Mark's 316 M52/2.8 + Cat cams & Jenvey ITB's

[jls7]

I almost wish you weren't painting it... I love it in that colour with that spoiler and wheels.

[e21-Mark]

New bearing arrived and so can finally get the new WMS billet 4 pot callipers & 298mm discs on. Keri @ WMS did a great job with getting everything machine accurately and it all went on without a hitch. Using braided hoses and HAWK fast road pads.

[Jeroen]

Looks great and must give some stopping power!

[e21-Mark]

I hope so.

Now that all that linkage has gone the brakes should be much more positive too. Add the bigger brakes and quality pads, they should be transformed over stock.

[Jeroen]

All the complaints I always hear about RHD brakes they must be horrible. Then now to an uprated system, must be from hell to heaven!

[e21-Mark]

Well things are moving along with MIB - honest! In fact, we could well be finished within just a few weeks now. I'm properly excited!



The brakes are awesome. If they work anywhere near as good as they look, I'll be laughing. We hope to offer complete conversions once testing is over.







The race car is also coming along and should just about make the gathering next month.

[Jeroen]

All good news!!!!

[e21-Mark]

Things are progressing with MIB but there have been loads of hurdles to overcome. I guess that's to be expected with so much custom fabrication but even some of the supposed 'bolt on' bits have had their issues.

When we were looking at what engine to go with, we considered the S50/3.0 from the early e36 M3. The problem, apart from the cost of the engine, were also maintenance costs. We know the M52 makes less power but they're just so cheap and readily available. This one was just a couple of hundred quid! Once we'd settled on the M52, we wanted to get the most from it and a common mod is to use the USA spec M3 cams and the M50 inlet manifold. This gives around 240 brake. Because the US cams are quite hard to source, Cat Camshafts supplied their 'fast road' profiles which are about the same profile. We've used Cat camshafts before and always found they performed well. If we had the budget we would have gone for Schrick but we had to try and keep a lid on costs.

Anyway, on fitting the new cams we discovered the end plate on one wouldn't fit. It seems that they simply forgot to machine it down, so rather than send the camshaft back we got a local machine shop to finish it off. Cat were very apologetic and would have sorted it, but we just wanted to get it done asap. So, after a bit of last minute fettling, the new cams are in.

The wiring still needs to be sorted and we want to keep the amount of e36 loom used to a minimum. We also want there to be minimal wiring in view in the engine bay. We know it's only cosmetic but with the loss of all that brake linkage and servo it'll just look so much nicer under there.

Whilst it would have been nice to have individual throttle bodies, it would have just been too expensive. The performance gains aren't big enough to justify the costs either. So, what we plan doing is building a bespoke airbox and cold air intake. The plan is to lay fibreglass and shape it to the space between inner wing and throttle body. It's hard to describe but when it's done we can post a few pictures. Hopefully it'll give a nice induction sound too?! It should also help keep the nitrous install hidden.

Anyway, a few pictures that we took when sorting the camshaft issues. I owe a big thank you to Cat Camshafts.







Done and dusted!



Track car is due back on Friday. It's being painted and coming back prior to going to Rally Prep in Cornwall for the engine and final set-up. The guys at Rally Prep have also got a couple of E21 of their own. One is going to be a full on rally car, the other seems to have pretty much all the Alpina option boxes ticked (including diff cooling cover on the LSD) but history is a bit lacking. There are several E21 appearing in UK club level motorsport now.

[Jeroen]

Nice progress again!

[e21-Mark]

Mick is moving workshops but his brother has been working through some of the jobs needing to be finished on MIB. All the brake lines - solid and braided flexi - have been changed. The servo has been mounted in its final spot and the wiring has been worked through. The fuse box was replaced with a blade fuse box and is now inside the glove box. In fact, there is pretty much no wiring under the engine bay now. The ECU is going to Lukaz at BMW-ECU-Tuning and he's removing EWS and installing his 243bhp map. I've spoken to a couple of people who've used his services and they were all happy. I'll have it mapped live eventually.

Mick is going to get the arches shaped and crack on with the paintwork next.

[Jeroen]

Nice! Curious to see the engine bay with minimal wiring.

[e21-Mark]

Going over next week so will take some pics.

Talking of pics. I took some at Goodwood today.

https://www.facebook.com/JackyardBackof ... um_comment

[Jeroen]

So nice. Already decided, next year I MUST be at the Revival!

[raseeda green]

Exellent stuff can't wait to see this Car

[e21-Mark]

Got a pair of re-packable race silencers gifted to me which will work nicely with MIB. The new loom is 75% finished and once done, just the paint and interior remain to be finished.

Obviously they need a dose of Autosol and elbow grease, but they should sound awesome.