Chapter 3 - 84 318i m-tech - M60 powered.

[Jean]

Went to install the flex disc with new bolts/nuts and ran into an issue. It appears that the driveshaft flange is damaged? Somehow all flanges are at some weird angle, this makes it really difficult to install the bolts and I am afraid this will cause the flex disc to fail prematurely.

[Jean]

Really liking the clearance here though, I remember my previous M30B35 swap and even with E28 radiator it was REALLY close ...at some point my distributor cap kissed the radiator.




Now, alternator to frame-rail clearance is damn close!



Oil filter housing will be mounted here once a bracket for it is fabricated, so 740i lines are long enough.

[dasmanschaft012]

heard back from garagistic at all about the bracket?

[Jean]

heard back from garagistic at all about the bracket?

Hi,

Yep, they took my input and made me a custom bracket with the right side mounting being UNDER the wilwood pedals and not OVER to keep that stuff away from moving parts . Haven't had a chance to test fit it yet, as I have few things on my to do list I need to tackle first. Thumbs up to Garagistic for working on improving it and listening to feedback though!

Contacted the driveshaft recycler about the issue with the mounting flange, no response. I'll give them till Monday, and hopefully they'll work with me on making it right. I'll take the front piece of the driveshaft to a local driveline place with good reviews and see what they'll say. Hoping they will be able to fix it cheap, if it's expensive I'll give the seller one more chance before making it right and otherwise contact my CC and leave him bad feedback.

Shady fucking recyclers.

[delamaize]

Hi,

Yep, they took my input and made me a custom bracket with the right side mounting being UNDER the wilwood pedals and not OVER to keep that stuff away from moving parts . Haven't had a chance to test fit it yet, as I have few things on my to do list I need to tackle first. Thumbs up to Garagistic for working on improving it and listening to feedback though!

Garagistic has always done me right. Glad they did the same for you.

[Jean]

Still working on the driveshaft issue, I've taken it to the best local driveline place and they right away told me it's damaged. Unfortunately, they weren't willing to do anything with it either. Sigh.

Going to the recycler tomorrow with the front piece to see if they have found another one to replace it with.

I did get rebuilt/flow matched Lucas injectors installed and the intake manifold with the trumpets and new PCV and all new gaskets and pipe is ready for install.

Working on the rear coolant hoses for the heater core, will be visiting a local welder to see if they could modify my heater core lines to have a 90 degree bend to make the routing of the lines easier and avoid using couplers.




Removed the old heater/ac/fan box and replaced it with another in better condition, ordered a new gasket for it and going to clean things up a little before re-installing the dash.






Steering column test fitted with new mounting hardware and 1/4" spacers to lower it down a little for better clearance.





Accessories and belt is on there for test fitting, finally got the firewall cover back on there and also re-doing some of the wiring for check engine light and speed sensor. I picked up a wire with 4 individual connectors inside, and running it through a heatshrink tube and through firewall on the driver side to keep things clean.





*** TO DO LIST ***

- finalize rear water accumulator pipe hoses for heater core
- reinstall dash / interior
- reinstall steering column
- install gas pedal spring

- mount the radiator (waiting for mounting hardware / bushings to arrive)
- mount the oil filter housing (waiting on the oil filter housing bracket hardware to arrive)
- mount expansion tank (still deciding on the early vs late model 325 tanks, will probably do this last)

- figure out power steering lines
- mock up exhaust manifolds

- finish engine wiring
- relocate battery to the trunk
- tires
-

[TheWipprSnappr]

How are you mounting the oil filter housing?

[Jean]

How are you mounting the oil filter housing?

Was going to have a bracket fabricated, I have an M60 and M62 oil filter housings to choose from on hands, but found there is something already out there that I might be able to adapt/modify - its #21 here and I was able to order it .

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=DN53-USA-06-2000-E39-BMW-540i&diagId=11_1591

[Jean]

Got the driveshaft issue resolved and reinstalled, recycler was able to find another driveshaft and this one has a nice flange so all good now.

Rear water accumulator / heater core lines done, no adapters or multiple hoses used. Got the heater core lines modified to have a 90 degree angle on them and then found hoses that would fit directly in one piece.

Blower motor, resistor, new gasket and o-rings for the lines and heater core installed.

Test fitting oil filter lines, figuring out power steering lines and staring exhaust manifold work this weekend.

Need to order throttle cable and get the gas pedal working, dash / interior is about ready to get back in the car.

[rzerob]

Subscribed.

[Jean]

Heater hoses done, I like how these turned out so hopefully they will hold pressure.

Starter / alternator wire cleaned up and re-wrapped in new split loom tubing and installed. In the photo I have it laying on top of the coolant pipes which obviously isn't the correct way, installed under the smaller diameter pipe.

New high pressure fuel lines installed, caps on the PCV plate installed and manifold is bolted down.





Here is my way of installing the oil filter housing utilizing 740i lines , and e38 oil filter bracket. Made a bracket for the bracket LOL.
This way you can position it as you like and not kink the oil lines, and let the filter housing "float" on it's rubber mounts.



Test fitting locations for the filter, power steering res and also need to find a good spot for the charcoal canister next.



Started looking at the power steering pump / rack lines, my m6x pump has 1 line on it, and it's shooting up just behind the alternator..thinking this is a reservoir low pressure line. Missing one of the banjo bolts, so I need to order one of those and new copper rings and get the lines finalized as well.

[TheWipprSnappr]

Here is my way of installing the oil filter housing utilizing 740i lines , and e38 oil filter bracket. Made a bracket for the bracket LOL.
This way you can position it as you like and not kink the oil lines, and let the filter housing "float" on it's rubber mounts.



Test fitting locations for the filter, power steering res and also need to find a good spot for the charcoal canister next.

Damn, I really like that.

[Jean]

Made some more progress today, got lower brackets made and installed for the radiator. Since I have an early 318, the previous rad mounts didn't fit the Z3M rad on the sides so had to get those made.

Found a spot for the 540i charcoal canister behind the driver side headlight and ran a new line through the frame rail for it. Removed the oil filter housing to install new upper/lower o-rings and test fitting the low pressure power steering hard line for the res.



Had a local hydraulic shop make me a new high pressure line, test fitted it. It has an "S" bend to it, so it's not really as straight as it looks in the photo.



I really like the radiator to engine clearance, test fitted stock intake manifold that also will need some custom bracket / mounts fabrication for install.

Got a 540i throttle cable installed, and hooked up to the gas pedal and ran into an issue. With the pedal in fully closed (up) position the throttle body isn't fully closed.... As much as I'd like to drive all the time at WOT this won't work. It looks like one way I can get this resolved is by modifying the metal bracket that holds the end of the throttle cable on the throttle body. I'll need to move the point where the end of the cable/rubber bushing is about 1/2" closer to the front .





I bought an early style expansion tank to see if the fitment of it would be better than the late model, test fitting it and looks like I'll go with this one instead of late model version. I didn't want to add more things to the driver side fender area and have the expansion tank instead live on the passenger side and hose will run to the 3rd nipple on the 740i pump.

I am not a big fan of it covering half of the valve cover, but I still think it's better than running it on the driver side and having yet another coolant hose added to the area that's already pretty busy near the firewall.

[dasmanschaft012]

Are you cutting off the C101 body harness plug and just extending the wires to the new plug? or are you making a plug in adapter?

[Jean]

I am cutting off the round 20 pin C101 and turning the chassis side to 25pin C101. It was originally square plug c101 that I've cut off and turned into round 20 pin when I did my M30 swap. I don't see any reason to make an adapter, since I have to run some wires such as check engine, speed sensor separate as they aren't even part of the chassis harness on my car. Just want it to look clean and factory looking.

It looks like the DME end might just reach into the glovebox area...otherwise I'll probably just have to extend all 60+ DME wires or build some kind of box to sit where the battery was like it does on e32/e34 cars and add cooling for it.

- TO DO LIST -
Finish power steering lines (res to pump, rack to pump)
Connect fuel lines from rail to the hard lines on firewall (need a good photo showing what line is RETURN and what line is for CHARCOAL can)
Install fuel filter near rear subframe area near external fuel pump
Add some oil into cylinders for lubrication
Fit the oil filter lines
Fit the oil filter to pan return line
Fit the alternator power wire
Modify throttle cable holder bracket
Run wires for brake light switch
Run wires for reverse light switch
Get upper and lower rad hoses, and expansion tank hose
Finish manifolds/downpipes/exhaust
Get cats and exhaust piping
Get o2 sensors
Fit expansion tank
Finish wiring
Reinstall dash/interior