325ic Calypso Euro Conversion - Houndstooth & dbilas now, MT1 & MM 3.2 stroker coming

[bradnic]

Where in western NY?

Elimira/Corning area. Just drove her back with the top down to Chicago last night to begin the teardown though. Ran like a top, AC on, cantaloupe BT 5908 with powered sub working great :-)

Anyway, as mentioned previously the plan is to take Callie's 221k mile m20 and G260 down to Jim at Metric Mechanic for cores. Since she's running well though, the thought of having the car out of commission during the summer longer than necessary made me rethink the action plan.

Cosmo the 86 325 coupe is ready for his 2.8 E-to-I swap... It makes more sense to tear down the parts car at this point, pull the I pistons and send them down to MM to prep them for that swap. That way I can drop off the cores and pick up the new engine, tranny and modded pistons all in one go. I'd also score some wife points by finally getting rid of the parts car.

So I have a choice to make:
1) get Callie back together with just a new SSSquid chip for now
2) finish the I swap on Cosmo first and take my time on Callie - get her back on the road in the spring

I'm now leaning towards option 2. That way my wife can use Callie for a couple of weeks before teardown and I can prep the car properly over the fall and possibly winter:
- get the E34 ANSA/RD headers modified and ceramic coated
- decide on standalone, injectors etc.
- do the rear suspension bushings, which I've been putting off
- finally get Scott at Strömung to get me the mtech1 exhaust tip adapters I still need.
- get the same IE / Wilwood BBK Staszek grabbed for his S54 swapped 325is, in black

would like nothing more than to have the vert totally finished mechanically. at that point there would be the electric top conversion to finish, new top canvas and paint/body.

[laidback93]

Where in western NY?


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Yeah I’m curious too.

My other half is from Niagara Falls NY.

We’re planning a trip for next April.

[968Reckless]

Where in western NY?


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[BreadMan]

Subscribed for the report on the MM3.2!

[monty23psk]

MM3.2 FTW. Congrats and good luck!

[bradnic]

Been a very busy summer.. started a new gig in western New York, and using Callie as my daily driver. The timing worked out, so I was able to join Levent at GutenFest.




Still running the original M20, but I will finally be picking the Metric Mechanic 3.2 next month. Will be driving Callie back to Illinois and pulling the drive train there. I need to trade them in to avoid $1600 in core charges..

Should have her back on the road by late August. I may just initially drop the new drivetrain in with the stock exhaust and ECU. Hopefully I can get a tune from SSSquid to tide me over. That will give me more time to research Megasquirt and get the E34 RD headers modified and ceramic coated. I also still need to get the Mtech1 exhaust tips from Scott at Strömung.

[bradnic]

well.. I unfortunately have a lot going on.. The vintage radio repair business I started is really keeping me busy, and I'm starting a new day-gig out of town which means prepping home for sale and relocation.

So.. don't have time to get things buttoned up for Asheville, even though I have this waiting for me to pickup down in Charleston.


UPDATE: picked her up in Charleston and rode her to The Vintage, then all the way back to Illinois. 1000 miles, no issues!


So new plans are to get Callie ready for Gutenfest and trek out to Levent-land. I will have to put the paint and mtech1 plans off another year, but the mechanicals will be done. WOOT.

[e30rapidic]

excellent!!!

[bradnic]

Stroker and Tranny ready for pickup!

Well the folks at Metric Mechanic finished the 3.1 and G260 two months early.. thrilled since I can make it to The Vintage! Need to arrange transport but I’ll be dropping off cores and picking everything up directly from the shop. Will post pics when I have something

[bradnic]

@jeffnhiscars found a much more reasonable local close to the shop that will be fitting his headers. $150 for Cerakote

Good info here - basically Cerakote uses local installers, JetHot does everything in house.

https://www.cerakotehightemp.com/news/article/cerakote-vs-jet-hot/

btw that $300 Jet Hot quote did not include shipping lol.

[bradnic]

I member doing my e21 Alpina B6 2.8 jet hot coating 22 years ago for $120. I thought was a lot back then.

yeah I've see a lot of sub $200 references in online searches, but they do tend to be older posts. with inflation your $120 is about $192. So yeah the $300 quote is high.

One of my customers just had his 24v headers, ceramic coated, for about $235 or so, local to us, in Portland.

Interesting.. that's really not much different than the $300 basic finish quote when you throw in shipping.

Why do they charge $300 and refuse to negotiate price? Because they can obviously.

[bradnic]

One of my customers just had his 24v headers, ceramic coated, for about $235 or so, local to us, in Portland.

Interesting.. that's really not much different than the $300 basic finish quote when you throw in shipping.

[bradnic]

^^^ well that's all I need to hear, thanks John. I'll def try aiming it down first, but your comments make eliminating the oil cooler a viable option too. Counterintuitive when you're increasing torque and hp 50%+ from stock.

Regarding the ceramic coat, I also saw a comment from @reelzimpro about Embree as a Jet Hot alternative?

@jeffnhiscars after my text to the Jet Hot sales guy about doing both sets at once but not paying list price.... crickets lol. You'd think they would have a holiday discount or something

@ForcedFirebird can you hook us up?

[ForcedFirebird]

yeah realized that after studying my car. not only that the motor mount isn't installed either lol. it's the same 325i oil filter mount just rotated, and it would never work in that position!

Gonna need a remote filter setup or a way to mount the filter vertically - I'm not giving up my AC. Here's my stock setup viewed from below - the cooler lines should clear based on the ebay photo.I've seen several vertically mounted oil filters on cars, but I wonder if there are potential issues.

For what it's worth, our endurance race car has never had an oil cooler. We just use the eta threaded adapter and mount the filter right to the block. Oil temps stay in check, even in the FL summer heat - albeit we do run LiquiMoly 10w60.


The filter housing can be rotated without issue (aside for the cooler hard line fitment), just have to grind the little nub off the back, it can be mounted any direction. One of the benefits of it pointing down is that the oil won't pour out of it during an oil change.

[jeffnhiscars]

@jeffnhiscars and I got $300 quotes from Jet-Hot to ceramic coat m20 headers. A lot higher than I've ever heard elsewhere - $200 or less.

Who do folks use? They coat inside and out correct?

That quote was for a chrome finish. They wanted $450 to do it in satin black.