'88 Cirrus M30B35 sedan

[lukeADE335i]

I finally managed to find some time for some car R&R, and decided to tackle some work on my exhaust. Back in 2013 I went from a stock 325i exhaust to a custom built 2.5 inch with a high flow cat thinking that it would be a step forward. I have never been happy with it, partly due to the 2.5 inch being too loud / droney, and mostly due to the placement of the catalytic converter. Inexplicably, when the shop built my exhaust they put the cat under the driver's side floor rather than in the tunnel where it was originally. They used a 4 inch round cat, and with my lowered car the ground clearance was woeful. You can see from the photo below that it has scraped a lot over the years! I also had an overfueling problem at one point and the cat overheated and set the underbody sealer on fire, so it really is not a good place for the cat.



I ordered a generic 400 CPI Magnaflow oval cat, and a 15 inch long glass packed / louvred centre muffler to move the cat into the factory location, gain some ground clearance and hopefully quiet down the exhaust a bit. Fortunately chopping up the original pipework worked fine for the O2 sensor and the bend from the engine down pipes to the transmission tunnel. At the moment it's just clamped together, but I will have it welded once I'm happy with it. Ground clearance is definitely better, but I won't pass judgement on the sound until I've driven it on the highway (where the drone was its worst with the old exhaust). The Magnaflow oval cat and 15 inch muffler are a good fit underneath the heat shields in the tunnel.



I also had a look at whether I could fit a stock e46 rear muffler at the back to really quiet it down - the 2.5L M54 uses a 2.5 inch single exhaust, with twin outlets at the back. e34 muffler brackets will get you somewhere towards mounting the e46 muffler using the stock e30 rubber parts & mounting points, but I would have had to take to the wheel well with a hammer to make some room, so decided against it. I stuck with the turbo style rear muffler I've been running for now, which admittedly is waayy lighter than the e46 muffler.

Anyway - good to get something done on the car. I may also have a go at my whiney power steering pump tomorrow while the car is still up on stands & refit my front lip!

[lukeADE335i]

Not e30 content, but took a coastal road trip with my family this week. It was 37C (98F) the day we left, so we got some swimming in, but unseasonably cold from then on. Still, had a bit of a break and took in some good scenery. Lucky to be out and about with COVID under control at the moment in our state. The e92 performed well, averaging 45mpg over the trip with some challenging roads / spirited driving, 4 people + a week's luggage & fishing gear.

[lukeADE335i]

Thanks Mike! There's a few new displays near our place (ours is pretty basic, but for a while we were the only house in our street that put them up). I think you're right, people have had more time at home, so have decided to go for it.

[mike.bmw]

A productive day today - managed to get the Christmas lights up on the house & take the car out for a decent drive and a wash. Finally feels like we're getting to the end of the year & good to bring in a bit of Christmas cheer to what has been a pretty bleak 2020.

Nice! We've been using the E30 the last few nights to drive around and look at some pretty awesome/elaborate light displays people have put up. Seems to be more than previous years, possibly because more people have been spending more time at home. The E30 has a ton of visibility due to the thinner pillars compared to more modern vehicles.

[lukeADE335i]

A productive day today - managed to get the Christmas lights up on the house & take the car out for a decent drive and a wash. Finally feels like we're getting to the end of the year & good to bring in a bit of Christmas cheer to what has been a pretty bleak 2020.

[lukeADE335i]

It is a beautiful area - we do the run to Birdwood Mill Motor Museum or up to Lobethal fairly often.

I was going to take Gorge Road on the way back, but my son tends to get carsick so that might have been too much for him!

There's some nice back roads off the side of the main route too that are a good drive.

[BUDNUNTA]

awesome roads out there, one of my favourite parts of the country

[lukeADE335i]

Dropped my son off at a camp & picked him up again this weekend, so got to drive the same set of twisty hills roads back to back with the two cars - took the e92 yesterday and pushed it, followed by giving the e30 a solid run today. With the torque + lighter weight of the e30 I can easily keep up with the e92 - actually I was about 5 mins quicker in the e30 over the whole trip. This was despite the e92 having massive, sticky Bridgestone Potenzas, while the e30 has humble 195/65 economy Hankooks. The main twisty section is known as chain of ponds (or officially as the Torrens Valley Scenic Drive), which is one of the well known hills drives in the city where I live:



In the e92 it feels like I have to hustle it all the time (but it does hide its weight pretty well). The e30 carries the same or higher corner speeds but feels much more relaxed doing it. Anyway - great couple of days for driving & nice to drive the cars back to back over the same roads in some good weather! Since the ignition system tune up, the e30 is running great. Going to do some work on the exhaust over the summer to try to quiet it down to middle-age acceptable levels

[lukeADE335i]

Did an ignition service on the car today, so new coil, distributor cap, rotor button and plugs & the essential ingredient ... COOLANT!



Only problem when you stuff in one of the biggest motors that will fit into the e30 engine bay is that you need to remove the radiator to do a simple distributor cap and rotor replacement:



Radiator out... e32 aux fan is still working well keeping the engine cool.



After a drama with one of the Allen screws that had seized on the rotor button taking a lot longer than it should have to remove, got it all swapped over, buttoned back up and cooling system bled. The car is running great now - the cap and rotor had done 100,000km, so probably should have done them before now, but they should be good for another few years :)

[lukeADE335i]

I also think it's a shame they're on the way out. We'll keep the e92 for a long time yet & probably buy an electric for the second car. I nearly bought a W204 C250 coupe when I bought the e92 - I still love the look of the facelift W204. Did you get the diesel version of the C250 in the US? The torque from those is amazing for their size. The only thing that put me off was the price of parts & servicing down here for the Mercedes & I managed to find a manual e92. Mercs are a lot more expensive to run than BMWs.

[2mAn]

Modern Diesels are fantastic, shame they are on their way out.... We dont get much of a choice of Diesels here, only an auto sedan. I might be picking up a MB Diesel car soon to daily, even though I'll be working from home for the foreseeable future.

[lukeADE335i]

I finally got a chance to do some wrenching this weekend and sort my hot running issue - as suspected, it turned out to be the crank angle sensor on its way out. I swapped in a spare one I had in the shed, reset the DME and all was back to normal. The car has had a slight miss when it transitions from idle for a while, but that has also now completely gone so the sensor must have been effecting things for some time. Seeing as it isn't an expensive part, I'll probably order a new one and swap that over to keep things reliable over the long haul. After the car was back to running properly, I took the family out for a drive. Before we left, I put both my cars out on the street to swap them around in the driveway - I still find it funny how much the e92 dwarfs the e30 Nice to be driving God's engine for a bit, although the fuel economy is sobering these days - on a recent trip in the 320d we got 51 US mpg with the car fully loaded with the family + luggage!

[lukeADE335i]

Thanks luckybk!

Took the car out for a winter drive :)



Seems my hot running issue is back from around 12 months ago where the car seems to lose its timing once up to operating temp. Runs fine cold. Fixed this last time it happened by replacing the DME, but looking through the electrical troubleshooting guide, I think the crank angle sensor might actually be the culprit with an intermittent fault. I have a spare one there, so won't be hard to swap over and see whether it solves the problem. Alternatively - seeing as it was winter last time I had the problem, maybe water is getting in somwhere it shouldn't with the car under the cover and toasting the DME.... time will tell I guess.

[luckybk]

love to see a well loved sedan

[lukeADE335i]

Out towing again and realised I'd missed the obligatory birthday of my swap post! The car has clocked up 8 years now swapped and still going strong. Much less to report this year now that I don't daily drive the car, but still enjoying it in full sleeper mode & the COVID crisis might put paid to further mods planned for this year. I had been hoping to have another exhaust made based around an e46 rear muffler to quieten my exhaust back to stock levels & have my Alpina reps repaired + refurbished & add some Alpina parts, but will have to see what happens with work.



... and the cliche carwash / service station shot. Forgot to push the mirrors back out before taking the photo :)