Engine in!

Made some good progress this week, added the twin roll bar, sorted out the sump and put the engine and gearbox in. The roll bar was pretty straight forward as it fitted very well and it looks great!

 6 bolts on either side and job done!

Next job was to change the sump to a shorter version. I forgot that my engine is actually the M44 version of the BMW 318is model as it is very similar to the M42.

The car is very low to the ground so a normal sump would bottom out, a shorter sump solves the problem.

The sump I got from Peter was for the M42 and I realised something was amiss when I removed the old gasket. The sump has a recess for the rubber gasket whereas the M42 sump is flat and takes a cork(?) type gasket. More consultation with Richard and it was a matter of just changing to the new M42 sump and using a flat M42 gasket.

Once that was solved I then realized the M42 sump was pre 1995 which meant the bolts required to hold it to the engine block were 18mm instead of 30mm. I ended up buying 18 new shorter bolts as I didn’t fancy shortening all the old ones!

Then there was the dipstick guide that was obviously too long, I used a plumbers pipe cutter to shorten it by about 2 cm.

While the engine was on the stand I took the opportunity to clean it as well as change plugs and oil filter.

The filter is the type without a nut so it has to be gripped and turned. I ended up buying a great little tool from my favourite store "Jula"

Neil came round tonight and we spent two hours bolting back the gearbox and after a bit of giggery pokery managed to manipulate both gearbox and engine into the tiny engine space and onto the rubber supports. Looking closely at the mass of components on the left side of the engine I just hope there is room for the steering shaft etc. All in all I’m very happy so far!

Had to remove the rubber mounts on one side plus the mount housing on the passenger side just to get the engine to slip into place.

Very happy indeed but what challenges lurk around the next corner!