dirtydoogle

The biggest hurdle is it takes 80-100kw/h of electricity to make the required hydrogen ICE travel 100km. Currently hydrogen gas power is pretty inefficient. Most EVs will do 100km under 20kw/h (not including charging and line losses)

Tis a shame, because ICE engines are fun and some make cool noises 

Main bearing bolts are not particularly worrisome and aren't under a lot of stress. Using a 10.9 grade fastener is fine. 

You're taking all the right steps 👌

Be very gentle cleaning the cam caps up, I would remove any high spots and leave it at that. The rod bearings aren't really a worry with that "wear" pattern, thats pretty standard. There however has been some contaminated oil judging by the scoring

Doesn't appear to have anything worrying going on, just a lack of general maintenance casting the oil control rings to stick 

2 hours ago, Vass said:

 

I've kinda started having second thoughts about lifting the head now, not for the first time. Had a chat with a few more people and they're all telling me it's real likely the bolts would strip the threads out of the block the second time round and you'd need timeserts. Really not keen on having to do that. Will do some more digging around..

Unlikely to strip on an m54, often the issue is down to a few factors: 

Most suppliers send M50 head bolts (quite a lot shorter) 

And poor prep and installation (unclean, or too much lube) 

In very rare cases it's a soft or distorted block

4 hours ago, Vass said:

Sorry to be that guy but I'm not particularly clued up on the VAG inside joke. What's the deal? 😄

Yeah good call, probably worth going that route too. Thanks for that! 

Vw stuff, I don't care for their gear 

In all fairness if you are rebuilding, the oem replacements are fine anyway, they only start consuming oil after 15 years of neglect and low oil temps. If yours was an oil consumer it will have a bunch of varnish combined with carbon around the ring pack 

https://spareto.com/products/goetze-engine-piston-ring-kit/08-137400-00

No idea what part number I pasted there before sorry. Its a VAG fitment part ,but just consider you will hopefully remove one VAG product from the road by buying them 😉 

GOETZE P208678534 should be the ring pack you're after with the m54 1.2mm top ring and m52tu 3 piece oil control ring 

VAC do a kit too i think. Probably a few options these days 

1 hour ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

 

Seems odd that we are discussing the body stiffness of a nearly 30 year old road car as being an important factor.

But...318iS! 

Yeah because the sedan don't have split folding seat as standard. 

It's a non issue once a cage is fitted and tied in to the body and towers IMO. 

37 minutes ago, GlenK said:

As well as the weird colours and body kits, the MSports also get MSport suspension package, which the base car doesn’t get, which in theory should improve handling over the base car.

It’s also my understanding that the race teams like Schnitzer chose the e36 sedans to race in BTCC and DTC for super touring racing because they offered better structural integrity over the coupes.

The four door thing was just a result of the FIA Supertouring rules. 

1 hour ago, Southerner said:

To my knowledge the sedans in question are completely different to the coupes as such. A sedan 318is ms is on of approx 50 of in nz, south African assembled, in the usually m3 colours (Dakar hellrot fiji). 

The coupes never came, in my knowledge, in 318is ms limited edition. 

One of approx 50 is alot different to a 318is coupe, hence the pricing on these sedans.

This is absolutely true. 

You can use this pointless exercise and remove all emotion? 170km/day for 48 weeks
My commute will be around 50k/yr soon 

I'll keep driving the cheap Camry 'till it explodes

The cooling system "plastics" failure are entirely due to temperature, PA66-GF30 nylon has a bit of a massive lifecycle decline over 100°, hence why there are so few failures of plastics in BMW diesels compared to the petrol models. Same goes for previous generation Japanese cars, operating temps are typically lower by design (probably less efficiency and emissions care?) hence the lower rate of failures

10 minutes ago, gjm said:

Have considerd a hybrid... 170km+ daily commute (85 each way), and site visits.

How many kms do you get from a charge?

For 10k, you will get a 1st gen leaf that will need a charge before each individual trip. 

14 minutes ago, aja540i said:

Yes, but what is that bolt going in to? The shock mounts were never intended, or designed, to take the full weight of the vehicle, let alone any extra loading from hitting bumps at speed etc.

Good point. They do reputedly snap the boss off the arm, I have yet to see it though. Seen towers tear and subrfames remove themselves slowly with full coils though

Seems a little pessimistic when a 10.9 m12 fastener will take 7500kg on the shank before shear

It should be do-able, we have an e46 on full coils, but on an authority card.

There is nothing specifically excluding a full coil swap. But, I imagine appropriate tower and strut mount reinforcement will be necessary due to significant more loading of those areas

Ring the LVVTA technical team, and then if they say yes, ring another certifier for second opinion. I would recommend Danny McKenna 0272401291 he is a good bloke with a firm grasp on reality 👍 

Have used MS Coombes before, very good machine work and very clever guys 033667463

Not going to lie, no way would I read 240 pages on why we shouldn't burn our toys 

On 1/23/2022 at 11:20 PM, Michael. said:

 

I wonder if any studies have been done to examine the co2 output of a singular fire from the specifications this runaway fire would produce. 

Funny you mention it,

Use some thin copper behind the butt welds, makes life easier with heat dissipation 

You can achieve results as good as any with a crappy flux core set up on panel steel. Just takes practice and a huge amount of patience 

Only difference I know of is for cars with ASC+T. 

I probably have an ignition barrel and key you can have, if that's an easier alternative 

Pretty sure you can code it out with an iCarly or using Bimmercode etc. Or code it to remember last setting then when the greenie state kicks in properly you won't fail a wof for disabling an emissions system 

Check injection quantity values, chances are one or two are on the piss. If you're very lucky a new set of injector seat washers will help, but typically you will need a new injector. 

Diesel alltech and turbo sell them for around $400-420 I think 

They're not too difficult to replace.

5 hours ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

 

I’m fairly certain there was an E36 318iS coupe version which would be a bit more desirable I think…

That would be the case, except Japan only got the coupe as a 318iS (only really means it had M42/44), so a sedan is reasonably rare. IIRC only 50-something-ish sedans in 318iS spec were done here, and I think they were all SA assembled cars. The rarity doesn't really correspond to desirability I guess 🤔 and they're not exactly an inspiring drive either  

34 minutes ago, Herbmiester said:

Any thoughts on how to clean it? Looking at real OEM I cant quite work out if its a separate unit or not.

That could be problematic, I was thinking of m57 pumps, n57 appears to be in the sump. I would say the only chance of it fixing itself is lots of long drives and clean oils