Bimmerworld (www.bimmerworld.com) is providing technical support throughout the entire car rebuild. For the engine specifically, I'll be sourcing additional "race" components, fuel system components, and engine management electronics through them. Bimmerworld is fielding 3 cars in the 2007 Speed World Challenge Touring Car championship. Information on the team can be found on their website: www.bimmerworldracing.com
VAC Motorsports (www.vacmotorsports.com) will be sourced for all the engine internals and the oil system.
Metric Mechanic (www.metricmechanic.com) initially built the cylinder head as a high performance street head. It's now undergoing flowbench testing and additional porting to develope more airflow. More on this later.
Machine work on the block will be handled locally. I will be doing all of the assembly work myself.
The engine is out of my 330Ci, and it's getting torn down to the block for the complete rebuild.
Is there something wrong with the engine? Nope. I just want more power without compromised reliability. When I approached numerous engine builders with my goals for the M54B30, they all said it couldn't be done without going into the bottom end. So heeding their advice, I'm going to use the best parts available to create a bulletproof bottom end.
The entire build process will be documented in detail on My330i.com in the "General Forum" (www.my330.com) Updates and pictures will be added here as the project progresses.
There was NOTHING wrong with it when I took it out of the car. I was tempted to try using it for the next step of my project, but decided to do it right and build the engine.
FYI, the last time the car was seriously driven was in September when I ran a 12.8 second 1/4mile with it. Since then the car has been in storage, or taken out for grocery runs. LOL
Actually, I have 4 nitrous bottles, but nitrous isn't the topic here. The removal of the tire well did have something directly to do with the engine though...
I'm assuming the reason you'd need a larger bore is to reduce the amount of power needed to move the crank? Someone explained this to me before... is this right?
I'm assuming the reason you'd need a larger bore is to reduce the amount of power needed to move the crank? Someone explained this to me before... is this right?
The bore I listed was what would be needed with the 94mm crank to equal the 3.3l displacement you guessed at. You could run the engine with the stock bore no problem.
You're drawing is correct, but it's hard to quantify with our engine. The best way to prove the theory is to have 2 engines with different deck heights to try the same crank with different rod lengths. Longer rod lengths reduce the rod angle seen by the piston. That said, I've got to believe that BMW is doing something right with the design of the M54, as they garnered "Engine of the year" 5 years in a row with the S54. I'm sticking with the stock bottom end design and upgrading the components used.
Since you are looking at the bottom end, look at the oil pump. The oil pump shaft on the 330 will break off. This is because the original design is terrible. There are two options that work. Get an upgraded oil pump from TC Kline or get the BMW Motorsport parts. I suggest the TC Kline pump as it's the most cost effective. I tried an alternate oil pump shaft that had a woodruff key and it worked for a while. After about 6 races I checked it and found out that the key was about to shear off. Luckily, TC just came out with his new shaft and it was the answer. After that, I ran 2 yrs with the same pump and never had a problem. I now have two 330 engines with the BMW Motorsport parts and they work but are a bit overkill for a low revving 330.
The only other things I can think of are overheating and rod bolts. Pretty much, this is a function of someone driving the car when you start to lose coolant or they over rev the engine (by missing a downshift). With the stock bottom end, if you zing it to about 10500rpm, it usually shoots out a couple of rods. As for overheating, even if you use studs, it'll still blow the head gasket and pull the threads out of the block. I've fixed enough of thees motors out of driver error and have seen 90% of the ways to destroy these motors.
Thank you very much for the feedback. I've purchased VAC Motorsports' oilpump upgrade kit, was it the VAC piece that you found didn't work? If so, I'll talk to someone about the Motorsport peice.
With regard to the rods...I'll have more to share shortly.
Yep. That is kinda scary. This is a good thread. This and the Crevier BMW Race Car thread are pretty-much the only intereting things on this forum. Good luck with whatever the hell you are going to do.
Good to see that another E46 owner has the balls to work on his own car. I just can't understand why people would take their car to a shop and let all the mechanics have the fun. Keep us updated.
That's not my website, it's Marvelphx's. I've been getting a few people lately telling me that the site is down, but every time I check it's up. Try this:
I'm looking to get around 280 hp on pump fuel, which isn't very far from where I was with the stock head and bottom end. On race fuel, I'm aiming for S54 type #s.
I'll have the redline set at 8000 RPM, although I'm not likely to make power all the way up there with the cams that I have. This is NOT recommended for a stock bottom end. Anything above 8k and I'll have to get a new dash...which for those that know Stack equipment isn't cheap. If I do decide to change the dash again, I'll probably go with a Motec ADL.
2 simple questions, at least they should be, what is the torq spec for the oil pump nut? And where is a good place to mount a oil pressure sending unit.
With the oil pump nut, there IS a bit of a problem torquing it to "spec". You see it's a reverse thread, and torque wrenches are NOT supposed to be used that way. If you want to properly torque this nut, you need a reverse thread torque wrench...which as far as I know is a specialty item that will cost you big bucks. Not worth it for one nut in my opinion. Most people that take and interest in "fixing" this issue usually weld the nut on or safety wire it. From people that I have talked to about a "torque" spec, everyone seems to go by feel on this, then weld/safetywire the nut.
There is a pressure sensor mounted to the top of the oil distribution block right behind the oil filter. Bimmerworld has a little extension block that attaches to this point and provides ports for stock sensor and a secondary sensor that you could use with a guage. I've got one of these blocks at the shop...but I don't have any pictures of it....
Thought I'd post some pictures of product I've recieved for the engine over the past few months.
Innovate LM-1 and LC-1 wideband O2 logging setup to be mounted before the cats:
The LC-1 will monitor the second bank of 3 cylinders and be logged by the LM-1. More sensors are being used, but for now I thought I'd show what I'd recommend to tune AFR on an M54 properly.
This is more of a "race" peice than anything else:
For those unfamiliar with what it is, it replaces the entire oil filter and distribution assembly on the stock engine and allows you to mount your own external filter assembly, oil cooler, and multiple oil sensors. More pictures:
More of the "race" oil system kit from VAC Motorsports:
The cooler is nearly the same size as the radiator on most compact cars these days. The red cylinder next to the oil cooler is a Peterson inline oil filter assembly.
A cool picture of the oil cooler:
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