'73 3.0CS - M88 Jerez Schwarz build

[nosmonkey]

A few shots from Bespoke show, great turn out and came away with the People's Choice award!

 

[nosmonkey]

This is always an exciting and inspiring blog to follow; congratulations on finally getting the vehicle on the road!

I think your attention to detail - an all forms - had you prepared for the two unexpected issues that occurred. Relieved to read you were able to recover quickly without damage to the vehicle.

The throttle pull video sounds great.. reminds me of my '88 M5. All I can say is wait until you hit 6000 rpm with that motor.


Slightly off-topic question: what model is the Audi next to your vehicle in two photos on the previous post? I don't know much about Audi, but the car caught my attention.

Its an Audi 100LS

 

[nosmonkey]

So lately I've been having an odd issue with the car driving absolutely great, no smoke or leaks but using a LOT of oil. Probably 500ml every 250 miles. After about 600 miles of driving every 100 miles or so was getting a james bond esque smoke screen for a few seconds, driving back yesterday from storage to look into it, happened twice in the space of 20 miles. No smoke on start up and very random smoke didn't have me thinking it was anything major although when I pulled the breather pipe off whilst running I was met with oil spitting everywhere and a lot of pressure!


Pulled the AFM to reveal a secondary oil sump in the plenum, extracted over 1.5L of oil!

Turns out the problem was remarkably simple. A missing breather cover plate on the rocker cover from when it was restored but never refitted so the cam was throwing oil up and into the breather pipe. I over looked this when I purchased the engine. Quickly fabricated one out of steel plate and threadlocked the bolts in. Cleaned up the plenum, refitted the rocker cover and all is well!

 

[tdgray]

Wow… great catch.

And I applaud your use of a magnetic tray for your bolts.

My dad dropped a nut down the intake of a Land Rover once. Didn’t realize where it went.,, boom went the engine. Major life lesson.

 

[nosmonkey]

Next issue, the case of the snapping speedo cable! Original blew after approx 500 miles but looked like it had been welded up at some point. Stuck another on which failed after 70 miles.

Upon removing the cluster I found this time the speedometer was actually stuck. Managed to free it off but was still very stiff.conpared to my spare cluster there was no play on the drive mechanism and it was binding against the casing. Stripped it apart and cleaned and regreased it all. A bit of jiggling and persuasion and it now has the same free play and is nice and working freely. Time will tell if this works! Also took the opportunity to clean and polish up all the cluster glass

 

[rsporsche]

my coupe had that issue, i ended up sending the speedo to get a new gear put on it, cleaned up and serviced. only takes a couple of speedo cable replacements to equal the cost of the refurb of the speedo.

 

[nosmonkey]

my coupe had that issue, i ended up sending the speedo to get a new gear put on it, cleaned up and serviced. only takes a couple of speedo cable replacements to equal the cost of the refurb of the speedo.

It threw me off at first as speedo seemed absolutely fine the first time i took it out.

Hopefully this cures it! I despise taking the speedo cluster out.

 

[nosmonkey]

Not much to report, have been using and enjoying her although lighting was an issue.

These definitely wont be to everyones taste but a bit of a test and the price i got them for i couldn't complain.

Modern BI-LED projectors with proper cut offs, really nicely made die cast aluminium housings. Sidelights are halo rings which also double up as side repeaters. I have had 4 occasions where people in the dark havent seen me and changed lanes causing me to have to brake hard to avoid accidents. Absolutely transformed the lighting, I had osram nightbreakers with new hella lights and relayed wiring harness so as good as it could get stock.

Undecided yet on the headlight intakes. I may swap them out for the same as the outer lights but lhd beam pattern so when driving on continent I can switch beam patterns to not blind oncoming traffic.

 

[nosmonkey]

Next on the agenda, long term reliability and a bit more sound and power!

Going with an Emerald K6 standalone ECU to bin the air flow meter, Bosch 440cc injectors and a few other bits and pieces. Car will then be mapped by Emerald on a dyno. Have seen this set up putting down about 320 to 340hp (flywheel) on a similar set up although the main draw for me will be modern components, more sophisticated software and binning the AFM. Also having looked at what the other cars have put down on the dyno before and after the torque and power gains across the board seem exceptional as I do find it rather flat below 4000rpm.

 

[rblongboarder]

The upgraded ECU sounds quite interesting.

Any chance you'll publish a wiring diagram when you've completed this upgrade?

 

[nosmonkey]

The upgraded ECU sounds quite interesting.

Any chance you'll publish a wiring diagram when you've completed this upgrade?

I won't be doing the upgrade, Emerald are making the harness and then being fitted in with a local tuner who has done a few m88s now

 

[nosmonkey]

Also ordered up a carbon plenum with a larger diameter intake to give a bit more plenum volume. As much as I love the sound of open trumpets I really do not like filter socks and they do kill power a lot.


Took her out for a quick pub meet to, probably one of the last for the year!

 

[nosmonkey]

Plates on! Took over a year to come into the auction after requesting it but finally fitted.

Standalone ecu parts have all arrived now so just waiting on the carbon plenum then off for mapping, interested to see what figures look like and address the lack of low end torque.

 

[nosmonkey]

Plenum arrived today so flatted and polished it up, cleaned up a bit, still some more to do!

Tuning shop now has all the parts to go on as well. Emerald make an adaptor to the motronic harness for a true plug and play system. Waiting now on a larger induction kit as going from 3" to 3.5" to hopefully flow better. Going to be dropping the car off just after New Year!

 

[rblongboarder]

Dry carbon. Beautiful. Which original part is that molded from, or is it a new design?

 

[nosmonkey]

Dry carbon. Beautiful. Which original part is that molded from, or is it a new design?

From a company in Germany

Home

www.vft-opitz.de

They make various BMW plenums, this is slightly larger in volume to a stock M88 plenum although they do have a larger one. I went for the one with indentation so it has room for the header tank.

 

[nosmonkey]

Emerald ECU in along with new injectors and the carbon airbox and larger intake. A modern TPS now on there for Alpha-N mapping and completely eliminating AFM or MAF. Wideband o2 sensor is also installed so should help the engine run far more optimally.

Even on base map car runs much better with the flat spot and stumble around 1500rpm has gone. Throttle bodies were then set up and vacuum matched. Needs a bracket made up for full throttle stop as currently it is inconsistent. Also the idle bypass screw is seized so need to work a solution out for dropping the idle as a touch high at 1200 rpm.

Once done can then go onto the dyno for mapping hopefully by the end of the week!

 

[nosmonkey]

318bhp at approx 6100 rpm

Will wait for the proper print out but peak torque a touch over 300ft lbs so a good 20% increase on stock figures, but most importantly that is across the board so i have the same peak torque as a stock lump 1000rpm sooner which is exactly what i was after.

Considering the only mods are exhaust, plenum and air flow meter i would say that is good going. Really wakes up at 4000rpm when it comes on cam.

If I went coil on plug could run a bit more timing and nudge past 330 but it's a bit much for me to do now and I am happy with that.

Sound clip on the dyno

 

[Clubsport_CSi]

I love it - looking into an engine bay having the feeling, the car has been built around the engine
318bhp with "only" these mods point out to a really healthy engine; congratulations!
Also a very nice sound!

 

[nosmonkey]

So the rubber grommets for the remote brake reservoir that fits onto the rhd master had failed recently leading to lots of leakage and a rather dodgy brake pedal. 1 was toast and the other perished so replaced both and bled the brakes.

Haven't driven the car properly since late last year and have been itching to see how it goes.

Low end torque is noticeably better. I really found the engine lacking below 3000rpm but now it feels much more like a regular m30 with some nice usable low down grunt.

The long gearing and linear power delivery does mask the rate at which it accelerates. There was a noticeable bump around 4000 before where the engine came "on cam" which is gone now as the engine pulls strongly from idle all the way to redline.

It also liked to settle around 65 to 70 as a nice cruising speed whereas now it does feel the same around 80 with the equivalent input.

Of course the main attraction for me is the sound, hard to pick up on a phone camera but it does have a very guttural growl which starts to turn into a higher pitch as the revs climb.

All in all, very very happy at how a simple ecu swap has completely transformed how the car feels.