LQ4/T56 into 2001 BMW 540i
01-16-2014, 09:49 AM
#301
I'm just about wrapping up my mini garage remodel and ready to get back into automotive projects. One of the things on the list is redoing my exhaust. I'd like to do a cat delete and get rid of the small diameter OEM BMW pipes that run back to the rear axle as well as revise the location of my cutout since it drones my brains out. What's a reasonable size to run from the manifolds back? I was thinking 2.5" duals, 3" duals might be overkill but I have to consider the possibility of going turbo one day.
01-17-2014, 03:27 PM
#303
I would say the diameter of your exhaust should match what is coming out of the manifolds. An increase in exhaust pipe volume will slow the exhaust, when the exhaust flow needs the highest velocity possible to help scavenging and flow.
So, if you have 2.5” coming out of the manifolds I would stick with 2.5”. 2.5” should duals should be able to support some high hp numbers. Here some info for a rough idea: http://www.magnaflow.com/07techtips/faq/question10.asp
The cutout relocation may still shake you brain since because a drone oscillates the the car’s interior too. So, a solution may be a Helmholtz chamber to cancel out the drone.
So, if you have 2.5” coming out of the manifolds I would stick with 2.5”. 2.5” should duals should be able to support some high hp numbers. Here some info for a rough idea: http://www.magnaflow.com/07techtips/faq/question10.asp
The cutout relocation may still shake you brain since because a drone oscillates the the car’s interior too. So, a solution may be a Helmholtz chamber to cancel out the drone.
01-30-2014, 07:37 AM
#305
Not much progress on anything. As usual the weather is kicking my *** this time of year. Despite having an 18K btu infrared heater in the garage (which is finished, but I'm not sure about insulated), it still struggles on the colder days. Granted, this is single digit weather we are having, so no surprise. We are coming up on a stretch of a week or so where the weather will be in the 20s and 30s so I'm looking to make good progress on the car. Before it got super cold I made quite a bit of progress on my garage decorating so I will have to show everyone once it's all done, as I'm still waiting on a few things in the mail. Otherwise it has just been progress on the inside of the house as it's the only place I can work for extended periods of time. I am considering stepping up to a big boy ceiling hung forced air unit heater for next winter.
Had to drive to Pittsburgh for business a few weeks back during a blizzard, came home to this...
I did get a chance to put together some wheel cribs to get the car off the ground while keeping the wheels on. I'll be doing some suspension work later in the year and need to have the weight on the components before torquing them down. Also nice not to have the car 6" from your nose
I caught a serious case of "while you're in there" when it came to the rear end...what started out as wanting to drop the diff to change fluid and change the diff bushings turned into "oh, I might as well replace the subframe bushings while the diff is out, and might as well pull the subframe to do that". So, the rear subframe will come out some time over the next few weeks - I am also looking to have someone local weld in some aluminum reinforcement to the front diff mount. I have always had issues with wheel hop and even some instances of the driveshaft rubbing the body so I am looking to eliminate all that.
Had to drive to Pittsburgh for business a few weeks back during a blizzard, came home to this...
I did get a chance to put together some wheel cribs to get the car off the ground while keeping the wheels on. I'll be doing some suspension work later in the year and need to have the weight on the components before torquing them down. Also nice not to have the car 6" from your nose
I caught a serious case of "while you're in there" when it came to the rear end...what started out as wanting to drop the diff to change fluid and change the diff bushings turned into "oh, I might as well replace the subframe bushings while the diff is out, and might as well pull the subframe to do that". So, the rear subframe will come out some time over the next few weeks - I am also looking to have someone local weld in some aluminum reinforcement to the front diff mount. I have always had issues with wheel hop and even some instances of the driveshaft rubbing the body so I am looking to eliminate all that.
02-03-2014, 09:41 AM
#306
pretty quiet in here...ZZzzZZ...everyone hibernating?
Things with the house are slowing down and the weather has been a bit more friendly so I tackled the rear end Friday night. It helped that the exhaust had already come off a few weeks back, but overall this was a piece of cake...I was surprised how easy it was. The original plan was 4x new subframe bushings and 3x new diff bushings, but I may throw in a bigger rear sway and do some general rear suspension maintenance as well since everything is stupid easy to get to. The parking brake shoes were down to bare metal, and the hardware needed some attention as well.
Some crappy pics of the original subframe bushings, I'm hoping this was contributing to my wheel hop. Not terrible shape but they have some age on them.
Surprisingly easy to roll around once you throw the rotors and wheels back on...
Also going to do front diff mount reinforcement while it's out.
Rather than rent the expensive tools for the subframe bushing job I'm fabbing some out of scrap. Sure glad I dragged the big box full of old angle iron over when I moved.
Things with the house are slowing down and the weather has been a bit more friendly so I tackled the rear end Friday night. It helped that the exhaust had already come off a few weeks back, but overall this was a piece of cake...I was surprised how easy it was. The original plan was 4x new subframe bushings and 3x new diff bushings, but I may throw in a bigger rear sway and do some general rear suspension maintenance as well since everything is stupid easy to get to. The parking brake shoes were down to bare metal, and the hardware needed some attention as well.
Some crappy pics of the original subframe bushings, I'm hoping this was contributing to my wheel hop. Not terrible shape but they have some age on them.
Surprisingly easy to roll around once you throw the rotors and wheels back on...
Also going to do front diff mount reinforcement while it's out.
Rather than rent the expensive tools for the subframe bushing job I'm fabbing some out of scrap. Sure glad I dragged the big box full of old angle iron over when I moved.
02-19-2014, 07:05 AM
#308
Nothing big to report, just chipping away at little stuff
Once the subframe came out the rear sway bar was staring me in the face, so I swapped it out for a thicker, 16.5mm M5 unit. Factory is 15mm. Oddly enough one of the brackets was crushed, not sure how that happened. Some monkey must have wedged a prybar or something against it at some point.
M5 on bottom, 540 on top
overall comparison, 540 on right
Crushed bracket? what...
Undamaged M5 bracket.
Not a bad idea to change things since the rubber isolators had seen better days anyhow on the 540 unit. There had to have been a fair amount of slop in this during normal movement.
After a few revisions of tools I finally got all 7 bushings out. The subframe bushings were not bad, the front diff bushing was probably in the best shape out of all of them. But the 2 rear diff bushings...oh man. Here's to hoping the new bushings cure the wheel hop I was getting.
One side
Other side
Once the subframe came out the rear sway bar was staring me in the face, so I swapped it out for a thicker, 16.5mm M5 unit. Factory is 15mm. Oddly enough one of the brackets was crushed, not sure how that happened. Some monkey must have wedged a prybar or something against it at some point.
M5 on bottom, 540 on top
overall comparison, 540 on right
Crushed bracket? what...
Undamaged M5 bracket.
Not a bad idea to change things since the rubber isolators had seen better days anyhow on the 540 unit. There had to have been a fair amount of slop in this during normal movement.
After a few revisions of tools I finally got all 7 bushings out. The subframe bushings were not bad, the front diff bushing was probably in the best shape out of all of them. But the 2 rear diff bushings...oh man. Here's to hoping the new bushings cure the wheel hop I was getting.
One side
Other side
02-19-2014, 07:44 AM
#309
Of course life has funny way of being very inconvenient, so my winter beater decided to give me issues in the middle of the winter. I had been smelling coolant for a month or two and had theories about heater core, head gasket, or best case scenario, a leaking hose, water pump, etc. No overheating ever. Some digging showed the driver's side head leaking coolant at the back of the block (apparently a common location). So everything came apart, and I replaced the following:
Heads surfaced and cleaned up
New MLS headgaskets+headbolts
Valve cover gaskets, bolt grommets, plug tube seals
Plugs and wires
water pump, thermostat, related seals
lower and upper hoses
exhaust and intake gaskets
I did the timing belt a few months ago so all those tensioners are fresh as well. The water pump was still working but had some crud built up at the weep hole, so it probably wasn't far from the end. Boy oh boy was it fun pulling the heads with the motor in the car. The head bolts are too long to put in once the heads are already hung, so you have to put them in halfway and then work everything into place as an assembly with 6 bolts rattling around while trying not to gouge the head or the new gasket. I had to jack the motor up by a few inches just to make some room. Should be wrapping it up tonight.
Not how I wanted to spend the weekend, especially with a real bad cold
Heads all ready to be slapped in. SOHC powaaaaaa
Heads surfaced and cleaned up
New MLS headgaskets+headbolts
Valve cover gaskets, bolt grommets, plug tube seals
Plugs and wires
water pump, thermostat, related seals
lower and upper hoses
exhaust and intake gaskets
I did the timing belt a few months ago so all those tensioners are fresh as well. The water pump was still working but had some crud built up at the weep hole, so it probably wasn't far from the end. Boy oh boy was it fun pulling the heads with the motor in the car. The head bolts are too long to put in once the heads are already hung, so you have to put them in halfway and then work everything into place as an assembly with 6 bolts rattling around while trying not to gouge the head or the new gasket. I had to jack the motor up by a few inches just to make some room. Should be wrapping it up tonight.
Not how I wanted to spend the weekend, especially with a real bad cold
Heads all ready to be slapped in. SOHC powaaaaaa
02-28-2014, 08:43 AM
#311
the bracket had heavy scratches and marks on the back, evidence of being dropped or force being applied from the back. new ones are in.
i dropped off the rear subframe at my tuner's shop. he is going to reinforce the front diff mount, and we also came up with a solution to help reduce/eliminate/dampen movement of the diff nose without going to a billet bushing.
i dropped off the rear subframe at my tuner's shop. he is going to reinforce the front diff mount, and we also came up with a solution to help reduce/eliminate/dampen movement of the diff nose without going to a billet bushing.
02-28-2014, 09:23 AM
#312
A Polyurethane diff bushing should take care of most of that nose movement on the diff. That setup looks very similar to the first gen CTS-V. You could also try to wedge a piece of poly between the top of the diff snout and the subframe above it.
OR if you really want to eliminate wheel hop, fab up some subframe connectors.
OR if you really want to eliminate wheel hop, fab up some subframe connectors.
02-28-2014, 09:27 AM
#313
A Polyurethane diff bushing should take care of most of that nose movement on the diff. That setup looks very similar to the first gen CTS-V. You could also try to wedge a piece of poly between the top of the diff snout and the subframe above it.
OR if you really want to eliminate wheel hop, fab up some subframe connectors.
OR if you really want to eliminate wheel hop, fab up some subframe connectors.
Your second idea is right on the money, but with a bit more finesse and adjustability. I'll post up pictures when it's done.
If all else fails I'll do subframe connectors, but I'd like to see how this works first.
03-11-2014, 07:40 AM
#317
Spent some time in the garage last night. The hose bib fitting was leaking so that came out for a new one to be sweated in - of course I ran out of half inch copper pipe couplings, so that will get done tonight.
Onto the automotive work - it was a drivetrain kind of night
Sprayed down the subframe a bit with brake cleaner, then simple green, then finally warm soapy water to clean it up.
I had drained the diff a few weeks back when I pulled it out of the car, so I filled the diff with about a quart of new Mobil 1 75W-140, and turned the output stubs quite a few times to churn up all the sediment/beer can tabs in there, and drained it. When I had the cover off I cleaned it up fairly well inside and resealed the cover, so it was nice to see only a bit of brown that came out. Filled it back up fully, torqued the plugs, done. I would have reinstalled it in the subframe last night but unfortunately my new front diff bushing melted/deformed just enough during the mount reinforcement welding that it was junk - slid out of the bore with a strong push from my fingers - so another is on order. I should have waited to install it until he had done the welding with the old one in place, so the blame is on me - but live and learn.
I also took apart the shifter on the T56 to diagnose and solve a somewhat severe rattle I had under load. The plan was to replace what I thought was a bad receiver bushing (plastic) on the shift rail. Of course I found that it had been replaced with a brass one when I had the unit rebuilt last year. The shifter itself felt funny and loose, so I disassembled that and found the aluminum cast case to be cracked in a few placed with some small bits of material missing around the central ball fitting. Keep in mind that I bought this used with unknown miles and proceeded to beat the hell out of it for 10,000 miles, so I really owe it nothing. I was never really satisfied with the shift action of the stock unit so I decided to treat myself, and picked one of these up
MGW
With all my bodywork now at the painter's I placed an order for a few things that I wanted ready when he was done so that I would not be held up, as well as some other items that I have been putting off.
Fender Liner hardware
Fender bolts (OEM Torx)
Angel eye harness - one side of the current setup is fraying/damaged and causes flickering
Axle to diff stub hardware (OEM external Torx) - with as many times as I've removed and reinstalled diffs the external torx heads on these are torn up.
Front diff bushing
Rear sway bar bushing brackets (steel) - factory material is aluminum and is prone to failure. The steel units are from an E36 M3 application
New cabin air filters- Mann
I have a lot of pictures of recent progress and details somewhere but my laptop has been acting up lately so I am in the process of backing it all up onto my HDD.
Onto the automotive work - it was a drivetrain kind of night
Sprayed down the subframe a bit with brake cleaner, then simple green, then finally warm soapy water to clean it up.
I had drained the diff a few weeks back when I pulled it out of the car, so I filled the diff with about a quart of new Mobil 1 75W-140, and turned the output stubs quite a few times to churn up all the sediment/beer can tabs in there, and drained it. When I had the cover off I cleaned it up fairly well inside and resealed the cover, so it was nice to see only a bit of brown that came out. Filled it back up fully, torqued the plugs, done. I would have reinstalled it in the subframe last night but unfortunately my new front diff bushing melted/deformed just enough during the mount reinforcement welding that it was junk - slid out of the bore with a strong push from my fingers - so another is on order. I should have waited to install it until he had done the welding with the old one in place, so the blame is on me - but live and learn.
I also took apart the shifter on the T56 to diagnose and solve a somewhat severe rattle I had under load. The plan was to replace what I thought was a bad receiver bushing (plastic) on the shift rail. Of course I found that it had been replaced with a brass one when I had the unit rebuilt last year. The shifter itself felt funny and loose, so I disassembled that and found the aluminum cast case to be cracked in a few placed with some small bits of material missing around the central ball fitting. Keep in mind that I bought this used with unknown miles and proceeded to beat the hell out of it for 10,000 miles, so I really owe it nothing. I was never really satisfied with the shift action of the stock unit so I decided to treat myself, and picked one of these up
MGW
With all my bodywork now at the painter's I placed an order for a few things that I wanted ready when he was done so that I would not be held up, as well as some other items that I have been putting off.
Fender Liner hardware
Fender bolts (OEM Torx)
Angel eye harness - one side of the current setup is fraying/damaged and causes flickering
Axle to diff stub hardware (OEM external Torx) - with as many times as I've removed and reinstalled diffs the external torx heads on these are torn up.
Front diff bushing
Rear sway bar bushing brackets (steel) - factory material is aluminum and is prone to failure. The steel units are from an E36 M3 application
New cabin air filters- Mann
I have a lot of pictures of recent progress and details somewhere but my laptop has been acting up lately so I am in the process of backing it all up onto my HDD.
03-12-2014, 11:06 AM
#318
Magnetic drain plug on the M5 differential told an interesting, but not that surprising, story
Fine paste/sludge. This is after all the liquid oil drained off, and the plug had sat overnight.
Sludge cleaned, leaving fine particles. Again not too surprising considering this was with entirely brand new clutches/disks, and was the same fluid that that I did "break in" on. Fluid has approx 10K on it.
Rear diff cover is pretty clean, no surprises.
After receiving the rear end back from my fabricator. Bet you didn't know a whole rear end will fit in a wagon!
I am running 75W-140 this year rather than the old 75W-90 last year as it is what was originally recommended for the M5 diff.
I also removed the old single fan that I robbed off a 2005ish Monte Carlo at the junkyard last year. It was originally a dual fan but didn't fit the Corvette radiator, so I carefully fabricated it to size (who are we kidding, I sawzall'd it right down the middle).
Besides looking ghetto, it obviously didn't have the CFM that two fans would, and didn't provide the extra cooling capability that something with an integrated shroud would provide.
See ya later buddy. When the radiator exploded in its face last summer, it kept working just fine with no issues, so I'm thinking that as a thanks for its fine service, I would hook it up to 12V and put empty beer cans in the blades (put on your safety glasses kids)
Empty! Note the long hose between the crank pulley and radiator that runs from the overflow bottle to the water pump area. This was previously zip tied to some plastic flanges on the old fan.
The replacement fan is an OEM dual fan out of a 4th gen LS1 WS6 Trans Am. Uses the factory mounting clips on the radiator for perfect fitment. Even the electrical connector is the same! I just need to wire up another connector via relay to feed the 2nd fan, and have my tuner activate the 2nd fan in the tune.
How's that for OEM: the WS6 LS1 fan even comes with these nice clips that probably held the old fan harness. I used them for the previously mentioned coolant line and it fits like it was designed to be there. Sorry, no pics of the fan installed.
Pulled the cluster and MID as they both have had missing pixels since day 1. My money is usually spent on less trivial things but a specialist somewhere in the northwest does both for $150, so I can't go wrong with that.
Finished up the evening by pulling the rear bumper in preparation for the new one.
Fine paste/sludge. This is after all the liquid oil drained off, and the plug had sat overnight.
Sludge cleaned, leaving fine particles. Again not too surprising considering this was with entirely brand new clutches/disks, and was the same fluid that that I did "break in" on. Fluid has approx 10K on it.
Rear diff cover is pretty clean, no surprises.
After receiving the rear end back from my fabricator. Bet you didn't know a whole rear end will fit in a wagon!
I am running 75W-140 this year rather than the old 75W-90 last year as it is what was originally recommended for the M5 diff.
I also removed the old single fan that I robbed off a 2005ish Monte Carlo at the junkyard last year. It was originally a dual fan but didn't fit the Corvette radiator, so I carefully fabricated it to size (who are we kidding, I sawzall'd it right down the middle).
Besides looking ghetto, it obviously didn't have the CFM that two fans would, and didn't provide the extra cooling capability that something with an integrated shroud would provide.
See ya later buddy. When the radiator exploded in its face last summer, it kept working just fine with no issues, so I'm thinking that as a thanks for its fine service, I would hook it up to 12V and put empty beer cans in the blades (put on your safety glasses kids)
Empty! Note the long hose between the crank pulley and radiator that runs from the overflow bottle to the water pump area. This was previously zip tied to some plastic flanges on the old fan.
The replacement fan is an OEM dual fan out of a 4th gen LS1 WS6 Trans Am. Uses the factory mounting clips on the radiator for perfect fitment. Even the electrical connector is the same! I just need to wire up another connector via relay to feed the 2nd fan, and have my tuner activate the 2nd fan in the tune.
How's that for OEM: the WS6 LS1 fan even comes with these nice clips that probably held the old fan harness. I used them for the previously mentioned coolant line and it fits like it was designed to be there. Sorry, no pics of the fan installed.
Pulled the cluster and MID as they both have had missing pixels since day 1. My money is usually spent on less trivial things but a specialist somewhere in the northwest does both for $150, so I can't go wrong with that.
Finished up the evening by pulling the rear bumper in preparation for the new one.
03-12-2014, 11:51 AM
#320
yeah, it's a work in progress...I have a semi-updated build thread over on Garage Journal, but I'm waiting to really finish it up before I post results. Right now I'm torn between putting in a recessed scissor lift (including concrete work) into the existing space, or putting on an addition for an oversized 3rd bay with a 2 post lift.
Realistically I'd like to put some sort of epoxy/polyurethane floor down in the existing space regardless of what I do with a lift. I just hate the look of stained, dirty, bare concrete.
Realistically I'd like to put some sort of epoxy/polyurethane floor down in the existing space regardless of what I do with a lift. I just hate the look of stained, dirty, bare concrete.