Project Overly Ambitious

[36brua]

My wife's family lives in El Granada just over 92 and we are over there all the time. I'll have to try and get my wife on board to swinging by your place to check out your car soon!

Very cool, just let me know

[CorvallisBMW]

cool, sub'd

[jpod999]

Project Overly Ambitious

Made some more progress on this project today. Got the new Valley pan in and modified the cam sensor wheel. Also modified the M60 water pump to fit the M62. Still waiting for parts to come in then lots of progress will hopefully happen quickly.

[spiDmang]

very cool build. that V8 is gonna be tiiiiiiight buttthole for sure. but awesome!!!

[jpod999]

Got a bunch of work done on this over the weekend. My wife is awesome and spent about three hours each Saturday and Sunday helping me get this thing back together. My Dad also gave up a bunch of his weekend to help out, glad to have supportive people around!

We started off the weekend by picking up a S2.93. I am super happy to have found this, now I just need to order a bunch of bushings and my subframes are ready to go together.

I've spent the last month or so focusing on the engine, replacing parts, resealing, etc. and it finally came to a head this weekend. This is what we started with:



-Intake manifold gaskets
-Spark plug boots
-Coolant transfer pipes
-Upper timing case gaskets
-Exhaust manifold gaskets
-Cam positioning sensor o-ring
-Crank sensor
-Thermostat housing
-Thermostat
-Waterpump (not shown in this pic, it was off to the side)
-BMWstone cleaned/rebuilt injectors
-Coolant crossover gaskets
-New coolant crossover bolts
-X5 oil block o-rings
-Knock sensors
-Valve cover gaskets

On Saturday my Wife got to work cleaning the intake manifold/throttle body and I pulled the two upper timing covers to replace the gaskets. It's a good thing I did because the old gaskets looked to be in very bad shape, they were super hard (felt like hard plastic actually) and just chipped off as I was taking them out of the grooves. The new gaskets are rubber and seemed to be a little thicker, did the old ones just compress over time?

Then my dad and I installed the M60 waterpump and thermostat. This kind of threw us for a loop as it looked like the little thermostat pin was going to interfere with the housing, but it all tightened down without a fuss.

Sunday we came back and installed the newly painted valve covers with the new gaskets, as well as the intake manifold, coolant transfer pipes, injectors, spark plug boots, coils, and fuel rail.

Here's the engine as it sits now:




All this is to get us ready for this coming weekend as Sunday the 21st is my 26th birthday. I've invited a bunch of friends over to help me rip the M42 out of the car and I'm hoping we can pull both subframes as well. Going to drink a bunch of beers and make some Peruvian food for everyone to munch on.

My wife and I have been working on the OBDI harness off and on throughout the last few weeks and are slowly mapping out the X20 pins. Unfortunately I discovered last night that the white coolant sensor connector had a wire pull out of one of the pins so I have to deal with that. Also, strangely enough in looking at the ETM it seems that pins 11 and 12 are supposed to go to that coolant sensor, but I can't figure out how. It looks like they come off the back of the X20, go right into the collector at the back of the passenger side harness pack, into the wiring sheath for the white coolant sensor, splices into the two wires that actually go into the connector, and then end. I'm really not sure what to do about this, does anyone have any insight? Should I just ignore this splicing issue and connect pins 11 and 12 to the C101?

[CarsonE30]

Got a bunch of work done on this over the weekend. My wife is awesome and spent about three hours each Saturday and Sunday helping me get this thing back together. My Dad also gave up a bunch of his weekend to help out, glad to have supportive people around!

We started off the weekend by picking up a S2.93. I am super happy to have found this, now I just need to order a bunch of bushings and my subframes is ready to go together.

I've spent the last month or so focusing on the engine, replacing parts, resealing, etc. and it finally came to a head this weekend. This is what we started with:



-Intake manifold gaskets
-Spark plug boots
-Coolant transfer pipes
-Upper timing case gaskets
-Exhaust manifold gaskets
-Cam positioning sensor o-ring
-Crank sensor
-Thermostat housing
-Thermostat
-Waterpump (not shown in this pic, it was off to the side)
-BMWstone cleaned/rebuilt injectors
-Coolant crossover gaskets
-New coolant crossover bolts
-X5 oil block o-rings
-Knock sensors
-Valve cover gaskets

On Saturday my Wife got to work cleaning the intake manifold/throttle body and I pulled the two upper timing covers to replace the gaskets. It's a good thing I did because the old gaskets looked to be in very bad shape, they were super hard (felt like hard plastic actually) and just chipped off as I was taking them out of the grooves. The new gaskets are rubber and seemed to be a little thicker, did the old ones just compress over time?

Then my dad and I installed the M60 waterpump and thermostat. This kind of threw us for a loop as it looked like the little thermostat pin was going to interfere with the housing, but it all tightened down without a fuss.

Sunday we came back and installed the newly painted valve covers with the new gaskets, new coolant pipes as well as the intake manifold, coolant transfer pipes, injectors, spark plug boots, coils, and fuel rail.

Here's the engine as it sits now:




All this is to get us ready for this coming weekend as Sunday the 21st is my 26th birthday. I've invited a bunch of friends over to help me rip the M42 out of the car and I'm hoping we can pull both subframes as well. Going to drink a bunch of beers and make some Peruvian food for everyone to munch on.

My wife and I have been working on the OBDI harness off and on throughout the last few weeks and are slowly mapping out the X20 pins. Unfortunately I discovered last night that the white coolant sensor connector had a wire pull out of one of the pins so I have to deal with that. Also, strangely enough in looking at the ETM it seems that pins 11 and 12 are supposed to go to that coolant sensor, but I can't figure out how. It looks like they come off the back of the X20, go right into the collector at the back of the passenger side harness pack, into the wiring sheath for the white coolant sensor, splices into the two wires that actually go into the connector, and then end. I'm really not sure what to do about this, does anyone have any insight? Should I just ignore this splicing issue and connect pins 11 and 12 to the C101?

Beat update I've ever read on r3v, congrats man, sounds like you've got great company and are plowing through this project!

[jpod999]

Beat update I've ever read on r3v, congrats man, sounds like you've got great company and are plowing through this project!

Thanks dude, I'm looking forward to working on the actual car now. I've been itching to get to it for weeks!

[CarsonE30]

Thanks dude, I'm looking forward to working on the actual car now. I've been itching to get to it for weeks!

I bet! It's gonna be such a monster, should I reserve my spot for a ride along now? :D

[jpod999]

I bet! It's gonna be such a monster, should I reserve my spot for a ride along now? :D

Lol I'll put you down!!:p

[CarsonE30]

Lol I'll put you down!!:p

Sweeeeeet, just gimme a day and a place![emoji317]

[jpod999]

Got the M42 pulled yesterday! Took way longer than expected because we had one exhaust nut at the downpipe get stuck and then get rounded out. Ended up having to use a dremel to cut a vertical slit in the nut to break it off. UGH.

Next step is to pull the subframes for modification and strengthening.

[jpod999]

Here's a shot from my IG:

[jpod999]

Pulled apart my X20 and C101 last night using a tool my wife and I made:

[jpod999]

Spent a few more hours on the car yesterday. I wanted to spend a few hours finishing up cleaning out the engine bay; got the rest of the AC garbage pulled out as well as a few other small pieces. Then we got the whole front end taken apart- grills/headlights, valence, fenders- in preparation for cutting out the radiator support.

When we first got to my Dad's house yesterday he started to talk about how tough it was going to be to tip the M62 into place. Then I told him about my removable rad support plan and he jumped on board immediately lol.

In looking closer at my subframe, I noticed that it's hella cracked around my engine mount holes. Check it out.

Passenger side:


Driver side:


Luckily I already have the reinforcement plates from Garagistic, so I think I'm just going to weld those in underneath and then weld up the cracks from the top...I'll probably tack the cracks together and then bring the whole subframe in to work where I have access to a TIG.

This coming weekend I'm going to try and get the radiator support out and possibly pull the front subframe.

As I'm trying to get this done by Bimmerfest (May 28th I think?) here is my planned schedule:
-March: clean and reinforce subframes, reseal diff, replace rear subframe/trailing arm bushings, new wheel bearings all four corners
-April: swap steering column, boosterless brake conversion
-May: M62 in, plumb radiator, fab shifter parts, fab exhaust.

Oh god, when I see it all in front of me like that Bimmerfest looks impossible!

[jpod999]

Not many updates from this weekend. Last weekend we got the radiator support cut out, this weekend will be the bolt in conversion.

I picked up new FEBI control arms and Karlyle sway bar end links for a good deal from someone up in Sonoma who wasn't going to be using them. Now I just need to pick up some bushings and drop the subframes so I can move on to the brakes and steering.