GunMetalGrey
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Posts posted by GunMetalGrey
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21 hours ago, Nick_08 said:
It's amazing what some added compression would do.
Love the car man. That airbox is much needed, you stand gains in that alone.
Increasing compression is only good for about 3% power gain over stock compression (when going to 11.5:1) but that combined with all of the top end work certainly made a difference!
Thanks! Airbox has been slow as I debate how to do other various items that would impact the airbox layout.21 hours ago, SteelBlue said:The car looked like Steel Blue for second when I first saw this picture.
you might need a 10mm spacer for the front. If I remember correctly, my first wheels for 16x8 20ET and needed a 5mm on the front to clear it.
Yeah the fronts will be getting at least that much, possibly more depending on how close the tire is to the strut tube.
Finally had a dry enough day yesterday to test for intake vacuum at WOT. There was none.
Anyone want an M60 throttle body? haha -
On 2/19/2021 at 1:30 PM, i_love_cars said:
Just popping in to say how sweet this thing is. Those dyno numbers are also absolutely nuts, really goes to show how much a proper tune makes a difference.
Thank you sir! a
I spent some time the other day with a clay bar and some paste wax. Certainly helped the paint out a fair bit! It's not perfect but it'll do.
I bought some radiator mounts from a late model (~$18 from BMW) which turned out to be part of the core support so I cut them apart and welded them onto my current chassis. I realized the radiator had been resting on the fan and not the lower rubber bumpers like I had thought 😕
Solved that issue though, some dripping paint for the kids.
I've found this specific chassis to be fairly terrifying to drive, the rear end is clearly significantly lighter than the front so it is always looking to rotate around in any non straight situation. I was at the junkyard looking for some other parts and came across an E30 where the trunk tar was completely loose and intact, so I got that for $15 and will be throwing it in. I also got a battery cable from a late model (and all the fixings) and will be converting to a rear battery setup to help with weight balance further. Battery cable was only $15 too which was awesome.
Note the two tone trunk to plate area, as I haven't finished yet!
The piece of the puzzle that I have been waiting for! Konig countergram's in hyperchrome which have been backordered since October, one place got a handful in stock and I managed to grab a set. 15x8 et25 and will be running a 225/45r15 likely with an rt660 for fun.
Rears look like they will fit beautifully (IX rear end) and may have a smidge of room to go out further.
Fronts have the rim .05" off the strut tower, so I will need to space that out. May end up grabbing camber plates for the front to make things more proper and fit easier.
I'm stoked with the way they look in person!
This car is coming along nicely, it wasn't fun to drive when I got it due to clutch and various contact points, but it has been fun cleaning up all the small lingering items!
- i_love_cars and m42b32
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Went out wheeling the other weekend because a friend was looking to test out his Jeep.
It started with driving right into a river that was not shallow and driving down the bank a bit. We laugh after exiting and ask him what the heck that was about.
"It's usually just river rock along the bank, turns out it's water today!"
We then proceed to drive to a spot where we've gone winter wheeling up a mountain before, and it started snowing as we got closer.
We didn't see much for tracks going up, and this is a popular spot. Turns out that it had snowed many feet since the last people were up there!
The Jeep was a snow plow, and the only reason we did have snow rolling over the top of the 35" tall tires was due to the bumper pushing it to the side first. It was an awesome time!I need to fix / scrap my broken ass Jeep lol. Ripped a brake line off it accidently on our new years day run up the same mountain, not to mention all the other issues.
It's snowing here today which is odd and reminded me of this. I also love seeing people play in the snow in the city here since it doesn't happen often. People sledding in the streets, quads / side by sides ripping around with sleds behind, just people out enjoying it. That and a ton of cars in the ditches haha. -
On 2/4/2021 at 1:18 PM, m42b32 said:
How's the quality on the motorsport horn button?
Quality seems solid, crisp lines, smooth clear over the top.
The wheels I've wanted for this are finally in stock so I snagged a set, right after saying I was done with excessive spending for the rest of the month...😒 -
Side note; data acquisition keeps getting postponed due to wet roads! I need full throttle full load for intake vacuum differential testing!
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1 hour ago, P_Roloff said:
This car needs a golf ball shift knob.
Wheel looks nice, is it one of the Renown ones?
Yeah I was eyeing up the golf boi... the current shifter is meh
Yeah it is a Renown unit, figured I'd give it a shot. Everything feels nice and sturdy, price is appealing, shall see how it holds up!
The tri-color stitching wasn't my first choice, but after ordering the black stitching they said they were out and it would be some time before getting any more. I think the tri-color is acceptable given the powerplant! -
Throttle body updates? Nah
I determined I want to do some data collection before that regarding intake vacuum pre/post TB
What I did do was replace the boat 3 spoke steering wheel with a smaller unit. Please ignore the lack of kick panel near the pedals, and the speaker grille. Gotta love early models for not having actual kick panels there.
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On 1/20/2021 at 7:08 AM, m42b32 said:
I'm looking to put up a rack like this in my basement, I need to come up with something better than 'bikes all over the place'. It's hard to tell, is that something off the shelf or just some 2x4s and hooks from the hardware store? I'd like something that I can slide the hooks back and forth to pack bikes together when I'm not riding them.
It is indeed just 2x4 and hardware store hooks.
You could use an aluminum extrusion of sorts with sliding hooks possibly. There's gotta be an industrial solution available. Butchers rack maybe?
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Alright I'm going to start thinking out loud here.
So what I was looking at while working on an airbox is the tight radius elbow that leads into the throttle body on my car. The bimmerworld elbow is used to adapt to the 3.5" MAF but seems to have a tighter radius than stock.
Bends are bad for airflow, and I currently have a tight radius 90 before the throttle body, then a 90 after the filter. Total of 180° of bends.
The E36 chassis needs this bend due to the strut tower location and them being close together, but the strut towers are further back and apart in an E30, and the throttle body is almost entirely forward of it. Random google pic instead of going to my car.
Step 1: New throttle body. I recently stumbled upon someone who put an M60 throttle body (80mm) on an S52. Turns out many years ago Treehouse racing actually made a kit to do this, but I have never seen this or heard about it, and it looks like not many were ever made. The throttle body uses the same TPS, but everything else is different. I picked up one on ebay for $60 shipped. This is the same engine that my MAF is from.
I will be making an adapter that will allow me to bolt this up to my engine, and I will be opening up the hole in the manifold to capitalize on the swap. I will need to make a bracket for the throttle cable as well.
Step 2: Remove 90° bend at throttle body. If I move my coolant expansion tank to the passenger side of the car (plenty of space) I can get away with running (1) 45° elbow at the throttle body, and keep the rest straight with maybe a small bend to accommodate the filter. Taking 135° of bends out of my intake tubing should help, especially with eliminating the tight radius bend before the throttle body.
What I'd like to do is swap this stuff while it's on the dyno and see actual results.
The biggest downside is going to be drivability; currently I barely have to breathe on the throttle pedal to cruise, and this swap will amplify that issue. I will make a different throttle arm if I have enough pedal travel to do so.
I don't think this swap ever caught on because it is likely very pointless on a relatively stock engine, but we're far from that in this thread! -
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On 1/12/2021 at 12:56 PM, P_Roloff said:
I think you should post a video of this. You know, for scientific purposes.
Ahhh man an excuse to go beat on the car... I hate those!
Note my overzealous let-off that had me pointing toward another car in oncoming traffic, and the other side being a ditch lol
I hope @B C appreciates the audio, the timing was unintentional.
The highway was actually dry enough to let 3rd gear stretch its legs, I always debate going back to a 3.73 in this car, but the 3.25 feels like it takes great advantage of the torque on hand. -
Update time!
I was driving the car around for a day or two after tuning, tearing up the streets and such. Went to a guys house who does E36 racecars and was working on s54 itb adapters for m5x/s5x engines which I wanted to pick his brain about for reasons. Right before I got to his house the temp gauge started climbing above half, figured it was just air so wasn't worried. Before I left his house I opened the expansion tank and worked the hoses a bit. Started my 30 min drive home and made it about 10 before it started overheating. I parked in a gas station and tried for 40 or so minutes to burp the cooling system and add coolant but it was no success. Luckily I was about 5 miles from a friends house who just so happened to not be working that night. I started driving to his place and as I got off the highway I nearly stalled it changing gears as the clutch engagement point was suddenly on the floor... I pumped the pedal once or twice to find out something in the clutch blew out and I could barely get anything.
I continued driving my overheating e30 without using the clutch and trying to time traffic lights correctly. I made it into his apartment complex and parked it, got a ride home, and rented a uhaul trailer (again) to pick the car up.
Slave cylinder hydraulic seal blew out, so brake fluid was dumping out of the bellhousing. I bought a new master and slave cyl to accompany the new clutch and not have to worry about it for many years again.
I dropped the trans with the engine in the car which I haven't done before. Not as bad as everyone says it is!
I swapped to a E36 flywheel with 240mm clutch vs the E30 flywheel that was in it at 228mm. The old six puck clutch was indeed required to hold the NA power that this engine is producing which is amusing, but sucks to drive. Swapped to a full face organic disk.
Old clutch/PP/Flywheel weight: 31.4 Lbs.
New clutch/PP/Flywheel weight: 28.4 Lbs.
Three pounds lighter for a better clutch? I'm game! Photo of old clutch so I can remember the abuse it caused.
After using the wrong throw-out bearing the first time which required me to take the trans back out, I was finally at the point where everything was back together and ready for coolant. I poured coolant in and started hearing a trickle, and found a pinhole in my radiator that had 3 hours or so of runtime on it. I must've caught it on something while taking it out. My attempt to solder it was unsuccessful so I ordered another one, thankfully the CSF OE replacement is cheap!
So everything is back together now, and RockAuto sent me the correct crank sensor after they sent me the wrong one (the must've had a mislabeled box or something odd) and it seems the crank sensor was the cause of my breakup and stumbling issues, as the car now pulls smoothly to 7?00 RPM. I would like to get back on the dyno to make sure that top rev range is tuned and to see where the power starts to taper.
The new clutch is so damn nice to drive with, frankly it should've been the first thing I did to the car when I got it. The ability to slip the clutch and not have the car lurching is lovely, and as resulted in me driving this thing a lot more than it ever has been since I've known it.
It does still have the issue of losing traction in 3rd gear on moist pavement at 65mph though. I need to work on that one yet!
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Yeah I settled on automatic thinking it would be nice for traffic (which it is) but I don't end up in traffic often haha.
I am looking to sell it sometime in the near future, and the lack of rust on things out here is awesome.
Sport 128i's that are manual seem to be quite tricky to come across! I do really enjoy the chassis though. -
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Oh man, this is a thread I can get behind!
As a kid I worked on dirt jumps at a friends house and reworked all kinds of weird mountain bikes to make the most suspension travel possible out of the cheap Walmart bikes I found or was given.
The real stuff all started when I was working in the Scheel's service shop. I built / repaired bikes and a whole variety of other things, it was honestly one of my favorite jobs (outside of the dismal pay) and I have debated doing a similar job again on the side. I worked with a lot of high end road bikes and decided to try my hand at that, and with the employee discount of Scheel's (cost +5%) it was an easy decision to pick up a Fuji Sportif and I started riding that with a friend.
It was amusing but one day he and I were standing in my parents garage looking up at a pair of vintage mountain bikes and decided to take them for a rip around the gravel path near the house. We had more fun doing that than any other road riding session we had ever encountered. We started riding High Cliff right before winter, always returning coated in mud and cold, but it was so much fun.
The summer after that I started riding with a couple friends from school at Riverview Gardens in Appleton, and was introduced to the Reforestation Camp in Green Bay. I also started seeing a friend in Marquette riding some really cool looking trails that I had a desire to go see. I went to The Recyclist in Appleton and traded in my road bike for a Giant Talon with an air sprung front fork and hydraulic disc brakes. It was miles better than the Specialized Hardrock circa 2000 that I had been riding as a loaner from a friend, and it was what lead the same friend to buy a Fuji Nevada for his first MTB.
I started riding more with school friends and their friends, and that's when things really took off. We rode various places in WI (standing rock, a place in Tomahawk, Baird's, Refo) and at one point a friend of a friend asked if I wanted to do a skills clinic in Copper Harbor. I had ridden with him a couple of times and figured why the heck not!
We headed up and stopped at Michigan Tech and rode the DH trails they had there, which was the first time I had ever ridding a solely downhill trail. I am not one to make exclamations above standard volume, but Cory was in front of me hooting and hollering as we tore down the trail and I found myself matching his style and yelling in excitement as gravity took hold of the situation. The weekend in Copper Harbor was eye opening and was where I met even more people I still keep in contact with. A few weeks later a friend rented a full suspension bike in Copper Harbor and we both rode it and bought full suspension bikes in the following weeks. It was a massive upgrade from the hardtails that our legs and butts learned to hate.
Copper Harbor skills clinic lead me to do things that I never saw myself doing, I was always afraid of falling as a kid, but for some reason that fear was leaving me. Sadly it is coming back and I have been working on that as much as possible. A nice rock roll from Copper Harbor on my first FS bike.
Shortly after all of this I started talking more with the guy in Marquette who I had been in Highschool with. We started visiting Marquette more often and riding the trails out there, and if you have not gone, you absolutely must. The trail network out there is insane, and there are miles of unmarked trails that will knock your socks off.
I'm losing track of timeline here due to the overwhelming good times that are coming to mind. I have met so many awesome people due to MTB, it is the main reason I moved across the country, the reason for staying in shape, and also a great source of frustration. I'll never forget the time we got big talking @HipMF
to come ride the stuff we always talked about, and in the first 2 days he lost his wallet and broke his bike and body. I've been to CO, Whistler, Duluth (another amazing place to ride), Little Switz, Marquette, Alabama, and Washington all just to ride bikes.
When we moved to WA we quickly violated the lease terms with our bike rack
Our typical bike chaining in Marquette
It was always a game of how many people and gear you could cram into one truck
I now have a two bike fleet. My 2017 Intense Tracer trail bike (165mm front and rear travel) and 2018 YT Tues (200mm front and rear travel). In Washington the trail bike is king, and I've quickly learned how to pace out (4) 1,300ft climbs in an afternoon to get some laps in on the trails. There are a couple of spots that are viable to shuttle and ride trail bikes yet though.
The one thing I've missed greatly this year is the ability to go into Canada. BC is absolutely insane, the trails are perfect, the views are stunning, and Whistler bike park is astounding.
A simple stop in Squamish for some Tim Horton's is picturesque
Riding the chair up at Whistler knowing you've got almost an hour of descent (with breaks) coming up if you go up high enough, just insane. This picture is of the second chair up, you cannot even see the first chair, and you start the the town that is behind the cables, not the dirt area to the right of them. It is 4,000ft of rideable mountain, and I don't know where else to get that kind of thrill, all 3.5 hours away from our house in WA. That was the amount of time I used to spend driving to Marquette.
But it all doesn't come without damage. Among the amount of blood and skin I've shed on trails, there was a particular day in MN when I overshot a jump and thought I hit my helmet on the tree that I landed into. The ski patrol couldn't see any marks on my helmet, but I sure did do a number on my lip and teeth. I re arranged my teeth, cracked one, and put a couple of said teeth through my lip. A memorial day trip to the urgent care was fun, and I still chuckle about it. The Urgent care people took all my info and then took one lip at my lip after uncovering it, and walked me over to the ER to get it taken care of haha. 8 stitches inside my lip, and that nice one on the outside.
If anyone is looking to ride and travel let me know, I will gladly provide transportation, a place to crash, and guide services to have a blast on bikes, regardless of skill level.
Sadly my job has me on the road a lot so I don't spend as much time on the bike as I would like, but I plan to start flying with my bike more often and not worry about the dark or weather and just start riding more.
Lots of good memories and good friends, and I hope to keep that rolling! -
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2 hours ago, patsbimmer1 said:
said a small prayer to the BMW gods
I think this is what WIBimmers collectively forgets to do before hooking up a compression tester!
I'm glad to see it was a relatively easy fix! Dropping pans is never that much fun, especially for something of this nature.- YoungCR and patsbimmer1
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1 hour ago, KaiserRolls said:
Great results.
i know you’re OBD1, but was he able to log any IATs or anything during the runs? Heat soak that quickly sounds not fun
It's not an intake thing ( I don't think at this point) as the intake tube was cool the whole time. I'm thinking there is a sensor on the fritz or something like that and is affected by temperature. It didn't have the breakup issue in WI but started happening shortly after bringing it out here.
I tried (5) different coils today and that didn't change anything, so will shuffle them around and try again. I had tried a new crank sensor but the new one was DOA. Not entirely sure what else to start chasing down.
1 hour ago, m42b32 said:There's just something about an early model with euro bumpers, it looks so good. Amazing numbers! I bet it's an absolute riot to drive.
It's a classy look for sure, but doesn't sound or drive classy!
Drove it around a bit today, and realized how much I hate the clutch. It was put in when he thought he was going to do boost, so its a stage 39485958 6 puck unsprung on a single mass flywheel. It blows, that's pretty high on the list of things to replace because it simply isn't enjoyable. -
Got the engine back together and was still getting breakup issues around the 3500rpm mark, but wouldn't stumble if I was spinning tire at that point, and got worse as the engine warmed up. Being unsure of the quality of the chip tune, and long time desire to see this dyno tuned, it was finally time to take it in and see if the tune was to blame.
After some wood and time to get it up the dyno ramps (it's not high off the ground...) it was nestled in and the tuning commenced. Yes the door was open for tuning.
The first pull on the chip tune yielded a very lackluster 236hp and 231lbft of torque, and the breakup around 3500rpm really reared its head.
I would be lying if I told you that I was happy with that amount of power, but rolled into it knowing that may happen.
The tuner then took the existing tune out and tossed on one that he had from a roughly similar motor to see how it liked that. The pull was smooth and didn't break up with the new tune, and it sounded much better. I glanced at the screen and saw 296hp flash across it, and I looked at the tuner to verify what I had just seen. He hadn't looked at the number yet, so we went over and looked. Sure shit, first pull with a different tune and we gained 60hp. We were all quite impressed, as that was nearing the highest HP S5x they have ever seen NA, and its a specific E36 shop that builds many a motor.
More tuning commenced and the motor responded really well to any changes and kept improving in powerband and peak numbers, though as the engine would heat-soak the breakup around 3500rpm would return no matter how much fuel or timing was added/removed. That one boils down to a hardware issue somewhere that I am working on tracking down.
After a few hours of playing he finally determined that it was doing the best it could, and put down some serious numbers that everyone was happy with.
We managed to pick up 75hp and 45ftlbs more torque on an NA engine which is simply astounding. The car is now making more TQ across the entire range than it made in horsepower on the chip tune. The rev limit is at 6600rpm right now and once I find that breakup issue when warm (affects rev limit also) I will be going back and having the limit moved up a fair bit as peak horsepower is at redline right now so I will likely continue to make more power.
The car is an absolute machine now, it pulls hard and smooth throughout the whole range and I keep hitting rev limiter because at no point does it feel like I need to shift.
Absolutely stoked with the whole tune, and the guys at the shop were great to work with.
- Jdesign, i_love_cars, KaiserRolls and 1 other
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Long time no update
This thing has been a struggle.
Things that were happening; engine was stumbling around 3200-3500rpm and sometimes wouldn't push past it, light throttle would allow those revs. Would hit some form of limiter far before what the hard limit is set to.
I thought it may be due to 92 octane (10% ethanol) vs the tune being for 91 no ethanol. I tracked down some 92 no ethanol (technically not legal in WA) and tried that. No dice
Hooked up a wideband to see what it was doing in that range and noticed that it would lean out on light accel and was running right on the edge of what seems comfortable for being too lean.
Took the fuel pump out while I was trying to further investigate my lack of fuel gauge and was reminded of the time when the pump in this car was being changed and I noted you couldn't dangle a fuel pump with a piece of wire cable tied to the fuel pump bracket. I dropped the pump back down and verified the pickup of the pump was sitting on the bottom of the fuel tank.
Drove again and the AFR's came back nicely, but still struggling a bit in that 3k and rev limit range, though I noted a strong increase in midrange torque.
I had been monitoring spark plugs and cylinder tops and had noted that each time cylinder 6 was wet on top, and so was the half of cyl 5 that is near 6. Tried blowing them off to see if it was fuel from a leaky injector or something of the like and nothing happened. Cylinder 5 and 6 were the lowest in a compression test, so the head came off assuming the HG didn't manage to hold through the lean abuse.
Off came the head, the old gasket did have faint notes of failure.
I decided to go with another MLS as my last cut ring experience was not good, and I was unsure if the stock HG would allow for the 87mm bore pistons. When removing the old gasket it seemed thicker than it should be (.08" was the previous order) and I verified that this engine has been using a .100" thick gasket this whole time. A rough ratio shows that it brought the compression back to just about stock.
I ordered stock thickness so we will see a hair above 11.5:1 compression now.
Started reassembling the engine and got everything timed up and assembled, went to install the primary chain tensioner and it never got tight. Surprise no more threads in the tensioner hole.
Called around to see who had an M26 helicoil with no success. Tried a local E36 shop who said on the phone they had them and could fix it, drove an hour there to drop it off, waited for 2.5 hours, then got a call saying they couldn't fix it and they didn't think they even made helicoils that big. That was a colossal waste of time and made me super happy.
i ended up ordering a kit to helicoil it as I'm not super keen on welding in that hole and would still need to pay someone to bore it back out and tap it again.
In good news I finally took it from the original (adorable) early 318i front brakes to the late model brakes with all new parts.
Hoping to have the head back on by Saturday before I leave for another month work trip.
.....This was supposed to be fun to drive and just small projects
I Have a Problem
in Members BMWs
Posted
Identical pic from the bay of e
1742010 is what is on the throttle boy.
Ben Plz'd