'75 2002 DD Project - Non e46 Content

dude.

Originally Posted by Nervous

Nice! What is the brand and model of the fan?

It's a 12" flex-o-lite. I forget the exact model, but it puts out ~1000 cfm.

After thinking about it for a couple days, I decided I wasn't happy with my initial frame rail brace. The main reason for making the front clip removable was to make maintenance easier to do. But because the brace was welded in place, it meant that I would still need to lift the engine out of the car, or lift the car over the engine/subframe. Both of which can be a chore if you don't have access to an engine hoist or really tall jack. So I decided to cut it out and design a better solution. After a long day/night of measuring and fabrication, this is what I came up with. I only have two pictures right now, I'll get some more detailed ones when I'm not as tired.





It is completely removable, and gives me a sturdy frame to mount the radiator and oil cooler to. I should be able to run some lower bracing to the air dam in the front and hang the intercooler from the lower bar when that time comes. I will also have the strut bar tie into the top bar when I get that fabbed together. Here you can see how it clears the front clip at the top:





With this TIG'd together up next I will get the radiator and oil cooler mounts done. Once those are in place I will make a cover plate that goes over the top of the front frame section, mimicking the stock '02 sheet metal front end with a cutout for the radiator fill cap. I'll probably use sheet aluminum though, the front end is heavy enough already lol.

Great work.

Happy to say my TIG work is starting to look better. I've decided that I'm going to TIG everything that I reasonably can (assuming the welding position isn't crazy or that the material is to thick for my welder). While it does take more prep and time compared to MIG, the welds themselves just look much nicer. There is also much less clean up work, with no splatter and less warping in most cases. These are from the front bracing I did this weekend:










So with the front clip as gutted as it is, it obviously won't be able to support the weight of the hood like it used to. And the front hinged hood was one of the original parts of the car that I didn't want to loose, so next up was figuring out how to fab up new hinge mounts. First I made two plates that mimicked the stock nut locations.

Front:





Back:






With those done, I mounted each side and tacked them in place with the hood in the down position:




Then I checked to make sure the axis of both hinges are still in line so the hood would open properly:






View of the hinges from the engine bay. I still need to add a lot of bracing/gussets to add strength, but they can support the hood fine even though they are just tacked in place.






And here's what the hood looks like mounted in place without front fenders or front clip. Because I can.















Now that I have the hinges in place I can work on mounting the radiator and oil cooler. I wanted the hinges in there first since they have to be in a certain position, while the radiator and oil cooler can go anywhere so long as they fit and don't interfere.




Oh, and these came in today:




Any guesses??

Sound deadening material?

Originally Posted by nervous

sound deadening material?

+1

floor tiles

just followed this whole thread! awesome work! i hope i can follow a similar route one day!

Thanks guys!



After a couple of weeks waiting, these finally showed up today:





They are HRE 504's in 16x8. I maybe end up building them up to 8.5 or 9 depending on how the offsets work out with the 5-lug conversion. I need to source some new center caps and repaint/polish, but they are pretty clean with no curb rash. Some more pics:









Test fitting, can't bolt them up to the subframe yet but this is roughly what they should look like:






I also got a new TIG torch, with a flexible head. Very handy for getting into tight spots or just making a more comfortable welding position.










And with it I finished gusseting the hood mounts.






Then to finish off the night I fabricated the mounts for the oil cooler and radiator:






The upper OC mounts are just tabs that come off the front support bar:





The radiator mounts to the tie bar, one on each end. I will also be making an upper support bracket to hold the top in place.





Nose panel bolted back up with everything else in place:





Here you can see the oil cooler behind the kidney grills. Worked out well with the cooler on it's side, the slates are vertical and match the lines of the grill.






Next up is the fab the lower oil cooler mount (it's only bolted in by the top right now) and the other radiator support. Then I will brace the mounting points on the front frame assembly and strip the nose panel for metal repair and some bracing.

Bravo!

Bump for great updates!

I've been second guessing myself for a couple of months as to whether or not the S54 ITB's are really a good fit for the engine, or more directly the 885 head. While they do give an easy solution for certain aspects of an itb setup (common vacuum rail, fuel injectors and fuel rail, proper spacing) I still couldn't ignore their overall size, and how that would effect the power curve of the engine. So long story short, I bit the bullet and ordered some new parts. Then I started machining the old 'i' manifold from my donor engine. When I got done it looked something like this:






The throttle bodies I will be using are from a late model BMW (keeping it in family of course) 1200RS. They are 38mm in diameter, and while some may argue they are to small for the engine, they will have no trouble out flowing the intake ports of the 885 head. This will help to keep charge velocities up, something that would have been lost with the monsterous S54 bits. Another plus of these throttle bodies is that they are mounted with 2 bolts on the top and bottom, so re-spacing them to fit the 91mm center distance for the M20 was as easy as drilling some holes in a piece of aluminum. Finally, because I'm using the stock M20 intake to interface with the head, I'm able to keep the stock fuel injector/rail location as well as the oil vent tube that runs down into the block.

Since they come in sets of four, I had to purchase two sets. Seeing as how I had two left over, I gutted one so that I could see how it would line up with everything without the throttle plate in the way.





Here I'm holding the TB in place roughly where it will be. It looks fairly far away from the head in the picture, but it's actually only ~0.5" from the edge of the manifold. That will leave me enough room to weld the aluminum tubes in place that I will be mating to the throttle bodies. As you can see from the picture the port leading to the head will need to be opened up slightly and rounded out. However it should be a very direct and smooth path into the head.







Then I took some aluminum angle and drilled the new mounting holes to properly space the rest of the throttle bodies. Then I bolted them onto the angle and held it in place.









I still need to weld on the new tubes onto the manifold, as well as extend the throttle tabs that translate the rotation from the center of the assembly to the outer throttle bodies. Overall I'm very happy with how they will look. The assembly will take up much less space than the S54 castings and throttle bodies, mostly because it doesn't have to open up the port from stock to 50mm diameter. This will leave me a lot more room for a proper plenum, which will either be aluminum or composite. It also puts the throttle bodies themselves much closer to the head, which will lead to better throttle response.


Thanks for looking.

dude. just dude. wow.

Interesting. How will you torque the ITBs to the head?

Best update EVER!

Originally Posted by Hornung418

Interesting. How will you torque the ITBs to the head?

The intake manifold will bolt to the head as per usual. Then I'll use with the stock intake boots from the bike (if I can find two more, I only have 4 right now) or pieces of silicon tubing to seal the actual intake path from the throttle body to the intake manifold. Then I'll end up welding an aluminum framework of sorts that will hold the throttle bodies in place using the bolt holes in the top and bottom of the castings. That way the intake and plenum aren't supported only by the tubing.

curious why you are using the M20 engine - instead of S50 or S52

Mostly size and weight. Any M5x/S5x swaps would require a lot more gutting of the structure, including the firewall, which would mean I couldn't retain the heater box. The only other option weight wise would have been a late model M52/M54 due to their aluminum blocks. But they are still a much larger engine. Plus I like the look of the single cam M20, with the aluminum valve cover in the classic '02 engine bay.

If anything I'd rather manufacture my own 24 valve head to go on the M20, using the S54 throttles with individual valve covers ala the M12 F1 engines.





Obviously in hind sight it would have been simpler and easier to just buy an M54 or S54 and swap it in. But where's the fun in that. I really like the challenges that go along with fabricating components, and the trickier they are the more enjoyment I get from completing them.