Davegerous E21

[DMclean]

i'm liking the 12a. what plans do you have for it? i have a 12a as well, would love to do a big street port but don't want to spend the money on it

[TheNeek]

That's no seam on the steering rack. It's a clam shell. Two pieces that pinch down on the steering rack. It looks like you torqued the crap out of the subframe.

[Dave-ger]

I got a chance to pull the engine last weekend. At a snail's pace, it took me and my dad and a friend (both of them didn't do much) less than 2.5 hours to pull the engine. I'm glad I made it so simple.

Also, turns out the sub frame may be okay, I need to pull it and do some diagonal measurements and evaluating to decide, but I'm still unsure of what's up with the steering rack. The reason the steering was hitting the engine so bad was that the man hole cover shoved the sub frame into the frame rails. I'll have to do some reconstruction and reinforcement, and then it should be better than new if I do it right. This is haunting my mind a bit, cause I'm a little unsure of how I'm going to fix this mistake, but I have some ideas that I've been cooking up.





Stay tuned for more!

[Dave-ger]

thank you.

well, because I'm an idiot and never got around to putting an angled piece at the front of my sub frame to avoid ruining it if I caught a snag... well, I messed up the sub frame and/or the "frame rail", and hopefully not the steering rack. I hit a man hole cover that must stick up over 2" with it going 45ish. I'm a bit frustrated, but very grateful that it was so easy to get it home by forcing the steering to work. (good thing I have gorilla strength!)



where the steering hits the engine...




not really sure what's going on with the steering rack. it seems fine besides this back part being all split open like on the seam it had.


in this pic, you may see where I think the "frame rail" might be smashed up.



There are two good things about this: I can probably fix it cheap, and it may be a good excuse to fully shave the bay!

oh yea, none of my sub frame welds broke!


my solution will involve straightening, plating, or maybe even replacing a section of the "frame rail". straightening and plating will be a much more viable option if it's doable. I think the nutserts that hold the sub frame in dont' have tubes going down to the bottom edge of the "frame rail", so I did already crush those with dinosaur might when I reinstalled the sub frame a year-ish ago, so maybe the sub frame is just bent.... either way, the "frame rails" are going to at least get some reinforcement and cosmetic help. If it is just the sub frame, i think I'm going to build one, if I can't get one cheap enough.

I'm really really hoping the steering rack is okay.


yup, when i start driving this again, I think I will have a "4 sails" sign on it just in case I get an offer I can't refuse. I could have avoided all of this most likely if I would have put an angled piece on the front of the sub frame to let it hop over things like man hole covers, but, there are other things about the car that I'm starting to feel kind of done with.

[Funtington]

Well played sir, well played.

[Dave-ger]

ha, thanks for posting those Sean! I'm glad the cop is in there too!

Neek, that is a very good solution that guy came up with on his sub frame. I didn't think to do it that way, my solution would have been to section the vertical part of the sub frame (not sure if I worded that well). That thread on bimmer forums cracks me up, those people giving him a hard time about suspension geometry and roll center have no idea what they are talking about... plus, if you're low enough to raise your sub frame and/or control arm mounting location, you don't have a race car anyways. Also, raising the control arm increases camber, because the control arm has less angle than before, so those goons got that wrong!

but seriously, I wish I would have considered the same mod that guy did before messing with my sub frame, but my overly complicated method got the job done at least.

I think I'm going to refresh my stock back seat, anyone want to buy the E30 seat that's in the back of my car?

[Iam138]

indeed sire. The internets is a mysterious place.

Sure is. Just to spice up the thread a bit, how about a few post wreck shots of my car trying to help yours out?

Not successful BTW.

[JasonB]

nice car man! and seriously great work with the process, you really put some time in!!!!

[TheNeek]

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1253615

Seems like the steering is still and unresolved question. I'll ask Chris if he ever figured it out.

[P78]

i like this bimmer

blue and white works with these cars

[340i]

i agree with neek, raising the whole subframe is a good option (not that there is anything wrong with your solution), as it keeps the steering in the same plane as the arms, which (presumably) should reduce bumpsteer? the other option is custom lower arms, custom kingpin, and space the outer joint down. thats what ill be doing (one day... lol).

[Dave-ger]

indeed sire. The internets is a mysterious place.

[Iam138]

Fancy meeting you here...

[Dave-ger]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the feedback!

Yea, I've heard of drive lines sending cars air borne before, so that's why I have the little safety strap to prevent that in case of a U joint failure. My mishap in september could have easily been a lot worse, you wouldn't believe how long I kept it on the road spinning out. I'm lucky I didn't roll and/or hit a tree, or another car.


My wheels are 15X6, I forget the offset, I think it was something like ET36ish... doesn't matter much though because I had to use wheel spacers to even run them, which cancels out any offset related shortcomings.

Neek, do you have a link or pics of the shortened sub frame? I kind of explored that possibility, but notching it ended up being more feasible for me at the time and I wouldn't have known what to do about my steering shaft (I can TIG aluminum now though), and my engine is too close for that.


As far as the bumpers, I absolutely **** my US bumpers. if I could obtain euro bumpers cheaply, I might do that. I'm considering tube bumpers, but not off road looking. I have some ideas in my head. I'd have to move out the rear "valance" to be at the end of the car like on euro model E21's to make the back look right. maybe I'll do those this summer. we'll see.

[phrozen06]

Awesome build. I really miss my E21