My Z3 engine project

[Monkey]

Not been been around for a while, but i thought i'd post up on here as you lot might be interested, but i'm going to use this thread as a bit of a build/project log for my M44 Z3.

Mission Statement

to extract moar powwah from the M44 engine. the engine is going to go through a nut an bolt rebuild (by me an my mate Mike) and where the wallet allows, parts will be upgraded. not blindly upgraded either but a considered approach and to the gains i will get from them.

FAQ:

Q: Why?
A: Because i can, i have a Z3 with a M44 engine that is a bit b*******. i'm going to throw about £1000 at it, and hope for the best

Q: why not fit a S42, M50, M52, LS1 V8, a merlin V12 from a spitfire (plane not car), a jet engine from a Harrier................................
A: Because i want to keep the build cost down, andi dont want to much around with wiring etc.

Q: why not by a M3, they are better cars, and your Z3 is gay?
A: how can a car that has only 2 seats and just enough room for beer in the boot be gay? the car does one thing and that to drive. a Gay car is one you can fit lots of shopping in, as well as lots of people/kids etc. the Z3 says "i'm here for one purpose only, and that fun, driving your kids to a packed shopping centre to buy then new shoes? thats nice, i cant do that has my car is full with one passenger an beer"

Q: would you like another beer?
A: yes, yes i would

Q: why not turbo/supercharge it?
A:i want to keep it N/A plus the costs to do either are quite high.

Q: how much more power are you expecting?
A: dont know

Q: why not
A: cos i dont, i'll rolling road it when all done and i'll tell you

Q: you must have an idea on how much
A: i'm aiming for 140.5bhp, anything over that is a bonus.

Q: why are you such a dick?
A: i cant give you an answer that i dont know. i just hope its more and the money i spent was worth it.

Q: so what are you going to do...................
A: i'm glad you asked Christian, pull up a seat and i will tell you.

First up the M44 engine is a 1.9, 4 cylinder engine. i am going to (get a price first, then decide which bolts need replacing) replace all nuts, Bolts and gaskets in the engine. It will be comming apart completely. i will split the different section of work

Head: (giggle)

Head to be sent (do not know who yet) to be ported, polished and skimed, with hopefully the Cams going to either Kent Cams or Piper Cams to be reprofiled. New springs, lifters, arms etc. Valves to be re-ground.

Block:

top to be skimed. piston rings replaced and i will look at reprofiling the piston tops a little. bores check for wear and some polish done if need be.

Crank to be either replaced with a M47 crank (will need new or reporfile the existing pistons) or just have mine lightened, balanced and re-ground. new shells and bearings fitted. the M47 crank will need the end milled by i beleive 0.6mm. but it will give a 8mm longer stroke (giggle) and with the right pistons a larger diaslacement.

Clutch to be replaced and fly wheel to be lightened and balanced.

Intake:

E36 M3 throtle bodies, Plenum, Injectors etc going in. already ordered and picking up from the delivery company depot. the plenum will need modifying for obvious reasons, which i am seeing someone about, hopefully today. the Throttle bodies should just bold on, only time will tell.

Exhaust:

i need to see if the existing manifold will be man enough and that will decide what i do with the exhaust, but it will be less restrictive.

ECU:

i'm going to get the stock ECU reprogramed, on a rolling road and we will see if i need a fueling piggy back or not. there is a little confusion on how much the stock ECU can cope with, but this is a little way off.

all in all i hope to spend around £1000, i know i wont get all the above done for that. but i'm going to see how close i can get and. i am unsure about increasing the displacement at the mo for 2 reasons, 1 cost, its quite expensive to do, and gainss. i'm not sure the gain for the money is worth it

so this is my little project.

 

[hard top]

M44 Massive, Swamper down graded.........

 

[Monkey]

M44 Massive, Swamper down graded.........

Eh?

 

[hard top]

He went M........

 

[Daz3]

I take it you've posted on other boards and had a good reaction anyway good luck with the build I'll look forward to the results.

 

[GazHyde]

Sounds like an interesting project, although the harrier engine swap might be the most fun in the long run... The only zed in the world with VTOL capability

 

[z3cade]

Haha!! p***** my self when I read question 3 hahahaaaa !!

 

[bessieblue]

no rebore ??. would it be better to buy a replacement engine say 2.8 ? do it up and then just swap

 

[swamper]

watching with interest ......you will have the M43 massive on your case.

 

[zedonist]

Can't beat the roar of the M44, big up from the M44 Massive!

 

[zedonist]

A few thoughts for you:

1) skimming both the head and block will mean a thicker head gasket, which equals less reliability, unless you keep stock gasket then it may need pockets in the pistons for the valves.

2) you can't re profile the existing cams, in order to get higher lift and duration you will need more meat on the cam lobes and then re profile, this would mean metal spraying, i would not recommend metal spraying on engine parts. New more aggressive cams will blow your budget.

3) porting and polishing the head to fully match manifolds is your best bet at this budget level. You can do this your self with a Dremel.

4) the M44 already has a tubular 4-2 exhaust manifold, you will not make this any less restrictive, you need to either decat or fit a sports cat with high flow exhaust.

5) I have looked at the dinan throttle body kit, so would be interested how the M3 kit looks and works

6) you will need to have a live remap to get the best from your mods

7) my advice would be to spend the money making it go around bends and stop quicker with H&R roll bars, a B8 kit and 3.0 ltr brake disks and calipers. otherwise you will blow your budget on remap and exhaust alone

That said, if you do go ahead with your plans, please post how to's, costs, vendors and final BHP, I am very interested in what you do and how you achieve it.

 

[Monkey]

Thanks for your comments,

no rebore ??. would it be better to buy a replacement engine say 2.8 ? do it up and then just swap

undecided at this time, money is dictating some of the mods, but i think not, i beleive i'll get more gains with head work than a rebore. but more research needed. there's no challenge to putting a 2.8 in, as it was destined for the car anyway, then i'd have to change the wiring etc. if i'm going to do all that i'd might as well put a V8 in, but i dont have the cash for that

A few thoughts for you:

1) skimming both the head and block will mean a thicker head gasket, which equals less reliability, unless you keep stock gasket then it may need pockets in the pistons for the valves.

i'd argue this till the cows come home for 2 reasons, BMW do 2 head gasket options, a standard one and a 0.3mm thicker one that is used when you skim the head and block. its a metal head gasket. also if BMW didnt to the option i'd have a metal one custom made. the other reason is i come from the jap turbo tuning world. and using a thicker head gasket to lower compression to allow higher boost is common place. and they are just as reliable as a standard fit/standard skim. i've seen these metal head gaskets hold a costant 200-400bhp OVER stock BHP. so for my modest BHP gain, a well made over sized head gasket will be more than capable of being just as reliable as any other.

2) you can't re profile the existing cams, in order to get higher lift and duration you will need more meat on the cam lobes and then re profile, this would mean metal spraying, i would not recommend metal spraying on engine parts. New more aggressive cams will blow your budget.

TBH at the time of writing i do not know much about modifying cams. but i have spent alot of time on the phone to Piper Cams discussing my options, what they do and the reliability. they offer a gurantee as well and they are the specialist in this field. They say what i want is possible and not too much work required. if they said no then i'd re-think.

3) porting and polishing the head to fully match manifolds is your best bet at this budget level. You can do this your self with a Dremel.

this is happening regardless, and i wont be doing it myself with a dremel

4) the M44 already has a tubular 4-2 exhaust manifold, you will not make this any less restrictive, you need to either decat or fit a sports cat with high flow exhaust.

there is still improvements to be made, in how it flows, etc. there is always improvements to be made. the question is how much will it cost for how much gain. a de-cat pipe will be ordered, and the emmissions tested. i dont want to have to swap over come MoT time.

5) I have looked at the dinan throttle body kit, so would be interested how the M3 kit looks and works

Cool, see below for a teaser

6) you will need to have a live remap to get the best from your mods

Already sorted. a Rolling road day and remap will be done, and then i'll decide if i need a piggy back fuel ECU.

7) my advice would be to spend the money making it go around bends and stop quicker with H&R roll bars, a B8 kit and 3.0 ltr brake disks and calipers. otherwise you will blow your budget on remap and exhaust alone

i agree, money has been spent on these areas, already, with a full set of coil overs being ordered shortly after the upgrdes being done.

[quote="zedonist, post: 38021, member: 105"That said, if you do go ahead with your plans, please post how to's, costs, vendors and final BHP, I am very interested in what you do and how you achieve it.[/quote]


Thanks

 

[Monkey]

Right on to my purchases.

My first purchase is not a standard thing to buy when modifying a car so i'll just let you see the picture

Yep thats a 1995 Pugeot 405 estate GLX 1.9 Diesel. as my Z3 is my daily driver, i need to get around, and this was cheap enough

Then there is the M3 intake, throttle bodies etc.

Plenum

as you can see it has 6 ports, and my engine is a 4 banger. so it's going to a bloke who is going to look at it to cut of port 1 and 6 and weld up the ends.

throttle bodies, injectors and fuel rails

as they were wrapped up, i didnt want to up wrap them, so i only upwrapped one pair

and one last purchase

hopefully will be removing the engine soon

 

[zedonist]

With regards to your head gasket, then the metal one will work, we used to ring the block and head and insert solid metal rings, never had a blown gasket between cylinders following this method, was on ford turbo engines though.

Don't take offence at the Dremel, I will be porting and polishing mine over the winter using this method and that includes plenum to intake.

Exhaust manifold, the stumbling block putting larger dia tubes or reconfiguring is the steering linkage, in my view the current tubular version in 4-2 config is the best option having spent years playing with 4-1 and 4-2 manifolds. The key is to keep the exhaust gases flowing quickly, so to do that you need to keep them hot, so I would ensure the whole system manifold to back box is wrapped.

On the cams, your aim with the throttle bodies is to get more air fuel mixture into the cylinder, here you will need the valves open longer, therefore changing lift and duration, both of these require the cam lobes to be higher and wider, which means adding metal, I would be interested in the piper process, which is probably thermal metal spraying.

With regards to the throttle bodies, I would not expect too much gain without forced induction, as the cylinders will only suck so much air fuel mix in, so the gain will be what the restriction of the original induction set up was, not much I would guess. Ideally, you would use this set up when you have gone oversize bores and pistons, have you thought about going up to 2.1ltr? Again this s why I have not moved forward on this mod, but will port and polish. Other considerations will be tb balancing across the 4 and also further ECU mods to ignore the sensors you will be bypassing, this was the biggest part of the cost on the dinan mod.

I like you did a fair bit of research on this, and my conclusion is to fit an E30 Diff which should see 0-60 times of between 7 - 8 seconds, just for £500 certainly more performance gain although at the expense of top end speed.

Good luck btw, if you get good gains, you may make me spend some more money, but I would be going larger bore and a nice pair of shrick cams