Engine goes in, engine comes out..

After a recent trip to Bristol (about 360 miles round-trip), it became clear that the 328 engine was not in a viable condition. I reached this conclusion when I had to stop at a service station to put in over a gallon of oil at motorway prices (about £70). My best guess is that it's using about 1 litre per 200 miles. I've also learned that Jason's car with a 3.2 litre engine does about 30-32 mpg, so the 18 mpg that I'm seeing is nearly half what it should be. Plus, there's the cost and hassle of replacing the oil separator valve every so often because it can't handle the volume of oil coming out of the crankcase.

So I started searching Ebay for a new engine. Initially I was planning on a straight swap with another 328 for cost reasons, but ended up, inevitably, with a 3.2 litre M3 EVO engine, good for about 320 bhp, or around 450 bhp / ton - a bit less power than an R500, but a lot more torque, so performance should be acceptable. If it works, which remains to be seen. I figured that if I was going to go to all this effort, I might as well at least get something positive out of it. Plus, the redline of 7600 (with 8000 safely achievable with a little light remapping) will be considerably more fitting for a lightweight sports car than the 6200 of the 328. The only real downside of the M3 is the cost, which is considerable: I definitely won't be getting new wheels any time soon :-(

I picked the engine up on Wednesday from a garage in London. They had a couple of BMW race cars outside, so hopefully they know their stuff. They bought the engine as a spare, and rebuilt the bottom end with some new bearing shells and con rod bolts, so it ought to be in good condition.

After a bit of engine inspection and Ebaying the missing bits on Thursday, I started the swap on Friday night. Thanks to Jason and Rad-tec for sending me the bits I needed so promptly. Pictures follow:

Most exhaust ports looked like this...

But 1 and 6 looked like this. I'm not too concerned - the seller reckons it has just leaked through from storing the engine upside down (on a stand I assume). Makes sense as pistons 1 and 6 would be in the same position.

Old engine coming out.

Engine coming out. Surprisingly, not too hard doing this on my own.

Impromptu flywheel locking tool constructed using the awesome power of two hammers. This worked rather well.

Home-made clutch alignment tool. Did the job nicely.

New engine ready to go in. Note trolley for sliding gearbox onto engine.

Chassis adjusted to allow the slightly longer engine to fit in.

Unpleasant surprise - I thought the stud had been cross threaded. Happily it turned out to just be a bent stud. Phew.

All in all a fairly painless weekend (not literally, obviously - I managed to stab my finger with a stanley knife requiring swift application of superglue to stop the bleeding) but successful. I didn't get the new engine in as one of the gearbox bolts snapped when removing the gearbox from the old engine - since these can't be put in with the engine in the car, installation of the new engine will have to wait until I've obtained a new bolt. Otherwise everything is ready to drop the new one in.

Most pointless mistake of the weekend: spending an hour with the angle-grinder getting the old clutch off because I needed to reuse the plate which sits between flywheel and engine, and the bolts holding the clutch on had rounded. Once I had the flywheel off I realised that the plate, instead of going all the way around the crank, was basically U shaped and could have easily slid off without even loosening anything.

Getting the gearbox on the new engine was a bit of a faff, but the trolley helped a lot. The best method seems to be: adjust crane to get engine the right height against the gearbox. Then adjust the engine using the load-leveller so that the gearbox lines up flush vertically against the clutch housing. Readjust height slightly. Gearbox then goes on pretty painlessly. I didn't have a clutch alignment tool so I had to wing it with a socket extension wrapped in tape. As it turned out, this did the job just fine.

I can't compression test the engine until it's got some oil in it, and I can't get oil in it until the adapter turns up from America (I've gone with a very shiny custom oil cooler - the only downside being the difficulty of getting a suitable adapter). Hopefully that will be soon. Then I need to figure out the loom, and make the necessary adjustments as the loom is off an SMG gearbox car (I believe it's a simple case of jumping a relay... I just don't know which one). Then it's car back together and drive gently up to Fibreform to get the diff mount beefed up and to replace the chassis rail which I removed.

Progress

Lots has happened since I last posted over a month ago. In order (as far as I can remember)...

Firstly, I had an issue with oil. The crankcase breather was spewing out an awful lot of oil vapour. This should be taken care of by the CCV which is supposed to separate oil from air and return the oil to the sump, but unfortunately my CCV (which was brand new) failed and started returning oil to the engine bay instead, with a fair bit going back into the inlet manifold...

Oil being returned to the engine bay...

... and to the inlet manifold. That's a big puddle of oil.

After a bit of umming and ahing, I decided to try replacing the CCV again on the assumption that the previous one was faulty from new. The other potential explanation is that it failed because of the quantity of oil coming from the engine, due to blow by (a compression test suggests that there is more blow by than I would like). Replacing the CCV is cheaper than replacing the engine, so I'm trying that first. It's too early to say if it's the right choice, but so far it seems to be working; there is a lot less oil in the manifold now.

I took the rocker cover off and had a look for oil leaks...

... everything looks normal.

Around this time, I also decided to replace the inlet manifold with an 325 manifold. The 328 produces 190 bhp, whereas the 325 produces 189 bhp with 0.3 L less capacity... the reason being that the 328 had a restrictive inlet manifold in order to satisfy German emissions regulations. So, sticking a 325 manifold onto a 328 is supposed to rectify this and release another 20 bhp or so.

The swap was straightforward. The only issue is that the 328 has more holes in the manifold to plug bits into, so with a 325 it's necessary to get creative with plumbing to get everything attached. It's a bit easier for me than for most people who do this swap as there are a couple of hoses that are on a proper 328 that I don't use. It's hard to say if performance has improved, as I didn't have many miles under my belt with the old setup, but certainly it feels extremely fast now, which is what I'm after really.

I installed a big bore throttle body at the same time, which apparently is the thing to do with this manifold as it flows a lot more air than the standard throttle body.

Installing the new manifold...

...there is a lot of gubbins under here...

Making an adaptor plate to fit the M52 throttle body to the M50 manifold.

This all done, I got some driving in but quickly discovered that I was hitting a limiter somewhere in the 5200 - 5500 rpm region. Given that the limiter is supposed to be at 6200 (which is already too low in my opinion) this is pretty unacceptable.

I tried swapping over the cam position sensor, which seemed to work with the car on the drive, but as soon as I went for a drive, the limiter came back - obviously it didn't kick in until the car was under load. Some more internet searching and eventually I figured it out (this took me at least a week from discovering the problem to fixing it) - Peter's wiring diagram is for a Bosch ECU, which is used on most E36 cars, but not the 328, which has a Siemens ECU. The wiring is almost the same, but the ECU requires a signal for vehicle speed (from the speed sensor in the diff), which feeds into the large X20 connector on pin 14 for the Bosch ECU, but pin 9 on the Siemens. Without it, it sets a 5200ish limiter. Adjusting the wiring solved the problem. Once I have the fueling issue sorted, I'll look into a remap to get the limiter raised again to around 7000, which I think is the safe limit for an unmodified 328 - possibly at some point I'll fettle it (stronger valve springs, etc) with the aim of getting it higher again.

The remaining engine issue is that it is still getting below 20 mpg. A real 328 will get around 30, and I'd expect this car to do significantly better, being so much lighter. I noticed that the ECU (#4, if you're counting) was complaining about the post-cat lambda sensors being missing (which they are). The ECU is off a 528, which has these extra lambda sensors. I don't think they should affect fuelling, but it's possible. To try and rule this out, I caved in and bought ECU #5, this time off a 328. It's in and working, but I have yet to get enough miles to see if it's solved the problem. Alternatively, the 528 ECU might have had a bad map - again, a new ECU would solve this, though I think this scenario is unlikely. Still, I need to rule out the ECU as a possible source of the problem, so it's a necessary step.

Last weekend, along with the ECU, I also got hold of 6 m of vinyl wrap. After getting a quote for painting (£800ish) I was keen to explore other options, and having seen Jason's wrapped car, which looks fantastic, I decided to go that route instead, as it's only £300 for the vinyl, and I can apply it myself.

I left Emily in charge of deciding how to chop it up so as to cover all the panels with 6 m of vinyl... sadly she got it a little bit wrong, resulting in two extra joins. They'll be almost totally covered by the boot cover though, so it's not the end of the world. The 3M Di-Noc wrap proved pretty easy to apply, although there is a definite knack to it. The panels I did last look much better than the first ones, even though I left the harder shapes to the end. Still, I'm very pleased with the end result.

Cleaning the bonnet in preparation.

Fitting the wrap around the exhaust primaries.

One side of the car mostly done.

Looking good. Needs stripes.

The result looks good, but clearly needs some stripes... the only question is, what colour? One option is the BMW colours; I'm also tempted by a couple of plain black stripes. The plan is also that the car will have black wheels. Your ideas / suggestions welcome?

This was the original plan, but now I'm not so sure...

Currently thinking about something like this.

Emily's first drive

Peter was true to his word and got the brackets back to me very quickly (along with the boss for my steering wheel, which also needed a spot of welding doing). Unfortunately, where he'd welded the bracket back together, it had bent significantly, and, since he'd also reinforced it, it was quite resistant to being bent back into shape. I hit it with a sledgehammer a bit, and got it usable, but it's still not where it should be. I'll probably solve this by making new holes in the bracket, rather than trying to bend the bracket any further. Anyway, the front cycle wings are now attached, and hopefully stronger than before.

I've also got a proper steering wheel now, which is a big improvement. It's detachable, so getting in and out is easier - hopefully there won't be any incidents with it detaching when it shouldn't detach. Emily is now able to get in (with the BMW wheel, she wasn't able to fit), so she had her first proper drive, finding it "a bit scary" but otherwise good, I think.

Ready to go. Ride height and indicators still need sorting.

Various jobs remain to be done, but the car is starting to come together. The windscreen makes it much more practical, and the reflections from the scuttle are not a big issue in practice. The most important thing, I think, will be the new throttle pedal that Peter has kindly offered as a free upgrade :-) This should reduce pedal travel significantly (currently I need to move my whole leg rather than just pivot at the ankle) and is also narrower, which will make life a bit easier. A proper suspension setup is also on my list, and of course vinyl wrapping the car and fitting the tonneau cover.

Very pleased with how it is turning out so far though.

First two breakdowns...

After getting the car road legal on Thursday, I forgot that (a) the car is low, and currently lower than it will be once I've set the ride height properly, and (b) the speed bumps at work are very harsh. On Friday I drove into work, and accidentally clipped a speed bump with the sump.

The sump - fortunately - was not significantly harmed (it lost a couple of cooling fins, but no leaks), but the resulting shock obviously moved the engine and gearbox, which had unfortunate consequences for the gear linkage. The gearstick pivots in an arm which runs between the gearbox and the chassis, for the purpose of providing a suitable pivot point - unfortunately, it doesn't have much ability to move and absorb impact, so it snapped instead. I'm going to try and find a way to add some rubber bushing to protect it in future.

Broken one on the left. Note (suspicious) old weld at the top.

Fortunately the local dealer was able to get one in for the next day for only £13, so not a massive problem. I left the car at work overnight and returned, with tools and parts, on Saturday to fix it.

It's interesting to note that the old arm had already been welded by the previous owner, so I wonder if it had snapped in a similar impact before, which might have weakened it?

Anyway, car fixed, I drove home in it with no problems... until the bracket holding a front cycle wing on snapped. Peter had previously mentioned that he'd seen failures with these brackets, but unfortunately he'd just given me some advice on welding it up to make it stronger, which I hadn't got round to doing. The cycle wing survived, but the car is now off the road until I get the brackets reinforced. Fortunately Peter said he could fit the welding in for me before he's off on holiday, so this should be sorted pretty soon.

This happened.

Causing this.

I took advantage of having the car not-really-drivable (no cycle wings at the front means a face full of gravel) to get on with the windscreen today. After an awful lot of faffing about bending and trimming the frame, and trying to bend the supporting brackets (which didn't want to bend on account of being incredibly strong), I managed to get the windscreen fitted in a reasonably neat way. It's not perfect - I over-trimmed the bottom part of the frame, leaving a few mm gap to the vertical part, and the supporting brackets aren't bent exactly as I would have liked, but from a distance it looks good.

The rubber still needs trimming.

Lots of Ackerman. Front numberplate is much too big... it could easily break and fall off. So easily.

The height of the screen seems about right, when sat in the driver's seat. My only concern is that the white scuttle is going to reflect quite badly - I may need to paint it black or something - but I will need to drive it a bit first to see if this will really be a significant issue. Anyway, this should allow me to drive without needing a helmet, which will be a nice improvement.

Fully road legal

Having passed IVA, the next step is to get through the DVLA process, which is, if anything, an even more daunting task. Theoretically it's just paperwork, so you'd think that you could just hand over the IVA certificate, get a tax disc and a numberplate, job done, but of course government agencies are not really geared up for that sort of efficiency.

I first drove up to the DVLA (60 miles away in Peterborough) straight after the IVA, but missed their opening hours by five minutes. I went up again on the Thursday, handed over the impenetrable forms (which are extremely hard to fill out as they cover importing vehicles, registering new vehicles, etc, as well as kit cars, and therefore have many irrelevant fields). They took the forms and told me to turn up in a week with the car on a trailer so that they could inspect it (i.e., check the VIN which was already checked at IVA).

On Tuesday I took it up to DVLA on a trailer (thanks Simon), which blew up various fuses on my car - I blame the trailer, Simon blamed my car. I suspect he's right. DVLA had a look round the car, and then sold me a tax disc to start from April 1st (Tuesday being March 29th - hence getting a tax disc from the start of March would be a bit of a waste). As they pointed out, they couldn't give me the tax disc there and then, obviously, despite the week's notice, so they'd have to post it anyway...

The numberplate details and tax disc arrived today, dated to start from the start of March, bit of a waste of money there. I drove to Halfords and got them to make me up some plates - they were a little thrown by the letter Q, which they didn't have, but they did their best to make one out of an O and a straight bit. It looks rubbish but it will do for now.

There was a little bit of light left, so I went for a quick drive. Filling up confirmed I was getting about 22 mpg, which is poor. Otherwise, the car performed well, and drove very nicely (and quickly). I need a stronger neck, or a windscreen though - 100 mph wind buffeting a heavy helmet is hard work.

When I got the car back home, I plugged in the laptop and found that it was reporting a lambda sensor error. Not a big surprise, I'd seen this intermittently before, and had already ordered a new sensor with the intention of replacing the one that I hadn't previously replaced. I popped the new one in; hopefully this will sort out the fuel consumption (apparently it's quite possible for bad lambda sensors to wreck fuel consumption on these engines, so this is quite plausible).

I also tried plugging in my old dash, and discovered that the reason that it was displaying low water temperature was because the new dash was mis-calibrated - the water temperature was in fact exactly where it should be - given that I'd replaced the thermostat I'd expect water temperature to be spot on, but it's good to have it confirmed.

Looking forward to the summer now.

IVA passed

Happily, I passed the retest today without issues. I had a much more civilised 12:30 appointment, so set out around 10 in (intermittent) sunshine, which was pretty nice.

Setting out.

I had to stop pretty soon to take the steering wheel off and put it back on again as it was far from straight - fortunately I'd brought all the right tools so this didn't take long.

Wheel back on. Thanks to Ben for the lend of the helmet.

The process was very smooth - the inspector had a quick look at the list of failures from my prior test, looked around the car for a few minutes and ticked off a few obvious ones. Fortunately, this included the forward vision issue which was the one thing I was most concerned about - he didn't bother measuring the headlight height, probably because it's quite a faff to do, but just said "that looks fine". Indicator position was right on the limit of acceptability (the outer edge of the indicator was exactly 40 cm in from the outermost edge of the car, which is the maximum permitted), but the rules say 40 cm, so he passed that too. Finally he had a quick drive around the block to check self centering. Unlike last time, he didn't have to spend a few minutes doing circles on full lock - obviously he was satisfied by just going around the block, which was as expected as the car was self-centering quite nicely on the way there.

Waiting for the IVA inspector to finish his lunch break.

Fortunately it didn't snow this time.

I got the certificate and went off to Peterborough DVLA office to get it registered and taxed, but sadly got there five minutes after it closed, so that will have to wait.

The car car drove very nicely there and back, the only issue being the fuel consumption which (mostly a steady 70ish on a dual carriage way) was not more than 20 mpg, a fair bit worse than expected. I think a new lambda sensor may help here. If not I'm not totally sure what I will do about this...

(Mostly) ready for IVA

With Emily away at a hen weekend, I managed to get a full weekend in the garage. The biggest and most troublesome task was trying to get self-centering working, so I started with that. Happily, it was sunny on Saturday which meant that I could put the car on the drive (which is flat, unlike my garage which slopes too much to set up geometry) and mess about with ride height, toe and camber.

I started with ride height, but quickly gave up after it became clear that no matter what I did to the front spring platforms, the relative height remained unchanged with the drivers side about 10 mm lower (due to the engine position). This should be fixable, and I will get it properly corner weighted at some point, but for now it's not urgent, so I set a reasonable ride height and cracked on.

Having eyed up camber gauges on Ebay, I decided that they were a massive rip-off at £100+ and bought a magnetic digital spirit level instead for £30. I'm not convinced it's totally accurate, but it will do. I followed Peter's instructions to use about 1-1.5º of camber and a few degrees of toe-in. Setting camber was awkward, but eventually I got somewhere in the right region. Toe was pretty easy (for the benefit of other builders, I found that turning each side of the rack a half turn added about 1º each side).

A quick test on what I will describe here as a "private road" showed that I had no self-centering at all, so I decided to try a bit of toe-out. Another quick test, and it self-centred fairly well. I'm not sure how much toe-out I have, but I am certainly not going to touch it until after IVA. Afterwards I'll experiment with proper setup.

That done, I considered the next most serious issue, i.e. the indicators. Their position under the headlights (see the photo at the top of the blog) wasn't acceptable to IVA as it was too far from the edge of the car, so the only real solution was to mount them somewhere else. I considered putting them on a bracket on the cycle wings as a temporary get-through-IVA solution, but in the end decided that they might fail it as an obviously temporary bodge, so went for motorcycle indicators on stalks coming out from the nosecone. I'd been worried this would look rubbish, but in fact I think it looks OK.

I also mounted the new headlights, which are smaller, and sit on a lower headlight bar, to improve forward visibility (another failure point). These look good, a big improvement on how it used to look. The only issue is that I appear to have two different bulbs (of different brightnesses), so I'll need to sort that out.

New indicators and headlights. Toe-out looks quite extreme here.

Now that the front end of the car is basically sorted, the only remaining issues are a few sharp edges. I sorted out the centre tunnel issue:

Adding rubber trim to the edges on the centre tunnel.

I think this actually looks better anyway, so quite happy with this.

A few minor trim issues remain, but other than that I think all the IVA issues have been met and it's time to book a retest. I'll also need to raise the driver's seat slightly to improve forward visibility, but this is just a case of sticking 20 mm of spacers under it.