e30 M3 minor rust repair.

[xworks]

Once in place two holes can be drilled in it........



to allow the fan resistor to bolt up to it, which mounts it in the path of the
incoming air and against an aluminium surface, both of which should help it stay
cool.....




The last bit of tonight's little addition is the exhaust system which is
a much straight forward affair. The original system was fairly well
toast due to old age and rust. I've decided to replace it with an
aftermarket replica centre section picked up on German e-bay.
Both the new and old are shown below side by side, the difference
being the old one had catalytic converters fitted where as the new
one is a replica of the non cat centre section..........



The quality of the replica seems decent with all pipes having identical bends
and diameters. It isn't however made from stainless steel like the original
but on the plus side it cost a little over 200 euro delivered as opposed to
the 1600 euro the original costs. Yep, you read that right.

While being a fairly good replica it still needed a few small modifications to
fit up nicely. Nothing major, just an inch lobbed off the end of the pipes to
shorten it ever so slightly.........



and the hanger brackets tweeked a little to let it sit right under the car........



With the centre section taken care of the the backbox going on is a genuine
item..........



all of which should keep the exhaust note at the same levels as when she
left the factory, which is the goal. I've had my share of noisy exhausts over the
years and I'll be quite happy if all the noise from this machine comes from that
airbox up front.

Before the system could be fitted a few new heat shields needed to go up first
to replace the old disintegrated ones......



once in place the system could go up............



making sure to adjust the rear axle exhaust hanger brackets.......



so that each rubber is carrying its fair share of the weight...........



Hopefully it won't be too much longer till I can get some smoke out of these pipes.......



Thats it for tonight, next up fuel system.

[xworks]

With the air filter done and dusted and the radiator, fan and oil cooler
now in place the final item to sort out in this area was the fan resistor.
The electric fan on the M3 has two speeds, half speed and full warp.
For full speed the fan motor is sent 12 volts and to get the fan to run
at half speed the 12 volts is ran through a resistor on it's way to the
fan to kill off a few volts.
As mentioned earlier I've chosen to replace all the components in the
fan set up on this car to finally rid it of an intermittent fan fault and the
last component to be changed is this fan resistor.
I've chosen not to buy a straight forward replacement for the Bmw resistor
for two reasons. 1) they're overpriced from the dealer for what they are
and 2) as I fitted an aftermarket Spal fan I can't be sure that the factory
resistor will be the right resistance to get this fan to run at half speed too.
So, there may well be some trial and error buying different resistors till
we hit the sweet spot.
The picture below shows the standard Bmw fan resistor and the aftermarket
one I've bought............



The part number on it is "Arcol HS 100 R5 J". Despite looking totally
different to the original resistor it's practically the same resistance so should
work just like the original. And the plus point is it cost 6euro.
The resistor comes with a tab each side to allow you to solder it into
the wiring loom............





After the wiring part was taken care of came the task of mounting it. The original
resistor used to mount up to the side of the old fan housing and as my old fan was
now at the end of the rubbish bin it didn't seem to make a lot of sense fitting it there.
So, somewhere new had to be found.
Two things needed to be kept in mind when looking for it's new home, these resistors
create quite a bit of heat when in operation so it would help if it's mounted somewhere
in the incoming airflow to help keeping it cool and if it could be bolted to a metal surface
this would also help it conduct the heat away.
So I decided to kill two birds with the one stone.
The radiator on this car has a nice plastic cowl around the sides and bottom of
the radiator to direct as much cool air through the front of the radiator as possible.
However as you can see in the picture below this leaves a bit of a gap across the
top where air can take the easier route over the radiator rather than through it.......



I'm not sure it there's a specific panel to fit in here to block the gap but either
way I don't have one and have decided to make one.
Usual routine, cardboard template, transferred to aluminium, bend it the
wrong way, curse alot, take a break, return a while later and make it the
right way.........







Happy that it fits, tart it up........

[xworks]

and here I was thinking U would use some regular flexible venting pipe with a racing filter in front of the bumper....

It was on stand-by ;)

Quick question: won't the air filter be exposed to elements like rain? Does it matter?

It'll be reasonably sheltered from direct rain when the bumper and grills
go back on, but that aside, I don't think much rain would penetrate it
anyhow as the filter cotton is doused with oil which should repel it.
I've seen quite a few cars rallying/racing with exposed filters in heavy
downpours that didn't seem to have any bother. Might stay clear of
driving through floods though.

[monoi]

Finally, another instalment! I was starting to have severe withdrawal symptoms...

Quick question: won't the air filter be exposed to elements like rain? Does it matter?

[CorvallisBMW]

I love you.

[Bartholomeo]

stunning job., and here I was thinking U would use some regular flexible venting pipe with a racing filter in front of the bumper....

[xworks]

Bend it into shape........



and a couple of appropriately placed screws attaches everything together........





splatter of paint to improve the appearance.........



Which leaves the finished product looking like so..............











And thats about all the waffle I can muster up today.
Will try and get some more up as the week goes on.
Till then............

[xworks]

The filter shown above has the K&N part number 33-2085 and is listed
for an 8.4 litre V8 Dodge Viper, which I felt a little chuffed about,
right up until the invoice arrived an I realised the Viper uses two of them.
Moving on.
Those of you with a keen eye may well spot a slight problem that was about
to reveal itself on the next step...........



resisting the urge to use the "universal problem sorting tool" i.e.the hammer,
I decided for a more civilised approach instead........



chop, chop.......



each end of the filter cotton is bonded in as standard on a K&N........



So a little Tiger Seal..........



and leave to set overnight........



Final item required was something to actually hold the filter in the filterbox.
Again cardboard template.........



magic wand.......

[xworks]

And the reason for the larger (green arrowed) hole shown above is to mate up
with this little latch..........



Which is known to me as a "Waverly latch". As is par for the course by
now I've no idea what the rest of the world might call it.
As you can see below, the flange of the snorkel fits over it and then the little
black part is twisted locking the flange in place........



and it's fitted in place like so............



last job on the snorkel was to apply some foam tape to the flange to give
it an airtight seal when fitted............



and then pop it on. In the pic below you can see the right hand side is
sandwiched between the filterbox and the front of the radiator, which
keeps it in place and the left hand side is locked in place with that
little latch..........







All that was left to do now was stick in an actual air filter.........

[xworks]

Copied over to some thick aluminium..........



apply bonding agent to correct proportions, 50% on snorkel flange,
remaining 50% on hands, clothes, work bench.........



and then leave to dry. The last time I bonded something it slipped over night
and proved a right pig to redo, since then I like to take a little precaution or two..........



end result, a nice flat mating surface..........



With that done the next step was to sort out the method of attaching the snorkel
to the filterbox.
When planning this step out I figured it might make life a little handier down the
line if the snorkel was relatively easy to fit and remove as it'll need to come out
for some of the routine maintenance jobs such as changing fan belts and the oil
filter. With this in mind I wanted to try and avoid bolting it on and maybe try another
way of securing it instead.
So,
couple of hole's in the front face of the snorkel........



the notches arrowed red above are to line up with a pair of M5 bolts
shown below in the filter box which act as locating dowels.........

[xworks]

and join with some countersunk rivets because it would appear either I've
his wrong address, or, Santa doesn't know what a fuckin Tig welder is..........



after which some M4 threaded rivets are fitted to allow it to be bolted up to
the car.........





and bolt it up to see if fits........





So far so good.
Next up, the snorkel was going to have to fit against the inside of this filter box
and this provided the first little hurdle to overcome.........



I would need the snorkel to suck all it's air through the filterbox if the filter
was going to work and as you can see below the mating surfaces weren't
exactly what you might call airtight........



More cardboard and another template.......

[xworks]

With that taken care of it was time to move onto another job I'd been putting off
for a while. Fitting the airbox snorkel (arrowed below).........



The snorkel is what the airbox draws it's air from and it's fitted down beside
the radiator at the front of the engine bay where it can suck in some fresh cool
air from the front of the car...........



Unfortunately it doesn't come supplied with an airfilter of any kind and
while there are various solutions out there for this I decided I'd have a crack
at making my own, and this is how it came together.

Cardboard template for a filter housing box........



check it fits........



transfer to aluminium x2..........



some 25mm aluminium channel.............



chop, chop, bendy, bendy..........



clamp all three parts together........

[xworks]

Chapter 146
How, in the name of all thats holy, is this car not finished yet?

Starting this evenings episode off with a little revision of a job that was previously signed
off on and thought finished. The item in question? The brake/clutch fluid reservoir.
You may remember from an earlier post that I had gone with a universal fluid reservoir
and made a little fitting to give it the three feeds out it needed................



Well it's been pointed out to me that mightn't have been the best way to go. Unlike the
reservoir pictured above the one that was actually supplied with the airbox kit (shown below)
has one large advantage, a little plastic chamber divider inside the pot. It's purpose?
Should you happen develop a leak in any of the three circuits the reservoir feeds
(clutch / front brakes / rear brakes) the little plastic divider ensures there is enough
fluid retained to ensure at least one brake circuit remains functional...........



I had originally thought this was covered with the old design, but, when I opened a few
bleed nipples here and there to simulate leaks what actually happened was the leaking circuit
could actually syphon fluid from the good circuits to leave everything f*cked.
Takes true genius to come up with that sort of design.

Anywho, the results of a few hours head scratching came up with the following as
a method of mounting the proper reservoir and manage to avoid the strut brace
which seemed determined to get in the way.
The little mounting tab which was cut off the power steering reservoir bracket earlier
was recalled to active duty.........



and once welded to a few other bits of shaped metal it was to form the basis
of the new brake reservoir mounting bracket..........





bit of filing, sanding, hammering and a lick of paint to get it presentable.......



and bolt her up........





As God as my witness, if this one gives any trouble the whole lot's gettin ripped out
and I'm weldin a compressor onto the engine block and running a bloody air brake system instead.

[E30me]

Your knowledge is incredible, and your time seems limitless. You are scary... I love it!!! I cant wait to see the 100% finished product. It amazes me how much attention to detail and how much time you put into each step and process and you use good quality products with 100% proper procedure. Its nice to see you are not skipping steps and doing a "good enough" job. Great job!!

[Vivek]

DAMN. I didn't read it all...but one day I'll do all the body work on my car that you jsut did. Get it down to metal, fix every dent, and paint it perfectly. It's at maybe 99% now to the average onlooker, maybe 85% to me, a slight paint mis-match, some fading i have to buff out, and a total of about 14 visible dents (to me). None are deep at all though. They're like the lightest door dings ever, and they're all on the quarter panels behind the doors, but for some reason the paint is a little rippely (not orange peel, it's different) on the doors. Ugh I hate being a car detailer sometimes...