Panici's long awaited E30

[Panici]

-Ran half a can of seafoam through the intake manifold today. After letting it sit for 10 minutes, barely got any smoke. I guess this old M20B27 was pretty clean on the combustion side.

-Not sure if I want to risk running Seafoam in the crankcase. I've heard horror stories of it cleaning so well that the sludge blocks oil passages, and/or all your seals start to leak!

-Changed the oil to some fresh 20w-50. Used dino oil because it was on sale (and i'm not going to put premium stuff in this motor)
Got stuck with a FRAM filter, as they didn't carry Mobil1 filters in the right size.

-Still getting some misfiring. Will have to explore further.

-Filled powersteering reservoir. I've definitely got a leak somewhere.

-Gorilla taped my sunroof edges. If I don't have wet floorboards next time it rains, I'll know it's my sunroof/drains to blame.

-Going to look at a cheap e39 528i (for parts) later this week. Has the M52B28/ZF320 combo that i'd love to put into the e30. Also might have a set of e38 Style 5s on it.

[Panici]

-Quickly vacuumed interior. Also vacuumed up knocked out rust, and a bunch of pine needles from all over the car.

-Mounted rear bumper with some zipties. Need to make reinforcement plates for the pulled-through bolts. Also mounted bumper plastic side and top pieces. They all will need replacement hardware.

-Locating some aircraft paint stripper (aluminum safe) to get all the paint off of my metal bumpers.

-Plastic pieces have whats left of a bad paintjob on them. Suggestions for getting that off without ruining the plastic? Right now I'm thinking sanding is the way to go.







Taillight lens tape (temporary obviously)

[Panici]

Update on my leak situation.

Gorilla taped my sunroof off, and it looks like that is the majority of the water problem. Going to have to clean all of the drains out when the weather is nice. (I've heard compressed air and weed-eater line work well?)

• Passenger side front was mostly dry.
• Passenger side rear I couldn't tell, as I had the carpet propped up to dry.
• Drivers side front was very wet.
• Drivers side rear was dry.
• Trunk is leaking from taillights (they don't have gaskets)

[Panici]

Just picked up a running '98 E39 528i parts car for $550cdn. Got an amazing deal! Around here an M52 by itself goes for about that much.

Plan is to swap the motor (M52B28 ) and transmission (ZF320) into my '86 E30, and sell the remaining parts/wheels/shell of the E39.
238,000km on the motor.

One cyl was down on compression when we did an initial cold compression test. Will have to re-test when motor is hot. The rest were all above average for this motor, with this many KM.

Front of motor
Cyl 1 - 225psi
Cyl 2 - 250psi
Cyl 3 - 250psi
Cyl 4 - 175psi dry (250psi when some oil was added, might be a bad/stuck ring)
Cyl 5 - 225psi
Cyl 6 - 250psi
Rear of motor


Developed a lifter/valve tick when I brought it home and warmed it up. Oil level is low, hopefully a change and fill will take care of it.
If not, i'll run some seafoam through the crankcase, that might free up the lifter.


Also, either the clutch slave needs to be filled/bled, or the clutch needs to be replaced.

[NoM54me]

I had very similar water leaks. Sunroof drains caused only about half of it....mine lived under a tree for a while, as I suspect yours did too (pine needles in engine bay). I used an air compressor to clear out sunroof drains, but still had a little water coming in front footwells through the cowl vents. The seal around the blower motor was rotted out, and the "elephant trunk" drain on the firewall was totally blocked. Water was pouring in through the rotted blower seal.

[Panici]

I had very similar water leaks. Sunroof drains caused only about half of it....mine lived under a tree for a while, as I suspect yours did too (pine needles in engine bay). I used an air compressor to clear out sunroof drains, but still had a little water coming in front footwells through the cowl vents. The seal around the blower motor was rotted out, and the "elephant trunk" drain on the firewall was totally blocked. Water was pouring in through the rotted blower seal.

My elephant trunk was clear, but I suspect the blower motor seal may be partly to blame. I'll investigate further.

Thanks for the tip :)

[Panici]

This is a picture of the firewall, behind the fusebox.
Should there be a gap here? Possibly water coming into interior here?






Window seals on doors are cracked and split. Maybe water is going inside doors and then inside interior?






Did some work in the audio department today. Found rear speakers completely blown. Labeled all radio wiring.

Pulled rear speakers out of e39 parts car. They sound great!
Not sure if i'm going to run them in free air with brackets (they're a little small), or try to graft their enclosures into the rear shelf.

[Zreberlcoe]

The direction you're heading with this, I think it's going to turn out stunning! Subscribed!

[Lake]

Keep up the good work!

[Panici]

The direction you're heading with this, I think it's going to turn out stunning! Subscribed!

Keep up the good work!

Thanks guys!
Once I'm done with my final exams in a few weeks, I'll have a lot more time to work on the car.


----------------------------------


After messing with the radio stuff today, I've decided to go a different direction. I'm no longer going to be using the factory headunit. It doesn't make sense if I'm only going to use the AUX input.

Most likely I'll be putting some VDO gauges in it's place. I already have ordered an oil pressure gauge (and the parts needed to properly remote mount the sender)



I've never built a car audio setup before, but I do know a little about audio and electricity. ;)
I'm planning to build a completely custom headunit/amp setup. I'll mount the controls either beside the gauges, or in a deleted OBC panel. The idea is to keep the look OEM without anything too out of place.

Ideally, I'd like to fit everything behind the empty headunit slot (maybe some behind the dash if I need more room). Probably will build enclosures for the bare boards.
Essentially I'm building a small, lightweight, and relatively powerful amplifier that I can integrate into the dash.

Across two amps, I'll have 4 channels. With 40W (rms) available per channel, I should be able to drive some decently powerful speakers. With the right ones, I won't need a separate subwoofer taking up space and adding weight.


Here's the parts I've just ordered.

• Tone and volume control board.
  • Plan is to de-solder the pots and mount them to the dash directly.
• 2x Class-D amplifier board.
  • 2 channel - 40w(rms) per channel. (@1% THD, with 6ohm loads. Amps can be driven down to 4ohms)
• Black aluminum pot knobs x10
  • May use plastic BMW knobs if these don't look right
• 3.5mm female panel jack
  • Going to tuck this somewhere hidden so I can plug MP3/iPod into it. When the cable is unplugged, there won't be any wires hanging around.
• 12v to 24v DC-DC boost converter (240w)
  • Power supply for Class-D amp
• RCA Ground loop isolator
• 50Kohm Linear Dual Taper pot (for front/rear balance control)

[payney8]

Top work mate. Glad to see one get saved instead of thrown in the too hard bin and wrecked.

[Panici]

Jacked up the front of the e30 last night.

Bent the (unibody rail?) up under the driver's side floor.
I suspect my wet floorboards on that side have weakened the metal in that area. (Will be taking out carpet to inspect next week)


I guess I'll have to cut all of that out and weld in some new metal? I'll see how bad the rest of the floors are when I pull the carpets.










Also inspected brakes and bushings all around.

[Panici]

-Found the source of my PS fluid leak. One of the high-pressure hoses going to the rack. Snugged up the banjo bolt and the leak appears to have stopped. I'll know for sure when I put some more ATF in there and cycle the steering. I ordered some new crush washers just in case it's still leaking.


Decided to just buy rebuilt calipers, along with other new brake components, and some bushings. Here's a full list if anyone is interested. Set me back $700, plus whatever it costs for me to bring them over the border.






-Although the tierods are pretty rusty (and probably seized) they don't have any free-play, and should pass safety. They'll probably need a replacement when I need to do an alignment in the future.

-I'm going to drop the whole rear subframe and clean it up.

-Plan to source a used transmission mount crossmember, and a lower rad crossmember locally.

-Poked some more holes through the body.
--Drivers side front wheel well, and top of passenger side front wheel well.


Here's some pics of the worst of the parts under the car.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Man and I thought my car was a mess. You got your work cut out for you good luck and keep it up!

Edit: bro I like really want your euro plate that's my life motto hahahaha

[F34R]

You got your work cut out for you good luck and keep it up!

this^ good luck...