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

[Nick_S]

Doesn't look like I'll be able to work on it this weekend. Weather has turned to shit and doesn't sound like they couldn't get it pushed into the shop. This sucks, I'm getting anxious and just want this damn thing done!

[Nick_S]

Nothing much to report. Went up and did a little prep work on the trans. Replaced the slave and cleaned up a bit. Found out why it was leaking. Input shaft seal definitely was mangled so I replaced that and seems to be fine now.



Started swapping the linkage and found the G250 stuff will definitely not work so I ordered the euro 320 parts. Also found that despite what I had read a places. The M50 clutch/flywheel combo I had ordered isn't going to fit the G240 so I have to send those back to gripforce and I'll be running the OE M42 flywheel, clutch and pressure plate. Hopefully will hold up fine as the M50 doesn't make all that much more power. Bummer.

Despite the flywheel being the same diameter, the pressure plate is much wider on the M50 and is what is causing the interference.

M42 on top, M50 on bottom



Poor thing, hopefully soon she'll run again.

[Nick_S]

This winter fucking blows. Calling for 3-5inches tonight and tomorrow, my buddy has so many cars at the shop currently there is no room for me. Another week wasted. I'm never going to finish this fucking car

[fourmotioneer]

FWIW, my whole 2-car garage is exploded with Alfa, so I've taken to working in front of the garage every night. I just throw on Smartwool long underwear, two sweatshirts, a jacket and a hat. I've worked in weather in the teens recently and it didn't suck too bad.

Now, I imagine that you need to be inside for cleanliness reasons, and I bet snow would get in the way of any engine lifting, but I'd encourage you to throw on a bunch of clothing and weather the cold if it helps!

Good luck with the swap!

[Nick_S]

I need the car up in the air and to move a lift around and the car is on fresh poured gravel so it's a chore to even push it. Thankfully the weather is nice this weekend and I have everything I need minus the linkage so I'm trying to make a big push on saturday. I want to drive it home by the new years and I don't work from Dec 23-Jan 6. FWIW, I don't mind the cold. I worked all last winter on an M42 refresh in my garage that is basically a car port with a door.

[Nick_S]

Hey look, I actually did something!

Didn't think to take too many pictures, was working alone. Thankfully my friend showed up right when I got there to help me push it in. We got like 3-4inches of RAIN yesterday so even the gravel driveway they have was absolutely soaked.

First I replaced my blower motor because why not with everything off the car? My old one sounded like rocks in a blender. Although it seems to be slightly rubbing on the right side, no matter what I did it didn't seem to change. I assume this isn't normal?


Again, forgot to take pictures of much of what I was doing. New exhaust gaskets and all new studs. Did this with the motor in the car. Highly recommend doing them while it's out. It wasn't that hard but the last few were a tight squeeze.


Totally forgot to heat and extract a broken stud which means that front manifold will likely have to come off again. Sweet. (the furthest one away)


Up in the air. My buddy bought this insanely bright LED light on a tripod which made working under the car so much better.


Time for clutch stuff. After finding the F1 14lb flywheel and gripforce OEM M50 setup I bought was too big for the G240, I opted to go with the OE M42 dual mass and a new M42 clutch. Have read of a few people running this and seems to hold the power of an M50 just fine. Will eventually upgrade down the road.



Flywheel on.


Clutch on. I got a bit nervous at this stem because I've never done a clutch and no where was it labeled "flywheel" side. After looking at it for a second I noticed that one was it would hit the flywheel bolts and the other way it wouldn't took a stab in the dark and mounted it up.

Mounted the pressure plate but didn't bother with any pictures. I'm still nervous if I did this right, haha. My euro 320 linkage was supposed to have shown up but is a day behind so I didn't mount the drive shaft yet so I can install that this week. Then I wrestled with getting the transmission mounted by myself. Had a trans jack but it was still a process and am really sore today, haha. One thing I noticed I hadn't read anywhere is to mount the G240 to an M50 you have to remove one of the guide for one of the bolt holes on the transmission as the engine has one in the exact same spot. After I finally got it in place, I couldn't get the input shaft to catch the pilot bearing. Another 30 minutes of messing with it and I grabbed a big C-clamp vice grip, found a couple flat surfaces on the trans and engine and squeezed and it popped right in. What a relief.

Next I got the starter in, started running a few of the coolant hoses and the wire harness.




On the firewall, the inlet and outlet for the heater core. Do I have these mounted up correct? The top one is the spider hose, the bottom is the hose from the back side of the engine. I've you can do some good damage if you mix these.


Started plugging some of the connectors and mocked up some stuff basically leaving me here. My linkage should be delivered tomorrow and after tomorrow, I don't work till Jan 6th so I'm trying to get this thing done ASAP.




Till next time

[JCarp90]

Nice progress. Basically anything less than a beautiful sunny day with 60+ degree temps turn me into a useless sack of turds, so good job.

[Nick_S]

Nice progress. Basically anything less than a beautiful sunny day with 60+ degree temps turn me into a useless sack of turds, so good job.

Haha I'm the opposite. When it's raining and crappy all I want to do is being inside working on my car.

[Hans Gruber]

Rides looking great. Nice to see another E30 in Columbus.

[lukeADE335i]

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!?

Great work on your car. Don't sweat the 240 being up to the task - I've been running one behind my M30B35 for nearly 2 years now & it has taken the torque.

You won't kill it if it's in good condition.

[Nick_S]

Yea the transmission is likely in better condition than the motor, haha

[Steven]

What serpentine belt are you using? no p/s right?

[kingston]

Nice updates, Nick. It will all be worth it when you're finished with the swap. Looking forward to updates!

[Nick_S]

What serpentine belt are you using? no p/s right?

It's oem belt for a cooper S I believe. I can get you a part number if you need. I think it was a 1388mm length, got it from pelican.

Nice updates, Nick. It will all be worth it when you're finished with the swap. Looking forward to updates!

Thanks man! Glad to see it coming together finally.

[Steven]

It's oem belt for a cooper S I believe. I can get you a part number if you need. I think it was a 1388mm length, got it from pelican.



Thanks man! Glad to see it coming together finally.

thatd be great if you could get the number