Further engine work

Further to having a new inlet manifold for the super charger made I decided that I would review the work I had already done and undo some of the items I am not happy with and use this chance to get everything the way I want it.

As I had the inlet I decided to draw up the blower outlet and an adaptor for the bypass valve to fit the 2.5" pipe work. All this was CNC machined out of aluminium.

With the parts in my hands I set about making them all fit with the new charge cooler and pipework

I then sent all the parts out for powder coating just to keep it all looking as I want it

 With the parts back I set about connecting everything back to the engine, I would like to say this was simple but I like to make my life difficult and there can be no other reason for all this faffing

I decided to relocate the mechanical coolant pump with a BMW piersburg electric pump. The pump is PWM controlled which is fine as I have a spare output on the Vipec. I made a mount so the pump goes where the AC mechanical pump used to fit and feeds the RH side of the engine as a cooper coolant pump would normally go.
The pump is very efficient and allows me to control it in different situations.

Here is the pump operation table

I am not sure why the table is reversed in the Vipec or I got it wrong but it all works. During tests I set the PWM table against the TPS so when I put my foot down the pump would kick in. It primes very quickly if you can get the coolant in the bottle fast enough.

The table I went with, you can see I decided to run my coolant temp vs engine speed but there are other variables running on the vipec which can over ride the PWM settings should something go wrong.

You can see the coolant pump in the picture below, it uses a pump clamp which is welded on a AC delete bracket 

 Lastly I made a new radiator  as the last radiator was an ebay special and didn't quite offer enough cooling as it was to get it up and running to help me fault find

Guess who's back, back again...

I've been lazy with the blog and not updated for quite some time - so the car has come home again and I have been doing a little bit of work on it.

Lets start with the roof paint, its been done and its great - just perfect. Finished in BMW sparkling grey which in the sun looks stunning

With the car home and me thinking this would be the last time the car was going to a body shop for a while I decided to sort the engine running issue I was seeing and decided to strip the car back down. I wanted to do a lot of little jobs and also clean the dust off everything and change any mock up parts to real parts.

The original roof liner I had made by sticking 2 liners together was OK but over the year or so its been together it is slightly showing the joins so I wanted to do this properly.
To do this I decided to cover the original roof liner in duct tape and then make a GRP & carbon splash off the liner, I was unsure how this would go but I was willing to give it a go.

Lay up of GRP and carbon being done

All set and ready for trimming, pulled off the original liner

 trimmed and ready for sanding

 Inside left as you see it because it needs no attention

 Trimmed foam and black roof lining material and in the car, feels and looks great

I then decided to open the gauges and clock to change the LEDs to red, this was easy and just need SMD LEDs to be soldered in place of the amber LEDs

With that done, I started fitting a tablet but only started, and then I got excited and put on my new steering wheel and boss

Then a little on the engine bay, there is still a lot to do there but the first thing I decided to do was paint the rocker cover, yes this will get dirty quickly if I ever drive the car. I do want the engine bay to look good though so there will be much more lovely items going on and more painting as I have time

OK, keeping the theme of the engine going I know the cut and carve castings I made for trials on the blower need to be changed so I decided to draw up the blower inlet and get it made;

Original bodge up to trial the engine before going for costly parts, allowed me to work out the fit anf function of the parts

Inlet drawn up in CAD. Colours used to show finish requirements but the technical drawing did the geometric and tolerance dimensions

Part arrived all CnC machined and lovely

Next will be the machined outlet and maybe if I can be bothered to draw it a custom inlet manifold...

Long overdue update

Over the past few months since the last update, well what feels like half a year the car has been off for tuning, sadly whilst being tuned the copper head gasket let go meaning I had to do get it home and change the gasket ~ it was leaking on cylinder 4 and in all honesty not sealing very well on any other cylinder either

I changed back to a multi layer gasket as would have been fitted as standard which looks to have fixed the issue.

Having a project car over such a long time has already made me see things I would like to change... it is difficult to keep the car to the original idea as I have new thoughts and styles.

The car did have the roof skin in raw aluminium, this needed to be sorted so I arranged to take the car to the body shop in October and that is where it still is. The guys were really busy and could not fit me in but they have been working on it in the background. This included them sourcing a new booth over the Christmas holidays. Finally it is ready for paint, it looks so clean and the job has been done so well. 

I will have it back in a week and I am excited as I have built a new garage while it has been away and now I will have lots of space to work on it. Maybe try and finish it... 

That is all at the moment, I have been doing a lot more mods but I need the car back to install them, then take photos and update this blog

Electronics and coding

All, this should be the most boring update...

While the time has been passing by and I have been doing all else but working on the car I decided to put a few days aside to do something.

• Vipec ECU fitted and all the engine items configured to work as they should (it is great fun playing with the peddle and throttle...)
• All sensors have now been fitted
• Been through all the BMW modules and switched on all the features I want and tunred everything off I did not need
• Coded out all the air bags but I will re-code when the drivers bag goes back in. 
• Cleared out all the modules memory so if they error out then I can see what is going on as there was lists of issues before
• Built a flip key module out of an ebay key and the original. Apparently no key cutter will cut an ebay key :( I phoned very many... However original key filed down fits perfectly and cost a lot less.
• Innovative LC2 fitted and calibrated original o2 sensors removed and the post cat blanked off as the wideband is sufficient. Very pleased with the install as I used factory plugs and hid all the electronics so you can't tell it is hiding away

Have some photos;

flip key with oem blade 

coding

innovative installed next to battery in the box

vipec installed