2nd e30, 87 Lachssilber Revival

[318aye]

Good progress, keep it up! At least give the bay a wipe down before you throw that pretty engine in. It will be worth it when you're through :)

[2mAn]

Trust me and at least get some simple green and clean some grime out of the engine bay. It will be worth it. These things rarely go as planned (dont believe everything you read on the net!!!)

Im shocked this thing isnt getting more attention, I love M20 builds. A local guy basically bought my buddies 2.8L M20 setup and it made 200whp with an off the shelf chip. These motors respond well to more compression. Car looks like it settled down a little more since when you first put the suspension setup in.

Keep it up, it will be worth it in the end

[Reichart12]

Thanks guys. I didn't do any cleaning while the engine was out lol. I was fed up with it not going smoothly so I just moved on. Once it is running Ill try to go back and see what I can get with a rag, mainly around the strut towers.

Just about everything is back in and bolted up. I need to put in the fan and fan clutch still. I broke a blade pulling it out. And I need the intake boot with ICV. All of these are being pulled off my black car for now.

And then after that it will be the last little bit of wiring I need to do. O2 wideband, tach, tps?, IAT sensor, and maybe something at the engine to chassis harness plug.

[Reichart12]

Its alive!!!!

Just took a little troubleshooting before it fired up. I didn't have the distributor cap tightened and there was some crud in the distributor plug to the coil. But once that was taken care of the car started right up. Open headers means it was LOUD. Today will be getting the cluster in, bolting down the ecu, and figuring out the tach wiring. Had one mix up with a leaking coolant line so that will also have to be fixed.

Hopefully tonight goes well as I have an appointment to drop the car off tomorrow to have the exhaust components welded in and then to enjoy it.

[Reichart12]

Having some issues keeping the car running. It will start but the idle drops and the car stalls right away. I have to give it gas to keep it going. Im not sure what could be causing this to happen right now.

My plan is to tow the car to an exhaust shop to get that done. Hopefully having the wideband plugged into the exhaust and not just pointing in the open headers will help this issue. Once I get the car back and in case this doesn't fix the problem I will try to work on setting a higher initial idle and mess with startup enrich.

[mikebloco]

Did you get the computer tuned for everything you've done? The exhaust the should fix it but you get a tune for sure.

[Reichart12]

Yeah Whodwho made the Megasquirt unit and knew of all the mods. I have narrowed down my problem to a poorly (terribly) wired wideband. It had no power to it so no signal. Tonight I will try to wire it independent of the old O2 sensor connector. Hopefully thatll fix it up.

[325ix]

Great looking build!

On a side note, you don't happen to have that old shift knob do you? I used to have one in my car and then it snapped. I'd love to put another one in.

[Reichart12]

^Ill have to check out where I have it. I have spare parts in so many places throughout my house.

Today was the first time Ive drove the car since parking it 22 days ago. A much longer time than I initially thought. The exhaust system was welded up yesterday and it looks and sounds great. Today with a huge amount of help from Whodwho the car got a decent idle and some dialed in settings. Did a few loops around the neighborhood with it and I cant wait until its all buttoned back up and I can rip around. Won't be taking it to Import Carlisle tomorrow which was my "reveal" show lol so that's kind of disappointing. But it's together and running and that's the important thing.

[Reichart12]

This pages needs more pictures. Ive put an outstanding 16 miles so far on the engine. Tune is getting better but still needs a lot of work on my end.

First impressions are that first gear is much more usable. Each gear rpm is different so that's taking some getting use to. But the car feels super smooth and pulls nicely but I've barely got in it. Going to take it easy for a while before going crazy.

My engine bay is still not up to visual par. I need to go back and tidy up some wiring and get a bracket for the three relays on the driver side. I need a little piping for the intake boot to cai filter too. They don't really hose clamp together right now because each end is soft and it just doesn't give a tight fit.

As for the exhaust, I thoroughly enjoy the sound. Nice at idle (even with my idle lump right now) and sounds good through the gears Ive done. The piping work looks nice, Ill try to get on a lift eventually. The muffler tip will grow on me and should look good once my bumper is back on. My dad pulled on it and the diving board fell off, it was only on by two zipties lol.

Engine In by Nick Reichart, on Flickr

Finished by Nick Reichart, on Flickr

Finished 2 by Nick Reichart, on Flickr

Bumperless by Nick Reichart, on Flickr

[Reichart12]

Morale is down. The warm idle is surging and its tough to figure out. Whodwho is doing his magic and Im trying to learn but Im impatient. Idle is good when the car first starts sitting around 1k rpms. Temp gets above 70C and it starts surging. The car maxes temp around 90C which I think is on the high side of the range and at that temp it goes 500-1300 rpms.

And now Ive noticed an oil leak. No clue of the source but my dad is guessing oil filter housing. It wont leave a spot overnight only the first couple minutes after parking. Ive noticed oil spots on the oil pan bolts (only passenger front locations), some oil on the block but not much, and most noticeably and where I think it dripped from the most today is off the oil level? wiring. Ill be devastated if the leak is coming from the crank snot (since I had problems with the stroker seal) so hopefully it is just a loose oil filer housing/line.

[Reichart12]

Fixed an oil leak. It was the oil pressure sensor in the block below the oil filter housing. That crazy little thing leaked the oil into the wire which had a couple breaks in its casing that the oil was able to drip out of. One new sensor and no more leak. I have new wiring and connector coming too. While I was at it I changed the oil, and the initial break-in oil looked good. No metal shaving!!! Lol.

The tune is getting there, another version to try from Whodwho when I get home from work today. A small vacuum leak may also be affecting it when the car warms up. Warm stuff leads to expansion, which leads to bigger leak area causing the idle fluctuation? The connector to the brake booster isn't perfectly flat because of the angle the hose bends at, e to I problems. I will try to address that tonight too.

One last update for now, I have a clunk noise getting on/off load. Sounds like it is right below my right arm when shifting. The lever is pretty loose so Im hoping it is just the mount point to the chassis right behind the lever. The guibo looked great before so I don't think its that. Or maybe a bolt right there loosened up? Will figure out tonight hopefully.

Leak by Nick Reichart, on Flickr

At Ryans-3 by Nick Reichart, on Flickr

[Nisse Järnet]

Looks great man!
Vacuum leaks can cause strange idle issues, how is the lambda when it fluctuates?

[Reichart12]

A huge update to the tune from Whodwho has the idle better with a smaller fluctuation bouncing 950-1350 rpms. As for the wideband the AFR varies 13.0-14.5.

Pretty rainy today so not much progress on my other stuff. The noise was not the bracket I was hoping for. Ill have to drop the dust/heat shield and check the CSB tomorrow. Also might go see if I can find standard brake booster hose and just run a new line to get rid of the tight bend mine has in it.

[Reichart12]

Not much of an update. Still much to do but Im lazy so it hasn't been getting done. Cluster is still only pressed in, no bolts or screws in yet, and is still a 5k tach. Glovebox has not been put back together so the ECU is visible. Shifter boot and rubber piece still off and the wideband wire needs to be tucked under the console. Clunking noise went away though so that's good. Oh yeah, still no rear bumper or front plastic lip.