How I spent my labor day

[EtaSport]

Worked on the car a lot last weekend. Got a new head swapped in, tried out the catcams 283 and couldnt get the car to run very well, so I swapped an I cam in the next day. Yeah, I didnt pull the head off for anyone wondering. I pulled the cam out from the front of the car. Finished the m50 swap in 'the fast one!'s car by doing odds and ends and fitting e36 exhaust up.

Heres some of mine, and a few of the headwork that I did.


There was some ring ridge on number 1 that wasnt there last year, its on the thrust end of the piston, so its causing somewhat of an out of round situation. Still have 155 psi compression on a completely cold motor.


well this is a lot more blurry than I thought. Basically I polished up the chambers pretty good and you can kinda see where I smoothed out the area right above the valve seat.


intake port is same size as an I except for the roof. Dont know how much you can take off before running out of metal, but I got a good bit. Its still pretty rough. Im not sure how rough or smooth they need to be before causing mixture problems.


all back together. Need to work with the m42 wiring cover a little more, and Im going to get the m3 cover for the battery tray area.


yay, I finally got smilies. Like my front lip? I actually cleaned it up yesterday so its not spotted anymore. Gotta fix some issues with it and put a coat of trim paint on it.

[Mike325]

Looks like a lot of good work you did there. How does the car run now? I am not a huge fan of the lip, but it is not that bad at all:p

[Stu]

EtaSport--what problems were you having with getting the engine to run right? Where was the idle?
What chip were you running?
What motronic is in your car?

(20 questions, ha)

[Julien]

hot front lip.. now how does it look from the side?



Julien

[wycoco]

yeah the lip isnt too bad.. get it painted and post new pics.. and yes, side shot ftw

[Hatchman]

a man after my own heart with that front spoiler

[EtaSport]

lol.. to the lip comments. I was so pissed when the last rabbit finally took the reiger out for good. I bought this thing for 20 bucks and figured it was better than no lip at all. Its got issues so it doesnt look too good from the side, lines up just fine though.

I'm running motronic 1.3 (173 ecu and stock chip). When I initially started the car it was idling around 450-500 on its own with stock idle settings. Very rough, shook a lot, too much overlap. I adjusted the throttle plate and it would only smooth out at 1000 rpm, no less. There was very little throttle response and no low-mid range. Expected to lose some, but not as much, I figured the port job would help make up for the loss. Even the top end 4k and up wasnt impressive. I dont have the gear for it, or the ignition advance.

I figured going with everyone's advice on "get the bigger cam, dont waist your time with the 273...." was safe. I would rather have gotten the 264, cause I think that would be a nice street cam.

Anyways, the stock cam went back in and started right up and ran exactly the same as before, besides the nice power boost in midrange and wot. It runs pretty strong, but it definitely needs some gears now.

[M42Technik]

Hey Jon, looks great. I liked the smoked US ellipsoids. Where did you get the new ones?

Hope to see you again sometime, I am superbusy, but its fun to chat cars sometimes!

[silversleeper]

i need to get off my lazy ass, stop flying up and down the highways on my bike, and meet up wit you guys.

[StrokedSix]

your car looks good. engine bay looks clean. i need to detail mine... just finishing up some small kinks in the wiring (abs and oil sensors), so after that's worked out i'll get to it.

btw, have you ever had your car dyno'd? i'm curious as to how much i might be making. it definiately feels faster than a stock "i"

[nando]

your idle would have smoothed out after a while had you given it time. when I first started my stroker, it wouldn't idle *at all*. although when I just did a cam swap and headwork with a stock motor, I never had any idle troubles. is it a single pattern or dual pattern 283? mine is a dual pattern (284/272) so maybe that's why I haven't had idle problems. FWIW my car idles at 600rpm right now..

[asubimmer]

Hey Jon, looks great. I liked the smoked US ellipsoids. Where did you get the new ones?

Hope to see you again sometime, I am superbusy, but its fun to chat cars sometimes!

those are euro ellips ie hella smileys

[M42Technik]

those are euro ellips ie hella smileys

Yea, he had custom smoked US ellipsoids.

He then bought smoked euro ellipsoids. Where did he PURCHASE them was my question. I have my own set.

[EtaSport]

he's talking about the lights i used to have.

and nando, I was loosing hope as every cam I had put in worked fine right off the bat. I guess I was just hoping an idle like my old reground cam, it was really lopey but still pretty smooth. I bought this cam with the intention of putting in an m20b25, but when that motor blew I thought id try it in my eta. Its just too much for a relatively stock motor. Its hard to beat anything over the I cam in these etas. They favor the lower rpm range much more. Ive got some pretty killer low end torque now, and it keeps feeling stronger when I get on it.

FWIW, I would have tried to keep the cam in and see if it would smooth out/run better. Im living down in baltimore now with a stop and go commute and real shitty roads. I really needed it running in top shape that weekend, so I went with the reliable way out. If I was still at home, I would have tried it. Oh well, headers and 3.25 lsd here I come.

[bmwm3n528]

he's talking about the lights i used to have.

So, are the new ones Edler's work, or did you do them yourself again?