Scoota G Posted July 22, 2012 Posted July 22, 2012 I used VHT on my extractors and it peeled.. Then i tried septone and it's still there after 2 years. Quote
Moderators Zedman240® Posted July 22, 2012 Moderators Posted July 22, 2012 I always like painting blocks matt black; acts like a heatsink as flat black colour/surface is the best radiator of heat. Quote
peter mc Posted July 22, 2012 Posted July 22, 2012 sorry kato not the shop i use i can get a ph tomorow for you there work is so good better finnish than new Quote
KatoKid Posted July 22, 2012 Author Posted July 22, 2012 Thanks Pete, please let me know who you use. Quote
KatoKid Posted July 23, 2012 Author Posted July 23, 2012 Bawhahahah.....you funny man Craig! Would be rapt if it was this time next year! Quote
Riceburner Posted July 23, 2012 Posted July 23, 2012 I've used VHT on headers before and it cracked too, the best thing is 'stovebright' for wood heaters, gives a dark charcoal finish. Difillipo performance use it on all their custom headers unless they get jet hot coating. 50mm throttles from Dellorto.. Who would've thought Quote
chris240 Posted July 23, 2012 Posted July 23, 2012 Thats an amazing looking motor, cant believe how tall it is, looks like a 6 storey block of apartments. No wonder they had to lean in to one side. Quote
RB30X Posted July 23, 2012 Posted July 23, 2012 There's a pic of one of these in speedhunters at the moment with the itbs and ram tubes. Looks a bit of alright. Quote
KatoKid Posted July 27, 2012 Author Posted July 27, 2012 Got the engine painted. Pretty happy with the way it came up, nice stealth flat black look. I'm going for a very simple black and natural aluminium look for the whole engine, no shiny bits, no bling and all braided hoses and fittings in black with the engine bay in the same colour as the exterior so it really stands out. The sump is now off and along with the oil filter housing and other brackets will go off for hydrablasting back to as new condition. The timing case is pretty badly discoloured so I'm going to have to spray that with aluminium paint....very carefully. The Vanos unit on the front of the head will come off soon for cleaning, a seal and a rattle kit.......more on that later! Rocker cover is currently factory black wrinkle finish but its not in good nick so I might do something different here. Bid end bearings are a known weak spot for these engines, they flog out relatively early so I was always going to check them and fit new ARP rod bolts. Pulled all the rod caps last night and all the big ends were showing some minor marks but #6 upper was the worst with a small section of the first layer starting to come off, nothing really serious and the crank was fine but reinforced that it was wise to check. Ive got plenty of choices for bearings but was thinking of supporting the local industry and going with ACL Race Series bearings. Anyone (that's you PMC) care to comment on ACL experience? The BMW rods are fractured rods, first engine Ive had hands on experience with this design and they are freaky weird things!!! Looks just plain wrong but I understand the logic and benefits behind it. Quote
luvemfast Posted July 27, 2012 Posted July 27, 2012 Great choice in block colour. Would have thought BMW had a better designed engine. That bearings pretty flogged. What km's did it have on it? Quote
KatoKid Posted July 27, 2012 Author Posted July 27, 2012 Yeah Simon, you would expect better at 115,000 km but its more a function of the sort of car they are and the type of owner they attract. M3's, if you believe Jeremy Clarkson, attract "c#%ck heads" ie. people with more money than sense so they get driven pretty hard with not much mechanical empathy, having said that the big end is pretty narrow (for minimised frictional loses) compared to many other designs so this contributes as well. As I said, big ends are well recognised as an issue. They dont often result in catastrophic failure if you know where to look. Same with the Vanos unit, they are problematic but if you know about it you can plan to deal with it. That's the cost of being one of the first true 100 hp per litre mass production engines. HP comes at a cost...and its called longevity. Quote
peter mc Posted July 28, 2012 Posted July 28, 2012 HI kato mate have a look on the back of the bearing look for a drop of paint like a black mark . some bmw engines have a size code give me a call so i can talk you thro it 0409321029 Quote
KatoKid Posted August 2, 2012 Author Posted August 2, 2012 Most of the repairs that Ive asked the panel shop to do are nearly completed and the rear quarters and roof skin are ready to go back on but before they do the car went back to the blasters so all the newly exposed bits can be blasted. Had to go to the panel shop, take the car off the rotisserie, put it on the trolley, put the car/trolley on the trailer, drive to the blaster (only 5 minutes away luckily), take the whole show off the trailer and stick it back on the rotisserie, have it blasted then repeat and return to panel shop! Phew! Photos are after blasting back at the panel shop. As with their previous work the blasting was very thorough and top notch. Blasted bits will be back in epoxy etch by now and then these areas will get shot with final colour before the panels go back on. Weld through primer will be used for the areas that need to be spotted back together. I keep trying to convince myself its all worth it.....I think it is. Quote
luvemfast Posted August 2, 2012 Posted August 2, 2012 It'll all be worth it Dave. You strengthening the body while it's all apart? Don't wan't to bend it to the Bavarian! Quote
KatoKid Posted August 2, 2012 Author Posted August 2, 2012 Not really Simon. Want to leave it looking stock so all Ive done is add a mid section to the rocker box when I replaced the sills. David Quote
620Z Posted August 2, 2012 Posted August 2, 2012 Geez Dave I cannot believe the amount of work you have put into this car. If U were you I would do some strengthening of the body to accommodate the new engine. You should be able to do this in many hidden ways. One I would do for sure to lesson the vibration when the car is under hard acceleration is support the gear box mount in the tunnel. I would be welding in an over size plate and then some runners 6-12" either side of the plate down the tunnel. This is something I need to do on my car. I reckon this is where the last of the vibration is coming from in my car. Look forward to seeing it on the road one day. Just don't get sick of it after 12 months and sell it like most do. Never to be seen on the road again. Cheers Craig Quote
KatoKid Posted September 4, 2012 Author Posted September 4, 2012 Big end bearings and ARP rod bolts are fitted. BMW use colour coded bearing shells to get the clearance exactly right but they wanted $50 per half shell and they were ex Germany. Also I was doing the replacement with pistons still in the block as I don't have the special tools or the desire to remove the head so measuring and selecting colour coded shells was a no go. I did lots of research and spoke with BMW specialists in the US and Europe and found out that many re-brand and sell bearings under their own brand and turns out these are actually ACL Race Series bearings. They all (as expected) recommended them so I took the plunge and bought a set through Bursons. They come in STD, STD + .001 and two undersize so I just ordered a set of STD, for $176 if they didn't give me the clearances I want its not a big deal compared to the minimum $600 from BMW. The old BMW bearings measured up with 1.5 thou clearance using plastigauge for all six, even the one with the top layer starting to come away..... you couldn't feel this with your finger nail so it looked worse than it was. The ACL's measured up at 2.0 thou across all six, a little more clearance but still well within the BMW spec which is 1.0 - 2.7 thou....got me stuffed why they have such a broad spec given they go to the trouble of coded shells? I also bit the bullet and bought a rod stretch gauge, only a cheapie for $89 from VPW but the dial gauge spring wasn't strong enough to support its own weight so a couple of strategically placed rubber bands fixed that and it worked well after that. ARP quote 50ft/lb for these bolts but are adamant that stretch method is the way to go so it was interesting to see the variance in torque required to get the desired .0065 - .007 stretch. Lowest was 50 ft/lb and the highest was 62 ft/lb with most around 55 ft/lb. It all turns nicely so that's a good thing. Quote
KatoKid Posted September 4, 2012 Author Posted September 4, 2012 Quarter panels and roof skin are about to go back on. They painted everything that had been exposed and blasted during the removal and used weld through primer in the required areas. Will hopefully have the car home again in a couple of weeks so the engineer can inspect all the mods and hopefully give the OK! Quote
Riceburner Posted September 4, 2012 Posted September 4, 2012 Are the colored bearing shells done just to idiot proof them, or for older people slightly vision impaired How do you attach the rear panel when it's time to go back on? Quote
Veloce Posted September 4, 2012 Posted September 4, 2012 Spot weld the panel back on (thats how the factory did it), or you could plug weld. Quote
KatoKid Posted September 4, 2012 Author Posted September 4, 2012 Are the colored bearing shells done just to idiot proof them, or for older people slightly vision impaired How do you attach the rear panel when it's time to go back on? Colour coding is how they size bearings from the factory, they have different size bearings available in small increments and paint these codes on the cheeks of the big end journals after they have been measured so as they come down the production line the assembler just grabs the correct colour bearing rather than having to measure and check clearances. Its just a way of getting ideal clearances by sizing the bearings to a preground crank journal size. In an ideal world and as PMC would do it they grind the crank to provide the required clearance for the measured big end bearing. Same thing but doing it the opposite way. The panel shop has filled the spot welds that were drilled out to remove the panels and then they re spot weld so it looks factory. Quote
620Z Posted September 4, 2012 Posted September 4, 2012 Dave you know if you spent this much time and energy on a different name brand car like a falcon GT or mustang you could end up with an 80K car. But sadly with the Zed it will still only go for 35K maybe. Just make sure after all this bloody work you hang onto it. I have known to many people to finish grand projects and then almost give them away because they are over it. Here's to many happy yours of you driving and enjoying it when it's completed. Cheers Craig Quote
luvemfast Posted September 4, 2012 Posted September 4, 2012 The panel shop has filled the spot welds that were drilled out to remove the panels and then they re spot weld so it looks factory. Cos we wouldn't want this car to not be factory now, would we? Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.