BMW Compact Build

Actually, you can use the LS1/T56 combo for Max Attack. There are no restrictions on manufacturer/driveline.

So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

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wvonkessler
Actually, you can use the LS1/T56 combo for Max Attack. There are no restrictions on manufacturer/driveline.

You have to have a car that's legal for use in the series that MaxAttack piggybacks off of. Rally America does not allow unrelated entity swaps (unless they've changed it in the last 2 months) for scoring purposes, but you would be allowed to run as long as the car passed safety inspections.

Our plan for the year was to run the MaxAttack events and if the car had the pace, shoot for running more of the RA schedule in 2010. If the car's not allowed to score points in any of the events, it makes this kind of pointless (ugggg).

Should I ever need to sell the car, having one that's useable in the most amount of places is a good thing...the rally market is already too small.

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2011 04:25PM by DaveK.

Yeah, but there is for Rally America which happens to be the sanctioning body for Max Attack.
Regardless, it's not going to happen.

RA doesn't. MaxAttack does. No skin off of my back either way. Keep buying those expensive engines. Just trying to help.

I was going to take the BMW to this hillclimb, but the damn thing broke. CORE is fun and all, but real roads are where it's at.



Oh...and for reference...holy f#$k (after loads and loads of seat time in the Compact this summer) my brain needs to be recalibrated for Evo driving.

Dave

You could have been a bit wider... Bummed we couldn't or didn't make it down. Heading out to pick up an engine in Golden now... There's a 325i with bad head gasket but new head for $1k on CL right now btw. OBD1 model too.

Time for the "broken stuff" post.

First up is the broken motor mount from a couple month's back. The mount on the left of the pic sheared off the top. I'm chalking it up to poor design. The mount has two metal pieces that 'float' in the urethane to isolate vibration better. The mount arm also was damaged, with the top of the other mount chewing a hole in the aluminum until the entire arm fell off the mount when I jumped it. Result of this mess was the throttle got pinned wide open after the motor shifted 2" forward.



Next up is the damage the car suffered its last time out. Not a good thing to see after all the clakety noises.



Valve cover & cams removed and we find the culprit:



Once the head was off the offending valve was confirmed to be not straight:



And the real kick in the gut:



1995 M3 motors have notoriously failure prone valve retainers, so those all need to be replaced. The head looks like its ok, but probably safest to take it to a machine shop, have it decked and the valve mating surfaces cleaned up.

So, torn on what to do now. My instinct tells me I need to pull the pan off and replace a piston but that's such a pain in the ass I might as well just pull the motor. If I'm going to go that far, it sorta seems dumb to stick stock parts back in when they've failed me. I've got no $$ set aside for any sort of engine build since I was hoping that by leaving things stock, I'd end up with greater reliability.

Seems like a bunch of work and the lazy part of me wants to just dremel the piston damage away and hope for the best, its not like I'm running boost thru the thing...

Dave

That valve looks like a Dr. Seuss horn...

Derik had his motor rebuilt, same 3.0 as you, and I think he replaced the pistons. The 3.0 ones were hard to find. I will ask if he saved the stock ones

Just button her back up. Just a rally car.

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phlat65
Derik had his motor rebuilt, same 3.0 as you, and I think he replaced the pistons. The 3.0 ones were hard to find. I will ask if he saved the stock ones

Good news on that front is that the buddy who helped me pull the head just went with new turbo pistons for his S50, so he's got 6 of them laying around that I can grab pretty cheap. He's also got a spare motor with ~175k on it that I think was for sale for $700, so I could just buy that and drop it in....and then rebuild my motor when I've got some $$ for better parts. Of course I'd still have the same weak retainers issue.

Dave

Dave. Didn't they upgrade the retainers like halfway through the model year?
If the walls are okay probably could just clean up the top of the piston and run it as is.
Maybe set the rev limiter a few hundred RPMs lower to keep that from happening. Caswell was saying that those engines are super sensitive to overrevving and bending valves. Like 10 RPM over and bam.

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DaveK

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phlat65
Derik had his motor rebuilt, same 3.0 as you, and I think he replaced the pistons. The 3.0 ones were hard to find. I will ask if he saved the stock ones

Good news on that front is that the buddy who helped me pull the head just went with new turbo pistons for his S50, so he's got 6 of them laying around that I can grab pretty cheap. He's also got a spare motor with ~175k on it that I think was for sale for $700, so I could just buy that and drop it in....and then rebuild my motor when I've got some $$ for better parts. Of course I'd still have the same weak retainers issue.

Dave

Of course it would be nice to settle on terms so one can think rationally about what is really the problem.
Retainers= "spring retainers" or the upper seat




Valve locks= split collets, keepers, whatever.


All of us who are long term Euro engine builders---or more precisely NORTHERN Euro---know the standard 3 groove KEEPERS are a problem.

And on some motors, the stock RETAINERS are not the strongest, but that the 3 groove VALVE LOCKS is a danger area...Only ever seen a slight bending of the cheesy stock retainers on my V4 revved past 7500

The GOOD way to do this is what those SOUTHERN Euro guys have chosen, because of course they are not staid boring responsible Lutherans, they simply beat the piss outta anything with a motor:



have you examined carefully the ID of the retainer?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

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john vanlandingham
have you examined carefully the ID of the retainer?

Nope, haven't done that. Am I looking for damage, or you want the ID measurement? Sort of assuming your point is that if the ID isn't damaged that it was a collet that caused the problem.

I can confirm that one of the split collets is missing...and the other one was sitting right next to the drain (you can see it there if you look closely).

Dave

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DaveK

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john vanlandingham
have you examined carefully the ID of the retainer?

Nope, haven't done that. Am I looking for damage, or you want the ID measurement? Sort of assuming your point is that if the ID isn't damaged that it was a collet that caused the problem.

I can confirm that one of the split collets is missing...and the other one was sitting right next to the drain (you can see it there if you look closely).

Dave

Yeah you want to look for fretting or galling or evidence that the locks have pulled down or thru the retainer. What I've seen on weak retainers is the bow upwards, and spring tension reduces. I've also seen on Swedish hot-rod stuff they use of aluminum retainers and the locks CAN pull thru.

The 3 groove things bottom against eachother and don't bite the valve--so the valve can rotate and the face keeps the seats clean and it doesn't develop hot spots.
What I've done is to bite each lock with some baby needle nose vise-grips and carefully kiss the flat side on a good clean grinding wheel--like for tool sharpening, not the grey stones you dress chisels and screwdrivers with.
just a touch like zing! and check that the assembled locks and valve and retainer is held tightly.

It COULD be that you just kissed a valve, one sloppy spring and with canted valves just the merest kiss will bend the valve and jam it, next rotation whacks it up ---and out of the compressed spring--THEN the collets fall off and the retainer goes flying and it all falls apart.

So we gotz to determin if the valve fell out first, or the contact occured first.

I'd trust your eyes more than forums of owners; owners are notoriously faddists and most everything on-line is 99% people repeating shit they have never seen much less touched....And having trouble understanding the difference between analysis and description.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.