It was impossible to make version 1 simpler. A straight tube Cr25Mo4, 2 threaded welding busses and 2 rod ends.
But again we wanted to replace our very simple throttle cable by a drive by wire system. The actuator location forced us to reshape our straight tube. Some saw and welding work later both items were again in perfect condition without touching each other.
From start on it did not feel right. We made it quiet difficult for ourselves by making some wrong choices in the past. Additionally we wanted to have an adjustable support so we were able to perfectly align the gearbox. Sometimes if you want too much it can start to look as a dragon.
The right time for a face lift. We changed the ST52.3 steel to lightweight AL7075 and removed the rod ends. We also optimized the shape to save some additional weight. To make it look sexy we anodized it in blue. See the pictures for the final result.
For some dark reason for a S14, very often we find the pressure regulator in the area of the CAM wheels. With our original setup it was even worse. The fuel was guided inside the CAM housing. Far from good since the fuel heats up easily by the hot oil splashing around.
Since we have sequential ignition we had to move the regulator anyway because we need this place for installing the CAM sensor.
We were pretty sure we would never break the world record for fuel consumption (economy) with the R-Box M3, but in the mean time we discovered that our BMW belongs to the category heavy drinkers. This has of course an impact on our fuel tank. Was it naivety or did we too much focus on the more attractive prices of the standard fuel cells? We don’t know.
Due to the fact the Romans made a complete wrong decision by only putting 4 weekends in a month, we are again forced to change our 2015 calendar. The goal was to do in March a small rally to test but we won’t be ready. Due to some last minute changes to the fuel tank we are again experiencing some delay.
Due to a delivery of wrong crimp contacts for the coil connectors, we could not finish the wiring between Christmas and new years eve.
Fortunately, we found a good “contact” in the UK for these exotic automotive connectors and with a little delay we have received the correct ones. Thus we were able to craft this weekend a little further to the wiring.
A pair of sensors after everything is ready . We can now produce huge sparks and the floodgates of the eight fuel injectors fully open up so that we are sure we will at no time gallons of fuel can swallow . Gradually the end comes closer. Some snapshots to tease :-)
However a worthy attempt to win some extra time ended miserably . Due to some late changes or things that became clear long after the electronics were designed, it was necessary to change some things. Because it took too much time to create dedicated PCB’s for these small changes I thought it was a good idea to make some proto boards and use epoxy for potting.
Apparently the 80’s were very inspiring. Also the E30 was a 80’s product. Especially the typical sound brings about goosebumps to many people. For that reason we do a lot of effort to reconstruct this “eargasm” as good as possible. Less is punishable !!
I stopped counting the hours that I camped in the very cosy co-driver space to install some wiring. What I do know is that we have hidden 400m wire all over the M3. Additionally we used approx. 25 m CAN cable and double this length for sensor cable. Comparing to the original wiring this is almost nothing.
