The death and rebirth of a DSP E46 330Ci - Page 10

rumatt · 05-17-2016, 09:59 PM

I just watched the youtube videos. Nice job man!

And the burnout at the end.

bren · 05-17-2016, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rumatt

And the burnout at the end.

Safety guy was sure he was hitting the light pole with that move.

rumatt · 05-17-2016, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bren

Safety guy was sure he was hitting the light pole with that move.

So was I.

*clyde* · 05-17-2016, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bren

Safety guy was sure he was hitting the light pole with that move.

Can't find that pic of you keeping JV safe.

John V · 05-18-2016, 05:44 AM

I was nowhere near that pole!

*clyde* · 05-18-2016, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John V

I was nowhere near that pole!

I don't see why this funny.

John V · 07-05-2016, 08:51 PM

Things get hazy after the DC Pro Win. Toledo Pro, car is working fantastically on Sunday morning and I have a pretty healthy lead in the class, well over a second. In the afternoon, the car is definitely down on power, and when Peter looked at the data later on it was revealed that the air density correction table was over-correcting for the temperature, so he sent me a new map to fix it.

Unfortunately, I didn't really get to test it out. On Sunday morning, after Shelly ran in L1 (and finished second behind an awesome drive by Tamra Hunt in the Davis CSP car) I went to start the car to diagnose a high idle and heard what sounded like a thousand tiny hammers hitting the top of the cylinder head. Seeing the oil pressure light on, I immediately shut down the car and assumed the worst: the nut securing the oil pump sprocket to the oil pump shaft had vibrated loose and fallen into the pan. This is a pretty common occurrence in BMW inline six engines, but I was surprised it happened to me. First, the engine has a balanced rotating assembly. Second, I've got a pimpy ATI crank damper, third, I don't rev the thing that high, and fourth, I used red Loctite to keep the nut from vibrating off. Disappointed, we loaded the car on the trailer and headed for home. Fortunately my Sunday drive was good enough to take the win in Toledo but I knew I had a lot of work to do to get the car fixed.

Removing the oil pan on a BMW is pretty annoying. The front subframe has to be lowered from the car, which requires the engine to be supported from above with a brace spanning the engine compartment. Harbor Freight to the rescue. After that's supported, it's still quite a bit of work to get the pan off. Once it was off, I realized the scope of my problem was a lot worse than I had expected.

Yep, the loctite did its job, but the oil pump shaft didn't. It sheared clean off. When that happened, the gear jammed against the front cover of the engine, pretty effectively stopping it from spinning. But the crank doesn't care about that - it just keeps on spinnin'... and destroyed the oil pump drive chain and the crank sprocket. If removing the oil pan on a BMW engine is a 6 on a 0-10 scale of annoyance, removing the front cover and sprocket is ... really fucking annoying. The water pump needs to come out, along with the radiator, the VANOS unit, the intake manifold, the valve cover, the cam timing chain, the tensioners... most of the front of the engine.

It probably would have been easier to just remove the cylinder head, but I managed to not do that. I figured at this point it made sense to put a new timing chain in it as well since I don't know how much metal the destroyed sprocket threw into it. I checked a couple of rod bearings and they looked pristine, consistent with the engine not really being run without oil for any length of time. So I buttoned it back up with a new oil pump - one re-designed with a stronger shaft, a safety-wired nut and a keyed sprocket. I really should have replaced all this stuff when I rebuilt the engine a couple years back, but they all checked out fine so I didn't. The oil pump chain on the M54 series of engines has no tensioner, so my theory is the chain had stretched and was slapping around pretty badly, fatiguing the oil pump shaft. The car also had a pretty hard life before I got it, so I'll chalk this up to my fault for not doing everything when I should have.

The timing chain and the sprocket aren't normally stocked components, so they had to be ordered from "Germany." Wherever that is.

About 15 hours of labor later, all back together.

...except not, because another minor problem I've been chasing is since putting in the ACT 6-puck clutch and ultralite flywheel, the clutch engagement point has been way too low. Two slave cylinders, multiple sessions bleeding air (and not getting any out) haven't improved it. Last season I had thrown a junkyard trans at the car to fix the one I destroyed in Wilmington, but I didn't replace the clutch fork or the pivot pin, so I assumed they were just worn and not allowing the clutch to fully release. The parts are cheap and I'm good at pulling BMW transmissions, so why not?

The fork was definitely worn:

But not so much that it should have caused a problem.

So what I ended up doing was making an adjustable clutch slave cylinder plunger. The factory piece is about 90mm long and is exactly 7mm in diameter. I figured I could turn a brass tip for it (the stock one is plastic and just snaps on), cut 7mm x 1.0 threads inside that tip and on the plunger, and put a jam nut on there. After some trial and error, I found that at 102mm the clutch engaged about two inches off the floor, which is just slightly below mid-travel. Problem solved.

bren · 07-05-2016, 10:17 PM

The clutch fix is pretty cool - darn engineers with the smart thinking.

The engine work, well, yeah that sucks. But it also just makes me feel incredibly lazy.

rumatt · 07-06-2016, 01:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bren

The engine work, well, yeah that sucks. But it also just makes me feel incredibly lazy.

It makes me feel incredibly lazy and unskilled at working on cars.

At least you're just lazy.

John V · 07-06-2016, 07:17 AM

I was extremely close to having Terry Baker tow the car to his shop after toledo, and I would take his car to my place. He's coming up for the 7/10 event at FedEx anyway.

I'm pretty sick of working on this thing.

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05-17-2016, 09:59 PM	#91
rumatt Mugwump Join Date: Oct 2003 Carmudgeonly Ride: E46 330i, Chevy Colorado, Tesla Model 3 Location: NY Posts: 17,475	I just watched the youtube videos. Nice job man! And the burnout at the end.

05-18-2016, 05:44 AM	#95
John V No more BMWs Join Date: Apr 2005 Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8 Location: Glenwood, MD Posts: 14,753	I was nowhere near that pole!

07-05-2016, 08:51 PM	#97
John V No more BMWs Join Date: Apr 2005 Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8 Location: Glenwood, MD Posts: 14,753	Things get hazy after the DC Pro Win. Toledo Pro, car is working fantastically on Sunday morning and I have a pretty healthy lead in the class, well over a second. In the afternoon, the car is definitely down on power, and when Peter looked at the data later on it was revealed that the air density correction table was over-correcting for the temperature, so he sent me a new map to fix it. Unfortunately, I didn't really get to test it out. On Sunday morning, after Shelly ran in L1 (and finished second behind an awesome drive by Tamra Hunt in the Davis CSP car) I went to start the car to diagnose a high idle and heard what sounded like a thousand tiny hammers hitting the top of the cylinder head. Seeing the oil pressure light on, I immediately shut down the car and assumed the worst: the nut securing the oil pump sprocket to the oil pump shaft had vibrated loose and fallen into the pan. This is a pretty common occurrence in BMW inline six engines, but I was surprised it happened to me. First, the engine has a balanced rotating assembly. Second, I've got a pimpy ATI crank damper, third, I don't rev the thing that high, and fourth, I used red Loctite to keep the nut from vibrating off. Disappointed, we loaded the car on the trailer and headed for home. Fortunately my Sunday drive was good enough to take the win in Toledo but I knew I had a lot of work to do to get the car fixed. Removing the oil pan on a BMW is pretty annoying. The front subframe has to be lowered from the car, which requires the engine to be supported from above with a brace spanning the engine compartment. Harbor Freight to the rescue. After that's supported, it's still quite a bit of work to get the pan off. Once it was off, I realized the scope of my problem was a lot worse than I had expected. Yep, the loctite did its job, but the oil pump shaft didn't. It sheared clean off. When that happened, the gear jammed against the front cover of the engine, pretty effectively stopping it from spinning. But the crank doesn't care about that - it just keeps on spinnin'... and destroyed the oil pump drive chain and the crank sprocket. If removing the oil pan on a BMW engine is a 6 on a 0-10 scale of annoyance, removing the front cover and sprocket is ... really fucking annoying. The water pump needs to come out, along with the radiator, the VANOS unit, the intake manifold, the valve cover, the cam timing chain, the tensioners... most of the front of the engine. It probably would have been easier to just remove the cylinder head, but I managed to not do that. I figured at this point it made sense to put a new timing chain in it as well since I don't know how much metal the destroyed sprocket threw into it. I checked a couple of rod bearings and they looked pristine, consistent with the engine not really being run without oil for any length of time. So I buttoned it back up with a new oil pump - one re-designed with a stronger shaft, a safety-wired nut and a keyed sprocket. I really should have replaced all this stuff when I rebuilt the engine a couple years back, but they all checked out fine so I didn't. The oil pump chain on the M54 series of engines has no tensioner, so my theory is the chain had stretched and was slapping around pretty badly, fatiguing the oil pump shaft. The car also had a pretty hard life before I got it, so I'll chalk this up to my fault for not doing everything when I should have. The timing chain and the sprocket aren't normally stocked components, so they had to be ordered from "Germany." Wherever that is. About 15 hours of labor later, all back together. ...except not, because another minor problem I've been chasing is since putting in the ACT 6-puck clutch and ultralite flywheel, the clutch engagement point has been way too low. Two slave cylinders, multiple sessions bleeding air (and not getting any out) haven't improved it. Last season I had thrown a junkyard trans at the car to fix the one I destroyed in Wilmington, but I didn't replace the clutch fork or the pivot pin, so I assumed they were just worn and not allowing the clutch to fully release. The parts are cheap and I'm good at pulling BMW transmissions, so why not? The fork was definitely worn: But not so much that it should have caused a problem. So what I ended up doing was making an adjustable clutch slave cylinder plunger. The factory piece is about 90mm long and is exactly 7mm in diameter. I figured I could turn a brass tip for it (the stock one is plastic and just snaps on), cut 7mm x 1.0 threads inside that tip and on the plunger, and put a jam nut on there. After some trial and error, I found that at 102mm the clutch engaged about two inches off the floor, which is just slightly below mid-travel. Problem solved.

07-05-2016, 10:17 PM	#98
bren lawn boy Join Date: Oct 2003 Carmudgeonly Ride: e46m3, f25x3,C5 Z06, C4 Vette, 06 CTD Ram, and a trailer Location: Maryland Posts: 14,029	The clutch fix is pretty cool - darn engineers with the smart thinking. The engine work, well, yeah that sucks. But it also just makes me feel incredibly lazy.

07-06-2016, 07:17 AM	#100
John V No more BMWs Join Date: Apr 2005 Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8 Location: Glenwood, MD Posts: 14,753	I was extremely close to having Terry Baker tow the car to his shop after toledo, and I would take his car to my place. He's coming up for the 7/10 event at FedEx anyway. I'm pretty sick of working on this thing.