MyE28.com DEV

Finally back from the fab shop, the turbo car begins the next phase of stupidity.

The oft talked about but seldom seen (actually, it's been done a lot more than one might think) e21 power rack conversion. It shaved over 35lb off the front end.


A shitty pic, yes, but if you look close you can see the new floor and tunnel. The floor is flat with the shaft being totally encased in the tunnel. This'll allow the underside to be sheeted in baby's ass smooth aluminum.


This is a pic taken a few weeks ago during the mock up phase. Things have changed a bit but the idea is pretty clear. The tunnel cover bolts to the floor and is removable. The center bearing mounts allow for fine tuning the driveshaft. Worth noting.... I will NOT be doing another one piece driveshaft experiment. That's what got me into this shit in the first place!
!

For those not familiar with what's been done to this thing, here's a glimpse of what now lurks under the floor. At this point it's a full ladder frame and if I were a betting man, I'd say its a smidgen stiffer than stock


Before anyone starts giving me shit about the cage....it's not totally done yet. There are footwell braces going in, a few more X braces and the door bracing is getting changed.

In the down time the motor's been back apart for a crank scraper and a re-ring job. One hole was a tad loff in its leakdown figures and given the intended use of this pile, it came back apart.

I'm wierd that way.


OK, I'm just plain wierd.

Nice! Coming out a lot cleaner than I envisioned...that DS is gonna make a LOT of noise when that center support fails! Like a marching band...

Kyle in NO wrote:Nice! Coming out a lot cleaner than I envisioned...that DS is gonna make a LOT of noise when that center support fails! Like a marching band...

Haha, no doubt! It is definitely turning out to be quite a sweet piece of work. I can't wait to see it when it's finished.

Are you going to install one of these?



That or I hope your DS cover is 1/4" thick steel.

I hate being at work, and not being able to see the pics. Guess I'll go back to work..............

Vance

Super-cool! This is gonna be one neat ride!

Duke, there's loops already made, just not installed yet.

Bill in MN wrote:Duke, there's loops already made, just not installed yet.

How many? I'm curious. It seems you'd need one for each u-joint, correct? So one each for front, middle, and end? I don't know much about proper safety loop application.

Jeremy

We've built 3. Since this shaft is mostly encased the intention is to do one loop on each end of each shaft half, save for the diff. end.

The power output isn't going to be all that insane and this many loops is overkill but it's better safe than sorry.

I can't wait until this is finished.

Mike, think this will be comfortable for 4000 miles of hiway crusing?

Bill in MN wrote:Finally back from the fab shop, the turbo car begins the next phase of stupidity.

The oft talked about but seldom seen (actually, it's been done a lot more than one might think) e21 power rack conversion. It shaved over 35lb off the front end.


.

Looks like it was meant to be there. Glad I saved my e21 power rack.

A view from the underside.

Bill, it's really nice to see you salvaging this car. And I like the way you've gone about it. It ought to be quite stiff when it's all back together.

After seeing the bottom picture it made me think about exhaust clearance and routing. What are your plans or is it one of those "address it when it becomes an issue" things?

Truth be told the fabricator kind of forfgot about an exhaust untill it was too late. I did too. Hey, it's a first effort for both of us so you know something major would get left out

I've brought this issue up with several guys that know a lot more than I and the concensus is to run a 3" pipe oval'd out. It will will stick down less than 2" from the center section and I can live with that. . The fuel cell is mounted in the center of the trunk so the muffler will be located to either side, if I run one. The other idea is to run a small resonater just aft of the downpipe and shoot the pipe out under the pass. rear door.

The reality is that it is a "cross that bridge when we come to it" deal and no doubt more stuff like that will turn up as I go.

Bill in MN wrote:Mike, think this will be comfortable for 4000 miles of hiway crusing?

No, but it'll be worth it.

I think technically, BIR will require you to meet a 95dbA test -- certainly on BMW CCA days if you do any, but I also think there have been guys in violation now and then, and most people just chuckled at how good it sounded

i can't wait to see it come together. Looks good.

Are brake and fuel lines going inside ?

Bill, you probably already know this but some of the hot rod/muscle car supply houses sell oval exhaust tubing, with mandrel bends available in both directions of the oval. One place I know a little about is Ram Air Restorations, at http://www.ramairrestoration.com. A friend of has one of their X-pipe setups made from oval tubing for his '61 Bonneville, and it looks like a well made piece. They also have some Spintech mufflers on their website that look like they would fit up in the recess between the new frame rail and the rocker panel; they're rectangular and have both the inlet and outlet on the front. The exhaust end gets connected to a short bend that dumps out the side of the car. There's a picture of it on the right side of their home page (make sure the sound is turned down on your computer, they have this annoying sound clip of a loud exhaust that plays when the site opens up.)

Start, thanks for the info.. It never hurts to have more than one source for that stuff.

Matt, brake lines are going inside the passenger compartment but the fuel lines will likely go underneath. This means fewer through-the-bulkhead issues. As for the db level, there's going to have to be a muffler of some sort back there. Given the intent of the build I'm not interested in dealing with a totally unmuffled highway cruising experience. That gets old quiclky!

Looks awesome Bill.

Lots got done during the late nights this weekend such as cleaning/sanding/primering the engine bay, interior and trunk areas. Both subframes were removed leaving a completely bare chassis so the undersides got seam sealed and 2 coats of POR 15 put down. If all goes well it'll get sprayed mid week, weather permitting.


This upcoming week will see the arrival of the Painless harness, suspension goodies, new bearings/bushings for everything, polycarbonate sheets for windows and all of the stuff to put together the fuel delivery system. At this point the progress will slow considerably. I've gone at it pretty hard the past week but it's time to tend to business again. Damn!!!

I assume you haven't had to do anything to the body paint, last time I saw it the exterior looked really nice. Are you stripping out all the factory wiring? That probably saves a couple hundred pounds right there.

Staurt, it's a bare shell right now. As for the OEM chassis harness etc., it weighed 48lb. and went bye bye.

For what it's worth, the rear door glass and related hardware were just shy of 19lb each. When it's all said and done I'm shooting for 2500lb. It's up for speculation as to whether or not that is possible.

How much did all of the pieces in the ladder frame weigh? I'm just guessing you weighed each piece before putting it in.

The fabricator told me the new floor/frame assy. was roughly the same as what came out but I wasn't there. He told me and if memory serves it was within 10lb of OEM.

did Bill in MN ever get his E21 rack and pinion conversion sorted? Ive been searching here but cant find a recent post....