BMW powered 280 project

BMW powered 280 project

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Zacky94

Original Poster:

92 posts

129 months

Friday 4th July 2014
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It all started a few months ago when my wedge had been sat on my drive for a few years engineless and the chassis removed , I work at a BMW specialist and the opitunity arrived to get my hands on a 2.8 straight 6 BMW engine from my boss's old car

Engine was very well looked after and only done around 80k (seen the same engine do over 350k in customers cars )
I managed to get a gearbox all the ancillaries and everything I needed for a small amount of money and got it home

So getting slightly excited I decided to offer the engine up in the chassis and it fit .. Very snugly! ,
left it for a few days while a mounting kit arrived etc . Then got to work



Got it in welded the mounts up etc , and then removed again for some paint to be put on the chassis




Then after that was set the body needed to be out back on for transporting purposes at a later date to a work shop I'm building

Couple with the body on



wedgemaniac456

244 posts

149 months

Friday 4th July 2014
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That is a snug fit,I,ve got a 280 that I bought with no engine/gearbox and half the car missing and plan on doing something similar myself.Keep the pictures/progress coming, great work smile

mrzigazaga

18,534 posts

164 months

Friday 4th July 2014
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Interesting project....I guess you could call the engine "Blackpool Motor Works"..That'll confuse loads of people...silly

Are you going to have a white and blue TVR badge?....

Looking forward to seeing it finished.....Ziga

PS: I hope the soundtrack will be in keeping with the TVR tradition....

Zacky94

Original Poster:

92 posts

129 months

Friday 4th July 2014
quotequote all
I was debating between the cosworth v6 or this bmw lump but i know bmw very well so its probs the best route plus a hell of a lot lighter and more powerful than the only cologne lump!

I'll keep the updates coming, the car is a lot further advanced through the conversion at the moment I'm just trying to remember what I have done and post it in order! Ha

Thanks for the feed back , that made me chuckle 'Blackpool motor works' brilliant ,
of course it's not a Tvr with out the soundtrack!

mrzigazaga

18,534 posts

164 months

Friday 4th July 2014
quotequote all
The funny thing is when i was looking for more power for my 280i a friend of mine said..."Whack a beema lump in it"....Admittedly i gave him a right dirty look when he said it..But it looks like a good donor without too much faffing around...The V6 Cologne was a heavy chunk...Even heavier when you whack a Sprintex S102 on it...They weigh a ton....


Ok..it put the horses up to 213bhp with 207ftlb of torque but for the money i should of bought a V8...Which i finally did.
What sort of power would you see from the BMW engine?

Ziga

Zacky94

Original Poster:

92 posts

129 months

Friday 4th July 2014
quotequote all
I know what you mean I told a few people what I planed to do and they sorta looked me the same way , being a young lad most of them thought I was dreaming!

It wasn't too bad there was a lot of problems with sump an exhaust manifold clearance obviously needs to be as low and as far back as possible , but I've got it somewhere near I want to iron out a few creases when the body is back off and I need to sort the outriggers out and give it another coat of POR-15 , but it does drive under its own steam at present ,

That is a very clean engine bay indeed! , the BMW lump is pushing around 193 bhp - approx 200 and something torque wise at the moment but with an m50 manifold and a few other bits it should see 210-220 ish , I'm not going to spend a massive amount on the engine I'd rather save for an m3 lump personally

mrzigazaga

18,534 posts

164 months

Friday 4th July 2014
quotequote all
Cool...You might want to address the trailing arm mounts and pins...I had to with the extra power..I ended up using the Superflex ones...And maybe address the diff mounts...And make sure the driveshaft UJ's are heavy duty....

Have you upgraded the brakes?......

Zacky94

Original Poster:

92 posts

129 months

Friday 4th July 2014
quotequote all
I'm Poly - bushing the whole lot when I get the body back off , could do with some 350i drive shafts so I've read somewhere there abit more beefy if that's correct?

Brakes currently have brand new billet alloy 4 pot willwood fronts with a fast road compound pad , dual bias pedal box , , hydraulic hand brake and standard jag rear calipers with EBC green stuff pads , suspension are avo adjustable all round , alloy fuel tank in the boot with braided lines etc , that's about the spec so far I have another shell that is in better nick too that I'm swapping it all over too , always a good idea to have a spare seem as tho there getting rare now

mk1fan

10,507 posts

224 months

Friday 4th July 2014
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That's some fine work there.

I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to get the M3 lump. 200bhp/tonne is a good club to be in.

Top lurking skills - 4 posts in 13-months all in this thread started today!

I had kind of settled on a Jag V6 transplant as and when Samy needs a resto. You've given me food for thought.

Keep up the good work. If you're SE / London based you'll have to come and show off at the Sausage Meet.

Zacky94

Original Poster:

92 posts

129 months

Friday 4th July 2014
quotequote all
Cheers mate smile ,
I'm in no hurry at all to be honest I can stroke it to a 3.0l quite easily and cheaply if I want a few more ponies but I think I'll be happy enough with that power ....for a while!

I have had a nose around this site a few times and seen what's about there not really much else about to help you out with the wedge to be fair had to learn the hard way!

And don't even get me started on trying to find parts! Haha

I love bmw's engines! to be honest the wiring wasn't too bad at all either with bmw's logical diagrams its pritty simple the only thing that worry people is the EWS (immobiliser) but I've took all that with me an wired it into the Tvr so I didn't have to send the DME away , essentially it has a Thatchem cat 1 imboiliser now witch is a plus

Any questions just ask smile

I'm based in Shrewsbury West Midlands sort of area but I will be going to some meets when it's complete! May see a few of you about!

chapperssx

753 posts

170 months

Friday 4th July 2014
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It's been done before but not to a wedge


KKson

3,395 posts

124 months

Friday 4th July 2014
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Think a Wedge with a M52 engine is a great idea. The M52 engine is a brilliant piece of engineering and if you can get away with a fairly open exhaust system then it will also sound fabulous. My old E36 323i certainly out accelerated my mates 2.9 S2 mid range and he had 175bhp. Look forward to further photos in the future.

Zacky94

Original Poster:

92 posts

129 months

Friday 4th July 2014
quotequote all
I've seen a couple of BMW powered TVR's but not a wedge , may be safe to say its a first?

The m52 is a cracking engine defiantly , don't have a lot of problems with them to be honest , mines a M52B28 TU (technical update) tho it was the basis of the M54 pritty much with the duel VANOS rather than just inlet , mid range torque is defiantly an advantage,
The identical bore and stroke make it pritty well balanced and pritty good all round the rev range

RCK974X

2,521 posts

148 months

Friday 4th July 2014
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You know I started a thread some time ago for alternative engines which would fit in an early 2.8 chassis....


cool I THINK I'VE JUST FALLEN IN LOVE !!! coolrotateclapwoohoo

That's F**kin' beautiful !!! beer

Zacky94

Original Poster:

92 posts

129 months

Friday 4th July 2014
quotequote all
After I got the body back on I started to tackle the wiring abit after a few hours of studying a diagram and abit of labelling later I got the soldering iron out and got to work after all that was soldered in I got abit of power to the car and checked of the relays were dropping in etc and all was fine ,

Next was the EWS / imbobiler to sort out , I had 2 choices either send the DME / ECU away to have it deleted (witch I wasn't positive was possible with EWS 3 ) or take the lot off the donor and get or to work in the Tvr (EWS module , key and reluctor ring)

Enjoying a challenge I chose the latter , after a bit of research I was completely aware of how it worked and what wires went were on the BMW so I got my multimeter out and started proding around and worked it out took it all home and applied it to the Tvr , checked the relay was dropping in for the EWS , all seemed to be fine!

Luckily I had a fuel pump knocking around and I found a beer bottle witch became the fuel tank! Riged it up and went to turn the key!

First turn it fired but was running rough , later found to be an air leak on the intake bellows , puts away lovely now!

It really felt like I was gettin somewhere at this point and I started spending some money

First was the fuel system
Alloy tank
Alloy swirl pot
High pressure pump
Low pressure pump
pre and post fuel filters
Filler neck
One way breather valve
And Tank sender

We're on the wish list so I ordered these and when they arrived got them fitted!



After this was all in I sorted all the ignition feeds out so it would work off the key , installed a relay for the fuel pumps and
Fuel pumps were running off the ECU rather than straight from the ignition

Happy chap at this point everything was working like a car should

Next purchase was some wilwood 4 pot calipers and a fast road compound pad for the front , duel bias pedal box and the hydraulic hand brake all plumbed in


Recently I have acquired another shell and will be swapping everything over to that one when i finish off my shed/workshop couple of the other shell etc

Few bits of interior fitted here


This is as far as I've got with it so far updates will be here on the near future smile
Last one of the workshop in progress

adam quantrill

11,535 posts

241 months

Friday 4th July 2014
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Who mentioned Messerschmitts???

(Actually to be fair the ME109 had a Merc engine, but same difference really...)

Zacky94

Original Poster:

92 posts

129 months

Friday 4th July 2014
quotequote all
Sorry this is the other shell !
I brought off a chap not far from me witch I believe is on this forum somewhere!



adam quantrill

11,535 posts

241 months

Friday 4th July 2014
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That looks familiar!!!


mrzigazaga

18,534 posts

164 months

Friday 4th July 2014
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Are you keeping it the same blue as it looks nice like that...I had an old B reg 520i but it slowly got damaged where i live...That was like a grey/Blue in colour.

That engine would look nice with a bit of detailing on the top cover....Lighter blue ...With polished fins.

Im guessing the original donor was white as they normally come with red interiors...Looks good with the blue.


Im wondering what you did with the trailing arm mounts as they are a pre-made bush and mount and are only available at certain outlets...The Superflex type are in the Superflex range and don't think there is a polybush type?...If you do go this route then make sure you tell them you need the thinner steel inserts for the pins..I made them aware of this a while back and sent some inserts from my original mounts...RT racing do the pins....

I still miss the early shape Wedges.....Ziga

Zacky94

Original Poster:

92 posts

129 months

Friday 4th July 2014
quotequote all
That is the car! Haha ,
yes it was originally white many years ago but it was painted at some point to the strange green colour , I love the colour personally but it doesn't really go with the red interior amazingly well , I wanted to go back white with the greenish shell but for now the car will be silver till I decide what colour I want it!