Cheap flux is going to make a mess and produce some pretty porous welds.
From what I am reading if you can get a 220v line in there it will make welding a lot easier and gas will be much cleaner too.

Bryan is right.

And piping is much tougher to weld when first getting started.

If I had the project on my table...

I would;

Use the cherry picker to position the motor in the engine bay where I would need to install the mounts. Considering how the motor torques and use of heavy duty hardware. The longitudinal setup means you'll have to use the roll stops on a customized cross member. Again considering clearance issues with things like exhaust, charge piping, accessories. While the upper motor timing side mount would likely need the rad support.

In fact, the more I think about it.. The harder it is for me to gauge how much work is needed without physically seeing the engine bay and how the transmission is factored in.

The last guy on this board who did what you're about to do, did it successfully in a 1964 valiant. He did post the project on here. Guys name is Dan Falardeau from HP racing.

That may help you with getting some ideas on what to expect.

The intake manifold is another one.

Hell of a daunting task

From what I am seeing from the post I put up he only put the roll stops on and the trans mounts, is that enough? do you really need the timing mount?

Oh also what block are you using? a 7? if so the evo manifold is a good choice cause it will be facing forwards instead of backwards like the dsm manifold will be facing.

Sounds good, thanks. I'll work on getting the 220v into the garage and buying a better welder. One of the things I want to weld is the sunroof panel into the roof, this seems like it should be a good starting point for me.



Haha, yes it is. I've decided to take the body to a race shop that I know the owner of to help me with the engine mounts while he's building the cage.

As for the intake manifold I'm converting the car to non boosted brakes to remove the master cylinder. http://store.garagistic.com/e30-boosterless-brake-setup



I wasn't going to do a timing mount.

I just found a 6 bolt block with a 2.3l build on it. I bought it a couple days ago. JMF and Magnus actually make RWD intake manifolds for the 4G63. I really like the idea of the Evo manifold though as that sounds cheaper.

One other thing I'm a little worried about is the floor where I believe one of the roll cage mounts will be is a little rusty, I'll ask my cage builder but will he just cut that out and weld new floor in it's place?

My buddy who is co-funding this project is also talking about getting the shell sand blasted, I think I'll talk him out of this as it seems an unnecessary expense.

Your garage likely already has 220v. Even our houses do. It's just that we really only use it for the stove, and run everything else on 110v.

Just be aware of how many amp breaker you need to run from the panel. Usually there's a data sticker mentioning it or the info is found in the owners manual.

Doesn't seem like you need the timing mount for something like this so I think you are good.

The problem with the 6 bolt head is the intake ports are completely different from the evo ports, you can modify an evo head and throw it on the 6 bolt block if you like and that will work. Even with purchase of head and manifold still should be cheaper than the SMIM, but will be sacrificing some hp for some added torque.

Yes they will probably cut back as much as they need to so that they can put in a sufficient panel to hold in the cage.

Sand blasting is nice, if you are planning to paint the car then acid dip is a popular option too. If you can find yourself a closed enough area you can blast it yourself too.

The bell housing has been built, just waiting for it to ship. With the horrible conversion of CDN to US dollars this was a bit more of a hit than I anticipated, it'll be worth it when it runs though.



I ended up buying a Millermatic 190 mig welder. I'm going to try to learn how to weld on one of the parts cars before tackling the projects on the BMW. I will pick the welder up Monday and probably start trying to weld Wednesday.

https://www.millerwelds.com/equipment/welders/mig-gmaw/millermatic-190

Gas mig is nice! Not sure if you bought the cart to match the Miller but using argon will definitely keep your beads nice and tidy.

You can definitely learn everything there is to know about how to weld from just watching YouTube videos. How you apply it, is entirely on you though. The basics are simple, from understanding metals (metallurgy), melting points, types of joints, injection angles, positions in which you're welding, and puddle size and control.

Like I say, learn in the flat position by stacking beads 1/3rd overlapping on a steel plate from top to bottom, left to right. And right to left if you can.

Some tools I recommend owning, if you don't already, are;

1. Angle grinder.
2. Wire wheel.
3. A decent auto tinting mask.
4. Miller low profile air filtered mask (has interchangeable filters, new product on the market as of 2 years ago).
5. Various sizes of vise grip style clamps.
6. Tig style gloves which give you the best dexterity.

That's all that comes to mind for the time being...

Looking forward to seeing your progress!

Damn nice bell housing if I don't say so myself.

I also noticed the welder requires 240v.

I ended up making my own extension cord with 60 amp connectors and 25 feet of cable for roughly $90. After searching long and hard for a pre made one, I figured they just don't exist.

Well this past black Friday, I found myself in the RV parts and accessories aisle of TSC, I found the cable I made but IIRC, it was 10 or 15 feet and around the same price I ended building mine.

Something to consider as well..

99% of people use CO2 or 75/25 with Mig and keep the more expensive 100% argon to tig welding.

Being able to weld is one of the best assets you can have for projects like this.

I used to be a wood worker... Untill my uncle left an old mig welder in my garage. Havent biult anything in wood in years!

Going to highlight this one as this will make a massive difference in your quality of welds and how easy it is to get good welds!!

Correction; 75/25 as Jason mentioned!

Well the project has been a drain on my soul lately, haha.

The bell housing has been shipped so that's exciting.

I test fit the engine and I realized that all of the coolant ports from the engine are at the fire wall and point towards the turbo side of the engine, this makes running lines a bit more complicated. It appears there are two common methods of dealing with this, the first is to convert the coolant exits to the pulley side of the engine, the second is to use flexible rad hoses and just run the lines all the way around on the intake side. I definitely prefer the cleaner method of moving the coolant ports to the "front" of the engine but it may not be as simple as I first thought. Definitely will need more research.



I spliced the wiring for the fuel pump in and then installed the Walbro 255, it was fairly straight forward so we'll see if it works. It's weird because the fuel pump is soldered to the fuel pump housing in the BMW so I just cut the wires and soldered them together then heat wrapped them.





The other thing I've been doing as time permits is trying to learn to weld, I've been taking random parts off of the BMW parts car and welding them together or just welding on them. I cut the evap canister in half then welded it back together then ground down the welds.

The welding needs more practise!

Control the puddle and you'll have better fusion. I highly recommend starting with lap and T joints before doing butt joints on pipe. But that's great progress! Keep up the good work Cody!

based on the mess around the welds I would assume that's Flux core than your doing pretty damn good, no puddle control with flux cause it's so damn hot and the slag usually screws you up when trying to run beads.

If I am completely wrong and that's with gas then you need to do some reading on some settings. Certain characteristics of your weld will tell you how you need to adjust your settings to get things right

Ya, I'm welding whatever I can find in the parts car I have. I'll probably start cutting pieces of body panels off to fill in holes in the good car.

I'll start working on T joints next. Thanks.



Haha, I am using gas. A guy at work thinks that I have the gas set too high and it's blowing the mess around. I definitely have the settings off. I've found a welding class at the local college that I'm going to try to sign up for.

So to update this, I had everything set up all the parts except the oil pan and I just decided that it was above my abilities, I think I could have got it to run but I didn't trust my ability to custom fabricate a oil pan, I didn't trust the oil pick up to work in a way that the car wasn't designed for and I didn't trust the cooling system.

I've now chosen the easy way out and I am in the middle of my Ford 302 swap into the E30.

It was a hard choice but I think it's the right one for me.

I'm selling a 4G63t to Ford T5 bell housing adapter if anyone is interested. I'd give a good deal to any ca.dsm.org folks.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-transmission-drive-train/calgary/4g63-to-t5-rwd-bell-housing/1183242281

On a positive note my welding has improved drastically since I took the college welding course a couple months ago.

Let's see some updated pictures of your welding!!