The Adventures of Golden Boy, my Rebound E30

[CubbyChowder]

Started getting the original M20 ready to pull. Since I'll only have 2-3 days to perform the swap from start to finish (which should be plenty realistically, but always anticipating setbacks), I wanted to start disconnecting and removing stuff early so that pulling it out will go quickly.

The last time this original motor will sit fully assembled in this engine bay:



Got it to this point before I stopped. Basically all I need to do from here is disconnect the power steering lines and AC compressor, unbolt the subframe and tranny mount and drop it out. This M20 will be exiting out the bottom:



Some parts began to roll in over the past few days:



Started the process of reassembling the "new" M20. First things first, got new camshaft oil seal and o-ring in:



Then I installed the new water pump, timing belt and tensioner:



I also took a few minutes to switch from 5mm spacers to 20mm spacers in the rear to fill out the fenders a bit better. Had to install longer studs as well. Here is how it sat before:



And after. Much better in my opinion:




I still haven't adjusted the suspension at all since I installed everything, so that is still on the list. I will likely bring it down about an inch to dial it all in. Just want to focus on getting it running and driving reliably first.

[CubbyChowder]

Spent some time today cleaning, prepping and painting a few parts. I want the m20 to look as if it never had the haggard cosmoline slopped all over it. I decided on a "cast aluminum" colored high temp paint and started with the valve cover. It actually looked kind of cool in raw form:



Painted:




Then moved onto the intake manifold. I've been deep cleaning all the little nooks and crannies of it over the past few days, took forever! Really happy with how it looks now though:



Yes, I will be sanding down the raised portions on both of these in a few days once the paint is cured.

Also went ahead and prepped/painted the timing covers, hook and thermostat housing:



Hit the exhaust manifolds with some ultra high temp black paint, we'll see how long that lasts. Satisfying for now though:

[kristianbolster]

this is gonna look really nice. my wife has an 88 325is and i can't wait till I'm done with my projects so i can go through it like this

[C2_mad]

looks great, cant wait to see more progress

[CubbyChowder]

^^ Thanks guys!

Update:

Still plugging away little by little. My new intermediate shaft gear showed up so I swapped that out and installed a new timing belt:



Then I installed the hook and timing covers:



I thought I'd show a few of the steps I've taken to simplify this setup a bit. I've been researching ways to eliminate some of the not-so-necessary bits that over complicate things and create additional points of potential problems/leaks on these motors.

My first endeavor is deleting the throttle body heater and secondary thermostat near the heater core. Getting rid of these will significantly simplify the cooling system and eliminate several hoses and a clunky valve, it's quite the mess of hoses and hard to reach hose clamps with all that stuff installed. I consider them both unnecessary for my application so out they go.

I don't have any pics of this yet, but deleting the secondary thermostat is easy. You just order 2 new hoses, one leading from the thermostat housing to the heater core and the other leading from the outlet on the back of the cylinder head to the heater core. It makes a difference whether you have the early/late cooling system. I won't go into too much detail about this, but I'm running an early model setup. I'll post more pictures on this subject later when I install everything.

Deleting the throttle body heater is a little more involved. The thermostat housing has an outlet on the bottom that needs to be plugged somehow. In my case, I cut off the "snout" for the hose and tapped a thread into that hole so that I could plug it with a bolt. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of this process, but here is the finished product. I put sealant on the threads and installed the plug:



With that done, I moved on to the throttle body and created a simple "delete plate" to take the place of the coolant inlet/outlet plate thingy:



And then I plugged the port on the block under the intake manifold. Throttle body heater is officially eliminated.

With the cooling system simplified, up next was to tackle the vacuum system. It seems vacuum leaks are a very common problem with M20's, and I want to avoid that. The ports on the side of the throttle body that lead to the brake booster and intake boot are known to work their way loose and cause all sorts of problems so that's what I'll be taking care of. Every M20 I've ever seen has the two hose setup with elaborate three way check valve thing, but apparently some late model cars got a single hose setup, and that's what I want to mimic.

I tapped both of the holes on the side of the throttle body to 7/16-20:



Then I went to miners and got these fittings:



I plugged the top hole with a set screw and used the fittings to create a vacuum port for the bottom hole. Thread sealant was applied liberally to ensure no leaks from here on out:



I ordered an intake boot that doesn't have the extra outlet (which normally leads to the now-plugged top port on the side of the throttle body):



I also ordered this check valve, which takes the place of the elbow fitting on the brake booster:



From there I'll be able to just connect a vacuum hose from the check valve on the brake booster to the bottom port on the throttle body and that will be that. No more elaborate two hose system and leaky ports!

Thanks for looking, more to come next week!

[CubbyChowder]

Alright, time for a nice little update on Golden Boy.

I'm traveling to Switzerland this year with my dad, sister and girlfriend for the holidays to visit family and we leave on December 20th. One night a few weeks ago I decided to make it a personal goal to have Golden Boy running, driving, smogged and registered before we left.

It has been 13 months since I bought Golden Boy and over 7 months since I discovered the heavily worn camshaft. Having driven a total of under 100 miles since acquiring the car, you can probably imagine how anxious and eager I've been to finally start enjoying this thing.

While juggling a million things in my shop lately, it hasn't been easy to find time to make progress on the build, so I aimed to dedicate at least one night a week towards finishing the “new” motor up and set a date for the heart transplant: December 10th and 11th, this past Saturday and Sunday.

Since my girlfriend runs her business out of my shop as well (which is busy beyond belief), I had to coordinate with her and make sure it worked with her schedule. We spent a few hours on Friday evening completely reorganizing and cleaning the shop to make room for Golden Boy's big weekend, which was quite a mission. The shop has been pure mayhem as of lately, this is what my lift area looked like before we started:



After a few hours, I was able to pull the car inside and place him next to his new heart for a quick photo:



Got to the shop early Saturday morning so I could prep a bit before friends started showing up:



I had a solid ass team of buddies helping out all day. My Dad was there helping out for most of the day too. Did I need 7 sets of hands? Not at all, but I just really enjoy wrenching with friends, and my Dad. We jumped right in and before long had the whole subframe/struts/motor/trans assembly pulled out from under the car and on my work table. That's my dude Joe in the background who is a total legend:



My dad loves pressure washing, so he was on top of wash duty when we pulled stuff apart. Got the front subframe nice and clean before bolting the new motor up:



Got everything bolted up and ready to mate the trans.



Desperate times call for desperate measures. We used a Home Depot broom as a clutch alignment tool. It was a great moment:



I wish I would've taken more pictures of the whole process, but we were busy working away. Once we got the trans bolted up it was starting to get kind of late, and pretty cold. We were determined to get the motor back in though, so we powered through. We lowered the body down onto the subframe and reassembled everything under the car, all while delirium was rapidly settling in. After a long 12 hour day of non-stop action, we reached a great stopping point. All that was left to do was button up the engine bay side of things the following morning. What a productive day!

Sunday morning rolled around and as friends started to roll in we quickly picked up where we left off. Golden Boy never fails to draw blood:



It wasn't long before we were adding coolant and making final checks before firing it up for the first time.

Man, I gotta tell you, as the moment of truth started inching closer and closer, I started growing more and more nervous. What if the motor wasn't actually as healthy as the previous owner said it was? What if I messed up putting stuff back together? Did I tighten every bolt? Will it even run? Since I'm pretty inexperienced with this degree of work, I couldn't help but have certain doubts and concerns...

At last, the moment of truth was upon us. After a few unsuccessful attempts, we realized we had the CPS and spark plug wire plugs switched and tried again. Success! Fired right up and sounded great.

That sweet ass relief.



Took it on a nice little 20 minute test drive and had a big smile and a happy heart the entire time. I felt a big sense of accomplishment, but I wasn't out of the woods yet. The final piece of the puzzle was to pass smog.

I brought it to my smog guy around the corner from my shop immediately the next morning and waited anxiously all day to hear back from him, only to find out at the end of the day that he never got a chance to get to it. Killing me dude.

The waiting game continued today and I finally got a call around 2:30pm while I was at Home Depot. Sure enough, Golden Boy passed with flying colors rendering me officially eligible to register the car in my name. Straight to the DMV I went.

That sweet ass relief.



You're thinking Parking Brake. It's actually Pork 'n' Bork, an inside joke between me and a few friends. I told the lady at the DMV that it meant “Park 'n' Bark” and we talked about dogs for like 10 minutes. I don't even have a dog.

That about wraps it up for this update. I definitely have little things to address here and there but overall I'm extremely excited to have the car on the road. It's been a long time coming. A huge thank you to my dad Rene, Oliver, Joe, Eric, Kyle, Neil, Kendall, Dustin and Malcolm for being a part of the fun, I can't thanks you guys enough for helping out!

Hey, cosmetics, you're next...

[jayjaypea]

Awesome man!

[cblock406]

Congrats!

[delvin]

Solid work! I bet it feels great having it legal and knowing you an go for a spin anytime. Congrats!

[Bargiela]

If you are not planning to switch the steering rake for an e36 or z3 purple tag one; and if it feels in good condition, buy the dust covers you got broken: I never did it when I should and now... regretz.

Incredible hands you got maan, good eye.
The good work.

Can't wait for cosmetics.

[Fons]

Just red this from the beginning, really nice build. Love this thread with all the shop stuff in between. Definitely going to follow this!

[CubbyChowder]

Awesome man!

Congrats!

Solid work! I bet it feels great having it legal and knowing you an go for a spin anytime. Congrats!

Thanks guys! Feels amazing to have it on the road!

If you are not planning to switch the steering rake for an e36 or z3 purple tag one; and if it feels in good condition, buy the dust covers you got broken: I never did it when I should and now... regretz.

Incredible hands you got maan, good eye.
The good work.

Can't wait for cosmetics.

Thank you!

I actually just received a rebuilt E46 purple tag steering rack in the mail yesterday and have new lemforder E36 outer tie rods ready to install. I hoped everything would arrive before I did the whole motor swap but it ended up not working out that way, oh well. That'll be going in when I get back in early January

Just red this from the beginning, really nice build. Love this thread with all the shop stuff in between. Definitely going to follow this!

Thanks man much appreciated! Stoked you're following along, there's a ton more to come

[cheaptalon]

Updatez.

[Mr.]

Love the look of a clean M20
Awesome stuff dude!

[CubbyChowder]

update: