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

[Cement 871]

Car is back in the garage and up on stands again so I can finally get the exhaust done. Got it complete and back on the car but not mounted. Sounds SO much better, only ran it for 30 seconds before rushing out the door.

Will get a few more other bits ticked off (big ones are sway bar template fabrication and tracking some leaky oil fittings) while its up on the stands still before I can FINALLY take it on a little outing and get above 3000 rpm !!!! Have not even had the oil up to temp properly yet, takes ages with the dry sump system.

[Cement 871]

Exhaust is complete and hung up ... great result !! Bit concerned about the mid muffler and how low it may hang down, will see how it goes.

Popped the 6 cylinder front sway bar up to the car and it basically fits !!! Statically at least, may need to still go custom just to get it away from some oil system plumbing but am unsure how much it moves about just at the moment.

Also changed out all of the rear parking brake components while fitting the new DBA rear discs ... the second hand 330 items were pretty tired.

Now with more exhaust, will be zoomin this weekend !!!!!

[Eagle 1662]

I may of missed it but what diff ratio are you running, guessing LSD? 

[Blackie 510]

I'm contemplating those rear discs too, as I have dba slotted and vented fronts, but they're not cheap ($379).

[Cement 871]

5 hours ago, Eagle said:

I may of missed it but what diff ratio are you running, guessing LSD?

No LSD at present 🤣 Its the standard auto 330i diff with 3.38 ratio. Below is the comparison chart I put together (cell values are kph) to compare with the 370Z diff ... it will be a little longer all over but hopefully light enough weight to pull it off.

Blue cells are the speeds at the previous gears redline to see where the revs end up. Also great news i can do 341kph 🤪

1 hour ago, Blackie said:

I'm contemplating those rear discs too, as I have dba slotted and vented fronts, but they're not cheap ($379)

Wish I'd gone for the fronts also (got EBC's) for a matching set but should all look pretty fancy pants when nicely worn in.

 

[Blackie 510]

30 minutes ago, Cement said:

Wish I'd gone for the fronts also (got EBC's) for a matching set but should all look pretty fancy pants when nicely worn in.

I lucked in on the fronts. 330i ones for $350 'second hand', but new in the boxes. It pains me to pay more for the much smaller rears 🤣

[Eagle 1662]

1 hour ago, Cement said:

No LSD at present 🤣 Its the standard auto 330i diff with 3.38 ratio.

Haha, i predict one being installed in the future. I love my helical   

[Cement 871]

On 10/13/2022 at 9:53 PM, Eagle said:

Haha, i predict one being installed in the future. I love my helical   

So I got out for another short drive this afternoon to try and get the idle sorted (no luck) and I can concur, its in need of the LSD alright !!

Got my front sway bar mocked up this weekend, welding the spring steel is not easy (apparently needs pre-heating and other black magic) but it should hopefully hold up long enough to have the real item made. The wacky step in it will be some kind of bend in the real item ... unless they make it like the mock, which would be really funny ... but also really lame

Yes, thats a piece of 16mm rebar in there to lengthen it a little hah.

The source of drama around the oil pump plumbing ... will be a pretty tidy solution once made at least. Had to bore a hole in the bracket to tack the cut pieces back together at a new orientation.

Ta daaaa ... what a thing of beauty 😆

[Cement 871]

Popped in the Chase Bays window washer reservoir finally which the WOF man will be happy about; its the lower one attached to its cousin the power steering tank. Also did a quick test of my steam punk noodle solution to make the intake tubes ... should work really well and super easy to get a bespoke shape out of it !!

Only complication with the intake tube creation will be the MAF sensor tubes which are a bit smaller than the noodle so will probably end up integrating the factory plastic parts into the composite tubes.

[Cement 871]

Back on the arts 'n crafts jobs now ... reeeeeally hoping a nicer flow through the MAF sensors sorts out the throttle response / hang and idle.

Decided to mount the factory plastic MAF tubes inline with the new tubes to keep things simple and have the diameter / sensor readings match what the ECU is expecting.

Have taped the tubes ready for wax and composite ... located a chap with some carbon sleeves also which will be awesome as I can get two layers of flat cloth on then fill and sand etc then two layers of the sleeve to finish.

[Cement 871]

Not stoked with how the glass layers went but it'll be workable and functionally good ... the trick now will be getting plenty of epoxy filler on and sanding back to a reasonable shape before the carbon goes over the top. Need some sort of oven or heating arrangement to cure things faster and also post-cure the finished product which is a good idea according to the helpful man at NZ Fibreglass Supplies.

On a side note, the same nice man at the shop has just made a mold of an E46 (to confirm) carbon roof ... they made the first part off it and it looks super swanky !! He is going to give me a call when they make another ... super interesting !!

[Cement 871]

Got out for a drive last night to see if my oil leek repair had been successful and its definitely better. Got to and from the motorway on the test mission and made some observations:

• Driveline is smooth which is really nice
• Calculations seemed to be accurate and 100kph was about 2250rpm
• Really got to get the throttle response / idle sorted as it makes shifting and cruising at moderate rpm a bit pants
• It feels much faster than you are actually going, probably just getting used to sitting much lower plus the sound
• Radiator performs real well, showing about 40 degrees at radiator outlet to the engine indicating partial thermostat opening under steady state driving.
• Oil temp never gets high enough which I'd like to sort but really don't know how, most I saw was about 70 degrees at the tank
• Seems to pull fairly well, yet to get past 5k rpm as there is just a lot going on experience wise 🤣

Booked in Monday for the airbag recall at BMW then to see if the Nissan folks can do the idle air volume relearn process via their diagnostics etc.

Got the PWM radiator fan controller mounted up in its little 3D printed box ... learnt that the power is on all of the time and draws about 100mA in standby so might need to put a relay in front of it. Works well though, highly recommend the controller if you need one

Below some more snaps from the making of the intake tubes, the carbon sleeve was SO much better than trying to spiral wrap !!

Peel ply applied and hung up to cure. Moved to a 100mm wide peel ply and was pretty well behaved to wrap.

The PVC conduit pulled out of the tubes fairly easily once I softened it with steam again then it was down to getting the noodle and tape out. Made up a series of hooks out of 8mm steel rod with a sharpened end ... worked away until the mother load came out ... very satisfying.

Test fitted the tubes and should work well ... once the filters arrive i'll finalise the length and make them pretty by painting on more resin, sanding back and clear coating.

Also got the radiator fan mounted up with two bolts out of 4, bit floppy but functional

[Cement 871]

Got the sway bay back from Archers Auto Springs, paint job is a bit industrial (expected) but looks accurate to my mockup. Had it made with three holes per side with the middle being the OEM location. Mounts up fine and is a really great fit Stoked !! Pretty cost effective also at only $405.

[Eagle 1662]

Good price on the bar given what aftermarket ones cost.

[Cement 871]

1 hour ago, Eagle said:

Good price on the bar given what aftermarket ones cost.

Yea, one of the few times I have been pleasantly surprised !! Would be keen to make up some jig and compare the spring strength to the stock item 🤔

[Eagle 1662]

Yeah also wonder how calculated the hole placement in regards to stiff\soft setting

[Cement 871]

On 11/3/2022 at 7:27 PM, Eagle said:

Yeah also wonder how calculated the hole placement in regards to stiff\soft setting

Yuuur not sure, I assume they put them in place pretty accurately ... I should have made a little jig to test them out hmmmm. When my new Powerflex bushes arrive i'll try and remember to check it out 👍

Made up the remaining lower bracket for the dry sump tank which is adding some piece of mind, although it was very secure with just the top mount installed.

Replaced all of the shocks with the near new items I got from @Eagle, which is great as it has a go at a WoF today (essentially generation of another todo list probably hah).

Drivers airbag was replaced this morning at BMW under recall but alas did not clear down the code there Will start a thread for that as will need to get it resolved.

Completed the custom pool noodle intake tubes, could have spent longer getting them looking perfectly round / smooth but compromised to get things moving. Got a custom can of 2k clear satin to finish them up but ended up with a lot of pinholes for some reason. Still look ok, just don't inspect closely !!

Finally got the air filters installed which is pretty exciting ... had to change out to some compact models as the original cheap pod's I got were never going to fit once the guard liners were in place.

Edited November 6, 2022 by Cement

[Cement 871]

The WoF didn't turn up anything unexpected which is great, so with a couple weeks to go before certification booking I have been hitting off more odd jobs:

• New BMW 'evo' wiper blades installed after the Bosch ones didn't wipe a patch of the window
• New fog lights and surrounds arrived last week so installed those
• Ordered a replacement clock spring which should fix the airbag and horn
• Installed new oil pressure switch, no longer leaks yuuusss
• Installed swanky little air filter for the rocker cover

Probably most fun of all was giving it its first post op bath and then a luxurious clay bar treatment Will give it another wash then onto some polishing to get it looking sorta pretty. So many stone chips in the bonnet and the bumpers have spider web sorta cracking .... but looks good from five meters at least

[Cement 871]

Also, major development on the engine output front !! Had been feeling like it was no where near as potent as it was lately although it was driving much better (idle, rev hang etc). Have been trying to data log my a/f ratios or voltages via Android app NCSIII and OBD2 dongle but alas they only have readings in 'alpha' ... this was on the thought that my sensors are much further back in the exhaust than previous and may not be getting hot enough etc, hence skewing things.

Annnnnnnyyyhoooooo ... via the phone app I could at least reset the fuel trims, so I did that. Idle and drivability back to been a bit pants BUT it must have picked up 100hp !! Back to ripping like it used to. So will have to get it on a dyno with some calibrated wide band and see what the story is some time soon ... great that I was not imagining it slowing up at least !!

Now, these may look essentially like the same photos but ... they're not 😆 Did a ceramic spray coating, dressed the tyres and finally cleaned under the bonnet. Its probably looking about as good as its going to for a while !!

[Eagle 1662]

Still well ahead of the average car around im sure. Like they told me at school 'its what on the inside that counts'. Lots of polished turds around when it comes to vehicles.

[Cement 871]

Trying to get the Arduino side of things complete, at least for the physical install ... which involves my glove box display and temp sensor i am going to put in my engine bay electronics box to see how hot the ECU(s) are getting. Doing this since in Nissan land they are mounted in the cabin.

Have been implementing some performance monitoring on the Arduino also which should be a bit of a laugh, taking the ABS wheel speeds so can do things like 0-100, 80-120, 100-0 times or what ever. Poor mans Dragy 😅

[Sammo 2544]

Amazing work, I didn't realise this was already on the road - love how clean and stock it looks for such a modified car 🤙

Bet it rips too

Edited November 25, 2022 by Sammo

[Cement 871]

56 minutes ago, Sammo said:

Amazing work, I didn't realise this was already on the road - love how clean and stock it looks for such a modified car 🤙

Bet it rips too

Thanks Going for cert Monday so hoping for a fairly pleasant experience there !!

It's quite fun and would be super keen to see how it feels compared to a 330 and a M3 if I ever get along to a meet or similar where other BMW folks hang ... on the other hand also keen to see how it feels compared to a 370Z haha.

[Eagle 1662]

Yeah you can drive mine one day to compare. Id imagine the VQ pulls much harder\stronger the more the revs build up. M54 is just ultra smooth\flat experience with decent low\mid range torque for 3L N\A.    

A 1.5km drag race vs M3 would be interesting. I'd bet on it edging out the M3 but it would be competitive.

For a daily driver i think will be far nicer than a 370z.      

[Cement 871]

I'll get some video at some point once certified and fully road legal, its fairly fun as it is but suspect it will be even more so when you can drive it hard and bang through some gears etc.

Went in for cert yesterday and came away with 13 things to address, only a couple that will need some thinking about ... mostly tidy-up items like heat proofing a brake line, some receipts for various bits, get a wheel alignment etc. Also, wheel bolts were 0.75 turns too short ... thats 1.1mm from memory 😂 Luckily found some UK made items from Racerproducts yuuuusssss.

Hoping to get in for WoF recheck within the 28 day period but unsure if i can get all the cert items finished by then to be honest.

In other progress, got the UpRev 'tuner' cable today so can try to address the wacky idle issues (noted for cert unfortunately, rats). Should be fun to do some proper data logging at last !! Also got in on the HPA Black Friday sales and got the tuner starter course for 50% off which is pretty sweet.

Couple of shots from today, the lads at my tyre guys (JP Tyres, Glenfield AKL) were pretty interested and commented on how it looks beneath ... first time i have seen its belly on a hoist after starting at it from 30cm on my back for 2 years !! Still need to get some better shots before i drive it more.