My E30 Rehabilitation! ft. Boost Noises

[czkb]

I think you pressed the bushings backward,
the lip should be on the front of the lollipop,
so when you have the arm push on them it does not fuck things up (push it out maybe).

Maybe iam wrong? not sure...

[ak-]

I think you pressed the bushings backward,
the lip should be on the front of the lollipop,
so when you have the arm push on them it does not fuck things up (push it out maybe).

Maybe iam wrong? not sure...

You're correct


OP you should probably fix that lol

[zwill23]

I think you pressed the bushings backward,
the lip should be on the front of the lollipop,
so when you have the arm push on them it does not fuck things up (push it out maybe).

Maybe iam wrong? not sure...

Well shit, yeah I definitely screwed that up. Glad to have another set of eyes here. I'll get that fixed ASAP.

Thanks!

[zwill23]

Updates 9/28/2016:

A few end of the month updates!

I reinstalled my control arm offset bushings correctly this time, fortunately czkb and ak- noticed that I installed the bushing with the lip-side out before catastrophic failure occurred. :shock: After removing the lollipop and bushing I inspected them and the bushings looked to have held, but better safe than sorry. In the orientation I originally installed the bushings, they could have been pushed out had the control arm applied enough axial force against them... yikes.

Offset bushings reinstalled:



I also finished up installing my race skids skid plate. I had to remove the front bumper and valence in order to beat my radiator support back into submission and drill the mounting holes for plate. After removing the valence it became apparent that I have a bit more front end damage than I once thought, and my valence is pretty butchered. Strangely enough the front radiator support needed to be pushed in rather than pulled out which you might expect from a front end accident. It is starting to become more obvious why I have metal bumpers grafted onto my late model.

Once the radiator support was pushed back to a mountable location, I test fit the skid plate with a couple clamps and used a punch to mark the exact locations of each hole. After removing the skid plate I used a step drill for the mounting holes and it turned out great.

Radiator support back where its suppose be, and test fitting the plate:



Didn't have all the hardware in yet, but got the plate mounted up in its final resting spot:





Tight Squeeze!



While I had the car on jackstands I did a bit of inspection and wasn't thrilled with what I found. Looks like my output shaft seal on the transmission has turned into a pretty substantial leak so that is going to need to be addressed.

Anyone have experience changing this seal out? I've read it's pretty hit or miss changing it, sometimes it seals correctly and other times it starts leaking again.

Transmission Leak:



I imagine soaking the mount in transmission fluid didn't help here, but looks like I blew one of my transmission mounts:



Did I mention my engine mounts don't look great either?

Time for a replacement I'd say:





Oh well, I'll get that all fixed soon enough. The better news is that she can still lay some rubber :devil:

Foot slipped:



Really excited about this, finally picked up a 3.73 LSD. But I'm pretty sure it's the ugliest diff in the world... no idea why you would paint this sucker blue... oh wait, maybe to hide all the rust before selling it . I got it at a good price so we'll see if my investment pays off.

Planning to do an overall refresh, all new gaskets and seals (except the input flange) and a fresh coat of POR15 after using a wire wheel to remove as much of the paint and rust as possible.

Very curious to see what the internals look like.

Ugliest Diff in the world:



PO managed to shear one of the bolt heads off, used a liberal amount of PB Blaster and a chisel to knock it loose again:



Sheared bolt removed:



Got to use my angle grinder to slice off the remaining driveshaft:





The pumpkin's been freed!



Last but not least, picked up a wood grain shift knob. Not in the greatest condition, but I'm going to clean it up and I think it will turn out pretty nice. Maybe there is a wood nardie steering wheel in my future? I think it might compliment the tan interior well.

[zwill23]

E30 Trials and Tribulations

It's been a while since my last post, but it has not been from lack of wrenching on the E30. It has been one hell of a ride, and a massive learning experience. This post details some of the biggest hardships I've had with the car so far, but I believe I've grown a better wrencher because of it. From the good to the bad, and back to the good, I'll let the rest of my post do the talking.

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Shortly after I got the skid plate installed on the car, I decided to do a little off-roading to test it out and snagged a cool picture overlooking the highway:



Everything seemed well and good with the skid plate, so I went ahead and kept on tinkerin'...

Ever since I added a bulb to my trunk light I noticed a battery drain, which I'm guessing is the reason there was no trunk light in it to begin with. Looks like I'm suffering from a short, which I believe is fairly common. So I pulled the bulb for now and decided to make a little voltage gauge out of an extra defroster button I had lying around. To do this I just bought a tiny voltage meter off Amazon and retrofitted it into the button. Turned out pretty cool for such a cheap mod, felt like I was in middle school science class ;)











Then I decided to refurbish my shift knob, and I'm pretty impressed with how it turned out. All I did was chip off the rest of the old lacquer and gave it a light sanding with 220 grit sand paper. Then I removed the old shift emblem by drilling into it a bit; I went slow and it popped right out. Five coats of polyeurathane, steel wool, and a fancy M badge later, I had one good looking knob ;D







In the car, took this pic in the dark so the M badge looks a bit faded, but it's not! Definitely the crown jewel of this interior :rofl:



It's amazing the difference just a shift knob will make, I had a very cheap knob previously that would bend and flex during shifts which didn't help my already worn shifter bushings. Shifting was very vague before, I was no stranger to accidently shifting from 1st to 4th. Feels soooo much more precise now.

Next I tried to dive back into the diff...

As I started working on it I got pretty frustrated since I really had no place to work at the house I'm renting. So this got me thinking I really need some sort of work bench, but it needed to be easily stored away in my bedroom.

Hmmmmmm...



I came up with this! Pretty simple, it sits right around waste height, collapses in on itself, and uses a lag bolt at each corner to tighten things up.







and it fits behind my door!



I added some carrying handles and an electrical strip which has proved to be very useful. I'd also like to get a vice and possibly make a center support for more stability, but the lag bolts at each corner keep it surprisingly stable when they're torqued down, so I'll live with it as is for now. :pimp:

With the workbench built it was time to make some headway on the LSD.



Inspected as much of the internals as I could and everything looked great. Obviously didn't pull it apart to check the clutch disks, but I'm hoping they'll be in decent shape. At least better than the whiny open diff that is currently in the car.



This god damn blue paint has been miserable, I decided to use some aircraft paint stripper on the diff cover to remove the remaining blue paint. Worked pretty well, at least good enough for me!



That aircraft paint stripper is some seriously wicked stuff!



After checking the diff internals I prepared the cover gasketing surface to reseal it. A hairdryer actually helped to remove the stubborn bits of gasket with my plastic scraper.



Sealin'er up!



And finally a fresh coat of POR15 so this bitch never rusts again



Finished for now, I didn't replace the output flange seals as they didn't appear to be leaking... if it ain't broke amirite? It isn't on the car yet, so maybe I'll change my mind...

All was well and good in the world of E30 until this happened...



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO



Further inspection of the pan showed this was no crack, I popped that poor oil pan like a cherry... another M20 oil pan claimed by the E30 gods

As for how this happened, I dodged a raised manhole and went through a pretty nasty dip in the road. My suspension compressed, my skid plate braced for impact, and my oil pan squeeled like a pig as the skid plate was smashed into it. I knew what happened the moment I did it so I killed the engine immediately and coasted to a stop.

This was a real ass-kicker and is a prime example of should have bought the right thing the first time. I wanted to buy the severe duty skid plate, but this popped up on craigslist for a good price. "It'll be good enough for now, right?" Wrong. Looks like I had this coming, I had been driving this car around for more than 6 months and getting a bit overly confident. Lesson learned.



Oil Pan Install:

So I tried to take this as a blessing in disguise and decided to upgrade some things while I had the pan down. So I went ahead and bought a crank scraper and an oil pump baffle. I was able to source a rough M20 oil pan from a friend for a good price and I began prepping things for my oil pan swap.

I used a punch and a clamp to line up the drill holes for the oil pan baffle:



Installed:



Next it was time to tackle the dreaded oil pan swap, FULL DISCLOSURE I had to do this three times before I got it right. Here was my final procedure for getting the job done:

1. Jack the front of the car up
2. Remove the airbox to generally look over things as you lift the engine
3. Remove the transmission reinforcement plate. Straight forward, just make sure you have star sockets on hand
4. Undo the lower engine mount bolts
5. Disconnect oil pan ground
6. Loosen the transmission mounting bracket, since the transmission will be pulled forward slightly as you lift the engine. I also disconnected the mid piece of my exhaust so I didn't put any added stress on the rear exhaust section.
7. Disconnect radiator mounts / supports and remove plastic radiator shrowd
8. Remove steering rack bolts
9. Attach engine support bar to the "hoop" located on the head, slowly lift the engine and keep an eye out for anything being pulled, yanked, or generally being stressed during the lift. You'll need to lift the engine ~4 to 5in to clear the oil pan past the subframe and the steering rack. As you're lifting use a rubber mallet to tap the transmission bracket along the mounting track to prevent over stressing your transmission mounts.
10. Remove all oil pan bolts, there are 36 of the god damn things so it will take a bit. I carefully used a small impact gun for the easily accessible ones, excerise caution if you go this route
11. Pry on oil pan tabs, it should pop right off if you haven't used RTV
12. Remove the pan, clean off any excess gasket from block and new pan. If you smashed your oil pan like I did give everything a thorough look over and inspect for additional damage.
13. Apply RTV or an oil pan gasket to the pan, and reinstall. Ensure to tighten everything to spec.

This was my procedure, I don't think I missed anything but my biggest piece of advice is to just take it slow. If it is your first time doing it there is a good chance it will take about a weekend to complete.

Now, I don't claim to be the greatest wrencher on the planet, so I made plenty of mistakes the first AND the second time around. Here is the list of everything I screwed up:

• Planning on swapping this in your driveway? Check the weather. I was rained on when I removed the oil pan during my second swap. Not fun.
• I didn't loosen my transmission mounting bracket my first time and I tore the transmission mounts clean off the support bracket while I lifted the engine.
• I didn't pay attention to my radiator as I lifted the engine, and didn't remove the bolts that secure it in place. I ended up stressing the lower radiator hose and pushed my power steering pump bolt into the radiator. Fortunatley this only resulted in a few bent fins. Solution: Undo the radiator mounting bolts, in my experience the upper and lower hoses were strong enough to temporarily support the radiator as it lifted with the engine.
• If you're installing a crank scraper, do not use just a few bolts to line it up. Use a majority, if not all the bolts while lining it up. Then let the it sit for at least an hour or two to let the RTV settle and prevent the scraper from shifting when you reinstall your pan. I did not do this, the scraper shifted, and when I completed the job my scraper was hitting my crank shaft. Spinning the crank after the crank scraper has settled and once the oil pan has been installed are both good times to verify everything is still in check.
• My oil pump bolts came loose the second swap, at a minimum make sure you remove any oil on the bolts and tighten them to spec. I also used lock-tite when reinstalling them
• Verify you still have a working oil pump, and when you button everything back up use an oil pressure gauge to make sure everything has been installed correctly. I verified my oil pump was still working properly but subermging it partially in oil, and connecting a power drill to the oil pump drive shaft to see if it was pulling oil.

Here was my setup the first time around:



Here was a Fun Fact... my engine mounts were never connected!



Fortunately the oil pump avoided destruction:



The pan on the other hand...



This is when I installed the scraper the first time, I didn't use enough bolts to mount it properly and didn't let it set. I trashed this crank scraper attempting to remove it during the second swap. RTV can be a real bitch.



Here was the moment of truth... jump starting the E30 with my daily to see if the work was for nothing...



andddddddddddd IT WAS! Fuck me, crank scraper wasn't installed right.

Exhausted I left the car sit for a couple weeks in it's broken state. Halloween came and went, so I decided to make it festive! Wanted to give it the "Oh shit, the jack stand gave out" car enthusiast worst nightmare look. Had strangers coming up to me weeks afterwards to let me know I fooled them



Then, the second time I got poured on when I was 80% finished with the job, if it wasn't for Kid8 I would have been so fucked...



This was the point of maximum exhaustion / frustration... at least the car seemed happy. I waited until a couple of days later to button the rest of the things up. But the oil pan was installed at least.



For a moment, all seemed well, so I gave the dirty girl a bath.



After a few drives I started to notice noises I've never heard the motor make, I'll describe it as a faint squeaking that slowly got worse. I stopped driving the car in fear that the engine was self-destructing and tried to diagnose what was going wrong, but honestly I was feeling exhausted with it and the car ended up sitting for the better part of a month.

So naturally I needed SOMETHING to kick-start my ambition to get the ol'girl moving under her own power again. So what better way to do this than to fly to Germany and check out the BMW Museum in Munich!



Of course I took a picture of an M20 diagram, could come in handy right!?



My 2002 want was soooo strong after seeing this, definitely one of the coolest cars at the museum:



As much as I liked the 2002, this had me real thirsty... maybe it was decals? ;)





This E30 M3 was an interesting piece to have in the showroom, it had a full E36 M3 interior retrofit. You can see the vader seats a bit in the picture.

Edit: So this was actually the interior for the Euro market Evo M3, pretty cool and something I hadn't seen before!



In a perfect world I would daily and road trip the shit out of this E32, V12 powaaaaaaaaa :devil:





Finally, this gorgeous E28 M5 bid fairwell just before exiting the museum.



Behold, a 325i Touring in the wild



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Andddddddd back to reality! It was time to diagnose what the hell was wrong with the car this time, I feared low oil pressure so I started looking for the writing on the wall.

Yep, some of my cam lobes didn't appear to be getting the proper lubrication:



After getting an oil pressure reading of 0psi from a manual oil pressure gauge I didn't exactly feel confident in, I decided it was time to tear the pan off again and see what the issue was. Nervous that I ruined the engine though, I did a compression check and everything came back okay. ~150psi across all cylinders.

Oil pressure reading:


I decided it was time to embrace driveway wrenching and to quit complaining about it, so I bought myself a canopy. This has been one of my best purchases yet, worth every penny.



Upon tearing the oil pan off for the third time, the squeeky engine noises began to make sense... the bolts on my oil pump backed back out, I believe with the rain I hand tighten them to what I "thought" was spec, since again, I was rushing. I'm sure the bolts were covered in oil too, which didn't help matters...

And finally, after all that... the E30 is running right again. Felt so good to drive it to work again, parked right next to the slumbering Nascar.



Shortly after finishing the pan swap I visited Portland for a bit. If anyone is interested in an area with a great car culture, this is it. I thought Austin's was good, but Portland may well one up Austin. So many vintage enthusiasts cars line the streets, I'm guessing since they don't use road salt and they never rot out people can afford to keep them going. I saw this mustang sitting at a real photogenic spot so figured I'd share with everyone:





But anyway, with the E30 finally back on the road and running right, it's time for more fixin' and upgrades. A sneak peak at whats to come ;)

[iXguido]

That's actually the "standard" interior for the m3 Sport Evo. Those are Recaro SRD seats that were standard on that model. You can see it has an e30 dash. Read about the Sport Evo here: http://www.bmwmregistry.com/model_faq.php?id=8

This E30 M3 was an interesting piece to have in the showroom, it had a full E36 M3 interior retrofit. You can see the vader seats a bit in the picture.

[zwill23]

Interesting, thanks for the info. I recognized the E30 dash, but I've never seen those seats before, even on an M3.

[M-technik-3]

US market did not get these seats nor the small limited editions Europe got. Many of us installed them into our cars.

[stonea]

I love build like these. The S54/Track builds are cool, but I always love reading these.


*Also I REEEEAAAALY want a set of SRD's for both of my e30s.

[zwill23]

US market did not get these seats nor the small limited editions Europe got. Many of us installed them into our cars.

I definitely like the stock sport seats, but the EVO seats seem very appropriate in the M3's. I can see why people swap them in, I imagine they're not cheap to come by either. I thought the M3 colors stitched into the corner of the rear seat was a nice touch as well.

I love build like these. The S54/Track builds are cool, but I always love reading these.


*Also I REEEEAAAALY want a set of SRD's for both of my e30s.

I appreciate the love! Learning a ton, watching the car evolve from where it first started always keeps me motivated, even if I wish it would evolve a bit quicker ;)

[zwill23]

My first taste of LSD

Small update! Spent 12 hours straight wrenching on the car this past Saturday, with only breaks for breakfast tacos, beer, hotpockets, beer, and chick-filet. I was fortunate enough to have my buddy help me the entire time AND let me use his garage and tools... not sure what he was thinking, but I owe him a big one.

Here is what we planned to accomplish:

• Replace axles
• Install poly diff bushing in the LSD
• Fill diff with fresh fluid (Royal Purple 75w90, LSD specific)
• Swap my open diff with my refreshed 3.73 LSD
• Swap in my new Scorpion exhaust

Organized and ready to go!



For anyone who hasn't swapped their axles, the axle nut can be a real bitch. It is torqued to 170ftlbs+ and tends to rust and corrode. To make matters worse, BMW decided to use quite a shallow nut for these which can make the nut prone to being rounded off, especially if you decide to use a breaker bar.

We gave the breaker bar a try for about 3 min until we gave up and resorted to the impact. I cannot recommend the Rigid 18V impact driver enough, it removed the axle nuts NO problem. We breezed past a major potential road block with this.

For those curious, the axle nut requires a 30mm socket AND if you decide to use FEQ replacement units, keep in mind the replacement nut actually needs a 32mm socket. We had to run to the store for this. And yeah, I did not go with OEM axles, no budget allowance for that. I have kept my old axles for a potential rebuild, and will update my build if I run into any problems with my new set.



Axles out!



Removing the diff was very straight forward, I bought a flex-head ratchet that came in handy, but a good set of wrenches would do the trick just fine.

Lining up the jack to drop the open diff:




The ol'dirty diffs out!



Gross



Looking awfully empty in here, lots of room for activities now ;D



Fuck this bushing :finger:



Filled up with royal purple and ready for it's new home:



Nearly finished:



Overall the install went fairly well, we ran into a bit of trouble with some damaged threads on the new diff (same bolt hole the lovely PO sheared a bolt off in). Ironically, the most difficult part was what I expected to be the easiest - that god damn diff bushing. Drilling, cutting, and bashing were the general tactics used to get the rubber bushing out. One day I'll have a press to get these damn things out the right way. The only thing we weren't able to accomplish (and not for lack of trying) was installing the exhaust. The stock exhaust hangers were too short, and after the long day it was easiest to just swap the stock one back on. Getting my skid plate installed, and exhaust on are next on the To Do list. :devil:

As someone who has never driven a car with an LSD, the handling of the car is night and day different. The cornering capabilities have been significantly improved, I'm guessing because the power is now properly being distributed to both wheels while powering through a corner rather than nearly all power being pushed to the outside wheel. I will say it is actually a lot more difficult to do a burn out now. Some other benefits I've noticed of swapping in the new diff are less road noise / diff whine, reduced drag when I let off the throttle, and a sharper throttle response. I think my open diff was well on it's way out. I feel like I am now getting the proper E30 experience :)

Snagged a couple pics at the parking garage at work! E30's feeling good :nice:

[Poorhouse]

Nice work!

To bad about the exhaust.

What gear ratio was your original diff?

[zwill23]

Nice work!

To bad about the exhaust.

What gear ratio was your original diff?

Thanks! Yeah it's a bummer, but it will be on soon enough.

The open diff was a 3.73 as well, so no change in diff ratios. I briefly considered going with a 2.93 LSD but I figured the acceleration and highway cruising capabilities of the 3.73 are a good compromise for now.

[sonomabimmers]

just read this whole thread. awesome! I'm in austin as well unfortunately no e30 as of now. but its great to see them around

[zwill23]

just read this whole thread. awesome! I'm in austin as well unfortunately no e30 as of now. but its great to see them around

Ahh, nice to see another Austin resident on the forum! Yeah I definitely catch them puttering around from time to time, although less than I expected to. I'm guessing because most don't have working AC (including mine) it can be hard to justify coping with the summer heat.

I saw a really nice auto 325i on craigslist recently for a good price, I think it may have sold though :(