cameras ready prepare to flash

[s14brent]

Soo during the downtime waiting for parts to show up, leave it to me to look for problems. I didn’t really like my sway bar angle…it was a bit too high at the ends and angled close to the subframe. I tried to close the akg links down but they were bottomed out already with 3 threads exposed, so I cut off the 3 threads so now I can close them down for a little more adjustability.


the bar is at least not leaning towards the subframe (as much) anymore, but the ends still look high to me but that’s just due to the sway bar spacer (for header clearance). Not sure if this will affect anything besides maybe a little premature heim joint wear in the endlinks but its whatever.
My 3rd order from Deatschwerks came in for the line separators. I ordered 3 line separators, but installed the first one way too fast out of sheer excitement to get that job done!

was a real PITA getting that top one in LOL.

I ordered some garagistic floor mounts & adapters, thinking maybe it would get me a little more centered with my steering wheel. I’m currently using some wedge engineering brackets I bought wayyy back. The garagistic floor mounts came with an adapter to work with stock seat belts but it’s really only for the seat belt retractor/belt side, nothing for the receptacle, so I bent/grinded down some flat bar stock and made my own.

turns out….to have the seat where I wanted, it would hit the seat mount stud….and I’m lower than my current setup on max height probably because my old setup had sliders. Not really ideal at all since I wanted to get rid of the sliders as one of the reasons of this purchase.

I ended up just using the seat adapters on the wedge brackets/sliders since the garagistic adapters have way more side to side adjustability than the flimsy ones previously mounted…and it got the seat a little more centered - almost where I wanted to be. not sure what I’m going to do with the floor mount setup yet….Kind of ticked me off I did all that work trying to set it up to not use it, but seat height was more important for now. I could have flipped the seat adapters and run them backwards to get one more hole in the back, (6 holes up front/5 out back) but it was easier to just test out seat placement with old wedge setup since I wanted to call it a night.

I bought one of those skudak knee bolster covers and I’m so glad I did. I’ve been refusing to replace it with another used panel (ended up breaking 2 of them now). This thing looks and feels way better. I almost forgot what it looked like with a panel on there it’s been soo long!!

My ups driver is the worst….I got a new guy and every delivery is basically a 730-8pm which I’m guessing is one of his last stops. I finally got my IRP v3 SC shifter/dust boot setup delivered though and it didn’t take me long to swap it out. It worked perfect since I had to remove the old hydraulic hand brake mounts I had 4 reinforcement backing plates I threw on the underside of each mounting bolt.

I knew that my gargistic ash-tray gauge pod wouldn’t work - it would be in the way of the IRP shifter along with the hand brake so I did some digging and found an old gauge panel out of my parts bin. My issue with it before was the cheap leather covering it had – I ended up regluing it back on twice in the past, I just removed the leather and cleaned up the old glue with some acetone and drilled a couple holes on the side to secure it in place (a little further back and lower than before so I can access and remove it all ).
I cut up the old handbrake mount and made a little “shelf” that’s got a few tack welds to the trans tunnel now.

I ended up tack welding some pan-head bolts on the underside and grinding it down flat.


I threw the console back together and it’s not THAT bad looking. It’s very functional that’s what matters LOL


I need a second pair of hands to help me rebleed the hand brake setup before I can test drive it, but the shifter feels amazing. So far I’m very happy with the setup, and will leave a little more feedback after its been driven around a bit.
Oh and I also bought a rear strut bar from condor. I know RSTB's are pretty much useless, but at least I can strap a bin full of tools to it when out on spirited cruises LOL but I also wanted to throw the trunk interior panels back in since I'm on a whole quest to make more room in my storage right now.

[s14brent]

felt like driving around on sunday morning. felt like triple checking front fuel system fittings and around the injectors for any leaks - works perfectly/no issues found thankfully. I forgot to bring a mask so I couldnt go in a coffee shop :facepalm: but I saw a few car friends posting pics from a meet not too far by so i stopped by the meet little late. saw a couple e30s there which is always nice, but parked next to a buddy who goes to the local drift events and he took these pics comparing our steering angle lol. (he's on e46 arms + spindle block+tie rod spacers).







funny thing is the shifter lean isn't bad when the car is warm....but i'm glad to see tracking info now for my IRP setup, so definitely not dropping the trans this time around. I also ordered some garagistic floor mounts. getting sick of the slightly off center seating position the wedge brackets keep you at. Figured if i needed to reconfig the console area i want the seat to be where it needs to be and not have to revisit it if I ever change it out with another setup.

[s14brent]

hmm. Did you flare the 8mm hard tube or is it a compression fitting off the fuel rail?

compression fittings on the rail and hardlines. I was going to use the quick disconnect -an fittings on the rail since they will literally snap into place, but I already had the compression fittings on hand. I'm like 90% done, i'm waiting for a fpr circlip (my obd1 rail used a clamp?), and i need to drill holes in little brackets for obd2 rail to obd1 manifold. oh and I am waiting for -6 hose separator/brackets. once its all buttoned up I'll take better pictures and update here.

----
When I thought I had all the parts I needed... ::facepalm::

funny feeling cutting off the hardlines off. The Deatschwerks PTFE hose/fittings are actually not half as bad as I thought they'd be to assemble. Either that or I'm finally getting used to making my own lines. The hardlines had to be sanded down a little for the compression fitting to slip over.

will have more pics when its all buttoned up and installed. just waiting on parts. - Speaking of parts IRP shifter/dust boot est. shipping date just got pushed back again to the 17th. at least it gives me a little more time to finish up this project first since I'm literally just waiting on shipping for most of the other things.

edit: 05/14/21


My obd1 fuel pressure regulator used a spacer & clamp vs a circlip. Took me 2 days to locate one to finish up the install, but luckily I found one locally vs $5+shipping and waiting 4-5 days.


I had to trim the rail a little bit for clearance...wasnt a huge fan of that tbh, and almost makes me think NUKE + external FPR would have been a better idea, but it is what it is. Also made some small aluminum brackets for mounting the obd2 rail onto obd1 manifold


as clean as it's going to get until the -6 AN line separator/clamps get delivered..car fired up and no leaks. I'm pretty happy now that I finally got this all sorted.

also threw on a straight section of gates fuel hose getting rid of the hose clamped 1 way check valve. - Much cleaner back there!

gave the engine bay a little wash/wipe down. did not use the pressure washer as planned, but its also 96 in vegas "feels like burning" already. so it got a rinse/degrease/wash/wipe and that's it. Currently waiting for parts from fcp/ecs/condor/garagistic/skudak. excited to start getting things moving forward on this again!!

[moatilliatta]

hmm. Did you flare the 8mm hard tube or is it a compression fitting off the fuel rail?

[s14brent]

Love the truck. I was so close to buying a very similar unit (6mt TRD Off Road) but ended up with a 6mt Pro4x Xterra instead. Man those Tacomas look good.

Thanks man! and nice! I had no idea the Xterra's came in a manual tbh. I had to get a manual truck, and there aren't a lot on todays market. i had a 2007 Nissan Frontier in 6MT (07-2010ish) and ruined it putting bilstein 6xxx's and 33s and was getting 11mpg when gas was over $4!! With that said, I haven't been in the truck market forever - but I was in shock that the 2020's were basically the same truck. (i think in 2021's they did upgrade the motor but stopped offering it in MT..a few exterior differences but overall same exact chassis - its crazy that body style has been going for THIS long!!

I always wanted a 2nd gen in manual, but used prices on those are so ridiculous I figured I could justify buying a brand new 2021 and it would be worth it. The only runner up (non MT) was the 5.0 equipped f150, I couldn't justify the Raptor's dealer mark up (same with the TRD PRO mark up). The day I put a deposit on my tacoma, Nissan announced or photos were leaked of the new 2022 models. I'm definitely not doing a lift or 33s again. I'm also very against buying the first year of any vehicle, so that was a easy pass. I still need these to be able to go in parking garages on the las vegas strip for work, but if someone sells some low mileage trd pro FOX take-off's I'd be interested in that, oh and maybe a helper leaf out back for heavy loads/possible towing. i find the stock 4x4 OR bilsteins nose dive like crazy just in normal driving conditions, and it gets kind of annoying during rush hour, but other than that absolutely loving it!

---------------------------------------------------
small update not requiring a new post:

I got lucky and got to return those tires (free return shipping) and will eventually order another pair closer to an event (no real rush right now, the car might be down for a little while soon to do the front -an fuel lines/rail). I also found the original autozone special fuel pump I bought all those years back. (basically to drive the car after initial purchase) - I swapped it out for a new one because -lifetime warranty, and figured I could use the cradle/housing in the future (weld on a male -6an fuel feed) for whenever I do the -an rear -an lines.

I drove the car maybe early friday morning and realized my shifter detent pins went out overnight on this spare zf. My shifter now lives right below 5th gear which is a huge bummer. I have the spare trans that I did the detent pins on a couple years ago still. It needs a new front input shaft seal and guide tube, but I kind of questioned if I wanted to pull the trans just quite yet and try seeing what the fuss is about the self-centering shifters. Ended up between Samsonas or RTD. I always wanted a samsonas shifter...so I was ready to buy, and I actually was waiting for a paypal invoice from VAC. I liked the RTD because it uses stock mounting location supposedly and is loosely based/copied from CAE (which is out of budget) but I also liked that it has a threaded shift knob so you can have options.. But of course I randomly decided to pull the trigger on the IRP v3-SC with the shifter boot to save a little cash on the product (which is readily available somewhere in the USA from multiple sources & free shipping). I think I will do the install first and if it recenters the shifter as it should, I may run this trans until it needs to be dropped for something more serious. The trans doesn't have any grinds between any gears, and it seems to be doing a good job currently, plus if I changed the trans I'd be tempted to replace all new wear items.....(tob/guibo/pivot pin etc) which technically should all be in good shape still since the car hasnt had much mileage since the swap. So depending on mounting, I may redo the hydraulic hand break mounting location, the two ashtray location 52mm gauges. I might be able to put in a non-cut up center console as well which is kind of exciting. Oh and I purchased a skudak kick panel - people seem to be having great reviews in the fb group and the price was right.

Soooo that's what's next. I thought the list was growing smaller!!

[AWDBOB]

Love the truck. I was so close to buying a very similar unit (6mt TRD Off Road) but ended up with a 6mt Pro4x Xterra instead. Man those Tacomas look good.

[s14brent]

Not really an update, but finished thouroughly cleaning the interior throughout the week.


The overhead check panel cover flew off again during the event and i found it between the passenger seat. decided to keep it unplugged moving forward and clear siliconed the faceplate on and gave it a few more wraps of electrical tape so it will fit more snug.


Found out the passenger interior door handle trim cracked. (the one i just replaced.....) I'm not sure why as I think maybe the door was opened 4x total that weekend.....Kind of thinking about getting those baller leogrande billet handles for the fronts only.
Also turns out i'm dumb and can't read....I ordered the wrong size tires - waiting on a return label currently. but I meant to order another pair of 205/45's

and now the most exciting part of the post. I ordered the final pieces i needed to complete the front fuel system on the e30. Putting a -6an 1 way check valve up front so I can get rid of the check valve above the pump. I will wait to do the rear section when I have a need to drop the tank. Also need to see how much PTFE lined hose I have leftover (most likely will need to order more) - currently have 20ft at my disposal. Deatschwerks makes a nice -6an fuel filter so the rear would be pretty easy to assemble. I'm not 100% sure what the best way to connect to the fuel pump sending unit. I'm thinking having a -6an male fitting tig welded onto the assembly would probably be the ideal situation. Threw on the hardline compression adapters on the brand new unicorn obd2 fuel rail and got excited!!

[s14brent]

Felt bad about not having any updates so I decided 14hrs before a local drift event to try and take the car out to play. Saturday roadcourse entry was sold out, but wet-session still had available spots and I don't really have the spare tires to truly enjoy a last minute entry right now at $40 vs $180 entry fees. So I decided it was about time to change the differential fluid. Annoyed the fluid came out looking new and I probably wasted the 1.5qts (+/-) of Redline 75w90, but at the same time very happy that my 3.46 differential is that healthy after the abuse it's been through since its mainly used for jacka**ery

Next on my list was to retorque the whole front suspension components down to spec (i haven't checked since installing the SLR LCA's I decided it'd be a good idea. everything was about 1/8 turn out of spec (not terribly bad especially if i make this a pre-track day routine -or maybe just apply some blue loctite). However my fcabs were pretty far off from actual torque spec and I'm so happy I checked all that. Next was fluids.....oil level was good - decided to slightly overfill (as usual per track day with a US s52). Topped off coolant with just distilled water, but prior to checking oil...I wasn't hearing my fuel pump...but i was definitely smelling fuel. =( Got out and saw some splashy splashy....(this was post panic shut down/quick wipe)

Some may remember I added a fuel one-way valve to the return line a while back.....the short section from the return hardline to the valve was approx a 65 degree bend with hardline in proper spot. Anyways....that fuel line ruptured and I had to run out to get some gates 5/16" (7.9mm) fuel line since finding 8mm fuel line at 730pm wasn't gonna happen. I also kind of used the 1 way valves' hose clamps to keep the hardline slightly moved over to keep the fuel line as straight as possible.

Its not the prettiest, but I will eventually redo the whole fuel system once I see how much it costs me to make some other minor changes. I really want to do the radium fuel surge tank/2nd pump but if I don't let the car get under 1/4 tank I seem to not have any issues but I'm not doing super long banks at WOT either..so it might be overkill. I also would have to figure out if I can put a -AN 1 way check valve in there and most likely that would require 2 more additional -6AN female fittings. I only want to drop the tank once if I can help it.....and when I do the fuel lines in the rear I'd love to do tackle the weld-in roll bar finally that i've been talking about. Anyways, the new section of hose fixed the issue immediately thankfully, short test drive and confirmed no leaks then proceeded to load up the car at 11pm-ish. Got to the track at 9am and problem free thus far......wet session is gross. fun but gross. the car is so yuck right now and I probably won't have time to clean it tomorrow because of a work gig. Sooo....I suck at driving in the wet....very inconsistent all day - but so were the track conditions......it was either "freshly sprayed down/soaked" or it was the "puddle period" which i think is self explanatory. god speed if you hit a puddle mid drift.


Overall fun day. no track pics or video unfortunately, this was a very last minute thing, and all the cool cars/experienced drivers were on the road course quite a distance away.

Things I learned or need to address:
-2nd gear with my tall pmc shifter/hydraulic hand brake location is terrible. I would smack the shifter with my forearm on pulls....ended up trailing the stock hand brake more than using the hydraulic hand brake. I'm not sure if I want to look into a solid mount - stock length shifter like garagistic or move the hand brake onto the passenger side....which will definitely be in the way of the Recaro LS/LX whatever it is. I'd love a nicer shifter that has the self-centering feature, but i'm just not willing to drop that kind of money on a shifter at the moment. Got too many hobbies that requires burning money. I'm really loving my custom wooden shift knob on my PMC setup - I highly doubt they used the same size/thread pitch, and I'm pretty sure that would almost total $400 into minor ergonomics alone on top of ordering a pair of spare tires for the next dry event - sidenote: I never had an issue with any of this in 3rd gear LOL...
-might be time to buy more redline MTL and inspect shift linkage/change trans fluid at the same time.
-chase bays power steering reservoir is amazing. no more spillage/overflow at all.
-stewart pump is all the hype. I know it was only 93ish today in vegas, but it was staying right under the halfway mark on the stock temp gauge. I'm horrible and realized I only look at the aftermarket gauge when temps are above the middle line on stock temp gauge - probably just not used to driving this thing again....
-NO MORE RUBBING...I've been having issues due to caster or wheel/tire sizing and finally didn't have to worry about any of that.
- alignment felt great. tire wear was minimum on the wet, but the car felt good-really healthy. I ran this event without a rear sway bar.......i'm conflicted. will have to try again on dry next time and make a decision based on that, but the car didn't feel like it had a lot of body roll since I increased the rears to 12k spring rate.

if you read through all that kudos....i probably should have made this post after I got some sleep.

--- next morning update:

one last dirty shot

pressure washed as much of the undercarriage/suspension as I could with it still on the ground. Then I finally got to try out my new foam cannon....my mix ratio (suddiness or whatever) could use work, but the sun was brutal and drying it off super quick. same shot before & after while hiding in the shade

[s14brent]

Any updates for us?

spam messages brought me back to this forum LOL. I unfortunately have 0 updates for you guys. Had a stressful end of 2020, moved the ex out, minor house projects here and there, built a 2 stroke mini supermoto, been going out to apex kart track in socal to blow off steam. I sold my e39 touring to a friend, and sold my creepy old moto-van and ordered a 21' tacoma trd offroad 4x4 in 6 speed manual. There was a full month where the only car I had was the e30 so I drove it pretty heavily as a daily driver. It checked out great, super reliable, no issues at all thankfully. I've been thoroughly enjoying new car/truck ownership though. It took almost 2 months to find one that I wanted (tech package, premium package) in cement grey and another month and a half to get it here. I was considering a trd pro but the dealer mark-up was insane and finding one in manual was impossible with the shortage (due to small production #'s coming from the factory due to covid restrictions). Ended up getting the trd pro shift knob, oe toyota roof rack, knock off trd pro grille and modding it for the front facing camera....fun stuff.



I threw on an ARE MX camper shell so i can take my dogs out on hikes - over night trips. picked up the shell locally for over $1000 off retail and it was only 6mo old. Believe it or not some of those camper shells would take 5-6 weeks to order, same reason as low tacoma production #'s basically. I'm just happy its satin black vs a totally different color. It works for now.

I also used it to camp out at the track recently with a bike hauler and it worked great despite the 5' bed, sleeping bag was laid out in an angle lol.


There's a vegasdrift roadcourse event at LVMS in May, I'm considering going, but it's also getting really HOT in Las Vegas again. I might do it for sanity purpose, but I have to look into a spare set of tires and probably about time I change my diff fluid out, possibly trans fluid also. Its actually cheaper for me to drive to socal and do a bikes only track day out there. If they have a night event scheduled that same month, I may just do that. Hopefully I'll check back up on this board more frequently and possibly have some e30 updates. lets see if i remember how to add a little clip from YT

[moatilliatta]

Any updates for us?

[moatilliatta]

AAF make a nice ADJ rear sway bar link that has a turn buckle, so you don't have to unbolt it to adjust.

Works nice when your squished under the car while it is on scales.

Pontiac always said, wider is better :p

[s14brent]

These cars seem to like soft rear bars, esp with more power. If get a set of scales you can set your sway bar preload also.

You could look at 330 E46 front knuckles to get your front track with under control. Front brakes are similar to e36M, but you’ll need E46 front struts.

i forgot about smart strings, i'm pretty sure I had that page bookmarked. Curious how to adjust preload on a stock rear sway bar, or are you're talking about like a 16mm IE/aftermarket setup.

yeah, i'm not doing any more suspension changes - i'm super happy with this setup i have finally, I just need to one day figure out flares and paint eventually. I wanted the wider front track width and additional steering angle/clearance.

[moatilliatta]

These cars seem to like soft rear bars, esp with more power. If get a set of scales you can set your sway bar preload also.

You could look at 330 E46 front knuckles to get your front track with under control. Front brakes are similar to e36M, but you’ll need E46 front struts.

[moatilliatta]

Stacks are outdated, you’ll end up needing XP to fool with it.

But period correct looking!

Maybe look at getting some scales, smart stings for doing alignments in your garage .

[s14brent]

So I decided to go down to 2 of the slr rack limiter spacers vs 3. I didn't spend all this money to not be able to get more angle LOL!! A little poke won't kill me.

Right front caster

I tried to pressure wash under the wheel wells/undercarriage, and had the nozzle set at the softest/widest spray, and ended making my clear coat flake off even more =(


It's sooo bad now =( Guess wrapping is out of the question. I'm just not sure I'm ready to even think about color or anything right now because I still don't know if I want to run these flares. I do know I'd like to run a 16x8+0 square setup to use minimal spacers as possible. Shopping in that size in 5x120 isn't really proving easy.

and as promised here's a pic of the ground clearance from under the pan, the rear of the pan is a little more than 3.25". I think i'll be leaving the ride height as is for a while. I'm not trying to get a ridiculous rake.


Here's a pic from kind of above at an angle to show how the current wheel/flare combo is working out.


I drove the car out for only a short distance. unfortunately ambient temps have been weird lately here in vegas, we're getting all the smoke from the san bernadino fires, so air quality is atrocious. As for cooling, it's been perfect, but it hasn't been as hot.

After my first test run I prefer running a rear sway bar endlink. The rear end almost feels like it flioats on the highway vs being tight. I also 3 wheel up into my drive way now. I'm pretty sure I want adjustable rear swaybar endlinks on here - which pretty much pushes me towards the IE 16mm rear swaybar kit with the reinforcement bracket - I just want to take it to an event first to see if theres a big difference in snap oversteer in transitions. All the "normal" spots we'd go for testing are blown up/hot LOL!!



oops.
-----------------------------
9/9 update:

local photographer/e30 owner sent me these photos from a euro meet i cruised by last night.