BMW 2002Tii (ish)
Discussion
Hi Guys,
I've been meaning to start a thread for a while, more to keep a log of the build/ keep up with the history than anything, so here goes...
I've hankered after one for a long time and had promised myself once i was in my own house i would treat myself. As you can imagine the house choice almost certainly revolved around the garage space available. We hit it lucky and almost as soon as we were in i started looking, perhaps not the best time to nigh on skint myself but with the prices on the up it seemed like it was now or never!
The brief was quite open, any colour, round or square, standard or modified but the body/shell had to be very good, I'm fine mechanically (relatively speaking!) but bodywork scares me. I wasnt even bothered about body style initially and nearly went for a touring project but then in my head my perfect 2002 vision wasnt a touring.
I had nearly sorted a deal for a very nice standard sahara beige 2002 that was on the 02 forum but through the sellers holidays etc the sale dragged on and whilst i was on a 4 hour round trip parts run for said car i received a PM on there offering me the car that i ended up buying.
It had a restored body and a nice list of parts, during the resto it had had a colour change and turbo arches/ airdam, this car was already 'ruined' to the purists and i had always intended to modify the car and do euro drives/ track it. The Sahara beige example was original and perhaps too nice to 'ruin' and i ashamedly (in a way) decided to back out of the sale.
The car i bought was located with James at JFI Classic Cars in South Wales, an 02 specialist. Long story short i ended up buying it minus an engine or gearbox fitted (a tii bottom end and e12 head included as well as a super rare 235/5 gearbox). The car was 5 hours away so the better half and I set off at 3.15am one Saturday morning in respect that James was to open up especially for me to view the car, the journey was great and we arrived an hour early:
The car was as expected and it was great to meet James, a deal was struck with the owner in the back ground and i returned with a friend a month later to bring it 5 hours up north, this journey wasnt so great as the transporter broke down 80 miles into the drive and we had to stop overnight in Barnsley and bodge the drive belt in the morning to complete the other 450 miles or so! Pic's at JFI and just before departure home:
Tucked up back in its new home around 6 hours later:
When we picked it up the bottom end was sat in on its mounts, the head was in the boot along with the gearbox as well as a host of random parts/ nuts and bolts. First job for me was to get the bottom end out and onto an engine stand, whilst it was a rebuilt bottom end and hadn’t covered many miles it looked to have been sat a little while and I’ve always wanted to build my own engine. As the head was already off I decided to strip the rest down and rebuild it.
I’m lucky in this sense as I’ve helped out at a competition engine builders for the last 14 years or so, my boss that runs it is oldskool and a wealth of knowledge on a whole host of marques, especially bmw. It’s a small ‘man in shed’ type machine shop but a lot of well-known companies get engines built by him and his son, his cylinder heads/ engines perform unbelievably well in a lot of cases. Engine stripped and packaged off for me to take in:
Crank was checked and polished, clear to see that it’s had some trauma in a past life with the amount of grinding it’s had previously. This was a cause for concern at one point as I was going to run 144mm rods and some custom pistons with a higher compression ratio however something else has taken up that allocation of that money so I’m sticking with the bottom end as it is for now (more on that later). The pistons in the block measured up well and in great condition so a simple hone was all that was in order:
Whilst the bottom end is staying standard i’m still going to have the head modified, to accompany this we’ve spec’d a camshaft for it and to match this I’ve selected the mildly uprated Schrick single springs and KM Cams steel rockers. Standard valves will remain for this iteration of the engine. Along with this I’ve got all new rocker shafts and hardware, some random pictures:
The car also needed a clutch, I thought I’d future proof and go for the Helix Autosport one along with a steel billet lightweight flywheel. In total, including the clutch, there’s 3kg’s saved here. Not too much for what will primarily be a road car but enough that it should make a nice difference to performance in the lower down gears. I’m still waiting for the shorter 22mm arp flywheel bolts to come in so we can balance the bottom assembly.
I've been meaning to start a thread for a while, more to keep a log of the build/ keep up with the history than anything, so here goes...
I've hankered after one for a long time and had promised myself once i was in my own house i would treat myself. As you can imagine the house choice almost certainly revolved around the garage space available. We hit it lucky and almost as soon as we were in i started looking, perhaps not the best time to nigh on skint myself but with the prices on the up it seemed like it was now or never!
The brief was quite open, any colour, round or square, standard or modified but the body/shell had to be very good, I'm fine mechanically (relatively speaking!) but bodywork scares me. I wasnt even bothered about body style initially and nearly went for a touring project but then in my head my perfect 2002 vision wasnt a touring.
I had nearly sorted a deal for a very nice standard sahara beige 2002 that was on the 02 forum but through the sellers holidays etc the sale dragged on and whilst i was on a 4 hour round trip parts run for said car i received a PM on there offering me the car that i ended up buying.
It had a restored body and a nice list of parts, during the resto it had had a colour change and turbo arches/ airdam, this car was already 'ruined' to the purists and i had always intended to modify the car and do euro drives/ track it. The Sahara beige example was original and perhaps too nice to 'ruin' and i ashamedly (in a way) decided to back out of the sale.
The car i bought was located with James at JFI Classic Cars in South Wales, an 02 specialist. Long story short i ended up buying it minus an engine or gearbox fitted (a tii bottom end and e12 head included as well as a super rare 235/5 gearbox). The car was 5 hours away so the better half and I set off at 3.15am one Saturday morning in respect that James was to open up especially for me to view the car, the journey was great and we arrived an hour early:
The car was as expected and it was great to meet James, a deal was struck with the owner in the back ground and i returned with a friend a month later to bring it 5 hours up north, this journey wasnt so great as the transporter broke down 80 miles into the drive and we had to stop overnight in Barnsley and bodge the drive belt in the morning to complete the other 450 miles or so! Pic's at JFI and just before departure home:
Tucked up back in its new home around 6 hours later:
When we picked it up the bottom end was sat in on its mounts, the head was in the boot along with the gearbox as well as a host of random parts/ nuts and bolts. First job for me was to get the bottom end out and onto an engine stand, whilst it was a rebuilt bottom end and hadn’t covered many miles it looked to have been sat a little while and I’ve always wanted to build my own engine. As the head was already off I decided to strip the rest down and rebuild it.
I’m lucky in this sense as I’ve helped out at a competition engine builders for the last 14 years or so, my boss that runs it is oldskool and a wealth of knowledge on a whole host of marques, especially bmw. It’s a small ‘man in shed’ type machine shop but a lot of well-known companies get engines built by him and his son, his cylinder heads/ engines perform unbelievably well in a lot of cases. Engine stripped and packaged off for me to take in:
Crank was checked and polished, clear to see that it’s had some trauma in a past life with the amount of grinding it’s had previously. This was a cause for concern at one point as I was going to run 144mm rods and some custom pistons with a higher compression ratio however something else has taken up that allocation of that money so I’m sticking with the bottom end as it is for now (more on that later). The pistons in the block measured up well and in great condition so a simple hone was all that was in order:
Whilst the bottom end is staying standard i’m still going to have the head modified, to accompany this we’ve spec’d a camshaft for it and to match this I’ve selected the mildly uprated Schrick single springs and KM Cams steel rockers. Standard valves will remain for this iteration of the engine. Along with this I’ve got all new rocker shafts and hardware, some random pictures:
The car also needed a clutch, I thought I’d future proof and go for the Helix Autosport one along with a steel billet lightweight flywheel. In total, including the clutch, there’s 3kg’s saved here. Not too much for what will primarily be a road car but enough that it should make a nice difference to performance in the lower down gears. I’m still waiting for the shorter 22mm arp flywheel bolts to come in so we can balance the bottom assembly.
Once I had the car up on axle stands I could have a better look underneath, all new to me as I’ve never looked under a 2002 before! The shell is like new, the sub-frames powder coated and complemented with new bushes (some look like black powerflex items) and new kunifer/ braided lines ran throughout. However the rear driveshaft boots had split and chucked moly grease everywhere and the diff looked like it had been sat at the bottom of a river, along with the state of the driveshafts:
This led me to refurbish the driveshafts and after checking that the diff plates weren’t worn I had the cover off and refurbished that and gave the case a lick of paint:
The driveshaft bolts were loose/random/ rounded off so I ordered all new hardware to mount them again, new crush seals and LSD oil. The spacers for the e21 diff that had been used appeared to be old stub axles with the stub’s cut off, this in my eyes is a bodge and they are also rather weighty. Tom on here was luckily selling some Jaymic aluminium ones:
Pictures all back together:
Whilst on the subject of the transmission, the gearbox was reported to have a slight crunch from 3rd down into 2nd when driving spiritedly. Being that the car will be driven spiritedly a lot we thought we’d get the box apart to inspect it. I was nervous about this, any reports available on the internet makes it seem like it’s nigh on impossible, luckily my good friend helping me with this build is more confident and competent at this sort of thing. Results were not good, corrosion on gears 1-5, 1-4 needing replacement, 5 is useable. 4 out of 5 baulk syncro rings also needed replacement. As you can imagine these 235/5 gearboxes are quite rare and parts are expensive for them if you can even find them. The following pictures are where the piston/ rod fund has gone, im still awaiting the baulk rings before it can go back together:
We and the specialist who supplied the spares are under the impression this box was built with knackered gears to sell on, I feel sorry for the owner previous to me who probably paid an arm and a leg for this box. All bearings appeared new and the casing restored and other than the knackered gears/ syncro’s, it is a gem. My dream ’02 has always had a dogleg box in it so I can forgive this expensive development in the project.
I plan on running the car on Jenvey itb’s and a DTA ecu, for this I need a high pressure fuel supply. The car ran EFI injection in its previous guise but when I got the car it had an old carb fuel tank with it, somethings a miss but nevermind, ill work with what I’ve got. The tank is out and currently being vapour blasted, having a fuel return boss welded in then getting painted. With the carb tank having no baffle round the pick-up I decided to run a swirl pot set-up instead. Webcon do a swirl pot with integrated high pressure pump which should do around 200hp with ease, I bought one and mocked everything up along with a facet to act as a lift pump. With this being above the tank I expect it’s life to be reduced but we’ll see how it gets on. It’s all installed properly now and awaiting the tank:
I also got the steering wheel that I’ve always envisaged for the car. My friend that is helping me runs a garage that mainly specialises in porsches. One of his customer’s cars hillclimb cars has the exact seats and steering wheel I’ve always lusted after:
After seeing these in the flesh I think this is the type of interior ill be aiming for. Steering wheel first up though. I always sourced an old Momo horn push for it, momo center holes must have been slightly bigger at some point as I had to ‘modifiy’ my brand new prototipo for it to fit, a little daunting!
To bring me about up to date, I bought some camber/ roll centre plates. These needed modification to clear the ball joint fixing and a bolt needed cutting down but they were on after not too much chew. I was missing a lockwire bolt so have ordered one up and then I can lockwire them as bmw intended. There also wasn’t any spring perch pads so I bought some new ones and stuck them in place. I’ll also wire the springs to the top suspension cup before I reinstall. I’d like coilovers up front to get the car sat right but haven’t the money for them at the moment.
Also had the seats out, I’ve never taken much notice of them really but im growing quite fond of them. I need to research seat options later down the line, I’d like the Cobra rsr copies of the recaro items in the Porsche above but need to see if they can be mounted on original ’02 mounts and not be too high. The e21 Recaros have been cleaned and leather treatment applied, I think ill have the bases off and refurbished with new stickers which seem to be available. If i get offered a good price i think i may sell these at some point though.
Thanks,
Scott
This led me to refurbish the driveshafts and after checking that the diff plates weren’t worn I had the cover off and refurbished that and gave the case a lick of paint:
The driveshaft bolts were loose/random/ rounded off so I ordered all new hardware to mount them again, new crush seals and LSD oil. The spacers for the e21 diff that had been used appeared to be old stub axles with the stub’s cut off, this in my eyes is a bodge and they are also rather weighty. Tom on here was luckily selling some Jaymic aluminium ones:
Pictures all back together:
Whilst on the subject of the transmission, the gearbox was reported to have a slight crunch from 3rd down into 2nd when driving spiritedly. Being that the car will be driven spiritedly a lot we thought we’d get the box apart to inspect it. I was nervous about this, any reports available on the internet makes it seem like it’s nigh on impossible, luckily my good friend helping me with this build is more confident and competent at this sort of thing. Results were not good, corrosion on gears 1-5, 1-4 needing replacement, 5 is useable. 4 out of 5 baulk syncro rings also needed replacement. As you can imagine these 235/5 gearboxes are quite rare and parts are expensive for them if you can even find them. The following pictures are where the piston/ rod fund has gone, im still awaiting the baulk rings before it can go back together:
We and the specialist who supplied the spares are under the impression this box was built with knackered gears to sell on, I feel sorry for the owner previous to me who probably paid an arm and a leg for this box. All bearings appeared new and the casing restored and other than the knackered gears/ syncro’s, it is a gem. My dream ’02 has always had a dogleg box in it so I can forgive this expensive development in the project.
I plan on running the car on Jenvey itb’s and a DTA ecu, for this I need a high pressure fuel supply. The car ran EFI injection in its previous guise but when I got the car it had an old carb fuel tank with it, somethings a miss but nevermind, ill work with what I’ve got. The tank is out and currently being vapour blasted, having a fuel return boss welded in then getting painted. With the carb tank having no baffle round the pick-up I decided to run a swirl pot set-up instead. Webcon do a swirl pot with integrated high pressure pump which should do around 200hp with ease, I bought one and mocked everything up along with a facet to act as a lift pump. With this being above the tank I expect it’s life to be reduced but we’ll see how it gets on. It’s all installed properly now and awaiting the tank:
I also got the steering wheel that I’ve always envisaged for the car. My friend that is helping me runs a garage that mainly specialises in porsches. One of his customer’s cars hillclimb cars has the exact seats and steering wheel I’ve always lusted after:
After seeing these in the flesh I think this is the type of interior ill be aiming for. Steering wheel first up though. I always sourced an old Momo horn push for it, momo center holes must have been slightly bigger at some point as I had to ‘modifiy’ my brand new prototipo for it to fit, a little daunting!
To bring me about up to date, I bought some camber/ roll centre plates. These needed modification to clear the ball joint fixing and a bolt needed cutting down but they were on after not too much chew. I was missing a lockwire bolt so have ordered one up and then I can lockwire them as bmw intended. There also wasn’t any spring perch pads so I bought some new ones and stuck them in place. I’ll also wire the springs to the top suspension cup before I reinstall. I’d like coilovers up front to get the car sat right but haven’t the money for them at the moment.
Also had the seats out, I’ve never taken much notice of them really but im growing quite fond of them. I need to research seat options later down the line, I’d like the Cobra rsr copies of the recaro items in the Porsche above but need to see if they can be mounted on original ’02 mounts and not be too high. The e21 Recaros have been cleaned and leather treatment applied, I think ill have the bases off and refurbished with new stickers which seem to be available. If i get offered a good price i think i may sell these at some point though.
Thanks,
Scott
Oh my goodness I love these cars. I missed out on a Zender kitted black one with a 'race engine' from an aussie builder about ten years ago and have rued it periodically ever since.
In my humble opinion you have exactly the right one - round light saloon.
I want one with a 3.2 M3 engine. Maybe one day...
In my humble opinion you have exactly the right one - round light saloon.
I want one with a 3.2 M3 engine. Maybe one day...
Wow, overwhelmed with the responses, thanks to everyone that has commented. Im glad it comes across that im trying to do things properly and to a high standard!
I've now got all the gearbox parts and the oil so that can go back together soon, further to that i just need a new coupling and bolts and the box can go back in.
Front struts are wired and built back up and reinstalled, brakes all sorted and installed too.
The tank has been blasted/ welded and had its fuel return welded in and is being painted soon, just need to buy a rivnut tool to secure it properly, i wasnt overly chuffed with how it was fixed in when i got the car.
The block is finished (Decked, bored and honed. Needs a paint of course!) and the 22mm s14 ARP bolts i needed for my flywheel have shown up so the bottom end can be balanced now. After that im just waiting on the head modifications to be done and can build it all up whilst i save for the jenveys/ DTA ecu. Sadly it'll be money that slows the project down as much as anything else for the next 6 months or so! Hoping to have it on the road in its first iteration for Spring/ Summer next year!
Cheers for now!
I've now got all the gearbox parts and the oil so that can go back together soon, further to that i just need a new coupling and bolts and the box can go back in.
Front struts are wired and built back up and reinstalled, brakes all sorted and installed too.
The tank has been blasted/ welded and had its fuel return welded in and is being painted soon, just need to buy a rivnut tool to secure it properly, i wasnt overly chuffed with how it was fixed in when i got the car.
The block is finished (Decked, bored and honed. Needs a paint of course!) and the 22mm s14 ARP bolts i needed for my flywheel have shown up so the bottom end can be balanced now. After that im just waiting on the head modifications to be done and can build it all up whilst i save for the jenveys/ DTA ecu. Sadly it'll be money that slows the project down as much as anything else for the next 6 months or so! Hoping to have it on the road in its first iteration for Spring/ Summer next year!
Cheers for now!
Edited by scottos on Friday 21st July 13:49
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