83 320is GRM Challenge/XP build

[captain awesome]

11-20-2018


Did some more measuring last night for the m10 flywheel swap. I noticed the m42 starter bolts directly to the bellhousing, but the m10 bolts to the block AND the bellhousing. This means the m10 starter has about 7.25mm more protrusion into the trans when used on the m42 Getrag 240. Either I put a 7mm spacer between the starter or try to use the m42 and hope for the best, or go back to swapping ring gears? Either way I have some thinking to do.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

[captain awesome]

11-29-2018


I've been plugging away jumping from one task to the next to try to stay busy. The motor is all sealed up now, but I still need to paint the header side of the block and finish cleaning the oil pans. Speaking of oil pans, I spent a few minutes trimming for front subframe clearance.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

I also started cutting the strut housings down 2 inches. Of course as soon as I start to tack the second one in place I run out of welding wire. I'll pick some more up today and get them finished up tonight with the spring perches.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

I also scored this 1.75" roll bar hoop for $43.69 from Amazon that's intended for a Mustang II but looks like it will fit almost perfect. It's ERW which is kind of a bummer, but for a budget built 4 point I think think this is a good starting point. For anyone interested it's from Competition Engineering part number C3126 but bear in mind it's fairly thick walled and has some weight to it. Patrick from the GRM forum was the one who brought it to my attention, and I'm forever grateful as I was worried about putting in the cage within budget constraints. The track days I want to do leading up to the Challenge may or may not require the cage, but I just feel better knowing with a fixed back seat and harness that I'll be better off with one in play. I'll try to source some pieces of 1.75" locally to save on shipping for the rear legs, cross bar, and harness bar. Still can't believe this hunk of metal was bent and then shipped for only $43.69!

I will mention the legs kick inward at a slight angle, but nothing crazy. I'll build some short plinth boxes at 1-2" tall for these to weld to, and raise it up closer to the roofline. That little bump in height puts the bend profiles in line with the B pillar perfectly as well.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

I tossed some 2x4's under the legs and the roof to B pillar profile is just amazing.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

[captain awesome]

12-02-2018


I managed to put some cheap $1 Lowes spray paint on the subframe, replaced tie rods, and press in the new delrin control arm bushings. Unfortunately the QC or parts creation for these with Garagistic is lacking. The ID for the factory bushings is 16mm and the Garagistic stuff is almost 1/2 a mm too small, so I've got a drill bit on the way to open up the holes to fit properly. If things go pear shaped I'll default back to the factory bushings and fill them with window weld since they popped out without a fuss. The OD of the bushings is a smidge too large as well, so I'm not sure they were worth buying even at the low price. Comparing them to the poly set I bought, they appear to all have the same issues.

Anyway, the strut housings have been welded back, I just need to put a collar on each strut to hold the ebay adjuster sleeves. The plan is to get the car back to roller status by the end of the week if the drill bit shows up in time. I leave on the 13th for a trip to Punta Cana and return right before Christmas, so not much will be happening for a bit.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

You can see the threads wanted to cut into the inner sleeve, and the material that squished out when pressing them in.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

[captain awesome]

12-04-2018


Broken caliper piston on the passenger side. Oreilly has a reman unit dropping to my house tomorrow, hopefully it's the correct ATE version, or just e21 specific.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

After way too much time fiddling, I managed to finish up the front coilovers minus some paint. The cheapo camber plates clear the ebay coilover strut tops just perfect. The total cut from strut housings was 2", pvc spacers under the struts were about 3", and the sleeve ring is from some bent up 3/16" x 3/4" flat stock. The ebay sleeves fit nice and snug with the rubber o-rings, and so far don't spin when performing adjustments. I've got some 450lb springs up front right now, but I think the ebay springs will have to do for the challenge. Budget is getting tight with the nickel/dime stuff so the delrin rear subframe bushings will probably have to be swapped out for some modified stock ones to help as well. Front wheel bearings are showing up soon hopefully as well as my 16mm drill bit so I can get this thing back to roller status. I'm hoping to roll the beast outside on a somewhat warm day to scrub the engine bay and get it paint ready. I doubt the weather will cooperate enough for that though.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

[captain awesome]

12-12-2018


My rebuilt caliper came in, so I loaded the pads for both and didn't touch the car for almost a week. Last night I packed and installed new front wheel bearings without much fuss. I don't know why, but I really enjoy the refresh process of brakes and bearings. Anyway, there was some black spray paint leftover, so I sprayed the water pump and crank pulleys to give it a little bump in the looks department. I'm still waiting on my 16mm drill bit. Not happy about that, but it's obvious the front end will not be assembled anytime soon. Tomorrow AM I'm headed to Punta Cana for 7 days, and with holidays being crazy I would be lucky to get much done at all.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

[captain awesome]

12-23-2018


So I'm back from the Dominican Republic from some much needed R&R. I definitely came back with a heavy dose of motivation for the e21. My 16mm drill bit was here when I got back, so I immediately reamed out the undersized Garagistic control arm bushings and assembled the front subframe assembly. Once the sway bar was attached it was immediately obvious it was in desperate need of some cheap spray paint. I managed to snap pictures up until that point and then just a flurry of parts ended up installed. New rotors, studs loctited in, calipers installed, new soft brake lines, and of course the subframe. I set the springs at the lowest adjustment on the assembly and dropped the car down from the jack stands. It tucks a tall 13" tire without an engine and trans, so the adjustment will probably be a couple inches higher than it is now. I'm just stoked to be back to roller status so I can clean the engine bay up some and get ready to start on the rear suspension stuff.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

[captain awesome]

12-26-2018


Today we closed up shop at 3, so I rolled the car out of the garage and spent a couple hours cleaning up my mess. I shoved some parts that I've been tripping over for a while now in the attic, and swept up all the grunge. After dinner with the kiddos I decided to test fit my 14" basketweaves and A7s to make sure the 15mm spacers are enough to clear the dreaded tie rod ends. My math worked out at least in static mode, so I adjusted front ride height where the control arms are pointing downward using a little bubble level. I then installed the rear Bilsteins and spent some time setting the ride height with a slight rake. Obviously there will be future adjustments since I don't have all of the weight back in the car, but I really wanted the visual motivation and to make sure there weren't any clearance issues. When I get a chance I would like to see what my camber front/rear is. If the rear is in a reasonable spec at the current ride height, I'm going to skip the subframe adjusters for the Challenge to help give me plenty of budget for whatever may come up between now and then.

I also snapped a pic of the parts installed the other day, I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

[captain awesome]

01-02-2019


It's not a huge update, but it was cold yesterday. Cold enough that rolling the car into the driveway and doing some wet scrubbing wasn't in the cards. I'm tired of staring at the filthy engine bay, so I decided to do some spot cleaning with some purple power and brushes within the warm garage. I still need to hose down the bay when things warm up, but at least it's considerably less skanky. The plan is to get the motor and trans dropped back in before moving on to the rear. I need to test fit the radiator, wiring stuff, position the air intake box, and battery. Once these are checked off the list I'll drop the rear subframe and gas tanks. The local SCCA posted this years autocross schedule, so by March 24th I'll need this beast ready and sorted. There are two other clubs I run with that haven't posted up dates yet. I can only assume both will try to run events earlier in March so there could be some potential for two test and tune events prior to the SCCA.

Before:
Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

After:
Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

[captain awesome]

01-04-2019


Still plugging along. I think the open center of the basketweaves are an eyesore. I've been buying these cheap plastic centercaps from ebay for my e30 euroweaves, and they just so happen to fit the baskets. Much better aesthetically pleasing, and they are priced slightly under the $10 mark for all 4.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

I got motivated to get the motor and trans back together, but to get that accomplished there were a bunch of fiddly tasks I wanted to get done first. Driveshaft center support bearing, guibo, shifter bushings, shift selector seal, brass clutch pivot pin, cleaning trans crossmember and opening up holes to fit the HD e21 trans mounts. The manifold/header bolts were cut off long ago, so I welded in some stainless bolts and cleaned up all the mounting flange studs. All new gaskets/nuts and it's cinched down.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

The motor was looking just about ready to pull off the stand, but realized it would be easier to make the coil on plug setup out of the car. I printed out my template to full scale, and taped it to the aluminum stock. Each hole was center punched and pilot drilled to get the best accuracy. Once the little holes were drilled to size, I used the world's worst hole saw to cut out the 4 larger holes. Trimmed to length the aluminum stock, cut an ear off the first cylinder coil mount, and bolted it all down with some stainless hardware. I cut down two short threaded rods and tightened a wide washer style nut to keep the rubber seal nice and snug for the valve cover. Slide the coil packs in place and two nylock nuts hold the whole enchilada in place with the studs.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

[captain awesome]

01-06-2019


I drained the trans fluid and put in fresh ATF, installed new rear main seal, and also pilot bearing. The flywheel was bolted on, and on to the clutch/pressure assembly plus throwout bearing. It took a little effort to get the trans attached to the engine, but it's bolted together and everything seems to be fitting just right. At least until I bolt a starter to it. I've tried multiple configurations, and none of them seem to be engaging the flywheel properly. The m10 starter has the right tooth pattern, so I shimmed it out enough so the pinion gear isn't engaged with the flywheel until the solenoid pushes it forward. It will grind, and sometimes act like it's going to spin the flywheel, but never does. I finally realized the m10 starter is so fat compared to the m42 that it's pushing up against the block in two spots. I think it's causing a binding issue, but can't be 100%. At this point I'm going to pull the trans and try to swap to the m42 ring gear. If I remember correctly it's about a mm or two to small on the inner diameter, so that may require some shaving to fit.



Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

[captain awesome]

And now it's basically up to date...

01-08-2019


Today I got an early day off of work, so my goal was to just get the ring gear swapped on the flywheel. I've never done it before, but a little heat and the old ones tapped off of each flywheel with a cold chisel and hammer. The m10 one had a spot weld on it, so had to grind it off before removal. The ID of the m42 ring is smaller than the m10, so it's been a fair bit of anxiety about how I will tackle that. I ended up taking a flap disc grinder to the ID slowly until it could be tapped in place. It wasn't a loose fit, very snug, and then a tack weld to keep it in place.


Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr


I then bolted the trans back in place and quickly fit the m42 starter to test it out. YEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! It spins the flywheel, engages like it's supposed to, no grinding, just doing what it's supposed to. I can now breathe a sigh of relief.
Now that I know the motor can be slid back in place, it was time to go over my checklist of items left in the engine bay. The clutch master was acting funky on my last few drives, so I decided since it's a silly tight space now would be a good time to swap it out. The soft line was replaced as well. Both of these items took way more time than I expected, but I'm glad they were done without the engine in the way.


Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr
Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr


Going back over my list I am reminded that I recently purchased a cheap hanging scale. I've been curious what the final weight of the whole assembly would be, so now's a good time. Here's the list of what's on the scale: no oil, some residual radiator fluid in the block, no alternator belt, m42 starter, m10 flywheel/clutch/pressure plate, coils mounted to COP plate, alternator was placed on the trans, guibo mounted,slave cylinder, and I think that about sums up everything. All told, the scale says 383.94 lbs and I'm going to guess the accuracy is probably within a few pounds. I've seen Vorshlag post up a photo of the stock weight with AC and it was 427 lbs. I don't know what trans they used in the photo I've seen, but it's not the same as the one from the 318is. Either way, I'm really stoked it's under 390 lbs, which would be 43 lbs less than stock than the Vorshlag weight. After I get the m42 stabbed back in place I'll weigh the m10 and trans to see the difference.


Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr
Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

[mike.bmw]

Awesome work! Had those posts locked and loaded, did ya? ;D

I feel like I've just binge-watched a great show and now I'm waiting for the next season to air.

[captain awesome]

Awesome work! Had those posts locked and loaded, did ya? ;D

I feel like I've just binge-watched a great show and now I'm waiting for the next season to air.

It was a lot quicker to copy and paste then I was expecting.



I keep feeling like not much work has been done and March is coming up fast for the first autocross meets.

[Nick_S]

Damn great work! If it helps with your budget, I accidentally bought two M42 oil filters that are doing me no good. If you want them I'm happy to send them your way.

[captain awesome]

Damn great work! If it helps with your budget, I accidentally bought two M42 oil filters that are doing me no good. If you want them I'm happy to send them your way.

That may be worth it if things get super tight. Budget is tough with this sort of build, especially when trying to do it right the first time. I currently have the oil filter budgeted at $3.90, but I'll give you a shout if it's getting silly and I need those few extra pennies.