Project Neil1138. Adventures of the Cream Machine

[DEV0 E30]

Nikon D600 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D. And no tripod.

Hey Neil, are you having any oil / dust issues with your D600? I was looking at a second body within the next few months and have been reading about the issues. The fact the 610 was just released rather quickly to solve the 600's problems is sort of a smack in the face to those with issues.

Also, keep up the great work!

[Neil1138]

Hey Neil, are you having any oil / dust issues with your D600? I was looking at a second body within the next few months and have been reading about the issues. The fact the 610 was just released rather quickly to solve the 600's problems is sort of a smack in the face to those with issues.

Also, keep up the great work!

Apparently it is only noticeable at small apertures. And since my 85mm f/1.4D might as well be a constant aperture lens (@ f/1.4), I've never noticed the issue. However, I've read that the oil issue goes away after a few thousand shutter count and once cleaned, doesn't re-appear.

For landscape stuff (shot at small apertures), I could see it being an issue. But if you shoot with fast primes, I bet you'd never notice it.

[Neil1138]

Sorry for the lack of updates guys. I'm still waiting for my ECS parts order to come in (if you look at the spreadsheet, that means pretty much every single replacement part). With any luck, the shipment should be arriving early next week and motor can go in next weekend.

More bokeh pics soon.

<3

[Neil1138]

It is currently cold as fack here. However, I figured I'd knock out the brake booster while I'm waiting for the parts to come in.







e21 vs e30. The e21 has been sitting for quite some time (a year or so), so it has some surface rust. Going to need to clean that up





my god, that rod is long



trusty machinery's handbook



grinded down



starting to thread



threading to the required length



shortened



rod finished. next step: give this a good paint job



Stay tuned

<3

[MPLFoster]

Nice work.

[ngampleh]

nice bokeh and works

[el bimmer]

This is gonna be nice!

[e30 Dabs]

Sub'd Loving the shots and the cleaness.

[Neil1138]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Been so busy with the swap that I haven't had time to upload pics. Been taking them though! Enough talk, pics.

All of the parts finally came in, so I organized them sort of. All of the replacement parts (seals, gaskets, fasteners, etc).





Box full of everything. Oil pan, intake parts, painted e21 booster in the back, wiring harness, new oem flywheel/clutch, etc.



Getting right into it. First thing: ZF shift detent pin service, selector shaft seal, input shaft seal, clutch fork pivot, and selector foam bushing. 4/5 years ago when I did the manual swap in my e46, I did this exact service. I don't remember exactly how I got the old shift bushings out but it was so much easier using the blind hole puller this time around.





Replacing VCG and getting top end ready. Clean!





The swap started moving fast at this point. Took care of the oil pan swap, secured the oil pump nut, put the new clutch/flywheel on the motor, etc, etc. Annnnnnnnd....



The motor mounts were a pain to get aligned but it eventually went right in. I have since spaced the passenger side mount up 1/2" to give the downpipe more clearance. More on that at a later date.





Put all of the new sensors in place. I decided to grind down and rethread the brown top coolant temp sensor in a similar fashion to the brake booster rod. I also had to replace the stock s52 black coolant temp sensor (4 prong), with my baby blue top bosch unit from my m20. P/N matched up so I hope it works.





When I pulled the booster, I decided to replace the grommets on the brake fluid reservoir. Tried to avoid having to re-bleed the brakes but couldn't avoid it. Bled brakes and clutch.



Onto the driveshaft. Went out and bought a new e30 oem center support bearing. The e36 m3 csb was a bitch to get off but eventually it broke free.



Correct orientation (towards the front of the car).



Installed the driveshaft and it was a perfect fit. No clashing issues that I can tell. Also to note, I was able to bolt up my stock g260 shift carrier and selector rod no problem. The carrier is a bit far forward but it's no worse than the stock ZF carrier being off center horizontally. May end up fabricating my own carrier, we'll see.

Onto the big fish. Re-pinning the e36 M50 harness. I pulled this harness out of a 94 325i manual so it required minimal wire trimming.



All connectors removed and labeled



Re-pinned with male F type connectors



And finished. Can't even tell the harness was modified.



Started on a few other things last night. Getting the manifold ready to drop in. Replaced the runner seals and TB seal





To note: I decided to keep the S52 metal coolant spider hose. I'm not sure why people get rid of this in favor of soft lines. I merely plugged the feed line to the throttle body (heater), ran a soft line from the rear port on the spider to the top firewall heater core port, and modified the stock e30 reservoir coolant line to route perfectly to the spider inlet. Fits fine

Things I still need to do:

• Swap the ECU chip with the TMS chip
• Finish connecting engine wiring harness (power leads)
• Install intake manifold
• Run vacuum lines to intake manifold/related
• Run fuel lines to rail
• Connect throttle cable to TB
• Install oil dipstick
• Install front end cooling components (radiator and lines)
• Add PS fluid, engine oil, and coolant.

I'm going to update the spreadsheet to rev. A soon. I've added quite a few parts to list (grommets, crush washers, and some small parts)

<3

[el bimmer]

Holy smoke staying busy! I can't wait to see this. Are you guys still having meets? Last time I went was when I met you at the Costco a while back with the houston m club. Anyways, keep on keeping on! Lol

[bernzpeed]

I used the m50 harness as well but it was too shortmon the dme side. My dme just hangs in my glove box.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk

[Neil1138]

I used the m50 harness as well but it was too shortmon the dme side. My dme just hangs in my glove box.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk

I am running the e36 M50 harness. My DME is tucked away in the glove compartment and can bolt up in the exact spot as the e30 DME. I believe you are referring to the E34 M50 wiring harness which is known to be a bit short on the DME connector.

Anyway, did all of the following last night/today:

1. Finished connecting engine wiring harness power leads. I ended up removing the E36 starter/fusebox power wire from the harness and replaced it with my e30 m20 power wire. The incorporated terminal on the e30 power wire just made sense. Both fusebox power wires to their respective 8mm and 10mm spot on the terminal. Also, diagnostic ground to the shock tower and the other power wire to the top post (fusible link).
2. Installed intake manifold
3. Ran vacuum lines to intake manifold/related.

• Brake booster to intake manifold nipple
• Valve cover vent to OBD1 VC breather using the OBD2 CCV line. Small nipple on breather to ICV, large nipple on breather to intake boot nipple.
• Fuel pressure regulator to small nipple on rear of intake manifold
• Throttle body to EVAP check valve, check valve to charcoal cannister
• Hose from bottom of intake manifold to ICV, ICV to other intake boot nipple

4. Ran fuel lines to rail (feed to front of rail, return to rear of rail)
5. Connected throttle cable to TB, had to adjust cable all the way out for the butterfly valve to sit in the proper position.
6. Installed oil dipstick
7. Installed front end cooling components (radiator and lines). I wasn't a big fan of the e34/e36 radiator lines so I used a combination of modified lines for the upper and lower hoses. No weird kinks, just straight lines with a 90 deg bend at one end.
8. Deleted the throttle body heater lines by capping the feed line from the coolant spider hose.
9. Added PS fluid, engine oil, and coolant.

However, when I went to swap the DME chip with the TMS chip, I opened the DME to find this horror show. Corrosion for days...



I'm pretty sure that the DME is bad. I picked this thing from a junkyard over a year ago and never thought to open it up (as it looked excellent on the outside). Only noticed it when I went to replace the chip, coincidentally the very last step of my swap

I wasn't going to swap the chip with the TMS chip and risk potentially ruining it somehow so I left the ECU as is and tried firing up the car. Sure enough, no start. Cranked and cranked no problem but wouldn't fire. No spark, and the CEL on the dash isn't on at position 2. Judging by how that DME looks, and since all of the sensors are brand new OEM sensors, I'm going to say it's a bad DME and not the crank position sensor.



Anyway, on the hunt for another red label 413 DME. Also... I hate how the wiring looks, just running over the intake manifold. Going to buy the e30 318/m3 covers and tidy the wiring up a bit. As soon as it starts, I'll clean up the bay and remove the painters tape I have labeling every damn wire, haha

Will update

<3

[jaywood]

How do you efficiently post a group of pictures here from flickr?

Car is looking great!

[Neil1138]

She lives!



So it turns out the DME was bad. So bad that attempting to start the car with it, caused the fusible link to blow. I replaced that, and swapped out the ECU with a new unit and it fired right up! She runs and idles great. Now that I know all of the wiring is correct, I can remove the connector labels and tuck it all away. Will take some photos of the final setup tomorrow.

Things to do:

• Find set of S52 downpipes and modify them to fit around the subframe/swaybar/CABs.
• Figure out what I want to do about the airbox. I've seen people running the stock m20 airbox but I'm not sure how they did that with the 3.5" MAF. Need to look into that a bit more.
• Reinstall hood, front bumper and drive to exhaust shop!

<3

[cypress]

congrats neil! hopefully i can see it in person someday