2nd e30, 87 Lachssilber Revival

[Northern]

At least the rust pictured is mostly stuff that you can buy repair panels for - front jack point, fender arches (although probably painful to repair with the pinch/schutz/restricted backside access)

[AWDBOB]

Good to know. I keep an eye out but I'm stuck with west coast tax. I think about reshelling but don't see it as an immediate need to do. I'd like to give rust repair a shot, even if the chassis gets tossed after my attempt. Why not try to learn welding on something junky to begin with. Unless a crazy deal pops up, I'll own this car for at least a couple more years. At this point I'm sentimental so I would like to make it last.

Agreed- if you have the ambition to delve into rust repair, the best option is often to fix what you have.

[Reichart12]

Well, with a pile of parts, it's time for an update. I've had a bit of a weeping oil leak. It would leave a small drop but never enough to need to add more oil. I don't drive much and would only drip when engine was on or just after driving. I've ignore it but after the second autocross event of the year, the drop become more substantial. I was hoping it was the cam seal or crank seal and figured it's probably time for a timing belt as well.











As I started tearing things apart, the coolant looked fine. I checked the dipstick too and that also looked good and not that low, yet. Pulling the front of the engine apart is fairly uneventful. My oil level sensor wire is pretty trash, I think that's a leftover issue from when I had the stroker engine. Something to think about at a different time. But anyways, I dug deep enough to see the cam seal. It looks fine/dry enough. The head is covered in grim but doesn't appear to be originating from the cam seal. I replaced it anyways.











I had bought a timing belt kit from Race German so I also had a valve cover gasket, t-stat, and water pump so I installed them "while I was in there". Took a few minutes to clean the valve cover, makes a big difference. Maybe this summer I will paint it black and polish the ridges. I think that's the best look for a valve cover, extra points if it's wrinkle black.







I get the timing belt and other items back on. Timing is still good, no mistake there. Didn't get around to changing the crank seal. I thought I had something to hold the crank hub but maybe that didn't make the move to the West coast with me. Wasn't feeling strong enough to break the crank bolt loose and didn't think that was my main leak, so I put that off for another time. Once I got everything back together, I went to bleed the coolant and before the engine could get to temperature, I noticed a healthy oil leak coming from the head gasket tab area near the front header. It was more of a constant stream than I remember so I quickly turned the engine off. Pulled some pieces back off and the cam seal looks dry so I don't think I messed that up. But now I'm leaning towards the head gasket being bad. Not too sure of my next moves or things to test but looks like more repairs are in my future. I don't think this amount of a leak can be ignored or managed by topping the oil off.

[roguetoaster]

That's a bummer,does appear to be HG related. Are you on head studs or factory bolts?

[digger]

I’ve had luck retorquing the stud to get the leak to stop if you’re running them

[Reichart12]

That's a bummer,does appear to be HG related. Are you on head studs or factory bolts?

I’ve had luck retorquing the stud to get the leak to stop if you’re running them

Fairly certain its the stock bolts. This engine was a donor from another car, actually picked up from Guten Parts circa 2018, so the mileage is unknown at this point.

There's grime built up else where so there are probably other weeping areas as well.

[Reichart12]

Intermission from working on the car. Took ole reliable (Toyota Highlander) out to the e30picnic. We weren't allowed to park on the grass with the e30s haha but somehow had a gift membership to the Lemay museum so free parking. $10 per spectator if not. Anyways, here are a few of my favorite photos from the event.

[Reichart12]

Well, decided to do some more work. Changing some seals with my timing belt didn't really fix my oil leak issue. So figured why not try a new head gasket. On hindsight, probably should have had the head skimmed but just tossed it right back on. Still leaks a bit, maybe slightly better. Drove it a few times afterwards and would have the oil level light pop on despite the level looking good on the stick. Wouldn't be surprised if the wire/sensor have issues. Remember, it's a crusty car. The exhaust flange studs were an absolute pain to remove and install. I think in the future I would switch to the studs with the hex heads for easier install. Last photo shows the junk below the plenum. Definitely need to start coming up with a solution to clean this area up, not happy with how it sits.

Got a bit defeated and a bit busy with life so the car sat in this state for the rest of summer. Long fall and winter coming up to figure it out.

[Reichart12]

Woah two updates in one day! Figured I show some of the life changes that have delayed the work on the e30. Bought my first house in the next town over and started the process of moving. Despite going from a 2-car to a 3-car garage, the size is not that much bigger. Maybe 70 sq ft larger, somewhere around 630 sq ft total now. Went from 22x24 to 32x19 with one bay being at 20.5 deep and turns out that extra depth in the old garage makes a huge difference. The truck has about 2 in spare space in the front in back. And no built in shelving really hurts the early organization.

Anyways, decided to prime and paint the walls before anything came in. Basic white. Thought about doing black on the ceiling but this took so long, just doing white paint everywhere was easier and looks nice. I don't really like the epoxy paint floors with speckles so we left it as is. It's a workshop not a showroom.









Last photo of the e30 at the old house. I did drive it between the houses, maybe 10 miles without any issues.







First order of business outfitting the new garage with a Husky toolbox. First real toolbox and it is great! Bought the deeper version to have a larger work space on time. Plenty of drawers still empty, more tools to come haha.

[20w506cyl]

Saw your video on YouTube, a good tool box makes life easier.

[roguetoaster]

Congratulations on the house!

The drywall work looked good before paint, here's hoping that's an indicator of actual quality of the home. Next time you paint if you challenge yourself to just steadily brush cut in around things you would otherwise tape you can really speed up your work. Or, just stick a wet rag in your back pocket to wipe away any mistakes.

As a fellow shallow garage owner I wish you luck, they're a challenge.

[e30m3s54turbo]

Graduations your new house
im jealous you a have garage. I don’t have one. I be looking forward on your project.

[Northern]

Congrats on the House!
I've been enjoying the youtube updates. I realized after the fact that we can't even get the 24in depth version of that 52in box, and that makes me a little sour about the 18in depth box that I was looking at buying.

[Reichart12]

Saw your video on YouTube, a good tool box makes life easier.

I hope so!

Congratulations on the house!

The drywall work looked good before paint, here's hoping that's an indicator of actual quality of the home. Next time you paint if you challenge yourself to just steadily brush cut in around things you would otherwise tape you can really speed up your work. Or, just stick a wet rag in your back pocket to wipe away any mistakes.

As a fellow shallow garage owner I wish you luck, they're a challenge.

I gave some areas the landlord special and just gobbed over them. Proper cleaning of the brush we had would have made it much easier on the later days for fine touch work. Brush was too crusty with dried paint haha.

Graduations your new house
im jealous you a have garage. I don’t have one. I be looking forward on your project.

Thanks! I guess it is all relative. Started with an engine swap in parking lot and made it to this point.

Congrats on the House!
I've been enjoying the youtube updates. I realized after the fact that we can't even get the 24in depth version of that 52in box, and that makes me a little sour about the 18in depth box that I was looking at buying.

Sweet, thanks for watching. Seems like they were phasing some models out, the store had an instore special but they wouldn't give free delivery on those. Maybe it'll be come available for you before you buy.

[Reichart12]

Hoping by doing some small things with the car it will motivate me to snowball it into bigger projects. This was one of the first things I did to my original e30, and here I am almost 11 years into ownership of this one. I wanted to remove the sound deadening from the trunk to see how much it all weighed. I hope to do some rust repair in the trunk and while I don't think any of my sections that needs cutting out are where the deadening material is, I still wanted to remove it.

All of the material that was glued in was about 35 pounds and the panel below the spare tire was another 17 pounds. Total of 52 pounds removed. Probably wont put the spare back in, so there's a little bit more weight removed. I've spoiled the point of the Youtube video but go watch it anyways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80d9U-MFfbc