Jerk side-swiped my BMW

[ForcedFirebird]

Been a while since this was updated lol.

Well got the body work on the side skirts done, ready for final sand and paint, then just last week I pulled too close to a curb after lowering the car and broke the valence again

Repaired it (again), got it installed today and the rear valence mocked-up.

Coil over conversion...



and walk around pics the other day...









Still have the spare head I will be putting on soon as I take time to mail out all these cam cores for re-grinds


Oh and Well, I found the perfect wheels!



15mm offset all around...




3/4" spacers on the rear...




Think I will do 15mm offset in the front, zero rear, these rubbed a bit on the rear with 3/4" spacers (19mm) and I haven't corrected the camber, that will make them rub more.

Now I have to either talk my buddy out of these we tested with (and get narrower spacers), or buy them for myself

More pics here...

http://s448.photobucket.com/albums/qq202/Forced_Firebird/Bimmer/

[bszopi]

Those wheels look awesome on that car, especially with the lowered stance.

[ForcedFirebird]

Seems like your a BMW fan, but it reminds me of my old collage buddy.

He scored a 1986 Mercedes 190E-16V for 1300 IIRC. triple black, evo 2 wheels. Had a toasted cluch and the rickies were torn, but excepional none the less. Now its in almost mint condition. $4K plus car for pocketchange.

Not to be rude, but those EVO 1's looked o-so nice.

Mid 80's performance cars are cool, regardless of the make.
Nice work pulled from a bad situation.

I like them, yeah. They have inline 6's and are RWD with an independent suspension, fun to drive. Really the i6 is a well balanced engine (like the 60 degree )

I work on them often here locally. Here's a swap I finished up today, it's a 1992 2.5l DOHC from a 535i..

Those wheels look awesome on that car, especially with the lowered stance.

Thanks!

[robertisaar]

i hate to say it, but MOST L6 motors i've ever dealt with were smoother than the average 660... i imagine BMWs are even more so.

and yes, those wheels with that aspect ratio of tire look absolutely menacing.

[ForcedFirebird]

Well, it looks like I am doing the 885 head swap sooner than expected due to a blown HG - Was driving home the other night and noticed the temp guage was a little high, does it all the time and have to tap the dash for it to go back where the actual temp is, but instead of going to the middle, it went to max! I was actually on my street when it happened, so I pulled in the road in front of the house and smoke was billowing from the hood. The fan belt broke and the battery light didn't light up, so I had no idea. Tried to start it this morning and it's acting like it has no compression - DOH!

Had it pulled to my shop and to start the swap and work on it between keeping customers happy. Got a side-exit water pump, but have a new timing belt, tensioner, HG, fresh i top end, crank sensor, ECU/harness etc, but I will need to get a tach is all. This sucks because I have about 5 885 cams that I was going to send over to my grinder for a re-grind before I did this, but since I have yet another spare 885 head, I will just have to build it with the new cam and swap the head out later - right now I just want to get the car back on the road. The wife drives the Excursion (four kids), so I will have to bum rides until it's done


I got her degreased...


Broken fan belt FTL...


Made in USA ROFL...


Amazingly clean internals (remember, she's only got 90k miles or so)...


Someone had a leaky cam seal


Best work bench EVER! (another e30 )


Timing belt was hanging by a thread (no pun intended lol)


She looks good for having open-heart surgery!!! she's on the best investment I ever made - a $600 used lift!

old head...



Motor...


Got to love Formula88 and Scotch-Brite





Nice thing about these parts not moving very fast is that I get to put one of each on my car, w00t! I powder-coated them satin black and polished the raised letters. Kinda like the way the ETA covers look a little better, but will probably go with the i cover...

[ForcedFirebird]

Going real slow, making everything look pretty and neat

Got the harness in...



Since I have the old style starter, had to solder the female spade connectors on the wires...



and we have an 885 heads w00t!





Maybe I'm anal, but I soaked the bolts in phosphoric acid both to clean them and give them a controlled oxide finish that will take forever to rust. They look like they are an alloy anyways lol...



Oh, and a new water pump...



Set the valve cover on...



New hose to bypass the TB, need that extra .005hp lol...



Look, it's almost an m20!

[ForcedFirebird]

Appropriate injectors...



Most people skip this step, but I have had 1 snapped timing belt and one that stripped in my shop because they torqued the tensioner too tight, ABSOLUTELY MUST BE 16ft/lbs!



Timing cover is on, crank trigger installed (not there before lol)...



and look at the difference between the 200 and 885 castings, this gasket matches the 885 almost perfect, these ports are ridiculously small haha...

[ForcedFirebird]

Well done for the night. Few more hours left. Still have to push the harness through the firewall, install TB, intake tubing, radiator, fan, weld in o2 bung close enough for the harness (or extend the wires), wire the tach to the ECU, tq the crank hub and put the accy belts in, and hopefully that's it to fire 'er up!

[loner666]

[ForcedFirebird]

lol, thanks Aaron.

Update:

After taking a weekend off from the shop and a slight mishap on Thursday, need to remember next time to disconnect the batt when working on the car, fried the harness, but got a new one Fri

Not starting right away, replaced the main relays and she fired right up once the fuel lines were full!

I must have a vacuum leak somewhere cause when I give it gas, she wants to stall. Either that or I may have the TPS off a little. Took it off the TB to give it an acid bath, but marked it pretty good, we will see. My car sounds so crazy revving to 7k (up from the previous 5k) lol. Still need to connect the tach/econoguage, push the harness through the firewall and put on the fan/hose/shroud, but am so relieved she's running!

More details/pics to come...

[ForcedFirebird]

It was the AFM, put the Motronic 1.3 AFM in it, cleared right up. Took her for a drive and all I can say is WOW what a difference. Need some shorter gears, even with the 2.93 lsd, it screams, but I haven't even been able to top out 3rd, 2nd takes me over 70 haha the speedo just climbs like mad. Feels almost as fast as my friends m50 swapped car (we used the Getrag 260 and same 2.93 diff). I have a 4.10 lsd here and am contemplating installing it, would really like a 3.73 or even a 3.42 out of a 5 series, but I'll probably use whats on hand. Looked funny going down the road in front of my shop, banging gears at ~6800rpm with no hood and the ECU tucked in the corner of the engine bay...

[robertisaar]

2nd goes to 70?

yeah, john, shorter gears are a must!

[ForcedFirebird]

1st through 2nd gear pull...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQHs1FSx_ys

[ForcedFirebird]

Kinda hard to read, but it made 134.1hp@5000rpm and 140.1tq@4000 max.

Running really lean, the operator didn't want to pull past 6400 because she was going into the 15's.

Stock 2.7 bottom end, stock air box, stock eta cat/muffler/resonator(25yrs old lol), 885 top end and Motronic 1.3 173 DME with a stock chip.

Doesn't seem like a lot of power, but it was about a 30% increase in power, little loss on tq, but either way, the car is RWD and only weighs 2775lbs lol.

[mickaz]

interresting...as fast as a 3500 powered car??