'91 318is, 16V swap.

[FunfGan]

Ok so a little update today. I've grown tired of the empty center of my steering wheel and wanted to do something about it.

This is what I was starting with, Grip Royal leather wheel and NRG quick release.








Took the wheel off, was left with this








I'll then say this: I'm at college, without any of my scrap aluminum or spare sheets of aluminum or any snips, so I found a thin piece of cardboard for temporary use, and got to work. Cut my circle and chose my fabric, which happened to be left over liner from an Enjoi hat I'd previously disassembled.









Then got it all backtogether for the time being. If nothing else, it helped pass the time while I'm taking a one call MayMester at college...

[csermonet47]

nigga u a slob

[FunfGan]

Ok so bad pics, but the seats are in. Corbeau mounts are terrible. Their seats are wonderful, but their mounts make me want to give up on life.

Fixed backs are amazing, I can feel the car like never before. The amount of feedback from the rear tires/ suspension is incredible. that is all. So now some pics, I also made myself a new ebrake boot. And the seat was very close to the doorcards/ transmission tunnel.













/out.

[FunfGan]

So finals ended wednesday for me, and I had no classes until my May semester starts up this coming Tuesday. Unfortunately I was busy with moving my girlfriend back to her house, as well as packing up and moving out a lot of my stuff, helping people fix their cars etc, but finally found some time today. Started by tearing out some of the interior, the carpet and old seats. And then cleaned up and organized the rest of the interior and trunk. Didn't manage to get any after shots before it got dark, so I'll grab some tomorrow. Also the trunk got a little kick now :)
















Now the fun part!



I didn't get before pictures, but I picked up some of the cheaper Corbeau fixed backs in black, and e30 sliders.



Took the bottom hex bolts out to put the sliders on







The sliders are really nice, like my last set. A lot of the base is painted in a textured black coat.









So I through those on








Now the issue. The harness holes in the neck area are MUCH smaller than the ones which were on my old Corbeau recliners, which meant sliding them through was a hassle. Only found one way in which each side would fit through.











Then I bolted the side mounts for the harnesses up.








And finished product, this is the passenger side, so the harness is a little beat up. I'll have pics of them in the car tomorrow

[IronFreak]

You got the be careful about the, i would run part numbers to see what you have. Your motor creates vacuum and if the isn't adequate pressure on the gasket you'll create a leak.

[jalopi]

Not a whole lot was included with what I bought - almost everything, sans block/crank/pistons/rods/timingcover is new. Who knows? It could've been operator error while ordering... this is my first big project.

In any case, the gap isn't massive - you could probably fit 4 or so sheets of paper inbetween the cork and the deck of the manifold (obviously more now that i tossed the cork). So... massive globs of RTV time?

[IronFreak]

no, they're just junk in general....was it the intake that came of the motor?? I know the there is a difference in intake deck height between the 302 and 351.

[jalopi]

Fantastic! Glad to see some progress man, I'll come help you out if you ever need this summer.

Thanks for the offer! Hopefully, I'll at least have the engine in by June... who knows. Right now I'm dealing with pushrod issues - the rods i was sold are WAY too long (6.8") - so long in fact that when the rockers are placed on their studs, there's only about 3/16ths of thread for the poly locks.



ALSO, when I was test fitting my intake over the weekend, I noticed a gap between the bottom of the intake and those cork gaskets that go inbetween the heads. Is that why I've found so many threads saying to throw those cork gaskets away immediately?

[eurotrash]

Yah afr's are where its at. Super spndy tho.

Speaking of rad support problems.....check the update on the racecar thread.

[FunfGan]

Interesting read..Don't expect this but close would be very respectable.

http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article087/A-P1.htm

Oh I'll definitely be reading up on this, thanks!

Hmm.... lets say the drivetrain loss is a whopping 20% - that's still 320 wheel, which is pretty good. I'll be happy if I hit 300...

By the way, a friend came over and pulled my lazy ass away from the xbox. Got the cam/cam bearings and the pistons in tonight. Progress!

Fantastic! Glad to see some progress man, I'll come help you out if you ever need this summer.

Every time i read this thread i want to work on my 5.0 swap even more. Inspirational

Means a lot to hear I'm inspiration, man, thanks! And best of luck with your build.

[XW70]

Every time i read this thread i want to work on my 5.0 swap even more. Inspirational

[jalopi]

Hmm.... lets say the drivetrain loss is a whopping 20% - that's still 320 wheel, which is pretty good. I'll be happy if I hit 300...

By the way, a friend came over and pulled my lazy ass away from the xbox. Got the cam/cam bearings and the pistons in tonight. Progress!

[Mako18]

Interesting read..Don't expect this but close would be very respectable.

http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article087/A-P1.htm

[FunfGan]

Also found these pics from the EuroGeeks April Fools meet thanks to my friend Rob(I forget your name on here, man!)

[FunfGan]

A few things. I noticed my passenger side rad support was starting to fail. You can see the plastic washer cracked , and the bolt was starting to pull through. Not want to lose my whole cooling system on a large bump, I went and spent $2 on some new bolts from Home depot.



before







And after








Got a new tach for my birthday(the current one has been dead for months), and I also picked up a cheap fan from walmart that I'm going to mount inside. Because, well, inconvenientcar.








Threw on the OSTDyno sticker Micah gave me.







Then spent $1.75 and used the do-it-youself car wash down the street from school. She's looking shiny.









During tuning, I managed to loose one of the pins to my $10 APC hood pins, so I took that as a sign to dig these bad boys out and see if I could mount them. $50 each and NHRA rated to 200mph+. Should do the job.