then routed the rear lines I made up. You can see the braid and the undersealer here:

The nice clips are a BMW part but I only had enough to do one side.. Can anyone help with a part number? I think they are the ones to take the brake wear sensor wire down the handbrake cable. Luckily they also route braided brake lines very well.. The other side has cable ties and it makes me shudder to even think about (not exactly factory look!).

Whilst doing all this I thought I’d trial fit the BBS 8.5”a rear wheels I have to see how they’d sit. With the rough guestimate of camber adjustment I did on the beam before fitting it, it’s clear that 245/30/17’s are never going to fit under those arches. Time for M3 cabrio rear quarters, front wings and M3 bumpers and skirts?? That’d be cool but some time off in the future eh?

Nice and wide though! If they had a lower offset by about 10mm I think they’d fit OK. Oh well.

I also trial fitted my 7.5J Et 41’s with 215/40/17 Toyo proxes:

”˜Snice no?

I wanted to fit exhaust clamps that would actually last so ordered some good full stainless ones from Stagonset (very cool website, if you’re a nerdy engineer type that likes stainless harware!). Here they are slipped onto the BTB X pipes:

Next day:

This was a front suspension day. Firstly the E30 topmounts needed modifying to fit with Uwe’s awesome adjusters. You get a jig with the kit that you bolt to the mount and cut around/drill. It’s a bt fiddly in the garden but easy enough to do. I also had a play with fitting E36Evo offset ones but gave up fannying around in order to get them onto the car!

These will allow me to get a decent amount of camber, something which is easier said than done when using E36 suspension. We shall see how it aligns when on the car. Could be a costly mistake.. The Bilstein B6 dampers for the M3 are NOT cheap! LOL If it’s all shite I’m going to make some DTM style rose jointed wishbones myself, which will require a custom subframe. I might even fit E36 front anti roll bars at the same time. We shall see.

Next, I built up the front struts. This was again, easier said than done. The E36 has 22mm top nuts, the E30 19mm ones. This means it is VERY tight in the topmount, too tight for a decent socket to get in there. A quick raid of the old tools bin in the shed came up with a box spanner and an old imperial ring spanner. With a welder and a grinder you too can feel all manly by making your own topmount tool”¦.

Spot the ”˜deliberate’ mistake in the above photo”¦. I forgot to fit the lower part of the adjusters! Annoying, the strut had to be stripped and re-built. I also had to cut the threads off the adjusters as per Uwe’s (very comprehensive) instructions.

The struts were then ready to bolt up, along with the brakes:

I then went to fit the goodridge hoses from my old car, only to find one was rusted/seized into the calliper I temporarily bolted it into!! Gay. I chopped it off at the joint and fitted a new union, though this made the hoes about 10mm shorter.. Not ideal. I might make up new hoses at some point in the future.

All good fun though. Lets hope none of my new lines leak!! I’ll be miffed, to say the least.

Next day:

Because I had decided to make one piece lines from the E30’s chassis lugs to the rear callipers I needed a way of doing the lines up on the car (you can’t twist the line up whilst doing them up to the calliper, something I’d forgotten about when ordering the bits from rally design). This meant I had to get banjo bolts and crush washers and fit them to the ZM callipers. You simply cut the braid, peel it back, fit the olive and do up (not forgetting to first slide on the union).

After this I couldn’t resist putting the wheels on again to see if it had started looking like a car again”¦.

Yey!

Then onto the exhaust.. See the above pictures and description”¦ I CBA to type that up again. It’s getting late!

I then ran out of time.. Just joined Unipart on the Graduate training scheme so have been away and will be busy as hell for two years! Before I left though I slapped my lovely bonnet on and fitted the seats (still in four door format) so they’d be safe and dry under the car cover, as opposed to sitting in the garden. Plus the car is all locked up and the guard dogs are on patrol so it’s all safe. This weekend I managed to finish the front suspension and brakes and do the track rod ends so the only thing holding up dropping it on the floor is filling the diff oil, fitting the lambdas and finishing the exhaust.

Piccies:

Phew!

Apologies to anyone on 56k, or anyone not on an unlimited broadband but it’s your own fault, join the 20th century.. LOL

For tonight: Just a big thanks to BBB for the BBQ meet this evening. Good to see you all. Nathan: Get some of those pictures you showed me uploaded and make a build thread you lazy git!

Watch this space!

Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:59 am

Jai,

Good to se life is treating you better! Car looks awesome, just spent the last hour reading!

Hope all goes well with the new job!

Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:14 am

Cheers mate. It was getting a bit ridiculous for a while there! No job, dead girlfriend and a rotten car. Yey.

Hopefully this new job and rot free car will have Natalie Portman ringing me up for a date....

Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:35 am

Looks awesome dude!! Will have to pop round..

Mon Apr 06, 2009 12:00 am

Got a few fiddly jobs done today.

Did the wiring for the reverse light, sorted the coolant pipes from the head to the expansion tank, tidied various clips and bits and bobs from the engine bay, removed the S50 vacum control pipes and fitted a rubber blank to the throttle bodies, mounted the oil cooler and attempted to fit the 12.5mm inner diameter pipes from the oil cooler onto the 15mm outer diameter S50 pipes. FAIL.

I tried chamfering the S50 pipes, heating some engine oil on the stove and dunking the pipes; then forcing them onto the S50 outlets. No joy whatsoever. I think I'm going to have to get mum to go to a hydraulic piping place for me whilst I'm away at work. That or design up some turner style pipe adaptors and send the drawings to a machine shop. Lame.

Also, BMW supplied me with a nice illuminated key insert with an M logo (from a late e34 M5 I believe) and I ordered the illuminated key blank for it to clip into. First I got just a blade so I got them to order the rest of it but it has come back as a totally different type of key. Can anone give me the part number of the key blank that comes with the plastic part that the torch insert slides into? Nearly every E30 I have seen has one of these keys but the guy at the dealer couldn't find the right part number on his system.

I need to get to bed. Need to be in Oxford at 8.30!!

Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:27 pm

jai, looks good bud!! not far off now. i will do a build thread soon! gonna try and do a how"not" to, sort of a build manual if you like. i got my oil cooler pipes made at pirtek, they cost £130 and took them about 30 mins to make. i also finished my header tank/ radiator plumbing this weekend. the pipes from bbb worked a treat. hope to see your car finished soon.... nathan.

Sun Apr 12, 2009 8:33 pm

Cross your fingers, Dan and I are outside wiring sh!t up..

It's on its wheels BTW....

Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:12 am

Wiring maybe 50% complete.. Still a way to go! I did tell him it would take a good 10hrs+..

Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:56 pm

I feel we have paved the way for a great bonfire next week..

Tue Apr 14, 2009 12:30 am

Yea, I'm looking forward to it.....

No photo's/update tonight as a:My internet is going bloody slow and b:I have to be up at 4am. Bastards.

Oh, go on then...

Jai

Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:03 am

jaistanley wrote:Yea, I'm looking forward to it.....

Pah! It'll be fun... I'll bring the burgers and the popcorn..

Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:20 pm

Bring it on :lol:

Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:33 pm

good stuff dude cars looking good!

you wont regret the PF pads, i use them on the silvia and they are immense

Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:19 am

Today I got the joiner to finish the bottom hose..

Still have a load of fiddly jobs but no time! Annoying.

Might try and wire up the EWS tomorrow morning, it's all thats stopping me firing the thing up tp see if it'll implode in a shower of bent valves and popcorn smoke (Dan knows what I mean.. lol ).

Karan: Good to hear about the pads. Jhonno talked me into it, it was only £120 VS the £70 for the std textar pads. Got ATE super blue fluid for it too, along with the 25mm master and braided lines. Hoping the brakes will be up to the job! Want to get the bronze slider bushings at some point too. Wonder if the E46 M3 disks and 8 series brembos will fit under any E36 offset wheels? Hmmm..

Dan's getting his exhaust soon so I'll have a backbox to bolt on and finish the exhaust with. Not going with the blue-flame one now, little too much fiddling around for me to be arsed with fabricating it in my garden. Couple of 30 degree bends and two straight pipes should get me finished then.

Got to buy probably £100's worth of other stuff to finish, so tripple that and add 50% and it might be on the road!!

Thu May 21, 2009 12:22 am

Whey! found it!

Nice work Jai, looks smart, cant wait to see it in the RL

Dan

Sat May 30, 2009 5:22 am

Awesome. Fvcking awesome. It runs.. Starts on the button. The only trouble is the death rattle that seems to be coming from the top end. It isn't the ancilliaries, I tried it with the belt off.

Only thing that can be quickly checked is that a shim hasn't dropped out when I cranked the engine over upside down on the engine stand.

The engine was fine when I got it. I have changed:

Con rod bolts
Flywheel/cutch
Starter
Oil pump
Sump (didn't remove the bafflr plate as it didn't seem to contact)

I am royally p!ssed off.

Jai

Sat May 30, 2009 9:41 am

jaistanley wrote:didn't remove the bafflr plate as it didn't seem to contact

That's a possibility.

My sump didn't have one, but everyone who did removed it.

Ian.

Sat May 30, 2009 9:45 am

jaistanley wrote: Want to get the bronze slider bushings at some point too.

I have them and they are deffo an improvement

jaistanley wrote: Wonder if the E46 M3 disks and 8 series brembos will fit under any E36 offset wheels? Hmmm..

They fit with a special made spacer which is fitted UNDER the brake disk. But this will increase your track width by 12.5mm each side and you will need another 10mm ish wheel spacer depending on what rims you have.
IMO it's too much hassle and you will end up with a lot of spacers (different front and rear as well) and superlong wheel studs.
Better to get something customised to suit.

I have got my hands on a set of caliper brackets to fit Wilwood 6 piston calipers and there is a narrow body option which may clear the right type of rims.

jaistanley wrote: Not going with the blue-flame one now, little too much fiddling around for me to be arsed with fabricating it in my garden.

any pictures of that box, I may be interested to buy it off you.

Sat May 30, 2009 10:08 am

Hmmm. Can the sump be changed with engine in situ? It's not going to be fun!

I'll get the cam cover off soon and if the valve clearances are all good and the shims in place i'll have to go it one of those enging lift things that sit between the wings. My engine crane has just gone off to its original owner (it was on long-term loan). Typical!

Uwe: there should be some pictures on the previous page, where i was roughing out the exhaust on the ground. I can get you more needs be.

I was outside till 3.30 doing dans car ready for todays ring trip. Up again to face the cold reality!