M20B25 conversion lives!!!!!!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

varden · Post by **varden** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 3:53 am

Progress report...

Gearbox crossmember reinstalled, speedo reattached.

Car up on stands again while i wait for my new shift linkages to arrive.

varden · Post by **varden** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:40 pm

More progress, from yesterday, an hour and a half of faffing about looking for brackets and those little adjuster bolts so i could fit the e30 alternator up instead of modding the loom for my e21 alt.

Fitted the p/steer too and spilled fluid everywhere while rearranging hoses that had gotten tangled in the engine install....grrrrrr....

Fitted the E30 starter and jumped the solenoid to see if it would engage, it did, this starter is heaps lighter than the e21 starter, yay weight saving!

Also took to the rocker cover and head with kero and wire brush to remove some of the gunge.

Dumped the loom back into the engine bay and connected up some of the heater pipes.

Cleaner engine....engine bay....not so clean.

Inlet manifold on, gave it a rub down with kero too.

--ALPINA-- · Post by **--ALPINA--** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:53 pm

Good job varden, i like to see a progress of an engine change... looks like its going well!!!

J

varden · Post by **varden** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 5:13 am

I'm in the process of reconnecting the engine harness to the engine etc and I've got a couple of strays with no homes....

Firstly this plug has no home, its not for the airflow meter that ones accounted for.

And secondly I've got a vacuum line comming off the manifold with some kind of device plugged into it that i can't find a home for either.

Help!

varden · Post by **varden** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 4:59 pm

Progress report:

Fitted up the hoses and vac lines in anticipation of putting in the airflow meter in the morning, even found the rubber hoop that holds that valve/solenoid to the manifold.

I canibalised the old vac line off my e21 manifold and used another vac line and 90deg joiner to mate the e30 vac line with the e21 booster.

Looks like this

I only managed to fit the return fuel line before i had to wind things up and get ready for work....

nas80 · Post by **nas80** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 5:43 pm

good progress -

personal opinion while the engine was out you should have cleaned / reprayed the engine bay!

fr0z · Post by **fr0z** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 7:13 pm

Here is some good page for "what belongs to where" -> http://www.strictlyeta.net/technical/328i_6.html

varden · Post by **varden** » Mon Aug 03, 2009 6:08 pm

An update....got absolutely nothing done this weekend, slinking off to play in the shed just wasn't part of the plan.

On a brighter note, i did get a call from Motorline BMW to tell me that my shifter linkage parts had arrived.

varden · Post by **varden** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 5:04 pm

Shift linkages installed, vast improvement.

Hopefully no more fishing for second during frantic downshifts towards rapidly looming corners.

If i want to get it 100% i will need a new shifter as the shifter is a tad worn.

But that is something else to worry about AFTER the car is back on the road.

varden · Post by **varden** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 4:46 pm

Amid all kinds of errands I got an hour and a half with my e21....

So....Progress report!!

I took the air filter housing off the AFM today while i waited for a bloke to come over and collect a pair of e30 headlights off me. He turned up, money changed hands and i promptly headed for Supercheap autos to pick up a lovely pod filter AND e30 adapter that was amazingly right there in stock.

I rigged a little bracket for the AFM to piggy back off the old fuel distributor bracket using some of the nuts and bolts left over from the 325i part out. One day the kjet might go back in, but that will only be cos I'm returning the car back to stock (??!!). Or i just can't get the motronic to work....

Seeing the pod airfilter and AFM installed gave me a sense that completion was close.

I also installed the fuel line that feeds the fuel rail from the tank, i hope i got it right.

murran · Post by **murran** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:50 am

wow! progress is quick! have you workout the coolant hoses?

varden · Post by **varden** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:21 am

Thanks murran

I'm still not happy with the way the cables for the oil sender and crank sensor have run so I'm putting off the radiator install till I've had a go at unraveling them.

varden · Post by **varden** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 1:31 pm

Progress report!

There has been very little progress

.

I spent the closing hours of my thursday afternoon looking for a nut to use to mount my O2 sensor onto my headers, no joy from auto shops or hardware stores but there was a wholesaler that gave me the nut i was after.

Today as i looked around my shed i noticed the two nuts that secure the auto box pipes to the radiator of the 325i sitting on the wall and what do you know the thread matches the O2 sensor.

I wasted precious time this morning cleaning up the shed and didn't get to the car till about midday. But the goal was to fit the headers and get the o2 sensor in....

Turns out that the headers i have been sitting on for 12 months now are incompatible with a p/steer equipped e21 as the steering uni sits about 10cm higher right where my collector pipe for the front 3 cyls would go...

I contemplated refitting my stock rack, but its rooted so no.....

I contemplated suffering along with the stock manifolds, but the access to do up the lower manifold bolts is rubbish, so no....

I decided to alter the headers to go around the p/steer with an assortment of TS mitzi magna pipe bends and 325i 323i exhaust parts.

First i fitted the headers to my old engine to see where the pipes wee meant to terminate under the car so i knew what my final outcome should look like.

Then i lopped the collector off the front manifold and refitted.

I cut up some radius's and then found myself being bribed with pies to spend the rest of the afternoon attending to my visiting sisters car.

I came back to the shed after dark not holding out much hope for my scheme, i made one more cut and held the two pipes to the collector to see if it would work and it looks like it will!!!

I will weld and post pics up once i have succeeded, or you will see the stock manifolds in place and know that it went pear shaped.

nige21 · Post by **nige21** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 3:23 pm

Power steer belongs in the BIN!

Ive been driving my brothers e21 323 with p/s and its not the worst p/s ive driven but e21's can probably do with out it. I will say there is no shimmy with the p/s, maybe its hiding it?...anyway

Good progress on all accounts though. Looks like you will be driving this thing in no time.

varden · Post by **varden** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 3:54 pm

Funny you should say that, but i fitted it in the mistaken belief that the susp mods i had undertaken were progressively making my steering heavier and heavier, but in actual fact my rack was full of grit and empty of oil...

but its in now so i will pop the belt off if i want to get some feeling through the front end again.