Project Armo "330i" M-tech 1

[Skarpa]

Fuck you Photobucket!

We have noticed that you have used hotlinking from our site.

Yes I have. There's a button on your site specifically for hotlinking pictures to forums.

That, however, is not allowed with a free account. Please upgrade to Plus 500 account which costs 400$ per year.

So you decided to wait until I have 1500 hotlinked pictures before bringing this up?

Fuck you Photobucket!

Any recommendations for photoservers which allow hotlinkin with reasonably priced accounts?

[Skarpa]

That beauty cover turned out great.

Thanks!

[rzerob]

That beauty cover turned out great.

[Skarpa]

Small preview of a thing to come.

All right, this project is mostly done. I decided I wanted to leave some small visual touch to the engine as well. So I milled and sanded off the BMW logo and some of the ridges in the valve cover plastic.


Then I took the logo plate I had lasercut and brushed before and fixed it with allen head screws.

I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

[Skarpa]

what did you use to clean with?

Pineline and hot pressure washing. Then brake cleaner for the most stubborn gunk.

[Redbone]

Alright, thanks. i found the Zionsville part also myself and noticed that they don't have it available any more. I did some measurements and it seems that the clutch shaft would actually be able to enter the pilot bearing a few millimeters even in stock position. At the moment I'm contemplating on using a wider than stock bearing (13mm is the maximum width I found) and using a spacer or another bearing behind it to leave the bearing protruding a few mills. I'll use a bit of play-dough or something similar on the clutch shaft and test-fit the transmission to see how much it actually enters the bearing. Measuring it is not so accurate since you need to take several measurements and calculate from there so the measuring errors may sum up.

And then for something completely different: I just love hove nice the parts sometimes turn just by cleaning them. In this case the drive shaft tunnel heat shield.

Before:


After:


Mint! As they would say in a certain dead roadside animal themed youtube show.

what did you use to clean with?

[Skarpa]

What size are the pipes that you are using? I am in to see how that center section works.

2" (50 mm) outside diameter. Same as the original 328i exhaust.

[Staszek]

I tested the S50 headers after the bending operation and when they still didn't fit I came to my senses and bought cheap stainless headers.

These will also need a slight bending to give a little bit more clearance to front subframe but that's no problem. I already proved that bending headers by heating works in principle.

After I had the headers in it was time to test fit the exhaust. For that I threw in the rear bumper and the rear valance. Although, I wasn't able to locate the bumper brackets at the moment. I have them in a box somewhere among all the other parts.


The exhaust is for E36 328i. The front end is unused non-OEM that I bought at the cheap. The rear end is Scorpion stainless catback. I know this will be loud but I expect that to be fun for a while. When I get tired of the noise I'll update the mufflers.


With the car on jackstands, it's difficult to get good all-around pictures of the exhaust under the car. Working on the exhaust also involves a lot of getting under the car so I bought a creeper to make it nicer.


People on the internet claimed that the E36 exhaust will fit an E30 but I find that gross overstatement. It is borderline possible to bolt it there but nothing really fits. (Might be just me, though. I have two non-OEM parts). The pipes hang too low between the front muffler and the downpipes, crossing the rear subframe is a bit iffy and the rear muffler is completely in wrong orientation. Also the exhaust tips point in wrong direction. Althought that wouldn't really matter without the M-tech 1 rear apron.




I decided to redo the pipe between the front muffler and headers and to modify the rear piece to fit the way I want it to. As an end result I'll have custom exhaust almost completely in stainless steel. I won't need to make changes for the section from front muffler to catback connection point so that's where I decided to start. I moved the exhaust lengthwise to best position and fabricated supports for it. I cut the shapes out of 2,5 mm plate, bent them and made pins out of bolts. These were fixed with the heat shield bolts.





I may still alter the position of bolt holes to place the cats a bit higher up. It will require modifying the pipes a little where they go under the rear subframe but I'll check with the gas tank and heat shield in place before doing that.

What size are the pipes that you are using? I am in to see how that center section works.

[Skarpa]

I tested the S50 headers after the bending operation and when they still didn't fit I came to my senses and bought cheap stainless headers.

These will also need a slight bending to give a little bit more clearance to front subframe but that's no problem. I already proved that bending headers by heating works in principle.

After I had the headers in it was time to test fit the exhaust. For that I threw in the rear bumper and the rear valance. Although, I wasn't able to locate the bumper brackets at the moment. I have them in a box somewhere among all the other parts.


The exhaust is for E36 328i. The front end is unused non-OEM that I bought at the cheap. The rear end is Scorpion stainless catback. I know this will be loud but I expect that to be fun for a while. When I get tired of the noise I'll update the mufflers.


With the car on jackstands, it's difficult to get good all-around pictures of the exhaust under the car. Working on the exhaust also involves a lot of getting under the car so I bought a creeper to make it nicer.


People on the internet claimed that the E36 exhaust will fit an E30 but I find that gross overstatement. It is borderline possible to bolt it there but nothing really fits. (Might be just me, though. I have two non-OEM parts). The pipes hang too low between the front muffler and the downpipes, crossing the rear subframe is a bit iffy and the rear muffler is completely in wrong orientation. Also the exhaust tips point in wrong direction. Althought that wouldn't really matter without the M-tech 1 rear apron.




I decided to redo the pipe between the front muffler and headers and to modify the rear piece to fit the way I want it to. As an end result I'll have custom exhaust almost completely in stainless steel. I won't need to make changes for the section from front muffler to catback connection point so that's where I decided to start. I moved the exhaust lengthwise to best position and fabricated supports for it. I cut the shapes out of 2,5 mm plate, bent them and made pins out of bolts. These were fixed with the heat shield bolts.





I may still alter the position of bolt holes to place the cats a bit higher up. It will require modifying the pipes a little where they go under the rear subframe but I'll check with the gas tank and heat shield in place before doing that.

[Skarpa]

Small preview of a thing to come.

[Skarpa]

You Sir are a damn good fabricator.

Well thank you, kind sir.

[Bearmw]

You Sir are a damn good fabricator.

[Skarpa]

Yesterday I mocked up the E36 exhaust under the car. As I was expecting: The fact that somebody on the internet says that part X fits the car Y doesn't mean that I agree with the fitment. The rear part is okay. I may need to change the orientation of the muffler slightly and I need to redo the exhaust tips to fit the M-tech 1 rear apron. From the front part I'll mostly be using just the resonator and the cats. The rest goes to bin. I did take pictures but more of that later because I left the camera at the garage. Instead, here's what I did at work today. I noticed that I'm missing the exhaust support for double pipes. The one that bolts on to transmission. However I do have steel and shop equipment.

First I made a last for bending the curved parts:




Then I took some stainless steel flat bar and a hand operated bender. We also have a machine powered one but this one is faster to use and easier to control.


I did the bends that go between the pipes and then started fiddling the part into hydraulic press just to see it doesn't really fit there so I had to get it started by hand.






When both of the curves for the pipes were ready I twisted the part 90 degrees to go with the transmission mount.


End result was something like this:


The second half of the clamp is pretty much the same shape and was a lot faster to make.


It still needs some holes to be drilled and a couple of nuts to be weld but I'll do the test fit first.

[butters]

It's always nice to see different options:up: Exact same position won't work for me, though since I've moved the booster towards the fender and I think I'll move it even further to get the maximum clearance. One of the things that dictate the orientation of the reservoir is the elbowed outlet at the bottom. I think I'll cut it shorter and use an elbowed hose instead. Then I'll have more freedom to rotate the other barbs to the direction that makes the most sence.

Ahh yes I didn't think of that, you're right though it's already a pretty tight squeeze for me. Cutting back the outlet so it's straight down sounds like a good plan.

[Skarpa]

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.

It's always nice to see different options:up: Exact same position won't work for me, though since I've moved the booster towards the fender and I think I'll move it even further to get the maximum clearance. One of the things that dictate the orientation of the reservoir is the elbowed outlet at the bottom. I think I'll cut it shorter and use an elbowed hose instead. Then I'll have more freedom to rotate the other barbs to the direction that makes the most sence.