I need help from you swappers

[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.

[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?

[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.