1983 Henna Red 323i

[codrum]

Incredible, they look factory new. Any concern that, although clean, the older parts are fragile from years of use?

[kdevitt]

Its not too often that I'm completely blown away with the quality of work like I am with this - all the parts were returned to me today, price was very reasonable and a quick turnaround too.

Some before pics -























After -

[kdevitt]

Dave managed to get through a good bit of work today - really feels like its all coming together now.

Pistons,crank and all caps and bolts cleaned and ready to go.



Crank in ready for checking oil clearances.



Plastigauge on to measure clearance



Main caps on and torqued down -



Caps off again to check plastigauge -



Measuring 2 thou. Want about 1 thou per inch dia of crank. So it's about perfect.



Clean it all up then. Measuring end float which is within spec -



Crank out again to lube bearings -



Checking piston ring end gap -



New piston rings on and piston in compressor ready to go into block



Piston and conrod in place -



Rod cap on and torqued to check oil clearance -



Cap off -



Looks good -



Also took the opportunity to have the injectors cleaned by Westward Engineering - they're done and ready to go back in now.

[kdevitt]

Quick update on the vapour blasting - parts were collected by Michael at Vapourblast.ie on Thursday. Got the first photos back from him yesterday. Will have some better before & after photos in a few days, but this should give you a good idea of what a finish he gets.

[kdevitt]

Engine came back today so its full steam ahead -





Here's the list of items done - not a minor piece of work



I bought POR-15 engine enamel paint from cleancar.ie for re-doing the block. First up, the block was sanded -



Engine was then steam cleaned to clean out oil galleries after machining and water galleries and remove traces of oil from honing from the block.



Finally ready for paint -



First coat -



Second coat -





Threads for head bolts were tapped out to clean them out -



Have the injectors ready to be cleaned also have inlet manifold and a few other bits to be collected on Wednesday for vapour blasting.

[CorvallisBMW]

Battery looks awesome!

[kingston]

Rock on!!!!

[kdevitt]

Am waiting for the last major parts order to come on, which is currently holding up things a bit. In the meantime Dave got the timing chain sprocket off the crank. Bit of heat and a bit of brute force required -



Now ready for the brand new sprocket which should be on its way from BMW now -



Also got the racing battery into place - very neat, its a snug fit though -

[kdevitt]

Things are still progressing nicely -

Had a refreshed servo fitted - am slightly underwhelmed at the WMS brake performance, so decided to swap out the servo in case it was the culprit.



Also delighted to see a full set of pedals at last -



And 4 years after buying them - my pop outs are fitted!



Nice to see a professional job was doing putting the headliner back in by the garage who did the respray - lots of masking tape!



Window in place - luckily the trim on these is perfect, the previous fixed window trims had been badly damaged when being fitted, so its once less thing to aggravate me -

[e30m3s54turbo]

I be looking forward seeing the 324dt reservoir. I had never seen one. I'm going to use a ix and e24 m6. It sits inside the cowling.

[kdevitt]

I love your car. I'm doing m30 swap on my Alpina B3.5 clone. I feel your pain on the m30 parts I need to order. Are you going to keep your head light wiper reservoir?

The parts purchasing has been painful alright - light at the end of the tunnel though. Went with the 324td reservoir which is dual pump / will allow me to retain the headlight washers.

[e30m3s54turbo]

I love your car. I'm doing m30 swap on my Alpina B3.5 clone. I feel your pain on the m30 parts I need to order. Are you going to keep your head light wiper reservoir?

[kdevitt]

Another day of bad news unfortunately. Am pretty convinced at this stage that the car is cursed. Got a message when I was in work with some photos of the head. Was pretty hectic, so only glanced at it - and it looked fantastic, nice and clean. Quickly scanned the text below the two photos - 'dropping the second head in now, hopefully its better'. Had a bit of a huh moment, opened up the photos again. Not what I wanted to see on my Monday afternoon.



If there is a silver lining to having had to buy two engines for this swap - this may be it. Will find out soon. Luckily the block has been re-honed and finished off, and is fine.

The hard line for the clutch is also now in place -



Should also have the new battery by tomorrow - ordered it from Merlin Motorsport in the UK. Went for this one - https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/p...y-pc950-ody-30

[kdevitt]

wow, i just made my friends go drinking without me so i could finish reading this. My hats off to you, so much attention to the little details. Cant wait to see this build keep on progressing!

Never let a website get in the way of some quality drinking time!

[ColeTown]

wow, i just made my friends go drinking without me so i could finish reading this. My hats off to you, so much attention to the little details. Cant wait to see this build keep on progressing!