These pages show the build from the start 20 entries at a time!
02/07/2006
Some progress
An interesting day today. It was one of those so close, yet so far moments when it came to seeing if it will drive.
The engine has been really rough on idle and we finally found out why today. After a lot of debugging with the help of E30Zone - leading to leaks in the vacuum system being the most obvious issue it turns out there is a giant leak between the break master cylinder and the servo. After plugging with insulating tape the engine start running normally and sounded great! Idle is still to high at 1000RPM but then the donor had this problem before i took it to bits. Going to try replacing a few vacuum hoses and see how it does. Also need to test the AF
M, TPS and ICV (airflow meter, throttle position sensor and idle control valve) electronics to make sure everything it working properly.
On to the second saga of the day! Brakes and clutch. Decided it was time to fill the system and make sure the brakes work and the clutch. Got one of those Ezybleed things you get use with tyre pressure. Very good except none of the supplied caps would fit the marlin reservoir - doh. Luckily with the help of a friend to hold the the cap in place it sort of worked - still ended up with brake fluid everywhere!! First thing some of the joints in the back started leaking so under the car very quickly to bolt those up. The bleed nipples were a bit of a bugger to open up, which became nice an easy after a trip to halfords for a 7mm ring spanner!
The big minus was the clutch master cylinder, this has completely seized up after bleeding the system. It wont depress at all so I'm going to have to order a new one. May as well get the slave cylinder at the same time.
If the clutch had of worked then I could have taken it for a quick run to the end of the drive way and back.
Petrol tank has a minor crack that needs fixing as well. I've found some one who's willing to give it a go, otherwise I've got some POR tank sealer.u
The engine has been really rough on idle and we finally found out why today. After a lot of debugging with the help of E30Zone - leading to leaks in the vacuum system being the most obvious issue it turns out there is a giant leak between the break master cylinder and the servo. After plugging with insulating tape the engine start running normally and sounded great! Idle is still to high at 1000RPM but then the donor had this problem before i took it to bits. Going to try replacing a few vacuum hoses and see how it does. Also need to test the AF
M, TPS and ICV (airflow meter, throttle position sensor and idle control valve) electronics to make sure everything it working properly.
On to the second saga of the day! Brakes and clutch. Decided it was time to fill the system and make sure the brakes work and the clutch. Got one of those Ezybleed things you get use with tyre pressure. Very good except none of the supplied caps would fit the marlin reservoir - doh. Luckily with the help of a friend to hold the the cap in place it sort of worked - still ended up with brake fluid everywhere!! First thing some of the joints in the back started leaking so under the car very quickly to bolt those up. The bleed nipples were a bit of a bugger to open up, which became nice an easy after a trip to halfords for a 7mm ring spanner!
The big minus was the clutch master cylinder, this has completely seized up after bleeding the system. It wont depress at all so I'm going to have to order a new one. May as well get the slave cylinder at the same time.
If the clutch had of worked then I could have taken it for a quick run to the end of the drive way and back.
Petrol tank has a minor crack that needs fixing as well. I've found some one who's willing to give it a go, otherwise I've got some POR tank sealer.u
03/07/2006
An update and some pictures
Ordered new clutch master/slave cylinder as well as various vacuum hoses to replace old and possibly rotten ones causing the high idle on the engine. II might try to get my hands on a second hand AFM if the new hoses wont fix the high idle. Once its back from the exhaust place and has a few panels on we'll take it down to the local garage for an MOT.
As I've not posted any piccys in a while here's a few:
"Ghetto" exhaust & fuel tank
and "Fuel tank holdery-me-jig"
All fine for testing, gave it a good run again today after silicone sealing the brake master cylinder to the servo. It runs much nicer now.
Stock exhaust header and down pipes from the donor car. Its all leaking a bit at the moment, but no worries, new exhaust soon! :)
Fuel box holder, a temp solution while the car is off to the exhaust place this week.
As I've not posted any piccys in a while here's a few:
"Ghetto" exhaust & fuel tank
and "Fuel tank holdery-me-jig"
All fine for testing, gave it a good run again today after silicone sealing the brake master cylinder to the servo. It runs much nicer now.
Stock exhaust header and down pipes from the donor car. Its all leaking a bit at the moment, but no worries, new exhaust soon! :)
Fuel box holder, a temp solution while the car is off to the exhaust place this week.
04/07/2006
Clutchy issues
Spent some more time playing with the car today. Readjusted the rockers again to double check everything - soooo important on the M20 it runs much smoother now. Still not gotten around to testing the AFM / ICV yet.
Also spent some time with the clutch. Took the pipe off the front of the master cylinder expecting it to still be solid and ended up with my trousers covered in the brake fluid in all the wrong places - doh!
Anyway moving on! Now the pedal moves again it was time to bleed the clutch again. The pedal now worked but the clutch didn't seem to be working. Unbolted the slave cylinder and the pin does not move at all when you press on the pedal. It sounds like there is an air leak in there. No mater I defiantly know what the problem is and the parts on on their way (along with some vacuum hoses and a water hose)
Also spent some time with the clutch. Took the pipe off the front of the master cylinder expecting it to still be solid and ended up with my trousers covered in the brake fluid in all the wrong places - doh!
Anyway moving on! Now the pedal moves again it was time to bleed the clutch again. The pedal now worked but the clutch didn't seem to be working. Unbolted the slave cylinder and the pin does not move at all when you press on the pedal. It sounds like there is an air leak in there. No mater I defiantly know what the problem is and the parts on on their way (along with some vacuum hoses and a water hose)
06/07/2006
Exhaust
Car is at the exhaust place now! Parts didn't come for the clutch, so wasn't able to take it for a drive - never mind, time for that later!
We'll be off on Monday to inspect the mock up. Will try and take some piccys :)
We'll be off on Monday to inspect the mock up. Will try and take some piccys :)
18/07/2006
Cars Back
Its been a bit of a saga, but the car is back in the garage. Sadly minus an exhaust. The were issues with both of the two companies involved; we don't want to go into details about this.
Needless to say but we now need a plan B. This won't involve side pipes and will be centered around high performance rather than the show factor.
On the cards is a BTB 6 branch manifold. The rest of the system at the moment we're not sure. We'll need stainless pipes and some form of muffler/silencer/back box arrangement. Some options out there such as Magnaflow, Jetex or maybe a standard E30 "cat back" system without a lot of bends (minus the cat, except Max that is, but he's more likely to sit in the car than take part in filtering exhaust gasses).
Important it to keep under the 101db SVA limit and the minimum radius rules of the tips.
Needless to say but we now need a plan B. This won't involve side pipes and will be centered around high performance rather than the show factor.
On the cards is a BTB 6 branch manifold. The rest of the system at the moment we're not sure. We'll need stainless pipes and some form of muffler/silencer/back box arrangement. Some options out there such as Magnaflow, Jetex or maybe a standard E30 "cat back" system without a lot of bends (minus the cat, except Max that is, but he's more likely to sit in the car than take part in filtering exhaust gasses).
Important it to keep under the 101db SVA limit and the minimum radius rules of the tips.
22/07/2006
Wiring Continued
Back to the wiring jungle :)
After the success of getting the engine running the rest of the wiring needs to be completed. The headlight wiring was first on the list. We have decided to use the light switch from our donor. The switch works very well and has a dimmer function for the dash & instruments lights that we want to incorporate into our Sportster.
For the light switch testing a front light was mounted on the car, this made the testing much easier as the results were instantly visible and no need to hold a multimeter up to each connection.
As with the rest of the wiring the first part was to study the BMW wiring diagrams. It became clear that the wiring diagrams did not match the wiring from our donor. So to start with the diagrams were put to one side and the wiring from donor was used as a guide to wire the light switch. The result was that lights did not function correctly, when the light switch was moved to position 1 the low beam came on, this should only be the parking light. Low beam should only come on at position 2.
With all of the confusion the multimeter came out and the switch was analysed, with the help of the wiring diagrams the switch was successfully wired. The light switch functions just like in the original car.
We will also wire up the spot lights to the high beam. Originally we planned to used the spot lights as front fog lights however in this part of the country front fog lights get very little use. With the spot lights on high beam will give us more light for driving in the dark (and help to blind rude drivers :) )
Light Off
Parking Light
Low Beam
High Beam & Flasher
Max showing us how headlights are supposed to work! :) click image for a larger version.
28/07/2006
Spot light mounting
Today the spot lights were mounted. Seemed like a simple task but took longer than expected. The first step was to grind the back edge of the brackets so that the mounts could be evenly spaced on the chassis. The following picture shows the before and after grinding. (left - before & right - after )
Click me
Next the holes were marked, drilled and tapped. When the bumpers are mounted the outer screws from the spot light brackets will go into the bumpers, this will hold them in place.
Below you can see a completed spot light bracket. The mounting holes were counter sunk so the screw heads do not stick up as high. The spot light mounting hole needed to be widened from 14mm to 16mm, this was done on a lathe.
The following pictures show the finished mounted bracket and spot light
This is how our Sportster looks with mounted spot lights and headlights. :)
Click me
Click me
Next the holes were marked, drilled and tapped. When the bumpers are mounted the outer screws from the spot light brackets will go into the bumpers, this will hold them in place.
Below you can see a completed spot light bracket. The mounting holes were counter sunk so the screw heads do not stick up as high. The spot light mounting hole needed to be widened from 14mm to 16mm, this was done on a lathe.
The following pictures show the finished mounted bracket and spot light
This is how our Sportster looks with mounted spot lights and headlights. :)
Click me
30/07/2006
It drives!
It drives! Replaced the clutch slave and master cylinder today and bolted on the old E30 exhaust. There was nothing stopping us from taking it for a quick spin! (Literally as I found out with the rather sharp clutch on the first run or two
)
Click me to download the video (6.1 Mb DivX 5)
)Click me to download the video (6.1 Mb DivX 5)
02/08/2006
Tuning
Added a few more items that cropped up during the build so far to the tuning section
03/08/2006
Spaced Out
The 30mm (per side) H&R spacers came from http://www.performancealloys.com/
They are very solid and not too heavy!
They are very solid and not too heavy!
13/08/2006
Bodywork
Yesterday we changed the old gearbox mounts with new ones and fitted the battery clamps.
Today it was time for some body work:
Rear wing fitment - nothing quite seems to line up anywhere on the rear tub so its not bolted down yet. Still need to spend some time jiggling it about.
Wing/door fitment. The space between the wing and the chassis is quite big so we'll need to do a bit more jiggling.
Striker pin stick out out the body work. Probably going to add a washer to move it a tiny bit further out. The body work will need bolting down here too.
Striker pin and body fitment this still needs work.
It really is starting to look like a proper car!
Today it was time for some body work:
Rear wing fitment - nothing quite seems to line up anywhere on the rear tub so its not bolted down yet. Still need to spend some time jiggling it about.
Wing/door fitment. The space between the wing and the chassis is quite big so we'll need to do a bit more jiggling.
Striker pin stick out out the body work. Probably going to add a washer to move it a tiny bit further out. The body work will need bolting down here too.
Striker pin and body fitment this still needs work.
It really is starting to look like a proper car!
14/08/2006
Exhausting
Back boxes are here!
Too much?
Nah!
Too much?
Nah!
25/08/2006
New Parts
28/08/2006
Tank, ARB & Bodywork
Been busy working on moving the tank up to make more room for the exhaust boxes. A few issues, go too high and the tank gets in the way of the seat belts, same with the filler. I think it should just work in the current position. The tank need to be moved forwards a bit too so I've trimmed a little off the diff bracket - the shouldn't have any effect on the strength of this bit as its braced further down.
Just enough room here for the belt - its a bit slack and low in this pic
Lots of room
Rear ARB in place using BMW E36 Compact ARB links
Just enough room here for the belt - its a bit slack and low in this pic
Lots of room
Rear ARB in place using BMW E36 Compact ARB links
30/08/2006
Exhaust Pipes
Spent a little bit of time in the garage tonight. Chopping the centre resonator out of the old two piece exhaust. This is where the 6 branch will connect when I get it. Everything seems to be slowly coming together. The passenger side is too far to the outside of the car with the full 1meter pipe length between the two 30 degree bends. Will shorten this so that its the right size.
Noise wise, will have to see what its like, but Jetex sell DB plugs that can go in the long pipes that should quieten it down a bit if needed.
Noise wise, will have to see what its like, but Jetex sell DB plugs that can go in the long pipes that should quieten it down a bit if needed.
08/10/2006
Exhaust
Its been a while since the last up date, other things having gotten in the way of spending time working on the car!
The stunning BTB 6 branch bought via www.E30Zone.co.uk has arrived and it looks amazing, a work of art.
Work continues on the exhaust system:
And thanks to Ziggy on E30Zone we now have a spare TSW BSS style alloy to use as a spare:
The stunning BTB 6 branch bought via www.E30Zone.co.uk has arrived and it looks amazing, a work of art.
Work continues on the exhaust system:
And thanks to Ziggy on E30Zone we now have a spare TSW BSS style alloy to use as a spare:
09/10/2006
Exhaust continues
Probably not the best way to join exhaust pipes but this what we have so it will have to do! Anyway this is how the back boxes will join to the rest of the system at a different height
Another view of the exhaust construct
After some careful taping up this will have to be held under the car again to see how it all fits around the rear axles.
Another view of the exhaust construct
After some careful taping up this will have to be held under the car again to see how it all fits around the rear axles.
23/10/2006
A few things
Nothing worth photographing this week, but some progress!
We've made up the joiner pipes for the second exhaust box. Just need to talk nicely with Black-Cat on talkaudio.co.uk to see if he'll weld them up for us!
The rest of the exhaust pipes still need a bit of mock up and layout. The manifold is now bolted on with heat shields in place (what a pain that was - you just cant get to the bolts, even with a ratchet spanner!)
Mean while Richard's made a lot of progress with the electrics, its nearly all done now!
We've made up the joiner pipes for the second exhaust box. Just need to talk nicely with Black-Cat on talkaudio.co.uk to see if he'll weld them up for us!
The rest of the exhaust pipes still need a bit of mock up and layout. The manifold is now bolted on with heat shields in place (what a pain that was - you just cant get to the bolts, even with a ratchet spanner!)
Mean while Richard's made a lot of progress with the electrics, its nearly all done now!
29/10/2006
Little update
The exhaust has been tacked into place thanks to Black-Cat (from TalkAudio.co.uk)! A little work will be needed to align all the parts, once the exhaust is in the correct place it will be fully welded and ready for the first sound test :D
The wiring is close to being finished with the completion of the reverse switch, internal heater and radiator fan wiring. Just waiting for a interior light control unit to complete wiring loom.
The wiring is close to being finished with the completion of the reverse switch, internal heater and radiator fan wiring. Just waiting for a interior light control unit to complete wiring loom.