E36 M3, from dual purpose to track only

[aeronaut]

Another update, guess what happens when you install a restrictor (chase bays, in my case) on the E46 M3 P/S pump?
Fluid temps shoot way up! Mine boiled after about 4 laps.

Now that I know the noises were being made by the harmonic damper, I'm removing the chase bays P/S pump restrictor.

[scoobiedoo2029]

Another update, guess what happens when you install a restrictor (chase bays, in my case) on the E46 M3 P/S pump?
Fluid temps shoot way up! Mine boiled after about 4 laps.

Now that I know the noises were being made by the harmonic damper, I'm removing the chase bays P/S pump restrictor.

hmmm. do you ever hear a cavitation or a groan in a lard left steering input?

i just rebuilt my PS setup again, didnt do the rack but running redline d4 atf has slightly changed things vs el cheepo red goo, i did see something on this forum recently of fluid compability listing the pentosin fluid not atf. ill have to find it, believe it was from service bulletin from the TIS or whatever its called now.

[aeronaut]

hmmm. do you ever hear a cavitation or a groan in a lard left steering input?

i just rebuilt my PS setup again, didnt do the rack but running redline d4 atf has slightly changed things vs el cheepo red goo, i did see something on this forum recently of fluid compability listing the pentosin fluid not atf. ill have to find it, believe it was from service bulletin from the TIS or whatever its called now.

If i put the steering hard against the stop, a little bit of groan. But not under normal driving even if full left.

[aeronaut]

Well, I'm headed to VIR next week and decided not to take a chance on the P/S. Adding a cooler.
Mounted behind the bumper. I have no fender liners so I needed add at least some kind of FOD guard.
IMG_20220601_132953.jpg

Love/Hate relationship with AN lines.
These Vibrant 6AN lines are pretty flexible.

IMG_20220601_141727.jpg

[aeronaut]

I stopped by AiM in Roanoke VA after VIR. Cameron spent a few hours debugging the PDM and accessories. We ended up replacing the GPS09 with a GPS08 due to known firmware problems with the GPS09, and I got a new RIO.

The whole damn setup seems to be working good now! It's way too early to proclaim a full on victory, but I'm hopeful again and have stopped shopping other manufacturer's PDMs.

Matt Romanowski (trailbrake.com) and Cameron at AiM have spent a ton of time helping get this thing figured out.
Huge thanks to them.

[aeronaut]

After my previous harmonic damper failure, I painted the current one yellow. One quick look can tell if it's starting to fail.

IMG_20220613_132419.resized.jpg

[scoobiedoo2029]

so seems powersteering is sorted for you now? i think your convinced me to go the e46 pump an cooler, are you still running a stock style reservoir with the filter, or did you pick up a unfliterd metal unit?


sounds like your cars getting rather sorted, a vir weekend and all you seem to have to say is YELLOW!!!!! lol

im jealous.

[aeronaut]

HAHA! God I love VIR. T14 at the end of the back straight is just SO AWESOME, then everything through T17. I've only been there about 10 days spread over 5 years, so I have to re-learn all the little bits every time. Did a 2:07x on toyo RR's this last time, and there's time to be had.

I hope P/S is sorted, but I'm not committing to a yeeehaaa for a few more weekends.
I have the Chase Bays reservoir, AN lines (except for the reservoir-to-pump line, that's just a high quality rubber hose and some push-in connectors and hose clamps), S54 pump, and some cheap generic cooler from Summit Racing. Without a restrictor, I don't think the cooler is needed, but the cooler is on there and I'm leaving it on for the rest of the year.

Car is finally getting sorted, although, an odd power loss issue seems to be randomly occurring. Mid-session, the car will lose some power above ~5000rpm, which implies VANOS not turning off, when hot, which is f-ing odd. Need to figure that out. I have a plan.

[aeronaut]

VIR, Oaktree...

VIR-oaktree-202206.jpg

[aeronaut]

The upside, and downside, of an accumulator.
2 laps compared, Green is accumulator on, Orange is accumulator off. (Nearly identical conditions; rpm, throttle position, track location, lap times, etc.)

1st arrow is where accumulator buffers low OP. Good.
2nd arrow is where accumulator slows return to high pressure. Not ideal.

sump.jpg

[bimmerboy318]

Great data! I knew the accumulator would take pressure away and need time to recover after supplying a low pressure condition. However, I would feel “better” having a higher minimum cause with it on. Because to me 35psi is better than 20psi. And it recovers to 40psi just as fast.

[aeronaut]

I'm still thinking over all cases of my data, but for now, I'm with you.
Unfortunately, that graph doesn't tell the whole story for all cases. That is, OP equal to 20psi at 2000rpm is fine. But the accum doesn't know about rpm, so it's active sometimes when it's not needed.

I wish I knew what a safe minimum OP really was.
Don't crank and rod bearings have the most load on them at full throttle and low rpm, when OP is often under 30psi?
If I had an electric oil pump, could I just set it at say, 25psi, and run the crap out of the engine and all be good?

[aeronaut]

... And it recovers to 40psi just as fast.

I think this is a really great way to look at it. The cross-over point on rising pressure, where the accu pressure equals the non-accu pressure! 40 seems like a good number to shoot for. I have some control over that by setting the pre-charge pressure.
Gonna look at more data and confuse myself even more.

[TechnicalViolet]

I'm still thinking over all cases of my data, but for now, I'm with you.
Unfortunately, that graph doesn't tell the whole story for all cases. That is, OP equal to 20psi at 2000rpm is fine. But the accum doesn't know about rpm, so it's active sometimes when it's not needed.

I wish I knew what a safe minimum OP really was.
Don't crank and rod bearings have the most load on them at full throttle and low rpm, when OP is often under 30psi?
If I had an electric oil pump, could I just set it at say, 25psi, and run the crap out of the engine and all be good?

For the most part:

-Rod bearings are strained at high rpm due to inertial forces of the reciprocating mass (very high forces here regardless of load over 6k rpm)

-Mains are strained under high load

I too would be interested in seeing some additional data in the graph: engine rpm, throttle position, g force, would be a good start. That’s motec right?

[aeronaut]

Motec? Ha, if only! AiM PDM08 (mostly working, finally)

swamp2.png

[TechnicalViolet]

If that was my data I would be very happy with it.

Looks stable, no drops due to acceleration in any direction, and pressure curve is representative of RPM.

Keep up the good work! Your progress is inspiring.

[aeronaut]

Thanks!

FYI, the start of that first big drop in pressure is due to braking, not RPM drop. Without accusump, drops down to about 21psi at 4000 rpm under -0.7 long G.
The oil sump seems to not like hard lefts then braking.

[aeronaut]

RPM vs Oil Pressure
Yellow=no accumulator, aqua= w/accumulator.
This would be the sales slide I'd use if I worked for Moroso. lol

accu-2.png

[TechnicalViolet]

This may have been answered already but which one did you buy?

[aeronaut]

3qt Moroso. Manual valve.

[aeronaut]

Found some headlight blanks that include the turn signals. From UK.
https://www.fibre-factory.co.uk/
Shipping was about $80.
FYI, they only have mounting tabs on the top, I made a small support to run to one of the car mount points on the bottom.

Couldn't decide what color to paint the signals, so I'm trying various colors.

HLblnk-2.jpg


HLblnk-1.jpg

[aeronaut]

Well, I've got engine problems. Runs great first few laps, but when engine gets up to operating temps (~190 water, 230 oil), I lose about 8mph on the main straight, estimating 50HP loss or so. From full power to reduced power within 1 or 2 laps. 1-2 cool down laps, and bam, back to full power.

I talked to my last tuner (Jim @ Kessel Performance) and he's as confused as I am. He doesn't believe there's anything in the OBD1 ECU that reduces power suddenly and drastically based on water or air inlet temps. He sending me a new base tune to see if anything changes. If that doesn't work....I think a Link ECU is in my future.

[aeronaut]

My f-ing steering rack is leaking again at the steering input shaft, and it's not a hard fix, but jeeze I may just put Prius parts on my car this winter and that just feels so wrong.

- - - Updated - - -

This is no longer a build thread it's a day in the life of a heavily-tracked-BMW thread.

- - - Updated - - -

This is no longer a build thread it's a day in the life of a heavily-tracked-BMW thread.

[olemiss540]

Here's me telling you should delete power steering a year ago. 😀

[aeronaut]

LOL. With 7+ degrees of caster and 275's. Ouch.