E21 project

[Hermes]

E21 project

M20 throttle body


B35 ICV's, spare Volvo MAF, extra wiring


E46 battery cable and junction box


Done


Now time to clean everything up...

Edit: she runs, not so great because I have no ICV and airbox. Will figure that out next

[ArtFoodBMW]

Good work OP. I'm insanely jealous of that collection of cars, especially the 700.

[Hermes]

E21 project

Thanks! The cars in the showroom are not mine, most of them belong to my buddy, a few belong to his other friends. If you like the 700 sport in the showroom you would probably like the 700 cabriolet in the yard (behind my car to the left). There is also a 700 sedan in the back by the fence

[Hermes]

random pics







holes filled, need to get some more paint



figured out my idle issue... apparently I swapped 2/3 of the ICV wires when I converted from the 2 wire E30 setup to the 3 wire Volvo. The stupid ICV wires are blue/white and blue/red on the E30 harness... the Germans seriously couldn't pick another color besides blue as the base? Now that it's fixed it idles in the 750-800 RPM range.

Cut off some more brackets



Ground smooth and temporarily primered



Figured out an airbox... half E21 M10, half E28 M30





Need to weld this stud to the frame rail so I can use the stock rubber mount on the bottom of the airbox







Throttle cable made, now I need to make a bracket so it sits at the right angle



'85 fuel rail arrived from Germany, need to switch over and make a block off plate for my cold start injector





Ground cables replaced. I repositioned the alt ground from the 318i position on the bracket to directly on the block. I also ran a newer style sleeved cable to the frame from the same unused bolt hole. I will hopefully now not have to deal with oil on my ground cable whenever I change the filter.



Messed with the stock 318i bracket some more. Got it to close enough where it will work for now. At least I can use this as a template to bend up a new bracket. I will also need to shift the hole a few mm off the current position so the cable sits at the perfect angle



Done...



Took it to Chevron to get gas. So much more torque, and throttle response is amazing!

Now is time for break in mileage and fine tuning of modifications.





So far I have 150 break in miles and it is so much nicer than the stock engine.

[Hermes]

Well, it's been about a month since my last update. Up to about 600 break in miles so far. The only issues I'm having is it diesels on shut down sometimes and occasionally when I put it in neutral the ICV doesn't seem to kick in fast enough and it will stall. I'll figure that out soon enough.


New charcoal canister




old vs new






Still need to play with the airbox some more




I caught a rock so I stopped at the shop to see if Owen had a spare lens for me




He wasn't there so I was going to come check in the morning. I went to my car and started it, was waiting for my oil to warm up when I heard a bang. At first I thought my engine blew up, but then I noticed a Toyota with a blown tire.






So the sun was low on the horizon and he guy in the truck was driving west. I think it was a mix of being blinded by the glare, trying to avoid the concrete median, and not being able to tell where my car was due to the height difference of the Toyota and my E21.

The insurance already checked it out and made me an offer; I have to go back to them as they quoted me for US spec parts when mine are Euro.

Good news though... I already have spare parts/my friends hooked me up.





The most hilarious part of this is the one and only E21 fender my buddy had happens to be almost the same color as my car.


My buddy pulled most of the dent out




Put my broken grill back in and reinstalled the U.S. turn signal for now




the dog did not approve so he made me fix it some more




and proceeded to help a lot








Reshaped




sanded (mostly)




primer




some Ford silver/green... close enough for now. You can only see a tiny bit of it anyways.




Put back together




Self etching primer blends surprisingly well with Opal




Decided to finally deal with my rear brakes/shocks




Goodbye drums




323 trailing arms and brakes, replacing the Bilstein's with NLA Koni's










found the pivot pins




installed




brakes on








need to check out the bearings, they made a noise when I went around the block. This is what it looks like with Koni's all around




tinkered with the brakes some more, turned out it was just the backing plates sitting too close




drove it some more




Up to about 600 miles. On Sunday I decided to finally swap to the '85 fuel rail






1984 on top, 1985 on bottom




new regulator




making a block off plate for the cold start injector that I no longer need










ready for install




on








All this and it's still dieseling... next step is checking the actual fuel pressure

[CRBR30]

Great build so far!