MadaboutKitcars

I didn't quite make my 'before Chrismas' target but what's a couple of days between forum members.

Alive at last. But will it be on the road this summer......................

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marlinbuild/6582405957/

Nigel

Well done that man. Great feeling when it first starts. Nice exhaust noise. It may have to be a teency weency bit quieter for the IVA though...

Robin

Thanks Robin.

It only has half an exhaust at the moment. The rest is to follow.

(Prior to the IVA man getting his hands on it...................)

N.

Yeah, great progress, Nigel.
That engine sounds good and strong.

Now on with the body work

awesome well done

Hi Nigel

Well done getting it going. M50 is the way to go!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you planning on keeping the Cats?
My understanding is they are not necessary, which means you can design your remaining system without them. This has 3 big advantages, and one smaller one: you gain 10BHP at the wheels for free, you save the ground clearance - very significant, and you'll never have to replace a failed one at considerable expense. You should improve fuel economy marginally too.

Brrrrrruuuuuuuummmmmmm!!!!

Mike,

In the short term I'm going to keep the cat. I have struggled to find any definitive statement on whether I need them or not.

I've got a 1994 engine. I've seen some say that cats are not needed until after 1995 and BMW started to fit them for the UK market ahead of the UK law changes and I've also seen commets to suggest they are needed after 1992. I've also seen a thread on this forum that essentially says that the test stations don't seem to know the rules so it depends who you get..........

My solution is a bit pragmatic at this stage. Using the existing manifold and BMW front section hooked up to some Jetex back boxes seemed an inexpensive and easy option to get the car on the road. (Thanks Peterux). The cats will help with the emmissions side of things and I can think about planning a higher performance exhaust further down the line, when maybe the cat / emmissions requirements will be clearer. (or is that just wishful thinking...............!!)

Not sure on the IVA, but the SVA cross over with cat requirements was around March/April 1993. My donor car had a cat Rover 220 Turbo and was a 1993 K Feb. So beat it by two/three months. Passed without cat fine. Also has old style emmissions as well.

Another Milestone

Eight months after getting the engine running, the car's done a circuit of the local neibourghood for the first time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marlinbuild/7901499112/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marlinbuild/7901512594/in/photostream

All seems good apart from the clutch. Very fierce with an extremely low biting point. But more importantly, nothing fell off..................

"is that the actual stopping distance" - cheeky bugger...

Well done - sounds and looks great.

Well done Nigel, that's great progress since Christmas!

You might just need to bleed your clutch again now that you have driven the car. Any air bubbles might have 'jiggled' themselves to the top of the slave cylinder.
Worth a try before you change anything else?

...peter

Nigel

Well done - the first drive is a real boost.

I found my clutch was far too heavy, and not much pedal movement either - less than half way down for full clutch. In fact I think I probably ruined the slave cylinder by over pressing it. The solution is fairly simple - connect the master cylinder closer to the pedal fulcrum. Marlin had drilled two holes in mine, so I changed the connection from one at 80mm from the pivot, to the one at 50mm, and it transformed the pedal feel, and travel.
I had to adjust the position of my master cylinder though, to cope with the different throw position. Works great now.

Congratulations Nigel, sounds very nice. Decided on colour yet ?

Mike,

I've done that already after seeing your post (I think) previously. I'm going to try bleeding it again using some thin silicone tube and the good old fashion "Open nipple. Down. Stop. Close nipple. Up. Stop. Open Nipple. Down etc. etc." I've yet to find a decent Easy Bleed (tragic misnomer........!!) solution. Failing that, I think I've got a large bore master cylinder and I think it may be a mismatch to the slave.

And the colour Dennis. It's a very dark (almost black except in good light) metallic BRG. It's a Moto Guzzi colour called Verde Inglese. It looks very nice with the dark beige leather trim.

Are you using the donor master cylinder and slave cylinder? I had to buy a new BMW master cylinder, but then had the same experience as you. After only a few uses I had clutch fluid dripping out of my bell housing. Not sure whether the slave cylinder had failed through not being used for 5 years, or whether I had over stroked it.
I bought a new slave cylinder, change the master cylinder fixing to the 50mm hole on the clutch pedal. And just like you've experienced, I found it difficult to bleed the clutch system, and resorted to the old tried and tested system. Once bled, my clutch now feels 'normal'. So much so that I abandoned my plan to copy Simon Gregory's clutch pedal assistor spring that he imported from his E39 5 series donor.

I guess what I'm saying is stick with what you have done and it should come right if mine is anything to go by.

I finally got the clutch sorted out at the weekend. The lack of pedal travel and the low biting point is a thing of the past.

I had used a 0.75" Girling master cylinder and heeding the warning of others about the clutch being really fierce, had connected the push rod to the lower hole on the clutch pedal (nearer the pedal pivot point). I had also packed the lower mounting lug of the master cylinder so that it catered for the resulting angular displacement of the push rod.

I now believe it wasn't packed enough and that the master cylinder was binding resulting in reduced travel. I also think that the pushrod was too short so that with the clutch engaged, the pedal was already fairly low.

So I have now (removed the pedal box..........again ) reconnected the pushrod to the top hole in the pedal, put a much longer clevis on the pushrod (42mm), removed the packing from under the master cylinder mounting lug, and now, it's all hunky dory. It's a bit heavy (but so is a colleagues Z3) and the biting point is around half travel, so I'm a happy man!!

So for an E36 variant, a 0.75" master cylinder and the top hole on the pedal works just fine.

Hi Nigel,
glad you got it sorted

What's next, IVA??

...peter

Great stuff Nigel! We have our engine running, but needs a wee bit more fettling and the brake and clutch fluid in and bled before we can scare the neighbours with ours, Hopefully nothing will fall of ours when it goes for its maiden drive!!

Rob

Still a bit to do yet. Things have been a bit slow over the last couple of months.

But I've still got this crazy committment made at the Prescott Hill Climb last July, and after too many glasses of wine , to bring my Marlin next year!!

Maybe I should have reserved the right to bring it on a trailer................