1 Series (E87) Tarmac rally car build by Mefmotorsport

[mef]

I thought it would be best to continue my rally car project to this section now it's actually underway!

progress so far: 118D bought and now mostly stripped ready for some jig work on the front chassis rails before installing a roll cage. Just have the engine & gearbox still to remove, ready to come out but my mates got my engine crane and he's gone away on holiday!

S50B30 3 litre M3 engine and gearbox sourced, for collection next weekend, 4.45 lsd bought, soon to be delivered.

I must have removed 100Kgs of stuff out of the inside already, can't believe how well these are built and how many parts there are! Seem to be well screwed together and looking very promising, even the seat fixings look suitable for the competition seat rail mountings without modification!




Martin

[mef]

The plan is to use a Corsa electric steering column to simplify and avoid some pipework in the engine bay. These seem to work well in MK2 Escorts, they're virtually standard equipment these days in any good MK2 so should also be good in the 1 Series, just leave the hydraulics and fluids out of the rack.

I plan to use a DTA S80 ecu on the single vanos 3 litre engine, looking for around 300Bhp with the minimum of mods, dump the air flow meter etc..

At the rear I will be using a medium diff casing but think I'll have to modify the rear subframe to take it. Both front and rear subframes and parts are common with the E90 3 series




Martin.

[avtovaz]

watching mate

[eddiee36]

great build am looking forward to see this one through

[mef]

Engine and box now out.... now that's what I call a BIG tunnel!



The guy came to look at the chassis legs, he didn't see a problem getting them back in position, it's going on his jig in a few days time hopefully.

Martin

[is-si]

cool, just a few throw away comments:
i know my e90 has bigger wheel bearings (same as 130i etc) than some of the lesser models, from the bmw online `microfiche' it would be easy to see what upgrades you could swap in.
Theres also `Bmw performance' bolt on upgrades too, eg massive fully dust sealed calipers made by bmw and apparently they werent silly money when introduced.
A friend of ours on the I.o.M. has a 300hp ezzy and fitted a late V8 M3 LSD for reliability (he'd already converted it to i.r.s.), it was sensible money and says it works great untouched. It has a 3.85cwp standard so he did have to change his drop gears to suit. Obviously this backend may be too different or wide to fit, i dunno, but with all the shafts etc it would be strong.

[mef]

That sounds good, usefull info, thanks.

Yes, there may well be some M3 parts from the E90 M3 that would be a worthwhile upgrade, have to see whats available. Looking on the babybmw forum I see that many 130i owners seem to rate M3 front bottom arms, dont know yet what the difference is or why. Lots of stuff to find out and learn about yet, a big steep learning curve ahead!

Front suspension:

Chassis leg kinked:

Front end:

Martin

[mef]

4.45:1 LSD medium cased diff arrived today, looks good, just requires sand blasting and painting. I'm hoping that the drive flanges share the same pcd as the 1 series. The 1 series propshaft matches up OK.

I was considering wheels, I had ideas about using 18 x 8 Subaru wheels and re-drilling the drive flanges to suit the 100mm pcd but on investigation I found that the front wheel drive flanges dont lend themselves to re-drilling at 36degrees offsets, ie inbetween the existing bolt holes. Also the BMW spigot diamater is much bigger than Subaru so all the wheels would require machining, a costly exercise that would offset the lower cost wheels.

maybe I should go for 17" BMW road wheels, there seems to be plenty of them around? Alternatively buy the correct fitting wheels in 18" from compomotive as 18" competition tyres are more readily available and cheap and no mods required.

Martin

[is-si]

This may help, browse the links, LK should be the bolt PCD's:
...not sure if i have the correct models but its an example >

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E87/5-doors/Europe/118d-M47N2/RHD/N/2006/browse/rear_axle/output_shaft/

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E34/Sedan/Europe/520i-M20/1990/browse/rear_axle/drive_flange_suspension_gasket/

Ian Godney used Suburu wheels on his E30 M3, fortunately the E30 wheels had a low ET so he used bolt on spacers to change the pcd & spigot.

[mef]

Thanks for the link, that's a very useful source of info!

I dont really like the idea of wheel stud PCD convertors on a rally car, seems a bit iffy! Maybe I'll go with M3 style 17" ones for now.

Jigging work is now planned for next monday and will only take a couple of days so then I'll be ready for doing a trial fit with the M3 engine and gearbox and make some chassis mounts for it.

Martin

[mef]

From the link above I can see that my 118D shafts have a pcd of 80mm, the 188 diff has a flange pcd of 86mm. I will therefore need shafts from a 120D which also has the 188 diff and 86mm shaft pcd. I just checked and the above is correct, what a bummer, now I need some shafts!

A bit of research showed that the E90 3 series 118D (of which there are loads about) has some shafts with 86mm pcd flanges and the same size splines at the outer end top go in the 118D hub. That's good news as if I went for the bigger 130i shafts then I'd have to change the uprights, bearings and wheel drive flanges too! I'll probably have to eventually upgrade to those 130i ones as they're 36mm in diameter but that can come at a later date unless I come accross someone breaking a 130i.

If the 188 is a MEDIUM case diff then I can't imagine how big the large E36 one is as the 188 looks HUGE!

Martin

[mef]

No progress to report this evening, been doing research and looking for parts!

Martin

[ultegra]

I suppose you know that the standard Subaru PCD is different from the STi PCD?

New RangeRover wheels are 5x120 too....

I have sometimes toyed with the idea of using RangeRover Sport discs and Brembo calipers. Dunno about how they would fit though.

[mef]

Some more research reveals that the E90 3 series and some bigger engined 1 series use the medium diff casing (188) and associated driveshafts so I dont think I'll be having to look too hard to get the correct combination.

I think I might buy a 3 series 188 diff and have my E30 LSD & 4.45 CWP built up into it.

Martin

[mef]

Collected my 3 litre S50B30 M3 engine and gearbox this morning, god it's BIG!

Started to remove some of the sh1t off the engine, power steering pump, aircon pump, air pump plus lots of other bits & bobs that I wont be using....then I will be able to start to give the engine a bit of a clean up (hard to do properly at present with the hose pipe ban!)

Replaced the N/S bottom arm that was severely bent! Stripped more parts off the shell ready for taking it for jig work tomorrow. Hopefully will be able to do a trial installation by next weeked.


Martin