84 325e m50 plastic bumper swap: Now on Catuned coilovers

[Rdreas]

So drove the car for about an hour the other day and it was driving good... Until it shit out on me on the highway. It would start up every time and then the second you touch the gas start running like shit. Waited over an hour for a tow which still wasn't coming, so I tried starting it and it drove fine for the 3 miles back to my friend's shop.. It was very strange. IMG_20141214_164325_869 by Rdreas, on Flickr
Picked these up local today :)

[Rdreas]

Glad to see an update! Trust me, keep plugging away, its so worth it when you are driving the car. Is the radiator a E36 Mishimoto? Any trouble fitting it?

It is and no trouble what so ever fitting it, I just bought the bracket from pelican, it's listed as $8 pn #17111709347. Drilled a hole with it in position to put a bolt through it. Also reused stock rubber mount things to hold it on the top and bottom. Thing I'm most worried about is my expansion tank moving while I'm driving, but ill find a way to rig it up.

[2mAn]

Glad to see an update! Trust me, keep plugging away, its so worth it when you are driving the car. Is the radiator a E36 Mishimoto? Any trouble fitting it?

[Rdreas]

Its been a while since I updated so I figured it was time. Car is sadly still sitting on jack stands but mainly cause I quit my job before finding another one and haven't felt like spending every cent to my name to register it and insure it.
Progress during this time has been good though.
Since my last update my slave took a shit.
IMG_20140530_154252_146 by Rdreas, on Flickr
so got a new one and swapped it out. I love my uuc clutch line
IMG_20140530_154219_612 by Rdreas, on Flickr
Also took my cooling system apart and put it back together with new 1" t and elbow from napa, and got some new clamps and I think its gonna solve my issue.

Plastidiped my extra set of mirrors so they aren't looking as crusty
IMG_20140823_130623 by Rdreas, on Flickr

Then did a little parts scavenging and found these and a new windshield for her
IMG_20140824_200834 by Rdreas, on Flickr
Pulled the old windshield out and practiced putting it back in a few times so i wouldn't crack the used one.
IMG_20140824_212352 by Rdreas, on Flickr
and made a diy to help others who need to replaced theirs.

Also spent weeks chasing my tail around over a missing fuse that led to half my cluster not working really kicked my ass. I traced everything and took my cluster apart to find out, I had no idea what was going on. Hopefully in a few weeks ill have it all together and ready to go on down the road because I got a job for a little bit and really really want to rip this thing down the road.

[Rdreas]

So not a ton of progress on fixing my shitty idle
IMG_20140427_183518_575 by Rdreas, on Flickr
Decided to move on with putting the 3.25 lsd in to get my mind off it.
Pulled this turd thinking it was going to be a 4.10 to find out it was a 2.73 open diff.
IMG_20140427_241340_664 by Rdreas, on Flickr
IMG_20140427_241350_739 by Rdreas, on Flickr
And when i went to put the 3.25 in I realized the rear of the car wasn't level which made for a fun time getting bolt holes to line up... oh well got it done and put my drilled rotors on.
My bay took a selfie
IMG_20140411_013754_136 by Rdreas, on Flickr

Got an ebay electric fan cause I'm running low on funds. Installed it and then took it for a quick loop around the block running like shit just to see if there were any other problems i needed to jump on before throwing everything at this idle.
IMG_20140512_171050_444 by Rdreas, on Flickr
felt good to drive it for the first time but as you can see my exhaust is still off. I overtorqued my ebay v band clamp so getting that taken care of and bought all my hangers so once i get another shot with a welder it should be all set. exhaust wise at least.

[Rdreas]

Got some goodies the other day off a fellow R3v member named Matt.

3.25 lsd out of and e24 with e30 cover bushing and flanges! :)

And he had these so I negotiated them into the deal

need to clean this stuff up and got some other shit coming to try to fix this as just a vacuum leak and if there is still a problem ill replace the icv. Also going to get an O2 bung to weld on my y-pipe so I get metering of all cylinders as Im using the ebay header bung at the moment and running really rich.

[Rdreas]

now she is just being mean... Had to delete my heater core after all, as it was part of the cause of my system not holding any pressure. Now it holds pressure but still has a pinhole leak, think I might need a few new hose clamps.

Had to clear up some space in the garage so I donated my m20 block to a friend, trying to convince him to put a stroker in his eta.

Then we took a trip to return the engine hoist and use my friend's tig to finish up my exhaust for the most part.


Took it home and put it on

Im pretty hyped over all with how it lined up, and that at the moment it is only being held up by one jack stand. But thats the bad part, I still need to figure out some hangers.

So time to Crank her up and see how she sounds?

FUCKKKK So not sure if this is a combination of vacuum leak and icv or just bad vacuum leak.
Need a new intake elbow

Like real bad

And found out the line running to the icv is splitting so time for more parts..
And an injector -__-

Ill post this elsewhere too but should my icv valve close all the way when off the car like this? it moves very freely.. maybe too freely in my opinion..
Ill check it with my multimeter later and try to determine that way.

[Rdreas]

Thanks! its a fun project it would be better if it was where I lived because only working on it on the weekends is tough, but sometimes i can bring little things with me and work on them.
mocked up the rest of my exhaust
Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr
hoping to weld it this week :) :)
also been plastidiping my tanks to make them more aesthetically pleasing.

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr

[ThatOneEuroE30]

great project. hope to do same swap one day.

[Rdreas]

So been working on a my swap a good bit. I pulled off the intake manifold and deleted my throttle body lines.

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr
Had a hard time finding a bolt to block the coolant port for the head. It was a m12 x1.5 threaded hole. Had to buy a bolt and nut so it wouldn't go any further into the head and used a crush washer. O'reilly was the only store with a bolt that pitch and I went to multiple places looking. Also got my brown temp sensor in.

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr
Ended up finding two places to potentially work on my exhaust. Started out with the worst part in my opinion, taking the headers back off to cut them to proper length. It was a fight to get them in the first time and when it came time to take them off I had to break out some leverage.


Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr

Got a harbor freight welding helmet for cheap, but it was awful looking so I plastidipped it white cause I ran out of black.

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr

I am by no means a pro with a tig welder I'm just a kid with enough knowledge to get into trouble, so don't hate. Originally the vibrant y pipe was not going to be able to slip fit as I had planned. So I went on another harbor freight trip and got a tubing expander and made it happen.

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr
Slip fit like a glove!


Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr
Mocked up my intended muffler position and welded a 45 bend to it.

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr


Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr
And I saved the best shot for last

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr
If you look closely you can see the rear vband flange. Hopefully this week I'll finish the resonator to diff section and make brackets.

[Rdreas]

so found out that my leak was coming from where i had a 90 degree elbow from the back of the head to the spider hose. Tried hooking up my heater core but it ended up having an even bigger system leak after my fix. Hoping the connection to the back of the head has a loose clamp. might just do a T hose and delete my throttle body and temp sensor lines. Also I found a guy who has a bike shop who will let me use his tig for a rate. I also have picked up 3 * 2.5" 45 degree bends and thinking I maybe should have got a forth. Got this Y-pipe a few weeks ago off summits ebay

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr
started to do a little mock up. First v-band flange will weld right to the Y-pipe. I will cut the headers just enough that I can use a pipe expander and make it a slip fit connection to the headers. From there there will be one 45 bend then the rest I have from there is in the picture. Still have like 8-10' of straight tube and a J bend so I should be able to figure something out.

[Rdreas]

i like the project so far, any updates?

Thanks! still looking for a tig put the project on thumbtack??? and got a few quotes and 1 I'm happy with but i have to go to them which could be an issue.

looking at your wire chart, i see one problem

c101 to x20
6 green/yellow………………15 black/green………..starter

but if your car now fire, i think that's solved.

in the c101 under the steering column inside on the car, you need to search for a black wire and plug into the x20 black wire (pin 20 i think), this is the RPM wiring.

I have the square c101.. And I have the BIG starter. Had to shave the block to clearance for it. it also has only has like 2 terminals and it also has a male end and i got female ends and wired the bigger starter wire to it.
I hooked my tach wire pin 20 on the x20 to pin 1 of the c104 which is in the glovebox.
And my tach works! just wired it last week and wired my speedometer last night.


and right now my coolant system isn't pressure testing well so i need to check a few hose connections and use some sealant around my thermostat housing and maybe my water pump. I have been wanting to jump on it and figure it out but I have been dealing with a coolant issue on a mustang as well but it is done now so hopefully this week I can figure that out, and I'm saving up for worst case scenario that i have to buy a tig welder and maybe con a few friends to chip in on it :)

[Mr Mpower]

looking at your wire chart, i see one problem

c101 to x20
6 green/yellow………………15 black/green………..starter

but if your car now fire, i think that's solved.

in the c101 under the steering column inside on the car, you need to search for a black wire and plug into the x20 black wire (pin 20 i think), this is the RPM wiring.

[meanEG]

i like the project so far, any updates?

[Rdreas]

So its been over a month and I have been stacking parts to get an exhaust moving.

Untitled by Rdreas, on Flickr
Things in the picture you may not see are 2 v band clamps and a u bend. I'm going full stainless. Straight sections were only 30 bucks for a 4ft section from summit racing which was the best deal around. Resonator is a vibrant ultra quiet.
Vibrant 1040
I did get a few bolts in the headers but figured i shouldn't get carried away since id have to possibly take them off to weld my exhaust. Hoping i don't have to because it was a serious fight to put these things on without bending them at all. ended up having to take out most of the exhaust studs to even get it in place.

Clearances are minimal as is published.


planning on either buying or fabricating a Y-pipe to go from the headers to a single 2.5 pipe, the v band flange, resonator, second v band flange, muffler.
Still in need of a tig welder too, Ive been trying to rent one but 6" of snow closes Atlanta so I haven't heard back from any of the places I've tried but I'm determined so i'll keep looking.