'94 E34 Touring slicktop, forged M50B30 powered, S362SX-E boosted, daily driven

[varg]

Did they rehone and then use the same rings? The only time I've done that was on an EJ25 in a pinch and it definitely burned oil/had blowby on the hole I did that on to get me by.

When I dropped the engine off at the shop my request was just get whatever it needs, I was told it did not need new rings after it was inspected and since they only had about 80mi on them it made sense to me. It got honed and rebuilt while I was out of town and I picked it up and reinstalled.

Thinking the only way to fix this is to take a weekend, fly to the everglades and attack this block together. New rings, re-hone and put back in.

Still chewing my nails off as I have not started my rebuilt engine...

Haha, your tickets would probably cost more than having an engine shop (if I can find one I can trust) and having them do it. A potential engine rebuild for this car is so far down on the list right now that I don't see myself having time for it in the next two years. This wagon, my E30 and my RX7 all have a list of stuff that takes precedence over rebuilding an engine because smoke makes me mad.

[Dj Buttchug]

Thinking the only way to fix this is to take a weekend, fly to the everglades and attack this block together. New rings, re-hone and put back in.




Still chewing my nails off as I have not started my rebuilt engine...

[AWDBOB]

Sucks the engine has been such a PITA.

Regarding engine smokage, I had an old loosey goosey drop in from the top uncoated 2618 JE piston 4g63 that sounded like a tractor and didn't burn or smoke a drop despite a ball hone and loose top ring gap (iirc in the ballpark of 50thou+)

Did they rehone and then use the same rings? The only time I've done that was on an EJ25 in a pinch and it definitely burned oil/had blowby on the hole I did that on to get me by.

[varg]

Not much has changed lately. Since the last update I have cleaned up the turbo oil drain setup by welding a larger hose barb onto a 10AN female fitting and installed a larger PCV hose via a VW oil cap breather. I have run up to 18psi of boost and it's a fast car, but because of the issues I've had it still hasn't hit the dyno. The exhaust still smokes, the plugs are still a little oily, and the engine still makes a lot of blow by. I confirmed the problem is with the rings by running the engine briefly with the turbo held stationary and the oil feed line disconnected from it to rule out turbo drain issues. I don't know what exactly is wrong, honed incorrectly or with the wrong grit? Too much piston to bore clearance? Needed rings after what happened before? (they weren't replaced). I don't know, I just know that I had to pay to have it done because I was running out of time and I paid dearly for that.





The AC has also been giving me nonstop problems. I never could figure out why it sometimes shuts off in traffic if not on position 4 and will not come back on, and the issue has only worsened with time. It eventually leaked down too and I can't find evidence of the leak so it might be in the evaporator box, or it might be under the heat shielding. The clearance from downpipe to AC lines was never what I wanted it to be but I did insulate. Add that to the to do list along with rear suspension bushings, steering linkage, new rear tires, and upgrading to B58 coils which I hope will solve the miss I have at over 6,000rpm.



This car is cool, but it's a major pain in my ass that hasn't lived up to the intent of the build at all. The only person who ever said that the smoke and blowby might just be par for the course with forged pistons in what is essentially a race engine is the person who did the work, nobody else I've talked to about it has agreed that this much blow by and smoke is normal for a built engine and I personally haven't seen that and I have seen (and even tuned) a lot of cars with built engines over the nearly 20 years I've been into cars. All very disappointing and because of it I haven't had much fun here and that was the whole point.

[moatilliatta]

Some of the prevent diaphragms cut off vacuum when too much is being pulled letting no PCV happen. I think this was some sort of revision done for EPA with in the last few years.

You can take it apart and rework it. I'd run 2 stage PCV system. A bigger hose for evacuation from the Valve cover, Provent, then evac valve ported just after Air Filter. Then a smaller 3/8 PCV valve from intake manifold tee'd into the evac hose so the provent will catch the vapors.

[Dj Buttchug]

Anything change with the puffs of smoke? I still have this issue on my car as well

[Northern]

I love how subtle it is, but how much that amount of tint does for the car. looking great

[varg]

I've been meaning to get the wagon tinted for a long time now and I finally did.



Comparing to before:


And even earlier just for fun:


Other than the reduced heating with the huge expanse of glass that is the wagon, it's nice to be rid of the old wavy, hazy tint on the rear windows. My rear view is now HD

[varg]

The vanos rebuild did effectively nothing. I don't know why it's malfunctioning, so I disabled vanos and definitely gained some power though the drop in mid range torque is noticeable. I bet I picked up at least half a second on my 60-130 time with this change but I haven't had the opportunity to re-test. By the next time I do it'll probably also be on significantly more boost. As is right now it would probably put car lengths on a mustang gt (12.2-12.3s 60-130), at 20psi it should keep up with an RS6 (10.5s). I'm using 60-130 as a performance benchmark because there are no drag strips here and I don't want to risk breaking my driveshaft or axles with aggressive launches.

I'm also having AC problems. I initially thought this was because my custom lines were still too close to the downpipe so I re-did them when the engine was out for the second time, and it still happens. With the car cold or on the highway, the AC works, it blows cold even at idle. Very cold on the highway. Once up to temp the AC will turn off when I'm in traffic for more than a few minutes. And I mean turn off, the snowflake and recirc button lights go out, it's not just getting warm. If I unplug the IHKR and plug it back in it blows cold again. I thought it was due to the under hood temps near the exhaust getting too high and overheating the lines. This would cause a high pressure cutout but cooling the lines and condenser with a hose in my driveway didn't cause the AC to turn back on and I can't put the gauges on the system with the car hot because the service ports are too close to the exhaust. It's possible that there's a cooldown timer in the IHKR logic and once the HP switch is tripped the AC refuses to turn on again for a period of time, but I don't know. There's next to no information available about IHKR function and repair, only IHKA. I am not converting to IHKA. I re-did some solder joints but the board is conformally coated with an epoxy resin, and I did some work to the controls; cleaning the temp sensor, re-soldering the board, but it didn't solve the problem.

My spare vanos was in great condition. I almost felt bad rebuilding it. Oh well. I cleaned it up inside and out and rebuilt it only to have no change.



This is my next step to trying to solve the AC issue as well as my problem of melting windshield washer line tees, installing a loud 5.2" Spal fan forcing 300ish CFM of outside air into the hot side of the engine bay. There will be a baffle in front of it so it pulls cool air from the front end instead of just recirculating hot air. I was going to use a bilge blower but it was even louder and sounded like a hair dryer. Fingers crossed.


Soon I'm going to have to wire a high current relay straight between the battery and the fuel pump, using the stock wiring only to trigger the relay. My fuel pump is pushing the limits of the stock wiring as you can see by the fuse temperature relative to others in the box and I bet that will cost me some fuel flow when I turn the boost up more. As a side note, I love this thermal camera.


It still burns oil (and leaks). I love this car and it is fast but it sucks it gets a lot of attention, people frequently compliment it or recall stories about their own old BMWs, then it smokes and looks like a total piece of junk.

[varg]

Thanks, as for residual oil burning off from something, not a chance. I've been daily driving this thing and my commute is 33mi each way, plenty of time for oil to burn off. I'm convinced that there's something wrong with the bottom end. Either the clearances are too large after the re-hone or the oil rings are for some reason not doing their job well. It has good compression somehow even though it smokes like a piece of crap, which really pisses me off because my my 270,000mi+ abused stock engine didn't produce a hint of smoke.

I've also been tuning, fixing surface rust, and breaking down. I think it was the dumbest breakdown, the ignition switch connector was loose but was so tucked away that I didn't diagnose it as such when it first cut out. It has been like this for years now and didn't make a peep until early February... At least my AAA tow arrived in under 2hr. I think I've done pretty well, I've been DDing heavily modified old cars for over 13 years and I haven't needed a tow since late 2010. What happened was that it the car started cutting out momentarily and unpredictably (once or twice per day at first) after doing my first real benchmarking exercise, which kind of threw me off. Then it decided it didn't want to run for more than a random amount of time, and wouldn't restart for another random amount of time. Instead of limping home from shutoff to shuttoff I called for the tow. As for that 60-130, the car did it in 12.66s. That's .3-.4s off of a new 6 speed mustang GT's time, and the car is pretty unhappy from a power standpoint. It is on my base ignition map, with a 200kPa boost target (oscillating response) and as I found out looking at the logs again because of the strange shape of my boost VE table, with a sluggish VANOS unit. VANOS is very slow to respond, around 1.5s each way during transients, and revving out it only backs off a couple of degrees before I shift and it re-engages. It will be interesting seeing the difference in performance with a rebuilt unit because the cam refusing to retard has to be costing me big after 5,000rpm.

This was a pain. I had to cut the crumbling gap filler trim off with a hobby knife then sand the surface rust where it was trapping dirt and scouring the paint.



Another E34 design flaw is these inane lower door edges. You can tell the E34 is where BMW started to lose their touch with building long lasting, sensibly designed cars. Necking the door down and putting an expensive piece of rubber reinforced trim on it? Come on. They trap dirt and moisture and cause rust. Stupid.



Night shot of the fleet.



Self explanatory



The center graph shows the VANOS solenoid turning off and the cam timing (yellow) barely budging before my shift point. Also notice my MAT in the lower graph, this turbo and intercooler are playing well together, and the plunging VE value, which is something I'd expect with the cam staying advanced all the way to redline.


I just wish the brand new engine didn't burn oil, that is not going to stop bothering me.

[Northern]

It's been a whole page since I've seen this car, and it's seen a lot of work.

Car sounds great. Hopefully the exhaust smoke is just residual oil that needs to gradually burn off?

Wishing you luck with that ProVent. Mine let oil into the intake in the first few days it was installed so I just vent to atmosphere now.

[Dj Buttchug]

Dude that thing sounds great!

[varg]

Quick video update. A short clip so you can hear what it sounds like on low (11psi) boost. Eventually I'll get some more clips as I continue to turn the boost up. I am ok with how it sounds, it could be better, but it could also be worse. It is nice that it isn't raspy or overly loud. I6s, especially 24V BMWs in my opinion, tend to sound absolutely terrible. The post E90 M3/4s for example, sound like total ass. I don't like stand rasp and excessive loudness, a good exhaust sound is sonorous or wailing, but never raspy or harsh. I was afraid that the large pipe diameter and straight through mufflers would work against me, but it turned out sounding like a 24V version of my E30, which is basically what I wanted. Makes sense since the exhaust configuration is very similar, just 1/2" larger. It would probably sound better if the manifold was equal length and 6-1 instead of unequal length 6-2-1, but packaging being what it is, I don't know if that would be doable.

Right now I'm fighting oil cap leaks and doing repairs such as sanding rust spots from paint chips and covering them up. It still needs the rear bushings and brake lines upgraded too. Right now the right rear tire rubs on the fender but the left doesn't, because the subframe is shifting a bit under squat.

Well at least the oil leaking part is gone now. Nice bit of progress to keep you sane. I think I may have a drivers side lower door trim piece for you. I will check in my stuff this weekend. Looking forward for more info. I also want to see what settings you are running for idle control. min/max clamp and start up offset settings.

They're nothing special, and my cranking/startup duty cycles are probably of no use to you because I have a bigger engine and an adjusted throttle body stop. I also idle at 1,000rpm hot to keep the transmission and clutch noise to a minimum, reduce the chances of stalling when electric and AC load increases, and keep the vibration in the cabin to a minimum. It's a totally different animal with a clutch setup like mine and solid UHMW engine mounts. I actually have the replacement door bottom trim pieces I need, I just haven't installed them yet because I need to sand the surface rust off where they rubbed the paint off of the body and paint over it.

[Dj Buttchug]

Well at least the oil leaking part is gone now. Nice bit of progress to keep you sane. I think Imay have a drivers side lower door trim piece for you. I will check in my stuff this weekend. Looking forward for more info. I also want to see what settings you are running for idle control. min/max clamp and start up offset settings.

[varg]

Back to daily driving my wagon, and enjoying it a little more. The new turbo spools faster, in the closest I got to an AB comparison I went from, during 2nd gear pulls, 175kPa by 5650rpm with the S366, to 175kPa by 5300rpm with the S362. Switching to closed loop boost control I hit 175kPa by 4900rpm, holding that wastegate closed during spool really does make a big difference. My boost control isn't perfectly tuned now, but I've had some other issues to chase down. I'm looking forward to actually doing some performance tuning and logging so I can start seeing performance progress in numbers. Timed/logged 3rd gear pulls are a favorite of mine for testing, and I'll eventually do some 60-130 times.



On to the issues.

I had a strange failure, the brand new clutch master cylinder feed line I bought, genuine BMW from FCP, was leaking. I don't know where it was leaking from, it seemed like the whole thing was weeping fluid. It made a total mess, got brake fluid on my strut tower and subframe, ran down into the cabin. It's a complete pain in the ass to replace in an E34, way worse than an E30. It was impossible for me to get the grommet back into the firewall hole. I installed the one that failed with the engine and master cylinder out of the car and it was possible. so I'm figuring out what I'll do with that.




Dj Buttchug proved prophetic here. The new turbo started leaking oil out of the turbine after I put a commute on it. It was so bad it was dripping down out of the CHRA and onto the turbine housing. I was confused because the S366 didn't do this, figured it couldn't be the drain flange, but it was my only shot. I pulled the drain flange and replaced it with this Cummins truck drain I bought on Amazon. It is much larger, 18mm ID, the aluminum flange was just over 12mm, way too small... So I replaced it, I crammed a 3/4" hose onto the end of the drain, tightened it down, and adapted it down to the 5/8" of the 10AN on the pan.




It's not pretty, but the turbo stopped leaking. I had hope that this would stop the exhaust smoke, but it didn't. I couldn't see the drain still being an issue, and I want a cleaner solution than this, but I can't exactly replace the 10AN in the pan with a 12AN. I'm going to have to step down from the 3/4" hose to 10AN somehow, maybe a fitting that is 10AN threaded with a 3/4" barb.




Next, to cure my steering wheel vibration under braking at around 50mph I replaced my control and thrust arms, this also improved front end feel and handling. I am not looking forward to replacing the bushings in the rear.




A provent clone AOS install is in the works next. Turns out a 3/4" hose shoved into the valve cover breather port fits perfectly. I'm going to try just running this larger breather and draining the oil from it. Whether I'll eventually vent into the turbo inlet and use a vacuum line with a check valve to pull some vacuum on the crankcase, I don't know. I would prefer not to. The exhaust still smokes with a breather style oil cap so I don't think it's possible that crankcase pressure is responsible for the smoke.



To be continued.