cameras ready prepare to flash

[s14brent]

Looks like I took 2 months off from working on the e30 but I finally started working on it this week! I think last month I had a buddy over and let him use my garage to install his cage kits in his NA Miata, and I got pretty burnt out after that full weekend. I'm actually leaning further away from wanting a cage now, I think a roll bar should be sufficient. Anyways, I got sick and tired of the exhaust leak/intermittent CEL due the leak being before the o2. Soo this was definitely the priority fix. Fingers crossed no issues tomorrow on first start up. It's long overdue.



up on stands and wasted no time, pulled the header, and and studs in 45 min. Not too shabby.





I think about half of the nuts came off normally, the other half I had to double nut off. I think* i got these studs/nuts from bimmerworld the first time around. I decided to go e90 studs like I did on my hellrot e36 m3 long time ago.



god those look so cool. too bad I probably won't even gain a single horse. At least the quality is a huge upgrade vs the ebay long tube headers I had on there previously. These are the syncro design works e30/24v shorty headers that I bought last year?!. I really wish they went v-band vs the 3 bolt flanges. Those were a PITA. Also the header-back section is from their early run exhaust system which was mild steel only. I got lucky to get the front chopped section, it really did make this so much easier to diy. The full kit they offer now is stainless btw.




I did not know there were so many different type of o2 bungs. Of course I only had the worst type on hand (stepped) so welding was a bit tricky since you're basically welding on the edge of the hole. (I should also note, I'm trying to stay on a strict budget to make a december drift event so I decided to tie in my existing exhaust system for now). I know the o2 bung welds aren't pretty but i'm positive it will be just fine. It's just capped off for now, but that's the second o2 bung on the exhaust for the wideband o2..yes I'm still planning on installing the LINK ecu. Even though my setup will be very.....stock-ish. The only good thing about that stepped bung was that it was mild-steel to mild steel weld. I'm not outfitted with 2.5" purge plugs or v-band plugs for shielding. I probably need $250-$400 of tools for future stainless work, so that's a good reason the new exhaust was off the table right now since all new stainless piping would have been around $250-350 and i'd want a new resonator, flex pipe, and muffler......it all adds up so quickly.




2.5" evil energy mild steel v-band actually welded decently to clean material. The other side......not so great. old dirty material, with minimal prep due to time.....never a good combo.

The exhaust is all bolted up now, but its a bit too late to fire it up in the neighborhood. I actually can't wait to not have any more leaks. I think the next priority job is finally doing the rear subframe/trailing arms and getting another alignment after that. I think* that's doable before DEC 07, but I know we're expecting rain, so that may throw a wrench in the timeline.

[s14brent]

been a while since i could make time to work on the e30. Here's a small update.

SRS e30 to e46/325 caliper adapters w/matching e46/325i rotor combo



SRS 318ti to e46 caliper adapters w/z4 3.0 rotors



I knew there was a difference. I'm glad I placed that order. I also ordered new parking brake hardware for 318ti but I'm not 100% its actually going to fit on this setup (more on that later).



cleaned up the spots with surface rust on the backing plates. unfortunately I had to sacrifice some new wheel bearings (meyle/made in china) to mock everything up. I just ordered some FAG bearings last night.




I picked up some brembo ceramic pads for the mock up also. I'll probably run these on the main pair of calipers all said and done and swap over the old pair of brembos to the secondary calipers. Funny enough, my rear pads on the e30 have a ton of life still



fancy brake pad packaging ^



I'm unsure if the parking brake hardware will still be usable because I had to actually trim so much more on these dust plates vs on my e30. I will only know once its all swapped over - I did not order a new star adjuster or cable adjuster so I won't know until I have the parts off the e30.




I mig welded the secondary caliper brackets on last night, but i'm not super happy with the results. I had to up the argon flow and up the stick out to get the back side of the bracket but i'm not super happy with the results. I'll take a look again after I break the setup down again. I'll have to pull the wheel bearings out again and back to paint. This whole section is taking way too long with my limited garage time. I however have been getting some tig time in and its slow progress but i'm enjoying that - even though it just makes me want more and more tools lol

[s14brent]

Clean unit now, its really come a long way in a short time

thank you! i'm trying to keep it this way for a bit and enjoy it. I really need to get start cranking out the work on the e30!!

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I usually keep the bmw(s) on a trickle charger but randomly the touring lost charge mid week.



dang these are HUGE and pricey. I really hope I don't have any issues with the wagon for a while! I think the last battery had a 2019 sticker on it......hoping this one lasts a little longer!




started stripping off the rubber coating and sanding out any slag/imperfections. Huge waste of time that could have been skipped imho, but my ocd got carried away!

Meanwhile, I decided to order up 318ti to e46 caliper adapters.I have the strangest feeling the e30 to e46 caliper adapters are thinner based on pictures alone. I didn't want to find out and have to wait how ever long from poland to get them.





Sprayed 2 cans of the eastwood rust encapsulator so the parts wouldn't be sitting around bare metal for too long. The next steps will be repetitive, but basically I need to install the wheel bearing & hub, then mock up the secondary calipers/mounts with the z4 rotors on and weld those on. JUST to remove most of the parts down bare again to do more rust encapsulator on the caliper mount area....and finally epoxy paint coating (vht or rustoleum). I'm excited, finally some progress!! I need to fire up the tig and start practicing for the exhaust work needed. I want to enjoy the e30 when the weather gets cooler if i can,but there is just so much to tackle at once!

[econti]

Clean unit now, its really come a long way in a short time

[s14brent]

e39 wagon update:

got a few things sorted this weekend that i wanted to do post-drift event.



I found a pair of height adjustable BC rear shocks since the bilstein b6's didn't feel right with aggressive driving.



I got rid of the 30mm spring perch spacers that I put in, and am back to the ride height I was at with the SLS+lowering links. I also changed out the diff fluid since I figure that was a proper break-in with the welded diff.



I got a e39 specific fire extinguisher mount from garagistic. (its only a generic ABC rated - would definitely prefer purple K and will probably upgrade this one and the one in the e30 as well)



I wanted to finally remove the A/T cooler that I left in during the swap. I also wanted to throw in my stacked 12row PS cooler that used to be on my e30.



Since the radiator/fanshroud/fan was all out I replaced the AC tensioner and belt again. This is a strange one, the m54b30 (pulled from an e46) has 4 ribs for the AC belt, my AC compressor however has 5. This is why it was flinging off belts.....Anyways, I ordered a kevlar reinforced 4 rib belt from ECS and installed that - hopefully it doesnt fling off & shred anymore.




I cut off the ends of the low side hoses and made a bracket and spacer for the cooler mounting.




This is where I ended up mounting the cooler. I ended up using some different fittings on the cooler so I had to clean/prep all that. I don't have the intake duct stuff up front like a factory e39 would so theres plenty of room there and plenty air flow.




bumper back on, i had to run around town and find a replacement radiator drain plug. The o-ring and the plastic was pretty mangled. I really wish it was just a screw vs the twist and pull. I actually bought a whole radiator since it was only in stock at a store 30 min away, but i returned it to the one 5min away after I confirmed it was just the plug. Filled/bled the PS and coolant. accidentally made a mess with the coolant, but everything is fine and working great. This is exciting because its the last things on the to-do list that I had planned for the e39, which means I can finally start working on the e30 here soon.

also: here's a photo from the last event that I was just sent a few days ago

[s14brent]

No e30 content on this update. local buddy wanted to take his m62-6spd e39 touring to the night drift event. Figured I'd join him just to kind of gauge the whole....."will it drift" question i've had.


this is usually the MAX of what i can fit into the e30, granted i have stacked in an ez-up, chair, and a few other things into the e30 that are not shown here. the wagon has so much room for activities!!

made it passed tech inspection...roll in was 5pm, first tech drivers meeting was set at 6pm and second was at 8pm.....it was 104°F and I remember getting heat stroke or something last year, so I showed up around 7:30p and everything was just so much smoother.


took it out and first impressions were incredible, smiling ear to ear and laughing at the hilarity of it all. Its so long and heavy in comparison to my e30.....I was definitely scared of getting too friendly with the k-rails, but man...the car can be a great practice tool with a few more upgrades.
The m54b30 e46's look so much faster in comparison, but I just feel like everything is in slow-motion. The LUK clutch/sachs flywheel combo is great for daily driving right, but with clutch kicks it doesn't really grab the way its supposed to. Its very subtle jump in rpm's and not very upsetting bite. I probably want to upgrade it to a FX kevlar/sprung full face disc and chromoly flywheel (later). That combo shouldn't be as aggressive as the 6puck in the s52. Second, I may cut up the powersteering hardline/coil that passes through the radiator (stupid design imho). I have my old barbed ps cooler from the e30. I may eventually pull the bumper off and figure out where i can mount it once i dig it up from storage. Reason for that is simple, reservoir was puking up fluid by the 3rd hotlap every session. Thankfully its on the intake manifold side and not near the exhaust side. Speaking of that, i do want to figure out a fire extinguisher mount of sorts for this car as well. Might have to add that project to the welding white-board. Third is kind of already in-progress so I'll make this a two-fer. The bilstein b6's are just not damped properly at all for these activities. I already posted a wtb and paid for 2 rear BC racing dampening/height adjustable touring specific rear-shocks. I need to not have the rear so bouncy, it makes for a weird "boat going over a wave" feel which can be counter-productive if you try to transition right as the car unloads... The other part is I ran the event with the AC on.....cooling did not go past the middle the whole evening. Pretty unreal, i planned to turn AC off before each run, but I forgot a few times.

This car has been notorious for flinging off AC belts, and well it did by end of the night.....I'll be ordering a new INA ac belt tensioner and maybe* ecs kevlar reinforced accy and ac belts.....I looked it up and 525i/530i ac compressor/tensioner/belts are all the same part #'s. If it still flings belts after the upgrades, its either the ac compressor pulley or the crank pulley either being out of alignment or something....but let me tell you having AC out there was friggin phenomenal.
I probably only did 5 sessions consisting of 3-4 laps ea. Enough time to kind get a feel for it so i'm happy. Swapped rears 3x, still have a good amount of life left for next time!!

i was also doing ride longs with my e39 touring buddy and giving him some pointers throughout the night so it felt like non-stop. I have a small gopro clip for track layout, i was trying to avoid straightening out and just linking the whole course as smoothly as possible like normal. The 3.46 e39 welded diff did great!! I kind of overbuilt the e30 for what it is and its very apparent with how little this car actually needs. but wow this would be the car to do the LS swap on I feel - i just have to do some more research on suspension options out there.

tldr: car did surprisingly well, way better than I expected. I definitely feel a lot better knowing this now and the e30 can be not-rushed on upgrades.
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edit: 07/18 got some more photos!!

[s14brent]

lil video he posted on ig!!

[s14brent]

So cool to see these long term projects still liven their best life… one of these cars of mine will finally hang around….someday lol

Hopefully I'll still be here to find out what car that is! You've had some really cool cars though! I've just dove too deep to want to start over on something else!! (especially for a seat-time car, and occasional cruiser) I mean its only do-able if i purchased a semi-built (already swapped/caged) car that can take its place for track duties, but what's the fun in that - its kind of bad for my mental health because I will most likely tear it down regardless and go over everything again anyways, because unfortunately a lot (not all) of those cars are kind of slapped together haphazardly! btw i still have that back seat i got from you!!

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I managed to get some wrench time on the e39 wagon this week. Decided to finally throw the tie-rods in.




That second picture is the I/O tie rod bottomed out of adjustment....its about 1/8 toe out, so I think I'll be cutting some threads off the inner tie rod just to have that extra adjustment down to 1/16. The e39 feels night and day difference in steering response, so I actually might want to just leave it to be honest....also the increased steering angle feels great, for such a long car i can bust u-turns in front of my house now. I went ahead and ordered a m14x1.5 die in case I do decide to cut a couple threads off the inners though.



I went ahead and ordered 8" 10k swift springs for the rear. I really didnt like the idea of the springs dislodging every time i jack up the rear end. In all actuality...i really just probably need some height adjustable rear shocks (like BC's) however i fucked myself by having 60mm swifts on all corners, when BC's use 65mm springs. I'm really hoping someone on the e39 touring groups might have some for sale second hand since some of those guys prefer the SLS air setup in the rear and buy the touring kit just for the fronts.

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E30 content:

A videographer I met at our local drift events has been hitting me up to do a video shoot for MONTHS now. Our schedules just never lined up, and well I decided I should really do it before the car goes up on jackstands for maybe months.....



it needed a wash pretty badly......




my good friend ended up showing up to my house as I was prepping to leave to show me his new brixton wheels on his 992 turbo S - even more happy the video will have him in it tbh! really shitty how much traffic there was that night though.....I hope he got some good content LOL

[2mAn]

So cool to see these long term projects still liven their best life… one of these cars of mine will finally hang around….someday lol

[s14brent]

burnt myself out on friday....decided to throw in the welded 3.46 into the touring. Every bolt was absolutely caked up in crud, super messy job in the vegas heat.



so if you noticed....input flanges are different size/length.....buyer swears its the M/T flange from a late model 530i, but how would an A/T driveline fit onto a ZF320.....its a bit annoying since I did not source these parts myself. (bought the e39 half way through the MT swap!)

smaller flange that was on the original diff:




newer welded diff:




whatever.....swapped the input flange over and threw it back together. I did not remove the cores and check pinion resistance this time around....at least i know I have a good spare on the side if ever needed. Thankfully the BMW/GKN axles still look great. I added some SLG axle spacers and extended bolts since I've had luck with that same setup on the e30, these were actually the same size as the ones on the e30. I also took this time to finish up some welds on the exhaust since the night I did the vibrant muffler was windy and I think that's when I killed the 75/25 gas.



while i had the car up on jackstands I decided to drain the trans and refill with Redline MTL. The 18mm external hex fill plug was stripped.....that's not how i remember selling it, so I tried to find somewhere local with one and ended up ordering one online. I did hit the plug on the bench grinder.....i got a 17mm socket to fit pretty good, so removal will be easy at least

Unexpectedly I found a listing on good ol' craigslist. 17x8+18 ASA AR1's 5x120 74.1mm hub for a ridiculously cheap price for the whole set...



I've been wanting straighter spares for the e30, but I can also use these on the e39 when I decide to take it to a local event. Win-win....I had a full set of accellera 651 sports taking up space in my storage so I hit up the mobile tire homie to help swap them over and dispose of the old rotted tires it came with. I decided to get it done right away because I was already thinking about dropping them off to get refinished and powdercoated, plate is a bit full right now and i'd rather test these out first before dumping money into them like I did with the style 32's. for some reason, 17" 5x120 wheels have been sparse and people want $1500 for a set of style 32's now days, so these will work out perfect as spares hopefully!

[s14brent]

Nice bench. Bought myself a manual swapped E39 the other week too, E30 to 5 series pipeline is real

hahaha congrats!! what motor's in there?

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It took me a few days to wait for some tools to be delivered. I felt like the pinion preload was incorrect since the PO swapped to a MT input flange. I ordered a sub $100 dial torque wrench and 6pt 30mm socket to measure.




I'm really glad I did because it was reading 0.3 and after the slightest budge tighter its now reading .08 (spec is 0.6-0.8).These next pics are just to show the c-clip measurements (3.76 R and 3.72 L)



I cleaned up the crown gear bolts and threads and used some LOCTITE 271. I think 270* is the correct one to use but 271 is what i've used with my e30 diffs and I've never had an issue.




New Corteco axle input shaft seals




reinstalled - here's where normally i would do some backlash reading but without different thickness c-clips, the step is only asking for information that would bother me in the future. E39's don't have a diff cover gasket from the factory, and literally link you to a bottle of bmw RTV. I replaced the fill/drain aluminum o-rings and threw the gasket maker on to set.



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I fired up the lincoln mig and got to finishing welding up the gaps and all the back sides i missed last time (when i ran out of wire). Only thing i need to weld onto the trailing arms now are the secondary caliper mounts. I'll have to move the e30 and take some measurements and create a jig of sorts for that. I think I may move onto the front subframe next though!




- -06/19 update- -

did some more welding last night. almost forgot about these damn boomerangs on the the trailing arms



and I finally moved on to the front subframe. The condor front subframe ball joint reinforcements are meant to fit e30/e36/e46 apparently. I ended up cutting them up and fitting. they were thinner than every other reinforcement plate iirc 14ga.





now i can safely say the only thing left to weld is the secondary caliper mounts then I can finally move on to prep for paint. I will be using eastwoods rust encapsulator (bought 4 cans on sale during fathers day) and will probably pick up VHT all weather epoxy paint as a finish.

[econti]

Nice bench. Bought myself a manual swapped E39 the other week too, E30 to 5 series pipeline is real

[s14brent]

not a real car update but figured i'd just do a garage update dump. I spent maybe 3hrs in the garage this past week due to work schedule. Not a lot of progress, hoping to finish up the subframe(s) and trailing arms this week though. I got my 12lb spool of L-56 .30 wire.
While at work I ended up talking welders with a friend and we both came to the conclusion that the primeweld mig180 and tig225x are a helluva bang for the buck esp since that tig already comes with a badass CK torch. I end up scouring marketplace/offerup for them but apparently there was a fathers day sale going so he already placed his order for new machines, and meanwhile I found myself a really good deal I couldn't pass up on SMH!! I'm really just trying considering down-sizing maybe end of this year so I will see if this can replace my lincoln, if it doesn't work out, I can make my money back for sure! - I really like how the primeweld machine has post-flow so the weld just doesn't suck in contaminates. This will also give me a chance to un-f*ck my e39 exhaust with er309l and helium trimix.


this led to the whole "why am i still running drier plug receptacales, and made me swap out a few plugs to make life easier (without extension plug adapters 10-30p to 6-50p) and most importantly I'll be able to take advantage of the 50a breaker its on!

My CK torch finally showed up mid week.

Fast forward to Harbor freights parking lot sale this weekend. I wanted a designated table to tig on.....I need to kind of figure out garage layout still, but this works for now, the table does have legs, but I set it up in desktop config.

I picked up my e39 spare diff between work gigs on Thursday. Didn't crack it open until Saturday though.

I also found out that none of my c-clip pliers would work for the e39 (or e46) diffs that use that chonky 90mm c-clip. I actually found this one off amazon and the reviews were pretty bad, but they showed up and worked perfectly.

After talking with a buddy of mine, he gave me the class on welding diffs at his place. I'm pretty stoked, i used rise fab shops locking differential plates and I think it came out great!!


Hopefully more car updates soon, but I do feel every once in a while i get into these tool/garage mod posts.

[s14brent]

I am not a welder but like you I weld stuff. I cannot weld in Vegas 110*, Phoenix 110 + or Inland Empire 105* summer heat. My concentration falls off. I wear all the protective gear mostly because of skin cancer concerns so I am impressed with your welds in those conditions. In talks with certified welders, I asked how they deal with a mistake or ugly weld. Answer, grind out and reweld.

thanks man! it's honestly pretty brutal. I drank maybe 6 bottles of water doing those parts.....i'm pretty ecstatic with results shown, i know theres still room for improvement, but the last few times I tried to use my mig they came out TERRIBLY probably due to being windy days and being under the car on jackstands, but theres maybe 2-3 welds that i want to grind down and rehit (mostly the first set of welds done). And yeah, its really crazy how fast you can feel dizzy behind the welding mask respirator & sleeves. (not fully geared up) Most of this was done at night at about 95°, I can't imagine 110°, kind of why i'm trying to get this step done now. I still don't know how i'm going to line up the secondary caliper mounts without the wheel bearing/rotor/calipers mocked up like last time....I might have to mock something up to bolt down all 4 bolts in place while I weld it. I'm also a little bit worried about how it's gonna go with er309L doing the mild to stainless bits on the exhaust (o2 bungs/can lambda) as I really need to practice when my new tig torch arrives - i haven't touched the tig in like 3 years unfortunately. Also is it crazy I kind of want a 2nd mig machine just to use this bottle of helium tri-mix I have sitting. I definitely know that I won't be getting a refill of the stuff since i have the tig but it could definitely help out doing the under the car exhaust stuff. I don't want to just zap it with er70s like a muffler shop would. All this garage equipment takes up so much space and money, but I really enjoy doing everything myself.

[OSAH racing]

I am not a welder but like you I weld stuff. I cannot weld in Vegas 110*, Phoenix 110 + or Inland Empire 105* summer heat. My concentration falls off. I wear all the protective gear mostly because of skin cancer concerns so I am impressed with your welds in those conditions. In talks with certified welders, I asked how they deal with a mistake or ugly weld. Answer, grind out and reweld.