Ryan's Hennarot 318is (s54, slicktop conversion, MT2)

[rjmcdermott81]

At this point I joined the VIP membership at learnautobodyandpaint.com and started to learn more about bodywork and paint.

As a first test my friend asked me to repaint the spoiler on his 911 because the paint was cracking a bit. Brave man... I screwed it up several times (solvent pop, fisheyes, etc.) but it was small so I was able to redo it a few times and learn. This gave me confidence to really dig into doing my car myself.

[rjmcdermott81]

The minute the car was running I decided it was too ugly to drive around. I took it to the body shop that painted my last e30 and I didn't get a clear price but it sounded like it was going to be 7-8k. And that was before I knew about the roof rust.

So I figured....well....why not try to do some of the work myself.

Stripping the car down. You can see I've replaced the fender with one from ebay and the trunk with a spare that came with the car that was still covered in a bunch of dings:






Some obvious problem areas - rust bubbles on the roof, jacked up door from someone knocking the lock through, and the back was pushed in slightly under the left tail light.

[rjmcdermott81]

Getting the exhaust all buttoned up. I scored a NOS racing dynamics valance and had the exhaust fitted to that. This will have to be dealt with later since I switched to an mt2 plan, but damn it looks good.

[rjmcdermott81]

Starting to button up the wiring, brakes and coolant system.

Squeezing the harness against the firewall was really tough. One member ran it directly behind the block between the engine and firewall but I'm concerned that will be prone to wear and tear over time. I ran it above the valve cover as you can see here:




You can see that I don't have much to work with. I can just get the e46 ECU plugged in in the glovebox. Eventually I may extend some of the wires but I didn't want to modify the harness early on before I worked out all the kinks:


Extending the MAF wire is necessary. I used marine connectors everywhere and it was all very easy








I used a 2002 brake booster but the attachment fork for the pedal came up short. Rather than cut and weld a new piece on I wanted to keep the integrity of the existing booster. I had a local machine shop cut the attachment you see here:


Once I tested fit they welded it in place for extra measure:




I will say...the 2002 booster is much much smaller than an e30 booster but it was still very wedged in. Getting the air intake on was a big battle.

I used a VAC adapter to run the e30 temp sensor and a secondary temp gauge


Here you can see the coolant system buttoned up

• Mishimoto radiator
• e30 early model coolant reservoir
• 2 x electric puller fans with a relay wired to the ignition - (I had to cut the nub off the water pump)

[haaken675]

After some texting back and forth with the owner he mentioned some tiny bubbles forming on the roof. He texted me the picture below. I, like him thought it was probably not a big deal.

If you ever see this on a car for sale RUN!!! Those "little" rust bubbles are just the tip of the iceberg eating your roof from the inside out.

Truth! I learned my lesson on my car the exact same way. Saw a few small bubbles, thought it was just some surface rust upon first inspection. Ended up taking the entire sunroof cassette out due to all the underlying rust...

[rjmcdermott81]

After the wiring was done I was pretty anxious to see it run. This was done before I had an exhaust or coolant system setup. Just getting it to start to make sure the wiring and fuel system was done right.

My helper filling it up:


Safety first


First firing. It would kick but not keep running. If I recall correctly, the problem was that I had the MAF hooked up but the air intake wasn't connected so it was reading the wrong input.

https://youtu.be/ZobhdHT7p5M

Once I unplugged the MAF - it ran!

https://youtu.be/oZoQ7MSzatA

[rzerob]

Subscribed.

[rjmcdermott81]

Working out a custom oil cooler install

[rjmcdermott81]

Engine install day! I had tons of help.




There she is installed with Andrew's wiring harness adapter in the box on the windshield

[rjmcdermott81]

I scored a z3 steering rack and modified the firewall to accommodate:

[rjmcdermott81]

I'm using an e46m3 wiring harness so getting it to reach is really hard. As others have documented I flipped the wiring here to make it work:

Before:


After:

[rjmcdermott81]

I scored a mint dash while down in Houston.

[rjmcdermott81]

Rod bearing day! Thanks to Ken for helping me out. Much more straightforward than expected with the engine upside down.

In position


Oil pump/pickup removed


Worn bearings removed

[rjmcdermott81]

Taking the front-end apart to send the subframe and oil pan to Arc Asylum (Tyler)

[rjmcdermott81]

New house with a garage. Well, 1.5 car garage, 1/4 of it is my office. This allowed me to get a little more ambitious about the project.