E30 M3 minor rust repair - Thread Restauration [finished]

[Kurt66]

 

Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to the worlds fastest

car restoration. Here's a brief word or two and a couple of pictures of the

magnificent progress thats been made since the last update 13 years ago.

As you may have seen at the end of the last update, next on the "shit to do"

list was the task of  firing in the wiring loom and beating it down flat

enough so that the carpet doesn't look like it's concealing dead bodies

underneath it.

Back at the start during the disassembly stage the plan was

to carefully remove the loom from the car and pack it away neatly rolled up into

it's individual runs so as to make refitting a straight forward simple task.

That plan lasted a good ten minutes, which if i'm honest is

longer than most plans tend to last, in the end everything just got tossed

into a large crate........

 

 

Studies have shown that if you leaves large bundles of wires together for

long enough they will actually, slowly, when your not looking, tie themselves

into knots making them a complete bas*ard to unravel again.

I believe the same phenomena has been found in christmas tree lights

aswell. Anywho, a couple of hours, a bag of nails and a hammer had

the loom strung up on the wall like so.........

 

 

 

There's basically two main looms in an e30. The chassis loom and

the engine loom. What you see in the pics above is the chassis loom,

I'll be waiting till the engine is refitted before tackling the engine loom.

One of the largest items in the chassis loom is the fuse board and to

get full access to all it's wires you need to undo the two screws and

pop the fuse/relay panel upwards, which reveals all this lot below.......

 

 

Although it looks a bit hectic a lot of the wires are simply passing

through the fusebox on their way from the engine bay through to the

inside of the car or vise versa.

The main reason for nailing up the loom like this, apart from trying to

untangle it, was to inspect the condition of the various connectors, the

insulation and of coarse the wires themselves. And as with just about

everything else on this car the loom was also going to need some tender

loving care. Some of the more notable things found were:

     the ABS over voltage relay looking rather suicidal...... 

 

 

 

That relay lives on top of the ABS ecu which is right under the dash beside

the steering column, not at the bottom of the deep blue sea, which those

pictures would suggest. I've no idea how it got so corroded.

 

I also found some modifications to the loom which I have a sneaking suspicion

might not have been done at the factory. The use of speaker cable tee'd into the

front indicator circuit to power the front wing indicators.......

 

 

and an alarm installation which may well have been carried out by

Stevie Wonder. It was a tough choice to choose which picture would

truly sum up the magnificence of this gifted persons work, but in the

end there could only be one winner. The red arrow below points out

where he bared back the blue wire and joined in the black wire by

wrapping it around. And then the blue arrow shows where he decided

to add some solder.......... 

 

 

Gifted.

 

The other thing I wanted to do with the loom up on the wall was go through it all

and pull out all the unused wiring. I think the main loom comes fitted with

all the wiring included for things on the options list, such as heated seats,

font fogs and so on, and since I'm not using most of these there seemed

little point in carrying around all the wiring for them. So the pile below

was extracted.........

 

 

The other thing that needed attention was the loom insulation. The stuff

in the engine bay by now had the cohesion of wet tissue paper......

 

 

and in places had already started to unravel....... 

 

 

So I began the expensive search for the correct matching loom tape off the

main dealer. I probably bought enough different rolls of f*cking tape to wrap

the empire state building before learning the correct part number from

Conrod over on S14power.com.  So, 1 roll of correct tape under part number

61136902588 at 30euro a roll.........

 

 

and then some internet research to find the manufacturers

website, "Certoplast" http://www.certoplast.com/frameset_eng.htm

and a little more research showed the tape to be "Certoplast 525se".

And a quick search on e-bay found a German seller auctioning them

for 3.45euro a roll.......

 

 

 

All of which meant the exhilarating job of re wrapping the looms could commence....... 

 

 

 

 

Which along with removing the unused wiring tidied up the 20 year old

looms a great deal......... 

 

 

With all that done the loom could be refitted to the car. The first "loom"

to go back in was the battery relocation loom. Which consists of the

heavy gauge wire pictured below and another smaller gauge wire that

runs along side it...........

 

 

Any they run from the battery cradle in the boot..........

 

 

through the rear bulkhead and along the inner passenger sill...........

 

 

before turning up the A pillar and out through a bulkhead grommet.......

 

 

to arrive at the original battery tray........

 

 

Not being able to avoid it any longer, the chassis loom was next up.

A little tip for you if your doing this job is to place the loom in a hot press

or beside a radiator for a while before you go to fit it, as the heat will soften

up the loom a lot and makes it far easier to thread in to place.

Everything in the chassis loom more or less starts or finishes in the fusebox

so thats the first picture.

As you can see in the pics below I got a bit carried away with the crayons

again.......

 

 

In the pic above you can just about see the 5 different "runs" of wiring that

leave the fuse box. (theres usually 6 but i've done away with the little twin wire

run that comes out and goes to the level sensor on the brake fluid reservoir).

 

Of the 3 "runs" of wire that exit the fuse box from the left in the pic above

the two shortest ones are the green and purple "runs".

The purple one only travels a few inches and ends in the C101 plug. This is

where the chassis loom and the engine loom join together.

The green run only travels about a foot more and supplies power in to the

wiper motor under the scuttle panel.

And the blue run travels across the bulkhead and connects up to the terminals on the

end of the main battery lead fitted earlier (red arrow below). Two decent gauge cables here and

there job is to supply all the power to the fusebox. The other pair of wires in this run

(yellow arrow) are to the level sensor on the coolant reservoir........ 

 

 

Next up is the yellow run that exits the fusebox on the right in the main pic.

This carries the wires to power up most of the items on the front of the

car. It leaves the fusebox and travels up the inside of the wing, with the

first branches off for the front left ABS sensor and left wing indicator (out of pic)....... 

 

 

before carrying on down the wing and dumping some more wires off to

connect up the ABS pump and the front left headlight unit.......

 

 

the other wires it dumps here which can be a little difficult to see are a

bunch of earth wires which all bolt up to an earth point behind the ABS pump.

 

 

The other branch off at this point, is the wires and connector for powering

up the electrical cooling fan. This actually runs over under the front grills when

fully installed but I'm changing to an aftermarket fan so have only ran it this

far to make it easier to get at till the new fan is fitted later on........

 

 

the final pair of branches off the run at this point are 2 pairs of wires,

one for the front indicator and one for the left horn......

 

 

next up was to refit the little metal bar that runs under where the grills

will be.............

 

 

because the yellow run continues its journey over to the other side of

the engine bay on the inside of this bar.......

 

 

where upon it breaks up into its final branches. Again two twin core

branches for indicator and horn.......

 

 

3 twins for the headlight unit (high beam, low beam and side light).

A pair of twins (green) for windscreen washer pump and level sensor.

The connector for the right front ABS sensor and a twin core

for the right front wing indicator(out of pic)..........

 

 

And the final item is a 3 wire branch for the fan control switch on the

thermostat (when it's fitted)............

 

 

The final run to leave the fusebox is the red one from underneath the box....

 

 

which travels through a large rubber grommet on the bulkhead and into

the inside of the car.........

 

 

if your a religious type person it's usually at this stage you start to pray,

another common option is alcohol.......

 

 

before we go any further I'd just like to say if your thinking of following these

pics to lay in your loom, then it's probably worth pointing out that this is

where I "think" the wires went. The important word there being "think".

I haven't a fu*king clue where half this stuff originally ran and it mightn't be

a bad idea to hang on and see if this car goes up in a puff of smoke the

first time I turn the key.

 

Two little brackets to connect to the bulkhead first. The one below

which supports the loom after it comes through the bulkhead and makes

a left tun..........

 

 

and this one that holds a load of the connectors and plugs.......

 

 

(red arrow shows where the loom holder bracket will be fitted).........

 

 

 

 

From here the various runs make their way down the "A" pillar with a few

branches off heading into the speaker hole.......

 

 

the first branch off is for the central locking relay which lives in here.......

 

 

 

second is for the door light switch...........

 

 

third is for the door connector plug which supplies all the wiring to

the door when fitted..........

 

 

 

after getting rid of that load the remaining two runs (green & red) head

back the car along the inner sill. Two branch off's just in front of where

the driver seat goes (green & orange) which we'll come back to in a while....... 

 

 

the main bulk of the loom still continues back along the still.......

 

 

up on to the rear seat bench where theres another 4 branch off's.

Red vertical arrow = wires up to left hand interior light

Purple arrow = bunch of earth wires bolted to shell

Yellow arrow = rear left ABS connector

Other Red arrow = wires out to external fuel pump

 

 

after this the two main red runs split up. One runs up the rear bulkhead

and pops through a square grommet out into the boot area (blue arrow). Just before

it does, theres a small branch off (green) with some rear speaker wires that I

added into the loom earlier.........

 

 

 

 

 

your going to have to use you imagination here for the next little bit, cause the loom

sits up into the panel work, and although I love you all dearly,

I'm f*cked if i'm taking them back down again just for pictures.

The loom comes through the bulkhead into the boot area

(red dots) and then has 3 branch off's (as shown in the pic) before carrying on.

Red branch off- to rear light check unit (blue arrow)

Yellow branch off- earth wires bolted to chassis

Green branch off- pair of wires that run up inside boot hinge and into

boot lid for boot light switch..........

 

 

After which the loom continues on around to deposit it's last wires, which are for

the rear tail light units, the reg plate lights, and the central locking motor for the

boot lock.......

 

 

With that done, we go back to the split in the loom at the rear bulkhead

and follow the other run on it's merry way. It travels across the bottom

of the rear bulkhead before depositing another 3 branches.

Blue- wires for rear boot secondary fuel tank sender unit

Yellow- wires for right rear ABS sender

Purple- wires for main fuel tank internal fuel pump & level sender unit and wires for speedo

sender unit on differential........

 

 

with them dropped it carries on another foot and drops another branch

which is the 3 little wires for the right hand side interior light......

 

 

just like the other side these wires run up the inside of the "B" pillar.........

 

 

before magically reappearing at the top where the light is fitted........

 

 

With that taken care of theres only one wire left in this run of the loom

and it joins the main battery cable on it's journey back towards the front

of the car...............

 

 

But before we follow that single wire to it's home, it's back over again

to the other side of the car and them two runs that branched off earlier on

(green & orange)...........

 

 

The green run carries within it the wiring for the electric window switches

amongst other things and you can see where the two plugs end up for

the switches (green arrows). The orange run carries the wiring for the

reverse light switch connector (orange arrow) which will connect to the

little two wire loom on the gearbox when fitted......... 

 

 

 

While the green run continues on across the floorpan the orange run

heads backwards to drop it's final wires........

 

 

which are a single wire for the handbrake light switch and a pair of wires

for the rear ashtray light...........

 

 

back to the green run, it continues right over to the passenger side sill......

 

 

where upon it joins in with the big battery cable and the sole remaining red

run wire on their journey to the front...........

 

 

and eventually they reach their final destination. In through the speaker

hole and the green run provides all the wiring for the door plug and the red

single wire is for the passenger side interior light door switch...........

 

 

 

Thats most of the main loom fitted, theres probably more, but sure if I

showed it all it would take all the fun out of you fitting your own.

Plus it's over two months since I fitted all that crap, and I've been

guessing most of what you've just read.

There's quite a few mini looms that plug into the main chassis loom once

fitted such as this one. It has the wiring for the stereo, hazard light switch,

electric window circuit breaker switch, glove box light and so on........

 

 

the ignition switch......

 

 

indicator and wiper stalks.........

 

 

a quick note on these last two by the way, took me a fu*king eternity

to figure this one out. Theres a little bracket welded onto the steering

column coloured red below.........

 

 

and when the ignition switch loom is plugged into the chassis loom

the plug clicks into this little bracket...........

 

 

and then when the wiper/indicator plug is reattached.......

 

 

it slides in and clicks in to place above the ignition plug............

 

 

and fu*k it, thats enough wiring, me head is melted.

And it's also enough for this update.

I promise the next one won't be quite as boring as we tackle the art of removing

carpet dye from bare skin, nailing on a pair of side skirts, modifying a rear parcel

shelf and loosing the will to live while fitting a roof cloth.

Should have it up in the next few days.

 

Till then........... 

 

Bearbeitet: 19. Februar 2015 von Kurt66

[Kurt66]

(Leider keine Bilder Vorhanden)

 

With the wiring all in, the next thing to do was get the carpet in on top

of it. Despite being 20 odd years old the carpet was in remarkably good

condition. A shampoo and steam clean left it looking as good as new.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2832%29/m3_2679.jpg

 

Only one small problem with it, it was grey, I want it black.

So, a gallon of Valeters Pride black carpet dye (e-bay £25)........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2832%29/m3_2594.jpg

 

an old squirter bottle..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2832%29/m3_2593.jpg

 

and a soft-ish nail brush.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2832%29/m3_2595.jpg

 

Spray the stuff on the carpet, gently rub it in with nail brush and leave to

dry. Reapply a second coat if needed. It doesn't take a great deal of the

dye to do the job, I only got through about one litre to do it all.

 

Tried it out on a spare bit of carpet first, just to check it wasn't going

to go arse ways and make a balls of me good carpet. Test went well

so on to the real thing.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2832%29/m3_2596.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2832%29/m3_2681.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2832%29/m3_2683.jpg

 

Wasn't sure how the vinyl/plastic bits of the carpet were going to take

to the dye but as it turned out they dyed perfectly black too........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2832%29/m3_2684.jpg

 

With the carpet all dried out (24 hours for full non-smudge dryness)

it could go back into the car.....

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2832%29/m3_2688.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2832%29/m3_2689.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2832%29/m3_2691.jpg

 

With the carpet in the dash and centre console could also go back in.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2831%29/m3_2928.jpg

 

pretty straight forward this, only one little mod to do on the clocks unit......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2831%29/m3_2842.jpg

 

it didn't seem right having the odo reading 185,000.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2831%29/m3_2840.jpg

 

For this next part I'll be forever greatfull to DanThe over on E30zone.net,

about a year ago I received a pm from him to say he had an unused

black non sunroof headcloth for an M3 if I wanted it. Seeing as these are

NLA from the main dealer for years now it wasn't a difficult decision..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2833%29/m3_2809.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2833%29/m3_2811.jpg

 

No pictures of the job in progress as it was a complete swine to do.

However the hardship was worth it as it came out nice in the end........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2833%29/m3_2815.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2833%29/m3_2816.jpg

 

should have the rest of this update up later on this evening.

 

Till then.........

[Kurt66]

Carpets in, next up was the rear parcel shelf. Below you can

see the original parcel shelf complete with the holes cut out

for the speakers the previous owner fitted....... 

 

 

And if you cast your mind back a bit you might remember

when the bodywork was been finished off I made up some

speaker enclosures and welded them into the rear bulkhead........

 

 

now, a smart person probably would have measured the hole's in the parcel

shelf and welded them enclosures in to match up, so the parcel shelf

would be a straight forward refit. However, it would appear I'm not the

brightest star in the sky, as when I went to offer the parcel shelf back

into place the holes were a mile off......

 

 

So, the solution. Remove the sound proofing from under

the parcel shelf........

 

 

butcher a big hole out of the centre of it and replace with a thin piece of

aluminium...........

 

 

check measurements 15 times before cutting holes in the aluminium.......

 

 

drill and screw alum down to parcel shelf to hold it tight in place till

the adhesive underneath dry's..........

 

 

fit in place to check everything lines up..........

 

 

 

 

While it all fitted up nice and snug now there was still the small problem

of bare aluminium not being at the cutting edge of custom car interior design.

So, a little material..........

 

 

chop, chop......

 

 

glue explosion.........

 

 

sticky fingers, lost scissors....... 

 

 

Bingo.......

 

 

 

the M3 having the extended rear windscreen section also has another

little add on section of parcel shelf to fill up the gap so this got covered too......

 

 

All done, time to bang it back in and fit the speakers and rear seatbelts,

and this is how it came out...........

 

 

 

 

more tomorrow.

 

Till then...............

[Kurt66]

 

They're not needed right this minute but the bits and pieces that make up the

electric mirror's were at the bottom of the crate I was working out of, so

they went together next..........

 

 

wiring fits through rubber mirror seal..........

 

 

and then through the base of the mirror............

 

 

before the individual wires plug into the motor, the connections on the

motor are marked for the colour of wires that pop into each hole.........

 

 

motor gets screwed to the 4 threaded holes on the mirror base...........

 

 

 

and then the little loose run of cable seen below..........

 

 

gets secured and hidden by this little plastic cover.............

 

 

 

last thing to do is pop the mirror glass on. As you can see below, on the

rear of the glass theres a circular plastic disc with 4 little cut outs in it (blue arrows).

The disc also has a few notches cut into the bottom of it (red arrow), the disc

can rotate left or right..........

 

 

So you line up the 4 holes on the disc with the 4 lugs on the motor

shown below........

 

 

and then pop a small flat screw driver in through the hole on the bottom

of the mirror to rotate the disc and lock the mirror glass against the motor........

 

 

wish all the reassembly was that handy............

 

 

For the next bit of work to commence the car needed to be off the

axle stands and back down on the ground, and for that to happen

some wheels would be required. So I picked up a staggered set of these

kindly provided by probably the M3's most reliable refurbished wheels

supplier, Markus over on S14.net...........

 

 

 

 

Style 5's in 8x17 and 9x17............

 

 

Bearbeitet: 19. Februar 2015 von Kurt66

[Kurt66]

With the car now back on the ground it was time to super glue the side

skirts back on. I don't know who back in the day designed these skirts

for the M3, but who ever it was certainly took their job seriously.

I've seen small bloody aircraft wings that didn't use this many fittings

to secure them. First up was these little green grommets below 

p/n 51711932996. Seven of these are needed both sides, giving a total

of 14. As you can see below I bought 18 because, obviously, I can't count..........

 

 

and 4 of these little black washers p/n 51711922599.

 

 

One black one at either end and seven green ones in the holes in between......

 

 

 

Then there's the little white dudes that are going to pop into the green grommets.

P/n 51711936517, 7 of these for each side............

 

 

these pop onto the top inside lip of the skirts, shown below.........

 

 

 

 

and then theres 4 of these that also go on the skirts, one at each end.

(I'm starting to think one of the previous owners of this car must have

been a f*ckin mermaid who lived at the bottom of the sea).............

 

 

anywho p/n 51711933719..........

 

 

these slide into the little slots each end of the skirt..........

 

 

 

and when the skirts are offered up to the car the white clips click into

the green grommets and the steel clips are secured at either ends by 4

little plastic nuts.......

 

 

nuts are filled with a little grease in the naive thought that this might prevent

them being such a b*stard to remove in the future..........

 

 

 

each skirt gets 3 little push pegs to secure it as well

(obviously to bring them up to full hurricane proof specification) 

 

 

two at the rear of each skirt..........

 

 

and 1 above the rear jacking point.............

 

 

and finally 5 of these little plastic clamps (51711933125) are fitted to

the bottom lip of each skirt to secure it........ 

 

 

bit of grease on the face of these should stop them trapping

dirt and then dampness up against the bodywork which will

eventually lead to rust.........

 

 

I bought some stainless screws for attaching these instead of the factory

screws as I had immense hardship removing the rusted old ones....... 

 

 

Screws screw in from the front of the skirt into the plastic clamp,

clamping the bottom of the skirt to the bottom sill.

 

 

and the end result? a pair of skirts which are well enough secured to

survive a direct nuclear strike..............

 

 

Should have the final episode of this update up tomorrow, the 

glass fitting, and some pictures of the rear end which almost 

looks like a complete car again, if you squint through one eye,

and catch it at the right angle, a little, kinda.

 

Till then...............

[Kurt66]

And eventually we arrive at the final episode of this update. Glass.

The original front windscreen at 20 odd years old, looked like it had been

shot at close range with a blunderbus elephant gun. Every square inch was

covered in little chips. So it's being replaced with a new one. The windscreen

is aftermarket and is made by a crowd called Pilkington. Which means its a lot

cheaper than from Bmw and also as good a quality. There seems to be a few choices

of tint levels and I went with the green with dark green sun strip at the top as

this was identical to what was removed...........

 

 

 

 

No pictures of during the task i'm afraid, but the one little thing to

be careful of though is that the little drain holes at the bottom of the

windscreen surround don't get blocked up with the sealant/adhesive gue.

 

With the front one in, it was on to the rear screen which is slightly more involved.

Theres two trim strips that fit around the rear screen and I was sure that these

could be fitted after the screen was in, however, as usual I was wrong........

 

 

on the back side of the trim strips theres a load of little slots........

 

 

and this is the reason why. 18 of these little plastic clips below are fitted

to the outside edge of the screen (p/n 51318177850 sold in pack of 20).

They've a little sticky pad on them to bond to the screen.......

 

 

 

The only catch is they've to be stuck in exactly the right place to match

up with the slots in the trim peices. I was a bit lucky in this regard, as

this is the original windscreen that was cut out intact and is good to go

back in again. The old clips broke to pieces upon removal but there was

still marks on the screen where they were fitted, so the new ones just had to

go back on to the same place............ 

 

 

 

With the clips on, the 2 trim pieces could be snapped down onto them

and with a fat bead of adhesive on the rear of the screen it was thrown into

place.........

 

 

nearly forgot, theres two other little plastic pegs that sit at the bottom

between the glass and the bodywork. They're hexagonal in shape and you

can twist them with a flat screwdriver while the adhesive is still wet to

3 different heights to help set the windscreen trim gaps right with the

surrounding bodywork......... 

 

 

 

Screens in, it was on to the rear side glass........

 

 

glass sits into its rubber..........

 

 

 

and then the shadow trim needs to be fitted to the outside of the rubber.......

 

 

on the inside of the trim theres a raised edge..........

 

 

and this edge needs to sit into this groove in the rubber...............

 

 

to lessen the chances of a hammer being taken to the glass during this job

out of rage, we use some lubricant, in the form of some washing up liquid

watered down a little bit.........

 

 

Once your not stingey with the washing up liquid its usually fairly simple

to massage the rubber enough to get the trim to slot down into its groove.......

 

 

last bit to go on is this little strip of rubber which slides up on the front

edge of the trim.............

 

to look like so.........

 

 

and then on to the small matter of battering the window into place.

Both "B" and "C" pillar trims need to be in place inside first..........

 

 

and then the rubber needs to be lubed up (no matter what way you

type that it still ends up sounding like a ropey porn film).............

 

 

 

 

and then we need a length of electrical able, nice and skinny, a single

strand of speaker cable usually does the job..........

 

 

wrap the cable around the rubber so that it sits into the groove that was

just soaped up.........

 

 

and then finally plaster the metal edge in the window frame that the rubber

sits over with plenty of soap as well............

 

 

The next bit is a two man job, it can help if your assistant is smaller than

you and has a peaceful nature, that way you can bollock him if the job

starts to go wrong without fear of having your nose broken.

The window is held tightly up against the frame making sure that the 2

threaded bolts (arrowed below) have entered their holes on the "B" pillar........

 

 

and if your assistant has held the window in just tight enough so that the

rubber is a little squashed against the frame, when you start to pull the speaker

cable through from inside the car, it'll pop the rubber lip over the frame rail in

the process.............

 

 

and voilla, the windows fitted. Screw up the 2 nuts on to the frame bolts

that went into the holes on the "B" pillar and thats it. Make sure to thank

your assistant before blaming him for any scratches on the outside bodywork

that you made months ago..............

 

 

With the window in, the external "C" pillar trim can now go on........

 

 

First up you gotta attach the shadow trim piece to the painted piece

with the aid of these 5 little thingamajigs..........

 

 

they just pop into the 5 little holes on the painted piece...........

 

 

and then the centre peg is bashed down to spread the underneath piece

so that they don't fall off again while your doing 100 on the motorway.......

 

 

with these in place the shadow trim piece just snaps down onto them.

Then you need 6 of these little dudes (3 for each side of the car)

p/n 51131870459.........

 

 

which fit into the "C" pillar (red arrows) and another little pair of grommets

(one for each side) to go in at the blue arrow..........

 

 

 

On the back of the trim piece there's 4 little dowels which pop in to

the grommets above, to hold the trim on to the car. The dowels are

fragile and the grommets are tight so you've gotta be real gentle fitting

them.............

 

 

 

With all the rear glass in, the rear bootlid could go back on and the rear

bumper. Which leaves the car currently looking like this...............

 

 

 

 

 

 

And thats about all for now. She's starting to come back together

now, and the pace is getting a little quicker as the finishing post is

in sight (lets face it, it couldn't go any slower). The interior is due back from

retrim in the next week or so and then the doors can be rebuilt and refitted.

So it shouldn't be as long till the next update.

Maybe.

 

Till then............... 

[Kurt66]

 

(Leider Keine Bilder Vorhanen)

 

Episode 453, Interior design.

 

With the wiring and carpet refitted to the inside it was now time to sort out

the internal furniture. A while back I'd managed to pick up a second hand set of

Recaro Sr's and although the material was a bit grubby the actual seats were in

perfect condition otherwise.............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2851.jpg

 

So these along with all the rest of the interior shown below were sent

to a local retrim merchant to give them a new lease of life..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2843.jpg

 

Decided to go with half cow's arse and half material, like so.......... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2959.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2963.jpg

 

Next up was to get some brackets knocked up to mount the Recaro's

on the standard e30 slider rails.

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2970.jpg

 

With the brackets trimmed and drilled it was time to bolt them up to the

seat base so I could mark them up for bending. There are few things more certain

in this life to send you into a rage then spending ages carefully making brackets

only to bend them the wrong way. I've the hammer marks on the garage

roof to prove it..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2971.jpg

 

bendy, bendy, painty, painty.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2992.jpg

 

before giving the original sliders a clean up............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2988.jpg

 

making sure to apply a little fresh grease to the runners afterwards........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2993.jpg

 

needed a few spacers before the brackets could mount to the runners,

so, chopped two 15mm length pieces(or 13mm, can't remember, and it's pissin rain out

there so I can't be arsed going out to measure them) off some round bar and drilled

them 8mm in the centre............ 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2989.jpg

 

which sit into the runners like so............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2990.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2991.jpg

 

and with them in place I could start bolting thing up. The mounts on the

front of the runners sit a little more inboard compared to the rears (5mm),

so to keep everything straight and true 3 little washers are added between

the bracket and runner, like so...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2996.jpg

 

The only thing to watch out for is that the bolt used on the side with the

adjuster arm isn't to long, as if it is, it'll get in the way of the arm

moving up and down to unlock the seat rail...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_3003.jpg

 

 

Front bolts taken care of, it was on to the rear. The bar arrowed below

passes through the runners both sides at the back..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2998.jpg

 

and sticks out through the seat brackets like so.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_3000.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2999.jpg

 

and as you can see in the pics the ends of the bar are square

sectioned, which is helpful, as this allows the seat belt buckle

to be bolted up and held in the correct position.......... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_3001.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_3002.jpg

 

The other side gets a few washers to take up the gap before being

bolted up aswell. The last little bit to remember is this little link bar that

fits from one rail to the other. Its function is to link the catch on one side

to the catch on the other, so when you pull the lever to adjust the seat

back or forward it opens the catch on the side of the lever and this little link bar unlocks

the catch on the other side, allowing the seat to slide..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_3005.jpg

 

and that was the front seats ready to go in. But, the rears needed to

go in first and before the rears could go in, the rear door cards had to

be fitted and before they could be fitted the front seat belts had to be fitted.

And if I knew all that before having to find it out the hard way my nextdoor

neighbours visiting grandchildren would know a lot less foul language.

 

So, front seat belts were needed first and this presented me with a small

problem, after 20 years the retraction reels had gone so limp on them I reckon

you'd be a good foot or two through the windscreen before the original belts

decided to halt your progress. Alas, some new belts would be required.

And if I was going to renew them might as well go for the red variety fitted

to the sport evolutions. Unfortunately I couldn't come up with the one million

dollars in untraceable bonds that the main dealer wanted for a pair of seat belts

so ebay turned up these instead...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2973.jpg

 

They are seat belts made by a crowd called Securon and as the tag below shows

they're fully certified and "E" marked........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2974.jpg

 

They can be ordered with 2 different length buckles, 15cm or 30cm.

http://www.securon.co.uk/seat_belts_firstframe.htm

I ordered the 15cm ones (p/n: 500/15) and of coarse when I went to fit them realised

that the 30cm length (p/n: 500/30) would have been more suitable. Gobshite.

Thankfully the buckle could be stripped and the original e30 strap fitted

to replace the short Securon one...............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2994.jpg

 

Next little mod was to the buckle at the end of the belt. As you can see

below it's an eye bolt type and the e30 has the bar type, so......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2975.jpg

 

chop, chop..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2977.jpg

 

with that done it could be fitted. The reel part bolts in just like the original one..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2981.jpg

 

little plastic thingy refitted to keep the belt run neat.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2982.jpg

 

up to the top buckle supplied with the belts that bolts into the B pillar

to replace the original one.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2983.jpg

 

and then finally down to the bar at the floor now that the eye bolt type

buckle was cut off...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2984.jpg

 

 

the only downside to the belts is that when fully retracted in the rest position

they still don't pull taut. The belts still have about 2 inches slack in them as

you can see below. However given that these cost less than a quarter of

the ransom Bmw wanted for the genuine one's, it's something I'll not loose

any sleep over...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2985.jpg

 

once the belts were in, rear door cards and seats could also go in...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_2987.jpg

 

to be followed by the fronts..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_3031.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_3012.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2838%29/m3_3029.jpg

 

and thats all for now. Should have the next part up tomorrow.

Till then.....

[Kurt66]

 

(Leider keine Bilder Vorhanden)

 

With the interior fitted next up was to sling the doors back on.

Never a bad idea to run a piece of masking tape on the edge of the

door and back edge of the wing to avoid marking the paint work when

rehanging a door. They have to get fairly close to each other to engage

the hinges........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3034.jpg

 

If you ever need to remove the doors from an e30 theres two ways

to go about it. The first is to remove the two m8 nuts seen below on

the leaf of the hinge left attached to the door. This leaves the whole

hinge attached to the car and has the big downside that you have to go

through the whole hassle of re-aligning the door upon refitting before

you tighten them nuts again to keep it in the right position.

The less stressful way of doing it is to let go of the two

little m6 bolts in the centre of the hinges, which leaves half of

each hinge attached to the door and the other half attached to the

car. This makes reassembly far easier, as all you have to do is drop

the door back down into place, refit the m6 bolts and bingo, it's

done....... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3015.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3017.jpg

 

with the door refitted all this crap needs to be nailed back into each one.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3033.jpg

 

first up being the check strap who's job it is to stop the door from opening too

wide. After a quick clean up and some fresh grease............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3038.jpg

 

it bolts up inside the door with the strap part sticking out like below

and then the pin and circlip are refitted (arrowed) to lock the strap to

the door frame..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3039.jpg

 

next up, the locking mechanism. The main door lock on the lower left and

the release pin linkage above it (arrowed)............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3036.jpg

 

the lock mechanism bolts up inside the door by 3 philips head bolts

fitted from the outside...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3049.jpg

 

and after its in the door handle mechanism can follow it...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3043.jpg

 

first bit to go in, is the little plate with 2 threaded studs fitted to it, shown

above. It slots down into the recess arrowed below..............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3044.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3045.jpg

 

then with that in place the main bit can be bolted onto those studs, making

sure that the bits that push against each other line up like below..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3048.jpg

 

which when all in place leaves you with the two little bits protruding

through the door skin to screw the handle on to............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3050.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3052.jpg

 

after thats in the bits below can be fitted. The key barrel, the

bracket for holding the central locking microswitch and the clip

that keeps it all in place...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3053.jpg

 

before fitting it's a good idea to give the key barrel a clean up and

apply a little oil into the tumblers to keep them freed up......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3057.jpg

 

 

The body of the key barrel is shaped so that it'll only fit in the hole in the

door one way without the use of a sledgehammer.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3056.jpg

 

and, as the barrel passes through the door skin that little "leg" that sticks out

the side of it needs to engage with the lever on the main locking unit arrowed

below........... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3059.jpg

 

Easy right? Is it f*ck! As the barrel passes through the door it's also

got to pass through the bracket for the central locking switch which

has to be in the right position so that the barrel triggers the

switch as it is turned............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3058.jpg

 

and then, with all that held in place by your fourteen f*cking Smurf size

hands you've got to slide in this clip to keep it all held tight to the door skin...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3060.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3061.jpg

 

and after much swearing and consumption of alcohol it's in and this is how it should

work. When you rotate the key barrel the back end of the barrel (coloured

green below) either pushes the lever on the main locking unit up or down

to lock or unlock the door, while a little wedge on the other side of the barrel

pushes against the central locking switch to send a signal back to the central

locking unit to open or close the other doors............ 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3067.jpg

 

next up the inner door release lever.............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3068.jpg

 

on the back of it theres a little lever with a hole in it............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3069.jpg

 

the long steel rod sticking out of the main door locking unit fits into this

hole like so.................

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3071.jpg

 

and then the lever can be screwed into place on the door............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3072.jpg

 

And then finally the last piece of the jigsaw, the central locking actuator,

the little motor that locks and unlocks your door..............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3073.jpg

 

it hangs from the little link bar from the main locking unit shown below.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3074.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3079.jpg

 

and bolts up to the inner doorskin with two little bolts shown below........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3075.jpg

 

Locking system done, it was on to the window mechanism. Before the

electric motor and rail is refitted the rail and the cable that runs in it are cleaned

and new grease applied. The two parts that the window connect to are arrowed

red below, and when you hook up the two wires that go to the motor to a

battery they will either rise or fall depending on which way around you

connect the two wires.............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3041.jpg

 

and these are raised and lowered a few times to work the new grease into

the rails to keep things working smoothly.............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3042.jpg

 

With that done the rail and motor is refitted and bolted up to the inside of

the door skin. There's a very precise method for slotting the rail back into the

door skin, basically you f*ck around with it for 30 minutes trying it every

conceivable way before all of a sudden it's in and you've no idea how you done it.

Four bolts hold the rail in place (red arrows) and 3 nuts hold the motor in (green).........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3081.jpg

 

before the glass can go in the rubber liner needs to be refitted to the

window frame............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3084.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3086.jpg

 

Glass gets a clean, which turns out to be completely pointless as your going to cover

it with greasy paw prints anyway while getting it back in.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3083.jpg

 

theres two brackets on the bottom of the glass, this one on the front

which the roller on the rail will slide into............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3087.jpg

 

and this one at the rear which the other rail bracket bolts up to.............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3088.jpg

 

If, like me, your doing this task before the electrics are reconnected,

you can remove this little rubber grommet from the centre of the motor............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3089.jpg

 

and stick an allen key into it to wind the window up and down manually.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3090.jpg

 

The motor is wound up or down to bring the two points the window connects

to into line with the gaps on the inner door skin, so you can see what your at

as the window in slid down into place. The front window bracket is slid onto the

roller on the rail first......... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3091.jpg

 

and then the rear is lined up with its bracket so the two retaining

bolts can be refitted...........  

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3092.jpg

 

as you can see the slots in the bracket are elongated to allow a little

scope for adjustment and getting the window perfectly straight within

the frame. To do this you tighten up the two bolts, wind up the window

to within 1 inch of the top frame and then get the gap completely

parallel by loosening off the two bolts again and raising or lowering

the rear of the window............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3093.jpg

 

That done, door loom went in next...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3095.jpg

 

it's all fed in through this hole...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3097.jpg

 

and then plug into the female plug on the door pillar, making sure

that the rubber boot is properly fitted over the the holes on either side

as this can be a common source of water getting into the car.

Another thing thats not a bad idea can be to rub a little smear of

grease on the sealing face of the rubber boots just to give a little

more resistance to water ingress......... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3109.jpg

 

With all the wiring ran to wherever it needs to go and then secured to

the door skin with the little clips, it's worth running the window fully up

and down just to check that it doesn't snag on any of the electrics.

With all that done the final thing to do is seal the inside of the door

to stop condensation getting in. You can buy proper sticky plastic

stuff from the dealer to do this job, or, just use double sided trim tape

and normal polythene like so.......... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3101.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3102.jpg

 

with that on, the little trim strip that sits up against the window on the inside

can clip back into place............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3103.jpg

 

making sure that the little clips face inwards as the door card is going to

sit down into these next..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3107.jpg

 

but before the doorcard drops on these little bits go on first........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3108.jpg

 

The 3 white ones are for the the armrest screws to screw into..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3110.jpg

 

and the black one goes on the side of the door as it's the diddy that the

door light switch presses up against.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3109b.jpg

 

then the doorcard can drop on. It's fitted by sliding down onto them clips

shown earlier on the window strip and once down in place the clips shown

below are thumped into their corresponding holes on the door...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3111.jpg

 

and with the doorcard in place this little bit of trim can go back in place

around the open lever.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3112.jpg

 

it's pushed in slightly behind the lever and then slid forward to lock it

in place..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3113.jpg

 

which leaves it looking like so...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3114.jpg

 

finally these 3 screws are used to refit the door handle..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3115.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3116.jpg

 

Moving up the door a little the final bit of trim to get refitted is this cover that

goes on the inside of the door pillar. 3 little dowels on the inside of the trim

and 3 little holes on the door pillar.......... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3104.jpg

 

thump, thump, thump, job done..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3106.jpg

 

and then finally on to the outside of the door. All the shadow trim on the outside

of the car was sanded down with 320 grit wet & dry paper and then sprayed

with Plasti-kote Satin black..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3100.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3-plastikote.jpg

 

Although it's touch dry after a few hours it's best to try and leave it a few days

to fully harden before trying to refit it, as when it's fully hardened and settled

it's a lot more resistant to scratching. First bit to go on is the door pillar cover.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3117.jpg

 

as you can see the edges of the cover curls around on the inside........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3118.jpg

 

and it's this curl that "clips" around the door pillar to hold it in place,

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3119.jpg

 

however this isn't enough to hold it for ever and ever on it's own, so

a few fat blobs of this stuff is placed between the two.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/tiger%20seal.jpeg

 

It's Upol Tiger Seal and you'll pull the door off the car before you'll pull

that trim off once it set's.

Next bit of trim's a bit more involved, it's the little bit that goes around the

window frame...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3121.jpg

 

There's a clatter of clips that fit to the door first before the trim goes

on, I've no idea how many it originally had coming off as most of mine

decided to commit suicide during disassembly. I've managed to turn up

16 of them from spares, so each doors gettin eight............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3122.jpg

 

the non-compliant clips...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3123.jpg

 

before Hari Kari.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3124.jpg

 

they slide onto the frame like so............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3125.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3127.jpg

 

and trim, just like the pillar trim is curved over at the edges and this is

how it fixes onto the door. The top half sits over the frame and then

the bottom half clicks on over the clips............

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3129.jpg

 

Last bit of door trim is the straight bit below..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3130.jpg

 

They sit at the bottom of the window...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3131.jpg

 

and just like the similar ones on the inside of the window, these also

have a rubber weather strip on the inside of them. The rubber strips

on mine had succumbed to the ravages of twenty odd years of weather 

unfortunately, and any attempt to lower the window to clear off the condensation

on a winters morning would simply result in a fancy streaky pattern on the

glass. The answer, new rubber strips. Their still available and don't cost

a lot from the dealer.........  

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3132.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3133.jpg

 

Rubber strips attach to the trim with a few clips..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3134.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3136.jpg

 

but you gotta measure where exactly it's to clip on..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3137.jpg

 

as the rubber strip is shorter than the trim because it only needs to

sit in against the glass..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3138.jpg

 

That done, next thing to go back on is the mirrors...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3140.jpg

 

which are held on by two little bolts on the inside.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3139.jpg

 

Final bit to go on is the rubber seal at the top of the door........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3141.jpg

 

The rubber seal has a groove in it and a hole at either end.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3142.jpg

 

and at the top of the door there is a ridge sticking out (red arrows)

that sits into the groove on the rubber seal to hold it on, and a hole at each

end that a plastic rivet sits through the seal and into the door to secure it.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3143.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3144.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3145.jpg

 

and thats about where it's at right now. We've progressed to the stage

where I can now sit in it and make brum brum noises while twirling the

steering wheel. Marvellous entertainment.

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3027.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3032.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3023.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2839%29/m3_3148.jpg

 

Till next time.....

Bearbeitet: 19. Februar 2015 von Kurt66

[Kurt66]

 

Well, how are ya? Good? Excellent! It's been a while since we last talked

and I've a pile of shite here to bore you with. Believe it or not I still haven't

managed to bolt together this bloody engine. However, I have just finished

all the prep work and need to empty all this crap out of the camera before

it bursts at the seams. So...... how the hell have I managed to spend the last

six months at this and still not built a simple engine? Well, it would appear I

possess a rare talent, the ability to drag out each and every task to its absolute

maximum length, however, in my defence, as this story unfolds you'll see

this river hasn't run smoothly.....

 

If you can remember all the way back to the time when Jesus was a young boy and I started

the bodywork on this restoration, you may remember that the preparation phase of the

bodywork took a lot longer than the actual spraying part, well, engine building is much

the same. While you could probably assemble an engine in a fairly short space of time

if you have all the parts in front of you, checking, measuring, cleaning and preping the parts

beforehand takes a great deal longer. But, just like the bodywork, if you don't spend

the time on the prep work the end result will almost always suffer.

 

One small point before we go any further, I'm not going to go into the minute details of

engine building in this thread for two simple reasons.....

a) theres a wealth of knowledge and fantasticly detailed build threads out there of how

to choose the right cams, pistons, valves etc. for your specific engine build and I'm far too dumb

to try and add to that knowledge.

b) what does seem to be scarce out there is some explanations of the simpler

stuff for people who may never have built an engine before,

like what to check to see if parts like the block, crankshafts, conrods etc are fit

to be reused again. If you've built your share of engines in the past then it's unlikely

you'll pick up anything useful here, however, if you've never built an engine before

then hopefully........ you'll fail to realise that most of whats to follow is,

as usual,

probably wrong!

 

First up, a quick word on measuring. When your looking up spec's for wear tolerances

or shopping for measuring tools then you'll most likley come across the two different

units of measurement common in the trade. Metric and Imperial.

Things usually tend to be a little less confusing if you choose one type and stick to it

for all your measuring. In this regard the various overhaul manuals from BMW for our

cars are well laid out and almost always give all important measurements and

tolerances in both millimetres and thousands of an inch.

 

Below you can see a little diagram of how each of the units of measure relate to each other.

The large blue circle on the left represents 1 thousandth of an Inch (1 thou) or 0.001" as you'll

usually see it written. To try and give some perspective to this measurement, the average human

hair is 2 thou thick. For most of the tighter tolerances in this engine build we'll be measuring

down to ten thousandths of an inch, 0.0001", thats 20 times smaller than that hair you just plucked

and it's represented below by the smaller of the two blue circles......... 

 

The other two red circles above represent the similar metric sizes, a hundredth

of a mm and a thousandth of a millimetre. 

In the following waffle I tend to favour Imperial measurements using Thou and

Ten Thousandths of an inch, however, it would appear I also switch over to

millimetres at times as well, because, just between you and me, my brain is

mush.

The reason I'm telling you this, is if your going to be using any of this info to

check your own engine parts (very brave) then you need to be careful of

what units are being used.

The following link is to an online converter to change between thou and

mm and can be quite handy to have....

http://www.alcula.com/conversion/length/thou-to-millimeter/ 

One other final link before we get started and thats to BMW's

Tolerance and Torque manual, all the data you'll need for figuring out

working clearances and so on can be found here.....

http://www.bmwtechinfo.com/repair/main/941en/index.htm

Click "Contents" then "engine" and then choose your weapon of choice.

 

Right, all that shite done with, it's on to the actual engine bits, starting with

the block. After the engine was stripped, the block was "hot tanked" and

steam cleaned in every orifice to remove all the gunk that had built up over

the previous 20 odd years........  

 

 

next up was to check the flatness of the deck face. This is the surface the

headgasket has to seal against when it's sandwiched between the block and the

cylinderhead, and as such it needs to be perfectly flat and smooth.

To check this we use an engineers straight edge which is basically a very straight

piece of tool steel. This is placed across the deck and you check to see if a 1 thou

feeler blade will fit in anywhere underneath indicating that the surface isn't quite flat enough.......

 

 

The block needs to be checked in all the following directions......

 

 

As you can see above my deck face looks suspiciously clean and flat and

thats because when disassembled at the very start of this restoration the

surface was found to be a bit uneven and as a result I had the local machine shop

surface grind the deck 0.002" to flatten it out. Unfortunately this was so long ago

that cameras weren't invented and I don't have any before pictures to show you.

 

Another job that was carried out at the machine shop was the block was "crack tested".

Basically this involves the use of a strong electro magnet, some coloured metal dust and an

ultraviolet light. This process should show up any stress cracks in the block and

stop you spending any more money on preping it because it's most likely just

been relegated to boat anchor status. If your curious to see how the process works

look up "Magnaflux" on youtube.

 

Next up is the cylinders, the holes in which the pistons are to travel in. As could probably be

expected the bores on my block were fairly well worn from over a hundred

and seventy thousand miles of one careful owner and five wanabe Arton Senna's.

Usually on a high mileage rebuild like this the block will need

to be "re-bored", the reason being the bores are so worn that to refit the

same size pistons again would leave them wobbling around like a stick in a

welly boot. There are oversize piston sizes available from the main dealer to deal with

this situation

    standard size is =   93.355mm/3.675"

     first oversize is =  93.555mm/3.683"

second oversize is =  93.755mm/3.691"

 

Your job is to decide which piston will you need. Common logic dictates that you should only

go as large as you need and therefore try and leave one more oversize piston to "bore to"

down the line should the block need another rebore at a future rebuild. However, you may not

have the luxury of this choice if your cylinders are badly worn. A good machine shop should be able

to advise which size the block needs to be bored to, to remove all traces of wear and return the

cylinder to a factory fresh finish ready for new pistons.  As mentioned previously, I had my block at the

machine shop a long time ago (in an effort to speed up the rebuild, seems funny now looking back)

and the resulting wear meant that I had to get my block bored out quite heavily to return it to a usable state.

However, there is one slight difference with my specific build, and that is I am intending to

use custom pistons. These would be made to my own stated sizes and so all I had to ask of

the machine shop was to rebore all 4 cylinders to a common size of there choice.

In an ideal world you would collect your block from the machine shop and take his word as to what the

new cylinder size was, however past experiences has taught me never to accept someone else's word

on important things like this. You've got to measure for yourself !

 

So, next step was to measure the cylinder bore so I could start to calculate what size pistons would be needed,

and also to check the quality of the rebore. In the pic below you can see the two axis that measurments were taken,

X and Y, and these pair of measurements were also taken at 3 different depths in each cylinder.

Depth A = about half an inch down from the top

Depth B = halfway down the cylinder

Depth C = about half an inch up from the bottom of the cylinder

 

 

To take these measurements we use whats called a bore gauge, which looks like

this.........

 

 

The gauge above comes with a range of different attachments to allow it to be

used in measuring a large range of different hole sizes. This specific one reads in

0.0001" increments and is fairly accurate. When it comes to buying tools for measuring

engine parts it really makes sense to try and buy the best you can afford, this is one item

where buying cheaply usually ends up costing you more money down the line as your

engine shits itself due to bad measurements made by cheap tools. (the down side is if

you have decent tools you've less things to blame it on when it all go's pear shaped.)

 

So, how does it work?

 

have a look at the picture of the gauge shown below. At the business end of the tool you

can see theres two ends (arrowed). Whats a little harder to see is that each of these ends has

a ball tip on it. The end marked purple is rigid and doesn't move. The end marked red does

move however, and as it is pushed inwards the needle on the dial gauge reads how much it's

retracting.......... 

 

 

The gauge on top has only a very small range of movement, this specific one only reads

50 thou from fully out to fully retracted, so you've got to choose the right

attachment (anvil) to put you in the ball park for the hole your measuring.

The cylinders on my block were all bored to 3.6950", so the correct anvil is

chosen and a micrometer is set up in the bench vise with a gap of 3.6950"

like so....... 

 

 

and then the tips of the bore gauge is placed between the jaws

of the micrometer and the dial gauge is moved up or down in the tool

to get the needle zero'd on this measurment........

 

 

there's more appropriate setting block's out there to make it easier to

set the bore gauge up to a certain measurement and it's on the long list

of things to buy, right after a better f**king camera (don't hold your breath).

So, with the bore gauge zero'd on 3.6950" it's placed into the bore and rocked

left and right like so.........

 

 

Basically, you keep an eye on the needle and read off the lowest number it

shows while your rocking it at that point. The lowest number will be when the

gauge is straight and perpendicular in the bore, and thats the measurement of the

bore at that point. If the gauge read's 0, then the bore is bang on 3.6950", if it

will only drop as low as +05 then the bore is 3.6955" (3.6950"+ 0.0005") or if the

needle drops to the other side of zero, like -05 then your bore at that point is

3.6945" (3.6950" - 0.0005").

I know, I know, clear as mud isn't it? The only thing I'll say is when you have the tool

in your hand it's a damn sight easier to understand than what you've just read.

 

When your done you should have 6 measurements for each cylinder (3 X's and 3 Y's)

giving you a total of 24 measurements for the block, which should look a little something

like this......

 

 

 

So what the hell do I now do what all this crap you may ask?

Well I'm glad you did ask, because I just spent the last 30 minutes fighting this bloody computer

to get that Excel graph small enough so you don't have to be an orbiting astronaut to read it.

The answer is your now going to check these figures for cylinder bore "out of round" and "taper".

 

When you start to assemble your nice clean engine your going to fit a

nice round piston into each cylinder, and that piston will need to have a clearance between it

and the cylinder walls, too tight and when the aluminium piston starts to expand with heat it'll

scuff the bore or worse seize, too loose and the rings will struggle to seal against the walls of the

bore and you end up loosing compression and with it, power.

In an ideal world, you'd leave your block in and have it bored to 3.6950" and no matter where

you measured it you'd get 3.6950". Well, take a look at that list of measurements up there and you'll

realise thats not how the real world works.

 

So, your given tolerances and if your figures falls within these tolerances then everything should work

out ok. The first tolerance is for "out of round". Basically this is how oval your bore can be at any given

height and still be acceptable.

So, remember those X and Y measurements we took.......

 

 

If the cylinder was perfectly round both X and Y would be the same, however

the max "out of round" tolerance figure I'm using for this engine build is 0.0004".

That means the biggest difference between any of the 12 X and Y readings listed

above can only be 0.0004". I've a couple that are right on that limit of 0.0004"

but none over it, so I'm good to go.

 

Next up "taper". What we're after here is that the walls of the cylinder are "straight"

and not tapered like in the diagram below........  

 

 

Again I'm using a maximum tolerance of 0.0004", so any of the X measurements

or Y measurements in the same cylinder can't have a difference of greater then 0.0004".

Again looking at the figures I'm good to go, the largest taper figure I have is in cylinder 4

on the Y measurements, Top Y = 3.6950"  Bottom Y = 3.6953" a taper of 0.0003".  

 

There was one other thing I wanted to check at this stage and that was the viability

of a "torque plate".  In the picture below you can see the ten bolt holes that the

head bolts screw down into to secure the cylinder head to the block. These head

bolts take a fairly good squeeze to fully tighten them and what can happen on some

engines is that the metal around these bolt holes in the block can distort a little.

Depending on how close those bolt holes are to the cylinder bores this can sometimes

lead to the cylinders getting a little distorted. After you've just seen the tolerances we've

measured the bores to, you can see how this could be a problem......

 

 

so, how to check, well it mightn't be the most accurate way but it'll do for me.

Old head gasket fitted.......  

 

 

Old cylinder head fitted and torqued down to the right torque........

 

 

and then flip the block over stick the bore gauge back in again to see if it made

much difference to the figures taken earlier........ 

 

 

The answer is I couldn't measure a big enough change in the figures taken earlier

to justify the cost of a torque plate. A torque plate by the way is a big slab of

aluminium that bolts down onto the block just like the cylinder head. Its job is to

distort the block just like the cylinder head might, the only difference being that the

torque plate has four big round holes in it allowing you to bore out the block while

it's fitted....... 

 

 

typing finger sore, more to follow as the week goes on..........

[Kurt66]

 

Next up was the crankshaft. After it was fully cleaned and crack tested like the

block we could move on to measuring the bearing journals. The crank has 9 bearing

journals in total. 5 main journals which the crank spins on in the block (blue arrows)

and 4 conrod journals which the conrods spin on funnily enough (yellow arrows).......

 

 

First up is a visual inspection, any pitting, scratches or scoring on these journals

and they are going to have to be ground down to the next size. These need

to be as smooth as a new born baby's ass. Thankfully the old bearing shells

and the journals were in amazingly good condition upon strip down considering

the mileage this engine had on it. She must have had fairly frequent oil and filter

changes during her life........   

 

 

Happy that there were no obvious signs of wear the next step was to measure each

journal carefully to make absolutely sure there was no machine work needed. For this we used

the next tool in the inventory, a set of micrometers.......

 

 

Again these read down to 0.0001" and thats the scale you'll need if your going to pick

up a set to do similar checks. First check is for "out of round" or "ovality" as it's

sometimes called. Again it's fairly similar to what we done in the cylinder bores, a measurement

is taken across the journal like so........ 

 

 

and then another measurement is taken at 90 degrees to this like shown in the

diagram below. What your looking for is the two measurements to be the same

indicating that the journal is round like the circle on the left, and not worn oval like the circle

on the right....... 

 

Again just like in the bore measurements previously there is a tolerance your allowed.

For journal ovality I'm working to a max tolerance of  0.0004" between the A and B

readings shown above.

 

 

The next set of measurements are for "taper". Three measurements are taken across

the journal at the same angle and your comparing the centre measurement to the ones

either side of it. If the journal is "straight" then the centre will be the same as both the outside

measurments (D = C and E on the left in the diagram below).

However if the outside measurements are less than the middle one, like on the right of the diagram below,

then wear has caused the journal to become tapered. Again there's a tolerance for how far things can

go before they require machine works, and again I'm using a tolerance of 0.0004". 

 

 

Thankfully this crank measured up ok, and all reading from both the 5 main journals

and the 4 conrod journals were within tolerances, so there was no needed to have

any of the journals reground.

The other thing which we could now tell by looking at all the measurements just taken

was that this crank had never been reground before. How can we tell this? Well by looking

up the tolerance manual we could see the various sizes for each step

 

original main bearing size from factory = 2.1649" to 2.1644"

     1st undersize (reground by 0.010") = 2.1551" to 2.1544"

    2nd undersize (reground by 0.020") = 2.1453" to 2.1445"

    3rd undersize (reground by 0.030") = 2.1354"  to 2.1347"

 

As all my main journals came in around 2.1649" we could surmise that they were still

original an had never been ground down to have wear repaired. And it was the same case

with the conrod journals........

 

original conrod journal sizes from the factory = 1.8894" to 1.8888"

               1st undersize (reground by 0.010") = 1.8796" to 1.8789"

              2nd undersize (reground by 0.020") = 1.8697" to 1.8691"

              3rd undersize (reground by 0.030") = 1.8599" to 1.8592"

 

All my conrod journals came in around 1.8894" so again using the figures above

we could tell they hadn't been touched.

 

So, why the hell do I need to know all this crap? Well, in a little while we're

going to get into choosing bearings for each of these journals, and, just like the

the journals can be ground to 3 smaller sizes to repair wear, the bearings can be purchased

in three undersizes aswell as standard to match the size of the journals.

Your going to need to know the size of the journals so you can buy the right bearings.

 

As you've seen above none of the journals on this crank required grinding down to correct them,

however, she did still pay a visit to the machine shop and that was to have each journal

micro-polished to get the journals as absolutely smooth as they can be gotten.

Not an essential step but it helps keep the O.C.D. at bay.

 

 

The only other thing worth mentioning before moving on, is if your crank should happen

to be outside any of the wear tolerances or is showing signs of pitting or scratching etc.

then your machine shop should be aware of these undersizes and will choose what size to grind

it to, to return it to a smooth surface and still ensure that you can buy bearings that will fit

the new size. But, one word of warning, upon return of your crank from the machine shop

YOU'VE got to measure it to verify the sizes. The more you rely on other people to take

important measurements the greater the risk of a fuck up, which YOU will most likely

end up footing the bill for.

 

Next item to address on the crank was the surface that the rear oil seal runs on.

Strange as it may sound, after 170 odd thousand miles the lip of the oil seal has actually worn

a deep ridge into the hardened metal of the crankshaft......... 

 

 

 

A worn ridge like this is actually fairly common on a high mileage crank and

while we can't repair it, it doesn't pose to big a problem, we'll simply ensure on

reassembly that the rear crank oil seal is refitted a few mm either side of this ridge

so it can seal against a fresh non worn piece of the surface. With that in mind, the rest of the

surface could do with a little clean up.

A few strips of wet and dry sand paper starting off at 600 grit and working up

to 1000grit with the aid of some light oil soon polishes up the rest of the surface.....

 

 

 

 

Switching to the front end of the crank next, and it's the crankshaft timing chain

gear's turn for some attention. Below you can see a pic of the gear. There's three

rows of teeth cut into the gear, the front two to drive the timing chain and the

rear one to drive the oil pump chain.......

 

 

With the mileage on this engine almost all the timing chain parts are showing

signs of age and while this bottom gear isn't actually too badly worn, new timing

chains have a nasty habit of sounding noisy when fitted onto old gears.

So stretching the mastercard to levels of debit normally associated with third

world countries run by shady dictators, we're going to change all the timing chain

components on this build. With that in mind the gear needs to be removed.......

 

 

she was a tight bugger, but, with the help of a hydraulic pullers and some foul

language she didn't stand a chance......

 

 

With the gear off you could get a better look at the wear on it.

I say "could" because if you were standing here holding it in your hand you

"could" see it perfectly, but, with this poxy Fisher Price camera you'd be lucky to

tell if all the teeth were still intact....... 

 

 

but,

fear not,

using the cutting edge technology of the "Microsoft Paint Microscope"

we can zoom in to "never before seen" levels of detail.......

 

 

What you s******ing at? This shit here cost mucho dollar.

 

What your looking at above is how a timing gear typically gets worn. The valley

between the two teeth gets worn down over time (red shaded area) and the tips of the

teeth become "hooked" as a result (red arrows). All this leads to a harder life for the

chain, as the nice round link on the chain now has a sloppy valley to ride in which allows it

to move around more, wearing the link and the valley more as it does so. The only slight

upside though, is that almost always, the increasingly loud noise a worn chain and gears will

make give you some sort of advance warning that all is not well, as opposed to a timing belt

which just makes expensive noises right after it breaks.

 

Anyway with the gear removed the shaft gets a lick of fine emery paper to clean it up before

the new gear is refitted........

 

 

The new gear is an interference fit onto the shaft (thats a fancy way for

saying you need to hammer the shit out of it to get it on). To help in this process

the gear is first heated up, the correct temperature is reached when you pick

up the gear, smell burning, and then pass out with the pain....... 

 

 

real men mange to fit the gear before passing out........

 

 

 

Final item up for attention on the crank is the spigot bearing fitted into the

rear of the shaft........

 

 

Borrowing a picture from long, long, ago you may remember the input shaft

on the gearbox shown below. Well as you can see this shaft is supported on one

end by a bearing in the gearbox casing, it also needs to be supported the other

end (red arrow) and this is taken care of by the spigot bearing in the end of the crank.......

 

 

Since every other bearing has been changed during this rebuild, Murphys Law states

that should I choose to reuse this one, it will most likely fail as soon as I drive out

the garage door and result in the car exploding, or something.

So, how to remove it?  Well, you could use an appropriate sized internal pullers

to get the little bugger out, or, you could use the tight arse method.

 

A socket large enough for the bearing to fit inside, a couple of washers, a

long m6 bolt, two m6 nuts, an m6 Rawl bolt and a partridge in a pear tree....... 

 

 

assembled as follows, bolt, one nut, washers to prevent bolt passing into socket

and socket itself.......

 

 

another nut the opposite side of the socket..........

 

 

and finally the Rawl bolt.........

 

 

the deal is we're going to pop the end of the Rawl bolt through the centre of the

spigot bearing and tighten down the first nut onto it, to spread the legs of the

bolt behind it like so........

 

 

then with the socket placed firmly up against the crank the second nut is tightened down

against the washers which pulls the bolt outwards along with the Rawl plug.......

 

 

and hopefully the spigot bearing to.......

 

 

if it doesn't, then go out and buy the proper tool and stop being a tight arse.

With the bearing out, the hole where it came from is given a quick clean......

 

 

before a new bearing is refitted......

 

 

using a socket thats the same size as the bearing outer race and will drive

it down into the hole all the way home.......

 

 

 

a wee dab of grease goes in to keep the bearing happy.......

 

 

and then finally the rest of the washers and stuff follow the bearing into

the hole in the order shown below to complete the job......

 

 

 

With the crank good to go, next up will be the task of choosing the correct

sized bearings.

 

Which we'll get to later this week, till then.................. 

Bearbeitet: 23. Februar 2015 von Kurt66

[Kurt66]

(Leider keine Bilder Vorhanden)

 

 

 

Once happy with the crank we could move on to sizing and ordering the correct

bearings. First up was a quick check that all the bearing journals in the block were

straight and fit for purpose. Just like checking the top face of the block for flatness

this check is much the same. Block is upturned on the stand.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3400.jpg

 

and the flat edge is placed across the journals, and again check to see if you

can squeeze a 1 thou feeler blade between the flat edge and any of the journals

which would show they are out of line. It's unusual to find these out of line and if they

are it's usually because the block has taken a fairly extreme overheating causing

the block to warp or the engine is being rebuilt due to a "catastrophic engine failure"......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3386.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3385.jpg

 

Once this check is done each of the main bearing cap's are bolted down and

torqued, one at a time..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3387.jpg

 

where upon the bore gauge is used again to measure the internal size of the

block journal. It's measured at a couple of different angles to make sure the

journal is perfectly round........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3388.jpg

 

Once the above check is complete and none of the journals show an

ovality (out of round) of more than 0.0004" we're ready to start figuring

out what size bearings we're going to need to house the crankshaft when fitted

back into the block.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3408.jpg

 

 

Now for the next bit I've gone a bit mad with the crayons again, and as usual

with these diagrams your going to have to use a fair dose of your own imagination

to make any sense out of this, but we'll give it a try.

 

Below is a picture of that block main journal and cap that we just measured. The

green bits just inside it are the bearings we're going to be fitting in a minute, and

the grey circle in the middle is the crankshaft when it's fitted........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3388b.jpg

 

What we're interested in is the red bit. Thats the space between the crankshaft

and the crankshaft bearings. Its into this "gap" that the engine oil pump pumps oil

while the engine is running. The reason it pumps oil in here is that we don't actually

want the spinning crank to touch the bearings while the engine is running, we want

a nice protective barrier of oil between the crank and the bearings.

And if we pump in just the right amount of oil, under the right pressure and choose

the right sized bearings so that the gap the oil has to fill is just right, the crankshaft

should spin perfectly inside it's little thin "cushion" of oil and never actually touch the

bearings.

 

The reason we need that gap (oil clearance) just right, is, if the oil cushion should

happen to break down and the spinning crank should happen to make dry contact

with the surface of the bearing then things can turn nasty very, very, quickly.

Bearings can get chewed up in the blink of an eye.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/worn%20bearings.jpeg

 

and the nice smooth crank journals they were protecting usually don't escape either..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/worn%20crank.jpeg

(both pictures courtesy of Google)

 

So by this stage you've probably got the idea, that gap between the crank journal

and the bearings known as the "oil clearance" has got to be just the right thickness.

To get this gap correct we choose the exact right sized bearings.

 

Now we already know from measuring the crank journals earlier that the

crank hasn't been ground down, so, this get's us in the ball park with bearing

selection. We need standard sized bearings, however we're not finished

yet. All 4 size's of crank bearing (standard, 1st, 2nd and 3rd oversize) come

in two flavours, red or blue. A red bearing is very, very slightly thicker than a

blue bearing and it's the choice of these two slightly different sized bearings that

lets us fine tune the oil clearance gap.

 

So, how do we do this? Is this going to take long? I've got stuff to do can we speed this

along please?

Patience, we're nearly there.

 

We're going to take number 4 crank bearing journal as an example. Earlier we measured this journals

diameter at 2.1650". By searching through the Tolerance manual we find that the tolerance for the oil clearance

gap is 0.0008" to 0.0027". I'm shooting for a gap of 0.0020" on this build, so if we take the crank journal diameter

of 2.1650" and add the target oil clearance gap of 0.0020" to that, we get 2.1670".

So, when we fit a pair of bearings to the block, like shown below, we want to measure the hole

at 2.1670".........  

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3399.jpg

 

We start off by fitting two red bearings and measuring the gap with the bore gauge.

What we find is a vertical measurement of 2.1668" which would give us an oil clearance

of 0.0018" (2.1668" minus journal diameter of 2.1650").

It's close to the target of 0.0020", but, not close enough.

So, we fit two blue bearings and again measure the diameter of the hole. This

time we get 2.1674", which would give us an oil clearance of 0.0024".

Again close but just a little to big.

So the final attempt, we fit one red bearing and one blue bearing, and again, stick the bore gauge

in to measure the hole. What we got was 2.1671".

Bingo!

An oil clearance of 0.0021" which is more or less bang on the target of 0.0020".

We now know that number 4 crank journal needs 1 blue and 1 red bearing for the

correct clearance.

 

Unfortunately, this whole procedure has to be repeated for each of the remaining 4 journals

to obtain the right sized bearings for each one.

 

And there's another down side, the surface of the bearings have a very fragile surface coating known

as the "babbitt" surface. And a negative side effect of using the bore gauge to measure the bearing

diameters is that the tips of the gauge damages this coating.......... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3397.jpg

 

For this reason, we use a set of bearings just for measuring purposes......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3418.jpg

 

When all the measuring was finished and the quantity of blue and red bearings

needed were known the order was placed.....

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3490.jpg

 

 

With the new bearings shells in hand we could complete the final checks and measurments.

Of the 5 pairs of main bearings bought, 4 are identical in shape, however

1 pair are slightly different than the rest and these are fitted to journal number 3.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3491.jpg

 

The difference with this pair is the bearing shells have "shoulders" on them

for want of a better description. As you can see below, along with the main

bearing surface in the valley to support the crank, these also have an extra

bearing surface around the sides as well.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3411.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3409.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3410.jpg

 

The reason for this is these pair of bearings known as the thrust bearings do two jobs.

The first is just like the other bearings and thats to support the spinning crank, but

the second job is to limit the crank from moving left and right in the block.

And they do this by pushing against the "thrust faces" machined into the crank

either side of number 3 journal..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3412.jpg

 

when the crank is sitting in place these "shoulders" on the bearing keep the

crank snugly located. As you may expect when the crank is in place these shoulders

don't rub up tight against the crank, as if they did, after a short while spinning at a couple

of thousand revs the crank would have them worn down. Instead the Tolerance manual

gives us a minimum and maximum the gap should be between the bearing side face (thrust face)

and the crank(arrowed red below).......... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3413.jpg

 

To measure this gap the bearing cap and it's thrust bearing are fitted

along with the thrust bearing below it in the block...... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3414.jpg

 

Before the cap bolts are torqued down the crank is given a few soft taps left

and right to get the two thrust bearings perfectly in line with each other........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3417.jpg

 

and then a dial gauge is strapped to the end of the block with the needle resting

against the crank.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3415.jpg

 

then a flat screw driver is used to GENTLY prise the crank left and right in the

block and the dial gauge at the end will show how much the crank is allowed to

move.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3416.jpg

 

The figure it's allowed to move is know as "Crankshaft End Float"

and the Tolerance Manual states that it's got to be between 0.0033" and 0.0068".

Mine was 0.0041" so we're good to go.

 

 

For the next test the crank is again removed and all but the outer two of the bearings

in the block are removed too.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3491b.jpg

 

(for all these tests where the crank is fitted with the bearings you should

give a little smear of oil to the bearings by the way, never a good idea to lie

a crank in dry on top of bearings. Just a little dab of oil will do, your not looking

to recreate the Exxon Valdez disaster )

 

the crank is then sat back in resting on these two remaining bearings.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3401.jpg

 

and a dial gauge is set up so that the needle is resting on number 3 bearing journal

smack bang in the middle of the crank like so..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3404.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3405.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3406.jpg

 

What we're checking for here, is to see if the crank is perfectly straight, or, if it

has any "wobble" in it, know as "run out". The crank is rotated and a close eye

kept on the dial gauge to see if the centre journal is moving up or down showing

that the crank isn't perfectly straight. The factory tolerance for Run Out is a maximum of

0.0040", I'd prefere to see less than 0.0020" personally, but either way, mine had no

perceptible movement at all, which either means the crank is perfectly

straight or I fu*ked up the test. I choose to believe the former.

 

And then finally on to the last test, and it's a check just to confirm the oil clearance we

worked out a while ago between each bearing and the crank. For this test all the bearings

are assembled into the block and caps, ensuring all the red and blue sized bearings go where

they're supposed to go........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3492.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3495.jpg

 

and then we take out the plasitgauge.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3522.jpg

 

Plastigauge is basically little thin strips of plasticine. You can see the little strips

above (red arrow). You cut off a little piece of these strips place it between

the bearing and the crank, torque the bearing cap down and then remove the

cap again. What should be left behind is the little strip of plasticine, which has now been

crushed flat. And thanks to the precise nature of this stuff you can use the guide card

shown above (green arrow) to measure how squashed flat the plasticine has become

to figure out how much of a gap you have.

The bigger the gap the less it will have been crushed, the smaller the gap the flatter it will be.

I make it sound complicated.

It's easier just to show you. Cut a little piece of the Plastigauge...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3527.jpg

 

Place it onto each of the crank bearings........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3524.jpg

 

bolt down all the bearing caps and torque them up........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3506.jpg

 

and then remove each cap to reveal the squashed Plastigauge........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3525.jpg

 

and then finally using the little measuring card you can match up how squashed

the Plastigauge is to the correct marker on the card, which will tell you how much

oil clearance you had when the cap was bolted down.

If you remember earlier the target was 0.0020", and you can see below that the

card reads exactly 2.0, which is 0.0020". 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2843%29/m3_3526.jpg

 

tickety fu*king boo.

More as the week goes on, if this hasn't already made you loose the will to live......

Bearbeitet: 23. Februar 2015 von Kurt66

[Kurt66]

 

With the crank main bearings all done and dusted, all that remained was to select

the conrod bearings. First up was to check the conrods themselves. These take

a fair pounding in the engine and it's not unusual to find wear here, so, it's out with the

bore gauge again and both the big ends and the small ends get checked for roundness and wear......

 

 

The big ends on my rods came up just about ok, but, unfortunately the small ends were

showings signs of a lot of wear. Below you can see a closer picture of the small

end........

 

 

What you can see above is that the small end bore actually has a bronze bush inserted into it

to increase it's wear resistance. But, theres only so much a bush can do, twenty years of constantly

trying to hold on to a piston takes it's toll. A quick look up of the tolerance manual tells us this bush should

have a diameter of 0.8669" to 0.8671". Before even measuring mine I could tell they were fairly worn.

If you placed a gudgeon pin into any of the rods you could actually feel it rock a little in the bushing.........

 

 

And this was backed up by the measurements, all four small end bushes were well

over the 0.8671" size, with the worst coming in at 0.8682".

So, options?

Well, you can have the bushes replaced by a good machine shop, but, it's a pricey

exercise around here and who ever does it really needs to know what they're at as

it's fairly easy to make a balls of it. Plus one of the rods big ends was also just on the border

of being "out of round".

Option number two was carry out an armed robbery on the local main dealer to

get some new rods, not a great option really, the rods have a 5 day delivery time and

there was a good chance a member of staff would press the panic button while we all waited

for the rods to arrive.

Which brought us to option number 3, aftermarket rods.........

 

 

The new rods are forged in a "H" beam design, and they've

also been shot peened, crack tested and balanced end to end, all of which means

they should be a good bit stronger than the originals. Which in turn means you should be

able to raise the rev limit of the engine without the fear of one of them popping out through

the block to say hello.

With the state of tune this engine is being built to I won't need to raise the rev limit much

to achieve the engine's maximum horse power, so all they need to be for this build is equally

as strong as the originals and not require you to sell a kidney to obtain them, like the originals would.

Another nice benefit of the new rods is that they're lighter than the originals, to the tune of

51 gram's per rod..........  

 

 

 

Which helps with the other objective of this build, and thats where ever possible

to lower the weight of the rotating mass of the engine. Simply put, trying to make

anything that moves in the engine lighter with objective of having an engine thats quicker

to rev.

As with most after market rods these ones also came with ARP rod bolts, which are stronger

than the originals. I would have been perfectly happy to use a new set of original bolts, as to the

best of my knowledge they are a good design rod bolt to begin with, but the new rods are tapped out

for the threads on the ARP bolts, which is different to the original bolts so thats what we'll be using........

 

 

Like the original bolts the ARP one's are also stretch bolts. Basically when you tighten them down

the bolts stretches a little and it's this stretch which keeps the bolt tight over time. When a stretch bolt

is undone sometimes it returns to it's original length and in this case it's usually good to go again. However

sometimes it's doesn't, it stays a little stretched when loosened and when this happens the bolt can't be

guaranteed to stay tight if it's reused again. For this reason standard rod bolts are always changed when doing

a rebuild because you've no way of telling whether they've returned to their original lengths when removed.

 

However, with the ARP bolts you can measure the exact length of a new bolt using the proper tool and if you

record this length and the bolts fitted position you can now tell if it's fit to be reused next time around..........

 

 

The down side is the extra effort required to do all this is a pain in the arse if you are inherantly

lazy.

 

New rods get the once over with the bore gauge to make sure they're exactly what was paid for.......

 

 

After which we move on to sizing the conrod bearings.

Now unlike the main bearings where you had the choice of a red or blue size bearing

to fine tune the oil clearance gap, with the conrod bearings BMW have decided to make

the choice a lot simpler. You can have yellow, yellow or yellow.

Yep, theres only one thickness conrod bearing available from the main dealer and thats

yellow.

If the conrod journals on your crank have been machined down to 1st, 2nd or 3rd undersize

to correct wear then you still have a choice of 1st, 2nd or 3rd oversize bearings to match this,

but thats as far as the decision making needs to go.

That doesn't however mean that you'd don't need to check the clearance, that'd be far to simple.

So, pair of yellow bearings in and the conrod cap torqued down, out with the bore gauge and measure

the diameter..............

 

 

Diameter measured at 1.8913", quick check of the notes to see what the matching conrod

journal on the crank was, and it shows as 1.8893". Take one from the other 1.8913"-1.8893"

and your left with a conrod big end oil gap of 0.0020".

Tolerance manual says between 0.0008" and 0.0022" is good to go.

As usual, each individual rod is measured to figure out it's clearance and then later verifyed

with the Plastigauge.

 

Just a quick one on the bearing colors before we leave it, if you've never seen a BMW bearing before

the colours (blue and red for the mains and yellow for the conrods) are actually marked on the edge

of the bearing shell. You can just about see the little yellow smear on the conrod top bearing below at

the 12 o'clock position...........  

 

 

And that takes care of all the prep work for the bottom end for now,

next up we'll be moving on to the cylinder head.

Using match sticks to keep your eyes open yet?

[Kurt66]

 

(Bilder leider nicht vorhanden)

 

The cylinder head.

All things being equal down below, it's generally up here where power

is gained or lost. As with everything else on an engine build, close attention to detail

can ensure that your raging horses don't end up clapped out nags.

This part of the process started for me a long time ago, back when the engine was first stripped and

the block was sent out for machine work at the beginning of the build, attention was turned to cleaning

up and inspecting the cylinder head...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_0594.jpg

 

Unfortunately what we found at the time wasn't pretty. After cleaning up the combustion

chambers we found some cracks between the exhaust valve seats..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_0601.jpg

 

The cracks were small and the engine had shown no signs of pressurising the coolant

system before coming asunder, which it would do if the crack had spread to the water gallery

and was allowing combustion pressure to leak into the cooling system.

Also the engine was compression tested shortly before it came asunder and while the figures

weren't great they weren't bad enough to suggest compression was being lost on a large scale.

So from all that we surmised that the crack was probably local and most likely didn't

extend all that far.

However when you placed a flat edge across the crack you could see that the surrounding

aluminium had started to shift...........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_0600.jpg

 

This was the nail in the coffin for this particular head, as the valve seats which are press fitted

into the head either side of the crack rely on everything in this area staying nice and

solid to stay put. With the aluminium starting to shift, however little, there was a real

possibility one of the valve seats could start to work it's way loose, should that happen

while the engine was running the resulting damage would be very, very, expensive.

 

There are repair options for this type of crack but they'd require both valve seats either side

of the crack to be cut out, the crack welded up and then the whole lot machined again

to refit new seats. But, this head was proudly displaying 3 cracks in total, all in the same places,

between the exhaust valve seats, in three different chambers, which meant this head was beyond

economical repair.

The other surprising discovery made on dismantling the head was the condition of the valves and valve

seats, they were in poor poor shape and can't have been sealing the combustion chamber that well.

This was most likely the reason behind the poor compression figures tested earlier on.

Actually it was a little surprising this engine drove as well as it did before coming asunder........ 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_0603.jpg

 

So after deciding that replacing the head would be the best option for the rebuild, the

search began. As this engine and car was built in 1986, that made this a 200hp version of the

S14 engine (195hp when fitted with a catalytic converter).

And a little later in it's life (around '89 I think) the S14 engine was available in an uprated form producing

215hp. Along with other changes one of the main differences in the 215hp engine was larger

inlet ports on the cylinder head. If I was going shopping for a cylinder head I decided I might

as well try and track down this larger port head, which would help in the search for a little more

horse power from this engine.

A quick call to the main dealer for prices on both the 195hp and 215hp heads let me know where

I stood,

should I happen to win the lottery,

twice!

195hp head pt. no. 11121309891 = €1220 -10% discount + 22% Irish Vat = €1340

215hp head pt. no. 11121312785 = €3035 -10% discount + 22% Irish Vat = €3330

 

So,

the search began for a good second hand head. And after a while ringing around and trawling

the interweb we came up lucky. A 215hp head overhauled and ready to go and the iceing on the cake,

the head came with uprated Schrick inlet and exhaust valves, springs and titanium retainers, and all for a good

bit less than the price of a bare 215hp head from the dealer. Excellent.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/head%208.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/head%2010.jpg

 

Although not blindingly clear here in the photos, when the two heads are parked

beside each other (195hp and 215hp) the difference in inlet port size is quite obvious.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/head%202.jpg

 

From what I've read on the interweb it seems the diameter of the 195hp head

inlet port is 25.8mm and the 215hp ports are closer to 28mm. Below is a sectioned

picture of a 195hp head showing the port diameter........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/cylinder%20head%20port.jpg

(picture courtesy of Uwe on S14.net, thanks Uwe)

 

 

So with the head issues dealt with, the cylinder head was tucked away safely

at the time and concentration returned to stripping the rest of the car. Finally, a few months

ago, the head came back out of hibernation along with the rest of the engine hardware to

start this preping for assembly. First job was to strip the head down and give it the once over

to make sure it was as "good to go" as was advertised.

Valves, springs and retainers were pulled so we could get a good look at the valve seats and

check their condition. What we found looked good, all the seats looked to be freshly cut and

their respective valves had been lapped in..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3284.jpg

 

right up until we got to inlet valve seat number 6..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3282.jpg

 

F.U.C.K.!!

The seat was very badly damaged. In the pic below you can just about see the nice

3 angle cut on the surrounding seats, while the seat in the centre of the picture looks

as if the valve had tried to "jack hammer" it's way clean out through the roof of the cylinder

head..........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3285.jpg

 

This little "discovery" meant I was going to have to find some more cash to

spend on this head before it was ready to bolt on.

After chatting things over with the Samaratins I decided the best course of action would

be to send the head away and have the damaged valve seat cut out and replaced.

The thinking behind this was as follows.

As you might have seen in the previous pictures the valve seats have 3 angles cut into

them as shown in the diagram below.......... 

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/valve%20seat%20angle%20diagram.jpg

 

The middle angle is for the valve to seal against when it's shut, while the ones either side of it are

to smooth out the path for the incoming air as it rushes in when the valve starts to open.

The damage on my valve seat meant that if I tried to have these 3 angles recut into it, the valve

would end up sunk fairly deep into the head. This would almost certainly have a negative effect

on the airflow entering the chamber by this valve.

So, a new seat with freshly cut angles was the only real option.

Before the head could be sent off to have this done however, we needed to check everything

else to make sure this was the only work the head needed done.

First check was the valve guides......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3631.jpg

 

These are the little bronze guides that are pressed

into the head. Their purpose, as their name suggests, is to guide the valves as the camshaft pushes

them open and springs pull them closed.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3632.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/images.jpeg

 

Over time these can get worn, so they need to be checked.

To check them the valve is placed down into it's guide just far enough so that the

tip of the valve stem is level with the top of the guide, and then a dial gauge is set up

as shown below resting against the head of the valve.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3291.jpg

 

The valve is then "rocked" over and back in the guide whilst you check how much movement

it registers on the dial gauge.........

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3290.jpg

 

Maximum movement for the intake guides is 0.65mm and the exhausts is

0.80mm

After that the head had it's surface checked for flatness. Exact same test as was

done earlier on the block face. Engineers straight edge, feeler blade, blah, blah, blah.

Any unevenness or pitting from corrosion and the head will need skimming to return it

to a silky smooth flat surface. Finally, moving onto the final check, pressure testing the

head. For this test all the water ports are blocked off on the head.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3297.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3298.jpg

 

leaving one small port open.......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3299.jpg

 

the head then has a large rubber block strapped over the remaining open water

ports on the face of the head and the whole lot is submerged in an 80degree tub of

warm water.

Pressurised air is fed in the one remaining open port shown in the pic above

and then you check for bubbles. With the water galleries all blocked off the appearance of any

bubbles is usually bad news as it normally means the head has cracked somewhere.

The reason warm water is used is sometimes small cracks don't open up till the head is at operating

temperature.

 

Thankfully this head passed all these checks, so all that needed doing to return it to active

duty was that valve seat. But, as is the nature of these things, I can't leave well enough alone,

so I was also going to have some mild port work done and change the 38mm oversized Shrick inlet

valves for some 38.5mm Supertech valves.

To have the work completed the head was going to have to go on a wee journey by courier.

We've had a few poor experiences in the past with cylinder heads getting damaged in transit

and this led to the construction of  "the coffin"......

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3308.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3309.jpg

 

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%20build%20%2844%29/m3_3310.jpg

 

designed to withstand a stray ballistic missile strike.

 

Ab hier wieder Bilder vorhanden :)

 

The head was dispatched to have the work done and we waited for it to return.

And waited.

And waited.

2 months later the head returned, thankfully the quality of the work was a lot better

than the customer service........

 

 

With the head now back we could continue playing with it, and next up on the

fun and games list was balancing the combustion chambers.

Who, what, where, when, why???

Simply put, the combustion chamber is the dish you see in the pic below.....

 

 

It's the area the piston squashes all the fuel and air mixture up into as it rises to

the top of the cylinder. When all the mixture is fully squashed in here the spark

plug gives it's little spark and starts the explosion, the resulting expanding gas

pushes the piston down.

(I know, this is pure Stephen Hawking quality shit here, ground breaking, but bare with me.)

Depending on how tight you pack the mixture in here effects how much of

an explosion you get. Simply put, the tighter the squeeze the bigger the bang.

What we're doing next is measuring the 4 combustion chambers in the cylinder

head to make sure they're all the same size. The reason we want them all the same

size is, if one is a little smaller than it's neighbour, then the mixture squashed into that

chamber is going to give a slightly bigger bang than the cylinder next door.

What we want is a nice balanced smooth engine with all four cylinders "banging" identical to

each other.

(It's probably worth mentioning at this stage that unless your building a highly strung, high compression

ratio engine, which I am not, the following process isn't 100 percent necessary. But since I hadn't a pot to piss

in at this stage thanks to the amount of money I'd blown on engine parts, it seamed like a good

way to pass the time till the money trees sprouted some more branches.)

 

So, aim of the game is to measure the volume of the compression chambers and then

make them all the same.

First up we gotta reassemble some valves back into the bare head and for this

we'll be using "test" springs as opposed to the real valve springs........

 

 

reason being it's a lot quicker and handier to assemble the valve gear with the

test springs as you can squash them with your hand whilst fitting the collets,

whereas with the much stronger real valve springs you need to clamp each one

with a valve spring compressor to get the collets in.

So, 2 inlet and 2 exhaust valves were fitted with the test springs to keep them shut

tight against their seats........

 

 

 

next up was to screw 3 long bolts into the top face of the cylinder head

(red arrow M10 x 100mm, purple arrows M6 x 100mm)..........

 

 

and then flip the head over, screwing the bolts in or out of the head to get

it perfectly level end to end.......

 

 

and across.....

 

 

With the head perfectly level we pull out the burette.......

 

 

Those of you who took science classes in school and haven't killed your

brain since then with drugs and alcohol will know what this is.

For rest of us, it's a graduated perspex tube with a little tap on the end of it......... 

 

 

We filled this burette with paraffin/kerosene........

 

 

 

next item required is this highly expensive precision tool. It's a piece of a large exhaust

clap with a sharpened 6 inch nail rigged into it (them money tree's were taking there time)........

 

 

this "rig" is placed on a flat piece of the head and when we were happy that it

sat perfectly flat and didn't rock, the nail is adjusted down till it just touches the head

surface..........

 

 

then, it's placed over the combustion chamber and the tap on the burette is

opened to allow the fluid to start filling the chamber. The idea is that the nail

acts as a guide, when the fluid reaches it, the chamber is full. You watch the

fluid slowly filling up and watch the reflection of the nail in the fluid getting closer

to the actual nail, giving you a guide of when to get ready to shut the tap........

 

 

and then, just as the fluid touches the very tip of the nail, the tap is shut..........

 

 

 

 

the chamber is now exactly full of fluid........

 

 

and when we checked the graduations on the burette we could see exactly

how much fluid it took to fill the chamber. And hey presto, you now have the volume of

one combustion chamber.

(Now that was some fancy shit wasn't it? While I'd love to take the credit for thinking up this

stuff myself, I have to thank Jake over on S14.net for that method. The way I used to do it

took a lot longer and was a lot messier.)

One little thing to be careful of before we go on is about reading the burette.

When you fill it up originally the fluid doesn't lie flat in the tube, but rather

curves up at the edges. You need to be sure your reading the level either from the

top of the "curve" or the bottom when you fill it and the same again when checking how much has come

out afterwards......... 

 

 

the test is done 3 times on each chamber and then an average reading taken for

each for each to avoid fu*k ups, sorry, "inaccuracies", making sure the chamber is totally

dried out between each test..........

 

 

One other thing thats worth keeping an eye on while doing this

is the fact that you shouldn't see any fluid leaking past the valves and out the ports

during any of this. If you do, you need to check your valve's and their seats, as, if

they just been freshly cut and lapped in, then they should be sealing against

any fluid leaking past......

 

 

With all the combustion chambers checked, the average figures came out

at:

cylinder 1 - 42.7cc

cylinder 2 - 43.0cc

cylinder 3 - 43.0cc

cylinder 4 - 42.8cc

 

Only a difference of 0.3cc between chambers.

Now a normal person would be happy with this as most cylinder head tech

articles advise balancing to within 0.5cc. But, if you've been reading this thread

long enough you already know whats coming next.

 

The "drip" beside the 1 euro coin below is an example of what 0.3cc volume looks like,

this is roughly what I'd to remove from two of the chambers to get all three balanced to

43.0cc.......

 

 

head surface gets masked up with some heavy foil tape to protect it from

any c*ck-eyed blows from the Dremel grinder...........

 

 

some old valves are loosely fitted to protect the freshly cut valve seats from damage

and the areas to be "buffed" get shaded a nice shade of blue.......

 

 

head is set up at a comfortable angle to work the Dremel......

 

 

and then the blue areas are lightly ground with a 120 grit disc.....

 

 

before being finished with 400grit.......

 

 

a few hours grinding and remeasuring had all four chambers reading 43.0cc.....

 

 

 

theres a good chance, even if you lead a long life, that'll you'll never witness a better

example of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,  I'll do well to finish this build without ending

up with a nervous twitch..........

 

 

And, thats about all for tonight. Next on the menu is custom pistons and why I chose to

abandon the money tree's and go straight to printing my own counterfeit money.

Till then..............

Bearbeitet: 23. Februar 2015 von Kurt66

[Kurt66]

 

Chapter 52: Custom Pistons and the road to financial ruin.

In this exciting episode we'll be revealing the closely guarded secrets of how to f*ck up a

custom piston order, quickly followed with a "how to" guide on using a kitchen bread knife

to remove a kidney with a  view to selling it on ebay.

But, before we get to that, it's probably best we deal with question of why we wanted custom

pistons in the first place. Below is a picture of a Mahle standard piston for the S14 M3 engine.

If you should happen to wander in to your local dealer with a pot of gold large enough,

four of these little carefully machined slugs of aluminium can be obtained...........

 

 

So, why didn't I use these? Three main reasons really, increase the valve relief's,

changing the engine's compression ratio, and reducing  piston weight, and of course not forgetting the most

important of all, my seemingly unavoidable irritating habit of complicating everything.

 

Valve relief's.

Due to the design of the S14 engine, the valves come in quite close proximity

to the top of the pistons while the engine is running and as such the top of the

piston has 4 little valve relief notches cut out of it to avoid any disastrous contact

between the two..........   

 

 

When running standard diameter valves and standard lift camshafts all this works

as it was designed too. However, when (like I am) you change to oversize valves and

higher lift camshafts, these relief's cut in to the top of the standard pistons are usually

insufficient to offer the proper clearance any more. The Schrick 284 degree inlet and 276 degree

cams being used in this build can be considered relatively mild in the large scope of whats available

out there for this engine, and as such seem to be right on the border of being usable with standard

valve relief's.

As a guide Schrick recommend a minimum of 1.5mm clearance between valve and piston at their

tightest point. I'm not 100% sure that you'd run into trouble if you were just running the higher lift cams

mentioned with standard diameter valves. Some folk report no issues with running them,

while others report problems when the valve to piston clearance is measured upon assembly.

What is probably clear from that is you should at least take the time to measure the clearance when assembling,

as the "f*ck it, it'll be grand" approach could end up being expensive down the line should the pistons and

valves take a notion that they'd both like to occupy the same space at the same time.

 

I had no such worries however as when you add in the larger valves I'm running I was pretty confident that

the end result would be mass suicide should I have tried to use the standard pistons.

So, reason number 1 for custom pistons = larger valve relief's.

 

Raising the compression ratio.

In the last section we touched briefly on the subject of compression

ratio when we balanced the volumes of the combustion chambers in the cylinder head.

The piston, or more precisely, the top of the piston, has a dish in it (coloured red below).

With a custom piston you can alter the volume of this dish and as such change the compression

ratio of the engine............

 

 

I find myself ideally suited to offer a simple explanation of what compression ratio is,

as I haven't half a f*cking clue myself. But, since that small fact hasn't seemed to stop me

anywhere else in this thread I shall now continue the fine tradition.

Static Compression Ratio, at it's simplest, is the ratio of all the volume in the chamber

when the piston is at the bottom of it's stroke (all the area you see as green below)......... 

 

 

compared to the volume of what it all gets squashed into when the piston

comes to the top of it's stroke........

 

 

If the volume of the green area in the top picture were 300 cubic centimetres (cc) and the volume

of the area it all gets squashed into in the second picture was 30cc, then you'd have a

compression ratio of 300 : 30 or simplified down, 10 : 1.

As a very general rule of thumb, the tighter you pack that volume when the piston squashes it,

the bigger the bang you'll get, thus, the higher the compression ratio the better the power output

from the engine. Everything thing else being equal, an engine with 11 : 1 compression ratio will

normally produce more power than an engine with 10 : 1 and so on.

 

So, just wack up the compression ratio and we're good to go? Well, unfortunately it's not quite

that simple. When you reduce the space that the piston squeezes all the mixture into, the fuel/air

mixture obviously now gets compressed a lot more. The side effect of this is the more you compress

the mixture the hotter it gets. If you go too high with the compression ratio, and compress the mixture too

much, the temperature in here gets so high it can spontaneously explode before the spark plug even

has a chance to light the fire.

At this stage your into the wonderful world of detonation (also known as "knock"), the results of which,

if severe enough, can destroy engines in seconds.

So, the trick seems to be, raise the compression ratio as high as you can to reap the rewards of bigger

horse power, while trying not to go too high where the dreaded detonation becomes an issue.

 

If you look at the (fantastically detailed) diagram below you can see the area the mixture gets squashed into 

is made up of the combustion chamber in the cylinder head, 

some of the head gasket volume(the brown bit)

and then the dish in the piston makes up the final piece of space.......

 

 

By making the dish in the piston smaller we can reduce the space the mixture gets squashed into,

 and, as such, compress it a little tighter which will raise the compression ratio.

But before we could start figuring out what volume dish we wanted in our new pistons

we first had a few decisions to make.

 

This engine is being built to power a day to day road car as opposed to a "balls to the wall" all out race motor.

And as such I've decided to shoot for a compression ratio of 11 : 1, which should be well enough inside the

"safe zone" that detonation won't become an issue, but still provide a little bump in hp over the 10.5 :1 compression

ratio the engine originally left the factory with.

 

So with the target set at 11 : 1 the first thing we needed to do was find out what compression ratio the standard

pistons would give us, and then hopefully from this we could figure out what modifications to make to the new pistons

to arrive at 11 : 1.

To do this we first need to know the volume of that dish on top of the standard piston, 

so the piston is assembled onto a conrod and instead of fitting a piston ring 

we use some rubber o-rings to seal the piston in the bore..........

 

 

 

 

then the piston and rod are fitted into the cylinder and bolted up to the crank.......

 

 

As we're going to be using fluid to measure the volume of the dish in the piston crown

the next step is the same as what was done on the cylinder head earlier. Get it all 100% level.........

 

 

 

 

with everything level the next step was to drop the piston down the bore a known

amount. To do this we set up a dial gauge and zero it on the deck surface of the

block...........

 

 

Then move the needle onto the raised circumference of the piston (not in the dish),

and rotate the crank till the piston drops down 3.00mm from the surface of the deck.........

 

 

From our bore measurements taken earlier we know that the diameter of the bore is

exactly 3.6950" or 93.85mm, so now we can figure out the exact volume of the space

between the top of the piston and the surface of the deck (the red area below)..........

 

 

using the formula for the volume of a cylinder, pi x radius squared x height,  the volume

of the red area in the diagram above comes out at 20.7cc.

So what the hell did we do all that crap for?

Well when we fill up the hole with fluid in a minute, we now know that it takes exactly

20.7cc to fill up the red area and anything over this must be the volume of the dish in

the piston..........

 

 

So, with the nail rig in place to indicate when the holes full, the burette is again filled

and the tap opened........

 

 

When the fluid reached the tip of the nail, the tap was shut and we read off how much

fluid it took to fill the hole. Which was 29.3 cc. So subtracting the 20.7cc (red area) from earlier

the 8.6cc we're left with is the volume of the dish in the piston.

 

With this info and a few more little measurements we could now figure out what the compression

ratio would be with these standard pistons fitted. I'm not going to get into the formula's and

calculations end of working out the compression ratio here, as, well, it's boring. And with porn only

ever a click of a mouse away I reckon there'd be an echo in here after a short while.

What I will say before we move on though is I came across a great bit of software to help

with the calculations if you ever find yourself doing something similar. Its by a crowd called

Performance Trends and is downloadable here http://performancetrends.com/download.htm#crc

 

After doing all the calculations we found that, if fitted, the standard pistons would have given this

engine a compression ratio of 10.5 : 1 , and after flogging the last few remaining brain cells I have to

withing an inch of their life, I then managed to figure out that the new pistons would require a dish of

of just 7.5cc to raise the compression ratio to 11.0 : 1 . By this stage we'd finalised all the dimensions

for the new pistons, and were ready to place the order. We had decided to go with JE Pistons and  instead

of going straight to JE themselves with the order we were going to use one of their agents as the price was

going to work out much the same and it gave us the opportunity to have a second set of eye's, as it were,

to look over the spec's and make sure they'd result in what we wanted.

 

So just to recap, standard pistons look like this..........

 

 

new pistons would look fairly similar as the only adjustments being made were the

valve cut outs being deepened and enlarged a little and the dish in the piston being

made a little shallower. So, the order was placed and we waited for the pistons to

arrive so the build could continue.

Eventually the package arrived, and just like a little kid does at christmas the box was ripped

asunder to get a first look at those four little expensive aluminium pots of goodness........

 

 

The essence of the moment can be neatly summed up in one short word,

BOLLOCKS.

 

Jesus H f*cking Christ, what the hell are these? There's a f*cking pyramid in

the middle of me new pistons. The valve relief's were deep enough to house

a small family of elephants, with weight disorders. In short, the pistons were

totally useless to me........  

 

 

I'm not going to go into details here of what happened as the outcome is still ongoing,

all I will say is that there was a monumental cock up and it wasn't at my end.

The end result of all this at the time was I was severely out of pocket

and severely pissed off with the whole build.

 

I closed the door on the garage that evening and didn't return to it for quite a while. 

[Kurt66]

So Leute,

 

Ich habe ein anderes Backup von diesem Thread gefunden - zufällig. Habe Anfang Januar mit dem Thread Inhaber geschrieben, ca ende Januar hab ich den Thread bekommen und hier auch angefangen zu posten. Gerade weil ich ja kein Backup gefunden habe, habe ich Kontakt mit dem Thread Inhaber aufgenommen. Ich könnte es ja nicht erahnen das inzwischen ein anderes Mitglied - während ich auf die Datei des Thread Inhabers warte - ein besseres Backup im originalen Thread postet. Nochmal im original Thread nach Kommentaren schauen würde  wahrscheinlich keinem einfallen.

 

Weil es viel besser ist als das Word Dokument das ich bekommen habe und vor allem weil es vollständig ist, poste ich hier den Link zum Downloaden.

Hätte ich diese Datei früher gefunden hätte ich mir die Restauration des Threads nicht angetan, aber naja.

 

Mein Ziel diesen sehr lehrreichen Thread am leben zu halten habe ich erreicht. Jetzt kann jeder E30 Freak , der möchte, sich eine scheibe davon abschneiden und dazu lernen.

Meiner Meinung nach könnte man einiges auch ins Wiki hinzufügen, wäre ne bereicherung.

 

Hier die Datei:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/783836/xworksm3.zip

Ca 225 MB groß

 

Am ende fehlt nur post Nr. 462, welcher den Finalen zustand des M3's zeigt.

Diesen werde ich hier gleich posten damit es vollständig ist.

 

Viel Spaß noch, 

Grüße Kurt

Bearbeitet: 23. Februar 2015 von Kurt66

[Kurt66]

 

 

3 days of road tax left before the old girl gets tucked away for winter. Decided to take her up into the mountains today and annoy some of the wildlife........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE END

[senda]

Wow , i just stumble over this build.

Its the best documented rebuild i seen till now.

Great car and great build.

[roland24]

Gorgeous pictures and great M3

[Pacific]

Hallo, der Download geht leider nicht mehr.

Hat jemand noch eine Idee?

Gruß pacific

[Monster]

Damn irish blokes!  Always good for a suprise-in this case a real big one.

 

I bet You had lots of Guinness,"keep calm" pills and some sort of lottery win.

 

 

Great job You did there !