JT's M20 Build Thread

[JehTehsus]

i put them on the valve cover on my m30 looks kinda cool.

Seems to be the way others have gone too. I don't think it's what I'm looking for though - I'm trying to cleanup the bay and want to keep most of the wiring tucked out of sight or at least around the edges.

[LowR3V'in]

i put them on the valve cover on my m30 looks kinda cool.

[JehTehsus]

Currently trying to decide on where I am going to put all these damn coil packs... Feels like a toss up between battery tray and rear firewall. Anyone have any suggestions? (yes, I do plan on keeping that sexy green masking tape in the final build)








I am leaning towards firewall. I need to do the 2x2+1x2 pattern because 2x3 will block the fittings coming off the fuel rail/slightly interfere with the intake manifold. I still think it will look better there than trying to cram them into the battery tray, however, where they just do not really fit.

Another option I was considering would be in the battery tray but on an angled piece of sheet metal, in the same orientation as the windshield.

Finally, if I do mount on firewall, anyone have any recommendations or information about how likely I am to get significant interference from the coil packs/plug wires being coupled into the main harness? I need to route the main harness around that way as well, and my inner EE tells me routing low voltage mostly un-shielded wire directly parallel to definitely not low voltage wire for any distance should be avoided... I suspect a battery tray mount would probably be a lot better for noise.

[RobE30]

double post

[RobE30]

Sounds like a great build thread. From the few pictures I saw, it looks great too! Keep it up, looking forward to following along

[JehTehsus]

Trying an imgur album... mostly just the photos that should be showing in the last few posts.

Allbum: https://imgur.com/a/P48NFqD

Will try copy pasting them below in rough chronological order



















































Probably missed a few, but there we are.

[JehTehsus]

pics no worky

Thanks for the heads up... I will figure something else out in a little while here

[digger]

pics no worky

[JehTehsus]

Got a bit of stuff done this week... what with the quarantine and all I plan on making quite a bit of progress this weekend.

For the record, the steering rack does in fact need to go in the holes further back. I actually found another thread where someone had an issue with the rack interfering/rubbing against the oil pan... of course this is after I find out I have that exact problem.

Anyway, bit of a pain in the ass and would have preferred to do that with the motor out, but oh well. In other news, starting to mock up some wire routing, trying to decide on placement for various elements. Here is a summary of some of the changes that are being looked at right now:

• Seriously tempted to delete the brake booster. Leaning towards the bracket massive lee has for twin MCs behind the brake pedal. Anyone have any recommendations on this front?
• Need to mount the ID750 fuel filter in the bay. Another good reason to get rid of the booster, I think it could work nicely back there.
• Ended up going with the chase bays power steering rack hose replacement kit and cooler. Old hoses were leaking everywhere anyway, probably could have figured something out on my own but this is basically bolt in.
• Replacing the brake lines in the engine bay. ABS pump had to go anyway, so I am going to move to braided lines in the bay. This could also tie in nicely with booster delete.
• I need to decide on how and where I am going to mount the coil packs. I think they *may* fit above the engine on a plate. Especially if I strip off the sound isolation rubber stuff up top there behind the valve cover. Ideally I can keep the plug lines up and run the ECM harness low to hopefully mitigate any noise that may get coupled in. I feel like this would be a superior solution to mounting the coils in the battery tray.
• Going to get a 16" 2000CFM SPAL fan (factory viscous clutch fan will not be installed) on order and mount it in front of the radiator. Speaking of which, swapping out the radiator for an all aluminium CSF. Going to need to change a few hoses over there to get it to work properly with the old style waterpump and cooling setup. Are there any real gotcha's with this or am I safe essentially changing out the rad + plumbing to and from? I am very strongly leaning towards replacing the reservoir as well but am fine to keep mostly the same position so I don't see how I would run into any real issues.
• Going to run the valve cover vent to a catch can.
• Wideband will be replacing factory O2 sensor. Not sure if I should try to mess with the mounting orientation or not.
• For the throttle body I plan on tapping the two smaller side holes on the intake manifold side of the throttle plate. One of these I will run to the vacuum station as my vacuum/manifold pressure 'source' and the other I am planning on running a downsized adapter plug to 1/16th NPT and running the extended version of the T1 fast response sensor. Just trying to track down some mechanical drawings to ensure I can jam it in there (not a ton of space between TB and IM on that side) before pulling the trigger (https://www.t1racedevelopment.com/product/t1-fast-at/). Debating whether to plug the hole that used to run to valve cover or to use it to pull some vacuum (when the throttle is open) on the catch can. Once I get the blower in place I would obviously need to pull this though, don't want the CC at positive pressure.
• Going to mount the nuke FPR in a similar location to the factory FPR. Will use the same tap off the side of the IM as well for manifold pressure.
• Planning on running the bosch combination temperature/pressure sensor where the old oil pressure switch was and where the old coolant temperature switch was (the ECM one sitting in the thermostat housing). This is the same sensor on the ID750 so hopefully once I get the one calibrated and working with the MS the others are easy as pie.
• Will need to get in a replacement connector and crimps for the engine-to-main-loom harness plug (C101). Possibly make a couple of changes here so that I can get a CAN bus out to the instrument cluster, which I will eventually be replacing with my other crazy project.
• Lots of little cosmetic and minor bits. Need to get the proper screws for the fuel rail to IM (you may be able to tell it is not fully seated), various heatshrink bits, somehow lost my nuts for the exhaust manifolds, etc. Oh, and vacuuming.

Here's some pictures of where I got to this week, nothing really exciting but may be good for reference:

[JehTehsus]

Damn pictures. Some of them seem fine but others don't, swear my process is the same... Anyway I edited last post, think they are okay now?

Update today as well. Z3 rack is in, except for a weird case of disappearing steering column knuckle bolts. Seriously, they have just vanished. Wonder if my uncle came through and grabbed them or something, really friggen annoying. Rack was a pain in the ass, only because the column was so rusted it was a total fight to get it on without stripping anything, but it is done. I also ended up mounting in the front holes, could not seem to make it fit in the rears where the original rack came from. If this messes things up too badly I will need to move it back I guess:





Paint did not turn out ideal, there are a couple rust holes I really need to cut and weld, but I don't have the time this pass. Once my uncle gets his truck done I will be revisiting, maybe not the paint but definitely the rust holes. In the interim POR15 will have to do.

Mounting the transmission: Do NOT let the weight of the motor and the tranny sit on one of the aluminium mounting tabs for the transmission.


Why, you may ask? Well:



So off to the welding shop. Going to try this with a bracket for additional support:



Went for the top down approach. Though about going in from the bottom, but I managed to get it out the top without too much hassle so I figured I would try in reverse.








Going to get in trouble for this, but the expression on the face of my wonderful and lovely assistant really shows how much she enjoys my latest project. Nonetheless, she was a great help here.


















Still lots to do, but overall it actually went it quite painlessly. Basically used a jack under the transmission at the rear while my partner worked the chainfall and we essentially just rocked the car back and forth lowering the engine in. A little bit of muscling things around but it was overall pretty painless.

Coming up next: Schemes and dreams and what in fuck made me want to wire my own harness and redo all the factory lines? Planning work is coming along well:

[ramerco]

Hey, just saw you posted on r/E30. This is great build. Your photos from google dont seem to be loading.. maybe a network thing.

[JehTehsus]

From a different thread but needs to be here and elaborated on 8^)

Not much on this subject for M20s, what do you have planned?

At this point I am still educating myself... (and mostly focusing on getting the motor in and running). Once I know enough to get into trouble I will be sure to throw up a post with my schemes.

Also, update tonight! Made good progress this weekend. Car is in the shop and I am getting to work on some bay prep. Unfortunately my uncle does want his shop back in the near future, no hard deadline but it does mean I can't fully strip the bay and take a few weeks to completely clean everything. It will have to wait till another time, like when I put in a cage.

Engine is built up, minus a few bits here and there and couple bolts I want to replace. As far as I can tell it is essentially ready to go in:






Bay prep started. Hoping to get the rack out after work tomorrow, then I can move onto final cleaning, paint and the Z3 rack. After that motor goes in.





Also, all of this happened just today. Car went in Friday night.

I spent ALL of Saturday removing a single wheel - all four lugs were completely seized, never had anything like it. Multiple Canadian tire trips later (probably have the virus now), 3 rounded bolts, I finally got the fucking thing off. Somewhere between 550ft lbs and 700ft lbs for each bolt, which is based on the rating of my impact (didn't work) and me laying my fat ass flat out on the end of a ~44" extension/pipe/breaker bar combo and bouncing up and down (eventually worked). Only one bolt didn't round.

Also, for the record I put those wheels on like 8 months ago or something and I sure as hell torqued em to 80ft lbs, no anti seize though. Maybe my girl was slamming midnight drift sessions without telling me or something.

[whodwho]

One thing I may or may not have mentioned over text earlier, my machinist did not hot tank the block (I discussed the bearing issue with him extensively). He said they were fine to clean it and that it would turn out 'just fine' especially given that I planned on painting. My other options were get another machinist who is familiar with the bearing or try to get them to work out the bearing (decided I would rather put the money towards a dry sump configuration). ...

From a different thread but needs to be here and elaborated on 8^)

Not much on this subject for M20s, what do you have planned?

[JehTehsus]

Finally got her back into the bay yesterday evening, going to hit it hard this weekend.

On the TODO list:

1. Strip rest of power steering and steering rack.
2. Remove front subframe. Anything I should be aware of with this?
3. Weld reinforcements onto subframe.
4. Sand a few bits, POR15 the shit out of everything. Both the bay and the subframe.
5. Paint. Both the bay and the subframe.
6. Attach motor to subframe. Probably re-attached steering rack at this point as well?
7. Drop car back onto subframe and motor.
8. Bask in the glory of a mostly mechanically complete E30, and also reconnect steering so I can get it back out of the bay and avoid incurring my uncles wrath.

Any advice from anyone on adjustments to the above list?

Also, some pictures:

[digger]

Stock bolts are 7mm head height and sit 2-3 mm below the machined surface so do not foul the scraper. the nuts are tall enough to touch iirc