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

[cali_e30]

awesome as always Charlie. Hope to see you soon.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Big moment in this build, congrats!

Thanks!

It looks great. Are you going to paint the core support?

PM me prices for what you have for sale.

Yes, core support will be painted gloss black at some point. Wanted to assemble everything now with time to spare before bimmerfest so I'd have plenty shakedown time to fine tune things like brakes :)

PMed about AC stuff

awesome as always Charlie. Hope to see you soon.

Thanks Quan! You attending bimmerfest?

[spiDmang]

Congrats on getting her all buttoned up, Charlie :up: Fantastic work like always....now come to the picnic!!!

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Congrats on getting her all buttoned up, Charlie :up: Fantastic work like always....now come to the picnic!!!

Where at?

[spiDmang]

Come on sonnnnnnn..thought you would know better ;)

http://www.e30picnic.com/

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Come on sonnnnnnn..thought you would know better ;)

http://www.e30picnic.com/

I was playing dumb hoping there was some other supercool e30 picnic event coming up near LA that I didn't know about. It didn't work.

Shite that's a painful drive. Yeaaa I don't think so. I've always checked out the after event photos and stuff, it looks like a lot of fun, just kills me with the 1100 mile drive :(

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Looking at the ABS pump diagram from the ETM it looks like the red circled area is where I should be looking to jump a relay to activate the pump to help bleed the brakes. I'm thinking all I need to do is put power to pin 86 of the pump relay or pin 10 red/yellow .75mm wire from the connector which goes to pin 86 of the relay to trip the relay and power the pump.

Anyone see something wrong with my thoughts?

[Northern]

Brake pedal finished. I also added a pad where the brake light switch contacts. For some reason, new style brake switches are shorter than the original. I posted about it a while back. I was previously using some electrical tape to make a pad.

I just pulled a brake light switch this weekend and found that it had 1/2" of internal adjustment. I was trying to pull the plastic ring out to squeeze the tabs and ended up pulling the plunger out to a different stop. It made a ratcheting noise as it came out, so I really think they're adjustable.

Maybe they're not all like this, but I think it's just something a lot of us have never noticed before.

[328ijunkie]

Looking at the ABS pump diagram from the ETM it looks like the red circled area is where I should be looking to jump a relay to activate the pump to help bleed the brakes. I'm thinking all I need to do is put power to pin 86 of the pump relay or pin 10 red/yellow .75mm wire from the connector which goes to pin 86 of the relay to trip the relay and power the pump.

Anyone see something wrong with my thoughts?

Firing the pump by itself doesnt do a ton as its not using the pressure building for anything. You have to open/close valves which is very difficult.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I just pulled a brake light switch this weekend and found that it had 1/2" of internal adjustment. I was trying to pull the plastic ring out to squeeze the tabs and ended up pulling the plunger out to a different stop. It made a ratcheting noise as it came out, so I really think they're adjustable.

Maybe they're not all like this, but I think it's just something a lot of us have never noticed before.

Yes ,they are adjustable. And I knew that. But previously, the pedal was so far away from the switch that even when it was fully extended it didn't touch. Now it looks like I added too much pad the booster delete allows adjustment of where the pedal ends up so I could've adjusted the gap.

Firing the pump by itself doesnt do a ton as its not using the pressure building for anything. You have to open/close valves which is very difficult.

Yup, so I noticed. I studied the diagrams a little more and found some more info floating around. Which pointed to exactly that. Solenoids need to be cycled.

So closer reading of the diagrams led me to ground pins 11 and 2 which switch the relays to send power to the pump and to the solenoids respectively. After that, grounding either pin 1, 3 or 5 actuated the left front, right front, and rear solenoids respectively. I didn't go through the whole system yet, bleeding and cycling solenoids, only the front left and right while I was testing everything. So far I didn't observe any more air bubbles bleeding out of either front right or left :( I'll go through the whole system again tonight starting at right rear, left rear, right front, left front and cycle the solenoids as I go. The bias was previously set so the rear had very little pressure; I opened it up so the rear should be seeing nearly full pressure now, dunno if that'll make any difference bleeding but I am curious to see if I feel a difference driving. If this doesn't work, I guess the next step would be to bypass the abs unit and see if I can get the brakes feeling right without it.



So now that things are wrapping up, I spent some time cleaning out and reorganizing the garage. It feels great to have it all back together and cleaned out. Feels like I have miles of space now that most of the parts that were on the floor are gone.







Started tackling the wire tuck through the fender.





Assembly line of different connectors and heat shrink.





Starting to organize. I also pulled the windshield washer level + pump wiring and the A/C wiring out of the harness so I had less mess to deal with. I didn't cut them totally out of the harness, but left about a foot of wire coming out the fender and capped them just in case I come up with a tricky way to reuse the wiring for something else. Like the air conditioning button to turn on the aux fan, or something nefarious like the windshield washer momentary switch to release a smoke screen or oil slick a la james bond.





All of the wires were spliced with appropriately sized new wire, crimped with bare butt connectors, then covered with adhesive lined heat shrink. I also staggered the splices so I wouldn't get a bulging clump of them in one spot when I wrap all the wiring up.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Made some progress. Also got tired and didn't do anything for a night.

Added a light bar for night driving/brake testing up the driveway.





Started to properly route and secure the body harness. Riv nut tool coming handy again to put m6 mounting points for the clamps.





The vw 22/22 MC I got is a no go. Geometry is wrong. The internal piston position vs flange compared to the original e30 MC is about 1" deeper. Returning it.





Some fittings in case I have to bypass ABS if I can't find air elsewhere in the system.





Finished the lines for the coolant reservoir going through the fender. The small overflow hose goes down the inside of the fender behind the wheel.





Here's where the larger expansion hose comes out the core support, to the radiator.





And an engine bay shot, almost finished. Fuel rail cover needs a little trimming still, and the bolt hole plugs for both covers should be here today. Also might be able to mount the brake/clutch fluid reservoir back on top of the MC if the new one I ordered is sized the way I hope. That would be awesome to get rid of the remote res.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Finally hit some good luck. So after figuring out the vw MC wasn't going to work, I still needed to find a suitable 22/22 mc, and I needed to have it the day of in order to have any chance of making bimmerfest with brakes. Some research and help from others led me to a foxbody mustang 22/22 MC which would need the bolt holes slotted, and I also found a MC from an e32 which was a 22/22 according to real oem. So the decision came down to whatever I was able to acquire day of would be what I use.

I called BMA parts and asked about both. No-go on the mustang MC, but they found 1 of 2 e32 MCs in the US was nearby, but for around ~$250 :( ATE brand new. Then my man Carlo dug a little deeper and found a re manufactured ATE MC for $50 and "made it happen" for me to get it yesterday, bingo!! Next bit of luck was finding a new reservoir to go on top since I'd pretty much be insulting myself and my engine bay if I put the old grimy reservoir back in. I could've continued using the remote reservoir, but if I can fit an original res on top of the MC, that looks MUCH cleaner. So I had Carlo check for both the e32 res, and an e30 res but there was nothing available on short notice (not to mention they are $$$ also around $250). Then he remembered a reservoir that was ordered 2 years prior, but noone picked up that had been sitting on the back of a shelf ever since. He pulled that out of hiding; lo and behold it was actually a res for an 86' 325e or something, but it fit perfectly! And he gave it to me for a very very good price :D

So the e32 MC is exactly the same shape and layout of the e30 original MC, just that it's a 22/22 vs the 17/22 original. Score!!!











I also picked up a MC bench bleed kit. This should help me definitively bleed the MC to rule out air getting trapped in it. Then after opening it, I decided the kit was shit, and I could make my own better with some leftover brake line, fittings and clear tube.





My DIY kit

[Chilezen]

I was playing dumb hoping there was some other supercool e30 picnic event coming up near LA that I didn't know about. It didn't work.

Shite that's a painful drive. Yeaaa I don't think so. I've always checked out the after event photos and stuff, it looks like a lot of fun, just kills me with the 1100 mile drive :(

I did the drive to Washington last year in the summer (not for the picnic; my dad lives up there). I went the fun way too (up the coast!) in my shitbox e30. I did it alone and practically with no music too, no A/C, heater, cruise control.. nothing but good roads and windows down. It's a wonderful 3 day drive. That drive is the source of my avatar pic.

Starting to organize. I also pulled the windshield washer level + pump wiring and the A/C wiring out of the harness so I had less mess to deal with. I didn't cut them totally out of the harness, but left about a foot of wire coming out the fender and capped them just in case I come up with a tricky way to reuse the wiring for something else. Like the air conditioning button to turn on the aux fan, or something nefarious like the windshield washer momentary switch to release a smoke screen or oil slick a la james bond.

Or use the windshield squirter to spray water on your turbo intercoo-- oh wait ;D

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I did the drive to Washington last year in the summer (not for the picnic; my dad lives up there). I went the fun way too (up the coast!) in my shitbox e30. I did it alone and practically with no music too, no A/C, heater, cruise control.. nothing but good roads and windows down. It's a wonderful 3 day drive. That drive is the source of my avatar pic.

Or use the windshield squirter to spray water on your turbo intercoo-- oh wait ;D

I've done that drive too (some of it) up the coast to SF with some friends. It was amazing. The views, the roads.

And shhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Sh3rpak!ng]

So I made it to bimmerfest with brakes! Everything seems to be working properly now. The pedal is quite stiff, a bit too much for my liking, but it works and that's what was important. Since the only thing that changed between now and before was the MC, either the 19/19 MC was just the wrong size, or it still had air in it and should've been bench bled. I think the latter is most likely. I ordered yet another MC to continue playing with pedal feel. This one is a 20/20 MC and was listed on the realoem page for the car believe it or not PN 34311154918. I'm hoping this will be the last one.


Here's the car at bimmerfest

In the shade, early morning cloudy skies







And in the sunlight







I was hoping to win the "Rising Star - 25 Years Old and Younger (from Modified Classes)" category, but was not so fortunate. The judging didn't feel like it was done very well (or maybe it was just my judge ). The guy stopped at my car for like 2 mins, I tried to engage him to "present" the car, explain the mods (most of which either you can't see, or you wouldn't even notice), and tell the story of the car but he didn't seem very interested. Actually he spent most of the time telling me what cars he has, and advertising some upcoming events. To be fair, exterior wise my front bumper, and fenders look like shit, but those are the only eyesores (albeit big ones) and are really trivial in perspective with the rest of the car. I guess maybe this is also indicative of how trends have moved to favor wings, rivet on fenders, stickers, air ride, BBKs, and cages in/on cars that never see any sort of competitive driving....

Regardless, I had a really great time. Two of my buddies joined, we brought a grill, lots of food, some beverages a canopy and chairs. We enjoyed the day perusing the different sections, eating some delicious BBQ, and driving to/from the event. It was a huge treat to see a mclaren f1 gtr and e46 m3 gtr on display at the BMW tent. My jaw dropped when I turned the corner and saw the fender of the mclaren peek through the crowd surrounding it!!






Despite not winning the award, I did get A LOT of positive feedback on the car which was very humbling. I really enjoyed seeing people checking it out, inspecting details, and asking me about the car in general. There was a non-stop group of people checking it out nearly all day which really made me happy to see after many many weeks of very hard work. Another cool comment I got was from the owner of the red e90 m3 parked beside me. That car was SICK. Lots of tasteful exterior vorsteiner mods, ess 625 supercharger kit, BBK, aa exhaust and I'm sure much more. The lady owner also tracks the car pretty heavily. Anyway, that car won best in show modified M and the owner jokingly complained to me that people had been walking right past her car to look at mine!

I'll probably return again next year for one last shot at something. By then I'll have the exterior sorted out and hopefully the SC installed so I think I will probably have a good chance in either the modified non-m or classic categories.













I mostly relaxed on Sunday but still got some work done. Continued with working on the front wiring harness. Started wrapping the wires up, lengthening some where needed and repairing portions that were damaged in the accident with some splicing. Also popped the core support off to paint it so I can install it "for good". Damn it is so easy to do this stuff now. Took me less than 10 mins to strip the front of the car.







Trimmed the corner here to allow space for the harness to pass through. Covered the edges with a section of grommet.







Splice sections to add about 7" to the length of the harness going to the passenger side of the car.





In progress. Using uninsulated butt connectors and adhesive lined heat shrink.





Picking up another MC to try today as mentioned before.