What's SELfor50 been up to?

[SELfor50]

Hey All,

Sorry for so long between drinks.  On the benz side of things, it's all been very quiet.  Mostly with cars in general actually.

The last 2 years have involved no circuit work at all due to the 6.9 being pulled down for re-build.

Decision was made recently to part out the car, retain the primary M100 running gear and then move it over to another 'specialised' W116 that will be a Sunday car.
Much too many pennies spent (and more before it's finished) on the engine and all that.. so I would rather not be putting that type of engine in a car that I drive at a track.
Nothing to do with my 'heat of the moment' respect for cars. 

The M100 power plant will still be having all the tinkering done, but will be installed in a 'family orientated' 116 as a Sunday Car.


With yet another Kangaroo incident impacting the life of my 2006 Audi, a suitable replacement was sort that would be a fun 'driver's' car, cheap(er) on parts and off the shelf 'faster' bits to make it a little more enjoyable.
Qualifications were; RWD, NA, Balanced / Weighted nicely, able to be thrown around a track on the weekend and parts are easy to swap if anything happens.

The selection was quite easy; BMW E30.

Found a 325e banger (not really banger.. sort of) from a fella on Performanceforums.com.  Looked like crap, but had good handling / steering bits... so took it for not much more than 1k.
325e is the low RPM, highway version of the 325.  Basically the shytest of the 6 banger engines... but they do have displacement of 2.7L (bottom end is different to 325i/323i/320i) which is 200cc above the others.. so more torquey, but not as revey, different head.  The 325E engine only rev's to 5k.

Started driving that, realising that the engine was a bit tired and began planning for a re-build.

Picked up yet another 325e locally for, you guessed it, 1k.  Interior much better, electronics in better condition etc...

Pulled donk out of other one, TX'd all the suspension components and then began pull down of engine for re-build.

Fast forward;

Re-built engine included a few changes, but all standard BMW parts that bolt on.  Research provided the best combination for these engines.

2.7L bottom end, machines / decked (probably ended up about 2.8L)
New Rings / Pistons ($380 per set of these - is that f'n cheap or what??)
323i Cylinder Head (best camshaft of all the heads, but the 325i head flows a little more)
325i Intake manifold, Throttle Body, ECU, Wiring Loom, Air Flow Meter


End result; car is a bloody unreal NA drive.  Pulls harder than a 16yr old boy, all the way to 7K now.. and that's with all stock parts.
The torque band is very wide also.  Just keeps pulling.    With 3.73 LSD and Getrag260 5sp box, it pulls 100kph out of 2nd gear and change 2/3 also lights the tyres up.

I have to say as a fun drivers car, bang for buck - i've not seen much come close.
Sadly, there are also turbo kits on evil bay that are 1K with everything required bolt on......... I'm resisting that for now..   As even NA is extremely fun and driveable.
Weight balance is perfect and they have a great RWD push out of corners.

I've only just got the car finished and operating nicely, so will try get out to a few events in the next few months.

The beauty of it is the cheap off the shelf parts.. and cheap fuse items like gaskets etc.. are very cheap and easy to swap if something gives.  - compared to an M100 at over 1k for VRS kits.

Some pics I dug up of the build thread i put over on performanceforums below.

Hope you're all doing well, will try jumping back on and making a bit more of a contribution.. got a 1yr old daughter that's also been keeping me very very busy. 























One of the early outings after the build.  Loosened up nicely now and revving a bit more freely. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ljax8FaIRrM

[TJ 450]

Nice engine rebuild indeed...

I'm surprised you went for the "e" version, but that would be a more practical driver with the low end torque for sure... It means a lot for practical driving.

The pistons are cheap... The set of four for my Brother's 190E was about $1k!

It's good to hear that you're continuing with the M100 build.

One can appreciate how "cheap" it can be to do these things on cars of this type, compared to the M100 powered vehicles.

Tim

[nathan]

that is nice...i cant even imagine how much effort you put it.
i have to ask though, is thhat the gold gwagen from WA belonging to another Perthite who tried to fit the 560. that thing must have been a six year project!! WTF?!
do you still have your blue interior for the 116 for sale by the way?
good to hear from you
nathan

[SELfor50]

Thanks fella's.

Just realised vid was private, fixed now.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljax8FaIRrM

I'm actually quite glad I went for the 'e' to begin with.  Having not done much research, after realising I had bought the 'highway' cruiser 325, I was a little annoyed. 
But they have the bigger bore bottom end and are the platform for the 'stroker' build that I've done. 
With a few more basic mods, like, chip ($200 odd), camshaft ($500 for many different ratios), extractors ($500 odd)... it will bring it up another fair step. 

...........it still won't be as ridiculous as the M100 will be when finished. 


Nathan, that's the same G-Wagen.  As far as I know it hasn't been touched for quite some time due to other projects and i'm not sure what other reason.. it's basically part of the furniture now.
I will prod the boys about it later today when I duck in there.. haven't asked about it in ages.

The majority of the interior was binned Nathan... I still have the centre console and dash (dash is cracked, not too major but enough).
..and yes, it's not needed.

[oscar]

Man you need to start putting roo bars on your cars

Geez, a nice looking rebuild there.  Gotta say that I was a bit jealous at the BMW OP sprint day a couple years back, realising how much easier it was to grab off the shelf mods for BMWs over Mercs, plus manuals galore.  With mercs it's like trying to reinvent a wheel.  Sad to say I just couldn't achieve what I wanted and I'll post up pics soon of what's become of that other previously roo damaged car.  Povo is no more.  Disposed of all the body minus doors yesterday, 480kg worth of German steel for $15.60 at the recyclers Not even enough to pay for the cutting discs I used.

BTW, what does NA mean?  I can't work it out.

[s class]

.....480kg worth of German steel for $15.60 at the recyclers....

Thats poor! here I get ZAR1.70 per kg, which is about  $0.21 per kg. 

[oscar]

I know, pretty pi$$ weak.  I know they give less/kg for non stripped cars due to all the plastics and glass included but I think they charged the same rate regardless if I strip to bare chassis or not.  I've got 12 doors to dispose of which I was going to strip of glass and any interior bits but it's not worth the effort.

[koan]

Disposed of all the body minus doors yesterday, 480kg worth of German steel for $15.60 at the recyclers

That works out at $32.50 a ton, iron ore is around $150 a ton delivered to Chinese shores.

Ripoff.

[WGB]

Thanks for the update.

You are a busy lad

Bill

[Tony66_au]

Nice work on the engine rebuild!

Re the Roo's?

Must be a Canberra thing, every time I drive in the ACT I either clobber on or have a few near misses especially sneaking in the back from the coast.

The place is lousy with the mongrels lol

[SELfor50]

Man you need to start putting roo bars on your cars

Geez, a nice looking rebuild there.  Gotta say that I was a bit jealous at the BMW OP sprint day a couple years back, realising how much easier it was to grab off the shelf mods for BMWs over Mercs, plus manuals galore.  With mercs it's like trying to reinvent a wheel.  Sad to say I just couldn't achieve what I wanted and I'll post up pics soon of what's become of that other previously roo damaged car.  Povo is no more.  Disposed of all the body minus doors yesterday, 480kg worth of German steel for $15.60 at the recyclers Not even enough to pay for the cutting discs I us
BTW, what does NA mean?  I can't work it out.

Hahah.. yeah, roobar will be my next major sponsor on the rally legs.

The BMW move was mainly as a daily driver - but after the ease of building it and parts... choice was easy really.  Can't beat 'em, join 'em.. then beat 'em from within.       Sun Tzu blah blah.. ahhah..

What was the decision with Povo??  Are you going to get another track car / race type machine at some point???

NA = Naturally Aspirated.  No Turbo etc...  Just a nice revvy windy engine.

[motec6.9]

Hi Cam great to see not is all lost and the fire still burns . Keep the rice boys in there place lol

[oscar]

What was the decision with Povo??  Are you going to get another track car / race type machine at some point???

NA = Naturally Aspirated.  No Turbo etc...  Just a nice revvy windy engine.

Geez, that's how rusty I am, forgetting simple abbreviations like that. 

The track car thang is all over.  Still keeping all the good bits I put on the car and other spares, motors etc, just in case but I can't see it happening again to be honest. 

[SELfor50]

What was the decision with Povo??  Are you going to get another track car / race type machine at some point???

NA = Naturally Aspirated.  No Turbo etc...  Just a nice revvy windy engine.

Geez, that's how rusty I am, forgetting simple abbreviations like that. 

The track car thang is all over.  Still keeping all the good bits I put on the car and other spares, motors etc, just in case but I can't see it happening again to be honest.

Once I get the E30 to a nice track status, I'll let you double enter her at a Sandown event..    I can't wait to get back to that place.

[motec6.9]

Hi Cam just for you  http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/VIS-84-91-BMW-318-323-325-M3-Carbon-Fiber-Hood-GTR-E30-/350303746599?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item518fbafa27    http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BMW-E28-E30-E32-E34-E36-LSD-Diff-Carbon-6-clutch-NEW-/230751083221?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35b9d61ad5