Watch me ruin a Z4M Coupe: build thread

[racerbruce]

YAY Matt!
You're freaking amazing - SO close to see and hear The Bronze Beast run!

[53Fatman]

Glad to hear that Matt

Perfect solution to open the valve, no need to remove the housing. Hope to see that Motor running soon, awesome projekt!

[Michael9218]

Originally Posted by mattfwalters

Water and oil at 10/11 C....you need to treat yourself to a heater in that garage!

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by Michael9218

Water and oil at 10/11 C....you need to treat yourself to a heater in that garage!

It is heated! I like it around 12-13 degrees when I'm working.

[mattfwalters]

Well, shit.

I picked up a timing light and and remote starter trigger for next step ("once spark, make sure timing is good") but just for giggles before tearing apart the igniter wiring I threw in the #1 plug / coil and hooked the light up to it. Damned if it didn't just start strobing. So I locked the Infinity to 0* BTDC and as far as my eye could see the #1's spark timing was bang on the TDC mark on the harmonic balancer. I checked all 6 coils and they all trigger the timing light, so I guess I have spark.

Then I did a practical test for spark just because I wanted to see it with my own eyes:

View post on imgur.com

I triple-checked the injector config and the selection of the E46 M3 profile hadn't stuck (this seems to happen a lot with the Infinity, maybe because I haven't been explicitly disconnecting before shutting down, which I've started doing now), so tried that. No luck here either.

Okaaayyy... so I tied the throttle pedal down, stared through the butterflies at the injectors and hit the starter for a bit. I didn't see any twinkles of spray despite verifying on the log that the Infinity was commanding 0.3% duty cycle (I know, that's basically nothing, but..) so now I'm wondering if I actually have fuel. I smell fuel, but haven't ever seen pistons or intake ports glistening.

The other thing I'm wondering about is whether or not I might have the crank timing out by 360 degrees, but then I'd eventually be getting some big pops / fireballs out the headers, right?

It seems like there's just not enough fuel to make a bang. Sigh.

[racerbruce]

Awe....ssssssshucks.

Crazy question....is the fuel pump suffering from the same symptoms/causes you experienced w/the oil pump?? Is priming of any kind necessary to initiate draw in the fuel pump system??


Is this way to fundamental for what you're trying to correct?
https://itstillruns.com/prime-fuel-system-7605700.html

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by racerbruce

Awe....ssssssshucks.

Crazy question....is the fuel pump suffering from the same symptoms/causes you experienced w/the oil pump?? Is priming of any kind necessary to initiate draw in the fuel pump system??


Is this way to fundamental for what you're trying to correct?
https://itstillruns.com/prime-fuel-system-7605700.html

The fuel pump is definitely moving fuel around, I can hear it returning to the tank when the pressure hits 5 bar.

What you've made me think about, though (thank you!) is whether or not this dead-end system has a bunch of air in the rail... off to bleed...

edit: the fuel rail was full of air, but now it's full of fuel and that hasn't solved the problem. Starting to suspect a wiring issue with the injectors, so that'll be how I spend the next couple of hours I get in the garage.

[mattfwalters]

gonna leave this here for the giggles
I also just loaded the diagnostic firmware and confirmed via practical test that injectors work (I have fuel sprayed on a shop towel, woo).

I'm wondering... the Infinity is reporting cam0 timing @ 213* and cam1 timing @ 634* which seems plausible if I got the intake and exhaust cams wired to the wrong inputs, which, if one assumes cam0 == intake and cam1 == exhaust, I did. But according to the E46 M3 PnP wiring diagram, they're correct. But according to the input setup, there's some shit Really Wrong.

Ugh.

end giggles. begin belly laughs

I had mis-wired the MAP sensor. Stupid late add that wasn't on the wiring diagram? Idiot.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA IT'S ALIVE

[mattfwalters]

So, I couldn't resist playing around with it a bit more. I didn't take more videos (sorry) but when it starts it just wants to rev itself to the moon. I put in a 2,500RPM rev limiter to keep it from really spinning itself up - but it's showing solid 12.4-13:1 AFR when it's doing so.

Weirdly it's way past the idle target (~1,400) and keeping the throttles at 10% or so, which is probably causing the revs given the good AFRs. I guess I need to look a bit more into how the Infinity handles idling and then start fine-tuning it. I may set a fairly high idle target since I'm probably not going to bother with the IAC.

Garage smells like exhaust instead of gasoline fumes now. It's a good day.

[racerbruce]

Originally Posted by mattfwalters

So, I couldn't resist playing around with it a bit more. I didn't take more videos (sorry) but when it starts it just wants to rev itself to the moon. I put in a 2,500RPM rev limiter to keep it from really spinning itself up - but it's showing solid 12.4-13:1 AFR when it's doing so.

Weirdly it's way past the idle target (~1,400) and keeping the throttles at 10% or so, which is probably causing the revs given the good AFRs. I guess I need to look a bit more into how the Infinity handles idling and then start fine-tuning it. I may set a fairly high idle target since I'm probably not going to bother with the IAC.

Garage smells like exhaust instead of gasoline fumes now. It's a good day.

YAY!!!!
This is a big day in the land of massive mods....well done!

[53Fatman]

Congratulations Matt

@ 0:24 you got me

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by racerbruce

YAY!!!!
This is a big day in the land of massive mods....well done!

Originally Posted by 53Fatman

Congratulations Matt

@ 0:24 you got me

Thanks, both! I'm... pretty stoked. No point in putting it any other way.

[WeekendWarriorz]

Congrats Matt! :

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by WeekendWarriorz

Congrats Matt! :

Thanks!

[mattfwalters]

Some more grumbles from the car last night:

It was trying to rev itself out previously because I had given the idle logic 10% of the throttle position but the idle logic was configured to engage at max 5% throttle / 2k RPM... so it was revving itself up past idle and then somehow not closing the throttles.

It's really lumpy.

[racerbruce]

Awesome!
i think I heard the Bronze Beast 20 miles away....where I live (:

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by racerbruce

Awesome!
i think I heard the Bronze Beast 20 miles away....where I live (:

It is - shockingly - not that loud. That's probably because it's below 2k RPM.

We'll see how I feel about the noise level during the cam break-in that my engine builder just growled at me for not doing before trying to get it to idle.

Whoops.

[racerbruce]

Originally Posted by mattfwalters

It is - shockingly - not that loud. That's probably because it's below 2k RPM.

We'll see how I feel about the noise level during the cam break-in that my engine builder just growled at me for not doing before trying to get it to idle.

Whoops.

What's the suggested protocol??

[Vanne]

Matt, congrats on the running mate, awesome job..

can't wait to see everything together mate.. one awesomely sorted Z4M. Hats off on the electrics man, that stuff scares the p-jesus out of me

[mattfwalters]

Originally Posted by racerbruce

What's the suggested protocol??

2,200RPM for 10 minutes, let it cool enough that I can lay a hand on the valve cover, repeat. Then drop and replace the oil and get it to a dyno ASAP for full break-in and tuning.

Originally Posted by Vanne

Matt, congrats on the running mate, awesome job..

can't wait to see everything together mate.. one awesomely sorted Z4M. Hats off on the electrics man, that stuff scares the p-jesus out of me

Thanks man! There's a long way to go for it to be sorted, honestly, but it will get there. I'm pretty jazzed to have it running on the Infinity - now I need to get the cooling system buttoned up and get the VANOS working.

[mattfwalters]

Some good progress today, also some disappointments.

Plumbed the power steering cooler:



...except that the low-pressure return line to the reservoir isn't long enough. I'm going to use a 12mm barb fitting and use part of the stock one.

So then, I started the top rad support:


It's mostly sorted now and I'll tie it into the front brace in the near future.

Then I hung and wired the fan:


Another fun issue is that I deleted the heater core and the pipes that feed it. Turns out that's where the main outlet from the overflow tanks goes in the stock system. So I ordered another heater core delete kit from Bimmerworld and I'll just cap off the lower outlet from the tank.

Rad and engine have ~2gal of distilled water in them. Fan works. But I need to close up both the power steering and water systems, parts are en route for same.

[Michael9218]

Originally Posted by mattfwalters

Another fun issue is that I deleted the heater core and the pipes that feed it. Turns out that's where the main outlet from the overflow tanks goes in the stock system. So I ordered another heater core delete kit from Bimmerworld and I'll just cap off the lower outlet from the tank.

I had ordered that block off piece, but it didn't fit well at all on the Z4M heater pipe. Maybe you'll have better luck. I ended up taking to the local fabrication guy and he welded a cap on it after the pipe that returns to the overflow tank and the second bracket bolt point.

Here's a pic. It's painted black part way back.