FuturisticConcept Art BMW E36 with a V8 on a bottom dollar budget

[Jdesign]

Still have not found a good place to get cheap aluminum/aluminite/tin sheeting, If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears.

[Bassboy3313]

Jdesign said:

Still have not found a good place to get cheap aluminum/aluminite/tin sheeting, If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears.  

https://www.speedymetals.com/pc-1934-8374-002-5052-h32-aluminum-sheet.aspx

If you call to order, they can do any custom size sheet you'd like.

[Jdesign]

Bassboy3313 said:

https://www.speedymetals.com/pc-1934-8374-002-5052-h32-aluminum-sheet.aspx

If you call to order, they can do any custom size sheet you'd like.

I know a few guys that work there. I know where they get their material supplied from(so I can already beat their prices). I was looking more for scrap from someones work. I have a friend thats a sign maker and he grabbed some Dibond scraps for me so i think I have the window louvers covered, but nothing big enough for a splitter or diffuser.  I also was told from someone that Stoughton trailers has large amounts of scrap sheeting from making truck trailers that they just offer to employees. I just need to find a way to get my hands on some of that.

[Jdesign]

Uggh. Almost took a hammer and a blowtorch to all of the things last night. Needless to say, 4 hours, 3 exploded zip discs, a broken bolt, two broken drill bits, a broken tap, 2 cans of brake clean, two tubes of RTV, loads of assembly lube, and 4 broken pintle caps later I replaced half an intake manifold and one lifter. Life would be some much easier if the PO actually cared about what they were doing. Painting the over-fenders, the mirrors, and the rest of the engine components is the next (and hopefully less stressful) challenge. Anyways this is where I am at:

The motor is pretty gunked up inside just about everywhere I look. So once I have it all back together I plan on running full ATF and Marvel instead of oil for a few minutes to help clean the gummed up oil on the inside of this thing.

[B C]

V engines are so foreign to me

[jc43089]

I just went through a 5.8 truck engine from a 91 F250 and it blew me away the difference in quality of the castings, machining work, all of it seems like junk compared to the BMW designs lol.

[Jdesign]

Snap said:

V engines are so foreign to me

Same. I had to watch a tutorial to figure out what I was doing.

jc43089 said:

I just went through a 5.8 truck engine from a 91 F250 and it blew me away the difference in quality of the castings, machining work, all of it seems like junk compared to the BMW designs lol.

Oh for sure. American automotive engineering is certainly behind. I blame producing complete shit cars for years because mass profit.

[B C]

This book sheds a lot of light into why the domestic industry was/is the way it was/is https://www.amazon.com/Car-Guys-vs-Bean-Counters/dp/1591846226

plus Bob Lutz is THE MAN

[Jdesign]

Snap said:

This book sheds a lot of light into why the domestic industry was/is the way it was/is https://www.amazon.com/Car-Guys-vs-Bean-Counters/dp/1591846226

plus Bob Lutz is THE MAN

In all honesty though, I might try and get an audio book so I can listen to it.

[Jdesign]

Valve covers painted and CUZtuMiZEd by yours truly. I will be applying a transparent red over them to give them more depth soon.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

[Jdesign]

Decided to paint the valve covers on lunch. Not exactly what I had imagined due to the paint that I used. In the past when I have done this, I have used clear with  A few drops of paint to add color. This was straight out of the can. 

[jc43089]

Looks cool!  I like it.

[Jdesign]

jc43089 said:

Looks cool!  I like it.

Thanks! I like it too. Much better looking than corrosion and grime. I still havent decided what to do with the Intake manifold though..

I wish I could find a cheap set of these and have the stacks stick out the hood....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-SB-260-289-302-Windsor-Downdraft-EFI-Stack-Intake-Manifold-System-/351988410748?hash=item51f424e97c:g:BKgAAOSwbopZRxqv&vxp=mtr

[HipMF]

Jdesign said:

Much better looking than corrosion and grime.

I was actually going to comment earlier that the patina on the valve covers looked really cool. The refinished version looks good too. Just depends what you're going for I guess.

[B C]

In the apocalypse, valve covers will be whittled from the wood that remains.

Those itb manifolds are priced well considering the price of some of the upgraded single throttle plenums

($600-$800)

[Jdesign]

Snap said:

In the apocalypse, valve covers will be whittled from the wood that remains.

Those itb manifolds are priced well considering the price of some of the upgraded single throttle plenums

($600-$800)

I know, its just hard to justify when I paid almost the same amount for the entire car...

HipMF said:

I was actually going to comment earlier that the patina on the valve covers looked really cool. The refinished version looks good too. Just depends what you're going for I guess.

Hmmmm, I guess I really didnt look at it like that because the anodizing/ paint that use to be there was flaking all over the engine bay lol.

[Jdesign]

Pintle caps, orings, and filters came for the injectors. Didnt get around to cleaning, and testing the injectors though. 

What I did do, is remove the throttlebody and spacer and strip the manifold for paint. I only took two pictures as I spend the rest of the time beating the shit out of the TB with a dead blow to get it off. I have never has such a hard time removing a TB in my life. 

I also installed the valve covers and gaskets along with the coolant pipe for the heater core. This resulted in me doing some research about coolant flow and early E36 heater cores because I currently am not getting heat in the cabin. I found my problem as the water pump lines were looped and I just reinstalled them that way when I did the h2o pump when I got the car. I highlighted what they should be:

[YoungCR]

This is looking good!!

[Jdesign]

I will add pictures later, but I did test and rebuild my injectors last night. I used a 9v battery, a can of carb cleaner, hose, hose clamps, and heat shrink to make my own pattern tester to pressurize the injectors. Quite a bunch of black deposits came out of at least 4 of the injectors and now have a perfect spray pattern for all 7 of them. Yeah 7. All of them EXCEPT for one injector, which was obviously leaking. With pressure behind it, it was spraying a stream of fuel without the solenoid being energized. This worries me a little that I might have a slightly washed cylinder. I plan on buying a new injector and continuing along though.

[Jdesign]

Painted the Throttlebody, EGR plate, and Intake manifold and prepped for the new gaskets I picked up, and cut out a new plate out of aluminum for the top of the manifold. Mocked up how they look now, but wont install until I get a new coolant hose and injector. The injector is the bigger problem as there is no way to install them once the upper manifold is bolted down. 

Pics are with and without the plate. I plan on matching the "red metal" look on the valve covers across the top of the intake manifold.