Tweet
My E21 endeavors began with a free one that had hit a deer. the engine was partially taken apart and the whole thing was trashed.
I'll post pics of it before I started parting it out if you want, but these are more exciting. This is after I sold/traded the wheels for crappy mk2 wheels, which wouldn't fit up front without removing the caliper and running them backwards. I kept the coils off this car, and I later ended up scrapping them... but it was fun to lower it in the process of getting parts off of it anyways.
this is about what the engine bay looked like
Since I didn't have a key for it, I couldn't steer it, so I used some rock crawling ingenuity to get a floor jack under it to pivot it around to get it to the front of the yard so the Junk yard people could pick it up.
I had a little more fun with the car before I was done with it
Anyways, this pile was obtained because it was more feasible to make it a driving car and have fun with it sooner, plus the front end parts alone would have cost me more to just replace on the free car. I thought this car was going to run with the stock M10, but it turned out to be seized... I didn't find this out until after I bought new plugs for it, put new oil in, and spent over $150 to get new injector pipe. (the injector pipe is still for sale for a mega discount price by the way! PM me if you're interested.) The radiator was broken at the top hose hookup too, but it was hidden by having the hose sitting over it...
anyways, before realizing that the engine was crap, I had to lower it since it was such an eye sore. wouldn't want to upset the neighbors
had to grind down the deal on the upper threaded cap piece on the strut housing to fit the free coilover sleeves. I used old toyota spring bushings as bump stops, they work great!
After choosing not to rebuild the spare 2 litre M10 that came in the trunk of the free car, I pulled out the 1.8 litre M10 to make room for the new engine.
the motor mounts consist of plating on the "frame rail" with .120 wall HREW tubing that fits poly chevy leaf spring bushings
the engine mounts in action
(the engine is a mazda 12A by the way)
custom braized fittings to run a stainless braided line so I can use the mazda slave cylinder with the BMW master cylinder. I got this done at a nice hydraulic shop.
Quick and dirty radiator mounting with rubber air box mounts from both E21's
ghetto battery switch setup (I plan to make it nicer soon)
ghetto drive line that almost killed me last september. I learned the hard way as to why the stock one had a carrier bearing. it was too small around for it's length, so it whipped and kinked (more on that later)
Dumpster rescue muffler with a home made adapter
this phase of the exhaust cost me nothing besides welding supplies.
aftermarket fuel pump
Mechanical secondaries on the carb, the free way. A lot of people use bread ties, I 1 upped them with bailing wire.
the car wasn't low at this point, but I had the oil pan at a ways above the sub frame. I have yet to hit it on anything.
some pics of it when I first got it running all ghetto like
sloppy engine bay:
and here's what I found when I took the head off the stock engine
and that concludes phase 1 of my E21 endeavors. Stay tuned for Phase 2.
I'll post pics of it before I started parting it out if you want, but these are more exciting. This is after I sold/traded the wheels for crappy mk2 wheels, which wouldn't fit up front without removing the caliper and running them backwards. I kept the coils off this car, and I later ended up scrapping them... but it was fun to lower it in the process of getting parts off of it anyways.
this is about what the engine bay looked like
Since I didn't have a key for it, I couldn't steer it, so I used some rock crawling ingenuity to get a floor jack under it to pivot it around to get it to the front of the yard so the Junk yard people could pick it up.
I had a little more fun with the car before I was done with it
Anyways, this pile was obtained because it was more feasible to make it a driving car and have fun with it sooner, plus the front end parts alone would have cost me more to just replace on the free car. I thought this car was going to run with the stock M10, but it turned out to be seized... I didn't find this out until after I bought new plugs for it, put new oil in, and spent over $150 to get new injector pipe. (the injector pipe is still for sale for a mega discount price by the way! PM me if you're interested.) The radiator was broken at the top hose hookup too, but it was hidden by having the hose sitting over it...
anyways, before realizing that the engine was crap, I had to lower it since it was such an eye sore. wouldn't want to upset the neighbors
had to grind down the deal on the upper threaded cap piece on the strut housing to fit the free coilover sleeves. I used old toyota spring bushings as bump stops, they work great!
After choosing not to rebuild the spare 2 litre M10 that came in the trunk of the free car, I pulled out the 1.8 litre M10 to make room for the new engine.
the motor mounts consist of plating on the "frame rail" with .120 wall HREW tubing that fits poly chevy leaf spring bushings
the engine mounts in action
(the engine is a mazda 12A by the way)
custom braized fittings to run a stainless braided line so I can use the mazda slave cylinder with the BMW master cylinder. I got this done at a nice hydraulic shop.
Quick and dirty radiator mounting with rubber air box mounts from both E21's
ghetto battery switch setup (I plan to make it nicer soon)
ghetto drive line that almost killed me last september. I learned the hard way as to why the stock one had a carrier bearing. it was too small around for it's length, so it whipped and kinked (more on that later)
Dumpster rescue muffler with a home made adapter
this phase of the exhaust cost me nothing besides welding supplies.
aftermarket fuel pump
Mechanical secondaries on the carb, the free way. A lot of people use bread ties, I 1 upped them with bailing wire.
the car wasn't low at this point, but I had the oil pan at a ways above the sub frame. I have yet to hit it on anything.
some pics of it when I first got it running all ghetto like
sloppy engine bay:
and here's what I found when I took the head off the stock engine
and that concludes phase 1 of my E21 endeavors. Stay tuned for Phase 2.
Comment