The Longest Beer Run (long story)

[Rugbyfan]

Hey everybody, I joined here in June of this year but I’ve been lurking here for probably the past 3 years as I’ve been seriously looking for a clean, swapped e30. I’ve been interested in e30’s since my friend in high school had an 89 325i 4 door. This post will be about the car, getting it ready to drive back to GA, and the issues that I need to address.



I finished up the sale on for3ver’s brothers car about 2 weeks ago. I don’t need a car for daily use so this will be my project/weekend car. The history that I have found on the car is that the original owner from New Jersey owned it from 1987-2001, where Azvedo motorsports did the swap for the second owner. For3ver’s brother was the 3rd owner and brought the car from NJ to MA in late 2008. From the title it appears he only drove it about 4 or 5k miles, and as such it has been sitting for a while.
The day I picked it up:

I drove it to my family’s house in VT where I was on vacation, and I had about 10 days to get it ready to drive down to Savannah, GA where I live. I started off with basic maintenance items:
· -Fuel filter (the old one look ancient and was a brand I had never heard of, nor was there much info online about the brand)
· -Spark Plugs (ran plain old NGK coppers, gapped to .033)
· -New coil boots (the new ones seemed slightly longer than the old ones, but went in just fine)
· -Changed oil/filter/magnetic plug (Ran total quartz 5w-40, just because that’s what I was able to get)
· - Clean MAF with CRC cleaner
· -Clean battery terminals and left unplugged overnight
· -The Air filter that was on it was some no name so I ditched it for a generic 3” K&N
· - And since the car was sitting for the summer, I ran some fuel system cleaner through it
· - Belt/brakes/suspension/tires all appeared fine


Cont....

[Rugbyfan]

I was trying to drive the car as much as possible to find any issues that might pop up. I bought the oil from a local BMW specialty shop, Mountain Auto Sport (MAS), owned by Kermit Upton in Ludlow Vermont. While there, Both Kermit and his tech Dan threw the car up on the lift to see if there was anything that I had missed. Needless to say I am glad I went.
The first issue that they found was a nice dent in the passenger side tank which looked to have been caused by poor jack/lift placement. Previously the car would hesitate at times, or act like it was hitting a fuel cut. Since I replaced the fuel filter and ran the system cleaner through it, it hadn’t happened again, so I chalked it up to stale gas from sitting for a bit. Once the car was up on the lift it was pretty apparent that the dent was right where the transfer pump sat (’87 two pump), and was pushing the pump up. The dent was pounded out; the pump was tested and reinstalled.
After that, the tranny fluid was checked. I didn’t do this because I had a receipt for the rear tranny seal being replaced and the tranny filled within the last 2k miles or so. The bottom line: I was an idiot and should have checked it myself. The tranny had maybe, MAYBE a half quart of fluid in it. Thinking that who had done the seal work neglected to fill the tranny when complete, we refilled it with Redline MTL. I was pretty pissed but there was no whining, clunking, grinding or popout, so hopefully the tranny won’t die soon. Afterwards I was good to go and drove home. When I got home I went outside and wanted to look for any tranny leaks, well it was leaking somewhat good.
I drove back to MAS and it was the rear tranny seal leaking (WTF? It was just done!). The old seal appeared fine but whoever installed it failed to seat it properly I suspect, thus the low tranny fluid. The new seal went in, another top off of MTL and I was done.

As a sidenote, I really can’t help but recommend MAS enough. Kermit has years of experience racing. They were extremely knowledgeable and they had a few cool parts in their shop. A lot of s14’s in various stages and I caught a pic of this euro s50 that had thrown a rod:


Their contact info:
MOUNTAIN AUTO SPORT INC
27 MAIN ST
LUDLOW, VT 05149
Ph. 802-228-4835
Mountainautosports.com

[Rugbyfan]

When I got home my Skid plate had arrived in the mail (Raceskids, hate it/love it, whatever it works for me) so I decided to throw it on. I was done in about 20 minutes. Too easy:


I figured I would want one for the 1,100 mile trip. I also signed up for AAA with 100 mile towing, in addition to reflashing my Passport 9500iX with the latest software updates and redlight/speedtrap locations (most important!).

I also decided to gather every tool that I might need in the event of an emergency (the bin is full of random tools/cleaners/fuses/Benteley&Chiltons/Chiltons):

I also had jack stands (2), a gallon of BMW coolant, 5 quarts of quartz, a gallon of water, and of course the biggest container of zip ties I could find:

[Rugbyfan]

The thread is titled as such because I had been hooked up with many cases of great microbrew:

I could only fit 11 in my car:

I drove the first leg of the trip to NJ where I stayed with some family and gave them a couple cases of the beer. I also suffered the first casualty of the trip:


I rubbed after hitting an expansion joint and it must have caught. Thank god for zip-tie engineering.

Cont.

[Rugbyfan]

The next day was rather uneventful…….. except Richmond, VA owned me. I was in stop and go traffic, in second gear and I see a whiff of steam, the overhead display lights up for coolant and just then the temp needle went from halfway to just above by a hair. SHIT, I have to act fast. I managed to cross three lanes and get over on the shoulder, and immediately shut it down. It did not overheat. A quick inspection confirms that I am indeed pissing coolant all over I-95. It was like a faucet was on. I quickly called AAA and got them moving and told them to bring a flatbed because the car was so low. Once the car cooled down while I was waiting I got a closer look where the leak was coming from, yup water pump. The pulley had a ton of play in every direction. It was Friday at 3pm. I NEEDED to be back in Savannah that night, or at the latest, early Saturday morning. While I was waiting for AAA I just jumped on Google and typed in “BMW shops Richmond, VA” in hopes of finding a shop with a pump. I found Delta V Motorsports less than 2 miles away. I called them up
“I need a water pump for an e36 m3 ASAP”
“We definitely don’t have any, well let me call you back” a few minutes later:
“We have one”.
I got towed there (I still needed wooden boards to get on/off the flatbed):

[Rugbyfan]

As much as I would’ve liked to buy a pump and easily change it out myself , it wasn’t an option. Luckily everything was reasonable. $130 labor $150 for the (metal!)pump, belt, and coolant. Not too shabby, I should also mention that my 98 s52 had the 3rd gen composite water pump and failed right around 90k miles, luckily the impeller didn’t grenade.
The shop specialized mainly in Porsche but also handled BMW, Audi, and a few Subaru’s with a heavy focus on race prep. While there I saw a 911, an e28 m5, a bug eye subby wagon built for rallying, and a track prepped miata. I also spotted this:

e30 m30 swap spec’d for drift, cammed, open headers, standalone fuel management. It sounded wicked.

Much thanks to Delta V Motorsports, The owner Glenn and the tech Steve, they dropped everything and hooked it up given my time constraint. They were extremely knowledgeable as well. Anyone who needs quality work in the Richmond area hit them up:

Delta V Motorsport
1400 MacTavish Ave
Richmond, VA 23230

https://www.deltavmotorsports.com

804-355-4440

We quickly burped the coolant system and I was on my way. I did grab a little extra water so I could burp the system more if needed. As I was leaving I left a case of Imperial IPA that was 10% ABV. The owner, Glenn said “you sure?” I just shrugged and said “Weight reduction”. Share the wealth right?

[Rugbyfan]

The car was behaving fine, running slightly hotter than halfway. I alternated the air from ambient (no A/C!) to heat to keep burping the system. I looked up an AutoZone that was right off the highway, about 20 miles down the road. I pulled in, bought a bottle of water wetter, burped the system a little more, topped it off and went on my way. The temp settled down to just a hair above halfway so there may still be a few bubbles in there, but I plan to flush the system out and exchange the green coolant for BMW within the next day or so. I didn’t want to use the BMW coolant as the stuff that was in the car was already cheapo green and I didn’t want to mix the two.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, except for some pretty bad rainstorms in NC and SC. I also hit 154,000 miles on the body
This picture came out awful but it was about 1am and I was droning. Oh well:

[Rugbyfan]

I crashed out immediately after I got back. The next day I decided to unload everything and cleanup the car:

[Rugbyfan]

Random Shots:

Why VT is awesome, notice what they are selling at this general store:


Great road in VT where I grew up and is a blast to drive:


On the NY Thruway:


Shortly before my demise:


Back on the road, must be in VA because the radar detector is down:


Home stretch, droning hardcore:

[Rugbyfan]

Overall I’m extremely happy with the car. It is a swapped car so of course it will have issues but the body is rust free (seriously better than some I saw down here in GA!) and is in overall pretty good shape. What I will be addressing in the next week:
-Flush the coolant system with distilled water, and then run a 30% BMW coolant/70% distilled water mix, with a bottle of water wetter
-Replace the starter (it started the whole 2-3 attempt at starting thing). I already have the correct starter (Threaded ftw!).
-The inline fuel pump (’87) has started to get quite noisy. I ordered a new one from TRE (OEM replacement)
-I will also be dumping the tranny fluid once again and filling it with fresh fluid. No metal flakes or chunks came out with the first change, and there are no symptoms other than a faint 3rd gear whine under load, so hopefully my tranny wasn’t trashed from the whole low fluid driving. I’m pretty worried about this so hopefully this is a stout tranny. I still have a few sample kits from Blackstone, so I may have them run a sample and see what comes up.
-Diagnose a clunk from the rear (could be a dry strut, I’m pretty sure all the bushings have been urethane’d).
I do have access to a lift and air tools so I’m ready for the projects to start. If there are any e30 or e36 guys that want to do some work in the savannah area I wouldn’t mind getting together on the weekend. Thanks!
-Rugbyfan.

[Deltron Dirty30]

cliffnotes? cause I aint readin' all dat shit.

[Rugbyfan]

e30 breaks, gets fixed, beer drank, the end.