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Thanks man! Nope I never had the car fully repainted but I had a few things touched up including the front valance, mirrors, 3rd brake light and one side skirt. The paints not perfect for being 26yr old but it still had some shine left and looks presentable after a good buff and wax.
I went back and forth on whether or not I should have replaced the fan clutch.. Well I ordered a new one and got that in today. I've done so much damn preventive maintenance on this build it's not even funny lol. Seriously though, I haven't taken pictures of even half the parts, clips, ect. replaced with new parts!
I also installed a custom bracket which holds the diagnostic port securely. It's all the little things you can't buy new from vendors but really adds to the details and tidiness of the swap.
Here's a picture of the new clutch line, forgot to post before. You can't use a e30 line unless I guess you bent it. I opt to buy a new e36 line which fit perfectly with no modification needed. The line screws right into the stock e30 hard line, and right into the slave. I bought a stainless steel clutch line but really doesn't matter what you use, a stock rubber e36 line is identical.
Thanks you guys, and ya Julien you'll definitely need to swing by one of these days seeing how local you are to me.
So I've been having one hell of a time with the harness covers. I have no clue how people get them to fit, I'm assuming they just delete a ton of wires in the engine harness which makes the bundle of wires smaller, which then means the cover should fit? I have no clue though. I didn't delete any wires since I wanted this e36 engine harness to stay a virgin. I packed up for the day.. I wrapped it all up neatly with some factory harness tape yet the cover still won't fit. Even got the relays snapped into the built in tabs perfectly/ securely. Awesome..
Believe it or not this is what the mess of wires looks like when you remove the factory e36 harness cover, excluding the harness tape I added. I personally think I made it neater haha. Any tips on getting this big bundle to fit?
Take all the tape off the wiring harness. Use about two dozen zip ties and compact the harness as small as you can get it (within reason of course, do not damage the wires). Once you've done that, you'll zip tie the harness to the back cover and put the front cover on. The edge closest to the battery/battery distribution may take a zip tie to help keep it clipped together. It's probably the single best thing to do to an e30 engine bay, in terms of aesthetics, but goddamn, I hate installing those fucking things.
Do also make sure you have your DME mounted in place, BEFORE installing any zip ties. Ask me how I know. Ha.
Also, glad you put your diag connector on the strut tower. I hate having it in the M42 location on the wiring cover. So annoying to use.
I tried your way of keeping it uncut for a couple of years but it was such a pain to get the cover back on that I eventually cut out the unused wires and shortened some of the other wires and now it fits perfect. Before I cut it, the only way I could get it to fit was to run some of the thicker insulated wires below the bottom of the cover between the fire wall and the engine. Good luck.
I didn't realize those covers re-positioned the main relay, fuel relay and o2 relay. I have always wanted to do that because the strut tower area seems to collect a lot of grim in my car.
I went back and forth on whether or not I should have replaced the fan clutch.. Well I ordered a new one and got that in today. I've done so much damn preventive maintenance on this build it's not even funny lol. Seriously though, I haven't taken pictures of even half the parts, clips, ect. replaced with new parts!
I also installed a custom bracket which holds the diagnostic port securely. It's all the little things you can't buy new from vendors but really adds to the details and tidiness of the swap.
Here's a picture of the new clutch line, forgot to post before. You can't use a e30 line unless I guess you bent it. I opt to buy a new e36 line which fit perfectly with no modification needed. The line screws right into the stock e30 hard line, and right into the slave. I bought a stainless steel clutch line but really doesn't matter what you use, a stock rubber e36 line is identical.
I cannot tell you how important it is that you are detailing the small, critical steps involved in doing this swap. The preventive maintenance, installation tips and inevitable "goof-ups", are all part of the journey. Thank you.
I cannot tell you how important it is that you are detailing the small, critical steps involved in doing this swap. The preventive maintenance, installation tips and inevitable "goof-ups", are all part of the journey. Thank you.
Thanks man, just want to do the cleanest job I'm capable of doing and share the story behind it to help others int he future :D.
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