Ok boys...the R3v way or the right way? :)

[Sean]

Not bad man. I took my time, and did everything without breaking anything! ;)

I unbolted everything, no cutting involved. Went from a fully fledged car to car with nothing under it except subframes and a bare block in two days. I'm startin to get the hang of this. Hopefully everything goes back together correctly! lol

That's an insane hole. DAAAMN. I really wonder how that happened?

I think you should buy my SEta rods and pistons and use one of your blocks. I cna cut you a good deal man!

I gotta get pics up of my progress, but I've been too lazy. lol

I have a shit load of cosmoline in my engine bay - just gotta take the time to simple green the whole thing, that stuff is on there BAD!

Keep us updated, Scott! ;)

[bmwsmurf]

I have a shit load of cosmoline in my engine bay - just gotta take the time to simple green the whole thing, that stuff is on there BAD!

Keep us updated, Scott! ;)

Simple green doesn't seem to get much of ANYTHING off, to be honest.

[Dave]

Any update, Scotty?

Your lack of presence here leads me to believe you have been busy with this. . .

[bmwsmurf]

He might be stuck underneath an engine or something. Someone go see if he's ok.

[AdironRider]

Hope its all going well down there Scotty boy. Im still stuck up here at school. Never really made it back home for a substantial time period.

[Bimmerfanatik]

Any update, Scotty?

Your lack of presence here leads me to believe you have been busy with this. . .

Your suspicions are true.

This whole week has been filled with training for my new job, followed by late nights at the garage. Tonight I'm going over there and driving it home, no matter how long it takes to finish :)

Last night was the dropping in of the motor. Fought me tooth and nail for no apparent reason - couldn't get the motor arms lined up. In any case, after a lot of fighting, it went in.

I took the opportunity to install a lot of new parts:
oil pan gasket, clutch, pressure plate, release bearing, pilot bearing, rear main seal, shift selector joint (used a custom brass one), selector rod, all shift bushings, shift carrier bushings, CSB, flex disc, valve cover gasket, exhaust manifold gaskets w/studs and hardware, downpipe gaskets and nuts, new fuel lines, and upgraded to a late style cooling system.

In any case, I'll update more later on tonight or tomorrow - my ride is here and I want to get over there and finish.

Wish me luck - only a few things left. I miss her!

[AdironRider]

Sounds like its coming along man. Good luck.

[Bimmerfanatik]

The car is driving again.

I left my garage at 5:30 AM - what was supposed to be a few hours of work dragged on almost 10.

Started hooking up what was left in the underhood, only to find the fuel line connection I bought was the wrong diameter. Tried to get it to work anyways, ended up with fuel all over the place - terrific.

Search high and low to find my new battery has mysteriously disappeared from my garage. Of all things. Again, terrific.

Try jumping it, just get a single snap/click from the starter. I know the starter is good, so why isn't it working? Maybe it needs a battery. Out we go to Walmart for a new battery, and I grabbed a small fuel filter to take the place of the fuel line connector. Back to the garage, fuel filter fits the line great, as does the battery. Click, no turn over.

Shout expletives, fight for an hour or so getting the starter out (so much easier with the engine/tranny outside the car...) keep it hooked up and test it. First couple time it just clicks, then finally - it kicks out. Hm. Maybe it wasn't meshing with the flywheel? Starter goes back in with some fighting, and then we try again. Still nothing. Neighbor who had come over to shoot the shit sees the small ground wire from the battery to the shock tower, makes fun of it. Takes a jumper cable and grounds the battery to the engine. Car starts - loud as hell with just headers. Realize that the ground strap wasn't right - screwed back into wrong hole on oil pan. Swapped, started right up. Get very mad about pulling starter out for no reason, crawl under to hook up downpipe/midpipe. Hour or two later Matt (my friend) gets the 6 bolts from the manifolds to the downpipe as tight as he could. I get the cat-back installed as he does this. Cooling system goes on. AC compressor taking the place of the washer fluid reservoir for now. Attach PS pump to bracket, but do not hook up. Loaner seats go in, top goes up, I drive to Cumberland farms for water to fill cooling system. Couldn't get it to bleed right, drove it home begging for it to stay below red.

Got up around 10 (4 hours of sleep) and messed with cooling system. FINALLY get the system to bleed, and temp stays around 1/4.

So far...so good. I'll be happy in a few days when my frustration subsides...

[Bimmerfanatik]

REMINDER - 88 SETA engine, harness and ecu in my 87 325iC

Things wrong with the car at the moment:

Tach doesn't work. Not sure why - anyone?

Exhaust needs to be tightened and secured - the downpipe is from the SETA which was auto, and the bracket is too far back to reach the manual tranny bracket. Not sure how to address that yet, but it's too low to stay that way.

When you update an earlier car to the later style cooling, the overflow tank does not fit well - it's just sitting loosely and crooked in there. The mounting is different from the later cars, and the ABS is in the way for it to sit right. Not sure how to address this either.

Coolant level sensor - plug is on the wrong side of the car - how to address that?

Temp sensor in the radiator - same thing, wrong side. How to address that?

Plugs for OBC are different on the 88+ harness, won't plug into my car. Larger black plugs vs my smaller white ones.

Revs are a bit higher than I'd like at 80 - when I swap to the i head/harness/ecu, will that help?

[modifiede30]

REMINDER - 88 SETA engine, harness and ecu in my 87 325iC

Things wrong with the car at the moment:

Tach doesn't work. Not sure why - anyone?

Exhaust needs to be tightened and secured - the downpipe is from the SETA which was auto, and the bracket is too far back to reach the manual tranny bracket. Not sure how to address that yet, but it's too low to stay that way.

When you update an earlier car to the later style cooling, the overflow tank does not fit well - it's just sitting loosely and crooked in there. The mounting is different from the later cars, and the ABS is in the way for it to sit right. Not sure how to address this either.

Coolant level sensor - plug is on the wrong side of the car - how to address that?

Temp sensor in the radiator - same thing, wrong side. How to address that?

Plugs for OBC are different on the 88+ harness, won't plug into my car. Larger black plugs vs my smaller white ones.

Revs are a bit higher than I'd like at 80 - when I swap to the i head/harness/ecu, will that help?

I don't think the seta ecu/harness will run the 325 tach correctly but might be wrong. As for the other electrical issues, they'll all go away when you switch to the new harness. I would have just done that immediately - guess I thought you were doing that. If you want to do it now, just eliminate the cold start injector (think it has one doesn't it?), and swap to the newer ICV and it should plug'n'play with the rest of the engine. There might be a few things you need, but you could add them as you do the harness swap, such as the TB valve connector. Its really hard to provide much instruction without being there - sorry. Where are you again?

[Bimmerfanatik]

I don't think the seta ecu/harness will run the 325 tach correctly but might be wrong. As for the other electrical issues, they'll all go away when you switch to the new harness. I would have just done that immediately - guess I thought you were doing that. If you want to do it now, just eliminate the cold start injector (think it has one doesn't it?), and swap to the newer ICV and it should plug'n'play with the rest of the engine. There might be a few things you need, but you could add them as you do the harness swap, such as the TB valve connector. Its really hard to provide much instruction without being there - sorry. Where are you again?

Well, looks like I'll get the chance to test your theory.

Driving to work today, the temp started to shoot up. Strange, as the system was fine last night. I pull over on the highway and see that one of the hoses wasn't secured with a clamp - terrific. So I put it back on and try to find something to tighten the clamp, with no luck. I get back in and try to drive to the next exit to get a screwdriver and some water. The temp was holding just short of the red....then it dropped to 3/4 and I started getting smoke from under the hood.

Yep. Head gasket. So happy. I've had the car for basically a day, and it's right back off the road again. Got a tow truck, dumped it back in the garage, and headed to work (3 hours late - first week on the job, again, awesome.)

So, I called a local machine shop, and they're going to take the original i head and replace the guides, any bent valves, and deck it to the maximum clearances for around $400. Should be done by the end of the week. I guess this is just a good reason to finish the stroker swap, it just came at a real inopportune time.

I don't believe I damaged the block, but can anyone verify?

I'll be putting the i harness and ecu, intake mani, and tb on there now. Guess I'm glad this happened to the super e head instead of the i head...

This car hates me. It has to - I spend so much time working on it, and it just keeps breaking. My euro never treated me like this.

On the plus side, the shifter is rock solid - that brass connecting joint is amazing. It was nice to have some extra torque from the SETA engine, it'll be even nicer to have the stroker.

Wish me luck - getting a bit ticked at e30's right now. I've had a handful and I've never run into so much damn trouble.

[FredK]

HOLY CRAP! You are cursed!

Hopefully things turn around, you have had a recent spate of baaaaad luck!

[bmwsmurf]

Good luck Scott. Anytime it's over 3/4 you're start to put yourself at risk for some kind of damage, 3/4 is the maximum safe operating engine temperature but the block is probably ok if you didn't drive it for very long though.

[Sean]

Simple green doesn't seem to get much of ANYTHING off, to be honest.

What do you reccomend?



Scott, are you talking about the bushing on the end of the shift carrier rod? (where that bitch clip is?) I'm using the UUC delrin bushings there...but it still has a little bit of give, I kinda wanna put in a bolt. lol

[Bimmerfanatik]

What do you reccomend?



Scott, are you talking about the bushing on the end of the shift carrier rod? (where that bitch clip is?) I'm using the UUC delrin bushings there...but it still has a little bit of give, I kinda wanna put in a bolt. lol

The joint at the end of the selector rod that connects to the tranny - I found an aftermarket brass one in one of my cars and threw it in. NO play at all. Amazing.

Head came off of the i motor yesterday - broken rocker arm. I'll be having them go through it in a few days.