1986 325I Mtech1 S54 Conversion Update 28/06/13

[dnick]

wow, cant wait to see the final product of this.. great fab work!! Your making the build look easy! :P

[RobertK]

It makes me happy you choose the good transmission.

Just picked my 6spd ZF up yesterday. :)

[Loupoz]

wow, cant wait to see the final product of this.. great fab work!! Your making the build look easy! :P

Well i certainly woulden call it easy, but its been a great process so far. I probably spend as much time researching the swap, which parts to get and where to get them, as i spend actually building. And theres allways the time you spend just walking in circles around the car, when you encounter something unexpected :p

It makes me happy you choose the good transmission.

Just picked my 6spd ZF up yesterday. :)

Well i havent run mine yet, but it seems as a nice piece of kit :)

[sufoE30]

did you modify the firewall for the rack swap? i cant tell by the pictures.
congratulations on the build it looks great.

[F34R]

It makes me happy you choose the good transmission.

Just picked my 6spd ZF up yesterday. :)

I love the feel of the 6spd, I got the pleasure of driving one for a few weeks.

Amazing build man, clean ass sleeper =)

[Loupoz]

did you modify the firewall for the rack swap? i cant tell by the pictures.
congratulations on the build it looks great.

For the steering rack? But no i havent touched the firewall.

I love the feel of the 6spd, I got the pleasure of driving one for a few weeks.

Amazing build man, clean ass sleeper =)

Cant wait to take mine for a spin, im so close, but still so far from what i want the car to be when its finished.

[RobertK]

Well i havent run mine yet, but it seems as a nice piece of kit :)

After doing my research on the E46 M3 6spd Getrag 420G I found lots of people having issues with 2nd and/or 3rd gear syncros getting chewed up but not a single post about a ZF 6spd having issues.

From what I've been told you can rape a ZF 6spd all day and it will just laugh at you.

[Loupoz]

Mini update:

Got some new parts.

4 x 3" Exhaust flanges
AEM Wideband AFR Gauge
3 x 52mm gauge plate to sit in front of the gearshift


Also got a bunch of other parts in the mail, one of them being a VDO oil pressure gauge with sensor, and an adapter to fit the sensor.

I have also been considering ordering a bunch of AN-3 hose and fittings to replace all the brake lines, but i think that will have to wait till next months pay.

[Jean]

Nice build! With the amount of good parts you are using, drop the ugly booster and go with some tilton or wilwood setup :)

[Loupoz]

Nice build! With the amount of good parts you are using, drop the ugly booster and go with some tilton or wilwood setup :)

Well as much as i would like that, its not really in the budget. And my car will never pass inspection with such a setup, for that i need to keep it kinda stock looking. And the booster will be refurnished once all the mechanical problems are solved, and the engine is running.

[CorvallisBMW]

Beautiful work!

[Loupoz]

Update 20/08/12
Time for another picture dump. Its actually last Saturday(11. Aug) i was doing the last things in this post, but i got a bit depressed with the whole thing, so i havent gotten to updating yet, but here it is.


First i got some "new" parts, can anyone guess what they are?


Thats right: E30M3 rear trailing arms! :D

Next up on the to-do-list was completing the exhaust. Here i am welding a hangermount on the rearmuffler.



In its place.



Then i welded a flange to the muffler, so i can change it, if i ever should feel like it. Or if i need to get it off to fabricate some different tips, which i think is needed, because those 2,5" ones it has now, looks tiny. Ive considered taking a 3" pipe and pressing it oval, and then weld 2 pieces of that onto the muffler.


Also got a VDO pressure sender, and an adapter to make it fit.



Then it was onto fabricating the last piece of the exhaust. The piece to connect the 2 mufflers. Here it is tacked and ready to be fully welded.



In its place.




Then i walked into another problem, or so i thought ;) One of the last things to do was to get an expansion tank mated to the cooling system. First i was planning to mount an E30M3 tank in the battery tray(or where the battery sits in smaller models), but i dident feel that would be to great a solution. I then considered just using the stock early model tank, but dident feel that was viable either. Then i figured i could use the late model E30 expansion tank, which also would allow me to keep the Z4M pump and engine plumbing, which differs from that of an E46M3. But then i thought there wouldn't be enough room for both expansion tank, airfilter and ABS block in the same side, and that the expansion tank cap would hit the hood. But after a bit of testfitting with the hood and everything, i figured theres just enough clearance for everything.

Here are all my expansion tanks.


Making a mount for the tank of my choosing.




After a bit of grinding to fix some welds i wasn't very proud of, and ready for a lick of zink primer.



Next up was the brackets for the fan and oil cooler. Here they are mounted, as i left them from last time.


Marked up ready for some trimming.


Trimmed.


Primed.


Also installed new tie-rods in my Z3 rack, since the old ones where rusted stuck, so i wouldn't be able to adjust anything.


Then a bit of plumbing, to connect the engine and expansion tank.


Brackets mounted.


Made another bracket for the expansion tank as well. Didn't get any pictures of the welds or paint process, but my updates arent exactly lacking uninteresting build pictures, so youll have to do without :p


Then one of the reasons for my car associated depression :p Decided to poke around a bit with a screwdriver, and then i found this present waiting for me under A LOT of seam sealer :(


Pulled this sausage of seam sealer out of the body :( I paid WAY WAY WAY to much for this old worthless piece of shit. Im actually a bit on the lookout for another shell right now, because i know there are some similar areas in the back where the subframe mounts to the body.



Then i made a small relay harness, for the pump in the trunk.


Forgot to wire in a fuse first, but it got there eventually.


Then i bolted everything up, and put fluids in the whole thing. Oil, powersteering oil, and coolant/water.



Also added 4 relays into my harness which i dident get in there at first. Fuel pump relay(the one in the tank), VANOS realy, coils relay and injector relay.


Now for the second reason to my car related depression: I attempted to start the thing, and nothing, absolutely nothing, happened! First i found some 12V wires which dident get battery, but after i fixed those still nothing happened, except i now had lights in the instrument cluster. Engine wouldn't turn over, fuel pumps wouldn't prime - NOTHING. I tried to just take a wire straight from battery 12v to the input on the fuel pump relay, and the 2 pumps came to life.
So thats where im stuck at the moment. I think i might have mixed up a couple of the wires which hookup to the starter relay, but beside of that i dont know :(

[samiam3356]

O.O

umm,, fuck yea?!

[Alpina]

Ser flot ud,, men hold kæft hvor bilen er rustet !!!!

[Loupoz]

Ser flot ud,, men hold kæft hvor bilen er rustet !!!!

Skal vi lige tage den på engelsk til ære for alle andre :p

He just said: It looks nice, but damn the car has a lot of rust.

And i can only say yes! I payed way to much for it. Im actually looking for another body to build everything into.