Rescued E30

[Kershaw]

Degreaser and a power washer. Great progress.

[fenwick]

Always nice finding out black pieces are silver underneath haha

This weather is crazy nice! Keep up the progress

[SixerFixer]

Oh trust me, progress is going to be made. :)



Aside from the block, I pretty much have every part I need to put this thing back together as of today. I'm going to start with resealing the transmission and painting the brake booster tomorrow, and I should hopefully get the block back sometime early this week. I really want to have this car roadworthy by the end of the month, so let's hope the car gods work in my favour from here on out! :)

[SixerFixer]

I accomplished a little bit today, but not as much as I had hoped due to poor weather. I started with addressing the leaky transmission seals. The spring cover on the top of the trans was a source of fluid leakage on the gearbox, so I popped the cover off and applied some fresh Loctite 574 flange sealer to the mating surfaces. I also replaced the shifter selector rod seal and rear output flange seal while I was at it. The rear seal was a bit of a pain in the ass due to a very tight rear nut, but some help from the blowtorch and a gear puller got both the nut and the flange off. Once back together, I replaced the guibo, and reinstalled it along with the shifter assembly.



I wanted to tackle the input shaft seal, but unfortunately the inside of the bellhousing is still quite filthy, and the weather was too rainy for me find the motivation to clean it. I will tackle that another day.



The brake booster was also removed today, in order to paint it. Again, due to the rain, that didn't happen. Oh well.




That's it for now. Hopefully my machinist gets back to me soon so I can start putting the motor back together.

[SixerFixer]

The weather perked up a bit yesterday so I could clean up the gearbox a bit more. I hit the grime with some Castrol Superclean degreaser and a brush, and hosed it off with a pressure washer. Once dry, I removed the input shaft seal cover and swapped the seal. I used Loctite 574 flange sealer to seal the cover to the transmission case to prevent any leaks. The gearbox got a new OEM pivot ball and retention spring, new clutch fork, new slave cylinder, and a fresh throw-out bearing. All pivoting and moving assemblies were greased, as well.



I wish I could get the aluminum in the gearbox looking a bit nicer, but I think that that would be impossible without media blasting.

Edit: Upon closer inspection of the image I just posted, my throwout bearing is installed 90º off. I will correct that ASAP!

[SixerFixer]

Finally got around to repainting the brake booster, and also serviced the driveshaft while I was at it. The driveshaft got a new front bushing, centre support bearing, and spline collar. My machinist still hasn't had a chance to look at the block, so I'm still holding onto hope that it's saveable!

[SixerFixer]

Guess what I picked up today?



The machinist did a great job honing the cylinder walls, chamfering the cylinder edges, and decking the gasket surface. There's still a bit of discolouration from the remnants of rust on the honed surfaces and a couple vertical scratches that didn't come out 100%, but those won't give me any problems. This isn't going to be a high-horsepower engine, so I've got nothing to worry about!

I've got pretty much everything I need to put the bottom end together except time! Schoolwork is piling up for me at the moment, so I won't be able to really get my hands dirty for another week or two. I can't wait to get this project going!

[SixerFixer]

Finally got thru my schoolwork to spend a bit of time giving the block some love. I knocked out all the freeze plugs and replaced them with nice new ones to pretty up the block a bit before getting into the real reassembly:



Other than that, I popped in some of the main bearing halves to give me some motivation to put the crank and pistons in tomorrow!



I've pretty much got the day off tomorrow, and have a whole lot of motivation to make some progress!

[SixerFixer]

So I got a bunch done.

In went the crank, along with the rest of the freeze plugs:



Followed by the pistons, rods, and new bearings:



Then the, uh... rest of the things:



Looks pretty good to me. All that's left is to actually torque the head bolts (ran out of time today), install the windage tray, oil pump, oil pan, rear main seal, flywheel/clutch/pressure plate, timing belt, timing covers, accessory drive pulleys, alternator, oil filter housing... the list goes on. A solid couple hours of work, and this should be ready to install! Let's hope it doesn't blow up at first start!

I'm off to someplace warm for a week-long vacation tomorrow, so I'll get back to it once I return!

[SixerFixer]

Well, it's been a little while since my last post, and I've gotten a lot done since then. The motor went in, I finished installing the suspension components, I had an exhaust midpipe made, and I got the car plated! The motor has since been broken in and makes great power all through the powerband. I've been running Shell Rotella 15w40 diesel oil with ZDDP additive to help protect any friction surfaces (namely the cam) from wear.



I've participated in 4 AutoX events so far with the car and it has performed pretty well. After the first event, it became apparent to me that I needed some better tires (500 treadwear all-seasons gave me literally no grip), so I refinished a set of BBS RA wheels I had laying around and fitted Dunlop ZII tires.









The wheels sit inwards a little bit more than I'd like, so I ordered 42DD 10mm spacers for the rear, and 5mm spacers for the fronts. I also really need to take the tape off my high beams.

From my experiences at the track and driving around town, I have noticed a couple things that I'd like to address in the near future. First off, the water temp likes to creep up when it gets hot outside and the car isn't moving much, so the 30-year old radiator should probably get replaced. I'd like to also add a Spal pusher fan to help out the clutched fan at the front of the motor. Secondly, the car has quite a bit of body roll during autocross events, so I want to invest in some sway bars in the near future. The UUC F/R sway kit looks pretty nice. Lastly, I find the size of the steering wheel to be a bit annoying as well, so a 350mm wheel will find it's way into the car at some point. I like the looks of the OMP Corsica and Momo Mod.07 wheels, but this is low on the priority list.

[zwill23]

Wow, how haven't I seen this? Huge inspiration man, hopefully mine will clean up as nice one day.

[econti]

Yeah, this is really really cool. Awesome work dood

[bmwstudent]

Just read entire thread, nice work. The car looks great!

[SixerFixer]

Thanks for the kind words guys! I've got level 1 driver training coming up in a week, so I'm sure I'll have a bunch more photos from that. :)

Wow, how haven't I seen this? Huge inspiration man, hopefully mine will clean up as nice one day.

Believe me when I say that your starting point was much better than mine. :p Just had a peek in your build thread; keep up the great work! If you're still in need of a windshield, give your local PPG dealer a call. I lucked out and found a brand new one in Fargo for the whopping price of $37. I guess they're trying to get rid of them now since these cars are so old?

[thorhack]

Dude amazing work! I'm so jealous of your ride. I have a set of fender liners, if you're still looking ;)