The curse I'm stuck with

[squidhead]

So yeah… my first car, I needed a daily as soon as I bought this first car, since this is not it by a long shot. It’s one of those “needs work and help of god” kind of cars, but I’m slowly building the thing. So here’s a rough recap of what happened WITH PICS and stuff.

It is an 89 BMW 530 automatic. Was.

We got
M30B35 3.5 liter engine swap
K&N performance panel air filter (stock airbox)
Straight through exhaust piping
Magnaflow exhaust and resonator (X-pipe integrated)
M50B25 ECU and Ignition coils conversion
Remap and a rpm limiter move to 7k rpm
Airflow meter to O2 sensor conversion
Bosch 044 fuel pump
Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator
Ported and polished head
Ported Intake manifold
Electric fan conversion
Mishimoto e36 m3 radiator
OEM oil cooler installation

Getrag 260 5 speed manual gearbox swap
Sachs performance clutch plate
FX Racing 6 puck ceramic clutch
3B motorsport racing shortshifter
Type 210 3.64 Factory LSD
Drive and traction LSD clutch packs and ramp angle decrease (60% lock)
E28 535 single mass flywheel machined to 7kg by Drift Darbnica (drift workshop)

E32 750i brakes all round (OEM big brake upgrade)
Zimmerman slotted brake rotors
EBC Redstuff brake pads
Eibach Pro-kit springs and shocks set (-30mm)
E34 M5 antiroll bars
Powerflex polyurethane suspension bushings
E34 m5 forged style 21 wheels
Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta max performance street tires

Avenue Performance offset leather steering wheel.
BMW e34 m5 motorsport seats

This is how I got it.

TOTALLY an m5. Good job, previous owner, that 10 second 0-100 is TOTALLY M5 badge worthy

Old shot pump comes out. New shiny one comes in

A lot of spray painting the plastics

A garage restoration job of the wheels

This is probably 3rd or 4th gearbox swap

Stock brakes are catastrophically awful, these are a must

I see it like this more than I do on the road

This is one of the reasons why it’s usually falling apart

Once again an engine comes out. This is a 2nd swap

Temptation (which requires a lot of prepwork. It’s underway now)

That is also planned. For some James Bond Effect (Kudos if you know the reference)

The office is being slowly modified to some resemblance of a torture chamber. Just the way I like it

This is a mod that completley removes the possibility to go back to a regular, comfy linkage. Feels like a crowbar stuck in asphalt.

My slidey thingy. No BMW is a BMW without one. That is my statement, you may disagree.

One does not simply buy a used LSD and install it. These are the things you actually want.

You know… to be less annoying to people around me

Some of the company I keep. And yes, I broke down mid annual e34 meet.

You KNOW this is a BMW meet just by looking at the way we park

Some track action. I do not see the point of all the work if I don’t race the thing. And if I crash it - so be it.

Well this is the way she is now

Another pic from a track day. Crosses are a requirement, not a fashion statement.

So yeah. There’s that.

[asdren]

Very awesome car!

And holy mother of turbos, that thing looks huge.

[Microwave]

Nice car, can’t say that I’ve seen many of them around.

[SkylineFTW97]

I’ve seen plenty. But none as clean as this.

[Fayeding_Spray]

[rainbow]What a beauty.[/rainbow]

I want it

[squidhead]

@Fayeding_Spray

I want it

Well I got it for like 600 bucks, so I don’t see what’s stopping you from doing the same…
Although I don’t recommend it.

[squidhead]

Well… poop

In any case. I’ve completely dismantled the engine by now. The engine block did not survive, neither did the crank and the cam, as well as 1 rod and 3 rocker arms. Another engine is purchased. Will be dismantled as well, and built to withstand RPM and 1 bar of boost via a turbocharger. It’s going to be a long damn winter.

[Madrias]

On the plus side, you’ve got a winter project to do, and you’ll be making it better? I know, it doesn’t soften the sting any of having a dead engine, but you’ll at least be making something fun out of it.

[Darkshine5]

Yes but at least its some quality time spent with the girl.
A question simply out of curiosity what sort of compression will you be aiming for and what size ring gaps will you be using. Assuming you use aftermarket pistons of coarse.

[squidhead]

Stock pistons can handle it. Using an aftermarket MLS gasket and ARP head bolts, but the m30 bottom end can take a lot of punishment stock. The original CR is 9:1 so at the moment we’re thinking about using that, but not much maths has been done yet. It is however possible to lower it to 7.2 just by ordering the thickest Cometic MLS gasket, but I doubt it will come to that.

[Darkshine5]

If you can get a good tuner that is not afraid of high compression plus boost the 9:1 would be an awesome responsive unit.

Sorry but this sorta stuff is what I live for hope you don’t mind

[squidhead]

Ok…now that the engine is dismantled, it seems I’m going forged pistons aswell, a good honing is required, and not a single OEM size will fit. Also at 135 eur a pop, OEM piston is very much about 30-40 eur less than a good forged unit. The ECU is being ordered, a VEMS unit, fully custom. If anybody has had any experience with good aftermarket injectors, do tell. I’m looking for something about 500+ cc, and so far reviews on some of the companies are not good.

[squidhead]

Ok, so dismantled a second engine that I’ve bought monday. Took pics of the process, but they’re mostly pics of damage.

So a “good working condition engine” these days means “Block, pistons, rods (Low ends), crankshaft, camshaft and head are destroyed and can not be used again”. Returning the thing today, The guy does not want negative PR, and I got a bit of a pull with the used BMW parts public (Very active in 5 clubs, 4 of them BMW related, also 2k subscribers from my hometown on a car website)

In any case, researching 200cc displacement increase and forged VW Beetle internals possibilities. WIll need to consult with more profficient racecar builders.

[Madrias]

Wow. At the very least, you’d think the guy would be a little more honest that “Hey, the engine’s just about worth scrap metal, but I don’t have use for a boat anchor.”

[squidhead]

In any case, I have found a good 3.5 head and it’s… stock. So naturally we go through this crap again.

This is how you mark extra metal for removal
I use the intake gasket and a spraycan

This is the overlap of a head gasket on the intake manifold. Efficient BMW precision whatever

The valves are so small (48mm diameter) that it’s actually impossible to make a smaller intake port on a SOHC head. All it needs is grinding off some rough corners to have a smooth flow (+5 quality on the head I guess)

This is intake porting completely done. I might do a bit of roughing the surface so it isn’t so shiny and smooth. Can’t have mirror on the intake

[koolkei]

neat.

newbie question. when grinding stuff away,
how do you know what part how much and what texture do you want?

also you have a sofa in the garage???

[squidhead]

It’s a Drift Workshop owned by my buddy. I do designs for his drift projects, and for that I have the use of the workshop. And yes, this place has 2 sofas, a TV a playstation and a hookah. Also car lift and other uninteresting things.

In any case, what you do not want is sharp edges or steps. When the mixture goes in the last thing you need is more turbulence and uneven fill of the chamber. So you want all the rough edges and steps smoothed down. Also on the exhaust, but more so you want a mirror finish on the exhaust if possible, it will provide for the best speed of removing hot gas from the engine. On the intake however you do not want a mirror finish, because that can cause gas to form droplets on the mirrored surface, screwing up your mixture both in AFR (some of it may not get into the cylinder) and in consistency (it might not be vaporized properly). This is why you want a rough surface on the intake, it will not make the fuel stick.
Also make sure that at no point your intake port is smaller in surface than the intake valves. Same for the exhaust. My head does not have such problems, so I don’t need excessive porting.

That is for the head. The intake manifold and the head both connect to each other with a gasket in the middle, so what you want is to minimize the difference in the port size both on head and manifold. I use the gasket size, since it’s the biggest of all 3. So now my head ports, gasket and the intake manifold have the exact same profile and size, meaning there’s nothing for the air to catch up on and going turbulent

[koolkei]

so.

just make it overall slightly bigger,

a gasket hole size is a good rough starting point
.
smooth as possible on the exhaust port, and somewhat rough-ish on the intake because you want the turbulence to mix the fuel and keep it from sticking to the wall.

in surface here do you mean in surface area? so if it’s a 4 valve head i need to calculate it first, then compare it to the diameter of the intake port. right?

okay so if i were to apply this on my bike, it has a plastic connector from the carb to the head, how do you deal with this? since you can’t resize it. or i just need to completely replace it with something that has a bigger diameter?

(i was already thinking of porting it for a while but never got the courage to do it, or money )

[squidhead]

@koolkei

in surface here do you mean in surface area? so if it’s a 4 valve head i need to calculate it first, then compare it to the diameter of the intake port. right?

Yes, the intake port size should be at least the size of both your intake valves put together. So Pi*R (valve radius) squared X 2 (for 2 valves). And then go about measuring your intake port.

To tell you exact course of action I would need to know your carb’s exit port’s size, the head’s intake port size and the valve sizes. It may be a case of “don’t bother porting, just smooth the edges on teh intake canal” or a case of “yes, these valves are big enough, you’d do good with a different carb and a fully ported intake canals”

Edit - also if you’re going to do this, I recommend you use the sandpaper rolls

[koolkei]

well my bike type is a rather popular type to be heavily modified.
so carb replacement are plenty, intakes ported, bigger valves, even a different head altogether. i’ve seen all of those.

but to get the tools and do them myself… it’s somewhat scary, it’s my daily driver…

anyway thanks for the info and the tip