The complete repair, rebuild, repaint, and v8 swap of my early model sedan

[kristov]

How much did you pay and do you have any comments on the quality?

[JGood]

I got everything in the pic for $339, normal price $600ish. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, still need to run a second 220v outlet, my current one is being used by my compressor. But the build quality is great and the reviews are all positive, many people saying it's just as good as similarly spec'd Miller and Lincoln machines which are double the price. Only difference is you don't get the same local repair network that those companies offer. However, you can walk into the Eastwood store and they'll probably swap the machine out for you no questions asked, those guys have the best customer service of any company I've ever dealt with. They randomly throw in free stuff every time I walk in there, and if I ever have the slightest complaint about a product, they refund me no questions asked or swap it out with a new one. Can't say enough good things about those guys.

[dude8383]

You get that MAF yet?!

[JGood]

You get that MAF yet?!

ETA is Friday, but I'm expecting it before then. Well, hoping for it before then I should say, haha.



To update the thread, I did get a Snap On Ethos scanner hooked up, and was reading live data with the engine running. Cool stuff! However, I don't know WTF I'm looking at. I was getting MAF values, TPS values, etc... but I don't know how to spot an issue. So, I've been doing some research to learn more about how to read that data. I'll need to plug my o2 sensors back in so I can get valid readings and see how the computer adjusts the short term fuel trims. That may be of help. I may need to go monitor a good running m60 engine and take some notes on the ranges of the various sensors, to see what things should look like, then compare it to mine.

[Den_k321]

beast!

[AndrewBird]

FYI, exhaust leaks will cause popping/backfiring out the exhaust. Air enters through leaks and the un-burt fuel in the exhaust ignites. Usually happens after letting off the throttle as the engine is suddenly rich for a few seconds.

[JGood]

So I 'fixed' my 'clutch shudder'. All 4 diff bolts were loose, causing the diff to bounce around, hence the shaking of the car. Tightened them up, no more shuddering. I also noticed that my rear subframe bushings are beyond shot... there's almost nothing left of them. So that wasn't helping things.

I have a very loud clunk in the front suspension, and you can feel it in your feet over bumps on both sides of the car. I disconnected the swaybar on both sides, no change. The control arms are brand new Lemforder and have no play, I'm using new M3 offset CAB's, and the tie rods are new Lemforder. Strut collar nut is tight and so are the coilover adjusters/sleeves. So that only leaves the IE camber plates. I'll pull them apart this winter and check it out.

I'm off to h2oi tomorrow morning. The car just rolled over 299k today, I might hit 300k down there, or shortly after I come back. I'd like to get a video of some donuts or something as it rolls over 300k.

FYI, exhaust leaks will cause popping/backfiring out the exhaust. Air enters through leaks and the un-burt fuel in the exhaust ignites. Usually happens after letting off the throttle as the engine is suddenly rich for a few seconds.

Yeah, this is more of a loud crack as soon as I touch the throttle though, and the engine stumbles and hesitates for a second or two when it happens.

[JGood]

I decided to make my first trip to H2Oi. It was a 160 mile drive. 150 miles from home, my oil cooler blew up. This is the same problem Ryan had with the same oil cooler. Lesson learned, DO NOT USE CHEAP PARTS.



Luckily I rolled down with 2 other cars, so they went to find me some parts to get me on the road while I worked to tear the car apart and remove the oil cooler. They found a speed shop, who had a few random AN fittings, but they didn't have the proper size hose. So we had to string together a shit ton of different fittings to connect the hoses to bypass the cooler, since they didn't have the simple 10an male->10an male that would have worked. I think we ended up with 10an male->8an female swivel, to a 8an male->8an male, to 8an female->10an male. It was expensive and looks like shit, but it worked!



The rest of the trip was problem free. Here's the house we had, and a few of the cars:








It was a fun weekend, and I got a lot of compliments on the car... mainly the sound and the color. There were so many nice cars cruising around all weekend, it looked and sounded awesome!

[E30 Driver]

I just went through all 43 pages and this has to be one of my favorite build threads and I've seen my share of builds being on the VW and Saab forums. Great job man, you sir are an inspiration to people like me.

[mrbeef612]

Just throwing it out .... You get a code when the o2's are connected but non when they are not. Maybe the wringing is backwards some were in the loom. Just a idea. When me and my dad build a Fiero with a 3.4 DOHC the crank sensor was wired back wards and gave us hell. once we found it and fixed it no more problems. BTW amazing car I have a sedan I want it to look half as good as yours. AMAZING work man how close to VA are you? I would love to see the car and maybe we can bang some wrenches on mine LOL.

[JGood]

Just throwing it out .... You get a code when the o2's are connected but non when they are not. Maybe the wringing is backwards some were in the loom. Just a idea. When me and my dad build a Fiero with a 3.4 DOHC the crank sensor was wired back wards and gave us hell. once we found it and fixed it no more problems. BTW amazing car I have a sedan I want it to look half as good as yours. AMAZING work man how close to VA are you? I would love to see the car and maybe we can bang some wrenches on mine LOL.

Thanks man! I traced the o2 wires out out, they are correct. Tried switching them anyway for the hell of it, made no change.

[JGood]

It's been a while, time for some more work!

I had what I thought was clutch shuddering, but I realized it's the subframe bushings. You could take the subframe and shake it around with your hands, the bushings were beyond shot. I also decided I wanted to swap out my 3.25 LSD for a 2.93 LSD.

So, I began working on that yesterday.






Getting the subframe out was a HUGE pain in the ass. I ended up breaking one of the inner sleeves off inside the nub on the chassis. I still haven't determined how I'm going to remove it. I worked for about 2 hours today trying various things. It's flush on the inner diameter, so you can't hit it from the top. I tried driving a chisel into it and turning it, but it just mashed up the soft metal. I may resort to careful grinding with a dremel.




In the meantime, I got the subframe painted.




I'll be using AKG 85A poly subframe bushings and Lemforder trailing arm bushings.




I have a lot of work to do to the 2.93 if I want it to look like my 3.25 did. The rusty one is the 2.93, after about an hour of wire wheeling the lose rust off.

[Will_NZ]

Use a small diameter drill bit and drill some holes in the remaining aluminium sleeve, then break it up with a centre punch and chisel. Been there, done that...;)

[mtlbloodshot]

AHHHHH man, I didn't see you at H20i damn

[mrbeef612]

Hmmm well that s just crazy about the o2 sensors... Does it run better when it is cold then hot? because when the car is cold is does not use the o2 sensors. I am really trying to think what would make it do it. They have to be grounding out and causing the ecm to have a huge ground. How many engine grounds do you have? To few could cause a lot of gremlins. I would make sure they are on clean metal and tight.