JackBenny's 1991 318is Project

[jackbenny]

i love coming back to this thread for updates. the work you've done thus far is nothing short of amazing!

when is the motor going in?!

I hope this year! Sad isn't it? I wanted to be driving this thing this summer but taking it down for paint has extended my plans. I have most of the parts I need to convert the engine for the chassis and for an OBD1 swap. I'll work on that for the next couple of months. After the engine bay is painted, I will bring the engine to Louisiana to slip in there (along with my brake components) so that if there are any messups, the paint is right there so we can fix it.

First blocking weekend is sometime in early July. So if I were to harbor a guess, it would be in August or September that the engine would drop in.

Of course, my wife has found many activities to fill my time with while the car is gone so that may delay things a bit. I hope to perform some engine work this upcoming weekend. And I'll upload some pictures of how I rearranged the garage a bit so I can fit all the cars.

[ikkitousen]

Updates on the knee???

NO really and if you want you can throw out a couple pics of the car as well! hehe
I need more inspiration!

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DAMN I LOVE PROJECTS!!!

[jackbenny]

Updates on the knee???

NO really and if you want you can throw out a couple pics of the car as well! hehe
I need more inspiration!

-------------------------------------------------------------------
DAMN I LOVE PROJECTS!!!

Knee is pretty good. I can feel when it will bother me when i kneel and try to stand up so I know to do that differently. I haven't really had any issues since that weekend though.

In-laws are visiting this weekend so no activity to report. Vlad posting pictures of his 318is aren't helping either. I'm missing my car a lot. Enough that I will peruse this thread from time to time to look at pictures. Luckily, my father returns from the Porsche Parade in Colorado tomorrow so I should be able to set up another time this month to go back to the barn and start to get some work done.

Hopefully I can work on the engine next weekend if it isn't 300 degrees out with 6000% humidity. I should not be sweating like a pig after the sun is down in a garage with two ceiling fans.

Ah the south....

[n2bimmer]

WOW. Went into every page. Very nice.

[jackbenny]

Yeah, so I know I've been slacking with the updates. But the good news is that I did some work on the engine this past weekend so I'll try and get those pictures and corresponding narration uploaded tomorrow. I don't feel like wandering into the garage tonight.

Even more important is that the second trip to the barn is arranged for next weekend so one can expect a large update in a week or so. Personally, I'm excited as I have missed the car and would like to reacquaint myself with it. The usual cast of suspects should be there as well so I hope we will get a lot accomplished.

[s_ribs]

I also just read through all 125 posts. Ok, ok, I skipped past everything that wasn't build related. ;)

Loving the progress and the project! Can't wait for your next installment.

[e304me]

You have inspired me to want to paint my e30. It has some minor but nasty dents on the doors so I am just going to find some others. I might upgrade to a fiberglass hood while i am at it. Its amazing how little over spray there was. I was thinking i would have to cover my whole garage but maybe not.

would you mind estimating how much all the materials costs you? sand paper, bondo, primer, paint, ect. That would really help me a lot.

[e30slut]

dude, your dad is a g and you have an awesome wife to be helping you out.. adds a lot more personal value and appreciation to the car...

keep up the updates

[Teaguer]

How the hell did I miss this thread ??!!

Nice build and nice work keeping track of the progress. :up:
You mentioned Rich, hes a good guy and I've helped him out before ....maybe even sold him an engine.
Too bad he had to sell.

Your dads 911 is pimp as well, has he brought it out to then new Cars&Coffee at Classic ?
If he hasn't he should as I'd like a chance to see it in person.


Keep up the good work.

[jackbenny]

How the hell did I miss this thread ??!!

Nice build and nice work keeping track of the progress. :up:
You mentioned Rich, hes a good guy and I've helped him out before ....maybe even sold him an engine.
Too bad he had to sell.

Your dads 911 is pimp as well, has he brought it out to then new Cars&Coffee at Classic ?
If he hasn't he should as I'd like a chance to see it in person.


Keep up the good work.

You know Teaguer, I've been trying to convince him to go out there just once and try and check it out but I'm not sure if he has. He just got back from the Porsche Parade and got a nice response for the car (and several questions posted on pelicanparts forum). I think I'll bug him about it again. I know he has a pretty good rapport with the Ruf guys as they maintained his 993 while he had it. What I'm really curious about is his new 2002 project that goes in the barn after mine is done. All cancer has been removed with new panels welded in but I haven't seen pictures. I see him next weekend so I'll bug him about it then.

You remind me, I need to email Rich to see how Georgia is and pass along this thread. I haven't talked to him since I went to Germany.

Thanks for the support. ;)

[jackbenny]

Engine Update

So I'm finally getting around to that update I promised. Last weekend I thought I would work on the engine preparing for the swap and performing some OBD1 conversion love on it. I started accumulating parts around a year and a half ago and kept them in a plastic box with the rest of my BMW parts. I'm sure you can imagine the panic that ensued when I couldn't find the box. I think in the future it would help a great deal if 1) I remember what box I put the parts in and 2) label said box clearly. Fortunately, everything worked itself out.

Here's the victim:



So this is an S52 out of a 2000 M Roadster. 39,000 miles. It is an OBDII motor and while I have all of the OBDII parts (EWS, 1 key, steering column) I still opted to go with OBDI. Those of you doing OBDII swaps, keep up the good fight and continue to document your swaps. For me, it was more of a comfort level in going OBDI. Spend time in the 24V section of this site and while the comprehensive thread is a massive pain to go through, most of the information is there. Use that search button as well. I was able to find just about everything I needed and hopefully when I ask questions, i won't get a search noob answer!

In a ray of brillance, I thought it might be a good idea to see if there was any oil in the pan before I performed my oil pan swap.



You might say there was some oil. That could be awfully embarassing if I just tried to remove the pan.

You need to remove the power steering pump before you can remove the pan as one bolt is threaded into an insert in the pan. Best to remove both belts so you can get to the pump. Removing the belts is easy with two plastic covers needing to be removed to access the tensioners. After that, they come right off.



Pump removed:



And pump located out of the way:



One of the things I did was print out diagrams and parts lists from realoem. The reasoning is that I could see what was the same and what was different and plan the project accordingly. The bonus part is that I was even smart enough to include gaskets, o-rings and seals so as to not hinder my progress.

Now to the oil pan. There are a series of bolts that need to be removed all around the pan. The Bentley manual also notes that you may need to hit the pan a couple of times with a soft mallet to release it. One was all it took. I'll let this picture start the explanation:



So while you may drain all the oil from the plug, that isn't all the oil in the pan. A great deal remains at the front of the pan. So what you see here is the after effect of the oil pan falling out of my hands and dumping its contents all over the garage floor, my leg and saturating my poor shoes with lovely black gold/Texas tea. There was a great deal of filth emitting from my mouth at that moment and many children became adults by the words they heard. Learn from my mistake gentlemen even though this may be a humourous anecdote.

With the pan removed, the next step is to use a pan that moves the sump to the front so it will clear the steering rack. I'm sure many remember at the beginning of the thread my wife volunteered to clean the E34 M50 oil pan. But before that can go on, a couple of things need to be tended to. Let's have a look at the bottom end.









The suction pipe and its mounting bracket need to be removed in order to be compatible with the E34 pan. The process began by removing the stock suction pipe.



New gasket and new suction pipe:



Realoem open in the background for reference:



And the suction pipe installed:



For some reason I had some difficulty in loosening the aft nut on the stock suction pipe. I needed 2 u-joints on my socket to get to it. Your Mileage May Vary as I may be a complete idiot but there was some cursing involved with its removal.

Now for that bracket. The consensus is that you should just bend it until it breaks off. Let's see how that goes.



Took a couple of tries...



but we got there. A file cleaned it up a bit (advantage to leaving the motor like this on the stand instead of rotating it).



While the pan was off, I took a look at the oil pump nut that has that nasty reputation of coming loose. Mine was tight and I opted just for red loctite instead of welding or safety wiring it. I think it will hold and it will be a while before the engine runs so I think it will stay.



So time to put the pan back on the block. Seal the 4 corners of the block where aluminum and steel meet up. I got some gasket dressing based off StereoInstaller's thread about how much oil pan gaskets suck. It did help and fortunately my wife returned from her errands at this time to help start the bolts while I held the pan. It was time to torque the bolts down to around 7 to 10 ft pounds so I set the torque wrench. Went to the first bolt and tightened til I heard a click. Only it was the wrong click:



I was fortunate in the there was enough stud of the bolt poking past the block that I could get some pliers on it and back it out. Unfortunately it required taking the oil pan back off.

Take two put the pan back on and all but one bolt (ordered it with some parts and should be here next week). Oil pan finally on.





Now to put the oil level sender into the pan...



And the new dipstick...



And now it was time for sensors.

I opted to delete the throttle body coolant circuit and use that hole for the cluster temperature sensor. Of course that sensor is an M14 and the hole is an M12. Reading the 24V page it seems the best way to do this is to remove the threads on the sensor and re-thread it. I tried this for 2.5 hours and could not get my die to thread the sensor. In a fit of frustration, I used the non-tapered part of the die and was able to get the threads cut on the sensor.





In the above picture you can see it installed in the correct hole as well as one of the knock sensors installed.

At this point I wanted to mount the OBD1 manifold and check to make sure I had all the parts. Turns out I only had one correct bracket, the rear bracket so I ordered a new front bracket.



In the above picture you can also see the RPM sensor next to the crank trigger wheel. Sadly, I forgot the screw that holds it so it is on order as well.



Continued next post...

[jackbenny]

Today I continued the work by installing the new OBD1 cam sensor. It is very difficult to get to and requires removing the VANOS solenoid and the oil line that goes to the unit.







And the new one installed...


Work continued on the intake manifold. The OBD1 throttle and the OBD2 throttle seal differently to the intake manifold. Since I had a perfectly good throttle from the OBD2 car, I elected to get an adapter plate from bimmerworld that would allow both the throttle body and the intake manifold to seal up properly.









Thought I would slap on the bimmerworld intake bellow I got that's compatible with my 3.5" HFM sitting in a box. It's a pretty nice little piece.



The final step for the day was the fuel injection system. The OBD2 engine had pink top injectors that I wanted to use with the OBD1 fuel rail. A little work was in order...





And all nice and neat installed on the intake...





Yeah that intake isn't going to flow very well with all that tape there so it was removed and the intake was screwed down.







And lets throw the power steering pump back on there for good measure.



So at the end of this work experience, the only casulties are my garage floor, a puma future cat, a couple of scraped knockles and one blister. I think that's reasonable...except for my damn shoe. That one really pissed me off. Time for new shoes I guess.

More work is still needed on the engine obviously. In addition to various screws to hold sensors and pans to the engine, I have a 75 degree thermostat and aluminum thermostat housing coming in this week though I doubt I'll get to it. A reminder that next weekend is more body work so I intend to take a lot of pictures and update this thread with a sizable post come next monday.

Until then, enjoy the pictures.

[TwoJ's]

Good work Josh. Your thread is really making me want to do a motor swap. If only tuition wasn't so damn expensive (15% increase next year) I could justify it.

After this update I'm motivated to go sand on my car though. Keep it up.

[jackbenny]

Good work Josh. Your thread is really making me want to do a motor swap. If only tuition wasn't so damn expensive (15% increase next year) I could justify it.

After this update I'm motivated to go sand on my car though. Keep it up.

Don't sweat it Jordan, yours is looking good too. Especially with the wheels.

Sucks about tuition though. You end up getting that co-op?

[jackbenny]

So the powers that be at work are in the mood to harass me for no good reason and feel that white is too "bland" a color for the e30. The consensus is that I should paint it Z06 Atomic Orange. While I like the color, I'm not sure it belongs on an e30 or whether I am willing to take the time to paint the whole car that color. I have someone willing to photoshop it with my th monos so that may help the wavering that is going on.

What say you all?