E21 project thread
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It has definitely been busy as hell at work and my weekends have been preoccupied with others things, but I can finally post an update. To answer 02intherockies questions, the rear brake hose issue was solved by using e30 rear brake hoses screwed directly into the caliper. It’s a tiny bit of a stretch, but it works. I finally got the crank pulley to come off thanks to the help of a gigantic gear puller from Advance Auto. The smaller one I got from O'reilly just didn’t cut it apparently. I am in the process of replacing the seal in the timing cover right now. Once that is done, I will mount the new machined down crank pulley and mock up how to trigger wheel will sit in relation to the vr sensor. Going along with my copper rear end, I said screw it and used up some more paint on the pulleys. Most of you probably won’t agree, but to each their own, right?
Water pump pulley and vr sensor mount
My brother and my dad both work at a machining/metal spinning company, so I utilized their expertise and machines at their work. I picked up a big chunk of solid aluminum 3-1/4” rod from Speedy Metals for $20 and had my brother throw it on the lathe to make some spring dividers. I just drew it up in CAD and away it went. As you know, when using helper springs you need a divider between it and the main spring. A couple days later and we had this.
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Which gets installed like this.
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From that point, the rear coilover setup was complete to the point of install. I will have to wait and see the ride height once I can put the car on the ground, so tweaking most likely will be needed.
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Along with that stuff I mocked up the front euro bumper using bmacs adapters that I powdercoated earlier in the build. My front valance is dented in from someone backing into the car, so that made it a big rough to mount it. All-in-all I think it looks better than what I had.
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That is all for now. Stay tuned!
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Havent updated this in a loooooong time! Hopefully I remember everything. This time I will let the pictures do most of the talking. Firstly tho, the rebuilt head, intake mani and exhaust mani/turbo were reinstalled into the block. Timing covers were cleaned and painted with a new crank seal installed into lower cover.
Pulleys/trigger wheel painted and installed.
Steering rack rebuilt with new poly bushings and tie rod assemblies.
Steering shaft cleaned and rebuilt with new poly bushing.
Steering rack covers cleaned and painted.
New control arms installed due to old ones seized completely. This is one way to remove them, lol.
E12 throttle body installed.
Intercooler came in the mail.
Front suspension rebuilt with custom coilovers and Bilstein struts.
Old
Stock springs perch cut off comparison
Coilovers
And for a little sneak peak of whats coming in the winter …..
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nice meeting you today dude!!!
Can't wait to see this thing on the road!!
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Great meeting you too man!
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So I have been busy with getting smaller things done and out of the way. I am hoping to have the car done and on the road for the meet on Sunday, so cross your fingers. The biggest job right now is machining a throttle body adapter from a block of aluminum. With the BAE Century turbo intake manifold and the e12 throttle body, the charge piping wont clear the valve cover. So, I came up with a wedge design to angle the throttle body slightly up to clear the valve cover. Hopefully this will solve my issue. My dad who is a machinist is working on it as I type, so I am hoping it can be done for Sunday.
Raw chunk of aluminum
The design concept that I came up with and Brian (Snap) put into solidworks for me!
Stay tuned for the final product
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Really hoping it is present this Sunday. It would probably be the oldest vintage car there and maybe we could even get some generational photo action goin on with some other 3's
You would do this at my 5er meet
jk I would love to see this too! Hopefully we can both pull are cars together in t-minus 2 days -
I am definitely working my ass off to make it on Sunday. Gonna be putting in some long and late hours the next 2 days.
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It has definitely been awhile since I have updated this. Obviously I didnt make it to the 5er meet with the car. I busted my ass getting everything done and together, she just didnt want to fire up. Since then, I have been chasing this no spark issue forever it seems. I tried everything and tested everything to no avail. I was to the point of just giving up till next spring, but decided to try out the EDIS-4 and see if that got spark. First try after connecting things together and no spark as well. GAHHH!!! I then decided to completely take apart all the wiring for the EDIS since some of it the PO did and I wasnt certain it was done right. After rewiring I bench tested it and sure enough, the plugs all sparked perfectly. Threw the positive & ground in the car and once again, sparked perfectly. So, I threw the plugs back in the head, turned the key, and she fired right up, FINALLY! OH MY BAGOSH!!! I am so freakin happy!!
Now is the time to finish up the little things around the car and wire everything in permanently. I decided to go with a separate fuse panel and for the EDIS, Megajolt (MJ), and throw the gauges on it too for good measure. Most of it will be mounted in the glovebox except the EDIS module and coilpack, obviously. I used a spare sheet of plexi that I had laying around and mounted the circuit breaker, relay, fuse panel and MJ with 3M tape.
I then went ahead and wired everything up. I decided to take the constant power and ground from the glovebox flashlight circuit since I dont have the flashlight anyways. Turns out that some female bullet connectors fit perfectly on the pins of the flashlight circuit. All-in-all I think it looks great and of course, works like a charm.
Now all I have to do is finish the wiring in the car and this part should be good to go. Then its just odds and ends stuff and hopefully I will be driving it this weekend. Fingers crossed!!
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Dont remind me!
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Finished up the permanent wiring and she fired right up again. WOOHOO!!! One problem is I am currently running the car with the fuel relay jumpered since that was tied in with the stock ignition wiring. I will be using output #1 from Megajolt as the signal wire to the fuel pump relay. This will allow the fuel pump to run whenever the rpm's are above a preset value by me (I will be using the lowest setting of 500 rpm). For the safety factor if for any reason the car gets disabled but the power is still on, the fuel pump will shut off once it drops below 500 rpm. Below is the diagram I will be following. Just have to compare it to the stock wiring diagrams to see how the current fuel relay works and is wired.
I also got the front sway bar installed, as well as the front alpina brace installed. I had a leaking hose from the brake reservoir to the clutch master cylinder, so I ended up removing the old one and retrofitting a new setup on. No more leaking. This brought me to bleeding the brakes again which went well, but when bleeding the clutch slave cylinder, I quickly realized its damn near impossible to bleed it by yourself. Will have to wait till I can get some assistance with that.
So close!
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The world of programmable engine management is a beautiful one that all car nuts should experience
You are an hour or so away from being able to do burnouts.also... im serious about coming over to help at 6:30am.
and im serious about the burnouts
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She is alive and kicking!!! Took her for a short drive around the neighborhood and the new suspension, steering, shifting all feel amazing!! Like a freaking go-kart on rails. She goes pretty nice as well with the new megajolt ignition system. It has a coolant leak which I will have to address, but at least its external and not internal. Still much more to do to her till completely done (yeah right, done), but all-in-all I am super happy!
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