Project 88 325is, vert replacement (because racecar content) -- R. I. P.

[phreshkid]

This looks good. M52 going in or what?

[Justin B]

It is sitting 5 feet away from the car, so I plan to paint the interior in the morning and weasel the engine asssembly in underneath the front end and bolt it up tomorrow. That will be a trick..

[Justin B]

Ran out of paint actually, but got mostly everything except the door x's and some little nooks. Going for some food then clean the shop some, get help with the motor, and clear some room in the shop.

[Justin B]

Many pictures to come, but the engine went in, but had to make sideways progress by swapping the front subs. Mine did not line up quite right in all 4 bolt holes due to my verts bent front frame rail. Left the shop with the 88s subframe being started to get put together with the struts/control arms, and 95 m3 rack from the cabby sub.

[Justin B]

The process begins with slamming the car with the most reverse rake it will ever see...


It is pretty high.


Engine on the dolly


Hey! It worked!



Ooop..hold that thought. No it didn't. .....

[Justin B]

I have both btw.

[drutt23]

Saweet man!! Looks good! Keep up the good work!! So I've seen a lot of guys installing the engine from the bottom like that. Is it easier????

[Justin B]

It should have been easier if everything went as planned. With no interior and where the rear stands were, the front of the car at the core support only weighed between 30-40ish lbs. Thought we were going to need to jack it up somehow but it was easily manageable. If things lined up right it would have been super easy, but we were fighting with a subframe that was out of my wrecked vert. Frame rail was bent in on the ds side, but allowed 3 of the 4 bolts (two pinned and ds front) to start threading before noticing one of the holes wouldn't line up. Re support motor, remove sway bar brackets, remove struts, remove motor mount nuts, drop subframe, and drag it out. Swap arms and rack to the new subframe (original from the 88 ). Bolt struts up one handed lifting the rotors with my feet, and raise the subframe back up to the frame rails. Now it bolts in. Time to drop the motor on the sub, and only after I removed the hoist again, I realized my steering rack spacers were on the wrong side. I was intending to space it up to take out some bump steer, but the pan was just barely siting on the rack before the mounts were solidly on the subframe.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!

Passenger side rack bolt is long enough the motor either needs to be way up, or the passenger motor mount arm removed. I took option 2 to avoid serious engine rearrangement, I already had the trans located and the ds mount still in the mount hole. Support engine and knock out the bolts, and the rack came with it, slid to a side and out. Ooook, well trying to get it back in was impossible without doing the bent subframe tab trick to raise the rack up from the bottom. Did that, got the spacers in correctly, and dropped the motor back on the subframe.

It could have been easy but I made it a little extra work inadvertently.

[drutt23]

It should have been easier if everything went as planned. With no interior and where the rear stands were, the front of the car at the core support only weighed between 30-40ish lbs. Thought we were going to need to jack it up somehow but it was easily manageable. If things lined up right it would have been super easy, but we were fighting with a subframe that was out of my wrecked vert. Frame rail was bent in on the ds side, but allowed 3 of the 4 bolts (two pinned and ds front) to start threading before noticing one of the holes wouldn't line up. Re support motor, remove sway bar brackets, remove struts, remove motor mount nuts, drop subframe, and drag it out. Swap arms and rack to the new subframe (original from the 88 ). Bolt struts up one handed lifting the rotors with my feet, and raise the subframe back up to the frame rails. Now it bolts in. Time to drop the motor on the sub, and only after I removed the hoist again, I realized my steering rack spacers were on the wrong side. I was intending to space it up to take out some bump steer, but the pan was just barely siting on the rack before the mounts were solidly on the subframe.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!

Passenger side rack bolt is long enough the motor either needs to be way up, or the passenger motor mount arm removed. I took option 2 to avoid serious engine rearrangement, I already had the trans located and the ds mount still in the mount hole. Support engine and knock out the bolts, and the rack came with it, slid to a side and out. Ooook, well trying to get it back in was impossible without doing the bent subframe tab trick to raise the rack up from the bottom. Did that, got the spacers in correctly, and dropped the motor back on the subframe.

It could have been easy but I made it a little extra work inadvertently.

Lol....dam. Glad to hear it's easy other than that stuff though!! I will keep this in mind when installing comes my way. Thanks Justin!

[Justin B]

I got a US plate filler to put this sicker on, it just barely fit. Blunt tech just made it under that.

[MR 325]

Doin good work Justin, I'm lovin this thread.

[Justin B]

Thanks Matt. I lost my job today though in the shitty news of today. Ill need to find another and quick, and gtfo of my shop. Money better spent elsewhere, it was just convenient down the strreet from my ex-job. Ill need to find a house or something with a garage for rent with room mates now. Overall it will be on the upside but it sucks right now. If I wanted to be irresponsible before I have another job, I have the dough and more to buy the massive sport bbk. And other goodies. Must refrain.

[Justin B]

Insurance finally settled today, for an increased value of my car of a couple extra thousand, so that will help. Hmm, bbk, solid rear sub mounts, cf acs copy mirrors, ryang splitter, coming up? I need parts to finish my car to have something to drive, right? :|

[Justin B]

Cut my dash to fit, I'm covered in fiberglass dust. I hate this shit. itchyyy. Here's some more shots of what is coming..

Overall shot, its just being roughly held by that box on the tunnel.


Straining reach for a wide angle of the wheel and dash. Lol @my arm..


Dash2

[Justin B]

Here's another, I mocked up my ign/start panel just now...


Anybody know where I can find that flocking stuff in a can, and who makes it? I want a charcoal flocked dash look.