E30 #2: 1990 Delphin: RHD ITB M20

[318aye]

Got over to Eurowise today and met with Keith and Phil who will be building the exhaust. CEL came on, but most likely due to lack of O2 sensor. Here's what we ended up with:

Header will slip fit to dual 2" to single 2.5" stainless merge. The merge will have a bung for the AEM wideband on the inner side, parallel to the ground. After the merge will be a 2.5" stainless flex section. This will be followed by (PN 1141) Vibrant ultra-quiet 10" resonator. The first section will end with a bend and maybe 6 inches of tubing terminated with a 2.5" V-band clamp. The rear or "axle back" section will then end with another Vibrant PN 1141, with a 2.5 to 3" stainless rolled tip. Keith and Phil examined my options at length with me, and were very helpful!

And a few more pictures of header fitment.

[318aye]

More progress. Headers are sporting a nice golden sheen after only one drive. Car will go to Eurowise Wed. 4/22, exhaust build is scheduled to take a full day. After that, the intake side of the car can get pulled apart and degreased for the ITB install. Looks like something (hopefully bitch tube only) is leaking over there. May need to replace a few other hoses. Planning on pulling the in-bay cruise control equipment and the stalk until I'm ready to integrate it cleanly with the ITB throttle mechanism. It looks like I'll be fabricating a few brackets for things like the C101, the dipstick, and the lower engine harness connector. Overall goal is to get the car back Wednesday, and by the end of that weekend have everything pulled/mocked up so I can order whatever gaskets/hoses I'm sure I'll need, and then build whatever is necessary and get everything coated/installed by the 1st of May. This will give me another three weeks to get on the dyno before The Vintage. I'm going to hold off on powdercoating the valve cover as I think I may do whatever brackets I build in the same color. Went by the powdercoater's today, settled on and ordered a pound of Prismatic Powders Ozotech Blue:

http://www.prismaticpowders.com/colors/E-9128B/OZOTECH-BLUE/

Looks like Guten Parts beat me to it :). Also stopped by the hardware store, and got 8 M6x1.00 acorn nuts to dress up the valve cover install. Seems like people have a hard time sourcing these nuts as they're usually too short, and bottom out before you can tighten them. I bought washers as well to size up this issue and I think a 4mm thick spacer will do just fine. These are on their way from McMaster.

Nut that I'm using: http://wedo.hillmangroup.com/item/pr...rn-nuts/3391-j

http://www.mcmaster.com/#94669a907/=wsnx35

Last but not least, the Ramair filters arrived today. Good quality, worth the $40 I paid for three. Took two weeks in transit from the UK, I ordered on the 5th of this month. VERY tight fit over these trumpets. Almost felt like I was going to rip them, but they've definitely sealed well.

Pictures!







I can sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel. After tuning, I think I'd like to revamp the cooling system, and add an AKG body mount shifter.

[wannaBMthree]

Fuck. Yea.

Good shit bro.

[318aye]

Fuck. Yea.

Good shit bro.

Thanks! More to come soon.

[318aye]

This evening I set out to remove cruise control from the car and prep for the ECU swap. I opted against the latter because there really isn't all that much prep work involved. CC will be re installed when I have a new throttle arm laser cut that will accommodate both a regular throttle cable and a CC cable. CC disconnected easily from the bay side, and I was able to pull out the electrical line that runs through the firewall from the bay side once I disconnected it under the driver's side dash. You'll be looking for a small round black plug. Also removed the CC stalk as well. This was slightly more involved. Required an additional M5x.8 nut as the wiper and CC stalks share a mounting bolt that threads into the CC stalk. Connector was a PITA to find and snake over the steering column, but it was doable with the upper column cover in place.

Threw the throttle cable termination from the CC cable onto my new E36 throttle cable. Everything fits cable wise, but it doesn't seem to want to wedge into the slot on the RHD throttle arm. I think I can get it in there if I back the hardware out. Also seems like the E36 cable may not be necessary after all (length wise), but we'll reserve judgement on that.

With the CC cable removed, there's a lovely hole in the firewall now. Going to try and remedy that on the 3D printer tomorrow. Plug drawings below.

Pictures!

[318aye]

Got more detail stuff done today. Valve cover spacers showed up, glad I got 4mm. Great fit. Went to the local junkyard and scored a 4 wire O2 sensor connector, and a shiny black throttle cable clip. Better than white imo. Fits into the RHD throttle arm just fine if you undo the lower allen head bolt first, and then tighten after you install the TC clip. O2 connector will terminate the AEM harness without modifying the factory wiring. Should be pretty clean when all tidied up. Turned the cruise control firewall hole plug out of delrin too. Fits well, will do the job. Excited to get the exhaust done on Wednesday!

[CorvallisBMW]

Nice job on the O2 wiring, looks clean!

[318aye]

Nice job on the O2 wiring, looks clean!

Thanks! Will get lengths after the exhaust is done and post finished pictures.

[318aye]

Exhaust is everything I wanted it to be. Aggressive but very civil at low throttle, not much louder than stock at idle, and mental at full tilt. Fabrication work from Eurowise was top notch, Phil did an excellent job. Everything was built exactly to my specifications. Highly recommend working with Phil and Keith if you're in the central NC area. I'll post actual driving video with exhaust note from a gopro and whatnot later.

Serial adapter and powdercoat showed up today. Wideband and IAT sensor are due later this week if Fedex gets their shit together. Hoping to tear into the ITB side of things this weekend!

Pictures:











Short teaser sound clip:

https://photos.google.com/u/1/search...dI0CY8TqnKeZYM

[tinkerputzer]

You're going to be missing out on some low end power with the y-pipe that close to the primaries. I like the direction of this build though.

[CorvallisBMW]

That exhaust looks beautiful, I hope mine turns out that nice!

[318aye]

You're going to be missing out on some low end power with the y-pipe that close to the primaries. I like the direction of this build though.

I'll chalk it up to beginner's ignorance :nice:. I didn't really specify how far back the merge should go. This certainly isn't being put together to break records, though it will be very interesting to get the final dyno overlay compared to the original and see what was gained and where.

That exhaust looks beautiful, I hope mine turns out that nice!

Thanks! Can't go wrong with stainless and a decent fabricator.

[MPLFoster]

Very nice. The exhaust looks great and sounds pretty mean. Definitely impressed with how you handled fitting those headers. Nice work.

I tried the topspeed headers earlier this week but was disappointed with the fit, which was damn near exactly the same fit as yours, so i returned them. They immediately accepted the return, no questions asked.

I just used a couple 1141 resonators too. They're a little tall but work well. They do a great job of mellowing out the exhaust note.

Great work so far, man. Keep it up. :up:

[Reichart12]

Nice extensions on the muffler tip lol. Sounds good :up:

[318aye]

Very nice. The exhaust looks great and sounds pretty mean. Definitely impressed with how you handled fitting those headers. Nice work.

I tried the topspeed headers earlier this week but was disappointed with the fit, which was damn near exactly the same fit as yours, so i returned them. They immediately accepted the return, no questions asked.

I just used a couple 1141 resonators too. They're a little tall but work well. They do a great job of mellowing out the exhaust note.

Great work so far, man. Keep it up. :up:

Yeah, topspeed didn't hassle me on the return front whatsoever. They approved it through ebay as soon as I asked. I knew that longtube headers and a full exhaust were going to be part of this project, and when it came time to make my decision, the IE headers still weren't available and there was nothing floating around used so I went for it.

If anyone is in the market now, I'd grab a set of IE's before they disappear for 8 months again. Definitely worth the $500, I would have spent way more if I didn't have the ability to modify them myself.

The dual 1141's are amazing. I seriously didn't think an exhaust could be so manageable while cruising and so nasty at WOT.

Thanks for the kind words!

Nice extensions on the muffler tip lol. Sounds good :up:

Yeah....... I told him a shorter rear resonator was ok, but I wasn't expecting it to be so far forward. I'm guessing he mounted it there to better utilize the factory hangers which is fine by me.

I may also end up going to a dual tip in the future, but I always wanted to try the single tip. This will do for now.