Brilliantrot 24v swap: BACK UNDER THE KNIFE!..Now with puppy content

[Nick_S]

are you running a thru axle front fork? Only thing keeping me from getting a fork mount roof rack is because I have a million different types of axles between all my bikes.

Oh yea, I have a few of the Rocky Mounts thru-axle adapters which come with a few adapters to run different setups. One is dedicated to my DH bike as it's got the monster 20mm thru axle and the other switches between boost and non...depends what bike I take.

[AWDBOB]

I was just about to post this link as I read your response above:

https://rockymounts.com/products/streetrod

It solved all of my bike rack adapting issues for different forks.

Awesome build OP, I was doing the same build on my brilliantrot facelift, jumped ship and ended up with an m20.

[wworm]

you guys are champs. Thanks!

[Nick_S]

I was just about to post this link as I read your response above:

https://rockymounts.com/products/streetrod

It solved all of my bike rack adapting issues for different forks.

Awesome build OP, I was doing the same build on my brilliantrot facelift, jumped ship and ended up with an m20.

Yep! Got 3 of those laying around.
Thanks man! Been a fun car, hoping it's back to it's former glory soon. It was embarrassing to drive lately with having to ram into 1st and the occasional grind and god forbid I had to put it in reverse, haha.

you guys are champs. Thanks!

[jeenyus]

Your car is really clean man!

[Nick_S]

Your car is really clean man!

Cheers thanks!

[Fraser]

You ever come ride around Salida? My e30 has a BMX on the roof too 90% of the summer... Great MTB around here and a couple e30s in town.

[Nick_S]

Did a bit of work yesterday. Still waiting for most of the parts to come in but got started on the trans. First thing I took it to a car wash and cleaned up best I could. Degreaser, brake clean and a pressure washer did wonders





Pulled the snout off the input shaft to put a new seal and clean it up. I had suspected a lot of my issue was from the throw out bearing sticking or not working correctly. The TOB was thrashed and this is what it slides on, not surprised it worked like shit, this is all marred up and covered in scratches.





Cleaned and polished that up



old seal, forgot to snap a photo of the new one.




New seal installed and I put that back. Next I put the new release lever, spring, pivot pin and TOB on. Forgot to snap a photo of all the new stuff. After that I moved on to some of the bushing in the shift linkage.


Alot of this was truthfully still fine from when I did the swap 5 years ago but might as well while it's off.


New bushing and cleaned and lubed the bitch clip.



Wire wheel cleaned up this. New carrier bushing will go back in once its on the car.







Old selector was WORN out, so much slop.





Still need to do the output shaft seal but other than that, I'm done with the trans. Onto the engine side! I pulled the pressure plate, clutch and flywheel off. They all looked OK, actually the clutch disc has loads of life left with no signs of slippage or uneven wear, but again, if I'm this deep into it, I'd like to replace everything I can. All I could find was the single mass version of the OE flywheel which I've been told is dimensionally identical and hopefully a bit lighter. This dual mass is heavy as hell. For all those who wonder if a stock M42 clutch will hold an M50. Yes, yes it will without issue. I'm mostly stock but it holds perfectly fine.



When I got the engine the rear main appeared to be in OK shape so I didn't do it. Dumb idea, within a few weeks I was marking my parking spot everywhere I went. fast forward 5 years and to no surprise it only got worse.


Gee I can't imagine why I was leaking oil



Cleaned up the housing nicely.



And started cleaning the block a bit.



Leaving me here for the time being till more parts arrive. Hope to have this back in and running next weekend. Prime time fall weather around here lately has me wanting to drive something other than my Pilot.


Also we just got a puppy so I've been splitting my time baby sitting this little monster, working, running, riding bikes and trying to get this car done.

[Nick_S]

Still waiting on parts to show up. Decided I'd go clean up the engine a bit more and replace the thermostat and housing since it's been dribbling some coolant apparently. I also wanted to change the thermostat as I had lower temp one in instead of the correct one for the engine.


Had this for awhile and never got around to doing it. I believe it's an 88C one replacing an 80C I had in.





Drippy drippy



Torn down



That's better.




Planning on getting some cloth tape and cleaning up the engine wire loom a bit. Going to re-route some of the harness and secure some loose ends a bit better.



And then start cleaning the bay up. My order from Condor came in so tonight I'm going to try and tackle the steering coupler and get the new poly mount in there. Hope that fixes some of the slop in the steering. A new rack would be great but that'll likely wait till spring time when I plan to refresh the suspension.

[jeenyus]

great work! I feel like down the road you're going to wish you went with a LWFW. Especially with rev matching and low end engine speed. I'm probably projecting, but it's def one of those things I wish i had done while i could.

[TeXJ]

Just read through the whole post, great build man!

[Nick_S]

great work! I feel like down the road you're going to wish you went with a LWFW. Especially with rev matching and low end engine speed. I'm probably projecting, but it's def one of those things I wish i had done while i could.

Thanks man! I wouldn't mind one but I have been driving 5 years on the stock one and it's been fine. I just got a single mass OE replacement and it's about 7lbs lighter so while 22lbs isn't light, it's also not that heavy. Should be noticeable. I had an 11lb Fidanza flywheel on my old supercharged SVT Focus and it was a rev happy SOB. It did make daily driving a tad annoying as it would drop revs super quick and in town driving and stop and go would get irritating.

Just read through the whole post, great build man!

Cheers man thanks!

[Nick_S]

UPDATE:

Been slower moving than I wanted this past week. We got this little monster and my evenings have been filled with watching this idiot run like a madman around my house. She's a 9 week old Pit/Boxer/Heeler mix.



I did manage to get a bit of work done despite the madness. The remainder of my parts showed up early this week. Key being the single mass flywheel conversion kit from Valeo. The rest of the gaskets, seals, bolts and bushings came in from Pelican and Condor as well.


Parts!



Rear main, crank shaft seal, exhaust gaskets, fuel filter, steering coupler and carrier bushing.





I opted to use the Sachs TOB I ordered rather than what came with this kit as it looked and felt a bit cheap.

Rear main and crank seal all buttoned up. I made a mistake installed the new crank seal and pressed it in too far. I had to very carefully tap it back with a punch and hammer. Nothing appears damaged but I'm slightly concerned it may leak again and I'm NOT interested in doing this much work again anytime soon. Might buy a new seal just for ease of mind. Before I put the engine back in my buddy who helped pull it is going to proof my work as he's an ASE master tech. I'm mostly confident though and went ahead and re-installed the the flywheel/clutch.



Flywheel torqued to spec. 77ft/lbs.


Clutch disc aligned.


Pressure plate installed and torqued. I found some conflicting info on what the spec is but after some digging I found it was dependent on the grade of bolts you use. Since I have 8.8, 18ft/lbs is what you need.




From here I moved to the steering coupler. After marking the shaft and coupler to ensure it went back on where it came off, I ground off the rivets, drilled the holes slightly larger to accept the new hardware and bolted it all back together. It was comical how wobbly that factory rubber piece was .



Next I burned out the factory bushing for the carrier bushing and installed the new Condor one. Forgot to snap a photo of it installed but you can use your imagination.


I still have to do the output shaft seal on the trans but I'm waiting on a friend to machine my 30mm socket down to squeeze in there. Otherwise the main work is done and all that's left is some clean up. Need to clean the bay, replace a few fuel lines I can easily reach now, clean and flush the radiator and bolt the engine and trans back together. I also bought some cloth tape to clean up the engine wire loom a bit.

Hoping to have this back in Sunday or early next week. Excited to drive this again with a properly working transmission and freshly tightened up!

[wworm]

duuuuuude

puppy and delrin bushings? This build update just got way cooler

[Nick_S]

duuuuuude

puppy and delrin bushings? This build update just got way cooler

Haha well hopefully the next one is the puppy sitting in the car while it's moving on it's own.