FTO AUSTRALIA

Dras wrote:

SchumieFan wrote:nice work mate,

meticulous as always...

wondering how your letting this much moolah slip past the mrs?:D

Thanks!

Well, I was looking at getting a second hand BMW 135i, but they start at around the 50k mark. From there it wasn't a hard sell to spend a 10th of that on fixing my car.

If all goes well, the motor goes in next weekend.

i was looking at them too as the mrs wanted one and also shat myself at the price!

you're putting the motor in yourself i take it.

SchumieFan wrote:

Dras wrote:

SchumieFan wrote:nice work mate,

meticulous as always...

wondering how your letting this much moolah slip past the mrs?:D

Thanks!

Well, I was looking at getting a second hand BMW 135i, but they start at around the 50k mark. From there it wasn't a hard sell to spend a 10th of that on fixing my car.

If all goes well, the motor goes in next weekend.

i was looking at them too as the mrs wanted one and also shat myself at the price!

you're putting the motor in yourself i take it.

Yes, price is horrendous but worst of all, they have serious problems with the high pressure fuel pump and BMW goes out of their way to stop you from being able to do anything on the car yourself. Stereo sounds rubbish, the second hand models don't have the twin clutch auto and when you drive in tiptronic mode, the ecu doesn't trust you and changes gears if it feels like it. The dealer suggested it is a fuel saving measure that cannot be overridden. Performance is phenomenal for what it is but it as a whole it wasn't quite enough for me to justify the price.

Yup, putting the motor in myself. Hopefully all goes well.

Dras wrote:

SchumieFan wrote:

Dras wrote:

SchumieFan wrote:nice work mate,

meticulous as always...

wondering how your letting this much moolah slip past the mrs?:D

Thanks!

Well, I was looking at getting a second hand BMW 135i, but they start at around the 50k mark. From there it wasn't a hard sell to spend a 10th of that on fixing my car.

If all goes well, the motor goes in next weekend.

i was looking at them too as the mrs wanted one and also shat myself at the price!

you're putting the motor in yourself i take it.

Yes, price is horrendous but worst of all, they have serious problems with the high pressure fuel pump and BMW goes out of their way to stop you from being able to do anything on the car yourself. Stereo sounds rubbish, the second hand models don't have the twin clutch auto and when you drive in tiptronic mode, the ecu doesn't trust you and changes gears if it feels like it. The dealer suggested it is a fuel saving measure that cannot be overridden. Performance is phenomenal for what it is but it as a whole it wasn't quite enough for me to justify the price.

Yup, putting the motor in myself. Hopefully all goes well.

once i saw the price i bowed out and bought the VRX.

take loads of pics or host a quiet 'help me' day... ill take pics

The transplant has been delayed till next weekend, the 3rd and 4th of March.

I will likely take Friday off so that it will hopefully be finished by Monday.

My plan is:

Thursday night:
* Remove bonnet
* Jack up the car
* Loosen harmonic balancer bolt
* Drain fluids
* depending on time remove drive shafts

Friday:
* Remove loom
* Remove engine / transmission
* Remove steering rack
* Move timing components to new motor (tensioner / pulleys)
* Place timing belt on motor
* Add new loom
* Add new steering rack
* Position new motor into place

Saturday:
* Mount motor
* Hook up loom
* Finish up and replace bonnet
* Replace fluids
* Perform this break in sequence in the early hours of the morning (http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm)

Sunday:
* Buffer / drinking day

Monday
* Wheel alignment
* AC regas
* big sigh of relief that it is all done and works

good luck with the plans, hope it all works out

Not as much progress as I had hoped for day 1 but here are some pics of where I ended the day.

I can give you a hand this morning, when you starting?

now

I'm just putting my car back together & I'll be over after that.

k

updates! We must have your updates!

How did it all go today?

Well, I was only there for about an hour, but we got the timing done & the gearbox on, so it was just a few more ancillaries & he would have been able to hoist it in. That was at about 12:30pm.

It is now 4am and I have given up for the night. Was really hoping to go for a drive tonigt but I had to give up. Have been at it since 8am and there is still a good few hours to go.

Motor is in the car including all mounts and exhast, drive shafts are in, ac is plumbed, power steering is plumbed as well as filled with fluid (used an old motor to spin the ps pump so that I didn't have to deal with it later), fuel rail is in with recoed injectors (bitch of a job, the pipe that connects the 2 rails was different to my old motor and I bent the one that came with the motor, took an hour to mount, this was partly due to my stubbornness in not wanting to take the lower intake manifold out). That is all I can think of at the moment.

Will post pics later

Top efforts.

Good job mate!

Mate you have done well .

awesome work.
It'll be worth the effort!

Thanks all for the encouragement, much appreciated.

Progress has slowed but I will hopefully attempt to start the new motor tonight. Will keep you all posted.

Well the motor fired up for the first time on Saturday morning at about 4am after an allnighter to finish everything up. A/C has since been regassed and the wheels aligned.

Everything is looking pretty good so far, the biggest issue is that the engine light is on. I checked what codes it was throwing and it appears that it is complaining about the TCL. (The new loom and ECU were out of a car with traction control where as my car does not have traction control) Options to fix this include, removing the engine light globe, replacing the ECU with a non-TCL ECU, fitting the TCL ECU and wiring it up so that it is happy or fitting up a little computer that queries the ECU for error codes and only turns the light on if it is not a TCL related code.

Few minor things left on the todo list are:
Install new TPS
Install new stepper motor
Install new O2 Sensor
New air intake that doesn't include a MAF
Fix engine light issue

Special thanks to Bennoz and Aza013 for their help in making this happen.