Hmm ok another little side project has slipped in the way of the Sportster! Due to an unhealthy engine Richard's 316i Compact needs a bit of work:



What's this?



... a 2.8 ltr M52 !

..hopefully! Richard's Compact is going well. The engine is running as can be seen in this video (Xvid - 8Mb) - not much left to do on this 'side project' now. We'll be working on the Sportster again before the end of the year!

And some piccys for the hell of it :)

From:



To:

After a good clean up in there to clear out the back log of Compact parts its looking good again. Took the metro master cylinder off today and test fitted the BMW one. There is a gap the size of the adapter plate between the servo pin and the master cylinder - should be quite easy to add something in there to fill the gap due to the design of the BMW master cylinder. With a gasket there will now be a good seal here. There's nothing worse than a vacuum leak on an M20 to upset its idle! Slow start but a start at last! :)

The exhaust mock is finally finished! After a complete disaster last year with a shop in Southampton that didn't do their job we've changed plans and created our own exhaust with a BTB 6 branch manifold and two Magnaflow glass packs. The rest of the piping is made of Jetex stainless universal parts.




This week we finished the mock up on the exhaust! Due to Richard's Compact project we've got a MIG welder now! This meant that we could tack weld the bits together! It needed the 35 degree angle replacing with a 45 as the back box on the Y pipe ended up sitting far too far back and there wasn't enough straight parts to move it far enough in. With the 45 everything now fits with just enough adjustment room to get the back boxes aligned.




At some point soon we'll take the parts than need the welding finished off to Black-Cat (a talkaudio regular) who will finish it off properly - not quite read to make nice stainless welds yet after about an hours practice!





We've also re-done the brake pipes at the front and fitted the BMW master cylinder with adapter plate

The exhaust is installed, and it sounds great! Possibly a bit loud for SVA. Will test it with DB plugs from Jetex, or possibly install some extra mufflers. But first we'll dig out an SPL meter and see what it reads!

Here is the video: Exhaust Video 12Mb Xvid / MP3

We were playing with a db meter today and on the A weight setting it's idling around 80db 40cm back at a slight angle. On the way up to 4000rpm it peaks over 100db and at 4000 it is in the high 90's. Will really need to keep a close eye on that and do some research on exact testing conditions for SVA. I think it's pretty boarder line right now. I did find blocking one of each of the pipes on either side with my hand made it significantly quieter (by ear anyway) So I may just need to block those off for the test

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Possible solution for reduced brake travel due to fitting the BMW master cylinder with adapter plate:





Seems ok from a dry run without fluid or servo. Full test will have to wait until I've put fluid back in the system. Going to need to glue this in place some how, probably with silicone sealer. Given the shroud (?) is so big on the BMW master cylinder I can see this ever falling out, but it could reposition depending on the speed at white the piston retracts when you lift your foot off the brake.



Refitted the tank today with rubber strips and added two additional exhaust hangers just behind the seats. That makes 4 hangers at the back and the one on the gearbox which should be enough fail safes if any of them go.



There should be more than enough room between the tank and the mufflers now. Just need to add a head shield above each one and the exhaust will be done.. or maybe not....



....spent a bit of time experimenting with noise levels - admittedly inside the garage as the weather was pants!

Seems the carbon box is very, very loud! I put the stock air box on the end in addition to the carbon one and the volume when down considerably! May have to re-think that for SVA - or even add the stock airbox for the test if I can fit it in!

The exhaust is pretty loud, and I think I may buy two extra mufflers, this time from Jetex and I can't seem to get the magnaflow models I'm after in the UK. The Jetex ones are also a straight through design so I should think it wouldn't have too adverse an effect on the performance of the engine, I think my head will thank me after a longer trip.

If I do want to take it on any track day I think I would get black flagged pretty quickly with the current set-up - wish I could take it for a real world test drive on the road but that is a bit of an issue - as you would expect!

More noise testing tomorrow if the weather is better.

Done more testing outside and its a lot better out there. If you stand back on idle its not bad at all. Were not going to add any extra mufflers, but possibly do the brillo pad trick for SVA and block two of the exits. Might see if we can do something to quieten the intake as well.

Forgot the db meter though so another excuse to run the engine next weekend :)

Forgot the camera today - oops! Nothing that interesting to see really. Started wrapping the manifold - what horrible task. Fibreglass everywhere and not that easy getting it round all the pipes! Then we ran out of wrap with one pipe to go, will have order some more!

Second issue of the day more idle problem hunting. Took the TPS (throttle position sensor) off the throttle body today. It was quite badly gunked up with oil so that got a good clean out and a check with the multimeter - everything looks good but the engine is still idling between 1000 and 1100 rpm. Bummer! Not sure what to try next as we're try replacing all the main components that will normally cause idle problems on an M20.

Finally found a use for the DB plugs that works! They can just about be squeezed into the openings for the tail pipes in the Magnaflow boxes! This works quite well in reducing the noise and can be pulled out again. I should think we'll be OK for SVA with a the boxes bunged up.

Another small distraction off topic: The video of the Compact engine swap is finally done:

http://www.328compact.co.uk/328compact.avi (19Mb Xvid / MP3)

Been a bit of a slow month really, but after much shouting at it I've wrapped the manifold:



It was pretty, but noisy and hot - this was the solution! Heat wrap what a PITA messy job that was! I highly recommend using gloves and a mask as the fibres go everywhere!



6 branch wrapped



Still looks pretty with the wrap on it!and a bit of wheel size testing:I've done a bit of experimenting with the rear wheel off my daily driver. It's a 9Jx17 with 245/40/R17 tyre.



9J x 17 with 245/40/R17 tyres - damn good look from the back!



Fits under the arch quite well



Nice look from the side



... but here is the problem! The tyre rubs on the side of the bodywork. Our body work sticks a bit further out than normal due to the coil over install. I don't think it is practical to use an alloy bigger than 8.5J. You might get away with a 235 width tyre on a 9J rim but its very, very close.



Here's a comparison of size between the 9J and the standard E30 7J with 205/65/R15

I pulled the injectors out of the engine today as part of trying to track down the high idle on the engine. The o-rings pretty much fell to pieces after prodding them a bit. So I'm guessing there will have been a vacuum leak from there.

Also one of the injectors wasn't spraying as well as the others. Put them in the in the ultra sonic cleaner for a good while. Unfortunately my local parts desk was closed by the time I needed new o-rings so running will have to wait until I get new ones!

I highly recommend pulling the injectors, cleaning them (or get them cleaned) and replacing the o-rings on such an old engine!

The adapter that Robin sent me for the brake servo to master cylinder, now with the edge machined down to match the silicon mould I managed to create with my previous "botch job" solution!


Tank out again! For the final time, I hope! Time to mount the heat shield.
Heat shield in place - this will keep the heat of the exhaust away from the tank.


View from the back, hopefully the body will cover the shield so you can't see it


Time to Fix the old HT lead holder-y-me-jig - I did get a another one of these second hand but it was banana shaped and was positioned closer to the exhaust - perhapse it was from a pre face lift. Anyway I decided to fix this one by making new feet for it.


All the brake parts back in place and the HT holder mounted:

Got new injector O-rings today. It was a bit of a bugger getting the new o-rings on the injectors, but fitting the injectors into the rail was easy with a bit of help from the wd40. Dropping the whole rail + injectors back on the manifold was pretty easy too. I had cleaned out all 6 holes with brake cleaner and then greased up with wd40.

The tank is now also plumbed in, so no more green petrol can with vapours everywhere!

On the plus side the engine runs a heck of a lot smoother and quieter. On the negative the idle still shows too high. Time to start hunting for electrical issues, it could be the idle is fine and it just the gauge showing wrong

I think it may be time to head back to doing some actual building otherwise the car will never get done, there's always be time to sort that later, the main thing is to make sure it will get through the emissions test!

Did loads of little things today which have been bugging me for months!

Brakes are now bled - took the car for a shortish run along the drive way, the brakes work really well :D

Fixed small fuel leak around the pump

Silver soldered the throttle cable to the threaded adjuster off the donor

Stainless clamped the throttle cable to the throttle pedal (hole cut into clamp to make room cable to go through - the way the cable can't jump out of the pedal when it's slack)

Bolted up brake pedal to servo properly

Installed a bracket for the E30 heater valve switch

Installed the horns

Took various parts off to paint exposed areas of metal

Heat shielded the the coil from the water pipes

and probably some other stuff I've forgotten!

Some pictures form yesterdays progress:


Throttle cable, engine side


Throttle cable, pedal side


Water heater switch bracket


Horns


Coil heat shield

Not done much this weekend, taken care of a few small things such as the battery holder. Also tried running the car with the original ecu chip - no difference which is odd as it should have a lower idle than the Zone chip. Must be a sensor somewhere.

One thing a number of people have said is: why didn't you rebuild the engine? At the time I lacked the confidence and skill to want to attempt it! The plan is to get the car on the road and after some shakedown time rebuild the engine!

The first parts for this rebuild arrived this week, a dbilas dynamic 282°/272° cam shaft and new up rated Schrick valve springs. Other things on the list are a complete replacment of all gaskets and seals and possibly an M52B28 crank shaft - this would stroke the engine to 2.8ltrs :)





Took some pictures of the bodywork as well: