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    #61
    Version 1 of the battery bracket is finished. It works, and with a little adjustment version 2 could be considerably more sturdy. Version 2 is going to be made months from now since time is fading away. I have around 5-6 weeks before I need to have this thing on the ground ripping through the neighborhood. That's kinda scary to think about.

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      #62
      This thing should be pretty fun when its all done! Keep it up.

      Did you lose any weight over the front wheels going to the M42?
      Simon
      Current Cars:
      -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

      Make R3V Great Again -2020

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        #63
        Originally posted by 2mAn View Post
        This thing should be pretty fun when its all done! Keep it up.

        Did you lose any weight over the front wheels going to the M42?

        If it's just slightly more fun than my 318is, then I'm going to be very pleased. 600+ pounds less than the e30 should make a huge difference, so I have high hopes it's a screamer.


        I for sure lost some weight on the front end, but it's unclear how much. The m42 sits further back than the m10 by quite a bit, and with all the accessories I've removed it should be down to less than m10 weight. Unfortunately I can't find any actual numbers of what an m10 fully dressed weighs that are what I would consider accurate. A full corner weight of a stock car would be neat to have so I can compare the finished product to it. One of these days I'll pull out the scale and weigh the full m10 assembly with trans to compare to my numbers of the m42/trans. I "think" they are closer in weight than often quoted, but I will admit the trans feels lighter from the m10.

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          #64
          I've been gathering exhaust stuff, but haven't ever mocked up the stock e30 system yet to see what direction I need to go. Surprisingly the e30 exhaust looks like it could be made to fit as is without doing much work. I tried to snap some pics to show how it all lays out, mainly because I haven't really seen many pics of how people usually finish this part of an m42 swap. I will be replacing the rotten muffler with a $20 ebay unit, and swapping the cat section for a straight pipe. I also have a nice stainless resonator, but the stock one looks decent enough it's probably not worth the effort and saves my budget ~$28 which helps make up for the oil pan hiccup. Speaking of which, the new oil pan came in the other day, but I haven't had a moment to install until tonight. It came with two little tubes of grey sealant, so I am officially gasketless now on the lower pan to save a few more bucks.

          While the sealant was drying I decided to start some arts and crafts with the Hoosiers. I bought a couple different sized paint pens to color in the letters. The larger tip was just too big, and the smaller version was just about perfect. In about 30 minutes or less they were all done and overall look pretty good. I've wanted to do this for a while, and honestly it ended up being much easier than expected. It certainly helps the wheels were off the car.

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            #65
            I haven't managed to accomplish much over the past week or so other than collect parts that probably won't fit within the Challenge budget as well as re-buy parts I found at a lower cost to help pad the budget considerably. At least I'll have spares...

            Anyway, first up a set of vented calipers from a 77 hit my doorstep. A day or two after that I got a set of Euro single headlight grills and headlight assemblies. A couple days after that a set of lightweight aluminum mk4 VW rear calipers and adapting brackets to eventually swap out the drums. Then my attention was directed to some lightweight front Brembo calipers for an Alfa Romeo weighing in at HALF the stock vented calipers! These bolt on just like stock with no modification necessary. I'm basically rolling in a mound of calipers now. I hope to get the Brembos cleaned up and fit within Challenge budget since they can still be ran with the stock non vented rotors. From those alone I'll be able to drop 4 pounds per corner!

            For the most part I've been getting some wiring stuff sorted or at least getting a game plan in order. Thursday I had a few hours from an early day off at work so I decided to get the exhaust all done or at least tacked together. That turned out to be a nightmare and left me wanting to just set the car on fire. Nothing went according to plan at all, so I stared at my mess for 45 minutes feeling sorry for myself, and eventually retreated to a few beers to finish off the night. After formulating a new plan, Sunday would be the day to finish the exhaust. I spent an hour or so cleaning up first thing this morning, and then started cutting up my failed attempt from Wednesday. The system ended up being fairly simple and mostly used pieces of the old exhaust. I added in the stainless steel resonator I bought months ago as well as a scrap chrome exhaust tip from my old e24. The pipe dumps a little before the fuel crossover and with the slashcut downturn tip should help keep the decibels from being too insane, or at least I hope. I scabbed some pieces from the stock e21 rubber hanger system to help support the weight right where the center support bearing bracket bolts to the chassis. After it is all said and done, I went from a 51 pound exhaust system for the m42 all the way down to 11 pounds. So I effectively dropped 40 pounds overall which is about 15 more than I expected. I'm super happy with that.

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              #66
              With my first autocross of the season only a month away it's time to start knocking stuff off the list. I only want to do work that will get me on the road and anything else is just getting put to the side for now. After staring at the wiring in the engine bay for far too long I finally decided what plan of attack was needed. I bought a cheap ebay post set off ebay for the battery. The thread pitch was larger than the battery I bought, so I tapped the positive hole and tightened it down. I then bolted down this nifty clamp that has two holes to fit accessory lines up to 8 gauge. This works perfect as I need one line for the fuse panel, and one dedicated line to a 50a fusible line to the DME. The negative cable I'll just keep the ring terminal as there is only one line coming off the battery.

              Originally I bought some ground straps off ebay to use for the alternator and motor mount grounds, but they look a bit thin compared to stock. Since I bought a considerable amount of 8 gauge wire for the DME line it makes sense to just make my own lines which helps budget wise as well. A little crimpy crimpy, heat shrink tubing, and it's done.

              After that, I moved on to wiring in the engine harness. A lot of folks like to make an adapter harness that keeps the c101 plug from the e30 and still uses the e21 connector. I'm not a fan of that method as there's only 7 wires that need to be connected, and the c101 plug is huge. I spent time with the e21 harness getting the longest run of wires to the engine connector as possible so I could just splice directly into the e30 harness. After trimming out the unneeded wires and staggering joints, it was all connected and looks super tidy. Once I finish connecting the fusible link to the DME it will be ready to wrap in Tesa tape. With the harness ready to go, I trimmed out the lip of the firewall where the scuttle panel sits. The accordion wire sheathing feeds right into the scuttle panel hiding a large amount of wiring, and one section pops out on the passenger side to feed wires to the coils, o2 sensor, and harness ground. I still need to trim the transition and put in some sort of grommet, but they have a home now. With the harness in the scuttle area now, this allows me to put the diagnostic port and 3 relays right near the window wiper motor up and out of the way. I'll make a bracket for it and the relays to keep things nice and tidy later on.

              Anyway, this is kind of a boring post. I spent a few minutes spraying all of the suspension and subframe nuts/bolts with PB Blaster, put the back of the car on jack stands, removed the rear wheels, and am ready to start dropping the rear subframe. Sunday and Monday will be dedicated to getting all of the rear suspension and brakes done. If there's extra time available I'll drop the gas tanks and figure out my in tank pump situation as well as replace the soft lines. Originally I planned to ditch the driver side tank and weld up the crossover connection to keep weight down, but with e85 and turbo in the future that may be a bad idea. For now it shall stay. If I can manage to get all that done I think the car could be doing test drives down the block in a week or two. Seat mounts, sunroof stuff, and fluids are the main items that come to mind.

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                #67
                Two full days of tinkering were had. There were some setbacks, but I pushed on and accomplished my goals.

                First I dropped the rear subframe with my ATV jack and started swapping the delrin diff bushings. After that I moved on to the driver side trailing arm bushings. They looked to be in decent condition, but I figured while I already had them out it makes sense to just get them done. Unfortunately when installing them back into the arms, the last little bit on each just didn't want to squeeze into the hole. I've installed these Febi branded ones on my e30 without issue, and I even have the rtab tool to help remove or install them. At that point I decided to finish just the driver side and leave the ones in the passenger. I'll revisit these at a later date. I went ahead and drained the diff fluid, and put in some fresh stuff. After changing out the driver side wheel bearings, I bolted on the delrin Garagistic subframe bushings.

                Before putting the subframe back, I wanted to drop the fuel tanks to install new brake lines, fuel lines, fuel filter, and fuel pump figured out. The stock setup has a two pump setup, and I want to get that all to a single in tank assembly. It's a simpler setup, and drops quite a bit of weight in the process. After using my siphoning tube to drain most of the gas out I used the ATV jack to lower them out without much fuss. The wiring in the stock pump assembly is a bit thin, so I popped out the plastic bung and epoxied the Deatschwerks wires in place, then new o-ring at the pump assembly flange, and also on the sending unit. The old o-rings were completely borked, letting fuel and vapor spill out when I last filled the tank. To mount the pump, I split a small section of fuel hose and clamp keep it tight to the assembly. Unfortunately the strainer I have is in the wrong position, so hopefully the one I ordered will do the trick. Luckily with an access cover inside the car, I can easily install one without much fuss. Did I mention the tank is super clean inside? I though for sure it would be a rusty sludge mess with my luck, but nope. It's nice and clean.

                This is another hurdle I ran into. I didn't know this before pulling the tanks, but there is some 12mm/1/2" fuel line on the feed side. HUGE! No one close to me had any in stock, so I decided to use the best looking section that came with the car, and reduce it down to 5/16" with a Pex coupler. Super cheap, and the feed really only needs to be 5/16" anyway. After the coupler I looped the line through a super small and cheap filter that can be swapped out pretty quick. The filter is mounted with a couple hose clamps and some pieces of the factory rubber from the stock filter to the stock brackets. With that sorted I wrestled the tanks back in place and tightened everything back down.

                Brake lines were swapped out for new, and the subframe was ready to bolt back in place. Before moving forward with that though, I needed to install some bump stops on the rear coilovers. The factory ones are super pricey for Challenge budget, so I found some random cheap ones that I cut down and reamed the ID a bit to reduce friction.

                With the subframe back in place, I started removing the old drum brake stuff. After a bit of aggressive wrench turning and lubricant, the adjusters finally were functional again. Passenger side required some vice grips and a ton of heat, but finally freed up enough to be useful. New shoes, drums, and red loctited studs to finish it off. I need to do some reading on how to properly adjust the shoes, but I think it's fairly close. Everything still needs to be bled, but until I install the Brembos up front I'm holding off. Also, notice how the drums look completely different? Same part number, same brand, one is from Italy, and the other from China. Guess which one is from China.

                Moving on. I bolted the driveshaft back in place, only this time I snugged it all down for good. Yeah. Feels nice. The exhaust got the same treatment with a new flange gasket and nuts.

                At this point I'm happy with the progress and call it a day. I still have quite a bit of stuff to do before it's roadworthy. March 24th is probably still not going to happen, but I'll keep plugging away in hopes it all works out.

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                  #68
                  After looking at my to do list, I decided rushing to get all of it done before my first autocross was not how I wanted this project to go. I want to be able to drive the car to the event and back without worrying if it's ready for the big show. Shake down miles should be made before hand, and I won't have enough time to do that properly. After a couple weekends off from the project, I put together a list of little fiddly stuff that needs to be finished so I can be certain bolts aren't loose, wires aren't touching things they shouldn't, and fluids are all kept inside their intended places.

                  Fuel pump with smaller sock installed, wiring finished, and all hoses connected so it's ready to fire.

                  All wiring in the engine bay is connected, placed where it belongs, and is ready to fire.

                  Coolant hoses were all fastened tight, and rad fluid was placed in for the first time. After spending some time hand bleeding the system, I noticed a weep from the thermostat housing. Fook. I know this won't go away on it's own, so I'll have to drain some coolant and get that sealed up right.

                  Front super-lite Brembos were disassembled, cleaned, new seals, new pistons, and bolted up. From the back to the front, all brakes are bled and ready to stop.

                  Clutch master is bled, just need to fiddle with the slave and reverse bleed it with my hand pump.

                  I also fiddled with the seat mounts. I hate the Kirkey. It has like 3-4 little bends in the bottom causing me grief trying to fabricate some simple brackets. Once I got it in the position I liked, getting in or out was not impossible, but way more difficult than expected without some sort of removable steering wheel. That's not in the budget, so I have decided for now to skip the Kirkey. I have a Jeg's poly seat that should show up today for $31 shipped off ebay. I love when ebay does the %15 coupon codes. Anyway, the poly seat should be a quick seat mount setup, and I can bolt in the stock 3 point belt until a harness bar/4 point is done. I never weighed the Kirkey, but the poly one is only supposed to be 13 pounds, so it shouldn't be a gain. If anything it will be a pound or two less.

                  That's where I'm at right now. I took some pics of the Brembo pistons and one of the caliper installed.

                  Oh yeah, I also spent an hour at the DMV yesterday to get antique plates for the e21 and my Gambler 500 Baja Bug. I'm street legal baby! Arkansas is about to change it's antique plate laws from 25 year old vehicles to 45, or at least that's what they are threatening, so it was time to run in there before it becomes a thing. I'm grandfathered in now on both my e30 and e21.

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                    #69
                    Coming along nicely! Are you going to get it out in the sun soon? Looks like its getting close
                    Simon
                    Current Cars:
                    -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

                    Make R3V Great Again -2020

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                      #70
                      Originally posted by 2mAn View Post
                      Coming along nicely! Are you going to get it out in the sun soon? Looks like its getting close

                      Very soon I hope.



                      The wife confirmed my seat was delivered today, so the short list to rolling down the road is almost checked off. I've got to wire up my new ignition switch, install the seat, seat belt, fasten the sunroof lid somehow, and finish bleeding the clutch. I think I can knock most of that out tonight and at least fire it up for the first time.

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                        #71
                        I'm running out of reasons to get this thing running. Family stuff and general laziness have been at the top of the pile.

                        Anyway, I finally got around to finishing up the last couple of items before turning the key. I broke the ignition switch when removing it from the column quite some time ago, so I bought a cheap 4 position one on ebay for around $6. A few ring terminals and a zip tie to hold it to the dash bar was all it needed. After checking all the grounds and snapping in all new torpedo fuses, it was time to see if it would turn over. With the coil wires disconnected it turned over without issue and built up oil pressure. After a minute or so I wired the coils back in and tried to fire it up for good. Apparently I forgot to put the fuel pump fuse in it's new spot, so it wouldn't sputter to life. After sorting that, I got a blurble and could only keep it running with throttle input. I adjusted the throttle cable to get an idle going for now and took some video. It's STUPID loud. The fuel pump is running in accessory position, and the feed line is leaking. I assume I've got the order of the fuel lines correct or I don't think it would start. I'll start addressing the fuel leak first, then fuel pump wiring, and then on to the thermostat leak next. I still need to bleed the clutch slave, make a seat mount, install stock seat belt, and figure out the sunroof.


                        Edit: struggling to embed the video, so here's a link instead.


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                          #72
                          I'm feeling rejuvenated, so I'm already knocking out the little details that will get me closer to rolling.

                          The fuel line leak is fixed.

                          The fuel pump now primes properly and runs when the car is started instead of always running. I ran my fuel pump fuse through the wrong bus bar when I wired it into the stock fuse panel, but now it's good to go.

                          To get the car to idle or even start initially I had to adjust the throttle cable to just slightly open the TB. This isn't the correct way to get the proper idle, but at the time got me started. I pulled the ICV as that's probably the culprit, and it's not flapping like it's supposed to. I tried to just quickly spray some cleaner in there, but it's going to need a good soak sesh to hopefully break it loose. Right now it's submerged just enough in a pot of Berryman's carb dip. Hopefully it cleans up well, or I'll have to just delete it for the Challenge, and hope my idle doesn't suffer dramatically because of it.

                          I thought I was going to still need to bleed the clutch slave, but apparently all the time I spent getting air out of the master worked well enough. With the car running on jack stands I was able to get the clutch to work through multiple gears nice and smoothly. I'll put a clutch stop in at some point soon, but not until it's back on wheels to set the proper release adjustment.

                          A couple new things on my list to tackle are:

                          Tachometer not reading
                          Engine temp gauge maxes out once I turn the key
                          Engine oil light is on
                          Headlights aren't turning on but brake lights, cluster bulbs, and tails do. Currently I don't have the front indicators plugged in, but I don't think that's associated with that problem.
                          Still have a slight weep at the thermostat housing, but I'm going to ignore that while I troubleshoot the other stuff.

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                            #73
                            Last night I was determined to put a seat in the car, drop it on the ground, and at least take one spin around the block for it's maiden voyage.

                            First up, I cut two pieces of 1" flat stock, drilled three holes in each, and then added a couple bends to help leg position. With the seat positioned in place I zapped a few good tack welds to hold it all together so I could confirm the position works for me. I checked the oil level, topped it off, and then dropped the car off the jack stands. About that time the sun was almost set, and the headlights had not been addressed yet. I decided just to go through a little loop on my street just to get that feeling of accomplishment.

                            First assessment, the exhaust isn't fun to be around, and I'll assume the neighbors really love me now.

                            I couldn't see crap out the windshield. The cluster lights are just flailing around casting a glare on the windshield, and without the headlights it was tough. I took it easy but rowed it up to third gear. On a little straight stretch I punched the throttle a little, but found some hesitation. Too soon to tell what that's about, but for now I have put it on the road.

                            Brakes are braking. I'll try to bed the pads in this evening and make sure the drums are adjusted properly.

                            All in all I accomplished driving it a block and it didn't blow up. After I pulled it back in the garage I started working on making the next trip less eventful.

                            E-brake cables connected and adjusted.
                            Headlights now work.
                            Wipers now work.
                            Tachometer should work(too late to test when it was fixed due to exhaust noise).
                            Electric fan wire was found unclipped inside the fuse box, glad I found it before the big overheat scenario played out.
                            Coolant temp gauge fixed itself.
                            Oil light didn't turn on.

                            My plan for the evening is to get a seat belt installed, license plate attached, and take a few laps to get familiar with the car. If that's uneventful, it's time to install grills, signals, and front bumper. I need to epoxy some brackets on the bumper, so while that's drying I'll try to address the sunroof lid. I'm hoping to split the two pieces to just get the top skin. Right now the whole lid weighs around 7 lbs, it may be possible to reduce that by half.

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                              #74
                              Woooohooooo! It's ALIVE!

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                                #75
                                Originally posted by mike.bmw View Post
                                Woooohooooo! It's ALIVE!

                                Yep! I want to put the SSSquid chip in the car now, but can't remember what octane I filled the car up with the day I bought it. I have about a 1/2 tank of fuel to go through before I can put some 91 in to be sure. I think the one you sent me was 93, so hoping it doesn't have issues with lower octane fuel. I run a MarkD chip in the 318is rated for 92 but can only find 91 here. No issues with that, but obviously 93 is a bit of a jump.

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