BMW V12 Project

[Crambo]

What will you be doing for air filtering?

 

[cribbj]

If I go ahead with the F1-67 chassis, I probably won't use much more than tea strainers for filtration.

 

[fastegg]

V16 1uz

It's just the allure and uniqueness of owning/building/driving a V12 powered car. I've always been fascinated with them from the time I heard a Formula1 Ferrari fire up back in the 60's. When I worked at Cat and Cooper, invariably my favorite motors were the G398, G3412, and the 12SGT, and all these were V12's. Both companies had V16's but they just didn't trip my trigger like the V12's.

The Toyota V12 would have been my first choice for this project, but they're so incredibly rare that they never made onto my radar screen.

There were Jag V12's to consider, but they're heavy pigs, and have a weird head design, and an even poorer reputation for reliability than the BMW motor.

Mercedes built a very nice aluminum DOHC V12, but you don't see them for sale that often.

The "real" exotic motors I didn't consider at all. Nor did I consider any of the domestic V8's or V10's. Shoot, everybody and their dog has a SBC/SBF powered "something", and I wanted this to be unique. For a time, I considered putting my SC'd 1UZ motor in this car, but in the end I decided I really wanted to do it with the V12, keep it NA and have those 12 gorgeous intake trumpets exposed and right behind my head.

did you ever consider joining 2 1UZ's together ?.... sounds easier than that BMW

 

[cribbj]

Hehehe, you might be right.

Both the BMW and the 1UZ suffer from a lot of the same problems; they were both designed to go into heavy luxury cars, so they produce good low end torque, smoothness, and very low levels of NVH. To turn them into high performance beasts takes a lot of work and $$$.

I've been corresponding quite a bit with the owner of this car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx2JzTHSzUc; his engine was also built by my builder, and we're both of the same opinion, that if we had it to do over again, we'd just put a Maranello motor in & be done with it (and probably save at least $10K in the process).

Trying to make the BMW motor into something it was never designed to be is a very costly proposition, and in the end,it still won't make what a properly designed high performance motor will make. For all the wow factor of the BMW V12, Jack's car has only made 350 HP on the dyno.

 

[cribbj]

Here's some progress pics. These are the billet adapter/intakes for the TWM ITB's. This is before polishing and port matching:

 

[cribbj]

And the finished heads:

 

[JustenGT8]

Not really a thing of beauty are they? Still, gotta love clean engine components as they go together

 

[cribbj]

No, it's certainly not gorgeous like a Ferrari motor, but attractive in its own Teutonic way.

Compared to the four valve pentroof chambers we all know & love, those two valve hemi chambers, really do look ancient don't they?

 

[Cobber]

nice work on the manifolds John. What are the holes next to the exhaust ports?

Also looks like a great engine workshop, can't say I have seen anywhere like that over here.

 

[cribbj]

nice work on the manifolds John. What are the holes next to the exhaust ports?

Thanks Andy, this builder is a legend in the BMW community. Those "holes" next to the exhaust ports are for the sparkplugs, hehehe. Shows how used we've become to our Japanese 4 valve heads!

 

[Cobber]

Of course, spark plugs silly me.

 

[Thermactor]

Of course, spark plugs silly me.

I could see where it would look like a reverse-flow head setup to the unfamiliar.

Good to see progress on this project John!

 

[Cobber]

I was thinking it was some kind of egr system.

With throttle bodies and a nice exhaust this engine should end up looking and sounding pretty sexy.

Room to slot it in a Supra?

 

[cribbj]

Every time I look at the exhaust side of these heads I think how strange they look. These heads really do look more like they belong on a domestic cam in block engine than an OHC setup.

I think it actually would fit in a Supra, except for the ITB's, but I have other plans for it, which aren't completely finalised. When they are, I'll probably change the title of this thread a bit.

Thermactor, you just don't know how good it is to see some progress. My adventure with these BMW V12's began in 2005, and with this particular engine in 2007.

 

[cribbj]

We're finally getting there on the design of the dry sump pan. Here's the first rendition before the mains measurements were tidied up (on this BMW motor the mains don't extend below the bottom of the block)

Hopefully we'll be making the chips fly on the CNC machine in a week or two. This is the last big hurdle - the rest of the motor is "supposed" to be done.

 

[Crambo]

That sump sure looks intricate.
What about the '67 Ferrari 330 P3 style of Le Mans racer, was look'in over those as a potential replica myself....maybe.

 

[cribbj]

Those are nice cars and RCR builds a gorgeous replica, but I'm leaning toward something more open.

 

[Crambo]

What you've got in mind won't be road legal...would it?

 

[cribbj]

No, it'll be track only, unfortunately.

 

[transeurope]

Nice project! Any progress?