Project Armo "330i" M-tech 1

[Skarpa]

Regarding laboursome fiddling, here's what I've been working on lately. Going for S50 ITBs leads to a lot of fitment issues under the intake manifold. I tried to document it pretty well in case someone is interested. Here's some of the clutter:


Pipe for the heater core points straight to the plenum. The expansion tank pipe hits the ICV hose and the plenum support. The plenum support hits the engine mount. In addition to those I still need to fit the ICV, dipstick, oil separator and the wiring loom with the tray. I started with the easiest ie. the dipstick. I needed to keep it out of the way of everything else and with a little bending it found it's place behind the alternator.





Next I fit into place the plenum support. I needed to cut off a little fron the bottom end and make a raiser for the fixing bolt.






Then I cut up the coolant pipe and reshaped it.


To get the pipe lined up properly while mocking it up and to make it easier to weld, I made a sleeve that fit snugly over the pipe. An old beat up bike handlebar was just the right diameter to use for the job.





I made a hose connector for the rear end of the pipe in the same diameter as the heater core connectors. Other changes included shortening the pipe in front of the expansion tank branch about 15 mm and rotating the rear part a little to clear the plenum support and the ICV hose.



Next I made a bracket for the ICV.


The wiring loom support required some cutting and bending to create space for the ICV and the breather hoses.


Most of the stuff fits nicely in place and received a coat of paint:




The last thing to tackle was the breather/oil separator. I don't want to use any catch can that requires constant draining. The S50B32 oil separator system works fine and is pretty flexible in placement. Only drawback is that it's meant for an engine where the breather outlet as well as the oil sump are in the back of the engine while I have both in the front. I started to work by making an oil return connection for the sump:


This kind of cyclone-type oil separator needs to have the oil return below the oil surface level in order to work correctly so I made a short return pipe and press fitted it to the hose connector. Then i drilled and tapped a hole in the oil pan and glued to hose connector in place with some RTV.



The best fit for the oil separator seemed to be above the engine mount. It's a bit lower than originally. Time will tell whether it causes any problems.




I actually made a bracket for the separator but failed to take into account all the things that need to be mounted in this area so it doesn't fit in place after all. I guess the separator will work just fine dangling from some hoses. Now the engine is pretty much ready to receive the wiring harness. If anyone has any informative pic about what each plug is for, I'll be glad because the previous owner pulled off the wiring harness without marking any of the plugs. (M52 single vanos)

EDIT: Nevermind, I just remembered I have another wiring harness that I pulled myself, with all the connectors marked.

[Skarpa]

It's been a while since last update but this project is progressing on it's glacier-like pace as always. Lately I've just been working on some laboursome fiddling with not much to show. At least not until it's a bit more ready. In the name of reliability I was going to replace the starter motor and the alternator with new parts but I was talked out of it because apparently the aftermarket units are often of poor quality and original starter motors are no longer available. I had a bit more thorough look at my parts. The alternator is actually pretty fresh-looking Valeo so I'll assume it's in working order. It's not that difficult to replace anyway even when the engine is in the car. The starter is a different story being buried under the intake manifold. I decided to overhaul the starter and bought brushes, solenoid and a bendix for it. I took apart the starter just to find out that the spare parts didn't fit. There are a handful of different starter models for these engines and this one was a different kind.




Pazi88 sold me a working starter with the correct part number and I got things started. I took apart the starter, cleaned and inspected all the parts and straightened the commutator surface in lathe.




Replacing the bendix got me scratching my head for a while because of the cryptic retaining ring. It consists of a round wire ring that goes in a groove in the shaft and a housing that goes around the wire ring and holds it in place. I managed to take off the retaining with not too much difficulty but trying to fiddle it back together was a different story.




This is how I did it in the end: Slip the housing on the shaft, put the ring in the groove, slide the housing next to the wire ring and support the whole assembly from the housing with a bearing puller, tap the wire ring into the housing one end first and then going around the whole ring.





I blasted the aluminum part of the case with glass beads and scuffed off the surface rust from the other parts. In my workplace we're not allowed to put mild steel in the blasting cabinet to avoid contamination of stainless parts. Then it was time to reassemble with fresh grease in all the right spots.







Then I gave the starter a coat of paint. I believe it will continue to serve for while.




As a side project I refurbished a set of RC090s and sold them to fund the main project:

[Skarpa]

Have you matched up the flanges? The 37bz has a 96mm guibo, the 325i shaft might be 76mm.

Yeah, E36 325i typically have 76 mm guibo but 325iA has 96 mm guibo. (and much shorter drive shaft)

[thedivision]

Have you matched up the flanges? The 37bz has a 96mm guibo, the 325i shaft might be 76mm.

[Skarpa]

Great work as always. Were you able to try out the 325ia drive shaft when you had the transmission in the car?

Thanks! I kinda forgot to do it and had dropped the engine before I had the rear subframe and diff in place but my own estimations and measurement to the support bearing as well as information found online tell me the drive shaft will work but the center joint will be extended out a few centimeters more than in stock so it's not absolute perfect.

[thedivision]

Great work as always. Were you able to try out the 325ia drive shaft when you had the transmission in the car?

[Skarpa]

I cut off the brackets I made for the E36 rear seatand fabricated a center fixing point for seat belt locks.




I wanted to use a brand new nut for the threaded part of the bracket but UNF 7/16" x 22 is such an exotic thread here that I wasn't able to find one. It's possible that there's a mistake in the ETK and the size is actually 7/16" x 20 but I didn't check it. I just drilled off a seat belt bracket from a fellow hobbyist's car and used the captive nut from that.






The cross member I made is a bit lower than the original one and has a smooth bottom surtface so I was able to weld the bracket to its bottom face as the original brackets without hitting the rear subframe. I'll probably need to make a small kink in the brake hard line to clear the bracket but it shouldn't be any problem. In M3 the bracket attaches to the side wall of the cross member like this:


Thanks to fellow hobbyist for the picture. It wasn't easy to find a photo of that spot for reference.

The sheet metal under the rear seat is a bit bumpy due to making rust repairs, welding brackets for E36 rear seat, cutting them off and welding seat belt bracket there instead but no one will be able to see it anyway. Now we are back to the spot where I have no welding left to do one the body. We'll see if the plan holds this time.

[Skarpa]

Vanos, timing chains and camshafts installed. The camshafts I have are regrind M52 units that I came by for a cheap price. The profile is 252° x 9,6mm. I measured the base circle diameter to be 2 mm smaller than original. I wanted to make sure the lifters get oil at zero lift with the reduced base circle so I measured the cam trays and lifters and did a little drawing.



The ground profile seems to be the maximum possible without modifying the cam trays. And that wouldn't really make sence with these camshafts when there are much better options to start with if you want more aggressive cams. Anyway, the oil supply for the lifters seems to be ok. As a test I timed the cams to factory settings and measured the valve lift at tdc with a dial gauge.



The valve lift seemed to be around 0,5 mm for both cams. I've been told that a good overlap for mild tune cams is 1mm - 1 mm at tdc so I took that as a target and started clocking the cams. The adjustment is pretty sensitive and there's quite a lot of hysteresis especially with the intake cam. After a while of going back and forth I got the the valve lifts to 1,05 mm for intake cam and 0.95 for exhaust cam and decided to settle with that. I'll re-check the timing once the engine has been running. And regarding that, I sent the ecu to Pazi88 to have him make the initial tune for the engine.

[Skarpa]

Looks good!

[dsm2002]

Regarding the oilbaffle, I have mocked up something that uses the stock E34 baffle. I have incorporated a baffle to stock oil under braking and uses rubber flaps like the BMW Motorsport baffles. I am considering cutting and slotting the stock baffles for oil return using the rubber flaps as well.

[Skarpa]

The rear seat plans changed once more. Originally, some years ago, I tried to find an M3 rear seat for a reasonable price. Actually the guy I bought the front seats from, had alsl the rear seat but didn't want to sell it for some reason even though I tried to buy it several times. So I ended up making the E36 coupe/sedan hybrid seat. A couple of weeks ago I got a text saying the seat is finally for sale and for a pretty cheap price as well so I picked it up. The seat was pretty dirty after long storage but It's in good shape.





After vacuuming a careful washing with marseille soap the seat looked already very different.

In this pic it doesn't really show but the seat was originally red and it has been dyed black. The original color was showing through some small cracks so I used some leather dye for the cracks and gave the seat a coat of leather conditioner and after that It was looking very good.



I sold off the E36 seat. I'll need to cut off the brackets I made for it. They would be in the way of the M3 seat. I'll also need to make a fixing point for the seat belt locks in the middle for the two seater rear bench. I really go distances to prevent my project from ever being finished.

[Skarpa]

I finished fitting the AC condenser to the front of the car. It was a surprisingly laboursome job for such a small thing. I wanted to replace the original tube-and-fin condenser with a parallel flow one more suitable for R134A. It seemed impossible to find a model-specific one so I bought a universal condenser In as close to correct size as possible.



It's the same width and about one centimeter taller than the original. The connections point straight to the side whereas in the original they are brought in front of the condenser. I bought 90 degree connectors and measured that they should fit when I move the condenser as much to drivers side as possible. I cut off all the perforated plates from the condenser to make it more compact.



I detached the fixing strips from the top and the bottom of the old condenser. They could be riveted to the new one. The bottom strip fit almost as is but the top one required some modification because of the height difference. I moved the fan bracket down 10 mm and shortened the top brackets.



The drivers side bracket for the fan was integrated to the end of the old condenser so I cut it off and made flanges to bolt it on through the fins with M4 screws and nuts.





Then it was just the matter of riveting on the fixing strips and test fitting the fan.




Even though the condenser fit in place it was impossible to wiggle it into correct position so I trimmed down the flange next to the hood lock and tapped the front frame in a couple of places to have a bit more clearance. After that it fit nicely in place with the minimum of 2-3 mm of clearance all around.




Finally I gave the condenser a thin coat of black paint.



The fit would have been easier if I had modified the hose connections to match the original. I may still do it because even though the connectors fit, the top one points in kinda awkward direction and it may be difficult to find a good route for the hose from the compressor. Another option would be to make a hard line end for the hose with all the correct bends. That might be better for serviceability because currently it's possible to replace the condenser in a couple of hours if need be without needing to do any aluminum welding.

Assembling the engine has progressed as well. I installed a new M54B30 vibration damper and checked that the tdc marks were correct using a dial gauge. Before installing the head I took some measurements. There seems to be some disagreement whether the M52B28 combustion chamber volume is 34or 35 cc so I measured it myself. I used the tried and proved method of covering the combustion chamber with plexiglass sheet and filling it with oil through a small hole with a syringe to see how much oil it takes.




I got a number that's closer to 35 than 34 so I declare the volume to be 35 cc even though I think the official number is 34. This also served to check that my head is not excessively machined when straightening it. In addition to measuring the volume I also tried to measure the combustion chamber as well as possible to make a 3D model of it.





The plan is to have this (or rather half of it) 3D printed and insert actual valves in it. Then it will be easy to check clearances between the piston, head and the valves when figuring out the setup for the stage 2 engine. I'm planning to swap the cams for hotter ones and pumping up the compression ratio quite a bit. After taking the necessary measurements I installed the head on the engine. I've managed to bolt on a couple of other things as well.

[Skarpa]

A while ago I noticed that my E34 oilpan was missing the baffle plates from around the oil pump pickup. The previous owner has cut them off when removing the windage tray. Achiles Motorsport and VAC sell improved versions with trapdoor design. Of them, the Achilles version appears to be better design. However, the postage payment and customs sum up to hefty amount of money. Also I have this condition where I'm obsessed in making everything myself so I did my own copy or version of the Achilles baffle. First I made a cardboard template of the vertical plate and then produced a copy in aluminum.




Then I made a template of the horizontal plate and taped it in place to mark a hole for the oilpump pickup.


Final product ended up having quite a bit bigger hole because of hole saw wobbling and wandering but I don't think it will cause any problems.
[IMG][/IMG]

The trapdoors I made out of stainless steel hinges with the screw holes welded shut on one side. I considered using rubber flaps but then opted for the steel hinges because they last practically forever and I didn't need to pay attention to things like rubber type. The rubber flaps would probably provide tighter seal, though.


I replaced the hinge pins with bent steel wires that limit the opening of the flaps and ensure faster closing.


When all the parts had been prepared it was just a case of riveting everything together.




The baffle fits nicely in place. I'll have it welded there once I've done the breather oil return.


I may still wiiden the gao where the oil naturally flows back into the sump. Also as an afterthought, the bend in the horizontal plate forms an unnecessary shelf where some oil will sit. I made it to act as a stiffening element but it's likely useless because the baffle will be welded to the oilpan.

[Skarpa]

The body is primered on the underside. Off the shelf the gas tank had such a thin layer of paint that I'll repaint it as well.



I primered the body with a roller as I don't have a compressor at the garage yet. It's a bit less messy as well. But latest I'll need the compressor for applying the 3M undercoating. The engine received the B30 rotating assembly. I chekced the bearing clearances using plastigauge and everything was neatly in spec. Well, apart from one main bearing which appeared to have a lot smaller clearance than all the other even though it was still within spec. But that seemed to be because the bearing shell was not seated well. After remeasuring the clearance it was the same as in all the other main bearings.

[Skarpa]

While I was assembling the headlights and the pedal assembly my assistant started working on the plenum and the ITBs.


Since my assistants work consisted mostly of stuffing small parts in intake runners and having lego figures slide down the plenum's side I decided to give her a hand.




I still need to replace those ugly little hoses in the syncing measure points with proper rubber plugs and get the hoses for the idle control valve. The injectors are Volvo 373 cc units that I bought secondhand.



The seller was pretty sure the injectos were cleaned and checked but I decided to give them a flush just in case. I made a length of wire with a push button for operating the injector and put together an adapter for connecting the injector to spray bottle out of thin straw and a 5ml syringe.





I used CRC carb and egr cleaner for cleaning the injectors. I flushed them forwards and backwards and then did a final pass with WD40 to get out any remaining solvent because it might not be good for the innards of the injectors if left there for a long time. WD40 contains oil and something like cleaning petrol so it shouldn't be anything the injectors cant handle. Finally I replaced the filter baskets. I still need to get viton o-rings for the injectors. I have a few sets of O-rings but I have no idea if they are viton on NBR so I want to make sure I have O-rings that can handle E85.


A few years ago I did an overhaul for the HVAC unit otherwise but I left the original fan motor untouched. Now I had a better look at it and it is pretty worn out. The commutator is worn down close to nothing and the rest doesn't look too good either so I decided to replace the motor.


The fan blades needed to be swithed from the old motor to the new one. Getting them off was a bit difficult since I didn't have a suitable puller but eventually I got it done.


Before removing the fan blades I marked down their orientation in respect to each other to make sure I don't ruin the balancing. I should have measured the distance of the fans as well. When I installed the fans on the new motor I made sure the same amount of shaft was showing but it turned out the new motor had a shorter shaft so the blades ended up too close to each other and wouldn't fit. After backing them off a bit they were fine.