Malik's 87 325is build (DAILY DRIFT E30)

[ROLLingKING]

so after talking to my boy jeff, the nuts in the pic below, I can take off..The bolts behind these are not meant to turn...according to him!lol so imma go for it. just took the brackets off my exhaust. one of em snapped it was rusted so bad. took off the tranny support bracket and then the stock e30 chassis brace thing in the middle of the car. Gonna undo them bolts now and hope it works

[ROLLingKING]

I took my car for the first drive in about 6 days last night, since motor & tranny mounts were put in, and I figured out how to get the guibo bolt that fell out back in, and it had just stopped raining so it was pretty calm out. Now my motor has not been mounted since I got the car in april. Shortly after in about may i noticed the fan was hitting the shroud so i cut the shroud, didnt think much of it. But now i realize that is when it started getting worse.haha But now that its straight and the tranny is straight the car has MORE TOUQUE! i swear it really does. less wasted motor vibrations and a more efficient drivetrain i think makes sense.

Now that only took me and my friends a day to do. Thanks Chimmy and Drin, I honestly couldnt have done it without u guys. Figuring out how to reach the nuts behind the guibo took me a while. I was too worried that if i touched the nuts to try and take the guibo off of the tranny flange, the bolt in the back, which i already cang reach, would then be just freely spinning. I should have tried it about 4 days ago and woulda fixed the damn thing sooner!

Anyway, to finally get to the nut holding the driveshaft to the guibo I had to lower my muffler all the way, lower the tranny as much as possible, unbolt CSB so the driveshaft could hang down and then unscrew the bolt behind that, compressing the driveshaft just a little bit, but enough for me to get to the back where the nuts were hidden away. This took me about 5hrs by myself.

heres a pic of a bolt that snapped on the muffler bracket when i tried taking it off



vice grips on the bolt behind the CSB baaarely fit so I would only get a tiny turn, then have to go back out from underneath the car and take it out of gear, then go back underneath the car and rotate the driveshaft to where the vice grips would lock on, then get back out from under the car, put it in gear, crawl back underneath and then get my 1/4 of rotation and start the process over & over & over.lol


^ this is what it looks like when it compresses i guess. i didnt know if the grease buldging out was a sign of it working or what but my boy jeff is very knowledgeable on early models so i just kept going with it.
Thanks Jeff.



What ive learned after all this is I will NEVER touch the damn bolts that attach the driveshaft to the guibo Uness the guibo is already out. The driveshaft is a bitch to get out if the exhaust isnt completely out the way. and to have done that i would have had to taken off my headers..and those bolts probably wont wanna move.

[TimKninja]

Had this sameproblem, wish I saw your thread earlier. I undid three of the bolts that attached the guibo to the Transmission studs, then dropped the CSB, And it was barely enough to fit a wrench behind each of the bolts as I rotated it. Ive since deleted the stupid sheild, makes dropping the Driveshaft a 15 minute job now.

[ROLLingKING]

Had this sameproblem, wish I saw your thread earlier. I undid three of the bolts that attached the guibo to the Transmission studs, then dropped the CSB, And it was barely enough to fit a wrench behind each of the bolts as I rotated it. Ive since deleted the stupid sheild, makes dropping the Driveshaft a 15 minute job now.

niiice..that pic u see is as far as i could get the the guibo to pop out without taking the headers out..the resonator and cat were in the way from dropping the csb lower. When u got the guibo out how did u get the shield off?

[ROLLingKING]

trying to fix front sway & cross-brace issues

I have the suspension techniques 22mm front sway and the raceskids cross-brace..btw i do love the handling..just not the rubbing

I noticed one day lowering the car that my sway bar hits the crossbrace when the car is totally back down. It also explains the metal to metal sound i sometimes get over bumps.


Heres how it was installed at the rack. is this wrong?



I tried putting some washers up where the steering rack bolts go in. But that made the bolt only reach half way through the nut up top of the rack. I dont really feel confident about that so imma try putting washers at the lollipop's. OH, and it still rubs with the washers anyway...

Has anyone else had this problem!?
I dont even understand why im rubbing..this one guy on the for sale thread has a 25mm front sway, cross brace and no rubbing

[ROLLingKING]

stiilll trying to fix aux fan

So i got the temp sensor for the aux fan. Its supposed to cut on at 2 different speds I thought. The sensor that came with the car didnt really work. just to recap, cause i think this is posted earlier but:
1. when i got the car the aux fan wouldnt cut on period..so i tried fising the wiring..nothing
2. I put in a resistor..then the fan STAYED ON all the time.
3. now i got a new sensor. i let the car sit on till it started creeping past the 1/2 mark..i got toward the 3/4th and the fan still didnt cut on...WTF

I did notice on the new plug thing..theres some wiggle room with the plug. Maybe it doesnt fit cause I got the wires from an e36..i cut it from the JY. it should still work though! i even called bavauto before ordering it to make sure it would be the right one.lol
the part i got is from www.uroparts.com
and i got pn: 61 31 1 378 073

*OH and i just tried the other old plugs from an e30 and they kinda have the same wiggle room. so i dont think its the plug i got from the jy..its the sensor..cause it was on low with the last sensor.riight??lol

**8/27 edit..my friend said the temp sensor should work. i didnt let the car warm up close enough to the 3/4 but its brand new and the proper part number so theres nothing left to fail.lol i just never had it working so i was expecting something else i guess

[TimKninja]

Back when the M20 was in my car, I pulled it out and rebuilt it, which meant the exhaust got new hardware (locknuts) . I would dissconnect the exhaust at the manifolds and then dropped it all down in one peice. I had one holder on the subframe and the muffler strap. Last time I took it off it took 10 minutes and the whole thing was off. I strongly suggest new hardware for the exhaust . The old bolts where a bitch to get off, required a set of Harbor Freight bolt outs. Many extentions, a hammer.

You need a 30mm socket to get that bolt off, but you need to ether shave down a normal one or buy the BMW thin walled 30mm socket. You also need to bend three tabs on the washer behind it, and then use some form of 22mm wrench to put on the front crank to stop it from turning. Then a breaker bar and a shitload of torque will break the nut free. I recommend changing the output shaft seal while your in there. You might loose some fluid from the tranny too. Once you take the nut off the output flange should come off relatively easily. Maybe with some prying . Once you get the output flange off the sheid should come with it. The sheid is pressed on, you just need to separate it.

Or you might have the later style which I beleave once you get the guibo off , you just rotate it alittle and it'll come off without removing the output flange.

[ROLLingKING]

Cross-brace fix take 2...not being dumb this time

So with 3 washers @ the steering rack the bolt reached the top of the steering rack, but just went about 1/3 through the nut...a guy selling race skid cross-braces in the for sale section said put washers at the steering rack. With 3 washers I didnt feel confident with the bolt just barely reaching the nut.

So i put 2 washers in the rack and the bolt almost reaches all the way through the nut..then for safe measure i put 2 washers in the lollipop bolt holes and lowered the car..but the sway STILL RUBS!






Anyone know whats goin on?? ill put up pics of the sway bar up in a minute but i mean, I dont think its hooked up wrong.

[ROLLingKING]

Back when the M20 was in my car, I pulled it out and rebuilt it, which meant the exhaust got new hardware (locknuts) . I would dissconnect the exhaust at the manifolds and then dropped it all down in one peice. I had one holder on the subframe and the muffler strap. Last time I took it off it took 10 minutes and the whole thing was off. I strongly suggest new hardware for the exhaust . The old bolts where a bitch to get off, required a set of Harbor Freight bolt outs. Many extentions, a hammer.

You need a 30mm socket to get that bolt off, but you need to ether shave down a normal one or buy the BMW thin walled 30mm socket. You also need to bend three tabs on the washer behind it, and then use some form of 22mm wrench to put on the front crank to stop it from turning. Then a breaker bar and a shitload of torque will break the nut free. I recommend changing the output shaft seal while your in there. You might loose some fluid from the tranny too. Once you take the nut off the output flange should come off relatively easily. Maybe with some prying . Once you get the output flange off the sheid should come with it. The sheid is pressed on, you just need to separate it.

Or you might have the later style which I beleave once you get the guibo off , you just rotate it alittle and it'll come off without removing the output flange.

Yea i have an early model, I didnt even get the guibo fully out..just got to the nut so im still not even sure whats up with it. Its still there covering the guibo tho. Ill let someone worry about it when i do mu clutch.haha or by that time ill have a different exhaust set up and will just be able to drup the CSB lower and pull the driveshaft out..u got any good M20 parts left tho!?lol

[ROLLingKING]

Cross-brace part 3....the solution

After starting a thread in the "springs, shocks, sways & steering" section (http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=222672) I got excellent feedback and a reason to why my sway rubs the cross brace.

It turns out that the IE 22mm & my Suspension Techniques 22mm front sway just DO NOT work with the race skids cross-brace. Now ejnight, selling the cross-brace on the forums says his 25mm front sway fits. Someone else, bearmw, says the IE 22mm does not fit. I have no reason not to believe them so to settle this I plan on calling IE and asking if their 22 & 25mm bars have the same design and bends. according to their site the 25 is hollow but doesnt say anything else about the designs and their similarity

So I tried washers, tried taking off and putting on my front sway and it yielded the same results..at first I thought it was cause it was an early model or just my fricken luck so it feels so good to know its just not me and i didnt do anything wrong.lol

today I took off the cross brace until i can find a vert sway (21mm). I am selling my ST 22mm front sway bar though! I think with my cross-brace and a strut brace i will be fine up front with any stock sway.

Someone said i may need adjustable front sway bar links but all those i saw seemed longer, and i just didnt think a endlink could be shorter.


When i took off the cross-brace I noticed where it wanted to move up to and saw how the cross-brace was simply in the way. Someone said I should make sure the front sway was horizontal when the car was on the ground. Mine was pointing upwards which made the bottom of the sway move forward.

this last pic below is just to see if i installed it wrong.haha i was considering all posibilities


I went for a very spirited drive and there was a noticeable difference without the brace. I think the x-brace along with a strut brace will be just fine up front for what i need.

What im thinking now is that a 2mm difference in sways wasnt giving me huge handling gains. I was talking to a few drifters at a local meet in kingstowne, VA and they were telling me how u do not want the front to be too stiff. Granted they drove 240's and a AE86 but they had more track time than me. more trial and error. So this may have been a blessing in disguise which will help me in the long run? I would just throw the stock bar back in and use the cross-brace with it but i dont think it will work with the ST bushings. And i dont feel like doin it twice in 1 week


Another problem off the list!

[ROLLingKING]

So i just started work again yesterday!! another bmw.lol (black man working)

Hopefully i will be able to start this build up and make it interesting again. In the meantime I hope to do these things within the next couple weeks:
1. Paint chrome window trim black & side trim
2. Get Spal pusher Fan! prolly a 16"
3. Front and Rear Strut Brace

Then in november ill get more into the good stuff:
4. Ground Control Coilover Conversion Kit (ordering skidplate @ same time.lol)
5. MILLER MAF AND WAR CHIP!!! cant friggen wait for this guy
6. Custom Exhaust featuring a Vibrant Muffler
7. Engine Tune Up/Head Gasket check & resurfacing
8. Acquire turbo parts

I am a firm believer that you do not need a lot of power to drift. Look at the AE86...it was my dream car growing up, hard to believe. But that car has a lawn mower motor and that is plenty for the Japanese to work with. The m20 makes good enough power for a beginner like me. I am concentrating most on getting the suspension and chassis dialed in first. Plus I wanna get these GC's so my car aint so high and rake lookin.

Ive been trying to research what the best spring rates would be for going sideways. Ive seen setup numbers posted but have a real hard time understanding how that translates to feel.

How stiff can I go and still be able to take my car to DC or to the track to drift. 600/700

[ROLLingKING]

Took the pads out of the rear springs..now im saving up for the GC coils!!

Also, my buddy recorded some random time in the car.lol



AHAH..i quoted some youtube video posts and figured out what i was doing wrong. got it now

[dnick]

doin work! haha how do you like the solid mounts?

[ROLLingKING]

doin work! haha how do you like the solid mounts?

yeeaa man! im trying to do a little here and there
...but the solid mounts? im not exactly sure what you mean. motor or tranny mounts. neither are solid mounts tho

[ROLLingKING]

I forgot to post updates on the car. im messin with something almost every day.lol

nothing major. no pics either. sry

1. im selling my race skids cross brace. ive decided to keep my suspension techniques sways and get front and rear strut bars in a couple weeks. After that a roll cage and coils should be fine

2. i went to the JY and there was a 325 convertible that had JUST got there. took all the change out the ash tray. about $4 in quaters.:nice: and i found a hazard button and a fog light button. the hazards on my car only turned on the right signal.haha and the fog light button was missing the face of the button. popped em out and the guy was like dont worry its yours. now i need the rear fog button..forgot.lol

3. I tried finding what exactly is supposed to hold my battery down. Got the long ass screw and little metal piece from the JY but it wouldnt screw into anything. I pulled out the battery tray and the piece its supposed to screw into was in the bottom of the trunk, rusted so bad the threads were all flush. So now i have to find some kind of piece for the long screw to feed into.

**oh and my oil light came on today. at my last oil change i filled it about half way between the 2 dots. I guess it filled every part of the motor (finally?) and when i checked the level it was towards the bottom line. I topped it off and the oil light went off. it wasnt the oil light on the dash so i didnt totally panic. I did call a friend tho cause that light has never came on the check panel. he simply informed me it was the oil level light and it likes the oil level at 2/3f or more towards the top line