1991 BMW E30 318iS Complete Rebuild

[Powling]

I'll be following this closely. I just picked up a 318is and will be doing a lot of work on it over the winter as well so this will be a huge help!

Keep up the good work!

[Split_S]

Thanks amigo..

Working on the engine bay today... Update later today hopefully...

[Split_S]

Moving along, Ive started to tackle the engine bay.
So, first things first was to get the starter out. A lot of these pics have labels
on them, I did that for a bunch to keep track of what goes where - never thought about saving a copy of the pics without the labelling..sorry about that..

The starter was quite a b*tch to get out. Lotsa stuff in the way and the bolts were rusty and and didn't really want to give.
Swearing a lot really helps though...





Ive become good friends with WD40 already...




All the coolant lines were soft and old. Its all scrap...



The fuel lines too..



I am planning to simplify the coolant lines by deleting the throttle body heater plate as this will be a summer car only...obviously...





I labelled as much as I could.. Funny thing is the flash from the camera removed all traces of what I'd written on the labels!! Aaah the irony...









The coolant hose connector kinda broke off in the engine...Its a rubber ring that's pressed fit in. It basically disintegrated. Gonna need replacing..Like everything else!



better pic of it here..



Starter FINALLY out!!!... Felt like Id just ran a marathon....



The car is looking AWESOME....







Removed the radiator (no pics of that..too easy) and splash shield which was as easy as things get and continued on...



Next up, accessories...



First the alternator, which funny enough Im planning the refurbish myself... No idea how to but it will be fun...











Getting the alternator out is pretty straight forward. Remove the belt by loosening the tensionner and then loosen up the bolts. The only sticky part was prying it off the bushings from the housing that the bolts slide thru. Mine were REALLY tight. You just have to wiggle it left to right for a while and they'll finally give...



Out and on the workbench...



Next up, the power steering pump and lines...Pretty straight forward... Just be ready with a bucket of some sort underneath... Im planning an e36 rack swap here...







Pretty messy but done! All this will be tossed out and bought new...



Out with the charcoal filter...



I think this bracket is NLA so Im gonna clean it up...





Charcoal canister out and binned.. These things aren't cheap...



Soaking the rusty brackets in Evaporust...Works great...



Progress so far is going fast but this is all pretty straightforward.. even for a know-nothing like me...

Planning on getting the engine out by the weekend.... cant wait!!

[Split_S]

While doing all this nonsense I also found the courage to disconnect the throttle cable...

Bracket is overtop the charcoal canister bracket:


Pic of throttle assembly but what I like in this pic is my completely SEIZED blower in the background.. Can't wait to tackle that biatch....







Joining the starter and other orphaned components on my workbench:

Mr Power himself:


and his amigo, El bomba...



Soaked this stuff in Evaporust:

Before:


After:




While I was waiting on that my wife brought me this:



and the mailman brought me this:



Which led to MORE stuff on my workbench.....




Im very happy right now..... ;)

[Split_S]

After quite a few long days this is where she's at:

Engine bay grease/oil/sand/crap cleaned up with heavy duty degreaser and elbow grease...not fun but looks much better..still alot more to go though...


Ignition coil was removed as Im planning a CoP setup - eventually.. Gotta figure that one out later on..

I also removed the fan using my home made fan clutch removal tool which I'd just recently made for my e46... (shitty thermostat!). Here is a pic...



Its 34cm long by 4cm wide... Center of 1st hole is 5.8cm from edge and closer hole center is 2cm from edge...
Diameter of half moon is 3.6cm with the center at 4cm from the edge...
Worked great on both the e30 and e46... Hope this helps someone out...
Im torn between going electric or just remounting a new fan and clutch (this clutch is finished).

I also started removing the loom in the engine compartment too... It was kinda like the first time I had sex: slow, awkward, kinda scary..;)

















With it all disconnected I put everything in a plastic bag.. Im not planning on removing the loom from the car as that scares the sh@t out of me...



Joking aside it was quite straightforward to take off but Im not at the point of taking the complete loom out. Im trying to pace out the work and I dont want to pull the dash just yet as Ive simply got nowhere to put it!! The car is at my parents house for now.. I'll be moving it to my house soon enough... So the plan is just to remove what I can and get it all ready... I've wrapped the loom ends in garbage bags to keep from repeatedly stepping on it...

Here's an artist shot of the old and the not so-old...

[Split_S]

The big day!! Gonna pull that m42!

Not too long ago I got my friend to buy an engine lift - mainly because Im cheap yet very persuasive...
With the engine lift paid for on buddy's credit card we assembled her up and introduced her to my car..



I was starting to get excited...

The engine mount bolts took some convincing but finally gave with a bit of leverage... Of course like everything Ive laid my hands on this car so far, they are scrap and will be binned... As a side note, I now have my pay check deposited directly to my local BMW stealership which is nice...







Best I could find was a herc strap to lift the engine...remember: yellow = cool.



The rest of the bolts mating the tranny to the engine were removed - of course there are a few really short ones which I didn't see until Id been yanking on the engine for a while...

Bolts out, a bit of lift, a flat screwdriver to "persuade" the engine off the tranny and, like most married couples eventually do, they separated...hehe



One sticking point was the exhaust... Id cut it just before the cat but that wasn't short enough.. Just after the headers would've been good. I had to use the angle grinder but couldn't quite cut thru... not elegant but Im not keeping any of it..



Jiggle jiggle..



Pretty tight fit...which is nice for some things, not so much for engine removal...



Almost there...



Almost...


Just a wee bit more...


Soooo close..



Yes! Check one off the bucket list!



Just in time for supper too.... ;)

I neglected to take some pics of her on the engine mount which is a shame... Before getting her on I had to remove the clutch pressure plate and then the 8 bolts which hold the flywheel.



Those were on f$%#@ tight, pardon my french.
Lotsa leverage required! With those off I nestled the m42 gently onto the engine mount (read: cursed and swore at that piece of shite until I figured it out...) and called her a day...

I put the m42 on a trailer and then tucked her away...no time for her just yet....

Here she is without her beating heart...





Guess what's next???

[Split_S]

With the engine out the next logical step is to yank the drivetrain. However, first I have to deal with the rear suspension.
Removing the wheels revealed this:



Not bad considering this car is 25 years old... Mostly light surface rust rust... A few taps of a mallet and look what comes out?



A day at the beach apparently....

The rear shock, which will be binned..



And the cheap-o adjustable mount setup.... will be binned...



This, I believe, is what is left of what was once a rear subframe bushing..



And a rear shot of the diff: (yes its a diff and not a shot of something off the Titanic!)



So, looking at all this I figured Id get the shocks and springs out first then the driveshafts then start working on the drivetrain...

Excellent plan! Excellent....

[Split_S]

First step to getting the underside of the car out was the exhaust. It looked good but Im binning it and going with stainless steel... Dont ask me how I'll be paying for that - I dont know!

Got out the grinder and a couple of quick cuts...



All out...



Im sure that will be around for a few years behind the shed!!!

With the exhaust out I started on the heat shields covering the driveshaft. This was fun...

Hardly rusted!






This one was in better shape being plated.. So I set it aside for a good cleaning and paint in the spring. A LOT of stuff is being set aside for the spring - damn winter!

Took off the transmission support bar...





Cleaned it off with a wheel grinder and a lick of paint:



I felt good about doing that - first thing Ive "fixed" on this project!

Now I could concentrate on the rear of the car... The wheels came off as well as the rotors.. They were rusted like hell... The new ones (already ordered) are supposed to be coated so they wont rust -we'll see....

I jacked up and supported the hub to remove the spring and damper bolt...



Then took an allen key to the halfshafts...



It helps to get some leverage on these bolts using a wrench if you're a bit of a pansy...
I remembered I had some allen kit socket bits... So I used them... I was impressed I'd remembered PRIOR to finishing up with the shitty allen keys...



This setup worked better honestly... The bolts were tight but finally did give...
First halfshaft off and 1 to go...



Closeup...





Second one off...



With the driveshafts out I had some space to start undoing the odds and ends. The goal here is to undo everything to be able to drop the whole rear subframe (awesome!) and then drop the fuel tank... (not so awesome!)Then the bottom portion of my rebuild can begin with the undercarriage/fuel lines/brake lines etc etc....

Got the shock absorbers and springs out. Simply loosen the top bolt in the trunk and the lower bolt near the hub and with a lift under the hub lower it down. It helps to have someone pressing down on the hub with a foot to break the shock absorber and spring free..

Spring removed and the bolt that hold the damper...


Damper removed with the whole setup...


With it all out: Already binned, of course...



With that done I disconnected the brake lines as seen in the middle of this next pic - this required quite a bit of loose nut and patience... I didn't even curse though!! What I will curse about is the DAMN parking brake lines (the thickest one in this next pic) - are these damn lines welded into the hub??? I CANNOT get them out....



All brake lines are being scrapped..all will be redone new...





A little ingenuity helped get the brake lines undone as they were hopelessly welded together...







Sway bar links undone...



Not too bad for a days work? More tomorrow....maybe....

[lagoon]

Great work so far! Glad you are saving her.

[Andy348]

Looks like some good work! Interested to see where the rust repair goes. Good luck!

[Split_S]

Thanks guys - really enjoying the work so far!!

With the shield folded back (hadnt quite removed it yet) I disconnected the fuel line connecting both sides of the fuel tank. Looks rusty but came apart no problem...





The two arms which hold the rear shield in place on held by bolts rusted to hell.. Those will have to wait til I can get the fuel tank out in order to access those bolts...

Driveshaft looking forward...



With a jack holding the center section of the driveshaft I began by carefully loosening the bolts in the guibo... All that was needed was a firm grip and some swearing....





I then loosened the center sleeve, not much, maybe 3-5 turns... I used a bar to lock the shaft. Thats the sleeve just before the spline:



I then removed the bolts securing the center bearing on the shaft but did not remove it. With the driveshaft well supported I moved to the rear and removed the bolts to the diff..





With that done I lowered the jack and the driveshaft gently came out!! sweet!

Here she is:



Of course Id marked the shaft so I can reassemble it properly after she's been scrubbed primed and repainted... (the markings in this pic were already there)



Ok, I was stoked about removing the driveshaft but there's still a diff and tranny to free!!

The tranny was fairly straightforward... I removed the reverse sensor wire and the hydraulic output cylinder clutch...





Loosened the bolts on the rear support and the bottom support:

Prayed...



and with the help of a buddy lowered her down, guiding the shift linkage out through the body...



Beautiful....









Alrighty then.. time for tea superman...

[Split_S]

With the engine out and now the tranny and driveshaft there was no stopping me today.

First things first was to support the diff. For this I used a jack and some wood. Then I sat and pondered how in our sweet lord jesus' name I would get that diff out. For those of you who have done this you know how little wiggle room there is... and my diff is more rust than diff... I wasn't sure those nuts would give but I set to her...



Above you see the diff support and the little wiggle room there is above... The front bolts are easier, but you see there's not much space for a wrench..

For these bastards, patience is a virtue... I sprayed some loose nut on all bolts, read the Bible front to back, sprayed some more, then tackled the Koran... get the idea? (ok, I didnt read either - too confusing...)



Only using one wrench all I managed was to humiliate myself and curse a little. Still I remained zen.

I decided to use two wrenches, one on the bolt and the other for leverage...



:)

Worked very nicely. Im impressed with the quality of steel BMW used. Looking at many of the bolts Ive loosened so far, I was sure so many of them would snap or refuse to budge. But with the exception of a few bastards, they've all come out...

Here is a great pic showing the miles of space available to the would be diff remover for the rear bolts...



Dont see anything? Exactly my point....
I used the same tactic - two wrenches and loads of delusional self-confidence.. Guess what? It worked! yeah, I couldn't believe it either...

I tried to lower the diff gently but it shifted and fell the last few inches to my foot, then the floor....

Here she lay:



Front:


Side:


Back


Opened up:



I think she looks pretty good, but Im leaning towards a rebuild - at least an inspection...

More soon enough.... Im done for today!

[Andy348]

Maybe I missed something... is there a reason you didn't just drop the whole rear subframe? As someone who owned a severely rust-infested E30, I found that a heck of a lot easier than dealing with the bolts ontop of the subframe.

Good work though! Such a great feeling to have practically nothing left on the car.

[Split_S]

Thanks man....

Working alone I thought it would be best to drop the diff separately - wasn't hard really - just little room to maneuver... the bolts weren't seized thankfully!

[Split_S]

Ive decided Im gonna get rid of the ABS. Ill be fitting all new brake lines anyways so its coming out!
Here you can see the corrosion on the mess of lines leading to the ABS unit...



Reminds me of my vasectomy....snip snip...



Top view. I had tried to loosen those nuts on the ABS unit but they would NOT budge. I took that as a signal from the gods I was doing the right thing...



The main bundle merging with the loom...



Ground straps...



Bolts loosened and forcefully "wiggled" out of its mounts...



This is were it gets scary... Look away if you fear multi-colored wires!!
That big red wire was the power to the unit. It was cut. Like, without fear too...



The rest of the signal wires were cut in one go. I assume I will be teasing them out of the loom soon enough...



The ABS sensor on the hub was removed. Torx for that one if I recall...











Its new resting place...



Nice...