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

[pandaboo911]

That looks pretty clean for coolant. It's never gonna be perfectly clear. For reference most coolant systems only need about 1/3 of the bottle of water wetter. Don't waste that stuff


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[Rosecitykid]

I love this build! Your attention to detail is superb! I was bummed to see the wreck but it looks like you sprung back quick enough.

Keep up the good work!

[Sh3rpak!ng]

You are all good just run a coolant flush in it. Dump it then distilled water then dump it and do it until it's clear add coolant and throw in a bottle of water wetter while you're at it it seriously works

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That looks pretty clean for coolant. It's never gonna be perfectly clear. For reference most coolant systems only need about 1/3 of the bottle of water wetter. Don't waste that stuff

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Okay, then I'm not worried. But my OCD still doesn't like it. And call me crazy, but my e36's coolant is a very nice clear bmw blue, hasn't been flushed in 2 years. I think I'll just blame it on a very dirty heater core leftover from the m20 days.

I love this build! Your attention to detail is superb! I was bummed to see the wreck but it looks like you sprung back quick enough.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks man! It take a lot more than that to keep me down

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Lots of progress this weekend, unfortunately ended with some minor tragedy. First, the good stuff.

Another CAD template to make the fender brackets for the removabale core support.





Fully welded the frame rail brackets







Pilot holes for the riv nuts





Installed







Weld through primer on the back side so I can tack the nuts in place





Bolted up very nicely





Core support fender bracket tacked in place





Ran out of welding gas so I used some of the "sample" .030 flux core wire that came with the welder - it sucks massively. Looks like shit and welds like shit. And .030 is definitely too thick to weld thin gauge. Luckily i Only had a tiny bit to do so all was okay.







Bracket on the fender side





Core support in its final resting place. That felt good.





New bracket to mount the catch can





Riv nut tool already coming in handy with mounting points for catch can bracket





Mounted





I had an idea to make a coolant drain extension so I can avoid spilling coolant all over the place in the future when draining the block, however I didn't realize that the damn O2 sensor pokes right into it. So this will have to be postponed until I have a reason to remove the headers and weld a bung in a different spot.





Here is the layout of how it will be configured when it gets installed. Stainless braided line in between the fittings





Looks like the koyorad radiator is leaking again which I kinda confirmed after I filled it up with coolant I think. I'll have to check it again to be sure.





Reassembly going smoothly





Made brackets for the new ballasts from some scrap aluminum





Riv nut gun coming handy again with the mounting points for the ballasts. Now they'll be nicely secured and out of view





Ballasts mounted with fog deletes





Almost finished. Went to install the new headlights and noticed one was missing a piece. I'm trying to return/exchange/whatever to get it sorted.





TRAGEDY STRIKES
Returning from Santa Monica in the afternoon driving the e30. Turned onto Topanga Canyon Boulevard and something went wrong with the clutch, not sure what but it won't disengage for one reason or another. Coasted it to a nice spot on the shoulder and yelled and swore until my throat hurt. That was frustrating. Then in denial, I tried to put it into gear about 2 dozen times without success. At that point I calmed enough to try to diagnose the situation.

I can shift smoothly with the car off - transmission is okay
Starting the car in neutral, if I press the clutch to the floor there is a grinding noise/feeling at the end of the travel - eek
Revving the car while in neutral there is a significant vibration - some rotational mass is not balanced - I suspect the clutch/pp/flywheel

Verdict: there's likely no way around pulling the trans

Short term emergency solution: I still have the old m20 clutch/flywheel/pp I can throw in there to make it drive

Shorter term solution to get home (only 10 mins luckily): I manned up, started the car in 2nd and prayed to the car gods I wouldn't have to stop at any point (it's all up hill, very windy and twisty, and while there are many turn outs, if I had to stop at the wrong place I'd be kind of stuck in the middle of the road). I was lucky. Made it all the way into the garage without having to stop once, even rev matched and shifted without the clutch into 3rd and back into 2nd a few times.


Right now the car is on a time out. I sent it to its room and turned off the lights and made it face the wall. It really needs to think about how its actions hurt our relationship.





All that nonsense aside, I'm liking the way the bay looks with the olive green color of the self etch primer contrasting with the rest of the colors. I might leave it that way (but I would do a more legit paint job on it). And now I'm considering painting the bay a slightly darker shade of bronzit when the time comes. We'll see.

[exhaust]

I've lost count of how many times I'd have to drive an E30 or 36 back to the garage without being able to shift...

Glad you got it back without a tow!

[rzerob]

It is turning out great. I really like your removal core support. Since you technically now have a working template, you could make and sell them.

[ST1G]

1.) I like the color of the core support

2.) Great job making it removable. Smart thinking, I kinda wish I had done this.

A.) I like the placement of the ballasts for the headlights.

3.) Sorry about the Tragedy. Those things really get my goat.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I've lost count of how many times I'd have to drive an E30 or 36 back to the garage without being able to shift...

Glad you got it back without a tow!

Meh, this was my first. Yea, I called AAA and they gave me a 2-3 hour wait due to some major accident on another canyon, so I decided screw it and drove.

It is turning out great. I really like your removal core support. Since you technically now have a working template, you could make and sell them.

Thanks man! I have been very happy with the progress as well, just bummed about the setbacks. I suppose I could, but there are so many variables that make it a pretty individual endeavor.

1.) I like the color of the core support
2.) Great job making it removable. Smart thinking, I kinda wish I had done this.
A.) I like the placement of the ballasts for the headlights.
3.) Sorry about the Tragedy. Those things really get my goat.

1) Yes! Glad someone agrees. I was tossing the idea of an olive green bay in my head for a while so I was glad to see my thoughts were correct. But I don't think I would do the whole bay like that.

2) The removable core support is freaking awesome. I got giggly when I saw how easy it will be to pull the motor in the future, or access the front of the motor.

3) Thanks, I started thinking ahead to the planned wire tuck

4) You're telling me... I did a marathon 16 hours Saturday and another 4 sunday morning (not to mention all the hours of the prior weeks) only to drive 1 hour before it slapped me. I actually screamed until my throat hurt while stopped on the side of the road.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

So I was all gung-ho on my way home from work yesterday with visions of dropping the trans that night. I got the car on jack stands slid under with the creeper.... and then my motivation vanished.

I did get the welding gas refilled though. So there's something.

[rzerob]

Thanks man! I have been very happy with the progress as well, just bummed about the setbacks. I suppose I could, but there are so many variables that make it a pretty individual endeavor.

I was not saying it would be a bolt in upgrade. But already having a core support cleaned up with pre drilled holes and rivnuts with loose bracketry and hardware that would needed to install would be a huge step forward in completing a removal core support. You include everything and "some assembly required sticker" on the box and there you go.

[efficient]

Really jealous of your garage. What do you do for a living if you don't mind me asking?

[jpod999]

Sorry if I missed it, but any suggestions on a rivnut tool? I want to do a removable core support as well and this really looks like the best option.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I was not saying it would be a bolt in upgrade. But already having a core support cleaned up with pre drilled holes and rivnuts with loose bracketry and hardware that would needed to install would be a huge step forward in completing a removal core support. You include everything and "some assembly required sticker" on the box and there you go.

Ahh gotcha. Yea, I suppose like that it would't be such a big deal. I could even include a riv nut tool rental.

Really jealous of your garage. What do you do for a living if you don't mind me asking?

Haha thanks man, never thought someone would say that towards my garage... especially after drooling over some of the garagejournal builds

I'm a supply chain engineer

Sorry if I missed it, but any suggestions on a rivnut tool? I want to do a removable core support as well and this really looks like the best option.

I bought the astro 1442 tool off of amazon. No complaints. It seems like a good quality tool, intuitive and has pretty much all of the sizes to cover your metric and standard sized bolts. Just plan to order riv nuts from mcmaster or elsewhere since the riv nuts the kit comes with are cheap. I used the heavy duty zinc plated riv nuts from mcmaster.

[jpod999]

I bought the astro 1442 tool off of amazon. No complaints. It seems like a good quality tool, intuitive and has pretty much all of the sizes to cover your metric and standard sized bolts. Just plan to order riv nuts from mcmaster or elsewhere since the riv nuts the kit comes with are cheap. I used the heavy duty zinc plated riv nuts from mcmaster.

Thanks!

[Sh3rpak!ng]

So I made quick work last week pulling the driveshaft and exhaust to get access to the trans. I also forgot how much of a bitch it is to remove the merge section in order to have enough space to get the trans out. I have to loosen a couple of the downpipe nuts, then remove the exhaust manifolds, then finish unbolting the downpipes from the midsection in order to get it all out. I think the modified subframe will help tremendously so I'll definitely be installing that as well.





And then I didn't get a chance to wrench until last night. I finished pulling the trans.

At first glance, the PP and clutch disc look good. It still looks like I'm leaking oil or something from somewhere, but this disc wasn't on the car long enough to get ruined. I can still see the manufacturing marks on the disc. PP surface looks clean. A couple of the PP bolts were loose again though... from oil contamination I suspect?









Flywheel looks good too. I think I'm getting a little oil leaking past the flywheel bolts though as you can see. I'm pretty sure I forgot to put something on the threads to seal them. They were still torqued appropriately.







And here is the culprit of the main problem - clutch stuck engaged and nasty vibration.

That's one of the PP straps broken - it's kinda hard to see. The strap broke right around that stud and the friction surface moved out of alignment. You can just barely see the crack to the left of the stud, and you can see how the strap moved to the bottom left. That was an OEM s52 sachs pressure plate.





You can also see some scratch marks on the outside edge of the PP from when I removed the clutch bump stop and pressed it to the floor... it caused one end of the pivot fork to contact the PP.





Looks like the rear main seal might be leaking a bit so I'll replace that. Though I'm still not 100% sure where the bulk of the leaking oil is coming from. Oil pan is dry at that back edge and elsewhere around the joint.





I also managed to somehow pull the shaft out of the slave cylinder. I'll just replace it since it was used with unknown miles.





There's also a little bit of oil collected in the bottom of the bellhousing. I can't really tell if the input seal is leaking a bit or if it's just engine oil that made it's way in there. The top of the seal cover is dry, the bottom is a little wet, and the rest of the mechanical parts are all dry.

I'm getting really paranoid.






So in summary, I found the issue that caused clutch operation failure - broken PP strap. But I'm still not 100% where oil is leaking from, or maybe if its a little bit leaking from a few places... I'm getting tired of this shit.