MadaboutKitcars

Possible solution for reduced brake travel due to fitting the BMW master cylinder with adapter plate:





Seems ok from a dry run without fluid or servo. Full test will have to wait until I've put fluid back in the system. Going to need to glue this in place some how, probably with silicone sealer. Given the shroud (?) is so big on the BMW master cylinder I can see this ever falling out, but it could reposition depending on the speed at white the piston retracts when you lift your foot off the brake.



Refitted the tank today with rubber strips and added two additional exhaust hangers just behind the seats. That makes 4 hangers at the back and the one on the gearbox which should be enough fail safes if any of them go.



There should be more than enough room between the tank and the mufflers now. Just need to add a head shield above each one and the exhaust will be done.. or maybe not....



....spent a bit of time experimenting with noise levels - admittedly inside the garage as the weather was pants!

Seems the carbon box is very, very loud! I put the stock air box on the end in addition to the carbon one and the volume when down considerably! May have to re-think that for SVA - or even add the stock airbox for the test if I can fit it in!

The exhaust is pretty loud, and I think I may buy two extra mufflers, this time from Jetex and I can't seem to get the magnaflow models I'm after in the UK. The Jetex ones are also a straight through design so I should think it wouldn't have too adverse an effect on the performance of the engine, I think my head will thank me after a longer trip.

If I do want to take it on any track day I think I would get black flagged pretty quickly with the current set-up - wish I could take it for a real world test drive on the road but that is a bit of an issue - as you would expect!

More noise testing tomorrow if the weather is better

Done more testing outside and its a lot better out there. If you stand back on idle its not bad at all. Im not going to add any extra mufflers, but possibly do the brillo pad trick for SVA and block two of the exits. Might see if I can do something to quieten the intake as well.

Not sure I would want to rely on something like that myself. If it got wedged somehow (unlikely I must admit - but there is always sod's law to take into account) you might end up having no brakes or brakes that won't come off.

If you can wait a couple of weeks I will contact the little engineering workshop I know and see if I can get a few "adapters" made. I am sure I still have the drawing that I made when I intially looked at it. I will scan it and post it up on my website to make sure it is also the same as what you require.

Cheers

Robin

I've often thought if it would be worthwhile having a pool of 'Madabout tools' that could be hired out for tasks such as this.

For example if this tool was suitable (I'm no sound guru so I don't know)

http://www.cybermarket.co.uk/ishop/923/shopscr4408.html

then maybe it's something Madabout could buy and hire out at say £10 a pop (with deposit)

What say you? Plus any suggestions for tools that would come in handy - bearing in mind the weight issue as it would all have to be done via mail.

John

Oops, double post

I know what you mean, I try this as an experiment but the factor of sods law often crops up. The most likely scenario for this is that the brakes end up jammed on. Even if it were to somehow drop out the brake will still work, its just the effectiveness would be reduced But yeah please I would like one when you get them made - thanks



John, sounds like a great idea, I've no idea how accurate the the SPL meter is that I've got but it's about 10months older than I am! If coupled with exact instructions to simulate an SVA test it would be an excellent service - retest due to noise would be a bit of bummer

Actually that does throw up some issues, ie, insurance required (should you injure yourself whilst using the tools), sue madabout when your kit fails on noise level after using the tool. Could be a minefield. Perhaps not such a good idea after all.

John

Well if you had a long enough disclaimer I guess, then there always the issue of things getting damaged

Been a bit of a slow month really, but after much shouting at it I've wrapped the manifold:



It was pretty, but noisy and hot - this was the solution! Heat wrap what a PITA messy job that was! I highly recommend using gloves and a mask as the fibres go everywhere!



6 branch wrapped



Still looks pretty with the wrap on it!

and a bit of wheel size testing:

I've done a bit of experimenting with the rear wheel off my daily driver. It's a 9Jx17 with 245/40/R17 tyre.



9J x 17 with 245/40/R17 tyres - damn good look from the back!



Fits under the arch quite well



Nice look from the side



... but here is the problem! The tyre rubs on the side of the bodywork. Our body work sticks a bit further out than normal due to the coil over install. I don't think it is practical to use an alloy bigger than 8.5J. You might get away with a 235 width tyre on a 9J rim but its very, very close.



Here's a comparison of size between the 9J and the standard E30 7J with 205/65/R15

I pulled the injectors out of the engine today as part of trying to track down the high idle on the engine. The o-rings pretty much fell to pieces after prodding them a bit. So I'm guessing there will have been a vacuum leak from there.

Also one of the injectors wasn't spraying as well as the others. Put them in the in the ultra sonic cleaner for a good while. Unfortunately my local parts desk was closed by the time I needed new o-rings so running will have to wait until I get new ones!

I highly recommend pulling the injectors, cleaning them (or get them cleaned) and replacing the o-rings on such an old engine!

Absolutely agree, Patrck. I had mine cleaned and tested at this place.

http://www.injectorcleaning.co.uk/injectors.htm

Good fast service.

Adapter that Robin sent me for the brake servo to master cylinder, now with the edge machined down to match the silicon mould I managed to create with my previous "botch job" solution!



Tank out again! The final time I hope! Time to mount the heat shield.

Heat shield in place - this will keep the heat of the exhaust away from the tank.



View from the back, hopefully the body will cover the shield so you can't see it



Time to Fix the old HT lead holder-y-me-jig - I did get another one of these second hand but it was banana shaped and was positioned closer to the exhaust - perhapse it was from a pre face lift. Anyway I decided to fix this one by making new feet for it.



All the brake parts back in place



And sorry didn't have time to have another play with 9J rims on the back, next weekend I hope!

Got new injector O-rings today. It was a bit of a bugger getting the new o-rings on the injectors, but fitting the injectors into the rail was easy with a bit of help from the wd40. Dropping the whole rail + injectors back on the manifold was pretty easy too. I had cleaned out all 6 holes with brake cleaner and then greased up with wd40.

The tank is now also plumbed in, so no more green petrol can with vapours everywhere!

On the plus side the engine runs a heck of a lot smoother and quieter. On the negative the idle still shows too high. Time to start hunting for electrical issues, it could be the idle is fine and it just the gauge showing wrong

I think it may be time to head back to doing some actual building otherwise the car will never get done there's always be time to sort that later, the main thing is to make sure it will get through the emissions test!

Patrick,
i know it's the most obvious, but have you checked the blue temperature sensor and wiring. Sounds like the ECU thinks the engine is still cold. It provides an extra rich mixture when the engine is cold. If it's not the sensor you might have a break in the wiring back to the ECU (did you cut the cables shorter, can't recall?) To check this theory, leave the engine idling for about 10minutes and then turn off the engine and pop one of the spark plugs out and check what colour it is. It should be biscuit brown. Black or sooty deposits confirms that the engine is running rich. Similarly, it could be a faulty fuel pressure gauge, but I would go for the temperature sensor first.

Good luck, Peter

I've swapped the blue sensor out for a new one, not checked the wiring. I'll give that a go thanks

Plugs were black and sooty so it is running rich, but I've not checked since running with the cleaned out injectors.

Did loads of little things today which have been bugging me for months!

Brakes are now bled - took the car for a shortish run along the drive way, the brakes work really well

Fixed small fuel leak around the pump

Silver soldered the throttle cable to the threaded adjuster off the donor

Stainless clamped the throttle cable to the throttle pedal (hole cut into clamp to make room cable to go through - the way the cable can't jump out of the pedal when it's slack)

Bolted up brake pedal to servo properly

Installed a bracket for the E30 heater valve switch

Installed the horns

Took various parts off to paint exposed areas of metal

Heat shielded the the coil from the water pipes

and probably some other stuff I've forgotten!

Some pictures form yesterdays progress:


Throttle cable, engine side


Throttle cable, pedal side


Water heater switch bracket


Horns


Coil heat shield

And it is time to reveal what were doing with the rear lights:


Hella LED lights


The concept 4 ring lights and 4 ring exhausts!

Nice work, Patrick.

Those lights and exhausts work well together!

Thanks Peter, just got to get the other side the same now - after one and a half days solid I decided to leave that and collapse on the sofa instead! Detail work like that needs to be left for a clear head I think

Just seen the lights - I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought they looked good. I've got them but I've only got a single set - I've got 2 rings but as I'm not doing the build it didn't quite go to plan.

They've fitted the original marlin fog and reverse lights at the bottom and whilst they're the wrong "shape" and don't match the round theme I've gone for everywhere else the gaps that would have been left at the bottom corners would have looked wierd.

So I have the rings with indicators in the middle. I didn't realise the rings are stop and tail but my builder assures me they are.

The only worry they have is that they're going to be too flat to the wings and too angled for SVA. hopefully thats in a few weeks so I'll let you know how it goes.

Interesting, the wiring on the ring LED's we have does not suggest they can be used for rear and brake as there is only one plus and one negative.

We've got the marlin fog / reverse. I think we may use these to start with and maybe change for something more interesting later. The race LED high intensity likes look quite interest as an option for the fog light.

Should be interesting to see what the SVA people say about the angle, I am a bit worried about that.

Not done much this weekend, taken care of a few small things such as the battery holder. Also tried running the car with the original ecu chip - no difference which is odd as it should have a lower idle than the Zone chip. Must be a sensor somewhere.

One thing a number of people have said is: why didn't you rebuild the engine? At the time I lacked the confidence and skill to want to attempt it! The plan is to get the car on the road and after some shakedown time rebuild the engine!

The first parts for this rebuild arrived this week, a dbilas dynamic 282°/272° cam shaft and new up rated Schrick valve springs.





Took some pictures of the bodywork as well:

One way vacuum valve conversion. A left over part from Richard's E36 Compact engine conversion! Blocked off the hole in the intake boot and one of the two holes on the side of the throttle body and placed the one way valve in place of the very complex early E30 type layout. Taken the car for a quick spin on the drive way and all is well!

Idle

After much head scratching we purchased a Gunson gastester with build in RPM read out. Low and behold it turns out the engine is idling around 750RPM which is pretty much spot on. Its the gauge that has the wrong read out. It over reads near the bottom of the scale, sits about right at 2000RPM and above it under reads.

As it's overfuelling on idle the mixture needs setting, that's for another day as I can't find the manual.... )

A final round of engine tuning! Decided to set the idle mixture today as the engine was very obviously running rich. Got the gunson gastester out and it verified the rich running by showing 3.5% CO. After a bit of tweaking of the idle mixture control on the AFM we got this down to around 1.2-1.3%. It's not going to be 100% and it can be fine tuned at the MOT test before SVA.

Wasn't in the mood for much else after the fuel pipe off the tank started spewing petrol all over the place. Replaced the cloth covered stuff with some 3/4" rubber pipe I had in the parts bin. This was a tighter fit and also found a more suitably sized hose clip. Figures crossed it will be fine now!

As it was such a nice day it seemed like the perfect time to take the car for a little spin (on the driveway at least!)

Me driving the first round (mixture not adjusted) and Richard driving second after the adjustment (but the neighbours had returned so he had to be a bit more careful not to take out their car!)

Download the video (12Mb)