Helmut the e21
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And intake is almost done. All tack welded and ready to be finished. I got some 1/4" plate to do the end cap and to add some reinforcemnt for vacuum fittings.
I will use bosh motorsports dbw throttle body. I am shooting for anything between 350-500whp. I think that 68mm throttle should do. The next size up is 82mm but I worry it will be too twitchy and drivability will suck.
Holesaw setup to cut 3" holes for trumpets
A little mockup with two runners to check the position of the plenum
All 4 runners in.
Fuel Rail
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Holy smokes, this is cool. That intake looks awesome, super excited to see that come to fruition. How is the throttle body going to be mounted, out the end of the manifold towards the front of the car or out of the side like an OEM one?
Throttle will be in front of the manifold.
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I welded up the manifold. It was a pain. My 200amp tig had some trouble welding 1/4" plenum with the trumpets. Trumpets were quite thick with some sections close to 1/2" or more. I could use 50amps more.
I added fuel rail brackets and end cap. I also ordered bosch motorsports 68mm DBW throttle. I still need to get the weld-on flange for this throttle.I ditched floor mounted pedals and get hanging pedal setup. I whipped new firewall plate and added the e36 column mount
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Pedal box is done.
I got my throttle body flange. I use 68mm Bosch motorsports TB. Its funny that you cant get that flange in the states. I had to order one from Sweden.
I ordered my eBay intercooler. 12x18x3" core. Should be plenty to support my power goals.
Next week will be finishing some bracketry and I should be ready to prep it for paint.
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I got my fleabay Intercooler it supposed to e 3" core. Well it is not. Its a 2.5" and has some shitty spoolgun welds.. I am not even mad I will just return it and get another cheapo intercooler hoping it will be a bit better. Anyone know ebay sellers/brands that might have decent 3" intercoolers? My 12x12 ebay intercooler that i got couple years back look much better with decent welds and nice looking 3" core.
I made upper radiator mount/ shroud/ intercooler mount.
Front frame rail brace might come handy. The e21 chassis flexes a lot. I will most likely use this brace as a mounting point for the skid plate
Strut tower brace will be next.
I also got my e90 gas pedal. It should work really well.
I started designing chassis electrical harness with my new fusebox. I got the inventory of all circuits including wire lenghts, colors, gauge and approximate splice locations.I will be ordering some tefzel wiring sometime next week.
I had a bit of an issue with clutch master fitting in the bay, So I had to expand the bay a little bit. Half a pound of seam sealer and some epoxy primer and it will look beautiful
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I got a monstercooler today. I think it is a bit too much @ 24x12x4" core. It fits though but I think I will swap it for something a bit smaller. It will take an hour for the turbo to fill this thing with air. I think transient response may suffer a bit. It might require some pie cutting to connect to throttle body.
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After couple of weeks of engine bay paint prep. I am ready to paint it. I build a beautiful spray booth in my garage with two box fans and shoot some epoxy primer followed by some seam sealer and more epoxy. Today i will finish it with single stage urethane in original safari beige.
I got the intercooler figured out. Wiring is next on the list.
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Using an easy up as a paint booth frame is a great idea.
It certainly is. I'm really annoyed that I spent the time and money building one when I have one.
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I were going to build one then i figured that I can set up the canopy thing outside but I got some stupid neighbors who would certainly call code enforcement cops so decided to move it inside.
Paint came out great. Engine bays are not my favorite thig to spray. There are bunch of angles, crevices and spots that are hard to get. I got couple of spots with that dry spray texture. I did not bother using a tack cloth after I preped the bare metal so there is bunch dust spots. Its good enough tho for the engine bay.
The floor around the drivers side torque box rusted out so this will get fixed next. I need to paint the driveshaft center bearing supports and diff mounts. Also will get the rear fender lips touched up since they cracked pretty badly when I pulled the fenders.
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Pedals are done.
Dual master ready to be plumbed. I am using stok e36 325i front brakes and stock 528i e28 rears. Front master is tilton 0.7" and rear is .75". Clutch is wilwood .75" I must say that Tiltons look much beefier and beter quality than wilwoods.
I bolted front and rear suspension and set the car on jenga blocks. I need to order new brake line flaring tool since cheapo amazon one crapped out on the second try.
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This is the same one Eastwood sells and I highly recommend it, perfect flares every time. There are few other brands listed on amazon with the same thing a well and available with prime shipping but I got the K Tool years ago.
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This is the same one Eastwood sells and I highly recommend it, perfect flares every time. There are few other brands listed on amazon with the same thing a well and available with prime shipping but I got the K Tool years ago.
Yup just ordered it from amazon it is a TGR brand but otherwise looks the same.
What is the preferred way of doing fuel lines?
I got enough -6AN PTFE hose to run both supply and return but I thought that maybe going with stainless hardline would be a better option.
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h my that is what happen when you have 4 other projects ehm ehm. kids, wife and house and poor bimmer had to wait again. Oh well I got a bit of motivation so I will try to keep the momentum going. Vintage 2023 I am coming
It is wiring time. I ordered bunch of tefzel wire a while ago but could not get myself to start the wiring process.
And of course when i started checking circuits and what wires I will need I found that I forgot to order roughly 20-30% of needed wires.
I fixed that and I am getting the remainder tomorrow.Since I could not continue wiring for about a week focused on other things. Fuel tank was partially modified (read cut but not welded), so i tackled that. I will run just the right side tank (measures roughly 7.5 gallons). Range will be amazing escpecially on e85. Space left after the left tank will be occupied by the exhaust.
Don't mind my ugly welds it doesn't leak and its temporary until I get the fuel cell
I also got the main power feed done. It is 1/0 splitting into 3x 4 gauge. Black thingy is the main 70A relay that will power up the "run" bus of the fusebox
I painted front calipers black and inspected rear e28 calipers that I sourced from the lemons e28. Rears will need rebuild which will be done as soon as I get my rebuild kit from rockauto.
This week I will try to finish fuel lines (6AN ptfe for that corn juice power) and continue the wiring challenge.
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Electrical work is progressing well. I decided to abandon the Littlefuse integrated fusebox and build my own using TE fuseboxes. It allowed me to bus the power to the components the way I wanted.
I left the original rear harness and terminated it with the 20 pin deutsch connector. It will connect to the front harness.
Body harness is 90% complete. Almost everything under the hood is done. I am still adding some wires under dashboard for gauge power, glovebox lights or radio power and finishing up some grounds. It should be ready this week.
I get the set of cheapo rock auto parts e28 axles , brake discs and some pagid brake pads. I also got the gasket set for the m42.I got a set of cheapest VAG coils of amazon to see how they fit. I think i will whip something to retain the coils. Once that thing moves out of garage under it own power and suspension aligns I will replace all el cheapo parts with something of better quality.
I spent some bucks on the Radium FPR and it fits beautifully with the nuke fuel rail.
Next:
Finish the fuel system: I got PTFE lines and fpr AND now its time for Flex fuel sensor and some AN fittings
Finish the steering: I ordered woodward u-joints and will need to whip a steering shaft. I still have to mount the column in final position. And lastly will need to sort the tie rod situation. I am thinking shorted e90 inners and e36 outers?
Engine: I have a second m42 which was sitting (covered) outside for almost 3 years. Damn squirrel lived in that thing for two years before I chased her out of there and sprayed 2 cans of pb blaster into the motor. It made very interesting, kind of crunchy noises when turning so I am pretty sure that it will work great. I got a gasket set for it and I am ready to dingleberry the shit out of the cylinders if needed and re-ring the pistons.
Who knows maybe it will make it to the Vintage
Beginning of the new fusebox
New fusebox
And the guts : power first
And the outputs
Radlok for incoming power: This thing is well........... very rad. Possibly best power connector I've seen so far
Finished product with chassis harness attached. Still need to shrink the boots but first will need to test and verify all circuits. I already found horn connected to the radiator fan output and vice versa. Hooooooonk you overheated
FPR. works really well with Nuke rail. Looks like this part was meant for m42 with my manifold
Chinesium coils
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