Hi. You probably don't remember me. It's been a minute since I've checked in. Actually it's been about a decade: 11 years, 9 months, 3 days since I last logged in to r3v, to be exact. Can't believe I remember my password, which is good, because r3v had a long defunct email address on file. Anyways, you might not remember me. It's ok. I was an e30tech guy. My how things have changed.
I'm posting today to pick up where I left off 11 years ago, and finish the project I started back in 2004. It's entirely possible this endeavor is fruitless, in which case this thread my just get pushed way, way down into the archives as another almost-was. If that's what fate has in store, so be it. I want to start this thread before it's written. I want an honest, real-time account of this build. A time capsule, of sorts.
Let me provide some background, and how it came to be that a turbo e30 would spend 11 years sitting in a field, and what the future -might- hold for it. All of what follows is as near to my recollection as possible, some of which was documented, most was not.
in September 2004 shortly after graduating high school and right when I started going to college (local: I was still living with my parents) I bought a pair of e30s: 1984 Lapis Blau 325e (with the sport package - the "es" designation didn't exist until 1986) with a broken timing belt and a wrecked 1986 325es Bronzit with a good motor. I paid $750 for the pair, swapped the motor, and drove the blue car as my daily driver until 2009. During those 5 years I put an estimated $10k into the car, primarily in the form of a turbo build, but also suspension bits and other various upgrades and repairs. Based on facebook posts, I apparently put 60k miles on the car in that time, 40k of which while running megasquirt, and 20k with a turbo (most of that time running 0.5bar/7psi of boost on a stock eta engine).
In 2009 my throwout bearing failed. It was my senior year in college (university at that point, no longer living with my parents) and when I replaced the throwout bearing, I took the opportunity to make a lot of changes to turn the car into a 2.7i "stroker" build with an eta bottom end and "i" top end, and cranked up the boost and redline to 14.7psi and 6,000rpms, respectively. Naturally it makes sense that these upgrades follow the throwout bearing. Let me explain:
The eta uses a crank position sensor setup that is not compatible with Megasquirt spark timing, so for anyone who wants to use Megasquirt for ignition on an eta build, you have to replace the flywheel with one that has the right features. Furthermore the clutch was slipping at full boost and hard shifts, so it had no more room for adding power. When replacing the throwout bearing it's a perfect time to do the flywheel and clutch since the transmission is out of the car already. So I got the correct flywheel, machined off all the extra weight, got it balanced (final weight: 12.4lbs. Stock eta flywheel is ~25lbs iirc) put in a 6-puck clutch with an e30 M3 pressure plate and voila: The car could handle much more power and I could setup Megasquirt for ignition ("Megasquirt n Spark").
It dawned on me that since I now had ignition control, the only thing really holding back the build was the eta head: An "i" head has bigger ports, valves, and higher redline potential: 6,500rpm vs. the 4,800rpm of the eta head (I played it safe and kept it at 6,000rpm). In addition to that, the "i" head on an eta block results in lower compression (8.6:1 I think?) which allows for more boost. I put in new wastegate springs for 1bar (14.7psi).
And holy shit the car was completely transformed. a 7psi turbo setup on an eta motor makes the car fast and fun, but not crazy, nor scary. It was very livable and reliable. (The only challenge I had during those years was cold start on days that were ~0° F. I could just never get it right.) But with 14.7psi and 25% more RPM to play with it became an unruly fire breathing monster. 1st gear to ~55mph, then breaking the wheels loose when shifting to 2nd. And 2nd took it to 95mph, 3rd to 120mph. All thanks to the 2.79:1 rear end of the early eta cars. It was dramatically faster. It was also much, much harder to tune, and detonation became a big issue. Long story short while I was tuning I blew a head gasket. Unfortunately it happened right before I was to move to Colorado to start my first job after college.
I didn't have time to replace it (and it was further complicated by the fact that the head bolts actually stripped out of the block, probably thanks to using non-stretch head bolts and over-torquing them- don't do this), so in late 2009, before riding my motorcycle halfway across the country to start my new job, I had the car "oil undercoated" by a guy in Vermont who specializes in that procedure, parked the car at my parent's house in Massachusetts, and moved west. It still could start and run for a year or two after being parked, but I haven't tried in at least 8 years. Eventually I moved all the way to California, ending up in San Diego where I met my wife-to-be, bought a house, had a kid, and "settled down". I always fantasized about bringing my old e30 out to CA, but the emissions red tape on engine modifications was never something I had the wherewithal to deal with. For the better part of the past 11 years I haven't had the space or means to either legalize the e30 in CA, or bring it out as a track-only car. So there it sat, sinking into the dirt.
But now times have changed: I have garage space, I have a daily driver, I have the means and motivation. As everyone in the e30 community knows, these cars are also becoming worth significantly more, and it's truly time to shit or get off the pot: I need to either scrap it or restore it. I haven't *really* looked at it in 10 years so I don't know if the oil undercoat kept the chassis solid over the last 11 years or not. My plan is to evaluate the car and if it hasn't degraded too much: haul it out to CA and start restoring it. Of course the California emissions laws certainly complicate things, and suffice it to say my goal is to keep everything legit and legal. But that's getting ahead of myself and is a conversation for another day. First thing's first: Figure out if it's even worth restoring.
Come July, a little less than a month from now, I'll be flying to my parent's house to evaluate the car and if the chassis/rust situation checks out, I'll attempt to get the car running. So far my plan is to:
So without further ado, here's the car in it's current state as photographed by my brother a few weeks ago:
I think it's fair to say that only an enthusiast, and maybe only an enthusiast about this *specific* car would take on this project.
Next month I'll upload more photos during my evaluation, including under the hood. I guess in the meantime: For anyone who's pulled a car out of a field and got it running: What parts do you wish you bought beforehand? I'm placing an order with FCP Euro for all the aforementioned stuff, but is there anything I need just in case or almost certainly as a result of sitting for so long? I assume the brakes and tires are all toast, but probably good enough to get the car on a trailer, which is that counts right now.
I'm posting today to pick up where I left off 11 years ago, and finish the project I started back in 2004. It's entirely possible this endeavor is fruitless, in which case this thread my just get pushed way, way down into the archives as another almost-was. If that's what fate has in store, so be it. I want to start this thread before it's written. I want an honest, real-time account of this build. A time capsule, of sorts.
Let me provide some background, and how it came to be that a turbo e30 would spend 11 years sitting in a field, and what the future -might- hold for it. All of what follows is as near to my recollection as possible, some of which was documented, most was not.
in September 2004 shortly after graduating high school and right when I started going to college (local: I was still living with my parents) I bought a pair of e30s: 1984 Lapis Blau 325e (with the sport package - the "es" designation didn't exist until 1986) with a broken timing belt and a wrecked 1986 325es Bronzit with a good motor. I paid $750 for the pair, swapped the motor, and drove the blue car as my daily driver until 2009. During those 5 years I put an estimated $10k into the car, primarily in the form of a turbo build, but also suspension bits and other various upgrades and repairs. Based on facebook posts, I apparently put 60k miles on the car in that time, 40k of which while running megasquirt, and 20k with a turbo (most of that time running 0.5bar/7psi of boost on a stock eta engine).
In 2009 my throwout bearing failed. It was my senior year in college (university at that point, no longer living with my parents) and when I replaced the throwout bearing, I took the opportunity to make a lot of changes to turn the car into a 2.7i "stroker" build with an eta bottom end and "i" top end, and cranked up the boost and redline to 14.7psi and 6,000rpms, respectively. Naturally it makes sense that these upgrades follow the throwout bearing. Let me explain:
The eta uses a crank position sensor setup that is not compatible with Megasquirt spark timing, so for anyone who wants to use Megasquirt for ignition on an eta build, you have to replace the flywheel with one that has the right features. Furthermore the clutch was slipping at full boost and hard shifts, so it had no more room for adding power. When replacing the throwout bearing it's a perfect time to do the flywheel and clutch since the transmission is out of the car already. So I got the correct flywheel, machined off all the extra weight, got it balanced (final weight: 12.4lbs. Stock eta flywheel is ~25lbs iirc) put in a 6-puck clutch with an e30 M3 pressure plate and voila: The car could handle much more power and I could setup Megasquirt for ignition ("Megasquirt n Spark").
It dawned on me that since I now had ignition control, the only thing really holding back the build was the eta head: An "i" head has bigger ports, valves, and higher redline potential: 6,500rpm vs. the 4,800rpm of the eta head (I played it safe and kept it at 6,000rpm). In addition to that, the "i" head on an eta block results in lower compression (8.6:1 I think?) which allows for more boost. I put in new wastegate springs for 1bar (14.7psi).
And holy shit the car was completely transformed. a 7psi turbo setup on an eta motor makes the car fast and fun, but not crazy, nor scary. It was very livable and reliable. (The only challenge I had during those years was cold start on days that were ~0° F. I could just never get it right.) But with 14.7psi and 25% more RPM to play with it became an unruly fire breathing monster. 1st gear to ~55mph, then breaking the wheels loose when shifting to 2nd. And 2nd took it to 95mph, 3rd to 120mph. All thanks to the 2.79:1 rear end of the early eta cars. It was dramatically faster. It was also much, much harder to tune, and detonation became a big issue. Long story short while I was tuning I blew a head gasket. Unfortunately it happened right before I was to move to Colorado to start my first job after college.
I didn't have time to replace it (and it was further complicated by the fact that the head bolts actually stripped out of the block, probably thanks to using non-stretch head bolts and over-torquing them- don't do this), so in late 2009, before riding my motorcycle halfway across the country to start my new job, I had the car "oil undercoated" by a guy in Vermont who specializes in that procedure, parked the car at my parent's house in Massachusetts, and moved west. It still could start and run for a year or two after being parked, but I haven't tried in at least 8 years. Eventually I moved all the way to California, ending up in San Diego where I met my wife-to-be, bought a house, had a kid, and "settled down". I always fantasized about bringing my old e30 out to CA, but the emissions red tape on engine modifications was never something I had the wherewithal to deal with. For the better part of the past 11 years I haven't had the space or means to either legalize the e30 in CA, or bring it out as a track-only car. So there it sat, sinking into the dirt.
But now times have changed: I have garage space, I have a daily driver, I have the means and motivation. As everyone in the e30 community knows, these cars are also becoming worth significantly more, and it's truly time to shit or get off the pot: I need to either scrap it or restore it. I haven't *really* looked at it in 10 years so I don't know if the oil undercoat kept the chassis solid over the last 11 years or not. My plan is to evaluate the car and if it hasn't degraded too much: haul it out to CA and start restoring it. Of course the California emissions laws certainly complicate things, and suffice it to say my goal is to keep everything legit and legal. But that's getting ahead of myself and is a conversation for another day. First thing's first: Figure out if it's even worth restoring.
Come July, a little less than a month from now, I'll be flying to my parent's house to evaluate the car and if the chassis/rust situation checks out, I'll attempt to get the car running. So far my plan is to:
- Inspect overall rustiness. Hopefully not too bad with respect to the chassis, brakes, and fuel system (it wasn't perfect when I parked it, so rust repair is in my future no matter what). If it's good to go, then:
- Drain and replace the oil. Inspect for water
- Flush fuel system and replace fuel filter
- Attempt to start the car.
- IF that goes well (one or more pistons firing):
- remove head, inspect.
- If head/block are straight and not cracked: repair and replace the following
- stripped head bolt threads in the block (time-sert)
- install ARP head studs
- new head gasket (OEM)
- Timing belt and tensioner
- leave the car in running condition.
So without further ado, here's the car in it's current state as photographed by my brother a few weeks ago:
I think it's fair to say that only an enthusiast, and maybe only an enthusiast about this *specific* car would take on this project.
Next month I'll upload more photos during my evaluation, including under the hood. I guess in the meantime: For anyone who's pulled a car out of a field and got it running: What parts do you wish you bought beforehand? I'm placing an order with FCP Euro for all the aforementioned stuff, but is there anything I need just in case or almost certainly as a result of sitting for so long? I assume the brakes and tires are all toast, but probably good enough to get the car on a trailer, which is that counts right now.
Comment