E21, Project Swap

[jze325i]

Nice man, that GTI still run? You got that garage nice and full huh? That's "man town" right there!

[DJProfessor]

Originally posted by jze325i@Apr 8 2005, 11:20 AM
Nice man, that GTI still run? You got that garage nice and full huh? That's "man town" right there!

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welp the vin and the title didn't match, so she went under the knife.......and yeah it's still "man town"......the E30 is there now and the parts car is in the garage and the benz is still hanging out. so at the end of the day i will be with the E21, E30, and the benz.........and then i came up on another E30 that i really don't want again (but this one runs, just needs an oil pump)....so that will be another adventure right there ghead

[DJProfessor]

Monday project swap update........on track, not on schedule......

saturday was car cut up day. and my one friend with a truck flaked on me and my other friend with a truck couldn't come over until sunday, so that put me a day behind. not to mention that the BMW sheet metal was super tough to cut thru. i made short work of my GTI, but the BMW was another story. i spent all day saturday cutting her up, and i still didn't get it all done. we finished off the job on sunday, getting all sheet metal out of my garage, except the rear end which i just wheeled into the backyard to deal with at a later date. right now the garage is filled with leftover interior bits and pieces that i need to throw away and the compete E30 swap sitting pretty on the floor by the engine hoist. i plan on going home this evening and moving around items to allow me to at least get the E21 in the garage tonight. so hopefully i will be test fitting the motor in the E21 sometime later this week. right now a few days behind schedule, but still moving forward. so i can't be disappointed with the progress thus far. i want to test fit the drive train and have that all bolted down then pull it, replace the oil pan, timing belt, water pump, tensioner, cam seal etc. while i have the motor out. it will give me great peace of mind to know that the drive line all bolts up and fits with no modifcation. also if modification is necessary i can do it early on so i know what all i am getting into. likewise i don't want to waste time doing all that work to the E30 motor and then finding out that i can't get it to work..........so that's my logic behind putting it in test fitting first and pulling it back out to do the repairs to her later.

also found that someone took one, just freaking ONE of the rear calipers. so that does me no good to sell to someone as a complete rear disk brake swap.

i know i am going to run into issues fuel level sending unit wise trying to use the old tank with the new cluster and new sender. i may say screw it and rock the fuel cell i have just to aid in the simplicity. but gonna have to see. i would rather like to keep the stock tank and use it if i can, but only if i can get the fuel level sender to work/fit/etc with the E30 cluster. if i can't then i don't need the E30 cluster (can just go to seperate guages), and that being said then i wouldn't need to install the E30 dash........so that would take me down a whole other road in terms of direction for the project..........so stay tuned.

i will take some more pics this week as the project moves ever forward. and i will take a bunch of pics showing the test fitting........

[filter27e]

Originally posted by DJProfessor@Apr 11 2005, 08:43 AM
also found that someone took one, just freaking ONE of the rear calipers. so that does me no good to sell to someone as a complete rear disk brake swap.

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awww... oh well i still may be interested, one caliper would be easier to find then tracking down everything else. keep me posted

[DJProfessor]

i will take it all apart and send it to you and see what all you can use from it. and we can work out a price later depending on how much of it is useful to you. i won't send you just the one caliper however....better off buying two new ones, they are cheap, and when you mismatch calipers you often meet with interesting results (pulling or the like).......

cleaned up the garage last night and took pics of the motor and trans sitting on the floor along with the wiring i pulled out of her........

so far i have made two mistakes.....1) cut the wires going to the aux fan. but i fixed that as i grabbed all the wire that i cut. so i just need to hook that back up and i should be rocking...........2) cut the wires going to the fuel pump and fuel level sensor. i think i can make heads or tails of it and just rewire accordingly. but next one i do i won't be in such a hurry and i will take exactly what all i need. that way i don't have to come back and do any sort of rewiring due to cutting something i needed.

[DJProfessor]

so my towing company was "too busy" last night to tow home the E21 ghead


BUT.........because of me being patient and giving them another day, they are hooking me up with a discount on towing her home

so hopefully better updates later on in the week

[DJProfessor]

ok, i hit a wall on the progress report......


i am taking on a roommate at the casa (don't need to, but extra disposable income is nice).........so i am busy moving stuff around to accomadate him. so i haven't been able to touch the car unfortunately......

so perhaps by the end of this month i will be able to get my mittens on it hard core and get this party started.

[DJProfessor]

clutch job on a VW cabby this saturday (and if he wasn't a good friend and i wasn't getting paid i wouldn't be touching the POS, but he is selling it, so there is hope for him yet)..........and helping a friend put his E30 back together (was in the middle of replacing the oil pump but has to stop, and make it movable........and this may be yet another project of mine......well fix it to sell project)...........

so i am hoping to have the pretty little thing started this sunday......and i am getting the one roll of film developed this weekend with the parting pics and other misc pics of project swap..........sorry for the delay, but sheit happens sometimes.

[86325LSD]

Since it seems to me from your other posts you like carbs so much you might like my car, im running a 1980 e21 320i on dual sidedrafts(originally changed to them the becasue fuel injection just quit on me and ran shitty lol) and i have been very happy since. Even though i was happy i am still choosing to move on to more power and more engine with an m20 as well, i just totalled my baby, a 1986 325es this winter and have decided to go back to playing with my e21 this summer and moving my toys from the 86 eta into the e21. I want to keep it on the webers though so im going with three sidedrafts(although half the people who post here woldnt understand why...... ghead , i know you do ). I got the idea to convert back to carbs from the korman racing site and there beautifull photos that just teased me into wanting one myslef, take a look below. Its absolutely beautifull. Anyways i hope all goes well and keep us updated on those engine mounts, my project is near identical minus the way we are fueling. Best of Luck. Dom[attachmentid=21509][attachmentid=21510]

[DLovett]

Beutiful E21 man!

[DJProfessor]

that is dead sexy........and if this FI gives me too many fits, time to go on the reverse adkins........i love your E21, dead sexy.......you aren't that far away from me, if you want to hook up that swap let me know, we can work something out

and yes i love carbs, real mechanics can tune carbs as i have been told........there is much more involved than just plugging in a computer and reading and understanding codes.....you have to have an "ear" for it.........

look for some more updates, hopefully, after this weekend.......lousy weather makes for good progress on projects

[86325LSD]

i hateto burst everyones happiness for me, and i wish i could claim that is my e21, but that pic is form the korman racing site. Its just waht gave me the idea to build and perform a swap like that, i still have a big bumper US m10, but i do have dual sidedrafts =) on it....enjoy the photos anywayws though.

PS when i get mine done il post pics lol

[DJProfessor]

nothing is ever as simple as it seems........

ripped out my friend's tranny to replace his clutch on the cabby before he sells it to his one friend....welp the pressure plate was in many pieces and one of those sliced open my thumb, (lovely) not to mention i sliced open my pinky against the body when we were pulling the trans out........then to top it off, the front mount and the rear mount are garbage and need to be replaced....so it is sitting on stands right now in my garage awaiting the parts......so thus bmw projection is delayed yet again.......but i did take some pics of the clutch job, lovely vw parts that failed, and the crappy arse clutch assemblies that they use.......goodtimes......so HOPEFULLY some progress this weekend and more next weekend......i am getting sick of the delays.

[DJProfessor]

ahh finally freaking back.......

the E21 came home over the memorial weekend and i totally started tearing into her. pretty much ready to pull the motor.

and on a side note these cars are super bitchin' for motor swaps. i wanted to retain the stock wiring for the lights and all that jazz, but remove all the engine wiring. all i had to do was unplug this plug that goes into the E21 fuse block, and unhook a couple of relay assemblies that clip on to the side of it, no fuss no muss......and that's that of my engine wiring. the rest i simply just removed. no cutting........when compaired to VW engine swaps this was an incredibly clean removal. so now all i need to do is figure out how much of the stock fuse block i need to retain off the E30 and just power it up. actually thinking about just putting it under the dash inside the car, hitting it with a power source and calling it a day. that way i can simply use an E30 manual for the motor and an E21 for the car. we shall see how easy it is when i start to put it all together, but right now it is looking better than any VW swap i have done.

so some more progress this weekend as i get a chain to pull this motor and trans and do a test fitting/mock up of the E30 motor and trans......

and i am also thinking about picking up this other E30 that is in need of an oil pump replacement.......so i guess look for that write up when i finally finish this projection.........

[DJProfessor]

and i took more pictures, but my disposable says i have a couple left so i am going to finish out the roll hopefully with pics of the E30 motor in there.