330Ci Drag/Track/Street Car

Looking forward to the updates.

In

7:47 PM... the minutes tick past...

Love your threads! In for more!!

Wow...what a day!

Just getting home now after dropping the car back off at my shop.

To summarize:

- It started.
- I drove it.
- A number of items got damaged or broken.
- It spent a number of hours strapped down to the dyno.
- I drove it back into my shop after unloading it from the trailer.

I'll have proper update tomrrow once I get some sleep.

Originally Posted by pei330ci

Wow...what a day!

Just getting home now after dropping the car back off at my shop.

To summarize:

- It started.
- I drove it.
- A number of items got damaged or broken.
- It spent a number of hours strapped down to the dyno.
- I drove it back into my shop after unloading it from the trailer.

I'll have proper update tomrrow once I get some sleep.

Eeek!! Hope nothing serious was "damaged or broken". Good luck my fellow Maritimer! Hope it all works out without much cost to you.

Bart

Originally Posted by aggieE46

How could he have a dyno yet, he hasn't cranked it up. Give the man time!

He has cranked it, and driven it, and dyno'ed it.

But seriously, I know you want to see a startup video and a dyno sheet just as bad as I do.

The suspense!

He has NOW. He hadn't at the time you asked for a dyno sheet.

Originally Posted by mkodama

He has cranked it, and driven it, and dyno'ed it.

But seriously, I know you want to see a startup video and a dyno sheet just as bad as I do.

Originally Posted by pei330ci

It's "D" day.

Just heading out now...hopefully I'll have a bit update tonight.

I posted after Adam said the above. He wouldn't be heading out in his car if it wasn't running.

Originally Posted by aggieE46

He has NOW. He hadn't at the time you asked for a dyno sheet.

Originally Posted by mkodama

Scary thought that your car is still street legal.

Also are you going for a drive in your car at 5:30am?

Just curious, have you come across any info on pinning or locking the vanos because of it's high chance of failure in racing?

Also, have you posted a dyno graph or gotten any power and torque numbers yet? I've heard of numbers like 280hp on an M54B30 just with upping the compression ratio, race gas of course, and well programmed fuel and ignition maps. With the work you've put in, the power would have to be easily over 300hp, right?

Whether the car is street legal or not, I'm not too keen on taking it out on wet roads covered in salt. I won't be street driving this car until well into the spring.

I do have info on locking the vanos, but it's not advisable. You give up a TON of torque in the midrange, at the expense of replacing a Vanos system that doesn't really fail that often. The ONLY case that I've heard where they usefully locked the VANOS was on a very high rev'ing engine with huge valve lift and very stiff springs. The VANOS had a very hard time rotating the camshaft, so the engineers locked it because it was more often than not out of the position they wanted it to be in.

Yes I have dyno graphs and video ect. The purpose of the dyno session was to shake down all the rebuilt systems on the car and to get the rings sealed. My objectives were met, so I'm very satisfied with the dyno session. Power wise, I'm not where I want to be, but there are some issues that need to be sorted out. My first pull on the dyno the engine made only 191 rwtq, and not at the correct RPM so we knew something was off from the start. I will say that I made more HP than my old setup at the end of the session, but something is still "off".

Originally Posted by CWABimmer

Love your threads! In for more!!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Bartacus

Eeek!! Hope nothing serious was "damaged or broken". Good luck my fellow Maritimer! Hope it all works out without much cost to you.

Bart

Damage isn't that bad from the first incident, the second incident happened with the car stationary...very lucky on that one. As I said before, the car drives right now.

Sorry to hear you're having issues. Hope everything is easily fixed.

I'm betting it was on a trailer

Originally Posted by mkodama

I posted after Adam said the above. He wouldn't be heading out in his car if it wasn't running.

I spent all Wednesday and Thursday preparing the car to go to the BMW dealership, and then to the dyno. There were lots of little details to wrap up to get the car drivable, which I won't detail here...but it did take until 6pm on Thursday to get the car loaded. Lots of work done.

New battery hold down bracket:



Passenger side seat belts being mounted:



The car ready for loading on Thursday evening:



I took the car home with me on the trailer Thursday night, then left early Friday morning for BMW Moncton. (In New Brunswick) Just after 9am they had the car connected to their diagnostic/programming system with the car checked out and ready for starting by about 10am.

Starting the car was pretty anti-climatic. I turned the key over, and it caught right away and came to life. (I have video, but the shop was too noisy to hear it properly) I let the engine idle for a couple of minutes watching temps and pressures before giving the engine a couple of blips and shutting it off. I then did an inspection of the engine compartment looking for leaks, and checked the oil. (It needed topping up)

Next, I started the car up and moved it out into the parking lot to check that I had full clutch engagement. I did a couple of low RPM launches in 1rst gear (2000 RPM) and accidently left a few stripes.... oops!

With the clutch/drivetrain ok, I moved the car back inside for a wheel alignment.

So at this point, the car was pretty much ready to drive, so the Shop Foreman and myself took the car out for a spin around the parking lot and then a quick jaunt down a private road.

My excitement got the better of me at this point, as I forgot to fasten down the hood. At about 30 MPH, it came up and hit the windshield and my new roof. The tech didn't know what to say...I just started laughing. This happens to everyone I know that races at some point; I was just glad that my memorable moment came at low speed without anyone getting hurt or the car seriously damaged.

So we closed the hood and limped back into the parking lot which was by now filled with spectators to see "what happened". I got out of the car with a smile, removed the hood with help from the techs, got back in the car with the Shop Forman, and drove back out onto the private road.

This car is intoxicating! The sound it makes from 4-7k+ RPM is beautiful and vicious at the same time. In second gear rolling the throttle on at 2000 RPM, the car pulls forward until it starts to spin the wheels at 5k...but at that point you don't care because it sounds so good.

I did a couple of 2nd gear pulls and hard brake applications (locked up the wheels once pretty good) before idling the car back into the dealership parking lot. As I climbed out of the car, I couldn't help but chuckle as someone asked me how it drives. I was in heaven.

So I loaded up the car, went for a quick lunch, then headed to the dyno.

The second incident of the day happened while positioning the car inside the JD Racing shop for the dyno runs. I don't want to cover it here, but I am addressing the problem privately. A suspension part broke, which we were able to fix. It was however shocking...as the part could have easily broke while I was driving the car.

With the car safely strapped to the dyno, I began doing pulls. With a brand new dual plate clutch and ultra light flywheel, you could say that it was a little bit jerky to get the car up into 4th gear. I eventually got the hang of it, but the first few runs were a little "fun".

The video below is I believe the 4th logged pull where I was down over 30whp from my best pull of the day due to some "issues". FYI, I shift from 2nd to 4th at the start.



The car on the dyno:





The cooling setup on this car is killer! We didn't really even need the external fan placed in front of the car. The warmest the car got was about 150 degress on both oil and water during a long session of repeated 2k to 5k pulls under brake loads. There were times when I left the fan and water pump on between pulls where I had to warm up the car again to do a pull because the temps had fallen below 100.

So how does the engine work overall? It's too early to say until I get some issues sorted out, but it does in it's current state make more power than it did before. Also, that 7600 RPM redline is usable, which I'm very happy about.

This next week I'll be pulling the engine / tranny out of the car to do some chassis updates and check over the engine. There are some basic things to do like re-torquing the head studs, but I'm also going to take the Vanos apart again to re-time the camshafts.

One final note: No leaks.

sweet - sorry about the hood and broken suspension

Excellent!! That thing sounds MEAN! It seems you handled the mishaps rather well. The hood incident sounded very funny, and must have scared the crap out of the tech. Overall, sounds like a very successful (not to mention MONUMENTAL) day for you sir! Congrats!

Bart

Do you plan on eventually using brake ducts, noticed in previous thread you already have the backing plates?

Originally Posted by pei330ci

I spent all Wednesday and Thursday preparing the car to go to the BMW dealership, and then to the dyno. There were lots of little details to wrap up to get the car drivable, which I won't detail here...but it did take until 6pm on Thursday to get the car loaded. Lots of work done.

New battery hold down bracket:



Passenger side seat belts being mounted:



The car ready for loading on Thursday evening:



I took the car home with me on the trailer Thursday night, then left early Friday morning for BMW Moncton. (In New Brunswick) Just after 9am they had the car connected to their diagnostic/programming system with the car checked out and ready for starting by about 10am.

Starting the car was pretty anti-climatic. I turned the key over, and it caught right away and came to life. (I have video, but the shop was too noisy to hear it properly) I let the engine idle for a couple of minutes watching temps and pressures before giving the engine a couple of blips and shutting it off. I then did an inspection of the engine compartment looking for leaks, and checked the oil. (It needed topping up)

Next, I started the car up and moved it out into the parking lot to check that I had full clutch engagement. I did a couple of low RPM launches in 1rst gear (2000 RPM) and accidently left a few stripes.... oops!

With the clutch/drivetrain ok, I moved the car back inside for a wheel alignment.

So at this point, the car was pretty much ready to drive, so the Shop Foreman and myself took the car out for a spin around the parking lot and then a quick jaunt down a private road.

My excitement got the better of me at this point, as I forgot to fasten down the hood. At about 30 MPH, it came up and hit the windshield and my new roof. The tech didn't know what to say...I just started laughing. This happens to everyone I know that races at some point; I was just glad that my memorable moment came at low speed without anyone getting hurt or the car seriously damaged.

So we closed the hood and limped back into the parking lot which was by now filled with spectators to see "what happened". I got out of the car with a smile, removed the hood with help from the techs, got back in the car with the Shop Forman, and drove back out onto the private road.

This car is intoxicating! The sound it makes from 4-7k+ RPM is beautiful and vicious at the same time. In second gear rolling the throttle on at 2000 RPM, the car pulls forward until it starts to spin the wheels at 5k...but at that point you don't care because it sounds so good.

I did a couple of 2nd gear pulls and hard brake applications (locked up the wheels once pretty good) before idling the car back into the dealership parking lot. As I climbed out of the car, I couldn't help but chuckle as someone asked me how it drives. I was in heaven.

So I loaded up the car, went for a quick lunch, then headed to the dyno.

The second incident of the day happened while positioning the car inside the JD Racing shop for the dyno runs. I don't want to cover it here, but I am addressing the problem privately. A suspension part broke, which we were able to fix. It was however shocking...as the part could have easily broke while I was driving the car.

With the car safely strapped to the dyno, I began doing pulls. With a brand new dual plate clutch and ultra light flywheel, you could say that it was a little bit jerky to get the car up into 4th gear. I eventually got the hang of it, but the first few runs were a little "fun".

The video below is I believe the 4th logged pull where I was down over 30whp from my best pull of the day due to some "issues". FYI, I shift from 2nd to 4th at the start.



The car on the dyno:





The cooling setup on this car is killer! We didn't really even need the external fan placed in front of the car. The warmest the car got was about 150 degress on both oil and water during a long session of repeated 2k to 5k pulls under brake loads. There were times when I left the fan and water pump on between pulls where I had to warm up the car again to do a pull because the temps had fallen below 100.

So how does the engine work overall? It's too early to say until I get some issues sorted out, but it does in it's current state make more power than it did before. Also, that 7600 RPM redline is usable, which I'm very happy about.

This next week I'll be pulling the engine / tranny out of the car to do some chassis updates and check over the engine. There are some basic things to do like re-torquing the head studs, but I'm also going to take the Vanos apart again to re-time the camshafts.

One final note: No leaks.

Why does it sound like a HONDA? Other than that car seems pretty damn cool

^^^ I don't really think it sounds like a Honda.... Sounds like a B30 thats revving 7k plus
Are you ever going to change out the Beyern wheels for something else? Those are definitely heavy-set

Wow, sounds awesome. Good job getting it running on first turn of the key. Pin down that hood, fix the minor issues and you are set!!!

Can we see the graphs to see your usable power.