nari

Johann, Your new sig picture is awesome

Have You thought about D5 swap? Would be a great engine for a hauler.
Btw, sorry if I missed it, but how much does this thing weight?
Peter

maciekb2002, on 10 May 2012 - 12:13 AM, said:

Take Your time and do it right

I'm checking ads about 10x a day for a really cheap 850 to start hacking
e36 rearedns are all over the place, I was surprised, and they're cheap too..

Any comment about my "concerns"?

Hey, any updates on this? I'm keen to see the outcome.

Especially interested what You've come up with the front-end...
It would be nice to position the engine as far back as possible, but that requires A LOT OF cutting and welding. And surely loosing a lot of legroom.
My initial thought was to cut up a 9 series and use it's bulkhead. That way one would et a *fairly close to OEM* firewall setup, meaning, for example, retrofitting a 9 series heater elements and stuff would be a tad easier. I'm saying this without seeing what is happening under a 9 series's dash.. so I might be completely wrong... but it seems pretty nice in my head

Also after measuring the engine (not so precisely..) It really seems like a thight fit even with the T5. Height wise, too. I considered loosing the t5 in a favor of a redblock, but that would be mehhh... too hard and expensive to make real power out of it.
SR20DET also an option, that is a lovely engine... (Yeah I know, You don't want japanese cr@p in your car).
But I like the T5 better...

Have You thought about the front subframe? Just by looking at the steering rack's position, I'm almost sure it has to go. On garaget.org we all saw the rwd c70, they used a modified 2 series steering rack & suspension... But that brings up another topic, the front suspension arms... It would be sooo much easier if relocating the steering rack would solve this issue.

Would You mind sharing Your thoughts about these things?

Oh, my plan is to make a RWD 850, T5, as close to OEM interior as possible and daily drive it... Which is scary... making it nice & tidy, having AC and stuff.. Might reduce this goal, to make it rwd and have fun with it...
Friend of mine has a almost complete 9 series, with series 1 IRS (coils, not leafs), which I thought is great, but doesn't worth the fabricating, as there are no LSD, final drive or axles options. Retrofitting a BMW rear-end would be a lot more rewarding.
I opted for 3 series (e30/36) rear-end, there are plenty fo them over here, and cheap too. Then I realized that friend's shop is full of Nissan s13 and RX7 rear-ends.....

Aaand flame suit on for not being the OP and bringing the thread back to the top without updates
I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to see this finished.

Thanks Guys,
I've already seen those builds. Don't now how I'm going to do it.m yet.. Def. not want to build a custom frame...

Well... suspension wise..there aran't too many options for fwd either, D2 is a the best route to go. But I'm not afraid going custom. Good friend of my is the hungarian distributor of D2, so getting random parts, like brackets, shocks, top mounts not really a problem..

But first I have to sort out my engine... compression test came up pretttttty bad, below 10 bars, and 8.4 @ cyl 3.
If the rear-end will be cheap then I'll buy it and see how it goes.. otherwise this porject is on-hold.

Peter.

Got it, thanks

Found a '98 XC instead.