91 318is Never ending project(s) journal

[monty23psk]

Driving the car is awesome. But with the new soft pedal and quick engagement, I decided to get a clutch stop. With UUC being so great with me recently and having a credit, I decided to get the v3 Big Boy clutch stop. I got it got it today and its beefy. I have installed and and so far it seems great preventing the longer throw of the clutch pedal. I might adjusted it 1 or 2 more times to dial it in but already feel the difference in its current setting. Here are some pics of it as it arrived and after the install. It is much bigger compared to the old one which is just a little bigger than a quarter.

[MR E30 325is]

Excellent work!

[Clintoxx]

Nice work!

[jeenyus]

great work. lots of mechanical changes.

I almost, ALMOST bought the TRE fuel pump based on your information here, but decided to go with the Walbro. How is the TRE holding up so far?

[monty23psk]

great work. lots of mechanical changes.

I almost, ALMOST bought the TRE fuel pump based on your information here, but decided to go with the Walbro. How is the TRE holding up so far?

So far it has been great. The pump retains pressure and sure the new FPR helps as if I use the car and go back to start the car withing 30 minutes, in 1 second the whole car is on.

The car sat 1 whole year and when I was done, put the key in and fired right up. Car does sit in the Miami heat and weather and no issue with it. Highly recommend it for the price as well.

[monty23psk]

Finally got back from a work trip and received my new hardware to install the BMW e30 transmission protection plate. The plate is really for an m20 as the O2 sensor does hit the plate. I had to develop a bracket to lower it enough, about 1.5 inches so that it would strike the O2 sensor. Maybein the future if something changes with the exhaust, I will put the O2 in a different area.

Here is the OEM plate, still available and not that expensive:


Here is all the hardware which I had to guess and figure out in the ETK. I ended up using the goldish flower looking nuts as the blind rivets wouldn't really stay in place. Was afraid it would eventually fall. I wanted to make the install of the plate in way that it would be easy to remove in needed for any repairs. I couldn't find any instructions or part numbers for the install so I made by own using the parts that look to be used by BMW. The rear section is just more square nuts the fit in the slots just like the rear tranny mounting brace. I had to drill out the holes with a dremel to widen it for these nuts. Bolts and washers worked great. If anyone would like blind rivets, let me know. If they would have expanded, it would have been the best. Other option is the thread the whole for an m11 or m12 short bolt. I can supply PNs if needed.


Here are a few shots of it installed, and no issues or vibration noises after a few runs. You can see the straight place that I used to mount the rear passenger side. It does look to sit lower but it is at the lever of the 2 small rubber mounts under the tranny that has the bracket that clamps onto the exhaust. Better view of it in the 2nd picture.

[monty23psk]

I was getting a little water in the trunk in the bottom area of where the car jack. I found the culprit to be the rubber grommets for the rear side marker lights were cracked and allowing some water in. While fixing that as I can't get new ones unless I order e30 M3 rear side markers, I decided to order some new seam sealer as I found the original cracked, common fault on the e30 and water has seaped through and rusted out a small section above the rear lights. I did a quick repair with Rust Bullet, I heard its better that POR-15. I did the repair on the both side, and also replaced the trunk gasket as it is 10 years old and back then I sent with the URO brand. I know better now and went with BMW. Right now all is sealed perfect after a test of running water with a hose for over 5 minutes while I was in the trunk with a flashlight. I will touch up the silver paint with the red top coat when I have the car painted.

Here is the grommet I mentioned. I used an RTV sealant to plug the grommet for now. Worked well and would recommend all e30 owners to do so.



Here are the before:





Here are the after:



I found a small patch on the inside of the rear license place light. Will touch that up when I touch up some spare tire wheel well on the e39 in 2 weeks.

[monty23psk]

I received the 3M seam sealer today and the main reason I went with it, it is clear in color. Basically used to seal the cracks until I get the car painted. It worked great and will hold me off. Highly recommend it and just make sure the bead is thick enough which is hard to gauge with it being clear. I offered to help my dad with his e28 which has a humid trunk. He probably needs all new gaskets. If you are local to me, you are more than happy to take some.

Pic of seam sealer:


The before shots and you can surely see the cracks in the seam sealer.



Here is a pic of sealer applied. Dries in under an hour and can be painted in 40 minutes per instructions.

[monty23psk]

Received my new gift, a programmable wiper module from Innovative Goods who is on the forums on R3Vlimited.

Here is the link to the product:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=400403

I remove the old one, removed the cover to it, added it it to the new module and works like a charm. Now I can program my delay in seconds in the lowest speed. Also a nice feature is when you activate the washer pump, it sprays before it begins to swipe and there is are 2 clean swipes a few seconds later after the washer stops pumping fluid on the windshield.

Here are the pics of the module and it with the cover with the old one next to it.

[bradnic]

Received my new gift, a programmable wiper module from Innovative Goods who is on the forums on R3Vlimited.

Here is the link to the product:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=400403

I remove the old one, removed the cover to it, added it it to the new module and works like a charm. Now I can program my delay in seconds in the lowest speed. Also a nice feature is when you activate the washer pump, it sprays before it begins to swipe and there is are 2 clean swipes a few seconds later after the washer stops pumping fluid on the windshield.

sweet. i have one coming as well. I have HLCS on one of my vert though so need to figure out if I can really use it there. Otherwise it goes to the IX

btw have you checked 318is prices on BaT lately? Getting insane.

http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1991-bmw-318is-11/

[monty23psk]

Yes they have been going up. I just recently insured it with Hagerty as I dont drive it due to taking kids to school, don't want car seats on the rear m3 seats. They value the 318is in concourse condition at $25k. Not m3 prices but its nice to see them go up.

[RobertB]

Got a few things done since the last update. I finished going through all the plastic covers in the engine bay with SEM trim paint. I need to wash the engine bay and take a pic. What a difference. Painted the light covers, spark plug cover, fan shroud, firewall cover as posted above, and even the radiator support. I decide to continue on the exterior and do the kidney grill. The euro grills were nice so this will complement them. I have this on the m5 which also has all shadowline trim. I will post pic of the it installed tomorrow with sunlight. If anyone is wondering, you can remove the chrome rings from the backplance. There is a grommet with a plastic pin at the top and bottom of each side. You just need to push the pin out and magic.

Pics of before, the pin location and after:




I also resurfaced my rear brake rotors and bought new pads. Porterfield's to match the front. I had installed new ATE oem ones almost 5 years ago. Now the brakes bite when you hit it. No more squel either. Did a good bleed with pressure bleeder and my Pentosin racing brake fluid. Pic of the rear brake pads box. I recommend these as they are for the street.



Last, I got my little project under the way. I found someone on the 2002 forums and he rebuilds BMW oem seatbelts as a hobby. I gave him my hardware and he installed my red webbing. I figured this was possible by taking a seatbelt apart. Came out really good and paid half of the new m3 evo ones. I also got the receptacle webbing replaced which is not even availabe from BMW from the rears. He even stiched on the BMW tags. The stiching is not the best, but like he explained it is done with laser machines at the factory. I found few companies that would restore them but about the price of just getting new ones. Here are pics of the rear ones. This will go nice with my micro suede rear panel and the mtech cloth interior I am about to install. If someone would like the seatbelt guru's contact information, PM me. Enough explaination, here are the pics.

Where did you got the red seatbelt webbing? What specific color is it?


THanks

[monty23psk]

I got it from the guy who did the stitching. Can't recall the color name.

[monty23psk]

Hey everyone, just another quick update. I decide to overhaul my instrument gauge cluster. Something I started about 9 years ago, I finally completed. The SI board was bad when I bought the car and had it swapped Programa, which is probably the most popular company for the repairs is located near my home town so I get lucky with quick turn arounds for a replacement board. Also, when I bought the car, I knew I would overhaul the cluster so I bought a use cluster off the forums and decided to make my own extension cables. My plan was to place the cluster on top of dashboard for any testing to then fix things quickly before installing it back into the dashboard. I unsoldered the AMP terminations from the borrowed cluster to make 10-12" extensions. I used the same pin out at my m42 so this might not work on other e30 cars. Also, the m42 came with Motometer clusters, not the common VDO ones.

Well the SI board went bad again and needed to swap it out. I took this time to finish the pigtails and overhaul the cluster.

Here is a picture of the pigtails. I will take some of them installed in the near future.



I have also tested a few LED bulbs and have found everyone one to swap out in all the correct colors from SuperBrightLEDs.com. I just placed the order and hope to have the cluster hooked up this weekend. I also cleaned the gauge faces and repainted the needles red as I had paint smears from the first time. Novice mistakes.

I was thinking of renting this cables even though they will be limited or maybe even sell them.

[monty23psk]

While waiting for my LED bulbs to arrive, I got the case of the cluster and decided to try something. I have the ColorBond BMW black for interior pieces and wanted to see what if the inside of the cluster was black instead of the gray. Here is a picture of the two. I am leaning towards the black. It seems to pop out the black of the gauges and the red needles.

The fuel and temp needles are not done at this point. Also, the LEDs should stand out more this way.

Which one do you like? I still would move the trim rings over.

Original (Gray)


New (Black)