My E30 Rehabilitation! ft. Boost Noises

[zwill23]

Playin' with my rack, diddlin' my sub, and jimmyin' my wheels

Big Update!

As per usual, a series of unfortunate events lit the fire under my ass to tackle a project I've been shuffling my feet on. Fortunately, I was about as prepared as I could have been to get the ol'girl right again.

I'll get to that. But first, some more dumpy pics of my dumpy car ;)

Sister came to visit so we went buzzin' around hill country:



Lurking in the shadows:



My posts have been lacking in roof rack pics lately, so here is an old one to get it back on track:



Okay, back to a healthy dose of wrenching.

Heading home the other week, I noticed some wretched screeching coming from my power steering. Only being a mile or so away from the house, I decided to limp her home and inspect what was going on. I popped the power steering reservoir and sure enough - bone dry.

After jacking the car up it was apparent the rack itself had sprung a major leak directly under the oil pan. With the car running, ATF would completely gush from what I believe was a blown seal.

This annoyingly soaked the undercarriage in ATF, but I also saw it as the death sentence for my stock rack.



For nearly the past four months I've had a Z3 steering rack, extra front subframe, and ground control camber plates stuffed under my bed ready to get swapped in. So I used my rack leak as the motivator to get everything knocked out.

I gave a coworker a ring to explain the situation, and he begrudgingly obliged to drive me to work for the week ;)

With everything set in motion and extra parts ordered, it was time to get it knocked out.

Steering Rack Prep:

Since the rack spent a few years in the junkyard, I cleaned it up and drained the old power steering fluid.



The tie rods were also shot, so I opted to replace them and save a buck by reusing the old inner tie-rods. Although, I had to pull out just about every trick in the book to get the old outers off.

A vice, PB Blaster, and some heat ended up doing the trick.

PB Blaster and heat!



Smack it!



Freedom!



Front Subframe Reinforcement / Prep:

Front sway bar mounts reinforced, not the prettiest, but it'll get the job done :up:



Reinforced engine mounts and subframe partially boxed in. After this was initially welded, Kid8 and I used a torch and hammer to bend the rest of tab flush to box the rest in.



Fully boxed in:



Sway bar mounts after a little clean up:



Painting jig:



Painted up with POR15:



Finished! The subframe looks good from afar, but a couple bugs of course got stuck in the paint while it dried over night and it has quite a few runs. I've come to realize POR15 needs to be applied in very thin coats.



Steering Rack / Reinforced Subframe / Camber Plate Install:

Back to this leaky mess



To get started I removed the skid plate, which is just two bolts for the hoop bar and the two steering rack bolts:



Then I removed the control arms, tie rods, etc. using the sacrificial nut technique:



Subframe and steering rack (not pictured) removed:



GC camber plates installed.

It's the same process as installing top hats, but realize that top strut nut is the only thing holding the strut assembly in. I mistakenly thought the three nuts holding the strut mounts also held the assembly inside the shock tower... wrong. I accidentally put stress on the brake lines because of this.

Might have to replace those for peace of mind Edit: Replaced them with new braided lines just to be safe.



Used my engine support bar to hold the engine up while I cleaned the under belly and prepped for the subframe install:



Next, I centered the rack by making a quick and dirty cardboard cut out with the start and end angle of the rack at full lock. I determined the angle at the center position and set the rack to it.

I found it doesn't need to be all that precise, it just helps with the overall rack length measurement. I inevitably adjusted the rack angle while installing the steering knuckle, so it really isn't that critical.

Funny enough I actually counted 2.8 rotations lock to lock, but the consensus seems to be 2.7 so I'm sure I was just a little off.



With the rack centered, I made a rough length approximation with the Z3 rack by positioning each rack's mounting holes parallel to one another:



Then I attached the steering rack to the subframe...



However, I made a really stupid mistake and installed the bolts from the top down... only to realize after buttoning everything back up, that they're suppose to go from the bottom up, i.e. nut on top of the rack. The only way to get them back out is to lift the engine back up out of the car, or drop the subframe...

This was really frustrating, but Kid8 convinced me to put down the torch I was going to burn the project to the ground with and grab the engine support bar instead. :fishslap:

Steering rack and subframe installed:



Next, I installed new sway bar bushings. Kid8 recommended using a jack, and I'm honestly not sure how else you would get these bastards in.



Moving right along I reinstalled the control arms. Except I ended up botching the threads on the stud that mounts through the subframe so I had to re-cut the threads.

Harbor freight to the rescue!



Like others have experienced, my offset bushings kept annoyingly rotating in the housing. To combat this I tapped a hole for an M5x30mm bolt and called it good.





With the front suspension nearly back together, I turned my focus to finishing the rack install.

From inside the cabin, I pushed the steering column rubber grommet out through the firewall. Then Kid8 disconnected the steering shaft by removing the large nut holding steering column assembly.

Disconnected steering shaft:



With the firewall reinforcement plate removed, we installed the knuckle on the new rack and test fit the steering column to determine how much of the firewall needed to be removed. Note that we added some lube for the shaft splines to help with removing / reinstalling the shaft.



Steering knuckle test fit:



With the firewall ground out using a dremel and a file, I reinstalled the firewall reinforcement plate to mark it and match firewall trimming.



Installed:



Rubber grommet back in:



The final step was to remove one of the power steering lines and bend it to suitably conform to the new rack placement.



Power steering system bled, skid plate back on, and install complete



anddd back to Soulspeed I go:


Final alignment specs!

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with how well my driveway alignment turned out. I drove it like this for a few days before I could go to my appointment. It was a bit towed out in the front, but overall really not too bad!



Between the camber plates and the new steering rack... this car handles like nothing I've ever driven. I have my first autocross scheduled in April, time to see what she'll do :devil:

[zwill23]

Great work man, if you don’t mind me asking. What size is your nardi steering wheel? I’m wanting to order one, 360mm. How do you like it? Do you wish you went with a different size?

Thanks

Thanks! It's a 350mm wheel and so far I've been very happy with it. Comparing it to the airbag wheel that was previously on my car, it is a night and day difference. Steering feel is more direct compared to the flexy airbag wheel and the increase in steering effort is pleasant.

The only downsides I can think of would be if you have sweaty hands (wood might get slippery), or if you removed your power steering. I think I would really have to muscle the car around if I didn't have PS with the smaller wheel, especially with a tighter ratio rack.

At the end of the day, 10mm isn't much of a size difference. I think you would be happy with either size :up:

Funny, I just repaired the same rusted heat shield stud on my passenger floor as well. I put some seam sealer down before covering with Rust Bullet, not sure if that was really necessary. Thread is coming along great though, keep up the good work!

Hah! Those studs must be more problematic than I thought. I peeked at your flikr, your repair looks damn near identical to mine. The only other thing I did was use a bit of 3M undercoating to re-coat the bottom of the car.

Thanks for the encouragement!

[kpg2713]

Funny, I just repaired the same rusted heat shield stud on my passenger floor as well. I put some seam sealer down before covering with Rust Bullet, not sure if that was really necessary. Thread is coming along great though, keep up the good work!

IMG_20180216_220523 by [URL="https://www.flickr.com/photos/153148878@N02/"]

[frshmaestro]

Great work man, if you don’t mind me asking. What size is your nardi steering wheel? I’m wanting to order one, 360mm. How do you like it? Do you wish you went with a different size?

Thanks

[zwill23]

Thanks for the advice. I'll call a few shops tomorrow and see how much they'd want to press out my bushings. I had seriously not even considered taking it to a shop haha

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

No problem! Hope it all works out :up:

Nice work man, way to save one from the grave.

Thanks! Save'em all

[coldweatherblue]

Nice work man, way to save one from the grave.

[Levy3Poop]

Thanks Levi!

I assume you mean rear trailing arm bushings? I actually gave up on poly RTABs. I dropped my subframe twice to relubricate the poly (I used anti-seize) and they started squeaking again after 3-5k miles or so. Race car parts require race car maintenance and all that... I recommend just using lemforder rubber RTABs.

I think the easiest way to remove the subframe bushings is using heat from a torch applied to the outside edge of the subframe. Keep applying heat until you hear the bushings crackling and then bop the top of the bushing with a hammer. It will fall right out. This technique still involves flames obviously, but it isn't messy and doesn't smell nearly as bad.

See here:

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=4778083&postcount=57

Or you could probably just drop it off at a shop and they could press it out for pretty cheap I bet. I found using a c-clamp to push out those subframe bushings was damn near impossible...

Thanks for the advice. I'll call a few shops tomorrow and see how much they'd want to press out my bushings. I had seriously not even considered taking it to a shop haha

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

[zwill23]

Thanks Levi!

I assume you mean rear trailing arm bushings? I actually gave up on poly RTABs. I dropped my subframe twice to relubricate the poly (I used anti-seize) and they started squeaking again after 3-5k miles or so. Race car parts require race car maintenance and all that... I recommend just using lemforder rubber RTABs.

I think the easiest way to remove the subframe bushings is using heat from a torch applied to the outside edge of the subframe. Keep applying heat until you hear the bushings crackling and then bop the top of the bushing with a hammer. It will fall right out. This technique still involves flames obviously, but it isn't messy and doesn't smell nearly as bad.

See here:

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=4778083&postcount=57

Or you could probably just drop it off at a shop and they could press it out for pretty cheap I bet. I found using a c-clamp to push out those subframe bushings was damn near impossible...

That Podi is sweet! Someday I'll have to give Ruby one of those.

What did you use to keep the bushings from squeaking? Also, what way (other than fire) would you recommend for removing the rear subframe bushings? I'm having a doozy of a time trying to get them out with a C clamp

[Levy3Poop]

That Podi is sweet! Someday I'll have to give Ruby one of those.

What did you use to keep the bushings from squeaking? Also, what way (other than fire) would you recommend for removing the rear subframe bushings? I'm having a doozy of a time trying to get them out with a C clamp

[zwill23]

Road Trips n Tunes

I recently planned my first major road trip with the E30 - blasting on down to New Orleans for some Mardi Gras debauchery :devil: My initial plan was to just fly down, but I decided I could put the money saved by driving toward some general maintenance items and I genuinely wanted to see how the car would do on a long trip.

In preparation, I changed out my spark plug wires and a couple of coolant hoses I felt were suspect, but beyond that I just aired up the tires and removed the roof rack. Armed with a set of jack stands, extra fluids, and my tool bag, my girlfriend and I embarked on our 1000 mile round trip from ATX to NOLA and back.



We of course had to stop for some gumbo and beer at Steamboat Bills along the way!



The whip suffered a cracked head light along the way, but beyond that no issues. The PODI was awesome for monitoring everything as the trip progressed, all temps and pressures held steady :up:



Then we had a weekend of giggles and over-indulgence:



With the weekend festivities over, we mounted our noble steed and tore ass back to Austin.

Stopped for food and drinks at a random brewery on the way back...

Left the bar and came out to a hoochie on the car



Overall, I am very impressed with how the car did during the trip. I cruised at 80-85mph the entire way while pushing about 3-3.5k rpms, which returned an average of 25mpg with a range of 300 miles per tank. My only complaint was that my radio had a hard time overcoming the wind noise without the speakers clipping, fortunately there is a solution for that ;)

Shortly after the trip I officially broke 125k miles, my first major "milestone" if you will :razz:



Post road trip I've just been buzzing around as usual.

*Tiny beat up car parking only*



Well, at least I thought the car was tiny, until I drove around for a weekend in my mailman's MG :rofl: Driving one of these around makes me want to get a vintage car reallll bad. This thing was oozing with character, such a fun (albeit slow) driving experience.



Since I smell future road trips on the horizon, I decided it was time to do something about my dumpy sound system!

Amp and Rear Speaker Installation:

I chose to revamp my sound system with a Rockford Fosgate 250watt amp and a set of infinitiy kappas for the rear deck.

I had a few goals for the installation - retain stock-like appearance, avoid permanent modifications, choose an amp mounting location that is out of harms way, and commandeer Kid8's garage for the install :razz:

The first road block was installing the speakers in the stock speaker housing. The tweeter for the kappas interfere with housing grill, so I mounted the speakers below the housing. This works great, but I had to reverse the housing position on the rear deck so that the speakers have enough clearance. Not thrilled about that, but oh well. Only the purists will know right? ;)

Knocked the stock speaker retaining nuts out:







Wowza!





Next we went about mounting the amp. Kid8 suggested mounting it to the underside of the rear deck, which I think ended up being the smartest way to do it. No modifications needed, easy access, plenty of options to route the wiring, and the amp stays out of harms way.

Cut a piece of wood to size and wrapped it some cheap black carpet:



Using existing holes found in the rear deck, we added three bolts to secure the amp:



Test fit!



Amp bolted in and wired up:



Kid8 tucked the power wire and cleverly mounted the fuse holder to a cable cover stud:



Ground wire using factory amp ground and re-wrapped speaker wire bundle:



All tucked away!



Plenty of room for activities:



Very happy with how the install turned out and music sounds 1000x better.

The only issue I've noticed is that I have alternator whine coming through my speakers now, which I believe is caused by my ground location. Anyone using another location to ground their amp that eliminates alternator whine?

[zwill23]

15+ cars?! That's insane and awesome at the same time lol.

Right? After I got the carpet in I started counting all the cars I've pilfered parts from, including buttons and switches and things I believe I counted 17!

to think it started like this... well done sir. :up:

Thank you!! Man, that picture really puts it in perspective... I had no idea what I was getting myself into

[vtechnik]

Front seats missing, along with other random interior bits:

to think it started like this... well done sir. :up:

[kid8]

15+ cars?! That's insane and awesome at the same time lol.

[zwill23]

Adventures of the Crusty Hole and Fuzzy Carpet

Well R3v, it is starting to feel like the projects never stop. I was hoping to take some time off from wrenching and just enjoy the whip awhile, but mint black carpets don't show up everyday... thanks atxE30 ;)

This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I found a nasty little secret after pulling my grey carpet.

Carpet Swap:

I yanked my grey carpet out by gutting my interior, and using a razor blade to cut the carpet at the firewall and around the heatercore. It's a pretty straightforward process, the only "tricky" part I suppose is getting the carpet over the gas pedal. I just disconnected the pedal from the bracket and pulled the carpet over it.



Nasty grey carpet:



Fresh black carpet after some scrubbing:



While cleaning up the bare interior, horror struck. One of the studs used to hold the heat shield around the exhaust rotted through and put a nice quarter sized rust hole through my passenger side floorboard. This was a definite "oh shit" moment, but I've seen much MUCH worse here on R3v.

Fortunately, it was on an angled but flat surface making it easy enough to cut out and repair. I picked up some 22g weldable steel and went on my way.



Wire wheeled and ground out to assess the damage:



Slicin' up the floor:



Craftin' up a patch:



Patchin' it up:



Weldin' it up:





Paintin' it up (POR15 ftw):



Like nothing ever happened! I used POR15 on the underside of the patch with 3M rubber undercoating to finish it off:



With that little hiccup out of the way, I routed some RCA cables and a remote wire for my amp that I do not currently own:



Carpet installed:



Everything back together! The rust repair made this little project take a lot longer than anticipated, but it gave me the opportunity to rip around in the car with no interior for a week :devil: I already miss the way the M20 sounds without any sound deadening :(

BUT, I'm super stoked on the carpet. It's in a lot better shape and compliments the interior so much better than the grey carpet did.

Fun Fact: My interior is Frankensteined together from 15+ cars :rofl:

[zwill23]

Perfect! Thanks for getting back so quick. I'm going to be looking for a set now

Awesome! :devil: