M2 madness

[ClayW]

Nice work guys!

[M3M3]

thanks for the muffler brackets Clay!

[ClayW]

thanks for the muffler brackets Clay!

Thank Dudley for those!

[Clownman]

Well this is just depressing....

Looks good though Marshall, I cant wait to see it running!

Chris

[AceAndrew]

looks awesome! glad to see everything fit, I'm sure it was not without some elbow grease.

[M3M3]

test fit engine...note all the things that don't fit, take engine out. spend a month or two "nuancing" all the things that need clearance. reinstall engine, stuff fits! :-)

just got box'o coolant hoses. goal to assemble and maybe start engine this weekend.

[jgerock]

test fit engine...note all the things that don't fit, take engine out. spend a month or two "nuancing" all the things that need clearance. reinstall engine, stuff fits! :-)

just got box'o coolant hoses.

What about the:

Oil pan drain plug

Exhaust donut and nuts

[M3M3]

oil drain plug arrived with coolant hoses from BLUNT!

while out in the shop adding to the "BLUNT pile"..

Did more test fitting..

Ooops. IE strut bar not happy with the throttle cable plate.

Neither the Massive throttle bracket or the MAXX one worked.

Think I will be hacking up the Massive bracket a bit this weekend to see if I can make it work. If not…may have to get yet another front strut bar…ray’s.

Then worked on choosing an air filter. The MAXX airbox is unfortunately made with a non-standard opening size. Tad under 4 7/8ths in. most aftermarket air filters have a 5in dia as closest size. Going to have to build up airbox with tape to increase size to meet. Real question is how big can the rest of the filter be to fit in the small area above frame rail on big bumper car. made some templates out of paper based upon K&N filter sizes from their website. Then tried “fitting” them. RU-2800 fit. 7in long, 6.5in dia at base, 4.5in dia at end.

Ordered it. will hit autoparts store this weekend for exhaust donut, some nuts for exhaust flange and some fuel line.

story on exhaust donut is that the part listed for a 2002 turbo exhaust to seal between resonator and downpipe fits resonator fine, but the Aarkvark y-pipe is a tad too small. need either a touch smaller exhaust seal or need to stretch the flared opening on the y-pipe bigger.

mixed some biz with 02 today at work. 02Coastie and I were at same conference and got to chat about cars during breaks!

[ray_]

Gee, I ignore this thread for a week or two, and the thing starts looking like a car again!

I'm running a foam ITG filter now. I don't like K&N. I spec'd the filter for 300hp and CoastFab directed me which to buy.

Seeya at the Vintage!

Cheers,

Ray

[ray_]

Oh, header clears the idler with steering linkage to the right?

Cheers,

Ray

[RayC911]

Ooops. IE strut bar not happy with the throttle cable plate.

Neither the Massive throttle bracket or the MAXX one worked.

Think I will be hacking up the Massive bracket a bit this weekend to see if I can make it work. If not…may have to get yet another front strut bar…ray’s.

Marshall, without sounding like I'm trying to sell you a bar, I'd be concern about anything near the throttle cable/bracket especially since the s14 is such a super buzzy motor. Just a thought....looking good though

[M3M3]

Last night did some work on the throttle bracket issue. Redrilled the mounting holes in the Massive bracket to lower it, reshaped the thing to get it to clear the runners in the new lower position, then trimmed off the aft hole to clear the IE bar. This will force me to use the cruise control throttle location on the TB’s. this does increase the effort required to push the accel pedal down in a system that is already pretty tight from the springs on the engine. Still considering one of Ray’s bars as a final solution as it is well away from the throttle bracket.

Today was all about cooling. Oil cooler, elec fan, radiator and coolant hoses in. thought this would be simple tasks…welllllll…..

First the oil cooler. Cooler itself was already installed. The work here was to make new hoses to run from cooler to filter mount. Used Russell Racing hose and twist loc connectors. Various other pockets of the car world swear by these and supposedly the only way to get them apart is to cut the hose. I was initially skeptical and planned on backing them up with hose clamps, but after seeing the effort needed to put them together, I am a believer.

Process is to heat hose in hot water, smear with ATF on inside to assist in getting it on, then push HARD. I made a plate for the vise to hold the end fitting so I could push on it, and Jim G showed up on queue to assist for the afternoon.

Heating…do not tell my wife I used her pan for this!

Pushing setup

Installed

Hose routing

Next up we put the elec fan and radiator in. fit as expected, lots of clearance to waterpump pulley.

Next up was the cooling hoses. Guess how many hoses it takes to do an s14 with s14 thermostat? Bet you guessed way too low.

The below pic is just the leftover hose parts. Jim and I worked with a bunch of hoses I had got from Blunt based on the Aardvark manual, a bunch of hoses we went out and got a NAPA, some old hoses I had laying around, and one new hose for an unknown application that came in the trunk of that Euro E30 320i that I had.

This is a huge trial and error process. Top hose pretty straight forward. Glad I shortened the water pipe on exhaust side. The t-stat setup is a challenge. There is no set of hoses that are plug n play. All three connections are custom and require hacking bits of other hoses off and creatively plumbing them together. Also had to pick up some 1in ID pvc pipe to use as joiner pieces between various parts of the hose system….and lots of hose clamps!

Tomorrow the fuel system and all the electrical connections to the engine.

[M3M3]

Quick update while breaking for lunch.

Fuel system done.

Needed a place to put the fuel filter. Wanted it in engine compt to filter anything that may come out of the hold hard line I used under the car. noticed threaded hole in top of oil pan unused. Fabbed up aluminum bracket to attach filter to top of oil pan.

Bracket on oil pan

Filter installed.

Next up, the adjustable fuel pressure regulator. At this point I departed from the stock s14 fuel routing. Mounted AFPR next to radiator. High pressure fuel comes from filter, goes up to fuel rail, uses fuel rail hard line, loops at the back of the rail to the injector rail, then exits from of rail and goes to AFPR. From there runs down to the hard return line.

AFPR mounted on E36 rubber airbox mounts. (same part you can use for the back of an E21 320 shift platform)

Yellow line is vaccum, I will cut and route it properly!

Back of rail

Gotta stop eating and get back to work on the engine electrical!

[M3M3]

So right after I posted the last round, Bill R knocks on the door. He the provided adult supervision while I wired up everything in the engine compt, mount the airbox, attach the throttle cable, put the strut bar on, and tidy a few things up. After he departed, I ended up spending another 30min screwing around with the dang gas pedal. Numerous curses were made upon whomever at bmw thought sticking the gas pedal on nubs and expecting it to stay on was a good idea. Argh. With the additional tension in the S14 linkages, the dang pedal just wants to jump off the left peg. (new gas pedal, newly made nubs). Sometime I will have to hack up the floor and do the door hinge thing.

Anyway, got the linkage adjusted and TPS initially set. Then just admired the view.

More to do this week.

crankcase breather system

Solve exhaust problems

Finish ECU compartment

Fill with fluids

Start

Tune

Bleed brakes

Do alignment

Tune more

I have two whole weekends before vintage…no problem! ;-)

[Swiftus]

Hummana hummana hummana! Are you sure that don't want to hang the car on the wall instead of drive it? It really is a work of art.

One more thing to add to the list... Air intake filter!

Will you be working on the car at all during the week the next two weeks, or just on the weekends? It doesn't *look* like a lot of work, but its always the little things that seem to take the longest amount of time.