Damn these look great.
I also have amassed the parts I'll need to run a hydraulic clutch on the T5, using a Datsun slave cylinder as outlined in Laminar's E36 302 build...
Got a lot done today. Started by running the clutch hard line, looked at what it will take to make a hydraulic clutch mount.
Moved to the front after that, finished the 5 lug swap, installed steel braided brake lines, and swapped the stock steering rack for a Z3 2.7 lock to lock rack.
Found a pinhole leak in the oil pan, Already have the new pan here so I'll work on that sometime in the near future.
Next on the agenda will be reinforcing the 318ti rear subframe I have, that way I can finish the 5 lug swap. I also want to reinforce the spare front subframe I have, possibly do a tube setup similar to Arc Asylum, I can have the tube bent at work. Will think about that.
Radiator arrived last night, looks great.
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Checked it loosely in front of the car, looks like it will work, will come down a bit low, but not lower than the oil pan. Picture obviously not at install height
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Might work on fitting that this weekend. I'm going to wind up needing hood pins if this works out, as I'll have to remove the hood latch up front to fit it. I'm going to use the AeroCatch hood pins I think.
Finally got some time between rain... Welded the castors onto my welding table, and tack welded my new oil pan to it so this time it won't deform while I'm modifying it. Started hacking, and welded an inner support to the oil pan, will give me some metal to weld to in that corner, hopefully make it less likely to burn through.
That's when I ran out of argon. Gonna have to pick some up tomorrow. A storm also started building up.
Ordered the JagsThatRun Heavy-duty driveshaft flange for BMW V8 engine swaps, as well as a Spicer yoke for the transmission end. Will have a driveshaft built that uses 1310 u-joints, going to try to get it in queue at a local shop this week.
The XE282HR is popular with the 347 guys, it might be a liiiittle wild for a stock 302. But if you have to have that idle chop...I have one sitting on my shelf, I intended to use it for a 393 build, but may go custom. We'll see.
Do it before final assembly. Pulling the timing cover once the oil pan is installed gets sketchy, you risk tearing the oil pan gasket and dropping timing cover gasket material into the oil pan. Do it once, do it right.I don't remember which position I put the cam timing at, just kind of picked one and figured I can change it later.
I assume you're not pulling the heads to check for piston-to-valve clearance. That cam has quite a bit of lift and duration, I'd be at least a little scared of it getting close, though the P valves aren't that big. What springs are you running?
If you haven't seen my build, I did an Explorer 302 with Megasquirt and LS coils, I may be able to help if you have questions.
I'm running the springs that come with that cam kit, forget the specs.
I'm using a Felpro molded rubber/steel gasket, not that worried about tearing it. I actually finished up the new oil pan this weekend, so I'll be removing that again soon.
I'll eventually get a set of high flowing heads, just not in the already bloated budget right now.
I'll stick an inspection scope down the spark plug hole and see how things look.
Last edited by AdamBath; 10-16-2018 at 10:55 AM.
Yeah, I ran the same gasket and it tore when I tried to pull my timing cover to do a cam swap without pulling the oil pan. No prob, I can just RTV that. I ended up pulling the oil pan anyway, and managed to find bits of timing cover gasket and sand down in the oil pan even though I thought I had protected it well.
Got some work in today. First thing I did was put an endoscope down a spark plug hole to make sure there was no contact between the valves and the pistons. So far so good.
Then I started working on the fan and radiator. The fan is from a Ford Fusion (thanks Laminar for the idea).
Have about an inch of clearance.
So started working on the radiator. Welded in some metal that I could use to actually mount the radiator. Still a work in progress, but a good start.
And the radiator sitting in its new home.
I had to cut a hole in the top of the core support for the fill hole, but that's not a big deal. I also had to remove the hood latch, I'll patch in some new metal next time. Need to go grab some self etching primer, don't want this stuff to rust.
Looks like the same fan I have! You have the metal control box, right? This thing doesn't mess around, it moves a lot of air.
Yep got the whole shindig, and there are plenty more at the junkyard if I ever need them I figured if you could fit one in your E36 I could finagle one into my E30. Moving the radiator is an interesting experiment, still need to finalize the mounting on that. I need to get more time to actually work on this thing.
My drivers side core support and frame rail are a little more banged up than I originally thought, not sure how that's going to work out. Maybe I should weld in some replacement metal from a good car...
I'm not a great welder, but I'm pretty happy with how this came out.
Have a lot more reinforcements to weld in, but this is a decent start.
I'm no welder, part deux...
Welded in the camber/toe adjustment setup for the rear subframe, then rust converted and primed.
Productive weekend. I finished the replacement oil pan and primed it, need to do a top coat with engine enamel. It's ugly, but it doesn't leak, I left it sitting with water in it for over an hour.
I also started taking the trailing arms apart, got one fully disassembled, started to strip it, and welded on the reinforcements. I welded the plate reinforcement top and bottom... My welds aren't too awesome, somehow I can color in the lines but can't weld a straight bead to save my life. I tried going over the first bead again, and it just wound up more crooked, and got some porosity...
Oh well. I still have another one to do, maybe it'll come out better. Need to prime and paint this one, but have one more small plate to do. A buddy gave me some tips to improve my welding, so I'll practice that before I tackle the second arm.
Was busy most of the day, but went out and welded in another small reinforcement on the rear trailing arm. I'm happier with this one.
Got the other trailing arm stripped down, now need to clean it up and prep it for welding. Will probably do that tomorrow.
Finished welding the trailing arm and got everything primed with etching primer and painted black.
Still have a bunch of parts I need:
Wheel bearings
E46 rear brake caliper adapter
E46 rear brake calipers
E46 rear brake pads
Z4 rear rotors
All E-brake parts
Brake lines
Brake dust shields, both sides (were very rusted out, the E-brake parts just broke right off the shields)
So won't have the rear end together any time soon. I think I'm going to shift my focus to the front subframe now, need to pull the one out of my 86...
Pulled the front subframe from my spare E30 today, managed to do it without even getting under the car. A good thing, as it's been raining and was really muddy under there.
Going to be attempting a tubular front subframe for this, may even try to run a rear sump oil pan on the V8...
Lots of driving today, roughly 6 hours total. Took a trip to Houston to help a guy pull the driveline out of a 92 3 series vert, in exchange he allowed me to cut off the core support for my own car. Removing the core support made engine removal super easy anyways.
Going to make the core on my V8 E30 removable, might try to get that going this weekend, but have a lot of other stuff around the house to do, so who knows.
My HOA finally got on me about this car... Have to get it in the garage. I'm going to put it in with the front towards the outside so every time I open my garage my neighbors have to look at it.
Unfortunately back to having no time to touch this build, I'm working 15hrs a day 7 days a week with my side business picking up now.
It's in the garage now, ugly as ever for the neighbors to hate.
Took some vacation time for the holidays, finally made some progress.
Picked up this chop saw at the flea market for $75, will help when doing the exhaust:
Picked up this carb setup, looking to simplify things for the time being, so I can actually figure out what this car is instead of continuing to go in aimlessly:
Cut the core support off so I can make the replacement removeable, as well as installed the carb setup:
Tested the fitment of the front strut bar, will clear the carb setup without issue:
Here's the new air filter:
I pulled the rear end out to replace with my modified setup and a 3.46LSD:
And finally, the custom driveshaft has been made!
Minor stuff today... Started mocking up the alternator and power steering pump, which meant relocating the dipstick tube and engine ground. Relocated the engine ground to the alternator mount.
Installed the breathers and the put the new distributor in place. Found out the 14" filter I purchased won't fit, so bought a 12" in the same style.
Then, since I bought a second set of BBK shorty headers, installed the correct passenger side header. However, I found I had to clearance the firewall to get it to go.
Looked at some other things like the clutch slave cylinder, still not sure how I'm going to accomplish that right now.
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