The Adventures of Meintii, The "NO CUT" M20 Swap

[Meintii]

Well i typed a big opening "im back" thing with pictures etc etc and it got deleted when I hit the backspace key after working on it for an hour :/..... so until I get time to re-do it... im just going to post up the pictures. 

 

Long story short, the tii is now in Austin with me and Im getting some work done. Race season just started back up but we are in the slow of it until june, so ultimately Ill need this to be done by then!

 

 

more to come when I get back from daytona!

[Meintii]

Quick update, back from daytona and California trips so now I can start working again. Today I'm working on either building my own mounts or going the easy (key word fast) route and buying some from 02again. If he replies I'll probably just buy them. I've got to have this thing done by June!

[Meintii]

Some big news... I found some motor mounts from Chris @ only02 so those will be coming hopefully before this weekend. I've made the decision to ditch the factory wiring harness and go with a custom painless wiring 28 circuit harness. My reasoning for doing this is because after pulling the stock harness out of the fuse block I noticed there were at least 10 wires that were destroyed, and the fuse box has broken tabs, aaand I really don't like the style of the stock fuses. I want this thing to be as reliable as possible! Hopefully that will be here this weekend too! Should keep me busy for awhile

[GoFaSSter]

Sounds like it will be pretty nice when done. Keep updating us. I would like to see what you do with the wiring as you go.

[Meintii]

Got some sweet stuff today!

M20 mounts and my painless 28 curcuit harness! ! Will be starting to install these tomorrow! !!

[Meintii]

So I got a ton of stuff done this weekend and have made some HUGE strides!

 

FINALLY got my motor installed (not for the final time) with real motor mounts from Chris at only02. They werent as easy to install as I was hoping, but they went in never the less. I was trying for an hour or so to convince them to bolt up with the motor in the engine bay ( and the subframe attached) but no dice. I wasnt able to move the passenger mount over enough to line up the mounting holes on the subframe. So out came the subframe, which on the lift was NBD… to get out. Needless to say, once it was out, I was able to bolt everything up to the subframe. Even tossed the trans on there while I was at it.

 

 

Started to get everything lined up and had to use some tricky jack set ups… and the fact I was doing this alone didnt make it easier haha

 

Needless to say after some wrestling I got it in! and it fits...pretty well. There is definitely some firewall clearancing to do behind the valve cover as it is (the valve cover wont go on) but that seems to be the only issue I can see at the moment.

 

Some detailed picture of the m20 mounts, as I can never seem to find any in my searches… maybe this will help someone else down the road!

 

 

Also on Saturday, I decided to go ahead and pull my stock wiring harness. I figured now that Ive got the painless harness, I will need to layout the new harness, and if I pull the old one, Ill be able to plan out accordingly. This caused a problem (kind of). Once I got the interior out (nothing was bolted), I realized there is more rust than I thought there was on the floor pans/ firewall area. So I thought “ wouldnt this be a good time to scrape the tar, por 15 and dynamat the interior?”

…. and here we are. IT STARTS [continues]

 

Helper dog helping get the dash/harness out

 

Harness out!

 

New harness kinda laid out...dont have room to keep it out though (plus dog butt)

 

The starting point

Some dry ice

 

After several hours with an air chisel

 

I will continue working on this this week after work… trying to get it completely free of tar before I start the rust repair.

On a side note, I found a picture on instagram of another m20 swapped 02 and I really like the way the radiator and the nose panel look on this car…. I will likely model mine after it.

 

 

Plus scirocco race aluminum rads are only $130 on ebay!

Edited February 16, 2015 by speedwell1966

[Meintii]

I dont know whats up with all the weird url and randomness in the postd from my photobucket posting... didnt used to do that. Ill try and get it figured out later

[jgerock]

Good progress Zac!

[Meintii]

Pic of his radiator set up that I really like

[Meintii]

Been scraping this thing everyday after work for about 1.5 hours in prep to get it all cleaned up before this weekend so I can patch the rust and paint before Sunday! I've been using an air scraper and a home made air "death razor blade" as we call it haha. I'll take some pictures of the tools I've used/ made to get this done. As of today I've finished all I can do with the scrapers and will be moving on to the wire brush cup tomorrow and Friday. Here's where it's at now... plus a test section of the wire wheel

Pics are bad I know. .. sorry. Damn galaxy phone

Edited February 19, 2015 by speedwell1966

[dasfrogger]

Nice work! I can't wait to get my m20 in.

i like that rad setup too, looks like they actually put a lot of thought into making it look clean and finished. I'm hoping to get away w/o cutting, but if i do i was thinking of trying to make the top of that panel a removable cap to go over the radiator, but retain stock look and feel. If I can't figure that out, i may go after that same type of design, thanks for sharing!

 

Do you still think you can make it with no cutting?

[Meintii]

More progress .

 

This past weekend I got yet another magical tool from home depot, the knotted wire brush and went to town getting the rest of the rust/tar and crap off the floors to prepare for rust repairs. After finishing the wire wheeling I moved on to plasma cutting the floors and fire wall to cut out the worst spots of the rust to convert/ replace the metal. I was shocked to see how much rust there actually was on this thing, but Im glad I decided to do this while I’m waiting for more swap parts $$.

 

Here are (some of)  the sections I had to cut out...

 

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w231/meintii/New%20M20%20swap%20Pics/20150228_125045_zpsfxxsbusx.jpg[/img]

 

After the cutting…

 

Went ahead and made all the new panels that will be welded/seam sealed in  **note.. I just cut them and bent them to the approximate shape for now, once they are tacked on place I will hammer them to conform with the existing metal**

 

 

Now I know this isnt going to be particularly pretty, but you have to view this as I do. I plan on keeping this car forever. I cannot afford/nor have the time to do the type of restoration I want to, which means doing a few things like this instead of replacing all the floors and the firewall, which I will get done when this gets re-vamped yet again in 10 years or so (body sand blasting the whole 9 yards). So for now, killing the existing rust, and sealing up the inside from the elements is my main goal (plus to get rid of the gross smells inside).  I WANT TO DRIVE THIS THING!!

 

After I finished the panels I took them back out, and began the degreasing process with the por marine clean. I rolled the car outside on a crazy warm evening after work (65* finally!) and sprayed and scrubbed everything...twice. After rinsing I went back over everything with the por metal prep spray and kept everything soaked in that for about an hour ( while I changed a window regulator in my wagon), then rinse rinse rinsed again.

 

Picture after the degreasing

 

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w231/meintii/New%20M20%20swap%20Pics/20150303_175603_zpsvs6fnfx7.jpg[/img]

 

It was sooooo much work to get it to this point…. be warned. if you plan on getting everything to bare metal (which I dont intend to) be pre-paired for 40+ hours of grinding/scraping. Seriously. To get here was at least 25 hours, and its not my first time doing this type of thing [because race cars].

 

Game plan for this weekend is to get it painted tomorrow (thursday) so it will be dry by saturday afternoon hopefully. Then I will put my panels back in, weld them and seal them up, paint those and the remaining stuff (dash, doors etc) with semi gloss black rustolem since those parts are not rusty. Then off to sebring for our IMSA races for the next few weekends.

 

Cheers and keep on 02ing!

Edited March 11, 2015 by speedwell1966

[Meintii]

More boring but needed progress as I await the funds to finish this thing...

 

 

Finally got some more work done I was able to paint my floors as expected on Thursday night which means I was able to weld in my panels today. I went ahead and siliconed around everything today as well so that I can paint over the panels I put in  tomorrow as well as painting the rest of  interior that I did not paint with the por. Pics below!

 

After the metal prep from por

 

 

After paint dried

 

 

Panels set back in so I can mark where I need to grind for my welds

 

 

And welded in! (And not pretty but oh well, no more rust )

 

 

 

 

It looks better all ready after the seam sealing, shouldn't look horrible after I paint it. One the sealer is dry I have to fill some rust pin holes with por filler. But then I can start my wiring!

 

Update -

Got everything painted this weekend as well.  It looks ok but i wasnt trying particularly hard to make it look pretty, since it will all be covered up by dynamat anyway.

 

The flat black is the por (it was supposed to be semi gloss) and the shinier is rustoloem. The patches look fine now though.

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty happy with it so far will be glad to put some dynamat on and begin the wiring!

 

Sorry as always about the garbage pictures my samsung takes... never should have ditched the iphone!!

 

[jgerock]

Good stuff Zac!  Keep at it.

[Rusty02]

Great read!  Waiting to see the complete M20 install pics.
 

I have a 75 02 auto waiting on me to implant an M20 w/tranny. 

I seriously do not want to cut anything to install the new heart.
The tunnel for an automatic provides a bit more clearance, but I'm

anxiously waiting to see how close the engine is to that summit rad.

Your pics pretty much tell me what I need to know.  

 

Good Work.