Project Armo "330i" M-tech 1

[Skarpa]

So you finished building the motor already ? Are you just using stock m54b30 internals?

At the moment I'm focusing on the bodywork and other necessities to have the car running and driving next summer to keep up the motivation. Next summer might be on stock M52B28 depending on my time and finances. The engine is in good running condition. I can then upgrade the engine to 3l. The plan for the engine is:

- Cast-iron sleeved block (Z3 block) shaved down a bit to increase compression - Not bought yet
- Stock M54B30 internals - Yes, have them
- Refurbished M52B28 stock head - Yes, have it
- M52B30 intake camshaft and M50nv intake camshaft as exhaust cam. Both ground to 220 degree profile (1mm lift) - Have the cams, not ground yet.
- Euro S50B30 ITBs - Have them and modified them to fit M52.
- Stock ECU reprogrammed - My ECU has EWS and ABS removed and a slight tune up. Will need reprogramming with the new setup.

[Skarpa]

I've used my current overall for quite some time and it's starting to develop holes. It didn't really bother me until a large piece of welding spatter found it's way through a hole, burned through my underpants and dug to my balls. That sparked me to get these snazzy British army tank crew overalls:



They were quite a bit cheaper than actual welder's overalls and what's most important, they have the butt flap


EDIT: The overall is too thin for serious welding. It doesn't support burning but weld spatters will go right through it.

PS. My brother just told me that the suspension parts are coated. Accidentally also his parts, which were supposed to be white, are now coated orange but nevermind about that.

[stonea]

- M52B30 intake camshaft and M50nv intake camshaft as exhaust cam. Both ground to 220 degree profile (1mm lift) - Have the cams, not ground yet.

I don't know if they would be better, but would you be interested in S52 cams?

[Skarpa]

I don't know if they would be better, but would you be interested in S52 cams?

Sure I'd be interested. M54 cam can be ground to 260 degree, 10,05 mm profile without modifying the cam trays. (220 degrees from 1mm to 1 mm). S52 intake cam is 252 degree, 10,2 mm so it's roughly equal but of course re-ground cams are always a compromise. The shipping costs from US to Europe are pretty steep, though. Also, there's a risk of needing to pay the customs.

[stonea]

I'll look into some shipping options.

[pazi88]

Sure I'd be interested. M54 cam can be ground to 260 degree, 10,05 mm profile without modifying the cam trays. (220 degrees from 1mm to 1 mm). S52 intake cam is 252 degree, 10,2 mm so it's roughly equal but of course re-ground cams are always a compromise. The shipping costs from US to Europe are pretty steep, though. Also, there's a risk of needing to pay the customs.

Also the new s52 intake cam from germany Costs roughly 350€ so normally it's even cheaper to buy new cam instead of second hand from us.

[Skarpa]

Also the new s52 intake cam from germany Costs roughly 350€ so normally it's even cheaper to buy new cam instead of second hand from us.

Wow, I hadn't checked their price as new units. It makes more sense for me to sell the M54 cam and buy new S52 cam than to have it re-ground.

[pazi88]

Wow, I hadn't checked their price as new units. It makes more sense for me to sell the M54 cam and buy new S52 cam than to have it re-ground.

Yeah I just recently noticed that. I will also swap my m54 cam to s52 one and sell the m54 cam in my daily because that's really bargain. Then someone sell me s52/m54b30 crank so I will convert that to high compression m52b30 :D

[Skarpa]

From words to actions: buyer for M54 cam will be at my house in half an hour ;D (Matuh, for you Finnish guys)

[Skarpa]

I'm hoping to get through the engine and tranny swap without a custom drive shaft. I've read from US projects that people use US M3 automatic drive shafts in 6-speed swaps. The Euro E36 automatic drive shaft is the same length even though it has a different part number for some reason. I got a drive shaft from a 325iA. On the pic there's the E30 316 shaft on the fore ground. Middle one is the E36 328i and the shortest is the automatic drive shaft.

The length difference between the 328i and 325iA drive shafts is 140 mm. I'm doubting if the splines will go in far enough because the trannys have only 100 mm difference in length but I'll test and see. Whatever the ds, I'll use a new E30 center bearing. Or at least unused one. It says made in West Germany so it might not be exactly new :


Then I tackled some rust spots again. On the surface panels there were three repair points left; Rust holes in the base of A and C pillars and a strange area of corrosion int the bottom corner of the driver's door frame. Yesterday I finished the door frame and C pillar.






A pillar was still left to do. It's a nasty spot to repair because there is no access to the backside.

[Skarpa]

I have always a hundred projects going at the same time and unfinished stuff is laying around everywhere. From time to time I try to finish something. In the beginning of the summer I took apart a set of hydraulic lifters and left the parts soaking in mineral spirit.

I already had the sealings for valve cover and vanos and now I bought the rest of the sealing kit for head. I bought the cam tray for exhaust cam as well as a set of hydraulic lifters that are supposed to be silent. The guy I bought the head from also found the lifters so now I have an ample supply. I took apart the lifters and put them turpentine (mineral spirit) bath to soak any grime. Getting the lifter cylinders out of the tappets is supposed to be hard but they actually came off easily. I had much more trouble getting the lifter pistons out of the cylinders. In the instruction videos they come off simply pulling by fingers but that certainly was not the case with my lifters. Eventually I was able to take apart 24 lifters and only managed to lose one tiny check valve spring.



Here's a good video about taking apart the lifters:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ySf0r8GGMOY

I thought it was due time to finish that So I cleaned the parts using a brush and compressed air. I assembled the lifters and prefilled them with oil. The parts didn't end up quite as shiny as on the video above but I got rid of all the built-up gunk and all the functional surfaces are clean and shiny so I judged them good. I think I should have used some stronger stuff than mineral spirit to get rid of the discoloration.


The lifters are ready to go in the refurbished head that I have for the engine. I think I'll swap that in with the new cams for next summer.

[Skarpa]

The bronze-tinted windshield is a NLA from BMW as well as from major aftermarket manufacturers. I managed to find a smaller shop that was willing to make one and actually for a very reasonable price. The shade is ever so slightly lighter than in original glasses and there is a tiny greenish tint to it. Reason for the difference is that original glasses are made of actually brown glass whereas this one has a brown film laminated between clear layers of glass. But I'm very happy with it and it will surely not stand out once installed.

[Skarpa]

I sold the ebay headers I had and bought slightly abused Euro S50 headers instead. The rear ends have been hacked off before the flexible bellow and the lambda bungs. That's not a big problem for me becauseI need to modify them anyway to fit them in E30. Now I can freely shape the headers to clear the subframe and swaybar without guilt. The header from the cylinder six comes very close to firewall in E30. I'll see if I'll modify the firewall or the header. The pipe has a bit strange curves to leave space for steering column in case of right hand steering. I have no use for that so I'd be able to use the space to re-route the pipe while keeping it the same length.

[Skarpa]

This is what happened today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yc--kBfmbE&feature=youtu.be

Sorry for the lousy time lapse. I wanted to make a better one but the camera I had today has a maximum limit of 60 frames in time lapse which is pretty annoying and useless so here it is in words and pics:

Originally wanted to do all the floor and rocker repairs and such in rotisserie but then I screwed it up. First thing I cut off from the body was the rear face and after that the rear of the car no longer had structural integrity to fix it in rotisserie. Also I couldn't reinstall the rear face before replacing the rear arches and I couldn't replace the rear arches before doing the rockers and floor was easier to do when the rocker panels were cut off and so forth. But now I have the rear face back in the car and I still need to do a few repairs under the car plus sealing and painting the underside so I decided to make a quick and dirty rotisserie from two cheap engine stands. I already had one laying around so I bought another one. Then I made forks in each end of the car to support it from the stands. The forks are made of 50x30x3 rectangular section and 42.4x3.2 round tube.











Then it was a matter of tedious fiddling with the engine hoist to lift the body high enough to slide the forks into the frame beams. I also ended up moving to forks to the upper holes in the engine mounts to get more clearance.







The balance is fairly okay. The center of gravity is slightly above the axis of engine mounts but it's pretty easy to turn the body where you want it. I think I'll remove the trunk lid. That should help with the balance. In the pics there is still about ten centimeters of clearance under the rocker panel. The front control arm hits the beam of the engine stand. If I remove the control arms, I should be able to turn the body maybe ten degrees more which would make it quite comfortable to work on it. I declare today a success.

[Skarpa]

The frame crossmember with the differential rear bracket and the sway bar brackets is rusty. I will replace it with 50x30x3 RHS and make new brackets for the E36 diff rear cover. Before lobbing of the crossmember I had to mark the diff alignment and measure the positions of the sway bar brackets so I get them right when I make new ones. For marking the diff alignment I used a method I copied from Petrolhead. I attached a magnetic stand to the drive shaft flange and fixed a laser pointer in that. It's just a cheap pocket laser and not meant for this kind of stuff so aligning it was a bit annoying. It wasn't possible to get a perfect aligment so I just marked the circle the laser drew when rotating the pinion shaft

https://youtu.be/u9xOfVcod9s
PS. Enjoy the earworm. If I'm at the garage on a friday night I usually listen to a nineties-themed radio show called Parasta Ennen. The guy doing the show has a weird sense of humour and sometimes ecclectic music choices.



When I had the diff alignment marked I measured the position of the sway bar brackets and then dropped the rear axle and lobbed off the cross member

I should really get a bigger angle grinder and a reciprocating saw. They would make many jobs quite a lot easier. But never mind about that. Next time at the garage I'll clean up the surroundings of the cross member and start making a new one.