InkaSam

I needed a new headliner in my project car and after seeing how much work it was going to be, I decided I might as well personalise it a bit. Having been inspired by the use of tartan design fabric in Porsches and VWs I started a search for a suitable fabric for my Inka coloured 71. I was aware of the danger of using a dark fabric for headliner which would make the interior feel small and claustrophobic. This is the fabric that I settled on:

It has the orange of the car and also a complementary light blue giving it a much lighter feel than many other tartan designs. I used polyester poplin but it doesn't have much stretch so I had some difficulty when I was pressing the headliner in to install the sun visors, a more stretchy fabric might work better or the headliner could be left a bit slack where the visors go in.

So with the fabric chosen, these are the steps I followed to make the headliner and the parcel shelf.

	First lay out the old headliner and measure it.
	These are the measurements that I got from my old headliner
	Mark the centre of the board with the holes for the clips from the old headliner and then remove it from the headliner material as we need to reused it.
	Cut the new fabric to 1200mm x 1800mm
	Turn fabric over and with a pencil, don’t use pen or anything which may show through on the on the other side, mark a centre line length-wise.
	Starting from the back, leave 200mm and then draw a perpendicular line to the centre line.   This will be where rod #5 will sit and we need to add 2 more lines to guide us in making the loop that this rod will go through.
	Draw 2 lines from the last line we did, one at 20mm and another at 40mm. The idea is that we will fold the material at the middle line and then sew along line 3 which should be sitting on line 1, this creates the pocket or loop that the rod will go into.   Since the rods are bent at their ends, if the loops were left uncut all the way to the end of the material, then the headliner would bunch up and cause wrinkles so the loops need to be cut at the ends to relieve the fabric. I measured the cuts on my old headliner and then marked a little bit less on the new material to leave room for adjustment, you don’t want to cut too much, better to leave some of it uncut and adjust it once it is hanging up from the rod.   The slanted lines are my cutting guide lines.
	From the last line for rod #5 measure 280mm and then repeat the process of drawing the 3 lines for rod #4.   Repeat this process for all the other rods but note that the distance between rod #1 and #2 is different, it is 230mm instead of 280mm
	Once all the lines are drawn, start with rod #5 markings, fold the material along the middle line, pin the material to itself and then iron along the fold.   This helped me sew along a straight line, which is important if the material has lines which make it easy to spot where things don’t match up.
	Before doing any sewing use some cut off pieces to adjust the tension and stitch length on your machine.   Now sew along the visible line from the last step. I decided to sew a 2nd line 4-5mm to the right of the 1st one just for a bit more strength.
	Part of the loop is then cut out, taking care not to cut the stitching.
	Repeat the sewing for the other loops.
	We need to glue the board back onto the new fabric but I found this to be quite tricky because the board is actually bent when it gets installed. So from my old headliner, I cut out the piece after rod #5 and along the curve where the old headliner was folded over the board. I then used this as a template (draw mid line on the old headliner before cutting so that it can be lined up with the mid line of the new material) for where the new material should be glued to the board.
	Pin the template down and draw a line around it.
	Cut the fabric about 50mm away from the curved line that was drawn in the previous step.
	Apply glue to the board
	Line up the edge of the board with the curved line on the fabric, you will have bend the board a little. Then fold the end of the material over and press into to the glue.
	The headliner is ready to be installed, now is a good time to iron it to get any wrinkles out of it.   Also put the screws into roof of the car for where the handles, sun-visors and quarter window hardware get attached. This saves hours of time later when trying to find the screw holes.
	Temporarily install the rods into the car, move them until they are in the top most position, mark this position in the roof with some masking tape, these marks will help during installation and ensure that each rod is in the correct position before we move on to the next one.
	Install the board which is now glued to the headliner, into the car using the metal clips.
	Insert rod #5 into its loop in the headliner and then put one end of the rod into its position in the roof and with the top of the rod closer to the back of the car, bend the rod a little bit until the other end can be put into position. Then pull the headliner to the front of the car until the loop reaches the masking tape mark.   Check for wrinkles around where the rod bends down, if necessary cut a little bit of the loop to relieve the fabric, go slow.
	Repeat the above process for all the rods, the headliner is now hanging up and looking something like this. It is not fixed at the front yet so it looks floppy.
	Line up the centre line of the headliner with the centre line of the car, pull the headliner tight and add a clip. Work your way to the sides, pulling the material and adding clips one clip width apart.
	Once the front is clipped, start clipping the sides.
	Then fine tune the front further by pulling and adding a clip in between the clips which are there already.
	Glue some foam to the pillars and tuck it under the headliner. Some vinyl will cover this up later and  the foam helps hide the wires that run underneath. I used 6mm because thats what I had handy, bit thicker might be better though.
	Once you’re happy with the way the headliner is sitting, start at the front windscreen, remove 5 or so clips, use a brush to apply some glue to the body, wait 1 min for the glue to get tacky and then press the headliner in.
	Repeat all around the car.
	Cut off excess fabric with a sharp knife.
	The headliner is glued in now, but there is still lots of details left to do.
	The vinyl on the pillars from my car were not in very good shape so I re did them, a heavy duty sewing machine would be handy for stitching the vinyl but a standard one will just manage a fold.
	I think it’s better to do the rear pillars with the same material as the headliner because doing it in the dark vinyl would probably create high contrast and might be distracting in the rear view mirror.   I used some paper to create a template which was then transferred to the material
	With the headliner in, work starts on the parcel shelf. Use the old one as a template to cut out a new one from 4.8mm masonite. Using thicker masonite might be a good idea because my staples were denting the good side of the masonite. I got around this by adding foam underneath the vinyl to hide any imperfections.
	Trying out the fit for the new shelf with the speakers.
	Cut out enough vinyl so that the edges can be folded over underneath. I sewed in a bit of the headliner material to the vinyl to go in between the speakers.
	Cut reliefs in the vinyl where there is a curve in the shelf, add a layer of foam under the vinyl, apply glue to the edges and around the holes for the speakers. Fold the vinyl over and then staple with an air-powered staple gun (my manual stapler didn’t cut it).
	With a sharp knife carefully cut out the vinyl which is hiding the speaker holes. Install the parcel shelf into the car, screw in the speakers and install the grilles. All done, ready for windscreen installation!

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Hi @oldbimmers, the height of each loop is 20mm so an extra 40mm of material is needed to make each loop.

Thanks for all the positive comments everyone! I might write a technical article while it's still fresh in mind as I edited a few things out to keep the post short.

Thanks Steve! Yes I know the tartan design is not everyone's taste but I actually like it! (i'll probably be banished to the VW forum! ) ?

Hi all,

The headliner on the car that I am putting together was not useable and the one in the donor car was just as crackly so I decided to have a go at making my own. I just wanted to share what I did which might help other people going down this road. Here is the plan I made by measuring the original headliner, measurements in mm.

This is what the original headliner looked like with all the mold. ?

This is the material that I went with. It is polyester poplin, it's nice and tough but in hindsight it has very little stretch which made it hard later when installing the sun visors.

Marking the back of the fabric where the loops are and about how much to cut for the bends in the rod so the headliner doesn't bunch up. I based everything on a centre line in the fabric so I could adjust things and then cut off any excess from edges at the end.

Polyester upholstery thread was used in the machine, because of the lines in the fabric it is easy to see if the sewing is not done straight so I ironed the fabric first to guide me.

Once all the loops were sewn up I glued the board (which clips in next to the rear windscreen) to the new headliner. Starting from the back I clipped the board in and inserted the rods one at a time, trimming the loops where necessary and finally using the little foldback clips you can see in the picture below to hold the front in position then moving on to pulling the headliner from the sides and clipping it. One thing I should have done before putting the headliner on would have been to put the screws in for where the sun-visor, sun-visor clips and the handles go, this would have saved me lot of headaches later even though I had marked on the outside of the car where these needed to go.

This contact adhesive that I got from the upholstery shop is great, once I was happy with how the headliner was sitting I took 5 or so clips off brushed this stuff on both the body and the fabric and waited 1 minute or so for it to get tacky and then pressed them together

Headliner with all the clips off:

I had some vinyl left over so I redid the old material on the pillars too:

The material on the rear pillars were done separately to the headliner, initially I was thinking to do them in vinyl but I think it is better with the matching headliner material.

Onto replacing the parcel shelf:

About to cut the vinyl for the shelf:

I used 4.8mm masonite for the parcel shelf and the shortest staples that I had were 6mm, I found that the staples didn't poke through but dented the masonite and these dents were visible once the vinyl was stretched tight. So I used 6mm foam underneath the vinyl to pad it out bit.

6 x 9 speakers in:

Backseat in too:

I'm about to do mine from the bottom, I will pull the body up from the top using a chain block supported by heavy duty shelving racks and a beam underneath the car. Here is a shot with the subframe out:

57 minutes ago, Hans said:

Or maybe 9.3 to 1 dog bone/bath tub with thicker head gasket? Somewhat depends on quality of premium fuel where you live. And what you can find in O/S pistons.

Somewhere on FAQ is definitive guide to head and piston match, with pictures.

 

Don't forget front cover needs to be cut with head.

Thanks Hans, yes I did remember to give the timing cover to the machine shop with the head and they did them together.

Here in Australia we have 98 fuel which seems to be equivalent to 93 in the states. I'm basing my estimates on each 0.5mm of shaved head giving an extra 0.5 of compression (i think this is from the maccartney book). Based on this I think 9.3 bathtubs would be pushed to 10.8 CR in my case which I think would be problematic.

44 minutes ago, Gordon said:

Spend some time in this webpage.  http://www.bimmers.com/02/    In the left hand column, click on engine in the Go Fast Upgrades section and check out the section titled "How much compression should I run."   This webpage is over 20 years old but I refer to it often.  Bookmark it! 

 

Yes I do find myself being directed back to that page, lots of good information there.

1 hour ago, TobyB said:

With a flattop, you'll be at something in the low 9's- 

the only way to know for sure is to cc the head.  It's not hard, but you have to be rather painstaking.

For a daily driver, 'lower' compression is fine- you can even add a mild (292ish) cam to it for 

a bit of zip, if you have a 32/36 or other downdraft.

 

I would spend the money (or modify a stock sprocket- it's not hard to do, just slot the holes and

pull the alignment dowel) to be able to retard the cam

back a few degrees.  1mm is where it starts to be worth it.

Also, clay the valves to make sure they have clearance.  They should- but clay is cheap insurance.

 

You'll probably only find 89.50 pistons- 89.25's I've only seen in factory reman blocks, never for sale in the aftermarket.

Do be careful- the 2L E21 flattops have a lower piston height, which messes up squish and 

lowers compression...

Thanks for the insights Toby, always much appreciated.

I wonder if I can use the Toyota 20R pistons. The original 121 with flattop pistons got 8.5:1 CR, my head is shaved 1.6mm, the 20R pistons have pin height of 1.625 (41.275mm), standard 2002 flattops had pin height 1.665 (42.291mm) so 0.04 difference (~1mm). Would I be correct that the amount shaved off the head compensates for the short pin height of the 20R and then some, so I might get CR in the high 8s?

I've got my 121 head back from the machine shop and I'm getting an average of 127.9mm (5.0354331 inches) when measuring the head height at the corners.

For the deck height, i'm getting about 217.77 mm (8.573622 inches) although this may be a bit over the actual value because of the thickness of the calliper jaws (I didn't want to use the sharp upper jaws as they scratch things very easily). So if the original deck height from the factory is meant to be 217.2mm then my block has not been decked.

The cylinder bores measured between 89.015 --> 89.087 so I would be looking to rebore to 89.25 mm if I can get the correct pistons.
This will be a standard street car, just want something reliable and convenient to drive on the weekends.

With the head having been machined so much (workshop manual recommending only going to 128.5mm, although Macartney says you can take off 1.5mm when trying to raise compression), I am wondering:
            1. what my options are in terms of pistons, only flat-tops?  or bathtubs too (would compression get too high? I want to keep it to 9.5 max, happy to go lower. Would the bathtubs be getting close to hitting the valves? If so I wont even bother searching for them)
            2. do I need to use an adjustable timing sprocket to compensate for the change in timing because of the head height?
 

Thanks,

Sam

Does it happen when pressing the brake pedal?

Thanks for all your suggestions and comments everyone, I feel a bit out of my depth with this being the first engine that I've taken apart but it's been great drawing on the combined experience of the members, much appreciated!

I've continued on with the dissection before sending the block off to the machine shop for cleaning and measuring.

Here are the main bearing caps removed:

And the crankshaft removed:

and finally the other half of the bearings in the block:

22 hours ago, wegweiser said:

I have two sets of 10:1 Mahle ORIGINAL pistons in a 90.00mm size remaining at the sale price of $525.00. These fit ONLY 121 and 121TI heads and include wrist pins and rings. IMHO - you won't find a better piston for serious street or even mild competition use. I run them in my own tii and friggin' LOVE them! Genuine OEM Mahle.

Thanks wegweiser, this sounds like a good offer.

I have a few things I need to consider which maybe the forum can help me with:

- this car will be used on Sundays to go on rides with the family, is 10:1 appropriate for such a use case? 

- premium fuel in Australia is 98 RON which seems to be like 93 in the states, will 10:1 compression cause detonation issues and make it hard for me to easily refuel and be a headache?

- from the stampings on the current pistons the cylinder bores would be 89 (need to get machine shop to do actual measurements), if I rebore for 90.00mm pistons then I would be jumping a few rebore steps wouldn't I? Does that mean that I would not be able to rebore that block again?

Thanks

On 11/13/2019 at 3:10 AM, TobyB said:

Start shopping for pistons.  To convince yourself, take your new feeler gauge set and measure

the gap between the ring and the groove it rides in.  I'm willing to bet that it's far larger than spec

(which I forget, but it's small).  That's the weak point of BMW pistons- the ring lands get used

up far faster than anything else in the engine, often within 50,000 miles.

So I did some measurements on the pistons and I think the pistons are, how do you say in German? "Kapoot"! 

The pistons are KS brand and have 88.97 stamped on the top. I have one small micrometer which I used for measuring the ring height and used a digital verniers for the piston diameter and distance from top of piston to the top of the wrist pin hole ('A'). My feeler gauges are pretty basic, I have to get a better set but I measured the ring side clearance and ring gap anyway. Here are the results:

#1:
  Rings:
    Groove 1:
      - side clearance = 0.457mm
      - ring height = 1.576 mm
      - ring gap = 1.397 mm

    Groove 2:
      - side clearance = 0.051 mm
      - ring height = 1.942 mm
      - ring gap = 0.813 mm

    Groove 3:
      - side clearance < 0.038 mm
      - ring height = 3.997 mm
      - ring gap = 1.27 mm

  Piston:
    Diameter: 88.96 mm

    'A': 31.30 mm
---------------------------
#2:
  Rings:
    Groove 1:
      - side clearance = 0.406 mm
      - ring height = 1.42 mm
      - ring gap = 1.313 mm

    Groove 2:
      - side clearance = 0.1 mm
      - ring height = 1.93 mm
      - ring gap = NA

    Groove 3: didn't measure

  Piston:
    Diameter: 88.93 mm

    'A': 31.34 mm

---------------------------
#3:
  Rings:
    Groove 1:
      - side clearance = 0.292 mm
      - ring height = 1.62 mm
      - ring gap = 1.143 mm

    Groove 2: didn't measure

    Groove 3: didn't measure

  Piston:
    Diameter: 88.94 mm

    'A': 31.37 mm

---------------------------
#4:
  Rings:
    Groove 1:
      - side clearance = 0.317 mm
      - ring height = 1.676 mm
      - ring gap = 1.372 mm

    Groove 2:
      - side clearance = 0.051 mm
      - ring height = 1.964 mm
      - ring gap = 0.762 mm

    Groove 3: didn't measure

  Piston:
    Diameter: 88.936 mm

    'A': 31.433 mm
 

The ring side-clearance on all pistons was way out, not even in the ballpark. I could easily feel the step that was created inside the groove. This clearance was much better on groove 2 and 3. 

The ring gap was another one which seemed to be way out on all pistons, not sure what that means. I don't have a bore gauge so I don't know what state the bores are in.

I will pull out the pistons out of the 74 donor car and do a quick measure on them but they already have lots of pitting on the top of two of the pistons (steam damage I think). I get the feeling that I might need to get new pistons, are there any good sources of pistons for 121 heads?

Just an update, I've sent the heads (sent the one from the 74 donor car too) off to the machine shop for pressure testing and inspection. In the meantime I got the pulley and the lower timing cover off, found the chain guides to be pretty badly worn so I will be replacing them and definitely the oil pump chain and some shims. The crankshaft sprocket, timing chain and cam sprocket l'm not sure. The 3 bolt chain sprocket is NLA, can I get the new splined rotor and put it in the old housing? Or better to buy a new e21 pump and change the pickups?

Here's the 71 crank sprocket

And this is the 74 sprocket on the donor engine:

The caps are off the 71 rods:

The journals look pretty clean. My machinist said he can hone and wash the block and then linish(?) the crank and gave me the pricing for some new bearings and rings. No going back now!

I haven't cleaned the pistons yet or measured them as I only have a digital vernier caliper, that wont give me an accurate enough answer would it? 

I just wiped the bearings to see the surface better:

I'm doing all this in a dusty garage, what precautions do I need to take when I go to assemble things?

That's encouraging that you guys think the engine looks good!

Tonight I tackled the sheared off coolant drain plug, it didn't take much drilling to get through, must have just been a little bit of the bolt left in there and that was already crumbling. The amount of rust flakes and powder that came out of there while I was poking a stick from above, was pretty amazing. I hope that all the deposits end up at that corner and it's not like that all over. I'm thinking about taking everything off the block and maybe pressure cleaning it.

It's hard to take a photo of the drain hole but here is what it looks like now:

I still haven't got the lower timing cover off because I don't have a big enough pulley, hopefully by the weekend. But I did take some photos of the oil pump chain, it feels very floppy to me. The factory manual says 'adjust chain tension so that the chain can be depressed with light thumb pressure', well I just have to touch it and it flops around, here it is without any pressure:

Here it is being pressed with the end of a toothbrush:

There seems to be some sort of shim under the pump already but I think a much thicker shim is needed to make the chain tighter.

20 hours ago, TobyB said:

I would clean everything

well, then pull the bottom end apart, and measure the pistons carefully. 

In order to take the pistons out, do I need to use a reamer to take the lip of the cylinders?

On 10/28/2019 at 9:57 PM, 2002Scoob said:

is there any visible Cross-hatching left?

No there is no cross-hatching left on the 2 cylinders that I had a look at but I haven't cleaned them up properly yet. There are some vertical lines on the cylinders, is the rule of thumb to run a fingernail along the cylinder and if I can feel the lines then it's a problem?

Regarding the engine coolant drain plug, after a search it seems that other people have had this problem as well. My one is definitely sheared off, I cleaned it and it is solid metal in the hole, it wont act as a drain at all. I need to get the sheared part out of there and put a brass tap in there for easier draining in the future.

On 10/26/2019 at 12:07 PM, jimk said:

And please leave the nipple on the rear of the head alone, or you might have another disaster if the threads in the head strip.

Thanks, good advice, as rusty as it looks I'm going to let it be.

I had a big chunk of time to spend on the car so I managed to get the head off, here are some photos:

I have flat-top pistons and they are totally black with the build of carbon deposits, how do I clean them up?

Here is the head gasket pealed off, any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated, take it to the machine shop? Tell them to do what?

Some deposits in the water channels, lots more in the engine block

17 hours ago, 2002Scoob said:

How about the the tooth-profile on the upper sprocket-Are the saddles between the teeth pretty wallowed? 

Thanks for the detailed checklist @2002Scoob, I'll take photos of these things as I dismantle them, I haven't got the lower timing case off yet (not looking forward to getting the pulley off) but here are some shots of the upper timing sprocket:

The flywheel has 2 sections where the teeth have been damage as you can hopefully see in the photo, below. Is this from operating the starter while the engine was running? Does this need replacing?

Oil pan was clean

The bottom end.

Once I get the lower timing cover off I will get good photos of the sprockets. Does the oil pump itself cause any issues or is it mainly the chain and the sprockets?

It's the weekend now in Australia so I have more time to spend on the engine. I used a better camera to take some photos of the sheared bolt on the exhaust side of the engine block:

I assume that was the coolant drain plug, or is it? there is another one like it on the other side. Here is a shot of it showing how much was left in the block:

What do you think I should do about the bolt, do I drill it out or leave it?

I took the rocker cover off and the inside looks nice and clean to my untrained eye, what should I be looking out for?

At this point I grabbed the pulley and turned it by hand and it turned ok, didn't seem to be jammed. ?

When facing the pulley I turned the engine clockwise until the pointer was pointing to the second notch on the pulley.

There is a line and a number '2' on top of the chain sprocket, the books showed a notch which is meant to line up with the line on the sprocket but I couldn't see the notch, maybe it's under the pipe that runs in the middle of the head? I'm at the computer now to look up the factory manual.

Here is a shot of the chain, is there any way to tell if it needs to be replaced or not?

So what is the next step from here, do I take the tensioner off, take the sprocket off and tie the chain up so it doesn't slip or should I not worry about all that if the engine is on a stand and looks like I'll be taking the pan off as well and taking a look at the oil pump?

Cheers

It was a productive night tonight except one downer at the end.

First I took the gearbox off the engine

Then I took the exhaust manifold off, one of the bolts was missing.

It took a bit of time to assemble the engine stand, after some trial and error, I decided the best way to mount the engine with my stand was to drill a new hole in the engine stand mounting plate and then reuse the car's engine-mount bolts to put the plate on.

After a bit of wiggling up and down the engine was off the crane and on the stand.

I should have stopped there for the night but then I thought I might undo the water bong on the side of the engine just to see. The bolt was not coming out too easily but I was careful not to be forcefull with it. As I got the bolt out and looked at it became obvious that part of the bolt was still in the engine block! Argggggh! But I don't think I was the one who sheered it because the bolt had rust on the end of it, someone must have sheared it off and then screwed it back on. I will take some photos of it tomorrow because I don't know how I'm going to get the rest of the bolt out of there.

Thanks for all the advice everyone, I'm going to take the head off and see what state it is in.

I made a start on it tonight, here are some photos.

Some sort of corrosion on the outside, not sure what that means about what I'll find inside.

I squirted some ATF in the spark plugs

It's a 121 head

4 speed gearbox

I took the intake off to make it easier to lift the engine

The other car came with a weber, that would be better one to rebuild than the solex right?

That's as far as I got tonight. Tomorrow I'll assemble the new engine stand and mount the engine onto it.

Hi everyone, this is my first post here, thanks for this great resource it has helped me immensely while putting back together the pieces of my 2002.

I have a question regarding an engine which has been sitting for at least 11 years (out of the car), should I try to get it going or should I take the head off to see what state it's in?

Little bit of background, I purchased a 2002 project from the PO in 2008, it was actually 2 cars one which he had stripped and undercoated (71 model) and the other one (74 model) which was to be used for parts. I got the good shell painted but then I became a dad and the project sat for many years. This year I started putting things back together, I've done the brakes, the heater, wiring and insulation in the cabin and now looking at what to do with the engine.

It hasn't been turned over for 11 years and I recently noticed that there are no spark plugs and I am a bit concerned that maybe some insects could have made a nest in there or maybe just dirt and dust got in. I'm planning to separate the engine from the gearbox because I read that the clutch is probably stuck to the flywheel after sitting for a long time. But I'm not sure what to do with the engine, I have never taken the head off an engine and wondering if I should pull it and see what's going on inside or should I oil it up and put it back in the car and see if it goes?

Thanks