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

[Meintii]

Maybe three fingers and a knee cap.... I think $75 is the going rate for them in conventional currency though.

Ok. Once I get further down the road ill get back in touch with you about it.

[Meintii]

Completed the two most difficult tasks on an 02 (so they say) last Sunday, Heater box (blower has never worked), and removing the pedal box. They werent as bad as I was expecting after everything I read...

Although... my gas pedal stub broke off when I was taking the pedal box out...

And, I found some rust behind the old fire wall insulation, great.

Now Im ready to prep the engine bay and rebuild the pedal box/heater box, and I plan to weld up all the holes in the engine bay, and relocate/ redrill the holes in a way that works best with my swap.

pics

next next weekend I will be back in town and have some daily updates!

[Meintii]

Cleaning up the basement and pulling the 325's engine this week! Also got my powdercoat gun and am setting up a powercoating oven with in the next week or two

[M3M3]

two weeks to the Vintage....looks like you are almost there...;-)

[CubbyChowder]

really cool build man, rad that it's been with you for so long. You have been through so much with this car. I will definitely keep checking on this thread, I'm potentially going the M20 route at some point as well, but I have waaaay too much stuff to do first.

[craaaazzy]

keep us posted on the m20 swap zac. would love a ride when it's completed.

[Guest Anonymous]

two weeks to the Vintage....looks like you are almost there...;-)

Lol.. NOT going to happen. Ill see you guys next year though

[jgerock]

two weeks to the Vintage....looks like you are almost there...;-)

Lol.. NOT going to happen. Ill see you guys next year though

We'll miss you Zac (quote heard from the Spaten booth).

[Meintii]

Thanks for that Jim!

She will be looking even better next year!

[craaaazzy]

which "she" are you referring to and what sort of upgrades have u done to her?

[Meintii]

So after waiting and waiting I finally got to pull the m20 out of my parts car! Also - Brought the tii back to my house thursday so I can begin the massive list of things I need to do to it!

Had my buddy bring his hoist over and we spent the better part of the day pulling it out!

Pullin the car back to it home in the backyard

Helper Dog

Down in the basement we see that there was some damage to the engine from the frontal impact (which we expected)

Oil Pan is cracked, from where it smashed again the rack and pinon

This heater thingy is snapped off the head, when the engine got pushed against the firewall, luckly you can unbolt it and replace it (Whew).

Here she sits.. waiting to be torn down!

[Meintii]

Well now that the engine is out, so why not go ahead and tear it apart?

Tear down pics.. All went well with the dis-assembly, still have to take the lower timing cover/crank pulley off (need a puller). No need to post all the photos, but Ill post the pics of the carnage from the front end crash instead.

But its not all bad! This is was said to have been rebuilt about 20K miles ago (found receipts in the glove box from 2006) Well.. to me it looks like this is the case! Although, there is some carbon build up in the intake runners that concerns me, and some build up on #3 and #5 intake valves. What do you think?

Here are the valves.. in order from 1-6

Crud on this one

Crud on this one too

Here is the build up on the intake i was talking about.. think I should have a machine shop clean it all off?

Surprisingly the intake gasket surfaces look like they were just prepped! As does the oil pan surface.

Parts waiting to be cleaned

[Meintii]

Decided to test/refresh my alternator and starter this afternoon because they were super crusty and I really didnt want to have to buy new ones. Took them both to Autozone and had them tested and both are working (before I took them apart ) Although the alternator was working... the fan didnt turn as smoothly as I would have liked, and it was making some bizarre noises when it was spinning up.

Alternator before I started.

Took it all apart and came to find there were several phillips screws that wanted to strip and were super tight that I could not get out (holding the brushes on). I was able to get in there and do alot of cleaning on all the contacts and the case as well.Painted the fan silver and powder coated the two halves of the pulley flat black. Turned out pretty good! I was really hoping to be able to get it all the way taken apart to the bare cases so I could powder coat them, but this will be fine for now.

Sanded the rusted rotors down alittle bit with some 220grit. They had crusty paint on them and could not have been getting the best contact. I just lightly sanded them, I did not want to distort the shape on the rotors.

The fan spins so much smoother than before, feels new again. Hopefully it will still work when I get it tested again!

On to the starter (before pics)-

Was able to get this one completely opened, so it was able to actually powder coated (the non plastic bits anyways). I thought this was going to quite complicated, but after taking apart a tremec T-10 tranny in class last week, this was quite simple. Removed all the bits and cleaned all the electric contacts and cleaned and lubed all the gears inside. The main body got powder coated, and the back of the case got sprayed flat back. I have it re-assembled and ready to put the nose of the case on after I get my silver powder coat in the mail from summit.

Pics:

As it sits.. waiting for the noses new finish

Hoping to get some seals and gaskets soon. Im going to take all the bits that need bead blasting to my step dads shop to do in his cabinet. Then Ill powder coat them when I get my full size oven installed.

Also- in the next few weeks Ill be taking the tii down to ATL to Haritage Motorsports (jason Roses shop) to be cut and welded, and test fit the engine, and paint the nose/ engine bay. Have many other tandem things Im going to be working on as well.

[Meintii]

Finally got my silver powder coat in the mail today so I could finish up my starter project. Got it coated and put all back together! Looks as good as new! I will get both the alt and starter tested again tomorrow before considering them "done."

Starter again:

Also, yesterday I completely took apart my pedal box, so I can bead blast and powder coat all of those parts as well asap. I will be putting new bushings and spring in as well to freshen it up further! Here are some before pics from that..

Crud in the bottom (after most of it fell on the floor)

This will surely be a BIG change once the pedal box is restored!

[Meintii]

Been working everyday on this piece. Spent all day yesterday de-greasing and bead blasting all the parts I have taken apart so far. Been power coating them one by one today.. its taking forever. I can only bake one part at a time, and I also dont have enough room to hang the parts in the toaster oven, so I have to coat each side of the part separately. Still waiting to find the ideal oven for my needs on c-list (for <$50). Hoping to have one by the end of the weekend. Already coated the clutch and brake pedal, brake booster bracket, cam sprocket, upper timing cover, and other misc items.

Spent alot of time today cleaning the internals of my intake manifold. There was a ton of carbon build up, it obviously wasnt cleaned when the engine was re-built. So after scrubbing and purple powering and scrubbing and purple powering and scrubbing and purple powering and pressure washing everything on the inside and out and I can live with it at this point. Decided that I am going to get some rebuilt OKinjectors injectors to replace these, they look quite crusty, and im sure the orings could stand to replaced at the very least. Plan on taking the manifold and valve cover to class to sandblast it in the cabinet there. Hopefully I will have my full size oven installed by then so I can get them powder coated as well. Also wondering if I should replace the pressure regulator?

Also today- I took the engine harness out the parts car today, thought it was going to be a pain, but it actually only took about 10 minutes. So now ill have that to work on as well! Popped the ecu open to see if it had a stock chip and it does. Looking at buying a dinan chip from a fellow m20 02er on here before putting the ecu back together.

Ill post some pictures of the fresh powder coated parts tomorrow.