Hit the tunnel running

It's amazing how quickly the dark nights have closed in on us. It's dark by 4pm and the temperature has dropped to 7 or below. But I haven't let that effect me too much. Yesterday I made a brilliant purchase from "Blocket" the swedish equivelant of ebay; Found four original BMW 16" wheels fitted with dubbed winter tyres which are in very good condition. All for about £150. 

I think I've mentioned it before but it's actually a legal requirement to have them on from the 1st of December until March 31st. See the official rules if you are interested (http://www.transportstyrelsen.se/en/road/Vehicles/winter-tyres/). 

There are so many fantastic sunny days over winter, a  little cold perhaps but with the right clothes it's breathtaking to get out in the fresh air! The winter tyres will hopefully prolong the season by quite a few weeks!

Actually easier to clean and better looking (?) than my original wheels

A nice thick tread plus dubs that are in pretty good condition. With the amount of distance I'll be travelling on them they'll last years!

I received the fuel pressure gauge a few weeks ago and it shows a pressure of 48 psi which is just about spot on. This week I got the AFR lambda bung welded into the exhaust pipe and received the AFR kit from prosportgauges today. Will get that installed by the weekend ready for adjustment. I also bought a new lambda sensor, not sure if it's necessary but I'd rather not have any question marks at this stage, all other sensors have been changed out!

It doesn't look like it but the bung is at about 10o off the horizontal as recommended.

See you after the weekend, have a good one ...

A little fault finding required

Hi again! Had a word with Peter about the lagging and decided that the only way to really check what's wrong is to add both a fuel pressure gauge and an Air Fuel ration gauge. I've ordered them from Amazon and E-bay so hopefully I'll get them in the next week or so. I'll have to add a boss to the exhaust pipe next to the current lambda sensor to take the second sensor for the AFR gauge. Should then be able to check what happens when foot goes heavily to the floor.

I'm also going to add an ABS sensor over the winter so the ECU gets a proper speed signal instead of the one from the diff sensor.

The weather is still pretty mild, hopefully 10oC and sunny over the weekend. It would be great to get a little closer to the problem before the season ends - start next season fresh and healthy! 

The tunnel is fast approaching!

Hi! Nice you could drop in again. The Swedish autumn has arrived, happened last Tuesday I think it was.Nothing happens slowly, pang the temperature drops 10 degrees over night. I managed to take a test drive down to my favourite café Rosenhill today. The gloves were on as well as ski goggles and woolly hat. Not resorted to the soft top just yet, hopefully I won't need it for a month or so.

Thursday the new belt tensioner arrived, not new exactly but one from E-bay. I also bought a shorter belt 1775mm (6PK1775) instead of 1795mm. Before bolting it in place I had to remove the edge around where the pulley bolts on.

The old and the new. I removed  some of the edge from the old one while in situ but it wasn't successful. Much easier using an angle grinder with it on the bench.

 Difficult to explain but as the pulley has been changed from the larger plastic original to a 36mm diameter metal one it sits in front of the metal edge instead of covering it - that's why the edge has to be removed!

Another workaround required drilling out the bolt hole that keeps the new pulley in place because I needed a longer left hand threaded bolt. Drilled it out to M10.  The problem is it's a right hand threaded bolt with a nyloc behind, but hopefully it will hold.

All pulley's in place. The belt hangs slightly off the back of the metal pulley so I'll keep an eye on it.

The shorter belt in place which has pulled the tensioner over a centimetre or so which keeps it nicely away from the part of  the belt coming down from the alternator. 

The small metal pulley Peter provided in the SC kit but I bought another on e-bay which is a 1.9D DW8 BELT TENSIONER IDLER PULLEY 575167 and they look exactly the same.

Once the belt was in place I left the bonnet off and pulled the pipe off the air filter so as much air as possible to get to the intake. Took it for a nice long warm up and then foot to the floor to see if the lag problem had gone....

.... Unfortunately it's still there, not all the time but enough not to be able to count on the acceleration when I need it. I can pull out to overtake and suddenly it holds back, I can hear the sound of the SC screaming but nothing happens for a few seconds. It's like it's starved of fuel. Then after a while it slowly picks up until suddenly if fly's off like the bat out of hell it should be. 

When it doesn't lag it's fantastic! The acceleration is awesome. 

A very frustrating situation. I've spent so much time and effort this year, the rev limiter problem prevented a good trip to Brands and Nüburgring also a dyno or two that didn't get the results I wanted. I feel I need to do the whole UK trip again as no one in Sweden has the knowledge that Peter at GKD has.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm at a loss!
  

A Beautiful Summer

... and it's actually still going! We'll be talking about this summer for years to come, just like the summer of 79 in the UK! If the universe can send us a summer like this every year I'll be very, very happy, in fact I'm sure we all will be.

I'v been really putting on the miles, all topless too! Soft top has been on just a couple of times all summer. I improved a problem I was having with lag while accelerating. It's not totally gone yet but Peter and I have some ideas how to fix it. The first issues were loose hoses, a couple of loose nuts and a cable to the throttle position sensor had become loose. Fuel consumption was down dramatically but improved just as dramatically and more once the fixes had been done. 270 miles on one fill up and still more in the tank. That's not taking it easy either! One last fix is to change the belt tensioner as the old one is loose which makes the pulley wobble. It seems when accelerating the wobble makes the pulley on the tensioner move enough so the belt hits itself (If that makes sense!). Here's a picture and film to explain it:

Hopefully a new tensioner will stop the pulley wobble and perhaps a slightly shorter belt will drag the tensioner over a little bit more.

I'll write again soon once the tensioner is in place. In the mean time have a great rest of the summer.

    

Accelerator cable snapped again (update)

3rd time it's happened now, a little inconvenient as it required a duel carriage way stop. As usual it had failed at the connection to the pedal. Tried to drag it by hand but there wasn't much left to get hold of.

Whipped the bonnet off and stuck the remaining cable out through the side. Easier to get hold of with a pair of pliers. I have a brand new BMW cable but before I go cutting it to length I'll have a think about a better long term solution.

I believe the problem was because the cable went through the bulkhead via the adjustable cable support tube through the hole in the pedal bracket and then into a lock-off nut. This solution meant that the slack in the cable was rubbing on the sides of the hole and after 5000 km or so it snapped.

I made another quick solution using the old cable (getting shorter and shorter) but this time I made another hole in the pedal bracket so the cable could be looped through the original hole (surrounded by a rubber grommet), back through the bracket and then into the lock-off nut. It means the cable is always tight with the bracket. Let's see if the theory holds.

I first used wire wool to reduce the exhaust sound level but that burnt away in 5 minutes. Rock wool was the next thing to try and it was great, especially for track days where it can last the hole day. Laurence kindly gave me a clump that I put in at Brands after getting black flagged and it was still working at least 500 km later. A good indication when the rock wool wore out was the baffle started rattling.

I really wanted something that would last even longer so had a search around the Internet and found something called Superwool which burns at 1300 oC, twice the temperature as rock wool. Looked on ebay and there it was. Because of postage it was easier to buy 3 loads of 5 sheets, each of which is 5mm thick and 500x350mm. (Superwool HT-1300'c High temp insulation material). 

A different consistency to rock wool. 

   

Half a sheet wraps nicely around the baffle and I put a couple of circles at the end of the baffle too. The idle was a little slow but the sound was way down. I'll see how it goes, perhaps I can take the circles away to reduce back pressure. 

UPDATE: To be honest the Superwool was absolutely useless! Ok not as bad as wire wool but compared with Rock wool it was a waste of the £30 I paid (plus £20 postage). The first attempt where I used half a sheet to wrap around in two or three layers and two disk shaped pieces I pushed in before the baffle failed within a few kilometres. This is what it looked like after a short drive in the country:

The sheet the baffle is laying on was the same size as the one wrapped around it. The small lump next to it is what's left! I'm not sure what could be wrong, temperature is supposed to be 1300 oC so I can only think that the heat and combined pressure destroyed it. The sound limit was way down but the back pressure was too much so the second time I tried without using the disks but back pressure was still to high and after a 80km drive there was nothing left at all.

What to do now? Unless someone comes up with a better idea I'm not going to use anything unless I'm on a track day, a long day out with Anette or putting it through an MOT test in which case I'll use Rock wool! 

Another thing, felt it at Brands and a couple of times since - clutch starting to slip. Hope it will last until winter but I’ll order one just in case.

Getting further with a small fix

Since I changed to the more powerful Walbro GSS 342 fuel pump the car has been running out of fuel before the empty tank indicator, this was because the pump is smaller and didn't reach as far down in the tank as the original. I tried to lower it but still not low enough. Peter gave me a great tip to solve it.

This is the original position of the rubber mounts, three of them. The idea is to reverse them so they sit on the outside of the blue support frame. This makes the pump sit way further down than before, about 3 or 4 cm. (Forgot to take a photo)

So far I've gone almost down to the white line after 214 miles (350 km) and that was hammering it a little too; so works a real treat.

I believe a problem is solved

After trying a long list of possible solutions to the rev limiter problem, none of which worked I finally checked the wiring again. The diff speed sensor definitely goes to the dash connector 3, that's why I get rpm and mph displayed in the instrument cluster and it also goes to pin 14 on the loom side of  the X20 connector. But when I took the rubber cover off  the engine side of the connector pin 14 wasn't connected at all, there wasn't even a wire crimp inserted in the hole. This meant there was no speed signal going to the ECU.

A number of people including Dave, John and Karim have suggested that it requires a speed signal from the ABS to the ECU on pin 9. As the Legend has no ABS sensors one could try and connect the diff sensor to pin 9 of the X20 to fool it into thinking there was an ABS signal.

To cut a long story short, that's what I did.

As a quick fix and try out I simply cut the wire (black/slate I think) which went to the X20 connector pin 14 and spliced it to the wire going to pin 9 instead.

Quick fix to save me having to remove  the scuttle - winter job!

X20 Connections
9 - BR/RT-WS/GR/GE (WS/GN) ABS SIGNAL DME-ABS / OIL TEMP>INST M3
14 - SW/WS DME<SPEEDO OUTPUT (M1.7.3 MSS50 M41)

The two test runs I've done so far I've run up to 6,500 many times without any problems at all. I'll continue to verify this over the next few days but it does look good! 

Another thing is the ODB II interface is now reporting mph which it didn't before, although the value is actually incorrect as the pulses from the diff sensor are fewer than from an ABS sensor (ODB shows 10mph when it should have shown about 40). Also the diagnostic error "No speed signal" has disapeared!

Now she fly's !!!

Another 5000 km on the clock!

... but it was well worth it! Home again after a fantastic trip. Sebastian, joined me on the leg to England and we shared driving all the way which worked out really well. We took it fairly easy but didn't stop, total time about 27 hours. 

Leaving Sebastian's apartment in Södertälje

In northern Germany for a P and fill up.

Just arrived at Mums/Grandmas house. Tired? Yes!

The weather was fantastic so we had the top down the whole way accept at night when it was a bit cold. A small issue with fuel pressure cropped up in Belgium but we managed to continue by avoiding heavy footed driving. Once in Kent I nipped over to Boughton Monchelsea so Peter could take a look. To cut a very long story short the last dyno test was a complete waste of time and Turbo Center had screwed up the fuel pressure as they didn't understand the setup. Also the Rising rate fuel regulator was missing a small inhibitor which was needed to limit pressure.

Richards Super Charged M44. 

Kevin taking "Gloria" for a quick spin around the Fleet countryside. Time to get one of your own Kev!

Stoneleigh Kit car show 2013. Black and White! Pauls Legend with the M3 motor. His IVA test was two days after!

This was at the end of the show, so everyone had gone home!

Ian a dyno specialist over at Rochester went through every aspect of the car. Not possible to do a full test because of the continuing rev limiter problem and wrong AFM values

Just arrived - lets hope nothing untoward happens today!

Laurance, James and Dave. Two four cylinder and two 6 cylinder M3 motors.The M3's were absolutely awesome, the power was incredible for such a light car.

James's black M44 (Time to upgrade James, have you persuaded Clare?) and Dave's M3

Peter doing some final fuel pressure checks.

Laurance ready to launch his M3. There wasn't much on the track that could beat the M3's. 125mph on the straight!

Out with Tony for a couple of hours tuition. Pity it rained a lot of the time and I, along with James were black flagged twice!

Forget using wire wool to solve sound issues, go straight for Rock wool it lasts 50 times longer.

It was a really great day. I didn't bother me I was black flagged and I didn't spend so much time on  the track. It was nice to meet up with the others, share some experiences and a laugh. Perhaps we can meet in Sweden next time!

I went to Boughton Monchelsea to what was my local pub 30-35 years ago. Everyone has moved on so I drank alone!

Neil came down to Nürburg on Friday evening with his motor cycle from Stockholm, took him 15 hours. My 10 hours from Kent was a breeze compared.

Wasn't a good day at the ring. Very wet track in the morning and only dried off for a couple of hours.

Queueing up at the start. Because it's classed as a public highway every type of vehicle can drive the circuit and at the same time! 

It's a very dangerous circuit for motor bikes when it's been raining. If you crash you have to pay not only for the damage to your vehicle but also any damage to the track, fencing, shrubbery plus costs for ambulance, doctor, track marshal etc. 

Having the Super Charger installed has definitely transformed the car, it's able to reach higher speeds much easily now. However it's not quite tuned properly and the Rev limiter problem has not been solved and kept coming in at about 5300 rpm. In 5th gear it was doing about 115mph but plenty more revs and power to go. Estimated 135mph or so if the SC can be fine tuned and the limiter problem solved. Peter at GKD has some more ideas I can try.

Unfortunately the power cable fell out of the camera so it only filmed up to about 3km out of 21!

Left Sunday morning at 5:30. Rained all the way through Germany. Stopped so Neil could warm up and I could rest my ars#. We were back in Stockholm at 1 am Monday - 20 hours later!

Test Drive before UK

I replaced the diff bolt with the high tensile 13,9 version which was 80mm in length instead of the 70mm used before. That way I could lock it off with a nyloc nut. Hopefully it won't happen again. 

Just to be on the safe side I decided to do a test drive yesterday. The family have a summer house about 300 km  south of here so I drove down bright and early. The trip down went very well, kept under 4000 revs, roughly 80 mph. One thing I did notice on the way down was that it started coughing just before the fuel gauge reached the red. A bit worried to start with, thinking it was something with the new engine configuration. Then I realised I had changed the fuel pump and it obviously didn't reach down in the tank as far as the old one. Managed to get to a garage and filled up with the new recommended Shell V-Power. Another thing I noticed was the fuel consumption at 80 mph was a lot worse than before, but hopefully it will be sorted out by Peter next week.

At 6 am it was quite nice, a bit cold but then went through ten minutes of rain but it blew over the top.

Further south the sun came out but it was still a  bit chilly with the top off.

Once down in Vimmerby spend the day with the rest of the gang cleaning up the garden and getting the house ready for spring. On the way home felt quite a lot of vibration in the rear off-side wheel. Couldn't see anything wrong and assumed it could be balance weights that had dropped off. Checking everywhere else I noticed the front near side wheel was a bit lose and found the hub nut a turn undone! The edges of the nut had not been pushed in to stop rotation! Long story short the vibration turned out to be the hub bearing. Strange really as I only put them in 2 years ago. I wonder if I put them in wrongly! Anyway will have to buy new ones tomorrow.

This is the little bugger I'll have to change again. I remember it wasn't that easy to press in or out bearings. At £60 one doesn't want to press them in incorrectly (I did that once before and there's no second chance!).

The fuel pump I removed and lowered it's position in the holder so hopefully it'll reach to most of the fuel in the tank. I'll try and get out on Wednesday for a long drive and see.

Also it was quite a cold evening and although the heater was on full blast there was a cold draft coming through the aluminium bulk head which basically killed off any heat being produced. I turned off all the lights in the cellar and had a working light in the foot wells. It was amazing how much light could be seen in the engine compartment. Blocked some of the unused bolt holes with bolts and used some kind of thick blanket underlay for the larger holes e.g. steering column and main wiring loom.

Wrapped around and pushed slightly into the holes and held in place by wire ties. Afterwards most of the light had gone.

Hopefully once the bearing is done, and a check of the other bolts done again we'll be ready for Thursdays long trip. I'll make sure I have a full tool kit just in case.

.... Bought a couple of new bearings from BMW, 600SEK each. Used the press at work again to remove the hub and press in the new bearing.

This is how it looks when the hub is pressed out, it leaves half the bearing behind. It's only to remove the locking ring and press out the rest of the bearing.

Heated up the hub and used a puller to drag off the remains of the bearing.

The new bearing ready to be pressed in. Make sure it goes in straight and even.

Last time it was quite difficult to get the locking ring in place so I may have over done it by pressing the bearing in too far. This time I took it really easy. Now the ring is in place the hub can be pressed in.

When pressing in the hub support it underneath or you'll push out the centre of the bearing which will mean you'll have to start all over again with a new bearing!

The final press. Once in the hub nut will keep it in place.

Put it all back and luckily it worked fine.Another thing that broke was the accelerator cable where it joins the pedal. This is the second time it's happened, even happened on Richards car so needs a little thought to improve  the design.

Soon England or bust

It's bit a bit of a rush to get the last minute jobs finished for the trip next Thursday. Last night I thought everything was ready, dash and dials, windscreen wipers and soft top back on, even managed to get the console finished although I'm not completely happy with it. Today was going to be the first Scania Road trip; out in the evening after work with other enthusiasts. The day started and finished with brilliant sunshine, a perfect day for a country outing in the Legend. On the way to work however the bolt holding the front of the diff to the frame bracket actually snapped half way along the thread leaving me with a tow home.

It was too late to get a new bolt (M12 70mm 1,5mm pitch) so will pick a couple up tomorrow morning. 

I tried to improve the air flow to the MAF as  it was tucked next to the battery with hardly any air getting to it. I ended up buying a tube and in-line filter and routed it down to a 45% pipe under the car. It really needs a log thin intake to scoop in as much air as possible but this will hopefully do for the time being.

It's a but tight with water bottle, battery etc but quite a neat solution from "Biltema" (some things they sell are good!)

It's very close to the exhaust manifold but hopefully not too close.

The console is okay but the 5mm foam I used was too thick, could have been 2mm or no foam at all. Also the heater control and reverse sensor display don't look good. Actually I could probably leave the heater in the ON position and hide the control behind, same as the reverse sensor, it's enough to have the beeping without the distance display.

I have a switch for turning on the ODB II connector, one for testing and showing if the oil level is too low and one to turn on an LED lamp in the passenger foot well.

Added a 12v outlet between the seats and also a dual USB on the side of  the console.

Checking around the internet a few weeks ago and stumbled on an air jack that runs on compressed air that a Chinese company were advertising. After a bit of negotiating the price including postage was pretty reasonable. Paid with Paypal! Two arrived (One for Neil) in just over a week with FedEx. I can honestly say it's brilliant! The max load is approx. 3000kg, so lifting up the kit car is a piece of cake and it's done in about 10 seconds.  

One just wheels it along, push it under the car so the three air bags are under something reasonably solid. The minimum height can be about 13,5cm and the Legend is about 17 at it's lowest point so there's no problem getting it underneath.  It's then just a matter of pressing the inflate button.

The max height is about 45 cm which is plenty to do most jobs. The main one is having  to change the tires on two cars twice a year!

I can get the wheel off and back on in a matter of minutes. To lower the car one simply pressed the deflate button and the car slowly drops down. The final air is sucked out by pressing another button. just like the wheel nut remover it's a brilliant tool and well worth getting!