MLM

Back from welders. Needs a bit of a cleanup. In place in the car. There need to be a few minor adjustments made to get it to sit how I want it as things moved a few mm during welding. nothing to major.

Cheers guys, The runner length is approx 420mm to the valve head. 440mm in cad world but the velocity stack acts as a shorter tube so im told. I have yet to physically measure the length. I calculated this as producing a torque cure which maintains the bottom end for a usable street engine. Will see on the dyno if my guesses were close... The ends of the runner tube will be machined with a step which allows the stack to slip in the tube. This gives me some scope for altering the length. ID is consistant between runner tube and stack but the wall thickness on the tube which allows this step.

Actual progress this time. Tube bends arrived during the week which were cut to suit and the backing plate holes cut and shaped.I built a jig to test fit and align it all and make the welders job easier. Hope to get it welded up this week.

Cheers, slow progress is still progress haha. Continuing a theme of regular baby step updates.. Completed one of the sump baffles after work. Shows the oil control flaps fitted. Oil will flow into the pick up area under braking and be restricted from flowing away from the pickup under acceleration.

Im going to swivel it in the sump so that it swings arround and ends up between runners 3 and 4. I have checked this out with the spare sump and the oil level registers correctly. Ends up looking very tidy and is convieniently placed.

FINALLY after a trip arround the world and back the velocity stacks arrived today: Dave at Velocitystacksonline.com was fantastic on sorting out my order after the parts went astray. Very helpful and highly recomended. An finally another pic for sh!ts and gigs

I did it on mine, the hardest part was removing the inner formed panel which though loose in most places still had a good hold in others. I used 'spotlight' black vinyl with m tricolour stitching through it. The fronts came out well, the rears not so well (coupe model) as it was a bit rushed and i used a different vinyl. Still looks a heap better than saggy cloth. Basically looks the same as your link.

Thought I would chuck up some experience all be it second hand. A friends recent installation (XYZ non BMW) was complicated due the mounting flanges being welded at a different angle to the steering arm on the lower shock body. All it needed was "a bit of bending" of the flanges by a few degrees but it meant that an alignment cound not be achieved untill it was figured out. Less than ideal but he is now happy with their performance now corrected and support he got from the supplier. A possible indication of quality maybe

Oil control flaps arrived today. These will provide oil flow control through the baffles in the sump.

No Prob Can confirm its 2mm ally. Here is a pic of just the tray with struts attached. Better view of the bends too.

Cheers James, I think its 2 or 2.5mm will measure later if you want. Thickness is not to important as I put some stiffening form into it. If you look realy closely you can see what looks like a cross in in the panel. Basicaly put the sheet into a bender and give it a slight bend (2 or 3 degrees) across the diagonal then turn the sheet and do the same across the other diagonal. This realy stiffens the flat panel. Add a bent flange 10-15mm high upward across the rear engine edge and it wont flex at all. I added vertical struts to the chassis rail also to stop it pulling the bumper down at speed. Can add photos af just the tray if your keen?

Windage tray louvered up. Louvers sit very close to rotating assembly so is as much scraper as windage tray.. E30 M3 rubber trap oil control flaps on order More carbon cos I cant leave the stuff alone. Aluminium undertray to replace where a plastic part must have lived. Excuse the phone photos

Probaby a result oil the 70's oil crisis which lasted into the 80's making petrol expensive and therefore small displacement popular.

Update time: So i havnt dropped of the face of the earth but have been waiting the delivery of the velocity stacks. Turns out that the delivery address had defaulted to Alabama USA not Auckland NZ But in comunications with the supplier who have tried there best to track and recover the package, I will have to re-order the stacks and wait a bit longer. But while thats been happening I have been playing with another part of the engine: The sump. After attending a Uncles night at Hampton as a spectator/ride scabber one of the cars in our group suffered oil surge and a blown motor which I dont want to happeen to me so Im looking into sump baffles. As always I have not done this before but have ideas from both talking to people and books etc so any sugestions are appreciated. Note its not finished. Standard sump minus windage tray. Oil level and crank spin direction drawn along with where the oil wants to go in the sweeper Baffles added in two locations. Trap doors will be fitted into these to allow oil flow to return to the pick up but not away Tray added. Note no dipstick hole or additional support brackets yet. Bolts onto factory windage tray mounts on one side and sits 5-10mm above oil level. The lines are where I an undecided to add additional oil return slots or not Windage tray in position but lacking louvers to catch the oil yet and bolt holes. Will sit 15mm from spinning assebly. Let me know what you think or what you have seen/done before. Spelling

Now have a WOF again. I cut treated and welded the offending areas up with photos along the way. Inserted plates are barely noticable. WOF guy was happy and said it was a good repair without the need to see the photos. Back to E30 motoring again

Spare bonnet will be my out if i cant repair it for sure Good point, photos would be good evidence of the repair.

I have just failed a warrent because of 2 small rust spots in the bonnet beside the rear rollers brackets (e30) Ive had a look and its reasonably minor with a rust hole through the metal skin yet the underlying plate which the bracket bolts is solid. I have welding equipment and ability but am not a "professional repairer". My plan is to cut the damaged area out and insert a suitable patch profied to shape. Will this be accepable from an inspector point of view or does the repair need to be done by a person with appropriate qualifications? My reason for a DIY fix is to save money as a new bonnet would, painted and fitted etc not be worth it. Help me out guys Can i DIY it?

K&H brand bumper paint works well. Even black finish without filling in the original texture.

skills here!

Yep there is a perimeter foam seal to 1 seal the parts and 2 offer a little vibration insulation maybe.. I wouldnt use this plenum for forced induction, not in its current design state at least. I think it would split along the join line though simply over building the plenum would overcome this I suspect the volume would be on the large side for FI. The backing plate would need to be integral or have hard mounts in the plenum and a controlled sealing face as you mention. If you just wanted the carbon look im sure you could wrap a cast plenum though.

Made up the backing plate and locking and locating feature tonight so that the plenum can be mounted up. The plenum locates on the bottom via locating pegs and holes and is cliped in place using stainles overcenter catch at the top . The catches fit into the recesses so the are protected and gives a cleaner look. Top side (visable) Bottom locating pegs (hidden when installed) The reason for catches up top and pegs below is so that the plenum can be located easily first and supported by the lower pegs while the clips are done up. Also clips on the bottom would be nigh on impossible to latch up as it would be a blind assembly and hard to access. Velocity stacks have been ordered and runner tube has yet to be sorted but progressing nicely again.

15 years and 20,000 hour work and you have yourseld a perfect 1/3 scale Ferarri including working engine and gear box. And a blurb about it. http://www.fineartmodels.com/fineartmodels...rari_312PB.html

Awesome! Is this the final product or a base for a fiberglass part. Kinda reminds me of the 90's e36 BTCC cars with the centeral opening only.

Ok the plenum is finished!! I am stoked with the result. Still a fair bit to go to finish the project but this is one part i didnt think i could create. Next the runners and velocity stacks. Cheers for all the good comments so far Oh and here is one of my "inspiration"vids for the project.

I will join them with a glass layer on the inside with a tape boundary on the outside. If resin leaks its no biggie as it will get sanded and cleared anyway. The join will get hidden with a black resin line or airbrushed black stripe so its all be blends in.