Spec [02/08/06] |
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Exterior
Interior
Chassis
Engine
Engine currently seized solid following a high speed meltdown
on the M6 tollroad. |
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Project Build Diary 2nd August '06 A few parts arrived from Turner Motorsport in the US. These were an aluminium thermostat housing, a waterpump end nut designed to finish off the shaft if not fitting a viscous fan and a kit to convert the push-in type oilcooler fittings on the oilfilter housing to AN10 threaded fittings. I was amazed at the delivery time as I only ordered them yesterday and specified surface mail. It seems they have been sent UPS priority next day airmail. Checking my invoice I have been charged $0 for shipping so I'm certainly not complaining!   9th August '06 I fitted the new aluminium thermostat housing along with a new thermostat and the new waterpump along with its neater finishing nut to the engine. The oilcooler line converter was also test fitted to the oilfilter housing, it'll be removed while the oilfiter housing goes off to have the vanos line machined.  
I also started to strip the M20 out of the shell. The amount of emulsified oil is pretty impressive. I'd guess the 'mayonnaise' simply wasn't able to lubricate the engine at all, which was what led to it seizing.   25th August '06 Underdrive pulleys arrived from Ben at Chromeline Design. Nice chap and no-nonsence next day delivery. The M52 kit consists of anodised, lightweight aluminium, larger sized waterpump and powersteering pump pulleys and a new belt. They look like the UUC items but are engraved with the Chromeline logo.   
7th September '06 Finished getting the M20 ready to remove. Removed all of the loom, the earth strap, the powersteering lines, oil cooler lines, gear linkage, propshaft etc. The gearbox and engine mounts are undone and it's now ready to lift out. It's interesting to compare the standard e30 325 propshaft to the e30 M3 propshaft. Length is the same but the M3 has the larger PCD prop donut that's required to mate upto the e36 ZF gearbox.  I recently bought an M50 throttle body and that arrived today. I was under the impression that it was a better unit than my M52 throttle body and was a better donor for the big bore throttle body. It measures up to be pretty much the same size as the m52 throttle body. I can't get a 100% accurate measurement as the jaws on my verniers won't go deep enough into the actual body to measure the diameter of the butterfly, but they are both very near to 65mm. Incidentally, the opening into the M52 inlet manifold is a 69mm diameter. I'll check with the chap that does the machining for the big bore throttle bodies which is the better starting point, but I'm leaning towards using the M52 body as the throttle cable etc seems to be in a better position.  I also collected my oil filter housing from the engineering shop today. I used QEP as they are local and I'd wanted to look at the Catcams Camshafts and Van Kronenbourg Engine Managemant that they stock. I'd also heard good things about them from when I used to race my 205 as they do lots of work with Peugeots. They had drilled out and retapped the housing for the VANOS oil feed. The work was done correctly but it took them twice as long as they claimed it would and the price was almost double what I was quoted when I dropped it off.   When I got it back I gave it a good clean and then fitted the M52 belt tensioner to it and the oil cooler line converter. It's now ready to fit back to the block once I get a new oil seal for it from BMW. 10th September '06 Pulled out the M20 with the gearbox still attached. An easy 30 min job, but one that felt like a proper milestone in the project.  |