BMW E21 restoration project car
Discussion
Hi all
First post on here, hope I’m in the right place ? This post is more of a continuation from a post that was done on PH by a different member around 2012.
So around a year ago I purchased XHG400R a 1977 BMW E21 316.
It seemed in fair condition but lots of potential for improvement and having read through the previous PH thread it seemed a good starting point for a project car.
So a previous owner had gone through a pretty much full strip down to tidy up the body plus paint and then gone about dropping a M20B25 engine from a donor E30, if I’m honest this is what lured me in as i always fancied a straight 6 beemer and combined with the 70s look of the now quite rare E21 and the later M20 engine it seemed to tick a lot of boxes.
So a year in and its turned into a bit more work than i wanted and found many things done wrong with the engine install, mainly wiring issues with the motronic ecu, most of the mechanics seemed ok if a little tired.
The body work wasn’t to bad but the more you poke and scrape the more horrors you can find on a car thats around 43 years old now !
So got plenty of uploads to do just thought id make a start plus a bit of background.
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/bPbQghcb[/url]
First post on here, hope I’m in the right place ? This post is more of a continuation from a post that was done on PH by a different member around 2012.
So around a year ago I purchased XHG400R a 1977 BMW E21 316.
It seemed in fair condition but lots of potential for improvement and having read through the previous PH thread it seemed a good starting point for a project car.
So a previous owner had gone through a pretty much full strip down to tidy up the body plus paint and then gone about dropping a M20B25 engine from a donor E30, if I’m honest this is what lured me in as i always fancied a straight 6 beemer and combined with the 70s look of the now quite rare E21 and the later M20 engine it seemed to tick a lot of boxes.
So a year in and its turned into a bit more work than i wanted and found many things done wrong with the engine install, mainly wiring issues with the motronic ecu, most of the mechanics seemed ok if a little tired.
The body work wasn’t to bad but the more you poke and scrape the more horrors you can find on a car thats around 43 years old now !
So got plenty of uploads to do just thought id make a start plus a bit of background.
[url]|https://thumbsnap.com/bPbQghcb[/url]
V nostalgic for E21s (grew up with a 320 in Polaris Silver).
Cheers g3org3y, E21s are kinda the forgotten BMW, hugely overshadowed by the E30.
Iv heard many people say the first 3 series was the E30 ? but i like them and single headlights look the best, very 2002, but thats just my opinion.
Beemers of this era are very iconic with the shark nose design.
Il be putting up some more posts soon of some of the horrors an fixes over the past 12 months.
Iv heard many people say the first 3 series was the E30 ? but i like them and single headlights look the best, very 2002, but thats just my opinion.
Beemers of this era are very iconic with the shark nose design.
Il be putting up some more posts soon of some of the horrors an fixes over the past 12 months.
This looks very familiar, I’m sure a lad of ClioSport used to own this and did the conversion?
Link below.
https://cliosport.net/threads/eddies-bmw-316-e21.7...
Link below.
https://cliosport.net/threads/eddies-bmw-316-e21.7...
Edited by Matt Cup on Sunday 16th February 12:34
Edited by Matt Cup on Sunday 16th February 13:09
Thats possible, i had it from a lad down on the south coast and he’d brought it off a lad up north who i think did the original M20 engine conversion, but there may have been other owners in between ?
If you tap round PH you can find the original build thread.
So just wanted to say this is a continuation of what i would class as an unfinished project.
If you tap round PH you can find the original build thread.
So just wanted to say this is a continuation of what i would class as an unfinished project.
They are fabulous cars. That's a great conversion in a good colour plus I love the single light front on the E21.
Give Richard Hearn a call at Fritz's Bits in Somerset as they did loads of monkeying about with this sort of stuff back in the day and probably still have a loft full of E21 stuff.
A set of MIM Brescia Sports & a 323i twin outlet stainless exhaust with 6 branch manifold would set it off.
Give Richard Hearn a call at Fritz's Bits in Somerset as they did loads of monkeying about with this sort of stuff back in the day and probably still have a loft full of E21 stuff.
A set of MIM Brescia Sports & a 323i twin outlet stainless exhaust with 6 branch manifold would set it off.
Cheers stick legs, yeah do lov the topaz bronze, dont see many in that colour these days.
Ive changed the wheels from the driftworks 7twenty that we’re fitted to a set of OZ 15x7 alpina replica, the driftworks wheels really didn’t suit it an really didn’t make it a nice drive either.
Spoke to fritz bits a while back about Bosch headlights, which are like hens teeth these days for RHD cars, wondering if anyone on the forum has any drivers side Bosch spares ??
And yes this is the same car on the cliosport forum.
Ive changed the wheels from the driftworks 7twenty that we’re fitted to a set of OZ 15x7 alpina replica, the driftworks wheels really didn’t suit it an really didn’t make it a nice drive either.
Spoke to fritz bits a while back about Bosch headlights, which are like hens teeth these days for RHD cars, wondering if anyone on the forum has any drivers side Bosch spares ??
And yes this is the same car on the cliosport forum.
Ah.....I used to have an E21 from early 2008 until the end of 2011.....and put 35k miles on it in that time! It is the only car I still miss. I almost certainly wouldn't want it back as a daily, but it was a great fun car to drive and I have many happy memories. Ironic this came up, because only a month or so back I was wondering what had become of mine. It wasn't possible to see if it was taxed or MOTd because the person who bought it from me shipped it to Guernsey. I actually emailed him, and he replied saying he had sold it to a person who was going to restore it....so hopefully it is still out there somewhere. I put an E30 318is interior in mine, fitted 15 inch BBS alloys, fitted a weber carb and a few other bits like different shocks/springs.
I hope you enjoy yours very much. They are indeed really, really rare now.
I hope you enjoy yours very much. They are indeed really, really rare now.
Thanks for all the replies everyone, much appreciated.
The OZ Alpina reps really set the car off, much more sympathetic.
So as iv already mentioned this is kind of a follow up thread to a previous PH build thread who sold the car on a few years back.
With the car being 40 plus years old now it was always going to be a refurb project as there’s always something that wants a fettle which is part of the game when owning a classic.
When I collected it, it was the beginning of February and there had been bad snow the day before so it really wasn’t an ideal time to be driving a car on a 200 ish mile journey knowing no history of the car, but the seller assured me it wouldn’t miss a beat.
So i payed the lad for the car fuelled it up an got going, the engine seemed a bit erratic with momentary power loss but after a few miles it calmed down and seemed ok.
The only unnerving thing was a very strong smell of fuel so once a service stop loomed i pulled in to give it the once over.
Couldn’t see any leaks it was driving so the consensus was to keep moving.
Anyway it did make it back all ok in the end and tbh the more miles it did the better it seemed to run.
So I thought as a start point id investigate the fuel smell and plan a good engine service and take it from there.
Over the next few days i got it in the garage and started having a poke round things. I found a inspection cap to the fuel pump under the back seat, removing the cover revelled a very soggy fuel pump and not just that a very loose fuel pump, i guess this is where the fuel smell was coming from !
Not a great find but guess thats the way it goes. Also the pump itself didn’t really seem to be locked in place so lets fetch it out and have a look, heres what i found !
Not a great way to seal a fuel pump if I’m honest, Really not sure what the piece of O ring rubber was all about ? also it dawned on me that as the engine is from an E30 then this must be an E30 fuel pump / sender unit, so the normal rubber seal didn’t seem to give the right nip between pump and tank as its not an E30 tank.
I remember on cars from years back they used cork gaskets so heres what i did.
A good bead of “seal all” sealant and its job done, and very solid. The vent hoses look very tired and perished so once the tank comes out they’ll get replaced.
That’s the fuel leak fixed, probably not the most exciting post but thought it gives a bit of insight to the fuel system if someone out there is considering dropping an M20 engine into an E21.
On to the next issues with the engine and found plenty of problems with that but thats for a few other posts.
The OZ Alpina reps really set the car off, much more sympathetic.
So as iv already mentioned this is kind of a follow up thread to a previous PH build thread who sold the car on a few years back.
With the car being 40 plus years old now it was always going to be a refurb project as there’s always something that wants a fettle which is part of the game when owning a classic.
When I collected it, it was the beginning of February and there had been bad snow the day before so it really wasn’t an ideal time to be driving a car on a 200 ish mile journey knowing no history of the car, but the seller assured me it wouldn’t miss a beat.
So i payed the lad for the car fuelled it up an got going, the engine seemed a bit erratic with momentary power loss but after a few miles it calmed down and seemed ok.
The only unnerving thing was a very strong smell of fuel so once a service stop loomed i pulled in to give it the once over.
Couldn’t see any leaks it was driving so the consensus was to keep moving.
Anyway it did make it back all ok in the end and tbh the more miles it did the better it seemed to run.
So I thought as a start point id investigate the fuel smell and plan a good engine service and take it from there.
Over the next few days i got it in the garage and started having a poke round things. I found a inspection cap to the fuel pump under the back seat, removing the cover revelled a very soggy fuel pump and not just that a very loose fuel pump, i guess this is where the fuel smell was coming from !
Not a great find but guess thats the way it goes. Also the pump itself didn’t really seem to be locked in place so lets fetch it out and have a look, heres what i found !
Not a great way to seal a fuel pump if I’m honest, Really not sure what the piece of O ring rubber was all about ? also it dawned on me that as the engine is from an E30 then this must be an E30 fuel pump / sender unit, so the normal rubber seal didn’t seem to give the right nip between pump and tank as its not an E30 tank.
I remember on cars from years back they used cork gaskets so heres what i did.
A good bead of “seal all” sealant and its job done, and very solid. The vent hoses look very tired and perished so once the tank comes out they’ll get replaced.
That’s the fuel leak fixed, probably not the most exciting post but thought it gives a bit of insight to the fuel system if someone out there is considering dropping an M20 engine into an E21.
On to the next issues with the engine and found plenty of problems with that but thats for a few other posts.
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