Barn Built Turbo M42 drift car

[econti]

E36 trans should last pretty well, brother in law had a G220 behind a tuned ZHP M54B30 drift car, that thing lasted ages and it probably makes similar torque.

[ccsdo5]

G250s do seem to be slightly stronger, but there are so many transmissions that will fit behind an M42, so you just have to pick the ratios you want. Any more video of the car driving in anger, really want to hear more of the cammed turbo thing?

I definitely think the G250 is stronger than the G240 trans, but for the extra work needed to put it in an e30 I think you need a custom driveshaft from what I was reading, I would rather just spend a little more and go ZF the ratio's are the same. I could do a G260 or something but then it'll sit on a funny angle like the M50's with the G260 combo. So ZF seems to just make the most sense. I don't have anymore videos right now. I should get a gopro and mic to put in the engine bay.

E36 trans should last pretty well, brother in law had a G220 behind a tuned ZHP M54B30 drift car, that thing lasted ages and it probably makes similar torque.

Yeah I'm sure it would be fine with that trans too but I want to turn the car up to like 320whp and hopefully similar torque so might as well just play it safe with the ZF. Have a friend with a 400whp/400wt e36 that's had the same zf in it for a while now and I've read people take them to like 6-700hp.

[ccsdo5]

Well got a ZF in the car. Ended up using a e36 ZF320 with the M20 FW, clutch, PP, and TOB. Used a steel pivot pin, and standard e36 pivot fork, and a e36 M3 slave cylinder which I think the bore is bigger on than a standard e36 one because the pedal is very soft... For a driveshaft used a new e30 CSB, rear 318is shaft with a e46 front half and it fit almost perfectly couldn't believe it.

Went back to the track and swapped a diff with a 4.10 before I started driving. Went to enter turn one and my turbo decided to leave the building :( RIP GT2871R. So bought a new GTX2867R super core. Pulled the valve cover off and checked the headstuds since people say they should be checked after a few heat cycles. Figured I had the turbo off so now would be a good time. Everything seemed fine. I legit don't know what else can fail at this point so hopefully when I go back to the track at the end of the month my car will make it more than a few laps.







At least it looks sorta cool on the trailer I guess.

[roguetoaster]

All track cars look good on the trailer, it's a very important consideration. Glad that you're iterating your way through issues.

[econti]

She's gonna rip with that turbo on it for sure

[ccsdo5]

Brought the car to my buddy to tune. He put a old emissions dyno in his yard and converted it to a power dyno. Honestly a pretty sweet setup. I had my tune pretty good timing wise, he needed to add a little more timing up top so it didn't fall off as hard but my fuel map was sorta bumpy. Kinda expected with the little street tuning I did on the 2871r and zero tuning I did on the gtx2867r. He said it pop a coupler off so he replaced the clamp with a good t-bolt one and that it had serious spark cut in 5th gear. I don't think the car has seen any serious load like that though. He ended up replacing my crappy no brand coils with some high mileage OE M50 ones and the problem went away. But apparently it just hit a wall at like 6000rpm with the ones I had. It pulled all the way to redline in every other gear though so very odd. As for power the car made:
260whp/218wtq @ wastegate 293whp/261wtq @ 14 psi
310whp/284wtq @ 16 psi

All those numbers are on e85 and with the ambient temperature at 94*F So I'm sure with some cooler weather the car would make a little more. Also the timing map is super conservative since the thing gets beat on constantly. He told me the oil seems to get pretty thin when it's hot. Maybe that's from the e85 mixing in it and it wanting to run fairly rich on cold starts and idle. My large gapped rings probably don't help either... but also he said he probably did like 30-40 pulls on the dyno and the thing stayed super cool, and didn't have like any blow by into the catch can. It's sorta a dog down low however. Probably a combination of the .86 rear housing and the big cams. It doesn't start making any real usable power or torque until like 4000rpm which sorta sucks. So I'm more than likely going to buy a .64 rear exhaust housing to try and pickup some more low end... Right now I need to shift into second to get around the hairpins at the track and keep the RPM's high which is sorta annoying. I'm also not sure if I'm gonna keep these cams they are probably amazing on an NA car but the overlap probably doesn't help spool the turbo. If I did change I wouldn't bother putting stock cams back in more than likely go with some 269/269 cams since stock are 255/255. But for now just gonna drive the car. I think this turbo wants more though. It really just starts to come to life around 16 psi if you look at the graphs.

DYNO graphs everyone wants:







Took the car immediately to the track for a 2 day event. Put some fresh oil in it and drove the piss out of the ole girl. It did however fill the catch after a few sessions and piss oil all over my windshield, and the intake side of my engine bay. Very mad about that. I'm not sure what the deal is with it my last engine had the same issue with blow by and my assumption was cracked/ butted rings. But now on this engine after it not spitting a drop from dyno pulls and street driving I feel the M42 is similar to an RB and that the head doesn't drain well or the head gets some serious oil flow causing it pool up in there and the little crank pressure it gets causes it puke into the catch can. I have two big -10 breathers on the valve cover and ran some fuel cell foam in the baffles. It's weird though because the catch can is just CLEAN oil doesn't have any e85 residue or anything in it. I've been doing some reading and apparently all engine want vacuum in the crank case so venting to atmosphere will cause a pressure build up still. I got a S13 SR PCV valve I'm gonna add to the valve cover and run it to the intake manifold to see if I can pull some pressure that way. Otherwise I might do a drain back to the block/oil pan from the catch can. I mean RB's do head drains and SR's route the crank case back into the block from the valve cover. They also seem to pull vacuum/fresh air into the engine from the turbo inlet. I'm not sure I want to do that because I might risk spitting oil into turbo and I don't want to ruin this one. But the second day I drove for almost all day and the car stayed cold like 180-190* and towards the end of the day the catch can was only like 1/2 - 3/4 full so maybe I need an oil cooler to keep the oil from getting too hot and thinning out...

Got to take my mom for a ride a long so that was cool. Ohh and broke my front bumper finally after bumping my friend oops.

[econti]

Fit a T piece into the turbo oil drain and route the catch can drain into that

[BUDNUNTA]

Fit a T piece into the turbo oil drain and route the catch can drain into that

i was going to say dipstick tube, just let it circulate

[Northern]

Wonder how fitment compares to early or late e36, I think the 24V stuff at least has the return in the dipstick tube, just different diameters OBD1 vs OBD2

[ccsdo5]

Well the last track day didn't go as planned I broke more stuff and my last lap ended with the engine rod knocking.... :(

I do have some pictures and videos to add. The car was ripping.

So I ended up changing the cams a little bit by advancing the exhaust cam and retarding the intake the max amount the cam gears would let me. The Cylinder pressures and VE definitely increased in the low-mid range from this since the AF went to like 18:1 so I did some light street tuning and got it all back to where it was happy. Up top it was still a little rich but I was fine with like 10.5:1 AFR considering it gets such a beating at the higher rpms.

I broke and axle the first session, then bent a tie rod the next session. Had my hood fly up on me before going on track luckily it went right over the whole car and didn't destroy my windshield. I was still battling the catch can filling up issue and trying to empty every session then check the oil in the car but the second session it overflowed again got all over the engine bay and just was not a fun a time. I ended up cleaning it all up and emptying it but never checked the oil level in the car afterwards like a big idiot. It was probably 1.5-2 quarts shy which might explain why my engine got rod knock I could've very well starved the sump from oil with the high G-forces of drifting and low oil level on top of all the oil pooling in the head and shooting out the catch can. OR I stretched a rod bolt which is also possible since they are just factory bolts and I probably should've upgraded to ARP ones when I built this engine.... Regardless decided to call it the end of the this season of driving and figure out what I want to do about an engine setup after having nothing but problems this year.

I did find a good solution to the catch can setup I think and it involves building an air oil separator with a sump drain. Here's the link to someone else's experience.

https://www.bufkinengineering.com/Catch%20Can.htm

I still think the M42 might need oil restrictors in the block similar to and RB with all the high rpm I am doing with it. But I don't know if it is wise to start messing with the oiling system like that without serious R&D....

Currently up in the air about what I might do for engine. I'm on the fence on a built bottom end I reached out the Metric mechanic and they're not exactly cheap to get an M42 built from them. Although it seems like they want to supply a complete long block while I really am just looking for a short block/rotating assembly. My other option would be to do a similar setup to what I did already a stock bottom end but this time do the following:

- New coated main/rod bearings (use a 360 thrust main bearing too like an m50 has)
- ARP rod bolts
- fresh gapped rings with a hone
- less aggressive camshafts
- make a baffled oil pan
- build oil/ air separator with drain

I sorta think the high mileage bearings on this bottom end didn't love the high rpm and 7800 limiter... So if I want to drive the car like that I am going to need bearings and stuff to support those kinds of loads. The main and rod surfaces aren't very big on these engines. But I do think the rods and and pistons are fairly strong from the factory and would probably be fine for the 300whp I'm doing especially on e85. My other option is just finally put an SR20 in the car...... but that'll cost more than building a bottom end on an m42 because of swap mounts, wiring, adapters and clutch setup to a ZF, driveshaft, exhaust work, coolant system, ect. Best thing to do is probably take it apart and see what happened to this engine first before deciding what to do. I really liked this setup it drove awesome and sounded amazing.

[econti]

Put an actual pressure gauge on the crankcase and see if its over pressuring.
Don't bother with a SR it'll probably break as often

[ccsdo5]

Put an actual pressure gauge on the crankcase and see if its over pressuring.
Don't bother with a SR it'll probably break as often

Not a bad idea I don't think it's over pressuring though. It doesn't leak from like anywhere, doesn't feel like it has crazy crank case pressure when you take the breathers off, or even really fill a catch can while doing normal driving/pulls. It's literally just the prolonged high RPM that makes it spit oil out which I feel is it just over oiling the cylinder head and it constantly getting more oil faster than it can drain it back into the sump. Hence why I think an oil air separator with a drain is the answer here.

Idk SR20 good. Definitely easier to make 300-350whp on them over an M42 haha

[Northern]

I don't know anyone with an SR20 that hasn't been through 3+ engines.

I think you'll find more evidence of oiling issues. M42s are cheap, and from that dyno graph, it certainly worked well.
I'd try to do something about the catch can situation, then slap on an oil pressure sensor on for logging and see what it says.

[Karolis]

Degreeing the mad camshafts helped the low end?

Sad for the engine failure by the way.