BMW 326rb build thread...

[ctnewman]

I'll just keep updating this with pics (well, apparently, for now, i need to just link to the images... doh). I know you purists are going to hate on this... go ahead.

At the moment i still don't have the car, but i am going to need it very soon. I am just awaiting delivery... It's an 86 325e coupe.

I don't know much about BMW's. In fact I hate most euro cars. Especially VWs. No matter, it was a clean, available, RWD chassis. Plus, E30s are like the new civics. They are cheap, light, and have the added benefit of RWD.

I pulled it out of a skyline GTR that was recieving another RB26 that i sold the owner of the GTR. It has a few mods like splitfire coilpacks and a 3 puck clutch. It may have cams. We are not sure (note classic shocker pose, THIS IS A JOKE):






Now, the first step was to remove the oil pan. I could buy the RB25 pan, but i don't want to for the following reasons:

* it's 280 bucks
* the rb26 pan is cast aluminum, it's stronger and has better heat transfer.
* rb26 pan has sick baffling, as well as kickouts
* rb26 pan bolts to transmission. Rb25 does not
* rb25 pan needs to be modified to work with the rb26 oil pickup. A substantial amount of the rb25 windage tray needs to be removed to facilitate fitment.


This is what a stock unit looks like:


Step one was to remove the differential and all the bearing races. A good portion of the remaining casting was removed with a sawzall.


Then we took it to the mill. The remaining material was hogged out with a 2" 8 carbice face tool. This is a fringe benefit of my job...



The result:


Then i used a sander and dynafile to smooth the sharp edges and blend some of the steps from machining:


The result:



The final step will be to plug weld the two holes where the transaxle pierced the pan.

[drftmark]

is it just me or are there no pics.

[ctnewman]

yeah, i'm working on it...

i don't know what the problem is... they appear when i view the page sourse... perhaps my hosting is down...

[ctnewman]

ok, well, that's weird... use your imagination and put the pics with the text...

[weagle]

emo kids have all the fun

[mrmephistopheles]

nice...... hair...........???

[ctnewman]

iactually, i'm remarkably non-emo.

(don't they all say that?!)

[blackflag_Rms13]

Haha, well whatever the fuck you refer to yourself as

Cool project dude, you have to throw this project up on a Bimmer forum, make them flip their shit, muahahahaha...

[GSXRJJordan]

I want the machine shop... Dammit Santa...

[ctnewman]

Originally Posted by blackflag_Rms13

Haha, well whatever the fuck you refer to yourself as

Cool project dude, you have to throw this project up on a Bimmer forum, make them flip their shit, muahahahaha...

yeah, i'm in the process of signing up. getting on that site is absurd. First you need to do the saftey code. That's fine. Then you need to do a math problem. (you think i'm joking?) Then you need to get an email and reply to that. Even then, you can't post anything that has a picture or a link in it.

Christ. I originally wrote that post for that forum. That's why i added the tidbit about E30s being the new civic. I love rustling feathers.

Also for Xmas, i ordered myself this little guy:
(stck photo, gt35r )

[projectRDM]

Our forum needs that type of filtering, keep all the fucking kids out. But then, we'd only have like a dozen members.

Project sounds cool, keep us posted.

[MELLO*SOS]

Pictures of the actual car? What are your plans for the '26..

GL and please update the thread when you have more pics/news.

[smelly240]

eeew- es100s - throw those out :P

my virtual car would so rock some A048's

[surge s14]

car pics! plz

[wootwoot]

I'm just curious what you are doing for suspension and all that hoohaa.

[JesusFreakDrifter]

fcuk you stole my idea but with a 5 series. oh well i wish you the best of luck, it aint easy, at all.

[Ninjabread]

Looks like it's going to be a fun project man... do you still have that red elise?

[ctnewman]

Originally Posted by wootwoot

I'm just curious what you are doing for suspension and all that hoohaa.

Honestly, probably something shitty. Initially at least. The idea is to build this car, paint it, toss on some fender flares and wide rotas, then drive it to the carlisle car show and toss a FS sign on it. I got the motor for a little over 3000 bucks, so i don't think i can't make profit on the car.

Originally Posted by surge s14

car pics! plz

I picked up the car from rochester. I snapped a few pictures but i was so tired this AM i forgot to bring my camera to work. I will probably post them tonight.

Originally Posted by smelly240

eeew- es100s - throw those out :P

my virtual car would so rock some A048's

my elise has A048s.

Originally Posted by Matt89

Looks like it's going to be a fun project man... do you still have that red elise?

Here are some updates from yesterday:

Why buy roundstock for the plugs when you can just make it?

1.225" Round 6061 Aluminum cut from 4" square of Billet 6061 Aluminum on a wire EDM.








cutting the plug on a bandsaw:


plugs inserted... i don't trust myself enough to weld this (can't warp + oil infused) so i'm going to have a pro do it today.

[surge s14]

badass keep us posted on the awesome work

[ilia]

Cool! I've had 5 E30s now, so if you need some advice on anything E30 specific (wheel rates, roll moment location, suspension measurements, bla bla bla), PM me! Also check out www.realoem.com. It's got part numbers and diagrams.

I still think the hotness would be an SR swap into an E36 four door. I want it so!

[ctnewman]

This is what a 500 dollar BMW looks like. It's grey, not green. The sparco seat is not mine. It's grey, not green. There are a few small dents and a little bit of rust that I will take care of when i paint the car. Today I am removing the dash and all the underdash components. I am rewiring the car from the driver seat forward. Originally, I was going to keep a full interior. After examining the car, I've decided that I am probably going to do a gutted, or at least "semi gutted" interior. The fitment is going to be tight, but i took some basic measurements.

The frame rail width on the skyline and BMW is 27"
The distance from the firewall to the rear of the cross member/swaybar is ~8" on both cars
The distance from the firewall to the front of the cross member/swaybar is ~16" on both cars
This is the tight one: the Distance from the firewall to rad support on the GTR is 40", while the same distance on the E30 is 33". EEP.

However, the RB26 is 31" long, back of engine to front of crank pulley. The skyline radiator i have is 1.25 inches thick. This leaves 3/8 of clearance front and rear. Since the motor does not torque in this direction, I think it should be alright. If not, I can get a narrower rad and put it UNDER the rad support. (stock location is aft of it.)

The brake booster is definitely going to be a problem. To a lesser extent, so is the downpipe (damn LHD cars).

I've already stripped almost 100 lbs off of the chassis in the engine bay alone, and another 100 lbs+ off of the rb motor (PS,AC,Front dif, Twin turbos and cast manifolds)

This is my tentative plan for construction:

Strip Body
Mount Engine
Build Exhaust and IC plumbing
New brake booster or remote mount
Build/buy driveshaft
Remove engine and all components. Strip to roller.
Shave firewall and enginebay.
Body work, paint, wheels
Paint engine covers, replace timing belt, thermostat and water pump
Reinstall engine and all plumbing
Rewire front half of car. Gauges?
Install race buckets. Possible bolt in cage.
Tune.


Mods:
RB26
GT35R @ 18psi
38mm tial WG
FMIC
Tial 50mm BOV
PFC or AEM. Ew. $$$
Seats?
Cage?

[Slidin240Wayz]

Nice work. Keep it up. I love seeing this type of thread.

Carlos

[Ninjabread]

It's gonna be big pimpin man.

You need to make it look like:

*edit* sorry couldn't get the image to work...
http://www.m3e30.com/gallery/m3e30/t.../DSCF1404.html

[ilia]

Tube framing the front might help you with clearances. I've done it to a few of my cars, and it's worked great. Check out these pictures of a car by matthes racing:

[DoriftoPnoy]

i like the e30 generation. 2 of my homies have one. they just tell me how they are notorious for understeer. but other than that, there's nothing like dtm powuh.

hmmm by any chance is that wack forum you're talkin about revlimited? i wouldnt kno but that's where my 2 homie's go for their e30 needs and what not.

[ilia]

E30s are actually notorious for oversteer, your friends may not know much about their cars if they're telling you they're known for understeer. The front suspension geometry is reasonably grippy as far as road cars go, but the rear end has a semi trailing arm set up with bad camber and toe curves, and a bad wheel rate. It's also not particularly rigid.

The rear end is all over the place all the time... some people think it's "fun", but it's definitely not the fast way around a track.

[onefst240]

Newman you are the man. You come across so much stuff. First u had a older sti then u picked up a fastback made it rhd and put a rb26dett in it. THen u made it single turbo with a huge turbo. Then parted the motor out, sold the shell... Got a newer sti puta cage and such in it then got teh lotus turboed it then sold the turbo. You even got an interveiw in canada about your cars. Then ur starting this rb bmw project. I wish i were u lol. Hope to cruise with ya this summer.

[ctnewman]

xposting......

Originally Posted by newman

Alright. Another update. The chassis will be fine. Christ, I don't want to spend 1500 bucks on a car that i'm going to be cutting the transmission tunnel out of anyway (more on that later).

First off: the oil pan.

I used a roll form 1" NPT tap. This tap actually requires a larger hole because it actually forms the material vs cutting it. Since my holes were slightly large as it were, this worked out well. I purchased two 1" NPT socket head pipe plugs in t-356 aluminum. (the same material the pan is made from). I then coated the plugs in high temp, oil reisitant epoxy and threaded them into the holes. I tightened them with a 1/2" breaker bar. Since both items are of the same material, both will exhibit similar heat expansion.

Problem solved.

The pan with the plugs installed:


The pan on the engine:


Next up, the body rot.

There appear to be four locations. They all seem like relatively easy fixes. Just need to cut out the bad parts and weld in new metal. I have acces to both metal and welders, should not be a big problem. The only portion of the rot the is structural is on the strut tower, shown here:



Here is the rust in the battery tray:



Here is the rust under the carpet:



I am not a body guy, but the rest of the car is pretty clean. Quite frankly, since no mater what shell i get i am painting, I don't see the point in spending another 500+ dollars when i can simply fix up the minor problems with this one... A week of diy chassis work > spending $500 that can be put toward management.

We pulled the dash out and the rest of the stuff from the enginebay. I will say this, the way this fucking car is put together is retarded. The wiring is absurd. Any Jap car i've worked on of the same era has always been much more organized and well-thought-out. Now i can have a better reason to hate on euros...

Looks pretty clean to me... aside from all the grease.




Now here are the pictures of things to come...



Don't get your hopes up, what we've done here is simply set the engine on the x-member and support it with a jack (yay for strong cast oil pan). The front of the motor is at the proper height. The rear of the engine will need to come up about 1/2". The shifter sits about 1.5" back from the center of the stock hole... Close enough for me.

More pictures:

[ctnewman]

contined....

Originally Posted by newman

Hood still clears:


Don's seal of approval:


1/2 of the brains of the operation:


Plenty of room for the GT35R. You can see the chassis mount and the engine mount. This is very similar to how an RB mounts in a 240. Making custom mounts is going to be simple. Probably going to use solid mounts.


Christ, there's even plenty of room over here for another one. :snky: jk.


Well, i don't have a picture of it, but there is no way in hell that the downpipe is going to clear the steering shaft. Also, that's not the side of the car exhaust is meant to go down. The solution? Custom transmission tunnel/exhaust passage.

The rb26 transmission is definitely taller than the OEM unit, so the tunnel will need to be modified for that alone, well, we are also going to bring it up extra high across the firewall allowing us to route the exhaust over the transmission and down onto the right side of the car. We made a rough mockup of what this will look like with a piece of cardboard. You can imagine the downpipe on a topmount turbo going up and over the valve cover, over the transmission and out the rear of the car.



From the inside, the modified tunnel should fit behind the dash where the heating unit used to reside:


For mounting the IC, I am thinking about getting this body kit from BMPdesigns:




the next step is going to be to just clean everything up, remove the seats and carpets and power wash it. Then I am going to california until the 9th, so work will resume then. After i get back, I hope to have the motor mounts done in a week.

That's all for now. Any questions?

[Edgar @ Swapped]

Ive heard of this mans work. Mad props!

EMO? I don't get it. STFU!!!

This shit looks like it would be fun to drive. For a bit there I was thinking of working on a E30 325i with a nice SR but that would take alot of work.
Man cant wait to see it done.