Clutch upgrade continues

I looked around for an M3 clutch and eBay UK and eBay US ended up being very expensive when postage was added. I then looked at eBay Germany and up popped a couple of second hand clutch assemblies including flywheel. Got in touch with one guy and ended up paying €200 for the whole assembly including postage to Sweden. Only a few days later all 18kg arrived! 

Little clean up required

The clutch plate and pressure plate are much bigger than the M44 version but the flywheel is exactly the same size, same number of teeth, same mounting points etc. but the clutch space available is very much more.

Locked the flywheel in place and then easy to remove the eight flywheel retaining bolts.

Not sure whether I need to replace the retaining bolts, should be enough to add a little Loctite I would have thought - ideas? That goes for the  clutch pressure plate retaining bolts too?

Flywheel match! 

Flywheel removed ready to remove pilot bearing. Dave sent me a youtube link to someone who used bread to remove the bearing - well it worked for me too!

This is the new M3 flywheel temporarily in place. It should fit nicely into the gearbox housing.

Tomorrow I'll nip into the local BMW dealer and order clutch plate, release bearing, pilot bearing, inlet and exhaust gaskets, also considering changing to ARP bolts and replacing crankshaft bearings so will need a new M42 gasket as well (my M44 sump was replaced by a shortened M42). It will all be quite expensive but may as well replace as much as possible - if it's really needed!

Engine needs a cleanup and repaint.

On to the engine

Now the engine's out it's time to clean and replace. As well as the clutch, Dave advised me to renew big end bearings and change ARP bolts. I may as well do as much as I can while the engine's out. Although it's really fun doing it I'm not sure if I want to do it too often! 

Alternator and bracket are now removed and the clutch pressure plate and clutch removed. 

The M3 version of the clutch is 240mm in diameter and the clutch for the M44 engine I have is 215mm. I don't think it will fit inside the lip of the flywheel unless I change the flywheel too. But then will the gearbox bell housing fit over it?

I tried sand blasting the engine mounts but the finish wasn't as good as I expected so I may spray paint them metal finish, maybe use Hamerite silver. The block I'll clean up and paint black and everything else sand or spray with a metal finish paint. 

Gearbox needs a clean up and change of oil.

As I mentioned everything was done to quickly to build the car, without too much thought to where things went or whether they were even used. I'm now going to re-wire at least everything in the engine bay. Also heating hose pipes were directed badly and those not being used were capped badly.

Most of this has to be connected before the inlet manifold is put back.

Winter strip begins

UPDATED
Hi there! Nice you could drop in. The weather has been slowly getting colder and wetter and even a small amount of snow fell last week. I thought it was best to start the winter jobs early so I'm sure (or pretty sure at least) that the car will be ready for the spring. The main job is changing the clutch so Saturday I put the car up on blocks and started removing most of the bits in the way of getting the engine out. 

The biggest problem was the cabling. Most of it was laying between the engine and inlet manifold so it was easier to remove the manifold and once the engine is out I'll spend time tidying up. It was also easier to get to alternator and starter motor cables. As the gearbox has to come out together with the engine, the seats, carpet, dashboard, console and heater had to be removed to to get to the gear lever linkage.

Inlet manifold removed. Spaghetti all over the place.

Spaghetti all over the place here too! It's a good opportunity to clean up. At least now I know where everything goes whereas when I was building it things were simply put in place without any particular order. 

Well during the week the car was stripped even more. Drive shaft was a real bugger to remove, upside down, blood flowing the wrong way. Must be less blood the older one becomes! Gear linkage and clutch master cylinder were straightforward to remove. Engine mounts etc were also easy.

Feels really great to have the engine out so I'm able to clean up and try and get it back to nearly new status again.

Will need to clean up the workshop a little, it's a bit cramped with car bits, tools and wine rack laying around - wine rack!

Gearbox is now off and I have access to the clutch. I need to double check that an M3 clutch and pressure plate fit inside the bell housing. I found a forum that says it does. I'll give the engine a good clean and sandblast some of it as well as change cam belt, water pump etc. 

I'm really glad that I started so early in the winter season, means I can take it easy and hopefully get things right this tie.

Here is a little time lapse video of the job so far!

Wonderful if one could work this fast!

Hope you can drop back soon!