Project Armo "330i" M-tech 1

[Skarpa]

I really really want you to make it for the meet and hope you have a blast there.
Good luck, sir!

Thank you! Here's me working hard on the car with my daughter.

[Skarpa]

All right, I promised to do a full writeup after the meet but decided to do a status update of where we are now. I've spent quite a bit of time at the garage and made nice progress. One week was pretty much lost because my daughter and I had a flu. Just an ordinary cold but we had to go through corona testing process until she could return to daycare and let's just say that the testing capacity was not quite up to task of testing every single toddler with a runny nose. If it wasn't for that, I'd be much further in the build but it's not bad. All the doors and hatches are installed with the locks operationa. Also all the windows are installed. I used manual window lift mechanisms because they were faster to install and to door wiring looms still need a little work.









I made an initial alignment for the doors, hatches and fenders so they close without problems and there's no huge misalignments but I'll do proper aligning and adjustment of panel gaps later. It requires a bit of work. Last year I didn't have time to test fit the fenders before they were painted. The bottom edges were pretty rusted so I had to try and guess the original shape and apparently didn't get it quite right:




It will probably take a grinder and a welder to get the alignment correct. I'll need to narrow the bottom of the fender to get it flush with the rocker panel. It's a good thing it will be covered with the plastic skirt. I took the faded trim to painter and he gave them a coat of black paint and matte clear coat. The finish matches nicely with original parts



The mask grilles are not painted. I just gave them a good cleaning and a coat of plastic conditioner. The kidney grill looks good from far away but has so much corrosion that I'm getting a new replacement part. Propapbly the Sport Evo one as it has the most open area and doesn't cost much more. The most attentive people will notice black door top trim among the parts. I haven't made the final decision on the color of the trim around the windows. The chrome trim I have is slightly corroded and matted and it's not easy to find parts in better condition. And if I polish the parts it will take away the protective anodizing finish. The outmost trim will stay chrome (the trim at the roof edges and under the windows. But otherwise I may have them painted black mimicking the late model style.










Finishing the exhaust system has been on my to-do list for a long time. Originally I tacked together the whole exhaust and then took to a welder for complete welding so it's not a big surprise that the v-band connection doesn't quite sit correctly The one with the flex joint is fine but the solid one is off. I planned to cut it off and re-weld it in place but decided to put a flex joint in that one as well. It will ensure proper fitment for the V-band and reduce the movement of the exhaust under the car. I have the exhaust mounted pretty snugly under the car and don't want any rattling.







I had to mount the flex joint on the horizontal part of the exhaust because there's just not enough room in front of the V-band. It's a bit more exposed for ground contact but there's not much I can do about that. I also finished the exhaust support at the back end of the transmission.








The last job was to make the supports for the rear muffler. There are E36 exhaust mounts under the car so I had to make brackets to match their location. For that I used 2x20 stainless flat bar.









The welding seams are not very pretty. I have just 0,9 mm flux core wire for welding stainless and it doesn't really weld neatly. Lots of spattering. But the exhaust fits exaclty as it should. I'm not a big fan of the diagonal exhaust tips but with the M-tech 1 rear valance there's not much choice. The do look better in my eyes with the exhaust tips stepped so each tip sticks out the same amount. The stock exhaust where the tips are parallel and the inner one sticks out more looks stupid in my opinion.

[Skarpa]

See new update above. After that where are we right now? I bled the brakes and the clutch. It was a breeze with the vacuum bleeding system. The clutch only releases at the very bottom of the pedal travel so I'll probably need to extend the clutch cylinder rod later to have the pedal feel I want but it works for now. I also bled the ATF and cooling systems but then we come to problems.

1. The power steering pump gives an extremely loud whine on higher revs and heats up a lot. (I don't have an infrared thermometer but my well calibrated hand says 50 - 60 degrees celsius after a short period of running.
2. The engine will not idle smoothly. The revs hump between 2000 and 3000
3. My laptop with INPA has lost connectivity (classic INPA problems)

For the power steering I'll need to try and find hydraulic schematics for the hydroboost system and E36 power steering system. Without the exact knowledge mys hypothesis and reasoning is this:
Hydraulic pump always produces a flow. In hydraulic systems there always a pressure valve that opens at the maximum design pressure of the system and allows the fluid to circulate. Circulating fluid heats up and normally the circulation goes from the pump to the cooler and then back to the reservoir. In power steering system the cooler is at the return line from the steering rack. So I assume that in normal E36 power steering system the fluid goes from the pump to the steering rack where there is valve that lets the oil flow back to the reservoir through the cooler. In addition there's an emergency high pressure valve built into the pump. This is by educated guess based on what I know about the hydraulics.

Now in my system the fluid goes from the pump to the hydroboost pressure regulator. It seems that the fluid doesn't flow through the pressure regulator so it just flows back through the built-in high pressure valve at the pump and keeps heating up. If I can find the hydraulic schematics I can confirm the differences in the systems. But this seems like a strange problem because I know people are running hydroboost systems in engine swaps with no problem. I do have the pressure regulator installed upside down to I have hard time believing it would cause a problem like this. Otherwise the hydroboost works fine so the steering assist and brake booster work fine and the pressure accumulator holds pressure for three or four full travels of brake pedal after the engine is turned off. For now I swapped in a shorter multi ribbed belt to run the engine without the power steering pump.

EDIT: After researching the schematics it appears that in the hydroboost regulator there is a flow divider valve that should allow most of the flow from the pump to go directly to power steering. Also, power steering control valve should let the fluid flow back to the reservoir when the wheels are not turned. In my case some link in this chain seems to be not working since only the pump and the pressure line to hydroboost regulator are getting hot.


For the engine idle problem I can't say much more until I can read the fault codes and zero the adaptations but it may that we'll have to go to the meet in my brothers E24.

[Skarpa]

So did I make it? Not quite. There's not so much left to do do but at some point the hours in the day are just not enough when you also have to sleep and have other things in your. So we had to take my brother's E24. But the meet has been a blast as always and full of beatiful E30s. Next year Armo will be among them.

[Vincenze]

I wonder if it's very difficult to import a $500 zero-rust shell from California or Arizona?

[Skarpa]

I wonder if it's very difficult to import a $500 zero-rust shell from California or Arizona?

As I understand It's not difficult per se, but a bit tedious and fairly expensive. If you bring it as a car it costs around 4000-5000 euros with the shipping, taxes, regisration and other costs. However if you just bring it as cargo and use the VIN of a Finnish car, it would of course be cheaper. It might make sense if the shell is really good, especially if you're in position where you might get the shipping at a lower price.

[Skarpa]

So the car wasn't driving in the meet but trying to get the car there sure brought the project forward a lot. The winter is coming and many people are already stowing away their summer cars for the winter so there's no hurry anymore. Now I can take my time and have the car truly ready next spring (or as ready as a hobby car will ever be because I of course have future plans). I wanted to know what was wrong with the idling so I read the fault codes from the ecu. Nothing significant there. Next I zeroed the adaptations and lo and behold, the engine immediately started idling better and kept improving as it was running. The O2 sensors are so close to the ends of the exhaust manifolds that running the engine without the exhaust or with poorly sealed exhaust connection throws off the O2 sensor readings and therefore the adaptation values. I still don't have the cooling fan running so I couldn't run the engine for long but I trust the idling will fully stable once I can. Otherwise I've lately focused on pleasant little jobs like the seats. They had a little work before being ready to install. All the gas struts for the seat adjustments were pretty dead and the passenger side seat had something wrong in the tilting mechanism.


Compressing the gas struts for installation was a bit tricky. The struts for raising the seat are 500 N units. It probably is possible to compress them by hand in correct position but you are risking your hands in case something slips so Icame up with this:



Looks hazardous but the strut sits there surprisingly firmly. The same system didn't work for the seat back struts but those were pretty easy to put in place when you first hook the top end and then place a piece of wood under the bottom end. Then you can press down on the whole seat and hook the bottom end.



The visible lock rings for the gas struts are supposed to be covered by a domed cap and you can no longer get those from the dealership. You can use domed 6 mm starlock rings as a replacement. You just need to paint them black.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Capped-Star...KE32HK6WYZ16R0

The cables for the passenger seat tilting were fine but the pivot point for the tilting lever was partially broken off so it was just bending along with the lever. I didn't want to burn anything by welding on the seat frame so I repaired the piece with 5 mm pop rivets.



Next I cleaned and greased all the mechanisms and they work just as they should. Then I tackled the rear seat. It has holes for the headrests but didn't come with the rests or brackets. I ordered the headrest bracket kit from the dealership.



They are a bit fiddly to get into position without using too much force but eventually you figure it out. Before installing the brackets you need to install the bezels around the holes.






I couldn't find black leather headrests so I bought cloth ones instead. I spent some time bidding on original leather upholstery for them on the ebay but was quickly outbid beyound my limit so I let them be and instead ordered new ones from Lseat. They were dirt cheap: 20 dollars a piece +50 dollars of shipping. I've seen pictures of Lseat upholstery and expected them to be of reasonable quality. I wasn't disappointed.





The materials seem and feel like good quality and the craftsmanship is fairly good. They aren't perfect, though. The shapes of the end pieces vary and the fit is not as snug as originally but they are definitely worth the price. I actually like the E30 interior better without the rear headrests. It looks more airy and there's better visibility so I probably won't run them all the time anyway. Also, I probably will have the whole interior reupholstered eventually so I didn't want to spend too much on upholstering the headrests. But anyway, the seats are ready to go in.



PS. Keeping the possible future upholstery in mind I bought a pair of Recaro CSEs


After all you can't ever let anything be finished or you run out of things to do.

[Skarpa]

Otherwise I've lately installed small but important things. Some of the old side trim had broken fixings so I bought all new trim.




Sadly the driver's door trim was no longer available so I cleaned up the old one and gave it a coat of bumper and trim conditioner. It turned out pretty all right.



I also finished fixing the M-tech 1 rear valance meaning that I fixed it to the wheel arches and the rear valance





Then I could attach the M3 ground effects or whatever you call them.

[Vincenze]

PS. Keeping the possible future upholstery in mind I bought a pair of Recaro CSEs

Are you going to cut new foam for Recaros yourself? You're so skillful.

It's probably easier to use black leather to make new seat covers. It's more difficult if you want to make fabric covers that look period correct.

[Skarpa]

Are you going to cut new foam for Recaros yourself? You're so skillful.

It's probably easier to use black leather to make new seat covers. It's more difficult if you want to make fabric covers that look period correct.

I'll need to study cutting the foam. At the moment I have no idea how to do it and get a nice surface. Especially a contoured one. The Recaro's have a pretty stupid frame that's welded together from steel plates. It leaves fairly sharp edges that cut through the foam like in the driver's seat side bolster. So I need to remove all the foam and do some rounding for the corners. Maybe do complete welding in the protruding edges and then grind it round and smooth or maybe weld a section of small pipe in the corners to create a rounded edge. Black leather looks very nice in a red car even if it is a bit "boring" choice but currently I'm leaning on all fabric interior. Golf GTI 7 has a very nice retroish plaid cloth interior with a strong 80's feel.



In my opinion the fabric wouldn't look out of place in Armo but ideas come and go and upholstering the interior is not happening right now so we'll see about that. The current leather seats are nice and in fairly good condition so I'm not in a hurry to do anything about them.

[Northern]

The Recaro's have a pretty stupid frame that's welded together from steel plates. It leaves fairly sharp edges that cut through the foam like in the driver's seat side bolster. So I need to remove all the foam and do some rounding for the corners. Maybe do complete welding in the protruding edges and then grind it round and smooth or maybe weld a section of small pipe in the corners to create a rounded edge.

Maybe try some heat shrink edging depending on how thin the plates are? Low profile and faster than welding/grinding, and looks like it's available for up to 5.4mm panel thickness.
There are probably cheaper options, but something like this:

https://www.newark.com/raychem-te-connectivity/rayrim-nr9-o/panel-grommet-edging-po-black/dp/18J8521

[Skarpa]

Maybe try some heat shrink edging depending on how thin the plates are? Low profile and faster than welding/grinding, and looks like it's available for up to 5.4mm panel thickness.
There are probably cheaper options, but something like this:

https://www.newark.com/raychem-te-co...ack/dp/18J8521

That would work well for a single plate edge but this is the case:



Plates are welded together into triangle profile so I doubt a product like that would stay there. But welding the frames is no problem once the seats are taken apart.

[Skarpa]

Lately I hven't had quite as much time for the project as before but I've still gotten some stuff done.

I got the wiring under the dash sorted out and neatly in place including finding the correct spot for the cruise control ecu. I've never seen one in place so it took a little time to figure out.



I installed a windscreen radio antenna and threaded the wires in the A-pillar. After that I was able to install the A-pillar covers and the check panel.


I had to move the throttle cable attaching point in the throttle pedal linkage to match the pedal movement to the throttle arm movement.

Despite me trying to measure it beforehand, the TPS plug fouled the hood so I cut off the plug from the sensor and replaced it with a wired connector.






I also did some details on the engine bay:

I added 90-degree elbows to the brake fluid lines of the remote reservoir to tidy them up some.







The car also got it's identity back. The pop-rivets are of course original parts from the dealership.

Next I need to sort out the engine bay wiring. I need to swap some connectors because the body wire loom is from a late model and the car is early model. Also half of the A/C wiring loom is missing but that's fine, it wouldn't fit the compressor or the temp switch anyway. I've been avoiding the wiring so far because working on and repairing old wire looms is not my absolute favorite work. But it's all right once you clear the initial step and figure out where every wire should be going. Once I have the wiring in place I can run the engine longer. I haven't done it yet as I don't have an operational cooling fan yet.

[Skarpa]

Back to this matter:

A while ago some idiot decided to redo the battery tray area so the M3 wiring cover end no longer fits so I had to come up with something else.








I'll need to have this 3D printed in some suitable plastic.

I had an initial test version of the wiring cover end printed on a filament-type 3D printer. After the test fit I quickly learned I need to change some things.





Where the cover end meets the original cover they don't quite match. Also the piece didn't have enough room for the cables so I needed to hack off a chunk of it to be able to test fit it at all. So I made the required changes:





As suspected the filament printing doesn't really work on a thin shell-like piece as this. Even with the reinforcement ribs I added on the inside of the piece it still felt brittle and the layer adhesion wasn't great. So I ordered the new piece from Weerg who use powder bed type machines. When I got my hands on the part I was very happy with it. It felt like one piece of sturdy but flexible plastic instead of separate layers glued together. The piece could sustain quite a lot of bending and abuse. Also the surface finish was nice. It was media blasted and dipped in matte black dye. The surface matches the original parts quite closely.





The fit was good as well. I could still tweak a few minor things. The shape should taper off towards the passenger's side fender more steeply to match the contour of the wiring cover. Also there should be a bit more space for the edge of the hood seal and I should see if I can decrease the surface element size in the print file. Now you can see pretty clearly how the round shapes consist of flat surfaces. I made the changes in the 3D file so if I ever need to order a new one, these things will be corrected. But I'm already very happy with the current piece.

[mjweimer]

Nice series of updates. That wiring cover turned out great and has a real OEM look with the contour matching the opposite side of the main cover.

I have heard that an electric carving knife works well for shaping seat foam - I've not tried it myself but it seems like a reasonable option and not too expensive. I have also seen upholstery folks use a rotary palm sander to complete the final contour of the foam, however the foam would need to be fairly firm for a good outcome.

Keep up the good work.



MJ