M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
FAQ / REFERENCE => Member Profiles => Topic started by: tim_s on March 11, 2006, 03:27:09 PM
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hey guys,
Thought i'd introduce myself (again), was only the other day i was saying hi over on bimmerforums! i'm tim, from the UK (bristol/london), I'm a cambridge uni graduate (classics) now at bristol uni doing a master's degree (contemporary history). when not studying, I've usually worked with computers, last time working for an encryption software company.
here's the car details:
AlpinweissII
blue cheque interior and cream headlining, quite an unusual combination
opening rear windows etc
mods:
-koni adjustable suspension
-eibach anti roll bars (sway bars!)
-sebring exhaust
-chip/fan delete/z3 short shift and a few other small changes
upcoming mods:
-2.1 high compression (11:1) short block and ITBs
-early euro m40 flywheel, euro e36 exh. manifold etc
-Megasquirt 1 v3 to control fuel and sparks
here's some pics:
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/Dscn2211.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/DSCN2217.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/tbs/DSCN2489.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/ICE/DSCN2180.jpg)
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Tim, tell you what: you give me your car... I'll buy you a lottery ticket every day for the rest of your life, you can even pick the numbers!
can you tell us a little bit more about your planned 2.1 conversion also?
and, WELCOME AND THANKS!!
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(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/tbs/DSCN2489.jpg)
Where did you come across that pretty thing? Tell me more! I want.
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Thanks for the comments!
OK, so the conversion stuff. The 2.1 is pretty complicated to explain in detail, in short it has some lighter shorter rods, 86.6mm pistons and a longer stoke crank. it has proved to be more expensive than anticipated, mainly because of the amount of machining required and the scarcity of parts.
the intake is a custom fibreglass item that I made myself. It's currently at a bodyshop being painted properly as I couldn't stop the paint reacting with either the filler or the fibreglass. it all mates up very sweetly to the m42, if perhaps at not as steep an angle as would have been most convenient (but less effective as far as the inlet path is concerned).
There's still a fair way to go with the project.I'm hoping for circa 200bhp at the flywheel when complete, good daily driver manners and good fuel economy (mainly due to the better fuelling potential with megasquirt).
HTH!
edited to clean up and get rid of crank stuff
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Tim, that's a great looking car. The attention to detail is obvious. cue drooling sounds. :)
Brian
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Um. Can I just have the ITB's like in the picture...? Is that like a bolt on? What else do I have to do to get that on my car and working?
Serious noob question.
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hi, another serious noob question... roughly what will your engine redline at, and what are you using (if any?! remember, me = noob) for a harmonic balancer or absorper thing...?
thanks man, this is some seriously great info... I was going to just say... "shipping to 10013 pls." but I'll spare the poor humor....
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You make me drool, nice work dude!!!!
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hi guys,
as far as the ITBs are concerned, as pictured they'll bolt right up to the m42. it also has all the required feeds for the ICV, breathers, brake servo etc.
I can build up throttle bodies like mine for about £400 ($700) without the intake plenum, the plenum i'd have to get a quote to have one built up to the same spec as mine by a local place, would probably cost about £150 at a guess, mb more if carbon fibre. I just don't like messing with fibreglass as its a pita and stinks.
If you want a setup similar to mine but made by a mainstream manufacturer - then dbilas or bmpdesign are the two options. both will cost you a lot more money though (circa $1700 iirc), and i have my reservations about the dbilas design (never seen a BMPdesign one though).
as for max rev limit and the myths surrounding the e30 crank pulley etc, I'm not looking to rev to highly (yet) as its my daily driver and its still on hydraulic lifters etc. for now my rev limit will be as low as stock, and after a few thousand miles, I reckon circa 7,250 or 7,500 rpm will be my limit. As for the tales of the crank pulley breaking up at 7,200rpm or whatever, these claims appear to be totally unfounded. I think what is more likely is that the rubber is perishing in certain conditions with age, our engines are 15yrs old after all. I've inspected the crank pulley going onto the engine and it shows no evidence of wear/perishing. I have never really got the whole get to 7,200 and your crank pulley will disintegrate thing. I know of m42s with this vib damper running up to 7,500 consistently with no ill-effects. It can easily be overcome anyway, but i'm not particularly concerned about this. If someone can give some concrete details of one breaking up etc and pics etc and the conditions under which it broke up, i'd be much more concerned. but tbh i've never actually seen this, just heard tales.
Cheers guys!
tim
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I can build up throttle bodies like mine for about £400 ($700) without the intake plenum, the plenum i'd have to get a quote to have one built up to the same spec as mine by a local place, would probably cost about £150 at a guess, mb more if carbon fibre. I just don't like messing with fibreglass as its a pita and stinks...
You just let me know how much to save up, and I'll be ready when the time comes. I'd love the plenum in CF, that would rock so hard. I want this SO BAD. That car is going to sound amazing too.
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as stated in the movie "super troopers" ooooh ooooh oooooooooh
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good to see you on here Tim! keep keeping us updated.
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noticed that your battery is up front...did you do that, or thats how you bought the car??
also, i have setup my sub as a free-air as well! i've got 2 amps, one for the sub of course and the other for a set of components. i love the box for the amps..i mounted mine against the back surrounding the sub. i need to get something to cover up the whole mess of wires though. what kind of carpeting did you use to cover up the amps?
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are you sure all that has to be done to the crank? someone on bimmer forums used one from a m47 and they just needed to shave like 1mm off the front or something
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edit: whoa, I knew that crank would bring up some more questions!
tim, thanks for the info re: the harmonic balancer thing... um, the crank you've got pictured... is that the diesel crank (forged, 8 counterweights?)
thanks again for fielding this barrage of questions... in lieu of imitation, consider it the second highest form of flattery
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hey streetspec, there's no place like the zone but don't mind spreading my wings a little from time to time. the zone's been quite quiet of late too especially with all the bickering. nice to see some proper pics of your car, I must have missed them in the past!
dude, the battery has always been in the front. all euro ones are like this, are yours in the back?
nick, yes of course i'm sure! i can't speak for other people etc, but i know what i had to do to mine.
as for the vibration damper stuff, don't take it as gospel, it's only my opinion. i may well stand to be corrected, in which case i will do something about it - its easily changed.
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HAHAHA we have one up on the euro cars!!!! our battery's are rear right :D
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yup in the rear right...what do you have in that area? just some storage area??
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yeah, we got a cubby hole there. the euro 325i has the battery in the boot though, same place as yours. wonder why the US battery is in the boot? i've never been a fan of having too much weight past the rear axle personally. anyone got a pic of a US engine?
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I love that car. Loved UK when I visited there in 2003. A friend of mine named Tavo Hellmund ran third in F3000 a few years ago. He sold everything he owned to rent-a-ride for a season. It's true we are separated by a common language. Love that "contemporary history" and rubber parts that "perish" We have "modern history" and "rot" Cheers!
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"I do not feel inadequate. I do not feel innadequate."
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thanks for all the kind comments so far! the car's continuing to develop, thought i'd add some more recent pics ( a lot of these have been posted elsewhere on here!):
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/Dscn2682new.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/DSCN2681.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/engine%20rebuild/DSCN2744.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/DSCN2472.jpg)
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(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/640_PICT1192.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/DSCN2784.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/DSCN2785.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/DSCN2787.jpg)
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(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/IMAGE_032edit.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/tbs/DSCN2767.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/tbs/DSCN2375.jpg)
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mmm, thats lookin reall nice man. have you hit the dyno yet?
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mmm, thats lookin reall nice man. have you hit the dyno yet?
thanks mike. not been on the dyno since the rebuild, i still have a lot of work to do before its ready. the ITBs aren't on the car as a permanent fixture yet, the MS still needs work, and the head is completely standard for the moment. have standard cams too. i drove dan's (318-is) standardish e30 318is the other day, which sounded great and went very well up top, but it demonstrated the massive increase in torque and outright performance that i have.
how's yours coming along?
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couldn't help myself, I know i posted pics the other day, but the weather was just too good today, and we dont get many days like that here! i'd also just cleaned the car having done the best part of 1000 miles over the last week or two.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/june%2006/Dscn2812.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/june%2006/Dscn2808.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/june%2006/Dscn2800.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/june%2006/Dscn2801.jpg)
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(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/june%2006/Dscn2797.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/june%2006/Dscn2793.jpg)
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Cheers to you and your ride bro. Downing some Warsteiner here after my first tennis game in 3 years :rolleyes:
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my first tennis game in 3 years :rolleyes:
:D . funny mental picture bro.
Looking niiiiice Tim! such the sleeper. Im wishing for some sunshine here. only just getting into winter, but already its too much for me. hehe
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mines kinda still building the funds right now, i got a pretty sweet job so it should come soon. but unfortunatly i might be straying away from the m42... it depends cause i could drop a ford 302 in with 550hp for 3,500$ cause my friends got a built 302 that hes had for like 2 years in his shop with 0 miles, and a tranny so its looking really really tempting cause its 1/3 the price...
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(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/engine%20rebuild/DSCN2744.jpg)
Man. Makes me want to take my valve cover and intake mani off and paint them black (of course while maintaining the silver stripes). It makes such a difference in the engine bay to see those clean, dark pieces.
But I just spent a whole hell of a lot of time taking my injectors out to have them cleaned. I don't want to deal with taking the intake mani off againe. :(
Nice ride. I might go this direction sometime in the future. That intake plenum wicked.
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How did you design the plenum? tell me it wasnt' eye-balled for double the displacement...what donated the tb's? oh oh and what type of mould/plug did you use to make it.
ps. your car is a role model to me.
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Cheers to you and your ride bro. Downing some Warsteiner here after my first tennis game in 3 years :rolleyes:
mmm warasteiner, nice one!
mines kinda still building the funds right now, i got a pretty sweet job so it should come soon. but unfortunatly i might be straying away from the m42... it depends cause i could drop a ford 302 in with 550hp for 3,500$ cause my friends got a built 302 that hes had for like 2 years in his shop with 0 miles, and a tranny so its looking really really tempting cause its 1/3 the price...
i can see your point, but ford 302 in a baby 4 pot bmw? i dunno, there's just something not quite right with that.
How did you design the plenum? tell me it wasnt' eye-balled for double the displacement...what donated the tb's? oh oh and what type of mould/plug did you use to make it.
ps. your car is a role model to me.
there's some info on the tbs/intake etc elsewhere on here iirc. briefly, the plenum design was not just eyeballed, and is nowhere near 4 litres - look at the pic! I had an s50 and an s14 plenum for comparison (in fact at first i tried to use the s14 plenum, but its just not do-able with the brakes where they are), but overall the design was a bit compromised due to it actually having to fit an e30 m42.
its a similar story with trumpet tuning - the ones on there are based on a lot of comparison and calculations etc, but may need some tuning as you can't beat trial and error for that kinda thing.
the plenum's actually my prototype, i built it using odds and sods i had lying around just to get running and for doing testing, but as it fitted well and looked ok i've gone with it for now. but rest assured, i've put a lot of time and effort into the design and consulted some knowledgable friends!
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Thought I'd add a recent-ish engine pic for you guys:
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/LPG/DSCN3133.jpg)
I'm pretty much good to go on LPG now, and MS is working pretty well, with only a few hiccups left to iron out. I'm still not 100% happy with MS but i'm only 6 months into it, and have a useable setup. I'm running MAF now unlike a while back, it's working well for me. My fuel economy has dropped a few mpg due to the ITBs, i'm not really sure why I'm using more fuel on the motorway with them, although i can understand why i use more fuel around town. soon when I have the LPG rigged up that won't be such a concern. Hopefully I can shortly resolve my lifter tick, add a new wilder inlet cam and get her on a dyno.
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Bumping that hotness. I would love to do this someday.
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Loving it Tim. Looks amazing. I have my other M42 engine waiting for work now.lol. Can only hope it turns out as well as yours.
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I'm really anxious to see the dyno results!
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hey all! been a long time since I updated this thread.
the big news was that a small end bush mashed itself - engine had only done about 10k miles. not really sure why. so the engine came out for rebuild no.2 which, although unwelcome, in hindsight wasn't such a bad thing as it allowed me to check and re-measure bores etc. With some new super-strong SE bushes and some nice new lightweight pins, new oil pump, everything balanced again (new pressure plate went in so i did the lot again!) i'm pretty happy. everything was running in great, only small issue was slight hot spots between cylinder walls. Whole ordeal took 2 weeks to sort out.
I put the car back to the standard inlet following this for a number of reasons. the standard inlet is quieter and drives a bit better in the city - it has a stronger idle and copes with high inlet temps better. Also I wanted to devote my attention to my sequential LPG injection project. LPG is under half the cost of petrol over here, has a very high octane rating, and is clean. My setup is now running and I'm very happy with it. its saving me a load of money (car is now as cheap as something like a vw polo in fuel) and is much better in terms of CO2 emissions.
I want to do some more track time, travelling and various other things including more Ring time this yr, so I'm taking a bit of a break from serious engine work for a little while, but there will be more to come. I wasn't able to source ARP rod bolts when rebuilding, but now have a supplier, so I have to have the oil pans off and fit these. I've been weighing up paying somewhere to do the work but I'm not sure. I also want to build another cyl head up at some pt. The current head on the car, although late-spec, low miles, young and fbmwsh, is standard with just re-lapped valves and new gen. stem seals. I'd also like to fit a thinner MLS HG to cure the hot spots and to raise the CR further. Current set of ITBs look like they'll be sold to a friend (dan-318is), so I may have to start on a new setup, learning from the first attempt. The plenum was always intended to be a prototype, I'd like to improve the way the flanges meet with the plenum/trumpets and get the plenum held more firmly to improve the pedal feel. I'd also like to try the advances in MS such as the hi res code.
I've also been working on a few other car projects including a stipped out 2l 8v scirocco on carbs (the chavrocco), a late m44 e36, and soon hopefully an m52 (e36 328i sport) project, although what exactly I'm going to do with the m52 i don't know, but the car is being bought with a fairly large tuning budget in mind. my car is currently the slowest among my closest car buddies, among their cars are a 400bhp audi S4 with 365mm RS6 front brakes, a 300bhp audi S2, a 3 dr sierra cosworth with 300bhp, not to mention the chavrocco which with 110bhp at the wheels will probably give mine a hard time... until the twisties. Still have very little desire to change, the BM is driving great!
Oh and I may be on some dastek rollers next month, but will prob run with the standard inlet.
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Hey I know this is old thread but I would like to ask couple questions. First of all Tim in your last post I saw you said you might be selling your old set up, did you sold it all ready? And before that you said that it might cost around 700$ for a setup like yours? Whats included in those 700$? If it's the ITB with the injectors and the plenum you might tell me your e-mail adres so I can send you the money via paypal :D
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hiya twism, sorry for not replying to your pm, I've not been on here much of late. I've kinda stopped playing with the e30, have a few trackdays on the cards (brands hatch on 21st jan!) and a nurburgring trip in april though :)
I'm not running TBs any more because my needs for the car changed a lot :( I sold them to a friend! I now use it on the motorway and city a lot and do a lot of miles (20,000 ish a year). I'm actually considering an e46 coupe to replace it! Sadly even the 330 engine feels much less lively than my M42, and I prefer the e30 to look at. The e46 is a better motorway/city car though. Nonetheless, I'm struggling to find an e46 that I'm happy to replace mine with, and at the same time I have managed to get lucky and land another set of throttle bodies, without really intending to! I bought a cylinder head from Steve (steve321), and it was port-matched to his set of throttle bodies, so we came to an agreement regarding swapping my spare throttle bodies for his! If I build (or have built!) another plenum (probably CF this time), I'll certainly entertain making a second one as the mould can be re-used.
As for the throttle bodies + plenum, yup, I think that for around $800 or so (the dollar's a bit weaker now agains the £) a set could be made, mb a little more depending on plenum choice.
as an aside, the car now makes 185bhp/162ft/lbs on a rolling road that I trust to give accurate figures. That's in full daily driving spec with tame cams and single throttle body. I'd like a slightly more aggressive inlet cam to get to 200bhp, but that's on hold for the moment. The engine is intermittently when warm a bit noisy which is frustrating. I think its the inlet cam/carrier/tappets sort of area that's making some noise, it sort of chatters when coming off the throttle. Doesn't do it all the time, I think if I change inlet cam, I'll buy a new carrier too. I'll guess I'll get a garage to diagnose it first though. Runs great otherwise though.
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Hey Tim, thank you for your reply! 800$ doesn't sound bad, but yesterday I started thinking about eaton m45 or M62 + intercooler, I might go with this plan...what do you think about supercharged m42s? Me and my friends are now thinking about going to the ring in august, maybe about 10 BMWs most of them E30s, I'll send you msg again when it's close to see if you're going to be around there by that time :)
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Pics from brands hatch track day the other day (sorry no on track pics :( ). The e30 was really good, was very happy with it.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/brands%2008/P1000174no.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/brands%2008/P1000184-2no.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/brands%2008/P1000167-2no.jpg)
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Ring pics!!!
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/ring/T8E_0041_HRnoplate.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/ring/IMG_3655noplate.jpg)
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very nice car and engine!!! and cool pictures!!
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Thanks! Car needs some TLC after the ring trip, I've nailed a rear wheel bearing and got a tap from the inlet side. Arg! Think I need a new inlet cam carrier :( Needs to lose some weight and perhaps some lighter wheels, but it's quite a clean example and I use it on the road a lot. There was a 325 on coilovers out there which was impressive on the twisties, a lot of that was driver though I think. The koni/eibach arbs setup I have proved stiffer and to give more corner speed than bilstein/hnr (went with a few 318is cars), but seemed to be more of a handful in the wet.
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wow! Very nice car and very clean engine bay, I like a lot!
Which Koni/eibach gave the higher cornering speed and my next question is probably a bit noobish, what is arbs?
Last question, what did you do to get your 180bhp that you're having now?
Thank you very much, next time you go to the NS, let me know ;)
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sorry missed this reply! ARBs = anti roll bars, i think guys in the states call them 'sway bars'.
Engine had 2.1 bottom end, cams, flowed head, management etc. Got some new and exciting bits coming soon so should make a bit more power :)
Hopefully next NS trip will be in october, if the car's ready :)
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So, major update!
The noise that started happening at the Nordschlieffe turned out to be the bottom end again. So at first I looked into having the pistons reamed to fit a larger pin to resolve the issue, that or different rods, but after pricing it all up and after receiving a reasonable offer on my old engine, I decided to instead go for a new engine re-using my old crank and shells, which actually theoretically wouldn't cost much more. So engine mk2 project!
New forged pistons:
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/_MG_2586.jpg)
Custom MLS HG, total seal rings, ARP rod bolts etc
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/_MG_2585.jpg)
Old engine out:
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010252noplate.jpg)
Crank ready for complete bottom end zero balancing by one of the top specialists (I had the whole bottom end and rotating assembly zero balanced inc the new pistons which actually needed some balancing - done by tapering the pins, the crank and rods were pretty good, fly quite bad after the skimming - to be expected)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010259.jpg)
New 6kg f/w:
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010256.jpg)
Parts ready for re-assembly!
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010267.jpg)
Engine being built! I was pretty worried about breaking rings fitting them to the block as they came from the States and I'm in the UK, so getting a replacement would be a pain, plus I'd had them all gapped and matched up to each cyl, so had to be really cautious!:
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010277.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010279.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010286.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010289.jpg)
bought an upper sump to replace my original because the threads for the lower sump are shot, but after an hour's cleaning it was still nowhere near as clean as mine, so I kept the original, added studs locktited into the sump.
sump i bought (after some cleaning!!!):
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010280.jpg)
my original sump
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010282.jpg)
studs:
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010283.jpg)
engine in (on new e34 mounts)!
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/bmw/new%20engine/P1010300.jpg)
After a few teething probs (snapped bolt at oil filter head to inner timing cover gasket), exhaust manifold leak (forgot to do up a stud), leaky thermo housing (replaced by new part from dealer), air leak from injector seals), I'm now running in the engine. The car was off the road for 3 weekends in total, one wknd removing engine and waiting for the balancing to be done (crank had to be removed from old engine), one weekend of fitting engine, one wknd of finishing touches and test runs. I've done around 200 miles so far on it, needs an MOT (yearly test of roadworthiness) shortly but a bit worried about the emissions as the rings really haven't bedded in properly! I've just sold my catcam inlet cam to replace it with a slightly more tame one, the old one didn't give an acceptable idle, so am on a standard inlet cam for the moment until the replacement is delivered. Should be here in a few weeks, then mapping to complete! Still hoping to make the 'ring in october, but may have to be sensible and not drive on the ring itself but protect new engine! Apparently need to run on mineral oil for the first 3k miles. I've got to drive the car as much as possible and iron out all teething issues!!!
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Very nice build up...pretty quick too! Wish I could have completed my swap in 3 weeks! I'm almost at 9 months for my build!
What break-in procedure are you following?
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hey tim what did you gap the pistons to? they are JE right? also which way is the non symetrical ring supposed to face? I still havent been able to figure out what is wrong with the engine i built up. your pistons seem to be much differently designed then mine. mine have extreme back cut in the ring area.
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Well, funny you should say that, dude! Firstly, I guess I should mention that the parts took around a month to be made and shipped, and the boring/honing, flywheel lightening etc and all part ordering was done in advance. and I re-used my crank, had a perfect flowed cyl head with larger throats etc that i was re-using, same for management etc.
Plan originally was to do all fitting in a weekend, I've done this before! I knew fairly early that this wouldn't work because of the balancing. There was one local guy who was prepared to balance it on a Saturday, but I have my reservations about him (after he pressed a wheel bearing in the wrong way around for a friend, then charged him to press the replacement audi part (which cost $100!) in to the car, despite costing him all that time and money by doing it wrong in the first place!)! So I decided to extend it to two weeks, one wknd to pull the engine, balancing to be done in the week, then engine fitted in the following wknd. That would have worked ok, the engine was pretty much ready to roll at the end of wknd 2, but it had a massive leak from the oil filter head, a seep from the thermo housing, and was untested at 9pm on the sunday, so I thought I'd be well advised to spend another weekend finishing up!
While the BM was off the road, I borrowed this (I took these pics for the friend whom I borrowed the car from):
(http://i348.photobucket.com/albums/q326/rusty_mcrusty/Polo_London_01.jpg)
(http://i348.photobucket.com/albums/q326/rusty_mcrusty/Polo_London_02.jpg)
Polo GT, 800kg and 75bhp, went surprisingly well and was a lot of fun! Reminded me of my mk1 golf, only better put together and slower! Still v impressive for 75bhp!
As for the running in, this is a really pertinent issue at the moment! Many people suggest on the total seal rings to do light load full rpm runs, but I don't quite have the balls. I've been doing light load, varied rpms (hard work on the motorway - I've been doing 70-90mph accelerations, then backing down to 70 and back up again, varying between using 4th and 5th gear!). The rings don't appear to have bedded in that well yet tbh, I've heard of people needing to give the car a good thrash before they seal, so may do the full rpm runs soon. There's so many different strategies, I'm open to comments and criticism!
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hey tim what did you gap the pistons to? they are JE right? also which way is the non symetrical ring supposed to face? I still havent been able to figure out what is wrong with the engine i built up. your pistons seem to be much differently designed then mine. mine have extreme back cut in the ring area.
Pistons are gapped to 0.030" iirc, I went for the tighter end of the scale on the recommendation of my engine builder. He uses these pistons a lot for motorcycle engines he builds. He does a lot of custom engine work and race prep, so simply took his advice. Each cyl was bored individually to a particular piston + gap rather than fixed bore (although tolerances on the pistons were very good, was surprised the balance wasn't perfect though!). Rings I was petrified of fitting myself due to the risk of having to get another shipped over from the US if I broke one, so I let the chap who balanced the engine fit them. I just left the instructions with him and he did the rest! What's wrong with your engine? Any pics of your pistons?
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man down! cyl 4 is oily :( So when building the engine, one of the rings on cyl 4 was 'hanging' against the top of the block. We pulled the piston, examined it, reset it in the ring compressor and refitted, but looks like a ring must have got bent or damaged. Getting some oil usage (mainly on idle/in traffic) and the spark plug is fouled. Good news is that cyls 1-3 are giving a nice even 210psi across the board (warm) and the sparks look good (other than on cyl 4!), but new rings are on order for cyl 4 and partial rebuild planned for next weekend :(
So, who knows the easiest way to get to rod number 4? can i undo and pull the upper sump forward just using a trolley jack on the engine mount to gain a little height? Any other ideas?
Cheers
Tim
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I've never been a fan of doing partial rebuilds with the motor still in the car.
I bet you could pull that thing out and have on an engine stand is no time. Sam and I pulled my motor in 1hr 45min! It will probably take that much time to get in there alone.
man down! cyl 4 is oily :( So when building the engine, one of the rings on cyl 4 was 'hanging' against the top of the block. We pulled the piston, examined it, reset it in the ring compressor and refitted, but looks like a ring must have got bent or damaged. Getting some oil usage (mainly on idle/in traffic) and the spark plug is fouled. Good news is that cyls 1-3 are giving a nice even 210psi across the board (warm) and the sparks look good (other than on cyl 4!), but new rings are on order for cyl 4 and partial rebuild planned for next weekend :(
So, who knows the easiest way to get to rod number 4? can i undo and pull the upper sump forward just using a trolley jack on the engine mount to gain a little height? Any other ideas?
Cheers
Tim
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yeah i see where you're coming from, and normally I'd pull the engine, but in this case it seems a bit of a waste of time as I only need to remove the cyl head and pop one rod out. If I pull the engine, I still have to pull the head and the sump, so if i can get the sump out of the way of rod 4 to remove it, I'd save maybe 4 hours work (removal and refitting of engine), as I'd just have to remove cyl head, remove sump, pull piston, refit, rather than remove engine, remove cyl head, remove sump etc. I'm hoping this job will be a fairly easy day's work, but have a weekend sat aside for the job (as long as the rings turn up before next wknd!)
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haha i hate waiting on parts that will allow me to continue my build. it happens EVERY freakin week!!
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Fixed, I think! Oil control ring rails had excessive end gap on cyl 4. Not sure why, they must have been mismanufactured! 1-3 all had a gap of circa 35 thou (instructions specify a min of 15 thou, I'm informed that 20-40 thou is typical though), cyl 4 had an end gap of somewhere around 80 thou (it was so huge i gave up measuring). Sadly when gapped only a couple of the oil control ring rails were checked, the gap was plenty, so this manufacturing defect slipped through! Am quite glad it wasn't my fault misfitting the rings though. Done 200 miles so far, was oily for the first 20 miles or so, seems to be fine now though. will pull plugs later to confirm! Sadly seem to have got a ticking noise from somewhere after the rebuilt though, am sure that will get resolved soon.
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It's been a while since I've updated, so thought I'd do a brief catch-up. I've been mainly working on my bro's euro e36 m3 evo of late and leaving the IS alone. Nonetheless after getting the engine more or less run in, I took her onto the rollers for some mapping. The car made really good power, I was really happy, that's 94hp/l without wild cams, ITBs, VVT, a really strong torque curve and a broad power band. Happy days!
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/result.jpg)
There's def plenty more power in there with some tweaks, but I'm in no rush to do any further engine mods at the mo, although later I may. I'm making comparable figures to standard 2.3 S14s on these rollers, the better ones show around the same torque but a bit more power at the top which I believe my engine could achieve with a better inlet.
I still have a rubbish idle, the engine is noisy (suspected chain - will change this wknd probably), uses a bit of oil (I spose this is acceptable given loosish piston-bore clearance) and a leak from timing chain tensioner despite new bolt and washer, otherwise everything seems pretty good. It looks like replacing the intake boot for an 89-76mm pipe might push me over the 200bhp mark, I don't have the inclination to do so though!
A bit o/t, here's a old dirty pic of the car to liven up the post!
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/ts295/IMAGE_085-2.jpg)
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nice work, im feeling very inspired to crack open my toolbox (it's been dormant of late). thanks for the motivation!!!
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nice nice and 1 more time nice! :D