m42 swap in 71

[antiaem]

more pics.

[antiaem]

more pics(nt)

[antiaem]

finished the exhaust mani. and got fuel lines ran and fitted the drive shaft.

had few nice surprises. the e30 318is drive shaft fit perfect! the only thing i had to do was relocate the center support bearing mounts. i just made two brackets out of angle iron and that was that. the rear flange went into the 2002 diff and the front section bolts right up to the guibo.

also i used aluminum fuel line to run the lines to and from. pretty easy stuff to work with.

[antiaem]

pics of fuel line. it ran along the driver side and started it right infront of the spare tire well. it runs along the pinch welds until its under the driver seat then goes along the frame rail and bends into the engine bay. i did it in two peices , the split is under the driver seat.

[powelli]

Nice work!

You say that you picked it up from a kid in DC. Are you and the car local?

[antiaem]

thanks,

no im in va beach. i did pick it up in fairfax though. i think...

[antiaem]

small update , moved batt to trunk and wired everything up. easier than i thought it would be. and another surprise was that the 2002 temp sender fit into the m42 temp hole.

[Harv]

Wow, Looks like a cool project.

When you start driving it and if you find something funny about the handling, it might be the length of your tie rods causing bump steer. If you have to do anything about it, I suggest shortening the center link and then maybe the stock 528i tie rods. Shorten it by 2 1/2 (did you shorten the tie rods by 1 1/4 each?) and then sleeve it and weld.

Great project. The 318 motors are very cool.

John

[antiaem]

Wow, Looks like a cool project.

When you start driving it and if you find something funny about the handling, it might be the length of your tie rods causing bump steer. If you have to do anything about it, I suggest shortening the center link and then maybe the stock 528i tie rods. Shorten it by 2 1/2 (did you shorten the tie rods by 1 1/4 each?) and then sleeve it and weld.

Great project. The 318 motors are very cool.

John

thanks for the compliment,

....yeah im REALLY worried about the bump steer, im hoping its not too bad or even present. ill be doing alot of miles on the freeway, and it is a very bumpy trip, we have huge dips and speed bump like asphualt fixes. so ill know right away. taking the 2 1/2" out of the center link should fix that if need be. the only reason i didnt do that the first was that i wasnt sure how much it needed so i didnt want to just cut some random length out of a brand new piece. now everyone knows what to do, you really could even go 3" out of the middle. fyi.

[jakeb]

looking really nice. I never thought about trying to use the e30 318 driveshaft. I should see if it would fit my car just in case. Even tho the driveshaft I have is fully rebuilt.

Looks like the turbo manifold should work for you as well.

[CamB]

This is a cool project - should be fun when its done.

For what its worth, I am using a 318i M10 gearbox (with an M10) with the 318i driveshaft on my car - it just bolted up (with new brackets for the centre bearing). I'm not sure why the conventional wisdom is to shorten the driveshaft when you do a gearbox swap etc.

[antiaem]

small up date the car is running im just finishing up the exhuast then i will write up the wiring and take some more pics of all the stupid details

[Solive]

Sweet! Keep us updated!

[02again]

Very cool project. What Starter are you using?

[antiaem]

using the m42 starter, its alittle noisy on startup actually,

update, im so unbelievably busy i have nt had time to write up the wiring and finish the little detail stuff but im def. goin to. my first driving impressions are kinda disappointinig. felt real sluggish for the first trip around the block, gutless would be a better word. the gears are super long, i think the rear end needs to be higher like mid to high 3's. 3.73:1 maybe would be good. 1rst and 2nd suck, 3rd and fourth feel great once you get up in the rpm range. it kinda sucks to drive right now cuase my throotle tick, nothing to do with the swap, its more to do with the pedal itsself. anyways five speed is worth its weight in gold and i havent even gone through half a tank of gas yet. still need to shim the rt side mount and fix the pedal. i m thinkin about using a gps device (garmin,tomtom)for mph and just using a cheaper tach.. anyways, when it warms up a little outside ill get back to it.