KatoKid

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!

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.

Yes please! Im happy to work from a drawing first and see if I can find someone to do the auto cad side.

Dimitri. Do you know if R33 GTST calipers are the same? If so Im keen to look at your dogbone!

Dimitri. You can have one of mine if you need it in a hurrry....be a while till need it !

Keen on the R33 master, booster and pedal box. If youre over this way in the morning we can drop in on the car at the panel shop its only a few minutes from here.

Looks grouse G man. Unique sound, looking forward to hearing it at WOT on load.

You trying to tell us something with that Merlin picture Simon? Maybe a hint for the conversion youre planning!

Looks good Tai.......and very familiar! Keep at it mate.

I wouldn't sweat it guys. I'm pretty close to Ron Tyler one of the administrators and not Long ago some else here had been banned for no apparent reason and it was something to do with the way the site viewed their responses as it saw them as spam. Request reinstatement and you will be fine. David

How about some pics!

Welcome back John...... safe to say collectively we have missed you!

Hi Dimitri. Im after a 240 hatch or 260 2 setaer if they are the same ?

Very nice Lurchos!

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

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.

Im interested. Is the valve a manual vavle or electric?

Had one of these as a company car .....many moons ago. Was a great cruiser but handled like a boat!

Wow Pete, you are really outdoing yourself with this one! Will be a hot topic with our friends in the U S of A. Watching very closely.

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.

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.

Another Reverend or has he moved to Finland?

Yeah, sure that will happen......

Geeze...I cant believe how much guys ask for these race cars. Do they ever get this sort of money or is it wishful thinking? No discredit to the ppls concerned but race cars are generally pretty rough.

Sounds like a plan Grant! Which engineer are you using??? Im hopefully going to have the shell back home in a few weeks and need to throw the drivetrain back in for the first engineers inspection and I reckon they will be more comfrotable with mine if I use the same guys that have seen yours.