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

[Panici]

Whew, dodged a bullet … all said that’s pretty minor

Absolutely.
And I took a look at most of the chasebays soft line going to the passenger side. All looked normal and fine.
Half of it was sleeved anyways with velcro on thermo protection.

My main issue with them is that they have very short range
...the extinguishers themselves seem more like a backup in the tool kit than something to rely on.

Noted, I will have to mount my Purple K extinguisher again in the E30.

Wow, you most certainly got lucky.
Glad YOU and the car are alright dude.

Thanks. Yes I would be emotionally destroyed if anything happened to the car.

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I took things apart this past weekend. Reassembled with loctite and shorter bolts so they aren't hitting the intake manifold (I put a better picture in the above post).
Noticed the injectors were sitting at different depths into the intake manifold, which actually got worse when I bolted everything up. The deeper injectors have less engagement on the fuel rail.

Turns out Rallyroad makes spacers just for this scenario. https://rallyroad.net/products/injec...rev14injectors
Ordered on my phone and actually will be getting six SETS of spacers rather then six individual spacers. Guess I can resell the extras if they won't take them back.

Even though there are no leaks at the moment, I am going to wait to drive the car until I have these spacers installed.

And a note on the engine bay. Three different products into the intake manifold and it's looking a little better. Rear runners are still lighter/more brown. I will give it some time and more product, hopefully they even out.
I ordered another new fuse box cover. I couldn't find the one I took off the car, but did scavenge a rough one from my '86 325e parts which I taped in place.

[DEV0 E30]

Wow, you most certainly got lucky.

Glad YOU and the car are alright dude.

[varg]

I do have a Purple K fire extinguisher, and used to have it mounted in the trunk.
From what I've read the Element extinguishers are superior. Is that not the case?

Good point. I will take things apart this weekend and see if the bolts are indeed too long, and reassemble with threadlocker.

I looked into them when replacing some old fire extinguishers for my cars, they're marketed very heavily which made me a little suspicious. My main issue with them is that they have very short range. When activated they look like a smoke bomb, you have to get quite close to the source of the fire to use one and if there's wind it'll be competing with the fire's natural draft and require you to get even closer. IMO a car doesn't have such limited space to make the compactness particularly useful, I could see carrying one on a motorcycle, but elsewhere the size is a solution looking for a problem. The longevity they offer is maybe a little more impactful, but I'd rather check the pressure gauges on my extinguishers regularly and have something that has some range than have something that will last indefinitely but require me to get right on top of the fire to use it. A device like the Element extinguisher, automatically activated under hood, seems like it might be a decent automatic fire suppression system, but the extinguishers themselves seem more like a backup in the tool kit than something to rely on.

[2mAn]

Whew, dodged a bullet … all said that’s pretty minor

[Panici]

Hot Damn! Glad you're ok. Great roadside job buddy. Thank god for that new fuse box lid and not having to use your fire extinguisher....going to check all my stuff before my next drive.

Thanks, I was glad to not tow the car for sure.
I know that next time if I even think I smell a hint of something wrong, I will pull over immediately.

Thank goodness nothing too bad came of this. IMO, relegate that thing to backup duty and get yourself a purple K extinguisher and a passenger compartment mount for it. It would probably be ideal to put break out the torque wrench and thread locker on those fuel rail bolts too. After seeing a surprise fuel leak pop up on my wagon I'm extremely anal about anything fuel system related.

I do have a Purple K fire extinguisher, and used to have it mounted in the trunk.
From what I've read the Element extinguishers are superior. Is that not the case?

Good point. I will take things apart this weekend and see if the bolts are indeed too long, and reassemble with threadlocker.

[varg]

It was literally pooled at the firewall. Also had my Element fire extinguisher in case things lit up.
Thank God I didn't have to use it. 😰

Thank goodness nothing too bad came of this. IMO, relegate that thing to backup duty and get yourself a purple K extinguisher and a passenger compartment mount for it. It would probably be ideal to break out the torque wrench and thread locker on those fuel rail bolts too. After seeing a surprise fuel leak pop up on my wagon I'm extremely anal about anything fuel system related.

[mmoyer11]

Hot Damn! Glad you're ok. Great roadside job buddy. Thank god for that new fuse box lid and not having to use your fire extinguisher....going to check all my stuff before my next drive.

[Panici]

Congrats on getting out for a couple drives…it’s so reinvigorating. Car looks great…engine bay envy is real!!!

Thank you!
Things were going smoothly until Sunday.
Rinsed and foam cannoned the car off to get the majority of the dust off.

Decided to go another 5 clicks on the manual boost controller. Car feels great and pulls hard!
Still needs some fuel pulled up top with readings of ~10.5:1 but rather rich then lean when breaking new ground.


I was on the highway and thought I smelt fuel. My sense of smell isn't that great, but I got off at the next exit.
As I'm at the traffic light, guy next to me yells out "do you smell fuel?!". I said yes I think so and immediately shut off the car.
They stopped and helped me push the car off the road.

Popped the hood and engine bay was soaked in fuel. After I bumped the prime cycle to find where the leak was, we saw the fuel rail had been unseated from the top of Injector #5.
Shop towels in hand I tried to soak up as much of the gas as possible. It was literally pooled at the firewall. Also had my Element fire extinguisher in case things lit up.
Thank God I didn't have to use it. 😰

As luck would have it, the allen wrench in the E30 tool kit was the exact size for the bolts on the Rally Road fuel rail.

It looks like it's possible that the bolts which connect the fuel rail to the mounting blocks are too long. I had to back them out (shown in below photos) to get the fuel rail seated fully on the injectors and bolted to the intake manifold. Was able to drive the car home.

I did change the fitting on the front end of the fuel rail earlier this year. I gave the fuel rail the wiggle test and it was rock solid both before and after, so I didn't look with a flashlight to see how it was seated on the injectors.
It's possible that the solid feeling was from the bolts fouling on the intake runners rather then applying pressure down onto the injectors.

The extra ~ 2lbs of boost would equate to another 2lbs of fuel pressure, but I can't see that making the difference.


Anyways, I rinsed as much of the engine bay as I could when I got home. Paint looks okay, but who knows if the clear is damaged being soaked in gas. It certainly can't be good for it.

The gas stripped the oils right out of the plastic intake manifold and coil cover and turned them brown/grey. Still have a little Lexol Vinylex left over after it was discontinued so I put a couple coats of that on. Will try more cleaning and conditioning with some other products to see if I can bring it back to presentable. It looks much worse in person, the photos don't show the damage well.

Brand new fuse box cover cracked and broke the mounting tabs right off after reacting with the gas. It kept the fuel out of the fuses though.

Need to inspect the underbody and specifically the chase bays brake line as it runs along the front swaybar to get to the passenger side. That area was likely soaked in fuel.



All said and done I got very lucky that there wasn't an engine bay fire. And that the engine didn't lean out under boost.
Any other damage is light compared to what fire would have caused.

Didn't even have to get a tow truck home. Which is one flaw on the cowcatcher airdam (it blocks the factory front tow hooks)

[mmoyer11]

Congrats on getting out for a couple drives…it’s so reinvigorating. Car looks great…engine bay envy is real!!!

[Panici]

Took the E30 out for a drive today.
First attempt at turning up the boost. Starting slow.
5 clicks on the Turbosmart boost tee was good for about 0.8psi @ 4300rpm, with a little less of a gain in the upper rev range.
Hitting 7.5psi @ 4300rpm tapering to ~6.5psi up top.


Going to start tracking my tuning changes here for my own sanity.



After reviewing the log:
Pulled a little fuel in the mid range and in boost at WOT, as I'm below my targets.

Added a little to the slow-rate Accel enrichment, from 3.5 @ 10 TPSdot up to 4.2 @ 10TPSdot.

Also changed the base dwell up from 3.0 to 3.2ms as I an noticing a little irregularity up top. Not sure if it's spark related yet.

[Panici]

Took the E30 for it's first drive in nearly 3 years today!

But first had to take apart three v-bands to get the exhaust all lined up and sealed.
Got the set of Yokohama ADVAN FLEVA V701 (205/55R15) that I bought in 2023 mounted up to the euroweaves yesterday.
Have only taken it on a brief test drive, but it appears the vibration from my right front wheel is gone with the new rubber!
Took off the 20mm rear spacers and swapped to 15mm while I had the wheels off. Centercaps went back on after test drive and retorque.

The car is SO DUSTY. You can see from 6 feet away in the front gas station shot. Wheels need to be detailed as well.



Quick video which does not do the sound justice as all! Excuse the granny shifting lol.

https://youtube.com/shorts/fqWVD1I_kSM

First drive with T51R mod

[Panici]

Sounds like it spools pretty quick!

I'll have to take a good cruising video.
It is perfect so that at light throttle you don't hear the turbo at all. But when you get into the throttle just a bit you can hear it spool!

that sounds great
Turbo is sized perfectly where the sound of the engine still makes it thru! wow!

I'm so happy with the current exhaust setup. Open dump wastegates don't open until you get hard into the throttle.
So cruising and medium throttle it's a throaty 3" exhaust sound. Then at WOT it screams!

[MrBurgundy]

that sounds great

Turbo is sized perfectly where the sound of the engine still makes it thru! wow!

[2mAn]

Sounds like it spools pretty quick!

[Panici]

Some free revs in the video below. Sounds good so far!

https://youtu.be/cqrk1a-kDe4?si=aEuf_y8L4z4ierEY

Video of E30 Turbo T51R Mod