My '75 2002 Sleeper

[deutschman]

Great work on those ITBs!

[future rs]

As usual great work!

[downforce22]

I would love to build my own parts like you have on this build. Awesome!!

[knuklehead92]

over rated....




jk Looks awesome!! keep it up!

[Dozyproductions]

Im glad im missing halloween for this

[tinkwithanr]

I've been second guessing myself for a couple of months as to whether or not the S54 ITB's are really a good fit for the engine, or more directly the 885 head. While they do give an easy solution for certain aspects of an itb setup (common vacuum rail, fuel injectors and fuel rail, proper spacing) I still couldn't ignore their overall size, and how that would effect the power curve of the engine. So long story short, I bit the bullet and ordered some new parts. Then I started machining the old 'i' manifold from my donor engine. When I got done it looked something like this:






The throttle bodies I will be using are from a late model BMW (keeping it in family of course) 1200RS. They are 38mm in diameter, and while some may argue they are to small for the engine, they will have no trouble out flowing the intake ports of the 885 head. This will help to keep charge velocities up, something that would have been lost with the monsterous S54 bits. Another plus of these throttle bodies is that they are mounted with 2 bolts on the top and bottom, so re-spacing them to fit the 91mm center distance for the M20 was as easy as drilling some holes in a piece of aluminum. Finally, because I'm using the stock M20 intake to interface with the head, I'm able to keep the stock fuel injector/rail location as well as the oil vent tube that runs down into the block.

Since they come in sets of four, I had to purchase two sets. Seeing as how I had two left over, I gutted one so that I could see how it would line up with everything without the throttle plate in the way.





Here I'm holding the TB in place roughly where it will be. It looks fairly far away from the head in the picture, but it's actually only ~0.5" from the edge of the manifold. That will leave me enough room to weld the aluminum tubes in place that I will be mating to the throttle bodies. As you can see from the picture the port leading to the head will need to be opened up slightly and rounded out. However it should be a very direct and smooth path into the head.







Then I took some aluminum angle and drilled the new mounting holes to properly space the rest of the throttle bodies. Then I bolted them onto the angle and held it in place.









I still need to weld on the new tubes onto the manifold, as well as extend the throttle tabs that translate the rotation from the center of the assembly to the outer throttle bodies. Overall I'm very happy with how they will look. The assembly will take up much less space than the S54 castings and throttle bodies, mostly because it doesn't have to open up the port from stock to 50mm diameter. This will leave me a lot more room for a proper plenum, which will either be aluminum or composite. It also puts the throttle bodies themselves much closer to the head, which will lead to better throttle response.


Thanks for looking.

[e30_neverstock]

wheels are dead on. this 02 is just getting better and better by the post. cant wait to see what kind of surprises u got under your sleeves.

[csermonet47]

Sooo jealous of your skills. The HREs are the perfect choice too!

[dball4]

Spot on with the wheel choice. Can't wait to see finished, your work is inspiring.

[tinkwithanr]

It all depends on the ride height your going for. Considering the race inserts only have 6" of travel to begin with, your probably not going to limit them by spacing them to the top of the strut housing. How I'm planning to do it is figure out the ride height I want, and if necessary cut the strut so that the desired height has the shock in the middle of it's travel. Then make a spacer to fill the rest of the space. I'm going for a lowered car, but not slammed (my oil pan wouldn't last long), so I will probably be shortening the strut less (if at all) than other's might.


The single adjustable are $200 per side, while the double adjustable are $330 per side. However the damping adjusting on those is done from the bottom which isn't really possible with the design of the E12 strut housing. I'm looking into other options because i would love to have adjustable damping and compression, but we'll see how it goes.

[knuklehead92]

hurry and finish!!! lol i love what your doing man! i just got my 2002 and thinking about doing e30 subframe and e30 front struts and also m20 or m50 hard to decide

[kronus]

Swell, thanks. Any idea how much they run for a pair?

Have you considered chopping the strut rather than spacing it up? Would get more travel out of it..

[tinkwithanr]

if you do go with real true coilover from Ireland engineering will it work with the e30 subframe? is the distance on the end of the e30 shock different from the 02, you think it would effect travel? just curious.

The shocks are slightly different in length. However, I'm not expecting to just bolt them in place and go either. I will already be fabricating a new upper mount area to better support the increased load that a true coilover causes, and so I will just adjust the mounting position as necessary.

Can you post some more info on the Koni strut? I've installed some new old stock Koni reds in my E12-based six, but they are super blown and I'm looking for replacements that haven't been rotting in a warehouse for 20 years.

Here's the page from Koni:

http://www.koniracing.com/8611.cfm

They aren't exactly a direct bolt in solution, they are slightly thinner than a std e12 insert, so I will probably make a 'sleeve' to take up the extra space. They will also require a spacer to be placed in the bottom of the strut to bring the collar on the insert up to the proper height.

Hope that helps.

[TrentW]

Nice choice on the HRE's. What's the offset?

The cooler looks right at home behind the kidneys.

[kronus]

Can you post some more info on the Koni strut? I've installed some new old stock Koni reds in my E12-based six, but they are super blown and I'm looking for replacements that haven't been rotting in a warehouse for 20 years.