I need help from you swappers

[jackbenny]

i think your proposal is NOT gonna be accepted for a senior project... you don't really need to design and analyze anything. the propane powered turbine engine has a better chance but again, what are you planning to present? And how much are you planning to spend $$$$

To give you an idea, my senior design project (BSME) was automation of an aeroponics (growing plants - not weed) system… but the automation sure its been done before so we took it to another level and made our own water sensors to measure nutrient strength and pH… oh which we could only make the TDS sensor and used an OTC (off the counter) pH sensor which was meant to work with somebody’s reader. A c-stamp microcontroller as the brains and from there automated all the pumps, watering cycles, water analysis AND maintining the water’s properties where we wanted them using dosing (peristaltic) pumps. It was pretty badass but everyone thought I was a pot head… one of our teachers was very interested and thus gave us a good grade… I wonder why 0.o

Swapping an engine is not a good idea unless you plan to, I don’t know, do your own engine management. If you want to do something mechanical (the swap) do something innovative and probably not e30 oriented. If you want to do a systems integration, do something mythbuster’s style that is going to impress your peers and teachers and get you a good grade. If you don’t already have a job, this project will be part of your resume… for the record, I swapped an s52, researched and wired it OBD2 and did a 5-lug swap in two and a half months over summer with a part time job, 3 summer classes and a girlfriend… by myself. Now add 3-5people to your senior design group… cmon...

Is your senior design group interdisciplinary or only medical engineers… crap, you shouldn’t you be design something for the medical field anyways?

Luis is right. The projects that get the good grades and do well are usually relatively simple projects that are well thought out, organized, analyzed and more importantly, produced. Admittedly, that's going to vary on what your school has to offer but the teachers are going to look for whether you can identify a problem that needs a solution and how you go about solving it. For my class, it was something like adapting a seat belt system for school buses to (in my case) designing the center portion of a three piece wheel for our formula SAE car. Intake systems typically don't well when judged just due to the complexity.

If you are wanting to do something that could be offered to enthusiasts, I like FredK's idea. There is a market for it, which you could show in your report. The freebody diagrams are relatively straightforward. FEA should be useful in refining the idea and I would think you could manufacture it in the school machine shop. Find a swapped car and swap out the mounts, put some strain gages to verify your predictions and I think that would be a nice, well rounded project. I think it would satisfy and even impress the judges.

Of course, this is all my opinion. It's been 10 years since I did my project and I'm merely going off my experience. But sometimes it helps to hear that experience from time to time.

[etxxz]

i think your proposal is NOT gonna be accepted for a senior project... you don't really need to design and analyze anything. the propane powered turbine engine has a better chance but again, what are you planning to present? And how much are you planning to spend $$$$

To give you an idea, my senior design project (BSME) was automation of an aeroponics (growing plants - not weed) system… but the automation sure its been done before so we took it to another level and made our own water sensors to measure nutrient strength and pH… oh which we could only make the TDS sensor and used an OTC (off the counter) pH sensor which was meant to work with somebody’s reader. A c-stamp microcontroller as the brains and from there automated all the pumps, watering cycles, water analysis AND maintining the water’s properties where we wanted them using dosing (peristaltic) pumps. It was pretty badass but everyone thought I was a pot head… one of our teachers was very interested and thus gave us a good grade… I wonder why 0.o

Swapping an engine is not a good idea unless you plan to, I don’t know, do your own engine management. If you want to do something mechanical (the swap) do something innovative and probably not e30 oriented. If you want to do a systems integration, do something mythbuster’s style that is going to impress your peers and teachers and get you a good grade. If you don’t already have a job, this project will be part of your resume… for the record, I swapped an s52, researched and wired it OBD2 and did a 5-lug swap in two and a half months over summer with a part time job, 3 summer classes and a girlfriend… by myself. Now add 3-5people to your senior design group… cmon...

Is your senior design group interdisciplinary or only medical engineers… crap, you shouldn’t you be design something for the medical field anyways?

[Uber E30]

Go crazy and make a short-runner intake manifold that clears the stock booster.

This is full of win... plus it would be something people actually want instead of just finishing something for school.

[rThor432]

Well, the M50 manifolds are extremely well designed from the factory-- at least that is my understanding. A friend of mine has talked for a while about modifying a stock manifold by taking a section out of the runners and bonding it back together. Might bump the power-band up a bit and would be excellent for swapping without messing with the brakes. If you were going to design anything, I'd think that would be a pretty cool and very helpful item.

[z31maniac]

^That would be nice.

I like this idea, something that hasn't been seen very often. Could almost be made to work with stock e30 airbox and then fit around the booster without losing any flow. Would be something you would be able to test the flow of the stock intake versus the modified one, and would be something applicable because you would be able to avoid doing the booster modifications. Exhaust like fredk said would also be awesome, a nice set of headers that would clear the subframe, but I think that would be more labor and less design personally.

If they have access to the pricey software needed to test the airflow of the CAD design. Otherwise it's a complete guess.

[surebimmer]

Tubular front subframe that will let you run long tube headers. Or better yet. Long tube headers that clear the stock front subframe and look like stock euro headers.

[318isbmw]

Go crazy and make a short-runner intake manifold that clears the stock booster.

I like this idea, something that hasn't been seen very often. Could almost be made to work with stock e30 airbox and then fit around the booster without losing any flow. Would be something you would be able to test the flow of the stock intake versus the modified one, and would be something applicable because you would be able to avoid doing the booster modifications. Exhaust like fredk said would also be awesome, a nice set of headers that would clear the subframe, but I think that would be more labor and less design personally.

[rThor432]

Go crazy and make a short-runner intake manifold that clears the stock booster.

[z31maniac]

Yeah, I had to hog out the lower reinforcement plate, and now I have to use an offset box wrench to tighten the nuts like 30 degrees at a time. Not too convenient!

The solution for the transmission crossmember is ... to use a ZF 320. :razz:

I like the idea to adapt the stock airbox to a MAF. That'd be a product useful to those who swap to a MAF on the M20 as well!

I called TMS and told them they needed to address that in their next run of those kits.

The ZF is so notchy though...........although the G260 does have a pretty short 1st and 2nd with this much power in front of it.

[FredK]

I like the intake (possible heat shield as well?) idea, downpipe and engine mounts all sound great.

Especially mounts that would allow you to use the inside mounting holes. The TMS reinforcement kit made using the outside holes nigh impossible. We had to flip the E28 M5 mounts and enlarge the inside holes a bit.

Yeah, I had to hog out the lower reinforcement plate, and now I have to use an offset box wrench to tighten the nuts like 30 degrees at a time. Not too convenient!

The solution for the transmission crossmember is ... to use a ZF 320. :razz:

I like the idea to adapt the stock airbox to a MAF. That'd be a product useful to those who swap to a MAF on the M20 as well!

[z31maniac]

If you were doing a swap would you rather have engine mounts to buy, or a transmission crossmember?

Since there are engine mounts that "work", I'd rather have a crossmember/shift selector/shift carrier to use a G260 behind the 24v.

The stuff I got from mattdk318i works great.

[TwoJ's]

If you were doing a swap would you rather have engine mounts to buy, or a transmission crossmember?

[e30_325es]

Going off FredK's ideas, How about an intake that bolts onto a factory e30 air box? Something that could accept both a 3" and 3.5" maf and that would bolt to the top of the stock box?

And I love the engine mount idea.

[z31maniac]

I like the intake (possible heat shield as well?) idea, downpipe and engine mounts all sound great.

Especially mounts that would allow you to use the inside mounting holes. The TMS reinforcement kit made using the outside holes nigh impossible. We had to flip the E28 M5 mounts and enlarge the inside holes a bit.

[TwoJ's]

Make a wiring harness adapter, and make the oil pickup tube from the e36 one of your "mods".

The wiring harness really wouldn't apply to my major. That's more of an EE thing than an ME thing.

Custom solid engine mounts that match the angle of the E36 mount arms to the E30 subframe points properly.

A properly designed tuned exhaust system that creates power, instead of something just randomly slapped together.

A properly designed, tuned intake system that uses a panel air filter.

I dunno. If you can squeeze this in as a project, that'd be awesome.

The engine mounts sound like a good idea. They will need some real design to make, and then some machining/welding as well.

I want to stay away from a complete exhaust system because I will have to pitch this thing to my professor as a kit, which I think I will need to make reasonably priced. To do proper analysis, design and fabrication of a SS exhaust would be too much. I think a downpipe to match up with the e30 exhaust location may suit this project better. The air intake also sounds like a good idea. I like that it is relatively simple to build, yet requires actual analysis to size properly.


Thanks for the ideas guys, keep them coming.