bmwe21.net forums

Ok, will do
Let me just take a couple of better pics first

And I will do this in the following days

That would be a great contribution sir! No hurry... have a nice weekend!

Jeroen wrote:That would be a great contribution sir! No hurry... have a nice weekend!

Thanks!
But unfortunately I can't go into very deep technical detailing, I didn't fit it myself, my mechanic did

Oh, and, as I just spoke with him, he told me that the dust cover can't be fitted now, no free space in there with the hot spark.
He left it in the box with the old contact ignition (which I will store for a possible future need)
However, according to his words, there's no need at all for this

Well, with contact points right underneath the rotor arm (like in the old situation) there is more chance of fouling the contact points and these are gone now, but still 'dust' can enter the lower parts as well and foul the impulse sender system and cause the vacuum advance system to seize. These parts will take more time to foul up but "no need at all" is not correct. Just look underneath your distributor cap after a couple of months, it won't be as clean as when you fitted it.

But I already considered the chance one was in place previously and it didn't fit anymore, not much you can do then unless you can modify it slightly to make it fit but I don't know if that's a viable option.

Jeroen wrote:Well, with contact points right underneath the rotor arm (like in the old situation) there is more chance of fouling the contact points and these are gone now, but still 'dust' can enter the lower parts as well and foul the impulse sender system and cause the vacuum advance system to seize. These parts will take more time to foul up but "no need at all" is not correct. Just look underneath your distributor cap after a couple of months, it won't be as clean as when you fitted it.

But I already considered the chance one was in place previously and it didn't fit anymore, not much you can do then unless you can modify it slightly to make it fit but I don't know if that's a viable option.

just wondering ...might some (custom) way be found out to seal the cap from underneath...?

Mechanic justified himself by saying that there exist cars with the distributor cap not having any dust cover as this (from factory) at all, and even in cases where the dist. cap is placed in much worse areas in the engine bay, much lower, near to the road (so more likely for dirt+dust to get in) etc.

A fresh photo of the engine bay with the new spark plug cables:



In nice blue colour, too!

So, here 's a little refresh/update

It seems that a childhood dream concerning my E21 is starting to come true at a point.
Finally decided to go for an engine swap and I really hope I won't regret it. Found a good mechanic and a 2.0 M10 is starting being built for my car.

Will keep you posted guys...

Finally! Nice plan sir! Just an engine build, stock, with mods? Any additional mods to the car? Keep us posted!

First of all, next week I believe I will find some day to have the quick rack (yes, still in the box!!) fitted.
I think the time came, no more waiting. And Of course I would like to have an idea of how the car is going to drive with this rack-before also having a huge increase in power as well, then it might be dangerous
Ideas on this? Or do you believe it should be the other way round?

Also, I would like to read opinions on diff ratio selection for this engine.

Actually a 2.0 lt engine will be built, with ported head, 300deg cam, c/r around 10.5 (I think), and dual 40mm webers
I guess that would be more than enough for me for now(?)
I really hope this is going to stay in the middle of having enough (well, adequate) power and keeping it fairly quiet, not too thirsty, and being able to give some happy moments on mountain roads, as I am not currently interested in racing anyone anywhere

300 degrees cam? Is that still drivable in regular traffic?

I am not sure!!
Mechanic says yes!
Will discuss this again with him..

Discussed the 300deg cam-traffic issue with the mechanic, as well as with a couple of guys that have had him built engines for their cars in the past. They all agree that 300 deg cam will be ok for an engine working smoothly and giving some power.
Yesterday the mechanic put another dilemma on the table: He asked me if I prefer to have the M10 on carbs (dual 40 dcoe I guess?) or injected - well, ideas-suggestions?

Just a little update

Hopefully next week all missing parts for rear disc brake conversion will be gathered. So when mechanic assembles rear trailing arms, the car stays in for a couple of days, for the following works: Rear disc brake conversion, All around Eurometric bushes, and Steering rack replacement by the Quick one (the one I bought during the group buy in the forum a couple of years earlier)

Oh, and my two remaining un-fitted goodridge braided brake lines will be now fitted (I had only fitted 4, because of rear drums-so 2 more still in the box)

Opinions welcome on diff ratio - as I may start looking for an lsd after the engine swap : 4.10? 3.91? 3.64? Available at the moment are my open 4.10, as well as an lsd Nas sold me some years ago, which is from E36 316 I think he said?
Also, opinions on front brakes: I have the wilwoods in the box. The idea is to fir these, but, as my current front brakes are Alfa GTV brembos (2 piston)-with vented discs, I was thinking of leaving them for some more time

Cool. Is the rear disc conversion direct bolt on, on your 77 model? I have all the parts, inlcuding the brake pressure regulator. Thought I would need to change that too, since my car is also pre '81. Not sure though.