My Track Car Build, Spanning past 3 years

[Motorhole]

Well, I dumped the diff on the bench of Ninemeister's (https://www.ninemeister.com/) transmission specialist today. I then spoke to them this afternoon and it seems it's the output shaft bearings that are stuffed. I've asked them to keep the bearings for me as a 'souvenir'.

So they're going to replace the bearings and tear down the LSD unit to see whether or not the clutch/dog plates need replacing. For now, I'm going to refrain from adding clutches and/or modifying ramp angles for two reasons:

1) Because I've not spend enough time on track in the car to know what I want from it. If 9M do a good job, I know where to take it later if I decide I want more from my diff. Makes it hard to justify the cost right now - see point 2 below!
2) Because the car's cost me enough money the past couple of weeks in insurance/MOT fees and I'm cheap.

So fingers crossed I will have a serviceable OEM-spec LSD back in my hands in the next few days...

[Demlotcrew]

You can always upgrade at a later date

[Motorhole]

Run into a snag...

Can't find frickin' bearings anywhere. Can't find a rebuild kit and although seals/crush plates etc are easy enough to pick up from BMW all the bearings are listed as 'ENDED'

If anyone could help me source bearings for the diff that would be amazing. Surely they must be available if others are rebuilding them! 9M have experience with Porsche and Nissan 200SX diffs but don't know where to source BMW parts.

[Demlotcrew]

Bearingboys sell skf bearings. Just use the sizes from the ETK, they have them in stock.

[Motorhole]

Thanks Andrew. It lists 2 possible sizes for the pinion bearing but that can be measured to confirm which listing is correct for my diff.

Sorted. Afternoon stress over

[Motorhole]

Okay I'm a little bit confused by this diagram on RealOEM:



There are two pinion bearings listed, Part 6 and Part 7, slightly different sizes. Is this an 'either/or' depending on diff spec, or do I need both of these?

Thanks again for any help.

[Demlotcrew]

You need both of them, the pinion has two opposing tapered roller bearings.

[Motorhole]

Thanks again bud!

God this place is useful.

[Demlotcrew]

No problems, hope it all goes well a‘a

[gareth]

Just spotted this, sorry i couldn't help earlier, got a new baby....!

Bearing part numbers are marked on the shells and readily available

[Motorhole]

Congratulations on the new arrival Gareth! And thanks for your pm.

While the diff is out, I went ahead and replaced all the injectors with refurbished ones from CP Injection in Merseyside. Two of the old ones were weeping fuel ever so slightly from the o-rings in the rail and given the state of the donor car, it”˜s anybody”˜s guess as to how often they saw a fuel filter change. So this was really a job that was overdue.

Old injectors in fuel rail:


Complete with leaks:


New injectors in rail, fuel rail cleaned up too:


Havn”˜t run the engine with them yet as - well because I was inspecting the centre bearing and drivetrain, I havn”˜t put the exhaust back on yet. But I pressurised the system again and there don”˜t seem to be any leaks. Hopefully I”˜ve managed to find a few more lost bhp!

Today I got the diff back from Neinmeister. Looks good! Feels smooth and tight when turned by hand so hopefully I will get a chance this weekend to put it back on the car. Can't wait to see how it feels...and to see if the tried and tested 'bodyrometer' can tell the difference with the refurbished injectors finished.

In the meantime, here are some photos showing the somewhat decayed state of the old output shaft bearings.







The pitting looks like it was caused by corrosion to me. It's possible that because the diff had been stored drained of oil and without a backplate for some time before I bought it (a year or a year and a half perhaps?), condensation had settled in the bearings, which then got scrubbed off rapidly with use leaving the pitting and further accelerating wear. Either way, I'm hoping it will be good for some time now!

Next goal is the open track session at 3-Sisters on 7th October. If I can get 20 or 30 laps in without further incident, it”˜ll be time to book a proper track day again

[DanThe]

Nice new injectors cant be a bad move

Nasty bearing! Defo caused by the diff being left open to atmosphere, id go as far to say its had water in it even

[Motorhole]

As it stands, the car is still SORN. But I”˜ve been chipping away at various jobs without any real time pressures, which has been great. Cheap jobs too, because as it stands I”˜m pretty skint for the moment!

The diff is now all hooked up again and ready to roll. I had 8-litres of 5w-40 Castrol Edge in the garage ready for an oil change, so I got myself a filter and sump plug washer and got on with it. I wasn”˜t entirely happy with the spreader plate for my pedal box either - call me anally retentive or whatever, but I knew I”˜d feel more comfortable with something a bit meatier preventing the floorpan folding inwards under hard braking. I made something a little bigger than the old one and made it out of 3 mm steel rather than 2 mm, so...old vs. new:





There are actually two spreader plates; this one covers the two bolts on the right side of the chassis rail and one for the one bolt on the left.

The other thing I wanted to sort out was crankcase ventilation. When I installed the M50 manifoled, I binned the PCV valve and routed the crankcase breather straight into the inlet - the most common way of doing the M50 manifold install. However a bit of research suggested this isn”˜t the best way of letting the crankcase breath as all the combustion gases, oil and water vapour get pulled into the inlet. Yes, they get burnt but they can also filth up the throttle body, manifold and in the worst case, result in fuel dilution and effectively reduced octane at high engine speeds.

So I needed an oil catch can/seperator and these are expensive. So what follows is a little tutorial on how to knock one up on the cheap. The project started with a budget ebay catch can, like this one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OIL-CATCH-TAN ... 1110156168

I fully expected this to be devoid of all filtration and baffles upon opening and I wasn”˜t disappointed.





They open easily enough with all the hex screws (carefully!) removed and by sticking a screwdriver or other long tool through the drain plug aperture (so it touches the top) and giving it a sharp tap with a hammer to break the seal.

To turn this into a ”˜working”˜ catch can, I used the following:



1) Stainless steel scourers (from the local £1 shop).
2) A piece of aluminium mesh (the kind used for bodging body repair) cut to fit the inside of the can. I had some of this lying around the garage.
3) Standard 15mm copper pipe - a short length (around 55 mm) and a longer length, cut to hang just above the botom of the level indicator on the can (around 75-80mm). Local plumbing store offcuts will do fine, but most guys will have some knocking about the garage/shed.
4) A 45-degree solder ring elbow (about £2 from B&Q).

I started by drilling some holes in what was to be the bottom of the longer bit of pipe - to be the inlet from the crankcase breather - to make sure I can see how the can is filling before it blocks the inlet.



Then I soldered in the elbow.




Then you need to find a way of securing this pipe into the top of the can. The cheapest and easiest way of doing this would be just to use some Tiger Seal or similar, but I didn”˜t have any lying around. I made a little sleeve out of shrink wrap instead - after failing with flux & solder. It doesn”˜t need to be perfect as the can won”˜t be subject to high temperatures or pressures, but it should be airtight.



I also found that the factory fittings didn”˜t seal air tight, so a bit of instant gasket on the thread and beneath the nut fixed that.

Next step is to pack the can with the scourers. This will provide lots of surface area for the crankcase vapours to condense on.



Then the mesh comes in. This acts as a debris filter to stop any of the scouring gubbins (though I checked for loose material beforehand to be sure) being sucked through the outlet and into the intake manifold. It needs a hole punching in it for the inlet pipe to go through.




It may now become apparant that the point of the inlet descending down into the can is to ensure vapour can”˜t take a ”˜shortcut”˜ from the inlet sttraight into the outlet. It is forced to travel through all the filter media.

Now the whole lot can be bolted back together. Clean up the mating surfaces and apply a smear of instant gasket, then screw back together.



At this point, feel free to check for airtight-ness by blowing into the inlet wih the outlet blocked - or vice versa. If the job is good you”˜ll end up red faced and with sore cheeks and you”˜re good to go! A (hopefully) working catch can/seperator for £20-£25...depending on what supplies are required

There isn”˜t really anything left for me to do now tbh. Certainly not anything I can afford! When November comes round, I”˜ll tax the car and give it some stick to see how everything feels.

[gareth]

wooaah fruity bearings!!! That's the worst set of output bearings i've seen to date i think

pinion bearings often do this though. Once one bit gets rough, it damages the rollers which in turn trample the rest of of the bearing face and the trashed section migrates around. Were the pinion bearings ok?

I think lack of oil changes in LSD's is a major contributor towards early bearing failure. The plates are coated in sintered carbide which does wear slowly and form a lovely fine grinding paste for the bearings to run in...


Oh and i love the catch tank

[Motorhole]

Thanks Gareth! Havn't driven the car yet since I've done all these mods and refitted the diff though, hopefully the catch can will do the job.

The pinion bearings did have some pitting but they were nowhere near as bad as the output bearings. Now the diff is (hopefully) good and is in my hands, I think I'll be putting the diff oil on the list of things to be changed every 2 years.

[Motorhole]

This weekend I fitted the catch tank and got round to taking the car for a spin (almost literally...) for the first time since the failure that was the Blyton Park track day.

The most logical place to fit the catch tank was in the space vacated by the original brake master cylinder and servo. The added benefit was this is I could drill through an ally panel I fitted to cover the hole in the bulkhead rather than drill more holes in the shell of the car. Score! I hate drilling holes in a decent shell and try to avoid it wherever possible.

I mounted the catch can using some mounting rubbers that came off the E36 donor car...can't remember what they were for, but they are like mini engine mounts with an M6 thread on each side, so they conveniently screwed straight into the threaded holes in the catch can body - and I bolted the other end through the ally plate.





I was excited about taking the car for a drive, but the roads were pretty damp. I couldn't use full throttle anywhere and the one time I thought it was safe to do so - on a short, quiet, straight stretch of dual carriageway without any other vehicles around - it nearly bit me. As the tacho went past 4500rpm (in 3rd), the rears suddenly lit up and the car decided that it wanted to play with the central reservation. A clenched sphincter and a wiggle of the steering later, all was good but I'm thinking it would be safest to save the *rse dyno test for dry weather!

I'm actually all ready to book another trackday, but as usual, real life gets in the way and cash is being swallowed by buying a new home whilst still trying to flog the current one. Fingers crossed I can get rid of it sooner rather than later and go and burn some fuel for fun!

[Demlotcrew]

Good job.

I take drilling in to the chassis too, I try and it with a modern adhesive before any holes are drilled

[Motorhole]

So, the last trackday was Oulton Park on 27th January. Car went well. 1 or 2 laps at a time...

A vibration manifested itself once the brakes got hot. Non existent under regular braking on the road, when cold or when braking from lower speeds. But repeated braking from 100mph+ resulted in a vibration that got progressively worse with each subsequent braking zone until I had to call an end to the session.

Thankfully this time, there was no wheel-caliper contact!

Anyway, there were a few potential causes for this.
1) Brake fluid (Dot 5.1) wasn't the freshest. It was about 18 months old and albeit only having covered around 1000 miles and a half-trackday, it could've been doing with changing.
2) My driver's side brake caliper was actually an upside-down passenger side one. This was a legacy from the build - something I didn't notice until I came to bleed the brakes for the first time. Either way, we got it bled, but perhaps something else was amiss with this minor issue.
3) That old chestnut of 'warped discs' - or uneven pad deposit.
4) Binding calipers.

Anyway over the past few weekends I've set about tearing everything apart and investigating.

Disc runout was 0.02 mm offside, 0.07 mm nearside. Bit high on the nearside, but I wasn't going to worry about this too much for now. Hub runout was negligible on the nearside, a tiny figure (can't remember what it was!) on the offside.

I replaced the upside-down caliper with a freshly refurbed one from Pagid. I also replaced guide pins and guide pin bushes for good measure - a cheap maintenance task really.

The offside wheel bearing had a noticeable 'sticky' point when turned by hand. Definitely some mechanical contact somewhere that could be felt by hand when rocking it through the sticky point. Odd, as it was a nearly new FAG bearing. I replaced this for good measure and was very careful about torquing up the hub nut.

I bled the brakes. Gunson Eezibleeder - what a great piece of kit. Should've bought one of these ages ago. I had to buy a spare OMP reservoir cap to make my own adapter for it (none of the supplied adapters are anywhere close to the size of the OMP reservoir caps), but it worked a treat.

Then, for good measure, and because I've done about 20 hours overtime in the past 2 months, I treated myself to set of the ATE floating discs from the E36 M3 Evo (using my £15 off CarParts4Less voucher too).
I also purchased a pair of 318ti rear grooved disc brakes (DBA) because they were available at a price I couldn't really turn down. Not required, but a nice to have! Anyway - that didn't go quite to plan...

They say assumption is the mother of all c*ck ups. I can't say that's wrong. You see, my 318ti rear trailing arms were what I'd been looking for for the 5-stud swap. It was what they were advertised as when I bought them. All this time, it's what I ASSUMED I had...until now, when the 318ti disc brakes didn't fit. I checked and double checked part numbers to make sure the discs were right and they were. Then I measured the total depth of the discs that were fitted and it transpires that I have in fact got rear trailing arms, brakes etc from a 2.8 or 3.0 Z3. That means I have nearly 60 mm total distance hub to hub MORE than I thought I had. More track isn't a bad thing to have, but all of a sudden the troubles I had earlier in the build with wheel/arch clearance - when all my calcs suggested I was good - suddenly made sense! Perhaps I should've considered this possibility earlier on. At least all that has now been resolved - so now I have a pair of DBA grooved rear brake discs for an E36 (non-M) up for sale. At $225 Aus each RRP, they don't retail cheap, but I'll let them go for a good price if there are any takers...still boxed and unused and unfitted, only unwrapped





Off to Blyton on 13th March next. Fingers crossed that all will be good.

[Motorhole]

So I thought I was going to be thrown another curve ball on the way to Blyton when I noticed a bit of clutch slip in 5th when overtaking on the motorway. Luckily, an adjustment to the clutch pedal fixed it. Basically, the bottom of the pedal was in its rest position before the master cylinder was fully returning. Adjusted it so there was a few mm free-play in the pedal and job done.

...and the car was good! The brakes were great, the diff was working nicely and for the first time I didn”˜t need to go home early. I finally had the opportunity to take the car by the scruff of the neck without anything going wrong, so I learnt a lot more about it yesterday than I had from all the time I”˜d spent in it beforehand - and that I don”˜t need to be as nervous or scared of it as I had been. At no point did it feel snappy or unstable - I could trail brake deep into corners without it trying to swap ends and when it did slide, it was comfortable and progressive. Loads of feedback - and everyone who sat in the passenger seat left commenting on how well it handled too.

It is still a bit soft for real track work, but it”˜s tolerable on the road. Something to address in the future if I end up towing it. Also, the temperature slowly rose lap after lap, then backing off a little cooled it down. I never let it get close to 3/4, but it”˜s not something I”˜ve had an issue with before. Perhaps a bigger rad might be in order in the future. It”˜s also a bit ”˜ticky”˜ when hot too, so perhaps a different oil and an oil cooler might both be worthwhile.

Has anyone here fitted an oil cooler to an M52 before? Can it be done without swapping the filter housing for an S50 one? How easy is the filter housing swap (if at all possible) or is there a way to do it using the standard M52 housing? Any advice would be welcome

A short video - just showing that the brakes and diff are indeed now work nicely; and short because I still don”˜t have internet at the new house so relying on my phone. Will probably get more videos/photos up later

E30-Blyton-Short:

Lots of tyre squeal from the.... err...Champiro UHP1s

[JF008]

Nice project and nice vid, you are building a great e30

[Motorhole]

Thanks JF

Anyway video... I didn't record every session, but here's the best one to end up on camera:

[youtube][/youtube]

Thought I might be going straight on at the chicane (The Wiggler) once or twice - but the brakes hauled me up perfectly each time. I just needed to be more brave

And my favourite picture from the day - hint of a slide and inside front wheel almost in the air

[Demlotcrew]

Nice vid, car seems to pull well

[Motorhole]

Thanks bud. Yeah it didn't feel too slouchy Chassis could easily handle more power though, even in it's current roly-poly state with 205 road tyres.

[DanThe]

Love the tyre squeal

How was the oil catch can? Any oil pulling through into the intake?

Before fitting an oil cooler id get an S50 rad in there myself, with an 80° stat

[Motorhole]

The lovely sound of cheap tyres being torn to shreds! They weren't *that* bad actually...but they are only on there so I could get the car on the road after I'd sold off the 17s and the Federals. Will get some trackday rubber on the car once I've burned through them.

I think you're right Dan. If anything it's a much easier job than d*cking about with filter housings - and it will be needed in the long term anyway. That and some 9 or 10 kg BC barrel springs for the rear (most of the roll is coming from the rear). I don't want to go overboard on the suspension as I plan to upgrade to some more focussed KWs or TC Klines at some point in the more distant future - but a pair of BC springs at £60 isn't going to break the bank and should help reduce the body roll for the time being.

I didn't see any oil in the catch can - so either nothing is being drawn through the breather or the can isn't working as I'd hoped! I'll investigate that further...

Rolling projects are more fun than immobile piles of disproportionately expensive parts for sure.

[JF008]

I had the same oil catch can (minus the mods) fitted my m50 for a few months and it stayed pretty clean. I removed it a couple weeks ago and had to wipe the inside with a white rag to see any sign of oil mist going through there. I have then sold it on ebay Probably better for emissions than performance? It can't do any harm anyhow ,nice little can you made.

JF

[DanThe]

You need to take the intake hose off and look at the throttle body and in the convoluted bits of the hose, thats where any oil will be sitting if its being pulled through.
Nice to know the can is empty though

[Motorhole]

Went over the car today. There was a dribble of oil in the catch can and some Mayo stuff in the outlet. I expect this is normal condensation as its not vented to atmosphere and oil/oil cap/coolant are perfect. Throttle body and intake boot were all immaculately clean so none is getting pulled through

Also did a routine plug pull for inspection - all perfect - and a diagnostics check which only threw up the expected exhaust flap/ccv errors.

Mishimoto S50 rad and new M3 expansion bottle next then. Would chance a cheap eBay one but I want to do an M52B30 build at some point in the future, so will get the cooling A1 now and hopefully I won't have to do it again.

[Motorhole]

Well I had an S50 Mishimoto rad & hoses and a Stoney Racing electric fan sat in my garage for aa while, along with a new expansion tank. Finally got round to fitting the lot. Pictures to follow...but for the time being it seems good. Need a Trackday to really tell - got that coming in the 9th Oct - but for now the temp is rock steady.

And later this week I should have an M54B30 sat in my garage ready to give up its innards

[rix313]

Exciting stuff dude

[Split_S]

Epic dude..Simply epic.. Congrats... Im living the same experience with my iS rebuild... great fun... engine sounds wicked...

Have fun..that's what its all about...

[Motorhole]

Thanks chaps.

So here are the pictures!

Spanking expansion bottle from BMW. Prices are starting to take the pee a bit though, this was best part of £80 with the level sensor blanking cap and the mounting bracket!



The fan fitting using some little ally brackets I knocked up. It's so much nicer having a garage and proper work bench at home now, it means the various bits and pieces I can throw together are much tidier.



Ignore the croc clips, they were just test wires to make sure I knew which way to wire it up to get it spinning the correct way!

All assembled and running - the return hose routing isn't ideal, but it'll pass for the trackday on the 9th Oct, I can sort it out properly later. Really need to get rid of the factory M40 airbox bracket too, it's really getting in the way! I've been avoiding doing that because I know it will mean paint



I also fixed these cracked headlight adjust bushes! Been giving me minor MOT issues for the past two years, was about time I fixed it properly. Flew through this time, with no advisories



Then this week, I got this delivered! A running, albeit roughly, M54B30 engine complete with all ancillaries for, well...rather less than the £300-£400 people are asking on Ebay for an M54B30 set of crank, rods and pistons. Hopefully I'll be able to recoup almost all of the engine purchase price by selling on the ancillaries, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, head, block, sump etc on Ebay.





So the plan is, take my time and put together an M52B30. Next stage of the learning process I guess...build an engine. How hard can it be?

[Demlotcrew]

Just throw it in as is, fit the MK60 and enjoy!

[jimbom30cab]

Yer, talk to Dan who has advice on fitting the m54

[Demlotcrew]

This fan looks like its a pull version?