Watch me ruin a Z4M Coupe: build thread

[Michael9218]

Originally Posted by Beedub

let us know how you get on with it, i know the hubs are stupid money but the stock ones are clearly a weakness, im not sure the re-drilled disk really is a solution as they still seem to break!! Their is simply not enough material on those tabs !

Interesting. I've not heard of tab failure with a Biesan drilled pump.

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by Beedub

let us know how you get on with it, i know the hubs are stupid money but the stock ones are clearly a weakness, im not sure the re-drilled disk really is a solution as they still seem to break!! Their is simply not enough material on those tabs !

The theory with Beisan's oil pump discs is that lowering the clearance provides less opportunity for the cam to move independently of the VANOS oil pump, so there is less force imparted on the drive teeth as a result of independent acceleration. It doesn't make the teeth stronger, but it does reduce the forces they deal with.

Stronger teeth would probably be good too, but based on what I've read, it seems like the general failure rate with both the Beisan pump disc and with cryo-treated tabs are about the same. YMMV, of course.

[SaltyNC]

Originally Posted by mattfwalters

I did - VANOS oil pump hub is now a Beisan unit.

That's what I did, too. My car had not been driven hard, was relatively low mileage, and my tabs and holes in the original disk showed no signs of peening or hammering. It's interesting hearing talk about Beisan oil disks failing, because I thought Raj indicated (at least a few years back) that he was surprised there were no failures, because he assumed some people would use his disk with the smaller holes with hub tabs that had already been hammered and weakened substantially prior to the use of his disk, and that those may indeed fail. He felt confident his disk would prevent future damage, but was willing to concede some hub tabs may already be damaged. However, he reported that even given this assumption, he had seen no failures. Maybe a few reports eventually came in. If anyone has a link to those reports, I'd be interested in seeing them.

I feel good about my choice. Without play in the hole, I don't worry about failure.

Salty

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by SaltyNC

That's what I did, too. My car had not been driven hard, was relatively low mileage, and my tabs and holes in the original disk showed no signs of peening or hammering. It's interesting hearing talk about Beisan oil disks failing, because I thought Raj indicated (at least a few years back) that he was surprised there were no failures, because he assumed some people would use his disk with the smaller holes with hub tabs that had already been hammered and weakened substantially prior to the use of his disk, and that those may indeed fail. He felt confident his disk would prevent future damage, but was willing to concede some hub tabs may already be damaged. However, he reported that even given this assumption, he had seen no failures. Maybe a few reports eventually came in. If anyone has a link to those reports, I'd be interested in seeing them.

I feel good about my choice. Without play in the hole, I don't worry about failure.

Salty

This.

My hub also appeared undamaged, so I choose to be unworried about it.

[BradZ4MC]

Nice build. Going to be doing a similar build after I get my new house built this year with a suspended garage, a lift and lots of room for the project. I own a machine shop and do a lot of HP BMW heads from all over the country so I have been dying to get the head off my Interlagos blue Coupe as I have done almost everything else to the car for track duty. Keep up the post and I will hopefully learn from it and use that knowledge.
I did a pretty awesome S62 Head build for an E46 track monster that is being built right now, complete overkill like yours.
Pictures on Facebook page Nolands Cylinder Head Service.

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by BdiddyZ4M

Nice build. Going to be doing a similar build after I get my new house built this year with a suspended garage, a lift and lots of room for the project. I own a machine shop and do a lot of HP BMW heads from all over the country so I have been dying to get the head off my Interlagos blue Coupe as I have done almost everything else to the car for track duty. Keep up the post and I will hopefully learn from it and use that knowledge.
I did a pretty awesome S62 Head build for an E46 track monster that is being built right now, complete overkill like yours.
Pictures on Facebook page Nolands Cylinder Head Service.

Thanks! Looking forward to seeing your build. The pictures on your Facebook page are pretty amazing.

So I've finally come up for air at work and took a bit of time today to inch things along, and started knocking the "surface rust" off of the front crossmember. It's in... much worse shape than I'd thought.







So now I'm calling around to see who can hot-tank it and coat / paint it, which frankly is what I should have done from the beginning. But I'm dumb / stubborn.

[racerbruce]

Greetings from the Seattle area;
Looking fwd to seeing this Beast....perhaps at the exotics@.com this year, or perhaps Pacific Raceways

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by racerbruce

Greetings from the Seattle area;
Looking fwd to seeing this Beast....perhaps at the exotics@.com this year, or perhaps Pacific Raceways

Looking forward to that myself.

Dropped the crossmember off at Hill Machine today to have it hot tanked. Considering taking it across the street to have it galvanized when I get it back - dealing with the insides of it seems like a pain in the ass, and I think galvanized steel looks pretty cool.

[Michael9218]

You might want to reinforce those motor mount tabs before you galvanize the subframe.

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by Michael9218

You might want to reinforce those motor mount tabs before you galvanize the subframe.

Good thought, thanks. Welding in some reinforcement for the engine mounts is a good call - maybe I'll even make the engine mount nuts captive. I'm mostly joking about having it galvanized - I'll probably wax the inside of it though.

[mattfwalters]

Tonight I spent an hour cutting out a freeze plug to replace it with the Achilles heater core block-off plate, because I had forgotten I had it.



I am so smart... S-M-R-T...

[mattfwalters]

So today I did FCABs.

Got me a benchtop press:


Found the right tool for the job:



Made some pieces:


Cleaned them up and pushed 'em together with some new bits:


Yes, I am ashamed that one of the GC logos isn't lined up properly. Not ashamed enough to press it back out and fix it, though.

I managed to split one of the inner rings when I was pressing the GC bushings into it - that made a pretty awesome noise. I figure that since they're under a lot of compression force in the lollipops it'll be fine, but if I'm being an idiot, please advise.

[SaltyNC]

I've seen people use large sockets, but a hole saw is a good idea for pressing new bushings. I've got to do two sets of these in the next week or so.

Salty

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by SaltyNC

I've seen people use large sockets, but a hole saw is a good idea for pressing new bushings. I've got to do two sets of these in the next week or so.

Salty

Bear in mind that you will destroy the hole saw unless you reinforce the center of it with something. Ask me how I know.

PS: 2.5" hole saws are $7 on Amazon, so I think it was still worth it
PPS: bushing / bearing press puck sets are like $25 on Amazon, so

[mattfwalters]

Ordered a 22-position WeatherPack bulkhead connector for running the gauge wiring through the firewall. Stopped by the machine shop to pick up my crossmember but they were closed early. Sigh.

[mattfwalters]

Definitely not perfect, but this Eastwood primer is laying down pretty nicely.

Still had to knock a shitload of paint and rust off of the bastard. Machine shop failed to mention that their hot tank isn't actually acidic.

[mattfwalters]

...and then I decided that the crossmember didn't need to be boring.

[SaltyNC]

I dream of wires.

That crossmember should match your calipers nicely.

Salty

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by SaltyNC

I dream of wires.

That crossmember should match your calipers nicely.

Salty

Yeah, I may actually do the control arms in this red as well. And I'm also a modular nerd.

Regarding FCABs: I exchanged some emails with Donovan at Ground Control, who is awesome.

These would be fine if the ID of the 66mm and 60mm FCABs were identical - unfortunately the 66mm FCAB has a 22mm ID and the 60mm has a 24mm ID. So he's sending me a correct set and I'm sending these ones back.

[bignosejim]

Are you getting offset fcabs? That is what our cars are supposed to have. Those GC ones looked symmetrical like for an M3.

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by bignosejim

Are you getting offset fcabs? That is what our cars are supposed to have. Those GC ones looked symmetrical like for an M3.

Yeah, I'm getting the correct FCABs.

[Sliktop]

What are the part numbers on the offset GC FCABS? I want to order them asap if they exist.

Sweet build thread, btw!