Blue Chunder: E46 318Ci / VQ37VHR Swap + Other Stuff

[Cement 871]

Not really much going on of late apart from concentrating on the headers ... letting the kids and workmates play with the printed parts is a great way to stress test everything Have refined things a little and am now stock piling like a North Korean dictator. I have enough to now to go and make a start in the car itself ... exciting times.

[Cement 871]

Got enough bend blocks printed out now to start being useful ... pretty tricky to get everything to play nice !! Had to revise the design a little more also to prevent some breakages. All in all happy with how its looking but need to print some more specific parts to tweak the design a little then can start to add up the lengths and see if we are on track for equal lengths without having to do anything too freaky to correct the design lower down. The other side will be more difficult with the ABS steel guard (body work) and dry sump pump / starter motor / brake and fuel lines in the mix also.

[Cement 871]

Not heaps of progress lately, turns out header mockups are a lot of work !! Started designing the individual header flanges and discovered the prints were not so accurate so spent a lot of time getting the printer setup properly dialed in. Will be some more weeks mocking up both sides of the headers and getting the lengths to the collectors spot on etc.

Only one pic this update of the calibration pieces ... on the left are the header flanges I was trying to get spot on.

[Cement 871]

One side of the headers are completely mocked up now, managed to get the lengths the same to less than half a mm which is a good result. Modeled them up so I have a long term record but will need some tweaking due to errors introduced going from plastic to digital. Will likely build off the glued up plastic tubes making jigs to support the tubes at key locations.

[Cement 871]

Slow progress still lately tooling around with header mockups and getting organised to start learning to TIG weld (waiting on gas bottle in L3). Happy to report that header tubes are mocked up for both banks now at least and lengths all spot on ... on the downside they will be a nightmare to fabricate, on the plus side I will be able to put them in and out of the car without removing the engine Onto the pictures since this is basically a photo record of the build it seems ... 

Started on some parts for the jigs I will make for the header fabrication. This is a fake collector end and some slit 1-7/8" tube which will snugly support the 1-3/4" primary tube OD. I will cut this down into small segments as needed and weld upstands to attach to a base plate ... this will support the plastic tube at key locations. At either end will be a flange to simulate the head and the fake collector on the pointy end. Sounds confusing but will be clear once I get a picture up of the setup.

Left bank all mocked up. This side was much harder as expected, mainly due to the starter motor, brake / fuel lines, LCA bush carrier, clutch line fitting and the body work where the ABS is located. Managed to get it all working without any panel work or relocation ... will need some quality head shielding however and removal of the sound deadening fabric.

The view from underneath ... not super ideal but about the best I could do and the lengths are all spot on.

Finally something looks familiar and not like some crazy guys arts and crafts project

[Michael. 2313]

That's some awesome work David. I remember seeing someone do a similar 3D print of tube sections with the right CLRs and specs required, thought it was a great idea. 

When I did my V8 E36 swap starting 10 years ago I drew up the engine bay and engine block/heads by hand to insert into a CAD program so I could work out the exhaust manifolds down to less than 1mm, they were just basic 4-2-1 types and segmented the drawings into pipe sections that could be easily cut to spec and welded, in the end it worked out to be a very accurate process and the result was spot on. A couple of pics from the archives 

 

I am currently using a similar system to make up a single turbo V8 system on another car which has been working out well so far. 

The 3D printing method seems like it would allow you to make complex designs with full real world accuracy mocked up on the engine. I've not played around with 3D printers yet but considering it for other projects.

How long do you think it took to 3D print all the parts to make both manifolds, must have been 100s of hours total?

[Cement 871]

Thanks @Michael., its one of those project phases that I'm ready to move on from but should look back and feel it was worth while Nice to hear you had success also with your project, fingers crossed I do also ! Some of the clearances are tight so I will be checking fit on the car as I tack things up.

The 3D printing does take a while alright, not sure on total hours but it would be many hundreds for sure. Gone through nearly 4x 1kg rolls of filament to get to this point (includes prototypes, calibration, some scrap etc). On the larger prints I would do up to 9 segments and that might take say 20 hours or so. The collectors took 16 hours each from memory. I could print a bit faster but decided to maintain settings to ensure consistency of parts etc.

The best thing will be now I can start prototyping other things like the transmission mounts, and making a custom steering column gauge pod.

Is the single turbo for the Soarer ?

[borigthedwarf 1]

That gooch of tubes looks sick! 

[BreakMyWindow 1874]

Friggin awesome thread!

[Michael. 2313]

This is definitely a car I'd love to see once it's finished and certed. Glad you're in Auckland too.

A few years back I pondered doing a 3.5 2GR V6 swap into a E46 touring so I can understand why you've gone down this path. 

On 8/29/2021 at 8:33 AM, Cement said:

Is the single turbo for the Soarer ?

Thats the one. Needs a helping hand even with the bigger engine swap haha 

[Cement 871]

5 hours ago, BreakMyWindow said:

Friggin awesome thread!

Thankyou Nice to know folks are looking and interested given its a bit of a departure to the standard projects round these here parts hah

4 hours ago, Michael. said:

This is definitely a car I'd love to see once it's finished and certed

And I hope to be able to show you !! Was really hoping to be mobile over summer but its not looking too likely ... at the rate things are moving at present I'll still be making the headers !! Once I can fire it by turning the BMW key that should spur me on. At some point soonish the oiling system has to be completed also and that's not going to be pleasant on the wallet 😕

[Cement 871]

Finished modelling the plastic mock headers so I have a record of the design. A lot of work to get to this point and I'd hate for one of the kids to throw one onto the floor and have it shatter into pieces

Got all of my TIG bits now so putting some time into learning and practice while I wait for my laser cutting (now from L3 Hamilton hah) to show up so I can start of the header jigs.

Edited September 4, 2021 by Cement

[LsBeema 452]

Heeeeeeaps of space Mate..hahah..nah great job man. With those header sets helping ay. When the first lockdown kicked in I could only grap the material. What an adventure...loved it. Enjoy this process man...when you hear that sound over and over when she runs...each start up will liven you up abit more. Those Neeesarn V6s sound smooth az.

This was the easy side..

Edited September 12, 2021 by LsBeema

[Cement 871]

8 hours ago, LsBeema said:

Heeeeeeaps of space Mate

I'm quite jealous of you doing it out of the car !! Just doing it with the plastic mock up parts was hard enough in the car ... glad that phase is over

Lately just ripping through my first argon bottle practicing welding and prototyping the little jigs I will use to get square tube cuts (especially on the bends / donuts) as I don't have a bandsaw. The laser cutting has shipped from Hamiltron so should see that soon and be able to make the header jigs while I save up to buy the stainless bends ... also looking for a cheaper source as that sh*t is capital E expensive

Edited September 12, 2021 by Cement

[Cement 871]

Got the laser cutting on Monday ... removed the mill scale off the large flanges with white vinegar which worked great !! Drilled and tapped the M10 holes on the large flanges and drilled out the holes in the individual stainless flanges plus removed the cut start / stop marks.

Have made the call to switch to mild steel for the headers, with a ceramic coat ... will probably work out the same overall insane cost but cheaper up front for the bends and better thermal performance ultimately.

Next up I can assemble the bank 1 plastic headers onto a flange and start on the jig proper !! Yay.

[Cement 871]

Getting jiggy with it ... na naa na na yea naa. Seems to be working well enough, man these things are a lot of work !!! Once I have a little 'cradle' under all of the straight sections I'll probably just weld rods under / around the bends more as reference points than supports which will control direction also.

[Cement 871]

One jig complete ... bends for this side are ordered so can get into it proper once they turn up.

[Michael. 2313]

Dang, I adore this attention to detail. 

Have you done any work similar to this type of manifold design and construction? Seems like it's not your first time. 

[Cement 871]

9 hours ago, Michael. said:

Have you done any work similar to this type of manifold design and construction? Seems like it's not your first time.

I made one set for my Civic SiR back in errrr probably 2001 ? Not quite at the same level as this setup however ... it was more vice and hacksaw hah.

[Cement 871]

Its been a while between updates ... that's because, I had the bends !!! Mandrel bends that is It all turned into a bit of a saga to be honest, I'd switched to mild steel in order to make the cost closer to something realistic which was all good. What was not all good was the tight (1D) 90 deg bends I received, which were all pretty sub-standard with over 3mm of necking through the bend ... so not fancying trying to weld circles to ovals I arranged to have these replaced with donuts and straight tube (this would nearly double the number of welds needed without the straight legs the bends have). Alas the donuts were also average and measured about 2-3mm under size across one side also !!! Shocking.

So ... I've not got stainless bends and donuts on the way from Australia which are hopefully actually round. Switched back to stainless as they only had a single steel donut in stock and their prices were far better than the locals for stainless. The chap measured some while i was on the phone and they sound pretty good ... the donuts are imported from China and everything else is made locally. Crossing fingers for their arrival this week.

Anyhow, onto some pictures of what I have been doing other than scouring the internet for tight bends. Completed both header jigs now and re-matched the stainless flanges to the engine, which I'd somehow managed to mix up the first time ?!

Started making a few cutting jigs ahead of the new bends arriving ... the idea is to cut with a thin cutoff wheel then sand to perfection on a disc sander to match what was designed with the plastic mockup tubes. This one is a 30 degree bend with 30mm straight from memory.

FINALLY into something that isn't header related. So refreshing I can tell you !!! Getting the head back into the wiring space and starting with mating the BMW accelerator pedal plug with new wiring to go to the Nissan ECU. The original M43 was cable throttle so this is a new run of cable and second hand pedal.

Stitched together a full ECU wiring plan from the Infinity G37 service manual and printed on the wide format printer at work ... should be rather handy !!

Severe brain strain trying to marry up the 6 wires for the pedal, seems so simply but took AGES

[Cement 871]

A loose wiring plan is taking shape, turns out there is a lovely big removable port hole from engine bay electronics box to the cabin !! Rugged plan (likely my initial one) is to just stuff it all through said hole.

Ideally I'd tackle making a new loom and terminate into a nice bulkhead connector where the LHD steering wheel would come through. Then in this magical future state I'd also locate the dry sump oil reservoir where the electronics box currently is.

In any case there is a path forward to get mobile without too much drama.

[Cement 871]

Still waiting for the header bends to arrive so have been planning out the power distribution for running the VQ and starting to look at what needs to tie in to the BMW wiring / cluster to get things as close to OEM as possible. A vital part of the swap will be using an Arduino to run the OEM cluster functions missing by removing the DME ... there is a fair bit of material on the net about this but no really good one stop shop resource so this will no doubt sink a lot of time ! Luckily it can wait until the car is mobile but its a fun one to start experimenting with now.

The Arduino Leonardo I was using turned out to be garbage when it came to putting CAN messages on the bus so a quick trip to Jaycar to get an Arduino Mega r3 clone resolved this and I can now happily put messages on the bus. Yay !! Managed to get the tacho moving which is a good first step.

The CANHacker v2 software I think is a bit junk at transmitting messages so I've ordered another CAN bus shield so I can have a pair of them to play with on the desktop. This will be easier to see what is sent over the wire when writing the required code etc without trying to look for activity on the cluster itself in the car.

[LsBeema 452]

Awrrite now.... no mucking around chain dragging lockdown slow Vq speed...GET THIS DONE!!🤣🤣

[aramoana 20]

I love the attention to detail going on here. Can't wait to see the wiring all tied up!

[Cement 871]

12 hours ago, LsBeema said:

Awrrite now.... no mucking around chain dragging lockdown slow Vq speed...GET THIS DONE!!🤣🤣

I'm trying !! My header bends are still missing in action ... sitting at a depot in Auckland for over a week without moving. Has been nice to have a change and do some electrical but I'm ready to get the headers done at this point !!

1 hour ago, aramoana said:

I love the attention to detail going on here. Can't wait to see the wiring all tied up!

Thanks I really want to thin out the OEM engine wiring significantly but I might just run as is before I start introducing changes that might be tough to troubleshoot later with a lot of other things going on.