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

[rudenate]

Haha I did the exact same thing when doing my swap. I had the new engine in but nothing was wired yet by the time I was going to leave the shop. I only then realized the windows were down and I had to roll the car outside.

[Nick_S]

Well, today was fun. Got my good friend Ryan to give me a hand and made some pretty good progress.

Starting point.


Didn't get a ton of pictures during as we were trying to get as much done in a limited time frame as we could. Unbolted the exhaust, the front section of the driveshaft, coolant hoses running to the heater core, the trans brace and undid the coolant hoses to the heater core.
Then we did this..




Came out with very little fuss. Degreased and cleaned the engine bay a bit. Didn't go crazy as this will never be a show car but I wanted it to look nice-ish. Still need to grind off a few unused brackets but that will come later.




Then my awesome friend Aaron who's shop I'm using stopped by to lend a hand and my brother showed up and snapped a pictures of us doing men like things. Me being the short kid with the beanie, Ryan being the kid not with a beanie.



Aaron doing his best to heckle as us we lowered it down.


Real funny.


Nearly there...


Almost!...




And boom goes the dynamite.


Test fitting. The transmission isn't on so it's just sitting on the engine mounts. And I could be wrong, but even pushed all the way back, it looks like the intake manifold will clear the booster with only having to shave the fins? It's close but doesn't look like it will hit. This is with the E36 engine arms and E28 green mounts. This would be ideal as I'd rather not move the booster over or buy a new one. I'll check again once the trans is mounted, hopefully next weekend.


This is basically where we left as we had to get back to Columbus. Really really excited to this in there finally. It hasn't really felt like I've started the swap till today. It was a great feeling setting the motor in place. Need to figure out what to do with the exhaust, if I'll need to modify the booster, connect the clutch and flywheel, mate the transmission, connect the driveshaft, run the harness and hopefully will have a running car again in the next few weeks! Although I know it will never be this simple.

[NickL]

Awesome progress man. If It does come down to needing to modify the booster, I highly reccomend the 944 over moving it over a half inch.

[TimKninja]

DOnt move the stock booster over, that shits hack.

944 ATE Booster. use Car-part if you need too. Best option out there.

For exhaust i like running the Ebay Headers. Ive donbe it in both my swap cars . only thing is they tend to ethier touch the subframe or rattle on the CAB heat shield.

[irish44j]

I forgot to mention - your engine bay was the reason I painted my engine the same colors for the e21. Also re-reading this since our Chump/Lemons ETA will probably be getting an M50NV this winter :)

[Nick_S]

I forgot to mention - your engine bay was the reason I painted my engine the same colors for the e21. Also re-reading this since our Chump/Lemons ETA will probably be getting an M50NV this winter :)

Glad to know I inspired your color choice! I personally like the NV motors. Very simple but make decent power for a car like the E30. We'll see if I get this running.


Made some small progress today but also may have hit my first real hurdle with the project. It's been snowy and cold and I was alone so I couldn't push the car in to work on it so I decided to strip my M42 and start to part it out.
Fun.


Then I spent awhile cleaning up the G250 I've been planning on using. Lots of scrubbing and degreaser later it came out pretty well. Pulled the slave as it was going to be replaced the got the TOB off as it seemed stuck. Swapped my UUC short shifter on (PO mangled this thing up pretty good somehow). Popped a couple new bushings in and thought I was done. For fun I started running it through the gears and feels fine...however I noticed that only in 1st gear. I can turn the input shaft and hold the output shaft still and it clunks a bit. Almost like it's not fully in gear. I'm hoping it's not busted but gut feeling is it has a bad 1st gear.

Shift lever


fairly cleaned up and new stuff installed.


So after this little set back if you will. I thought, well maybe I'll just the G240. I had been having clutch slipping issues and suspected leaking oil. However after the trans sitting upright for about 5 minutes I'm pretty sure I found where the leak was from. Left a pretty huge puddle in a short amount of time.


So. My dilema now. Find a new G250 or 260...I really can't foresee ZF fitting into what is left of my budget. Or I could try to reseal the G240. It has a newer input shaft seal from when I had the clutch done last year though. Get the proper linkage and try to go that route? I'm not real sure what to do. I was hoping to have this back in the car next weekend but doesn't seem like that will happen. Poop.

[TimKninja]

240's suck
250's suck
260s are near indestructible.

but if i where you id try to re-seal your 240 if it shifted fine and junk.

[kingston]

240's suck
250's suck
260s are near indestructible.

Man, I wish that had been my experience. I know lots of guys out here
looking for G260s, as their's have failed.

What about a ZF box? Love the one on my S52

[Nick_S]

As much as I'd love a ZF, I don't have the coin for it. So I'm resealing the 240, ordering the euro 320 linkage and running that. I can't see a basically bone stock m50 being to much for it to handle. So hopefully I'll have this back in the car next weekend!?

[Nick_S]

It is killing me having this car so far away! I want to work on it so badly. Was hoping to have it done about 3 weeks ago.

[JCarp90]

240's suck
250's suck
260s are near indestructible.

but if i where you id try to re-seal your 240 if it shifted fine and junk.

LMFAO at 260s being indestructible.

GET IT DONE NICK!

[Nick_S]

LMFAO at 260s being indestructible.

GET IT DONE NICK!

Thanks man!! Saturday will hopefully be a big day. Plans are:
-install clutch, flywheel
-clean and reseal G240 with new slave
-install and/or modify G250 linkage if needed
-Mount trans, reconnect lines etc
-start to run the harness w/ adapter
-coolant lines
-mount DME
-mount intake manifold
-reinstall headers

We'll see. I plan on it being a long day especially since I'll likely be doing this alone. Thankfully my dude has a lift and a tranny jack I can use. Shouldn't be bad.

Also, in this picture. Do I have the shift lever mounted the right way?

[Nick_S]

Not particularly related to my swap but...

My friends shop I'm using posted this today on the shops facebook. I thought it was an incredible gesture of kindness and makes me feel fortunate to have a friend who is so willing to give and help out others.

We had a customer come in for two tires this morning. He was a few minutes late and apologized. He then went on to say he was having a rough time because his apartment had burnt down a few weeks ago and he lost his 10yr old son in the fire. Tyler and I were crushed by his story and while we were installing his tires we decided we didn't feel right taking a penny from him. When I gave him his bill he was confused at first and once I explained it he insisted on paying. We told him absolutely not and just asked that he use the money to stuff some stockings for his other children. The point of this post IS NOT to promote an awesome thing we did, but to encourage you to do something awesome for somebody else. The smallest thing can mean the world to someone who's down on their luck. We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and hope you can find a way to pay it forward.

[kingston]

lmfao at 260s being indestructible.

this

[JCarp90]

Install the headers on the engine before you put it in.