BMW Forums : BimmerForums banner

94 e36 compact restoration/engine conversion

4 reading
3.5K views 23 replies 4 participants last post by  bigbungster  
#1 ·
Hi all I started an engine conversion which is turning into a restoration as well, I thought I'll share it with you lot.

I brought a pretty banged up 94 316 compact for something to do, bit of an impulse buy to be honest, I had a 318ti a few years back and that was proberly the best car I have ever had.

Any how my plans are to stick a 2.8 lump in it, here it is don't laugh it's not staying like this


The interior is alright actually parcel shelf is missing and a bit of trim under the passenger door



It looks pretty alright underneath not got any pics but it has been wax oiled by a previous owner must have been many years ago there patches of rust starting to come throu but more about that later.

In the garage very tight




Started to strip down the front end



Found this on the passenger wing

The front of it is all bent and full of filler

So went to the scrappy and had a bit chopped out of another compact


To my surprise it was quite a clean cut considering he was using a massive petrol disc cutter

Got the wing mirrors to not much of a fan of those m3 mirrors on there.

Whilst I was doing all this I was sourcing a donner car managed to get this 328i convertible on a deal


It's got what I want lol


Got the front up on axel stands now to slide under and disconnect the exhaust and prop shaft.

Taken the drivers wheel off and found this

I thought sweet I'll sell them on until I removed the passenger side wheel and found an oem one.

That's how far I got with it at the moment I do a bit every night when i finish work.

Thank for reading I welcome any comment or ideas

Cheers
 
#2 ·
Got under it tonight removed the exhaust, the rear silencer was a powerflow one, disconnected throttle cable and taken the cover off to expose the blower motor apparently I didn't need the filter assembles


Here's a picture up in the air
 
#4 ·
Cheers mate I aim to do a bit each night, the wiring is really in a crap state I didn't know it had crappy under car lighting until I got it home flashing crap, also it's got a crap aftermarket alarm which I want rid off and there seems to be wires spliced here there and every where.
 
#5 ·
Well last night didn't do much absolutely knackered from work,

Managed to disconnect the power steering pipes and resivour plus finish disconnecting the engine loom from the car I'll post up pics later I'm going to try and get the engine out this weekend hopefully.
 
#7 ·
Well this weekend was eventful, my mate went to his mums house to get me his hoist and a few bits only to find out his mums other half has got rid it and a few other things as well.

Anyhow it won't be till the end of the month now till I get one, just going to buy one. But it's holding me up now so I thought feck it there's more then one way to get the bloody thing out so I started stripping it lol

Double checked the wiring was all disconnected

Removing the lower manifold

Box of bits building up

Lower manifold off with the loom

What was left

Stripped most of the ancillaries off

Another pile

Head off

Main block

This is how I'm leaving it tonight got beaten by the sump got every bolt out around the edges a couple around the bell housing but it don't want to budge bloody thing.

Plan for tomorrow axle stand under the front of the gear box and pull the block out should be lighter and easy enough to man handle out hopefully.

I would have just waited till the end of the month but I just want to get it out clean everything up cut and weld the corner bit in place and paint it proberly yellow.
 
#9 ·
Yeah I was looking it to hiring one but then I thought about just buying one that way I'll have it to hand and in the grand scheme of things it's going to come in handy in the future, I don't plan on getting rid of this car when it's done and I'm sure I'll end up pulling the 2.8 out for a rebuild in the future proberly when I go down the turbo route.
 
#10 ·
On four pots we used to tie a beam to the engine, two of us lift it and a third person push the car from under, and we didn't have removable front panels, in was same process. Not recommending that of course, don't do it.
 
#11 ·
I done that on a old triumph stag years ago, I had me and my mate on both ends of a scaffold pole and my dad pushed the car back as we lifted those v8s were bloody heavy we were standing on 3 high breeze blocks just to get the height to clear the front end lol
 
#12 ·
Got it out (in more bits)

Wriggling the sump off


Looking up


This bolt was a fecker


Stripping more weight


My leg got absolutely soaked when I pulled it out


Still heavy mind


This is coming off


That's better those clutch plates and flywheels are quite heavy




How it's looking now


Loads of bits to bin




Just waiting on the missis to come home to use her car to take it all to work and bin in the metal skip.

Plan for tomorrow take the gearbox out and put the wheels back on, The plan is im going to clean it all out cut that front corner off and weld in a new bit sort out the wiring, aftermarket alarm mostly and have a crack at the interior odds and ends till I get a hoist at the end of the month. I'm thinking off painting it Matt light yellow but I'll see how I get on.
 
#13 ·
Not done much this week mainly because of work and the weather being so cold,

Got on to it today, well this afternoon after more work (perks of being promoted you work longer).

Anyway had a fight with the gearbox, I don't have an impact driver yet so I tried my hardest to disconnect the prop from it but I couldn't so I just split the prop shaft which is what I was going to do afterwords it came out stupidly easy when I done that


It was surprisingly light actually

I put the shifter back on it and keep it for a spare, I just need to find somewhere to put it all my storage space is full at the moment


And my missis threw a right wobbler when I said I wanted to store the bonnet under our bed lol.

Now I got the front wheels back on

I can roll it in and out to work on the wiring and do stuff to the interior take the passenger wing off and what not till I get a engine hoist.

This is all the oil and coolant I pulled out the old engine not a lot didn't even fill this 5l drum up


All the nut and bolts I've accumulated I think I know where they all go
 
#14 ·
Rolled it out the garage today first time it's been out for a few months,

Started on the wiring a cor blimey what a mess, who ever done it clearly needs a beating

Found all these redundant relays

These chopped in and then just covered with tape

A mess behind the glove box

Some very dodgy soldering


That wasn't even soldered

Taking this crap alarm out

And this crap under car lighting
 
#15 ·
Been a while since last time I posted haven't done a thing till today mainly down to the weather if its not stupidly cold it's raining. It's a shame my garage is not bigger I have to roll it out to work on it.

I stripped the seats out to make it easier doing the wiring I'm tearing loads of it out that's not needed


As I said my garage is not that big


Now I'm a bit stuck and asking for some advise, it's amazing what you find when you take panels off. The front corner looks like it's taken a fair wack

I've got the wire brush out to get all the filler of, the wing looks alright to be honest bar the tip that sit above the indicator, I have the piece I got cut out off another compact to replace the bit that the lights sit on



I'm thinking of getting a new wing and then lining it all up to see how pissed it all is.

What's everyone's thoughts on it? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
 
#16 ·
Carried on this afternoon, finally got the wiring sorted ripped out the crappy alarm which was fun.

The rear had lights put in the side

Picture a bit crap I thought ah that's a good idea but I don't like it so as they were added I ripped all the cabling out to them to BUT to my horror I found this behind them


That was the passenger side this was the drivers side



I really don't understand why some one would go to that extent just to add light where they are not needed.

Here's all the crap I pulled out that's not standard in the car
Old crappy alarm


Thrown in with the rest of the crap


It was horrendous wires starting out as say red then being joined with blue then to earth colours bloody shoddy.
 
#18 ·
The green car ran perfectly fine when I brought it home went on a 60 mile detour around the up to exeter and back lol.

When I took off the inlet manifold and the ccv have brown gunge stuff coming out of it

Is that on its way out?

Also when I plumb it all during the week, in on the compact I only have two hose tails that go to the heater not three do I just remove the heater solenoid which will leave me with two pipes? The rest I should be fine with (should be very lose).
 
#21 · (Edited by Moderator)
Funny enough this was supposed to keep me going for the year just to ponder about with, the plan was to paint it yellow like yours but her indoors want to move back in to her mums to save for a house. I brought these a couple of months ago

Matt canary yellow but that's going to wait now till I buy a house in a years time now
 
#20 ·
Got more done yesterday, poked the battery cable through the bulkhead, I can across another slight problem with the heating system my car doesn't have a heater solenoid so I plumbed it all in like the old engine was. Cheers Payno for clearing that up. But couldn't find the pipe so I bodged it for now
Here's how it was

And how it is now for the time being


Got all the inlet manifold on and radiator all put on with bits of the front end
 
#22 ·
Well been busy again, swapped over front struts and brakes tidied up the wiring and mounted the power box next to the brake booster


Also had this turn up today

Nice 16" slimline fan and controller kit

Fitted like a glove



Mounted the controller

Nice and easy to get to

And had this turn up for further down the line


The green car is getting taken away tomorrow then I'll be able to tackle the exhaust and rear of the car when it's gone.
 
#23 ·
So tonight she's looking like this


Found out why I didn't have a door lock on the drivers door


Also I pulled out the door handles and ignition barrel from the green car, I have 4 keys for that and only one for my compact watch a wicked video on how to get the ignition barrel out with a bobby pin