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Project Armo "330i" M-tech 1

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    Edit: Duplicate post
    Last edited by Skarpa; 07-29-2018, 11:15 AM.
    E30 Armo "330i"

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      Progress has been somewhat slow with the overload at work, summer trip and welding the dd but I've managed to do something at least. I cleaned the front frame and laid epoxy primer on all bare areas as well as inside the bottom beam. Then I welded the patch panel in place.

      As I said before, this is supposed to be the last rust repair (for now). WOO! As for the engine: Ethanol is confirmed. I'll go with E85 from the get go even though the first setup will be pretty mild and would not require it. I got an ECU with an ethanol tune and 373cc injectors (Volvo 0280155830) for a decent price. Although I need to have the tune modified a bit to fit my cams and ITBs. In Finland at the moment there's a reward of couple hundred euros for doing an E85 conversion to your car so I'll score that when having the engine swap inspected and approved.

      Last edited by Skarpa; 08-12-2018, 11:05 PM.
      E30 Armo "330i"

      Comment


        I've worked with the differential from time to time when I've had time. The differential is a 2.65 LSD from an E34 diesel and I swapped 2.93 gears in it. I assembled the LSD unit I think at least a year ago using one extra friction disc but replacing the bearings and especially adjusting the tooth contact has taken me a while. Now we are getting close.

        The inner bearing of the pinion was so tight that I had no chance getting it out with a bearing puller.


        The bearing puller jaws combined with a hydraulic press did the trick. I think I had 5 ton force before the bearing race moved. The bearing puller jaws were slightly bent but nothing too bad.


        After pressing in all new bearings it was time to test assemble the diff with the old shims to get an idea of which direction I need to move. The bearings are precise enough that replacing them did nothing to the preload of the side bearings. The rotating torque was still in spec.




        I don't have a rotating torque meter so I used an old school method:

        When you know the distance form the shaft center you can calculate the rotating resistance. At first I thought I might need to attach a camera to the tool and take video of the spring scale to be able to read the value but experience showed that it's surprisingly easy to read the value while rotating the shaft and the value stays pretty stable. Not as good as a proper tool would be but sufficient.

        The tooth contact was way off. No shim available would have been thick enough for the driver's side and the contact pattern was wrong as well:




        The contact is all the way at the root of the tooth meaning that I needed a thinner shim for the pinion. BMW cells the pinion shims in two sets: thinner set and thicker set. The old shim as measured with a caliber was 3,52 mm: thickest one available. I bought the thicker shim set and tried with one from the middle of the range (3,49). There was practically no change. I didn't bother trying the thinnest shim in the thick set, 3.46mm. The difference was just too small to make a change. Replacing the pinion shim is not a quick task: take apart the diff, tap out the outer race of the inner pinion bearing, replace the shim, press in the bearing race, rebuild the diff, adjust the bearing preloads, adjust the backlash and then check the effect of the adjustment.



        I bought the thinner shim set for the pinion and both the shim sets for the side bearings. Until now I had just used generic shims for adjusting the backlash to see the effect. As a test I used the absolute thinnest pinion shim available (3,255) to see that the range of adjustment is enough to get the correct tooth contact. That was confirmed. I was able to get the tooth contact off in another direction, meaning that it's too close to the top of the tooth.




        Also, the drive side pattern is too far on the heel side. Next I took a shim from halfway of the thinner set. (3,34 mm). The contact is starting to look fairly good:




        The contact area is pretty centered heightwise as well as sidewise. The pattern is not quite as clear as before. I may have used wrong amount of marking paste or something. I'll wipe the gears clean and do a new test but unless anyone more experienced has differing opinions, this is what I'm going with. I will probably need to sand the passenger side side bearing shim as even the thinnest one is too thick. I guess my diff cover and the gearset are just on the opposite sides of the manufacturing tolerance area.
        Last edited by Skarpa; 08-15-2018, 10:27 AM.
        E30 Armo "330i"

        Comment


          A while ago I learned that M3 has plastic plates in front of the rear valance to guide air under the valance rather than forming a huge air wall in front of it. I started pondering if it was possible to incorporate the same parts to M-tech 1 rear valance. After studying photos of rear ends on the internet (and having a look at some car pictures as well) I decided that it would be possible. The bottom edges of M-tech 1 and M3 rear valances seem to be very similar and at similar height. So I ordered the parts.


          Of course the fitment is not perfect. The M3 rear arches are so much wider and the exhaust tips are differently positioned. This dry fitting didn't tell me much more than that because there was no way to know exactly where the parts would sit. I mounted the valance on the car and started working on the plastic pieces one by one The spare wheel well defines the location of the center piece so I started with that. The piece actually fit nicely so I drilled holes in the valance and made a tab on the side of the spare wheel well to fix the piece.








          I have pretty much no idea of which kind of fastener is used in each location because the spare part view is not very clear on that. I ordered all parts that seemed likely. Mostly the parts seem to have tabs for sheet metal nuts but the holes are also correct size for 6mm plastic rivets. The spare part picture also shows kind of collared sheet metal washers that have something to do with the rear valance but I have no idea what they are for. Perhaps low profile washers to be used with screws and sheet metal nuts.





          When mocking up the parts I went with screws all around because they are easy to fix and undo. Next I mocked up the large section on the right side of the spare wheel well. It needed a bit more work because the M-tech 1 valance has a more curving shape than the M3 one. It cut off a thin slice from the valance to match the parts. Then I welded a few more tabs on the spare wheel well.






          Damn, that big plastic section is warped on the right edge:evil: I should probably have complained about that. I'll see if it straightens up once I have everything installed and heat it up a little with a hot air gun. Originally the plastic plates are fastened to the valance every 30 cm or so but there are unused blind tabs in between. I drilled and used them as well to have a better fitment. The final fasteners need to be lower profile than these.







          Not bad at all. The end pieces will need more modification, though. I'll also need to massage the M-tech 1 valance some. It's kind of warped at the right rear corner after 15 years of various storage.
          E30 Armo "330i"

          Comment


            The diff is ready. I swapped the pinion shim once more for a slightly thicker one in hope of better tooth contact during actual load. I sanded the right side side bearing shim slightly to get a correct preload for the side bearings. The breakaway torque is 70+ Nm. I had just one M10 screw in an output flange for turning the flange and I didn't want to exceed 70 Nm in fear of breaking the bolt.



            I'll be able to fill her with oil once the correct rear cover bolts and oil plugs arrive. Apart from those, all that was left was to make the proper markings for an LSD:



            Last edited by Skarpa; 12-18-2018, 10:54 PM.
            E30 Armo "330i"

            Comment


              That's interesting that the m3s got a plastic ground effect piece under their bumper. Neat.

              Stellar work as always.
              AWD > RWD

              Comment


                Originally posted by Kershaw View Post
                That's interesting that the m3s got a plastic ground effect piece under their bumper. Neat.

                Stellar work as always.
                Yeah, it was a cool thing to find out. And thanks for the kind words.
                Last edited by Skarpa; 09-04-2018, 12:21 AM.
                E30 Armo "330i"

                Comment


                  Awesome build!
                  BEERTECH

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                    Originally posted by Rob View Post
                    Awesome build!
                    Thanks! It's been a while since the last update but no worries, the car is coming together slowly and steadily. Here's what I've been working on lately:

                    Earlier I got the M3 ground effect pieces in the middle mocked up but the end pieces were stille left. Now they are mostly done. In budget models the exhaust tips are slanted towards the corner of the car as in M3 the exhaust points straight out of the back. The leftmost ground effect piece needed some modification. First I cut off the canard next to exhaust tip.


                    Then I shortened the whole piece and moved it forward so much that it doesn't interfere with the exhaust tips. The front edge aligned nicely with the rear of the wheel well. After this operation there was a strange cavity next to the exhaust tip. I tried closing it up with the canard I cut off earlier and it fit pretty well.


                    Then I made any other necessary pieces and taped the whole thing together. No I just need to make one piece out of suitaple plastic plate according to the cardboard template and weld it all together.


                    I came to conclusion the the parts are made of polyethylene. Most likely PE100 or PE300. Here's a list of properties that convinced me.

                    - Does not turn white under stress
                    - Does not melt in acetone
                    - Floats in water
                    - Sustains burning, burns at slow rate
                    - The flame is bluish with yellow edges
                    - Doesn't produce much smoke at all
                    - Smells like paraffin when burning
                    - Drops molten drips



                    The right side end piece was quite a lot easier than the left one. It fit pretty well as is with just a little trimming. I trimmed the bottom edge of the rear valance as well to give a way for air to escape as planned.




                    In these pics you can see the crooked ground effect piece that I complained about before. Since then I got it fixed by heating it up with a hot air gun and leaving it to straighten under a weight. All in all I'm happy with this little sub-project. One slight blemish comes from the fact that M3 rear valance is much wider than the M-tech 1. The ground effect pieces in the middle fit very well but in the ends the shape of the bottom of valance doesn't match with the lip in the ground effects at all and I had to just overlap the parts.

                    The ground effects were the last thing before I start to prepare the body for painting. For that I wanted to put the body in rotisserie again. My rotisserie is a budget one made of two engine stands. The last time the body was suspended in it I wasn't quite happy because you could only rotate it to about 45 degrees angle:


                    Now I decided to fix the issue. I extended the engine stands about 250 mm. At the same time I aligned the stands to vertical stance. There was a few degrees of "preload" or backwards tilt built into the engine stands to prevent the engine from drooping under load but in the rotisserie that is not necessary and just creates unnecessary tension.




                    Now I'm happy. The body doesn't quite turn all the way upside down but I found no need for that.


                    As a final thing I drilled 20 mm holes for the rear ABS sensor wires after noticing that I was missing those.
                    Last edited by Skarpa; 10-11-2018, 11:32 PM.
                    E30 Armo "330i"

                    Comment


                      The part turned out good considering that I had no previous experience on plastic welding. It's a bit ugly here and there but seems to be strong. I'm happy. This was good practice for fixing some cracks in the bumber covers/valances where the outlook is more important.






                      E30 Armo "330i"

                      Comment


                        Some time ago I started working on the engine. I have a refurbished head for the engine so I sold the old head to balance the budget a bit. I took the engine to my workplace and gave it a pressure wash with hot water and some solvent detergent.



                        After washing I took off the oil pan, the baffle plate and the oil filter housing and dried everything with compressed air and then hot air gun. Then I left a heat blower pointed at the engine for the rest of the day to make sure I left no water anywhere. After that I gave all the exposed internals a spray of oil to avoid rusting.



                        Oil pan, baffle, vanos, possibly oil pump and the rest of the separate pieces are going to a parts washing machine. I also cleaned and tidied up all the ancillaries.



                        I didn't feel the need to polish or paint anything. I just made sure the parts are not covered in grime so they are nice to handle and it's easy to spot any potential leaks. The starter seems to be an original unit from '95. I'll replace it with a new one since it's not so nice job to do once everything is assembled and in the car. EDIT: I've been informed about the poor quality of rebuilt starters so I'll service this myself.

                        Speaking of the car, I just finished removing pretty much all the rest of undercoating. I didn't start testing any new tricks but went with the tested and proven method of angle grinder and steel wire wheel. Creates a hell of a mess, though.


                        Removing the undercoating revealed one more point that needs welding: The lip on top of the engine bay side where the front fender bolts to. Should be a simple fix.
                        Last edited by Skarpa; 11-02-2018, 04:50 PM.
                        E30 Armo "330i"

                        Comment


                          Undercoating as in the stuff on the underneath of the car?
                          How long did it take you? Probably just going to give mine to the media blaster
                          sigpic

                          (clicky on piccy to get to thread)

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                            Originally posted by econti View Post
                            Undercoating as in the stuff on the underneath of the car?
                            How long did it take you? Probably just going to give mine to the media blaster

                            Yeah, that's what I mean. The original yellow pvc stuff is very good and still flexible after all these years. There wouldn't be real need to remove it but on my car on top of the original undercoating there's this black tar-like rust proofing that's been applied afterwards (a commont thing in nordic countries) I found no viable way remove the black stuff and leave the factory stuff so all must go because I want to have a nice painted finish on the underside of the car. If you plan to remove the undercoating I strongly recommend media blasting or any other non-manual method. I've been doing the whole underside of the car step by step whenever I needed to make repairs in that area. This final round included the front frame rails, the front wheel wells and the transmission tunnel around the gearbox. All the areas where you can see black rust-proofing in this pic:



                            That took me two to three hours so it's pretty laboursome work.


                            Just a quick tip, when we are on the subject: The original undercoating is pvc-based and when burning it produces hydrogen chloride. Combined with water (like humidity from air) that creates hydrochlorid acid which a strong corrodent. So whenever welding, it's improtant to remove all the original undercoating from the area as well as possible. Otherwise the spot sill rust like you've never seen. Also, don't breath the fumes from burning undercoating. Hydrochloride is not healthy either.
                            Last edited by Skarpa; 12-18-2018, 11:00 PM.
                            E30 Armo "330i"

                            Comment


                              Yes I knew about the gas thing, but did not know the acid part. That's cool

                              I was already fairly set on blasting, but it sounds like the only option for what I want.

                              Thanks
                              sigpic

                              (clicky on piccy to get to thread)

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                                Lots of small tinkering going on and little to show but here's something. I washed pretty much everything that comes off the engine without taking apart the rotating assembly. The parts washing machine didn't get rid of all the crusty oily sludge but the parts are still much nicer to handle after washing and the rest comes off fairly easily. I took apart the oil pump to see what was it's condition. It seemed good apart from minor polishing of the rotors. However I couldn't bring myself to putting it together with the old internals so I added the oil pump parts to my shopping list. I also took apart the vanos and replaced the piston seals. There was slight play in the vanos gear so I think I'll order the rattle kit as well.



                                Dad's and daughter's toys side by side




                                I replaced the crankshaft seal in the lower timing cover. Then I inspected the engine more closely. The piston tops had a fairly thick layer of carbon deposits on them which I scraped off with WD40 and a plastic spatula. I wasn't too happy with what was revealed:


                                Piston 1


                                Piston 2


                                Piston 3


                                Piston 4


                                Piston 5


                                Piston 6


                                Especially the piston four is pretty rough. With my limited experience that looks like detonation marks rather than mechanical damage. Although the detonation marks I've seen before have often been more clustered in certain areas. The head I removed didn't have corresponding damage as far as I remember but it wasn't necessarily the original head. From the signs I'd say the engine has been worked on before. I should have done a blowby test before removing the head to have a better idea of the engine's overall condition. Luckily the cylinders seem fine. You can easily see the honing marks and there's no step at the top of the cylinders you could feel. I've understood that's usually the case with nikasil blocks. Either they are pristine or, if the coating is for some reason damaged, they get pretty bad pretty quickly. I think I'll pull the internals and assemble the engine with the M54B30 rotating assembly. My original plan was to keep the B30 crank on the shelf to mock it up in a spare block and measure the setup for "evo 2" high compression engine but I can always get another crank for that purpose. Building a three-litre engine from the get go is actually what I've wanted to do anyway but until now have talked myself out of because of budget and schedule reasons. Well screw those reasons.
                                Last edited by Skarpa; 12-18-2018, 11:01 PM.
                                E30 Armo "330i"

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