A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

[Tristan]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Thanks for typing all that Stephen , like you , I grew up with my Dad building and racing his own car(s) , a lot of what I learnt about tuning (and ALL I learnt about Fiat twin-cams! lol) came from him .

I can't wait to see the next phase , and wish Graham the very best in his new venture .

[stephen bahr]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Well, now this thread is past it, I thought i'd be sentimental and look back at some of the things you've done in motorsport over the years. Excuse the order, it's just in what order I remember them! Going back many a year, I think it was your first sprint at lydden, obviously it was the 2002, when it was road legal, I sat in the car with you as you drove down to lydden. I remember saying my hands were cold, so you told me to sit on them, shortly afterwards I fell asleep. I remember being so excited at the prospect of you racing, as we arrived I mentioned you could get a trophy, You kind of laughed at that saying it won't happen, come the end of the day, you walked away with a second in class trophy! Fast forward many a year, the 02 was blue and white, and it really did look good. It was at Silverstone, now I remember how happy you were with the 02, and how quickly you could get it to shift off the line. You'd made 8 places by the first corner, at the end of the race, you pulled back into the paddock and were ecstatic at how well you'd done. It'd be quite a few more years until there was a smile with nothing but teeth visible through a full-face lid.
So I guess from there, i'll go to the E30, more precisely when it was turbo'd. It was a great day at snett, you were on new rubber and looking forward to being out in the E30 for the first time with some lovely rubber. Chasing Rick May down like there was no tomorrow, even though he had monumentally more straight line speed, the beemer really stuck to the corners. You chased him hard all the way to the end, the only saving grace for rick being the drizzle that had started, allowing his tires to recover. Come the end of the race, you came cruising round Russell, a smile so big you'd be mistaken for a Cheshire cat. From memory that was a broken Perspex window, arm waving out the side, only to break the Perspex, poor window.
Where next in my non-sensical order I wonder? I'll go for Lydden again, fast forward a few years, possibly an m10 in the car at the time, it kind of gets difficult to remember at times chopping and changing. You'd said the car was overweight and underpowered, the rubber was too hard etc. But that didn't stop you having a fantastic race with Mr Richards, Mr Brent & Mr lindridge. You drove hard all the way, I'd call it a giant slaying accomplishment, the hefty beemer chasing the much lighter front wheel drive cars around a tight twisty circuit. Passing James on the last corner of the last lap to pickup second in class.
More Lydden now methinks, back to a turbo'd S14, the look on your face in the paddock after outdragging John Cross' V8 focus up the hill, it really did shift!
Onwards (or backwards) to brands indy, once again a turbo'd s14, picking up 3rd overall, a very comfortable 3rd overall, closing the gap quickly on David Oates space framed opel/Vauxhall, you called it your podium for the year, though there were more to come. It was only the great british summer that threw a wobbler for race 2, good old rain eh?
Now, rain, you've always said you don't like driving in it, but you really could, for someone that disliked the wet, you got on quite well with it, more Silverstone in a blue and white 02, leading the pack in a torrential downpour, possibly tony ryan's sierra behind, the very picture that you have hanging up in the hallway.
Still on the subject of Silverstone, fast forwards to the E30, with the turbo'd m10 in it, shortly after the 02's demise. It was the stowe circuit, you were out with a lot of small tiger/caterham styled things. You had the drive of a lifetime and chased the bike engine tigers all the way. Back in the paddock, you were talking to some of the tiger drivers, they were complaining about the black beemer, the amount of straight line grunt it had, a smile appeared on your face only for you to reveal you were the driver!
Still on Stowe, backwards some more years with the 02 again doing the fantastic giant slaying act of eating the cossies, in a straight line they well and truly had the legs, only for you to anchor up hard and late for the corners, and then to carry tremendous speed around them. I liked stowe, as you were braking for the hairpin, anyone stood at the sideline could see the discs glowing for all they were worth.
Back to lydden...again, chasing down pete reeve, catching him hand over fist, only to find a traffic jam at north bend, nowhere to go, you took to the grass, the front splitter took a bit of a battering, but everything came out just fine, only to continue your charge on pete.
More snett, everybody needs more snett! turbo s14, absolutely sailing past the seats like they weren't moving, the grind on your face when you were past and long gone before reaching the start of the pitwall!
The turbo'd S14 was a labour of love, silly things going wrong here and there, but that's just what happens when you're developing something yourself. All that you achieved was fantastic, the power you were able to get from all the various guises of engines, that was good, but the real great bit? Doing it all on a budget of naff all, and still having all the time in the world to help out other competitors when they needed it.
So in short, damn well done, it makes me gleam with pride when I look at what you've done, and I know it makes you smile when you look at some of the highlights. Give it a few years, and you can be back to giant slaying on a budget of a gnats chuff!

[Roadsport]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

30 thou squish is damn near perfect.

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

148mm, std s14 are 144mm

[RWD fords rule]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Nice looking rods, are they around 150mm? its going to be a really good engine, even better than before

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Do you need new pistons with these new rods? Or were you way below the deck with the shorter rods?

with the old rods the pistons were about 60 thou down the bore, and that was on a block which was missing about 60 thou from its face, the head gasket is 70 odd thou thick, so i should be looking at about 30 thou squish, although with a new line bored block with a light skim to clean up on paper it works but it may turn out the rods are a tad too long and i will have to take a little off the piston crowns

[Roadsport]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Do you need new pistons with these new rods? Or were you way below the deck with the shorter rods?

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!







the new longer rods arrived last week, the fardon rods being 4mm longer, obviously they look pretty similar to my auzzy rods, the fardons ones only really differing by being thinner round the bigend, the beams are a bit narrower but also thicker, i think they are a bit lighter but the scales have packed up so cant tell. and the oil hole for the pin is in the top not bottom of the rod which to my eyes makes far more sense.
the old rod is a pinto one just to give a comparison as to how long these rods actually are

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

cheers chaps, you all say the nicest of things,

progress really is going to stall though, since i made the decision to jump ship work wise ive managed to put away a good few quid, in fact im well impressed with what i have been able to save in a short space to time, ive got 10% of my target figure so i still need a lot more, encouraged by what i have saved ive decided to cull any expenditure on the car other than stuff i have already committed to, maybe if bargain of the century pops up i'l spend a few quid.

[mario r h santos]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Try and do your best to keep everything going on.

I don't participate a lot on this forum but I sure "waste" a lot a time reading/learning threads and yours is one of the best Graham.

If you were from Portugal I would surely be interested in that apprentice spot.

Cheers,

Mário Santos.

[david_white]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Block looks sweet, good to see it progressing

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

no not yet. theres loads of other stuff to do first, including a possible house move or re mortgage which will have to be done before i quit my job.

[alladdin]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

as for the business, well thats a case of 1k down 19K to go, so best not get too carried away on my engine!

so are you self employed yet ?

and its good news on the block

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!



a modicum of progress, robbing the main caps from another couple of blocks i came up with a "set" that had minimal miss match, and sent the block to ivor searls to have it line honed, as it honed ok they also bored it and gave the top face a light skim.



so i now have the basis for the rebuild

as for the business, well thats a case of 1k down 19K to go, so best not get too carried away on my engine!

[mexicotait]

A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Thanks for that im in no rush so when your ready i will hopefully be able to push some business your way