m_jermyns build *motor in*

[m_jermyn]

Today I had a little spare time and thought I would fix a dent from a branch that fell from the tree the other week.. To fix this dent it required me to remove the headlight grill...

I saw some surface rust in the headlight mounts, bugger cant have that as I wont sleep thinking about it. This is as rusty as they get here in sunny Australia

The rusty bracket


Selection of wire wheels, rust converter and scotchbrite


Most the surface rust gone


Bit of paint


Re assembled


Assembled and cavity waxed so it will never rust again (hard to see the wax)


Back in place with cavity wax on the front too.


Now I have to do the other side

Mike

[CHR1S1990]

Today I had a little spare time and thought I would fix a dent from a branch that fell from the tree the other week

very nice work mate. did you get round to the dent after alllll that rust?

[m_jermyn]

Yeah dent fixed in about 5 minutes, Did a big job on the E30 this weekend, pics to come...

[poolnoodle]

Looking good Mike, makes me want to strip down my 2.3 for some TLC....hmmm, need a bigger house first, can't have two cars "in progress" simultaneously.....M10 first then I'll progress to M20

[AlpineAde]

Mike, where'd the headers come from? They look a little like the units a guy from Victoria pieces together....

[m_jermyn]

Ok last weekend I sat on my ass and did nothing...... I almost died of boredom, so this weekend I made sure I had something to do.

Chromie up on a hoist.... Why you say?


For a little spring cleaning, gotta say looks pretty good under here for a 23 year old car... BMW did a great job on these things.


Drivers side rear wheel well


Passenger side rear wheel well


As good as this is its not up to standard and I want this bugger to last another 23 years. Out comes the degreaser and high pressure hose.

The result is this.



Now look at that just the way it rolled off the factory floor gleaming and not a single little bit of rust anywhere to be seen.. I bet you UK boys and girls are jealous right? This really shows you what salt does to cars.

But still not content with this, I came armed with this.


Its vehicle underbody spray that protects against stone chips and also provides a water proof barrier.

First job was to mask everything up... Didnt take any photos of this as its a little boring.

First up was the drivers rear wheel well..


(whats this thing for hiding under the cover?)


Passenger rear wheel well..


Boot floor and Spare wheel well..


Various shots




Rear end now complete....


Stay tuned for the next under floor update the front.. Wont be next week as it my birthday.. (hopefully I get my Friggen parts im waiting for.. Now wouldnt that be a nice bday present)

Mike

[bobbin1982]

This reminds me i really need to strip my ynderseal off and apply with new as its all peeling of like rubber...

Excellent thread mate , I love a thread with inspiration


Andy

[E30BeemerLad]

Damn your climate, why can't my turd be like that underneath

Resto/rebuild threads are the best

[m_jermyn]

Thanks for the positive comments guys.

[Blitz]

I want to clean my underside. Just need a ramp and a pressure washer.

[poolnoodle]

I want to clean my underside. Just need a ramp and a pressure washer.

+1
The job doesn't sound like much fun on axle stands

[Greeny]

I did this on my cabby and ended up blowing a hole in my fuel tank, not a good day, althought it meant i could replace the rear beam bushes and the brake pipe over the tank.

[m_jermyn]

Well it was my Birthday yesterday saturday... Rather then sit back and bask in my excellence I decided I should do a bit more on the chromie.

So time for another clean underneath to get any new crud off that formed since last week and also to go over any spot I may of missed.

I was also alway that the jacking points were a little crushed so I would be fixing them aswell. However I forgot to take a before photo... They were crushed alot more then I thought. Why they call them jacking points I have no idea, no E30 should be jacked up from these.

Drivers rear was the only one I got a before pic off... It was the least damaged aswell.


I have started to straiten the drivers front


Bit of bending here and there. Its far easier to pull them strait and start again. This makes sure you can get all the surface rust out. If you dont straiten it you will get left over rust in the corners.


Now bending the angle back into it.... I have cleaned up the surface rust with some wire wheels, seaweed disks and dioxidine.


After this it got a prime and seal. (forgot to take a pic)

And now it gets some chip guard to finish the job



Passenger front

Before

After


Rear was pretty much the same process

Was everything is clean the masking begins


End result..


Last thing to do is clean under the fuel tank... You can see I have done one side above.. I also have to clean the rear cradle cross members and anything else that looks mucky.

I will be doing under the front wheel arches next week.

By for now

[poolnoodle]

Damn I need a vehicle hoist

[Alex]

I want to clean my underside. Just need a ramp and a pressure washer.

+1
The job doesn't sound like much fun on axle stands

i did that with axel stands, i got very wet

[Ollie_bwoii]

Nothing is fun with a jack and axle stand's.

Lovely work though Mike, a very tidy shell.

[Eddie25]

Superb. Love the attention to detail on this car. My sills have been bent at some point in the past as well so i think i will be giving this a go.

[m_jermyn]

Ok Been doing a little bit with the engine lately.

I had to go out and buy another 325i inlet manifold as the one I purchased more then a year ago from a zoner has not yet arrived

Anyway moving on.

This thing was filthy when I got it and it looked like it had been floating around in the gulf of mexico. Oil was dripping out of it everywhere.

The 325i inlet manifold


Look at the difference between the 325i manifold and the other manifold.

Throttle body mount...... 325i on the bottom or the big hole.


Inlet ports...... Yep the 325i one is the big one on the left.


Now we move onto port matching the head to the manifold, Here I have got a thin piece of sheet aluminium 0.5mm that I have drilled a few holes into to locate with the head studs. I have then got a ball pein hammer and rolled it into the ports to make something like a cast of the ports.


Now I have to cut out the little egg cups I have created.


Now I place it back on the head to make sure its correct.


It all matched up as exactly as it should except the mangled one where the die grinder decided to buck back and attack me.. So we transfer it to the inlet manifold.


Well what do you know, it seams the ports on the 325i inlet manifold are a exact match to the ports on the 731 head... Strange this is as I thought I would definitely have to open the ports in the head to match the port on the manifold...

This is a bit weird because the LARGER 885 head is being restricted by the 325i inlet manifold so it begs the question what is the point in the 885 head if its strangled for air?

Either way this is good news for me as now I dont have to port match everything together as BMW already did it for me..

Now that that is out of the way I can move onto assembling the head.


Time to slide in the rocker shafts and mount the rockers.


The cam seal.. Pretty important to get this bit right as if its a little out or the seal gets damaged then there will be a oil leek.. That would really suck as it would be a ass to fix.


Head is all together now looking sweet. Its a bit fiddly but a few hours later.



Thats it for this weeks update

Mike

[m_jermyn]

Well I hit a little snag today and I am not very happy about it.

It seems that not all m20 cams are the same.. There is a small difference and its got to do with how old the motor is... As we all know the M20's that where in the 323i E30's had the dizzy off the side of the block and the new M20's have the dizzy up on the head.

So there is 2 types of pulleys

Here is the 2 types of pulley mounts.



The one on the left is from the 323I dizzy on the side motor... The one on the right is every other E30 with the dizzy on the head.. The thing with the 3 small holes in it thats resembles a three leaf clover is the dizzy mount

Now you can see the 2 holes in the front of the cam. The big hole is for the bolt that holds the pulley on, the smaller hole is for a locating dowel and ensure the pulley only goes on one way..



On the back of the Dizzy mount is a lug that slides into the big hole above where as the 323i cam has a smaller tapered big hole that wont allow the dizzy mount to locate on the cam shaft...

You can kind of see the difference, the one in the head has the tapered hole and the one on the right does not...



All this means that I cant get the pulley onto the head with this cam.... After a few hours of putting together the head I find this right at the end...

Now its either strip the head and have the hole enlarged in the cam, or what I am hoping for is the machinest can bore out the hole with out removing the cam.. (fingers crossed)

Or option 3 is find another cam with the correct hole..

And no I cant use the cam on the right as that is the original Eta cam and its not suitable for what I am doing.. (to small)

Just when I thought this engine building stuff is not really that complex. Its the little stupid things that you miss.

Mike

[m_jermyn]

On another note something made me very happy today..... I got a package from New Zealand

And in it was this...



Take not of how many Kms are showing

The package also had a small bracket in it thats not nearly as exciting so I didnt take a pic..

Cheers to Willnz for sending me the package, you are the greatest

[StuBeeDoo]

the ports on the 325i inlet manifold are a exact match to the ports on the 731 head... Strange this is as I thought I would definitely have to open the ports in the head to match the port on the manifold...

Am I reading this right??
You're saying that the 325i manifold is already a match with the 731 ports without any machining?
I need to do some investigating here - I've got a spare 731, spare 325i inlet manifold and a new set of gaskets.
I wish I'd checked this for myself before building my engine instead of taking people's word for it.

I'm away out to the garage now.

[m_jermyn]

You are reading that 100% correct, it surprised me aswell.

I was sure I would have to take out some material from the head but not so....

The funny thing is BMW never fitted the 325i inlet to a 731 head but it fits perfect.

Mike

[StuBeeDoo]

OK, so this is what I found. IMHO, a little relieving to the roof of the port will be required, but not as much as I was lead to believe. I'd read various reports of anything from 1mm to 3+mm all round the periphery.

Surprisingly, the manifold needs a little off the floor of the runner as well. Although, I suppose a small step would reduce back flow (if there is any).





Question now is, is it safe to relieve the 'head with it still on the engine? Stuffing oily rags in the ports to catch the swarf, or something like that.
I had been thinking about cutting-up 320i and 325i manifolds and getting bits welded together to get the 325i TB to fit the 320i manifold to fit 100% properly. Looks like relieving the inlet ports and fitting the 325i manifold is the easier option providing I don't have to take the 'head off the engine again.

[m_jermyn]

To be honest mate I dont think that tiny bit of metal will make any difference at all...

I have heard of people stuffing oily rags down there to do this and as long as you are careful I cant see a problem... Its like one draw of the file and the metal will be gone.. Its amazing how close they are hey?

I will have another look at mine tomorrow and post some pics for you..

Mike

[m_jermyn]

Ok I got my little problem with the cam fixed. I took it to the machinest and he simply milled it out a bit...

As you can see I got the cam pulley on now..

[m_jermyn]

This weekend I decided I should get some engine parts painted. I cant screw the rest of the motor together until they are painted.

So we have the cam cover.. Yes this is the second time I have done this as I was not really happy with it last time. Here I have it in etch primer and I have polished the raised ribs. I hate masking...



Here it is based up and the fine line tape (blue tape) has been removed.



And now it gets some clear over the whole lot.. Out side in the sun.



Now we move on to the inlet manifold... Well to be honest I did them at the same time. Masked up the polished bits



And fully painted gleaming in the sun.



Its alot brighter then anticipated but it does look nice... I want it to look original under the bonnet but leaving the cast alloy would mean it would eventually turn yellow at some time so I thought I would paint it silver that way it would last forever.. I couldnt help myself in polishing the raised bits.

Thats it for this weekend.

Mike

[poolnoodle]

Looking good Mike - the inlet manifold and cam cover are two jobs I need to do...'02 is taking up all my time now.
I was thinking black wrinkle finish with polished highlights but I like the look of yours - more original Don't really want ot have to strip everything if I'm not happy with results. Might need to source a spare cam cover to experiment on.

[Alpina99]

Love reading this thread, each time something new is added I just start again at the beginning,
Nice work, keep the updates coming,

[m_jermyn]

Thanks guys getting positive comments helps with the motorvation

[Royalratch]

Nice detail on all the work.

[shimsheemer]

I neeeeeeeeeeed a cam cover and inlet manifold just like that...

...does anyone know if there's a chap on here that still does this? If I remember right there used to be a guy that did it?...

Lovely in the silver, sweet work!

[StuBeeDoo]

I wish I had had the enthusiasm (and the time) to detail my engine parts when I did my rebuild. All my engine got was a good clean.
I've got a spare cam cover and inlet manifold here that I've got good intentions of painting....... Getting 'round to doing it is going to be the hardest part. Trouble with me is that all the time the bonnet's shut, it's out of sight, out of mind.

Chapeaux au loin dude.

[toby]

Chuffed for you that the pulley on the end of the camshaft! Thanks for an enjoyable read.

[m_jermyn]

Just a teaser,

couldnt help myself I had to have a look what it would all look like




Mike

[poolnoodle]

Sweet
That really looks the nuts Mike. Hope those extractors go in OK.
You are inspiring me to get to work on my engine bay again - ordered a new coolant expansion tank today. Might have to get started when it arrives - nothing like having two cars that you can't drive sitting in the garage