318is mini resto 30/1/12

[johnl320]

Thought I would start a thread on what I've been up to over the last 3 months, will add to this when I can.

First up, The annoying cam chain rattle @3000 rpm. Car history suggests the engine had been renewed after about 150,000 miles ( now on 230,000 ).
Now for all you M42 gurus this would suggest differences in timing gear, something I was unaware of

When I whipped the timing covers off and realised there is no idler gear, just another chain guide the light bulb moment occured and then the sinking feeling, I've already got the parts for an early engine

First thing that I noticed is different is the bottom chain guide that sits underneath the crank sprocket.

Wider and the mounting holes are in different places (Incorrect replacement is the top one)

[johnl320]

The whole setup looked in good nick so and i had already changed the tensioner to see if that would quieten it down, so some further investigating was needed. It didn't take long to discover this.

The top mount for the main chain guide had worked loose and done a fair amount of chewing in the surrounding area. Evidence on the timing gear cover.


The mounting bolt in question


Luckily the thread on head that it screws into is saveable. More to follow

[johnl320]

Uncovered a few bodges, which is to be expected on a car this age, the main one being when I removed the Breyton rear skirt to reveal a bit of previous 'welding'


The plate has been fitted into place with Araldite, Oh well at least I have the plate to weld into place.

The garage needs a tidy

[Curr946]

have you got a picture of the Breyton rear skirt fitted? looking at options for the rear of my touring

[johnl320]

Here you go, not the best but thats all I've got at the moment.

[Curr946]

cheers for that.. will keep my eyes open for one

[xr666]

its looking good

[The_Haywood]

have you got a picture of the Breyton rear skirt fitted? looking at options for the rear of my touring

here's my touring with the breyton skirt fitted.... though i have smoothed out the exhaust hole on mine for a cleaner looking rear.

[Alpina99]

I'm just pleased to see that I'm not the only one with a garage like that !!

[polsta]

I'm just pleased to see that I'm not the only one with a garage like that !!

you wanna see mine, although tidy, its chocca block with so much in there for the space, a lot of parts hanging tied from the roof

[adit]

garage? you want to see my house/garden/car boots/driveway/nanny's shed!

[leeparkes]

Nice chariot John, pity its got a girls engine.

[johnl320]

Nice chariot John, pity its got a girls engine.

What you on about? Its an M42, it must be about 300+ bhp!

Anyway, been doing a wee bit more to this bucket. Whipped the chain off once I'd locked the engine and Camshafts using the approved BMW camshaft locking tool


The Cam sprockets are looking quite healthy as are the cam lobes





Not happy about the condition of the threads on the damaged chain guide mount so its going to get a time sert installed.

The crank sprocket is past its best as well



Also picked up another diamond black IS at the weekend for 150 quid, Its in a very sorry state, will get pics of that mess on wednesday

[mwggriffiths]

Can I ask what the chain rattle sounded like?

My iS sounds quite tappet-y and has an annoying buzz between 3-4k RPM, on WOT, part throttle and overrun. I assumed that this was the manifold being cracked, but I'm beginning to second guess myself.

Any input?

Cheers

[johnl320]

Its an irregular tapping at 3000 rpm normally heard when cruising

[johnl320]

Its an irregular tapping at 3000 rpm normally heard when cruising

[magpie]

healthy ^



Nasty ^


keep the pics coming John

[johnl320]

So, time to tackle this little bleeder.

Threads are too far gone to save so I am going to drill through and fit a 'Time Sert'


Easy there


Tap it with plenty of lube


There is a thread under that swarf, honest



Here is the time sert partially screwed on to the applicator which expands the thread insert when you wind it into the hole.
A blob of threadlock and in she goes

Job jobbed, now need to make a conical spacer to fill the void left by the old screw vibrating around.

[johnl320]

Also made a start on the LPG wiring which is not the best, Jon_Bmw hang your head in shame!!

[mwggriffiths]

Its an irregular tapping at 3000 rpm normally heard when cruising

That's great cheers, I've just welded my manifold up today and it hasn't fixed it, so I'll whip the head off next weekend and have a look-see

[johnl320]

Its an irregular tapping at 3000 rpm normally heard when cruising

That's great cheers, I've just welded my manifold up today and it hasn't fixed it, so I'll whip the head off next weekend and have a look-see

Try a new hydraulic chain tensioner and an oil change first,quick and easy to change

[Demlotcrew]

are you working out of pacerpetes?

[johnl320]

A lot tidier now that lots of the car is back together. Bad engineering hygiene

[Demlotcrew]

All ill say is that you must be supper slim!

[johnl320]

Fuel tank change, prop change, subframe removal and refit, diff all done with the car in this exact position. Its like caving but with metal.
16 stone, 6 foot 2 inches

[johnl320]

Time to tackle the mess that lives underneath the M42 Manifold, this is made worse on this car because it has LPG fitted.
I'm surprised this car ran so well considering the amount of split pies with tape holding them together



Turns out the throttle body heater delete has already happened on this car but they decided to leave all the pipe wotk in place

This pipe has a threaded stud in it, blocking off the coolant flow


Mocking up the new ICV pipework

Bypass coolant pipe fitted


Test fitting ICV with new route for pipe

Throttle body gets a new vacuum hose for the FPR and needs a new pipe making up to connect to the crankcase breather

Throttle body fitted with new crankcase breather pipe in place

Some amount of crap leaves the engine bay but still messy in there with the LPG plumbing

[Alex]

looking good, the 318is had a heater plate completely different to all the others ive seen it was a little round pad thing connected to the throttle body underneath

Should run better with all them new hoses.

[johnl320]

Two different types alex, cant remember the changeover date but saw one in the scrapyard. It was running well anyway which is surprising

[johnl320]

Project turd continues, not too much done, wiper motoer swapped for a good one off the breaker.

Then I thought I would get a better look at this (notice the poor quality respray this wing has had at some point in its life, diamond black wings in good nick are getting rare


Bumper off



wing off, and no nasty surprises, sweet


Poke with a screwdriver reveals this, will now cut this bit from the breaker, the only rot free bit on it


back in the tidied(ish) garage


Not much done but thought I would share it

[adit]

that's more than i done on my car(s) this weekend, except fitting a replacement clutch slave cylinder on the Touring, so more maintenance than improvement really.

[johnl320]

Phil mentioned you had a limp pedal Adi

[adit]

limp legs too, after another heavy leg sesh with Miss Universe (other areas were not so limp especially after buddy-squatting )

[johnl320]

Thought I would revive an old thread. Turns out the plate underneath the stuck on rear valence was also glued into place so the search for good metal began.

With the plate removed and most of the filler ground away


Cutting back looking for something solid to weld to.


Plate cut to fit the hole



Finally welded into place, not the tidiest but will last a couple of winters hopefully.



Also finished fitting the timing chain and it seems to be running well.

[johnl320]

Also cleaned back the scuttle rust ready to patch up.

[johnl320]

Got the outer plate welded on today, I think my welding is slowly improving, more than happy to practice on this turd



Also got a plate welded into the hole in the scuttle



Next up is LPG wiring and bleed the brakes, needs to be MOT'd by august when the Cab gets sold