Project Otacon: Hennarot Revival

[HennaE30]

Here we are y'all, This last Monday marks 1 year of ownership of my E30.



This year has been filled with many rewarding, as well as frustrating, moments. I had to bring her back from a hacked up past and am slowly getting her to where I want.



So I bought this 84 Hennarot 325e 5 speed car for $1400 off Craigslist in a not-so-great part of town (Oak Cliff for those of you who are familiar with DFW).







When I first got the car, we knew there were a handful of issues, namely blown shifter bushings, a misfire, bad passenger window motor, and wiper motor. The first two were fixed promptly, the former with Pelicans rebuild kit and the latter while doing all the new-owner maintenance (turned out to be a bad cap and rotor). After doing the rebuild kit, we figured out the syncs for second and third were blown, so we took it up to the guys at Spec Motorsports (great guys, would definitely recommend them to anyone!) and they swapped in a a newer trans, flushed it with Redline MTL, threw in a new Sachs clutch kit, master and slave, and a braided stainless clutch line.





Fast forward to October/November: I picked up a set of Alpina Kopi 17x7.5 ET35 wrapped in new 215/40s. I also did my shadow lining and got a set of euro grilles from ST1G.






It was pretty quiet for awhile, did an oilpan gasket and motor/trans mounts. Went with IEs solid urethane mounts, They're great. Vibration isn't as bad as I thought it would be. About Mid-January I swapped in a 4.10LSD, with new gaskets and plugs, and new Royal Purple 75w-90 (wanted to run Motul or Redline but couldn't find any).







Then in February, while out doing some spirited driving, I downshifted into 3rd and the selector shaft seal popped out, causing tranny fluid to leak out all over the hot exhaust, which made it seem like the Jamaican National Dope Smoking team was practicing in my car. So Spec honored it and replaced the selector shaft seal, and output shaft seal, converted my car to late model shifter carrier, and threw in an E36M3 shift lever. While they were doing this, I had them swap in one of IE's DSSRs that I had picked up. I also took this chance to throw on a ZHP knob and matching ///M stitch shift and Ebrake boots, with a leather ebrake handle I got from a guy on here. (And yes I noticed the clip wasn't full seated, and I fixed it)








Around this time i also installed a set of Bimmerworld's stainless brake lines.









Over spring break I got an iS spoiler painted and installed.and went out and took some pictures.








That brings us to now. Midway through last week i managed to score a nice set of Smoked Hella Smileys for a great price, The perfect 1-year anniversary gift!



Before:


After:




I am currently trying to figure out what to do with my brakes, Do I rebuild my stock calipers? (300k on them) get a Mazda front BBK? What do you guys think?

[TimKninja]

so jeolous, always wanted a Hennarot car!

if you plan on more power later Id say do the BBK. But stock e30 brakes actually work really well with refreshed pads and rotors. You can get stock powdercoated calipers off of Rock auto for around $100 a pair.

[cabin]

Nice build, love the color!

Just FYI your smoked high beams are rotated 90 degrees off. The fluting on the lens should be vertical, not horizontal.

[HennaE30]

Nice build, love the color!

Just FYI your smoked high beams are rotated 90 degrees off. The fluting on the lens should be vertical, not horizontal.

Yea. I know, PO of the lights said he liked it better that way

Thanks guys.

The plan is to go with a healthy S52 (headers, euro HFM, M50 mani, injectors, tune, etc), Ground Control coils, light diet, rear seat delete and 4 point cage.

[kingston]

Then definitely upgrade your brakes. Definitely.

[kingston]

Then definitely upgrade your brakes. Definitely.

[HennaE30]

It's either I rebuild my stock ones and get new blanks and ceramic pads (for street. For track Id get PFc-08s or 11s) and then get the 310mm F/R Wilwood BBK, after I do coils and S52, or I get the Mazda front BBK and rebuild my stock rears. Once I get paid Friday I'll probably decide and get something, my brakes are worn and squealing, and it's driving me nuts.

[brainfood]

Good to see another Henna car being saved! Mine's alot farther gone than this, but there aren't many, so we need to keep em! haha

[kingston]

It's either I rebuild my stock ones and get new blanks and ceramic pads (for street. For track Id get PFc-08s or 11s) and then get the 310mm F/R Wilwood BBK, after I do coils and S52, or I get the Mazda front BBK and rebuild my stock rears. Once I get paid Friday I'll probably decide and get something, my brakes are worn and squealing, and it's driving me nuts.

I am a big believer in there being no such thing as too much brake. I run the Massive 300mm 'Sport' kit with Wilwood Superlites on my S52 car, and love them. The bigger brakes not only give you more stopping power, but also allow your rotors to last longer, especially if you are going to be tracking your car. I will say that I upgraded the brake MC to an E30 M3 one for better pedal feel after swapping to the BBK.

Love your car, as always!!!!

[HennaE30]

Project Otacon: Hennarot Revival

Thanks for the love guys. It means a lot.

Kingston, I'm of the same accord for the most part. I think that you don't NEED a BBK for most applications, but it comes to a point where you say "why not? Then I know I'll never have brake issues, and they look awesome."

I'm currently looking at buying an 86 4Runner 4x4 from my sisters boyfriend to use as a daily so my E30 can get off the road and I can make some solid headway on getting it righted. I'm just waiting for payday on Friday lol.

[HennaE30]

Alright. It's official. I hate r3v... People convincing me to strap a blower to the S52 when I swap it in.. :hitler:

Nothing really new with the car. Ordering a couple small pieces this week. Namely the window motor. Currently lining up the S52 for mid next month pick up from a buddy, so I'm saving up to pick that up.

[HennaE30]

Project Otacon: Hennarot Revival

Short update:

Changed my plans short term for the car. I decided im gonna do suspension first, then the S52.

So I picked up a set of Koni's from ECS Tuning, and they arrived yesterday. I opened the box, there are 3 Koni boxes and an ECS box inside. IIRC, the 2 front inserts are supposed to be together in the rectangular box correct? There was a shock in each box, with most of the baggies for the hardware ripped open like someone's been messing with them/pulling hardware. I'm half tempted to call ECS about it, but have heard horror stories about their customer service.

@kingston, I'll throw up some pictures of the hardware and all, let me know if I'm missing anything.

So these were the packages in the boxes.

The package on the top is is unopened, with 2 washers a locknut, and a black cap ontop, I'm assuming this is for a rear shock? The two washers to squeeze the RSM and the cap to cover the nut?

The package below it is the same thing, but is open, and the black cap wasn't in the back, it was laying in the box.

The 2 at the bottom I'm assuming are for the fronts, a smaller flat washer, a lock washer, a non lock nut, a plastic disc, and red cap. The ziplock package also has bigger washer. Notice one package is open, and the other isn't even in the original package. Is everything here? I think so, also what's how do they install? I googled but couldn't find anything, and the guides in the boxes are crumpled up and ripped to shit.

[HennaE30]

Got some other small goodies. Rotors, pads, caliper rebuild kits and a new hub for a momo wheel I'm getting redone.



Gonna try to cleaned out the garage today to get started on it tomorrow. Gonna get the calipers stripped down, acid dipped and powder coated.

Boring update, but it's an update nonetheless!