'Oddjob' aka 2002 330i Touring

[Sf_Manta]

So.. after waiting for a slot with Mr Carpenter for what feels like 6 months and some parts gathering later, work has finally begun.
AC has been drained , found that there was only half the amount of gas still present from specifications.. weird as it still blew ice cold.

Anyway - engine progress pictures - firstly it being duely released from the car. Warning - BMW in bits











We found that the once nicely powder coated rear subframe has now gone rusty as hell.. Apparently was a different vendor to the one who did the front subframe which is still absolutely prestine. Annoying though but nothing much we can do besides me going under with some POR 15 and scrub off the accessable areas and give them a lick of it.

Also the AC condensor has finally cried enough, turns out still the original one to the car too, so a new one will be installed on rebuild.

Onto the engine however. After removing the intake manifold , Sam soon had the engine out, and off onto a stand ready for tear down.







What turned up, was the source of the emissions issues. Seems when the manifold was welded, it was done on a M52, and there's addtional bosses on the M54 block for other engine mounts. The offending item had caused one of the manifolds to lift just slightly and cause a blow on cold. Given it was surplus to requirements. it was dealt with using a flap disc on a angle grinder.







Rocker cover off and cams out. it's looking a bit tarnished in there, but it's going to have a date with the parts washer and once the machine shop's checked the bores and balanced up the rotating assembly.. rebuild begins.

[Sf_Manta]

JakeT said:

Looks like a solid base to be built, fortunately. And no nasty surprises hidden in there!

Hopefully, my main concern is the bores, as we had some loss of compresssion but not massive amounts.

Jhonno said:

Is this being built as a foundation to SC in the future?

Honestly, depends if i win the lottery £6500 for a ESS kit..

[Sf_Manta]

Ok not much to update since last time, though Sam's managed to get the engine down to it's component level

All the bores look good, however no 5 did have a slight mark, we're waiting to see what the machine shop comes back with. Hoping it can be honed out to remove it.



Also a casuality along the way was one of the heater pipes going into the block decided it didn't want to come out in one piece... why BMW? why make this in plastic?

[Sf_Manta]

So another week has gone and further progress made



Blocks now been honed , the score has gone.



Head has been pressure checked and decked, ready for valve lapping and new stem seals.





Piston's cleaned up ready for balancing



And off to the balancers, should be all ready for end of this week.

[Sf_Manta]

Well.. balancing has been completed.









Turns out the rods , crank and balancer needed a little work, the flywheel and cover plate have been matched up as well.
However the biggest difference was in the pistons themselves, turns out it was apparently around 7g total mismatch. I did some math and that works out to around 240N (24kg!) of difference of load on the crank. at 7000rpm.

Both myself and Sam are thinking that this is probably the source of the harmonic issues that cause most M54B30's to cause their oil pumps to fail when they're being driven hard. Still, now everything is back, Sam's likely to crack on with rebuild and mapping soon.

[Sf_Manta]

Update time again



Engine being masked up for painting





Painted



Head being stripped down.



New stem seals going in





Valves being cleaned.





Bottom end assemblied (less pistons and rods for now) with the windage tray notched to clear the ARP main cap studs.

[Sf_Manta]

Update time again, and further progress completed.

Valves have been out, cleaned and then lapped back in with Speedflow valve stem seals.









Just paid the bill to date.. but still some way to go. Given I've got next week off, I'll likely pop up to help get the engine back into the car.

[Sf_Manta]

smn159 said:

Jhonno said:

That honing looks rather coarse.. Or is it just the pics?

No head work whilst it is apart?

What options do you have with a 6 speed shifter out of interest?

Valve seats don't look great to me, although not easy to tell from a picture and I'm sure that you've considered them

Good luck with it.

Valve seats were in progress, they've all been relapped in with 2 rounds of course paste, 2 of fine.

As for head work - my wallet's been hit hard already so far with the costs of this as I'm not able to do the work, I can only afford so much and last months bill was , tnough the BMW heads do flow pretty well as it is.

As for shifter options, I did use a Z4 3.0 item previously, but I've been running a Turner Motorsport item with a DSSR rod.

https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-577645-turner-d...

Also had some bad news as it turns out no 4 piston was damaged during balancing, cracked by the valve relief seat. So having to source another piston and have it balanced up. Balancer's held his hands up and will do it FOC

[Sf_Manta]

Ok some updates lately have been better.

A replacement piston has been balanced up with the rest, and the piston rings that were AWOL in the post turned up.
So in went the final 2 pistons and rods that had been sat waiting





ARP studs have since gone in on the block, this was followed up with the gasket and cylinder head.







Next on was the windage tray and oil pump, wire lock and threadlock gone in as per requirements





On went the Alpina Oil filter housing and the new heater lines, these were found to be brittle during disassembly, so a rather expensive trip to BMW later, 2 new ones were aquired and put on.



Next week should be a pretty decent week and hopefully have the engine back into the car.

[Sf_Manta]

So.. managed finally to pop up to Carpetsoiler's workshop to help out this afternoon. Given i'd spent most of August in bed being poorly (oh the joys of Colitus.. ) and spent the last 2 days working on other people's cars, those being my BIL's Audi A3 and helping Geeks with his 330i Touring Auto with getting that serviced and code read, I finally got up there to lend a hand, and probably well timed too.



Timing was all set and sorted.







Exhaust manifold all in place and looking lovely. NO blows this time now the cause had been found.



Of course Sam had to sign it..



Coil packs going in





Ready for engine loom and final few components to go on. At this point, we got it off the engine stand, and put the flywheel on, with ARP fasteners to boot. Had to clean each, prep with the supplied grease and Loctite 2701 per the instructions before torquing these up to 105ft/lbs

Clutch went on, and soon after.. so did the gearbox with some wrestling.



This week should be a case of Sam finalizing and putting it all back in the car.. and then it's fire up time.. running in, and hopefully mapping.

We shall see..

Edited by Sf_Manta on Monday 30th August 19:03

[Sf_Manta]

clarkson22 said:

Good work mate hope it goes well with the engine!

Me too, hopefully this build should be reliable , use less oil and make more power.

Also.. forgot to add, I made a new friend yesterday too.



Meet Dice.. loveable scamp of a Collie, also would hound you for treats and pets all the time, even if it meant blocking your direction of travel

[Sf_Manta]

Ok... hopefully more developments should be coming thick and fast in the next 2 weeks.
Further progress has been made on the car, and well.. the light at the end of this almost 12 month saga to get the car sorted and back on the road should be over soon.



Power steering pump is now mounted thanks to some spacers.



AC compressor is now in as well.



Engine harnessing going back into place



Fresh belts in as well



This was a major upgrade over the original radiator and my concerns of it maybe not fitting were unfounded. To quote Sam "I've never had an aftermarket part go in with so little trouble" Testiment to CSF's top quality and tolerences.



Next on was the new AC condensor, which needed some fettling to get to fit, apparently it was warped ?! either way, some massaging helped it to be installed.





Power steering lines and plastics all sat back into place.
And after a particaully crappy day at work, Sam gave me this last image to cheer me up.



The wiring needs finishing up , intake needs installing and the power steering tank needs mounting to something as it's original mountings are no longer useable. Also need some new indicators as the old ones were either broken due to corroded parts or glazed over due to UV damage. Those are due to arrive soon. Possibly by the end of this week, she might finally be fired up for the first time in likely the finalized specifications, before running in and mapping hopefully sometime next week depending on timing.

[Sf_Manta]

B'stard Child said:

wow that was an interesting journey - I do like that the 330i has evolved rather than had a sudden transformation

Looking forward to the "re-start"

PS Carpetsoiler - did he do RR Weekender in that E36? Can't be many LS engined BMW estates about

Well there isn't at the moment.. he blew the engine at Goodwood down the main straight, engine detonated itself to death
Plans are already afoot to upgrade it with a new long block, I'm not going to say what's going in, but it's still LS based but more like 5-600bhp

We're hoping to get mine back up and running soon, however ran into a snag, see below. And it has been an evolution of the car, and all of it driven by development and finding the short commings of the OEM engineering before selection of parts to resolve the issue.

geeks said:

Looking good SF, any further updates?

Minor panic yesterday as we found the temp sensor for the oil had nowhere to live.. some quick design ideas and me breaking out my old laptop from university resulted in this.





One design of adaptor later, I've now got both OEM sensors with a positon to live, and an addtional port with M10 x 1P thread for a combo pressure sensor / temp from Bosch when i want to add a gauge setup to monitor the engine.

Edited by Sf_Manta on Thursday 23 September 10:25

[Sf_Manta]

Well after some more machining and rejiggnig of the part, the adaptor went in finally, though I'll be having another one made in a bit as this one is still a bit of a pig to fit.

However.. enough taunting of images of cars going back together. Sam sent me a message around 3pm this afternoon which consisited of this.



FINALLY.. she lives again!

[Sf_Manta]

So today, it's had it's first run, after some small leaks were resolved on the timing cover and the cooling system.
AC is still to be hooked back up but so far so good, but finding the performance is .. lacking? Apparently it's a bit 'flat' on performance





So far , timing is fine, scan revealed Vanos wasn't playing ball on the exhaust side so that could be the reason. Possibly sensor isn't connected or has perished in the mean time.
Sam's off tomorrow, but will be running a compression check soon as he's back to check all is well.

[Sf_Manta]

So, smallish update, given the main chunk of whats happened lately has just been getting miles on the car and getting the engine run in on Millers break in oil. This has gone well with 2 changes and 250 miles completed on 2 lots of it, involving lots of varied RPM's and loading the engine with the brakes on to seat the rings well (Prodrive method on their Subaru engines)

Besides that, the engine was having surges in power and seemed to be having issues with starting. eventually turned out that the original fuel pump was on it's last legs, something I did half expect given how long the car had been stood for. So out came the old one and in went a Walbro 255LPH unit.





So far though , it is showing potential.

https://imgur.com/EHbQVa0

Sam's only got the fuel filter to swap out, finish the coolant and get a few minor details sorted but overall, the car should be ready for mapping this week at Devtech .

Edited by Sf_Manta on Wednesday 10th November 09:54

[Sf_Manta]

Well, she's home, been home for the past week given i needed wheels for work, it still needed some minor jobs sorting.

• AC needed recharging - Done
• Tracking was out - Done
• Oil leak from sump plug due to 'seal' washer supplied is just isn't
• Crank sensor needs swapping out.
• Exhaust leak at mid pipe to rear box
• Rear brake sliders to be upgraded to ECS brass ones with seals.
• Need to finish the design for Mk2 oil distribuion block as the current one doesn't quite fit as nice as i'd like.
• Needs a deep clean outside
• Mapping - waiting on slot to come avaliable for it to go up once I finish work this week.

First impressions is it's smooth as hell, the engine's got good potential but the mapping is in dire need of sorting out.

Edited by Sf_Manta on Sunday 5th December 20:29

[Sf_Manta]

Jhonno said:

Is there a reason the mapping is so far out?

Just a case of getting a slot, seems the mapper in question is booked out well into December. Plus needing some more millage to help make sure the engine is well run in ready for it's time on the dyno

Edited by Sf_Manta on Tuesday 7th December 09:37

[Sf_Manta]

Jhonno said:

Sf_Manta said:

Jhonno said:

Is there a reason the mapping is so far out?

Just a case of getting a slot, seems the mapper in question is booked out well into December. Plus needing some more millage to help make sure the engine is well run in ready for it's time on the dyno

Edited by Sf_Manta on Tuesday 7th December 09:37

Sorry, I meant, so far out, as in wrong/causing running issues..

Oh, it's back on a stock map, which with the cams and exhaust and other changes, it's run out of range it can compensate with. It's typical of the M5X series to have a dip in torque in the mid range and difficulty starting due to the setup being so radically changed. Hopefully this was the answer you were looking for.

[Sf_Manta]

Jhonno said:

Ah, I didn't realise the ecu was st at adapting to things..

Not exactly true, just limited. Most OEM ECU's can usually compensate for about 10% difference or so? (I'm sure someone will correct me), unless they've got a live mapping feature designed in so they can make adaptions on the fly, which aftermarket can do, but typically OEM ones do not. I'm still running the stock OEM Siemans MS43 ECU on this engine, which doesn't have that adaption feature.

Given that the cam specifications and exhaust are widly different to what the stock map was worked to, this is why when you do major changes to the engine like swapping cams/ exhaust manifolds or intake, you have to go get it re-mapped to account for these and keep things like fueling, ignition timing all in the sweet spot.

By default all the ECU's going to do is try and compensate up to that limit before it pulls out timing / fuel to keep within the emmissions target set for the lambda sensor and prevent knocking.

Edited by Sf_Manta on Tuesday 7th December 11:17