heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[maupineda]

Only works with copper crush washers. Heat with a torch until just glowing red and then submerge in water.

Works on Al too

[Bry5on]

Works on Al too

Most 0-state (assumption here that crush washers are 0-state) aluminum alloys should get stronger after an anneal and quench cycle, no? Anneal and air cool will maintain the anneal. At least 2xxx, 6xxx and 7xxx series alloys behave this way.

Actually, looks like 5xxx is indeed similar to copper and does not harden with quenching, so you’re right for a 5xxx, which is almost certainly what an aluminum crush washer is made from. Learn something new every day!

[ApexPothole]

I've found that the torch trick works with Al crush washers as well, its just harder to judge temp with them as they will melt before glowing noticeably. With a propane torch, I just get them glowing and quench.

[Slideways]

Lots of RTV...like a real pro would do! 🤣

A friend of mine had his tensioner crossthreaded. Real pros

Somehow, Dan Avon was able to fix it by ordering a custom tap IIRC.

[heinzboehmer]

Huh, I like the annealing idea, had not thought of that. I'll try that in the future, thanks guys.

What brand?

You may be right. I've installed thousands (?) of crush washers and I can generally "feel" them crush. I've also reused them, without issue, but if they aren't getting crushed fully or are reused then maybe?

Its actually super easy to torque with the right setup: 3/8" flex head, 3/8 - 1/2 adapter, 32mm socket. Tons of room.

Genuine BMW.

And yep, the flex head on the torque wrench really makes a difference. I wouldn't be surprised if most shops are just loosely torquing by hand with whatever tool then can get in there and calling it good.

[heinzboehmer]

Also, to the surprise of absolutely no one, the slathered RTV approach did not work.

Sooo this is printing now:




I plan on transferring both the seal and the metal retainer over from the cheapo cap.

I also plan on printing it in the orientation shown in the first pic, so that the perimeters of the NPT threads are one continuous extrusion and the part doesn't split as soon as I screw something into them. Unfortunately, this means that if the part sees a failure along the layer lines, there's a chance that the metal retainer (and some plastic debris) will drop down into the engine.

Scenario above is probably unlikely, but it makes me paranoid, so I added features for four M3 screws to reinforce the part. Easier to see in a cross section:

[jayjaya29]

I've found that the torch trick works with Al crush washers as well, its just harder to judge temp with them as they will melt before glowing noticeably. With a propane torch, I just get them glowing and quench.

Huh TIL, guess I'll keep em around as well from now on.

[heinzboehmer]

Assembled the tester, plugged the PCV outlet with a glove and pressurized the crankcase:

Holds pressure, nice!

Gauge isn't registering anything because I put very little air into there. I didn't want to push out any seals.

Will test with the engine running later.

[bigjae46]

Try the old IR dye in the oil trick?

[George Hill]

Works on Al too

I totally read that as A "i" lol

[heinzboehmer]

Tested the engine today and absolutely no movement at all on the pressure gauge.

Revving slow, revving fast, sitting at idle, nothing. I also disconnected the separator hose and covered the outlet with my finger. Felt pressure build up immediately, so it seems like everything is working as expected. Bummer.

I guess it just decided to leak then? Cool.

I'll take the intake (and maybe VANOS valve body) off later and investigate some more.

[Obioban]

Also, finished running through all Data[1] values and only came close to dying of boredom 15 or 20 times.

Anyway, this is how the values are encoded, to the best of my understanding:



Full investigation here if anyone is curious: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Worth noting that there is no x1000 multiplier. I must have sent 10x100 and seen 1000 earlier or something along those lines.

Even with the multipliers applied, the weird base10/16 counting still happens. I'm starting to wonder if this is an undefined-behavior-type bug/oversight. Maybe the mi/km theory has some credence and BMW only ever planned to display max 10mi/16km for each of the multiplier stages.

Regardless, the x100 multiplier still works with the 165 max. Not that I see it being particularly useful, but it's good to know that you can go that high:



And yes, you can display this:



Cute.

Next up is figuring out the D-Bus -> I-Bus diagnostic message relaying. As far as I can tell, all I need to do is tell the cluster to relay the message to I-Bus by sending a specific D-Bus command, but we'll see if it's actually that easy.

I'm planning on doing all processing on Gauge.S and sending a single byte that encodes both the gear and the possibility of a money shift. Hoping to just send out the message on a gear change, but unsure if Gauge.S offers that level of granularity. Not gonna lie, I'm not super excited to interface with the Gauge.S SW again... It seems to be a struggle every time.

It would be fun if we could get the e38/e39 IKE display to work, in place of the factory door/center/SMG displays.

It handles all that functionality on those cars (well, not SMG), and is much more versatile-- e.g. displays track name, etc.

[heinzboehmer]

It would be fun if we could get the e38/e39 IKE display to work, in place of the factory door/center/SMG displays.

High OBC in the E46 cluster would be awesome.

Unfortunately, the cluster boards aren't modular at all, so there's no way to just move the high OBC screen over to the E46 cluster. Proper way to do it would be to design some frankenstein PCB that can host both the E46 non-screen cluster electronics and the E39 high OBC, but that's way more work than I'm willing to put into this.

I guess maybe swapping the entire E39 cluster over could work, but I think it would look out of place in an E46.

The high OBC also broadcasts all of its UI commands/decisions on the I Bus, so it would be super simple to have the BlueBus highjack the pages that are cycled through with the BC button on the indicator stalk. Basically just have it wait until it sees the page index drop from some positive number to 0, then have it display any pages it wants to and once it reaches its own last page, set the high OBC back to its 0th page.

With the low OBC in the E46, I'm gonna have to implement an extra "group" of pages that can be cycled through with some other button (probably R/T on the steering wheel). Plan is cycle through all pages in that extra group and drop back to the "normal", BC-button controlled pages once the end is reached.

Something like: <current stock page (e.g. outside temp)> --> Gear --> Oil temp --> Coolant temp --> CAN wheel speed --> <anything else that can be displayed with the display limitations> --> <current stock page>

Since each extra page is just gonna be a random number displayed on the cluster, I also plan on having the page name displayed on the CD53. A bit of a clunky implementation, but it's the best I can come up with considering all the limitations that the low OBC has in our cars.

[t3ddftw]

I guess maybe swapping the entire E39 cluster over could work, but I think it would look out of place in an E46.

The pinouts are considerably different, and I don't know that it's possible to code it to work with an E46, especially as it expects a dedicated check control module.

The high OBC also broadcasts all of its UI commands/decisions on the I Bus

It's actually the reverse of that -- it's just a dumb display that the radio and CCM write to

rough with some other button (probably R/T on the steering wheel). Plan is cycle through

R/T is a toggle, and with the BlueBus installed you'll have issues implementing this as the BlueBus advertises itself as a phone module, so the R/T button will dutifully tell the BlueBus and radio that the Telephone and / or Radio has control of the display(s).

What I would do is use this to your advantage: when TEL "control" mode is engaged, map the up and down arrow buttons on the MFL to cycle your display. From the factory, the use case of this mode was to scroll through your contact list on the factory phone.

-Ted

[heinzboehmer]

It's actually the reverse of that -- it's just a dumb display that the radio and CCM write to

Oh even better!

R/T is a toggle, and with the BlueBus installed you'll have issues implementing this as the BlueBus advertises itself as a phone module, so the R/T button will dutifully tell the BlueBus and radio that the Telephone and / or Radio has control of the display(s).

What I would do is use this to your advantage: when TEL "control" mode is engaged, map the up and down arrow buttons on the MFL to cycle your display. From the factory, the use case of this mode was to scroll through your contact list on the factory phone.

Hmm, I guess I hadn't considered the use case where the BlueBus isn't the main focus (I don't think I've ever used the radio or CD functionality since I installed the BlueBus), but definitely something worth thinking about. Thanks for the callout.

Does the BlueBus toggle the TEL/RAD mode on boot so that it has control of the screen? If so, do you foresee any issues with treating any R/T button press as an event and then immediately broadcasting the command to put the systems on the bus into the mode that the BlueBus expects them to be in?