Ski's M20 build thread

[lasvegascop]

Sure, I can do that, +$20?

Sweet!

[alpina323c1]

Hi there Brother !!! thanks for the email in regards the pics , I have tried that as you have mentioned and copied and pasted that link but still not letting me do it , I'll keep on trying till it works ..... on an other note love the work you are doing , man that is awesome work big fan and she's coming up great , you should be proud of it ... very inspiring and encouraging .
I'm of to the garage to do some work on my old girl , thanks for your help and advise ...

[lasvegascop]

Hi there Brother !!! thanks for the email in regards the pics , I have tried that as you have mentioned and copied and pasted that link but still not letting me do it , I'll keep on trying till it works ..... on an other note love the work you are doing , man that is awesome work big fan and she's coming up great , you should be proud of it ... very inspiring and encouraging .
I'm of to the garage to do some work on my old girl , thanks for your help and advise ...

Thnx man.....

You have to paste the link then submit the post. The pic won't show up untill it's posted....that's how I post what you see in my thread


Continuing with the thread:

I managed to fab a nice fuel filter holder in the stock location with stock materials....even used OEM fuel hose too.....one had to been modivied tho




Here is a picture before I got the new fuel hose cramped and before I put the half shafts on




I used a high pressure, high performance, high volume fuel pump, so the secondary setup was not necessary....here is the comparison between the old pump vs new pump. I used all OEM stuff....had to solder in a smaller diameter tube to the existing one to make sure the rubber hose fits to the pump due to a smaller opening


The rear of the fuel system is complete, now the front is done too. Darn those SS lines are freaking expansive!! But it looks and functions good...
I didnt want to just leave the ends of the SS line open, so I heat shrinked the ends to protect the ends from damaging and injuring any fingers...


Today, I finally got the other end of the drive shaft bolted in....sooo Im done with the drivetrain for sure!! Finally

The drive shaft was shortened 4 inches and now it sits perfectly....whewwwwww. Measuring it all by yourself it was a pain, it really made me feel my age hahahahah

I was very sore the next day but the hard work is all done....specially underneath the car...

Brand new Guibo and center bearing...all OEM BMW...picked it up on eBay really cheap! I cant believe it.... got lucky


Before you start asking...yes, I had to relocate the center bearing holding bracket that is welded to the body. So more cutting with the grinder, then welding the same brackets in....that took a half a day....had to make it a perfect fit. After all, this is a very important piece of this puzzle...

[Bimmerod]

Curious about the "New" Rear Track Width after the change.

Not sure if this is accurate but I saw the e28 is 1470mm wide and the e21 is 1400mm wide.

Just wondering how this will affect the wheel selection on the e21 after the conversion.
35mm wider on each side ....does that mean a new offset of 47 ?

what does that do to the offset ?
what wheel options are available ? anything period correct ?

Is this going from one extreme (ET12) to another (ET47)

I know you will be posting up some info on the front conversion soon. Just wondering what kind of effect that has had on the offset in front.
Is it simliar changes to the Front as it was in the Rear ?

Still would like to know how the offset changes with the e12 hubs up front if anyone knows ?

What are your plans for the Rear Swaybar ?

On the e28 it is behind the axle and mounted to the underside of the body. I don't think there is any room for that type of setup but I don't really know how it lines up with everything actually in the e21.

Just wondering how that part fits into the equation ?

Keep all the pics and details coming......love the info

Thanks again,

Bimmerod

[lasvegascop]

Yuppers...you are correct 35mm on each side, that's 1 3/8" ....that's why I used 47mm offset, which put the wheel inward...making the stance really nice in my conservative opinion. Please refer to pic in post #14.

I am not sure about the aftermarket wheel selection, but my very short search in that field revealed that there's plenty available!! I will be looking into 16" wheels too....

That's down the road, I'm not looking for that upgrade yet, but down the road for sure.

Ref the sway bar? I am thinking that thru as we speak. I do have the E30 and E28 sway bars...If I try to put the E28 in, a little hump will hit the darn spare wheel area. If I use E30's, then I will have to reweld the mountings on the trailing arms...Also, the E30's bar is thinner....we will see man....right now, I am sooooo concentrated on just getting the girl started and purring. I hope you understand?

Today I got the calipers rebuild and painted....I just got one done due to lack of time and the woman wanted a date...I tell ya!

So I went from this


To this....this 900 deg caliper paint looks really good! I love the bright red...reminds me of the BREMBO color I got on the Ferrari

[epmedia]

She's a beauty :drool
Try to get a tad more slack on that OE fuel hose at the filter outlet

[lasvegascop]

She's a beauty :drool
Try to get a tad more slack on that OE fuel hose at the filter outlet

Yeah I know what you mean about the hose....it's the eom one and I can't stretch it anymore....the good thing about it that's it's almost 30 yrs old and the rubber is a bit harder. Otherwise it would kink and block the fuel flow. I have a feeling that I will be replacing it anyways, but that's down the road bit....

Thnx for noticing it brother....

[gsumzzz]

nice aches and pains- just lived that drivetrain/rear disassemble, clean, replace & paint world. now having those good pains with the engine. great work vegas! don't stay up too late. sure hope that you have an understanding woman. keep it going.

[alpina323c1]

Hi there lasvagascop , how are you brother ????
those calipers look awesome , they are the same colour as mine but I noticed that your calipers are different to mine , What are they ?????

let me tell you brother , love the work you do , wish I could do that kind of work.
your car is turning out awesome and I admire the craftmenship of all your fabrication ...
keep up the good work ,

[charbel]

that is some great great work. i love the work on the rear end. :-) great job

[lasvegascop]

So since I'm working right now on some other things...I'll post some pics of the OEM oil cooler installation

This unit came with the M20 engine, which I believe it comes with all the 325/525i's except the eta models. I guess eta's don't rev as much therefore don't generate as much heat internally?

View from the right....the tube that runs behind the cooler had to been cut and welded a little shorter. The angle was also changed to fit perfectly into the E21's crevasses hahahaha


I even welded in a tab so I could secure it to the body. I didnt want it to be vibrating and causing eyesores with chipped paint...


Came out right there...had to fab a nice hose and professionally crimped it clears the AC compressor just fine...whewwwwwwwwwwww




Left side of the cooler....this was also easy to fit....cut n weld...




Modifying the throttle cable.....

I went with the stock configuration. Used brand new E30 cable too...

Comparing the E30 to E21 throttle pedal mechanism....very simple and very similar




So after some measuring....this is what I came up with. I used a hood hinge off of a junked E21, then welded that piece to the stock E21 assembly



This is what it looks like under the dash



All this hooked up perfectly and it works like oem...




I had to fab new vent line from the tank to the purge canister....no sweat. Brand new, in new location...came out nice!

[Abysalone]

great....now i have to clean my keyboard......

Beautiful work man. Cant wait to hear it go, that rear end will be a blessing.

[bmac320i]

Your doing a awesome job.

[jjgbmw323]

Yeap - just awesome - and thanks for making me the same part.

I am pimping out my 323i and the 3.0 liter is going in soon, your thread is inspirational to me...keep up the good work....

[lasvegascop]

Thnx gents....I'm gonna try to finish all the calipers this week. They need tons of cleaning, painting then baking for an hour...

[cheap320i]

Drool.
My car will now be living vicariously through your car.

[BastardE38]

Great job man! question: in your last update post (#36) what is that metal pipe that you are bending go to? from where to where?

[lasvegascop]

Great job man! question: in your last update post (#36) what is that metal pipe that you are bending go to? from where to where?

That's the new vent tube that goes to the purge canister. E21 has it running under the passenger side of the car, to the front then across under the radiator to the canister. Mine was rusted to crap so I decided to just make a new one. Plus the purge canister is right under the MAF's location, the whole thing is actually shorter and looks way better. It's necessary to have if you want to conform to the smog regulations

I hope this answers your question?






I also got the brake booster hooked up to the manifold...wanted to make this as clean as possible...hopefully it will work?


As you can see, its all oem BMW hardware....I use as much as possible....Im probably sitting at around 98% oem stuff.

So in the early 90's, there was an article in Hot Rod mag and others how to modify the plenum for the Camaro to scrape up couople extra horsepower. The idea was to eliminate the circulation of the hot coolant thru the plenum.
Well, I looked at the BMW plenum and decided to do the same thing. I live in a hot climate as it is and I dont need the darn plenum to get hotter as it is!!!

[amarino]

Oh man I just realized you're in Vegas, I'd love to see this in person next time I'm in town!

[lasvegascop]

Anybody from the legion is more then welcome to drop me a line and swing by...plenty of beer and stories ...we are all brothers!!!!

[alpina323c1]

Yuppers...you are correct 35mm on each side, that's 1 3/8" ....that's why I used 47mm offset, which put the wheel inward...making the stance really nice in my conservative opinion. Please refer to pic in post #14.

I am not sure about the aftermarket wheel selection, but my very short search in that field revealed that there's plenty available!! I will be looking into 16" wheels too....

That's down the road, I'm not looking for that upgrade yet, but down the road for sure.

Ref the sway bar? I am thinking that thru as we speak. I do have the E30 and E28 sway bars...If I try to put the E28 in, a little hump will hit the darn spare wheel area. If I use E30's, then I will have to reweld the mountings on the trailing arms...Also, the E30's bar is thinner....we will see man....right now, I am sooooo concentrated on just getting the girl started and purring. I hope you understand?

Today I got the calipers rebuild and painted....I just got one done due to lack of time and the woman wanted a date...I tell ya!

So I went from this


To this....this 900 deg caliper paint looks really good! I love the bright red...reminds me of the BREMBO color I got on the Ferrari

those calipers look insane and the colour looks similar to the one I painted mine , ( VHT engine paint is what I used and I think it's called hotrod red ) Ummmmmmm that sounds like a frasefrom Ironman ........
Also what calipers are they??????? there different to mine !!!!!
cheers Alpina323c1 ( Horacio)

[Jester323]

Hey Ski, have you checked the clearance between your headers & that new oil filter location? Seems like I had a real issue with that on mine... I ended up taking it off for now because I didn't have the right hose fittings & blew an oil line loose going down the road. Your install looks much better than mine though.

[lasvegascop]

those calipers look insane and the colour looks similar to the one I painted mine , ( VHT engine paimtis what I used and I think it's called hotrod red ) Ummmmmmm that sounds like a frasefrom Ironman ........
Also what calipers are they??????? there different to mine !!!!!
cheers Alpina323c1 ( Horacio)

Those calipers are stock that came with the E28 rear end. Notice the 5 stud hub

Hope this answers your question?

Hey Ski, have you checked the clearance between your headers & that new oil filter location? Seems like I had a real issue with that on mine... I ended up taking it off for now because I didn't have the right hose fittings & blew an oil line loose going down the road. Your install looks much better than mine though.

Hey Jes....

Yeah man, I was actually going to use stock exhaust, maybe after I get her running and painted I'll mess with headers etc. The filter position is where the E30 has it stock....right?
Ref the oil cooler...I actually used your idea and was gonna run with it but I had the welder out and went to town! Haha...it came out ok huh? Where did your oil line bust? Gotta check mine but I got my lines cramped really well...so if anything the welds will break. Got all new O rings too so I'm hoping I should be ok? Knock on wood!

[OLD MAN]

What tranny is in the car now?

[lasvegascop]

That's the Getrag 260 and 3.46 LSD rear.

Why? What were you thinking?