1976 BMW 2002 - BY MR. DEW

15 minute(s) of a 111 minute read

Threw the valve cover on tonight just for the hell of it

Anyways my buddy and I wanted to document our trip to get this 02' and he wanted to have a little fun with it so if you are interested here ya go!

VIDEO:

10/23/2012

So I want to make sure that I document everything.  So I thought I would share since I am rebuilding the carbs once I get money to order parts.

So far I really like it yet I have never had anything else to compare it to for the dcoe's.  The only disadvantage that I have found is that because it is a one piece setup it is tough to run redline's delux linkage setup.  Now that I am rebuilding the carbs and I is apart I am going to mess with that setup some more later.

12/16/2012

also a slight little change.....

Can you spot the differences just in this one picture?

This is my second set of DCOEs.  The first set which is what has been posted before are the ones made in Spain while these are made in Italy.  I actually got the second set for less than the first set.  . The same place I got the carbs I also picked up a media blaster. Now with sand or media it could easily damage the carbs. So I did some research and found that a lot of media blasters do not operated we'll with soda. I thought it was worth a try because it is an older machine and the worst that I would have to do is clean it out. Well you see the results above!!

1/11/2013

Sorry for not having any updates lately, my computer finally took a dump after six years.  I guess that everything just wants to fail this year.  O well I will get to the 02' sooner than later.

For Christmas I got some goodies for the 02'. I got a black carpet kit and a MOMO suede steering wheel. The carpet kit is made for the car while the steering wheel wasn't so I am going to have to find a suitable adapter for it, or have one made or modify the old one off of the black 02'.

Also if you know anyone looking for a Ford Super Coupe Super Charger with only 9,000 miles on it let me know!

2/9/2013

Got my steering wheel!


and BTW my tie : )

4/29/2013

So this is the reason that I have not updated this thread in a while.

I wrote the largest check I have ever written so far!

I

But of course I have pictures of what I have been working on : )

I moved some stuff into the garage today....I never realized how much stuff I actually had!!

6/9/2013

Garage...Check
Basement....Check
Lots of black pipe....Check

Compressor in Basement....Priceless

Getting Closer! So much work!

6/12/2013

just a few pictures of the garage.  getting closer!

6/16/2013

Got a little work done today.  Only a little rot in the passenger floor pan, I cut it out and put a temp piece of sheet metal in until I can order a proper floor pan.  

Mocked up the black carpet, IMO it looks pretty darn good. I think a black and tan interior fits the car nicely.

7/17/2013

So I bit the bullet and finally bought carb rebuild kits and jets and everything. So so expensive.

7/27/2013

I finally got to rebuilding the Italian pair of DCOE's!

She should breathe better : )


There can never be a project without complications : /



of course rejetting EVERYTHING



and the pair before both are rebuilt

She is ALIVE on all FOUR cylinders

7/30/2013

Good news is that she runs on four cylinders as scene in the video above.you wouldn't believe how happy i have been about that!

Funny thing is that she sat for god knows how long without any carbs on her just a little concoction of chemicals I dripped in the cylinders so nothing would freeze up. I rebuilt the italian set of carbs, cleaned them up to look perdy and hooked up a temp fuel line. I swear it took longer to install the carbs than to rebuild them.  So I primed the fuel system no carb cleaner nothing just fuel. Not even a jump start! I turned the key and she started right away!!!! No extended crank or anything!!

Abd as you can tell it is on factoty mounts right now.

8/23/2013

3/29/2015

I finally decided on an exhaust

8/24/2015

I know that it has been a long while.  The car has just been sitting because it spun a bearing and the ring lands on one piston got obliterated.

So I figured lets go a completely different direction with this never ending build.

here is a little teaser of what is going on at the moment.

I was going to but I ended up purchasing an 1.8t audi A4 quattro and a mkiv 1.8t for parts. So I am going to use the quattro trans.

9/2/2015

Parts have stared to roll in!





I got more mocked up! A lot to clean up, etc. This is all basically a rough mockup.

more mocking up

9/9/2015

I finished wiring the cooling fans and the fuel pump. Turns out the vw fan assembly had one bad fan. I removed the puller fan and I had a universal pusher fan that I installed instead. I just have to wire the switches to control everything.

9/10/2015

I got the switches figured out and ready to go into the car. Every spade connector is soldered etc.

9/24/2015

I shortened the BMW driveshaft and connected it to the Audi flange. I am a little tight on cash so I attempted this myself.

I messed it with a dial indicator and it is only .050 out of round.

2/15/2017

Long time no posting but I still have her!

Got some more goodies for her!

5/30/2017

I was able to acquire another MKIV parts car. Well not really a parts car, more of a nice looking Jetta that did not know it was going to be a organ donor.

The original 1.8t had multiple problems including a head gasket and it sounded like a spun bearing at the end.

It was cheaper (actually turned out making me $50) to get another car!

7/19/2017

Being a car and living on the east coast means that it is going to have a rough life.  The winters are brutal, no not always the snow, but the salt and brine.  It eats everything and anything in its path wanting to return it back into the earth.  My BMW being around for almost 41 years has sure scene plenty of hell.  It is amazing that it only has a limited amount of natural weight reduction.  

The original fuel tank, being one of the lucky surviving items lasted up until approximately 2 years ago when a leak developed around where the tank is bolted to the floor of the trunk.  Luckily, I happened to have a spare tank sitting around that I was able to put in for the next two years.  As luck would have it, right before Waterfest 23 the second tank that I installed failed in the same location as the original tank.  The car is no longer anywhere close to being original so I reached out to my friends over at Aero Tec Laboratories in Ramsey, NJ ( http://atlinc.com/ )

They had the perfect fuel cell in stock, a 12-gallon ATL Sports Cell. This company is amazing, if you have not herd of them they have been around since 1970! They not only fabricate beautiful, but safe and certified fuel cells, but they support local and national charities. That being said, I do not know how to put into words how excited I was to be installing one of their fuel cells into my BMW.

Being on a tight schedule, I had to start fabrication on the cage for the fuel cell. Being that this car is being built for autocross, from my understanding was that the fuel cell had to be securely mounted, but did not require a fuel cell cage. I felt better installing it in a cage. Having the cage for the fuel cell also allows for easier mounting with more options. ATL supplies all the dimensions in their catalog on their website.

I stared with sketching some designs for the cage, and finally settled on one. I made a more detailed sketch with dimensions and how each piece had to be cut. It turns out that the cage was going to take almost 24 feet of 1” square 16-gauge tubing. Luckily nearby there is a metal supply company that I was able to buy 2-24ft sections from. I bought double, just so that if I messed up, I would be able to have plenty of metal left to make it right.

The nice part of owning a trailer with a 36ft deck? You can pick up whatever metal you want. It is still awkward to carry by yourself, but you do not need to worry about having a piece that is too “short” after a cut because of the length of metal. I set up my chop saw and make each cut. The “outside” of the cage was built with 45-degree cuts. The rest of the cage was fabricated with 90-degree cuts.

Now, I am not the best welder by any means, but a good grinder makes a good welder, right? Kidding. But I had all of my pieces in a pile, all the edges cleaned up and I worked on tacking the cage together. One of the best tools that I had with me was a tape measure. After each tack, I made sure that the cage was staying within my specs. After everything was tacked together, I worked on “finish” welding the cage. Once again, the ruler came in handy to make sure nothing warped or pulled when welding. After it was all done being welded together, I cleaned up any burrs and then the waiting game started.

I guess it wasn’t much of a waiting game, the same day I finished the cage, the fuel cell showed up. Of course, I was at work when it came, but as soon as I got home at midnight I had to see if what I made fit….and it did!

The very next morning I started work on the fuel cell again. I took the top panel of the fuel cell off and used a sharpie to mark the locations of each hole.  Off the top of my head, I believe they are ¼” x 20 bolts.  After the holes were drilled, and the burrs cleaned up, I went ahead of slid the fuel cell into the cage.  It is a snug fit, but all of the holes lined up.  I ended up purchasing longer ¼” bolts so that I cold secure the cell to the cage. Included with the fuel cell paperwork is a torque spec for these bolts, so not exceed this!
Mounting it in the car was interesting. I originally wanted to mount the fuel cell in the original location, and that is feasible, but after I opted in install it above where the original tank was. I figured this was a good location for it, given the trunk is no longer a trunk and it keeps it up and out of the way. I added a support bar to the floor of the trunk (where the old tank was) and the fuel cell was then bolted to that bar.

This fuel cell comes with 2 pickups, 1 vent and one return. All of these have 6AN fittings. If you are only running one fuel pump as I am, you only use one pickup and cap the other. Currently I do not have a vent line hooked up because when the trunk is closed it lines up perfectly with the vent in the trunk lid, therefore it is already venting to the exterior of the car. For the feed and return lines, I am using 2-90-degree AN fittings with 2 AN-3/8” bard fittings because currently this car does not use braided fuel lines. Before the high pressure fuel pump I have an inline fuel filter that is able to be taken apart and cleaned.

One off the biggest things that I overlooked doing this engine swap was the fuel pickup.  I was running a 3/8” fuel line from the tank, to the pump, etc.  The car ran, and I had just figured that the new fuel pump was noisy, never thought anything about it.  After installing this fuel cell the pump was almost silent. This was because the pickup in the tank was the correct size! In the original tank, the pickup reduced in size. This allowed for a reduction in volume that the fuel pump was able to flow. There is no longer any fuel supply issues, no more hesitation when a large amount of fuel is needed.

Having the proper equipment is critical. A lot is trial and error. A lot, you learn as you go. There is no book for projects like these.





http://www.atlinc.com

Any questions about how and why I installed my fuel cell how I did, please ask!