S14 into RHD 325i into LHD 316i

[Demlotcrew]

120° is about what I seen, need to get it close to 80-90° tops.

Just can't seem to find a light weight M24 banjo or adaptor. Think I might have to go down a custom route.

Andrew

[Mikey_Boy]

120ºC is absolutely fine if your oil is decent spec - I used to regularly run at a steady 150ºC in gearboxes and diffs with short excursions up to 160ºC when doing durability testing back in the day when I was an engineer...

Was always a point for discussion when I was racing as well - most teams are VERY conservative on oil temps - I can understand it on some levels, but when you hit the sweet spot of bearing / gear clearance against oil temps and pressures being jusssssst right, the frictional gains are too good to be ignored.

M24 that's lightweight isn't that easy - I can understand that problem - I think custom is your only way - any installation plans so far?

[Demlotcrew]

I have a few ideas, I was looking at a Ferarri gearbox pump as its small, light, vane driven and most of all relatively cheap. I am still very much inclined to go down the laminova route to keep efficiency and weight to an absolute bare minimum. I have found an adaptor from m24 to m12 so it's possible other sizes are out there, imperial might also be available.

I'm using a double ester oil by Gulf Racing, I find it to be very good, boxes hold up well.

Andrew

[Mikey_Boy]

A very quick update - I have fixed the speedo...

Thread update is here:

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 50#2539250

Now all I have to do is get the MOT sorted - booked for 21st January...

[Mikey_Boy]

So, the day loomed large... MOT day.............!

Every rational bone in my body was saying that everything should be OK, but having an MOT is a bit like going to the dentist - could be routine, could be frickin' painful and costly!

Anyhoooo - those in the UK will know that we have had a bit of snow lately. My prefered MOT station is about 10 miles from where I live in the sticks, so getting there on snow with R888s was going to be interesting..

So, I put on my trusty drift wheels on the back in the hope of more traction and crossed my fingers that the R888s on the front wouldn't be too terrifying. Here she is on the way to the MOT station:



In fairness, the R888s weren't a complete disaster, but I wouldn't recommend them too often on the snow!

I am a very happy chappie - the old girl passed no worries at all with nothing major to report which is great news after all the work so far. She will be duly taxed as soon as the snow disappears so I can get some miles done before mapping...

Happy days...

[Demlotcrew]

Awesome, track times ahead!

[Mikey_Boy]

Hi Folks - my engine conversion thread is now a track build thread - for those of you who haven't seen it so far, I hope you enjoy the read and progress so far - more updates to come soon!

[Mikey_Boy]

Great read, beautiful work

I have just connected the dots here between s14.net and the zone - Mr X-Works, I salute you for your epic restoration thread on s14.net. I would like to publicly thank you as well - your notes on s14 engine specifics were really helpful for my build

Well worth a read for those who haven't seen it

http://www.s14.net/forums/showthread.ph ... ust+repair

[Mikey_Boy]

Seeing as it’s been over a year since I wrote anything, here’s a long overdue update

The engine has been gathering miles over the last months, but it has been plagued by a couple of niggles some of which I don’t have pictures for but let’s crack on anyways. First up the PAS return line had a small leak which turned out to be the banjo bolt weeping slightly. Tightening it just caused it to snap like a carrot as it bottomed out on the pump itself. Thicker crush washers and that issue was sorted out.

The engine has had a couple of small oil leaks, one unusually from the PAS bracket that attaches to the front cover ”“ I have a feeling that it’s the cover itself so hopefully bucketloads of Loctite 518 down the offending hole has done the trick.

I have also been wrestling with an engine whining noise that I mentioned earlier in this post ”“ I have tracked it down to one of 3 things ”“ either; new chains and guides making the noise (some folks claiming 400 miles before noise goes, others 3000), secondly, the valve clearances being too wide (guilty as charged ”“ that’s the last job before mapping) and the last issue around the whining is a little contentious ”“ the chain tensioner itself. This is a source of much discussion on various forums debating the E36 tensioner versus the stock S14 item. I started out with the E36 item and now run a stock piece ”“ I did notice that the noise reduced when I swapped it around but I may well switch back after the car has done a few more miles just for comparison. Again, any words of wisdom here are appreciated!

One thing that did help a fair bit with reducing the nose was replacing the idler gear ”“ the only blimmin’ thing that I DIDN’T change during the rebuild!

Car assumes the (familiar) position:



The Idler gear is located here on the engine:



Take off the front cam gear cover and cam cover to reveal this and get the engine around to TDC number 1:



The new cam gear and shaft assembly looks like this when it’s spanking new:






The thing to note is the gear profile on the new gear is completely different to the old one, whether that is wear and tear or a redesign of the gear I am not sure. Getting the old gear out isn’t straightforward:



Use of a magnet and the power of the force is always helpful in these instances!
New gear installed and ready to go ”“ assembly is the reverse of disassembly and all that...



I also got a wee bit distracted over last summer by buying this little fella:



I also have got round to fitting some better wing mirrors to replace the elephant’s ears that we have on the E30...
Remove mirrors (easy done ”“ just pop off the interior trim ”˜triangles’ with a trim clip tool and undo the 2 bolts and if you have heated or electric mirrors, unclip the cable), revealing:



Take one sheet of carbon fibre and using your mirrors as a template, carefully draw around the bases (the mirror base, not the rubber trim that sits against the body):



And cut to shape whilst using the above rubber pieces as templates, drill the holes that will fix the carbon to the body:



Next, let your imagination run wild as to where the mirrors themselves need to be mounted:



And do a trial fit:



Eventually you should have something like this fitted:



And if (like me) you have had an argument with your girlfriend, you can spend hours messing around getting in and out of the car adjusting the mirrors to the right position wondering exactly why you ditched the electric versions ”“ weight saving of course!

In fairness, they do give a very good field of view and I think they look pretty smart as well..



The weight saving bug has bitten me a little (there is a reason for that) so I was delighted when I managed to secure a carbon bootlid from a fellow zoner made by LWS design. These guys make some quality bits and pieces ”“ I can recommend them highly!
Here is the standard boot with MTec2 spoiler attached:



The boot is simply attached by the 4 bolts and a catch ”“ I also had to disconnect the boot light as well as mine is a sport...

Boot lid removed:



What became apparent after a trial fit is that the resulting boot springs are WAY too strong for the lighter boot lid so I decided to ditch these as well and just hold the boot up with my hand/broomstick in future until I can devise a solution ”“ any suggestions, please do let me know!
Be careful if you do this yourself ”“ the rods are under a LOT of tension so go off with a hell of a TWANG when they do release..




Trial fit of the boot lid:



Drill a couple of holes for the BMW badge... And you are done!



I really like the clean line of the boot without any spoilers but of course that’s never going to work on track ”“ if anyone knows a decent supplier of EVO3 replica spoilers for narrow body E30’s then please do let me know ”“ I am sure that the tiny lip spoiler on the 318iS isn’t great either... Underbody Aero anyone?!?!?!?!

Bottom line now is that I have a car that’s done about 1000 miles, seen 2 oil changes, been revved (briefly) to 7500 rpm (and sounds glorious!) and I *think* is ready for some detailed mapping at Emerald after the valve clearances are closed down...

[rix313]

Lookin' faaaast man got quite collection of toys there, spying a Porsche on the garage too

[Mikey_Boy]

Thank you... She does at the very least sound fast - that carbon airbox makes such a good noise...!

Yep - Porsche Turbo II - sad to say, but the film Bad Boys was the inspiration... A LOT of overtime went into buying her back in the day...

I don't do diesel...

[Demlotcrew]

An update!!!

Looking good! Noise wise, Ive never come across it, not sure what everyone is doing to get it, I may have the same when it comes time for the new engine to be built up. My only theory is that until the chain links cut in to the rails and the rollers take the load the noise will always be there, using modern oils will make that process much much longer. Lets see.......

[Mikey_Boy]

My only other thought is that maybe the oil pump chain is set a little tight, but racking my brains, I remember resetting that a good few times so that the chain was just so. The danger there is that the sprocket breaks off the pump shaft but seeing as I upgraded that as well, it shouldn't be a problem.

At the moment I am just going to get some more miles on the car and see how it develops - I agree with you that the chain and tensioner need to get to know one another a lot better - after 1000 miles on mineral oil and minimal wear so far - the noise ironically got a touch worse when I swapped to Mobil 1...

As you say, we shall see...!

[Rav335uk]

[Demlotcrew]

Dude you need one of my light weight alternator kits!

£399 - Full MS spec 65A 2.7kg



#shameless

[Mikey_Boy]

Oooooo - you cheeky monkey!

Definitely interested in one of those bad boys...!

[Demlotcrew]

I need to order two very soon, let me know if you are interested and if you need any more information, also a selection of pulleys, or if you can let me know your max RPM I can recommend a suitable size for every day running and the occasional track day.

[Mikey_Boy]

A very quick update - after 5 MONTHS of waiting and in the end having threaten AST with legal action, I have finally managed to get my suspension kit from them:



Much shiny-ness going on there!

Top Mount:



Adjusters:





Front and rear spring with platforms:





This might be controversial, but I have not gone for coilovers at the rear - the reason being that I have looked at it quite a bit and come to the conclusion that there isn't really enough room there to accommodate the units and the rear spring response is a bit crap so going to give this a whirl and see what happens.

Trouble is, I have been bad.....

Some of you might know that I have been after a LHD car for some time to do the full on welded cage deal now that the RHD car is nearly sorted - madness? Clearly.

In a weak moment, I have bought this:





Non sunroof!!



1 owner from new and pretty good nick... Some frag coming your way soon if anyone's in the market!?!?!





Watch this space....

[DanThe]

Nice coilies, but check out that foot rest!

[Mikey_Boy]

Oh yes...

Everything just lines up soooooooo much better in a LHD car. Really looking forward to getting stuck into this one!

[Mikey_Boy]

Of all the things about the car, the tow bar is full of irony seeing as it's a 316...

[rix313]

Looking good mate I waited a touch over 5 months for my AST dampers. I was about to cancel and go to Intrax but they arrived haha.

[Mikey_Boy]

As soon as you mention the words cancel, lawyer or money back, magically the parts appear.. Can't wait until Autosport show next year when I can eye ball the idoit in question and pull his ears...

[crossie]

Nice LHD build project!

[DanThe]

There is a quality car club day at Oulton next month Mike, I expect your car is ready for an outing?

[Mikey_Boy]

^^ Thanks Crossie! Hoping to start stripping the LHD car this week so watch this space...

DanThe - is that the trackday on 14th Nov?? If so, that *might* possible....

[Demlotcrew]

I might be up for this too ;)

[Mikey_Boy]

If it's the 14th, I should be there... It's 2 miles from where I live so no excuses really! Whether or not the beastie gets an airing depends on how mapping goes on 4th....

[Mikey_Boy]

Time for a quick update....

As you know from this thread, I am now juggling *two* builds, so really I need to wrap this thread up and start a new one for the LHD build...

Two 'final' jobs to do (yeah right, like these cars are ever finished!!) were to fit a smaller alternator - in fairness, this was NEVER planned, but happened because of Demlotcrew... That, and I've always thought the standard alternator is a bit of an afterthought:



Its a big old beastie and the way it's mounted is frankly rubbish - everyone always says that you will go through a bracket per year and I can see why.

So, along comes the unplanned alternator - it's a diddy wee thing that's a LOT lighter than standard:



However, it does need a bit of rewiring - as its a clever alternator as well as being small, it needs a 12V ignition feed (that is 12V when the engine is running) to ensure it stays healthy and batteries are kept in good order. I took my feed from the +12V coming out of the injector relay:



I want to run a lithium battery in future (the LHD car) so this along with other bits of wiring tidied up has future proofed the engine for a bit. Looks a lot tidier and purposeful in there now:





Now, onto the next job that in fairness I have been a bit nervous about - mapping

Nervous as it's an engine I have build and all my self doubt comes to a head as it could end in disaster and a large pile of scrap at the end...

I knew the map was way off (just good enough to tickle the car around and put running in miles on) so I trailered it over to Norfolk (quite a schlep from Cheshire trust me and having not towed anything for 20 years came as a shock as well!), but the old girl made it to the rolling road without mishap:





The guys at Emerald ECUs are SUPERB, no other way to describe them - always helpful, lots of tea at hand and willing to go the extra mile. Thankfully there were no issues mapping the car - the result being 207hp and 240 (ish) Nm:



This might seem a tad low but a couple of things are not helping - firstly the engine is still very new (just 1000 miles) so I reckon there's a few horsepower to come there and I have never been happy with the exhaust I am running so I think there's a few there too. Lastly, I also know the Emerald rolling road is a bit pessimistic which is the right direction for me! Rather real horsepower than Bullshit horsepower. That said, the Emerald guys were very complimentary about the torque which was one of the targets and how the car rolls on and off the throttle - that flywheel really was worth every penny!!

I am happy enough for now and on the road the car is transformed - hopefully she will hold together for a trackday before she is stripped down and retired... That and cold start mapping that I can do now the base map is sorted out

So, votes please!!! Do I start a new thread for the LHD build or keep going with this one? Answers on a postcard please...

[DanThe]

Nice, how heavy is the little alternator out of interest?

I take it you will be pulling the donk and fitting it to the LHD chariot?

[Mikey_Boy]

You'd best ask Andrew the exact weights - it's significantly lighter than standard that's for sure and gives a lot more room around the various bits and pieces on the S14...

Now she's mapped I will be taking the donk out of this car and putting it into the LHD car for sure along with other goodies...

[Demlotcrew]

Hey car is looking great! Also nice AFR plot on the printout

RE the alternators they are less than half the weight of the stock units.

The 45A unit is 2676g



The more expensive and mighty 67A unit is 3019g



I think you should keep this thread going with the LHD build, or at least remind everyone whos subscribed to follow to the new one

[Mikey_Boy]

Thanks for the details Andrew!

Just monitoring voltages whilst I have been doing cold start work on the map (you can't optimise this until base mapping is done) and seen that the voltage from the alternator is rock steady at 13.0V or thereabouts hot, 14.2V after cold start.

Cold fuel optimisation is taking a few iterations, but hot idle is 900 rpm with closed loop enabled, 14.1:1 AFR all the way...

I will keep this thread going as there's still the strip down (and sale!!) of the existing Shell to cover and given it's a heart transplant in the main.

[Demlotcrew]

For a track car I think cold running is ok with 'best attempt' after all it doesn't take the S14 engine long to warm up (as long as its not over fuelling and washing out the bores).

With regards to voltages, what electrical items are you running while monitoring the voltages? Heater, lights etc? For a lead acid battery 13v is fine, but for Lithium we will need to upgrade you to a different regulator (minor surgery).

With my lithium unit I'm running a higher voltage (around 15v hot) in order to keep all the cells balanced (a must for lithium batteries, even those with built in regulators).



Are you brining the beast tomorrow?

[Mikey_Boy]

It has been overfuelling like mad on cold starts up until mapping and just slightly better afterwards so a bit of work needed for sure - more worrying is that after mapping it was very rich then going very lean as it warmed up so need to compensate for that. Plus, it gives me a chance to fiddle a bit - I agree, cold start fuelling isn't a huge priority for a track car, but it helps me to understand the how the ECU works a bit more and really get the hot idle work sorted - the more I dig, I realise is pretty clever for an aftermarket standalone...

I have only been running the heater on position 1 (not because I need it but because I forgot to switch it off!) and the electric fan when that kicks in - that's when I see the lowest voltage. Now, my current battery might be coming to the end of it's life so that *may* be a factor but if the alternator needs a tweek to make it better for Lithium then no worries at all - I can add it to the list of things to do for the new car (already long!!!)