heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[maupineda]

Heinz, who did you commission to machine out the brackets?

[heinzboehmer]

Heinz, who did you commission to machine out the brackets?

I got them manufactured through Protolabs. Chose the longest lead time they offered to get the cheapest price. Came out to around $1k.

Went with Protolabs because that was the best balance of price and lead time out of the typical big online manufactuters. There were WAY cheaper options (almost exclusively overseas), but none of them would tell me the composition of the material they would be using, so I decided against them.

Of course, someone recommended this place a few days after I placed my order with Protolabs: https://www.rapidaxis.com Local, all machining done in house and comparable prices. I would have gone with them had I known about them earlier. Oh well.

I'll likely be using them for powder coating and maybe even for 3D printing the molds for the CF cabin air filter housing and firewall plug (since they're too big for my printer and would need to be printed in sections).

Anyway, this is likely a way more detailed answer than what you were looking for, but it reminded me of some details I had yet to document. I'll also be posting a detailed cost breakdown of everything once it's all finished.

[heinzboehmer]

Timeserts installed and fitment of hardware validated with 3D printed fasteners:




Looking good!

I need to temporarily swap back to the stock airbox this week for, uh, no reason. I'll likely bond this in when everything is out.

[bavarian3]

So this is what I saw when I took a quick look at the calipers yesterday morning:



As mentioned before, not super alarming, but still wanted to figure out why some bleeders appeared to be leaking.

Decided to remove all the bleeders and reclean the taper that they seal against. Calipers were fully dry when installed, so there was a possibility that some dirt/debris I hadn't been able to clean out had accumulated around the taper and was making the bleeders not seal well.

After doing that, I pressure tested them by pushing on the brake pedal as hard as I could for ~30s. Found no leaks on any of them

At the same time, I also decided to cut the dust caps in half, as I don't really like the design of them. Having the retaining ring sandwiched between the bleeder and caliper makes it hard to feel the torque on the bleeder and also means that the dust cap gets caught and spins around.

[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"20230829_192052.jpg",":23133 1}[/ATTAH]

Left a little tab of material to make it easy to pull them off.

When I went to reinstall them, I realized why I had seen brake fluid pooled around the base of the bleeder. Here's what happens when you install them:

[video=youtube;522CzbLwKpA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=522Czdeo]

As you can see, installing the dust cap forces any brake fluid left in the bleeder past the threads. Makes sense since these things seal at the bottom taper and not on the threads. Something like this is what's happening:

[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"51vl5p0C-achmentid":231332}[/ATTCH]

This was super easy to see with the dust caps cut in half, but much harder when they're installed unmodified. So leading theory is that when I initially bled the calipers, there were no leaks, but there was some brake fluid left in the bleeders that was pushed out by the dust caps. This must have pooled under the dust cap retaining ring —making it hard to see when cleaning up— and eventually dripped out when I took the car out for a drive.

Anyway, mystery solved and fortunately there aren't any leaks on my calipers!

Fantastic info! Thanks for the investigative work.

[heinzboehmer]

Fantastic info! Thanks for the investigative work.

Glad I could help!

[heinzboehmer]

Some updates.

First, my CD53 is back from the UK (with nothing changed), so I tested that in my car. Audio sounds as good as it did with the junkyard radio! This leads me to believe that the HK amp was the culprit after all. So, my PSA for the day is: service your HK amp!

And now the bigger/longer update. 3D scanner got put to use and I started designing the replacement strut bar brackets for the E86 braces. Here's both stock brackets scanned:



Before I started doing anything, I wanted to verify that the profiles of these are indeed symmetric (brackets themselves are not symmetric, passenger side has some extra clearance for the positive terminal):



Nice.

With that out of the way, I moved onto the actual design. As a reminder, my plan is to machine down the bosses on the stock brackets and sandwich them in between my brackets and the stock bar.

The only real constraint (besides the obvious spatial ones) is that I can't machine the brackets down too much. The passenger side one gets fairly thin where there's clearance for the positive terminal:



My plan is to fully machine down the bosses and just barely skim the rest of the surface to get it fairly flat. Quick measurements say that I'll be taking about 3.75 mm of material off, but I won't know for sure how much it ends up being until these are on the mill. I'll start with the hard one (passenger) and then copy whatever I do over to the other one. Hopefully I can get down to the shop soon.

Anyway, here's my initial approach for the bracket. There's a decent chunk of stuff to work around in these areas, so the funky geometry is a result of that:






These are designed to be laser cut, bent and welded. M8 press in studs will be used in my bracket and I'll drill the threads of the stock brackets out so that the new studs can pass through. M10 stud for the E86 brace is not shown, but it'll go somewhere in the protruding yellow section. I'll have to fit a prototype up in the car to see if that section is long enough, it might not be as is.

I still don't know if this current design is manufacturable, though. Some of the bends look like they'll be hard to pull off. Fortunately, I should be able to extend any problematic walls and then cut the piece down myself post bending.

The other concern I have is that the stock brackets don't leave a lot of room for gusseting the section with studs to the flat section that goes on the strut tower. I did my best with that S shaped wall, but there's no room to do much more than that. I think it should be fine, mostly because of these reasons:

1. Plan is to get these brackets made out of 4.75 mm thick 304 SS, so they should be tanks.
2. The stock brackets will help with the stiffness of the entire assembly. Remember I'm really only machining down the bosses, so they should be as strong in bending as they are now.

And that's about it for now on these. I really can't do much more until I get myself in the shop and machine the brackets.

[bigjae46]

Where do the E86 strut bars boit to? One of the existing press in studs?

[Bry5on]

You can eliminate the S shaped wall because you’ve otherwise boxed the shape in by attaching it to the aluminum strut brace. Pretty sure that little wall will not have much contribution to strength and you can avoid weakening the material by eliminating welds. You might wind up just redesigning strut tower bases entirely when this is said and done though

If you’re doing new bases, you could also add fastener locations on the fender side for future gusseting to the corners of the windshield too. You know, for a future project..

[heinzboehmer]

Where do the E86 strut bars boit to? One of the existing press in studs?

I still have to figure out where/how I want those to land, so I haven't modeled the studs in yet. But they'll go somewhere in the protruding yellow surface. I printed up a prototype, so I'll do a test fit and post up some pictures in the coming days.

You can eliminate the S shaped wall because you’ve otherwise boxed the shape in by attaching it to the aluminum strut brace. Pretty sure that little wall will not have much contribution to strength and you can avoid weakening the material by eliminating welds. You might wind up just redesigning strut tower bases entirely when this is said and done though

Oh good call! Completely overlooked the weakening of the material. Will incorporate that suggestion into the design.

And yes, I'm doing my best to keep the stock look, but there is a decent chance that I abandon that entirely and just redesign the entire thing.

If you’re doing new bases, you could also add fastener locations on the fender side for future gusseting to the corners of the windshield too. You know, for a future project..

I do love me some scope creep!

[Cubieman]

Wow, just seeing all this wonderfull stuff, great work!

I am very interested in the CSL ducting, what a great idea. Would there be the possibility of having one that let's some air past for brake cooling?
Maybe I could just get this one and cut out a small section in for that purpose.

I would imagine the IAT would see lower temps as a result, very cool. The strut brace project is cool as hell too, I may have to get into this stuff.

[heinzboehmer]

Wow, just seeing all this wonderfull stuff, great work!

I am very interested in the CSL ducting, what a great idea. Would there be the possibility of having one that let's some air past for brake cooling?
Maybe I could just get this one and cut out a small section in for that purpose.

I would imagine the IAT would see lower temps as a result, very cool. The strut brace project is cool as hell too, I may have to get into this stuff.

You need to talk to Bry5on about the duct! No need to integrate brake cooling in the duct if you also install his Porsche-style brake cooling scoops.

Let me know if you're ever over here! Welcome to drive the car and feel all the bracing for yourself.

[heinzboehmer]

Timeserts installed and fitment of hardware validated with 3D printed fasteners:




Looking good!

I need to temporarily swap back to the stock airbox this week for, uh, no reason. I'll likely bond this in when everything is out.

Okay, I lied a bit with this post. Timeserts were dry fitted, not actually installed. Couple notes from the real install:

1. By complete coincidence, smee123 made me aware of the fact that Loctite threadlocker is only designed to work on what they call "active" metals. Important thing to know is that if you're using threadlocker on aluminum (or other "inactive" metals), you should also be using their activator, so I did.
2. The clearances on the back hole are tight. I designed it so that a bottoming tap would be needed to cut the thread for the insert. The tap in the timesert kit seems to be a custom diameter, but an M10x1.25 tap is very close and cuts those last few threads just fine.

Piece is actually ready for install now, will be doing the bonding tomorrow. Quick picture of all the hardware needed:



I also modeled some wedges to hold the piece against the chassis while the adhesive cures. Currently being printed:



Moving on to the the strut tower brackets...

One concern I have is that the stock pieces will be spaced up slightly when all is said and done. How much displacement depends on the amount of material I machine off. If I use the 3.75 mm value, that means the brackets and bar will end up 1 mm taller. Additionally, the replacement studs will stick up 2.25 mm more than stock, so max height change will be +3.25 mm.

This is a small amount, but I still wanted to be sure that it wouldn't cause an issue. So I grabbed some modeling clay and squished it in between the hood and potential contact points:

Test setups:




Results:





Honestly, wow. That's way, way more clearance than I was expecting. Not even gonna bother measuring, my stuff will fit just fine

[Bry5on]

Wow there really is a lot more clearance under the M3 hood. I had to cut my non-m hood a little just to clear the factory strut brace.

Mask off the area well before sanding, it’ll be worth it. And don’t skimp on adhesive - wet each surface first then S shaped or fishbone shaped beads to allow air to flow out while you install will give you the best chance of a good bond with fewest air pockets. I always prep with acetone then one directional IPA wipes right before bonding as well.

Good luck!

[Obioban]

Wow there really is a lot more clearance under the M3 hood. I had to cut my non-m hood a little just to clear the factory strut brace.

Mask off the area well before sanding, it’ll be worth it. And don’t skimp on adhesive - wet each surface first then S shaped or fishbone shaped beads to allow air to flow out while you install will give you the best chance of a good bond with fewest air pockets. I always prep with acetone then one directional IPA wipes right before bonding as well.

Good luck!

That’s weird… m3 strut brace fit under my M3 wagon hood without any cutting/trimming 🤔

[heinzboehmer]

Wow there really is a lot more clearance under the M3 hood. I had to cut my non-m hood a little just to clear the factory strut brace.

Mask off the area well before sanding, it’ll be worth it. And don’t skimp on adhesive - wet each surface first then S shaped or fishbone shaped beads to allow air to flow out while you install will give you the best chance of a good bond with fewest air pockets. I always prep with acetone then one directional IPA wipes right before bonding as well.

Good luck!

Thanks! Will do that.

Airbox is just loosely set in place in those pictures. Both that and the blower motor are coming out for the install. Gotta make sure I have the most access possible.

Also got myself a cheapo space heater that I'll throw in there to help with the curing.