[project] Nothing To Do With 205's, But Behold!

[M3Evo 0]

Ooh, will have to have a read of the link there Kyepan Probably a bit late for mine as I had to make what would fit rather than what's gonna be the most efficient, but it'll be interesting to see how it could be improved.

 

Do you have organic linings in your clutch Taylorspug? I'm hoping they'll be a bit more progressive than a puck type one. Also hoping that having oodles of torque available low down will lessen the need for lots of pulling away revs. We shall see though

 

Bleeeee, got the WG pipe stuck on today

 

Took all day to get all the bits to fit properly but I'm quite pleased with the result.

 

Started out by hacking the pipe in half and then chopping most of the top out of it too, figuring that it'd be impossible to seam weld on unless I did most of the welding from the inside.

 

Decided on the position the WG needed to take at this stage too.

 

 

 

 

Then of course it occured to me that I needed to be able to get a spanner and a nut in behind the top left hole of the exhaust gas divertor assembly so had to make this ugly looking thing to clear:

 

 

 

And finally spent about two hours fettling the end of the pipe so that the WG would sit in the right place, then welded it all in place.

 

 

 

 

Made a cap for the top before I went home and will make a turning vane to weld inside before the cap goes on too.

[M3Evo 0]

Hooray!

 

It's finished

 

Made a turning vane for the entrance to the WG pipe:

 

 

 

 

Made a little brace to reduce the cantilevered load of the big heavy wastegate. It's just a vertical strip as I reckon both pipes will expand at different rates so the brace will need to be able to flex.

 

 

 

And here it all is in the bay:

 

 

 

Just about to draw up the outlet flange for the little turbo and order up what I think I'll need to make the bypass plumbing. Might actually have one of the major components finished fairly soon!

[cybernck 402 1 Cars]

amazing work!

 

you should start your own custom manifold building business mate!

[taylorspug 7]

Do you have organic linings in your clutch Taylorspug? I'm hoping they'll be a bit more progressive than a puck type one. Also hoping that having oodles of torque available low down will lessen the need for lots of pulling away revs. We shall see though

 

No mine doesnt have organic lining, in fact tbh its so worn im having a job telling what lining it has (which probably isnt helping matters)! I was thinking your masses of torque are going to get you off the line no problem, unlike my big lumpy cam setup, super long 1st gear etc. I think mine will get alot better when the engine goes back in with the clutch plates re-lined. My old Vento had organic lined plates in it and was an absolute dream to get off the line, again though that had quite a bit of torque right from tickover.

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

Top Top work. . .

[hexhamstu 9]

i love this project!

[M3Evo 0]

Don't suppose you could recommend a supplier for the plates could you Taylorspug? Might go back to Demon Tweeks as they said they'd give me a discount on my next order but I'm open to suggestion!

 

Many thanks for all the positive comments guys, really does help to keep me motivated!

 

Minor update: I've bought a diff! Spent ages umming and aahing about whether to go for a 3.07 from an E28 and thinking that a slipper would probably be knackered by now. Then spotted yesterday that there was a 3.15 LSD from a scrapped Z M Coupe which has covered 66k so hopefully it'll be a goodun!

[M3Evo 0]

A guy on the E30Zone forum very kindly sorted me out with a nice stainless translator to go from the 2.5" turbo outlet to the 3" exhaust system I need to make.

 

Here it is in all it's glory:

 

 

 

Have had a giant hangover after my mate's wedding yesterday so haven't achieved much this weekend other than to make a nice shiny stainless steel V-band flange for the H1C. Forgotton how evil stainless is to machine though so it took quite a lot of time

 

 

 

Also had another box waiting for me but couldn't for the life of me think what was in it!

 

Turned out to be my wheel spacers which I'd forgotten all about!

 

Unlike usual spacers which fit between the hub and the wheel to push it outwards, these fit between the rim and the wheel centre to push the whole rim back towards the car.

 

I designed them to locate the wheel centre as it was originally with a register:

 

 

 

So you have four per wheel, just for the fronts:

 

 

 

Absolutely love the staggered offset they give, with this being the new offset of the front:

 

 

 

And this being the reasonably dishy rear

 

[M3Evo 0]

Made some decent progress this weekend on the exhaust manifold!

 

Been putting off making the bypass plumbing for the EDV but finally decided to get on with it as the outlet flange for the HX27 turned up during the week

 

So in no particular order, here's the first tack on of the outlet elbow with all turbos in place:

 

 

 

Had a bit of an eye up to decide where the pipe should go, also offered it up to the engine in the car to see whether a 3" down pipe might fit in afterwards. Then cut the bulk of the material out of the H1C support to let the pipe from the HX27 in. Dad's not made the bench for the new milling machine yet so I'm still on the lathe....parents eh, who'd have 'em?!

 

 

 

Had a quick last meaure up just to make sure everything cleared.

 

 

 

Re-angled the outlet elbow and then set to making the adjoinint bits. I know I've got the expanded bit of pipe on round the wrong way, but it's the only easy way it'd fit.

 

 

 

 

And fit it does does!

 

 

 

With room for my 3" down pipe too! (just a bit of ali tube as a mock up but it's a releif that it goes in!!

 

 

 

Also, got the translator welded onto my Vee-band flange this weekend, but that's less interesting than the rest of it

 

[Rippthrough 98]

I'll say this, I hope you never have to service that engine

 

"It's under all those pipes, somewhere"

[M3Evo 0]

if I turn the wastegate around, I'll be able to get fairly easy access to all the spark plugs, certainly easier access that I had on the last system anyway!

 

And the charge cooler just lifts off with the rocker cover so the tappets should be easily accessible too......should

 

 

Have been ordering bits up for the exhaust system. Gonna see how I get on with a 3" primary system, and try to leave enough room for a secondary 2" system from the wastegate to the silencer at the back too

 

Here it is, my exhaust system in half it's glory!

 

Sounds like I'll be using the car as an umbrella this weekend, but it'd be a great boon to get the exhaust and manifold done as they're such large components in the grand scheme of things.

 

Gonna give the tail pipes a proper polish this time round, none of this brushed look Still not too sure about how a pair of slash cut 3" tail pipes will look, but time will tell!

 

[Rippthrough 98]

Where did you source the rear box halves from?

 

Could do with some of those, our rollers have developed some 'racing play' from abuse.

[M3Evo 0]

what have you been bending?!

 

Got the half cans and end plates from here:

 

https://www.milneroffroad.com/PIPE.HTM

 

There's a couple of sizes to choose from too, which is handy

[Rippthrough 98]

what have you been bending?!

 

Got the half cans and end plates from here:

 

https://www.milneroffroad.com/PIPE.HTM

 

There's a couple of sizes to choose from too, which is handy

 

 

Chromoly sheet

 

Didn't know trevor did them now, only called in last week too

Edited June 14, 2008 by Rippthrough

[M3Evo 0]

You know Milners then? Very cheerful bloke on the phone!

 

Have made a tiny bit of progress with the exhaust this weekend, started off with the down pipe but then thought I might be better of doing the rest of the system first so the DP has something to aim for.

 

Here's the beginnings of the DP:

 

 

 

 

 

And then the beginnings of the main 3" system

 

It's sitting on a standard exhaust just to give an idea on what space there is available without having to crawl under the car every two minutes.

 

 

Slowly but surely!

[Rippthrough 98]

Aye, we race against his weird truck things.

 

Should have bought some fiddle brakes while you were there

[M3Evo 0]

What on earth is a fiddle brake?!

 

 

Right, I'm really starting to think my charge cooler is scrap!

 

I filled it with water the other day and found a little wet spot on the outside.

 

I convinced myself that this was just a spot of water which had found its way onto the outside, but the more I think about it, the more I think it must have leaked out from inside the core.

 

Presumably this is going to be due to the head put into the core whilst welding. I did notice it had become banana shaped at one point, but it straightened out when it cooled down.

 

Like a nobber, I thought "would a teensy weensy leak be all that bad?" but the obvious anwer is "yes it bloody well would"

 

SO! Time to think of another solution.

 

I reckon I could easily knock up a replica of the cooler in polystyrene including the trumpets etc, and then wrap the whole thing in carbon fibre with relative ease so that'd be the casing of the thing taken care of.

 

That just leaves the core.

 

I could use an oil cooler I guess, but nothing long enough with sufficient depth seems to be available so that leaves the option of making a core.

 

I've come up with this as an idea on how to get around the problem of heat breaking the core:

 

 

Basically, there are two drilled end plates, each with 64 holes in them. There will be a top plate and a bottom plate, two spacer plates, two end tank plates with a water pipe welded to them and then 100 cooling fins at 4mm intervals.

 

The fins are to be 0.1mm thick and have 64 holes punched through them so that each hole has a swage, rather than just a drilled hole.

 

Through each of the 64 holes will pass a 1/4" aluminium tube (not shown in the sketch)

 

Each aluminium tube will be either soldered or bonded into the thick very end plates, with the spacer and end tanks being bolted and sealed on to form a water tank at each end.

 

The whole lot can then be attached to flanges on the CF shells using screws and sealant.

 

It's relatively simple in principal and is (unless I solder the pipes) free from heat distortion problems, but the question is, do we think that 100 fins and 64 tubes will be good enough at exchanging heat with the charge air?!

 

Input from all is welcome as ever!

[Rippthrough 98]

Thought about using a big heater matrix?

[M3Evo 0]

I hadn't, but I reckon the pipe configuration would lead to too much heat building up in the water as it just circulates back and forth in them doesn't it?

 

<From Yesterday>

Just had a go at doing my first laminating

 

Managed to misplace my book on the subject so I've been doing it from memory

 

Did the gel coat to a half decent thickness, let that go so you could leave a finger (or glove!) print in it, then mixed up 400ml of resin and hardener.

 

Painted the resin all over the panel, it's much runnier than I thought it'd be, then put a layer of glass tissue down.

 

The first thing we learn is that it does need cutting into tight corners or it just bridges.

 

By this point I'm thinking I might as well do another layer of 300gm csm and then call it a night so on that goes and I start patting it with my gloved hands to get the ridges where the csm was folded out.

 

This seems to work rather well so I just go on patting it all over to bring the resin through (very professional!)

 

This stuff seems happy enough to fold around the external corner over the edge of the sunroof panel, but won't do a double back for the top hat.

 

Next lesson we learn is that if you want a double back, it's gotta be done in more than one piece of mat or it'll bridge.

 

Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what it comes off the panel like tomorrow

 

Guess it's worth doing these things just as an experiment, and very good call Gareth on not starting out on a bloody boot panel as a first attempt!

 

 

Behold; the almighty bridging at the edges

 

<From Today>

 

Ha haaaaaaa!

 

Well, despite the bridging around the edges, it's actually not that bad! Released like a doddle, although that might just have been because it's so flimsy!

 

Having learned from the mistakes of attempt one, for take two I'm gonna lose the flange around the edge so the fabric can just hang down, and also cut the fabric so it can contour around the corners.

 

I'm half tempted to give it a go in CF doing just a single skin, then releasing the skin and laminating another layer on the inside to add some stiffness before finally adding some stiffening ribs.

 

My understanding is that CF in epoxy is quite alot stiffer than GF in polyester so it'll be less flimsy this time round I reckon

 

Anyway, feel free to mock

 

 

[Rippthrough 98]

Far, far stiffer, just don't break it getting it out of the mould!

[Sandy 191]

You'll find the CF and epoxy doesn't wet out nearly as well, you almost have to puddle it using gravity! Tight corners are very difficult too, because the CF will try to spring back out. Start with the finest fabric you can get.

[M3Evo 0]

Oh, that's not what I wanted to hear Was hoping it'd wet out like the glass does!

 

Oh well, there's only one way to learn and that's to have a go and see what happens. Think the sunroof's quite a good tool for learning as it has some compound curvature, a large curved surface but isn't so big that you waste loads of time and money if it goes wrong.

 

Will bear the breakage in mind when I come to release it too Ripthrough, I gather that prizing an edge up and then blowing compressed air in there helps to seperate things nicely. Will see how we get on anyway

 

 

Not a massively productive weekend unfortunately, have spent almost all of it blinging up the tail pipes for the back box

 

Also made the mistake of going to the gym with my boss on Saturday, que massive bouts of oneupmanship and today my arms don't work

 

 

So, we start out with a grubby bit of pipe, slash cut to 30 degrees (45 looked like too much this time for some reason)

 

 

 

Attack it with some 80 grit compound on the mop for a while to get to the bottom of the deep scratches and take out the welding witness marks.

 

 

 

Starting to look half decent by stage 4 of the polishing which is what you do after using 80 grit, 150 grit and 300 grit compounds.

 

 

 

And finally, after the 6th stage you end up with this. It's not perfect, but it looks alright.

 

 

 

Next up was cutting the silencer end plates with some holes. Hate doing this as the stainless work hardens and by hole 4 the cutter is all but blunt despite flooding it with coolant all the way through.

 

 

 

Finally, weld the tails onto one of the plates, marvel at how distorted it becomes, straighten it out.....and then hold them upto the cutout and hope they look OK.

 

Whadda we think?

 

 

[Sandy 191]

Looks suitably OE-ish BMW to me, which is the look I would want.

[M3Evo 0]

Cheers dude, had my reservations about having a twin 3" tail pipe arrangement but I'm pretty happy with the result

[Rippthrough 98]

Is anyone going to actually see it when you're accelerating past the horizon?