Strict budget, slow restoration. *Now with moar budget*

[craiggroves91]

I sit at about 8milrpms at 350 mph w/ my 3.73 its pretty sweet

[Wh33lhop]

Good job dude. Glad to see you have her running.

Now comes the fun part of tidying it all up and making it pretty...

Thanks man. Unfortunately only some of that is the fun part. :p I'm still trying to figure out how to get the M42 harness cover to fit with the E34 harness and have the ECU fit in the stock location. I literally may have to extend the wiring from the ECU pigtail, wiring isn't a big deal for me but that will NOT be fun.

I sit at about 8milrpms at 350 mph w/ my 3.73 its pretty sweet

[Wh33lhop]

Hmm, what's that? Tooth fairy come to visit?



OH yes. It's here--the Mark D chip finally came. I made a quick trip to get some TORX bits for the ECU case screws and wound up putting it in in the parking lot at the store with a midterm in 45 minutes. Oh the pressure.

Anyway it really woke the M50 up, just like it did the M20. It revs a lot more freely, pulls harder (especially around 5-7k) but I'd really only rev to 7 grand in first and second gear, the powerband and gearing is such that it doesn't leave the powerband if you shift at 6500 or so 3-4, and well I haven't done the 4-5 shift at WOT yet.

Tonight I noticed two sport bikes who happened to be behind me getting on the same highway. I drove normally, started slowly on the onramp, then blitzed it down the leftmost onramp lane, getting on the brakes hard when I got to the bottom. One of the bikes flew by me a few seconds later, the other came up next to me and looked inside the car, laughing. I love this car. Look slow, go like the damn wind. :p

[Wh33lhop]

So, at the time of the engine swap I had done a lot of things to ensure that I wouldn't have to dick around replacing shit with this car for awhile.

I replaced the engine with a better, newer one that had must have been maintained better than the M20 that was in the car
I replaced the thermostat, water pump/housing, a bunch of vacuum and coolant hoses on the new motor.
I replaced the fuel lines, I replaced the brake booster and master cylinder. I replaced the steering rack with a low-mileage E36 unit. I replaced one of the tie rods on the new rack.
I replaced the two front calipers with rebuilt units. I replaced all the pads and rotors.
I replaced the damn radiator with a new one. I replaced the control arms with new Lemforders. I replaced the rear shocks (Konis) and mounts and had plans to replace the fronts.

So, how fitting it would be that a month after I complete the swap, I break a selector fork in the goddamn transmission--it works fine otherwise, but now it'll only shift into reverse and neutral. I jumped on a new one with new seals for a great price from Mike (White325is) that will hopefully be coming in the mail sometime soon, and I'm eyeing a clutch kit as well.

This morning I tried my hand at pulling the old tranny in the parking lot outside my apartment; as usual, pics aplenty.



And heeere we go...



Driveshaft disconnected


Clutch slave disconnected


Bangin' tunes commenced


Here's the car, and just to give you an idea of the setting I'm working in...




Pulled the IM to get at the starter


Uh, I guess somehow a dead moth made its way onto my intake valve, not sure how that happened yet.


Dropped the subframe a bit to get at the upper tranny bolts



Moar bangin' tunes


Aaand this was as close as I got


It was getting dark, so this is when I started to pack up (I didn't have a flashlight this time)


Getting later, I couldn't for the life of me get the subframe bolted back up (I had lowered it again in hopes that the engine/tranny would lean backwards, to no avail)



Getting reeaally late, using my phone as a light, still trying to line up the god damned subframe.


I wound up giving up, figuring I'd try again in the morning. I got the tranny most of the way off but not all the way, and I couldn't get the subframe or LCAB's back reconnected, so I did the best to make the car look like nothing was up, supported the subframe with the jack (I know I know) and left it overnight.

Here's how I left it




I really didn't have much else to do, I didn't want to set the car down on its wheels when the subframe or LCABs weren't connected. (The LCABs were pretensioned sort of so that the subframe didn't line up when they were connected). Anyway, here's to hoping for a good outcome tomorrow.

[Lof8]

you're fucking cool. Do you have another set of hands helping you out or is this a one man show? much respect.

[Wh33lhop]

Hah, thanks dude. The girlfriend did come by and feed me in the middle of it, if that counts as helping hands. :p

I'm hoping this morning that I can get the subframe bolted up and then try and pry equally on both ends of the tranny, hopefully it'll finally come off. I've also got to search for a new transmission again as it seems the one that I was going to buy is no longer (of no fault of Mike, he's a good guy).

[Wh33lhop]

So here's my much belated update from the "tomorrow" I spoke of (last Sunday)

She's sitting there just how I left her, I'm surprised the jack's still there


I finally managed to get the subframe bolted back up with heavy use of a BFH and trial and error


Hmm, this makes me not want to lower it...


This is kind of cheating, but this jack doesn't lift very high without help


That's better, much easier to get under now




But alas, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't budge it further. Since I had the subframe bolted up, the firewall was now blocking the damn transmission.


So, I set it back down, on its wheels this time, to avoid getting towed for the next week. The CABs are not connected, so I've got mad caster and wheelbase yo!


May have an update this weekend. Should be helping pull another G260 that I will get to use, fingers crossed.

[White325is]

Yo, Thats a mad tite tranny brace you got there. :)
Sorry about the trans, shit happens I guess.
One of the reasons I cut the inso back above the trans. it is such a tight fit and with that shit in there it does not help at all.

[Danny]

Props.

[Wh33lhop]

Yo, Thats a mad tite tranny brace you got there. :)

My favorite color, too!

Sorry about the trans, shit happens I guess.
One of the reasons I cut the inso back above the trans. it is such a tight fit and with that shit in there it does not help at all.

No worries dude. I just picked up some longer subframe bolts today, sometime tomorrow or Sunday I'm going to try my hand at dropping the subframe on the longer bolts, then pulling the trans off and getting at the clutch.

Props.

Word, dawg. You ever going to do something cool to make up for your cold feet with the 2.8?

[Danny]

Word, dawg. You ever going to do something cool to make up for your cold feet with the 2.8?

Just wait.

Its a few months away.

[Hyelifecl]

Good stuff. Great work!

[Wh33lhop]

Thanks dude, still working on it.

Just wait.

Its a few months away.

I'm gonna hold you to that. No more selling cool stuff.

[Wh33lhop]

So, I rode the bus to Carpinteria on Saturday to give my buddy Rory a hand pulling the engine and trans out of one of his E30s

On the bus, some guys were protesting Toyota, but honestly they made the logo a lot cooler, so I took a quick picture



Anyway, I got to Rory's place, here's the E30 we're pulling the motor from



And here's the motor



lol



Here's what the oil looked like when we drained it



It would probably look delicious in the context of food, but it was the nastiest stuff I've seen in awhile smelling like motor oil and coolant



ANYWAY, I got the driveshaft, trans brace and shifter, Rory unhooked the rest of the stuff in the engine bay... he'd already pulled most everything else prior to my arrival, so here we are, ready to pull the motor



If you're wondering what's under the car cover, well it's got an S50 in it, it's totalled and it's conveniently located right next to a 4-lug E30 with no engine and a stock steering rack. :D

Rory next to the M20 (sorry dude I didn't get the best pics of you)



Again, not the best pics of Rory, lol



And here's the trans we're going to stick in my car, thanks again Rory.



I'm going to try and sort out the clutch this week somehow, hopefully next weekend it'll be time to put everything back together.

[TimKninja]

I lold at the hammer on the jack. Think the hammer is rated for two tons?

This is my favorite thread on R3v, you inspire me.

Also noted nobody seems to be able to park in your apartment complex.