Originally Posted by GringoStarr
Reply With QuoteSo once it was all back in, after some fiddling and stuffing around with the Megasquirt we managed to finally get it running. I have a video of it, but it's 27mb so I might stick it up later.
One day my cousin and I were out tuning the car and I was reversing into the garage I noticed the water temp gauge getting rather high, so quickly shut it off and popped the hood. All of a sudden *PSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHT* boiled the coolant. Oh dear, turned lights off and went inside to deal with it tomorrow.... Got out there the next day, checked the oil.... milky, damnit! Took the head off and sent it to CGC to get checked out, they pressure tested it and found a hairline crack.
After some more investigation on CGCs behalf, they had found the head was previously repaired and welded up, you can see where they rubbed back the surface and you could feel the compound difference. Oh dear... what to do now? I had heard rumors of some Spanish company bought BMW head castings and were re manufacturing them. I finally found the name - AMC. After contacting them directly I established who their Australian distributor was, spoke them and and worked out there were two places I could buy them from, luckily for me one was in Perth (HeadTorque) As luck had it, my mum had been to a family funeral a few weeks prior and was talking to her cousins husband... who happened to be the owner of HeadTorqueSo the order was placed for the AMC head and at the same time I decided to get everything in it new, so I could have some degree of assurance that it would be safe. I also had enough of the MegaSquirt and tuning it myself, so I sold that to Chris (e30guydownunder) and bought an Autronic SM2 and 500-R CDI module on a whim, but before we go into that, here are the pictures of the bits and pieces for the head, thanks again to Patrick @ BMAParts.com and CarrIndustries for the BeeHive valve springs.
With the new head back on, I had purchased a 325i inlet manifold and throttle body from Ade (thanks buddy!) and painted that with crinkle black and fitted it with the Ford injectors.
As you can see from these pictures, I'd mounted the manifold and the turbo... so before I go on, here are the money shots...
I was working 10 hour days and didn't have the time or patience to work on it myself anymore. After countless coffees and chats with my good mate, Joe, we mapped out a plan for the car and decided it was best to leave the rest to an expert. This is where Saf from ISRacing comes into play. To me, he is truly and inspirational person, to understand why you need to know what he's been through - http://www.fastlane.com.au/Features/Ivan_courage.htm - this link gives a brief overview of what he has been through. His fabrication work I've seen is faultless, that's why I chose him for the job. I want to deal with someone who can produce what they say they can, and not talk 100% and produce 80%. So I grabbed a box, chucked everything I had left over into it, put it in the boot of the car and sent it off for him to work his magic. That's where it currently sits and I will update with more details as the come to hand. His mission is to build me an intercooler (from scratch), all the associated pipework, modify the Jon Volk manifold to fit the Synapse wastegate, wire in the ViPEC V88 ecu and basically get it to the stage where it needs a map loaded to turnkey and start tuning. On his recommendation, the Autronic was replaced with the ViPEC, and it was definitely the right thing to do.
These were shot the night before I sent the car off to ISR....
and the next day off she went.....
I have not seen the car since that day, as I've since moved to Brisbane and Saf has had some issues to deal with so the project is moving a bit slower then expected. I don't have a problem with that anyway, as I won't see the car until I'm home in December. So as long as it's going by then, I'll be happy.
Whilst I've been in Brisbane - I've made a few more purchases for the car. The GTR seats were sold prior to me leaving WA, so I bought Dave's (DCR) Sparco Pro 2000 and harness, so now I need one more for passenger.
I have also picked up an AiMSports MXL Strada digital dash - thanks to Mitch (NoScoE30) from E30Tech
Some Ellipsoids off eBay
and a B&M Line Locker
..... The story continues ..... November 2009 update
The car has been towed to AllStar Garage to finish it off and tune it. They will be doing the wire-in of the ViPEC, dump pipe, exhaust and the little bits and pieces required to get it going. A few more parcels have recently arrived in the mail, namely LS2 ignition coils (120 milliamps!), 1000cc Bosch EV14 injectors with adaptor hats and a NUKE Performance fuel rail. Some miscellaneous sensors are coming also - EGT, temperature and pressure.
I have been investigating an oil cooler system and have pretty much decided on the setup I will be using. Earls spin-on block off plate, Earls remote filter mount, MOCAL inline thermostat and a B&M supercool core. The lines will all be -8AN in size.
Next on the list to tackle is fuel lines under the car and a surge tank setup, this will probably have to wait until I return to Perth in 10 days and can actually look at the car physically to determine what is best to do. But I will probably run 1/2" (-8AN) feed and 3/8" (-6AN) return aluminium hard line under the car and Earls Pro-Lite line in the engine bay. The fuel pressure regulator has dual -10AN feeds and a -6AN return, and the rail is -8AN.
December 2009 Update
Have decided to run -6AN rubber lines in the engine bay and retain the stock under car lines.
Here are some goodies that have arrived recently
NPC Billet 4340 Flywheel
Splined shaft for E36 rack conversion giving extra clearance (not my pic, will update with a dump pipe picture when it's done)
Two older pics ....
Nuke Cam Wheel
AiMSport MXL Strada Dash
Some pictures of the intercooler and pipework ... it's pretty hard to see (which is how I wanted it) but the core runs from the bottom of the front valence up to the radiator support. She's rather large.
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