bmwe21.net forums

How are the hockey pucks coming along? Very nice idea

Yeah they're finished as in the pics above. They've turned out great as far as they look! I give more of an insight as and when I finally get this thing driving...

Managed to motivate myself and swapped the dogleg box for the M42 box. For the record, this project is now going to go even slower due to my massive commute each day. What's going to make it worse is that in the near future I'll be moving 20miles away from the car...

great project!
im thinking of doing the same but my e21 is lhd so should be a little easier,

what are you doing about the prop?
thanks

Nice write up , i'll be going down the route of the coilovers , but mine are 316 struts at the mo, i take it i'll need 323 struts??

vtecmike wrote:great project!
im thinking of doing the same but my e21 is lhd so should be a little easier,

what are you doing about the prop?
thanks

Lucks on your side for sure, well when it comes to the exhaust manifolds. If you use M52 tubular ones you might have to adapt them slightly as they hang down quite near the steering rack and you might need more clearance. That said you would have no problem using E34 cast manifolds I think, just chop off E34 downpipes as well and see if they fit! The E30 boys have to adapt their servos, which is roughly the same location as a LHD E21. There are two other LHD M50 projects on this forum, one by Tikky and the other by Lindbergen or something along those lines, might be worth checking them out. There's also another LHD M50 over on www.bimmerforums.com and the E21 section.

I have a number of different E21 and E30 props kicking around. You can never say what will be an exact fit since this is all custom. It depends on engine location and what gearbox will be used. I expect I'll be cutting and shutting a prop.

Rav, 316 struts are thinner and their bearing spindles are smaller. For the sake of using the M30 I'd be getting 323i struts ASAP anyway as they are better suited to the extra weight. The 323i struts are convienently roughly the right size for the rally design coilover conversion kit, you just need to shave the outside of the strut slightly. I've just had this done for Tomc off this forum as well.

Thanks for the praise, unfortunately this project is on hiatus. I'm far too busy to get into it at the moment. That said the welding will be finished this weekend, and I aim to fit a 323i axle (non refurbed or rebushed) just so I can get it out of the workshop and fix my POS E34 I've been lumbered with.

I had the car back in the workshop to measure up a few things when using an M42 gearbox

Propshaft
Remove the centre nut off an E30 4cylinder prop (M40/M42) and you can get it to the right length. Brackets will have to be made up for the centre bearing as the location is about 5 inches towards the rear.

Gear linkage
The standard M42 linkage is roughly an inch too long, but it is straight when compared to using an M20 box. The E30 conversions use an E30 M20 linkage, so I'll be trying one of these later this week

Steering linkage
Due to the lack of manifold clearance, I'll be getting the steering linkage engineered to remove the steering bush and replace it with a straight piece of metal.

Why didn't I just fit an M20 2.5!!

wiz0r wrote:Why didn't I just fit an M20 2.5!!

cant help you with that question im afraid!

This project is officially suspended. I have too much on at the moment and this needs too much of my money to complete. Summer is just around the corner and I'd rather be out enjoying it rather than tooling around on this!

Instead I'm turning my 318is into more of a track car and it might be making use of an unused M50 engine... This won't see the road until sometime next year, and it may have a different engine. We'll see.

pull your finger out you homo lol!

yeah stop slacking, im doing full time bar work, full time uni and full time bloody women chasing and it still have time to spanner away on my red car, screw the summer! bring back the icy roads lol

stop wingeing you bumbag! get working on your car!

It's hard when you have to call a halt, but sometimes common sense has to intervene. Mind you how much am I spending on my engine rebuild - for an M10, surely I am mad!

Rob, get a car running and enjoy it, doesn't matter what car it is.

Jim

Rob

Random idea I think the m51 diesel sits more vertical than the m50, (was your touring diesel).

Tilt the m50 to one side run the m51 box if it works and you have more clearance

Jason

I could use an M20 box and do the samething, or is the M51 more vertical than if I used the M20 box? I have a few ideas so its not completely dead in the water, but I'm not spending any time on it for the forseeable future.