Newman's E30/Skyline swap thread

[newman]

Nice build. The RB26s can be laggy. Good thing you will be 1000 pounds lighter. ;) GT35R is a good choice though, I would go with the smallest AR possible.

I had one in my 240 and it wasn't very laggy at all... Having a 9000 RPM redline helps w/ lag.

[E30QC]

I don't know much about BMW's. In fact I hate most Euro cars. Especially BMWs. 2 No matter, it was a clean, available, RWD chassis. Plus, E30s are like the new civics. 3 They are cheap, light, and have the added benefit of RWD

Look familiar? ITS' YOUR WEBPAGE!

[newman]

lol. Yeah it is. Love it!

[newman]

Ok, so... I didn't want to wait weeks for valve shims, and I also didn't want to pay 10-22 dollars each for them. I called around to a few vendors in the states and no one had the sizes I needed.

So I made my own (did a few tests on the shims I pulled from the car to determine surface finish, hardness and material):

1) Started with a 6 feet of 1/2" 52100 bearing steel rod. $15

2) Using a CNC lathe, turned the OD to 12.3mm


3) Using the same CNC, chopped the rod into discs of varying thickness, about 40-50 total (no pic)

4) Sent the discs out to a local heat treating facility to be hardened to 62-65C (pic below, left) $50

5) Used a surface grinder to take the shims to within .0005" of what I needed. (pic below, right)





Here's a little video of the surface grinder in action. If you look closely you can see the sparks flying. The table moves left to right then indexes forward and backward. Once it has completed a whole plane, it drops down .0005" I could have incremented in .00025" steps, but that seemed like overkill, since nissan specs call out +/- .001"

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v516/ctnewman2/?action=view&current=VID00002.flv

[slo325i]

Nice build. The RB26s can be laggy. Good thing you will be 1000 pounds lighter. ;) GT35R is a good choice though, I would go with the smallest AR possible.

It 's a RB26 man. It ain't a V8 but it sure as hell not a ca18 or a sr20 either. Who worries about lag with a RB26??

[ikkitousen]

It 's a RB26 man. It ain't a V8 but it sure as hell not a ca18 or a sr20 either. Who worries about lag with a RB26??

Man that sounded SUPER fuckin important and well thought out.
But I just realized; I Soooooo have NO Fuckin idea what you are talking about. Just makes me realize I really need to do some goddamn homework on turbos and shit. Seriously not a flame. Just pointing out how ignorant I am at this point when it comes to this shit.

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DAMN MOAR READING UNNNG!!!

[AndrewBird]

How did you mange to hold those shims down when grinding them? Magnetic table?

Build is coming along nice. I wish I had access to all the equipment you do. I'd be making all kinds of cool shit for my car.

[newman]

How did you mange to hold those shims down when grinding them? Magnetic table?

Build is coming along nice. I wish I had access to all the equipment you do. I'd be making all kinds of cool shit for my car.

Yup, electro-mag table on the surface grinder, just whipped off 2 more shims because I must have measured wrong the first time, so I hope to get the motor together today!

[1mz]

I love coming across updates on this thread.. here or on bf, that thing is going to be a f*ckin rocketship when its done. cant wait :) amazing build quality man, keep it up

[newman]

what is BF?

[John in VA]

BF = bimmerforums.com

[newman]

Took a half day and worked on the top end from 12-11. About half this was already done from a few days ago...

Head on:


Intake manifold on:


Coolant pipe on:


Balance tube and IAC valve on (also a ghetto hose clamp in the middle of a hose trying to relieve a kink):


Kink fixed with prebent tube, waterneck on:


Injectors and oil filter in:


Fuel rail on:


Plenum on:


Cams in, with custom valve shims... :)


Timing backing plate:


Timing gears and belt installed. All tensioned:


Rocker covers on:


Another shot:


Everything else. It's not really pink in person, it's more purple. The camera just doesn't represent it very well.

[kronus]

LOL, and props.

Seems like you would have had room to mid- or low-mount the turbo, though. Any reason for it to be that high up?

[newman]

Have you ever seen my exhaust setup? I couldn't even fit a 2.5" exhaust in between the steering linkage and the motor... so I had to go up high:

[kronus]

Oooh, right. Forgot about that part.