75 2002 Sleeper - M20B32, ITB, LSD

[07GTIMYFAST]

You are my hero.

Light was the first thing I did in my shop also.

I have been keeping my eye out for a lathe exactly like that, it's really the only "necessary" tool I am missing. I have a cheap mill that does the job and helps build muscle because it is so hard to spin the feeds! Lathe will be my next purchase but I'm going to have to stick with single phase. I have plans for everything I want to make but need a lathe to do it!

[tinkwithanr]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Overall the car is in pretty much the same state it was in my last post, but a few little things have been done. I got the first layer of glass down on the dashboard and started sanding that (have I mentioned I hate sanding fiberglass). There's a lot more glassing and sanding that needs to be done, I'd say two or three more rounds before I'll be happy with the overall shape. I'm going to have to build it up a lot more than I would have liked, but at least it will be strong. Rough outline of how it looks:

The other area I spent some time with was the pedal box. I'm going to be running dual master cylinders for the front and rear brakes on a balance bar. For those that don't know this lets you adjust the front-rear brake bias by moving the fulcrum of the bar back and forth between the two master cylinders. Sadly the '02 pedal box is pretty darn small, so it has definitely involved some creative positioning and cutting. I still need to locate the clutch master cylinder , but for now the brake setup in in place.

Aside from that, I've been busy collecting some of the parts I've had on my list for a while. This include an e21 steering rack so I can delete the stock steering box setup. This will let me drop the engine another inch in the bay, as well as possibly move it further back against the firewall. It should also help improve the overall feel of the steering, and take a lot of the slop out.

I also picked up a parts e30. This way I can use the stock m20 to get the bugs out of my megasquirt wiring and setup before dropping the stroker in place. The best part is I parted out the rest of the car, and have already made my money back, so I basically got a free engine. It's a shame the car was in a wreck, it is remarkably rust free and in good condition besides the accident.

And just because it will be used to make parts for the car, I wanted to show you what took up all of my free time for the past two months. Remember the lathe I bought? I decided to restore it to ensure the parts I was making would be high enough quality to put into the car. I completely dismantled it, painted it, replaced all worn out leadscrews/nuts etc. It's basically brand new, short of re-scraping the ways (they only have ~0.0015" wear right now), which I plan to do once the car is finished.

This is how it was when I got it:

And this is how it sits now:

I still have a few parts to button up on it, but it made it's first chips the other night. Night and day difference, I feel much better about using it for critical parts now. Overall I'm hoping to make:

-shift linkage

-airhorns

-coilover parts

-misc bushings

-engine crank spacer

-8000 other things I forget off the top of my head

The good news is now that the lathe resto is done the updates should be much more frequent!

[07GTIMYFAST]

very nice! look forward to see some of the parts coming off that thing.

[tinkwithanr]

Stripped the e30 over the weekend. Pulling the motor gave me a chance to finally use my new to me Engine Hoist I picked up a few weeks ago. American made, I can't tell you how much nicer it was to use that the 'import' branded versions. (America, F$CK YEAH!)

Engine and trans pulled without to much fuss. Although I forgot to drain the autoTragic of it's lifeblood before tipping it at a 45 degree angle. I was rewarded with a 6ft x 6ft puddle of red trans fluid. It looked like I just slaughtered something lol. You can see the quick-dri spread around on the floor to soak up the mess:

Next was the rear subframe. I already have one, but I figure a spare wouldn't hurt. Plus if I'm able to modify both for use in an '02 I can always sell the second one as a bolt up swap to another high power 02. It came out without to much fuss, and no huge puddles either:

I may grab the spring seats from the body as well, in case I don't go full coil-over in the rear:

I can always use this if I want my first gear to be pointless (except for making a cloud of smoke where my tires used to be!). Should be a good ratio for a stock M10 though:

Driveline out, along with the stock engine harness:

Then I turned my attention to the interior. Namely the rear seatbelts, the third brake light, and the rear speakers. The seatbelts will be used with my e24 rear buckets, they bolt right up and look pretty much brand new (forgot to take pictures, sorry). The rear brake light also looks to be in good shape. I haven't decided where I'd like to mount it though.

Bottom of rear window:

Or top of rear window:

Pretty excited for the rear speakers as well, a two-piece design with a woofer and tweeter. The housing look fairly period correct, and match the square taillights nicely. I'll probably paint the grills black or silver, depending on what flows nicely with the interior.

First I tested them out on the shop stereo to make sure they worked and sounded good. Luckily for me they sounded great:

Test fit on rear shelf, kinda hard to imagine without anything else in the interior though:

Oh, and I also stole the tool kit from the trunk. Hopefully I can adapt it into the trunk lid of the '02:

Next on the list for the week is to dispose of the shell and get the e21 rack in place so I can fab up the new motor mounts and drop the complete m20 package in. Stay tuned!

[tinkwithanr]

Removed the stock steering box and pitman arm assembly tonight. This will give me a lot more clearance for the oil pan and transmission bell housing.

Dummy block and transmission being pulled:

Here is the stock Steering box and linkage assembly. Notice how far up and back the center linkage is:

Removing the tie rod ends:

Stock assembly removed. Also saving some weight compared to the lighter steering rack:

Engine Bay with the stock mounts removed. Plenty of room now!

Steering Rack mocked up in place. Overall much cleaner looking, and should be a slightly faster/smaller turning radius once I shorten the stock steering arms.

Hope to make the rack mounts tomorrow and then figure out the linkage connection. Might have to make a trip to Summit Racing in a little bit (darn).

[tinkwithanr]

Checked out the condition of the steering rack. Everything inside looked good, but I'll need to re-grease it before installing it for the last time.

Decided on moving the lower control arm from the rear of the subframe cross member to the middle of it. You can see the arms in the first pic. By moving them forward, it will allow me to move the steering rack closer to the cross member. This will keep the setup closer to the original geometry.

Oh, and this decided to follow me home earlier today:

[potentialm20]

Hahaha! Do it!

[tinkwithanr]

Worked on the front suspension some more tonight. First up was to remove, clean up, and shorten the steering arms. Here they are sandblasted before shortening:

The stock length between centers is 175mm. The stock e21 length is ~130mm, but I ended up at 125mm exactly on both arms. I was shooting for slightly faster than stock, so this should be perfect.

Here is the arm after cutting:

A shortened arm next to the unshortened arm:

Both arms welded up:

When figuring out the placement of the steering rack in relation to the rest of the suspension there are a number of things to take into consideration. So I made sure to take some notes and measurements, and try to preserve the stock traits as much as possible.

But in order to mount the steering rack, I first wanted to finish cleaning up the subframe. So first was to drop it out of the car:

After looking it over there was minimal rust, just lots of grease and grime:

And here it is after sandblasting. Next is to finish grinding smooth the old steering mounts and put the new rack mounts in place. Then it will be off to powdercoat with the rest of the front suspension pieces.

That's all for the night. More to come tomorrow.

[tinkwithanr]

Progress from the past weekend. I finished sandblasting the control arms and radius arms:

Next up was to finished up the reinforcement of the front subframe. In stock form, the center of the subframe is two pieces of 1/8" steel spot welded together. Taking into consideration the greater power output of the m20, the greater weight of the m20, and the fact that my skid plate (due to the very low oil pan) will be mounted to the bottom of the subframe, I felt that it needed to be much stronger.

The stock bottom plate on the subframe:

I cut out the old bottom plate and plasma'd out a new piece out of 1/2 steel plate. This should stiffen up the center of the subframe while giving me a sturdy place to mount the skid plate. The new plate welded in place:

Side views, I ran another weld bead all the way around after this to fully penetrate the 1/2 steel:

With the subframe stiffened up I needed to make up some mounts for the steering rack. After taking many measurements to double check the placement and trying to keep it centered and squared, I tacked the tabs in place. After a final measurement everything was welded in place. I originally wanted to TIG the mounts, but I ran out of argon gas so I had to bust out the MIG. Got the job done just fine, but had to spend some time cleaning up the splatter.

The tab's in place:

The underside of the subframe. You can see the reinforcement plate along with the steering rack mounts:

More of the rack mounts before cleaning the welds:

Rack mounted on the frame:

Subframe and Rack mounted in the car:

[tinkwithanr]

Worked on the control arms tonight. Didn't like the flimsy stamped design, so I started by stitch welding the seams. I also picked up more argon so I could TIG them. This helped keep the head more controlled, gave me more practice TIGing, and made the clean up easier because there's no splatter. I've still got a long way to go before I try and tackle the stainless exhaust, but I am getting better with it.

Side Shot:

Small End:

Other End:

Any guesses as to what these will be?

Lightened:

And now for the first parts made for the car on the lathe! Top Die:

Bottom Die:

Turns the strips into:

Straightened, Clamped and Welded:

Finished Up:

I'm also picking up a new set of Front recaro's with Schroth Harnesses. I was originally planning on getting mine recovered, but these came up locally and will be much cheaper in the long run.

Finally, planning on talking with GC tomorrow to get my spring rates sorted and order their Front Coilover kit. Not sure what I'm doing about the rear yet though, torn between true coilovers and the regular shock/spring/adjuster combo.

[Meintii]

Your progress looks great!

3rd Brake light - Mount it from the top, note thats where they are on 99% on new cars these days That way it will be aimed right in your tailgaters faces!

Rear e30 speakers- Great idea! but... they may be to tall to clear the back glass when mounted on the rear shelf, or they might cause rear seat back clearance issues. When I mounted my 6x9's on the parcel shelve , they really wanted to not clear..

keep up the great work!

[tinkwithanr]

Your progress looks great!

3rd Brake light - Mount it from the top, note thats where they are on 99% on new cars these days That way it will be aimed right in your tailgaters faces!

Rear e30 speakers- Great idea! but... they may be to tall to clear the back glass when mounted on the rear shelf, or they might cause rear seat back clearance issues. When I mounted my 6x9's on the parcel shelve , they really wanted to not clear..

keep up the great work!

Brake Light - That's definitely what I'd like to do. It really depends on how well it lines up with the slope of the rear window.

Speakers - That what my one fear, worst case scenario I'll probably counter sink them into the trunk area and have just the grills poking up out of the rear deck. There's enough room for that so long as I keep the rear shelf height down.

Thanks for the input!

[tinkwithanr]

I didn't get as much done tonight as I wanted, but that's because I spent a couple hours figuring out an issue with the surface finish on the lathe. Once I got that sorted, it was time to put the 'new' donor M20 in place. There were a number of reasons I wanted to use this engine instead of the dummy block I had been using. The main reason is this way I will know that the misc accessories and sensors will fit.

It never looks like it will fit....

The transmission at home in it's larger tunnel:

All tucked in:

Lots more room with the rack in there. I still need to shorten the stock column and fabricate new linkage, but that will come later.

Not a ton of room on the exhaust side, but enough. I may run the stock manifolds at first, but ultimately I would like to make a set of custom equal length headers:

Stock down pipe almost fit with the rack conversion, but the boot would not last very long. Of course with the stock steering system it would have no chance in hell of fitting, so it is an improvement.

Clearance of the Oil Pan, a little less than an inch. I don't think I want to go any lower, but it does have room to move back another 3-4":

Here you can see all the extra room with the bell housing compared to the stock steering system. Before I had maybe 1/8" between the track rod and the bottom lip of the bell housing. Here there is plenty of room, I could move the engine forward another 1.5" (cause I hear that's good for handling....)

Placing the front clip in place to check clearance with the front of the engine, the '02 decided to fight back. Having already sweated my body weight out during the afternoon and crying over the cost of new steering u-joints, it was nice to get the hat trick for the night.

After the struggle, the front clip was in place:

Clearance in the Front:

Clearance in the Back:

Looking at the last picture, I have enough room to move the engine back another 1/2" if I want before I'd really start being concerned with rubbing on the firewall under hard acceleration. That being said, I have half a mind to cut out a chunk of firewall so I can move the engine back as far as the oil pan would let me. This would help with the weight balance of the car, but changing spark plugs would be a PITA, and I would also run into issues with the heater box. It could also lead to issues with the intake manifold and throttle bodies. I need to do some more research and see if it would really be worth it.

More to come in the next few days.

[tinkwithanr]

Worked late tonight so not a lot of progress.

Was looking at the e30 HVAC unit and realized that the upper half of the steering column had another u-joint in it. It's also telescoping, so I should be able to adapt it to the upper part of the stock '02 column. The splines match up with the end of the '02 column and the input of the e21 rack, nice to see things didn't change in 20 years lol.

Since I was short on time tonight, I didn't want to start the new engine mounts. So I test fitted the rear seats to get an idea of the room i would have for the rear speakers. Luckily the e24 rear seats stick into the cab further than the stock seats, so this should give me plenty of room for the e30 speakers. I'll just have to make a new rear deck panel to fit around the shape of the seats.

And one just cause I love how they look lol

After figuring that out I worked on figuring out how much I could move the firewall back while still retaining the stock heater box. So first thing was to put the box back in the car. Here you can see that there is a decent amount of room at the top of the trans tunnel, but the top of the firewall does not have as much room.

Here is the other side of the heater box that is exposed to the open air. It's kind of hard to see where it is in relationship to the engine from just this picture, but the grommet in the middle of this picture:

Is the same grommet in the middle of this picture:

Referencing the picture above, it looks like I should be able to move back the 'green' section of the firewall, while the 'red' section could be slightly notched, but not moved back much due to the heater box fan. I'm going to mull it over more in the next couple of days before deciding. Cutting the firewall is going to be a lot of extra work, but it may be worth it in the end to gain better weight distribution, but mostly more clearance up in the nose of the car.

[Deutschman]

I love what you are doing with your 2002 and the m20 swap! Your doing it so much better then I have done it.

I have learned so much doing my swap. I know next time I build a car I am going to do things slower and in my own space. I felt rushed through my whole project because of having to use my dads garage and him having given me a month to finish everything. There are definitely things I did that I am not happy about. It has been such a huge learning proses with a big curve to it.

Next time I go through this proses, and there will be a next time, it will be more like this lol.

Good work!!!