My z3 refurb

[sajk]

Hi All,
This has been a rewarding project I started a year or so ago as funds became available. Starting point was my z which I have owned since 1998 when I purchased it as a demo with 3000 ks. It's now done just 64000 or so and was neglected while I went through  bit of  jeep wrangler phase. It's in pretty good condition.

So what's been done so far is

Complete top to the maintenance and fluid change
Bonnet respray due to rat damage
Paint touch up were required
Fix minor bumper dings
Swap in intake manifold from 3.0 m54
Swap in intake cam from 3.0 m54
Replace all rubber suspension bushes
Mz3 roadster front control arms with solid rubber bushes
Poly subframe bushes
New bilstein shocks all around
Recon abs pump 
Rear sway bar from z3 coupe which is a little heavier at 17mm
Powerflow back box
Modern rubber
M wheels
Custom tune from active autowerke in the states using logging and wide band o2 for dialing in.

So now the m52tu 2.8 is basicly a 2.8 m54 from a breathing point of view and it has not been on a dyno but it can achieve the advertised 0-100km time in the handbook at joburg altitude which it could never do before. The intake cam and manifold change really change the TU and while it's lost some torque below 3k it roars from there to 7k and shows no sign of slowing down when I hits the limiter.

In terms of the way it drives the suspension changes have livened it up with better turn in,  less roll and generally feels well planted. It does ride a little harder but I guess that's to be expected when you swap out 22 year old components. 

Still to do is headers and I would like some more power so perhaps Schrick cams at some stage.

Who in joburg builds these engines?

Anyway thought you guys might be interested. It's a fun little car. Looks stock. It will never be an s54 based z roadster but it is what I have.

 

[Peter@AEW]

Overhaul your vanos unit and you will find the missing torque

 

[sajk]

You think it needs it at this mileage ? It seems to more of a function of the manifold and cam changes which reduce low rpm air flow speed and cylinder fill thus reducing torque at low rpm

 

[Peter@AEW]

You think it needs it at this mileage ? It seems to more of a function of the manifold and cam changes which reduce low rpm air flow speed and cylinder fill thus reducing torque at low rpm

The factory vanos seals fail after roughly 20000Kms. 

As the seal fails oil seepage occurs and the cam does not advance until flow and pressure exceed the seepage at which time the cam advances.

Your engine will have a dead spot on acceleration at roughly 2500 revs and just over that rev range it will appear to gain speed quickly.
Those motors have a linear acceleration and you should at no stage feel a marked difference in acceleration .

"[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]cam changes which reduce low rpm air flow speed and cylinder fill thus reducing torque at low rpm" consider that the ecu expects to see the cam at a specific angle when activated by the vanos and that is not reached due to pressure loss and thus angle movement of the cam.[/font]
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]All that is vanos influenced.[/font]

 

[sajk]

Ok so at 62k kilos the seals should be ok?

I think I remember seeing vanos test in inpa. Will take a look.

 

[Peter@AEW]

At 20 000kms the seals have become hardened and brittle
You are at 60 000kms
The vanos test in INPA will only tell you whether the unit is operational and I am not sure whether on the early vanos units it gives a response time as it does on the later units.