My E30 Rehabilitation! ft. Boost Noises

[zwill23]

Started out 2025 doing something cool - Joined a Lemons team with friends. Picked up a shitbox E30 for $1k that's previously run Lemons before.

The Good:
* Came with safety equipment, fire suits, etc
* 5 lug swapped
* LSD
* Ton of spare parts
* Kind of decent "race" dash

The Bad:
* No engine or transmission
* Roll cage is REALLY low... likely in need of some modifcations
* Dented gas tank

Lemons is suppose to be "$500" cars with unlimited budgets on safety bits. We're hoping since we have some of the safety stuff out of the way we're starting in the negative with budget since Lemons numbers seem fudged anyway but who knows.

If the wheels of this vehicle end up on a track, that's success in my book. I've never been on a track and I think it would be an awesome experience getting to do that in an E30, even a dumpy one :)

Taking suggestions on a new theme:



RACE dash:



Dear god don't make me troubleshoot this harness:



Probably expired race suits and helmets:



Knocked out a road trip over christmas time. Drove from Austin to Asheville to Birmingham and back. All in about 2k miles and 40+ hours of driving, even clicked 280k miles in the 4Runner. What a machine!



Camped near Hot Springs, AR on our way to Asheville to see family. Only hiccup is we couldn't drive into our campsite, whoops lol. We slept in the parking lot instead since we have our camp setup in the back. Lake Ouachita was still beaituful to wake up to, even if it was in a parking lot.



Made it to Asheville! Obviously the first thing we did was head to a brewery where I parked next to this unit:



Romped around the mountains and pretended to need 4wd:



Once we had our fill of family time, we whipped down to Birmingham stopping for libations in Chatanooga along the way:



A beautiful sunset at an ugly gas station:



Made it to Birmingham! Spent New Years eve hanging with friends, eating, drinking, and trying not to get sick. We toured around the city and laid eyes on the Vulcan's big ass:



Continuing our tour we checked out the Barber Motorspots Museum. Incredible number of motorcycles and some cool cars too.

This was my favorite. The "Reading Standard". I grew up near Reading, PA and had no idea Reading ever had a motorcycle manufacturer. These bikes were known for reliablity and even did a cannonball run to prove it!





Proof there were cars there too:



Road trip over, it was time to get back to the Lemons team for our first build day. We managed to get the engine torn down and relocated to Ryan's garage.





The engine is nearly assembled now, I just hope we did it right!



Went for bike ride.



Or maybe I just had a beer in the woods with my bike?



After the long road trip I was feeling smitten with the 4Runners reliabilty. That was until it stopped starting after being parked in the driveway a couple weeks.

Found this cute little squirrel in the engine bay when I opened the hood, at least I thought it was cute until I realized what he was up to...



Completely wrecked the EFI wiring and more. Extremely frustating, but I guess it could have been worse.



Fixed up and moved to the street... where the 4Runner will live from now on. My only concern is the squirrel eating into the E30 wiring now. That'd be my nightmare...



Been doing some part procurement for the Lemons car. Scored a nice radiator and alternator off this poor vert.



Then I took the E30 out to Seguin, TX to pick up a transmission for the Lemons car.



Although I obviously wanted to help our team and score some more parts for us. A big reason I agreed to the drive was to go back to Seguin. A decade ago I pulled the E30 out of a trailer park in Seguin and we've been on a LOT of adventures since.

Looking forward to another decade of evolution with this old machine.



CHEERS R3V, probably wouldn't have enjoyed this car as much without you.



Speaking of joy, knocked out some maintence. Oil change, sparkplugs, and a tire rotation. I like that the direzzas aren't directional so you can get pretty wild with the rotations.

I've now put 27,000 miles on the turbo setup! Cracking 30k will feel like a nice miletstone.



2muchpowaa, glad I caught it before any others loosened up.



Can't forget the BOAT content. Built a transom for the rear, made sure to build it extra thicc so we can put a massive motor on the back.



Rebucked some rivets so it's less leaky.



That's it for now... I want to get started on some E30 rust repair, but we'll see how the other projects stack up.

[zwill23]

This post feels like more of a life update, but I’ve at least knocked out a bit of wrenching to share.

I’ve officially moved!

A two car garage with an apartment above is a car guy’s dream, but ultimately the fun had to end at some point. I’ll miss the space, I’m very proud of what I accomplished in the four years I spent there. I turbocharged the E30, learned to weld, engine swapped the 4Runner, fixed friend’s cars, and took on so many projects that have helped me turn into the wrench I am today. But I’ve also been ready to move on.

I may be back to driveway wrenching for now, but I’ve also moved in with my partner and I think it was time to make some life moves.

New space!



Worktruck put in some work during the move:



My neighbor gave me a lil E30 model as a moving away gift :’)



Condensing a two car garage into the space of a small single car was a feat in organization, but it’s starting to really feel like a “shop”. I’m also able to run an extension chord / air compressor line easily out the window to the driveway making wrenching a bit more convenient.



We’re also the proud new owner of a boat, so I’ll be updating about Project Cowabunga as well since R3vlimited seems to lack boat content.



Cleaning up them rivets!



Broke in the driveway by dumping coolant all over it while changing my sister’s water pump :)



Attempted two stepping again, parked with the other goat ropers at the dancehall.



Double checked a turbo M20 is faster than a naturally aspirated KA, mission passed.



Been mall crawling a lot lately so went “off-roading” to make sure 4wd still works.

Boss Hog!





Startled the farm animals with my atmospheric wastegate :(



Made the car veryyyyysppoookky for Halloween



Sister dressed up as the Trunchbull from Matilda, naturally we had to recreate the car lifting scene.



We even busted out the boat for some Old Gregg shenanigans:



Andddd back to the wrenching that was promised. Since the car lives outside now I replaced the door seals to keep as much water outside of the car as possible. I’m using the ones from CAtuned, pretty happy with the fitment and the quality. Worthwhile upgrade for the price point I think.



Pulled my cluster to replace the SI batteries and do a couple fun mods.



I’m really not experienced soldering, only the basics so this was my first time soldering on a circuit board. I used a solder sucker and some wick to get the batteries pulled. The hardest part was bending the SI battery tabs back to remove the batteries without damaging the board.

Managed to replace the batteries without ruining the board so this turned out to be a worthwhile risk.



Installed some extra boards for shift lights from E30 Innovative Goods. Pretty awesome piece for the other “race car” drivers out there who need shift reminders.



Adjusting the shift light start and end points:



Added a little lipstick to the needles, used Testors 1150TT red paint per AWDBOB’s recc:



Glued in some gauge rings too, really happy with how everything turned out. The shift lights are awesome, I need to adjust the points a bit but you hardly notice them during daily driving duties. But when you do get after it, they definitely add a bit of flair to the acceleration experience. I would recommend to all the other “race car” drivers out there.



That's all I've got for now. Happy wrenching y'all!

[zwill23]

This thread rules- i just got caught up!! Where are you from in PA? I grew up in 19473.

Are you happy with the 257, or would you do a 252 if you did it all over?

Thanks! I appreciate the recognition from a fellow HooptE owner. That's definitely in the area! I grew up in Kutztown before moving to University City in Philadelphia, Texas may burn up the paint but I'll take that over the PA rust.

I think I would stick with the S257 actually. I posted in the E30 forced induction group on facebook that I would go with a 252 if I did it again, and a member with an identical setup had dyno numbers showing the S252 choking the M20 a bit on the top end, more boost needed for the S252 for the same power made with a S257. The S257 is still quite responsive imo, I'm able to build boost below 3k rpms and it will pull till redline. At the same time, I like that it's not so responsive that I can putt around town under the boost threshold so the blow off valve isn't going off left and right. During spirited driving as long as I'm in the right gear I'm really not fighting with lag.

tldr - I think the S252 is probably a great motorsport turbo and I think the S257 is great for a street car.

[AWDBOB]

This thread rules- i just got caught up!! Where are you from in PA? I grew up in 19473.

Are you happy with the 257, or would you do a 252 if you did it all over?

[AWDBOB]

This thread rules- I just got caught up!! Where are you from in PA? I grew up in 19473.

Are you happy with the 257, or would you do a 252 if you did it all over?

[zwill23]

Exciting update, I ran my bike into the house. Luckily the E30 held up well and so did the bike, the bike rack on the other hand... not so much :)



Next, I went to the junkyard to source some D585 coil packs.

I'm done dealing with the Quadspark overheating, I'm done building plug wires, and I'm done dealing with spark blow out.



My bounty!



Cleaned up the plug boots and coil packs and chopped up the coil pack harness from the LS2:



Began wiring them up. The wiring for these was very similar to how I had my Quadspark and the other GM coils wired, the only difference is the D585 have an extra ground sensor wire that I ran directly to the Megasquirt sensor ground pin.

Beyond switch power and a chassis ground, I just took the Megasquirt logic level outputs and wired Spark A to the coil packs on Cyl 1 and 6, Spark B to Cyl 2 and 5, and Spark C to Cyl 3 and 4.



Officially installed!!!





Looking back, I can't believe I didn't use the D585 smart coils in the past, but I was very new to Megasquirt and its capabilities. This was cheaper, the wiring is so much simpler, and I don't have to deal with the Quadspark. This is also using all off the shelf components that can be found at any auto part store.

And possibly best of all, I get my beer holder tray back

[zwill23]

After getting the oil pan back on the car I discovered it was leaking oil just as bad as it was before. Turns out, I did the oil pan job for no reason. The true reason for my massive oil leak was the b-tube, I was somehow missing the washer so the bottom o-ring wasn't sealing the tube. With the washer and o-rings replaced I'm officially leak free.

This is a good reminder to take the time to properly diagnose issues. I've been working on this car so long that I'm eager to tear it down and fix whatever problem is going on, but in reality I'm fairly certain I did not need to do a head gasket this year (temps still a bit erratic, I think the clutch fan is going) and I didn't need to change my oil pan gasket. Two big jobs for no reason but luckily I enjoy turning a wrench and there is peace of mind knowing they've been done at least.

Texas summer is officially here and I'll be damned if I don't have a vehicle to drive with AC. I installed all the new lines and the compressor when I did the head gasket so it should have just been a quick fill right?



Of course nothing is that quick, I ended up filling the system with my air compressor and spraying the connections to find leaks. I understand an air compressor may be frowned upon because it pushes moisture into the system, but after finding the leaks I replaced the AC dryer and gave it a good long vacuum to dry it back out.

Leaks!



This one was tricky, after triple checking all the connections I thought to check the valve on the high side line. Sure enough, there was my leak.



Replaced!



After discovering I had my AC condenser fan wired backwards, it was finally time to fill the AC.

Using the BMW R134 conversion doc found in our R3v R134 thread: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6q...0mVYz7YMKQfn9w

At 90deg ambient with 60% humidity I was shooting for 57 psi low / 249 psi high, without overfilling I came closer to 55 psi / 280 psi with a vent temp of 69 deg. For 90 deg with 60% humidity my vent temps should have been closer to 62 deg... but I was working with a heat soaked engine bay in a hot garage with a turbo cooking the AC line coming from the compressor.

Overall the AC is a bit more lackluster than I expected given the new Sanden compressor, but it's acceptable. In the mornings driving to work it's in the low 50s and on my drive home from work stuck in stop and go traffic the temps are in the 60s at 95deg.

Would a professional be able to get colder temps at the vent? Maybe. My gut tells me the true reason for the AC not being ice cold is the turbine housing being so close to the line. I'll probably have a custom line made in the future, but for now I'm whistling with the windows up



Wrapped the expansion valve in some butyl cork tape:



Wrapped AC line closest to the turbo with some DEI hooknloop wrap:



Went exploring around the old Texas town of Taylor and snapped a pic on main street:



This officially marks my last couple months with a garage and then I'm back to driveway wrenching

[zwill23]

I like the block drain idea. Takes some cojones but seems like a good solution.

Definitely some of the most dangerous drilling I've done, but one of those jobs where you're riding a high after completing, heh. I was surprised how soft the block material was to drill through.

[Panici]

I like the block drain idea. Takes some cojones but seems like a good solution.

[zwill23]

After changing the head gasket I found my undercarriage was soaked in oil after about 50 miles. Upon closer inspection I think I broke the oil pan seal when I replaced the crank and oil pump gear seals on the front timing cover.

It was time to break out the trusty HF engine support bar:



I have done this job so many times and it never seems to get easier. I dropped the subframe this go round and that did speed things up, but the oil pan was absolutely seized to the engine block this time. Of course removing it I ended up cracking the oil pan and had to source a new one. That RTV The Right Stuff works great, but damn I was starting to think the pan fused itself to the block. Even a scraper and a 5lb sledge wasn't removing the thing. Prying the back corner finally yielded success.



Picked up a new pan thanks to a good friend and an M20 collector, then swapped my oil baffle over:



I decided to take a different approach this time and drill the block rather than have a bung welded to the oil pan. This route was cheaper, faster, and puts the turbo drain well above the oil level. There is just the added stress of potentially turning your block into scrap :).



Tapped the block for a -10 bung with a 1/2" NPT fitting and sealed the threads with Loctite 561 pipe sealant.



Finding a spot to drill was much easier than I thought. There is plenty of room above the oil pump flange and next to the oil pressure sensor. Pushed the fitting 1/4" or so through the block:



Shortened my drain by a couple inches and now I'm offically back in business... for now.



Filling the new AC system is next up on the To Do list. I just might have two vehicles with functioning AC for Texas summer and I'm pretty sure that means I definitely have my life together.

[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

[Panici]

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

[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...

[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]

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 >:)