Brilliantrot 24v swap: BACK UNDER THE KNIFE!..Now with puppy content

[Nick_S]

Did a bit of work yesterday. Still waiting for most of the parts to come in but got started on the trans. First thing I took it to a car wash and cleaned up best I could. Degreaser, brake clean and a pressure washer did wonders





Pulled the snout off the input shaft to put a new seal and clean it up. I had suspected a lot of my issue was from the throw out bearing sticking or not working correctly. The TOB was thrashed and this is what it slides on, not surprised it worked like shit, this is all marred up and covered in scratches.





Cleaned and polished that up



old seal, forgot to snap a photo of the new one.




New seal installed and I put that back. Next I put the new release lever, spring, pivot pin and TOB on. Forgot to snap a photo of all the new stuff. After that I moved on to some of the bushing in the shift linkage.


Alot of this was truthfully still fine from when I did the swap 5 years ago but might as well while it's off.


New bushing and cleaned and lubed the bitch clip.



Wire wheel cleaned up this. New carrier bushing will go back in once its on the car.







Old selector was WORN out, so much slop.





Still need to do the output shaft seal but other than that, I'm done with the trans. Onto the engine side! I pulled the pressure plate, clutch and flywheel off. They all looked OK, actually the clutch disc has loads of life left with no signs of slippage or uneven wear, but again, if I'm this deep into it, I'd like to replace everything I can. All I could find was the single mass version of the OE flywheel which I've been told is dimensionally identical and hopefully a bit lighter. This dual mass is heavy as hell. For all those who wonder if a stock M42 clutch will hold an M50. Yes, yes it will without issue. I'm mostly stock but it holds perfectly fine.



When I got the engine the rear main appeared to be in OK shape so I didn't do it. Dumb idea, within a few weeks I was marking my parking spot everywhere I went. fast forward 5 years and to no surprise it only got worse.


Gee I can't imagine why I was leaking oil



Cleaned up the housing nicely.



And started cleaning the block a bit.



Leaving me here for the time being till more parts arrive. Hope to have this back in and running next weekend. Prime time fall weather around here lately has me wanting to drive something other than my Pilot.


Also we just got a puppy so I've been splitting my time baby sitting this little monster, working, running, riding bikes and trying to get this car done.

[Fraser]

You ever come ride around Salida? My e30 has a BMX on the roof too 90% of the summer... Great MTB around here and a couple e30s in town.

[Nick_S]

Your car is really clean man!

Cheers thanks!

[jeenyus]

Your car is really clean man!

[Nick_S]

I was just about to post this link as I read your response above:

https://rockymounts.com/products/streetrod

It solved all of my bike rack adapting issues for different forks.

Awesome build OP, I was doing the same build on my brilliantrot facelift, jumped ship and ended up with an m20.

Yep! Got 3 of those laying around.
Thanks man! Been a fun car, hoping it's back to it's former glory soon. It was embarrassing to drive lately with having to ram into 1st and the occasional grind and god forbid I had to put it in reverse, haha.

you guys are champs. Thanks!

[wworm]

you guys are champs. Thanks!

[AWDBOB]

I was just about to post this link as I read your response above:

https://rockymounts.com/products/streetrod

It solved all of my bike rack adapting issues for different forks.

Awesome build OP, I was doing the same build on my brilliantrot facelift, jumped ship and ended up with an m20.

[Nick_S]

are you running a thru axle front fork? Only thing keeping me from getting a fork mount roof rack is because I have a million different types of axles between all my bikes.

Oh yea, I have a few of the Rocky Mounts thru-axle adapters which come with a few adapters to run different setups. One is dedicated to my DH bike as it's got the monster 20mm thru axle and the other switches between boost and non...depends what bike I take.

[wworm]

Yea man it's a Kuat Vagabond basket. Looks awesome, very well built and has two built in fork mounts for bikes which obviously come in handy for me. I can stuff the BMX in the back if I need but there's no way my mtn bikes will fit. Love this thing.

are you running a thru axle front fork? Only thing keeping me from getting a fork mount roof rack is because I have a million different types of axles between all my bikes.

[Nick_S]

that roof rack is sick! Mind sharing what it is?

Yea man it's a Kuat Vagabond basket. Looks awesome, very well built and has two built in fork mounts for bikes which obviously come in handy for me. I can stuff the BMX in the back if I need but there's no way my mtn bikes will fit. Love this thing.

[wworm]

that roof rack is sick! Mind sharing what it is?

[Nick_S]

She's going back under the knife! After 5 or so years or relatively trouble free driving it was time for a bit of work. Earlier this year the transmsission started shifting poorly. At first it was an occasional grind into gear, then it became very difficult to get in gear at all until it warmed up. Then it just got worse to point it felt awful to drive so it sat most of the summer. Dreading having to pull the transmission in my tiny shared garage I just kept putting it off and putting it off. Fast forward to mid September and me an my girl bought a nice house here in Denver and one of the big selling points for me was a two car garage all to myself. Decided now that I have room to move and no one else messing with my stuff I should dive in and get this thing sorted once and for all.

New Spot




I had started to tackle the problem earlier in the year and in doing so replace the master and slave cylinders as well as the rubber hoses and added a UUC braided clutch line and all the bushings and seals on the resevior. At this same time I rebuilt the front brake calipers with new seals, painted the calipers, added some stainless brake lines and Hawk HPS pads.

I initially started to try and just pull the trans still in the car but after getting ruinously frustrated for a 4 days trying to get to the mounting bolts and realizing I was an engine harness and radiator disconnect away from pulling it, I called a buddy with an engine lift and we yanked it out last night. Came out with very little fuss and within 10 min the transmission was off. TOB looks absolutely roasted the pivot pin is extremely worn out which I suspect contributed to the issue. Figured if I'm doing this much work I might as well replace everything I can while I have access to it. So the list goes as follows, everything is brand new

-Single mass OE M42 flywheel
-OE M42 clutch/PP
-TOB, release arm, Spring and pivot pin
-All OE shift linkage bushings w/ Condor Derlin carrier bushing
-Rear main seal/crankshaft seal
-Pilot bearing
-Condor steering coupler



And out. Made a little stand to sit the engine on while I work on it.


Going to replace a few random fuel lines and the hard to reach coolant hoses while it's out and clean up some poor wiring I had done early on in my ownership of the car. Aside from this shifting issue and smashing the oil pan earlier this year, the cars been damn reliable since the swap was done. I also plan on re-installed powersteering on the car if anyone has an M50 setup with lines etc they want to sell?

And here's some randoms from the last year.

[Mushroom Stew]

Appreciate the thread. I just picked up a 91 318 as well that I plan on doing a m50 swap with. This thread will no doubt come in handy!

[_Keith_]

Yes I did but it took some adjustment and lots of zip ties.

Yea I know. Trying to get mine perfect. I had put the conversion harness on the bottom. Looks like you did yours at the top.

If you get a chance those pics would help me greatly. Thanks!

[Nick_S]

Yea was trying not to trim mine and invert the conversion harness so it was at the bottom. But I think it's to big to fit inside the cover. Did you get the relays to fit inside without modification?

Yes I did but it took some adjustment and lots of zip ties.