My E30 Rehabilitation! ft. Boost Noises

[JDM]

Heya dude, I didn't choose any options for my turbo beyond what you already have listed. .83/A/R T3 open turbine housing, w/S257 BW supercore I think they call it. It's been a great turbo so far, no issues to complain about. I just bought it off Amazon as it was the cheapest place I could find the turbo at the time, I suppose the only real option I was looking for was a vband outlet for the turbine housing. Compressor elbow is if you want an elbow welded off the end of the turbo compressor outlet. I just used a small silicone elbow for this. I thinkkkk the T51R mod is just for style points, makes the turbo whistle louder.

Yeah, don't buy mint performance... the owner is awful and quality has gone down hill after a lead fabricator left. I recommend not cheaping out on a manifold if you plan on putting miles on the car, $182 for a manifold is way too cheap. If I did it again I would for sure go with PPF, they make a quality product and pump out insane hp cars all day.

Good luck with the build! I recommend doing lots of research and understanding how a turbo system works as much as possible before taking the plunge :). The noises alone are worth it!

Will do lol. I actually ended up finding a fully assembled turbo kit from a company called kamotors, on a shop called sevenspeedshop, for about 3700. Stock turbo can make about 10 psi, so plan is buy the kit and maybe try to get a bigger turbo that fits the kit, and also get a haltech so I can go through and fine tune everything to my liking, see if I can find anybody to help me make an antilag tune for it. I want to build my m20 to see how much power I can make out of it, so we’ll see what it makes when all is said and done. 😎. The things you answered to were definitely helpful so a big thanks for answering my questions!

[zwill23]

Will do lol. I actually ended up finding a fully assembled turbo kit from a company called kamotors, on a shop called sevenspeedshop, for about 3700. Stock turbo can make about 10 psi, so plan is buy the kit and maybe try to get a bigger turbo that fits the kit, and also get a haltech so I can go through and fine tune everything to my liking, see if I can find anybody to help me make an antilag tune for it. I want to build my m20 to see how much power I can make out of it, so we’ll see what it makes when all is said and done. 😎. The things you answered to were definitely helpful so a big thanks for answering my questions!

Glad it helped!

[zwill23]

Small update, August was brutally hot so didn't get too much car work done, but still managed a bit of tinkering / tuning changes.

Even after my last tuning session, a hard start persisted so I decided to start messing with the crank pulse curve. I noticed I was smelling fuel on start up at the tail pipe and I typically had to pump the pedal to get the car started quicker. A bit of research indicated this is a sign my crank pulse settings are too rich... pulled 8% fuel out of the curve and the car has been starting right up. Hopefully it stays that way :)

I've also reduced the TPS lag factor to increase the TPS noise filtering in the megasquirt, this has resulted in major drivability improvements and has helped light throttle. However, I think this is a bandaide... has anyone had issues with TPS precision with their Megasquirt?

I don't recommend running around without a turbo blanket lol ... Managed to cook a couple of my plug wires, mmmm crispy



Remade all my plug wires in my living room to stay out of the heat. This was a bit of a blessing anyway, because I wasn't feeling confident in the plug boot connections.



New wires installed, no more spark blow out!



Went to visit a buddy of mine in Philly and he gifted me a vanilla bean E30



Went out for a rip with the boys!



White car is LS swapped, red is S54 swapped. Between the three of us there were a ton a great noises tearing down Lime Creek Road



I have officially put 10k miles on the car since installing the turbo setup and over 50k miles during my ownership. That feels good

[zwill23]

Edit: In my last post I claimed this car was starting right up, this car is in fact, not starting right up... such a fickle beast. It randomly hard starts over half the time, the only consistency I get from it is when I let it sit for a few days and then start it, boom fires right off. I need to do some more investigation into the megasquirt start up settings, maybe adjusting the priming pulse will be the key to consistent starts.

[zwill23]

Hello R3v! Hopefully this hoopty still strikes interest in some, its been my daily again lately and I'm proudly running up on 20k boosted miles. Anyone on here other than Varg (lol) have more miles on their turbo M20??

Before getting to some E30 content, I need to talk about the noble side kick. It's been a supremely reliable steed that has deserved its own tinkering and rehabilitation.

First up, the power locks on the driver side haven't worked since I bought it. It was starting to drive me insane explaining to my passengers that the vehicle could be locked from the passenger side, so I tore apart my door and discovered the root cause. Broken wires in the wiring harness. Super satisfying fix and the door locks are now working as Mr. Toyota intended.



The vacuum system on these old toyotas is outrageous, my idle had been erratic since I purchased it and replacing all these damn vacuum lines remedied that situation.



Classically, second gen 4Runners suffer from what the internet deems Mom butt. Now there are plenty of Moms without a saggy rear so this doesn't feel fair, naturally we had to fix that with a fresh set of heavy duty springs.



Before / After:





These things are all over the junkyard, it's great. Scored a nice front bumper.

Before!



After!



Same deal with the rear, no before but here it is with a fresh chrome junkyard bumper and a junkyard hitch:



Changed the front diff fluid and my god, that was a good idea:



The 3VZ V6 these came with is a notoriously lethargic, gas guzzling, head gasket blowing, beast. I'm excited to embark on my first engine swap with this machine, I'm opting for a 5VZ-FE from a third gen 4Runner as it bolts right up to my existing transmission and engine mounts. Feels like a no brainer as far as a swap goes - 50 more hp, way better mpg, and more reliability to boot. However, the engine is taller and the hood won't close in the stock configuration.

I think hood scoops look stupid, so I've opted to do a small 3/8" body lift to accommodate the newer and taller V6.

New body mounts and body lift:



I installed this in the sketchiest way possible, please reserve your judgement... I still have my fingers and toes and successfully got the lift and body mounts installed:



Since I purchased Reggie, I was aware the rust around the windshield was fairly out of control. I went ahead and had the windshield pulled and got to work.



First I ground all the rust down to bare metal:



Using POR15 metal filler, I filled the areas that had gotten bad. Overall, I feel good about the amount of metal that was left over after the rust but there were some pin holes here and there that rusted through. I did a lot of research and ultimately decided it wasn't worth trying to cut out these small areas. Metal filler reinforces the area and built up the missing material:



Lots of sanding later:



After the metal filler, I completely went over the areas I sanded down with POR15:



Added a layer of bondo to smooth the areas around the windshield as much as possible to create a water tight windshield seal:



My buddy Ryan offered a friendly respray over the area with OEM Toyota white, turned WAY better than I expected.



This is my first real stab at body work and although time consuming, it could be pretty Zen and satisfying:



As a little treat for completing that project, I bought a dash cover to hide the dash cracks (way easier than replacing the dash like in the E30 lol). Not bad for a "trail rig" if I do say so myself:



I swear I'm not always wrenching, I use these machines as god intended me to as well:



Pretending I know how to fish, mostly caught fish sticks:



Back when TX was cool enough to camp:



anddddddd... I picked up a third gen 4Runner for a thousand bucks. 175 - 180 psi across all cylinders and it runs great, disgusting interior, but that's not my problem :)



My collection of swap parts!



Back to your scheduled program!

I only park next to similarly tuff machines:



In some fun news, I tried driving the E30 to Alabama from Texas! Full interior, dog crate, cooler in the trunk, lots of other junk:



Unfortunately, I blew my Quadspark 2 hours outside of Austin and had to limp it home. This is my first "break down" that caused significant issues during a trip. Fortunately, I have extremely supportive and enabling friends. Beyond fuel consumption, I had a wonderful time piloting my buddies F250 big block all the way to Alabama.

Let me tell you, this truck was a HIT with the Alabama friends and family:



After 20+ hours of driving, changed the oil as a thank you. This thing doesn't come close to fitting in my garage.



Decided to refurbish the fuel expansion tank, I realized I had never opened this up:



Absolutely filthy back here:



Swapped the fuel filler gasket out:



All cleaned back up!



Added a heat sink due to quad spark overheating issues (I ended up swapping on an even larger heat sink that worked better):



Also installed an oil catch can!



Routing



Connected to filter



Reassembled



Time to test if the catch can setup fixed my oil smoking issue, anddddd it didn't!

Turns out, I blew my turbo by running VR1 Racing oil for 3k mile interval changes lol. Don't be like me, apparently VR1 is only good for 1k miles max. I've switched back to Castrol and its been fine.



Since then, car has been running well. Bumped up the size of my meat, running 225/50/R15s now. Love the look and more importantly, the ground clearance a LOT more.





Hopefully people still look at this forum because I'll have a new update soon >:)

[zwill23]

I thoroughly apologize for my 4Runner content, but ultimately every E30 needs a good reliable daily driver to pair with it. Reggie, my 1995 4Runner was wildly lethargic and consumed an incredible amount of fuel for a 150 hp V6 (3VZ). So the obvious choice was to engine swap it with the next generation 4Runner engine (5VZ) known to be quite reliable and at least a little better on fuel than its predecessor.

Purchased a VERY moldy 2WD 2002 4Runner with a good engine and yanked it out!



Mounted engine on stand, ate beans with the boys:



Gussied up the valve covers:





Refreshed engine, fresh timing belt, every seal replaced, rehab'd the very crumbly wiring harness:



Yanked out the old 3VZ:



Did the tach mod required to get a 5VZ tach signal to the 1995 4Runner cluster, it's really just adding a resistor:



Installed 5VZ:



Crafted bracket to move battery to the passenger side:



Welded about 3/4 of the exhaust and had the gentleman at Muffin Muffler finish off the axle back bit for me:



Finished swap:



Just kidding:



Okay actually finished this time, road tripped to the beach. Got barnacle'd :



Enjoying the fruits of my labor! This thing is so much nicer to drive with the new engine and I can comfortably drive 70mph in 5th gear!



Shout out to the E30 for driving me around all summer without a hiccup! Such a pleasant machine.



Trash truk:

[zwill23]

Swung by my old rental to visit friends and retook a picture from about 7 years ago. So much and so little has changed with me and the car.

2017:



50k miles and a turbocharger later, 2024:



Scored a euroweave as a spare from the man they myth the legend, Kid8 before he got out of the game for good:



Performed an M20 strip search and some R&D at Dead Broke Motorsports:





Took a flight to Portland and enjoyed the extra bolstering:



Took Reggie out for some adventuring:



Back to West Texas, but in a Toyota this time:



We've been enjoying some car camping, so I added a rear window switch in the back of the 4Runner to lower the rear window:





Adapted a "Topper" Tent for a pick up truck:



Verified tent integrity with a camping trip:







Refreshed the front suspension in the 4Runner, new control arms, steering bits, and other bobs:





The tailgates on these are carpet and tend to collect filth and generally look like shit. Decided it was time for an upgrade! Before:



After!



Tested the new suspension with some more "offroading" and camping adventures:







anddddd back to the E30! Blew my headgasket again, started overheating and pushing exhaust into the coolant. Cylinder six was reading 30-40 psi low compared to the other cylinders so I was pretty quick to tear the engine down... managed to get the head pulled in 2 hours. I've been working on these cars for too long.

Headless again:



Checked for warping, head looks straight:



No classic signs of a head gasket issue, maybe the head is cracked? Maybe I did a head gasket swap for fun? Maybe the head wasn't torqued properly and exhaust was able to push between the fire ring and the coolant jacket?

I turned the boost up to 15 psi about 4-5 months ago. I'm sure the added cylinder pressure (and tune?) helped cause this, though I wish the failure was more obvious. Maybe I'll o-ring next time.



While I was in there I swapped out the stamped timing gear for a sintered one:



Replaced crank and oil pump gear seals:





While tearing the engine down for a HG I replaced the AC lines and added a modern Sanden compressor from a kit I scored on marketplace, hoping this will be the first summer the E30's AC works properly!



Installed the head with the help of a cherry picker cuz I don't need no man. I installed the turbo manifold off the car this time to try and prevent exhaust leaks, the combo was quite heavy so using the lift was a blessing on my back.



Achievement unlocked - Reuse Timing Belt:



Routing AC lines as far away from the turbo as possible, I added a DEI fire sleeve around it as well:



Better look at the compressor and AC bracket:



Nearly back together! I'm still impressed with how well my youngerself packaged all this, that's a lot of heat exchangers.



Back at work like nothing even happened...

[Panici]

Nice to see it's still going after all that work.

[zwill23]

Nice to see it's still going after all that work.

This car is hard to kill, or maybe I'm just stubborn... maybe both