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

[Rob Turbo 3]

Just out of interest, can anyone tell me what you're supposed to coat the MLS head gaskets with?

 

They don't need coating do they? IIRC they come pre coated with a very thin rubbery coating, looks like matt black paint, could be wrong though, I'm going to be using a MLS head gasket on my turbo engine so I'm interested to see if anything is needed!

 

Great project though, can't wait to see it finished.

[Sandy 191]

I don't put anything on them, but some people use that horrible non drying brown varnish like stuff, I forget the name.

[M3Evo 0]

I'm hearing mixed reports on this, either coat them for safety's sake, or just slap them in

 

 

Litte bit of a mixed bag today, was going to install the rockers and new cam in the 'head....or so went the plan

 

I'd forgotten that when I put my last set of ITBs on, I tried to remove the long manifold stud and succeeded in breaking it off. I'd tried to drill it out last time too, but gave up.

 

This wasn't too much of a problem as the old ITBs had a 25mm thick plate which bolted to the head meaning you could get away without one bolt, but this time round they're only 8mm thick so

 

 

I wondered if weighing the head down would be enough to stop it moving whilst I drill out the old stud, but it's not Think I'll make up a strap which can be bolted to the head and mill to prevent it all moving about.

 

Secondly, I spotted something which has got me worrying!

 

Here's the new pistons and the like at TDC:

 

 

I'm worried that they're not supposed to poke up above the deck of the block like that! Anyone know for sure?

 

Anyway, after failing to get much done at the parents' house, I went home and cracked on with making the mould for a front wing.

 

The wheelarch portion of the mould is removable which will hopefully make it easier to get the finished panel out:

 

 

And the rest of the panel is all hemmed in, again to give some margins to laminate on to and make removing the finished article easier

 

 

 

[welshpug 1,657]

how deep is the combustion chamber in the head and how thick is the gasket? that'll give you an idea of how clos you'll be with the piston coming up that far.

[M3Evo 0]

Looks like the pistons are supposed to be about 0.7mm proud of the deck, so there's hope yet!

 

Couldn't face measuring pistons this weekend, so cracked on with the mould for the front wing.

 

It weighs an absolute TON!

 

Fingers crossed that it releases from the original wing too

 

 

 

 

I'm hoping that the materials for the engine mounts will be here next weekend so I'll have a good amount of work to do at the parents' gaff. I keep going there of a weekend and not really having a plan of action so I just mill about achieving nothing

[M3Evo 0]

Minor update, ordered the dry sump pump today.

Planning to drive it from the jack-shaft via a duplex chain so that I don't have to worry about a spindly little toothed belt breaking

[taylorspug 7]

I don't put anything on them, but some people use that horrible non drying brown varnish like stuff, I forget the name.

 

Wellseal.

 

I'm hearing mixed reports on this, either coat them for safety's sake, or just slap them in

 

I know a few people who build boosted engines do Wellseal gaskets for safety. However as long as the deck and head are clean and flat i cant see it making much difference.

[M3Evo 0]

Gonna use this Permatex stuff and hope for the best I think, belt and braces and all that

 

 

Didn't get as far as I'd have liked today as I had to fix my bike for work tomorrow. Bloody Shimano! Needed to modify a part that should've just dropped straight into place, then modify some other parts so that they'd fit, and finally apply a brutal amount of force to make a chain fit! All of which took about four hours!

 

Anyway, here's the car pics

 

Starting the jig for the engine mounts:

 

 

 

Little bit further with the jig:

 

 

 

A door handle which I wrapped in CF during the week just to see how well it went:

 

 

 

The new engine mounts, you can see how these will locate the engine much better than the standard ones

 

 

 

And this is as far as I got this weekend

 

 

Sorry for the crap last two photos! Forgot my camera

[shalmaneser 26]

That door handle looks stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

I've reached a new low. I just complimented another man's door handle.

Edited May 19, 2009 by shalmaneser

[M3Evo 0]

It was just a sample really. Hopefully all the carbon panels will look as good!

 

He heee! Quite chuffed with this!

 

I've released the original wing from the mould (destroying the wing in the process!) to leave this:

 

 

Most importantly though, it's a BIG thumbs up for Meguiars Mirror Glaze release agent! It gives you the surface finish of your panel, and releases incredibly easily!

 

There's a bit of paint stuck to the mould unfortunately, looks like rust was lurking under the surface of the paint, but other than that, I'm pretty pleased

[xxvickyxx 0]

Wow that carbon fibre has come out really well

[M3Evo 0]

He hee, amazing what a bit of spit'n'polish will do

 

 

Mundane update for today, ordered the air filter for a new V8 M3 from BMW.

 

Plan is to make a nice carbon fibre enclosure for it which draws only cool air from behind/beneath the headlight and ducts it to the turbo.

 

Really don't like the look of cone filters and I figure that there must be some redundancy built into the 400bhp M3's filter so it shouldn't prove restrictive on my engine

[M3Evo 0]

Crikey, the new M3's filter is BIIIG!

 

Looks like it'll fit behind the headlights with a decent amount of room for air to surround it though.

 

I've got as far as making the polystyrene base and one side for the enclosure so far.

 

 

[M3Evo 0]

Woo hoo! Got the engine mounts finished (except for painting!) today.

 

Give a nice little bit of extra clearance to the smaller turbo's oil drain too which is a plus

 

 

 

[M3Evo 0]

Had a measure of the standard pistons the other day and reckoned that they're 0.3mm too high

 

This is confirmed by the compression height marked on the box which says they're 0.3mm too tall too.

 

Thinking I might get a 0.3mm decomp plate and be done with it as the easy way out.

[shalmaneser 26]

Would it be possible for you to whip .3 off the pistons yourself on the lathe? As long as you've got a set of nylon jaws you should be OK, as long as you have the thickness on the crown.

 

A decomp plate sounds (and has aways sounded) like a bodge to me, twice as many head gaskets to blow....

 

Mounts look lovely though!

[cybernck 402 1 Cars]

DP-Engineering have done many high-power turbo conversion using decompression plates and two (MLS i think) headgaskets .

[M3Evo 0]

It is a bit of a bodge, but having spoken to Ferriday they reckon it'll be absolutely fine and that I can sandwich the plate between two layers of my MLS gasket.

 

I'm pretty confident this can be sorted with a minimum of outlay and hassle

 

Just glad I spotted it!

[James_R 3]

Can't you just get a cometic or similar MLS made up 0.3mm thicker? as 2x1mm gaskets plus decomp would be 1.3mm extra?

 

*please ignore me if I'm being retarded*

[welshpug 1,657]

that' exactly what my thought was! fatter gasket, wouldn't matter too much if your compression ratio was a little higher as its quite low already?

[Dom9 2]

2 weeks - Where is our update, huh?

 

Chop, chop!

 

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Regarding the head gasket, personally I'm not too keen on the two head gaskets idea, however to restore the compression ratio on the mini turbo motor after the head warped and needed skimming we had Ferriday make a slightly thicker gasket for us, job sorted. As you'll know if you've spoken to him, Mike Tanski is a very friendly and helpful guy.

[zebedy101 0]

looks cracking i love the old school bmw's. i also think the idea of 2 intercoolers is very good

[M3Evo 0]

Sorry Dom! Been bevering away raising funds for the project

 

Only this kind of thing, but it all helps!

 

 

 

It might end up that I get ferriday to make a copper HG of the right thickness and be done with it, will have to see how much it costs.

 

Mike did point out that having a bit of a weak link could save damage to other, more costly components if the tune wanders out.

 

Will be making a start on the front wing tomorrow, probably start re-making the mould for the boot lid too.

 

Also need to get a burette from somewhere so I can find out whether the piston people ballsed up the compression ratio too. Just been putting it off is all!

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Nearly any decent Pharmacy should be able to sell you a graduated syringe for peanuts to do the job, proper burrettes cost a fortune.