Panici's '87 325is E30 - Boosted In Bronze

[greyis89]

Great build to read and look through. Nice work.

[Panici]

Left the E30 at a shop on Sunday to get PPF coated. Should be about a week.
Major areas to cover are the hood (and quarter hood), front fenders, front air dam, doors (below moulding), rockers, behind rear wheels.
Owner also said he will cover other common areas like mirror caps. This particular film claims self-healing and comes with a 10 year warranty.

Shop also has the tools to measure my clearcoat and attempt to fix some of the problem areas.

I pulled the trigger on ceramic coating the whole car as well.

Both the PPF and ceramic coating are quite expensive, more then I ever thought I'd be spending on "appearance" tbh.
But both will protect the paint so I can actually drive the car (track time + road trips) and enjoy it without worrying about rock chips etc.

Should also make maintaining the paint easier since I'm not much of a wash and detail type of guy.

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Got some good tuning data from the 75 minute drive. Added some fuel to the table when getting into the throttle at highway speed (at corresponding RPMs in 3rd and 4th gear).

AFR protection is working well, and is set quite aggressively at the moment. Cuts spark (then fuel) if it even thinks about going off my AFR targets.
AFR Protect ignition cut really "throws out the anchor" now with the upgraded driveshaft, rear end bushings, and secondary diff mount. Feels very solid.

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Also, my sister (who followed me to the PPF shop) informed me that my brake lights were out.
Found the 7.5A fuse blown, and a replacement lit up the 5x LED bulbs briefly before also blowing.
After some research it looks like the recommended fuse size is actually 15A for cars with the CHMSL (3rd brake light).
I'm going to see if a 10A fuse holds with the lower-draw LED bulbs, and have a spare 15A on-hand just in case.

[Panici]

Spent most of Sunday squeezed in the trunk for the next round of Hushmat sound/heat deadening.
Not a glamorous job, and I'm pretty sore today from working the material and contorting myself inside the trunk.
Trying to have my cake and eat it too with regards to the uprated subframe bushings and NVH.


I could have probably gotten away with a cheaper material as heat in the trunk isn't a big concern.
But I know this is a high-quality product and I like the black finish even if you can't see it.

Decided to delete the ski-pass as I've not used it once in my ownership. For now I just stuck Hushmat over the opening, and backed the blank/open space with a reverse-mounted piece so there is no glue facing the interior back of the seat.
Any advice how to better finish this from the inside when I have the rear seat out next?

I didn't go for full hushmat coverage, I left the drain holes open and most of the panel seams exposed for crack inspection.

There are a few areas I can still address in the trunk (I haven't added any to the spare tire well for example).
Hoping to tackle the back half of the interior and door skins in the future with the second half of this hushmat box.


Still need to reassemble the trunk interior this week.

[Panici]

A+++
You and a few others still make me want to ruin my core support and make it removable.

Do it. Makes any serious engine bay work or pulling the engine out a breeze.
I left my lower rad support in place and just chopped the upper to retain some rigidity.

Front end fitment / panel gaps afterwards were fine when the engine was N/A.
Since then cramming my huge frontmount intercooler in there required modifying everything including the highbeams.
But it's not a show car and you can't tell really tell by looking at it normally.

Looking good! You've got some fun looking roads in your neck of the woods!

I chose that spot on purpose for the shot 😆 What you can't see is that it's a slow-speed park road and there are sizable speedbumps.
Unfortunately where I live is pretty flat, most of the fun roads are 2-3 hours away.

Somehow I missed the color change, looking good and happy it's on the road once again!

Thank you. Silver is probably my least favourite colour on a car; happy it's gone!

[gnmzl]

Somehow I missed the color change, looking good and happy it's on the road once again!

[craz azn]

Looking good! You've got some fun looking roads in your neck of the woods!

[DEV0 E30]

A+++

You and a few others still make me want to ruin my core support and make it removable.

[Panici]

Here are some "B-Roll" shots from a recent shoot.
Main photos coming soon!


Looks like regular flat brown paint in the shade. Colour suits the car perfectly and more importantly makes me happy. 🥰

[Panici]

Man this thing just looks so good now, I can't get over it.

Thank you! Yeah it feels amazing to have it together finally! Felt like those colourmatched parts sat on a shelf forever.
I don't think the car will ever be "done", but I can't see me changing anything on the exterior any time soon.

That boost onset is inspiring envy in me and I haven't even fired my turbo M50 up yet, I would love to have that, but I didn't want to pay for it so an $850 borg warner is what I have.

I'm impressed too, for such a large turbo it is doing pretty well.
I got most of the turbo parts used, don't think I could have afforded this kit brand new. 😮

I'm still leaving some spool on the table with my very conservative tune and no boost control. Could get a MAC valve in there to see some gains.

For some anecdotal data, my miata spools better (noticeably less turbo lag when shifting) even with a manual boost controller using a ball and spring. It's obvious with it set just five clicks out from the stop.


But at the moment it doesn't need to be any faster. Last time out (cold day) it consistently spun in 2nd gear from about 3k to redline. 😅

[varg]

That boost onset is inspiring envy in me and I haven't even fired my turbo M50 up yet, I would love to have that, but I didn't want to pay for it so an $850 borg warner is what I have. The ethanol situation sucks, welcome to my world. It's practically impossible to find ethanol free gas here, you have to look for a rec90 pump and they're out half the time, that has caused me more grief with my motorcycle carbs than I want to admit. I really hate it, and it's probably going to get worse.

[Northern]

Man this thing just looks so good now, I can't get over it.

Someone in a local FB group posted sometime last fall/winter about our 91 becoming E10 and I'm still bummed about that. Mostly affects my generator/snow blower, but the bike and E30 won't enjoy it. Other cars hopefully just have a tiny hit to mileage.

[Panici]

Too cold to do much outside today, but I did take the E30 for a drive.
There is definitely more noise coming from the now-polybushed rear subframe and secondary diff mount. Going to be adding some Hushmat to the trunk and under the rear seat in the future to knock it back (OEM trunk floor asphalt is long gone).

Changed the wastegate reference line from the compressor housing to the intake manifold. (Stole the vacuum line from the BOV for now)

Previously it was making 4psi in the midrange and dropping down to ~3.6psi up top due to the intercooler restriction.
Now it makes just about 5psi from 3000rpm to redline!

Here is a log of 3rd gear. Cleaned up the low/mid-range fueling when I got back home, as it was about 0.75 AFR points lean on average. But we were still safe as my target is set conservatively at 11.1.

[Panici]

Looks sweet dude! This past week was awesome for us... now we're back in the typical cold grumpy wet weather, haha.

What page is your HID setup on? I need to go backwards and check that out. Also, related to lighting, have you given any time to another set of smoked taillights? I want to do a set for my 4dr E30, I would like to follow along on your progress the second time around and see if you have any tips to share after having done a set previously.

Just one picture of the Morimoto ballasts tucked away on Post 480. It's not a retrofit, just a drop-in bulb replacement.
It's an upgrade from the 35w eBay HIDs that I used previously, and a significant upgrade to the original sealed-beams.

I have gone back to traditional halogen high-beam bulbs for now, the cool-blue light of the Aukee 5000lm 6000k bulbs wasn't doing it for me anymore.
I might change my mind once I test them at night, as those LEDs were BRIGHT! Perhaps there is a similar offering in 5000k available now?


Haven't tried to make another set of startec reps yet.
Have been casually looking for a set of euro-spec (which have the reflector in the rear fog location) taillights with broken lenses to cannibalize.






Previous LED high-beams for reference:

[craz azn]

Looks sweet dude! This past week was awesome for us... now we're back in the typical cold grumpy wet weather, haha.

What page is your HID setup on? I need to go backwards and check that out. Also, related to lighting, have you given any time to another set of smoked taillights? I want to do a set for my 4dr E30, I would like to follow along on your progress the second time around and see if you have any tips to share after having done a set previously.

[Panici]

We had about a week of unseasonably-warm weather, so I took the opportunity to get the E30 out of hiding!

Installed the side trim and new windshield washer squinters on Saturday, then filled it up with gas. As a side note the Shell 91 octane that was previously ethanol-free is now E10. Unfortunately that means I can no longer get ethanol-free gasoline locally. 🙁 I've started adding Stabil 360 Marine at every fill-up to neutralize some of the ethanol's effects.
May need to modify the tune for the new gas, we will see.

The new Morimoto XB AMP 5000k 50W HIDs look great in the lowbeams, this was the first time firing them up.

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Rinsed all the dust off the car on Sunday and went for a drive!
Car is running great, shifter feels epic now that I've modified it to fit my driving position!

I should note that it needs some throttle blips on a hot-restart to fire up. Will have to work on that portion of the tune. Also the passenger side mirror glass will not stay locked into the housing (clips are broken?)

Seems to be a little more mechanical noise coming into the cabin, noticeable especially at low speeds. Haven't tested it during highway cruising yet. Sounds like it's from the trans but it has to be from the rear diff/subframe/driveshaft because I didn't change from the OEM rubber trans mounts. Not a big deal but worth noting.

It's a great feeling to have the car fully-assembled for the first time since I was rear-ended.
Getting the car PPF coated ASAP as well.

I took some fantastic pictures with the DSLR which I will post soon. Meanwhile here are a couple cellphone shots!