Dlux BMW E21 build

[gnmzl]

Somehow missed that post!
Love the "new level of hints" hint too hahaha.
BTW, it's Wednesday, new clutch in yet?

[Erik D_lux]

It lives to ride again!



What a crappy couple of weeks! If you have not followed along, this car lost its engine and when I finished that, I didnt even get to put it into 1st gear when the clutch split in half! Needless to say, we have so trust issues to work thru. I hope I am done mechanically working on this thing.

I got the clutch on Tuesday and got it installed.

Motor seems to run much better than the old one. Oil pressure is a good 30-40 better at every RPM. I used to idle at 10psi and now idle close to 40psi. At start up, my gauge alarms out because it goes over 100psi! Having much more pressure at idle is really nice because it leaves my oil accumulator with 40psi instead of 10 and really eliminates those dry start ups.

So, up and at em, couple bugs to work out but hopefully we are on the downhill from here.

One little thing I did fix was the shifter surround. Like a lot of the plastic on the old BMWs, the screw holes are cracked or stripped. I tried to back these holes with some other plastic and that failed. The plastic just fell off. This time, I did some shaving and put some of those metal screw clips in. No problems at all this time. I think this is a final solution. I bought a huge bag of those clips off ebay for like $10 shipped too. Good stuff.

[Erik D_lux]

Somehow missed that post!
Love the "new level of hints" hint too hahaha.
BTW, it's Wednesday, new clutch in yet?

Clutch was so last Tuesday man. LOL

[Miroteknik]

i must say, that is fast work. glad to hear the new engine is as good as it looks.

[gnmzl]

Always late for the party, damn!

Car looks good, happy the new engine is showing the good signs!
More pictures, videos time maybee?

[DawsonLiri]

One little thing I did fix was the shifter surround. Like a lot of the plastic on the old BMWs, the screw holes are cracked or stripped. I tried to back these holes with some other plastic and that failed. The plastic just fell off. This time, I did some shaving and put some of those metal screw clips in. No problems at all this time. I think this is a final solution. I bought a huge bag of those clips off ebay for like $10 shipped too. Good stuff.

Happy it rides again, but I'm here for all this small tricks. You're the man!

[Erik D_lux]

Always late for the party, damn!

Car looks good, happy the new engine is showing the good signs!
More pictures, videos time maybee?

Yeah, I will work on videos and pictures for sure. To be able to build or lately fix as fast as I can, I have to neglect a lot of things sooooo, that means I am putting out fires that have been burning for almost a year right now. LOL. I am happy to just be able to drive this car and put out those fires. I still have work to do, pictures and videos to take but it will be a lot slower process than what I just did.

[Erik D_lux]

There were a couple of things I wanted to address with the car but when its running, you tend to lose a bit of motivation... Now with the engine being replaced and I had a day or two to wait for a new one, I did some other mods.

One mod that I have done that I think is common mis information is the brake booster delete. Most the information I read is that most people think deleting the booster just makes it too hard to brake or that its unsafe. IMO, both are not true. Sure, the brakes are harder to push but its not a big deal to me. To me, its about the same as power steering vs, manual steering on this car. Power steering is going to be a lot easier but at some point, if its too hard to steer, maybe you should look into a gym membership and eating some steak? Same thing with the brakes. If its too hard, I wouldnt blame the brakes, I would blame your weak legs... I know this can sound weird but to me, a lot of the charm of this older car is found in things like not having power steering, a manual trans and every thing feeling older. If you can understand that, you might be able to understand that I feel having manual brakes is actually more fun to drive. Its like you can just feel the car more.

Ok, having said that, the brake master cylinder that Chase Bays sent me was a .81 bore. It felt pretty good but I was a bit curious as to what a .75 bore would feel like (less flow, less power to the brakes,easier to push the pedal). I was not curious enough to buy a whole other brake master but then, I thought about my clutch.

With my M10 motor and the same with this motor the pedal released about 1" from the floor. I wonder if all E21s have the clutch release really low to the floor? IMO, this makes it harder to drive. Less reaction time.

I figured out that the E21 clutch master was a .75 bore. Knowing that I want a bit bigger bore I knew I could move the too big of a brake master (.81) to the clutch and get a smaller bore (.75) for the brakes. After knocking off the "filler" tube (horrible BMW design) off the clutch master a million times and getting brake fluid all over the paint, that is what sealed the deal. So, with just 1 master cylinder purchase, I get a brake MC and clutch MC running what ever bore I want and I get to have an actual reservoir on my clutch master. Sold!

.75 stock bore



Stupid stock filler tube that attaches to the brake master reservoir. Take a look and you can see how it leaks at the master cylinder.



I ordered up a .75 bore Wilwood for my brakes and took my .81 brake master off for my clutch. I then made an adapter plate for the clutch mount




I also had to make an adapter for the clutch pedal attachment. This lets me attach it to the stock pedal but also makes the push rod longer.





I got that all done, went to put it in the car and the little part that attaches to the clutch pedel broke off. UGH. I am about done wtih the BMW parts on this car. The more vintage BMW parts that are taken off the happier I get!



I replaced that original part with a common, easy to find, cheap female rod end.



After testing it out for 100 or so miles, the clutch master is awesome! My clutch now disengages around half pedal travel. Its amazing how much easier it is to drive when its like this.

The jury is still out on the smaller master for the brakes. Its easier and nicer to push for sure but I cant lock the brakes up 100%. One one side that could be nice as its sort of like an ABS system but I like to be able to lock them up and be in control myself. I am not certain that all the air is out. Once I can figure out if the air is out, I will decided on the master. I might go back to .81.

[Erik D_lux]

The other issue I had was the brake pedal being so close to the gas pedal. I dont remember this being an issue when I was 16 and driving this car but I am guessing a lot of other things were on my mind. LOL

The stock pedals are just too close. You really have to angle your foot and even then, I often found myself hitting the gas and brake at the same time. I had to wear certain shoes and could not wear my boots. Being a size 14 wide does not help at all.

Pretty simple stuff, I just took the stock brake pedal out, put some bend in it and put it back in. It netted out to about 1" more room between the brake and gas pedal.

I cant tell you how nice this mod is! I feel like I am way more comfortable when I drive and I have all the room I need.





Before:




After:

[Fruttolo]

I feel you 100% on the booster deleted brakes, did it on my mk1, feels awesome. I've been called a retarded for "ruining a safety feature" by people I think have actually never driven anything with manual brakes, or they'd know manual brakes have just as much power as assisted brakes, just requiring more leg that and power steering are comforts I can appreciate in a heavy daily driver, but the feel of a light old car with all-manual controls is unbeatable

[gnmzl]

You just completed correcting all the things I disliked about the e21. Good work and thank you for sharing!

[Erik D_lux]

I feel you 100% on the booster deleted brakes, did it on my mk1, feels awesome. I've been called a retarded for "ruining a safety feature" by people I think have actually never driven anything with manual brakes, or they'd know manual brakes have just as much power as assisted brakes, just requiring more leg that and power steering are comforts I can appreciate in a heavy daily driver, but the feel of a light old car with all-manual controls is unbeatable

So many people with so much misinformation. When people factually give misinformation, it drives me crazy. Its about as anti progress as you can get.

You just completed correcting all the things I disliked about the e21. Good work and thank you for sharing!

Yeah man, if you replace the entire drive train and fix a couple things in the interior, its not a bad car. LOL

[zattkgem1]

The car looks cool. I like your idea. Keep doing with your passion!

[Erik D_lux]

I am ready to get this car tuned. Before I do that, I had to make the decision of whether or not I wanted to do any upgrades so I dont have to go back and tune it later.

I **** regret so I decided to go with the intake spacer, ported intake manifold and then I was going to go with the Overkill 80mm throttle body. I also did the clean side PCV filter. After taking my throttle body off I saw it had a lot of residue on it. Oil is coming in from somewhere... got to put an end to that nonsense!



I sent the spacer and the intake manifold to Kenny Camaro (on FB) and he match ported in spacer, manifold and 80mm TB. He is a good guy and will help you out if you need anything.

Here is a shot of the intake manifold and spacer installed.





This is a really easy job. Just about 1 hr to install everything.

Here is a shot of everything disassembled and ready for re assembly.



Here are some pics of the stock 72mm throttle body vs the 80mm. Huge difference.



Should be a quick easy job, right? Well, not so fast!

After assembling everything, I started the car and it ran horrible. After lots of figuring, I reduced it down to the throttle body being the issue.

Overkill (http://www.getoverkilled.ca) is the one who sells the 80mm TB. I have tried to deal with this guy in the past for a tune. Its impossible to get him to reply to an email. Some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced. So, now having problems with his TB, I was not hopeful he would take care of me or even help. After talking to Kenny Camaro, who was very helpful, Kenny wanted to try another TB so he sent me another (on his dime without paying for the 2nd one). Kenny sent William (Overkill) a PM, he didnt help Kenny much, I sent William a email and he didnt help me either. It ended up that Overkill just left me hanging never getting back to me (again). I dont think he knew the problem, which is fine but there should be some service and support to reach that conclusion?

It just sucks that Overkill is the only one in the LFX game for upgrades. If you need his parts, I dont know what you can do but if you can, stay away from his company. He obviously is not there if you need him.

Ok, so moving on.... I sent the 80mm TB back and I had the stock 72mm TB ported. From what I understand, this may be the best move anyway in a sense. I have heard that people have dyno'd a ported 72mm vs the 80mm and there is minimal gain, like 1hp! So, you can spend $100 on the 72mm porting or $300 for the 80mm TB. Seems like the 72mm ported is not a bad decision...

Here is a ported 72mm vs stock



After install, there seems to be some gains, not huge though. From looking at the dyno sheets, it looks like there is only 15 or so HP gain overall but the middle of the curve is what really is helped. Hopefully a tune will really bring more out of this mod. If it doesnt, I dont know if its really worth the $600ish. Either way, I dont regret it. I would have always wondered if I didnt do it.

[Erik D_lux]

The car looks cool. I like your idea. Keep doing with your passion!

Thank you!