e30 316 build x2 (m52/m50, turbo, 3pcs bottle caps etc)

[Mushi]

good job on this man

[NufnSus]

Top notch work you've done here! And an equally awesome job in documenting the build! Inspiration galore...

I've got a RHD E30 with an E36 rack & lines fitted and I'm trying to work out the best solution for connecting the two ends, so I'm curious about the steering coupler you've made up for your car and the one on your brother's car.

On your car, you went with a solid adapter to go between the splined uni-joints, which also puts the uni-joints at 90deg to each other;

To fit the 36 steering rack, I needed these:

And the steering joint is a combination of two not power assisted e30 joints and that billet piece.

Yet on your brother's car, the couplers are welded and not offset to each other;

Next we needed to make the wheels turn. For that I used basic e30 steering u-joints and one e34 u-joint.


And finished product:


It even fits:

Was there a specific reason for this design difference?
I was under the impression that the uni-joints MUST be offset by 90deg to avoid binding issues?

[BUDNUNTA]

Use the Holden Astra part it works perfect

[pazi88]

Top notch work you've done here! And an equally awesome job in documenting the build! Inspiration galore...

Thanks!

I've got a RHD E30 with an E36 rack & lines fitted and I'm trying to work out the best solution for connecting the two ends, so I'm curious about the steering coupler you've made up for your car and the one on your brother's car.

On your car, you went with a solid adapter to go between the splined uni-joints, which also puts the uni-joints at 90deg to each other;

Yet on your brother's car, the couplers are welded and not offset to each other;

Was there a specific reason for this design difference?
I was under the impression that the uni-joints MUST be offset by 90deg to avoid binding issues?

The 90deg offset in my car was mistake. I have already fixed that so the joints are in the same way as in my brothers car. Even so I didn't notice much difference :D This video explains how the u-joints should be:

http://youtu.be/Idk3BVDVHq4?t=2m5s

[petrolhead]

Top notch work you've done here! And an equally awesome job in documenting the build! Inspiration galore...

I've got a RHD E30 with an E36 rack & lines fitted and I'm trying to work out the best solution for connecting the two ends, so I'm curious about the steering coupler you've made up for your car and the one on your brother's car.

On your car, you went with a solid adapter to go between the splined uni-joints, which also puts the uni-joints at 90deg to each other;



Yet on your brother's car, the couplers are welded and not offset to each other;



Was there a specific reason for this design difference?
I was under the impression that the uni-joints MUST be offset by 90deg to avoid binding issues?

On a LHD E30 atleast, steering joint from a power assisted car is bolt-on..ish with an E36 rack. I can't imagine why this wouldn't apply to an E30 with steering on the wrong side.
U-joints.. It's not about binding or anything like that, given that your angles aren't crazy. As they're not constant velocity joints, their phase and angle must be mirror image to one another. That way the change in angular velocity is zero across the two, ie. you get the same amount of rack movement per steering input from lock to lock. That's the theory. I suspect it's not worth many seconds around the Nordschleife either way. I've found that with E36 rack you get bump steer issues but on the other hand they're easier to resolve than with stock rack.
^hope that makes sense, my english tech vocabulary isn't so good.
Pasi, sorry about this rant :D

-Jarno

[pazi88]

Pasi, sorry about this rant :D

-Jarno

No problem. :)

[econti]

I found I had some slightly inconsistent steering when I had my uni joints in line. Offset them and it was solved.
Something to think about

[pazi88]

And continue with the build. My SD-card in camera just corrupted and I don't have any pictures of the process. Although nothing special hasn't happened :D Only thing I have are few videos which I moved from card earlier and videos I recorded with phone. So I only have videos to show.

For the brown turbo I got new engine block with pistons so I can fix the damage caused by bent rod. Before doing anything to it I decided to time-sert the threads for future proofing. Here's video about that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXGm5_Vogy4

And also we have started the turbo project for the ONE. Here's first part of the project videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B78iA6vmU6I

[Garage30]

Great work on everything. That was some rust horror alright!

[pazi88]

Great work on everything. That was some rust horror alright!

Yeah it was most horrible amount of rust I have ever seen :D

But now the pictures that were missing from last post. The turbo at our garage and laser cut flanges for exhaust manifold:


Right away we tear apart the turbo:


The wastegate hole was very small so I grined it bigger and alos port matched the exhaust housing with the manifold flange:


The compressor housing was panted black:




And if you want to see more detailed process, here is next part in youtube:


The next part should be out in about two weeks and it's about the turbo oil lines and coolant hoses:

But to make the oil lines we took apart the front of the car:


Intercoorel is mouned in the same way as in my turbo:


For the turbo oil return we had to take off the engine front cover. And to do that part of the chain drive had to disassembled.




The oil return in front cover is 1 inch hydraulic fitting:


I drilled the hole in that bigger, because there was lot of extra material to do that.

The return "hose" is flex peace from hydraulic store. Should hold up to 10 bar pressure:


Installed:


Here is turbo oil feed and some coolant hoses:


We also got the injectors. These are 600 something cc siemens deka injectors:


And also some tube and bends for exhaust manifold:

[pazi88]

New episode is out at youtube:


We are currently working on turbo manifold for the ONE. Here is few pics:








Our everlast TIG just died in that point, so we have to finis it using MIG welder. Hopefully it will still be good enough. The welding is alredy done and the manifold is now at the machine shop to get the flanges straight,

My turbo still waits in garage for attention. I have all the parts to fix the engine and I managed to buy m54b30 intake cam for more power. I'm also upgrading the tires for these Yokohamas:

[stonea]

Holy crap dude, amazing work on both cars. I love how you kept the 318i badge on the brown car.

[pazi88]

Holy crap dude, amazing work on both cars. I love how you kept the 318i badge on the brown car.

Thanks but it's 316 ;)

[pazi88]

Last weekend I finally had time to start working with my e30 turbo and immediately took out the engine. Of course I first had to run the engine to hear it last time. And to get the pumps and injectors running because ethanol fuel can clog them:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDII5DnHD2D/?taken-by=sipasema

Engine out:


Looks quite empty:


I could do this even my eye closed because I have done this so many times.




Block emptied:


I didn't have time to investigate the engine but here is something I found on first glimpse. unfortunately couldn't find anything that would cause the shaky engine at medium throttle (which is the reason I took apart the engine).

But the things I found:

- Small metallic bits on the oil pan and metal in oil. No idea where the bits are, but the metal is from cylinder walls.
- Pistons are in ok condition.
- Ring gaps are in spec.
- No bent connecting rods this time.
- cylinder walls have mirror finish :D
- bearings have something in them but not bad.
- Need to polish few journals from crank.

But the most interesting fact is that the piston are the wrong ones for teh engine. They look like pistons for the dual vanos engine. And also they are with wrong diameter for the engine. The max clearance between cylinder wall and piston should be 0,15 mm and these had about 1 mm clearance. The wear on cylinder walls couldn't cause this because ring gaps are still in spec.

Looks like the guy who had rebuild this engine in England had no idea what to do. Previously I have found crooked head that has not been resurfaced and oil pump has been assembled wrong with broken parts. And now wrong pistons.

Now plan is to correctly assemble the engine to spec. The wear on cylinder walls may have been caused by the wrong size pistons on too rich fuel (ethanol wears out the oil). I will lean the mixture on my tune to fix this. And for the shaky engine I can't find any other reason than wrong cams (more lift and duration on exhaust side.) So I will change the intake cam to m54b30 one. That seems to work in my daily.

[Mushi]

Neat