Eric's Mtech2 Vert

[Cabriolet]

Well it wouldn’t be a Christmas without pulling my engine out with my dad. Thank you victor reinz, for the lack of quality product, so I get do another head gasket.
Last year my dad and a bunch of my friends helped me rebuild my engine, manual swap, e36m3 ps swap. But after 50 miles of driving the head gasket started to seep oil.

Prepping the head to get pulled, surprised to see how clean my head stayed in the inside.

After my dad pulled 7 heads in the junkyard to get a good one for his project, he has become a machine. With me working the exhaust side and him on the intake, the head was ready to be lifted off in 45 minutes.

Making sure my peons: “work work”

Here is the issue. On the oil return passages the head gasket was under torqued, from the bolts stretching. It lifted the head enough to let the oil seep out. Here you can see that there was no bonding of the gasket to the block, even though it was fully done to spec.



I chose to set the head on the soft grass to dismantle the manifolds, as to not accidentally damage any valves… I really need a better work space for this crap.

/cry

Took the head over to a friend’s house to lapp the bottom to remove any gasket material, also a killer easy way to check the flatness of the head, as it is obvious if the goop sticks to the holes/waves.


FML, never noticed this before. I have some crap aftermarket head… AMC branded, anyone know anything about these heads?

4 hours in and we started reassembling the head.

Block deck was cleaned and all the stud holes cleaned.

Finished product. Ahhh so tasty!


Driveshaft gets pulled tomorrow

[N2MYE30]

Looking good. :up:

[Cabriolet]

So do you like the way she sound?
just got her running on Tuesday night

[Cabriolet]

Got the engine running smoothly and then opps. The input shaft of the transmission started leaking….
So while the exhaust was cooling I re-hung the front airdamn and installed the refinished fog lights that todd sold me.





The Final Outcome:


Transmission came back out.

The leaking seal. Was from the putting the input shaft housing on, incorrectly. It can be rotated and there is a notch that leaks unless it is in the right spot to cover the return flow hole. Also black RTV that mother on!

[marines2060]

great job eric!

[Steve Zissou]

i'm excited to see where this goes :)

[Cabriolet]

ITS ALIVE! …kinda
Got the front shaft bearing changed out. The drive shaft went in, heat shield attached and exhaust on. 41 degrees outside burr. Got her to start but something in the ignition timing is off.

Pushed her on to the driveway to jack her up

[///M42 sport]

Honestly you don't even need the spring, I never used one in any of the 5-speed swaps I have done. The pressure plate will return the pedal back to it's place every time.

Yeah, thats what I figured out too. I had a tab welded, then it broke off...and I realized I didnt need the spring. Also I didnt need to remove the auto pedal.

[Cabriolet]

So last night after work I headed down to my parent’s house to work on the car. Worked till 2am on the car and got the midshaft bearing on, alternator, shift linkage, PS lines in and fixed the clutch pedal.






forgot to put this in before the engine…


heres the difference in driveshaft sizes from manual to auto




Then I called it a night.
Today we put the finishing touches on the engine bay. Also put the water bypass valve in. Still trying to get the bearing out of the driveshaft, if that would have gone smoothly I would have been able to start the car today.
Oil is in and ugly valve cover removed.

[bmwstephen]

Eric, is your auto trans still lying around? I might want to stop by and take a look at it to inspect a common leak area for reference

[CorvallisBMW]

i needed to weld on the tab that the clutch spring sits on. and i wasn't willing to do that while it was in the car.

Honestly you don't even need the spring, I never used one in any of the 5-speed swaps I have done. The pressure plate will return the pedal back to it's place every time.

[Cabriolet]

Nice work! I know it's a bit late to mention this now, but you don't have to remove the auto pedal box. Just slide out the long dowel pin that the pedals pivot on, and install the manual one with 3 pedals. No need to mess with the box itself or the steering column.

i needed to weld on the tab that the clutch spring sits on. and i wasn't willing to do that while it was in the car.

[CorvallisBMW]

Nice work! I know it's a bit late to mention this now, but you don't have to remove the auto pedal box. Just slide out the long dowel pin that the pedals pivot on, and install the manual one with 3 pedals. No need to mess with the box itself or the steering column.

[PedoBearE30]

looks great man

[Cabriolet]

It has been a long grueling few days. Got a manual peddle box. Spent like 9 hours trying to remove the steering column because the peddle box bolts all the way up under, just to find out that the box is for a pre airbag car… something to take note of. Also put the feeder hose on to the clutch master cylinder before installing.
For getting the e36 rack in without modding any of the linage you can pull the steering shaft out and losen and shorten it. Then put all the linkage back together, as the rack is hanging lose and then adjust the shaft length and then bolt in the steering rack. I’m still working on getting the power steering lines fitted so they don’t rub on the steering linkage. Will have pics soon.
So I ground off the manual tab off the manual box and had my friend mike weld it on to the auto box. So I have an auto box in the car, modded to work. And UUC clutch line.
All new water hoses from bavauto went in today.
Engine went in today
Here’s from last night.


got my Dinan peddle covers on last night also.

picked up my valve cover from mike… looks perdy!!!


Driving my dad’s 260z during the swap.

Engine right before it went in. took off the fan and the fancy painted cover right after pics so that don’t get damaged.