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

[Jean]

Need more videos :)

[JGood]

Fuck yeah! Absolutely loving it over here man. I need a V8 E30 now.

Looks beefy with those spacers installed! Love the paint matched strut brace too.

Thanks! I just had my buddy paint that strut bar a few weeks ago.

Need more videos :)

My rear tires are down to 3/32's now, so I'll probably roast off the rest of them sometime soon. I'll make sure to get it on video. Hopefully I can have enough restraint to make the next set last longer haha. Luckily they are only $200/set.

[MattAvino]

good god its so beautiful

[JGood]

Well, it's been a little while since I've posted in this thread. I've been working on the car off and on, still trying to work out some kinks.

I still have my issue where it backfires/hesitates when getting on the gas after engine braking. After replacing the entire fuel system, ignition system, DME, and running every test known to man, I decided to replace the engine wiring harness. This was a 2 day affair, as I used an auto harness that had cut o2 wires, so there was a lot of work involved in getting that sorted. In the end, the car drove 100% identical to how it did before. So, I guess there is something wrong with the actual engine. Since compression, leakdown, and vacuum are good, it must be timing related.






I got sick of getting pinhole leaks in my oil filters from pebbles and crap on the highway, I was replacing at least one filter a week. Not to mention it was covering my brakes/suspension/entire underside of my car in oil each time. So I built this box to go around them.









Finally, I replaced the front 325iX Bilstein HD's with 325iX Koni SA's, which were a grade upgrade. Much better matched to the 450 lb springs. Also lost about 2" of droop and gained about 2-3" of travel.

[Andy.B]

I stumbled across this thread by chance, and just read through all 50+ pages. Amazing work. You have a lot to be proud of.

Also, you make me feel crappy about having a PILE of new parts that still need to be installed on my 87, but I just haven't 'had the time', for the last 6 months. Also, that I keep talking myself out of swapping the m20b27 to a m20b25, because that just seems like too much work.

Especially considering I used to be a mechanic for Land Rover. Where I would do two Freelander warranty engine replacements a day.

Ya know what? Screw you for making me realize just how lazy I've gotten!

Haha. Amazing car, and great work!

[JGood]

I *FINALLY* got the drivability issues sorted. It was a bad chip that I got from a member on bf.c. I put a stock DME from an automatic car back in, and all of the hesitation and stalling issues disappeared. It did do some weird things because of it being a factory automatic chip (power limited below 3k, hanging RPM's when lifting, etc...) So I picked up a Mark D chip for a manual m60, and put that in, and now the car runs perfect.

I tried a stock DME before, but I had other issues at the time (pre-o2 exhaust leaks causing the DME to read fault codes on both o2's). And the backfiring. I figured all of these things were being caused by the same issue, so I didn't bother leaving the stock chip in long enough to notice the difference.

I still get a backfire/crackling when getting on the gas after engine braking, but this seems to be the norm when running catless m60's. I may put a set of cats on it, as it's pretty annoying.



Not much else is new, just working on cleaning up all the little details throughout the car. I have a little over 10k miles on it already since the rebuild. Now that the drivability issue is sorted, I can finally fully enjoy it! I've been going to a bunch of local shows/meets lately.

[bradnic]

WOW.. You were chasing those problems forever!!! Very glad to hear they're finally straightened out! Your work here is an inspiration J

[dude8383]

Jeez, its always something simple!

Congrats on getting it sorted man.

[JGood]

Also, I deleted the oil cooler. I blew up three of them. 2 Earl's and one ebay no-name. They all had poor castings, both Earl's leaked in the exact same spot. That whole remote filter setup has just been a waste of time and money. Leaking AN fittings, punctured filters, blown coolers, leaking oil filter brackets. I'd recommend just using the stock oil filter housing for an m60 swap.

Jeez, its always something simple!

Congrats on getting it sorted man.

WOW.. You were chasing those problems forever!!! Very glad to hear they're finally straightened out! Your work here is an inspiration J

I know, and it sucks I wasted a year and probably $1500 on replacing/diagnosing EVERYTHING, but at the same time, I learned a *LOT* about Motronic and fuel injection in general. And I have a LOT of good spare parts now, lol. I'm also glad it wasn't something that I was doing wrong in testing/troubleshooting. A bad tune is a bad tune, no way for me to really diagnose it without being on the dyno, reading A/F.

[8380 Labs]

congrats on getting your issues sorted, man. i dunno if i would have been able to keep pushing ahead like you did.

[dirty30]

Also, I deleted the oil cooler. I blew up three of them. 2 Earl's and one ebay no-name. They all had poor castings, both Earl's leaked in the exact same spot. That whole remote filter setup has just been a waste of time and money. Leaking AN fittings, punctured filters, blown coolers, leaking oil filter brackets. I'd recommend just using the stock oil filter housing for an m60 swap.

or do a single remote filter up in the bay somewhere, it is nice not having a huge ugly upper radiator hose

[JGood]

Also, I deleted the oil cooler. I blew up three of them. 2 Earl's and one ebay no-name. They all had poor castings, both Earl's leaked in the exact same spot. That whole remote filter setup has just been a waste of time and money. Leaking AN fittings, punctured filters, blown coolers, leaking oil filter brackets. I'd recommend just using the stock oil filter housing for an m60 swap.

Well, just hours after posting this, I blew out another oil filter on my way home from work. This time I cut it apart to see if it was a filter failure, or if I could see evidence of debris hitting it. I built a metal box to surround the filter, there's no way debris should have hit it. I couldn't even find the pinhole leak in the casing after cutting it open, which is odd because the filter was dumping out oil with only ~10psi to them. So I have no idea.

or do a single remote filter up in the bay somewhere, it is nice not having a huge ugly upper radiator hose

Yeah, well I had to grind the filter mounts off of the cylinder head for radiator hose clearance, so I can't use it in the stock location regardless. But I'm thinking of converting the housing to AN fittings and mounting it over on the passenger side where the A/C accumulator used to be, there's a round hole in that tray already. I could stick it down in there, out of site, and still be able to remove the filter from the top. My AN hoses are already run over there, I'd just need to run the pressure bleed-off hose back to the oil pan on the drivers side.

I don't want to deal with any aftermarket parts anymore, at least not for the oil system.

[MR 325]

Holy hell, 10k on the car already? Glad you got the issues sorted out!

[JCarp90]

I couldn't imagine having put this much work into a car like this, and then having those kinds of issues for a year. I would probably end up parking it in storage and ignoring it until I had some patience again. I'm glad you got it sorted!

[King Mufasa]

very good read

http://www.oilcoolers.com/article_oil_cooler_woes.asp