phenryiv1's Rally Cross 87 325- Caged, B25 Swapped, Rear suspension refresh Last Page

[phenryiv1]

More on the long day:

This happened:







Unfortunately the battery was too dead to start the car. It engaged the starter but that was it. I have it on the charger for now and we'll try to fire it up tomorrow.

I have a lot more pics, but that is it for tonight.

[phenryiv1]

References for me:

http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81831

https://www.r3vlimited.com/BOARD/showthread.php?t=100939

http://www.armchair.mb.ca/~dave/BMW/e30/

[phenryiv1]

So a little more about the swap from yesterday. The good news is that the motor is physically in the car, and the bad news it that that is pretty much it. Wiring is incomplete, no cooling system, shifter assembly isn't really an assembly, and we already melted one ground wire by not checking the C101 connections.

The day started off later than we had hoped, with Jason (the car co-owner) and Jon (etaSport) getting to the house around 10 or 10:30. I had hoped to have the good oil pan on the motor before they got here, but due to weather, work, and a sick kid, I never got the pans swapped.

Jon and I worked on some prep on the motor while Jason removed the old pan from the new motor.

Had I known that we'd kill about an hour doing that, I might have tried to re-tap the pan for a larger oil plug. I will be doing that anyway to have a spare pan, but I was set on installing the crank scraper so I thought that I'd be pulling the pan anyway.

In the end, we gave up on the crank scraper, so pulling the pan for the sake of doing that was a complete waste of time. I should have stuck with the existing pan and re-tapped it.

So after pulling the pan, we used Right Stuff grey and a paper gasket and installed the pan:



So as mentioned a page or so back, I had the wrong flange for my driveshaft so I was trying to swap on a large flange. I bought a spare flange and the 30mm socket, but despite 3 people fighting the 30mm nut, we could not break it loose with a prybar, with an impact, or with wishful thinking. In the end, we installed the eta transmission, which was (knock on wood) working perfectly when I pulled the eta motor. We can still swap flanges later if we have to use the "i" trans, but for now we are running the eta trans.



Dirty, but it does what it needs to do.

We initially lifted the B25 by the front motor lift point and the transmission using a load leveller and the rear seat belt serving as a sling for the transmission. This was fine until we realized that we needed to swap out the transmission and had to take the weight off of the trans to accomplish that.

The solution was to rest the trans on a Rhino ramp to lelease the tension, then use a 6400# rated lifting sling and to use 2 5000# rated carabiners to hook the sling to the top links on the load leveller, then to re=lift the motor with the transmission not in the lifting chain.

The carabiners look like this:



After swapping the transmissions, we reversed the process.



So after some fun gymnastics with the motor on the hoist to swap the trans with the motor still hanging, we started the actual install.





Condor Speed Shop mounts about to go in:



And in the car:



The installed pictures of the motor are already posted above.

We are not 100% confident on whether the fuel line and return are in the right orientation, but flipping the is easy if I got them backwards.


So by then, we were late in the day and both Jason and Jon had to get on the road. We filled the car with oil, figuring that we'd try to start it without the cooling system and then shut it down.

Unfortunately, the attempt to start was doomed from the beginning. First, the battery was pretty much dead, and then when we did get juice, the dash started smoking immediately due to a hot wire in the C101 on the motor side being connected to a ground on the body side. Looks like my next 3 weeks will involve looking over the wiring diagrams in the links above.

[phenryiv1]

Update: After charging the battery and re-checking the wiring at the C101, I was able to get the car to start.

I tried to crank it for a couple minutes and smelled fuel so checked the fuel lines and saw that I might have had the fuel and return lines swapped, so I switched them around and after a few seconds of cranking she fired up.

It ran for about 90 seconds with no exhaust or cooling hooked up, but the idle was what I'd expect without any exhaust on the car. Since I did not have a temp gauge hooked up, I only let it run long enough to establish that it was in fact running. I did not want to risk it getting too hot and causing issues, but with the ambient air temp being around 30*, I feel pretty safe that the minute and a half was not detrimental.

Now it is time to build exhaust and start getting the car back together!

[Gary Horneck]

Congrats on getting it to fire up ok. Been following your progress for a year.

[phenryiv1]

Congrats on getting it to fire up ok. Been following your progress for a year.

Hopefull i'll have it ready for the first event. I have a LOT of work left to do- exhaust (though your ideas in my thread are very helpful!), re-install of the driveshaft, heat shields, etc., dash, passenger seat, cooling system, and a relocation of the new oil cooler (it sits WAY too low).

The next 2 weeks will be busy, especially considering that the car is outside and we are calling for 8-18" of snow in the next 36 hours. On top of that, my wife is in training for a series of running races that start in 2 weeks and weekends are her long training runs.

Busy busy busy.

[silence]

Looking good.

[95maxrider]

Damn, I wasn't aware of the wiring problem you had, glad to hear you got it fixed. Get that thing in the garage!

[phenryiv1]

Damn, I wasn't aware of the wiring problem you had, glad to hear you got it fixed. Get that thing in the garage!

I hope to get he driveline back in this weekend. Exhaust may be a project for next week.

Cooling will also get installed over the weekend- I hope.

[phenryiv1]

Ordered some oddball parts needed to get the shifter re-assembled and to allow me to properly install the replacement differential cover with new bushing.

25117571899 (2)
25111220199 (2)
07119902293 (2)
07119932863 (2)
33111206166 (2)
33111206076 (1)
33111210405 (1)

[chance]

what is the copper colored stuff on the exhaust gaskets? Is it antiseize or some kind of sealant?

[phenryiv1]

what is the copper colored stuff on the exhaust gaskets? Is it antiseize or some kind of sealant?

It is exactly that- a copper sealant that you apply to exhaust gaskets. It might do nothing, but it makes me feel better to have it than to not use it and get a small leak.

[phenryiv1]

Quick update:

Driveline is now re-installed. I still need to bleed the clutch, but I have a driveshaft, shifter, and everything is connected.

The eta radiator is NOT going to work with the "i" motor. Fun. Now I have to go find a JY radiator in a HURRY.

I still need an exhaust. Car co-owner is going to work on getting a Y pipe welded to one of my sets of downpipes.

Still no dash in the car, but I did tidy up some wiring.

I reset my odometer to "0000000" since everything is new. Pictures forthcoming. Unfortunately the 7k tach that I bought is not going to work. More on that later as well.

Most of the interior sound deadening is out, which would be more important if we had the time to undercoat or use bedliner on the floor. Probably not going to happen.

I also need to get the steering lines hooked up and to bleed the steering rack.

Still have not sorted out mounting the passenger seat OR mounting the harness(es). Fun.

With 2 weeks (13 days, really) to the first event,. this is going to be a tight race to the finish to even be in running condition for the first event. I might even have to miss the test&tune to make the first race.

[irish44j]

Pat, I can probably arrange to come up there for a day sometime before the event and do some work with you if you want. Depends on if you can take a day off work though. I also have the friday before the T&T off, so I could always come up and help you out with any last-second stuff and then just crash at your place for the night before if you want. LMK. Or next Saturday in the afternoon after I'm out of work at noon.

[phenryiv1]

Pat, I can probably arrange to come up there for a day sometime before the event and do some work with you if you want. Depends on if you can take a day off work though. I also have the friday before the T&T off, so I could always come up and help you out with any last-second stuff and then just crash at your place for the night before if you want. LMK. Or next Saturday in the afternoon after I'm out of work at noon.

What day(s) work for you? I am trying to take off this Tuesday to try to get the radiator from the JY and to get the 1-person tasks done, such as the clutch bleed and the steering line hookup/bleed. But some major tasks will persist, so let me know when works for you.

Not looking to toss up personal stuff on here, but C and i have some family obligations that may hamper progress on the car. Plus C has 3 races in the next 5 weeks and i want to make sure that the car does not interfere.