Mail Order Hot Rod, BMW V8 drivetrain. Build #2
Discussion
Hello from across the pond in the states.
Mark #1 has been on the road for 3.5 years now, I figured it was time to start building Mark #2 applying the lessons learned from putting #1 together. This project was started roughly 8 months ago. Mark #2 will also be the canvas for a few new ideas as well.
The 2nd build will maintain the same Modus Operandi with a similar frame, similar body and similar drivetrain. Ordering one piece at a time.
Starting with a frame: By ordering a frame rather then building one I receive a notarized Manufacturer Statement of Origin Certificate (M.S.O) from the builder. When the time comes for VIN assignment my local Motor Vehicles Department treats the M.S.O as a Bill of Sale, and the inspection is less stringent compared to building the frame from scratch.
Jaguar IRS, 3.54:1 with Powr-lok carrier.
Fiberglass T-bucket tub, with right hand side door (passenger):
Cleaning up the diff:
An idea for this build, hanging the Jag IRS off a perch from the rear of the frame.
Making the center support structure for the steering gear and fuel tank mounting:
Using a GM Tri-5 manual steering gear with a 16:1 turn ratio, reversing the throw:
The fuel tank has been a topic of concern since it's inception, I knew I didn't want it behind the tub out in the open. So I took a page from the early Model A's and mounted it under the cowl. A more talented fabricator could have made a tank to utilize the space more efficiently, I'm using generic mail order components and fitting them the best I can. I figure it's only one step away from a motorcycle with the fuel tank between your marbles.
Making the transmission K-member:
Mounted all of the electronics under the seat:
The grill is two '32 Ford steep re-pops, using the top halves of the shell with one flipped upside down:
Shortening the frame:
The drivetrain of choice is a mid-late 90's BMW M60/M62 V8 and it's matching Getrag 6 speed manual. I've got an 2000's M62TUB44, which is the later variant with variable intake cam timing. Pictured below with aftermarket independent throttle bodies for the Toyota 1UZ and turbo headers meant for the modular Ford engines.
Making header adapters, test fitting on build #1:
Custom made CNC spacers for the BMW heads that will allow me to drill & tap for the 1UZ bolt pattern to bolt down the ITB manifolds:
Picked up two more BMW V8's, both of these are mid-late 90's.
One is a M60B40 and the other an M62B44. The M60 has the more desirable cams and timing chains, the other has the desirable larger displacement. The plan is to combine both engines together to make one 4.4L V8 with the larger cams and double row timing chains.
The mock up & fab will continue on the engine in the frame, until I can get the primary use engine put together. Granted nothing detrimental has occurred between them.
Fitting the door:
Windshield mount posts & frame:
...and we're caught up with my current progress on the project. I'm thinking the paint scheme will be a pearloid metal flake white, blue offset stripe (my nod to BMW) and gold pinstripe & accents.
Yes, that is an Eaton M112 from a Jaguar x308 on the BMW V8 in the Build #1.
Thank you for checking out my projects. I'll update the thread as progress is made.
Mark #1 has been on the road for 3.5 years now, I figured it was time to start building Mark #2 applying the lessons learned from putting #1 together. This project was started roughly 8 months ago. Mark #2 will also be the canvas for a few new ideas as well.
The 2nd build will maintain the same Modus Operandi with a similar frame, similar body and similar drivetrain. Ordering one piece at a time.
Starting with a frame: By ordering a frame rather then building one I receive a notarized Manufacturer Statement of Origin Certificate (M.S.O) from the builder. When the time comes for VIN assignment my local Motor Vehicles Department treats the M.S.O as a Bill of Sale, and the inspection is less stringent compared to building the frame from scratch.
Jaguar IRS, 3.54:1 with Powr-lok carrier.
Fiberglass T-bucket tub, with right hand side door (passenger):
Cleaning up the diff:
An idea for this build, hanging the Jag IRS off a perch from the rear of the frame.
Making the center support structure for the steering gear and fuel tank mounting:
Using a GM Tri-5 manual steering gear with a 16:1 turn ratio, reversing the throw:
The fuel tank has been a topic of concern since it's inception, I knew I didn't want it behind the tub out in the open. So I took a page from the early Model A's and mounted it under the cowl. A more talented fabricator could have made a tank to utilize the space more efficiently, I'm using generic mail order components and fitting them the best I can. I figure it's only one step away from a motorcycle with the fuel tank between your marbles.
Making the transmission K-member:
Mounted all of the electronics under the seat:
The grill is two '32 Ford steep re-pops, using the top halves of the shell with one flipped upside down:
Shortening the frame:
The drivetrain of choice is a mid-late 90's BMW M60/M62 V8 and it's matching Getrag 6 speed manual. I've got an 2000's M62TUB44, which is the later variant with variable intake cam timing. Pictured below with aftermarket independent throttle bodies for the Toyota 1UZ and turbo headers meant for the modular Ford engines.
Making header adapters, test fitting on build #1:
Custom made CNC spacers for the BMW heads that will allow me to drill & tap for the 1UZ bolt pattern to bolt down the ITB manifolds:
Picked up two more BMW V8's, both of these are mid-late 90's.
One is a M60B40 and the other an M62B44. The M60 has the more desirable cams and timing chains, the other has the desirable larger displacement. The plan is to combine both engines together to make one 4.4L V8 with the larger cams and double row timing chains.
The mock up & fab will continue on the engine in the frame, until I can get the primary use engine put together. Granted nothing detrimental has occurred between them.
Fitting the door:
Windshield mount posts & frame:
...and we're caught up with my current progress on the project. I'm thinking the paint scheme will be a pearloid metal flake white, blue offset stripe (my nod to BMW) and gold pinstripe & accents.
Yes, that is an Eaton M112 from a Jaguar x308 on the BMW V8 in the Build #1.
Thank you for checking out my projects. I'll update the thread as progress is made.
Edited by Mykk on Tuesday 5th August 05:36
Thank you for sharing this. I enjoyed your brief commentary with the photos.
There is quite a following for that style car here in France. However they seem to be shunned a bit. I have gone to a lot of car shows here and they barre them, for some reason they only like old Renaults and Citroens.
Bonne continuation.
There is quite a following for that style car here in France. However they seem to be shunned a bit. I have gone to a lot of car shows here and they barre them, for some reason they only like old Renaults and Citroens.
Bonne continuation.
For your entertainment; A word (rather...several) about the EFI controller on these projects. I am currently experimenting with different firmwares to run the EFI.
The EFI controller is an Arduino based system called Speeduino. The Arduino shield that houses the I/O circuits for the fuel injection hardware is specifically called a UA4C. Which is just one of many, many variants of I/O shields for the Speeduino platform. It has 4 fuel injector output channels and 4 ignition output channels. As well as a slew of various sensor inputs and auxiliary outputs. The 4 fuel and 4 ignition channels run the V8 in paired cylinder injection and waste spark ignition. The fuel channels drive the fuel injectors directly, the ignition channels need an external ignition control module to drive the coils. I like to use self igniting coils with the drivers built into the coil this way the 5v logic level spark outputs from the board get wired directly to the coils. Running paired cylinder fuel and spark allows me to run the system on a crank sensor without a cam sensor, Every cylinders injector and spark fires once every 360 degrees instead of once every 720 degrees.
I use SpeedyEFI kits that come with the UA4C board, Arduino Mega2560, project case with mountable end caps and an 8ft length of harness pigtail to wire to the fuel injection hardware.
There are more advanced systems and advanced hardware in the Open Source EFI category. For my needs I like the simplicity of this set up, I can still diagnose and Band-Aid this set up on the side of the road if needed. Less is more.
The Speeduino firmware has worked fine on the Arduino Mega's for me over the years. The only issues I ever have are either self inflicted, or problems on the Arduinos. I have not run into problems with the Speeduino itself.
Recently an adapter board fell on my radar that converts an STMF4 chip to an Arduino Mega2560 footprint and has the step up/down converters to adjust the 3.3v -5v I/O. This adapter allows the use of running the firmware from another player in the DIY Open Source EFI game called RusEFI.
RusEFI is known for it's insanely feature rich operating system. Upon further digging I found branches of the RusEFI firmware modified by other individuals. One called FOME, which feels and looks like a cleaned up and less chaotic version of RusEFI with less features. And another that I really like called EpicEFI. EpicEFI is also a cleaned up RusEFI that has more features than FOME and also has their own firmware specific features not on other platforms.
As an example: I'm going to post screenshots of each operating systems VE table. Just to give a generalized idea of the differences in resolution between them. Of course there are many, many other differences between them...to many to post here.
Pay no mind to the Y and X axis header information, those are customizable to any value we need....
Speeduino with 16x16 and whole integer VE values:
RusEFI/FOME with 16x16 and tenths decimal VE values:
EpicEFI with a 20x20 and hundredths decimal VE values:
... and there is another trick up my sleeve. There is another STM32 to Arduino Mega footprint adapter that uses the more powerful STM32F7 chip instead of the F4.
EpicEFI with F7 chip, 32x32 with hundredths decimal VE resolution:
EpicEFI also has an accel enrichment strategy called MAP prediction AE, it is the cleanest and fastest responding accel enrichment I have ever used.
As of now I have my Supercharged BMW V8 running on a Speeduino UA4C board with an STM32F7 chip running EpicEFI firmware. The plan is to do the same formula to run Alpha-N for the independent throttles on the new build. Holy Moly this world of Open Source DIY EFI is nuts.
The EFI controller is an Arduino based system called Speeduino. The Arduino shield that houses the I/O circuits for the fuel injection hardware is specifically called a UA4C. Which is just one of many, many variants of I/O shields for the Speeduino platform. It has 4 fuel injector output channels and 4 ignition output channels. As well as a slew of various sensor inputs and auxiliary outputs. The 4 fuel and 4 ignition channels run the V8 in paired cylinder injection and waste spark ignition. The fuel channels drive the fuel injectors directly, the ignition channels need an external ignition control module to drive the coils. I like to use self igniting coils with the drivers built into the coil this way the 5v logic level spark outputs from the board get wired directly to the coils. Running paired cylinder fuel and spark allows me to run the system on a crank sensor without a cam sensor, Every cylinders injector and spark fires once every 360 degrees instead of once every 720 degrees.
I use SpeedyEFI kits that come with the UA4C board, Arduino Mega2560, project case with mountable end caps and an 8ft length of harness pigtail to wire to the fuel injection hardware.
There are more advanced systems and advanced hardware in the Open Source EFI category. For my needs I like the simplicity of this set up, I can still diagnose and Band-Aid this set up on the side of the road if needed. Less is more.
The Speeduino firmware has worked fine on the Arduino Mega's for me over the years. The only issues I ever have are either self inflicted, or problems on the Arduinos. I have not run into problems with the Speeduino itself.
Recently an adapter board fell on my radar that converts an STMF4 chip to an Arduino Mega2560 footprint and has the step up/down converters to adjust the 3.3v -5v I/O. This adapter allows the use of running the firmware from another player in the DIY Open Source EFI game called RusEFI.
RusEFI is known for it's insanely feature rich operating system. Upon further digging I found branches of the RusEFI firmware modified by other individuals. One called FOME, which feels and looks like a cleaned up and less chaotic version of RusEFI with less features. And another that I really like called EpicEFI. EpicEFI is also a cleaned up RusEFI that has more features than FOME and also has their own firmware specific features not on other platforms.
As an example: I'm going to post screenshots of each operating systems VE table. Just to give a generalized idea of the differences in resolution between them. Of course there are many, many other differences between them...to many to post here.
Pay no mind to the Y and X axis header information, those are customizable to any value we need....
Speeduino with 16x16 and whole integer VE values:
RusEFI/FOME with 16x16 and tenths decimal VE values:
EpicEFI with a 20x20 and hundredths decimal VE values:
... and there is another trick up my sleeve. There is another STM32 to Arduino Mega footprint adapter that uses the more powerful STM32F7 chip instead of the F4.
EpicEFI with F7 chip, 32x32 with hundredths decimal VE resolution:
EpicEFI also has an accel enrichment strategy called MAP prediction AE, it is the cleanest and fastest responding accel enrichment I have ever used.
As of now I have my Supercharged BMW V8 running on a Speeduino UA4C board with an STM32F7 chip running EpicEFI firmware. The plan is to do the same formula to run Alpha-N for the independent throttles on the new build. Holy Moly this world of Open Source DIY EFI is nuts.
Edited by Mykk on Wednesday 10th September 16:34
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