Oh, the possibilities... ('73 and '74 content)

[Hammer03]

Hello all... A few months ago I was somehow afflicted with the 2002 bug... started reading a little more, and pretty much decided I had to have one! So, I started shopping around... Driving around much of California to check some out: Ontario, was going to look at one in Long Beach (that sold as I was leaving to go see it), missed one in San Diego as well, and this past weekend made my way up with a few friends to San Luis Obispo to check out a pair of cars. Ended up loving what I saw, and had to bring them home! (to Santa Barbara)

Anyway, everyone loves pictures:

Unfortunately on the way back...

A little smoke... ok, a lot of smoke, pulled it over and called AAA (hooray for 100 mile included tows)

Gave it one last try, after checking coolant/oil:

Anyway, big thanks to Rob @ 2002Haus for the information and all the help, I'll be in contact again soon. It was one of, if not the best birthday weekends I've had in just about forever. Plans are still pending, but most of the work will be done at a friend's (in Solvang) or a buddy's shop (Exclusive German Auto care in Carpinteria) so that means it needs to be mobile! First up is getting the '74 running, its in great condition, minimal rot/rust, so far haven't been able to find any signs of damage! non-sunroof, already stripped with some ebay buckets, plywood (yeah, ooooh boy!) interior panels with speaker holes, and basically all the wiring burned up. Getting the motor back in tip top shape, then rewiring it with the goal of turning it into a track/autox car, reliable, street legal (yay no smog...) and most of all to have fun! I've been autox'ing my 98 m3 this year, and really enjoy it, but something smaller/lighter/less expensive would be great! Wouldn't mind keeping the miles off the M either... So at this point the '73, which has a pretty nice interior and aside from a few areas, exterior (could use paint, we'll see what a good detail day can do) will be an around-town daily driver, while I assess my financial/real estate situation. Apartment living = 1 carport, and some on street parking. At this point, I'm at least debating paring down to just a pair of cars, and hoping that someone with more time/space/attention to detail can get the '73 in tip top shape. The money would probably all go into the '74 (which has been dubbed Monday, sort of an inside joke with some friends) and fund the habit! Eventually I'll have a little more space, and hopefully a little more money, at which case I'll see what I can do, I would love to have a daily '02 to go with the track car, but at this point I think I was a little over zealous.

A little background on me: about a year ago I finally got into my first BMW, a 1998 M3

I also help run the local euro club forum (Santa Barbara, CA area www.sbeuroclub.com), and have a job, bills, family, etc. All the normal people stuff

Several friends have offered help, (and admitted that they may need to buy their own '02s after driving mine) most of which have other BMW's, including a friend with a restored MGB, an e36 Dinan supercharged m3, and an e30 euro 323. The e30 will probably be a track day companion to the '74 (already a flat black, perfect!) Would love to meet some of the apparently numerous other locals, either just to pick your brain, swap stories/ideas/projects, or hang out, watch some races, maybe even work on cars! (I know, who would have thought...)

Anyway, comments/questions/advice welcome, I have much to learn! The head will be coming off the '74 probably this weekend, to assess the damage, and will be back on the road as soon as the budget allows! Should have another update after this weekend, but I'll be spending most of the rest of this week catching up on all things 2002faq, as much as I can anyway. I followed Pedro's build thread through Bimmerforums, and have a few basic ideas of which direction I would like to go, but much of it is still up in the air. Doing it right the first time is high on the priority list though. Still going through all the spare parts that came with the car, already dropped the front bumper off of Monday's nose, and ripped out the awesome plywood interior, remounted the harnesses (I like my spine the length it is, thanks anyway, whoever mounted them straight down...) and hit a few spots with some more primer after sanding down some surface rust. Need to either find a source for a new wiring harness for the '74, or decide how we want to wire the entire thing (maybe just go with a switch panel in the dash, would probably cause less headaches in the future) and of course figure out whats up with the motor. The '73 made it over the hills this morning and around town all day, such a different experience than the M!

More to follow

[mossyboy6]

I would suggest getting a reapair manual asap, they help out a ton. And when your in the garage, you dont have to run inside and get your computer greasey if you have a question.

[Hammer03]

Haha, very good advice, thanks! I should pick up a manual, but thats also what friends are for (I've done lots of suspension work, a friend has rebuilt several m10's from his e30s, and another friend and I do stereo installs and have electrical covered). Last weekend we swapped out the head gasket on the '74, but found a heavily pitted head that was blowing between cylinders 1 and 2. Hopefully will be getting a fresh 2l this weekend, if I can secure the funds, and it should be back on the road. Was toying with the idea of buying up an e21 to swap parts from, but realized I don't have the space for another car, let alone the 3 I have now...

I will probably have an update later tonight with pictures from the weekend, I'm hoping to have the official build site up soon.

[Hammer03]

So, I'm behind in my updates. This was actually the work of the weekend of the 11th, but we decided to rip into the motor and see what all the fuss (read: smoke) was about.

Gathered up some help:

plus myself and another friend, and some refreshments

Awesome workspace, it was nice and warm by the light, but the drinks actually got colder once we took them out of the 'fridge...

Topless shot! (Pre-cleaning, don't worry)

Hmmmmm, I think we found the problem!

Soooo, it was blowing between two of the cylinders, and had pitted the head in between them. The block had a little marring where the head gasket had been blown out, but was probably fine. We had hoped to swap the gasket and get it back on the road, even temporarily, but it was not to be.

We finished it up on Sunday, and got the new gasket in and the car running around the block, but it had already started blowing smoke. Major bummer. So, time for a new heart!

More pics to come of this past weekend, the old motor/trans are out, and the new one will be going in as soon as a few parts I forgot get here. Big thanks to Rob @ 2002Haus for the motor/trans and other parts I needed, always a pleasure coming up to your shop, so nice it's just up the street! (ok, well maybe thats a stretch)

We're throwing in a 2l from a 78? maybe 79? 320, electric fuel pump, swapping over the headers (of unknown origin, but sound great) and carb/intake mani (weber, still trying to figure out what it is). More surprises: already has eibach springs at least up front, and unknown but recently replaced-looking dampers.

Also picked up some goodies for the '73, to spruce it up a little and make it a better driver (carpet, steering box, see what else we have that should be installed) the 80's looking vintage Alpine radio in the '73 actually works pretty well, and keeps the drive to work on nice mornings a lot more bearable than it was before we figured out how to work it!

This build (the '74) will probably offend the sensibilities of some, but most of the choices will have functionality and having fun as the highest priority (to be used for autox and track days) with civility an afterthought at most haha. We have lots of ideas for the dash and other details, but most of the waiting time will be budget related, and also finding free time to work on it (girlfriend and family demand visitation, they must just not understand! )

More to come, including the engine swap and whatever else we get done. It is currently sitting with the pair of m10's in the garage, and nothing in the engine bay but some degreaser and fried wiring (it appears the battery exploded at some point, melting all of the wiring and relays under the hood). Wiring, a new motor, new trans, and maybe a few exciting new things I haven't been able to find an example of people trying!

Stay tuned...

[H_Krix]

VW snowflakes look so cool on 02's.

Good luck man, you've got some work cut out for ya. Nice gasket too... did someone just run the car without coolant for a week?

[Hammer03]

VW snowflakes look so cool on 02's.

Good luck man, you've got some work cut out for ya. Nice gasket too... did someone just run the car without coolant for a week?

Thanks! I have to admit, your krinkle coat painting inspired us, but we tried to put our own twist on it. More on that whenever I get the pictures loaded.

No idea what the deal was with the gasket, there was some rot in the coolant passage of the head, looked like it just wasn't getting any flow to that front passage. Also sort of makes me wonder if the head gasket blew, and thats what pitted the head, or if someone had tried to do what we did, and just swap it out before. The pitting was pretty deep in between the two cylinders, and you can see the section of the gasket it blew out. The motor pulled HARD when it wasn't billowing smoke (significantly better than the '73) But that may be a function of the carb/headers/lack of interior haha.

[Hammer03]

Well, the motor is technically in haha. Realized we couldnt put the shifter support plate back on until we swapped over some bushing deals, which were *completely* torn through and the sleeve slid right out. Ordered new ones from Pelican (they ship from a few hours away, so it's next day and cheap) after hunting through a couple parts catalogs forever trying to find them with a part number... Anyway. At some point in the car's previous life the battery exploded, taking out all of the relays and most of the wiring in the engine bay... The car was also being powered by a computer backup battery from APC, which weighed a good 50+ pounds! Not so great for a car that will be moving quickly (it also wasn't bolted down at all. Oh boy) So the whole front end will be rewired. Probably going to remove/add certain things to the harness, and go with a switch panel instead of the factory stuff just for ease of organization, and we get to make a wicked switch panel! woohoo!

On the upside of discoveries, the car has Eibach springs front and rear, and Bilstein's rear (still haven't been able to spot anything on the front to indicate what it is) although the top of the strut has been cut so a wrench could be fitted on top. Thats probably what I'll use to find the vender...

Got a little bit of cleaning done, added the electric fuel pump from a local parts store, bought more hose/clamps today because we ran out using the OEM stuff to plumb the electric unit... Got the oil pump pickup, oil pan, new water pump, one of the alternators (one off the new motor, one off the old motor, one from the trunk, so many options!) switched over to the e21 motor, but didn't have a wrench the right size for the crank pulley (the e21 pulley was slightly smaller) so... Free underdrive pulleys! All it's driving is the water pump and alternator, and the car won't be getting a large stereo (if it gets one at all) so when we fire it up, we'll make sure we're getting decent power and see how that goes. We can always swap the pulleys or alt later if its not charging.

Swapped the intake mani and coolant tap (not sure what the correct term for it is) to the new motor, turns out the car has a weber 32/36! Another nice surprise. Not sure what kind of manifold it is though. Might upgrade that to dual sidedraft 40 or 45's when the budget allows, but it'll get me on the road! We'll swap the dizzy over (already has a pertronix and the coil to match) but use the newer plug wires that came with the new motor (one of the ones from the old motor pulled out of the boot, so we won't trust those).

Used a gasket kit from Pelican for the oil pan, water pump, and a few other things, also picked up some timing chain cover gaskets, as we'll be popping that off to bleed the tensioner. Needed a new guibo/flex disc, and after calling the local dealership (needed a laugh) and being quoted $120 for a dealer priced part of $68 or so, I found pelican had it for.... $20! Much more my price range. I think it was stamped GM.... but it fits, and has the right part number. We'll see how it lasts, it felt pretty quality/hefty.

Still to do: get the bushings for the shifter/support here and on the trans (shipped today, which is cool, but I'll still get them Monday ) swap the distributer, plumb for fuel, bolt in the motor mounts, wire for lights/gauges/battery/etc, bolt up driveshaft, attach headers, swap valve covers (for the painted one without all the smog brackets, hooray for being pre-76!) fill with oil, install fan and belts, fill with coolant/water, check timing/carb settings/everything else and see what happens! Might fire it up tonight or (thanks to my friend also working on it) this weekend, but it won't be driveable until at least Monday. Then we get to sort out the electronics, and probably do a little body work before it starts raining. We've got something we're going to try with the lighting I haven't seen before, so check back for that probably next weekend.

All in all, a good nights work. I hope to have pictures up in the next few days, some are on my camera and some on others', so whenever I get them together I'll post em up!

[Hammer03]

Pictures:

Old motor out:

Old motor with the awesome valve cover and cap. Matching air cleaner not pictured:

It was a little dirty

The solution:

The waiting patient

A nice little surprise: Eibach springs and Billie's rear, eibach's (and I'm hoping billie's) front

Fried wiring from exploding battery

Don't have any pictures of the new motor in, but it has breathed life! Still needs fluids, accesories, belts, etc but I'll be going out tonight or tomorrow, to hopefully finish it up! (for the time being)

[Hammer03]

old motor out and stripped of the stuff we need:

a little cleaner, but not a lot. we'll probably do more of that when we get the wiring going. Top priority is to get it on the road at the moment!

Transfer parts over, figure out what we need, figure out what we're missing, etc:

Poly alternator bushings. 3 alts to choose from, went with the small one that the bushings fit! Haha

More work

Workspace

Interesting, the intake mani can actually bolt to the starter bracket! Who knew. We found out they lined up the hard way: got a shirt stuck in between them while bolting it up.

Problem solved:

Gettin there!

Finally nailed down what the carb is: Weber 32/36. Down the road the hope is 40 or 45 side drafts, trumpets, the works. It's already loud, why not! And more power is just an added benefit

Almost there

Tadaaa! Blingin oil pan and everything!

Ok so maybe someone went a little nuts with the gold...

Great! So we have a mostly assembled motor... Now what?

And it's in! Well, sort of. This past weekend Kyle did a whole bunch of work that I was gone for (family stuff out of town) and it breathes fire! Or it did for a second. Still needs fluids, fan, radiator, headlights, tuning, headers, trans and driveshaft bolted up (had to wait on some bushings to mount the shifter support, they were shot to hell) and I'm sure a dozen other things we'll figure out once we run into the problems, but... It's getting there!

I'm hoping to drive it home tomorrow night. We'll see how that goes haha.

Big thanks to Dom, Erik, and Kyle for the help/space/etc

Also, there should be a new member joining this week once he has pictures, I think I'll take credit for getting him hooked haha.

[Hammer03]

So, unfortunately I left the shifter support bracket/bushing things that I ordered in my office over Monday night, and... The cleaning crew threw them out. major bust. So, we got everything but the trans/exhaust/driveshaft bolted up last night, but didn't fire it up because it was after 11, and figured the neighbors wouldn't appreciate open headers that late... Disappointing. So, ordered another pair of mounts, and hoping to finish it up Thursday night. Didn't get many pictures, was too busy dealing with parts that don't want to cooperate. Trying to figure out which alternator and water pump pulleys will work with the 320 crank pulley, which didn't clear the fan no matter what, nothing a grinder on the fan couldn't fix... it'll eventually lose that fan and get an electric though. The small alternator I *wanted* to use would cause the belt to hit the water pump because it isn't offset, and the offset alt sits far enough out to hit the fan... Oh the joys of mix and match. In the end, I think the bigger alternator that was on the '74 (that doesn't clear the fan) and the 2002 water pump line up nicely with the 320 crank pulley, and the fan was shaved down to make everything play nice. We'll see once we fire it up what kind of power the alt is putting out, if it works, then we'll just be done with it! A friend is whipping up a temporary harness for the front of the car, mostly just to get the headlights working. At some point, I'll be getting a factory harness from Rob@ 2002Haus, but right now I just need the car out of my friend's driveway

[Hammer03]

Last night had it's ups and downs. Fired the motor, it starts right up and once we get the timing set it should pull like a train. And open headers sound pretty wicked (hadn't hooked them up yet, wanted to get the driveshaft in first).

More mix and match issues: the e21 trans has a plug where the shifter support downbar attaches to the back cover, if that makes any sense. (p/n 25111201238) So, I figured we turn the bracket 90* and mount it to the trans support! It puts the support rod at almost the exact same height, and should be just as sturdy, and should provide better isolation from the driveshaft (even if the trans compresses its mount bushing, the support rod will keep the shifter in the correct place, we hope). Round 1 put the mount a little too far forward, and the bottom of the shifter rubs on the driveshaft, although there is evidence that this has been an ongoing problem (marks on the driveshaft). We're hoping slotting the hole in the support and moving it back a quarter inch or so will give us the clearance we need. If not... Well I'm saving for that 5 speed swap anyway right? While we were in there, also realized we somehow misplaced the circlip that holds the shifter onto the selector rod... So I need to find one. Also, the hydrolic line from the 2002 master cylinder has a male fitting on the trans side. The slave cylinder on the trans ALSO has a male fitting coming out of it... So I need to pick up a coupler. Any idea if they're the same size/pitch? All I can find is M10, which might or might not be right... I'll find out soon enough I guess. Bolted up the driveshaft/guibo, hoping I didn't forget any parts/got it centered... Also bolted the center support bearing back into place.

This weekend is Halloween, which is something of a spectacle here in Santa Barbara/Goleta (UCSB and IV for the folks who might know). That means I'll be down here enjoying the festivities, and won't get to work on the car. Hopefully early next week (probably Tues) I'll have the parts and we'll get the car all wrapped up.

questions/comments/concerns/advice all welcome

So all we know for sure is left: Raise the shifter support, throw on a circlip, bolt up the exhaust, wire up headlights, fill with coolant, set timing.

Then test drive!

[Hammer03]

Well, massive let down tonight... it started raining as we were wiring up the headlights. It runs, gotta throw the circlip back on the shifter, bleed the clutch, and get the lights working, and make sure the shifter isn't sitting on the driveshaft. Other than that, it seems golden so far. We got it running and idling nicely today, warmed it up, topped off the fluids, and it sat for a solid half hour or so idling nicely. sounds wicked.

[H_Krix]

Moving quick man, keep it up. You've got some nuts to be doing all that sans-garage.

[2002haus]

Nice work Dave. Good thing that Kyle is motivated to get it outa the driveway. Nothing like a factory rebuilt motor!

[Hammer03]

Haha, thanks guys. I really can't wait to get it back on the road either, I might cruise up there Thursday and try and get it going. Otherwise, I'll be up there all weekend anyway, so I'll get it done then.

While we had it up and running yesterday, I was still struck with how much the motor moves around, even though the motor mounts were solid when we inspected them. Maybe I'm just not used to it, but I wish there was something I could do about it (contemplating poly mounts) even at the cost of some vibration/noise. Although, the car has no interior, I'm pretty sure there will be enough vibration/noise that I won't notice...

still to do list: Circlip on the shifter, support beam for shift tower bolted in/made to work (it's still low), figure out which wires work/install partial wiring harness Kyle cooked up, bolt trans to crossmember, set the timing (more accurately), put circlip back in to hold shifter in to shift tower, put in a new battery/strap it down. Still playing with where I want the battery, I'd love to move it back and down, and I'm probably going to get a nice little Deka or Braille, but for the moment I might just strap it to the stock battery tray, since the wiring all goes there. Should also probably work on bolting the front of the fenders down... Hmm...

Any advice on reinstalling the center support bearing? Anything you guys can think of to look out for? In the back of my mind I'm a little worried the carb is jetted for the old motor, and might need slight changes for the new motor. I need to dig up some threads on that. Eventually, i'll want to switch to some 45 side drafts... But I think the 32/36 will get the job done for the time being.