Ryan's Hennarot 318is (s54, slicktop conversion, MT2)

[rzerob]

EV FD. If you are doing a build thread on here or another forum please attach a hyperlink. The only thing I do not like about the EV with the motor in the rear is it leaves you without the option of a manual.

[mike.bmw]

That's the plan man. Going slow because I've been busy with work but it's a good distraction.

BTW - I really dig you AW 318is.

That's going to be awesome!

Thanks! I may have another project soon. Will know more by tomorrow afternoon. :)

[rjmcdermott81]

It's 5 in the morning here, but am I seein that right? Electric motor FD RX7?

The E30 is looking great!

That's the plan man. Going slow because I've been busy with work but it's a good distraction.

BTW - I really dig you AW 318is.

[mike.bmw]

It's 5 in the morning here, but am I seein that right? Electric motor FD RX7?

The E30 is looking great!

[rjmcdermott81]

I haven't posted in quite a while. The car has been great and the paint is holding up with out any issue. I do have a slight "halo" effect where the sunroof was? but I knew that might happen going in. I've been distracted lately by a new project...I'll let you guess what is happening with this car/subframe/motor combo:




I also helped my son modify his truck - that's +5 hp's there:


Went to the motherland...where they had the M3 in the correct color :)


But on the e30 I upgraded it with a Thule bike rack:


and over the holidays I removed the nasty old 90s tint. I think I did this the hard way but I got pretty good at it toward the end...as usual. It took me 3 days of taking it in spurts. I used a lot of heat from a heat gun and a razor blade, finished with goo-gone to remove any leftover residue. Much nicer now without that yucky tint that was starting to haze over.

[rjmcdermott81]

My 3 year old daughter and I walked out to the car tonight and she said - dad, where did your red car go? How did it turn orange?

Gotta love hennarot...depending on the lighting the color changes between orange and red.

[rjmcdermott81]

How’s the steareo turn out?

What was the low oil pressure issue?

I'm not an audiophile but man I think it sounds really good. That little mini sub does way more than I would ever want. I don't want my trunk and license plate buzzing like a highschool kid.

Low oil pressure - it was most likely a loose rubber o-ring on the pickup tube. But, there was some scoring on the gears in the oil pump and the main bearings were close to going out of spec...so I had the shop replace the mains, oil pump, and pickup tube o-ring. Took care of the problem. I think it was probably the o-ring but it's such a pain to get the oil pan off with the s54 I went ahead and had them do it all.

[rjmcdermott81]

Willing to sell the ones you aren’t using? Or able to make me a couple of those custom made ones? I need one side for my rear bumper because someone hit my car..

Sorry man. I'm going to hold on to mine. I hope you're able to find some but if you want to make them let me know and I can tell you how.

[moatilliatta]

How’s the steareo turn out?

What was the low oil pressure issue?

[hakstern]

Willing to sell the ones you aren’t using? Or able to make me a couple of those custom made ones? I need one side for my rear bumper because someone hit my car..

[spiDmang]

Such a cool thread and build! Great job on this car. Love the Henna/S54 combo...that is my eventual goal for mine

[rjmcdermott81]

OMFG. If you've read my thread...at the assembly point I was looking everywhere for M-tech 2 sidemarker surrounds. I figured I didn't get them with the bumpers and they were nowhere to be found available online.

Today I cleaned out my garage and I'm getting rid of my work bench....the only thing inside the workbench were these dang surrounds. And they are in perfect condition!

I think I'll still rock my custom made ones though. More black to contrast the red.

[R3Z3N]

If you are using the PWM module, we can easily change fan speed activation and amount.

If you have added Garrys CAN/AC computer, you can wire in the rest of the components so that the fan is also activated on AC load.

I highly recommend doing both. On mine, I also used the SPAL fan shroud to AC Condensor (trimmed to fit) so that there is more efficient cooling. I believe you could also use another PWM module or 2 to trigger the pullers as well, or use another PWM module like DERALE sells (easiest solution for the pullers.)

The largest safe SPAL fan to use is still quite a bit lower power than the Z4M fan. The latest BMW cars use crazy powerful electric fans. You would need a larger alternator for those.

[rjmcdermott81]

So...since I got my A/C up and running the first time it's been a ton of work.



1st - the A/C wasn't cooling well and there appeared to be a block. A shop replaced the evaporator and when that didn't work I replaced the condenser and took the opportunity to put in a bigger more powerful SPAL pusher fan.


2nd - after the A/C got up and running I've been having temperature problems. The car usually runs at 180F no matter what. With the A/C on in traffic on a 100 degree day the temp was climbing to 210F. It always stabilized but I didn't feel comfortable with this long term.



Current cooling setup:
1. 12" off-brand pusher fan
2. 8" and 10" SPAL puller fans
3. Original waterpump
4. 2 year old thermostat with 500 miles on it
5. Mishimoto e30 radiator
6. 2 year old radiator cap


Here is what I've done so far to remediate the problem:
1. Changed the pusher to a 16" SPAL pusher

2. Replaced the waterpump
2. Replaced the thermostat


Still heating up but not quite as bad


I then pressure tested it (it was tested recently with no issues) but it was dropping pressure and coolant was pouring out of the back of the engine. This harbor freight pressure tester is awesome by the way.




Check out the leak I found when I took off the airbox. Pardon the terrible video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWlmGLLwQmg

With the leak found I replaced the heater hose and a few more o-rings. Before I put it back together I tested it with air 15psi of air in the system and soap water at every spot. Good thing I did this because I hadn't cranked the heater hose down enough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU1p9wjSuWI

With that fixed I filled it with coolant and pressure tested it. I'm writing this because at first it didn't appear to hold pressure as well as I hoped. I then ran the car with the radiator cap off for about 15 minutes and saw bubbles slowly coming into the coolant reservoir. This purged the system of air that was trapped, filled the heater core, etc. After that it would hold 15psi with no issue. I couldn't find a solid write-up to doing a coolant pressure test. Best I can tell you should do it with coolant in the system because it mimics real life conditions.


I'll try to get some test time on it this weekend. If this doesn't solve the problem I need a bigger radiator. I bought a Mishimoto X-Line which is way way thicker but it doesn't clear the a/c compressor. It's just touching... And I'm not sure I can fit much of a fan on it.


Check out how much thicker the x-line is:



Here is the a/c compressor contacting the weld bead:




If the current setup doesn't work I may try to run it...

[rjmcdermott81]

Brakes! My brakes have always always sucked. I figured it was because of the 2002 booster but it got worse over the past few weeks and thanks to Zach, Andy, and Jay here in town I managed to diagnose all three problems I was having.


Here were the symptoms:
1. Weak braking power - took tons of pedal effort
2. Short pedal travel when it was working

3. Brake pedal continued to drop to the floor as I was braking. Never all the way but enough to worry me.


The fix:
1. Tested the brake booster and found out I had a vacuum leak at the elbow. Added a new o-ring and some gasket sealant for extra measure.
2. Put in a new master cylinder. I used a 1984 318i MC because it had the smallest bore I could find.


Wow, what a difference. I've been driving this over-powered car like a complete wuss because the brakes sucked. Tonight I was finally able to let it rip and carry speed into turns like I should. The 2002 booster with this MC feels great - plenty of braking power and the right pedal travel.


This tester was well worth the $30 from Autozone:



and this new MC was super easy to put in. Not sure why I didn't try this before...