I have had several BMW`s so be very aware that they really do not like to overheat. If so you must be prepared to change the seals and usually heads because they crack

 

I've been super busy with work- but I'm still trying to hang out in my basement and move my project along-

I did get new flooring- actually used - but from a house I was flipping-and got rid of the reverse lights...



New rotors from Brakemotive-



Thanks to Sam at Full Throttle Corvette parts- I've got most of my interior carpet & door panels- but I've decided to go w/ Corbeau seats- and I'm thinking of modding the headrest to make them smaller and look like the 69's.




I just got my front suspension from Vansteel and steering box rebuilt-

The tubular a-arms give me some needed extra clearance- These things are NICE!!!



AND I've decided to go with a newer V12- so I bought another BMW 750IL parts car- right at 100k on it- in excellent shape (These things RETAILED for $92k new) till it was wrecked... The newer V12 (AKA M73) is stroked (4mm), has 10:1 compression- oil sprayers for the pistons and about 10% more horsepower than my other older V12.

The big plus is the exhaust exits further back- so I have zero clearance problems!!! And all the parts I've modded will bolt right on.





I've gotta get rid my old part car- which is now worth $11 per 100lbs!!!- move the new ride in the garage and pull the motor.

I've also been playing w/ Carbon fiber- and covered some valve covers and the fuel rail cover...The jury is still out on this mod-



Welcome to comments or slams...

Richard

 

Is the Corbeau seats in suede leather? If so i really like that

I have been planning of buying a 14" steering wheel for my Corvette and have it covered in black suede leather

The car is looking good i guess you save quite some weight on the new a arms

Not the biggest fan of carbon so i say as i say in the Porsche Club that carbon is best looking painted

 

Richard you need to stand outside and chillout some.

Man, your gonna have a BMW wharehouse soon. I read like u have more fun modding your vette than driving it. I think u will need to add one of those windows to your hood. Too much cool stuff to cover it up when u close the hood.
Well, i'm lucky your on the east coast or i'd want to buy your old V12 just to have one.

Good to read your working enough, many are still looking for work these days.
cardo0

 

Thanks for the support....

Saint-

Yes- they are suede. I didn't like the cloth- couldn't find a great deal on the leather-so I went w/ these. I really like them!!!

cardo-

I know about the "looking for work"- my wife's been in that situation for several months now.

My wife hasn't complained a bit about the "BMW Warehouse"- this past summer the AC tensioner on her BMW self destructed- rendering her w/o air conditioning in 90+ degrees. I pulled one out of my "warehouse"- and was able to fix her car immediately- and not have to wait for parts!!!

My game plan is- the "new" parts car will also double as an "engine test stand"- and I'll be able to try out my tach, oil pressure set up and temp gauge w/ a running engine.

I'm down to only two M70 V12s and one M73 V12....Takes up less room and weighs less than the old cast iron big block parts I had laying around!!!

I've always enjoyed the journey more than the destination!!!

Here's something I'm working on- I originally looked at a 77+ electronic tach behind the 71 face- and actually made one. But now since I'm basically going to have two 6 cylinders- the tach would work only if I bought a couple hundred dollar box to match it. So- I bought an inexpensive tach off ebay- and will try it out- clocking it to match 500 rpms looks like it'll be pretty accurate. If you look closely- below 500rpm the hash marks are closer together on the OEM one....I'm gonna hook it up to the "car test stand" and see how close it is to the BMW's...



Richard

 

im dumbfounded. the best way to reply to this is in sections because im still battling all of this in my head...

first off, when i saw the picture of the pacecar, i thought hey thats cool. i couldnt bear to put a foreign engine in my c3... but its only understandable under the circumstance that ive never seen ("never seen" being the key phrase here) an american v12...

then i scrolled down and saw that youre actually building one... and i have to say congratulations on making it work out. THAT is an accomplishment, and im sure the beautiful 2/3 body length engine bay is much appreciated in this project.

one thing i definitely like, is the choice of a bmw engine being used for this. good luck, im sure youll turn many heads. cant wait to hear the exhaust!

 

Thanks Roy-

Dumbfounded=To fill with astonishment and perplexity.....

I'll take that as a compliment!!!

Yes- I am building it...too far into it to quit...It was a little more than I originally thought it would take....But it's still a BOLT IN- as I haven't made any mods to the frame or body to fit it.


Richard

 

Richard454 Is the temperarure gauge in the BMW sshowing Farenheit or Celsius temperature?
If it shows celsius you will have a celsius sensor and a farhenheit gauge so that is something that you need to look into i suppose'

The rason i asked about the seats if they are suede is that i think they are looking great.
Been thinking of having a C2 steering wheel covered in black suede for my 64 coupe
The car is coming along great

 

Thanks Saint-

I'm using the both the BMW sensors and a Chevy sensor- BMW will communicate w/ the computer and the Chevy one is just connected to the stock gauge in the dash.

I broke free from work this afternoon and tried my new tach I just got from the brown truck. It's a 6k Autometer- $82 brand new- thanks eBay.

Hooked it up to my $1500 engine/test stand ( read as parts car....)- Worked great- pretty accurate compared to the stock BMW's-Next I'll fit it behind the Vette's faceplate.

Three wire hook up-



at idle-


really close - maybe 100 difference-



revved to 5k-



Now the stock mechanical oil pressure gauge test- I'm using a banjo bolt and AN 4 line set I got off eBay for I think it was a Subaru turbo oil line- fit my application great. I just removed the BMW stock oil pressure sensor and bolted it in.



Hooking the AN4 to the Vette's Mechanical gauge was a little more involved- Thanks to the guys at NAPA- they just let me go in back and go through their selection of fittings.


Unfortunately - the meter didn't read-but it did leak...The meter has been sitting in my basement for years- so I'm going to the Auto parts store and buy one of their cheapie $20 meters and try it out tomorrow....

Richard

 

Have you seen the PLX devices
You can have the device in a window on the tacho(need a cutout in the tacho)
Have a look at this video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbtvC39I9Qs

There is a lot of fun stuff they have
http://www.plxdevices.com/customgaugelibrary.html

If you have a OBD connector inside your car i think you can connect it there. Just plug and play

 

Very cool project, and great work so far. My first thought before reading was "aw jeeze, how the heck is this gonna turn out" and "not very Americana" But, you're doing a great job. I'm an auto tech, and have worked on these bmw's. I'm surprised you say the engnie wiring was not hard.

In my expereince in obd2 computer diags on these vehicles, there's two separate engine modules, one for each bank basically, and almsot every part of that engine was split in half, and managed in half by two computers. Is that what you find?

I think this could've gone really bad, or really good, I'm impressed seeing the quality of work, and not modifying the frame. That car could've been ruined, but instead its one off.

Looking forward to more updates.

 

I know that there was one ECU for each cylinder bank but was there not something like that with the fuel injection as well?

 

I seem to remember two of everything in each module, fuel management, fuel trim, throttle body and throttle position, oxygen sensors, and every sensor, all for one bank in one module, and all for the other bank in the other module. I just remember joking that they put two separate 6 cylinders together, and just used the two computers to

 

You are correct as far as a ECU for each bank PLUS a computer to manage these two and operate the the drive by wire. So there's three computers total. I'm gonna use the stock ecus and wiring harness- where as using it as a stand alone- I'm only need a few wires to connect to the car. Six connect to the throttle potentiometer, three to check engine lights - two to each fuel pump ( I'm going to just run one) and power -ground- ignition.

I have an OBDII engine but going to be using the electronics off an older V12 that's OBDI - not requiring post cat O2 sensors- or in my app no cats.

I got a cheapy oil pressure meter-it tested out fine w/ my fittings-I don't know how accurate it is- showing almost 50lbs at idle-



I also got my electronic tach conversion to work- looks to be pretty accurate- atleast from 1-4K RPM- where it'l see most of it's use...



Here's where I 'clocked' the tach to match up to the stock Vette-



Drilled some holes in it- countersunk the mounting screws- so the Vette's would fit flush to it- Them mounted it behind and the needle attached w/o any problems!

Richard

 

Very cool, looking forward to more pics and info.

 

I'm still at it....I just wish I had more time to mess w/ it...

Anyway- I have the engine nearing completion-I decided Chevy orange looked too good not to use- painted the block and valve covers...

I've got my alternator ( mini Denso) back from the rebuilder- now rated at 120A versus the stock 75A. The serp belt set up looks like it will work just fine. I ended up using all BMW parts ( have a bunch laying around!!) and found the smallest pulley at the junkyard- made a bushing- and it works great. My thinking that a small pulley will help the output at idle - most likely when the dual spal fans will kick on.

The dry sump system is almost all worked out. Still have to figure out the "breather" part. I'm running the stock BMW oil filter canister- it's got a pressure bypass and a one way valve to keep the oil from draining back into the pan. So no pre-priming each time I start it up-and the oil filter is in stock at just about all the parts stores.

The exhaust- I've got that covered thanks to eBay. They had a RHD engine from a Japanese BMW- has the starter on OUR driverside- so the exhaust manifolds were different- and clear my motor mounts/frame w/ no issues. The manifolds are stainless steel and polished up nicely.

You can't really appreciate all the allen/hex bolts I used to detail the engine- unfortunately a lot got hidden by the the accessories...

 

dont care bout what names on it , I like it, thats a good looking swap.

 

Last night on the Mecum auction somebody was selling a '61 Impala with a BMW V12 installed...built in Sweden or Denmark or somewhere like that, had the BMW gage cluster installed, etc. Overall a very clean build, painted a very loud metallic green and named "Cheemer" (??). AS I recall bidding went north of $75k (!)

Can't wait to see your Corvette finished; you've done some very impressive engineering work here. Years ago a friend of mine inherited Steve McBurnie's Ferrari Daytona body molds after Ferrari sued him (McBurnie, that is) and continued making 'Cortonas' or whatever they're called...a Beemer V12 would be interesting in one of those, and it would sound right too!

 

Thanks...

I saw Cheemer - Jay Leno did a short video on it- The guy basically took all the electronics out of the 750IL and put them in the Impala.

I've been super busy w/ work- and trying to step out in the garage and/or basement when I get a moment-

Back and forth on what to do w/ the engine- I've decided to run a aftermarket ECU since they now can run a V12 at around $1k versus in the past at over $4k.... I'm also gonna do the coil near plug- like the LSx engines for ignition.

So- I've research several different individual throttle bodies - and found these "Jenvey" from England. Have the same center to center distance (90mm) for the fuel injectors as the stock- and look pretty cool too- and not terribly expensive- around $2k for the complete set.
Plus they are set up to run in a series- so no real throttle interconnection is needed-basically tighten down the set screws and I'm done. Not true for most of the other ITB's I looked at- you had to order extra stuff to make the interconnect.




I was looking at doing the "downdraft" look-I'm using some waterjet cut flanges for Weber DCOE -I got them off eBay-



Here was my original Idea-



But after messing around w/ PVC pipe and some MDF- I though the '"crossram" looked really neat- and it'll fit under my L88 hood- plus be able to use the cowl induction.

What do you think???

 

I say crossram

Unless you plan on having to remove those cam covers often...