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

[matias9]

its a great thread, reading the good's and bad things , how do you do everything by your self , descriptive all the steps and tools used .
i have the same problem with the air duct , but when i detected was late , has gone and the fender interior broke .

[TroyShark]

Awesome thread. Keep it up. I work in Reading

[Click]

More long overdue updating.

CV boots were torn and I needed to replace them before rallycross got into full swing (this was done in May, boy am I slacker)

First thing is to remove any center caps on the rear wheels. Car should still be on the ground when doing the initial loosening of the axle nuts.



Then you use a specialty tool to get the axle lock plate out. Mine is a run of the mill flathead with a chisel tip ground on. A baby sledge is the perfect companion for the specialty tool.







Beat specialty tool into the three slots and then move the tool between the slots and continue beating.



And pull it out.



Loosen and remove axle nuts. Spray some PB blaster in the splines to help loosen things up while you work on the inner CV joints.



Clean up around the diff output flanges.





Remove allen bolts on output flanges. Extensions are handy.





Remove the rear section of the exhaust so the half shaft wont run unto the output flange when you push it out.

Remove rear shock so outer CV joint doesn't get wedged into it.



Mount axle pusher tool to hub and push out axle.



Proceed to run out of axle pusher travel.



Give also pusher some viagra (aka 11mm deep dish socket) and finish pushing axle out.



Place half shaft on a nice clean surface.



Admire shoddy grocery bag/gorilla tape fix.



Remove shoddy fix.



Bend inner clamp back and snip with dykes.



Remove clamp.



Snip outer clamp and remove.



Start cutting the boot with a razor knife.



And switch to some man shears before you slice off a finger or three.





And remove boot.



Use specialty tool to pop off inner CV joint plate.





Death



Remove inner cv boot as previously described.



Clean away grease from inner CV joint.





Remove circlip.



Using a punch, gently tap the inner section of the CV to remove.



Progress



And off.





Use specialty tool to remove the boot plate from inner CV joint.







Clean inner CV joint. I used brakleen.





Clean outer CV joint. It doesn't come off the half shaft so you just gotta do the best you can. Brakleen and compressed air work well. Brakleen and compressed air also work well in scattering grease everywhere in a 10 foot radius. You have been warned.



Slide outer CV boot onto the shaft.



Couple taps with a 27mm socket help get it on.








I used OE BMW boot kits from a dealer. GKN grease was supplied.



Pack outer CV joint. Any extra can go in the boot.



Supplied clamps and sealant. Don't know why two of the small clamps were included.



Spreading the sealant.



And on.



Put the large clamp on. Make sure to get it in the tightest slot before crimping.



These CV boot clamps are one time use Oetiker clamps. The final tightening is done by crimping this tab together.



The proper Oetiker clamp tool is made by Knipex in Germany. I bought an Oetiker clamp assortment awhile back which came with the tool. You could probably get away with a set of dykes or tile nippers.





Crimping away.



Technically you're not supposed to crimp them to the point where the sides are touching. I got a little carried away, but it'll be fine.



Repeat for small clamp.





Now to the inner side.

Contents of an inner OE BMW boot set.



Clean the spines.





Slide small clamp on.



Slide boot on. Again a few taps with a socket helps get it on.





Slide inner CV joint onto half shaft.



Few taps with the socket drive completely home.





Put new circlip on.



Grease it up.



Two of the allen bolts work great to make sure the new plates are all lined up.





Applying sealant.



This is the best method I could figure out to get the boot plate onto the CV joint. Sit the boot plate on the vise and tap on the top of the CV joint with a hammer to seat it.



Sealing cover plate and installing.







Crimp the clamps and you're good to go.

Make sure the stagger the clamps for optimum half shaft balance. Because racecar. :pimp:



And there you have one rebooted half shaft.



One last thing to do before install. Cleaning of the flange splines.

I used brakleen to get the grease and gunk out and a very small flathead screwdriver to trace the spines. This removed the trace amount of surface use that had formed in the splines.





To protect the splines some anti-sieze was applied. As an added bonus this will also act as lube and making installing them easier.





Using a punch on the outer CV joint made installation rather painless.





Can double check the depth by looking at the ABS ring.



Everything bolted back up.



Once the car is off the jack stands and on the ground the axle nuts can be tightened.



Fresh lock plate.



Used a hammer in conjuction with the socket to "set" the new lock plate.



Now I'm set for another 25 years. One can only hope that they'll be new boot kits to buy in 2039.

Until next time...

[Ray Smoodiver]

This thread reads like a e30 noobie 101 course, it should be mandatory reading!

Well done mate, keep up the good work, you've got an E30 that's more sorted than half the cars on here I suspect.

[FLG]

Great read.

Now some knowledge for ya that will help in the future.

Jumping pins 11 and 14 on the diag connector will tick the engine over for you, easy way to get on correct part of cam lobe while adjusting. Make sure car isnt in gear and ignition is off. Will also avoid any further fan crank water pump disasters.

Secondly.. This tool will make your valve adjustments spot on and quick

http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/smart/more_info.cgi?pn=TOL-3013&catalog_description=&Valve%2520Adjuster%252C%2520All%2520BMW%2520Engines%2520with%2520Eccentric%2520Style%2520Valve%2520Adjustment%252C%2520Each%2520%2520

Put the tool in the eccentric when you've got your feeler gauge in there and it's loose, press tool so it bends at 45 degree angle (it's a spring basically) and tighten eccentric. Done. And always exact.

Btw the hylomar sealant u used is awesome stuff. They stopped selling it here in NY, was pissed when I was building engine for my charger, use to use it for sealing Valley pan to intake.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

[benyen soljax]

Where did you get the parking brake rebuild kit? Also, do you have some lessons learned tips on the valve adjustment? Mine are quite noisy.

[Vanilla Gorilla]

Absolutely awesome work dude. She is one lucky e30.

[yaz3]

beautiful ride dude, want mine to be the exact same, keep it up and rev on

[Lake]

PLEASE keep it up! it's helping me alot!

[Click]

Where did you get the parking brake rebuild kit? Also, do you have some lessons learned tips on the valve adjustment? Mine are quite noisy.

You can get the kits anywhere, blunt, pelican, ecs etc.

When adjusting valves I have gone to a "three blade system" type of technique. Middle blade is the spec and then have one size larger and one size smaller, the +/- blades are sorta go/no go gauges. Adjust it as per spec and then test it with the other two blades. The +1 size shouldn't fit or if it does it's super snug, the -1 size should be really loose and not have any resistance at all. Also before you rotate the engine to do the next set, double check all the ones you just did are good for a final check.

Absolutely awesome work dude. She is one lucky e30.

PLEASE keep it up! it's helping me alot!

beautiful ride dude, want mine to be the exact same, keep it up and rev on

Many thanks for the kind words. I really do need to update this thread haha, it's probably 9 months behind. This summer is going to be big. I plan on fixing all the rust and painting her as well as doing the m30 swap. #bigthingsthissummer

[Click]

So I'm quite bad at keeping this updated...

Anyways.

Installed proper euro grilles. (March 2013)



Figured out why my passenger side light stopped working. It's like impossible to find a replacement connector and terminals so I'll prolly just replace both sides with a newer style connectors.



Brake lining light went from flickering to on steadily. After some searching I determined that my rear sensor wire was rubbed through. (May 2013)



Proceeded with freeing the wiring



Soldering in a wire to bridge the gap



Wrapping it to protect it from the elements



And zip tying it like crazy so it never happens again...



Twas getting sweltering hot out during the summer so I got a new A/C bracket as mine was stripped out. Interesting how the new one is shorter...



Like a turd wearing a diamond ring.



Much better (◠‿◠)



Fast forward to Rallycrossing (June 2013). Engine started making bad noises and I found my engine sliding into the rad. Both motor mounts were torn. Luckily this only manifested itself during the last heat and I only had 1 run left before I didn't want to drive it anymore. Many thanks to shEck3lls0 for letting me borrow his car for that last run.


I drove the car to the hotel using the brakes very daintily and got to work in the back parking lot. Luckily I performed an oil change a week or two before and noticed the mounts were in bad shape so I ordered a set and brought them with me that weekend.



Totally shot.



The magic combination to get the top drivers side nut off.



Unfortunately one of the nuts got stripped on the passenger side. I purchased a bolt extractor set from sears but it needed a SAE socket to be used so I wasn't able to replace it that night. Gratefully I borrowed the correct socket from the Hegelsons the next morning and replaced the passenger side mount in the field before the racing started. Literally as soon as I finished up tightening it down it was time to drive to the course.

The passenger side reinforcing plate/shield thingy interfered with the mount and was not able to be used with the new mounts. Oddly it fit on the driver's side however.



Again, a turd wearing a diamond ring...



Since I'm a baby and it was hot out I was racing with my A/C on. Not for long though, while waiting in the grid a bunch of smoke came out from under my hood. Being 120 miles away from home I was quite concerned, luckily the smoke was just from an A/C line bursting and not something engine related as I feared.



Post racing pics. Left her at a friend's gf's house overnight during a storm. Left a nice mess in her driveway lol





That was the final race of the spring season so it was time to put the summer wheels back on. I had new tires mounted in the rear just prior to the race. Morons at the tire shop impacted the wheels on



For whatever reason I felt inclined to checkout my airbox. Nasty as expected.



Quite shockingly however I found a very fine dust on the "clean side" of my airbox. Time to order a new filter.





All cleaned up



Scored some lightly used H&R race springs and got a new set of billy sports on sale. Purchased GC camber plates for adjustability and since they let the spring sit higher for moar lowz.



On to the install.



Sprayed the strut retaining rings with PB blaster since I've never removed them before and they look hella rusted tight.



Removed brake caliper



Removing sway bar links



Using the jack trick to loosen nuts on spinny ball joints



Using a VERY BAD method of separating the balljoint from the knuckle. This was before I knew better. (actually this was in july 2013, like I said I'm bad at updating this thread)



Remove the shock mount nuts and she drops right out.



Compressing the spring



Fooling around



Races vs stockers :nice:



Now dis bitch



Couldn't get them off despite big man wrenches



Ended up using an oxyacetylene torch around the perimeter to get it to budge. I painted the burned off paint area later.



Fitting the Bilstein in



GC sent the wrong size washers



Assembled!



GC also sent the wrong threadpitch lock nuts as well which mangled my one strut :hitler:




Luckily the proper nuts still threaded on and when fully tightened were below the damaged area.

Remember how I said hammering with a nut is a bad idea to remove bjs? The passenger side control arm BJ was stuck particularly well and I may or may not have had the nut too little when I was hammering. Either way the threads were damaged at the top. I very carefully cut the damaged area off the top. There was still more than enough thread to properly tighten down the new locknut. Live and learn



Fast forward to August 2013. I was driving home from work and was making a left turn and all of the sudden I developed a missfire. I pulled over and jiggled my sparkplug wires to no avail. The next morning i did some diagnostic tests as per the bentley but came up empty handed. I did some searching and found out I could have broken a rocker. Pulled the VC and sure enough my #5 intake rocker broke. Despite what many poeple say you can replace them with the head in the car, it's just quite tricky. I made a special S shaped tool out of 1/2" steel rod that leveraged against the firewall to push the rocker shaft out. Before you do this though the rocker shaft has to be super clean or else it wont budge. I used brakleen to remove the oil deposits. In addition there were some marks on the front of the shaft from what looked to be from a pair of vice grips, I can't find a close up photo of these marks but I ended up sanding the marks down with 2000 grit sandpaper so the shaft didn't bind up in the head from the raised up bits of metal.



Note how much cleaner the intake shaft is.



Just barely made it. Had it been cylinders 1-4 I would had to pull the rad.



Bought two OE BMW rockers just in case I break one in the future. It's interesting how much the two are different from each other. The casting quality of the roundel and part number is better on one. Also the little hole above the cam pad is on different sides.







I think I gleaked on the rocker right before I took this photo, hence the tiny little droplets lol











Mileage of my car is unknown but the cam pad has a ton of meat left after comparing the old to the new







Much better roundel definition on the old one as well as a production year maybe?


You can see that the area between the shaft hole and the adjuster bolt is beefed up on the new one.





As seen from below. Have to wonder why they didn't beef up the other side as well....





Now get your German made montagepaste and apply to the new rocker









I also applied montagepaste to the cam lobe as well.

After tapping the rocker shaft back into place and replacing the locking key, clean up the plugs and the where they fit in the head.





(You can see those vice grip marks I was talking about earlier in this pic.


Apply some German made Curil sealant to the plugs and install. Make sure the orientation is correct or the cam gear with hit the plug.





Reinstall all the retaining clips for the rockers and adjust all the valves. Install valve cover with new gasket and you're golden.

Flirting with the devil...



The tube that houses the breather hoses for the gas tank is in pretty bad shape. The cover in the wheel well was pretty obliterated so I installed a new one and sealed everything up to prevent water from coming in.













Also patched up a few other holes I found in the wheel well.





Bimmerbuddies shop circa 8/31/13





We were talking e30s and the guys like my exhaust so I fired her up and r3vved it a bit. I left the car on and we were talking in the rear and I look down only to find my leg all sooted up



Fuel hose was looking bulgey so I replaced them. (September 2013)



Craftstman makes a nice hose pincher tool that you can use to prevent gas from flying all over when you loosen the hose clamp.



Clamp was really starting to chew into the hose.





Proper German made BMW fuel hose I used.



I reinstalled with correct BMW hose clamps. This style of clamp will not chew into the hose since it has no slits in it.



Also made in Germany



Wire cutters make for good hose cutters





All attached. Replace one at a time so you dont get the lines mixed up.



Went rallycrossing the weekend after replacing the fuel lines. Installed the new airfilter the morning of the first day in the field lol. Toward the end of the day I had a coolant leak at the throttle body heater. I looped the lines with that never used 9mm socket and continued racing. I believed this was my last rallycross. I had so many things breaking when I went racing so I decided to quit before I broke something major and get stranded 100+ miles from home. I will return to racing some day however when I pick up a spare car and truck/trailer...

























Went to upstate PA on a long weekend. Our cabin was in the middle of nowhere and there was like a 10 mile dirt road that lead to it. It was super fun to drive in the e30! Took this pic on way out. As seen on the 2014 Condor Speed Shop calendar. So sad they only accepted photos with condor parts for the 2015 calendar, I will not be buying on this year I should make my own e30 calendar.



Noticed what I assume is a stress crack by the battery tray/passenger strut tower. Something to address when I do the restoration...



Blower motor started making bad noises, after a quick inspection it needed to be replaced.





One of my retaining straps was broken as well.





Cover removed



Using screwdriver to pry off terminals.



Remove old zip tie





After struggling with the motor retaining clip for quite some time, I figured out the best way to undo it was to grasp it with some good Knipex pliars and pull it down and off. Silly BMW, should have used the same system as in the e28 which is an easy tension clamp with a handle.



Free at last



The problem



The damage (nothing that bad)



Old motor, brushes were almost gone. It didn't have much life left even if the squirrel cage didn't come apart.





Since I'm never planning on selling the car I decided to shell out the big bucks and get brand new blower motor assembly. If anything I hope my purchase shows that there is demand for these and Behr continues to make them in the future (fingers crossed I can get a new motor 25 years from now when this one craps out lol)





Still making them new as of may 2013! (I installed this October 2013)











Brand new brushes for reference.







Not much has changed..



Replacement strap



All installed ready to go!







The foam gasket was pretty hammered on the firewall cover. Josh aka irish44j (I think) told me that a bad seal here can cause water leaks so I replaced it seeing as I have water leaks in my car.





Scraped it off with this homemade scraper tool I made from copper pipe and a screwdriver many years ago.









Acetone got rid of the rest of the residue



At this point I had some rust spots and the paint looked crappy so I decided to paint it as well. Started off by scuffing up the whole shebang with a scotchbrite pad.





Painted with some duplicolor trim paint





Then installed the overpriced foam stripping









Screwed the cover back on and now I have a perfect blower motor for the next couple decades.

I reinstalled the factory springs to get additional ride height for the upcoming winter and used new strut retaining rings. A week or two later I heard this clattering sound coming from the front driver's wheel area. Here the strut retaining ring backed itself out some and strut was bouncing up and down in the housing. (November 2013)



I cleaned the threads of the housing and retaining ring and reinstalled with some blue loctite.







Complicated setup I came up with for torquing the strut nut to spec lol



The weekend after that I changed the control arms. Not only were the control arm bushings hammered but the boot on the one ball joint was utterly destroyed.

In the meantime I got a proper German balljoint separator tool ;)







Start off by removing the control arm locknut and soaking it in PB blaster along with the control arm bushing bolts and middle control arm nut.







Couple taps with the hammer to the knuckle to help shock it then on to the fancy BJ tool 8-)





Remove le lollypop bolts





Little screwdriver prying gets it off.





I ended up needing to jack the engine up to get clearance for something so I unbolted the mounts and removed them. I believe it was to get to the mid BJ nuts.



Used a pickle fork to break the mid BJ free from the subframe. These were super tough to get out. That picklefork took a serious beating.





Old vs New





H A M M E R E D



Next thing was to clean up the hardware. I used this handy dandy kit from Sears. Surprisingly these are still made in the USA...





They're like nuts and bolts but with cutting slots in them. A step below taps and dies.



Cleaned all the bolts while holding them in a vise.



Before and after



Don't forget these!



New and old CABs. Yes the old ones were all ripped and torn, yes it handled like poo. I went with the solid E30 M3 offset cabs for the supposed better high speed stability. Also who doesn't like saying they have M3 parts on their car?



THE HORRORS





Installed new control arm



Now the trick of getting the cab onto the ca.



You need a temporary lube. I used soap and water, aka bushing juice.









Pour the bushing juice on the control arm weiner and in the control arm bushing bagina and ram away for it's a very tight fit. I think I used a large socket that fit over the hole and hit it with a hammer. Once both sides are in the bushings and the lollypops are mounted to the frame rails you must quickly lower the car back on its wheels so the control arms rotate to the correct angle in the bushings before the lube dries out. It was quite difficult and face paced process, no photos were taken in the process.

A photo I took at some point during the process...




Random shots...





Annoying ass leak



Winter weaves :pimp:





More winter pics from 2013-2014









Crazy ass storm I drove home in. There's one stretch of my commute that goes through a farm field, here the snow drifted to 12+ inches and I was just going full bore or else I'd be stuck for sure. It was crazy because snow was exploding up from all sides of the car!





Right as I got into the driveway the motor started bogging down. The next morning I discovered snow was all packed in the engine bay!









All the cruddy snow that was packed in the engine bay.



Victory donuts



January 2014. Driving home in some light snow and I drift a left turn and mid-drift I develop a misfire. Here we go again... Quick inspection and yup I have indeed broken another rocker. This time its cylinder 3 intake. Good thing I got that spare rocker arm...





The day I wanted to fix it it was pouring raining and cold. It genuinely sucked. Lucky a friend of mine has a car port that I borrowed.



Since it was cylinder 3 the rad and condenser had to be pulled to allow the rocker shaft enough room to slide out...



Fixed that, then later that week I found the source of my new exhaust rattle.



A quick stop at the stealership and I have a replacement polish rubber donut and yet another spare rocker if I am so unlucky to have another break on me...





I think my limited slip is shot #tireslayer



More random winter pics







lol



No wonder why my car is so rusty



Literally leaking salt



One night it got super cold out and my dash developed a crack between the storage tray and the glove box handle. I didn't condition the dash for months.... I wonder if freshly applied conditioner would have prevented it. This pic might be from that night.



Steep driveway struggs



Scored the last OE BMW m30b35 gasket set in the USA. The exhaust manifold gaskets have roundels embossed in them, it's so cute. :grin:



I get out of work one night to find everything with a coating of crunchy ice on it. Once I got up the mountain it was like an inch of snow covered with a layer of ice. Slippery but as the car broke through the ice and got into the snow there was some traction to be had. It was the coolest driving surface I've ever driven on. It was so fun I drove right by my house and just drove around for an extra half hour. I got so ballsy that I tried to go up a very steep hill, I almost made it but as I backed down into a driveway to turn around I got stuck. By chance luck they did a massive purging at work recently and I took some plastic lunch trays that were going to be trashed for whatever reason. I found a tray to be a very effective shovel and got myself unstuck it it. I drove home and got stuck halfway up the driveway like I always do. Pics from that night.













Exposed tire was covered in ice the next morning





Engine was making some concerning noises when first started up so I drained the 20w-50 and put some lighter oil in.





Always get stuck in this spot









Ballin hard with that markD chip



Car getting randomly impaled





More randoms









Battery was gross and I seemed to be having some power problems so I cleaned it up.









Battery cleaner is indicating meaning the areas that turn red have battery acid on them.









I will fix you soon!



New subframe and trailing arm bushings acquired



DIN Bubble flaring tool acquired



George graves wideband gauge acquried







Built an underbody car washer to get all the salt off.





Pretending to be a jeep



Acquired a spare rear subframe and a 2.93 LSD diff for when the m30 gets boosted



Tool slit



Rust sucks. Fixing all the rust is going to be the major hurdle of the restoration



Those new control arms and painted lolly pops I installed 6 months ago? Starting to rust :down:



These port holes are stupid





Hole at 9 o'clock



Turning the 30 into a truck



Damn little good old american-made CH air compressor that I got for a steal



Quick stop on the way home. Edited by some e30 chick




No more dancing with the devil









Yeah we suck





Installed and ready to drive over boulders (April 2014)



Installing the race springs for the summer. I picked up a second set of strut housings so I wouldn't have to swap springs back and forth...













Ran outta time and didn't get to the rears but still looks a lot better.



Lookin fynnneee



Had a visitor when I put the rear springs in



Torquring that shiz to spec :D





Mucho better



Holy camber



Swapping for some extra rubber.





Reset that ish





Clipped a deer one morning on the way to C&C, miraculously the only damage was a bad turn signal bulb.



Decided to be a seamstress





Prepunctured all the holes





It hurts my fingers and I am displeased face



Could be tighter in a few spots but good enough for now



F this side



Brand new HX35 acquired :)



Due for a refinish







Somehow managed to wear through that rear brake pad sensor wiring again. Different spot this time. Had a spare one and just looped it.









Decided it would be a good idea to french the high beams and plastidip the wheels for some reason













Looks good from afar but its far from good, despite like 5 coats



Post C&C hangs with the iX gurl





Alternator started making bad noises so I started keeping a spare in the car



I think my low gas light is brokennn



Checked the thickness of the b35 head. Never been shaved, nice :p



Did compression and leakdown tests and they were not good. Engine hasn't been run for over a year and the head has been on and off numerous times so these numbers are prolly useless







Scored a glovebox light from a guy at the deutsche classic car show in July 2014. It doesn't work but I only paid a few bucks for it and it looks nice. I'll have to see about fixing it sometime.





Drove up to brooklyn to look at an e28. Alternator really started howling on that trip so I swapped them out. The old had a lot more resistance to spinning.



Rolling shot of my car taken from the e28 on the drive home. She looks nice. Now that I have a second car I can take the 30 off the road and start the restoration soon once the 28 is sorted and inspected



Took the 30 to get inspected and it failed for an exhaust leak. Here it's leaking at the flex joint on the downpipe.



Pulled the exhaust and tried to weld it up but it was terrible. That flexpipe metal is paper thing and impossible to weld. Drove the car uninspected till the e28 got inspected.





That wraps up everything up until the beginning of the restoration. That will be the next post!

[TimeMachinE30]

Thank you very much. Great documentation. The pictures of the new parts really helps; knowing the part numbers is nice.

Keep up the good work.

[E30Kop]

Bloody hell!!!! that was one LONG ASS POST!!!!

But thanks for that, it was one of the most informative single posts I have EVER seen on the interwebs before!!!!

The care & love spent on this car is AMAZING, though if I lived in such an icy climate, I would probs wanna have the iX as my daily

[TimKninja]

attention to detail is wow. I love how everything is made in germany.

your gonna need a whole new flex pipe, cut out the old one. go to napa, get a new one. you cant weld to a flex section lol.

[pandaboo911]

excited for m30 turbo + snow.
Are you gonna run flares?

Probably not your thing but you can get exhaust sealant tape and wrap it around for a temporary fix.

get that iX owner on r3v :D