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

[JGood]

I also tried the good old "Ferrari tune-up". Mainly due to a combination of frustration, and also out of desire to WANT this thing fixed, to give me motivation.


So, I guess I'll just go ahead and leave this here....

[dmoney(AB)]

haha sounds awesome!

good ol v8!

[evandael]

justin, god speed man. you took this car down to nuts and bolts and brought it back to life. you're driving it. you built it. it's a fucking v8 powered e30. don't let the little stuff keep you from realizing the dream.

i'm sure its frustrating and i can't even imagine it, but you'll sort it out, just like how you sorted out an entirely fubared driver's side shock tower.

[Jean]

I can ship you my dme and icv to swap and try. If I had a spare MAF i would include it as well, but I don't recall if I have one (I plan on buying some of these new).

Don't give up....of course issues come up, you either end up replacing everything on the engine to not have issues and yet still something will come up... take a break from it for a few weeks and come back at it :)

[Cabriolet]

wow that sound, just amazing.

[MattAvino]

i'm sure its frustrating and i can't even imagine it, but you'll sort it out, just like how you sorted out an entirely fubared driver's side shock tower.

this

[JGood]

For those interested in my ridiculous and exhaustive troubleshooting process, there is a thread here:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=255226

So many people do junkyard engine swaps without touching the engine, and they run great for years. I replace every seal, gasket and sensor and the thing is a complete piece of shit. Go figure. Nice thing is, I learned how every piece of Motronic 3.1 operates, and learned a lot about fuel injection systems in general. Apparently not enough to fix this issue yet though, lol.

Anyway, I got to the point where I needed a vacuum test to determine if I have any leaks. I'm getting 16 in Hg's at idle, but that's irrelevant since nobody on the face of the earth seems to know if that's acceptable for an m60.

So, I decided to do a smoke test. Not wanting to buy a $1400 smoke machine or pay a shop to do it, I made my own.




It worked awesome. Lit an old greasy rag on fire, let it burn for 30 seconds, threw it in the can, and closed the lid. Set the air pressure to ~2 psi. I had tons of smoke for at least an hour. Hooked the hose up to the vacuum connection on the throttle body, taped off the intake boot, and I was in business.

The only place the smoke came from was the rear of the intake manifold, the CCV. It was only a very small amount. I pulled it apart and checked the diaphragm, it looks fine, no tears. I ordered a new CCV anyway. I don't know how it operates as far as vacuum compared to the pressure I was giving it... maybe it wouldn't leak at all under vacuum, or maybe it would leak a lot more. Who knows.

[brianao34]

Wow, I've researched how to make a smoke machine a few times but never thought to make one so easily. Great job.

[drumad]

Wow, good looking smoke machine haha.

[JGood]

It's 'finished'.

Go here for many more:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?p=3289438#post3289438

[e30damen]

That rear spoiler looks cool. What is it?

[Zic]

You figured out the engine issues? If so, what was the cause?

[Jean]

I LOVE that color, fell in love with it when I first saw one of the "Dr.Pepper" e30 posted by a European member I think on this forum.

Looks fricking awesome!

[euroshark]

That is ACE! Well done dude.

[JGood]

You figured out the engine issues? If so, what was the cause?

Haven't figured it out yet. I've done everything. Compression test, fuel pressure test, vacuum smoke test. I've replaced everything as well: All intake gaskets, MAF, ICV, TPS, CPS, temp sensor, knock sensors, fuel pump, fuel filter, fuel pressure regulator, ground cables, coil packs, spark plugs, DME, etc... I've verified sensor values at the DME plug, and measured o2 sensor voltages. I've got no codes in the computer. I've literally done everything. Now I need to get some live data from the DME with a scanner to see what's actually going on. Hopefully this coming weekend.