The FrankenBrick Smart BMW build

[touchwoodsden]

Great news! Be sure to let us know.

you have PM.
I will let you know if I’m happy enough tomorrow to buy a ferry ticket. I have worked for the last 8 months with this and the electronics and powder coating have put me back by 2 months otherwise Thunderbirds would be go. At the moment, my arse is twitching purely because I don’t cherish the thought of breaking down. If I break down within a 50 mile radius, I can resolve it myself but as soon as I get over the water, it is a different box of frogs. Okay, if I can do the miles, I can do hundred miles and if I can do hundred miles I can do 500 miles. We shall see.
At least I have European breakdown cover if it all goes pear-shaped and like all of us on here, I am reasonably mechanically competent.
I am doing a few electrical bits in the morning on the idiot lights on the dashboard and putting a socket in for the satnav and I have already put some tools away and little bits nuts, bolts, bits of wire, connectors, et cetera in anticipation so at the moment, the plan is on. I just wish I had had 2 weeks more to do a few more Rideouts.
I once rebuilt the engine from one of my MZs and I had ridden it no more than 50 yards before I set off for a 200 mile trip each way.
As it happens, I when I rebuilt the engine I stupidly didn’t replace the crankshaft oil seals and hence, the engine was pressurising the gearbox and gearbox oil was pissing out of the breather.
It started in the Lake District and persisted for the rest of the trip.
Okay, I wakes up a lot of oil and put a lot of oil in it he got me home and I never made the same mistake again. Happy days.
Kind regards.

[Tetronator]

Ain't no such thing as a perfect world. All things considered I think you'll be fine.

Replied to your PM.

[touchwoodsden]

Here is the reason that last night I was not on the ferry to Rotterdam.
Here is the reason I will not be smelling diesel fumes in the morning in Hamm.
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The head gasket has gone. Actually, actually, it hasn’t gone, it’s still there, it’s just leaking!
I’ve tried everything I can to stop it overheating including the quick fix pour in solution (last-ditch attempt) and came to the conclusion that head gasket has gone.
Just blowing water out after about 10 miles. I fitted an expansion bottle but that wasn’t working either.
13:00 hours yesterday, I resigned myself to not going.
I wanted to cry.
I could have topped the water up every 25 miles, but that would be stupid.
So, the engine is out and in the boot of the car and off to a friend of mine this morning who does nothing other than rebuild engines. It will just cost me the gaskets which are probably an arm and a leg and a kidney on their own!
I think this is my fault.
I will explain.
I filled it up with water and what I didn’t know is that there is a bleed on the cylinder head. It’s actually the engine coolant temperature sensor (which goes to the ECU) which you pull out and then pop back in again after bleeding. I didn’t bleed it so I imagine there was a big air bubble when I went for my 1st 50 mile run and hence the leak now.
It is also necessary to lean the engine over at 45 degrees to the right when bleeding as that is the angle it is in the car. Heavy bike so it’s a 2 man job or do it using an engine crane.
I don’t know if it’s possible to drill a bleed screw hole somewhere in the head casting to bleed the engine upright.
Bert, how do you bleed the cylinder head on the Eva Track? Through temperature sensor hole with bike leaning over?
What I will do however while the engine and gearbox are out and before I put all the ancillaries back on the engine, is 2 pack paint the whole assembly silver because the finish was letting the whole thing down.
If it wasn’t for the powder coating being 6 weeks late and all the problems with the electronics, (which turned out to be just a faulty dongle in the end) I could have had the problem, engine out, engine fixed, engine back in again, and been easily on my way. Time just conspired against me. There is always next year.

All dressed up and no go 

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[mark_in_manchester]

Bad luck. Still, better do it the way you did than end up on a sh*t-or-bust trip to Germany which would've been no fun if you were ruining all that work on the way.

I have a charade engine (my first, now not on the bike) I still must do the head gasket on. I just fitted the engine in the small space I made for it under a bench. This is great for my work-space storage constipation problems, but bodes less well for finding the right time to drag it out and get the head off...

[touchwoodsden]

Indeed Mark. I should have the engine back on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I am away from Thursday afternoon for 10 days so if I don’t get it done before then, it will be.
As I mentioned, I’m going to 2k paint it so need a good weather day to paint it outside.

The Charade motor have been my preferred choice for simplicity but I just couldn’t get one. Can I ask a basic question please? Is it an iron block and alloy head or all alloy or all iron motor?

[mark_in_manchester]

Iron block (incorporating balancer shaft), alloy head. OHC - it's quite a tall engine, which means more frame alterations to get one into a Ural. The engine is heavy - I can just about lift one without flywheel but with pump, turbo / manifolds on. Heads are apparently fragile, though Bert in Weesp has been encouraging about my chances of getting it working by just changing the head gasket, cracks or no cracks.

I understand the preference to save money on ECU etc - and also that now they're very hard to find. Given this, I think if I built another I'd use a Z482 and resign myself to slower progress.

I wonder if a Charade mechanical inj pump could be made to fire a Smart engine. The capacity is not so very different, it's a triple, ...

[touchwoodsden]

I wonder if a Charade mechanical inj pump could be made to fire a Smart engine. The capacity is not so very different, it's a triple, ...

That is a very interesting thought.


Here is a little video I did the other day.
Sorry about the crap quality. Must try harder.
I was experimenting with a cheap wide-angle lens I got from China and you can see why it’s cheap!
https://flic.kr/p/LURWtE

[BertTrack]

Hope you get the engine back soon. It's a nice build already.

About getting the air out. Thank you for the tip of removing the temperature pickup. I will look into that.

My engine is slanted a little not as much as in the car. The thermostat has a special ball in the valve that allows air (and coolant) to pass the thermostat towards the radiator. I bleed mine by manipulating the cooland hoses a lot. Milking them. Eventually you won't have and lag between squeezing and the level in the radiator (where i fill it up) *that ball in the valve is know since the canadian smart riders noticed their engines weren't getting very hot if you have enough pump pressure that ball closes up and the thermostat works as it should. But the mechanical pumps have little pressure at idle*

I hope this helps.

[touchwoodsden]

Hope you get the engine back soon. It's a nice build already.

About getting the air out. Thank you for the tip of removing the temperature pickup. I will look into that.

My engine is slanted a little not as much as in the car. The thermostat has a special ball in the valve that allows air (and coolant) to pass the thermostat towards the radiator. I bleed mine by manipulating the cooland hoses a lot. Milking them. Eventually you won't have and lag between squeezing and the level in the radiator (where i fill it up) *that ball in the valve is know since the canadian smart riders noticed their engines weren't getting very hot if you have enough pump pressure that ball closes up and the thermostat works as it should. But the mechanical pumps have little pressure at idle*

I hope this helps.

Hi Bert. Does yours have the original smart thermostat housing?
Is the original heater outlet at the bottom of the stat housing just blanked off.
j

PS I have circled here:
DSC04351

[BertTrack]

Originally it's blanked off.

I have it running a small line to a temperature measurement for the dashboard.

But the nicest way to cap it off is fill it with epoxy together with a temperature pickup for the dash. (if you can't read the temperature through the ecu to dash.

[touchwoodsden]

Originally it's blanked off.

I have it running a small line to a temperature measurement for the dashboard.

But the nicest way to cap it off is fill it with epoxy together with a temperature pickup for the dash. (if you can't read the temperature through the ecu to dash.

Thanks Bert.
I have a rather neat little hose cap which fits over the end with a hose clip.
I am fitting a temperature gauge but I have one of the aluminium tubes to fit in the top hose which has the tapped hole for the temperature sender.

[touchwoodsden]

I was hoping to get the engine back from having the head gasket done today but I had a phone call earlier on, the gasket hadn’t arrived so it’s going to be tomorrow.
Not bad I suppose considering I only delivered the engine to him on Friday.

I already mention that I’m going to 2K paint the engine gearbox and final drive (if ever we get another sunny day in this country!) but I can’t decide whether to do it satin black (which I would have to buy) or Mercedes silver (which I have in stock). I have etch primer.
The gearbox and final drive was originally satin black but the majority of the paint has gone.
One of the appealing things about silver, is that if it flakes off, the aluminium is silver underneath!

I previously used a small orange juice bottle as my expansion tank which wasn’t particularly satisfactory so I brought the proper Doody from eBay.

25 quid and beautifully made.

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For some strange reason, it has the normal type outlet/inlet at the bottom, the overflow pipe just under the and 2 other inlet/outlet partway up the side. None of them have capillary tube, they are just entries and exits.

Normally, I would just use the bottom one to go into the header tank of the radiator. Does anyone have any idea what the others are for?

I also bought a turbo oil separator.

On the Smart Car engine, the cam box breather does breathe oil which goes directly into the air filter box and gets consumed by the engine. For that reason, the engines do use oil. Evidently this can be reduced dramatically using one of these gizmos.

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The bottom outlet goes into the crankcase (I am going to use the original connection which took the oil drain from the turbo) the very top connection breathes cleaner air into the air filter and the second connection down actually goes in at a tangent. There is nothing inside it, all it does is provide a catch pot for the oil which then drips back into the sump and “clean” air breathes into the air filter. Previously, I just routed the cam box breather into the air intake but it was only ever meant to be a temporary measure.

I have to figure out where to mount them both yet.

[Nanko]

I am using such connections as an auto bleed.
A small diiameter tube between the highest point in the cooling system
and one of the ports on the expansion tank

[touchwoodsden]

I am using such connections as an auto bleed.
A small diiameter tube between the highest point in the cooling system
and one of the ports on the expansion tank

What a good idea

[touchwoodsden]

A little bit of an update.

The engine is back in With a new head gasket and it makes a noise.

The coolant pipes have been swapped around (Bert’s suggestion) and of the weather is fine tomorrow I shall go for a little ride to see whether the overheating/water blowing problem has been resolved.

I am also hoping that my newly added oil separator (currently only held on with zip ties) has solved the oil breathing problem.

Watch this space.

[touchwoodsden]

Well after having the engine out and the whole thing apart and replacing the cylinder head gasket (the head was not warped) and rerouting the plumbing and bleeding the cooling system, I did about 140 miles today carrying a spare gallon of water in the top box.

I arrived back, with the same water in the cooling system and in the top box that I went out with.


During the course of all this work, I also fitted an expansion tank which is now empty for cos the radiator isn’t blowing water out! It looks a bit naff because it’s held on with zip ties but it does the job. I need to get the bracket on its re-welded so that I can fit it properly

And, I also fitted an oil separator to the engine breather and that is also held on with cable ties pending the making of a good bracket.

I will take some photos of the new plumbing and post up shortly.

Some oil is coming out of the dipstick hole because the dipstick tube is much shorter than before and the dipstick handle is not a particularly good fit in the hole. I will probably affix the dipstick to the frame somewhere and put a little easily removable cap over the top of the dipstick tube.


However another problem has now manifested itself (the newness wearing off!) and that is that it no longer wants to idle. I guess it will be a five minute job, online, for Simon from Specialist Control Systems who has been extremely helpful.

The next big job I have (plenty of time now the rally season has finished!) is to completely rework the dashboard but I need to think about it first.

[touchwoodsden]

UPDATE
I was paranoid that the camshaft timing was one tooth out. Fortunately, there is a cam sprocket cover on the front of the engine which is relatively easy to access once the radiator was removed.
The timing is spot on. Big sigh of relief.
So, ever helpful, Simon from SCS connected remotely via Teamviewer and he has ascertained that the BMW fuel pump pressure is low. I will have a look at it at some stage, but meanwhile, he has tweaked the system so that it now idles nicely. There is a slight diesel weep from one of the pipes going into the fuel tank which looks as though it wasn’t welded correctly when the bike was built. So I will need to remove the fuel tank and clean it out to get that sorted anyway so I will see what the fuel pressure is running at the same time stop
I also asked him whether he could make the throttle a little more progressive and a bit less sensitive at lower openings to make it easier to ride around town. So, he tweaked that also. I bet the whole thing didn’t take longer than 5-10 minutes and although I watched what he was doing on the screen, it didn’t mean anything to me.
More news as it arrives.

[touchwoodsden]

How do I embed a YouTube video on here?

Here is my new video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_TBvZL ... e=youtu.be

[the grinch]

Epic!

It sounds great im in the process of wiring my engine for ground run up tried it the other day i think i have beat the PATS but i have to make a tempoary fuel tank as the robinsons bottle was'nt up for it.

Alex

[coachgeo]

The sweet smell of victory!!! Is a smell of diesel exhaust

[touchwoodsden]

New V5 from DVLA


20161107_195224[1]

[Eddy Wane]

A big thumbs up for the V5.

[Diesel Dave]

Always fun to read 'heavy oil' as the fuel type.

[coachgeo]

Always fun to read 'heavy oil' as the fuel type.

Was thinking same thing. If diesel is "Heavy" what is engine oil.... "Crude"? ships using "Bunker oil" still fits cause no one knows what a "Bunker" in this use is.... but what is oil out of the ground then? "sludge"?

[Diesel Dave]

I suspect the UK determine Diesel (or more accurately DERV being a term for Diesel Engine Road Vehicle) was classed as 'heavy oil' to distinguish it from Paraffin 'light oil' that was used as a fuel in some early engines - especially tractors.

I think they were known in the US as Gasoline-kerosine engines.

I think the little Fergusson TE20's ere offered with this type of engine as an option.

The fuel was also known as Tractor Vaporising Oil = TVO

[touchwoodsden]

Lots to this bunker oil

http://www.viscopedia.com/viscosity-tab ... -fuel-oil/

[touchwoodsden]

Just re-reading my old thread. It all seems so long ago. Just look at all those wires and throttle and heater plug relay isnt even connected yet...........

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[touchwoodsden]

Update June 2017
I have just returned from the Big Knock. Brilliant event. Thanks to all who arranged.
Frankenbrick ran really well but started smoking tad when really hot. It is also blowing oil from the breather and my swirl catch pot is not sufficient to catch it all and return it to the crankcase. Hence, after 250 miles I have to top up the engine. I could live with that.
However on the way back, after almost 500 miles of really brilliant running at speeds averaging between 65 and 80 mph, and a fuel consumption of about 80 mpg, about 33 miles from home (a friend of mine lives 2 miles away so I know how far it is) the engine decided to blow out all its water once again. (You may remember I had a problem with the head gasket last year).
I limped home filling it with water every 10 miles or so. I have come to the conclusion that I’m going to fit another engine because after this one cooked itself last year, even though I had the head skimmed and it hadn’t used any water until now, it hasn’t been a happy engine.
Hopefully, I can pick one up for about 500 quid.
The problem of course is that it is a lot of work to fit because the bike has to be lifted off the engine and gearbox. I reckon that it’s at least a full days work and probably more. I can’t remember how long it took last time because I did it over several days.
I’m not convinced that the radiator is big enough (it is classic mini copper and brass) so I may revisit that at the same time.
At least, I have 3 months before Hamm.
If only I knew when I started, what I know now!
Air cooling really does have its advantages!

[Diesel Dave]

You're a braver man than me!

Not only does water cooling scare me a bit but electronic engine management systems are a dark art.

If I could have found a Pelham Spring starter for the Tiger - it would have had one fitted! (I wonder if one would fit the Yanmar.....)

It was great to meet up at the Big Knock - hopefully see you in Hamm.

[pietenpol2002]

Dave, if memory serves, yours is a Lombardini, is it not? For which Kinetico does build some spring starters. Not sure which model you have. However, they also can cobble together an arrangement to fit many applications, albeit at the expense of your first born and a testicle of your choice - left or right.

http://www.springstarter.com/engine-page/?id=251

And which Yanmar are you referring to? They are available for the singles.