Starting to install the BMW engine in to the 2CV
1988 CITROEN 2CV
The next step of the project was to install the engine. There was some work to take the input shaft out of the gearbox and install a double lipped seal to replace the scroll on the input shaft. This is because the higher speeds that the car will be capable of, can cause the scroll seal to be overwhelmed by the amount of oil thrown around. This is a pretty straight forward modification but does require the gearbox to be opened up, the change shafts removed, the bell housing removed and the input shaft removed for the modification. The seals are supplied by Sparrow Engineering and they will send a load of photos showing how this is done. However, I managed to break one of the selector shafts by not being careful enough to get everything in the right position before bolting down the gearbox lid. They are available from France but it's a pain to get hold of them. If there's any resistance when installing the lid then take it off and make sure nothing has moved.
Anyway, once your gearbox is back together and bolted to the engine, it's time to see how it looks in the chassis. For comparison, this is the original engine in place...
We can put the engine roughly in place by attaching the back of the gearbox to its mount. There are two spacers that we can replace with thinner spacers to move back the engine and gearbox as much as possible without hitting the back of the engine bay. The following picture shows the engine resting on some wood shims so that it's roughly in place. You can also see that the driveshafts have been rebuilt with new seals as the old one were showing some wear and cracking.
The problem as shown in the next picture is that the engine does not clear the front chassis member and therefore sits far too high at the front.
So it's time to take a brave pill and notch the front chassis member. When the engine is in place I'll weld the resulting hole and add some reinforcement.
The engine is now in the right place and at the right height. The wings no longer fit as the cylinders are wider than the originals and the driveshafts are slightly further back and also foul the wings. This is a problem for the future though. The next step is to make some engine mounts.
You'll in the above picture that the BMW manifold is optimistically near the engine. However, it doesn't fit as it fouls with the chassis. This is another problem for the future.