Wallyinc

@Mike A check out my build thread, tried to post as many photos as possible for anyone else considering a similar build. I rewired the car, top to bottom, did a CAtuned monster rearend, and a vintage a/c unit. It was a very long process, but driving my car is SUCH A JOY! Scary, fun, visceral, all at the same time. SO WORTH IT!!!!

I'm running an AEM ems and have done all the tuning myself. Keep an eye out for the drive-by-wire vs. drive-by-cable F series engines, that's key.

Please let me know if you have any questions, message me here, or better yet i'll message you my email address. 

Nice meeting you @SPITX

There might be one more... maybe.

Saw this some years ago parked outside a house in the Pharr/McAllen area. Car looks pretty far gone, hopefully someone breathed some life into it. 

I take my wife on dates to SPI regularly. I'll try to reach out next time so maybe we (and our cars) can meet!

Good to know!, I'm over/not to far from McAllen

Are there any other 2002 owners in deep South Texas? Thought it would be good to know of someone else. I also have a parts car in case they're searching for small odds n ends!

The F22 in my ‘02 was slightly rubbing the crossbar on the hood and my oil pan was/is too close for comfort for the subframe so I had to raise the engine a bit…. and get rid of the stock hinge/spring/crossbar setup.

I had seen photos of this done on CATuned’s and Georges’ setup so I knew it was possible. Here  are a few photos and part numbers (Autozone & Amazon) to help out with those of you wanting or considering the same. I questioned the rigidity of the hood’s metal, but it’s seems more than adequate after install. Also a few things to take note of:

1. The hood was more stable with the stock setup,  not saying the the gas struts are unstable, just not as solid. 

2. insert paper towels into the holes on the side of the hood where the upper bolt goes… in case one falls (which it did for me), it’ll roll right back out and not stay forever rattling on the inside of your hood (It’s a tight squeeze for your finger to get a nut in there)

3. you’ll need extra 5/16 washers and bolts for proper spacing/support 

4. Grinding/cutting down the stock bolt tabs on the upper fenders is a must. They’ll hit the struts if you try to close the hood.

5. your hood has to be almost perfectly aligned. Mine wasn’t, it never really bothered me before, but for some reason (perhaps because of the flex/lack of the support bar) the hood wouldn’t close quite right. Not a big issue, I was able to get this fixed even without an extra set of hands 

6. Make sure to check hood clearance with the kidney grill up front before drilling the upper holes for the struts 

Now, 25 dollars all-in, the sound of opening up my hood is fantastic! So much more room now too! 
 

Hope this helps.

Got some good photos from @Georges and @catuned’s setup and added in hood struts this morning as the taller valve cover was slightly rubbing on the stock setup. 
 

Was really patient with drilling and had to realign the hood a bit, but the end result was more than worth it. The hood struts opening up sound so much better than those creaking springs!

also including photos of the parts purchased from Autozone and Amazon. 

The hood opens a bit more now (still room in front of kidney grill though) and there’s SO much more room to work on things. Whole setup didn’t cost more than 25$ too!
 

A small update on the s2002. Getting heat out of the engine bay has been essential. Temps have been above 100-102 almost everyday for the past month and although the car isn't running hot... at most 210, I'd like to get it cooler. I have an oversized dual pass crossflow radiator, two electric fans and a low-temp mishimoto thermostat. 

I couldn't help but notice that by cracking the hood open temps would lower almost 10 degrees. I decided to put to use the cowl which no longer has a purpose with the aftermarket ac/heater. Here are some photos of the solution

I started out with some s.s. exhaust clamps

but only used the inside part of the clamp... as a bezel

i ended up using the angle grinder to cut the holes in the firewall. a messy task!

the ac was running a bit warmer than planned when the engine was above 200 degrees, i used some dei tape to wrap the high side line which you see on the right hand of the photo here. 

here are some views of the holes in the firewall

i taped over the insulated dei tape to keep the black look under the hood

i worked on the tune to get the afr closer to stoich 

with all these mods the iat is about 20degrees lower and the coolant temp rarely hits above 200degrees. Ac blows cold also no matter the engine temp. The heat getting pumped out of the engine through the cowl, especially while the car is sitting idle is CRAZY!

Thanks @popovm! A bit of motivation 👍

Hey @Tommy.  There is a '98 4.3 vortec V6 in an S!0 truck hanging out outback. Very low mileage, around 30k. I'll like to set it up for Weber carbs (I'll have to custom make an intake) and if possible, a sky high redline too! What exactly I'll put it in, I don't know yet, we'll see what comes my way. Since it's a V6, I could fit it into almost anything + the 4.3 shares many parts with the 350 chevy, so it shouldn't be too hard or expensive to source parts. 

This '02 was really the last thing I thought I'd ever work on, and it turned out ok, so I have faith the right car will present itself for the next project

Thank you, @Blue-2002! I've learned a lot in the process, and the best part is I keep learning more!

And even though this one is almost "done" I look forward to applying all this to my next build 👍

Here's a big update to what's going on with the '02, it's been a productive summer. 

Here is the original '02 seat and the donated volvo seat in it's original glory

The seat fit... after cutting open the floorboard. Headrest definitely had to go too.

Leather wasn't torn... but after trying so many conditioners, nothing worked.

New covers being made, in matte leather!

They were great about adding and removing foam, and also had me sit on the seat multiple times to get the fit "just right"

One seat almost done

This  was the photo I originally showed them

The end result! Couldnt' be happier and the pics really don't do them justice

Had to redo some work on the interior door panel. The speaker grills were popping off from time to time and I wanted to tone done the polished look on the stainless steel door handle. 

Leather with a bit of adhesive worked well!

My seats finally installed, now with the backseat, I now have a complete interior. 

The door panel redone. 

I used a (very old and thin) tshirt to cover the speaker grill so the speaker wouldn't be visible from any angle. I also used ss tig wire to keep the speaker grill intact. 

Those Ireland Engineering subframe bushings.... gone!

Another view of them. 

Going with OEM now

One last view of the the rear bushings

Now for the front wheel alignment. 

I ordered a double bulkhead off of Amazon since I won't be connecting the heater... 

Measuring and drilling the firewall, carefully! 

My first time crimping AC hoses too

This tool worked out great!

The Amazon bulkhead didn't work after all, I ended up using the original vintage AC 4 bulkhead and cutting it down to a double. 

Now to fab up something to hold the dryer (just right) in the engine bay

More CAD! (cardboad aided design) 

Mocked up and ready to be tack welded

Pretty close! Not bad

Making a tag for my switches and rattle-canned the dryer mount. 

Not necessary, but I wrapped the lower ac hose in fiberglass for insulation. 

Plenty of room on the low side fitting, but again, the fiberglass is an extra means of safety. 

Vacuuming the system.

Now to make something to mount the carburator venturi/throttlebody looking ac vents. 

CAD helps with the design yet again. 

Cutting some steel. 

These are what I ended up with. 

I ended up removing the passenger side vent from this location, I didn't like the look. I felt it pulled away from the look of the component system in the door and the center console. 

my center console design worked great for this Y for the ac vents!!! I was very stoked about this. 

The final spot for my passenger AC vent us under the dash tucked away and almost hidden

.... that is unless your actually sitting in the car

Again, the dryer had to sit just-right so it didn't touch anything and didn't bring down the look of the engine bay, here's how the bracket sits. 

A small update on my interior!

I'm in the final stages of finishing up my backseat. Made a cardboard pattern and cut it out with a jigsaw on some extra plywood I had lying around. Purchased some diamond pattern vinyl and foam off of amazon and here are the results. This was my first time doing anything of the sort, and I learned A LOT. Again, not 100% done, but these photos are pretty close to the end result.

I also had the front seats (from a 08 volvo) reupholstered by a professional (wasn't going to attempt that one on my own!) and those came out extremely nice too. I'll post up pics of that soon. 

But now... finally... my three little ones have a comfortable place to sit on our way to ice cream. I also used/found some handles from a newer Bronco as a "hold-down" placed in the space by each side. I still retained all the storage underneath the oem backseat delete as well

Differential mounts are solid (oem)! I'll look into the cs mounts. thanks for the advice!

Thanks for the advice @Einspritz. But I pulled the strap off this morning, its not bent. It's flexing here in the photo because the bushing is failing. It would go back to it's "normal" form when the car was lowered and sitting on the ground as well. 

Has anyone else had this happen to their Ireland engineering Rear Subframe Mounts? These have less than a couple of hundred miles and I have chunks falling off of them evetime I take the car out. I'm about to replace with oem, originally they had looked like this. 

https://www.iemotorsport.com/product/rear-urethane-subframe-mounts-w-housings-2002/

BMW-2002-TI-TII-REAR-SUBFRAME-MOUNTS-BUSHINGS-URETHANE-OEM-GENUINE-TURBO-ALPINA-IRELAND-ENGINEERING-MOTORSPORTS-33333428100-scaled-200x200.webp

Oh. And cool flames shoot out from time to time now too!

That is awesome! Thanks for sharing. I temporarily made this straight pipe using old exhaust pipe (removing the cat and gaining more than an inch of ground clearance too). The car sounds so much better now and doesn’t scrape. Eventually I’ll make a nice s.s. like yours, But this will do for now. Inside temps of car weren’t bad before, but the thermal wrap helped displace the little heat that was making it into the cabin.

I’m a h.s. teacher, so first up on the summer vacation list is to make a back seat!!!… oh, and my Ireland engineering rear subframe mounts have deteriorated. So i have to replace those too. Strange, they have less than a couple hundred miles and I’m leaving chunks of them on the road everytime I take the car out 🤦‍♂️

My car took second in its division at the McAllen International Car Show. A '56 VW Beetle took first, it was a very detailed professional-type restoration. Very well done, well deserved and nothing my garage-build can compete with in its current state.  I had a very uneventful drive home (thank God), but it was so much fun! For now my car is parked in the garage and needs a few items addressed. 

1 . I'd like to make/ fabricate an exhaust for the car next. Definitely stainless, considering oval, but not completely sure the 1/2 inch of clearance is worth the extra money. I definitely don't want a muffler, but will consider a resonator. Currently I just run a flowmaster cat and really like the sound. 

2. I definitely need to make a backseat for the car! I'd like something that folds down, but this is a necessity so I can take my little ones out for icecream! I have the seatbelts too that match the ones front. 

3. Titanium air intake. I'd like to make one to replace the rattle-canned pvc pipe. I have the filler rod and the back-purge system to do this with my tig, just need to give it a shot. 

4. Try to incorporate some carbon fiber into the interior. This is a trade I've been wanting to pick up for a while. 

5. Recover the front seats to dark black or gray. Lseat.com seems to make some really decent covers for a volvo seat. I'm thinking of going that route. 

6. Get rid of the belt squeal!!!!

It's been a great adventure, but I'm ready for a break... at least for a bit

More updates coming later, later. 

Besides my wheel almost falling off on the way over here yesterday evening, everything has been fantastic. Came in early this morning  to diagnose (and fix) the problem. It was my cars longest drive to date (20 miles) My car is the only BMW in the show! 
 

Took care of a small issue with my steering over the weekend. Taking off the centerlink was certainly interesting (big hammer + pickle fork), none-the-less it's on there correctly now with plenty of clearance under the transmission. I'm also working with a buddy to get a car show display ready for a big local car show coming up this weekend! This is the mock-up. 

Still working out a few bugs here and there to try to get the car completely road-worthy. Car was running a bit hot 220, couldn't figure out the problem, took off the thermostat and found out it wasn't stock and was supposed to be a 180(ish)... testing it on the stovetop it proved to be closer to a 210ish! Swapped out with a mishimoto and now the car runs around 170, much happier. 

@chargin

HI @chargin!

Now that my girls have gotten their Christmas gifts… Dad got a bit of time to work on his car the last couple of days. 
 

I pulled the radiator off as my car needed a valve adjustment and it’s easier to access the crank pulley bolt with the rad off. Apparently all drive by wire S2000s suffer from tight exhaust valves from the factory and the exhaust valves will end up torching themselves. Sure enough they were way outta spec. All the intake ones were good. Major thanks to the S2KI.com guys for that. 
 

With the radiator removed I was able to install a high output alternator (220 vs. oem 110ish) The smaller pulley meant a few runs to the auto parts store but I found the proper belt.

Next came the header install )back from powder coating) and then covering up firewall holes with grommets. I also moved the probe from the radiator thermostat and added some switches to kill or turn on the fans at will. 
 

I eyeballed the alignment as best as possible for now and the car is finally sitting off jackstands and on the ground again on all 4 tires. 
 

Hopefully some good drive time coming up soon!

@SteadFast thank you! It’s quite comfortable to place a milk crate by the pass. door sill (see pic below) and get to work… calming and soothing almost! Again really REALLY dislike being upside down on the drivers seat under a steering wheel 😵‍💫 

@danco_, I only have a clip of the car running on 3cylinders, sounds a bit off. After I fixed it (had a bad injector) it ran and sounded so much better! 
 

It only has a Flowmaster cat for now and sounds really strong at idle and a pretty decent at driving speeds too. WOT is loud though! Maybe too loud, but I’ll figure that out laterlater.

As soon as I get that header back from coating I’ll upload a great sound clip 👍