The 5 Year Restoration - E30 M3 Reborn

[CurrusDei]

One Year In... M3 Build Thread

You are correct about the wiring

The 335 used to have a jb4, but when I upgraded to RB Turbos I went with a custom COBB flash-also has a 7" FMIC, down pipes, dci, forge DVs, and Alpina trans flash

*edit: just saw you asked about OIL cooling, not general cooling. The factory oil cooler has been sufficient on mine so far. never gets over 250

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[KIRIEIW]

Great progress! Always entertaining for me to see your updates. Is the OEM insulation you have laying where the dash would go (on page 16) the insulation that actually glues to the dash underneath? From my research I read M3's have extra sound deadening material in that area.

[ultimateracing335i]

I miss the low end torque of the rb turbos. I went single.

[CurrusDei]

Singles are beasts. I'm still working on my tune with Wedge and his crew.

On the insulation, there are two stages. Ones is the insulation behind the firewall (the one i showed a few posts back) this has to be installed before you run all the cables and pedals, etc. the M3s also have insulated dash boards. If you go back a few pages you'll see where I transferred this over and used contact cement to affix the OEM insulation to the new dash I bought. Took some time out from the car today to hang some new shelving - you run out of space fast when you take apart a car


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[CurrusDei]

Alright guys, big update. Here goes!

After the fan came off there was a ton of room up front. This is why guys can fit V10s in these things



Radiator shroud trip. On and off.







Front sway bar – is this common for the brackets to snap loose this way?



Sway bar end links were toast. Taking them off







Loosening the lollipops to get the sway bar out



The passenger side has a heat shield



other heat shield attachment points





sway bar out



The trim under the car is dried out and cracked. Front wheel wells have an upper and intermediate cover, both were done. All had at least one mounting hole cracked through.











ECS to the rescue







ENGINE REMOVAL

Hello, Guibo



underbody heat/dust shields need to come out





out, blurry, sorry, awkward photo position



This is the center support bearing, the driveshaft comes apart in halves here. The front shaft is held in by a collar bolt or whatever you call it. Pipe wrench works well here, but it mars the finish a bit – I’ll probably get an oversized wrench when I put it back on to avoid scratching it up after I refinish it.





Loosening the center bearing and sliding the support back gives you some more clearance.



When you get a little room, the pry bar works wonders



I let the front of the driveshaft hang down, but if you gently tap the back of the Guibo with a soft mallet the front of the shaft will move forward and should come off its splines fairly easily, mine did.



Ripping out the rotten firewall insulation





Here’s the shifter linkage, the wire coming out of the bottom of the shift selector needs to be removed. It connects above the brake slave cylinder.







Factory single shear selector rod coming out. Going to replace it with a DSSR.



The back is the part covered in gunk with the yellow grommet.



These are the clips that hold in the selector rod, they pry to the side to release



Oh and speaking of that brake slave cylinder, I disconnected it and pulled it with the trans. Keep those spacers labeled, almost lost this one.



Engine mounts off!



I have all the electrical stuff out of the way. Double check so you don’t break something.



Also removed the power steering lines



The bolts on these things are cool. Fluid feeds through the bolt and out the holes, then into the orbit around the end of the line.



Lift in position



The front lift loop is obvious – its by the alternator. The back is easy to see but its wedged in there a bit



This brace supports the transmission and needs to be removed before lifting. I removed all four bolts connecting the brace to the body, but had the jack in position under the brace when doing so, so it kept brace under the jack until the engine was far enough forward that it didn’t need support. Its easy to figure out when under the car. The transmission mounts connect to the two holes in the center. Going to upgrade mine – one was ripped halfway through and I ripped it the rest of the way with almost no effort.



Jack under the transmission for support, on the brace here.. Don’t want it slamming into the ground when the engine goes up. Cut up some floormats from my wife’s old car to avoid metal on metal contact – worked great



Lifted a little to free the engine mounts



Little more and they’re free.



I kept repositioning the jack so the trans didn’t slide off. This was a lot of lift and reposition, lift and reposition. I took my time because mistakes here are $$$, also I was by myself, so that didn’t make it easier.



Liiift



Jack sliding forward, slid into the legs of the hoist before I lifted far enough that the trans didn’t need it anymore



A Balance bar is DEFINITELY needed here, also I should have had the crank handle facing toward the back of the car, the angle got so steep I had to take the crank off to turn the bolt because the handle was hitting the arm of the lift.

Just a few pics of the extraction.













Bumped into the front here, but it didn’t do any damage



Caught the insulation a bit on the way out, this is where another set of hands helps – but it did no damage. Putting it back in I’ll be much more surgical.











OUT!





Engine shots

[KIRIEIW]

Nice work! Looks like you have a ton more room pulling the tranny and engine as one with a s14 vs m20. Makes sense considering you have 2 less cylinders anyways.

[Insaini]

Nice work. Great attention to detail!

[CurrusDei]

Thanks guys. Yeh tons of room in the engine bay. very nice compared to the 335.

More catch up…
I put the engine on a shipping pallet I got for free from Lowes – shipping pallets are one of those things I have never seen for sale, but see everywhere – so I just asked if I could have one they were throwing away.





You can see where the engine and steering rack have been leaking for what seems like a long time. The engine is leaking from the timing chain tensioner, and the steering rack had one line completely loose. Both have solutions in the works (E36 timing chain tensioner and Rack Doctor). There’s still a good bit of dryrotted insulation



Power steering reservoir coming off



Its mounting points



Threads through a speed nut



Lines coming off the rack



Crusty

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This line goes to the power steering reservoir



Off and draining



You can see where the line to the reservoir went

[jhaurimn]

That bolt is fun to get to when the engine is in :) Had to replace that bolt recently.

[CurrusDei]

I'll try to get some time this weekend to catch up in detail, but here are some highlight pics of where the car sits now...

[328ijunkie]

Ready for paint? :)

[CurrusDei]

Almost! Had the body shop guy out last weekend. Just have the rear subframe, fuel lines, rear brake lines, steering column, parking brake, and driver door left, along with some misc clips, etc.

[bradnic]

Inspirational. Still my top 2-3 favorite R3V thread.

[M-technik-3]

Nice undertray can only imagine the $ figure on one these days

[KIRIEIW]

Almost! Had the body shop guy out last weekend. Just have the rear subframe, fuel lines, rear brake lines, steering column, parking brake, and driver door left, along with some misc clips, etc.

Jesus now that's what I call a re paint job at its finest. Stripped to the shell!