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Thread: 99 E36 M3 LSx Build

  1. #51
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    95 LS1 M3
    Quote Originally Posted by ckpitt55 View Post
    Thanks man. You ever get that new powerplant up and running? That thing is ridiculous in the best way possible. I love it.
    I did. Thanks for asking. Its scary fast with so much torque in the low RPMS. Just completing some tuning to make it more family friendly but with headers being a limiting factor (size) the car wouldnt go past 570whp which is more than enough for me anyways. Ill update soon
    Race/Street Wheel stud conversion kits and spacers --->www.MotorsportHardware.com
    95 M3 7.1L LSX

  2. #52
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    99 M3 LS1, '11 WRX
    Quote Originally Posted by nsogiba View Post
    I don't suppose you have the dimensions (height, ID, OD) for the 12mm to 14mm ring gear spacers? Would like to make my own for an upcoming gear swap.

    Your progress looks great, kudos to you for doing things that most people have a shop do.
    Assuming you have the 188mm unit, try contacting Jonathan @ Bimmerdiffs. I ended up opting to trade my M14 LSD case for an e30 M12 case to mate up with my 3.73 gears. No spacers necessary, just 10 new M12 ring gear bolts and I was on my way.

    I did do some research on the spacers though, so I can offer up a few thoughts there if you really want to make them. For sizing, one option would be to take an M14 and an M12 bolt, compare the shoulders of the two and use that to turn your sleeves - maybe size them a little larger on the OD such that they're a light press fit into the case and make sure they're a very tight clearance fit for the bolt on the ID to minimize shock loads and shear loads on the bolt. The gap between the bolt shoulder and sleeve ID is going to determine how far the ring gear could "slip" under high instantaneous loads - hard acceleration, sudden off-throttle, etc. Material-wise, I'd pick something with high impact / compression resistance to avoid cracking and potentially dropping portions of the sleeve into the diff, destroying it. Tool steel, 4340, and C300 steel would both be good choices, and they're all also hardenable. Any good machine shop should be able to do a hardness test on your case and give you recommendations for heat treatment to match your sleeves to it (if necessary).

    all of the above is why I chose to just swap cases lol

    and thanks - I need/want a shop in the worst way but I'm trying not to let that hold me back.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by kalib0y View Post
    I did. Thanks for asking. Its scary fast with so much torque in the low RPMS. Just completing some tuning to make it more family friendly but with headers being a limiting factor (size) the car wouldnt go past 570whp which is more than enough for me anyways. Ill update soon
    I can only imagine. Looking forward to updates
    Last edited by ckpitt55; 06-12-2014 at 12:58 AM.

  3. #53
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    Got some welding done this weekend.

    Front subframe reinforcements. Since my mig machine is 115v and fitup of all this stuff wasn't tight enough to use tig, all the tricks in the book were thrown at trying to burn everything in nice......preheat with a torch, welding uphill, short arc, etc.







    Rear subframe reinformements. Boxed in the diff mounting ears, along with all of the subframe mounting sleeves. Since I won't be using a rear swaybar I elected to shave the mounting ears to get them out of my way.



    I left a gap here to give me access for corrosion protection





    All of the sleeves were reinforced thusly, welded top and bottom. From here I still need to blast everything and powdercoat it.



    FWIW I also put my coilovers back together. Figured it was worth mentioning because it took a little while to do. I installed torrington bearings on the lower perch on the front springs to ease preloading / alleviate bind issues under compression.



    I also spent some time practicing tig welding. Still suck lol. Hoping that I'll be good enough when it comes time to fab exhaust and mounts


  4. #54
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    Got some powdercoating done over the weekend. Extremely time consuming as always but made some headway. Zinc primer > black base > starlight clear. I sprayed all the internal surfaces with cavity wax.

    Using AKG 75D bushings







    Couple small parts left to do but the majority is done. Gonna try to get back on the chassis this week.
    Last edited by ckpitt55; 06-23-2014 at 12:59 AM.

  5. #55
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    1992 BMW 325is
    Amazing build thread so far! Definitely subscribing to this!

  6. #56
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    Thanks!

    Been working on detailing the rest of the longblock out this week....needed a change of pace. Tonight I powdercoated the front timing cover in wrinkle black and the coil mounting brackets in the black / starlight clear after work. Still to do on this guy: plumb my steam vent crossover lines, figure out a pcv / catch can setup, powdercoat the valve covers, figure out a throttle cable bracket, and rebuild / reloom the wiring harness. The rest will have to wait until it's in the car I think.



    I've been sitting on these parts for a while, but here's a look at my oil cooler setup that I plan on running. Setrab 925 cooler and -10AN Raceflux fittings.



    The cooler adapter is the one with the built in thermostat from Improved racing. It diverts flow until the oil gets to 180F. It also has a 1/8-NPT port that I plan on using to measure oil temperature - and it does get flow past the sensor port when the thermostat is still closed. Hopefully that means it will be fairly accurate.



    I've also been doing some reading and checking over some of my measurements on engine layout, I ended up buying a slightly thicker set of head gaskets. At TDC my pistons are ~.0085" above deck since I had a clean up cut done when the block was machined. I was originally going to use .040" gaskets to set my quench nice and tight, but taking piston rock into account I was only left with ~.010" of clearance before my pistons start hitting the heads. Since I don't want to grenade a brand new motor I figured it'd be wise to heir on the safer side and get .045" gaskets.....buys me a little more room while still keeping my quench tight.

    Unrelated to the above, I've also been researching rear cage / 4-pt bolt-in options. I was originally set on a TCK 4-pt bolt in but the price gets pretty out of hand for what it is once you factor in shipping. Even the Kirks are pretty pricey. My friend has a hydraulic tubing bender at his shop so I very well might end up buying some DOM and fabbing one. We'll see - lot's of research still to be done there.

    More soon.
    Last edited by ckpitt55; 06-26-2014 at 08:14 AM. Reason: Double post

  7. #57
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    Bunch of random progress this weekend....put my alternator and starter motor back together, and also installed my fuel pump. I went with the rally road kit, pretty straightforward install.





    Also spent (a lot) more time under the car wire wheeling and seam welding. Pretty much got the entire drivers side done today. a couple small areas to finish up front before I can move to the rear subframe area, trailing arm pockets, etc.


  8. #58
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    Huntsville Alabama
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    99 LSX M3
    Great progress. Where are you buying your frame bushings?
    99 LSX M3

  9. #59
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    Quote Originally Posted by VR92 View Post
    Great progress. Where are you buying your frame bushings?
    I'm assuming you mean rear subframe? I bought them directly from AKG: http://www.akgmotorsport.com/. I'm using their 75D subframe bushings along with their 75D front diff bushing drilled out for a 14mm bolt.

  10. #60
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    Mar 2014
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    Oregon
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    1999 BMW M3 Coupe
    Awesome work! You're really taking your time and doing things right, that's for sure!

  11. #61
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    Quote Originally Posted by FastFabM3 View Post
    Awesome work! You're really taking your time and doing things right, that's for sure!
    Thanks man, trying to do my best

    Figured I'd post some pics of the finished alternator. The one that came on the motor originally was all old and crusty so I disassembled it to powdercoat the case. I coated the stator in Dolphs EB-41 insulating enamel (black) and replaced the diodes, rectifier, and rotor bearings. Probably could have just bought a new one but that's not really my style.







    Coil brackets



    Also spending some time this week to sort out some of my hardware. Decided to pick up some rivet nuts for various areas on the car / adding fastening points in the engine bay or elsewhere if/when I need it. M6/M8/M10 nuts with install tools and the appropriate drill sizes.



    Front diff bolt / AKG bushing sleeve. Using an M14 x 2.0 x 80 grade 10.9 bolt. Turns out the shoulder of the bolt is slightly larger than the major diameter of the threads and won't fit through the sleeve, so I'm going to need to bore the sleeve out some on the lathe so it's a nice tight fit. It would probably work with a fully threaded bolt, but McMaster didn't offer one in the grade and length that I needed. Not a big deal but something to be aware of if anyone else out there intends on using this bushing.



    I hate using anything but antiseize on anything I have the intention to remove (easily) in the future, so looked for other anti-loosening solutions. Ended up getting some nordlock washers - they're a matched pair with a cam profile cut into them with an angle greater than the pitch angle of the threads. This makes it impossible for the bolt to loosen



    Here's a cool video where they compare these washers to some other pretty common methods of locking. If you can make it through the cheesy 80's music in the first 20 seconds it's pretty eye opening. I'll probably be using these on most of the larger bolts / areas that are prone to a lot of vibration. Mcmaster carries them for very reasonable prices.

    Last edited by ckpitt55; 07-02-2014 at 01:08 AM.

  12. #62
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    Back in action after a brief hiatus. Needed a break so took some time out of town doing some traveling, etc.

    Got back to work on the chassis. Worked on removing what was left of the interior (b pillars, rear panels, headliner, c pillars, rear deck). They'll be getting refurbed / recovered.

    Also cut into the floor to expose the subframe mounts. I'm going to be boxing these together with tubing similar to how a lot of guys running full or rear-half cages have done it.



    Some detail to show where I cut





    I also decided to quit messing around and remove the wiring harness to make working in the car easier. I got tired of having to work around it and wanted to get it out of my way for welding / grinding and for when I paint and lay down dynamatting. Spent the rest of the day cleaning it up and labeling everything...it's really not that intimidating when you get into it.



    Going to get some DOM and an S2R sunroof delete panel on order this week

  13. #63
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    Spent another weekend grinding it out, complete with welding burns and undercoating in my eyes. Focused mainly on prepping the rear end of the car.

    1.75" x .120" DOM came in



    The business



    Didn't get a chance to cut any of it up and fit any in because the bulk of the time was spent behind a drill wire wheeling all the crap out of the way. Got the top side of the shock towers done, some of the seams on the underside of the car in the rear subframe mount area, and the rear trailing arm pockets.

    Still have to clean off the backside of the tower so it'll weld nice.



    More seam welding



    Rear trailing arm pockets



    I'll also be welding in the reinforcement plates from AKG. I coated them in weld thru primer to protect the areas on the interior of the weld seam from rust. Wasn't able to get to welding them in yet though.



    In other news, I cut out my spare tire well out to make room for a second muffler. Fixing to run true duals into a quad exhaust - more exhaust flow capability with still decent noise reduction.





    Throughout this process I discovered some questionable body work done sometime in past with a previous owner that I'm going to need to address. There's rust coming through in several small areas where the tailpanel was apparently welded back in, so I'm probably going to need to cut it out and replace it. The tailpanel is the piece that houses the headlights, spanning in between the rear quarterpanels. You can kind of see where it's coming through on the seam in the front, as well as in the right corner.



    Irritates me because I bought the car under the impression that it had never been to the shop. At the same time, I no longer feel bad about hacking away at it lol. Oh well.

    More soon.

  14. #64
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    I think I can see ground through your trunk

    This project just turned even more interesting. Looking forward for updates.

    If you have the scales or can estimate how much the piece of cutout trunk floor weights, that would be an interesting data point (for me at least )
    - 96 328is 6.0L. (LS1 to LS2 build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ad.php?2098938)
    - 96 328is 5.7L. (LS1 build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1289987)
    - 95 ///M3 6.0L. (LS2 build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1619249)

    - 97 ///M3. (e46 Fender Flares/track car build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1727098)
    - 96 328is (Dual Fuel Pump to Surge Tank thread: http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...ad.php?1964025)

  15. #65
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    Sure, I can weigh it after work today

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by bimerok View Post
    If you have the scales or can estimate how much the piece of cutout trunk floor weights, that would be an interesting data point (for me at least )
    The trunk floor weighed in at 13.5 lbs. May be slightly more or less depending on how you cut it, obviously.

  16. #66
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    Great! Thanks for that info.
    - 96 328is 6.0L. (LS1 to LS2 build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ad.php?2098938)
    - 96 328is 5.7L. (LS1 build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1289987)
    - 95 ///M3 6.0L. (LS2 build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1619249)

    - 97 ///M3. (e46 Fender Flares/track car build thread: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1727098)
    - 96 328is (Dual Fuel Pump to Surge Tank thread: http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...ad.php?1964025)

  17. #67
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    Amazing thread and build. Got so wrapped up in reading the whole thing that I forgot what I was searching for. What are you going to use for the trunk?
    Last edited by Cobra1956; 08-11-2014 at 09:05 AM.

  18. #68
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    Thanks man, appreciate it. I've got a few ideas I'm kicking around, nothing concrete yet though. Gonna let it "marinate" in my mind for a little while.

    Spent the weekend doing more wire wheeling and more welding. Got the trailing arm reinforcements in, did some seam welding in other areas of the rear end, and also started working on the shock tower reinforcements. I spent some time cleaning up the trunk floor area to prep for replacing it but didn't get any pics of that.

    Got the other side cleaned up



    More seam welding



    Masked off approx 1/8" inside the weld area to keep weld thru primer off of it. I found out from welding in the first one that it makes getting clean welds almost impossible if its too close



    Sprayed with weld-thru primer



    Before starting to weld, I gave the plates a generous chamfer on the side to be welded to help me get better penetration since I'm only using a 115v welder. This along with a little preheat from a propane torch helped things to burn in ok. If I had my choice I would have rather used a 230v welder, but gotta use what you have.



    Plate tacked up



    Welded



    After this I ground it flush / filled with weld metal / ground flush until the RTA bracket slid freely across the surface. Due to variations in how things line up, you could run into a situation where the reinforcement plate stands proud of the 3 mounting bushings, which was the case for me. This could cause the bracket to bind up and ultimately limit the range of your toe adjustment. Took some time but it wasn't a big deal, just figured I'd mention it. Finished, it ended up looking like this before a shot of primer.



    Cleaned up and welded the seams of the subframe reinforcement plates



    Also worked on the shock towers some



    Ground the front bead flat. I am going to be slapping an 1/8" reinforcement plate across here to serve as a foundation to weld my DOM crossbrace into and didn't want that sticking up in my way.



    After making templates with painters tape, I transferred them to steel



    Cut out in 1/8" steel. Still need to work on fitment a bit but they're almost there. Hope to get them welded in this week.



    This coming week I hope to get those plates welded in along with a start on my replacement floor. Might even start to layout the tubing for the subframe mount reinforcements, we'll see. Thanks for looking.
    Last edited by ckpitt55; 08-10-2014 at 10:39 PM.

  19. #69
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    95 LS1 M3
    beautiful work my friend. That Improved racing oil thermostat is a very nice piece and I love it. Just in case your exhaust manifolds are anything like mine, the hoses run very close so put some fire sleeves on them hoses.
    Race/Street Wheel stud conversion kits and spacers --->www.MotorsportHardware.com
    95 M3 7.1L LSX

  20. #70
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    This thread is like a strip club for car guys! Keep it up, simply awesome work.

  21. #71
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    Quote Originally Posted by kalib0y View Post
    beautiful work my friend. That Improved racing oil thermostat is a very nice piece and I love it. Just in case your exhaust manifolds are anything like mine, the hoses run very close so put some fire sleeves on them hoses.
    Thanks Ryan. Yeah I planned on insulating them - I'll probably just pick up some of this stuff: http://www.improvedracing.com/heat-s...ving-p-62.html. Probably also going to end up doing a 3 qt accusump setup since I am too poor to afford a dry sump at the moment lol. Do you happen to have any experience with fitting a sensor to the 1/8 npt port on the thermostat? I was considering monitoring temperature there but wasn't sure if it was deep enough to avoid interference with the probe.

    Dude - just saw the vids you posted. That 7.1L sounds downright nasty, so awesome. Congrats on getting it up and running. Sounds like it spins up easily too

    Quote Originally Posted by Cobra1956 View Post
    This thread is like a strip club for car guys! Keep it up, simply awesome work.
    Assuming you're comparing it to a good strip club I guess I'll take that as a compliment, haha. Thanks man

    Guess I'll bring you guys back up to speed. Not a tremendous amount of progress as of late - some long days at work and I also started up grad school part time.

    I've been making small progress on numerous fronts

    First - some new tools:

    Hole cutters / spot weld cutters from Blair. These things are incredible. I will never use a hole saw or a standard spot weld cutter in sheet metal again.



    My favorite thing about the spotweld cutter is that the pilot doesn't dig into the 2nd layer - it's a spring loaded pin that retracts as you drill in - so no risk or drilling through both layers, leaving you nothing to weld to.



    I also got the 4-pc dimple die set from mittler brothers. Heat treated and good in up to 1/8" thick steel



    Some time ago, I also decided to rebuild my engine harness from scratch to mil-spec, pin to pin. Spec 55 / tefzel wire, raychem dr-25 heat shrink, and fire resistant braiding. I've been researching parts / supplies for that and have also started depinning all the connectors. Nice thing about metri-packs is that most of the pins are easily removed with a safety pin - a good Saturday morning activity with a cup of coffee. Here's a nice primer on that subject for anyone interested: https://www.rbracing-rsr.com/wiring_ecu.html



    Finished up reinforcement on one of the rear strut towers, still need to finish the other one.







    From there I moved on to some work on the trunk floor replacement. Since the spare tire well provided a good amount of support for the subframe mount tubular section, I decided to throw a piece of 1"x1" in there to help support it. Probably not really necessary but neither is anything I'm doing.



    Next I welded in this floor extension piece to bring it flush with the rear-most portion of the subrame mount channel. I welded this in from the bottom side of the car, grinding it flush as I went to help ensure everything will be watertight



    I then started laying out my first few patch panels to box this section in again. Putting my dimple dies to work in some 16 ga sheet



    Then broke out the bead roller and made this guy



    Laid out here with the rear subframe stubs also tacked in place



    First piece tacked



    Welded up



    Top panel welded in.



    Gotta figure out where to go from here. I plan on keeping the charcoal canister so I need to make room for it without taking up too much trunk space.

    Other than that, spent some time this week trying to figure out tube notching. Since I have a drill press, I didn't bother with getting a tubing notcher. A hole saw, a vice, some big c-clamps, and careful alignment got the job done.



    Fit-up after some deburring



    Need to make up a couple practice joints to dial in the welding settings for this prior to doing the real thing. The plan is to get everything fit-up and tacked in the car, then remove the stubs so I can weld all the way around the cope joints.

    More to come soon hopefully. In other news, I hope to get the transmission ordered and on its way next week. Thanks for looking

    -Chuck

  22. #72
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    Worked on the tubular subframe reinforcement this weekend.

    After I got everything cut and fit, I tacked it all up.



    Once that was done I tacked in some 1x1 to the verticals to prevent anything from moving around until I could get it welded out more.



    Then I cut the whole thing out of the car to weld it out



    I did a couple test pieces to dial in settings before welding the real thing - for anyone interested I ended up using 140 amps with a 33hz pulse, 60% duration. Really helps to manage heat input for a noob like me that can't weld with a fast travel speed yet.



    And here's the cross brace welded up.


  23. #73
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    FWIW, I would go with the Moroso unit over the Accu Sump. Belive it or not I have had two of them blow apart, one while tracking at Roebling Road the other just sitting in the garage working on the other car and I heard a pop followed by the sound of oil throwing up all over the garage floor. AccuSump could not tell me the burst rating of their unit. Moroso knew all the specifics of theirs. In both cases the threads in the cylinder of the AccuSUmp let go and I had long pieces of aluminum thread that looked like spaghetti.



    Here is the second one. Notice the threads. The engine had not been run in over a year when this let go.

    Last edited by Cobra1956; 09-14-2014 at 10:36 PM.

  24. #74
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    Can we get some pictures of your powder coating set-up?

    I've decided to start up myself and am not sure what route I would like to go. I'm thinking just an old oven since the only big stuff I would coat will be far and few between..I'll just pay someone to do the odd frame or two.

  25. #75
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cobra1956 View Post
    FWIW, I would go with the Moroso unit over the Accu Sump. Belive it or not I have had two of them blow apart, one while tracking at Roebling Road the other just sitting in the garage working on the other car and I heard a pop followed by the sound of oil throwing up all over the garage floor. AccuSump could not tell me the burst rating of their unit. Moroso knew all the specifics of theirs. In both cases the threads in the cylinder of the AccuSUmp let go and I had long pieces of aluminum thread that looked like spaghetti.

    Here is the second one. Notice the threads. The engine had not been run in over a year when this let go.
    good to know, thanks for sharing.

    Quote Originally Posted by Thee Antic View Post
    Can we get some pictures of your powder coating set-up?

    I've decided to start up myself and am not sure what route I would like to go. I'm thinking just an old oven since the only big stuff I would coat will be far and few between..I'll just pay someone to do the odd frame or two.
    I don't have a setup of my own, I have a membership at a place close to me called Tech Shop that gives you access to all sorts of machines and equipment. I think their gun setup is something similar to what eastwood sells - not the greatest but you don't need to have the best gun. Part prep (cleanliness and texture), establishing a good ground on the part, and having a good dry powder are the most important things. I got all my powders from Powder365 and they seemed to lay down pretty nice.

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