Project Armo "330i" M-tech 1

[butters]

While at the garage I mocked up the hydroboost reservoir. It fits the E36 bracket perfectly and fits under the intake so that's where it's going to be. Only the hose connections point in a little odd directions. I'll have to see what can be done about that.

In case this might serve as inspiration or otherwise, here's my solution for the hydroboost reservoir. With that odd orientation of the hose barbs on it I found it made some sense to stick it next to the booster itself. The accumulator worked out decently enough being adjacent to the motor mount arm:



There isn't an obvious bracket for bolting the tank in that spot, but it's an otherwise nice fit. For now I'll probably zip tie it to the booster, and eventually a bracket can be made to share the top driver's side booster bolt.

[Skarpa]

Do you want to make me one of those cross members? lol

:D I'm sure you can find someone on that side of the pond to do it. Shipping it from Finland wouldn't really make sense.

[stonea]

Do you want to make me one of those cross members? lol

[Skarpa]

6-speed transmission is about ten centimeters longer than the 5-speed. The transmission cross member required some modification. I lucked out on this one. My trasmission is from E90 and the E90 rear bracket fits inside the E30 transmission tunnel. I've heard that's not the case with the rear brackets from E46 or E60. For the transmission mounts I use the beefier E21 rubber mounts. I also fabricated reinforcement cups over the mounts but I decided to discard them after all. Main reason for using the cups was to prevent excessive engine movement and keep the fan from hitting the radiator. I decided to go with an electric fan and that takes care of that. Without the reinforcement cups the transmission noise should be quieter (even if I'll go with solid flywheel at some point)


The height is correct with the stock crossmember mounted in the automatic tranny mounting points. The transmission mounts are positioned differently from the stock so I drilled new holes for them and welded shut the old holes.


Okay, to be honest the left end of the cross member is fine but the right end is in completely different level. I cut the cross member, bolted the loose end where I wanted it and tacked a few pieces of steel between them.




Then it was just a matter if finishing the shape and filling in the blanks.


Finished except for paint:

[Skarpa]

My idea for fitting the S50 headers without compromising other components was to bend them to the shape I want. I made a jig where the headers bolt up and welded that to a welding table.


Then we started heating and bending the headers. I had tested that thin-walled tube can be bent with flame to a mild curve without deforming it much. A bundle of tubes is of course trickier but working with care and only bending a little in each place seemed to work fine. The idea was to bend the rear headers away from engine to have space for the front headers to go up at the collector.


I'm pretty happy with the result. Now the collecors are positioned more horizontal with each other which will eliminate the need to cross the pipes. Of course the distance from the headers to the X-pipe will not be exactly equal but that doesn't concern me much.




Some fine tuning may still be required. I think for example the rear collector may point too much outwards.

[Skarpa]

I've decided to scrap the idea of modifying stuff to fit the Euro S50 headers to the engine. I doesn't really make sense to make several compromises to fit ill-fitting headers. I haven't completely discarded the headers but I've decided that they are not a defining element. After all I would have a plenty of space for right-shaped headers. I also decided to get rid of the spacers under engine mounts. I don't want to deliberately move the center of weight up since engine setup is such a heavy component. This way I may avoid modifying the transmission tunnel as well as the TPS connector.

While at the garage I mocked up the hydroboost reservoir. It fits the E36 bracket perfectly and fits under the intake so that's where it's going to be. Only the hose connections point in a little odd directions. I'll have to see what can be done about that.


Next I relocated the brake booster mounting point in the firewall. I cut off a rectangular piece of firewall and flipped it upside down to move the mounting point 30 mm towards the fender. That's the maximum without touching the clutch master cylinder position.


I got a chance to test out my brand new butt clamps and I'm really happy with them.


After the modifications the brake booster and master cylinder sit something like this:

Here the booster has been tilted a bit towards the fender for maximum clearance. It fits but with just five to ten mills of clearance so I think I'll tilt the engine a bit towards the passenger's side to make more space.

[Skarpa]

Lots of mocking up, planning and visioning and finally I have the engine and plumbing positions pretty much figured out.


With the M52 intake manifold tha inlet side comes together very neatly. I didn't happen to take photo of the itb setup but it's a bit more cramped. There's not as much flex in the Euro S50 rubber boot as there is in the M52 one so the intake setup doesn't have enough room lengthwise. I may need to shorten the MAF tube to match. Luckily I have two tubes so I can test it out.

I put 13 mm worth of spacers under the engine mounts. With that rise the engine still fits nicely under the hood. Only problem is that the TPS connector will not be usable. I turned to connector up to avoid collision with the vanos solenoid but it doesn't work this way either. I may need recheck the solenoid thingy because in this pic it doesn't actually look like it would necessarily hit the solenoid. I also need to consider soldering wires to the sensor and moving the connector further away. (or making an adapter for the TPS or finding a suitable sensor with the connector pointed in another direction)


Especially after raising the engine, the heater core hoses will fit nicely under the plenum. In S50 conversions they need to be modified but my adapter for ITBs raises the plenum enough for the hoses to fit under it. For brake booster it's pretty hopeless to think any vacuum booster with this setup. Hydroboost will fit okay once I move the hole in the firewall 30 mm further away from the engine. Booster fork will move to the centerline of the brake pedal and the pedal arm and the pedal frame will need to be modified to match. I lined up the drive shaft towards the center bearing. The transmission hit the roof of the transmission tunnel at the lowest point but it gave away when I jacked the transmission up. I will need to modify the transmission tunnel to make more space.

The front exhaust headers pass the cross member with about 10 mm of gap. If that's not ehough, it's easy to make a small hollow in the cross member. The collector hits the sway bar. I think Custom sway bar is the easiest solution for this. I think I'll modify this spare sway bar with oxyacetylen torch or hydraylic press and have a custom one made accordingly. Although I've seen people modifying their sway bars themselves without much care. Don't know if that might cause problems later. I'm not that well educated in spring steels and the tempering processes of sway bars.


As stock the Euro S50 headers will overlap the lollipop about 20 mm. I'm thinking of modifying both headers after the collectors to bring them parallel under the car with the front header on the inside. (much the same way as in M20 exhausts) That should give lots of distance to lollipop.




After this studying session I'm left with two unanswered questions: Where whill I fit the hydroboost reservoir and will I need to raise the transmission tunnel in a larger area to fit the shifter linkages under it. My guesses are: Under the plenum like on the E36 and Yes. The center console thingy needs more research because I also plan to fit the E46 rear section with the center armrest and cup holders.

[Skarpa]

The car is back on jackstands. Note the most official lifting equipment ever aka a couple of quarter inch drive socket extensions.
]



The jackstands are tall enough for me to push the engine assembly under the car without lifting the body. Next I just grabbed the engine with the hoist and lifted it in position.

I think I'll cut off the corner of the battery shelf. The battery will be in the trunk so it's just there taking unnecessary space. I'll leave enough to fit the plastic M3 cover in place nicely.





Next I need to adjust the height and orientation of the engine. I think I'll put enough spacers under the engine mounts to lift the oil pan at least to the level of the subframe and see if it fits under the hood. For the transmission I need to make or modify the support crossmember. Any one have good tips on how to align the engine? I think the drive shaft is designed with a slight offset to keep the joints from seizing so I should not point the transmission towards the differential. Am I right if I assume that the support bearing is in straight line with the transmission output shaft? In that case I could fix the center bearing and line up the transmission to center point of the bearing

[Skarpa]

Nice work. You don't need those oil pan bolts. They're not structural.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

Yeah, it might be. Nevertheless, I'll drill them. It's such an easy job and I figured they are there for some reason.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Nice work. You don't need those oil pan bolts. They're not structural.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

[Skarpa]

Gearbox mounted to engine. I put the engine on the front subframe and set everything on wheeled platforms so it's easy to push around.


Bolt holes for transmission in the engine block are fine but only one of the bolt holes in the oil pan lines up. The rest need to be drilled. I'll need to check the structure of the flange to see if I'll drill the new holes in the bell housing or the oil pan.


The exhaust manifold interferes with the subframe and the sway bar which didn't come as surprise. On the other hand I was surprised that I actually managed to get them on with no spacers under the engine mounts. I will truly see what's the situation when the subframe is back in the car. Currently there's nothing keeping it in the right orientation

[Skarpa]

Yesterday I was at the garage changing summer tires for the dd. While there I mounted the pilot bearing, flywheel and the clutch on the engine.


I would have mounted the gearbox as well but it turned out that the new release bearing wasn't gonna fit. The clutch set I bought was for E46 330i / X3. It turns out the E60 and E90 6-speed boxes have 2mm larger diameter sleeve around the clutch shaft. On closer inspection it seemed that the release bearings were essentially the same. Only difference is in the plastic sliding sleeves.


I tried taking the bearings apart to swap the sleeves. The sleeve is held down by four thin steel tabs and once these are pried open, it can be slid off.


Cross breeding worked just fine. The release bearing that came with the gearbox wasn't bad either but it's nicer to use a new one.

[Skarpa]

I had some spare time at work so I challenged myself to make a 3D model of the TRX390 center and RC090 barrel. The center was pretty interesting piece to model. It has fairly complicated shape which makes you ponder on the the features and their order. The model tells me that the specs of the wheel would be 8x17et8 with the barrel mounted in front of the center and 8x17et25-30 with the barrel mounted behind the center (depending on the depth of machining)




If the center is in front, it causes some extra thinking with the valve position. In the RC090 barrel the valve hole is where the lip meets the flange. The valve stem might just fit between the lip and the edge of the center depending on the shape of the valve. Angled valve mounted inside the center would be another option.

[Skarpa]

What rear seats are those? Progress is looking great.

E36 Coupe lower part and E36 sedan backrest. Lower part required a fair bit of modification:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=4589521&postcount=99

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=4595417&postcount=105

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=4607644&postcount=111

[Kershaw]

What rear seats are those? Progress is looking great.