McCall's Z3 M Roadtser LS1 Project

[McCall]

Re: McCall's Z3 M Roadtser LS1 Project

Update!!! Yes, it's on like Donkey Kong now and I WANT to get this car running before the end of the summer!

Fair delivered my beautiful new steering shaft & p1mp driveshaft. The driveshaft is in and I just got new bolts/nuts to mount it to the MZ3 diff so check that off the list. The steering shaft will be in (maybe tonight) so the car is officially a full rolling car again.

My credit card is still smoking as I just ordered the following-
LS6 intake/tb/fuel injectors
Techrod custom wiring harness
new plugs/wires
3 last adapters/fitting for the AN fuel system
Hawk HP+ pads F&R
Turn-One Power Steering Pump
Set-back shift lever (I hope it works)
gas pedal

Parts that have arrived and need to be installed-
E36 M3 front calipers/brackets (going to be selling off the non-vented Willwood set-up)
Two-piece M3 rotors
Sparco seats/slider
AN -8 fuel lines, fuel filter, fittings, adapters
FAST Fuel rail

Still to be done-
Mount ABS module (custom bracket needed)
New front hard brake lines L&R
Flare/fittings for both rear brake lines
New SS flex brake lines for the the front
Mount Radiator (custom brackets needed)
Determine radiator hoses/overflow solution
full custom exhaust
Find used headlights
install dash/center console
wiring, wiring, wiring

So, in the coming weeks I'll be working on this inbetween travel and the $2010 project car. I might also try to plan a few works nights to get some help knocking this stuff out. Pizza/beer will be offered up!

[Fair!]

Re: McCall's Z3 M Roadtser LS1 Project

Update for May 28th, 2010: Trying to keep Jason motivated on this project is becoming difficult!

This weekend I'm going to try to get the new Z3 steering shaft built and installed on this car, so it is at least easier to push around. The custom Z3 length driveshaft is already on the car, but damn if I can find any pictures I took...

More soon!

[Fair!]

Re: McCall's Z3 M Roadtser LS1 Project

Update for Jan 26, 2010: Long time no update! After buying, modding and racing the old Vorshlag E30 318is several months ago, McCall has actually been working on this Z3 LS1 project and fits and spurts, with the majority of the progress happening late in 2009. Some old friends flew into town and they spent much of a weekend installing some rear suspension bits. The car now has the rear diff and suspension back in the car, after some much needed fab cleanup and new offset camber adjustment bolts (from Ireland, who source them from an E39 BMW 5-series).


Fuel system upgrades underway

He and friend Ed tackled some early fuel system upgrades, adding billet fuel rails, a Fuel Pressure Regulator, and started running -4 braided feed and return lines from the stock tank to.... somewhere. (ignore the caption above that says -8 lines). A gaggle of fittings and line sizes are needed to finish this out. After a brief sidetrack with a potential custom fuel cell (crazy!), and a slight intervention for sanity, the fuel system plan now looks more thought out. An existing Wlabro 255 lph in-tank pump will round out the fuel system, as well as (I hope?) some upgraded injectors and an LS6 intake.


FAST fuel rails and Aeromotive FP regulator shown installed

I stopped by on the 26th and brought a "standard E36 length" T56/LS1 swap driveshaft we had built for a customer that week, mocking it up onto the transmission and measuring for fit into the Z3 chassis. The Z3 driveshaft is nearly 10" shorter, but as you can see the shifter location is moved several inches forward of the stock location (which "feels" fine when sitting in the car, actually). The steering shaft also needs to be substantially longer, but all our other Vorshlag E36 LS1 swap parts work in the Z3 without modification, including the headers, motor mounts and trans crossmember.


Right: I need to make a longer 2-piece steering shaft to attach to the U-joints he purchased from us

I'm building the driveshaft this week and will take pics of it in the car soon. Also have to make a longer steering shaft. The driveshaft and the final work on the fuel system are the last things needed before tackling the wiring and other plumbing issues (fuel, coolant, brakes). Then... its time to put the wheels back on, fill up the fluids, and crank it.

Lots to do...

[Fair!]

Re: McCall's Z3 M Roadtser LS1 Project

From the way it sounds this is going to be a race car. Is this correct?

Uhh, yea. It quit being a street car before he bought it. Although, you never know with McCall. I think he's going to reinstall the dash and maybe the center console (that's all it needs to meet the "modified" class for Redline Time Attack!).

Here's a brief summary on this car/project that McCall posted on 5/4/2009 over on Bimmerforums, after I started his project thread there:

Thanks for prodding me enough and finally starting a build thread for me Fair. I just didn't want to start a thread too early as I knew work would be limited quite a bit this last year and didn't want to have one of those project started threads that never gets finished and the poster just disappears. My job also has me traveling a bunch so there may be some time between posts. My schedule is getting a bit lighter plus parts are starting to come together so things should continue to move along in the next few months so now it makes sense to start posting up about the project.

The car - '00 M Roadster, 24k original miles. Now before you BMW purists start, this car has lead a very rough life and was a partially disassembled rolling chassis plus cut up a bit before I got a hold of it. Basically it was no spring chicken! The car came with full complement of chassis upgrades (coil-overs, dual-tab diff mount), the afore mentioned CCWs, TC Kline carbon fiber hood, Fluiddyne radiator, and matching hardtop (no I'm not selling it)

Plans - Dual purpose SCCA X-Prepared autoxer plus a NASA TTU Time Trialer. The car will still be "streetable" but overall it will be a pretty much gutted out dedicated race car. I will retain the dash and some semblance of interior pieces though.

Project Timeline - The goal right now is to have the car running around the autox course by August. Will it be completely finished by then? Heck no but at least it will be moving quickly under its own power and I can start to work out the bugs. After it runs a few local events, I'll start on the full cage and a bunch of other upgrades that will allow the car to compete in time trials.

First off, big thanks to the Vorshlag boys for helping to brainstorming this project idea and then getting/building the right parts for the job. *Big disclaimer* - both Fair and Hanchey are long time friends of mine going back 20 years so this thread, of course, will be biased toward their kit.

As Fair stated, this past weekend saw some great strides as we confirmed that not only the E36 motor mounts worked in the Roadster, but both the tranny crossmember and the headers fit as well with no modifications! So anyone wanting to do a Z3 roadster (or Coupe- please someone do a Coupe!), the Vorshlag LS1 E36 kit is a "bolt-in". The only part I will not be able to use from their off-the-shelf kit is the driveshaft, but I'm going to use their same Vendor. The length is going to be the only the difference. I'll post up pics and dimensions here once that part is ordered/delivered. Vomo will probably take that info and be able to offer it in a Z3 kit I’m sure.

I'll continue to use this tread to post updates and pictures as the car starts to come together. After I get the headers, steering, and front end back on the car, the next step is to work on the all new fuel system (maybe a fuel cell??), then I'll re-do all the brake lines, cooling system, then I'll finally tackle the complete wiring harness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLhKZ53h5jg

The previous owner of this car also posted this video, from when they had the car running an S52 with a huge turbo (11.1@130 mph drag race pass.

[Thinkkker]

Re: McCall's Z3 M Roadtser LS1 Project

From the way it sounds this is going to be a race car. Is this correct?