Bronzit E30 - OBDII S52 shaved bay - weekend/autox toy - Journey

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Much progress over the weekend despite my catching some cold/flu/virus I still managed to get a lot done. Though I was again met with disappointment in the end with another failure/problem in the rotating assembly (suspecting pressure plate again). Regardless there was a lot of very positive progress made.

The accident bent this tab on the swaybar... I tried my best to bend it back to no avail. It doesn't hurt performance, and I can still bolt the end link to it no problem, so whatever.





Also bent the mount. I replaced it with one of the old ones I kept.





This photo really helps show how much I cut out of the subframe and how much clearance I gained.





Subframe assembly complete and ready for install





This was the "cleanest" coolant block draining I have ever done, with exhaust amnifolds, subframe, swaybar, everything out of the way and it still went all over my arm, floor, side of engine. Never again





First an hose end I have ever assembled. I did the first with a vague idea of what I was doing... it was a PITA. Then I watched a youtube video, threw out the first try and the second time was flawless. Should've watched the video to begin with duh.





Metric to AN adapter in the block





Finished drain extension





Installed





Interesting these fragola fittings cut into the end of the hose to help seal.







Here's some more evidence the koyorad radiator has a small leak. It seems to randomly drip from that corner.





I trimmed some studs that were for holding the heat shielding in the transmission tunnel to geive a little more wiggle room while installing/removing the trans and found rust around 2 studs. One was very minor, the other made a hole... proper way to fix it would be to weld a patch, but I don't have time for this shit right now.





Cleaned all the rust out, sprayed it with self etch, filled it with JB weld and sprayed it with rust reformer black.





Picked up a new clutch slave since the old one was pretty ragged. Also picked up a new rear main and trans input seals. And a tube of the blue schmoo for pandaboo





New clutch kit replaced under warranty by BMAparts





Found something interesting. The rear main seal I installed was victor reinz. Dunno why the hell I did that when I assembled the motor. I don't trust VR for shit and it kinda looked like it was leaking.





Looking at the joint between the seal and the crank its wet. It was more apparent before I wiped it, but you can still kinda see.





The corteco seal is a very different style without a spring loaded inner seal. We'll see how it holds up.







Little trick for torquing flywheel and pressure plate bolts when you don't have a flywheel locking pin hole in the flywheel. Zipties.





Going back in. Some tips/tricks to make it easier to get to the top transmission bolts: use an engine support bar, or a jack from the bottom to tilt the engine down towards the back of the car. You have to totally loosen the engine mounts. This made it easy to access the top bolts. You can also unbolt the subframe and drop it an inch or so.





Added a bung on the exhaust merge for a future aux O2 sensor.





And the subframe clearancing mission was a complete success!! Not bad for eyeballing it when I cut it up. I have plenty of space now to remove/install the merge section without having to unbolt the headers. You can also see where the drain extension lands just behind the swaybar.





Only issue now is that top nut. I can't get to it with any standard wrench (no room to fit a socket) while the manifold is installed. My thoughts are A) buy a 15mm wrench and cut it short enough to fit in the space or B) turn that stud/nut into a bolt/nut by drilling out the stud and then I could bolt it from the other side.

I'll probably try the shortened wrench first.





And it's finished.





Sooooo I drove it like 40 miles on monday and it was feeling good and then something happened again. It happened while I was at WOT in 1st at/close to redline. So at first I was taking it easy feeling everything out, and as it all felt good I got more aggressive. So close to home I ripped on it in first, some good wheelspin, bumped the revlimiter and then shifted and uh-oh I was feeling vibration again. Something is out of balance in the rotating assembly and I'd have to suspect the pressure plate once again. I don't get it. I put like 10k miles on the car since the swap, and I beat the shit out of it. I frequently redline in 1st with wheelspin and bump the rev limiter all the time with no ill effect until now. Any thoughts?

[iwantspeed]

Nice job on the subframe mod and the coolant block drain.

It's awesome that BMA replaced the parts under warranty.

Sucks that something is acting up again.

[pandaboo911]

Bronzit E30 - OBDII S52 rebuild + goodies swap - DD / autox Journey

You should break in a clutch for 500 miles of light use and minimal slip. Clutch disk might have failed? Also direction of install matters on those. A shop installed it backwards on my brothers e36 and it friction welded itself to the trans. Had to pretty much destroy the trans to get it off.

Also my koyorad had a very slow leak. It ended up being the drain plug was not fully tight, they don't tighten it before shipping.


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[iwantspeed]

I agree with panda woo hoo

I'm just wrapping up my 500 mile break in period on a new clutch. Now ready it to give it the beans and enjoy the lightweight flywheel.

Maybe contact BMA or Sachs what's the breakin period.

[ST1G]

Zip ties are an interesting trick. I didn't think of that. I used a pressure plate bolt and wedged a flywheel.

You're having issues again? That's pretty shitty. I am going to be driving much like you I think, I'm curious to see how this turns out and if you do indeed need a break in period of a 500 miles or so or not.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Nice job on the subframe mod and the coolant block drain.

It's awesome that BMA replaced the parts under warranty.

Sucks that something is acting up again.

Thanks man! And yea, I was pleasantly surprised how easy the warranty was to claim.

You should break in a clutch for 500 miles of light use and minimal slip. Clutch disk might have failed? Also direction of install matters on those. A shop installed it backwards on my brothers e36 and it friction welded itself to the trans. Had to pretty much destroy the trans to get it off.
Also my koyorad had a very slow leak. It ended up being the drain plug was not fully tight, they don't tighten it before shipping.
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I know there's a 500 mile break-in, but I always understood that's for proper bedding in and mating of the surfaces, and that premature heavy use could cause glazing/slipping issues, but no risk of breaking something... I guess I'll know for sure when I pull it apart. I doubt the clutch disk broke; the vibration is also felt with the car standing still in neutral revving which points me to the flywheel/PP.

And I definitely installed it correctly.

And the koyorad is definitely leaking, not from the plug - it's tight.

I agree with panda woo hoo
I'm just wrapping up my 500 mile break in period on a new clutch. Now ready it to give it the beans and enjoy the lightweight flywheel.
Maybe contact BMA or Sachs what's the breakin period.

I'm sure it's the 500 mile standard... but again referencing what I replied to pandaboo, I just don't see that as causing an issue in terms of premature PP failure or something else.

Zip ties are an interesting trick. I didn't think of that. I used a pressure plate bolt and wedged a flywheel.

You're having issues again? That's pretty shitty. I am going to be driving much like you I think, I'm curious to see how this turns out and if you do indeed need a break in period of a 500 miles or so or not.

Yea, sucks but I guess it's all part of the game. Sometimes it all goes smoothly, sometimes its a mess. You do need a 500 mile break in on a new clutch kit which I knew, and decided to disregard for a small wot pull. From what I understood, you should avoid heavy or excessive slipping of the clutch during the first 500 miles to avoid glazing the clutch and preventing proper bed-in and mating, hence the 500 mile break-in period. Also what I understood is that it's not so much how many miles you put on it, but how many times you shift aka how many times the clutch is enagaged/disengaged. For proper break in, the clutch needs to be lightly engaged/disengaged a bunch of times (which normally occurs within 500 miles of light city driving) in order for the clutch disk and friction surfaces to slowly wear in to each other and fully "mate" their surfaces.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Made some progress. Started a thread in bimmerforums M3 section regarding the clutch problems (since I figured that's where the most S52 experience would be) and got some good advice and info.
http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...ressure-plates

So after going through all that info, some research and a phone call to bimmerworld it seems the LTW flywheels don't like to be paired with solid clutch discs and oem PP. The oem PP has weak straps and the undampened solid disc/flywheel combo puts a lot of stress (depending on driving style) on the PP which breaks straps. So my plan is to go with an e34 m5 sprung disc and have my oem PP repaired/upgraded by having fort wayne clutch add extra straps to it (for only $45!!). Also I will send the flywheel back to JBR to have a new friction surface installed and have it checked/balanced. Finally I will have the PP/flywheel combo balanced together. Also for peace of mind I will check the crankshaft axial/radial runout with a dial indicator.

Already acquired the new disc





And the dial indicator (I actually bought a bore gauge/dial indicator combo since I'll definitely use the bore gauge in the future). The magnetic base/holder should arrive tomorrow.





So I also decided that I am tired of the car being kinda broken since the accident. I feel like I won't be at peace with myself until it's all fixed properly. And since I need to pull the trans again. I figured why not just pull the motor instead :p Made good use of the removable core support and block drain extension :D It was a blast to pull the core support with the radiator, condensor and fan in one piece and to drain the coolant in 5 mins, no mess.

The e30 back in the garage on jack stands... it's favorite place to be





Made quick work. Got this much done in 1.5 hours.







Picture of the sensor wiring for my reference later.






Plans for the engine bay:

-mild shave
-tuck wires
-replace inner wheel well (or just replace damaged section - leaning towards this)
-delete abs? (I'll have to pull it all out of the way anyway, and I'm like 75% sure it doesn't work)
-if deleting abs, put the CAI down through sheet metal behind driver fog light
-paint engine bay (not sure on color yet)
-potentially rebuild bay chassis harness (it was damaged with the accident)
-install AC components (might build custom lines and route them through passenger fender to keep bay clean)

[spiDmang]

dude....the removable core support and modded front subframe are amazing and genius...you should do the modded subframes on the side :up: I'd buy one from you!

[2mAn]

Mild wire tuck + mild engine bay shave??? They could work hand in hand with each other if you do it right

[Sh3rpak!ng]

dude....the removable core support and modded front subframe are amazing and genius...you should do the modded subframes on the side :up: I'd buy one from you!

Thanks!! I'm loving them both. Two big headaches crossed off the list. When all this crazy work is finished I would consider doing little fab work on the side for people, like modded subframe etc.

Mild wire tuck + mild engine bay shave??? They could work hand in hand with each other if you do it right

That's the plan! Mild as in I won't go psychotic filling every single hole, or making plates to cover every odd contour. It'll be "functionally" shaved/tucked and look clean.

[DIIRTY-30]

That's a huge difference in clearance, badass work man love it!

[cali_e30]

looks good buddy.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

That's a huge difference in clearance, badass work man love it!

Thanks man! it made a BIG difference, very happy with the outcome. Reminds me I still need to stop over to see your work one of these days.

looks good buddy.

Thanks Quan!

[Northern]

The corteco seal is a very different style without a spring loaded inner seal. We'll see how it holds up.

There was a change at some point, BMW switched to one without the spring. Apparently if the seal with the spring wears enough, the spring can contact and gouge the crank. More good reason to do the rear main when you can.

Little trick for torquing flywheel and pressure plate bolts when you don't have a flywheel locking pin hole in the flywheel. Zipties.

Hmm I thought this was only a problem for the F1/FX racing flywheels, but I guess it's more common than that.

Subframe notch turned out really well.

Have you had that exhaust crank scavenging thing for long? How does it work? I'm scared of filling my exhaust with oil :???:

[iwantspeed]

Hey Charlie I have a e30 abs pump that came from a parts car if you need it.