92 Mtech 2 build

[MR 325]

thank you for the advice. those rear red springs are h&r of some type and they are way too low for me. why do you suggest h&r out of curiosity? quality?

i would have thought that one needed spring pads so you don't hear grinding/rattling noises when you go over bumps.

As said the Eibach AND Vogtland springs are too soft! Those rears were most likely H&R Race judging by the color.

As far as the pads, I've never had any noise from not running them.

[reelizmpro]

Those rears were most likely H&R Race judging by the color.

They're not H&R Race.

[Cabriolet]

They're not H&R Race.

the red ones look like HR race. are those the ones you think arent?

[reelizmpro]

Yes because H&R Race springs look like this...




The middle coils are pretty much the same diameter because they are designed to bind together under the weight of the car. They are very different compared to the sports.

[Cabriolet]

Yes because H&R Race springs look like this...

The middle coils are pretty much the same diameter because they are designed to bind together under the weight of the car. They are very different compared to the sports.

doh, i have pics of my race springs, that i should have consulted before posting. I am very interested in finding out what springs they are and why his car is so freaking far from the ground.

[flyboyx]

so, this week on my days off, i spent some time working on the mtech 2. i mentioned above that the engine wasn't running right. to be more specific, around the 1500 rpm range, the engine would miss like crazy. it would start to clear up around 25-2800 rpm. needless to say, it was annoying as hell. it had one of those cone filter kits with almost nothing to support it. someone took one of those little brackets from a rear axle and made a hillbilly engineered "bracket" with it. basically worthless. so it basically just hung there and jiggled around every time you hit a bump. i thought perhaps the afm was bad, so i just replaced everything with a stock setup from a parts car. after this it still ran just as bad, so i started by pulling out the spark plugs. someone put those bosch plugs with 4 electrodes in the car but they are a bit dirty. then i started looking at the wires which are pretty new. lastly i pulled the distributor and found this:





the guy i got this car from said it "ran awesome and had lots and lots of power" as he put it. i am looking at the distributor cap and the crack has black dust and gunk in there as if it was cracked a really long time ago. i called him on it and he says it must have gotten broken when they broke the oil pan. yeah, right. good one.

also in driving the car, i noticed that the steering seems to feel really screwed up. it felt kind of like the wheels were towed out. when you would go around a corner, the steering wouldn't return to center and it was really touchy. anyway, i layed a string from the rear wheel across to the fronts and found this:





the fronts are toe-ed in about 2 fucking inches! what the monkey fuck? i just can't imagine what it was like to drive it like this across the country.

i am going to change the tie rod ends and control arms anyway because the boots are all screwed up. i guess i will be taking the front end back apart this week when i get home

[e30m3s54turbo]

Any up dates? Thanks for itbs.

[flyboyx]

so, i have been a bad e30 owner and have not posted to this thread in forever. mind you, i have done tons of work to the car over the last several months. i guess i have been too lazy to post.

first and foremost, MTECH 2 FRONT SPOILERS ARE AVAILABLE AGAIN!!!!! did i mention that you can buy new mtech 2 front spoilers from the dealer again?

this arrived in the mail recently:




don't mind me while i have butt secks with it



i waited for months until i could finally order a new one. mine came from husker bmw. i think after smooth talking the parts guy, i got it for 300 bucks plus 25.00 shipping. what a steal. i just need to get it painted so i can put it on.

i changed the front fenders finally. i just took them off my m3 cabrio project. it was very fortuitous that this car is also alpinweise II. perfect match other than the vin codes. at least now i am not embarrassed to drive it around.

i pulled off the intake manifold and valve cover and did a rehab on both. while i was in there, i spent about 300 bucks on new gaskets, hoses and seals for the upper end of the engine/exhaust. i have to say that this car runs and idles perfectly now. i have never had an e30 that runs this good. the intake to head gasket was definitely leaking. there were a couple cuts in the gaskets where air was bypassing the intake and going directly into the engine. i cleaned the icv and replaced every hose under the hood. the coolant system was full of rust. running tap water in the car because the radiator was leaking is only cheaper in the short run. i changed that too. i had to change the coolant about 3 times before it started to run through clean.



i completely redid the stereo system. the radio head is an aftermarket top of the line kenwood from about 3 years ago. i am pretty happy with it because it doesn't look like it just flew out of star trek's butt. this e30's radio wiring harness was cut up to hell and back so i removed it from the car.

a few years ago, i parted a 2000 z3m roadster with the dual amplifier harmon kardon stereo system. i had removed the complete harness from the car uncut, so i just installed it in the cabrio with the two amps mounted in the trunk. i made two little harnesses. the upper one goes between the z3 harness and the e30 body harness. the lower one is installed between the z3 wiring and the stereo.



this served two purposes: this way i didn't have to cut up the e36/7 harness and the stereo plug was about 8" too short so it added the amount required to bring wiring to the back of the radio.

the system also had a 6 inch sub woofer.



i found a way to install that between the two metal bulk heads behind the rear bench seat.



it sounds pretty good. i get more or less the full range of sound through it. the thing that really makes it nice is that it doesn't take up any space in the trunk or in the cabin. it is installed in completely unused space in the car.

here are the amps before they were mounted to the front bulkhead.




i also installed sirius/xm. for kenwood, this includes two modules that i hid under the dash plus a couple cables and the wired antenna. i am also pretty happy with this arrangement since i renew every 6 months for the 30.00 introductory rate. any more than this, and i would just use pandora.

on to the suspension:

i spent a shit load of time experimenting with the suspension and now i think i finally have it right.

you may remember that when i originally got this car, it was slammed/stanced on cut aftermarket springs. my first rendition was to just install stock springs with the koni adjustable fronts/tokiko rears that came with this car. at least i could drive it around without dragging my dick all over the street. one of the after market front control arm bushings were bad, so as a temporary fix, i installed a set of tree house bushings that was hiding in my parts stash.

i have to say that this setup was pretty much a complete failure. the springs(especially the rears were way too soft and would constantly bottom on the 17"kopi's i am running. the treehouse bushings were harsh as hell and would just about knock the teeth out or your head every time i hit a bump. i suffered with this for about a month or two until i had time to change it out.

my second rendition was better but needed improvement. i had an older set of bilstein hds and a set of irelend engineering springs. i switched out the tree house bushings for stock m3 bushings. all of this was a big improvement over stock. i really like the spring rate which is kind of stiff(ish) without being harsh. the fronts were too low by about an inch or so because the tires would rub when making tight turns. the rears were a disaster on the cabrio with 17" wheels. they were so low, the tires rubbed in the inside of the rear fenders even when the car was sitting still. i couldn't drive around like that, so i looked around in my shed and found a set of H&R race e36 rear springs. i thought they would be too much for the e30 but they raised the rear end up so there was about 1/2 to 3/4" clearance between the fender lip and the top of the tire. these springs have a really nice stiffness to them without harshness. i was really happy with the back but the front was still a little low for my taste.


my third suspension rendition started as follows: this weekend, my 20 year old son was in town to visit, so being like his father, he wanted to go check out the local pick-a-part junk yards. of the hundreds of dollars we spent the other day on salvage yard bmw parts, we found a white cabrio with pretty much new bilstein sports and H&R springs. needless to say, i snagged that shit up so fast it could have been shot out of a canon.

i installed the billy sports all around. on the front of the car, i put on the H&R's. i don't know which model they are as they are grey. i have only seen the black race and red sport models. i left the rear e36 H&R race springs on the back because i am really happy with the arrangement back there. turns out these grey H&R's compliment my rears very well. here are some pix of my new "stance":









for me, this is absolutely perfect. this mismatched set of springs lowers the car about 1.5" which is exactly what i was looking for. both the fronts and rears have a really nice stiffness without being harsh. they also compliment each other and feel well balanced. i am stoked!

i did a couple renditions on the exhaust as well. the aftermarket exhaust that shows in the first photos was really loud and annoying. not to mention, i took the car to get it inspected and it failed the emissions test miserably. turns out someone knocked all the innards out of the cat. to pass inspection, i took a stock exhaust off one of my parts cars. the front half was in good shape but the back was getting a little thin in several spots. at least it was good enough to get an inspection sticker. for the last few months, i had been looking for something to replace it with. my prayers were answered by the junk yard gods. this is one of the best things i have ever found in a pick-a-part:





this is before the billy's were installed.



i had never heard of billy boat exhaust so i looked on the web site and called them to ask a few questions. turns out, this exhaust was originally 1000 bucks new! what the hell was that doing in a jy?! oh well, good luck for me. i am really happy with this can. i don't really notice any power increase, but it massively improves the sound of the car and looks a heck of a lot better than the factory one did.


the car still isn't perfect but i can pretty much say that i have knocked all gheyness out of it. all the ricer crap is now gone. pretty soon, i will get the paint touched up and the bumpers redone. with that, i think i will be pretty happy.

[MR 325]

Wow your junkyards sound amazing! :D The car is looking good!

[Ray Smoodiver]

Did you order the 51 11 2 239 709 spoiler at your dealership?

Did it come with all the mounting hardware?

[flyboyx]

Did you order the 51 11 2 239 709 spoiler at your dealership?

Did it come with all the mounting hardware?

i am not positive about the part number, but it sounds right. yes, it did come with all the mounting hardware.

[Ray Smoodiver]

Magic! Off to the dealership this morning then :D