Irish44's '77 e21 320i build - with M42

[irish44j]

Finished up the basic setup on the mounts and tacked them to the subframe to mock it up. I may take them to a buddy for the final weld, since I'm not real confident in my old welder having sufficient power to really lay down good beads on this thickness of metal, but that's not really an issue.





The angles are pretty good, but I'm a bit apprehensive about the width and how much the M42 mounts stick out past the frame rails. Looking at Tom's setup, looks like he just angled the M42 stock mounts a bit to make them clear the frame rails, which seems to work fine. That said, I may look into fitting this up to use M20 mounts instead, which are narrower and won't touch the frame rails (and they're cheaper anyhow). Alternately, I think the e28 mounts would work as well. We'll see.

[irish44j]

Update: duh, forgot the M42 mounts have an offset bolt on one side. Once rotated to the correct orientation, the mounts clear the frame rails. Fab. I'm an idiot.

[irish44j]

Today I took the front subframe over to my buddy Diego to do the full welding on it. With this heavy stuff I'm not totally confident in my skills (nor of my flux-core welder) so figured I'd tack it in place and have him do the real welds, since I want to make sure it's strong. As always, good work by him (and I got to see his awesome S52-engined 2002 with giant fender flares that he's currently doing an extensive rebuild of, which is very cool).





Got it home and POR-15'd the whole thing

[irish44j]

Progress continues!

Got a few last parts I needed in to put the oil pans back on

Plastic (updated) oil pressure relief valve (next to the original one)



new bumpstops for the front struts, seeing as the ones that came off the car basically crumbled into tiny pieces as they were taken off... Had to double-check on the bumpstop/dustboot arrangement, since it's kind of odd compared to most other cars I've worked on where the bump stop is inside the dust boot. But this is how RealOEM shows it, as well as several other write-ups - and the FSM. So I guess the bumpstop is exposed to the elements. Odd. No wonder the old one fell apart....



so got one of the struts back together (after some painting of the housing in Koni Red - just for fun, and epoxy black on the springs - might as well make them look good while I'm using them ,even though that may not be for very long). with a new top hat and cleaned-up isolators. Should be good to go. Still have to do the other one.



Then it was time to drill the crossmember for the motor mounts. After measuring about a half-dozen times, popped the holes through, and a second set of holes for the "nubs" on the motor mounts. I did some minor position adjustments to minimize interference with the oil pan at the rear, but still may need to shave it a bit. The rack is ready to go as well, but I'm STILL waiting on Eurometric rack bushings, which I ordered almost 2 weeks ago. Guess they actually come from Europe, IDK....

Some photos of the mounts - and as Tom noted earlier in this thread, they will just fit inside the frame rails.







closest point of contact on the pan



clearance on the other side



a few more shots for posterity

[Nick_S]

You do great work Josh! I see that pulley found it's way to you finally.

[knuklehead92]

looks good! :pimp:

[irish44j]

You do great work Josh! I see that pulley found it's way to you finally.

yup, thanks again :)

looks good! :pimp:

and thanks again to you for the welding :)

[irish44j]

I've been short on updates recently for the four of you still following this thread, lol. It's been mighty cold recently and no fun to work in the garage. Plus all the holiday stuff has kept me busy on other issues. But somehow we were blessed with a few 65-degree days here in late December, so needed to get some work done!

So, got the front struts back together with the Konis, some painted-up stock springs (for now), new upper mounts, new bumpstops, and some red spray paint for the housings (hey, why not....need some color in there).



Got the subframe back in...



But forgot to grind off the old fuel line bracket, which interferes with the mounts....it's gone now.



Then went about putting the front suspension back together. This is really just temporary, since I plan to change swaybars and springs probably before the car is able to be driven, but I want it together enough to be rolled in and out of the garage. Maybe I just need to learn the "trick" or right sequence, but it took a good bit of muscle to get it all back together and bolted up due to the multiple different parts that are attached together (swaybar, struts, LCAs, etc). But eventually got it all back in with the new LCAs/bushings.





I'm still waiting on the steering rack bushings from Eurometric, but I have gotten a reply from them on their FB page (thanks for the suggestion, whomever suggested that!), and due to the cold weather and no heat in his shop, he hasn't been able to make them yet. No problem, but at least I know what the delay is now and that I'll have them eventually.

In the meantime...with it almost 70 degrees today, decided to try something. Let me put on my flame-suit first.......

I have a gallon of Rustoleum Professional flat black paint that I'm going to use to do the floorpans and such. My plan had been to do the engine bay in body-color.....but the main problem there is that 1) I haven't decided on a body color yet, 2) It may be 6+ months before I decide and/or get the car painted, and I"m sure I'll change my mind 10 more times on the color in the meantime. But I want to get the drivetrain back into the car now that it's a good ways done. Also note that I'm not a "car show" guy who plans to be sitting around with my hood up very often. I like the bay to look decent - and I'm always impressed by some of the beautiful engine bays I see - but overall I just want it to be functional and not rusty/dirty.

So...I hand-brushed the engine bay. A couple reasons why I did it this way: 1) I'm doing it in a closed garage with poor ventilation, so I can't have a crapload of paint fumes in there with kids in the house. 2) I want a tough, thick finish - but also one that's not so pretty I'll get pissed about if I scratch it up or something. 3) Once I put the drivetrain back in, I'm going to have to weld on some brackets here and there for the coils, MAF, etc. And it will be convenient to be able to just be able to wire-wheel that area, do the welding, and then have an easy off-the-shelf paint to touch up the area with matching paint.

Also since I put some color on the engine, I figure that will be enough cosmetics for me, lol.

So I did a nice thick coat today. This is the same paint that we painted the e30 Chumpcar interior in, and it's been bulletproof on that car. I just used a cheap 75-cent Harbor Freight brush, to boot. Once dry I think it looks pretty good as-is, but the real plan is to give it a few days to dry well, then do some wet-sanding to get rid of any brush marks, and just spray-bomb the entire bay with a light coat of flat black over it, giving it a smoother finish. Then I can start putting the front end back together to some extent.

So, here's what it looks like right now. Looks ok, but it will look better when I'm done, if not real exciting....





(much of the texture visible here is from the factory seam-sealant around the strut tower)

[stanhayward]

I've been short on updates recently for the four of you still following this thread, lol.

Happy to be one of the four! Good choice on the strut colour, looks good.

[irish44j]

Happy to be one of the four! Good choice on the strut colour, looks good.

lol, thanks. Had to show off my "not Koni Sports/Yellows, just Koni Reds" haha.....

[Nick_S]

I don't think that flat black looks bad at all. Good progress! I also took advantage of the warm to push my car in and get some work done, not often you get a 60+ day a few days before Christmas.

[Jamaican_Blitzkrieger]

Loving the build. I say stick to it being a weekend cruiser. And when the opportunity arises (keyword "when"), do a 2.0L stroker. Keep with the 320i theme ^_^

[irish44j]

Loving the build. I say stick to it being a weekend cruiser. And when the opportunity arises (keyword "when"), do a 2.0L stroker. Keep with the 320i theme ^_^

Yeah, I think it will stick to that.....too many racecars already, anyhow :)

Down the road this may be a turbo M42, but that's way down the road....need to get it on the road and finished first, then I'll thnk about the next upgrade.

[spoth]

We did our engine bay with glossy brush on Rustoleum pro. It's been durable and still looks pretty good outside of some minor discoloration from the headers. I didn't do a super great job since we didn't have the bay as completely empty as yours, but it still looks pretty nice.

[irish44j]

We did our engine bay with glossy brush on Rustoleum pro. It's been durable and still looks pretty good outside of some minor discoloration from the headers. I didn't do a super great job since we didn't have the bay as completely empty as yours, but it still looks pretty nice.

As much time as I've spent looking in there, I never even noticed, lol....

I'm definitely going to fab up a heat shield by the header though. The factory paint on that side was totally burned off to bare metal...