e21 blog

Day 2 of ''ducktail'' rear spoiler and I still really like the look it gives my car so I guess it'll be staying! What I would like is an early Motorsport roundel and I have found a company in the Midlands who can supply one for just a couple of quid.
I also want to dye the carpets and parcel shelf black. I think I will strip out the whole of the interior as I also need to modify the rear seat and clean / treat all the leather front and rear. I also have a 6 series rear that I'm thinking of fitting. The most pressing thing is a water trap that I seem to have. There is a constant drip from the rear of the nearside sill and I'm wondering where it could be blocked? Does anyone know where the drain points of the e21 shell are in detail? I think I need to solve this issue once and for all when I strip the interior out.

I took the e21 for a blast down to Gurston Down in Wiltshire today and watched the hillclimb event. Excellent entertainment. I've also decided to have a go in the e21 at some point.

Another 200 mile round trip where the car never missed a beat and it was great fun through some of the best roads Wiltshire has to offer. Add the glorious weather into the mix and it makes for quite a day. There were some great cars to be seen too and I'll post some photos soon.

I decided to do something to improve the sounds in the e21 today. I had already fitted JBL 6x4's all round in an attempt to try and improve things but there has always been a distinct lack of bass. The solution was a Pioneer sub and a Mutant amp bought for a tenner as it never worked. One new fuse later and we have life! Well a little green power-on light anyway. Half hour of ''hide the speaker wire'' and the sound is transformed. I do like a bit of 70's funk and having no bass spoils it slightly. I even made sure to mount the amp on the sub enclosure so that I can easily whip it out at track days etc.





I've also discovered this little trick that Alpina did to tighten things up at the front. I'll be asking the guys to do the same to my car when it goes in next week for the brake upgrade.

Yesterdays DiD event put on by the 02 guys was another success and great fun. The final country lane blast to the pub for a Sunday roast was most enjoyable. Looking forward to the next one!

Mark - are you now an honourary o2'r also  speak soon 

www.ppcmag.co.uk


Also had a result with a set of Toyo's for less than the price of one.

I've just been gifted a hottuning 6 branch manifold from an e30 325i. I've had conflicting reports about fitting it to an e21 but as it was free, I don't mind chopping it about a bit in the hope that it might be persuaded to fit. If anyone can shed any light on this, I'd like to hear from them?

Fitted the Toyos and my car feels very different on the road. If I'm honest, I'm actually pretty shocked that there should be such a dramatic difference in feel. It's not as if the tyres I took off were rubbish. I have yet to push them to their limit but if first impressions are anything to go by, I'm in for a treat!

Now I've come over all jealous! The guys that built my exhaust have said they'll do my manifold but can't fit me in till after race season so looking like September at the earliest. What is it they say about patience?

Swapped to a new steering wheel today.

Decided to go for a different steering wheel.

Well, for one reason or another, a few months have passed since I was last able to update this thread. There has been a fair bit of progress with my car though, so here goes!

Firstly, the guys at RPM fitted the new hi-ratio steering rack and 'wonder bar' along with K-mac roller bearing top-mounts. The result has been much more precise steering but without it being at all nervous or twitchy. The 'wonder-bar' has helped immensely and all sign of shimmy has been removed. Excellent. I can see why Alpina were so keen to fit this mod to their own cars.

I have also got my new brakes fitted in the shape of Volvo 4 pots and EBC Greenstuff pads. The whole conversion is pretty straightforward and well covered on various forums and offers a vast improvement over stock. I had considered going with Wilwoods but the bespoke caliper brackets cost twice the price of the whole Volvo conversion and I'm on a tight budget. I must admit, the Wilwoods do look pretty trick though and they're a fair bit lighter too. Maybe once the lottery numbers come up I'll swap?

I'm still working my way through the car and replacing all the bushes I can with items from Super Flex.

Finally, I have nearly finished getting my new engine ready to be dropped in. It's a 2.7 that's been built up from scratch and blueprinted with a Schrick cam. The chap who built it, Matt Durys, was a big fan of all things automotive and the engine was going to power his e21 as a track car. He also owned a TVR Griffith 500 so he knew a thing or two about quick cars! Sadly Matt died aged just 37 as a result of cancer.

Matt obviously knew how to put a quick engine together though as the dyno sheet shows it made 198bhp whilst still running the old K-jet injection! Now that's none too shabby. I have decided to bin the K-jet though and run a MAF with Motronic and a live remap. I'm hoping this will find me a bit closer to 220bhp with a healthy lump of torque. If all goes to plan, the engine will be in next week and I'll run it in gently for a few hundred miles before I get it back on the dyno again.

Finally, I found myself a set of magnesium Panasport split-rims which should look rather nice once fitted. I've nearly finished polishing them and all I need are some new tyres and for my finger tips to grow back!

I'm without my car this week as it's in for paint where I damaged the Alpina front spoiler. The offside wing buckled slightly too, so that's being sorted along with a brand new front bumper. I'm still getting over the cost of the bumper when you consider it wasn't that long ago that BMW was selling them off at £150 in an effort to get rid of their stocks. Today, a complete e21 front bumper will set you back £770.00! Thank goodness for insurance!

Anyway, pictures.....

Matt Durys and his TVR.



I have set up a regular payment to cancer research as a mark of respect to Matt and I like to think he would approve of where his hard work has ended up!

Panasport split rims.







Edited by Mark Brown - 19 Aug 2010 at 7:59am

Decided to get myself a vernier to optimise things with the Schrick cam when my car goes for a live re-map. I was making pretty good power without one but I think it's good sense to fit one while I have the chance. I'm not sure if there's any one brand that's better than another though so I guess some research is in order.

I know one thing for certain though. I don't want to be without my car for very much longer. Since the end of May I've only had a couple of weeks use of it. Once it comes back from paint on Monday its straight over to RPM for the 2.7 but then that's it for a while. There's still stuff I want to do but I can do it here myself - I think.

One of the jobs I can do is to fit the modular ICE I got at Gaydon from Pat Tremain. I think it's pretty much period for an e21 and once it's had the head unit converted to accept my i-pod, it should be pretty sweet.





I remeber when hi-fi's were nothing without a ''graphic'' :lol:





Pair of matching speakers



This is the finish my split rims should end up with and have opted to copy the gold bolts too.

6.10am and about to set off for Essex to drop my car off for the new engine. My Mrs thinks I'm bloody mad.

Well the wheels are back and look fantastic. Apologies for poor pics but you get the idea.

The car comes back today and I am so looking forward to the extra torque of a 2.7. Added to that, I am off to see a hens tooth this evening.







I got some new gauges to keep a close eye on the 2.7 too. I think they should fit right in and have a nice period look about them.

Well it seems they didn't machine quite deep enough for the hubs so the wheels need a bit more work. The Toyos won't be here till mid-week anyway.

The 2.7 is a peach and the performance has certainly jumped a step. I have got a very slight misfire though so new plugs are needed. Any suggestions for the most suitable?