91' 318is S52 Swap "The Beast"

[craiggroves91]

Woo! Just got done swapping the brake booster. What a job!

Had to remove the intake manifold to slide it out, this was good though cause I had to bend the top heater hose cause it was being crushed by the intake manifold. I think that was causing my heater to work weirdly.

Here is my buddy helping me haha

Fun. It actually wasn't that tough


"New" used booster in. Thanks to LBV's parts car


Intake manifold back on

All done!



Just have to adjust the pedal and test it out. Have to order up a check valve for the vac line too.

[craiggroves91]

Hey guys I need some help ASAP!

So this morning on the way to the berkley marina meet and someone pulled next to me to let me know I was leaking something, so I pull over and my car is spitting water out everywhere.
So back up I have been driving this car for more than two weeks and have taken some decently long trips, trips just as far as I got this morning. I drove it yesterday further than I got today. This morning before departure I added water wetter to the system. I was hoping I just overfilled the system and it was spitting out excess, but it continues to spit water out of the reservoir.

Air bubbles can be seen shooting up out of the lowest hose on the reservoir and the hose gets quite hot. This guy


So I got a tow home and tested the T-stat and it seems to work fine, but to rule it out completely I ran the car without it and it still spits water out.

Maybe water pump failure? The car has a brand new Stewart performance water pump

Any ideas?

EDIT: So when I last had my intake manifold off I bent this metal hose down to allow for manifold clearance, is it possible I bent it too much and it is kinked enough to build up heat in that lower line and boil?
The best picture I could get of it:

The odd thing is I drove with it like this yesterday quite far and it was fine.
thanks
-Craig

Funny how things works out.
I drive my car for the last two weeks without any issues, the day there is a big meet and I'm pumped to go it decides to be a dirty girl and spit out water
My pictures from the meet... wait

[ian e30 318is]

My guess is that the system wasn't bled properly causing air to bubble out of the system. Did you ever have over heating issues? Don't think that kink is your problem, but you never know. Good luck solving this. I can't stand these problems right after the swap is done, but you will get them ironed out.

[craiggroves91]

My guess is that the system wasn't bled properly causing air to bubble out of the system. Did you ever have over heating issues? Don't think that kink is your problem, but you never know. Good luck solving this. I can't stand these problems right after the swap is done, but you will get them ironed out.

I got it fixed now. Something weird happened and I think an air pocket formed.

All I did was pour water into the heater core lines and top radiator hose and it was golden!

Heater works amazing, warm right on startup!

[mtlbloodshot]

Glad to hear you got it figured it out bud

[ian e30 318is]

I got it fixed now. Something weird happened and I think an air pocket formed.

All I did was pour water into the heater core lines and top radiator hose and it was golden!

Heater works amazing, warm right on startup!

Nice work! Yeah Andy and I just did this same method with my new Mishimoto and it works perfectly. Glad you got it working!

[benyen soljax]

So the brake issue ended up being a problem with the brake booster? Are you using an E30 booster or E36?

[craiggroves91]

So the brake issue ended up being a problem with the brake booster? Are you using an E30 booster or E36?

Yes, my brake booster was shot I guess, it leaked. I'm using a stock e30 brake booster.

[craiggroves91]

The beast with its other alpine brothers. Photo courtesy of Zain

[MR E30 325is]

Lookin' great!

[craiggroves91]

Lookin' great!

Thanks! Can't wait to start throwing cosmetic stuff at it eventually. I'm recovering from the swap now!

[craiggroves91]

So my 16" SPAL finally comes on automatically now!!

Turns out it was a combination of relays and the water not getting to that side of the radiator.

Now it comes on at just over halfway, PERFECT!

If any of you go 24v I highly recommend you get a Mishimoto radiator and Stewart High perfomance water pump. My car stays well under halfway while moving, but not too far under. While stationary it takes it forever to reach halfway, probably longer than I'll ever be stationary. When it does reach halfway my fan probably only runs for probably less than a minute before it shuts off. Good stuff!

[craiggroves91]

Just some shenanigans

[craiggroves91]

Well its been forever since I've updated. I haven't been doing much but driving the car.

I got a ticket for my windshield, which was insanely cracked so I changed it. Getting the lock strip back in was tedious with no special tool!! I ended using a staple remover to help!

My goober friend after we removed the old one


Many hours later and sore fingers...

[craiggroves91]

So I finally got around to cleaning up my floor. Plan is to clean most of the tar off and just hit it with flat white paint. This tar isn't fun to clean off. Still have a ways to go













Almost there! A bit more cleaning up and then I can mask stuff off and paint.