phenryiv1's 1989 325iC Project - SETA 2.7i Swap Complete and Running!

[exhaust]

It was really nice yesterday, good day to get the convertible out.

I see you've got a quick lift, how do you like it? I've been eyeing those up for a little while.

[phenryiv1]

It was really nice yesterday, good day to get the convertible out.

I see you've got a quick lift, how do you like it? I've been eyeing those up for a little while.

I like it a lot. I have used is a lot more than my mid-rise scissor lift, which did not allow me to do driveshaft/trans/exhaust work in most cases. I have used the Quicklift on the steering rack and on tons of brake/suspension tasks. It is out of the way when I don't need it and easy to use when I do.

I had some headaches with leaking when I first got it (I was an early-production buyer) but they seem to be all ironed out now.

While it isn't cheap I don't have the space for a 'regular" lift and this has worked really well for my needs.

[phenryiv1]

Where I had it before was on the floor perpendicular to my WRX so the QuickJack was constantly in the way of walking around my daily, plus I needed more room for the M20B27 SETA/2.7i swap & the new built 3.73S and a new G260.

To get around this (no pun intended) I built a small platform for my storage containers, which allows me to stow the QuickJack under the containers. I gained 24" of usable depth in my garage.

[phenryiv1]

After last week's top-down cruising I was faced with this:



So after the snow cleared out I went to work on the e28 a little more to get things pulled. I was supposed to have help but that never worked out. Actually someone was supposed to come pull the parts that the e28's previous owner needed (axles, fuel tank, seats, steering wheel, driveshaft) and I was going to pay the guy to go ahead and pull the motor and diff but he bailed at the last minute. In the interest of getting the car out of my driveway (ASAP!!!) I started pulling the motor on Sunday.

The complication is that once the process starts, the car is pretty much stuck where it is- in one of the 3 available driveway spots or in the garage, it stays where it is once I start yanking things. I decided on the flattest area of the driveway as opposed to the garage and so far it has worked out. Once anything is removed the car is inoperable so I had hesitated to start if I was not sure I could finish in short order.

So I did make a lot of progress but I am far from finished. i got the axles out, dropped the diff, disconnected the driveshaft, pulled some wiring, and I have about 90% of the motor disconnected and ready to be pulled. I still need to do one of the heater lines, the clutch line, and maybe a few oddball wires here and there. The exhaust is all the way off and the only thing holding it in is gravity and the trans crossmember.

Some photos:





Diff is out! I need some e30 flanges and maybe a clean diff cover.



Look at that stance! I have 2x4s in place of the rear suspension assembly.





My HOA met Saturday (annual meeting) and I really need to get the car out of there before I get a complaint filed against me. Since it is unregistered I am in violation. So far no complaints and I have it parked in such a way that the damage (and the license plate area) are not visible but at some point it needs to go.

[phenryiv1]

So this happened...

Certainly not the prettiest pulling of an M20B27i motor but it came out, which is all that matters.

Unfortunately I don't think that the harness will work in my e30- the tie-in with the fuse box is way different.














The hardest part was clearing the steering assembly. I had to use a 2x4 to allow the trans to slide over the steering. Before that, the bottom of the bellhousig kept hanging up.











Victory!








Not much left of the poor e28:

[phenryiv1]

I have a couple spare harnesses but I SHOULD be able to lay back the current harness and use it on the '88 M20B27i motor when I put it on my '89.

I need to measure the G260 output shaft to see if I need to swap flanges or whether this one will line up with my '89 driveshaft. Between the donor being an SETA car, it being an e28, and my car being a convertible (which often bridges the gap between early/late model attributes) I need to verify before assuming.

I need to swap on some other e30 parts that I have, plus the whole thing needs to be cleaned up in the worst way. All of the cooling system need to be looked at to see what fits my e30 and what does not. The donor had an early model cooling system with (I THINK) a late model water pump and t-stat housing. The cooling hoses were routed all over the place. I think that i have new late model stuff in my parts box but I can't be sure, and this stuff only has a few thousand miles on it so if it really is late model stuff I am not about to swap it out.

I have a set of clean exhaust manifolds that I want to install, a freshly-painted VC and IM, and some new top-end gaskets to use. I hope to clean it up a bit as well, but overall this is a strong motor that had a recent overhaul.

[TimeMachinE30]

No load leveler!?

Getting the job done still. What's goin on w/ this now? Vert related?

[phenryiv1]

No load leveler!?

The load leveler was there...on the ground. I needed it to tilt to clear the steering assembly and with the trans still attached it was easy to just loop a lift strap under the front of the motor and lift from there. By having the weight so unbalanced it tilted on its own. Once I got the trans up near the front of the car I just picked up the trans end by-hand and swung it clear of the bay.

Getting the job done still. What's goin on w/ this now? Vert related?

This SETA M20B27 with an 885 head swap will be going into the convertible. The M20B25 in the 'vert leaks oil (a LOT of it!) and rather than refresh the B25 I decided to swap in this B27, which I got for a really good price. I know the PO and know the history of the motor.

[95maxrider]

Not much left of the poor e28:

I'm glad to see you got it out, I'm sorry I couldn't come help. Give it all a good home!

[phenryiv1]

Lots of car parts arrived yesterday (not all for the e30).

E30 diff flanges and cover:



Garagistic diff bushing:



Guten Parts license plate frame:

[phenryiv1]

Cleaned up the new LSD and started the process of painting it with POR15:





Not much in the way of progress but it is moving forward. Hopefully I can get the SETA 2.7i installed in the next month.

[phenryiv1]

Round 2 of painting the differential with POR15

[phenryiv1]

Did a few things...

Installed this:



Next up was to swap e28 output flanges for the e30 ones.

Prybar here:



Then I removed the old bushing from the e30 diff cover to install the Garagistic bushing:





I then pressed the bushing in place. Not hard- just used alcohol-based hand sanitizer as a lubricant and pressed by-hand.



Cleaned up and installed the 3.73S tag:



I went to install the e30 cover and realized that I did not have the 2 longer diff cover bolts. The E28 uses all short bolts.

Fortunately I don't throw away fasteners:



Installed!



Up in the air we go!



So during removal of the old diff I noticed this damage:



Apparently last year when my halfshaft bolts all broke loose and the axle flopped around the axle hit the diff mount. I used a hammer and some pliers to straighten it out as much as possible.

Side by side, old v. new:



Install was pretty easy, made easier by the fact that the new diff has studs in place of bolts.

[phenryiv1]

Some updates:

Unfortunately, the new differential has some whine to it. I was supposed to sell my "regular" 3.73S to recoup some of the costs of this one but now I may hang onto it. It might just be the input shaft bearing but since my old diff was quiet I might keep it as a backup. It sucks because I spent ~$100 on the flanges, spare cover, and diff bushing but better to find out now than to have sold the other diff and then found the noise.. Seller is a friend and we both drove the car before I took the diff but the exhaust was louder than the diff whine. no way to have known. If it were not for the time it takes to swap it out I'd put the old one back in...maybe later.


On to other things, I started prepping the SETA 2.7i for the swap this coming weekend. E28s have different motor mounts so I scrounged up a spare set of e30 mount arms and painted them:



Oil pans on E28s are also different so I cleaned up my spare e30 pan:



UUC magnetic drain plug:



Pulled the beat and filthy exhaust manifolds from the motor:



Unfortunately 4 of the studs were missing or broken. Fortunately I was able to get them all removed and I have a bag of spares.



I did realize that the output flange on the E28 G260 is for the large guibo, while my e30 driveshaft is a later model with the small giobo. I thought that I had a spare flange so I scrounged around and found it. Great, right? Wrong...the spare was a large flange. Now on the hunt for a small output flange, pronto.

[phenryiv1]

More progress toward the SETA 2.7i install:



Drained:



Pulled of the E28 oil pan:



The pan was clear of any metal or odd debris. Everything on the underside looks as it should:



I forgot what a pain it is to remove these to access the pan.



Next headache associated with putting an E28 motor in an E30 is that since the E28 mount arms are aluminum they are about 8-10mm thick, thus the bolts are too long for the E30 arms and bottom out. I scrounged up 4 mismatched ones that work (replaced later).



I cleaned off both surfaces with a gasket scraper (VERY carefully), adhesive remover, a razor blade, and rubbing alcohol. With everything cleaned off I applied a bead of grey RTV, ensuring that I surrounded all bolt holes.



I lifted it in place and finger-tightened the 25 bolts:



I waited about an hour for it to set up (per the instructions) and torqued the bolts to 8-10 ft/lb. (Followed the instructions here http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/show...0&postcount=41 but my torque wrench only went down to 10).

I then reinstalled the other motor mount using some M8x1.25 x 20mm bolts that I bought. These worked perfectly.





I also went back and replaced the passenger side bolts with new bolts.