BMW e36 318 tds - modding thread

[AndrzejM]

Originally Posted by AndrzejM

Today I needed to go somewhere and I've made ~200 miles trip. And I've noticed that I miss my cardboard rear wheel skirts! I was literally feeling the draft of real wheel arches. I needed to take them out, because of annual vehicle inspection and rain which destroyed them anyway.

Today I needed to drive the same route (~200 miles), but first I've put the skirts again, made from scraps of XPS 6mm panels. I couldn't help myself And I was able to improve FE from 25.2 km/l 59.27MPG (average after 320 miles) to 26.4 km/l 62.1MPG on those 200 miles. With last part of the trip 172km ~107miles with average 29.9km/l 70.33MPG.

It's time for semi permanent real wheel skirts! Definitely!

[NachtRitter]

Wow! Excellent! Definitely will have to do that with mine too. Congratulations!

[mcrews]

take a look at these:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ast-16970.html

[AndrzejM]

Originally Posted by mcrews

take a look at these:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ast-16970.html

I love your skirts. I've read your thread many times already and I'm planning to fabricate something similar. I'll keep you all posted of course on the progress.

[AndrzejM]

Long time ago I've decided that I want to build a kammback for Berta. Initial tests with a cardboard showed that there's a potential (~9% gain in coast down time - no A-B-A test). Anyway I've started with buying a hatch from a junk. Didn't wanted to destroy my hatch, and it's construction is not the best for attaching anything. Anyway few days ago I've started to build kamm.

"Junk" hatch mounted


First tries with styrofoam and cardboard


Finally I've started to build kamm from XPS panels


Glued, mounted with screws, combined together into something of a final shape


After some additional shaping



Last for now step - shaping continues


That's all for now...

To be continued...

Comments are more than welcome

[NoD~]

Awesome! I'm working on a similar mod myself (remove rear window and replace kinda style). Glad to see somebody doing it as well. Maybe it will motivate me to get mine going again... (lol)

[AndrzejM]

There is a long way ahead of me to have it finished but step by step I'll get there

Good luck with your project. I'm glad that Berta can be a motivator

[NachtRitter]

Very nice! I like the idea of building on a used hatch! Will you be rounding the edges?

[AndrzejM]

That's the plan but not too much. My tuft tests of kamm made of cardboard showed a very good flow over the edges and I like the square form of it. But of course not a knife like edges ;-) Just a smooth transition from one part to another.

[AndrzejM]

Today I've needed to be somewhere 150km from home, so I was planning to put back the original hatch. To do that I've needed to sand xps panels the way to don't need to put new ecomodded hatch back again before I'll fiberglass it. So I've spent few hours sanding it, cutting, gluing, filling gaps etc. After few hours of work, my new hatch started to look as it should. So I've decided to not change hatch yet and make a test drive. So today morning I've started my trip. First impression? A bit louder, because there aren't any panels covering new hatch. Just bare metal and xps. Don;t know if that was a placebo effect or my expectations but car was "lighter". Of course new hatch is lighter by few pounds from the original one, xps is much lighter than glass after all, and all those missing parts adds up. Anyway during my trip I was watching MPGuino screen like a maniac. I was averaging somewhere around 27km/l at my usual speeds, Now I was able to see 29-30 without any special effort. Of course that's not an A-B-A test but I don't think I'll do it anyway. I can't imagine changing hatches somewhere in the middle of nowhere just to test the difference. But my last 5 fill-ups were very consistent so I'll just take a closer look at few future fill ups and I'll get the difference. I presume it'll be somewhere between 5 to 10%
Another thing I've noticed was much longer coasting time, and speed was decreasing much slower during a coast down. Sometimes I just needed to use brakes, because I was starting to coast down to late to drive without using them. I just need to get use to the parachuteless Berta
On the last part of my trip (153km) MPGuino was showing 27,5+ km/l and that was achieved without any special effort from my side in heavy traffic. In those conditions I was averaging somewhere around 26km/l with a bit more effort.
Now it's time to fiberglass my new hatch, put some bondo and paint it. Don't know what color I should use... I'm thinking of some nice stencils
So It's kinda success story, but I've decided to write it here. I'm in the middle of not the best tank (for now), I need to see the difference on a long trip then I will know how big is the success That was a good move anyway. I should do it long time ago.

To be continued