The Roundie - 1973 BMW 2002

[bwwaaaa]

True Progress

I finally have real progress photos to share. First I start with more parts collecting however, as that seems to be tradition for this build thread. I picked up AKG Motorsport's shifter and DSSR. Ultimately this may seem like an unnecessary step at this stage, but we're going to be adding some captive nuts under the shifter opening so the shifter can easily be removed from the cabin of the car. As a result, I had to order it in so my fabricator could work on that part. I have to say, this is a serious piece of hardware, I'm so impressed with the quality. I also picked up a Wilwood reservoir for my clutch fluid, as the plastic bottle was faded, ugly and frankly not cutting it. Again, I needed this so we could find an appropriate place to mount it.

Now for the really fun part, cutting and welding has finally started on the 2002. This is a small example of what is going on. I've talked a lot about how this car felt rushed or just slapped together, and it's details like this that drive that point home. When they cut out the radiator support to fit the M20, they left a large piece of jagged metal in the bay. This was finally cut flush, and the seam is getting welded shut. Likewise bracket shaving began with the poorly designed AFM carrier. You can see what a world of difference it makes in the before and after below.

Before


After

This is the general approach that I'm taking the the whole engine bay. Does the engine need to float in place? No, not at all. But realistically I don't want to be embarrassed to pop my hood and show the M20 off. Plus it makes it a lot safer to work on, I cut my arm pretty badly on that jagged metal once before. So win-win I suppose. This progress will continue over the next couple of weeks. He's going to keep cutting, welding, filling and so on, until it's ready to send off to paint. But just seeing this one little bit done makes me excited for the next stages.

[DawsonLiri]

Side note, I'm hunting for some new wheels. Thinking of going way more aggressive, and way lower. If you have a lead on any Weds Bavaria (Albino Fins), H&Bs, or somehow a set of 4x100 Star Sharks, let me know.

My man!
Find some Star Sharks in 4x100 I think is almost to impossible, but I may have found you some Albino, I'll shoot you a DM.

[bwwaaaa]

Worse Before Better

It seems like every project meets some sort of random parts wall at some point. That is to say, you end up waiting for ages for parts to arrive, things are difficult to source, or you end up with the wrong parts entirely. That has been the case for the last few weeks for me. I’ll try to tackle things in order and get everyone up to speed.

So you may remember last year I bought a beefier version of the radiator I currently had in the car. This was in an effort to keep the poor 2002 a little cooler in the hot summer months. However once we started going down the rabbit hole of shaved bay, and systems deletes, that radiator became non-viable. I also purchased a Radium Expansion Tank, that is likewise useless. The part itself is great, but for my purposes needlessly complicated.

Purchased, assembled and immediate regret. Not using this wonderful piece anymore.

The solution? Capped radiator. Since I am deleting the heater, the expansion tank loop becomes a bit redundant. Some measuring and scrolling through Summit later, and I found this unit. I couldn’t tell you what car it normally lives on, but I can tell you it fits perfectly between the frame rails of a 2002.

I also ordered an M20 header flange, because we decided to make a header from scratch. Off the shelf options for M20s simply don’t clear the 2002 steering linkage. Problem one, no one in the US seems to still make this flange. Problem two, after finding an international company who makes a flange, it took ages to arrive from Bulgaria. Problem three, it was warped to hell. I don’t want to put the company on blast, but it is frustrating to wait all that time for a fairly ruined piece.

On a more positive note, my wiring harness came back from modifications. At it’s core, it’s mostly my stock E30 wiring harness, however it’s been freshened up, reloomed, and most importantly modified for my standalone. I’ll be running an ECUmasters EMU Classic, and the plugs have been swapped out to accommodate ECUmasters sensors and ECU. I also had a few areas extended to help with the tucking plans.

Now onto the physical car itself. My fabricator has been working on the radiator support. Now that he has the right radiator in, he cut a pretty sizable chunk out of the bottom of the nose to sink the radiator into the chassis. He also finished cutting the shock towers flush and welding the seams.

You may notice a bar peaking in the edge of those photos. Progress has started on the radiator support. When you cut the nose of a 2002, you are cutting a structural piece out. As a result, you have to put some sort of tie in back in. For my car, this will double as the radiator mount, hood mount, oil cooler mount and so on. Additionally, and perhaps needlessly complicating things, it will be removable. I will be able to unbolt this bar from the car if necessary. The fabricator bent it to fit the nose of my car, and cut out some end plates to start the process of fitting it.

Hopefully within the next week or two the radiator support will be all welded up and ready to go. We’ll be adding ducting, and some vanity panels to help hide this all as well. I’m also now looking into just painting the whole car. I realize this is another jump in project scale, but it’s going to be so close to being perfect for me after this stage, that paint would just be the icing on the cake. I’ll have to figure out how that will work exactly, but it’s something I really want to finally tackle.

[gnmzl]

Good work, happy you chose the EMU Classic. Looks like we bought the same ecu about the same time.
Excited to see the next steps on your 2002

[Fruttolo]

Let me know how you like the EMU classic as it's the same ecu I'm looking to get for mine
Really nice work in the front, your fab dude seems to know what he does for sure

[bwwaaaa]

Good work, happy you chose the EMU Classic. Looks like we bought the same ecu about the same time.
Excited to see the next steps on your 2002

Thanks! I ended up going with that on the recommendation of RHD. I figured since they make the ITB kit, I should probably go with whatever they say works best with it haha. That said, I like a lot of the features that system has at the price point. Kind of hard to beat.

Let me know how you like the EMU classic as it's the same ecu I'm looking to get for mine
Really nice work in the front, your fab dude seems to know what he does for sure

He's doing great work. Shameless plug for him, here's his instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/dauerhaftfab/

I'll keep you posted on the EMU, it'll be a while until I actually get this car running. With discussion of full paint now happening, I probably won't be up and running for at least a year haha.

[DawsonLiri]

Damn, that flange looks like a Banana!

Big up for your boy, let me borrow him for some time

[stormtro0perN]

so damn sexy

[DUTCHswift]

so damn sexy

You should fix your signature or just resize the photos to smaller versions so it doesn't look like you're posting your car photos on others threads. Cool ride though.

[stormtro0perN]

You should fix your signature or just resize the photos to smaller versions so it doesn't look like you're posting your car photos on others threads. Cool ride though.

Now i think its better

[bianchini]

Worse Before Better

The solution? Capped radiator. Since I am deleting the heater, the expansion tank loop becomes a bit redundant. Some measuring and scrolling through Summit later, and I found this unit. I couldn’t tell you what car it normally lives on, but I can tell you it fits perfectly between the frame rails of a 2002.

What radiator is this?

[bwwaaaa]

What radiator is this?

I replied to your PM as well, but in case anyone else is interested:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/wil-260-12697

[CH00k]

I just read through this entire thread. Looks really good man!! I need to get started on my sahara roundie.

[Nike_100]

I love these old Bimmers, very nice build!

[bwwaaaa]

Front End Work

With all the Miata updates in my other thread, it’d be fair to think I forgot about my 2002. I haven’t given up on this car, it’s just been slow going. My friend, and fabricator for this leg of the project, got injured at work and was out of commission for a few weeks. So priority was low on this project for a while. However he’s knocked out some stunning work so far.

Front end out of the car

The biggest thing he’s been working on is this new front end support. 2002s have a structural portion in the nose of the car, and it’s required to cut it out to fit an M20 in the car. The previous owner had cut the structure out, however didn’t put any new reinforcement in. Most M20 swapped cars put a simple bar across the top and call it good, but... I didn’t want simple.

In place

My biggest request was to have the support be bolt in. The logic being that having it be removable will make future engine service be easier. By removing the whole support, it clears up a lot of room to pull an engine out. Realistically, I know the engine will be out a few more times over the course of this car’s life, so it’s best to plan for that sort of thing.

Center tie ins

Another thing we discussed was adding the frame rail tie-ins. The stock sheet metal did run down to the frame rails and although you really only need to brace the towers together, it felt like a missed opportunity not putting the center supports in as well. This width allows for the radiator to sit in between as well. This gives the whole front end a great deal more strength.

He also took the opportunity to make a new bracket for my clutch reservoir bottle. I’m moving to this Wilwood unit, but the mounting hardware was just a hair too big for the stock bracket. He made a new bracket that mounts in the same place, and even has the same weld patterns. Once painted you’d hardly know it wasn’t the stock mounting location.

He also removed one of the rear brackets on the firewall. This held some useless relays that were no longer used on the car. They interfered with the rear most trumpet on my ITB setup, he chopped it off.

This week the trans mounts are getting addressed and I think the engine is finally coming out. The hood will be brought to him to work on the latch supports, and some other bits will be shaved/reinforced. Once this is all taken care of, it’s back to my house for some other improvements before I send it off to get the bay painted. Whether or not the rest of the car gets painted yet, that’s TBD. It will eventually, but life priorities>dream car sometimes. I don’t like it either but a clean bay and ratty car is better than nothing at all!