Well if you ever need a hand with any donkey work give me a shout as I live literally 5mins away!
I'll bear that in mind cheers mate. Bulk of the heavy stuff is done now the engine is in mind (pics below).
must be a mass exodus of the area then...lol
i have literally moved today and am now in Milton Keynes,
i feel your pain with working on the car, the same problem i am having/about to have... hope all goes well mate
I'm always darting about with work although now I'm well and truely in 'motorsport alley' I expect I'll be staying round here.
To the car:
So it’s been a while since I’ve been able to do anything to the car. I’ve been planning to get home every weekend for the last 2 months but work offers kept coming up so plans kept getting pushed back.
I bought an M42 (1.8 16v, the same as what was in there before) race engine that was used in TTRS. It’s had quite a bit of work done to it and I plan to do a couple more bits and then get it live mapped and see what extra can be had out of it. When I removed the coils from the spark plugs I was a tad horrified to find that the 1 and 2 plug ‘galleries’ where full of oil. After looking at it is looks as if the cam cover seals may have leaked, this must be the only explanation so I also used the best set of seals I had on the self to hopefully put a stop to that happening again. I split the gearbox, flywheel and clutch from the old engine and fitted it all up to the new one. I also pressure washed off the gearbox and I was pleasantly surprised at how nicely it came up.
Once the engine was I fitted my electric fan to my E36 328i radiator and got that in there:
I have about 3 engines worth of cam covers, upper and lower inlet manifolds, so I cherry picked the best set and got them fitted on. I have also used my COP plate which bolts straight through the cam cover so will support the coils nicely (the threads in the head on my old engine were fubar so it’s nice to be able to properly bolt them down). After that I connected up the Z3 1.9 gear linkage set up which I had fitted before and fitted the alternator and PAS pump.
Couple of jobs to do now:
• I've got a standard airbox and K&N panel filter to fit. (It was rolling roaded with this set up and it has been proven with many other cars its genuinely the best set up for this engine)
• Order some hoses for the water system
• Crimp terminals onto the alternator wires
• Route and fit the PAS pipes
I have had some fun with the E46 steering rack and the M42 exhaust manifold. I did think to begin with I was safe but when the manifold was bolted up tight it caused issues with the linkage. I have now moved the rack onto the forward holes which isn’t ideal but it’s the only way to give the two some breathing space.
I have left the fuel lines disconnected as I will be fitting a dry brake for sampling (as required by the MSA) and also for draining the tank so the fuel level can be kept accurate. I need to get some lengths of pipe and some adaptors and find the best place for it to be fitted.
Lastly, I bought a caliper recon kit and some high temp paint from the local parts place and rebuilt my touring rear calipers. The paint turned out to be more matt grey than black but I thought: 1. They look far better than when rusty and 2. A blind man would like to see it. I am going to move my brake bias valve forward so I won’t be bleeding the brakes just yet.
Next on the list of ‘fun’ involves:
• Fuel tank assembled and fitted
• Engine complete and running
• Roll cage feet mounted in place ready to be welded
• Lots of little jobs!
