Tom's Track Car - BMW E46 -Engine Number 3
- Thread starter tombate911
- Start date
tombate911
Paid Member
Thanks, I've done the whole garage my self except from the blockwork to save some time, some quick sums and I've spent around 8000-9000 building the garage including roof drains, wiring, garage door and side door etc.
Will keep the updates coming, booked a track day for Cadwell at the end of August so working towards that at the moment.
tombate911
Paid Member
Another few weeks of finishing off small jobs.
Collected a few track day stickers over the last couple of years, time to clear the windscreen and get fresh sun strip on there too, the hot summers sun has taken its toll on the vinyl and its started to crack. Appears that MSVT and Javalin get the votes for the most attended track days.
Popped on some fresh wiper blades, the ones on the left appear to be genuine BMW they're like leather now, god knows how long they've been on the car, way before I bought it in 2018.
Full service finished with a new air filter, still running the factor M54 airbox, no benefit in changing from what I've seen when testing, also ran it on the dyno in the past with no air filter and no difference in power so just a standard Bosch filter going in.
Team dynamics fitted with the Michelin slicks fitted, wanted to check the clearance of the tyre against the shock and the slicks measure up pretty much exactly the same as a 255 AR1.
What I did notice was how light the wheels felt with the slicks fitted. I thought I'd give them a quick weigh and see what the difference was, I also found the weights from 2019 when I first fitted the TD's
24.7kg MV1 with RSR 8.5J
23.0kg TD1.2 with RSR 9J
19.5kg TD1.2 with Michelin Slick
What I have forgot to measure was the AR1 vs the RSR but I would imagine it's in the same ball park, however the Michelins slicks and TD's coming in at 19.5kg had me a little shocked, had to go back and weight them again just to check.
E46 has had a good wash and a tidy up, a couple of the panels have had a polish, the resin of the spoiler was looking very white from the water sitting in it when it was stored outside before the garage, mid way through polishing.
Much better
350lbs rear springs removed and replaced with the 400lbs springs which I removed when I first started using the car, see how it drives with a firmer rear spring, this is back to the recommended spring rates I was recommended when building the car but I used to suffer with a lot of oversteer in the early days but we have much better suspension set up, kinematics and tyre grip now.
Bit of an interesting spot when looking at some data from the logger this week.
I have always logged swirl pot pressure as well as fuel pressure to the fuel rail.
-I am used to seeing the swirl pot maintain around 7psi unless I am WOT when it drops down to around 2/3psi in the Pot as the injectors are using more fuel from the rail so less fuel is returning back to the pot.
Anyway spotted the other day that the pot was at 0psi even at idle, popped a set of mole grips on the return line from the pot to the main tank expecting the pressure to peak as the pot was being filled by the in tank pump but unable to return back to the tank, nothing, went through a usual simple diagnosis processed, swapped the pot pressure sensor, nope, used the plug from the oil pressure sensor to read the pot pressure, nope.
Popped the seat out of the car to gain access to the fuel tank.
Used the laptop to run the fuel pumps - one in tank pump to feed the swirl pot and the second fuel pump which takes fuel from the swirl pot to feed the rail. Could hear the pump running but still no pressure.
Pulled out the in tank pump and swapped it for the spare one I have, put it all back together and well, 9psi at the pot at idle again. I guess the data pointed towards the start of the intake pump failing. Glad I spotted this now ahead of Cadwell next week. Will keep an eye on the pressures on the day but I hope that's it fixed.
Made up a smaller restrictor on the lathe to go in the line from the swirl pot back to the main tank, should reduce the flow down and build a little more pressure in the tank and add a little bit of load onto the in tank pump so it's not running at full speed with no pressure being built.
Quick test running the pumps brings the pressure at idle up towards 15-20psi.
Whilst I had the drivers seat out, good time to give it a wipe over and hoover, removed the foot plates on both sizes, gave them a clean and replaced the grip tape on the drivers side.
One of the last jobs is to check/adjust the alignment, set up the string kit this evening, will finish it off over the weekend. Expecting the front toe to be well off, as
Alignment
Initial set up 2018
Front
3 degrees of camber
parallel toe.
Rear
2 degrees of camber
1mm toe in
2019 Set up
Front
3 degrees of camber
0.5mm toe out (Each side)
Rear
2.2 degree Camber
0.5mm toe in (Each Side)
Earlier in the year I adjusted the strut tops to gain more camber after watching the AR1's wear over a full set slightly more camber was needed. Now we're somewhere in the region of 3.5-3.8 degrees of front camber now but need to reset the toe to take this into consideration, that's a job for the weekend...
Collected a few track day stickers over the last couple of years, time to clear the windscreen and get fresh sun strip on there too, the hot summers sun has taken its toll on the vinyl and its started to crack. Appears that MSVT and Javalin get the votes for the most attended track days.
Popped on some fresh wiper blades, the ones on the left appear to be genuine BMW they're like leather now, god knows how long they've been on the car, way before I bought it in 2018.
Full service finished with a new air filter, still running the factor M54 airbox, no benefit in changing from what I've seen when testing, also ran it on the dyno in the past with no air filter and no difference in power so just a standard Bosch filter going in.
Team dynamics fitted with the Michelin slicks fitted, wanted to check the clearance of the tyre against the shock and the slicks measure up pretty much exactly the same as a 255 AR1.
What I did notice was how light the wheels felt with the slicks fitted. I thought I'd give them a quick weigh and see what the difference was, I also found the weights from 2019 when I first fitted the TD's
24.7kg MV1 with RSR 8.5J
23.0kg TD1.2 with RSR 9J
19.5kg TD1.2 with Michelin Slick
What I have forgot to measure was the AR1 vs the RSR but I would imagine it's in the same ball park, however the Michelins slicks and TD's coming in at 19.5kg had me a little shocked, had to go back and weight them again just to check.
E46 has had a good wash and a tidy up, a couple of the panels have had a polish, the resin of the spoiler was looking very white from the water sitting in it when it was stored outside before the garage, mid way through polishing.
Much better
350lbs rear springs removed and replaced with the 400lbs springs which I removed when I first started using the car, see how it drives with a firmer rear spring, this is back to the recommended spring rates I was recommended when building the car but I used to suffer with a lot of oversteer in the early days but we have much better suspension set up, kinematics and tyre grip now.
Bit of an interesting spot when looking at some data from the logger this week.
I have always logged swirl pot pressure as well as fuel pressure to the fuel rail.
-I am used to seeing the swirl pot maintain around 7psi unless I am WOT when it drops down to around 2/3psi in the Pot as the injectors are using more fuel from the rail so less fuel is returning back to the pot.
Anyway spotted the other day that the pot was at 0psi even at idle, popped a set of mole grips on the return line from the pot to the main tank expecting the pressure to peak as the pot was being filled by the in tank pump but unable to return back to the tank, nothing, went through a usual simple diagnosis processed, swapped the pot pressure sensor, nope, used the plug from the oil pressure sensor to read the pot pressure, nope.
Popped the seat out of the car to gain access to the fuel tank.
Used the laptop to run the fuel pumps - one in tank pump to feed the swirl pot and the second fuel pump which takes fuel from the swirl pot to feed the rail. Could hear the pump running but still no pressure.
Pulled out the in tank pump and swapped it for the spare one I have, put it all back together and well, 9psi at the pot at idle again. I guess the data pointed towards the start of the intake pump failing. Glad I spotted this now ahead of Cadwell next week. Will keep an eye on the pressures on the day but I hope that's it fixed.
Made up a smaller restrictor on the lathe to go in the line from the swirl pot back to the main tank, should reduce the flow down and build a little more pressure in the tank and add a little bit of load onto the in tank pump so it's not running at full speed with no pressure being built.
Quick test running the pumps brings the pressure at idle up towards 15-20psi.
Whilst I had the drivers seat out, good time to give it a wipe over and hoover, removed the foot plates on both sizes, gave them a clean and replaced the grip tape on the drivers side.
One of the last jobs is to check/adjust the alignment, set up the string kit this evening, will finish it off over the weekend. Expecting the front toe to be well off, as
Alignment
Initial set up 2018
Front
3 degrees of camber
parallel toe.
Rear
2 degrees of camber
1mm toe in
2019 Set up
Front
3 degrees of camber
0.5mm toe out (Each side)
Rear
2.2 degree Camber
0.5mm toe in (Each Side)
Earlier in the year I adjusted the strut tops to gain more camber after watching the AR1's wear over a full set slightly more camber was needed. Now we're somewhere in the region of 3.5-3.8 degrees of front camber now but need to reset the toe to take this into consideration, that's a job for the weekend...
tombate911
Paid Member
Not quite the Cadwell Park update I was hoping for...
Arrived at the circuit from the hotel nice and early, perfect conditions were on the cards for the day with MSV.
Was hoping for a really positive day with a few changes I wanted to test, ECU tweaks, Michelin slicks and the firmer rear springs.
Sighting laps went without a problem and the circuit was live pretty swiftly with it being low numbers, not sold out despite it being the holidays.
Session 1 - Went out and got some heat into the tyres and started to get use to how they felt, instantly confidence inspiring, car felt good and I turned on the autoblip on the downshifts, something I wanted to experiment with as the ECU has the capability and I am already to heel and toe but it would be nice to focus purely on brake pressure and braking towards the limit of grip to improve the stopping distances in the car.
Session 2 - Upped the auto blip duration to 0.8 second up from 0.4second and it felt pretty much perfect, have to remember to bring the clutch up to the top of the pedal stroke when doing multiple down changes but it was pretty much seamless only needing a few more adjustments.
Session 3 - I had noticed the car seemed a bit bouncy so I checked the damper settings, must have miss set them as the rears were turned up close to max, for reference I normally run the Gaz about 14-12 clicks from full out of 22 and that's a pretty happy spot I've found over the years, bearing in mind I'd gone to a slightly stiffer rear spring, (back to the standard spring the coilovers came with) I set the dampes to 10 clicks from full, slightly more rebound to control the stiffer spring was the thought.
Session 4 - Starting to get into the groove of it and had a good session following a couple of Caterhams, car felt better in person than it looks in the video, my observations were that the car is way bouncier than it was earlier in the year and since changing the rear springs it's lifting the inside wheel a lot on mid corners resulting in some slip of the inside tyre on corner exit which the Quaife diff cannot deal with, shame it's not got a plated diff.
Comparing back to Febs videos from Cadwell this is much worst and likely down to the stiffer springs as that's the most dramatic variable that's changed, possibly causing the front right corner to dip and unweight the rear inside wheel?
For next time it goes out I'll be going back to the set up earlier in the year with the softer springs and try a session without a rear ARB and see how that performs.
Well session 4 was brought to an abrupt stop...
On the pit straight changing from 3rd to 4th 7080rpm the oil pump shaft has snapped. I've continued to run the engine for 25 seconds before noticing the oil pressure was zero and turning off the engine.
So many people have asked already about the set up:
OEM oil pump and shaft this time with two pieces of lock wire, I do have an oil pump tensioner fitted to the block. I ended up as this point due to the following failures
VAC bolt came loose
VAC bolt lock wired, hardened shaft chewed the softer gear
oil pump housing bolts vibrated loose causing lower oil pressure max 40psi.
Turned the engine off as soon as I noticed and rolled down the straight towards the marshalls point on the right hand side, not wanting to pull down the steep slope at the marshalls point at the bottom of the dip, its pretty steep, I've been there before and no powersteering, I also didn't want to get stopped in the bottom of the dip, decided to roll it up onto the straight where the car was clearly visible and roll it off the circuit onto the grass.
Stripped the front end and got the sump off on Sunday.
As we pretty much thought, snapped the shaft clean, spot were the gear has shot off to, upwards into the tensioner and the crank
Lockwire did it's job, the nut didn't come loose this time!
Next job was to check some bearings. Despite only running for 25 seconds without oil pressure, the damage happens pretty quickly.
After seeing those bearings, the job changed to removing the engine so I can strip it, clean everything properly and rebuild the bottom end
As it currently stands:
I've organised for a different aftermarket oil pump set up to be fitted, will document this a bit more when it's finished and back with me.
I've ordered bearings, seals and gaskets to rebuild the bottom end when I have all the right bits
I will be fitted a harmonic damper to the engine after this final failure. We'll see what the future holds with one of those
While the engine is out, might as well use the time do a few more jobs, so i'll start working on that over the next few weeks while waiting for engine parts.
Arrived at the circuit from the hotel nice and early, perfect conditions were on the cards for the day with MSV.
Was hoping for a really positive day with a few changes I wanted to test, ECU tweaks, Michelin slicks and the firmer rear springs.
Sighting laps went without a problem and the circuit was live pretty swiftly with it being low numbers, not sold out despite it being the holidays.
Session 1 - Went out and got some heat into the tyres and started to get use to how they felt, instantly confidence inspiring, car felt good and I turned on the autoblip on the downshifts, something I wanted to experiment with as the ECU has the capability and I am already to heel and toe but it would be nice to focus purely on brake pressure and braking towards the limit of grip to improve the stopping distances in the car.
Session 2 - Upped the auto blip duration to 0.8 second up from 0.4second and it felt pretty much perfect, have to remember to bring the clutch up to the top of the pedal stroke when doing multiple down changes but it was pretty much seamless only needing a few more adjustments.
Session 3 - I had noticed the car seemed a bit bouncy so I checked the damper settings, must have miss set them as the rears were turned up close to max, for reference I normally run the Gaz about 14-12 clicks from full out of 22 and that's a pretty happy spot I've found over the years, bearing in mind I'd gone to a slightly stiffer rear spring, (back to the standard spring the coilovers came with) I set the dampes to 10 clicks from full, slightly more rebound to control the stiffer spring was the thought.
Session 4 - Starting to get into the groove of it and had a good session following a couple of Caterhams, car felt better in person than it looks in the video, my observations were that the car is way bouncier than it was earlier in the year and since changing the rear springs it's lifting the inside wheel a lot on mid corners resulting in some slip of the inside tyre on corner exit which the Quaife diff cannot deal with, shame it's not got a plated diff.
Comparing back to Febs videos from Cadwell this is much worst and likely down to the stiffer springs as that's the most dramatic variable that's changed, possibly causing the front right corner to dip and unweight the rear inside wheel?
For next time it goes out I'll be going back to the set up earlier in the year with the softer springs and try a session without a rear ARB and see how that performs.
Well session 4 was brought to an abrupt stop...
On the pit straight changing from 3rd to 4th 7080rpm the oil pump shaft has snapped. I've continued to run the engine for 25 seconds before noticing the oil pressure was zero and turning off the engine.
So many people have asked already about the set up:
OEM oil pump and shaft this time with two pieces of lock wire, I do have an oil pump tensioner fitted to the block. I ended up as this point due to the following failures
VAC bolt came loose
VAC bolt lock wired, hardened shaft chewed the softer gear
oil pump housing bolts vibrated loose causing lower oil pressure max 40psi.
Turned the engine off as soon as I noticed and rolled down the straight towards the marshalls point on the right hand side, not wanting to pull down the steep slope at the marshalls point at the bottom of the dip, its pretty steep, I've been there before and no powersteering, I also didn't want to get stopped in the bottom of the dip, decided to roll it up onto the straight where the car was clearly visible and roll it off the circuit onto the grass.
Stripped the front end and got the sump off on Sunday.
As we pretty much thought, snapped the shaft clean, spot were the gear has shot off to, upwards into the tensioner and the crank
Lockwire did it's job, the nut didn't come loose this time!
Next job was to check some bearings. Despite only running for 25 seconds without oil pressure, the damage happens pretty quickly.
After seeing those bearings, the job changed to removing the engine so I can strip it, clean everything properly and rebuild the bottom end
As it currently stands:
I've organised for a different aftermarket oil pump set up to be fitted, will document this a bit more when it's finished and back with me.
I've ordered bearings, seals and gaskets to rebuild the bottom end when I have all the right bits
I will be fitted a harmonic damper to the engine after this final failure. We'll see what the future holds with one of those
While the engine is out, might as well use the time do a few more jobs, so i'll start working on that over the next few weeks while waiting for engine parts.
Helpimonfire
Paid Member
I love how quickly you get everything out of the car and checked over, definitely putting that garage to work! When I had my 330ci I was always told to keep the standard limiter as the M54B30 loves to destroy oil pumps.
With your skillset would it be worth putting some form of alarm in the car for when oil pressure dips below xPSI or oil/coolant temps go above normal?
With your skillset would it be worth putting some form of alarm in the car for when oil pressure dips below xPSI or oil/coolant temps go above normal?
tombate911
Paid Member
I have got warnings on the centre screen for 100+ on coolant and 105+ on oil temp. 120+ on diff temp, also with the ECU protection I have a rev limiter for any excessive temps or low temps, anything less than 50 deg for oil and water and there's much lower rev limiter around 4/5k.
Oil pressure is a little different as it's read by the logger not the ECU due to the number of inputs on the ECU, this makes it available on the CANBUS but I'm limited on what data I can read into the ECU on the CANBUS due to the way I drive the factory E46 clocks using the ECU. Something I can do but needs a lot of work to reengineer all the CANBUS messages in the ECU which provide data to the clocks, possible, just time consuming and the current set up is flawless.
The best solution would be to use the analog input used for the second steering wheel switch and use that to input Oil pressure to the ECU and use the built in Engine Protection for Oil pressure. I do have it programmed just not activated as oil pressure isn't wired to the ECU. Something I'll look at changing again, only a case of swapping a few wires around in plugs in the fuse box and turning on the tick box in the ECU.
tombate911
Paid Member
The lock wired solution has been in since august 2021 when I rebuilt the engine due to the bad honing on the block. I did know that it would fail are some point in the future and knew that when that time came I would address the issues properly.
First step was assessing the damage properly.
Pulled the engine out and popped it on the stand, was nice to do this in the new garage rather than on the driveway which I've been used to.
Pulled the rod caps off and the main caps
All the big ends damaged, obviously once there was no oil pressure there is contact between the crank and the bearing material rather than it being separated by a film of oil.
Main bearings, in good condition as I would expect for this engine, similar to all the M54 engines I've stripped in the past, these would probably go again.
However I had spotted some more damage on the hub on the front of the crank and with all the big ends being trashed I wanted to give the oil galleries in the crank a good clean before putting new bearings in, any material in the crank would get pushed back into the bearings on the first start up so wanted to make sure it was clean before rebuilding. Pulled the crank out
The damage from the oil pump gear shooting upwards into the crank. Luckily I already have a spare of these sat on the shelf I removed from a M54B25 crank before I threw it in the skip
Turned the engine over on a stand and some of the cam camps off to have a look at the condition of the cams and the trays/caps, still traces of oil under the caps and on the cams when removing the cam caps which I a good sign.
Checked the crank over for any damage and all looks good, given it a good clean inside and out. popped it on the shelf ready for going back in the engine when the time comes
Turning my attention to this over the next week or so, first job though was fitting some additional lighting to the garage, my initial placement of the garage lights was less than ideal for when the bonnet was up, so a light fitted directly over the engine bay and a second one directly over the work bench where I'll be doing the engine assembly. Going to strip the bay this week, give it a through clean and paint it in gloss black to match the inside of the car, probably loose the washer bottle while at it too as it does nothing but leak from where I blocked off the port for the head light washer pump.
Engine just waiting for parts for the bottom end rebuild and new shiny but more importantly and hopefully more reliable bits for the future engine for the E46. This being engine revision 4.
Helpimonfire
Paid Member
I'm amazed at how those big ends look so damaged from such a short time with no oil pressure, just goes to show that if the oil pressure light is on, it's probably already too late! Good news that your fancy Schrick cams didn't pick any damage up!
tombate911
Paid Member
While waiting for engine parts to turn up I thought I might as well continue to make the car better than it was before, one thing that has bugged me for years was the engine bay. I helped a friend paint their engine bay a while ago, when painting the inside of the car and it looked so much fresher.
Here's how it started with all the wiring and fuel lines pulled back, normally all well hidden with the engine in as it sits under the inlet manifold.
Pulled out the ECU and engine wiring harness, nice that it all just unplugs now and the ECU comes out of the fuse box with the engine harness.
Made a decision that I would only paint the main engine bay, the two sections behind the strut tops are hidden with the fuse box and the ABS/Master cylinder and that's where I decided to draw the line as I didn't want to start to strip the inside of the car too,
Masked up anything that I didn't want to remove and masked up the body work
Gave the engine bay a good sand, wipe down and a coat of 2K gloss black, much easier in the garage with the compressor set up, made myself a booth around the car and set up extraction.
Started adding some of the engine bay brackets back into the engine bay, obviously with a nice clean engine bay everything is going to need tidying up before it is fitted back, starting with the mounting plate for the swirl pot
Received my rebuilt oil pump back from Hopwood Motorsport
Noticed the 3 exterior plus middle fixing bolt, supplied with Nord lock washers for the bolts
Additionally to accommodate the shaft the front of the oil pump has been machined down to create clearance for the additional larger design of the area behind the gear.
Combining the oil pump with the proper solution for dealing with the harmonics of the M54B30 engine, I have also received my MRT damper mounting hub to go with an ATI Damper. I've known one of these has been needed for a long time but was putting it off, little bit like using the OEM oil pump shaft with lock wire, I knew it would fail one day and when the time came I would replace it with a better solution so here we are.
I have placed an order for the ATI Super Damper, I am just waiting on delivery from America. Will get some photos and information on that when it arrives. Next job now it to start to get the engine back together over the next week or so.
Here's how it started with all the wiring and fuel lines pulled back, normally all well hidden with the engine in as it sits under the inlet manifold.
Pulled out the ECU and engine wiring harness, nice that it all just unplugs now and the ECU comes out of the fuse box with the engine harness.
Made a decision that I would only paint the main engine bay, the two sections behind the strut tops are hidden with the fuse box and the ABS/Master cylinder and that's where I decided to draw the line as I didn't want to start to strip the inside of the car too,
Masked up anything that I didn't want to remove and masked up the body work
Gave the engine bay a good sand, wipe down and a coat of 2K gloss black, much easier in the garage with the compressor set up, made myself a booth around the car and set up extraction.
Started adding some of the engine bay brackets back into the engine bay, obviously with a nice clean engine bay everything is going to need tidying up before it is fitted back, starting with the mounting plate for the swirl pot
Received my rebuilt oil pump back from Hopwood Motorsport
Noticed the 3 exterior plus middle fixing bolt, supplied with Nord lock washers for the bolts
Additionally to accommodate the shaft the front of the oil pump has been machined down to create clearance for the additional larger design of the area behind the gear.
Combining the oil pump with the proper solution for dealing with the harmonics of the M54B30 engine, I have also received my MRT damper mounting hub to go with an ATI Damper. I've known one of these has been needed for a long time but was putting it off, little bit like using the OEM oil pump shaft with lock wire, I knew it would fail one day and when the time came I would replace it with a better solution so here we are.
I have placed an order for the ATI Super Damper, I am just waiting on delivery from America. Will get some photos and information on that when it arrives. Next job now it to start to get the engine back together over the next week or so.
Helpimonfire
Paid Member
So what's the plan for the new engine? Just new bearings and go again?
Engine bay looks really good now, hopefully it's the last you see of it for some time!
Engine bay looks really good now, hopefully it's the last you see of it for some time!
tombate911
Paid Member
Plan for the engine.
Check for any further damage
Leave the head on with rods and pistons in the bores
Clean all the bottom end parts
Replace the crank hub
Replace the oil pump chain
Replace main bearings
Replace big end bearings
Upgraded oil pump with the Hopwood kit
New seals and gaskets on the bottom end - Front and rear case covers and sump.
MRT hub to mount Superdamper.
Time up the engine and check over the head visually,
That's the plan so far, will see how it goes over the next few weeks and hopefully get the engine in and running in the next few weeks.
tombate911
Paid Member
Engine refresh continues...
Given the crank another good clean with brake cleaner and blown out the journals with the compressor. Replacement gear hub on the nose of the crank
Delivery of parts for the bottom end.
Front and rear casings, new oil pump chain, main and big end bearings, new sump gasket.
Main bearings in the block
Main cap bearings
Compared with the mains bearings I removed after two years of use and running without oil pressure
Checked the main bearing clearances.
BMW clearance - 0.020 - 0.058
Happy to be within that range, tighter than the 0.050 but not quite 0.038
Rod bearings fitted
BMW clearance - 0.020 - 0.050
Same again with the rod bearings - right in the midle of 0.050/0.038
Bottom end all torqued down
After the damage from Cadwell the chain had done some flapping around and some of the links were showing some damage. Silly not to replace it £15
Hopwood Motorsport oil pump fitted, taken the oil pump bolts out one by one and added lock tight and torqued up for piece of mind.
Pump fully fitted, all 4 bolts fitted with locktight, the 3 exterior bolts are also supplied with Nordlock washers, oil pump tensional all checked and refitted.
Front timing covers refitted with new gaskets and sump fitted, not timed the engine up yet, just assembled all the vanos assembly in position ready for timing when the flywheel is fitted
Still waiting for the ATI Super Damper to arrive from America so using the old OEM one for the moment, another angle for the new oil pump.
Usual process of fitting the flywheel, clutch, gearbox and exhaust manifold. Much easier to build it back up out of the car and put it back in in one lump, gearbox mount fist then get the subframe under the engine on the engine mounts and lift it up into position with the crane.
Made a start on putting the engine back into the engine bay, I can do the engine timing now and start to work through slowly checking everything over and assembling the remainder of the engine bay. Spotted a few bits I want to tidy up along the way before they go back in.
There is an OEM plastic cover which separated the swirl pot from the engine bay and a plate and filter which covers the fan under the scuttle, will look a lot tidier when the engine bay is put together properly. More of that this week in the evenings.
Given the crank another good clean with brake cleaner and blown out the journals with the compressor. Replacement gear hub on the nose of the crank
Delivery of parts for the bottom end.
Front and rear casings, new oil pump chain, main and big end bearings, new sump gasket.
Main bearings in the block
Main cap bearings
Compared with the mains bearings I removed after two years of use and running without oil pressure
Checked the main bearing clearances.
BMW clearance - 0.020 - 0.058
Happy to be within that range, tighter than the 0.050 but not quite 0.038
Rod bearings fitted
BMW clearance - 0.020 - 0.050
Same again with the rod bearings - right in the midle of 0.050/0.038
Bottom end all torqued down
After the damage from Cadwell the chain had done some flapping around and some of the links were showing some damage. Silly not to replace it £15
Hopwood Motorsport oil pump fitted, taken the oil pump bolts out one by one and added lock tight and torqued up for piece of mind.
Pump fully fitted, all 4 bolts fitted with locktight, the 3 exterior bolts are also supplied with Nordlock washers, oil pump tensional all checked and refitted.
Front timing covers refitted with new gaskets and sump fitted, not timed the engine up yet, just assembled all the vanos assembly in position ready for timing when the flywheel is fitted
Still waiting for the ATI Super Damper to arrive from America so using the old OEM one for the moment, another angle for the new oil pump.
Usual process of fitting the flywheel, clutch, gearbox and exhaust manifold. Much easier to build it back up out of the car and put it back in in one lump, gearbox mount fist then get the subframe under the engine on the engine mounts and lift it up into position with the crane.
Made a start on putting the engine back into the engine bay, I can do the engine timing now and start to work through slowly checking everything over and assembling the remainder of the engine bay. Spotted a few bits I want to tidy up along the way before they go back in.
There is an OEM plastic cover which separated the swirl pot from the engine bay and a plate and filter which covers the fan under the scuttle, will look a lot tidier when the engine bay is put together properly. More of that this week in the evenings.
Helpimonfire
Paid Member
I love how quickly you seem to get these jobs done. It takes me about 4 weeks to change a set of brake pads! Have you got a deadline in mind for the rebuild or is it just a case of getting it done now so you know it's done and you can get the car onto the trailer ready for the next trackday with minimal messing about?
tombate911
Paid Member
Sometimes I just can't put something down when I've got something on the go, it's often a bad thing, as it becomes all consuming but when I'm doing something I do try to make it my main focus. I've already booked a trackday for the 18th November at Oulton, so working towards trying to get the car ready for then. Got a busy couple of weekends which takes me quite quickly till the end of October. Hopefully get some more time on it Friday to get the engine timed up and put more of the engine bay back together.
tombate911
Paid Member
Another weekend gives me a free Saturday to keep working on the car.
I've learnt now it's easier to time the car up in the engine bay now as I can't fit the flywheel while the engine is on the engine stand. Popped the rocker cover off and timed the engine up using the standard BMW tools.
Started to put the rest of the engine auxiliaries back on. Didn't take long for the curse of the aluminum engine block to strike. Pulled a thread out of one of the oil filter housing bolts, yes I was using a torque wrench.
Partly due to bad design. This bolt hole in particular has a locating dowl in the first section of the hole so the thread engagement is less than the rest of the bolts.
Drilled out the hole, fitted a helicoil to the stripped hole and found a bolt which was 10mm longer and got the filter housing back on
Spent a bit of time adjusting the ported adaptor I use to go from the M50 inlet to the M54 head. I spent hours on one years ago, one of the nicer laser cut versions but someone offered to buy it and I ended up making another version for myself, Bit more tidying up on the ports and matching it perfectly between the m54/m5o profiles
Got the paint and the compressor out again. Painted the front cross bar which holds all the radiator pack, coolers and head lights, comes in a strange off black colour in a flat matt paint too,
Started to build up the rest of the engine bay to get to the point where I can run the car.
#
With all the coolant hoses and oil coolers fitted, It was time to get the car running.
Removed the spark plugs and unplugged the injectors.
Cranked the car over to 30-40 seconds on the starter motor until I could see a solid 20psi of oil pressure when cranking.
Popped the spark plugs back in and turned the key.
Ran the car for 10-15 minutes. Got it up to temp. Turned it on and off a few times and checked all the temps and figures on the laptop.
Made a few changes while I was in there. Dropped the rev limited down to 7,000rpm for the time being. I don't need to rev it that high in future. Increased the blip duration on the down shift rev matching.
Front end back together and intake fitted. Some of it will have to come off again but the more parts fitted to the car the less I have knocking around the garage.
Little shot of the engine bay.
So glad I took the time to paint it while the engine was out, looks so much tidier and cleaner now
We'll see how long it stays like that, only take one wet track day to ruin it!
Open to suggestions from the people in the know on the following...
Prior to going to Cadwell I changed to a firmer spring on the rear, looking at photos of the car in corners it always looked like the rear was lower than the front and was hoping to help turn in and rotation with a stiffer rear spring. The wing is only set a 3 deg for reference, it's perfect in the faster corners but sometime felt a little understeery in corner entry, however that was on the old AR1's not the Dunlop Slicks.
What I found at Cadwell is with the stiffer rear spring the inner wheel is lifting and slipping coming out of corners even out of Charlies two onto the back straight it's slipping the inner right wheel, even with a diff, that's the limit of a Quaife. I was going to go back to a softer rear spring like I've ran for the past 4ish years but before that I'm going to run the car with the stiffer spring and without the rear antiroll bar to allow the wheels to move more independently and hopefully allow the inner wheel to remain on the ground with enough traction to get the Quaife diff working correctly.
Will take the softer springs and the ARB to Oulton if it doesn't work and need to revert back to an old set up.
I've learnt now it's easier to time the car up in the engine bay now as I can't fit the flywheel while the engine is on the engine stand. Popped the rocker cover off and timed the engine up using the standard BMW tools.
Started to put the rest of the engine auxiliaries back on. Didn't take long for the curse of the aluminum engine block to strike. Pulled a thread out of one of the oil filter housing bolts, yes I was using a torque wrench.
Partly due to bad design. This bolt hole in particular has a locating dowl in the first section of the hole so the thread engagement is less than the rest of the bolts.
Drilled out the hole, fitted a helicoil to the stripped hole and found a bolt which was 10mm longer and got the filter housing back on
Spent a bit of time adjusting the ported adaptor I use to go from the M50 inlet to the M54 head. I spent hours on one years ago, one of the nicer laser cut versions but someone offered to buy it and I ended up making another version for myself, Bit more tidying up on the ports and matching it perfectly between the m54/m5o profiles
Got the paint and the compressor out again. Painted the front cross bar which holds all the radiator pack, coolers and head lights, comes in a strange off black colour in a flat matt paint too,
Started to build up the rest of the engine bay to get to the point where I can run the car.
With all the coolant hoses and oil coolers fitted, It was time to get the car running.
Removed the spark plugs and unplugged the injectors.
Cranked the car over to 30-40 seconds on the starter motor until I could see a solid 20psi of oil pressure when cranking.
Popped the spark plugs back in and turned the key.
Ran the car for 10-15 minutes. Got it up to temp. Turned it on and off a few times and checked all the temps and figures on the laptop.
Made a few changes while I was in there. Dropped the rev limited down to 7,000rpm for the time being. I don't need to rev it that high in future. Increased the blip duration on the down shift rev matching.
Front end back together and intake fitted. Some of it will have to come off again but the more parts fitted to the car the less I have knocking around the garage.
Little shot of the engine bay.
So glad I took the time to paint it while the engine was out, looks so much tidier and cleaner now
We'll see how long it stays like that, only take one wet track day to ruin it!
Open to suggestions from the people in the know on the following...
Prior to going to Cadwell I changed to a firmer spring on the rear, looking at photos of the car in corners it always looked like the rear was lower than the front and was hoping to help turn in and rotation with a stiffer rear spring. The wing is only set a 3 deg for reference, it's perfect in the faster corners but sometime felt a little understeery in corner entry, however that was on the old AR1's not the Dunlop Slicks.
What I found at Cadwell is with the stiffer rear spring the inner wheel is lifting and slipping coming out of corners even out of Charlies two onto the back straight it's slipping the inner right wheel, even with a diff, that's the limit of a Quaife. I was going to go back to a softer rear spring like I've ran for the past 4ish years but before that I'm going to run the car with the stiffer spring and without the rear antiroll bar to allow the wheels to move more independently and hopefully allow the inner wheel to remain on the ground with enough traction to get the Quaife diff working correctly.
Will take the softer springs and the ARB to Oulton if it doesn't work and need to revert back to an old set up.
Helpimonfire
Paid Member
I wonder if an adjustable rear ARB would be beneficial? I've seen quite a few videos (mainly mid engined cars admittedly) running an adjustable RARB and running it in "full soft" on twisty circuits with lots of elevation changes. I'd assume something like that is available for the E46 as there seems to be a hell of an aftermarket for parts for those!
How nervous were you on the first fire up? I'd have been crapping myself
How nervous were you on the first fire up? I'd have been crapping myself
tombate911
Paid Member
Not a lot been happening over the last few weeks. Been waiting for a super damper from America for 6 weeks.
Mounting this to the engine using the MRT M54 damper installation kit from Finland
This is a very tight fit on the crank, ended up heating it in the oven for 20 minutes to get some heat into it and pulling it on using the crank bolt.
Super Damper installed with a shorter belt, fingers crossed this is a fix for the Harmonic issues with the M54B30 crank combined with a better quality oil pump design and the tensioner.
Not been a cheap fix to rebuilt the engine but hopefully it's worth it in the long run damper and mounting kit coming in at £600
Overall rebuild costs from the oil pump failure
£340 Damper
£250 Damper fitting kit
£260 Rebuilt Oil Pump Kit
£125 Main bearings, rod bearings, sump gasket, front and rear housing seals
£70 Oil, filter and power steering fluid.
Just over £1000 to do a bottom end refresh and hopefully future proof the bottom end now with the best fixes I can find on the market.
Engine back all back together, looking much cleaner for painting the engine bay.
Pretty much set for the weekend at Oulton Park on Saturday, could do with giving it a clean, and judging by the weather put the wet tyres on.
Mounting this to the engine using the MRT M54 damper installation kit from Finland
This is a very tight fit on the crank, ended up heating it in the oven for 20 minutes to get some heat into it and pulling it on using the crank bolt.
Super Damper installed with a shorter belt, fingers crossed this is a fix for the Harmonic issues with the M54B30 crank combined with a better quality oil pump design and the tensioner.
Not been a cheap fix to rebuilt the engine but hopefully it's worth it in the long run damper and mounting kit coming in at £600
Overall rebuild costs from the oil pump failure
£340 Damper
£250 Damper fitting kit
£260 Rebuilt Oil Pump Kit
£125 Main bearings, rod bearings, sump gasket, front and rear housing seals
£70 Oil, filter and power steering fluid.
Just over £1000 to do a bottom end refresh and hopefully future proof the bottom end now with the best fixes I can find on the market.
Engine back all back together, looking much cleaner for painting the engine bay.
Pretty much set for the weekend at Oulton Park on Saturday, could do with giving it a clean, and judging by the weather put the wet tyres on.
tombate911
Paid Member
A proper post will appear at some point, but for now...
tombate911
Paid Member
Oulton Part 18th November
Normally we've got away with good weather over the years with a dry cold winter track day but this time a little bit of rain over night and temps around the 10-12 degree meant that the track was wet for the majority of the day but only a sessions worth of a drying line before we got 5 minutes rain to take that away from us, this meant it was a compete days running on wet tyres. Bonus was that as it wasn't raining all day so no spray to contend with.
Suspension set up.
From 2019/20 to middle of 2023 I found a suspension set up that worked for me, was really balanced and never really needed any adjustments, however I did write about this earlier in the year that I felt with all the car changes, it was starting to lack something so I went for slightly different spring rates for Cadwell in the summer, and well I could see from the video that I had made the handling worst in the rear end and the drive out over corners was effected by the stiffer rear springs.
For Oulton I decided to stick with the stiffer rear springs and do away with the rear anti roll bar, yet to test it properly in the dry but in the wet and on a dry line with wet tyres on I can say that the rear end grip and drive out of corners was much better than previous so I think it could be a step in the right direction, something I'll be continuing to look at next year but for now I am really happy with the car handling and how it drove around Oulton.
Earlier in the year when I was at Cadwell Park a friend gave me the keys to his Mini R56, I took it out for a session in the afternoon to see what it was like to drive front wheel drive again, with the E46 back working it was good to get out for a session together, both cars a really equally matched now so it's going to make for a fun 2024!
Finally last session of the afternoon with a passenger
It was really good that the car ran all day with the new bottom end, the car was flawless and I spent the day adjusting and improving the logger code which has been completely rewrote this year from scratch so we've just been ironing out as few teething issues, I always say it's been a good day when I haven't taken any photos, well besides this one giving the car a once over at lunchtime.
Another winter Oulton Park track day complete. Looking forward to next year, will be giving the car a once over in the next few weeks to look for any issues, give it a good wash and see what if any adjustments I want to make before next year, well that's a bit of a lie, I already have a list!
Yet to have a look through the MSV photos, will have a look at those in the week and see if there are any on there worth purchasing.
Normally we've got away with good weather over the years with a dry cold winter track day but this time a little bit of rain over night and temps around the 10-12 degree meant that the track was wet for the majority of the day but only a sessions worth of a drying line before we got 5 minutes rain to take that away from us, this meant it was a compete days running on wet tyres. Bonus was that as it wasn't raining all day so no spray to contend with.
Suspension set up.
From 2019/20 to middle of 2023 I found a suspension set up that worked for me, was really balanced and never really needed any adjustments, however I did write about this earlier in the year that I felt with all the car changes, it was starting to lack something so I went for slightly different spring rates for Cadwell in the summer, and well I could see from the video that I had made the handling worst in the rear end and the drive out over corners was effected by the stiffer rear springs.
For Oulton I decided to stick with the stiffer rear springs and do away with the rear anti roll bar, yet to test it properly in the dry but in the wet and on a dry line with wet tyres on I can say that the rear end grip and drive out of corners was much better than previous so I think it could be a step in the right direction, something I'll be continuing to look at next year but for now I am really happy with the car handling and how it drove around Oulton.
Earlier in the year when I was at Cadwell Park a friend gave me the keys to his Mini R56, I took it out for a session in the afternoon to see what it was like to drive front wheel drive again, with the E46 back working it was good to get out for a session together, both cars a really equally matched now so it's going to make for a fun 2024!
Finally last session of the afternoon with a passenger
It was really good that the car ran all day with the new bottom end, the car was flawless and I spent the day adjusting and improving the logger code which has been completely rewrote this year from scratch so we've just been ironing out as few teething issues, I always say it's been a good day when I haven't taken any photos, well besides this one giving the car a once over at lunchtime.
Another winter Oulton Park track day complete. Looking forward to next year, will be giving the car a once over in the next few weeks to look for any issues, give it a good wash and see what if any adjustments I want to make before next year, well that's a bit of a lie, I already have a list!
Yet to have a look through the MSV photos, will have a look at those in the week and see if there are any on there worth purchasing.
