New name and and new engine for Mina: an e30 for the GF

[Regnar75]

this is awesome.

[Swanny]

Cps bracket the same as an m20?

[rcsoundn1]

Liking the build, cant wait to hear our review of the new motor

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Id get a low temp therm and new water pump. Also the cooling port on the back of the head replace that gasket if it leaks when its in the car you will have to pull the motor to replace it. Also manifold gaskets haha mine were the same way. Cant wait to see it running hopefully you have less problems then I'm having.

[jeenyus]

Lookin' good! How hard is the throwout bearing to replace?

[Andy.B]

Cps bracket the same as an m20?

Is that a statement or a question? It doesn't appear to be the same, but I will double check.

[Swanny]

Whooops, question. If the same i have an extra i can mail out to you

[Andy.B]

It's a different part, unfortunately, thanks though.

[Andy.B]

Budget update:
$200 for the donor e28 (split with my brother)
$225 for the engine mounts
$50 for the 179 dme
$101 for gaskets, hoses, etc from Blunttech
= $576

Still need the oil pan, pickup, and crank pulley.

[Andy.B]

The 179 dme showed up today. I am having zero luck finding an e34 oil pan and pickup. I have a lead on an b35 harmonic balancer. I didn't think I would have so much trouble finding the parts (without paying outrageous ebay prices).

[Andy.B]

I spent a few hours this evening cleaning up the engine and started disassembling enough to install new gaskets and seals (no hg though).



It all cleaned up fairly well, and after a few minutes with the compressed air nozzle the rusty scale was cleaned off the block.





The motronic 1.0 sensors and harness were removed to make way for the motronic 1.3 swap.

I realized that it's going to leave a lot of vacuum ports unused that I'm going to have to plug. I'm probably going to end up pulling out the fittings and jb welding the holes to clean up the appearance. I also have to figure out a brake booster port as the m30b34 lacks a vacuum brake booster. The easiest solution I can think of is to just drill and tap a hole and thread in a fitting.

After I had it stripped and cleaned off I moved it back into the garage where it will stay until it gets hoisted into the e30.



I should have all the necessary parts in my position or in the mail at this point, and although I'll admit I'm cutting a LOT of corners, I should be well under 1k when all is said and done.

[totheredline]

keep it up! Budget build at its finest!

[Andy.B]

While I'm waiting on the important parts for the swap to show up, like the q-bang engine mounts and e34 oil pan/pickup, I've been taking care of the little things on the engine to get it ready to swap into Mina.

First up was the first of several boxes of goodies from Blunt:



New seals, gaskets, and hoses to make sure I don't have any air leaks in, or fluid leaks out of the motors!

As I started to re assemble things, I decided to sort out 2 issues of the swap. The first up is that the m30b34 Motronic 1.0 system has too many vacuum lines that wouldn't be used with the Motronic 1.3 system. Second is the lack of any provisions for a vacuum brake booster line, since the donor e28 had the hydraulic system.

The original vacuum layout (Credit to Gary K for the drawing, and the bavauto blog for hosting):



The first thing to go is the complicated evap valve system that relies on engine temp and vacuum to operate the valve. I plugged the hole in intake boot with a cut down diagnostic crank sensor used in the old Motronic 1.0 system. The black plastic sensor was the perfect diameter for a snug fit in the boot:



Which left me with an unused vacuum port on the bottom of the manifold. While the manifold is aluminum, the fitting itself it just a steel tub pressed in. I cut it down nearly flush with the manifold, and hit it with a mig welder to weld the hole shut. It's not the prettiest solution, but I think it's a more permanent solution than JB weld would have been:



Next up was the brake booster vacuum port. Fortunately, the m30b34 has a nice boss on the manifold that isn't drilled out that will work perfectly:

A quick tap with a punch and hammer to make an indent to guide the drill:



And a few increasingly large holes, an elbow pulled out of an m20b25 throttle body, and a few missing pictures later:



And we have a pretty stock looking vacuum line for the brake booster!

Another issue that I am too cheap to fully remedy is the use of a cold start valve on the m30b34 that is unnecessary with the Motronic 1.3 system. I thought about taking the manifold to someone to just tig weld the holes shut, and buy an m30b35 manifold that doesn't have the second fitting for the fuel line, but decided to save money and time, and just leave the cold start valve in place, unplugged and unused, and leave the fuel line in place to seal the port in the fuel rail.



So here is the result of the simplified intake/vacuum system:

[Andy.B]

To enable the use of the motronic 1.3 harness and 179 dme, I need to add a crank sensor and m30b35 harmonic balancer to the front of the crank. I have a used harmonic balancer coming from a r3v member, but in the meantime I installed a new cps bracket and an extra cps sensor I had laying around:



I also wanted to keep the stock ignition coil mounting position, so I retained the m30b34 spark plug wires, but swapped in an e30 coil wire to give me the extra length needed:



I'm missing the pulse generator used on the m30b35/motronic 1.3 spark plug wires, but it will work to get the car running. I have some extra e30 #6 leads with pulse generator's, but I haven't bothered checking to see if the length will make the stretch of the m30.

[Andy.B]

The last step for the day was figuring out the air intake. I don't love the look of the e28 intake (and the fact that it requires relocating the washer fluid bottle. Also, since it relies on a mount on the e28 strut tower, it would have been an extra struggle grafting in the appropriate rubber mount in the e30. Instead, I decided to piece an intake together, and use one of the spare K&N intakes I have laying around.

First up was to modify the e28 afm bracket. I moved both rubber bumpers in underneath the afm, and cut down the bracket to the size of the afm (leaving one of the screw attachment tabs to allow a more rigid mount to be added):













For the air filter/intake itself, I followed some e28 owners lead, and bought an Acura Integra air intake tube that has the appropriate bends/size for use in the e28, for $33 on ebay, with the intention of tossing the filter that comes in the kit, using a K&N filter I already have, and mocking up a heat shield to block out heat from the exhaust:

(Picture credit to Brad D. on mye28.com)


It may be a little too long to be a perfect fit in the e30 engine bay, but that can be easily remedied by cutting it a few inches shorter. I'm crossing my fingers that I will be able to fit the filter up between the radiator, headlights, and washer fluid bottle. If I end up having to relocate the washer fluid, then I'll deal with that problem in the future.