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Rusty 1600-2 + 2.4L Ecotec +?? = Awesome

Entries in this blog

Can't bring myself to put it in hibernation

It's taken 4+ years to get this rolling tetanus shot on the road. At this point it's really not a BMW any more.  That needs to be made clear, this car was missing much, damaged and significantly rusted.  Add to that a cross country relocation compounded by this being my first ground up.  I say all that to say I would have done things very differently.  Due to the moving and original plans of a track car, much of the interior little bits are gone.  I have had to build my own over the last few wee

maikell77

maikell77

IT'S ON THE ROAD

I have been working on this car for 4 years.  The first blog post was 2/26/2016.  At that time I had already spent some 6-8 months repairing rust.  Last night the last hurdle was cleared.  The custom driveshaft was picked up by my lovely wife.  In one of the few times something worked first time.  This video is the first time since I've owned this car that it moved on it's own!   On to the thoughts about driving.  So far only up to about 50 mph.  The 320i rack with stock 2002 steering

maikell77

maikell77

so close to driving

the last little steps seem to take quite a bit of time.  I did wheel the car out into the sunlight just cause.  The Uro door seal install really was not too bad. Followed the excellent advice from the FAQ.  starting at the corner and then jumping to the bottom of the door and working up sure helped.  also the harbor freight plastic tools for interior panels are great for weather strip installation.  They allow you to push the rubber into the correct tracks without damage. With the right too

maikell77

maikell77

more progress

Some more progress was made over the holiday weekend.  The cooling system finally got the full plumb up.  It ended up taking 4 hoses to make 2.  The system seems to purge the air pretty well and that's what matters.  Haven't gotten warm enough to trip the fan yet, so that will still need to be checked out.  All in I think the engine bay turned out fairly clean for this much modern in a car that never had it.  it really is amazing how much work it takes to make a modern EFI engine look simpl

maikell77

maikell77

E-steering, wilwood pedals, cooling, and it looks closer to done!

All along with this project there were a few things I knew would be the big issues to get over. 1.       Engine and transmission install – it fits and it’s mounted 2.       Adapting the new transmission to the BMW dif, this is next…. 3.       Building a new pedal assembly – done over break 4.       Fixing the rust and bodywork – done over break 5.       Rewiring the whole call – TBD 6.       Making the rack and pinion steering work – finally finished over break

maikell77

maikell77

IT'S ALIVE

After some interesting trouble shooting finally got it all sorted. I have supply and return plumbed but at current I am running the ECM built in returnless setup.  The initial issue was thought to be fuel related.  The actual problem was the MAF.  The tune supplied was supposed to be speed density.  The ECM apparently still tries to use the MAF if it's hooked up.  Unplugged the MAF and BOOM! It's ALIVE!! Cabin wiring is starting to come along.  it has been just a daunting task, but fi

maikell77

maikell77

Getting Close to the first Fire up!

It was much more of a pain than anticipated to get all the brake plumbing sorted and bleed but it's behind me now.  The 2402 now sits on eibach lowering springs.  the rear looks right, the front still sits a little high for my liking.   The recent activity has been to get the car wired and fuel system complete.  The wiring started out quite unruly... I have spent quite a bit of time routing and re-routing with many many zip ties. The acrylic panel will mount in the glovebox a

maikell77

maikell77

Forward progress that looks like going backwards???

It's been a while since my last post.  I have made progress it has just been extremely slow going.  To go forward you have to go backwards.  That means the engine out...again. Dropped from above, not too scary. Still not high enough...getting sketchy. Its Free! And I can breath again.  With the engine out of the way i finished up brake lines and fuel hard lines.  Not too bad looking of an engine compartment. Now time to add in the rats nest of spe

maikell77

maikell77

Question on the steering system

I am trying to build a plan to have this car running and driving for the Hot Rod Power Tour this year, or at least the Woodward Dream Cruise in August.  From looking at my turn radius I need to shorten the front steering arms for the rack and pinion travel to work.     The question I have is, is it a horrible idea to drill the stock arm for a shorter arm?  I plan to use heim joints with a through bolt and spacer.    https://www.bmw2002faq.com/forums/topic/55716-shortenin

maikell77

maikell77

Questioning the path forward

Finally got around to starting the wiring of the 2402TI.  The speedway kit I picked up was nice and fairly straight forward.  Spent a few days trying to really plan out where everything was going.  Then I learned that the kit really works well with a GM column connector.  That got me to thinking about if i could get rid of a U joint with a longer column.  Sure enough I can! so now staring down the prospect of redoing my steering system I thought it wise to pause for a bit and make sure there is

maikell77

maikell77

It has a face!

It was nice this weekend to tackle some smaller jobs that result in a bigger change in the garage art.  The first little task was installing the rear glass.  It wasn't that bad, but then again I still haven't done the lock strip.  The rope trick really does work.  Word of caution you will need more than 15 feet to have a good handle to start.  Also all the comments about get it centered first...yeah listen to them, really eases the process.  Had to support my friends car club.  After all it

maikell77

maikell77

2402Tii in the Daylight

Not the biggest of updates.  It seems the last 20% is the longest.  I have been trying to tie up loose end.  I have run fuel supply and return lines.  I upgraded to 3/8" to support future boost.... I have also finally finished the rear subframe rebuild.  All new brakes, lines, bushings and a fresh coat of paint.  I was also able to track down a match set of miata seat for a little bit of nothing.  Now  I have the drivers seat on a track.  the passenger side is fixed. 

maikell77

maikell77

Interior panel fab, re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

Not the most productive of weekends.  I pretty much just made some new interior panels.  the car when I bought it had been sitting in a field in Houston for a LONG time.  Most of the interior panels were covered in black mold.  So most of that went by the way side.  The goal for this car has been extremely lightweight.  With that said I still wanted a some what finished looking interior.  I had a roll of grey carpet left over from another project.  I then just went to the local home depot and go

maikell77

maikell77

Flat black covers a multitude of sins

I have made good progress. The seam sealer has set up and finally mounted the E-brake.  I ended up going with a hydraulic brake for easier swap to discs in the future.  All the old metal then got a good coating of implement paint flat black.  Everything instantly looked better. Finally underneath all but the tunnel was coated.  It was quite the feeling to see the underside look this nice after 3+ years of rust repair.  This has been a journey I thought would never end.

maikell77

maikell77

Slow and Steady wins the race?

The car has been listed for sale off and on for a few weeks.  I might still sell it but i have to say looking back at how far i've come, I might just have to see this through.  I have tried to take a different approach and just block off an hour or two a day to do a little.  I have not made huge progress, but I have moved forward.  I should be seam sealing tonight and paint the passenger side floor pan.  For the first time since i've owned this car the floors are solid enough a 10mm socket won't

maikell77

maikell77

Sealed up and closer to stopping on its own.

The primer finally dried so I was able to seal everything up.  Michigan does not want to give up on winter yet.  I sealed all of the patches and plugged holes on the car.  I probably went over kill and sealed inside and out.  I want a nice non-fumey, dry car..... Then I got cracking on the rear drums.  I picked up some backing plates off a 1980 320I, They are so much bigger than the stock drums.  At some point i will upgrade to discs.  Just hard to argue with a $200 near rear brake se

maikell77

maikell77

Looks like I'm moving....

I've recently accepted a new job all the way up in Michigan.  That means it's time to get the car kind of back together so I can move and continue the build.  The goal has been to finish up some bracing and get the whole car in primer.  Most of it will have to come off in the process of blocking the car, but at least it's one color.  Don't want to scare off the neighbors too quick. There she sits on the brand new Basset racing wheels with the 205/50R15 tires.  The wheels are good quali

maikell77

maikell77

header, civic radiator, and more!

I picked up a radiator for a 1994 Honda civic 1.6l (auto with air conditioning) for <$35 shipped on Rockauto.  It filled the stock radiator opening almost completely.  We will have to wait and see if this radiator is large enough to cool the 2.4l that is now in the car.  I am hopeful the auto and ac options added to the cooling capacity.  The description of this one did also say that it was a few mm thicker to offer additional cooling.  I will also add the Civic electric fan as well.  The rea

maikell77

maikell77

Slight progress update

I haven't made as much progress as I would have liked, but some of the bigger questions are starting to get answered.  When I first started the swap I knew there would be a few big hurdles, Rust, fitting the engine and trans, connecting the steering, and completing the driveline.  I will this next weekend cut out and replace the last rust in the door.   As usual for this car about 1/4" of bondo had to be removed.  Thankfully after that was removed not a ton of rust was found.  I will just r

maikell77

maikell77

The engine sits on it own mounts!

Finally got the subframe clearnaced to allowe the engine to move back 2". I was also able to drop the back end a little bit. For engine mount isolators, I'm using 1991 BMW 318i hydraulic mounts. Above is a picture showing were they mounts are on the subframe and where the oil pan is in realation. The passenger side engine mount I made out of 0.100" 4130 steel. It's not pretty but it's not bad for my first iteration. The driverside was made using 1.50" X 0.120" roll cage tube. I tri

maikell77

maikell77

EPAS Conversion, Seat Mounting, Seam Sealing

It’s been quite a while since I last really dug into the BMW 2402tii.  My wife ended up going back to school so most of my dreams of getting the car road worthy this year are out the window.  I most likely will not be able to afford the big pieces for quite some time.  That was a bit like knocking the wind out of my sails.   I have decided to plug on anyway.  I will try to get a solid foundation.  I should still be able to get the steering and plumbing worked out.  As well as clean, so

maikell77

maikell77

Lower Door Skin and more questionable painting

Like most of my car, the rust I saw was just the tip of the Iceberg.  It took another near full day to strip off the past two paint jobs and rust.  After getting down to bare metal the bottom three inches were pretty much gone.  After getting to that point I hit the whole thing in a light coat of self etching primer.     Then it was on to using the lower door skin from Wallothnech.  First of all they do fit pretty well.  Removing the old one was as simple as marking the outline of the

maikell77

maikell77

Christmas Break Progress

Not a ton of heavy progress, but the car is back on it's own wheels with new bushings, freshly painted sub-frames.  I've also reworked the hood and trunk in flat black.  They are both super rusty and rough.  They will be replaced with fiberglass in the near future.

maikell77

maikell77

Engine In! To bolt in or farm out the cage....

After quite a bit of trial and error, I think the procedure for engine install has been perfected.  I still have one more round of tear down and reassembly to go.  The engine looks right at home in it's Massey grey engine bay.  I think the wrinkle black valve cover turned out well.     The original grills were not really salvageable.  So I have tried making the later plastic grills work.  For a track rat it should work...   The other area of progress has been stripping the re

maikell77

maikell77

Engine is almost in....

I didn't get as much time over the holiday to work on the BMW as I had hoped.  I was still able to finish up the shifter and mount for the transmission.  I got them painted up and installed the steering rack on the subframe.  I had to change out the oil pan on my donor engine.  In the process I found out the engine must have been well cared for.  It was super clean inside.  Then came the fun.  First i tried to drop the engine from the top.  Then I attached the subframe.  Then the pain started.  

maikell77

maikell77

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