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

[jgerock]

Yea pretty much everything I owned (including my cat) was destroyed completely. There was literally nothing left but the stone foundation and a flat pile of ashes.

Im staying back at my dads house right now, and enduring the 45 each way drive to work. :/

Now I'm really sorry about the fire. Do you need some clothes? We will be driving down to Athens for Christmas - I can bring some stuff.

[Meintii]

Yea man if you have some t-shirts and stuff that would be great. Email and let me know the date your coming down when you get a sec!

[HarryPR]

Sorry to hear about the fire and the accident, Zac.

Hope you can get back on track soon!

[Meintii]

Sorry to hear about the fire and the accident, Zac.

Hope you can get back on track soon!

Thanks Harry!

Here are the pics of the damage.. not nearly as bad as it could have been!

[jgerock]

Wow, you can really tell where the car impacted the guardrail. Glad you were able to walk (drive) away.

[Meintii]

Here is a post from the Helen / North GA drive that I hosted for the ATL 02 group.. It was the biggest number of cars at any event we've had! (were still young

Here is an exerpt from a fellow members' (Glenn) post about the drive

"6 cars, 6 drivers and 3 small passengers met up in the old mining town of Dahlonega in the North Georgia Mountains. The grey skies turned to mist and then to light rain as we crossed the Appalachian Trail on Blood Mountain. As we ascended to the 4500 foot summit of Brasstown Bald we entered a cloud bank and the rain became cold and steady. We did not linger to admire the view.

On to the genuine artificial Alpine town of Helen for some warmth, refreshment, and storytelling. Then home to roast my toes by the fire and watch some college football. ""

now for the pics!

Showing the cars off

Gassed up and ready to go

Look at the beautiful view from the highest point in GA... Brasstown Bald

In Helen trying to hunt down some smoking free eats.

Thanks for coming guys!

[Meintii]

This is a list of everything that im tending to before I start driving my poor girl again.

-Replace passenger side strut housing

-Reseal/clean up/ install 5-speed (4-speed whining grinding etc)

-Find mysterious brake fluid leak

Then After she is running and driving normally again, she will go off to the body shop to get her dents fixed and re painted.

[Meintii]

Apparently I am now addicted to buying nice things for the tii (again), and am on a streak of buying things this week.

I have purchased:

5-speed seals/slave cyl/bolts/ etc

New seat belts (thanks bluedevils!)

A strut housing for the passenger side

And am about to buy a shit ton of LED stuff... but Im trying to resist!

[Meintii]

Here we have a post that will updated with ALL the costs of my 5-speed Conversion, so that others who are looking to do a cheap 5-speed swap the right way can see how its done. Keep in mind that I had the 5-speed laying around for years, and my clutch in less than a year old, so I will not be adding these to the price list.

To start.

Ordered all of this from Autohaus (part numbers coming soon)

8 Genuine BMW 10mm Hex Nut; Locking Type $3.68

1 Sachs-Boge Clutch Release/Throwout Bearing $63.62

1 Pex/Fahrzeug Technik Ebern (FTE) Clutch Slave Cylinder $26.97

1 Fahrzeug Technik Ebern (FTE) Clutch Hose; Master Cylinder to Slave Cylinder $38.48

1 ElringKlinger Selector Shaft Seal; 15x21x5mm $2.76

1 DPH Main Shaft Oil Seal; 30x42x7mm $4.56

1 ElringKlinger Manual Trans Output Shaft Seal; 40x55x8mm $2.99

1 FAE Backup Light Switch $6.07

1 Genuine BMW Output Shaft Bearing; Lock Plate for Flange Nut $1.67

1 Genuine BMW Shift Tower Mount; Shift Tower Insulation $13.33

2 Meyle Shift Tower Mount; Large Bolt Style; 10mm $15.74

2 Genuine BMW Shift Lever/Selector; Shift Rod Circlip at Shift Rod Joint and Shift Lever $1.72

4 Genuine BMW Selector Shaft Seal; Shim for Selector Rod; 10.2x16x0.9mm $1.84

1 MTC Flex Disc; Driveshaft to Output Flange; Ribbed; 10mm Bolts/8 Hole $19.56

1 Uro Parts Center Support/Support Bearing; Support Assembly with Bearing $17.53

Total = $220.52

Thats all ive got so far... but I will update with more soon Im sure!

[Meintii]

Well.. i knew it would happen, and here it is.

I finished taking the transmission out (still have to take the driveshaft out the rest of the way), and started cleaning up my "new" 5 speed.

The 4-speed

The 5-speed (before the cleansing)

5-speed now cleanish

NEW PARTS!

On to the scope creep..

Today after work I decided to take off my [bent] strut and try to find my brake fluid leak.

Well got the struts off and noticed that my brake rotors look like shit... and then saw the brake fluid pouring out of two of the driver side caliper pistons... and saw that my ball joints needed to be replaced, and saw that my strut mounts are shot.. So the good news is i found the leak..

Also have decided that I am going to 3M under coat my front wheel wells.. the rear drum and wheel wells will come soon.

the bad news...

I just bought cross drilled rotors, and new brake pads from bavauto, and strut mounts and ball joint kits form autohaus. There goes another $280 toward the "five-speed".

I dont want to, but I think im going to buy the reman calipers from autozone... I mean, they have a lifetime warranty, and they are $64 a pop (plus I work at autozone!)

More to come soon!

[Meintii]

Today I decided that Im going to paint my wheel wells with some high quality undercoating. I washed and degreased the wheel wells and WAS SHOCKED by what I found. I saw the black stuff in the wheel wells and assumed that it was old under coating (because I wash the wells everytme I was the car). But then after hitting it with some SuperPurple degreaser I found THIS

My original paint color!!!!! Needless to say, I then pursued thorough cleansing of ALL the wheel wells in prep for painting and rust treating them tomorrow (Rebuilt calipers come in tomorrow too!).

simply amazing

[Meintii]

I said I would have a running total of the cost for this 5-speed conversion... here is the total so far (1 week in)

2 Meyle Ball Joint; Front Left/Right Ball Joint Kit $46.68

2 Ruville Shock/Strut Mount; Front Left/Right $80.12

1 BAVARIAN AUTOSPORT CROSS DRILLED

BRAKE ROTOR SET - FRONT $100.00

1 MINTEX BRAKE PADS - FRONT $24.95

SHIPPING>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$32.94

5-SPEED STUFF LISTED ABOVE $220.52

1 Pair of new seatbelts $176.50

2 Reman'd Calipers $172.17

Running Total is @>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> $883.73

and yes I do consider brakes and seatbelts apart of the conversion cost BECAUSE OF FREAKING SCOPE CREEP

[Meintii]

My reman'd calipers came in at work today!

They look AMAZING. I was really expecting them the look like crap but... Im really happy with them!

Got my seatbelts from Bluedevils too.. havent installed them but they retract super smootly!

Coming on March 1st, my rotors and pads..

Coming on March 2nd, my Strut mounts and ball joints.

In the mean time (if I have time) I will be blasting and painting everything I can.

[M3M3]

go Zac!

gotta love scope creep......

[Meintii]

'Good news! My rotors and pads came in today instead of tomorrow like the were supposed to!

BavAuto Cross drilled rotors:

And Mintex pads!

And yes the rotors are "beveled" not just flat like the cheap ones