E30 318is - This is what 200k and $1300 looks like

[dullrot]

Hey all - first post, first time bmw owner, first time caller. Just picked up this 1991 318is locally. Purchased from original owner, a nice lady, who did all ~197k miles, for $1300. In order to test drive it I had to find and repair a leaking fuel line just before the fuel filter :)

For the last decade I've been solidly in the Japanese realm, other current cars are a 2005 Sti and a 91 mx5, both thoroughly gone over. In the past I've had six other mx5's, a mint FD RX-7, Mazdaspeed6, Wrx wagon, and an Mr2 Turbo.

This car is tired. Properly tired. The original owner did a commendable job keeping up with oil changes, air filters, plugs, and the other standard maintenance items, and everything on the car works, for the most part. It's just worn out, with sloppy steering, shifter components (stirring pudding), pedals, and brakes.

The paint is faded to a dull pinkish hue (hence my newly chosen username). There's very little rust, just a bit in the battery tray, a tiny spot on the floorpan underneath below and behind the rear seat indent by the fuel filter, and standard surface/edge corrosion of some subframe/support parts. The driver side fender, bumper, and the hood were repainted back in the early 90s, and those panels are doing what early 90's resprays do - peeling their clearcoat and pitting badly.

It's an interesting options package - in that it has almost none, including the omission of a number of features that all 'is' designated models seem to have.

For example:

- no sunroof, where nearly all do (hand crank for 318is)
- cloth interior (sport buckets, though)
- no foglights
- no LSD!!

The diff in particular was odd, I'd seen it repeated often that all 'is' models had an LSD. I found the diff "tag" utterly corroded and illegible. After hitting it with a wire brush, file, wire wheel, and finally sandpaper, like the world's most recalcitrant lottery ticket, I got a loser. "4.10 063". Not "S4.10 063", so it's an open diff. I'll get the wheels up in the air to spin them and make sure, but I seem to be out of luck.

The steering is vague, with the four spoke steering wheel listing right 15 degrees or so. The boots are leaking like crazy. The brakes are alarmingly mushy and slow to react. The transmission doesn't grind, but every part of the shifter linkage, from the knob on down, is shot. Reverse is no fun to get into. On lift off decel, the car dives, so I'm guessing the motor mounts, trans mounts, and likely the diff mounts are done.

The motor cranks and starts up well, sounds healthy, and pulls fine. I'll do a compression test on it, but it seems to be in good shape. That's helpful for my long term plans.


So wat do. As I said, everything has to go. But I've done projects where the car goes offline for months or years at a time, to do *everything*, while things are already apart and accessible. I don't want to do that here - I've driven it less than 50 miles in two sessions, and those miles were sometimes arse puckering with the steering and brakes. No bond yet formed, though I can see the potential. Likewise with no solid long term plans, jobs even so imperative as the shifter rebuild could need to be redone if I follow the engine swap route, which I almost certainly will once the M42 is dead/ on its way out. As sad as I am to discover an open diff, even the reasonable $300 cost of swapping in an LSD may be a waste of money if an S50 swap demanded one of the bigger diffs to work reliably.

So for now - get it back on the road with:

- proper steering (rebuild/install e36 3.2 turn rack) Happened on an e36 rack for $40 shipped with good tie rods/ends, otherwise would have splurged on an m3 or z3 rack.

- rebuild shifter (combo of ebay shifters, stock replacement parts, and poly bushings, in progress)

- replace ODO gears.

Then drive for a bit while collecting brake bits. Some of the lines are corroded, I'll replace those, along with new rotors and mid range, decent pads (like PBR or something) and flush with ATE Blue. Brake upgrades may tie in with a 5 lug swap, so I'll wait until the suspension phase is complete to consider bigger brake options.

Drive a bit while collecting suspension/chassis upgrades. This will be the big one - I'll need control arms, 4 or 5 lug, all arm bushings, (likely offset poly), subframe poly, Bilstein sports with yet to be determined springs, poly shock mounts, sways, etc etc. I can weld, so I'll be adding all the reinforcement plates that are on the market, and likely making some of my own.

Next, engine cooling, with an eye towards preparing for a motor swap, and also prolonging its necessity. Fit a bigger, all aluminum radiator, new tstat, water pump, and any lines that are aging badly.

Then would come the interior rehab - also a big deal to me. Pretty much nothing in there now can stay. The dash will have to go, though with the only uncracked examples I can find going for over $500, I may try to recover the stock one with new leather. I have minty black vinyl front sport seats sitting in basement storage, with a black vinyl rear bench/back on the way. I'll need black/vinl rear side panels in good nick, and due to the price of good front vinyl/leather front door cards I'll probably make my own blanks from ABS, with custom pulls. I did this for my '91 mx5 and they came out fantastic (pics later). The headliner will be recovered DIY style, did this on my '05 sti without needing stitching, but in this case I may have my wife try her hand at recreating the OEM pattern.

Then the exterior, where I think the paint on all panels apart from the hood, front bumper, and driver fender can be restored with my Porter Cable and lots of work. The repainted panels I'm not sure about yet. I'll either need replacement panels from parted out brilliantrots whose paint can be salvaged, or to gamble on a professional respray of those panels that may or may not match well. I do have all the gear needed to HVLP spray, but haven't done it yet. I've painted a bunch of small body add ons for my Subaru, and a fender for my mx5 using paintscratch.com cans (base, clear) with outstanding results, but a hood, fender, and bumper would require many cans and is a much bigger job, in a higher stress area (road debris, chipping)

The lower rockers and bottom of the rear bumper I'll respray with SEM Trim Black rattle cans, which is awesome stuff. Dries to an even matte black finish that is very durable.

Finally it would be time to consider drivetrain swaps. S50/S52 are the most appealing to me right now, but it's almost too soon to think about. There is, as I said, a lot to do. Adding power is not yet near to the top of that list.

The dichotomy between the BMW and similar vintage japanese cars that I've purchased is between the sophistication and logevity, easily. Richard Hammond put it well - Japanese engineering tends towards "just enough" - but not necessarily in a shoddy sort of way. The materials and mechanisms on their cars aren't as complex, and this doesn't mean that they are shoddy or cheap - it means that everything is distilled to what it needs to be, and no more. That does mean that they tend to last. For example, were you to buy a 1991 mx5 with 200k and a non enthusiast ownership history, you'll be rebuilding the shifting mechanism just as surely as this e30's. But the action in the mx5 won't be nearly as far gone, and will require around ten bushings, washers, and rubber pieces to rebuild, all done from the cabin. I've never seen anyone consider rebuilding mx5 pedals/assemblies, and doubt their would be an appreciable difference if you did. That's not to say that when both cars had zero miles, that there were not stark differences in fit, finish, and feel. And that's why I've bought one - I love a lightweight (2600lbs stock, soon to be less), no nonsense, rwd car. But at 36 years old, I'd like one with a touch more refinement and comfort than say, a '91 240 notch back that's laid out in similar fashion.

So this is my project. Here's some moar pics, and I'll be diving right in with the shifter rebuild. Resist the urge to say TLDR. I'm talky, but there will be useful info posted, I reckon. Starting with what I've only seen alluded to, which is combining ebay SSK's into something a little better.

[Dirty325ix]

that's good deal my 4000$ e30 doesn't even move right now

[dullrot]

down to it.

The shifter and the steering rack being the most galling part of the car at the moment, they're the first to go under the knife. I'll spare the process since it's well documented, but share the bits that were unexpected for me, and thus maybe not as well documented (for a 91 318is)

Based on what I've read, the slop is hard to completely get rid of, even when completely replacing all factory parts. Kind of inherent to the design. I tend to really like tight, precise shifters, even if they are a little notchy. I like something that feels bolt action. The kartboy shifter in my STi is a pretty good approximation of my preference if anyone has had the pleasure.

There are more than a few SSK options for the e30, from the Z3 oem pieces to the UUC badassery, and were I setting about upgrading an already solid car I'd have gone with the latter. But with so much to do, I'm cheaping out slightly in places, particularly those that might need changed to support engine/transmission swaps later on.

So here's what I've gone for, from the OEM diagram:



#2 - Garagistic poly bushing

#3 - OEM Bitch clip. ...But it turned out I have just a nut and bolt here. Oh well, may need it later for G260 swap. Bought the bitch clip tool for it as well,

and at least that came in handy when doing :

#14-20 - OEM

#4 - Garagistic press in poly bushing

#8 - New OEM hood

#6-7 - ebay SSK's mashed up. More below.

I'd have loved to replace the selector arm (#11) with the UUC double shear, but budget, and the fact that I might need a different length were I to swap trannies later on means I'm sticking with the original part.

So yeah, biggest surprises from the tear down were no bitch clip, and then how hard it was to get off #19, the tension bush that covers the dowel pin (#18) on the carrier (#14). Only tip I saw was to drop the exhaust, heat shields, and driveshaft. Then get a fat flat screwdriver head into the slit on the tension bush, twist, and push it back.

I did remove the heat shield, as it proved necessary to remove the rear shift carrier support (#4). The single nut that holds that support on (#5) is a PITB to remove - there's not much room to swing a ratchet, wrench, or anything else in that small area with the driveshaft in place. With the heat shield off I was able to get a socket on it that had two long and three short extensions on it, which gave it enough sag to kind of create a wobble socket.

But I did leave the exhaust and driveshaft in place. I'm lucky enough to have a lift (purchased a couple months ago), so I can work a bit more easily than I would on jackstands. After pulling the selector all the way out (4th gear), and with the right length flathead, I was able to insert it into the slit on the tension bush from a 45 degree angle, behind the guibo, and then grab the screwdriver with channel lock pliers to twist it (not enough room to use hand with any leverage). That opened the bushing enough to chisel it backward off the selector, and then use the "bitch clip" tool to poke out the dowel pin. It's a useful shaped tool for that job if you leave driveshaft/exhaust in place like I did.

Here's what I found on everything:

The selector rod, badly corroded



The carrier, dirty, bushing is done, otherwise fine



The #14 selector carrier - this is meant to have the #20 foam pad inside. I found its oil soaked disintegrated remnants. Supposedly this is a major slop factor, but I've also seen it said that it doesn't matter. Shrug.



And here are the transmission mounts. It's meant to be in one piece. Both sides were cracked clean through, and clearly had been a long time. Deflection? Yeah, lots. I have it next to a 320i mount for comparison.



Here's the shift arm. Cup is toast, naturally.




Next, the ebay SSK mods

[kingston]

Nice first post. Welcome aboard! Jealous of the slicktop!!

[dullrot]

Nice first post. Welcome aboard! Jealous of the slicktop!!

Thanks!

You should know that I have appx. two dozen bookmarks of Guten pages containing parts that I wish to purchase. Enjoy my money :P

[dullrot]

Start with pics of the two common e30 SSK's on ebay (currently). The first appears to be a B&M copy and comes as an assembled lever/cup/cup bush. I bought this one for $40 shipped, best offer.



The second is just a bare lever with bushings in the end. It has a threaded collar but can accept press on knobs as well. I bought this one for ~$20 shipped.



The "issue" with the B&M rep is that the bottom end sticks down further than the end of the OEM lever. Maybe half an inch or so. I don't know if it would hit the driveshaft, or if it would change the angle of the connected shift selector arm (#11 at diagram) to a degree that it would hit the guibo. But I suspect that it's at the heart of the fitment "issues" mentioned in connection with my searches on this part. The $20 lever also uses a raised ball section to create the shorter shift throws, but it doesn't raise that fulcrum quite so much. The overall length of the lever is the same as the B&M rep, but the ball sits lower, and so the amount that the end of the rod and its bushing protrude into the center tunnel is smaller, close to or near as makes no difference stock.

How to disassemble the B&M rep:

1. There are three C clips on the assembly as you receive it. Two smaller clips on the lever, one on top and one underneath, inside the cup. One larger C clip holding the cup bushing in place. Remove the smaller C clip on top of the lever shaft using clip pliers. You can now slide the shift lever shaft down through the cup and out. The lower small C Clip remains attached to the lever and can be left there. You'll notice that there is no metal ball fulcrum on the shaft - it's a separate piece inside the cup bushing.



2. Remove the large C clip from the blue aluminum cup with C clip pliers. Here's a pic of the clip (note it's already had the lever swap at this point)



3. Rummage through your collection of sockets/bits of piping and select one that is about the same diameter as the top of the cup, and another that will just barely slide into the bottom of the cup. In my case, I had a 36mm socket hanging around, I think from doing an axle nut on one of my other cars. It's about the same diameter as the top of the cup. At the bottom, a spark plug socket slides in perfectly. Tap the poly bushing/metal ball into your large socket/pipe from the bottom end using a rubber mallet. Don't whack at it, just tap tap tap it out.





I can't be sure it was there before, but there was a single crack in the poly cup bushing, which is probably how the bushing was attached to the ball/lever. If yours is solid, just make one lengthwise cut and you can separate the bushing enough to pop out the metal ball.







The bushing in the bottom of the $20 lever is shit. It's a very brittle, plastic-y facsimile of a delrin bushing, of a type I've seen before on el-cheapo Miata levers. It would probably fall apart easily. The same bushing on the B&M replica is actually pretty nice, and seems to be real delrin, or close to it. Same as its cup bushing. The end bushing on both levers is in two halves that press into either side. They both leave a small gap in the middle of the assembly, which is useful to get them off


4. Put a flathead into the gap in the center and whack the back of the screwdriver onto the ground a few times, moving the tip of the screwdriver to another point each time so that it comes out staight. Here are the four halves together, you can see the junkier bushing deformed much more easily. It also has a smaller diameter opening in the bushing, and I don't think it's large enough to push onto my stock selector arm. Once the first bushing half is out, a bolt or similar can bu used to push out the other half more easily. The blue pry tool in the last pic was helpful for jimmy'ing the bushing halves out of the B&M rep.







5. Now press the B&M bushing halves onto the $20 lever. I'm using the vice built into my wokbench here, but you could use any vice/c clamp, and probably tap them in with a hammer if you were careful.





6. Pop the poly cup bushing onto the ball of the $20 lever. Just slide it down from the top and then pull it open along its slit, enough to pop it over the ball.



7. Slide the empty blue cup up the lever from the bottom. The cup bushing is a tight fit, so when you reach the point where the bushing starts to seat into the cup, move the assembly to a vice, tabletop, etc, to tap the bushing into place. I sat it on my table/vice in a gap narrow enough that the edges of the bottom of the cup were supported. Would advise against trying to clamp the cup itself. Might deform.




8. Once you've tapped the cup bushing to where it's fully seated, it'll be flush with a groove in the cup that the large C Clip fits into. Reinstall the large C Clip. (there's that pic again)



9. The B&M kit comes with two rubber O rings and another large C Clip - the O rings are put around the aluminum cup, one each in its two grooves. The extra C Clip will hold the cup in the factory aluminum carrier arm. In the pic below, you can see that the blue cup extends a bit past the factory carrier when inserted - just enough to expose a lip machined into the bottom of the cup. Put the extra C Clip here.



The O rings and that last C Clip aren't shown because I haven't done it yet. Still have to clean the selector arms and wait for the other replacement parts to arrive before reinstalling everything. Likewise I didn't grease up the ball/cup bushing, which I would advise. As delivered there was something in there that lubricated it a little, and I plan to use bucketfuls of silicon grease when it goes back into the car.

Another important aspect of this restomod is the R&R of stock parts/brackets where possible. At the minimum, the standard removal of dirt and grease, removal and addressing of corrosion. But I've also got the makings of a powdercoating ability, it's just not ready yet. Having redone the garage around my new lift a few month back, most of my garage gear went into the basement during the work. Once it's cleared out, I have a blast cabinet to clean off crud/paint, powdercoating/paint spray booth, compressor to run the guns, and an oven to bake on the powder. None of that is set up yet, so at least for right now, "powdercoat all the things" is not yet in effect. It will be.

Next will be the e36 rack rebuild/install. Which I haven't started just yet...

[dullrot]

one question I have for all (and there will be tons, despite the "how to" of my first posts, I know jack shit about these cars besides what I've been able to search/read), is about the 320i transmission mounts.

I see that guten/AKG sells "transmission mount cups" meant to work with the 320i mounts. What's the intent on them? Reduce deflection further? Are they necessary? Which end do they go on, or do they go on each end, requiring two sets of two cups total?



I bought a set of four new old stock 320i trans mounts from ebay, one set is stamped "meyle germany" and is a little stiffer than the other, which has a part number sticker.



The threaded rods are thicker than the e30's, I was just going to drill out the bracket.

Typically I do poly everything, control arm bushes, motor mounts, diff mounts, etc. Here I'll probably mix in some rubber on occasion, OEM durometer or stiffer, to preserve ride comfort. My other cars are no compromises on performance vs comfort, and I'd like to maintain a decent ride quality. Even on tired 200k components, the car absorbed bumps more comfortably than on my other cars. I'm an old mofo by now, about to turn 36.

But if the cups are completely necessary, or even really advisable to run the e21 mounts, I'll pull the trigger - unless I need two sets of two, in which case a set of red poly mounts is nearly the same price and I'll just do those.

Advice?

[kingston]

You only need one set; they sit on top of the mounts.

I don't work at Guten. Levent is a friend, and Guten is the only place I buy my parts!

[dullrot]

cool, thanks for the explanation on the cups.

Torn (no pun intended) on what to do, but since they're so easy to replace, I think I will start with the stiffer Meyles parts without the cup, and then add them if it could still do with some stiffening. The new shifter parts will probably add some NVH, so best to get a feel for what did what to keep things on the right side of tolerable.

[kingston]

I think that's a good plan of action. Looking forward to seeing more progress :)

[dullrot]

Progress has been slower than expected, I keep running into obstacles, most of which are my doing.

I got the shifter and linkage in, but only with a lot of fight. The selector arm didn't want to slide into the bushing on the end of the shift lever - and this is with the larger inner diameter bushing from the B&M rep kit. There would have been no chance with the smaller, yellow bush from the $20 shifter. I ended up needing to use a C clamp to press in the arm, and that should have been a tip off that something wasn't right.



But first, how I got there. To get the factory melted in bushing out of the rear carrier bracket, it was necessary to start a fire. I took the bracket out to the grill on the deck and stood it on an empty metal espresso can. Then sprayed the bushing with 3M spray glue. If you know your Blues Brothers, this stuff burns. Well. And it sticks like napalm. After spraying on the glue I lit it with a fireplace lighter, carefully. It'll burn a good 20 minutes.

When it's done it will look like this:





The burnt rubber gets hard and crumbly and will chisel out pretty easily. The next step, soaking and wire brushing, will get rid of any remnants.

In the earlier post you saw my decayed selector arm and bracket. Let's clean them up. First a soak in apple vinegar for 24 hours, just enough to cover the parts. For the first couple minutes I pushed the parts around with a screwdriver to scrape off the loosest rust/corrosion.



After 24 hours I removed the parts and ran them up against a wire wheel on my drill press. Much cleaner:





Then back into the vinegar for another 24 hours, and onto the wire wheel once more. A dremel with smaller wire wheel attachments was useful for getting the nooks and spaces that the larger wheel couldn't reach. The aluminum carrier arm does not rust, of course, but I used the wire wheels to clean and polish that up as well.

Then I applied rust treatment to the selector arm/bracket (I used permatex). You brush on a thin coat and wait 20 minutes for it to darken,



then apply another, thicker coat, and wait 24 hours for it to cure.





The treatment dries a semigloss to flat black, and can then be painted. I don't want to paint these some gaudy color, but I did want to protect the treatment, and make things easier to clean later, so I sprayed all the parts with clearcoat.



Then it was time to press in the Garagistic rear carrier bushing. Easy enough to tap in with a 17mm socket on a medium extension - the extension is necessary to clear the threaded stub tab, a deep 17 socket wouldn't be able to fit.





I used a flathead as a punch to dimple the housing just behind the bushing, so it cannot work its way backwards in the bracket, as Garagistic suggest.

Then I installed Garagistic's front carrier bushings, which didn't need to be pressed in, they just slid into place on either side. Then ground the rear arm barb enough that it could slide into the rear bracket/bushing (off the car)

The new selector knuckle went on, followed by the carrier and bracket. It's easiest to install this pair if you slide the bracket onto the carrier first - and have the shift lever installed into the carrier as well, actually, with the selector arm attached to the lever. The whole assembly can be maneuvered into place from under the car, and is much easier to install than adding it to the car part by part. But I didn't do that, at first. In fact I ended up removing parts several times before I got it right.

As mentioned earlier, I started by pressing the selector arm into the lever bushing with a C clamp. When finished and everything was assembled, it took a ton of force to select a gear. And if you were in 4th and tried to go into neutral, it would shoot right past it to partially engage second, and vice versa. Fifth to neutral never worked smoothly and had to be cajoled.

From my view in the drivers seat it looked like the carrier arm was binding in the new delrin rear bracket bushing. But that was a symptom of the stiffness in the selector arm/lever bushing. I removed the lever from the cup and drilled out the bushing using a drillbit that was the largest I could slide into the OEM shift lever bushing. That made things worlds better.

But not good enough for my liking. In UUC's "buy our shifter" ultimatum, where they compare all other SSK offerings to their own, one of their complaints about the B&M is that the cup is only secured to the carrier with the C clip at the bottom, and the friction of the two rubber O rings between the cup and the carrier. I think they're right - there was a lot of movement in the cup when shifting, and I could see that possibly getting worse as the piece ages.

So I took a hint from UUC's own cup design - they drill/tap their cup and secure it to the carrier with small bolts.

Drilled and tapped for m4 threads



Did the same on the other side and rummaged around for properly sized screws



Result - even better action still. There's a little bit of play that's clearly being caused by the selector arm - a UUC dual shear will definitely help that, and I'll buy one whenever it's clear what engine/trans I'll have long term. But even as is, the shifts are clear, solid, and pleasing.

Finally the reverse light switch wire, which had come loose at some point and been nearly ground away by the guibo, was repaired and zip tied along the carrier arm. The transmission mounts were replaced with the 320i units - no cups yet, but from what I've read lately, I'll want those if I do a <x>50 series engine to prevent it pushing the fan into the radiator.

All it took to install those was to drill out the crossmember for the slightly thicker studs





On to the steering rack, which has been a bigger PITB. For part numbers and for the most difficult tie rod ends I've ever seen...

[TimKninja]

I would ditch that nut and Bolt, there should be little to no play at all after that Garagilistic shift carrier bushing. I would use the bitch clip as much as its gonna suck to get on(Sucks getting through the Delrin bushings.)

I would of just got a Z3 1.9 after all of that work :/ Ive never heard good things about the Ebay SSKs and you can get a 1.9 From a dealer for like $70.

My 318is was in very similar condtion to yours. My PO broke the center console just so he could get it into reverse, the bushings were so shot. After basically everything you just did, new Delrin buishings , all new shifter parts, and the Z3 shifter it was amazing.

As far as engine swaps go, I think youll like the nimbleness of the M42 Motor if your an MX5 guy. I miss how well my 318is handled after having my S50 Swapped 325is. Even tho the Torque of the S50 is fantastic.

Most of everything thats pink you can buff out. If you can find a brilliantrot car (Good luck) getting parted out you should be able to match all the panels really well.

I love how you take pics of everything, that super awesome. Really looking forward to you swapping in the e36 rack, as its an Airbag car and I'd like to see your approach to it.

[jhaurimn]

After hitting it with a wire brush, file, wire wheel, and finally sandpaper, like the world's most recalcitrant lottery ticket, I got a loser. "4.10 063".

This made me laugh :p Good luck on the project!

[kingston]

I like the attention of the cleaning and clearing the parts...but the miss-matched screws let it down. I know no-one will ever see it, but you put all this work into the other stuff...

[dullrot]

I would ditch that nut and Bolt, there should be little to no play at all after that Garagilistic shift carrier bushing. I would use the bitch clip as much as its gonna suck to get on(Sucks getting through the Delrin bushings.)

So you're saying I can use a bitch clip on a G240 that came with a nut and bolt? Did not know that. I really think that the remaining play (and there isn't very much) is from the selector rod, but I'm willing to try out the clip, especially since I already have one.

I would of just got a Z3 1.9 after all of that work :/ Ive never heard good things about the Ebay SSKs and you can get a 1.9 From a dealer for like $70.

I understand why people do that. I saw the chance to eliminate a few parts of the assemblies that could contribute to slop - the metal cup gets rid of the plastic bush around the ball that wears out, and the lever isn't damped, but rather solid metal. As is the ball, unlike the z3 lever. If UUC are to be believed, the plastic ball and its bushing will show wear quickly, and contribute to slop. At this point I don't have any rubber left in my system, and only the selector knuckle as an item that will wear out over time. And yes it was work, I had to do the job a few times, and work around problems that arose. But that's part of the fun. Sometimes I'll go a different route just to see what I can come up with, other times it's to keep costs under control on what could be a very expensive (and slow) restoration if I were to buy everything that I wanted.

Probably could have bought an e36 rack for a bit over $300 once I ate the core charge (can't send e30 rack as core for e36), and saved a bunch of time and frustration. Instead I'll be rebuilding a $40 rack with a $30 reseal kit. It's not a fun job, but I've done it before (on other cars), and presents enough of a savings that the looming brake and suspension jobs can happen sooner.

As far as engine swaps go, I think youll like the nimbleness of the M42 Motor if your an MX5 guy.

I could see that being true, and I don't have immediate plans to change it out. It's more like if I do discover the m42 is on its way out, then I'll almost certainly be looking at swaps other than rebuilding the 1.8 or sourcing another. And with that in mind I'll try to avoid making parts decisions that would be negated by a motor swap. At 200k it could be next to dead, or it could be on its way to 300+ (with me or whomever is to come). I'll know more when it's back on the road in a state that I can use it for awhile, and when I can run a compression test. I know from records and recounting that it's had a head gasket job and an oil pan road death in its history.

Glad to see there are those that think it's an engine worth keeping. I was just happy it wasn't an E motor! I've supercharged/turbocharged my mx5's and currently DD an sti with around 350 at the crank, so I know what a quick car is like, but nor is speed the end goal. I'll take a better handling, more engaging car over a fast one any day.

I like the attention of the cleaning and clearing the parts...but the miss-matched screws let it down. I know no-one will ever see it, but you put all this work into the other stuff...

That's a fair point, and if I come up with a matching set, I'll replace them. I keep random bolts/screws for this sort of hackery, which keeps the R&D budget down.