Project Armo "330i" M-tech 1

[Skarpa]

3D printing probably isn't the right process for that piece. It being a thin and complex part there's no way to print it that will take advantage of the material's strength, and layer adhesion will always be a factor no matter which orientation it is printed in. It'll work it would just be a lot of print time due to support requirements and the part will probably be fragile and prone to warping. What's the foam tape you have between the radiator and core support? I need to get my hands on some of that.

Well, damn. But that makes alot of sense. Thanks for the insights. I guess I'll need to consider laminating the piece over foam mold or something like that. The foam tape is self-adhesive closed cell tape made of soft EPDM. It's a pretty universal product with different companies making similar products.

[Loupoz]

Well, damn. But that makes alot of sense. Thanks for the insights. I guess I'll need to consider laminating the piece over foam mold or something like that. The foam tape is self-adhesive closed cell tape made of soft EPDM. It's a pretty universal product with different companies making similar products.

Perheps printing a piece, and then putting carbon or fiberglass over it.

[Skarpa]

I increased the thickness to 2 mm and added stiffening ribs to the part. It's now in the process of being printed.

[rzerob]

BMW made a part very similar to the one you are making. Have you tried it already? Part #1714106

Edit: There is one in Slovakia ebay right now for $29.00.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-e30-plastic-cover-used-1714106/333604407884?hash=item4dac5f4a4c:g:bbUAAOSwdTRexkuq

[Skarpa]

BMW made a part very similar to the one you are making. Have you tried it already? Part #1714106

Edit: There is one in Slovakia ebay right now for $29.00.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-e30-pla...UAAOSwdTRexkuq

Thanks for the tip. I wasn't actually aware of that shape of plastic. I knew there was the M3 plastic cover:


And the M40 engine version:


1714106 is the plastic mold number for the part you posted. After a bit of research the actual part number seems to be 12521714106 and it was used in US 318i and 318is and the European 324 td. It might be better shaped for my purposes than either of the above but it would still require modification so I'll stick with the 3D printed part. But thanks for the tip. It was interesting to learn about that and if there was no 3D printing possibility, I would be thrilled about that. I've done a bit more consulting about 3D printing and in case there's problem with the filament printing, I can easily have the part made with laser sintering technology for pretty cheap.

[Skarpa]

It's been a month since last update and the project has progressed somewhat slower than I'd like. But today I reached a small milestone and got the engine bay brake pipes bent into shape. I have kinda subconciously avoided the job and I'd say rightfully so. Along with the brake pipes I have the power steering and hydro boost plumbing mostly ready. I made a cooling loop for the power steering fluid. Earlier I made turned some hose connectors for it in lathe.











The loop is not in the most direct air stream. If there's any problems in keeping the fluid cool enough I'll try dropping it lower to be more in line with the air openings for oil cooler. When the cooling loop was done I got to work with the brakes. I wanted to make sure my ABS pump is in working order so I took it apart to check the insides. Porsche 968 shares the same ABS pump apart from hydraulic connections so there are good instructions for taking it apart here:

http://www.porsche968uk.co.uk/techni...abs-refurb.php

Everything look nice and clean so I didn't take apart the solenoids. I assume they are mechanically ok so after good cleanup I put the pump together.





Now it was time to bend some brake lines. I did the lines out of copper-nickel partly because I was short of one steel line and partly because I wanted to train using easier and cheaper material. I turned out to be a good idea because it took three tries to get one of the pipes right.















Surprisingly big job. Now that they are there I have no particular interest in going through the same stuff with the steel lines so these may well be the final product. Unlike the stock system, I routed the pipe for the right front brake through the nose of the car mostly because the firewall area is aleady so cluttered but also because it interferes less with dropping the engine and is probably shorter this way. I put a heat protector sleeve on the line where it's closest to the exhaust manifold.

[Skarpa]

Lately I've been able to work on the car much more and it leads to satisfying progress. The engine bay plumbing is 98% ready. Actually all that's missing is the heater core and the air mass meter. I've misplaced the O-ring and the small screw-on tabs that connect the air mass meter to the filter box so I need to find them before I can finish that. In the cabin I got all the wiring sorted that lives under the carpet and got to install the carpet as well as the sound damping under the headliner. Big thanks goes to a fellow E30 builder who took meticulous photos of all the body wire looms as I never had half of these wires before. It seems the car has bee broken into sometime in the past as the locks don't match. I'll replace all the locks with a uniform set. I think someone has already tried to remove the ignition lock and failed because it turned out to be impossible. Probably the release mechanism is somehow mangled so I needed to replace the complete top end cast of the steering column. Lucky that I have a pretty wide range of E30 spare parts.


Before putting in the carpet I wanted to glue in the sound damping for the headliner as not to smear any glue on the carpet. The C-pillar foams had deteriorated with age and crumbled to dust. I also had had to remove some of it from the driver's side to fix a rust spot. You can get a new part for the passenger's side but not for the driver's side so I had to make that myself. It was pretty easy when you had the other side part at hand for reference. The part comprises of self adhesive bitumen board (or whatever you call it) with a layer of foam glued to it. For my own I used rubber cork board as the base as that was the closest equivalent I could easily find.





I used 3M adhesive spray for foam and I must say it's very nice to work with. I used the same stuff to glue the original sound damping material to the ceiling. There's really no off spray and it's accurate to use so depending in the spot there's not much need to cover up anything. Only thing is that when you spray overhead, small glue droplets occasionally drop down so you need to take that into consideration.







The rubber cork board wasn't self adhesive so I used brush on contact adhesive for that.





When the ceiling was done I got to work on the floor. Before putting in the carpet I decided to add the air channels for the rear passenger leg room. All the E30s come with an option to add then. (well I don't really know about the oldest prefacelifts). The hvac box has plugged outlets for these channes and the sound dampening under the carpet has pre-built slots for the channels. They are just filled with soft foam.

Air Channels:


Outlets in the hvac box (broken non-ac model, not to be used)


The underside of the carpet. Dark grey foam needs to be removed.




The car feels so much readier with the carpet in. And it really was a pretty big step in reality as well considering everything I did before installing the carpet.

[mjweimer]

Making a lot of progress and looking great. The attention to detail on all of the sound deadening is fantastic...it may all be hidden but you know it was done right!

Maybe I missed this in an earlier post - what shift lever did you end up using in your custom carrier? I see a BMW part sticker but can't make out the numbers.


MJ

[Skarpa]

Thanks! The shifter is the E90 330i one (25117551645) so it's the stock shifter for this transmission. It's a mostly straight shifter with a slight S-bend at the base. I figured I'll use this as the base line and see if I want to make any changes once I get to drive the car.

[mjweimer]

Thanks! The shifter is the E90 330i one (25117551645) so it's the stock shifter for this transmission. It's a mostly straight shifter with a slight S-bend at the base. I figured I'll use this as the base line and see if I want to make any changes once I get to drive the car.

Thank you! My lever placement is pretty good but after trying a few different shift levers (E30, E36, E46...) I could use something with a little more length below the ball to shorten up the shift action and I think the S-bend will position it even better in the chassis.


MJ

[Skarpa]

A few steps forward. The HVAC unit is in.


The heater core hoses wouldn't fit with the plenum so I had to shorten the aluminum pipes a little and move the hose clamps inside the vehicle. For that I needed to form new beads on the pipe ends. I made a suitable tool for that out of cheap needle nose pliers with a terminal crimping section. I just neede to shorten the jaws and round one of them to fit inside the pipe.




Then it was just a matter of crimping a bead in the pipe a little by little. It turned out pretty all right.




While connecting the hoses and especially installing the rubber grommet around them I tried to come up with an equally difficult task. It was like putting on a condom, in the dark, when you're already in. So it wasn't quite easy but I didn't want to uninstall the plenum either.




Once the hoses were in I poured coolant and power steering fluid in the engine and right away on floor. Both circuits had leaks. The power steering pump was wet all around. I really couldn't tell where it was leaking but I didn't spend too much time figuring it out either. I just ordered a new pump. If original LUK one was immediately available I would have gotten one but it wasn't so I got a rebuilt one instead. The culprit behind the coolant leak was the sensor block at the coolant hose. There's really not much of a flat surface for the aluminum washer to seal on:




I didn't have a mill but after some filing and sand paper it started to look better.





I put some thread locker on the sensor in addition to the aluminum washer as I didn't have any better sealant at hand. It seems to hold at the moment. The offspring was a big help. (right)




My brother swinged by and I put his vehicle electrics expertise in use and told him to switch the plug in the engine wiring loom to an E30 one. Meanwhile I polished the handling scratches and welding discolorisation from the exhaust tips and hanged the exhaust in place. I wanted to hear what the engine sounds like with the full exhaust.







New battery in trunk, some ethanol in tank and it was time to start the engine. First we rotated the engine without fuel pump relay until we had oil pressure. Then we ran the fuel pump until there was fuel in the fuel rail. The engine started beautifully at first try... right after I remembered to connect the coil wire loom as well. It was a success except for a few leaks at power steering / hydroboost banjo connections. We'll get those sorted later. Video of the start. Ignore the shitty audio especially when revving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNJ7...ature=youtu.be

[econti]

Huge moves! Started so easily, sounds very healthy. That's awesome.
After the leaks, what's next? Interior install and that's it?

[Skarpa]

Huge moves! Started so easily, sounds very healthy. That's awesome.
After the leaks, what's next? Interior install and that's it?

- clean up and sort out the wiring in engine bay and under dash
- interior
- glasses
- install and assemble doors
- hood and trunk
- bumpers fenders and trim
- weld exhaust hangers to rear muffler
- lights
- Windshield washer
- various small repairs and buffing up for the above parts

So still quite a bit of work to do but we're slowly getting there. I deliberately left out the A/C from the above list. I'll need to sort out the piping, hoses and wiring but will do it after the car is running and driving.

[mjweimer]

Congrats! Nothing more satisfying than hearing that engine fire right up after so much time and effort. Awesome that your kids are out there "helping" too.


Always enjoy your updates.


MJ

[Skarpa]

Congrats! Nothing more satisfying than hearing that engine fire right up after so much time and effort. Awesome that your kids are out there "helping" too.


Always enjoy your updates.


MJ

Thanks! It really felt a big moment. My daughter is very keen to go to the garage and it's nice daughter-father time. Getting actual work done with her is questionable but is improving all the time. My brother's son (also visible in the pictures) is actually very smart guy and will carefully do tasks you point at him.