bmwe21.net forums

I've been making some steady progress getting all the required bits.
I've ordered what I hope to be a new E30 318is fuel pump from Ebay, £100 inc delivery which seems a bit cheap so we shall see.

Although it's currently feeling a little bit like 1 step forwards, 2 steps backwards, we've found out Dave's mate has a soda blaster so we're taking more bits off the engine to get them cleaned off. Typically a simple job of removing the oil filter housing took ages thanks to a seized bolt which snapped in.

Making a mess of the newly painted block:


I've also found the local BMW dealer to be very competitive and convenient for a lot of bits like gaskets and pipes etc.
Although this attitude of 'while its out we might as well change it' is starting to cost me a fortune!


I really must take more pics during the process, I get my hands dirty and don't bother with the camera from there.

How familiar! Before you know it your hand are too dirty to take a proper photo haha. Still, thanks for updates sofar. And I agree, some prices are rediculous but in general it is amazing how much the dealer can still supply, and affordable and fairly quick too! But I always ask for a quote before ordering parts!

Hang in there, you'll get it done!! Keep up the good work!

So, new rubber collars fitted to the rocker cover bolts, we set about installing the freshly painted cover on thursday, all looking good but when we were torquing up the bolts (M6 - 10Nm) i think 4 of them threaded.
I think someone had over tightened these in the past and damaged the threads in the head.





A wire wheel does wonders too


bolts + thread from the head


So we cracked on with cleaning the engine up while we wait for the helicoil kit to be delivered.
I've gone for a set with M6, M8, M10 in case we come across this problem again.



ON a side note, this has been a massive game changer in the garage

Great build! I have a M42 sitting and waiting for swaping into mine, so I'll be all over this topic I'd like to answer just something about the transmission swap. If you'd be swapping in the M42 with the 5 speed gearbox that came in e36 - how would could you make the speedo and the rev counter to function? I believe it is easier if you have the e21 5 speed but if this isn't an option what can one do to solve this (if this is offtopic, I'd be most gratefull if somebody could write the PM)? I wish you all the best with you project.
P.S.: I share your view on why e21 deserve the M42 swap, we'll see how it runs. Cheers!

Nice progress. Common issue on the threaded head, complete nutcases that over tighten these bolts... or have standing fluid in the holes. Either way it is completely unnecessary. Oh that heater, now finally winter work is becoming fun!

l3v4rt wrote:Great build! I have a M42 sitting and waiting for swaping into mine, so I'll be all over this topic I'd like to answer just something about the transmission swap. If you'd be swapping in the M42 with the 5 speed gearbox that came in e36 - how would could you make the speedo and the rev counter to function? I believe it is easier if you have the e21 5 speed but if this isn't an option what can one do to solve this (if this is offtopic, I'd be most gratefull if somebody could write the PM)? I wish you all the best with you project.
P.S.: I share your view on why e21 deserve the M42 swap, we'll see how it runs. Cheers!

I'm using my m10 5 speed gearbox but I'm going to put a bell housing with an M42 bolt pattern on it.
The donor box for the bell housing has come from an E30 318 with an M40 engine. Its the same gearbox (Getrag 240) but with a different bell housing and without the mechanical speedo.
This way I'll be able to use the original e21 speedo drive.
Here's where I got the idea from http://www.bmwe21.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=19851

Jeroen wrote:Nice progress. Common issue on the threaded head, complete nutcases that over tighten these bolts... or have standing fluid in the holes. Either way it is completely unnecessary. Oh that heater, now finally winter work is becoming fun!

Yes I'll be prepared in future.

I don't know how we ever survived without it

The rocker cover is on!
I decided to go ahead and helicoil all 15 bolt holes. There was so many that stripped it was safer just to do the whole lot.

Lots of care was taken to make sure no swarf was dropped onto the cams. Lots of rags and a vacuum cleaner really helped.

Jobs like this make me really glad we got that engine stand!

Thank you for the reply, I'll try to figure something out, 5 speed m10 tranny is kinda expensive and hard to find around me so I'll have to go MacGyver on this one. Keep up the good work!

Ah I see, I was lucky that I had the 5 speed already.
There's lots of options for trigger wheels, gps speedo units etc

So progress at last, the engine is starting to look like an engine again!

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

I think the newly painted rocker cover and intake manifold look well.

Your making some real good progress and I agree, those covers look real good