KatoKid

Very nice Gareth.....you know Im a sucker for 6 x anything!

Bawhahahah.....you funny man Craig! Would be rapt if it was this time next year!

Must be getting excited now! Bags first ride.

Thanks Pete, please let me know who you use.

From the same guy Pete?

Spent too many hours degreasing and cleaning the engine. The exhaust side was pretty easy but the inlet side was a pain, plenty of rust and crap as this is the up side of the engine as it sits canted over towrad the drivers side so it collects all the lovely salted snow and slush off the UK roads. Crazy idea this canting over engines, who would have thought it would take off,bloody Bavarians!! Oh yeah..... the japs who built my car. Any words of advice before I hit it with the spray can? I'm thinking Satin Black from the VHT range....not a big fan of glossy engine finishes. As you can see the cast alloy sump looks like a POS. Its been hot tanked at Peter Orger's but didn't do much to get rid of the dark oxided/staining. I'm looking for the as new factory cast alloy finish and Ive done a fair bit of research. Dry ice blasting was a good initial choice but its too expensive so I'm going to give Hydrablasting a go http://www.southernhydrablasting.com.au/. Anyone had experience with this? Seems like the next big thing in blasting.

Once again Moe is the epicentre of the universe.

^^^^what Paul and Whittie said....... I paid double that but the job the blaster did was brilliant...I couldn't fault their work. This is one job that you don't want done on the cheap.

Choice depends on so many things but mainly comes down to money. Blasting will reveal all evils and then you have to decide how you will deal with it and how much it will cost....and where do you stop. If its a good car with limited rust and you have a tight budget then just give it a rub yourself, do the basic repairs, paint and enjoy driving it. Sometimes its better not to know!

Cheers.....hopefully all up weight will be around 1100kg so 350kg less than the donor car. I'm going to gear it pretty short....3.7:1 R200 with 1:1 fifth gear in the ZF 5 speed. Should boogie.

Thanks Benny, does the Blitz discolour or leave a dull grey finish?

What do you do at night time during the middle of winter......spend hours in the shed cleaning throttle bodies. Mine were pretty disgusting, plenty of built up crud and generally just looked less sexy than they deserved. The BMW process of balancing the throttles is pretty complex, using six probes screwed into the exhaust ports and using CO2 levels to balance.... equipment I ain't got and it also takes a bit of time and thus $$$ to be done by a BMW stealer. So in order to avoid this cost I used some RHS to screw the flanges to once I removed them from the head, otherwise they flop around as the throttle shaft is the only thing that holds them together, this way I can work on them and not disturb the butterfly adjustments. Used a kero based solvent and brushes (mainly tooth brush) to do the cleaning, it was a PITA but worthwhile. Didn't want to use any aggressive chemicals as there are seals for the butterfly shafts and I didn't want to discolour the aluminium finish either. TB's have an injector rail as well as a vaccum rail hence the two sets of ports on each runner. 50mm butterflies and made by Dellorto!

Nice work Scoot....was going to ask about the weld through!

What brand of hose and fittings Pete? I want to use black and black for mine as well.

Very noice Pete!

Me too.....fess up Lurch!

Hi Peter. I know my BMW under dash setup isnt tried and tested yet but Im very confident it will work. Its the same 19mm bore as a Commodore and Ive manged to get very long stroke out of it ....I drive a VY SS Crewman and the clutch pedal stroke is ridculously long which could cause you some problems as the stoke on the standard Z pedal is pretty short. Ive experienced this whole bore vs stroke vs pedal effort dilema in other conversions and it can be painfull. David

Was a revelation how bad my old fiberglass sections were. meh....its a tin shed, its allways been hot in summer.....at least i will be able to see through the sweat dripping in my eyes and what I'm working on.

I built my shed 13 years ago...came with fiberglass sections to let the light in. Of late Ive been struggling to see anything and it dawned on my that my crap skylights are not so see thru any more. Invested a few bux and fitted new polycrab sections today.......wow what a difference. Highly recommended upgrade for any shed dweller!

Super sleeper ^^^^^needs more LS1 or 2JZ

Not to worry....shes a pretty straight girl.

Simon, yep all the drive train has been fitted, mounts made and aligned so all good. Still lots of detail work to be done but nothing that's likely to cause and serious issues.

Ive been slack at home and haven't done much while the shell is away but now things are progressing I'm fired up to get things happening. The engine has been on the test stand for nearly a year, Ive run it a few times just for kicks and to keep it dry and lubed. One thing I hadn't done was check if the engine speed signal from the BMW ECU would drive the Speedhut tacho, turns out after selecting the correct pulse type it works fine. Pretty cool tacho....fully programable, recall, shift lights etc cant wait to drive it for real. Next thing on the agenda: is to strip the engine, do big end bearings, ARP rod bolts, VAC oil pump drive, front and rear oil seals, CO2 blast all the discoloured aluminium housings including the sump, new gaskets where applicable, paint the block etc etc. To do this I had to remove the engine wiring harness, its a one piece pretty big bastard loom and took some doing to remove. Will be stripping out all the non required bits and also doing what's necessary to rewire to suit the Z battery location and to install the ECU inside the cabin as in the BMW the ECU sits in the engine bay. Engine is now on its stand with most bits removed.....looks very naked compared to normal! Sirpent, can you PM me the name of the CO2 blaster you used?

Had to go to the panel shop to give them some progress payment. Roof skin is off alreday, no real surprises. RH side was reasonable but the left needs some work!

Saw some of this a while ago and still amazes me every time.......no seatbelts either....life is cheap. Its not real drifting either as they are front wheel drive cars.