Bronzit E30 - OBDII S52 shaved bay - weekend/autox toy - Journey

[TeXJ]

1) that goes to the catch can mounted in the front passenger side of the bay

2) it's OBD2 and the OBD1 coolant temp sender is mounted in the old throttle body heater line port (basically the OBD1 and OBD2 senders are mounted next to each other) and my aux gauge water temp sender is in the third spot

Thank you! I guess I need to get a catch can kit or something for that line as well.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I kinda did a hybrid hardline/push-lock/fitting setup. Over time I noticed the standard soft fuel lines coming off the fuel rail were slipping off the end. There is no barb there - it's supposed to be a special hose fitting that's OEM to the E36 (probably could've just cut one end off the e36 hose and made it work but oh well). One time a few years ago one of those fuel hoses actually popped off... so I got some adapters that that converted the lines at the end of the oem fuel rail to male AN, then cut the OEM e30 hardline where they straightened out under the car and used compression fittings to adapt that end to male AN. Then I made two new fuel lines with push lock hose and fittings. Now it's a solid, leak proof and safe system that I can be comfortable with.

You've already cut your lines at this point, but...

You made me take a look for your fuel lines.

Bent the fuel lines up toward the back of the motor so they'll be pointed to the right spot for the new fuel rail. OBD2 rail with integrated FPR and the feed/return lines exit downwards behind the intake manifold.

Cleaned up the super secret rare obd1 obd2 hybrid fuel rail. It has the fuel feed and return at the rear like obd2, and the fpr mounted on the rail like obd1 so I can run a fuel rail beauty cover, get the fuel lines out of the way to the rear, and not plump in a clunky running loss valve or some other adapter device for the fpr.

Looks like those connections are normal quick connect fuel fittings, like these:

https://aeromotiveinc.com/product/516-male-quick-connect-to-an-06-male/

https://aeromotiveinc.com/product/516-female-quick-connect-to-orb-06-port/

Or on the cheaper, easier side:

https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-101643-800-782.aspx

What's the fuel rail application?

[Sh3rpak!ng]

That's pretty cool to hear that. Whenever i look under the car (which has been a lot lately with rust repair) I think that eventually I would like to have some nice braided lines attached to an AN fitting for the fuel line. If you were to have used just a nice braided line to begin with, do you think they would have still failed over time and started to crack? You're in CA, right? No tough weather to deal with, really, right? For a daily, do you think that braided line under the car would be safe or would it need a cover as well to avoid ripping?

My intuition says the failed lines had nothing to do with weather or any other external factor. I suspect they were just old surplus. So yea, if I had bought brand new fresh line vs discounted surplus there probably wouldn't be an issue. I didn't think about them getting chewed up, but they don't hang low and there are many other parts of the car hanging lower. I'm sure they'd be fine especially with braided SS protection.

[jeenyus]

That's pretty cool to hear that. Whenever i look under the car (which has been a lot lately with rust repair) I think that eventually I would like to have some nice braided lines attached to an AN fitting for the fuel line. If you were to have used just a nice braided line to begin with, do you think they would have still failed over time and started to crack? You're in CA, right? No tough weather to deal with, really, right? For a daily, do you think that braided line under the car would be safe or would it need a cover as well to avoid ripping?

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I haven't had the valve cover off a BMW 24V engine, but on a my Caddy Northstar, the valve covers are rubber-isolated from the cylinder heads for noise reduction. There are o-ring type linear seals between the cover and head which do not compress far enough for the metal parts to touch; and rubber grommets around shoulder screws holding the cover to the head. The result being that there's no conductive path from the cover to the head. The coil pack bolts to the rear cover, but has an independent ground wire from its baseplate to the cylinder head.

No offense, but if you had taken one apart you'd understand that it's not the same as the northstar. There are special studs which bolt into the sealing surface on the head. The cover is fastened down with a special steel nut and rubber grommet. The ground is pulled from the central studs which take a further specialized nut which has a small stud on it's head.

So in other words ground is pull from head -> stud -> special stud/nut -> ground strap (you can see these in the photo)

that fuel line 'U' coming off the filter is such a dumb item. I had the same situation, but my solutions was just to get a lot of extra hose to avoid the kink. It worked, but it is not nearly as tiddy as your little OEM U.

When you replace the fuel hose, did you also replace all the hardlines with braided or something? did i miss that?

Yea I agree. One of them has to go in that super tight spot between filter and body and the other off the opposite end of the filter. I put the "U" in the tight spot and just used a long length of line in the other. One of those "U" hoses is discontinued by BMW

I kinda did a hybrid hardline/push-lock/fitting setup. Over time I noticed the standard soft fuel lines coming off the fuel rail were slipping off the end. There is no barb there - it's supposed to be a special hose fitting that's OEM to the E36 (probably could've just cut one end off the e36 hose and made it work but oh well). One time a few years ago one of those fuel hoses actually popped off... so I got some adapters that that converted the lines at the end of the oem fuel rail to male AN, then cut the OEM e30 hardline where they straightened out under the car and used compression fittings to adapt that end to male AN. Then I made two new fuel lines with push lock hose and fittings. Now it's a solid, leak proof and safe system that I can be comfortable with.

[jeenyus]

that fuel line 'U' coming off the filter is such a dumb item. I had the same situation, but my solutions was just to get a lot of extra hose to avoid the kink. It worked, but it is not nearly as tiddy as your little OEM U.

When you replace the fuel hose, did you also replace all the hardlines with braided or something? did i miss that?

[The Dark Side of Will]

I haven't had the valve cover off a BMW 24V engine, but on a my Caddy Northstar, the valve covers are rubber-isolated from the cylinder heads for noise reduction. There are o-ring type linear seals between the cover and head which do not compress far enough for the metal parts to touch; and rubber grommets around shoulder screws holding the cover to the head. The result being that there's no conductive path from the cover to the head. The coil pack bolts to the rear cover, but has an independent ground wire from its baseplate to the cylinder head.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

couple of questions for you:
1) The oil vent tube that comes out of the front driverside, you have a black hose coming off of that. What does that go to?

2) The coolant temp sender. How do you have your's setup? Your setup is OBD1 or 2?

1) that goes to the catch can mounted in the front passenger side of the bay

2) it's OBD2 and the OBD1 coolant temp sender is mounted in the old throttle body heater line port (basically the OBD1 and OBD2 senders are mounted next to each other) and my aux gauge water temp sender is in the third spot

How well grounded is that bracket on the cam cover, though?

that's a good question - the normal grounding comes via two of the valve cover nuts that have an extra stud on the top which then grounds to one of the coil pack bolts at either end of the motor. That then grounds the bracket via metal touching metal through the bracket and coils. In theory I've added another ground path by linking all the coils with the extra ground straps. Now I'm thinking next time im in there I'll add an extra valve cover stud and pull another ground from there.... probably silly overkill but cant hurt

[The Dark Side of Will]

yea I read about some folks having issues in the FI arena years ago on bimmerforums (back when they were far more trafficked).... I've never had an obvious issue, but figured it can't hurt especially with my FI plans

How well grounded is that bracket on the cam cover, though?

[TeXJ]

couple of questions for you:
1) The oil vent tube that comes out of the front driverside, you have a black hose coming off of that. What does that go to?

2) The coolant temp sender. How do you have your's setup? Your setup is OBD1 or 2?

[Sh3rpak!ng]

those extra ground wires on the coil packs are a sweet little touch! nothing better than more grounding.

yea I read about some folks having issues in the FI arena years ago on bimmerforums (back when they were far more trafficked).... I've never had an obvious issue, but figured it can't hurt especially with my FI plans

[jeenyus]

those extra ground wires on the coil packs are a sweet little touch! nothing better than more grounding.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I'll pipe up with some added info on the Rotrex oiling setup. I have a Jackson Racing C30 supercharger on my FRS for the past 20k. The reservoir for the fluid is slightly above the blower and I havent experienced any issues. JR has even tracked this setup with their SCCA build and havent had a failure.

That's good to know. Their manual mentioned something about oil leaks... seems kinda odd to me. Maybe the supercharger doesn't like sitting in it's own hot oil when the car's off. Here's rotrex comment from the manual : "To prevent oil leaks it is of utmost importance that the oil cooler, oil filter and the oil canister with its cap are placed below or level with the supercharger shaft." At any rate, I've intended to mount the cooler and reservoir a good ~18" above the supercharger. So that's fairly significant. I want the supercharger down where the AC compressor goes, the cooler behind the kidney grills (to keep it away from destructive debris) and the reservoir next to my catch can for easy access.

[amcp]

I'll pipe up with some added info on the Rotrex oiling setup. I have a Jackson Racing C30 supercharger on my FRS for the past 20k. The reservoir for the fluid is slightly above the blower and I havent experienced any issues. JR has even tracked this setup with their SCCA build and havent had a failure.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Oops slipped in some pics of other stuff....

intentional added some comments to go with the photos