316 superlite

[David9999999]

What a project. Enjoying the updates. Great work.

[petrolhead]

Some of the stuff I ordered, arrived




Still waiting for rockers, rocker shafts, flywheel bolts & plate, transmission (mounting) T-headed screws, shock adjustments tools.... plus something I forgot about..
aaand I need to get me more Wössner piston rings because I screwed up filing :/.

[petrolhead]

I'll have to make an oil dip stick and pipe of my own, so I checked with an 1983 motor where the MAX level is supposed to be. Surprisingly low comprared to where the moving parts are. Other consideration would obviously be that undersides of cylinders must be able to breath between them, freely. And ofcourse oil level must not be so high that it blocks the oil return in blocks exhaust side, because crankcase breaths to valve cover through the oil retun. Anything else that I'm missing? I'm thinkin that I could fill my engine way higher than stock max-mark. Opinions?


Obvious reasons for wanting to raise oil level.. Less chance of the pump sucking air. Greater oil volume means lesser temperatures. And no, a dry sump pump is not in the budget right now. I'm living on tap water and eating shoestrings even now, with all the neccessary parts I'm getting. I'm even postponing oil pump/oil pan mods because they're not essential to getting this thing on the road. Well that prevents me from movin engine and trans toward the cabin but I'll do it later.

Moved her on to the lift to do a few things on the underside.


Engine and parts waiting patiently in the left background.


The radiator I'll be using:

Should it turn out to be insufficient, I've got a larger 318iS radiator at hand, and it fits the same mounting points.
A lot of cooling efficiency can be found by using the "tunnels" before and after the radiator plus I'm going to seal the edges. Front tunnel is supposed to create pressure on radiator front surface, even small gaps will bleed it away.
Changing the pressure cap from 1,4 to 2 bar item also raises the system's efficiency.

Cooling fan mountings, work in progress. That's a small diameter fan but I was surprised at how much it blows. Again, if it turns out to be too small I have another, bigger fan on the shelf that bolts up to pretty much the same mountings.


Semi finished

[petrolhead]

Steering joint angles are not too bad.




Standing on it's own


..Ordered a bunch of stuff for the engine. Pictures & words when I get them.

[e30s50dan]

Enjoying the pix

[Bearmw]

I painted my tank white to try to reduce fuel temp a bit. What the hell a can of enamel is pretty cheap.

[petrolhead]

I'm more concerned that fuel might heat a lot and resulting fumes might make it go boom.
On the other hand I have a returnless fuel line. No fuel returns from the fuel rail/engine bay so stuff in tank should remain cooler because of that. I understand that fuel travelling back and forth the engine bay and tank transfers a lot of heat... (?)
Not exactly sure by what you mean by vapor lock.. but I do have a collector tank in between, that should separate air/gases from fuel going to the pressure pump and filter.

:D Luckily I'm building a low power machine so heat should also minimal :P

[CorvallisBMW]

Good call on the heat insulation, vapor lock is no fun :(

[petrolhead]

I moved the fue tank a bit rearwards. Still tight fit with the muffler.


I'll line the tank forward egde with this:

2,80€ from the grocery store :D

[petrolhead]

Inspired by the "what did you do to your E30 today" topic.
Today I just cleaned the garage a bit, inventoried parts a bit, aand I've been just tapping my fingers waiting for the machinist shop to call.
Looked at the unfinished ITB adapter plate with a worried face. Fiddled with the radiator fan trying to come up with a clever way of mounting it.

And I set myself a deadline when the thing has to be MOT'd and on the road. This means not doing many of the fancy stuff I like to plan about.

I did weigh the pistons. The set is a grand total of 0,848kg lighter than Tii pistons so the standard rods should remain happier. Next up would be test assembly of the crank with pistons and measure how much they're over the deck height. Then off to a CNC guy with the pistons and cylinder head, because obviously the mugs will have a too high comp. height and the dome is monster compared to the combustion chamber it'll occupy. All this, if the machine shop doesn't phone me with any ill news like "your block is cracked" or we dropped your pistons.
EDIT.. disregard that. I got my stuff back :) :)


Playing with my new dial indicator




Heat shielding for the version 3.2 muffler:



..I was happy to notice that the sway bar drop link mod A) works at all and doesn't collide with stuff and B) works just like I imagined it would. I set the drop link mounting points so that when you have steering angle, one side will push and the other link will pull a bit. So in straight line it works like a thin sway bar it is, but during cornering it has pre load even without actual roll.

Tie rod inner ends arrived. Once I get them installed, and make one last brake pipe, all the suspension and brake stuff is done.

[petrolhead]

This is a sick build. I love the two colored sides of the suspension components, not so much for the aesthetic appeal but because it's a race car thing. We want pics of the pistons!

Piston pin is shorter than stock and with thinned ends:


Compare that dome to a stock TII piston. Plus these are with 1 mm higher compression height. I don't have a scale on hand right now but they sure feel light.




Pic quality is bad as always..

I've got an unused original set of Mahle 90,00mm pistons for the TII head if anyones interested. Going cheap. I was going to use them before I got these.
EDIT. Disregard that. Pistons SOLD!

[petrolhead]

This is a sick build. I love the two colored sides of the suspension components, not so much for the aesthetic appeal but because it's a race car thing. We want pics of the pistons!

Thanks :)

I don't have them yet. These are the best pics I could find:

http://www.tzr-motorsport.de/2002TII

So, some head grinding ahead.

[kid325e]

This is a sick build. I love the two colored sides of the suspension components, not so much for the aesthetic appeal but because it's a race car thing. We want pics of the pistons!

[petrolhead]

I just came to tell you I ordered a set of 11,8:1 comp Wössner pistons. So the front of the car will be 1,6kg lighter :D

[petrolhead]

Bit of angle grinder, acid, wire brush & sand blasting for the front struts:






Painted. Sort of.


Below is a comparison pic, 1966 2 liter block vs. 1983 318i block. I took rough measurements of cylinder wall thicknesses, the old block has about 1mm thicker. It's also missing a few coolant holes off the deck. Not worried about that, just makes it stronger.