the build

Well after the disastrous Rockingham event where the head gasket blew on the car, and I was unable to start either of the races, the decision was made to change the engine (and not rebuild the existing one) for a 328 engine, this should give a good power increase, as std from the factory they output 190bhp, thats 50bhp more than the M44 engine that was in the car so it could compete in class D.

So what items need to be changed, the cheap way would be just to put in the new engine (6 cylinders) and leave all the other stuff the same, but with these engines you can convert the inlet manifolds to run the earlier type (releasing about 20hp) then with the lightened flywheel and some under drive pulleys the power should be up to about 215bhp.

E46 330 front brakesNow I could keep the std braked that were on the 318is when it came from the factory, these are up to the job as they are the same that is fitted as standard to the 328, but I have gone for an upgrade and procured some E46 330 brakes for the front and some E46 325 brakes for the rear of the car, these should give a 68%/32% brake distribution, but the ABS still will not be working, mainly due to faulty sensors on the car.

Also with the car no longer having the 318 M44 engine in, and getting a 328 M52 engine, the rear drive differential can now be a limited slip, so with this in mind, I have procured a medium case diff, that has a LSD unit inside, with a view to seeing how that improves the cars ability to get the power down when coming out of tight corners.

All we have to do now is put the car back together in time for the next race in less than 2 weeks.

Well today was the time to say if I had a working car or not. After the last race of last year the race car has been parked up, and not moved, the battery removed and put on a slow charge to keep it alive. Today was the day that the battery got reunited with the car and I tried to start the car, first mistake was I forgot there was still the immobiliser on the car, so had to turn that off, then on the first try the car turned over (I had removed the connector to the coil pack to ensure it turned over before I attempted to start the engine) Once the car had been turned over and no issues were seen, I connected up the coil pack lead, and the car started on the first go. It actually started a lot easier than when we were at Thruxton, I guess this is to do with me taping up the two large holes in the inlet tube. I have located one of the samco hoses on ebay that was too good to miss to replace this pipe, and as they have a lifetime guarantee then in the long run it should be cheaper than just getting a replacement BMW part.

Also whilst it was not raining (at present it does seem to be raining a lot) I took the opportunity to change out the water pump, thermostat, change the oil, and fit a new ancillary belt. Another change I thought I would do is replace the engine mounts, the ones that are in there are 2 years old, and have been subject to a lot of abuse with the old engine spouting oil from an unknown location, and then during a race, they do get a little more harshly treated than if they were on a standard road car, and for the piece of mind, and the price of the new mounts it was a no brainer.

The next item is the tidying up of the wiring (again, it feels like this is never ending) I want to replace a couple of original BMW connectors with some aftermarket ones, this will allow me to shorten the cable length at the same time, but this will have to wait till we have some dryer weather.

Well as we are now well into 2011, I thought I better start to do some work on the car, I started off by getting the fire extinguisher serviced (as it was 2 years old, and they need a service every 2 years). At the same time I also bought a new battery as the old one had a few issues in 2010 when I left the alternator cable off at one race, this caused the battery to go very flat.

So the weekend was here, and I thought I would take off the rear brake lines to attempt for the forth time to get them converted to braided hoses (I keep getting lines that are too short, or not the correct fitting), but with the amount of rain falling I did not feel like lying on my back under the car in the wet, so I went to the local GSF shop and purchased a few parts required for a full service.

• Oil filter
• Fuel filter
• Spark plugs
• Thermostat
• Water pump
• Exhaust gasket
• New belt

The plan was to do the service on sunday the day after the awards ceremony for 2010, but as I did not have the oil with me, that was forgotten about.

What I did do though was remove all the graphics, and stickers that were on the car for the last 2 years, as this coming year we are going to have a different look. Some stickers came off with a little heat with no issues, but others (that shall remain nameless) were a right pain, and did not want to come off at all.

After getting all the stickers off, I thought I would start the car, its not been run since november. When I opened the bonnet though I noticed that the air intake pipe that goes from the air filter to the throttle body was slightly broken, this could of been attributing to the starting issue that I was experiencing at Thruxton in 2010. So we now have another job to do, I have the new hose that I got over winter from a friend that was breaking there car, but just have to find it now, and fit it.

During the first race at Thruxton in 2010, my car and that of another competitors got a little close, ok they tried to go round the outside by pushing me to the inside of 'Noble' so what was left was a dented door, rear quarter panel, and all they got was a little wing damage, and the indicator lens broke.
Whilst the picture does not show the full state of the damage, but the rear quarter panel near the sticker is pushed in and the edge is pushed to the door, the sill has a small dent (that will probably never come out), but the most painful is the dent in the door (highlighted by the red paint). The tyre marks were just a mark, and with a little polish should come off without harming the paint underneath.
I thought about having a go myself, but just visioned needing to get the door resprayed, and the quarter replaced if I touched it, so I thought I would try one of the many dent removal companies that advertise the ability to repair dents without needing paint. As the one on the door had not broken the paint (the other dents had) this one was my main concern to get back into shape. After a couple of calls I got some estimates to fix the damage, and instructed one company Dent fix to come out and fix the dent. It was harder for them to do than expected as they did not realise it was aluminium doors (they are apparently easier to dent, but harder to straighten, as it takes more force to push them back to shape). After about 30 minutes of working on the door it was nice and smooth again, the rear quarter was also pushed back into shape as much as it could be (due to it being on a edge it could not be pulled back totally due to the inner constraints of the panel)

I found out that supersprint make a race exhaust for the 318is, so I thought I would get one, this was the easy part, the UK distributer was stating that they were not available in the UK, so I went to the italian makers direct and that told me that they had them in stock, but I had to order through the UK distributer.

I managed to get the UK distributer to cooperate, and 3 weeks after the order, they informed me that it had arrived and was waiting to be dispatched (this is a 2 part exhaust)

I received the back box today, but the connector pipe is MIC (Missing in courier) so as all the offices are closed over the weekend, I am going to have to wait till monday to see whats happening.

I installed the new intake today with the help of a reducer tube that I brought from http://siliconhoses.co.uk they managed to deliver it next day (even if I ordered it on the friday). I needed a conversion from the 80mm original air intake size to the 70mm diameter of the 318is maf intake tube. They had the 70-80 reducer on the shelf, and it was the correct length so I have not had to make more joins, or cut anything down. The new air intake had a hole for the temperature sensor also, so I pulled out the original sensor from the old air box. When I took the old paper filter out I noticed that there was glass in my air box, this must of been sucked in at croft when my intake tube came loose from the bumper and was rubbing against the floor.

Here is another picture with the new intake fitted. It sits behind the headlight so it can get the cooler air from here and not use the warm air thats in the engine bay (or so I have been told)

I have been running for most of last year and so far this year something thats known as a fogged air box, this is where the air box internals are removed, and the air intake pipe is repositioned so it gets cool air from the front of the car, I have been looking around for other options to try, and noticed something called a 'gruppe m' which is supposed to give you 5-7bhp gain in power, but these are a lot of money, so I dropped on a second hand replica the other day, and will try to get this to fit, its not exactly the correct model for my car, but I am sure it can be made to work.

With the significant other being out of the country for the weekend, I took the opportunity to fit the new clutch and flywheel that I had since January.

Note: The old flywheel was about 17kg, the new single mass one is 6.5kg so a weight saving of just over 10kg.

As I had a spare engine, I swapped the entire engine, gearbox as one from the car, this seamed the easier solution, as I could put the new flywheel and clutch on the spare engine, in my own time, then rent a engine crane to lift out the whole engine, and I would not have to play with lots of extension bars to get to the bolts that are on the top of the engine (and a pain to get to)

I started the transplant at 10:00 in the morning, and proceeded to remove the front end of the car (makes access very easy) with the front of the car removed, I proceeded to undo the propshaft, and gear linkage, then it was time to remove all the cable connectors, water supply, and the fuel hoses (I noticed that I could not reuse the fuel clips due to there design, so I would need new ones), at 13:30 I had the old engine and gearbox removed from the car, all that was left to do now was put the new one back in.

Before I could put in the spare engine, I needed to transfer some parts from the old engine to the new one, items that were cut when the spare engine was removed like the water pipes, and fuel pipes.

I had also got a spare rocker cover painted in white, but took the decision to put back on the standard one, the intake manifold is painted gloss white though.

Once I had the new clips that I was missing (these were purchased on sunday morning) I proceeded to get the engine ready to start by turning over the crank with a 22mm socket with the plugs removed (to ensure the engine would turn over) then I proceeded to connect up the battery, but it did not start (flat battery) so I got the charger out, and charged the battery, then it was turned over with the plugs disconnected (just to ensure we have oil pressure and no leaks that I could see). Once I was happy, I connected the coil pack and the car started first time, all was well and a little trial (about 10 foot drive forward, and then reverse, to test it would move) and then to start the clean up (that could take just as long as it took to swap engines, as I got very messy changing the engine)

With the season starting next weekend (17th April) at brands hatch, and there was a couple of jobs still outstanding on the car that needed to be sorted.

• Replace brake pads all round
• Remove the weight thats in the front and rear bumper carriers
• Refit the front wheel arch liners (to stop stones and debris going into the area behind the front wings.)
• Simple service items like changing filters, and checking oil levels
• Replace the brake fluid
• Put on the new doors (they still can be lightened in the future)
• Apply the stickers to the new doors and remove ones that are not this years sponsors.

The weight loss from the bumper carriers, was about 3-4kg when I removed the ends of the carriers, and got a new drill to cut out a lot of the material from them. I got told I can get them lighter if I use some of the alloy carriers that were used on early cars, but these are difficult to get hold of.

Next was to put on the new doors, that have been sprayed by Gary at 'the vehicle repair center' (http://www.vehiclerepaircenter.co.uk) and his company has joined as a sponsor of the bodywork this year, the photo does not look good as the rest of the car was so dirty, so that means a cleaning session is on the way, so out with the snow foam.

Still have the stickers to put onto the new doors, and as the championship has some new sponsors, a couple of existing ones needed to be removed, also we have a new regulation on the stickers, in that our surnames are to be on the front windscreen by the kumho windscreen sticker.

With only 2 weeks left till the first race of 2010, and there still being jobs that are needed on the car like

• Alignment
• Finish off the rear trailing arm bush (the one with the snapped bolt in)
• Lighten the car as much as I can
• Fit new clutch
• Tidy up the electrics and attempt to put on a coil on plug kit
• Locate a new supplier for the tow van, as last years supplier has none this year

As the above list keeps growing, some items are going to have to be delayed, like the clutch, as it should last for the first race at Brands Hatch.

Other items are not in my power to do like the alignment and removing the snapped bolt, so the car is going to get transported to BM Sport where Jags is used to snapped bolts, as he does it himself on a regular bases.

From what I could lighten I started this weekend on the bumper supports, there are fibreglass mounting structures behind the front and rear bumpers that can be reduced in weight, by drilling circular holes in them (had to buy a hole cutter drill bit) and you can also remove the ends of the bars, all aids to save about 2.5kg's per end of the car. The only problem that I encountered was after drilling about 7 holes, my drill ran out of charge, no problem you may think, but when I put the battery back on charge, it would not charge, so I can not finish the holes in the bumpers, although I did get the grinder out with a cutting wheel on and chopped off the outermost parts of the bumper support, and so far (not finished) have removed about 2kg of weight from the front bumper.

The electrics are waiting on a connector block to be sent from the suppliers.

The tow van has been sorted and I should be renting the same van for the coming season, so at least one thing has been done.