A Tale of 2 Sedans M42/S52

[DEV0 E30]

Great thread. And the touring --- oh hell yes. Love the way it looks as is - silver is one of my faves on them.

I get the want for more go. I have dreams of k swapping my touring (m42/5speed) but not until I really want to go down that rabbit hole and have more garage space.

[eternal24k]

Vermont green! I like the combo. Where in VT are you?

thanks! I am in Chittenden County by Mount Mansfield. I am still trying to get the car finished.... The painter painted the shell and 90% of the car, and has since closed the business and is very difficult to get ahold of. It's a bit of a nightmare situation, not sure whether or not I am going to have to get legal involved, i pray not.



But on the positive side, was able to pick up the wagon and road trip it home


The Pros:

• Ran great, made the 10hr drive mostly trouble free (see below)
• paint looks fantastic and no rust on tail gate, undercarriage or other common areas
• crack free dash, new headliner, and Alpina cloth interior
• body is straight, straight enough the mason engineering strut brace fits right up

Cons:

• Radio doesn't work, not sure why, and when checking fuses I discovered a cobra alarm and other aftermarket wiring i need to dig into and undo
• Although low km/mileage, it has an M20B20 and auto box, it's a dog in terms of go....
• the last 1hr of the drive it developed a drivetrain noise, rubbing or something loose, hoping just CSB or guibo
• The Alpina valve cover is a cheap knock-off, making me assume the wheels are as well

The Plan:
right now, just go over all the wiring, try to get the wiring done, eventually replace all bushings with OEM, going to keep this as OEM+ as possible, no poly on this build. Very torn on what to do with drivetrain, would love a K swap, but that doesn't feel right for the Alpina tribute. I do have a G240 and driveshaft, I may just manual swap it for now and continue to mull over the motor situation...

[MasukBMW]

Vermont green! I like the combo. Where in VT are you?

[iXguido]

Looks like exciting things on the horizon! Those seats look amazing! That wagon is gorgeous.

[eternal24k]

well, I am back from my long trip overseas and things are moving along...


paint shop is moving on the S52 car, and I guess I may have a color theme going on....

looking forward to wrapping that up, getting the seats and new carpet installed.

On the other Rad car, the CRX had really beat seats that I got reupholstered, hopefully picking those up soon


And the last bit of news, currently waiting on this guy to get on a ship so I can fly down to MD and pick it up from the port (anyone insured a car in transit or do we all just roll the dice??)

[eternal24k]

dropped the S52 back off for paint and got word that my seats are done.

I think I may sell the SRDs or go with L Seat covers in brown some day for the toad/green car

[eternal24k]

been doing a ton of wiring, starting with Komfort Relay from Skudak Rennsport (Kyle's doing god's work for the E30)


End results are super handy, I love the tap-to-signal feature

I also wired in the new cluster, oil temp, volt meter, still need to hook up the coolant temp, but overall super happy with the cluster



Not sure if this video will work...

Untitled by M K, on Flickr

[eternal24k]

What are the F/R piston sizes on that E83 master?

No idea mate

[bimmer630]

What are the F/R piston sizes on that E83 master?

[eternal24k]

Finally mounted my TH2s and couldn’t be happier, and the Autosolutions shifter is great. I did just put Pentosin MTF2 (my ZF320 has a MTF sticker) and it was pretty notchy, I forgot how much I chased smooth shifting fluids in my E36 M3, but if it doesn’t improve with warmer weather I’ll probably go back to D4 or mix D4 with MT90...

[eternal24k]

weather took a turn which has really slowed things down.... But I did finally get the exhaust back on the S52 after the Autosolutions shifter swap and finally threw my Compomotive wheels on, sneak peak:

[eternal24k]

Finally got wiring for the bixenon conversion. I had gotten an open barrel crimper that i've been wanting to try out, so i took my time with all splices to not only crimp, but solder and then heat shrink, overkill, but looking back at some wiring i have found from the PO, better than the alternative...








Initial impressions- Very happy. At first i was worried the HID were too blue, but they warm up to the 3800k bulb temp rather quickly. The cutoff looks amazing, and the audible "click" of the shields when going from low to high is very satisfying

I'll snap some output photos when i get the exhaust back on and out of the garage.

[eternal24k]

speaking of solutions...
I wasted hours messing aronud with bolts and other bits trying to re-install the bitch clip while installing my Autosolutions Madman shifter. Every piece of that kit is tight, and getting the clip all the way through both sides of the mount was absolutely killing me. Until i realized that I had an old clip, so i turned it down with a nice taper and drove it in with the new clip right behind it, and it worked so well.





New rogue trans mounts (nothing exciting to look at, trying to track things in this thread for my future self)


Topped it off with a weighted Blackforest Industries shifter, hoping this turns out to be worth some hype, was a bit more work than i originally budgeted....

[downforce22]

ill have to try that socket solution, Ive had a trunk that wont hold itself up for a while now but i like your solution

[Northern]

that works when the struts need to go further apart (how i installed my $50 BavAuto on this car), on my S52 car, i had the opposite problem.

Ah I missed that. Weird problem to have.

Also find it weird that I clicked the notification for this thread and see the same images I was just staring at on facebook lol