My Hot Rod build: Supercharged & Nitrous BMW V8 T-Bucket

Mykk

Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2016
Messages
14
Location
Prescott, Arizona, U.S.
Car(s)
E34 540i V8 6MT
Hey everyone, I've wanted to post a few pics of a little hot rod I've been putting together. It's a blended concoction of various different automotive worlds that I've been a part in and I wanted to make a weird little street machine that wraps up the sum of my personality. Loud, Aggressive, Funny looking.... you get the idea. I love Hot Rods and custom cars, I also have a place in my heart for euro V8's. I'm a techie nerd that also enjoys playing with automotive fuel injection computer systems and tuning. So I present to you my supercharged BMW V8 with nitrous in a T-bucket, still under major construction:

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Lets start at the begining, the engine:

An late 90's BMW 4.4L M62B44 short block, shown with RaceWare head studs:

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Also, a dismantler take out early 90's BMW 4.0L V8 M60B40 from a 7 series.


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This engine is for the cylinder heads, cams, timing covers & misc hardware:

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Measuring piston height, I was surprised to see pistons were above deck @ TDC. I was also getting a different reading depending where on the piston I measured from and found them to be slightly dished.

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Measured roughly 5cc of volume in piston crowns with a +.025" piston height.

Cylinder heads back from the machine shop:

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Measured roughly 52cc of volume in each chamber.

I had received a recommendation to open up the bank 2 coolant port at the back of the block to closer match bank 1 port to aid in balanced coolant flow to all cylinders:

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Heads on & adapters for the belt driven intake manifold. The readily available MLS headgasket for the application comes in at 1.74mm compressed thickness. By my calc this lands static compression around 9.6:1

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The timing set up is a double row chain & gear idler set up from the early 90's M60 4.0L engine, the native timing set up for the M62 4.4L is a single chain that uses a plastic U-guide in the middle. That plastic U-guide always shatters and causes the detrimental engine failure these engines were known for,

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The belt driven intake manifold is an Eaton M112 from a late 90's Jaguar. The adapter on the BMW heads allows the Jaguar water-to-air intercoolers and injection manifolds to bolt down.

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Dialing in cam timing:

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Using aftermarket timing blocks to set up cam timing I had found that cam timings landed around:

@.1mm lift:
Intake opens 12° BTDC / Intake closes 48° ABDC
Exhaust opens 48° ABDC / Exhaust closes 12° ATDC

240°/240° duration -108° intake centerline / 108° lobe separation

@1mm lift:
Intake opens 2° ATDC / Intake closes 33° ABDC
Exhaust opens 33° BBDC / Exhaust closes 7° BTDC

211°/206° Duration - 107.5° Intake centerline / 108.75° lobe separation

Also found that with the aftermarket timing blocks bank 1 cam timing was 2 degrees advanced from bank 2. My final choice of cam timings are 110° ICL and a 112° LSA @ .001mm to aid with boost by slightly retarding intake cam to reduce dynamic compression and reduce overlap.

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Modifying the supercharger to bolt down to it's new home:

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Modifying valve cover hold downs for some dress up:

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Of course what Frankensteins monsters of an engine wouldn't be complete without nitrous:

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Pictured above is a single stage wet shot. Since the pic was taken the fuel solenoid has been changed to a 2nd nitrous solenoid for a 2 stage shot, 60hp & 150hp total. The extra fueling will be provided by the EFI.

That about wraps up the engine build. Let's start building the car:

Started with a fiberglass '23 T body and a repro '32 Ford grill

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Next a mid 70's jaguar independent rear end and a BMW getrag 420g 6 speed manual trans

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Rear wheels; American racing VN502 10" wide x 15" dia, M&H cheater slicks 30" x 14.5" (12" tread)

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Front axle, spindles, brakes, front wheels (15" x 5" with Firestone 155/80 tires), split wishbone radius arms:

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Mid 90's BMW 5 series 265mm clutch and a single mass lightweight flywheel:

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Frame:

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...This is where I'm currently at in the project, everything is still in mock up. Nothing is bolted down or welded together. I wanted to get a general idea of layout and proportion before making final commitments on ideas. But now the real fun begins, actually putting it together and getting everything to work.


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This is by no means ever meant to be a show car or a pro race car, this is something I'm putting together for myself for some street fun. If I can get it to pass a tech inspection maybe even a few passes down a drag strip. I do have this road trip goal however, to drive my project from where I live in Arizona to the California coast join the Hwy 1 in Santa Monica and cruise the coast north to where I grew up in San Francisco, This is a road trip I've always wanted to do and to do it in a car I built makes it even better...although cramped, frustrating and at times painful.

Thanks for checking out my project and please check back for updates.
 
I wish I had the skills to do something like this, or at least "apprentice" to a someone doing this type of build who would put up with me learning under their guidance.
 
I really want to see video of this!

This is fantastic work!
 
Welp, best thread in quite a while.
Congrats on the project and hope it goes as planned.
 
Awesome. I've always dreamed to do something like that but without any skills it stays as a dream.
 
Interesting build, to say the least.
 
I have no clue about mechanics, but it sounds all very impressive. :D

Joking aside, this looks properly awesome. :thumbsup:
 
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