e46 v8 wagon

[allan 295]

Any help

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1336874-M62-into-E46

not an e46 http://s88.photobucket.com/user/ganicki/library/?sort=3&page=1

[tawa 150]

18 hours ago, zero said:

Yea, that photo doesn't look pretty - I grinded back and rewelded two more times on all the under body plates but didn't take any more photos.

I found it tricky welding with the two different thicknesses of metal. I found I could only do a small amount at a time as the thinner piece of metal got really hot and I wanted to let it cool down. I was kind of 'criss crossing' - welding a little bead in one spot, then moving to other spots, and then coming back to the first spot as it was cooling.

You should never be going back and forth like that, it's symptomatic of either inadequate prep or incorrect weld settings. Gasless is also rubbish on thin stuff so that definitely counts as an incorrect weld setting! Tbh if the salesman told you it would be fine for car body stuff gasless he should get a clip round the ear with a full gas bottle

Have you got much more welding to do? The forum may be able to provide the borrowing of a bottle perhaps?

[zero 1162]

10 minutes ago, tawa said:

You should never be going back and forth like that, it's symptomatic of either inadequate prep or incorrect weld settings. Gasless is also rubbish on thin stuff so that definitely counts as an incorrect weld setting! Tbh if the salesman told you it would be fine for car body stuff gasless he should get a clip round the ear with a full gas bottle

Have you got much more welding to do? The forum may be able to provide the borrowing of a bottle perhaps?

I'm feeling rather foolish.

I have not had any lessons, so had to teach myself. I set the settings on the welder with trial and error until it gave the best results. I know now that I should have been using gas, but didn't know that till today.

The area was prepped very well with everything back to bare metal, although the weld through primer seemed to make it more difficult, so it will undoubtedly be incorrect welder settings (and lack of gas).

I don't have any more welding to do until I get to making engine mounts and modifying the front crossmember. I will definitely get gas for that and practice more.

I'm considering applying the bmw foam sealant stuff in the cavities to improve the situation - what do people think?

[zero 1162]

1 hour ago, allan said:

Any help

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1336874-M62-into-E46

not an e46 http://s88.photobucket.com/user/ganicki/library/?sort=3&page=1

Great! Thanks for that.

[tawa 150]

1 hour ago, zero said:

I'm feeling rather foolish.

I have not had any lessons, so had to teach myself. I set the settings on the welder with trial and error until it gave the best results. I know now that I should have been using gas, but didn't know that till today.

The area was prepped very well with everything back to bare metal, although the weld through primer seemed to make it more difficult, so it will undoubtedly be incorrect welder settings (and lack of gas).

I don't have any more welding to do until I get to making engine mounts and modifying the front crossmember. I will definitely get gas for that and practice more.

I'm considering applying the bmw foam sealant stuff in the cavities to improve the situation - what do people think?

I was the same starting out, came home with some welding I did at college I thought was decent, dad put one end in the vice and broke it clean off at the weld! A very tangible lesson.

I'm moving to Tauranga next week, so if you're down that way I'd be happy to give you lessons and help with the cross member and engine mounts.

Not too sure on foam, makes it a PITA if any rework is required.

Hope I'm not coming off as too negative, it's a great choice in engine/chassis/etc, and an excellent rim selection to go with!

[gjm 3258]

1 hour ago, zero said:

I'm feeling rather foolish.

I have not had any lessons, so had to teach myself. I set the settings on the welder with trial and error until it gave the best results. I know now that I should have been using gas, but didn't know that till today.

The area was prepped very well with everything back to bare metal, although the weld through primer seemed to make it more difficult, so it will undoubtedly be incorrect welder settings (and lack of gas).

I don't have any more welding to do until I get to making engine mounts and modifying the front crossmember. I will definitely get gas for that and practice more.

Not at all foolish. Possibly unfortunate or poorly-advised, but that's entirely acceptable.

[zero 1162]

2 hours ago, tawa said:

I was the same starting out, came home with some welding I did at college I thought was decent, dad put one end in the vice and broke it clean off at the weld! A very tangible lesson.

I'm moving to Tauranga next week, so if you're down that way I'd be happy to give you lessons and help with the cross member and engine mounts.

Not too sure on foam, makes it a PITA if any rework is required.

Hope I'm not coming off as too negative, it's a great choice in engine/chassis/etc, and an excellent rim selection to go with!

When I made the reinforcement plates I hit them as hard as I could with a heavy hammer and they didn't crack at all.

I'm up in Auckland but if I come down your way I will definitely look you up.

[NakiTouring 54]

On 21/08/2017 at 6:13 PM, zero said:

The area was prepped very well with everything back to bare metal, although the weld through primer seemed to make it more difficult...

Yeah, I find "weld through" primer a pain when working on my Datsun. It's good for sealing up metal that you're never going to have access to once the patch goes in, but personally I find the surfaces that need to conduct are preferably cleaned back to bare metal. Maybe with thicker steel it would be ok as there would be more current involved.

Cool project man...following!

[aja540i 1906]

Bring your welder and hemet over when you pick up your next lot of powdercoating if you want, I can give you some pointers. Dont do the engine mounts yourself, I think you will find the cert stipulates who can weld those.

[zero 1162]

19 minutes ago, aja540i said:

Bring your welder and hemet over when you pick up your next lot of powdercoating if you want, I can give you some pointers. Dont do the engine mounts yourself, I think you will find the cert stipulates who can weld those.

Thanks Andrew, will do.

[Michael. 2313]

Re the E85 idea.... it's worth considering the stoichiometric air/fuel mixture ratio for petrol is approximately 14.7:1, with ethanol it is around 9.79:1. That means you need a lot more fuel. Sooo in fuel-injected applications you may need to upgrade the injectors and you're fuel pump - then it's a matter of tuning it to suit, no idea if the stock DME can handle that. 

Probably not worth the extra work, I'd stick to premium 98, the closest fuel the engine was developed for. 

 

 

[zero 1162]

40 minutes ago, Michael. said:

Re the E85 idea.... it's worth considering the stoichiometric air/fuel mixture ratio for petrol is approximately 14.7:1, with ethanol it is around 9.79:1. That means you need a lot more fuel. Sooo in fuel-injected applications you may need to upgrade the injectors and you're fuel pump - then it's a matter of tuning it to suit, no idea if the stock DME can handle that. 

Probably not worth the extra work, I'd stick to premium 98, the closest fuel the engine was developed for. 

 

 

I'm planning to use an aftermarket ecu.

I have been looking at Link, but its an area I know very little about so open to opinions and advice.

[zero 1162]

UPDATE

 

I got given a m62b44 non vanos by forum member @francoisv, so huge shout out to Frank.

I disassembled the block and cleaned it with degreaser and the water blaster.

Then I took the block, heads, pistons, crank and cams to Taylor Automotive to be thoroughly checked.

The bores in the block were out of round by 7 thou, so the block is no good, but I will keep it to use as a dummy to test fit in the engine bay. Then maybe a coffee table 

The heads, crank, pistons, rods and cams all passed with flying colours so I'm really happy about that.

I put the block in the engine bay to get an idea of fitment. I made cardboard mock ups of the cylinder heads to scale, and taped them on.

This is just a rough mock up stage and I don't want to risk damaging the good heads. There is a metal piece on the passenger side of the engine bay that fouls the passenger side head.

So this piece was cut out. It will be tidied up later when I smooth and paint the engine bay.

The cardboard engine now fits.

I got a bellhousing for $30 from Zebra wreckers today, so I will bolt that on to the dummy engine to help with the placement in the engine bay. I want the engine as far back and as low as possible. This will make it even harder, but its what I want.

While this has been happening, I have been slowly progressing with the rear axle. Forum member @BatMansWilly was a great help with removing all the suspension from the car, and now its time to put it all back in.

Once again its all been sandblasted and powdercoated. The difference between the old, and the sandblasted and painted part, is displayed really well by this next photo.

All new rubber bushes were pressed in with my homemade bushing tool.

I took all the suspension and underbody bolts to the electroplaters and it only cost $40 to have them all zinc plated. I'm really pleased with the result and with the price. This is a budget build after all.

Then I spent literally hours with the tap and die set, tidying up the threads, on the lounge floor in front of the tv. My wife, who is not at all interested in cars, volunteered to help with this process so it was really cool to do together.

Here is an example of what the zinc plated bolts look like in the rear upper control arm.

 

[allan 295]

An interesting project you have going Nathan and will follow it be interesting to see what you come up with to get it lower and back motor wise.The piece you removed from memory was the mounting point for heat protection of the DME, auto control unit,  some relays, engine fuses and the meeting place of both vehicle and engine wiring loom. Are you going to relocate these of make up something  to replace it?.

 

Edited August 25, 2017 by allan

[aja540i 1906]

Im trying to remember from when I did the clutch in my 540, im pretty sure the 420g is a bit smaller than the auto bellhousing, have you managed to source a box yet? It might help to have it for getting the motor placement correct.

[zero 1162]

3 hours ago, allan said:

An interesting project you have going Nathan and will follow it be interesting to see what you come up with to get it lower and back motor wise.The piece you removed from memory was the mounting point for heat protection of the DME, auto control unit,  some relays, engine fuses and the meeting place of both vehicle and engine wiring loom. Are you going to relocate these of make up something  to replace it?.

 

Something will be done there to protect those important items.

Most likely the ecu etc will get moved, but thats a fair way away.

The exhaust manifolds will be ceramic coated and heat wrapped anyway, as I want to keep under bonnet temperatures to a minimum.

[zero 1162]

3 hours ago, aja540i said:

Im trying to remember from when I did the clutch in my 540, im pretty sure the 420g is a bit smaller than the auto bellhousing, have you managed to source a box yet? It might help to have it for getting the motor placement correct.

Having a box would be great, but I just don't have the finances yet.

This will be a very slow project lol.

[allan 295]

Interesting do you have any links to ceramic coating and what sort of temp reduction it gives ?.

[zero 1162]

15 minutes ago, allan said:

Interesting do you have any links to ceramic coating and what sort of temp reduction it gives ?.

Sorry no, but saw some interesting stuff on enginemasters about it.

[Michael. 2313]

Ceramic coating is enough on exhaust headers, wrap is quite a dated solution and messy, and if you get a leak or crack in custom manifolds it makes it harder to find it. 

I read wrap increases moisture retention which can make things rust faster. 

Not sure what the go is with ceramic + wrap, but I suspect it's not recommended. 

Talk to the guys at HPC coating. 

[francoisv 466]

Engine is unrecognizable ? looking forward to seeing how this build turns out ?

[zero 1162]

1 hour ago, francoisv said:

Engine is unrecognizable ? looking forward to seeing how this build turns out ?

Thanks Frank.

And thanks again for the engine.

[francoisv 466]

5 hours ago, zero said:

Thanks Frank.

And thanks again for the engine.

No worries mate. I have another extractor if you need it. Not sure if I have you one.

I also have that rebuild kit should you need it 

[zero 1162]

32 minutes ago, francoisv said:

No worries mate. I have another extractor if you need it. Not sure if I have you one.

I also have that rebuild kit should you need it 

Yea mate, I'm keen.

Just saving the pennies at the moment.

[zero 1162]

UPDATE

 

I was in the UK for a holiday last year and brought these back with me in my luggage;

SPAX rsx coilovers. Adjustable height and adjustable damping. Stainless steel adjusters and spring seats. Really good quality for a reasonable price.

I got the subframe and diff into the car. I had to then take it back out again because the lower and upper control arms couldn't be bolted in with the diff in the way. Rookie mistake. But second time is a charm.

 

Because there are 2mm subframe strengthening plates, there needs to be 2mm spacers for the front brace to keep everything correctly aligned. People seem to just sit a spacer in like a big washer, but I wanted to weld the plates to the front brace for a cleaner look. I got the front brace and a couple other missing subframe attaching parts from @BM WORLD so big thanks to Brent.

I also wanted to make some strengthening plates for the upper control arms as they are aluminium and known to fail with coilovers. So back to cutting up more 2mm steel.

I hammered them to match the contour of the control arm and then I sandblasted them and took them to @aja540i for Andrew to do his powdercoating magic.

Front brace was installed, and so was the control arm strengthening plates.

I have just washed and reused the rubber spring seats for now. When the car can be driven I can make a decision on what thickness replacement rubber seats I will use.

Springs and height adjusters went in easily.

Then it was the turn of rear trailing arms. I'm using 330i trailing arms that I got from zebra wreckers, so I can utilise the larger brakes, and larger bearings. Of course they were sandblasted and powdercoated like everything else. I then pressed the new bearings in.

New rubber bushes for the control arm attaching points, and powerflex bushings for the trailing arm to body mounts.

Then they were installed with the zinc plated bolts.

Rear shocks are next. The spax gas shocks got new top rubber mounts, washers, and custom stainless steel reinforcement plates and gaskets.

Starting to take shape, and I'm really happy how its looking.

Then the sandblasted and powdercoated brake backing plates and hubs were installed.