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

[irish44j]

niiice.

[phenryiv1]

bingo: http://e30.bmwdiy.info/oil-leak/
$10 for the oil adapter seal kit, part number 11-42-9-059-338
leak's so slow it hasn't been a priority. but a leak's a leak and we can't have that.

Thank you.

[bradnic]

head rebuild's been absolutely solid except for 1 issue - a *very* slow, small drop of oil that appears to be coming near the oil filter/oil cooler lines. crappy pic here but you can see the drop of oil accumulating.



I get about a tablespoon a week. still trying to track down where it's coming from. I didn't remove the oil filter mounting flange or the oil cooler lines, so not sure what's going on here.

bingo: http://e30.bmwdiy.info/oil-leak/
$10 for the oil adapter seal kit, part number 11-42-9-059-338
leak's so slow it hasn't been a priority. but a leak's a leak and we can't have that.

[phenryiv1]

I had a small drip from the same oil filter seal that drove me crazy. Getting the snap ring back in was a bit of a pain but other than that was an easy fix.

Totally with you re poly for engine trans and diff (not a fan for suspension either but that's a personal choice). Just don't think that's the right way to go for the street. Extreme track situations where you're trying to keep everything lines up under load, sure

Was yours from the filter housing where it meets the block or was it from that smaller o-ring in the housing for the oil cooler lines?

I am debating removing the oil cooler altogether...

[bradnic]

I had a small drip from the same oil filter seal that drove me crazy. Getting the snap ring back in was a bit of a pain but other than that was an easy fix.

Totally with you re poly for engine trans and diff (not a fan for suspension either but that's a personal choice). Just don't think that's the right way to go for the street. Extreme track situations where you're trying to keep everything lines up under load, sure

[phenryiv1]

Some additional progress...

First off, I snagged these:



Now on the the "real" stuff...

So the swap was complete and the car seems to be running properly but there are a few loose ends that remain.

First off, I am not a fan of the poly mounts. I swapped in poly engine and trans mounts and even with a new guibo and CSB the vehicle shook like mad. It was bad at idle, got slightly worse under throttle, then settled at certain RPM. Still worse than stock at all RPM.

I also had the (noted) leaky vacuum hoses and intake elbow. The oil filter housing/oil cooler fitting also has a leak.

Parts to the rescue!





New elbow, IACV hose, vacuum hose, oil cooler o-ring, engine mounts, nuts, washers, and some gently-used OEM trans mounts (those I had sitting around).

The easy stuff went first:

OEM intake elbow



And installed with the IACV hose:



Fuel rail vacuum line:



So with that done the idle settled down quite a bit but it still vibrated like crazy.

This Saturday I installed the OEM mounts. Up in the air:



Started with the trans mounts:



After those were in I re-started the car. It was up on the lift so I did not drive it but if I had to make a guess I would say that about 90% of the NVH went away form changing the trans mounts. Had I not been lazy I could have stopped there and gone for a drive but I had new OEM mounts so I decided to give them a shot. I might go with some 320i auto trans mounts (23711109173 ) but we'll see how these do.


I supported the engine with a jack (I had a rubber block to protect the pan) and swapped in the OEM motor mounts:





With that done I re-checked the idle and everything was smooth.

Lastly I replaced the oil cooler o-ring. The old one was completely flattened:



So the bad news here is that I am still getting a leak from the oil cooler location. It may be the o-ring is not seated properly but after getting some info on the R3v FB page I am leaning toward this:

http://e30.bmwdiy.info/oil-leak/

I may just delete the cooler altogether. The benefit is minimal (extra capacity, cooling under some conditions) and the opportunity for issues seems to outweigh the benefit(s).

Lastly, I had the hood up and decided to snap this shot:

[iceman44]

Great!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[phenryiv1]

Congrat its hard to find true good ppl but j found alot of them on here

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I used to race rallyX with Jim (and Josh) but Josh and I go back about 10 years. We both had Maximas, both had Subarus, and both have E30s. We have turned many wrenches together.

[phenryiv1]

SWAP DAY!

Car up on the QuickJack to ease the disconnecting under the car:





Wiring laid back and disconnected:



Obligatory engine removal photo:



Old Motor / trans out:



We needed to pull some components and transfer them over but the motor was not terrible:



I had not planned to pull the A/C parts but they were not functional and I can't see myself going through the addition of A/C. I did keep all of the lines and components but for now everything is out of the car. There was absolutely no charge in the system.



It really cleaned up that side of the bay:



Mandatory pizza break:



We removed the transmission because we intended to swap the TOP and seal to my existing trans but then I decided to try removing my output flange and swapping it over. It worked without too much of a headache so we went with the new trans.

We double checked the TOB:



And the clutch / flywheel:



Here is Josh re-installing the trans:



Here are the 2 different small flanges, side by side:



Parts pile:



New motor almost ready for install:



New motor in place:



(Almost) all buttoned up:





Cleared out passenger corner area:



I'll need a new one of those...



Electric fan conversion installed:

[iceman44]

Congrat its hard to find true good ppl but j found alot of them on here

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[phenryiv1]

So HUGE weekend for the 325iC...or should it now be a 327iC? Who knows!?!

I can't say enough about how Jim ("spoth" on here) and Josh ("Irish44J" on here) helped me work through the swap. On top of that, Jim's sister came to help and was incredibly helpful, working with Jim on the wiring harness while I was under the car doing the mechanical connections. Without them I'd probably still be in the garage. Having extra thinkers to make suggestions- ones that WORK- was really awesome. They came up with ways to do things that I would not have considered and for that I am grateful.

The swap was all set to happen Saturday so Friday meant doing as much as I could on my own to save time Saturday. In the end my swap "team" talked me in to doing some things ("extras") that were better for the swap, so I am glad that they were done.

Friday brought a package that was supposed to contain a small output flange for/from a G260. I did not want to deal with removing mine from my existing transmission and since the incoming engine/trans had a lightened flywheel, new clutch, and all new seals, I wanted to re-use those, as opposed to my existing trans...which had a bad throwout bearing and a bad seal on the shift selector input.

The package arrived and all seemed to be well.

I had also ordered the appropriate thin-wall socket to remove the nut, which was a huge PITA but did come off.

The Powerbuilt 648445 socket:



The new flange (more in a moment) and a spare large output flange, for comparison:



Notice anything wrong? Look at the splines. All wrong. The flange sent to me was NOT the right one. I was not aware at the time but it became obvious shortly.

I removed the existing large flange from the new engine/trans with a breaker bar, a cheater bar, and some brute force:



I tried to install the small flange, at which time I realized the issue with the splines. At first I was not sure whether the issue was with the fact that the trans came from an e28 or whether I had the wrong small flange. I had a panic where I had to come up with multiple options to resolve the situation. Options:

1. Remove the TOB and seal from the new trans, swap to my old trans, install my existing trans.
2. Remove my flange, swap to the new G260
3. Install the new G260 with the large flange a source a new driveshaft.

After deciding that I could swap the TOB to my old trans and try to replace the seal later I decided to keep moving.

I installed my missing exhaust studs and mounted the manifolds:





At this point I was done for the night and was awaiting the AM push to swap the motor. I SHOULD have installed the fresh IM and valve cover that I had but for some reason I decided not to. I would have saved 15-20 minutes the next day but it was not a big deal.

[phenryiv1]

Congrats! Impressions SETA vs 2.5 in a vert?

I'll give more impressions later but the NVH is really high under throttle. I went with poly mounts (ordering rubber today) but idle is fine. It seems to be very strong under moderate throttle but so far I have only driven it on my street. Waiting until I am comfortable with the cooling system operation (bleeding and fan function) before I take it out on a real drive.

I am still behind on the full writeup (to come tomorrow).

[robrez]

Congrats! Impressions SETA vs 2.5 in a vert?

[bradnic]

[phenryiv1]

SETA 2.7i is IN! And RUNNING!