BMW's galore!

[Mark]

Cheers.

Managed to finally wrap the struts ready to post off to Gaz on Monday. I was going to take them in person but the fuel cost would be the same as a courier and I won't have to sit on the M25.

[Mark]

Drove down to deepest, darkest Margate and picked this early e21 up yesterday.



Full history



Nice interior hidden away under nasty covers.



Had a giggle at this ''modified'' BMW on the way down too!



Sadly this pic doesn't show the tupperware bodykit it had stuck all over it. It was truly horrible.

Anyway, Parcelforce came and took my front struts to GAZ ten minutes ago. I might even get them on the car before Christmas?

[Speedle]

LOL @ the bmw!

some people have no taste! or common sense... or much of anything for that matter!

now that e21 on the otherhand is a lovely bit of kit!

[Mark]

Best thing was the guy thought we were taking pictures because of how cool it looked! It was an auto but didn't stop him trying to spin away from us. As you can tell, we were suitably immpressed! LOL

[benouzzz]

woo! this new green e21 is "vraiment JOLIE"

it's a Derrick car? ;D

[lolface]

Nov 23, 2009 16:46:52 GMT Mark said:

Best thing was the guy thought we were taking pictures because of how cool it looked!

Haha, these then end up on ebay with sales pitches like "OMG TURNS HEADS EVERYWHERE YOU GO LIEK" but that's only because it's so nasty everyone's like wtf is that

The new purchase seems pretty clean&straight what's the plan with it? ;D

[Mark]

I am only a temporary custodian to be honest. I was going to get it as a daily runabout but bought the blue one instead. I brokered the deal for someone over on the 2002 forum though.
I was going to leave the blue one stock and concentrate on the orange 323 but if I can find some Ronal alloys I might be tempted to change it a bit. I need a smaller steering wheel though as I have a disability and struggle getting my leg under the standard sized one.

Next job is a single light conversion followed by fitting the Gaz coilovers when they come back!

[kerrly]

wow, ive been thinking a lot about E21s as a next fun toy and thinking along the lines of period 70s gold/champagnes colours but having seen yours i want!! loving the bright orange and the fondamentals - rare as arent they!!!??.

single wiper also looks cool in a DTM style, i have one on my mk2 golf which i can park where i want an its cool being able to stop it in the middle of the screen.

dave

[inline8]

Isnt that a Lexus though

[Mark]

LOL - Lexus???!!

Kerrly - go for it while prices are rock bottom mate!

e21.ownforum.org/index.php

[Mark]

Well I must say GAZ have certainly been on the ball as my struts are already done and await payment! Only took them a day or so. All I have to do now is hand over a big wad of cash! I must admit, I've bought cars for far less but I guess it'll be worth it in the end.



I need to find somewhere that can also check the corner weights in order to make sure I get all the geometry right? Answers on a postcard please guys?

[Mark]

My car is featured in the January issue of Performance BMW Magazine in anyone's interested in taking a look?

[Mark]

[Mark]

Just bought a really nice leather back seat for £30 which means the leather interior totals £150 which is pretty good in my book! I'm thinking I might fit rear headrests too? I'm also picking up a rear cage at the weekend - hopefully! I'm planning to paint it orange to match the body colour? There's no diagonal either which means I can still fit and use the back seat. I've also managed to get single headlight front grills and am on the lookout for suitable headlights and brackets. I'm thinking maybe VW Golf or similar? Ideally, I want something that I can fit HID bulbs too?
My Alpina front spoiler is at the bodyshop being painted so will hopefully be fitted this side of Crimbo. I've also got a genuine Motorsport rear spoiler - same as the picture below - but I want to get it fitted to another bootlid so that I can run either with it or without whenever I choose. I'm going to start using it a bit less now the weather is bad but I've got another e21 as a daily instead. I was going to keep it standard but might have to lower it an inch or so...... and maybe some rims?....and a smaller steering wheel?

Motorsport rear spoiler


New ''winter'' car

[conan]

Car looks awesome mate - ill look out for it in the mag.

[Mark]

Cheers mate.

Well I will have soon made a little progress with the turbo set-up in as much as starting to strip / clean and refurb' where required.

Anyway, this is the kit I have as it stands at the moment.

I believe that the turbo itself is the same unit as was used on Porsche 944's so finding another, more up to date, example should be easy enough. Obviously I want to keep lag to a minimum and get maximum torque as opposed to outright power gains.



I just noticed something about the manifold... It appears to have a second mounting flange? Maybe for an alternative turbo? If so I bet its for garret T3 footprint! Makes life VERY easy if I cant find anyone to rebuild the original turbo, I can just pop a t3 footprint one on! Samco hoses and a slightly bigger / better intercooler will be fitted - eventually. What I don't want to do though, is start throwing loads of money at it. I want to keep in DIY (as much as possible) and done on a budget.

Eventually, I'd like a stand alone ignition / injection system although being such a basic set-up Mosselman are confident that the standard Motronic will be able to cope. I guess I could always have it chipped 'live' to get the most from it.

If anyone can offer me advice, stuff to read up on, etc etc. I would appreciate all the help I can get.

[lolface]

Ah yeah that's strange, I never noticed that!
this is the measurements for a t3 flange:


If it is, it will definately work but it's not ideal due to how far off to the side it is. It will hurt spool and the engine's volumetric efficiency, meaning it won't work as well as a tubular manifold with equal lengths, but it will work lol.

To start with you can run stock management and use an adjustable fuel pressure regulator that will increase pressure with boost, providing the extra fuel needed at boost.
I seem to remember these engines being fairly low compression ratio so you shouldn't have a problem getting 10 psi out of it provided you supply enough additional fuel needed.

The fuel pressure will need to be adjusted with a wideband o2 sensor so it's rich enough under boost to prevent melting/knock, then you'll have to live with the increase of fuelling everywhere off boost, which is the biggest disadvantage of running stock management with a turbo conversion.

Hope this helps!

PS - BTW slightly off topic lol, but how are your rear tyres coping with the drop with the mad toe/camber?
I've dropped mine a bit more and i'm fearing the worst

[Mark]

Thanks for the response.

I was thinking the same thing about the rising rate fuel pressure regulator. I also plan to run another fuel pump to aid the standard one. The injectors are from a 3.5 so should flow slightly better. Being a low boost set-up (8 or 9 psi) there shouldn't be that much of an increase in flow, or so I'm led to believe, which is why the Motronic can cope without too many issues. I'll post some more detailed pics of the Mosselman set-up as I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Mark

p.s

I'm in the process of getting / fitting coilovers and I plan to swap the rear subframe bushes and turn them upside down. This reduces the negative camber slightly. Hopefully, it'll make the transition to oversteer a little more progressive too. As things stand its a little snappy especially in the wet. I'm also using harder compound rubber than the usual Toyo and running Pirellis up front and Fulda rears

[lolface]

Yeah no worries!
You have to be a bit careful fitting bigger injectors, as it means you wont just be dumping in more fuel on power, you'll have more fuel everywhere - it kills economy .

Yeah the moronic may add a little more fuel in boost but I wouldn't count on it tbh, as the AFM door is pushed open at full throttle anyway, so any increase in manifold pressure after that won't make any difference to the position of the door and therefore fuelling.
I've never seen it working lol, but i'd assume it's designed to open all the way on full throttle as to not impede the the air flow too much when it really matters.

Yeah please do put more pics up it's all very interesting

have a look on here for a wideband setup:
14point7.com/

for just under a hundred notes you can have everything you need including screen, so you can set it up on the road yourself, and keep an eye on it

I'm not sure i get what you mean about the rear bushes though Do you mean the huge big mofo ones that bolt the beam to the chassis? (or am i thinking of a different axle lol)

[Mark]

I had similar thoughts to you about the AFM but then I found this on a site talking about doing the same sort of conversion as I have planned.


** I used an intercooler and blow through the air-flow-meter (AFM). It should be noted that the AFM is not a mass-flow measuring device, but a volume-flow measuring device. Therefore even with boost, the engines volume flow (at a given rpm) will be little affected and the AFM will open relative to engine rpm as before a turbo was installed. Hence the meter will not peg wide open early – as it would if installed in front of the turbo with the compressor drawing air through it. Also, the AFM is a flow restriction, and blowing through it (as I am doing) will be less of a performance hit. So as far as the engine is concerned, if I compensate for the increase fuel requirement due to boost only, the engine’s AFM (and look-up maps for what) should take care of the rest. And in practice, this seems to be the case (the engine runs nicely with no stumble, or back-firing…etc.)

To handle the increased fuel requirement under boost, I used larger injectors, a lower static fuel pressure, and a rising-rate fuel pressure regulator. I also use a second fuel pump in series with the pump in the gas tank to handle the increased fuel pressure requirement.**


One of the other issues I have is getting the downpipe to fit with the amount of space taken up by the servo as it's on the drivers side of the engine bay. The system I have was originally designed for an e30 and room is tight enough in those let alone an e21. I'm thinking I might need to use a remote servo mounted elsewhere or opt for no servo at all?