Worlds longest Resto, my C2 2.7 19/3/18 Vent guage action

Doing a minor build / restoration or an epic one, post it here

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DanThe
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Sun Jan 15, 2012 9:03 pm

I would leave him out for the mo, get the cam out and take a couple of pics of the end as though you have just taken it out of the box, forward them to schrick asking which hole to use as you havnt seen one with two holes before.
If they give you fitting instructions that are wrong you will be leaps and bounds ahead of your present position
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Sun Jan 15, 2012 9:22 pm

Just hope Schrick dont frquent these forums !
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DanThe
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Sun Jan 15, 2012 9:33 pm

I dont see the problem TBH, if they instruct Si to fit the pulley to the hole that is open then they are just admitting a fault at their end
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Sun Jan 15, 2012 11:41 pm

I never expected that sort of damage Si , thats almost fooking epic..propper gutted for ya fella,

hard to tell from the pics and the slugs covered in coolant but will they go again ? just looks like one has it bad?
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Mon Jan 16, 2012 5:41 pm

i won't be using the pistons i doubt. They could possibly be re-used as they're so bloody rare.

Seems a good time for some lighter custom slugs.
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Rodderz
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Mon Jan 16, 2012 7:34 pm

How much would custom pistons cost? The Alpina pistons are about £1200 a set aren't they?
Simon13
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Mon Jan 16, 2012 7:46 pm

7-800 at a guess not sure i've not spoken to anyone about it
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Mon Jan 16, 2012 8:27 pm

I do feel for u mate but im sure you will have it back together and and better than before!

Btw, whose this fool "Tay" super keyboard warrior who is god about BMWs?

As Kos mentioned, where the pics at fool?

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Mon Jan 16, 2012 8:30 pm

Ajsingh wrote:Btw, whose this fool "Tay" super keyboard warrior who is god about BMWs?

As Kos mentioned, where the pics at fool?

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Simon13
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Mon Jan 16, 2012 9:55 pm

Right i've stripped the head down and removed 10 straight valves. 1 bent one which is from port 4 which is where the action started. hmmmm


I think what i'll do when the bottom end is removed is refit the valves to 1,2 cylinders along with the cam and rockers as they aren't really damaged at all and time it up both ways as before and turn the engine over. With some plasticine and see whats what.

I've found the Mahle website who made the OE slugs and i can try a couple of the machine shops i used during the build as they both rebuild engines.

Also thinking out loud i had the bottom end balanced, now they balance the crank,fly,clutch pressure plate along with the vibration damper and pulley all together? Then the rods and pistons are matched and thats it all done? So really the crank etc won't need to be re done but i shall have to get the rods and slugs matched up again? I hope so.
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Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:04 pm

Oh epic! Haha! I love the "sport interior". I want it!

What a D*ck!!! Honestly, what a fool
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Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:01 am

Si, as long as the pistons are all the same weight thats all that gets done anyway, same with the rods. High comp/lightweight FTW :cool:
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Royalratch
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Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:29 am

Wow.

I got some pistons for a motorcycle build direct from Wiseco. Forged, custom diameter with custom valve recess if you want to help with high lift / duration cams (ahem) and they come they with a set of rings, pins and a tasty graphite head gasket - though probably not for an M20. Considering what OE rings alone cost custom is the way to go.

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Dezzy
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Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:47 am

Royalratch wrote:Wow. Look at the fooking state of my thumb
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Royalratch
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Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:22 am

I put up pics of piston righteousness and you homo in on the finish of my nails.

8O

How's tricks Dezz.
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Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:24 am

Good mate.

You?
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macas
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Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:28 am

Dezzy wrote:
Royalratch wrote:Wow. Look at the fooking state of my thumb
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winkeye

:rofl:
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Royalratch
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Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:01 am

Dezzy wrote:Good mate.

You?
Good - still straight. winkeye
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Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:26 am

Royalratch wrote:
Dezzy wrote:Good mate.

You?
Good - still straight. winkeye

That suggests that you are/have been tempted to
indulge in an unnatural act. :) just in case.
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Royalratch
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Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:17 pm

I was more hinting at Dezzy's sudden gender switch. :D
e301988325i
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Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:27 am

See here for custom M20 pistons

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 15&start=0
ezagood wrote:Image
mmmm shiny
ezagood wrote:they are JE pistons. so made in america but i got them through cambridge motorsport. they measured the dimentions of the stock piston and sent the info to JE. £1000. they are loverly though.
I said:

Can anyone suggest how to test if the boot lights are staying on with the boot shut?

e30topless said:

lock the wife in there
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Mon Jan 23, 2012 11:50 am

Simon, nightmares dude.

what a cryin shame, forgetting the ££ that's love gone into that lot.

All the best , onwards and upwards

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Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:29 pm

:eek: £1000 for JE pistons!
Simon13
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Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:39 pm

Fear not the chin is still up. I'm just going to need to concentrate on getting the bronzit back together with a good tidy up and forsale. This will hopefully provide some of the monies needed to steer this back in the right direction.

I might try one of the local machin shops as they deal with mahle who made the pistons. See what might be poss. You never know. If i end up with other pistons which i will i can always get it bored and honed again as it has new liners fitted. Which were done for each piston so at a guess they're all slightly different sizes as the pistons were secondhand.

I've heard too many horror stories if people getting pistons made and they turn up wrong for various reasons. You could just send one of the pistons over for them to copy and improve?
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Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:13 am

Si, regards custom pistons I spoke to a guy called Steve nelson at top end performance in the states, he was realy helpful. Don't know how true it is but he said that BMW had give them blue prints to all there pistons to be a US distrubuter of BMW custom pistons. Seams abit far fetched to me but I just chose the CR for my M42 ones and added heavy duty pins, moly coated skirts and cermaic coated crowns with larger valve recess and they came to 650 shipped. Tim_s also got his from the same guy. Not sure if he would know about your alpina ones but might be worth a email, like you say sure if you sent one over he could copy it.

He got JE to make them and i had to weight about a month for them to be made.
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DanThe
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Tue Jan 24, 2012 8:44 am

You could even squeeze a 140mm rod in there if you go for custom pistons 8)

11:1 :D
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Royalratch
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Sat Jan 28, 2012 10:11 am

Simon13 wrote:I've heard too many horror stories if people getting pistons made and they turn up wrong for various reasons. You could just send one of the pistons over for them to copy and improve?
Ideally you get the block bored to fit the custom pistons and rings gapped all down together. Not just throw in new pistons that are 'supposed' to fit.
Simon13
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Sat Jan 28, 2012 10:41 am

no you get them made to each bore size
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Sat Jan 28, 2012 10:42 am

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Royalratch
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Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:25 pm

Simon13 wrote:no you get them made to each bore size
Depends if you're going bigger or not.
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Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:07 pm

Raise comp and increase displacement while your at it Si. 86mm slugs with that crank should see just over 2.9 cc

:cool:
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Simon13
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Sun Apr 22, 2012 10:18 pm

Bo!

Well after a break from this and being banned i had sometime/motivation to get back in the saddle and get this show back on the road.

This kind of started a couple of weeks ago when this turned up


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Another C2 bottom end! it was ment to be, along with alot of other M20 engine bits. All i was interested in was the pistons.

In true Sytners style the donor cars chassis number is stamped on the block along with the cars plaque or build no. as such.

A spec check revealed from BMW revealed an 86 auto 325i polaris silver 4 door with pacific interior or blue to you and i as the base vehicle 8O :)
It was a bit povo spec having eletric rear windows and green tint glass! P/S and central locking too. which i believe were options still.

Anyhow lets get stripping

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Looks nice and clean, confirmed the crank to be TD with matching part numbers to my spare TD crank i have.



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The business end all out and cleaned up, its been rebuilt at some point, i'd say at a guess it hasn't covered f**k all milege since.



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So onto the damaged bottom end, to finally face what the true extend of the damage is. With a slightly sad face, i wasn't expecting to take it apart quite so soon!



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I popped a few main caps off, all lovely. tbh it shouldnt be damamged here i think


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All in bits, lets see whats what then



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Pistons 3,4 and 5 are the ones that took the damage. No 3 being the worst where the valve left the party. This shot is to show that the top piston rings won't come out! So they're so bent the rings are trapped. And on the No. 3 the oil scraper ring is squashed on also :eek: i suppose Ali slugs are soft


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Big end shells on Rod no.3


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Same but rod no.1 which took no damage, i can't see anything in it.



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The rod on the left is straight. See the gaps?! Rod on the right is from No.3 pot and is clearly bent at the little end. The others seem straight. So we need another set of rods but we kind of knew that




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This is the big end journal on no.3 I can't see any marks variations in the finish. Its a forged crank so will be pretty tough no?!


So i took the pistons all 12 to my dads for the engineers part. I suppose i should explain my plan in the first place by buying the other C2 engine. I thought to myself that maybe these slugs just might be the right size and go again in my nice block.

Well the good news is they are indentical in size to the damaged ones. There was no more than a thou difference between them all. So good news on this front. We've picked out the best 3 to make up the set. Yes this is a motorsport budget route to take, but my feeling is this should still yield the original result

I'll need 3 sets of new rings, big end shells and another set of rods. I'll also get this lot balanced like the original set. This should take care of the bottom end i hope.


Onto the thorney subject of the head, the original one is scrap and will make a nice trophy, i've got 2 spare 885 heads that are my spares. Both are good heads, one coming from the C2 itself and the other was on my old 325i 4dr option miester that some might remember a long time ago!!


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This is the head that came off the C2 when i stripped it down originally. Its just a stock head the alpina one as we know went walkies before i bought the car. This looks to have been overhauled but stripping it and checking the guides and valves will confirm it. I only put about 4000 miles on the car before it came off the road. It had only covered a few 100 miles before i bought it. Hence why its nice and clean still everywhere

For some reason i thought it was an 89 casting but its infact an 88 one! So the peado would use this i guess as its an 88 built car.


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Now this head isn't a genuine BMW casting but an aftermarket one of some sort. Its got made in W.Germany on it so its a proper one from back in the day. Its been properly overhauled at Corrys and was used on Oz's 2.7 for a few thousand miles. Thats a whole other story. I've never heard of them cracking so a good long term idea.

Food for thought anyhow

I need to do some mock ups now and decide what was going on exactly with this schrick camshaft in both postions, and whether i can use it again most importantly. Maybe an oversize headgasket could of saved all this pain! its defo time for the plasicine to come out and work out this lack of valve to piston clearance
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Sun Apr 22, 2012 11:13 pm

Quite an update mate :cool:

Nice to see you back at it!
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Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:19 am

Good stuff. :D Looking forward to more updates on this.
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Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:22 am

Am I missing something here - why will you need another set of rods, can't you just use the ones from the newly purchased C2 engine (or indeed, the whole bottom end)? :?
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