My E46 V12 6speed swap

[Skylinerd1 9]

 

This is the video I was telling you about Richard.    And is the reason I decided not to fit X pipes to my own E55 headers.    

They work at low speeds to mix the gases/sound but at high speed they do next to zero (maybe some scavenging but you wont notice the difference on a dyno imo).     As you can see if you watch the leading edge of the exhaust pulse gas it likes to follow what I would call the inside edge or short radius bend of the tubes.

This is also why I do not tend to make what I would call a parallel centre to parallel entry/exit design X pipe and like Richards I prefer the Splayed centre to parrallel entry exit design as it forces the gases to mix more.   This is all from my own experience doing this on old restomod chev and ford v8's.     If your after outright flow out of an x pipe the parallel centre to parallel entry/exit x pipe is the best bet if you want an x pipe.    

H pipes I wouldnt even bother with but thats just me.    Of course I will fabricate whatever the customer wants.

I prefer just twin straight through totally separate exhausts on v8's.   My ears like that the best.

Its all a matter of opinion and everyone has a different one on how they want their car to sound.   Obviously street cars are a different scenario to race cars.

I have never really seen anyone make any real hp from a x pipe or h pipe or Y pipe its all 1-5hp or nothing the scavenging effect that far down the line is usually not a massive factor imo.

If it was me I would be semi gutting the rear mufflers now.    But I agree with michael on what he says about the duals.

 

Edited August 14, 2019 by Skylinerd1

[Creaver 55]

RE: the motor handling HP and internals, I'm at about 500hp motor right now with a rebuild using OEM parts.  Nothing special.

[Skylinerd1 9]

 

 

 

Those that have undone the columns in these e34 bmw's does this sliding shaft slide up inside the column shaft if you just loosen the big nut and obviously the universal clasps at the other end?    Im having trouble moving this shaft up out of the universal clasp underneath the car where it connects into the steering box...

This is the only thing stopping me from removing the drivers side headers as it appears they cant be removed without moving this column shaft out of the way.

Im building probably two sets of e34 headers for Richard and Ian.  Just getting started on it now.

The nut is loose the universal clasp nuts a re loose and it moved up about 5mm in universal spline and doesnt want to go anymore.   

Looking at the spline in the passenger compartment it looks like that shaft can go quite a ways up into the column tube?

Edited August 27, 2019 by Skylinerd1

[Allanw 1071]

Have you REMOVED the bolt from the uni clamp?

[Skylinerd1 9]

22 minutes ago, Allanw said:

Have you REMOVED the bolt from the uni clamp?

Yep I just did it before you posted.   I thought when i saw it move 5mm the bolt was not effecting it but yeah now I have it out yep still dont quite get how it was able to move at all with that in there but anyway.

Shows how many bmw columns iv removed.    My mercedes is a dream compared to this of course its later model.... thats my excuse for my dimwittedness anyway.   I ended up with the headers lying all over it and the steering in the wrong orientation to remove the bolt.... just me making my life difficult....

LOL

Anyway now I can hopefully make some progress!

 

Edited August 28, 2019 by Skylinerd1

[e46v12 477]

Hey Team

Small update for the M3

Long story short car was damaged from transport company during shipping awhile back, took abit to get them to admit it was their fault and to cover for some of the damage. 

So there was two option, throw money at the crack and possibly recrack again or fork out more to get the car taken back to factory.

I decided to take back to factory as id hate to have money spent on a repair to have it crack again.

Picked up car today from panel beaters but during inspection i noticed a big crack in the windscreen, as was like FML just got  repair done now i have another issue, the shop said it was there when i dropped it off. So couldnt really do much but happy to have her back and looking nice with fresh paint job. 

Also had a friend go over to the U.S for a holiday whilst there i got this goodie sent to her hotel that she was staying at,

Garagistic solid mount shifter for the m3.

also did a while ago, removing as much carbon build up from the heads and pistons of the m60/m62 motor that will be going into the wagon.

Thanks 

[e46v12 477]

Hey Team 

so finally got some time to get on to this wagons dry sump motor.

Gave the short block and heads a good final clean and quite chuffed on how it turned out. 

Also managed to get the heads torqued down with new gasket and head bolts thanks to @francoisv 

hope to have the rest of it done by next weekend. 

Edited October 7, 2019 by e46v12

[e46v12 477]

Hey team 

So managed to get some more work done over the weekend.

Got the front timing covers on, valve covers finally cleaned and painted, dropped my flywheel and clutch set up along with a mates to MP auto hopefully Greg and his team can make a custom setup to handle the supercharger and my mates drifting abuse.

Also toyed around with the idea of flipping the supercharger upside down. Austin mentioned that the AMG guys have trouble with heat soak due to intercooler sitting in the valley pan area.

It actually could work, now top mount intercooler, cut off AMG intakes and fab up a custom intake plenums to connect straight from the intercooler outlets which would solve the adapter plate issue which wasn't going to be cheap to machine up and the R&D to figure dimensions was going to be hard too.

 

 

[e46v12 477]

Hey Team

So getting nearer to getting this wagon running again. 

Very productive weekend, drove all the way to Putaruru and scored myself a 750i large case lsd diff 3.15 ratio. This will be going into the e34 wagon.

 

But the cool thing was i tagged along to visit a guy also into e34's his name was Ryan. Had 6 e34's sitting around! such a nice humble guy gave me this puck disc which looks almost brand new. 

But onto the main stuff managed to get this motor pretty much ready to drop back in. Just waiting on the clutch and we are good to go.

Also going to install electric water pump so all i have to do is bolt the supercharger in place once ready.

Modified water pump and cooling system to work with the electric water pump. 

Putting it all back together.

also heard a rattle in the intake took the PCV cover off the back and found this loose. cool thing is it the older model intake with the trumpets on it.

 

Edited October 21, 2019 by e46v12

[zero 1162]

Wow, that looks so sweet sitting on the stand all clean and painted.

 

Just be aware that these engines like to break the metal around the starter holes either side of the engine if they come under pressure, like the the weight of sitting on the stand for example. Dont ask me how I know.

And thats quite a good win to see you got the earlier intake with the trumpets.

[e46v12 477]

I know right, something about nice shiny things  and thanks for the heads up @zero nathan ill pop a box under neath to take a bit of the weight off the mounting points.

[e46v12 477]

Hey Team

She is offically alive!  

what a long weekend from motor on the engine stand to fully in the car up and running. As always never goes as smoothly as you think, so many hurdles while putting the motor back in.

started off good resetting the self adjusting pressure plate, bolted PMC flywheel, puck disc and  pressure plate on, bolted 390z box on and then dropping it into the car. 

That was the easy part, I knew the exhaust was going to be tough to put in but man took me roughly 3-4 hours on each bank to fit. 

im just going to type the order out just for my own info just incase i need to redo it. 

Passger side: starter off, work from front to back loosely have nuts on to able to fit 2nd section, do up nuts

Driver side: Undo steering shaft bolts. Cylinder 4 top nut loosely on. cylinder one in no nut. cylinder 2 fully tight bottom nut, loose top nut. cylinder 3 top nut fully tight, bottom nut loose. fit remainder nuts on loose. slip fit 2nd section and do up remainder nuts.

This is why it took so long. Took me 3 goes to figure out this was the order it had to go in or it wasnt going to work. Driverside being the worst.

Also fitted some adjustable lower control arms.

Mounted the electric water pump in.

Also converted the trans cooler to a power steering cooler.

So once all done and wired  back up. Gave the key a turn but nothing happened.

dash lights came on radio worked but nothing starting. Called up Gee ( mechanic mate) to pop around and after a few minutes of looking around.

He bridged the starter with a screw driver and it fired up. So will need to find out why the ignition is not telling the starter to kick in. 

But then there was more, once car was running for a bit it had 3 major water leaks. One from Radiator, one from water pump area and one at the rear watercoolant pipe area.

So spent last night and abit of today swapping back to factory cooling system

Got everything back in place and fired it up. no leaks other than the radiator. Both water pump and coolant pipe had little pin holes where it had been wielded when modified. Happy to see no oil leaks though.

So hopefully find a new radiator setup finish off putting pedal box in and roll the guards this weekend then she should be all done. 

once i get it running with no leaks ill do a exhaust clip for you guys too.

Thanks 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2019 by e46v12

[zero 1162]

Great work!

What radiator were you using?

Have you considered upgrading to a bigger rad?

[e46v12 477]

Hey Nathan

Yeah i do have a redline twin core alloy one i was going to use but is a manual car one and doesnt have an expansion tank feed hole. 

But tried again tonight with some othe plastic bits and different rad but still leaking. So most likely go and get the redline alloy modify to suit instead of trying to get the factory 4 cyclinder one to work. 

will also have to change the powersteering cooling system to something else too.

[zero 1162]

Its not a bad idea to change the power steering cooling setup as those auto trans coolers like to break the seal and then oil and water mixes and you break stuff.

Mishimoto makes some good small ones.

[Creaver 55]

Great work mate

[e46v12 477]

Thanks @Creaver Ian

hows your manifolds coming along? let me know the sequence you get them on the motor too, save me a few hours trying  

Any how another weekend update, not much visually done but alot in respect to getting the thing driveable.

 

Got the pedal box and clutch line in, (what a bloody mish that was) being upside down for a couple hours.

Changed the diff oil .

Rolled the guards

Mocked up the alloy rad to make sure i knew what i needed to be welded from the Engineers, mainly a filler neck and overflow bottle.

Took the brakes off the m3 and also will be going to the same engineers to get the carriers machined down by 5-6mm to fit the wagons hubs and disc to get skimmed too.

So car is up and running but unable to start it with the key,  once i get this wiring problem sorted ill get the exhust clip up. but untill then i cant move the car off the hoist as ill have no way of starting it on the ground. I have an auto sparky mate that works in another town that will be popping in two weeks time. Hopfully get it sorted by then.

Thanks Team

Edited November 3, 2019 by e46v12

[e46v12 477]

Hey Team

another productive weekend.

Got the machined front disc and carriers back. Alloy rad also modded with filler neck and alloy overflow bottle, Bleed all the brakes and clutch system. 

Had to get the car going and ready as i dropped it off today down the the auto sparky, he going to attck the start issue and few other little things like wire in electric water pump. 

But other than that she should be good to go once done. My mate Conrad came over to help me load the car onto the trailer, i didnt know how this was going to go but started the car by bridging the starter lowered it off the hoist and mangered to drive it onto the trailer, i dont know why but cant remember what the car sounded like as i think i was more worried about the car itself. But Conrad has helped me with all the other car builds so knows the v8 rumble quite well. He said this one has a nice particular throatier sound. So cant wait to be able to drive and get a good sound clip so i can hear what it sounds like too. Also didnt help we were rushing as it was pouring down with rain.

Ran into a few hiccups as you do, so found that the brake carrier still needs to be machined another 3mm off as it was fowling on the brake so had to blt the factory ones back on to get to drivable. I will get them redone during the week.

Also one of my clients works in a panel beater shop for trucks and does alot of fibre glassing. We got talking and hes going to help me make a custom airbox utilizing the factor 6 cylinder ones. Ill also get a custom intake pipe to redirect the intake to go the the passger side. Will get more done with this once i have the car back.

 

 

Thanks Team

 

[Creaver 55]

I need to pull finger and get around to grinding my bellhousing.  Have test fitted both sides loosely and they'll come together nicely I think.  Maybe tomorrow's job???  Once test fitted and good to go, I'll replace some of the studs with bolts and get the headers to HPC for coating.

[e46v12 477]

Hey Team

So finally got the car back last Saturday from auto sparky, I knew this was the issue the day after i dropped it off. I completely forgot to add the postive wire from brake switch to the ews box. I told him to do this and it fired up. But while it was there he wired up the electric water pump and a few other little things.

Over the last two weeks ive pretty much got it 98% of being completed.

got the front m3 brakes all on now.

Spent the most of yesterday making this Air box with Juvy. ( Him making it, me watching)

So will need to take the whole car to an engineers to help fab up the intake and route it to the air box.

Had to put these wheels on as the 19's tyres were rubbing on the rears.

And lastly fitted to this new solid mount shifter i brought from bmspeedshop local company in NZ.

 

So car is driveable and man shes quick, 1st and 2nd are o.k but 3rd is where it hits.

also finally managed to get a stationary sound clip. The ticking sound is the dry sump pump which goes away after a few mins and the noise was 10 x lounder than the video.

Enjoy team

 

 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2019 by e46v12

[e46v12 477]

Hey Team 

Long time  no post, well Happy new years I cant believe we are already 11 days in.

so have had a few things going on that werent really related to this build but still bimmer related. Me and Conrad

coverted this to manual and flicked it off to help get some more funds for these other builds.

But also got these Hamman custom 3 piece wheels finally finshed, they were meant to be for the other e34 car, Unfortunately the didnt fit due to the offset. Fronts et0 and rears et-5 so now i will be putting them on the m3.

Also done some work to the e46 wagon v8. I changed the mags to some Mpars.

fixed a few electrical issues with the fan, ordered a oil catch to catch the oil and vapour coming from the drysump oil reservoir.

replaced the steering rack with a purple tag due to the old one having quite a bit of play , new front lower control arm bushings.

But long story short I said to Conrad last year whos into his drifting with his e36 sedan. I'll get my car up and ready for the next drift event that you enter if you get yours ready. This was to help him get motived to get his car up to scratch as well. So i stick to my word and after speaking to a few drifters they recommend a welded diff. There was no way in hell i was going to weld the m3 diff so managed to score a rolling body 330i sedan from Beemwr. I took the whole rear end which i will be swapping into the wagon at some point and getting the diff welded. Conrad took the front brakes for his car.

So thats we are so far, once i get the wagon drivable again ill do a proper sound clip of the exhaust.

 

Thanks Team

[Creaver 55]

Nice mate, just saw the vid above... can't believe I missed it!  What rear system are you running from the headers?

[e46v12 477]

@Creaver Hi Ian 

from headers back it goes into by the looks factory cats then right after that a 2 into 1 collector into a 3inch with a aftermarket muffler. 

With the cats out in may sound even better/louder but i like it how it is as its not too droning when driving.

yours is starting to look like its almost done too.

[zero 1162]

The exhaust sounds great.

 

Can I ask why you didnt remove the cats?

[e46v12 477]

Hey Nathan

Eddie the old owner made the exhaust from the factory headers back. So when Austin made his headers for me i just said weld some vbands on the ends and connect to existing exhaust, i didnt click to get them taken out.

I also didnt realise they were bmw cats till it was too late. i thought they were some type of coby style muffler. But in saying that its a nice rumble but not to crazy loud. so works well for me. id say it would be alot more different if cats were gone.