The Ugly E30

[tspangle88]

With the tank out, it's easier to replace things like the inner brake flex lines:


Nice new braided stainless:


As I previously mentioned, the parts car had a 3.73 LSD rear end, much better than the open 2.91 (?) my Eta car came with. However, it, like the rest of that car, is very rusty. After scrubbing the hell out of it with a wire brush, I hit it with some Rust Bullet:


My plan is to paint it light grey. That should make it easier to spot any leaks.

As for the fuel tank, after trying the above tricks and letting it sit and thinking on it, I decided to just order a new tank. Got one on the way from Amazon for $175 with free shipping. I hate to spend the money, but I hate even more the idea that I might have to drop the tank again if I have problems down the road. That's the guiding philosophy for me with all of this suspension stuff. I don't want to have to do it twice. So everything that's hard to get to or worn out after 30 years and 200k miles is getting replaced. I guess that's part of the reason this project is taking so long, I'm trying to do everything right the first time, and that takes time, and more importantly, money.

[tspangle88]

Diff is ready to go. Painted with gray high-temp paint. You can see the cover in the background with the new delrin bushing pressed in.


On to the LCAs. These needed the bearings replaced and some surface rust addressed. First thing is to tap the hub out from behind. Having a large variety of big sockets around is crucial to this kind of work:


Hub out, pretty easy:


Remove the brake shield so that it can be cleaned up and painted, and also to make the whole assembly easier to deal with:


With the hub out, it's time to remove the old wheel bearing. First the C-clip has to come out:


Then, back to the socket and hammer to knock it out from behind:


Fortunately, both of them came out in once piece:


After some quality time with a wire brush, I hung the arms up and painted them. Here's the first one during the priming stage:

[tspangle88]

My new fuel tank arrived. I'm not re-using any of the rubber on this car, so it's getting all new hoses and clamps. I still need to pick up some more rubber fuel line to complete this task:


Halfshafts. OK, I know the conventional wisdom is "OEM or nothing" on these, but I just wasn't willing to spend that kind of coin. Mine were shot, the boots were split and there was very little grease left in them. So, after doing some poking around, I ended up buying these:


I know, I know. Autozoo parts-store crap. Hear me out. First off, they were $75 each. They are brand-new, not rebuilt. And they have a lifetime warranty. So maybe they aren't the greatest halfshafts on the market, but they are significantly better than what I had, they were cheap, and if they fail, at least I have the warranty. For the savings, it's a chance I'm willing to take. Besides, they don't look that bad:

[tspangle88]

No updates, but plenty of work recently.

I decided to do what I could to protect the underside of my new fuel tank, so I roughed up the surface with a scotchbrite pad and sprayed some rattle-can truck bed liner on it:

I don't know how much good it'll do, but it was cheap and easy, so why not?

I'm painting everything else, so I might as well put a fresh coat of black on the subframe:


More pics on the way.....

[tspangle88]

Ireland Engineering poly subframe bushing installed:


Getting ready to assemble trailing arms and subframe:


I put a floor jack under each end of the subframe to raise it into position, with cardboard underneath to keep it from getting scratched up:


Subframe bolted up, time to connect the stainless brake lines:


Next task is to install the diff and related parts.

[tspangle88]

Diff installed. It was kind of a pain to get that last bolt started once the other 3 were in, but I eventually got it.


Filled it with lube and a bit of LSD friction modifier:


It took me a couple of tries to get the axles fitted right. They came with ABS rings, and my car doesn't have ABS, so they were bottoming out on the inside of the hub. Luckily, the rings popped right off:


All installed:

[tspangle88]

New Bilstein vs. the original stocker:


Tested at the ring, baby!!! :)


All ready to go with new mounts and everything:


Installed with the BavAuto springs:


Next up: Rear sway bar and brakes.

[tspangle88]

Rear sway bar in. This was actually a moderate PITA, it didn't want to wiggle into place until I unbolted both axle shafts and moved them down a bit. But anyway, it's in there:


New rear drum hardware and shoes ready to go on, and the helpful diagram in Bentley:


I had to fiddle with the adjusters, both inside the car and at the wheels, to get it to all fit together, but it didn't take too long:


Rebuilt caliper with repainted slide and new stainless line, ready to go:


I didn't get a final shot, but the rotors and calipers are installed, the brakes just need to be bled now.

So, I decided to try and start it again. Poured a couple of gallons into the new tank and cranked her over. No dice. Shot a little ether into the intake and it coughs and runs for a second. So it appears that, once again, I have no fuel. Guess I'll go back and do the same troubleshooting I did a couple of years ago when I had this problem.

[tspangle88]

Fast forward a couple of months, and it turns out I had two dead fuel pumps. Replaced both, and now the car will fire, but it immediately dies. Runs for a second or so. I've triple-checked all my connections, looked for vacuum leaks, and I know I'm getting fuel and spark, so I'm stuck.

Any ideas? ECU?

[tspangle88]

Did a bit more investigation last night, unplugging sensors and trying to start it. To review, with all sensors plugged in, it starts, but dies after a second or so. So I tried unplugging these:

The IAC is the top one where the plug goes into the silver cylinder (I assume). With that unplugged, it won't start, but it sort of coughs rhythmically. It's like crank-cough-crank-cough-crank-cough. Hard to describe. It does the same thing if the coolant temp sensor (pic below) is disconnected. If I disconnect the blue plug in the above pic, which goes into the fuel rail or something? It won't start at all, just cranks.


Coolant temp sensor (I assume, it's on top of the thermostat housing).

Coolant level is good, the overflow tank is about half full.

[Xaq]

You might want to paint the center shafts on your axles, mine looked like that and were actually bare metal and quickly rusted after the oil washed off.

[tspangle88]

Update: It finally runs again! Poorly, but it runs.

Quick overview of what's happened the last few months. I gave up and took it to Steve's European Auto in Waterford, MI, they did a thorough diagnosis and told me my injectors were probably clogged or damaged. This is not surprising since the original fuel tank was loaded with crap. They did install my exhaust and aligned the car for me, but I decided to replace the injectors myself.

Obviously, this took me a while, between family and house priorities, and my general lack of motivation with winter approaching, I worked on it in fits and starts. The upper intake had to come off, which was a surprisingly PITA job. I bought some injectors from a forum member for $30 that supposedly came from a running car and put them in. Finally got it all buttoned up today.

After cranking for a minute or so, it fired up. It's not running well, it sounds like it's missing, down at least one, maybe two cylinders. So, maybe those injectors I got aren't all working, or maybe I developed another ignition problem in the 3+ years it's been since it last ran. I don't know, my next task will be to diagnose that, then I need to do the timing belt and other front-of-the-engine stuff.

[tspangle88]

It's time for me to face facts, I'm never going to finish this thing. I have completely run out of time and motivation. Therefore, it is for sale: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=381772

[SixerFixer]

You posted previously that you found a ton of oil in the front strut housings. The housings are supposed to have oil in them to keep the strut inserts cool and to act as a lubricant. That being said, some performance shock manufacturers explicitly say to drain out all the strut housing oil and to clean the insert of the housing, prior to strut insert installation. Make sure you double check if you should or should not add oil to the housing before putting the strut assemblies together, because you could potentially reduce the life of your new bilsteins.

Edit: just read your last post. Don't give up! Motivation comes and goes, and you've already sunk so much time and effort into this project.