formyhealth - 1991 318is Build Thread - now with 1000% more 1JZ-GTE

[formyhealth]

Today, I learned a $26 lesson in ground clamp location. Apparently zinc plated nuts and fittings are just aching for a chance to weld themselves together if they are in the path between the ground clamp and tig torch.

ooops. They are mangled so badly because I literally sheared the threads off trying to get the nuts off, the other was on so good that I just cut the sheet metal around it. So there I go making more holes in the firewall by trying to patch up holes that were already there.

[formyhealth]

So on a plus note, Condor Speed Shop hooked me up with some rear panels when I bought the front door cards from them, so thanks Condor! I think they look really great.



On a bummer note, the Tilton floor mount pedals just won't work for me, I'm 6'2 with long legs and a short torso, I've got the seat all the way back but my knees are in a very uncomfortable position.




So I'll be returning the floor mounts and buying the Garagistic Wilwood/Tilton overhung bracket and Tilton overhung pedal assembly instead. I really wanted the floor mount pedals but there's just no way, maybe if I were shorter it'd be fine.

[formyhealth]

Doing the not fun stuff now, which is removing all the sound deadening and spraying primer to seal up the spots we've ground down. I'll be happy to be finished with this stuff cause it sucks.

[formyhealth]

Interesting brake line idea- I like that. I ran hard lines and the flexibility your setup will allow will definitely be nice considering the pedals will likely have to come out at least once.

Thanks! I found those when I was looking for tube nuts for the hard line and thought they would make my life a lot easier. I have a history of just winging things so I needed some flexibility.

[jpod999]

Interesting brake line idea- I like that. I ran hard lines and the flexibility your setup will allow will definitely be nice considering the pedals will likely have to come out at least once.

[formyhealth]

In preparation of installing the Tilton pedal box I went ahead and plumbed in the bulkhead connectors and went with flexible lines inside the car to allow some adjustability for the pedal box.



Also, picked up an AC/DC tig setup for some aluminum work, always wanted a high freq start tig any way.

[formyhealth]

Thanks! And agreed on flocked dashes, two birds for me as it will disguise the cracks and also cut down on glare.

[wworm]

sweet! glad this is working out. Flocked dashes look so cool too.

[formyhealth]

Installed some bling in the form of a Mountune vacuum pump delete and balance assembly delete.




Then started working on the cracked dash, I've carved out the cracks further and am backfilling with bondo, then I'll primer and flock.



Also, a VERY rough tally of weight we've removed from the car thus far since we only started weighing shit recently.




Finally, we did another test fit again, and I'm really happy to say that if I custom build a front sump oil pan we should be good to go and mount. My oil pan will be going off to the machinist to have this done. Either we will use it as a template to build a custom one or cut this one down to just the flanges and then rebuild, not sure yet.

[formyhealth]

What started out as a dry fit for the new pedal assembly turned into "this fucking dash is in the way". What a mess.

On the plus side I'll be able to clean up all the wiring under there and remove what is not needed, I'm on a weight reduction mission it seems. Also, I'll start prepping the dash for flocking and panel inserts while I think about a way forward with the engine install.

Does anyone have a wiring diagram for all the wiring under the dash?

[formyhealth]

i was really excited to see this. I have everything in spreadsheets to do this swap, well sorta.

I tune and upgrade ecoboost powered cars for a living.

Mountune USA sells a dry sump for the ecoboost. Pretty expensive but it will solve your oil pan clearance issues and be able to make the motor really low.

If not, there is a huge balance shaft at the bottom of the motor taking up half the room in the oil pan. You dont need it. Get a delete kit and modify the oil pan so you can make it full front sump (i think you would go back to the FWD oil pickup) or do modify the mustang pan and do the arc asylum subframe.

That's good advice, though I've checked into the dry sump kit and I can't stomach the price tag at this point. But I will talk to mountune about the balance shaft delete kit, I just want to make sure there aren't any oiling issues.

The issue with using the FWD pan is that the bell housing bolt locations are wrong and so it doesn't fit the MT-82 in that case, otherwise it would be a good solution.

I will probably have to end up cutting the pan after the balance shaft delete and relocate the oil pickup tube else where.

Man, this build is sweet! Definitely going to be keeping an eye on this.

Thank you! I'm looking forward to the end result, but the journey has been really enlightening and I'm learning a lot.

[formyhealth]

Looking at the pics provided, heres what I would do:

Get the motor/ trans setup pushed as far back into the firewall as possible. This will move that rear hump as far back on the subframe as possible, as well as helping keep the balance of the 4cylinder motor.

Then I would modify the shifter linkage to sit in the existing shifter hole. It looks like the linkage is stand-off type shifter so it should be able to be shortened to fit in the hole.

You will obviously still need to modify the pan from what it sounds like, but again, Arc-Asylum converts the E30 subframe to work with rear sump pans, so you can either pay them and hope it works, or just go about modifying yours. I would get a spare front subframe so you can work on it out of the car, or just pull the one on the car now.

The shifter is a stand-off style shifter, but there isn't a whole lot of material I can cut away from it as I said in a previous comment. It will help though but will still be further back than the original shifter especially when I push it towards the firewall.

I talked with ArcAsylum and he told me that the rear most part of the sub frame is only 1.5" forward of where a stock sub frame would be, which wont give me enough still. I may need to cut the oil pan and remove the balance shaft assembly like @mitchlevy7 suggested.

Another option is to fabricate a completely custom sub frame which would be unfortunate due to the time it will take.

[2mAn]

Test fit went pretty well.



Any ideas?

Yup that's the kit I own, which has the annoying rear sump hump.

Looking at the pics provided, heres what I would do:

Get the motor/ trans setup pushed as far back into the firewall as possible. This will move that rear hump as far back on the subframe as possible, as well as helping keep the balance of the 4cylinder motor.

Then I would modify the shifter linkage to sit in the existing shifter hole. It looks like the linkage is stand-off type shifter so it should be able to be shortened to fit in the hole.

You will obviously still need to modify the pan from what it sounds like, but again, Arc-Asylum converts the E30 subframe to work with rear sump pans, so you can either pay them and hope it works, or just go about modifying yours. I would get a spare front subframe so you can work on it out of the car, or just pull the one on the car now.

[spiDmang]

Man, this build is sweet! Definitely going to be keeping an eye on this.

[mitchlevy7]

i was really excited to see this. I have everything in spreadsheets to do this swap, well sorta.

I tune and upgrade ecoboost powered cars for a living.

Mountune USA sells a dry sump for the ecoboost. Pretty expensive but it will solve your oil pan clearance issues and be able to make the motor really low.

If not, there is a huge balance shaft at the bottom of the motor taking up half the room in the oil pan. You dont need it. Get a delete kit and modify the oil pan so you can make it full front sump (i think you would go back to the FWD oil pickup) or do modify the mustang pan and do the arc asylum subframe.