My first e30, finally. Latest Update: The Restoration Begins

[Stanley Rockafella]

this is a common problem on many m20's. Mine has it too but i dont' care to tackle that problem at this point.

[Click]

That vacuum tube/connection has stayed in place and the engine has been running like butter since I posted. I've recently really been thinking how fast I've been going through gas and since the odometer hasn't worked since I bought the car, I have not been able the check the gas mileage. I checked the coolant temp sensor, it was at 300 ohms at running temp so that seems fine. I might replace the O2 sensor next. But anyways I pulled my cluster up here at school with the steering wheel still on, its a bit of a tight fit but it can be done. My only issue was getting the kick panel off. There were plastic "push anchors" holding it in which were a tad difficult to get out. The bentley refers to them as screws and I looked up the diagram on realoem.

I'm almost positive it is #12, which lists the picture as


These look a lot easier to install and remove that what are in there. Also I am missing the screw/bolt that holds it up from the bottom. I would assume its 26,27,28 but those aren't listed in the parts below the diagram. Anyone know how to get a hold of those parts?

Now to the cluster... (61k miles baby 8))



Klein screwdrivers are the shiz btw


Remove all the screws besides the small ones behind the tach and speedo. Then slowly and gently lift the blue section straight up and out of the cover. This is now a good time to get any bugs or dust out from inside the cluster face.





Noticed my gas gauge needle is cracked. I don't think its going to fall off any time soon as long as it remains undisturbed.





Take the green plug out the back of the speedo. It just has a clip on each side that need to be bent outward and it slides out.
Now take the 4 screws out from behind the speedo while keeping the cluster facing up (gauges facing the sky). Once all the screws are removed gently lift the speedo up and out of the cluster bucket.

Then you have naked speedo.



To get at the gears you have to remove the clear plastic cover that is held in by 2 small flathead screws. (Can only see 1 in this pic)



THERES YOUR PROBLEM



Also the grease all over the gears was extremely hard. It was difficult to scratch it with my fingernail. I gently tried to turn the orange gear to see my odometer move but it wouldnt budge. I lifted the orange gear and everything turned smoothly. The old grease basically glued the orange gear to the black gear locking things up. The glob of grease on the teeth of the black gear didn't help either.





Also no bueno



I don't have gears yet. I'm going to see if the garagistic guys can hook me up with a set this week. If not I'll get a set elsewhere. Can a car be ran without a cluster in it? Also Bentley called to unhook the battery when pulling the cluster, would it be okay to hook it back up with the cluster not in the car?

I forgot which port I pulled the cable out from the green connector that goes on the back of the speedo. (one of the 3 on the right)



So I quick popped the pcb out and saw that all three pins goes to the same trace so it doesn't make a difference which one it goes in. Just for future reference.



It's interesting that there are so many unused connectors that go unused. I wonder what the engineers were thinking when they designed it....

[Click]

Well apparently the alternator does not charge with the cluster out, even if the bulb is in the socket. Ask me how I know...

[Click]

Installation of the ever infamous garagistic motometer gears...


As they arrived.



Close ups of the gears. Every gear except the tiny white one has a glossy side and a matte side. This must have something to do with the production process.

Notice the holes on the gear teeth.



Back



More tiny pits on the second gear.





Interesting molding marks.



Back



More pits on the 3rd gear.





Back was a little scratched up.



These little guys slid on top on the topmost gears and held them on.



Small gear. Seems to be the best made.






Little bugger is VERY hard to get on.



On



The plastic case on the other side of the the odometer drive shaft (motor side) needs to be taken off and the shaft needs to be supported by your hand while pushing the white gear on. I also used an exacto knife and cut a little chamfer on the hole on the one side of the gear to make it a tad easier to put on.









Not the best tooth contact but everything spins fine.



All installed.



Overall the molding of the gears is lacking a little, but the material seems very good. The old gears acted like rubber and were easily bent. These gears are stout. I noticed some noise from the odometer since installing them but I assume this is just them breaking in. Seems to be a good buy at $15.

[BoostinEuros]

Loving this build!

Could you turn the odometer forward or back by hand?

[SimplyDope]

Nice! Love all the attention to detail. Excellent pictures and documentation!

[M3Philipp]

Your E30 must be happy you found him.

[Click]

Loving this build!

Could you turn the odometer forward or back by hand?

Yes you can. It would take a considerable amount of time to turn any significant amount of mileage by hand though. I am sure with a little ghetto rigging it could be down with a drill.

Your E30 must be happy you found him.

It's a she haha.


The odometer worked for about 96 miles and quit. I took everything apart and the the gears were all in place, looked fine, and turned freely. I pulled them out and blew everything out again and put them back in and its working again. Instructions say how critical it is to blow everything out thoroughly and all I have up here at school is canned air. So I'm keeping my finger crossed there was some sort of junk that was blocking it up.

Drove back from school today and the bulb behind the speedo is out. :hitler:

[Click]

Got tired of the silver headlight rings. Brofore







Dirty



Clean. Abrasive of choice today was steel wool.



Rings and screws ready to be painted.



Brahfter







I know one or two of the rings weren't fully seated when I took those pics. I realized it afterwards.

In other news I got the m30 on the engine stand. I know, such an accomplishment worth documenting.



When struggling to get it on the stand it tilted to the left and oil poured out of the valve cover since it wasn't bolted down. The only bad thing besides the mess was that some clear liquid came out with the oil, I believe it was water. Not 100% sure though. It will be more thoroughly investigated next time I'm home.



Driver side window switch was acting up when rolling it back up sometimes.



So contacts were cleaned.

















Cleaned. Abrasive of the day was 180 grit sandpaper iirc.





Its better now but still not perfect. I suspect it might be due to the pitting. Maybe one day I'll put some solder in them and file it flat and try that.

Then I was cleaning it the other day and decided to test out the sunroof drains. The rear worked perfectly and the front ran out the pass fender instead of the elephant trunk. Then I was looking how toasted the bottoms of my front fenders are. Got some serious bodywork to do this summer.

This is driver's side, the worst side. Pass is bad but not quite as bad as the drivers side. Black portion of the drivers is all crunchy. You can see the paint bubbling.



Jack pad isn't so hot either.



Then I made this gif. I thought it made the m30 look kinda 3D.

[cmonti]

before i read that you made a gif with that pic i thought my computer was fucked lol but car looks good and once the m30 is in, its gonna be bitchin

[Click]

Graduating in a week. Parents asked what I wanted as a grad gift. I said wheels and tires. They asked how much. I told them. How about just the wheels they said. Sounds good I said.


Soon.

[Click]

Finally time for an update. Been mad busy since graduating and getting a job and stuff. Things are finally starting to settle down..

Get a set of arc8s in anthracite and had them wrapped in Toyo R1Rs.


Stopped at the stealership on the way home from the tire place and picked some OE locks up.





I read that you need to roll your fenders in the rear to clear 235s so i didn't mount the wheels right away. I ordered a fender roller from Jegs since eastwood was sold out and here Jegs was sold out as well, even though they said on their website that it would ship in so and so days. It turns out there was a global shortage of fender rollers and Jegs didn't get any in until Eastwood got their shipment in from china or whatever, so I ended up waiting a month for a fender roller. Well I couldn't wait that long so I mounted them a couple weeks later.

Official meat stance.


But they grip pretty damn good. This is my first set of summer tires. Always had all seasons before. I've gotten many comments from my racing brethren on how freaking big my tires are. But boy, do they rub...





I never actually took any photos of the car after I put them on, but here's some instagram shots.



4x4 status lol


The fender roller came so then we rolled fenders! It was actually pretty damn hard to roll my fenders, the metal on our old e30s is pretty beefy. We rolled the fenders on my friends bugeye WRX and those lips rolled in like tin foil in comparison.



Contrary to popular belief, fender rolling wont fix your rubbing problems with arc8s and 235 section tires. You get rubbing all over the place besides the lip.





It even rubs in the inner fenderwell!



My friend has coilovers and had trouble getting the roller in his fender lol.



He's on his skinny winters to pass inspection...



Wanted a louder exhaust, but no way am I going to pay $500+ for a Stromung like I want. Bought a spare rear section, did some cutting, made a bracket for the front muffler mount welded it on and had an exhaust shop do the bends and slotting. Cost about $70 all in all.



It's actually not as loud through the powerband as I had hoped haha. Its quiet to 5k besides this weird trumpety type resonance around 2500 that is fairly loud. After 5k though its just raw straight six loudness. I would bet its somewhere around 120 db or so. It's absurd.

Pulled the factory alarm out, it was just taking up too much space in the glove box. There was an inline fue for mine, pull the fuse out for anyone else reading this. Just that much less live unused wire in your car. Then I took it apart for the lolz. Maybe george might get excited from these pics haha.













Next thing I fixed was my booster fittings that go into the throttle body. They have long worn out and sometimes wiggle themselves out creating a nasty vacuum leak.

Make sure to clean out the ports good.




As well as the fittings.



Then I put some JB weld on them.



And put them in and let it cure overnight.



Had my A/C recharged and the bum valve replaced when I had my car inspected. The one schrader valve by the shock tower developed a slow leak. I posted a pic earlier of it. My system is a stock system converted to R134a. Here is how good it does. It does warm up 10-15 degrees if your sitting still however. I have not done the fan mod yet as there are very few times I sit for longer than a red light.





Drove over to my dad's one day, which always entails getting a little slideways and getting my car dirty...



lsds ftw. Now back to work. My ebrake as always grabbed on one side more than the other so I took my brakes apart to find the root of the problem. It was as I suspected, worn out shoes on the side that wasn't grabbing. The other side looked fine.





I was quite overdue for an oil change as well. Got that out of the way.





I reset the oil light, but only 3 green leds come on now. I guess the other ones are burned out...



Went for a cruise to pick up parts for the slowly coming together m30b35 swap...

Looking like a tool..





Picked up the parts.



Here it turned out to be a very nice independent BMW shop. There were several cool cars there, a couple e30s, and e28 or two, and a E39 M5 to name a few. There was a white E30 M3 that the owners wife drives too.
Last but not least there was a black 6MT E60 M5, one day, I will own one of these.



Got these goodies waiting to go in. Currently waiting on some parts from blunt before I put them in (trans seals, guibo, csb etc).



I've been since ousted from the garage since my parents just got a new prius. I noticed this after getting in my car after it rained pretty hard.



I noticed it was dripping from this foam insulation.



I tested my sunroof drains a little while ago and the rear worked fine and the front drained out the pass side fender instead of the elephant trunk. I guess I need to take that fender off and take a closer look.

Speaking of fenders my drivers side has reached mission level critical in the past week or so.



Going to need fenders for sure when I get it painted. Which is probably going to be next summer. My friend with the suburu comes from a car family and has a garage set up for painting.

And a couple other instagram shots to wrap it up.

[RoyaLife]

i wish i had the money to redo everything on my e30 like you hah all in good time. on the other hand i love your progress. good work man!

[Nairb]

I love your sheepskin seat covers. Did the car come with those or did you find them online?

[Dsun]

nice!
looking forward to more updates