The Journey of Linda and Friends - the M20b31 Lives

[digger]

I too have a dash mat that I'll probably throw on if the car is going to see prolonged sun (ie parked outside) with regular coats of 303.

dash mats dont work, mine was mint and still cracked. the dashes crack with heat due to thermal stress expansion and contraction its not mainly a UV thing, if you park the car in the sun for extended periods on a hot day regularly it'll crack eventually at gets 55-60C inside in the middle of summer. no dash matt will help that.

[AWDBOB]

dash mats dont work, mine was mint and still cracked. the dashes crack with heat due to thermal stress expansion and contraction its not mainly a UV thing, if you park the car in the sun for extended periods on a hot day regularly it'll crack eventually at gets 55-60C inside in the middle of summer. no dash matt will help that.

Good call- looks like I'll just show this baby off until she starts cracking.


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I am happy with how this came out. I still didn't paint the grills, but they look fine. The smilies with the black headlight trim rings with a fresh kidney.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

I scooped up a time capsule '87 eS for a little project in the interim. It was headed for the grave, but I changed its course.

The gentleman I purchased it from bought in '90. He was torn up watching it leave! It needs brake/fuel lines as they are rusty. The car runs fine, though. I'm swapping in a spare subframe, trailing arms, brake lines, fuel lines, etc from a rust free parts car and will do a tune up and see where that gets me. I LOVE the pacific blue/white.

A thorough pressure wash revealed a nice car underneath.

Oh, and I bought a $25 m20b25 from a nice guy outside Cincinnati. I've got a few spare 885s at this point, one of which I rebuilt already with a billet 272, new rockers and other parts. Given how long my stuff has been at the machine shop, I'm just going to toss a normal m20b25 back into Linda to enjoy and work out the ancillary systems, finish the exhaust fab, finish the r134 setup, hopefully get a MS2 setup dialed, etc etc. So when it comes time for whatever engine is done, I can just swap and tune, all while actually enjoying the car in the mean time.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[Staszek]

I scooped up a time capsule '87 eS for a little project in the interim. It was headed for the grave, but I changed its course.

The gentleman I purchased it from bought in '90. He was torn up watching it leave! It needs brake/fuel lines as they are rusty. The car runs fine, though. I'm swapping in a spare subframe, trailing arms, brake lines, fuel lines, etc from a rust free parts car and will do a tune up and see where that gets me. I LOVE the pacific blue over white.

A thorough pressure wash revealed a nice car underneath.

Oh, and I bought a $25 m20b25 from a nice guy outside Cincinnati. I've got a few spare 885s at this point, one of which I rebuilt already with a billet 272, new rockers and other parts. Given how long my stuff has been at the machine shop, I'm just going to toss a normal m20b25 back into Linda to enjoy and work out the ancillary systems, finish the exhaust fab, finish the r134 setup, hopefully get a MS2 setup dialed, etc etc. So when it comes time for whatever engine is done, I can just swap and tune, all while actually enjoying the car in the mean time.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

Looking good!

Are you in Indiana? I dont think I knew that. I bought my E30 from a guy in Indiana, drove it 117 miles back home.

[AWDBOB]

Looking good!

Are you in Indiana? I dont think I knew that. I bought my E30 from a guy in Indiana, drove it 117 miles back home.

Yeah! I’m 30ish miles north of Indy. There are some cars to be had here, I’m not surprised you bought your car here! There is very little enthusiast interest in old German cars out by me. A few of us sprinkled about, but I have been able to find several cars that would’ve been gone years ago in a different area.

There are still two more local red coupes sitting I’m going to inevitably save at some (same owner). I’ve certainly been blessed with the cars I’ve been able to find during my time in the Midwest.

[mike.bmw]

Amazing what some cleaning will do. Nice pickup and nice work!

Back to the dash mats... I agree with digger in regard to heat being the issue. However, if you've ever gone on a long drive in direct sun without a dash mat, the dash will get VERY hot. So hot it feels like you are burning your hand if you touch it. A dash mat significantly reduces the heat and keep dash temps relatively close to the temperature inside the car, thus prolonging the life of the dash. If you use a windshield/sun shade when parked, this will also significantly reduce the heat inside the car (prolonging the life of the dash). Using a dash mat without a sun shade while parked doesn't help much, because sunlight coming through the windshield raises the entire interior temperature of the car, essentially baking the dash. Just my 2 cents...

On the other hand, just run it without a dash mat (which I think are ugly) and enjoy the fruits of your labor until it eventually cracks! :)

[Albie325]

Nice find! How's the interior? I'd kill to stumble across something like this around me, but I haven't seen an e30 sitting in a driveway/yard in forever.

[AWDBOB]

Amazing what some cleaning will do. Nice pickup and nice work!

Back to the dash mats... I agree with digger in regard to heat being the issue. However, if you've ever gone on a long drive in direct sun without a dash mat, the dash will get VERY hot. So hot it feels like you are burning your hand if you touch it. A dash mat significantly reduces the heat and keep dash temps relatively close to the temperature inside the car, thus prolonging the life of the dash. If you use a windshield/sun shade when parked, this will also significantly reduce the heat inside the car (prolonging the life of the dash). Using a dash mat without a sun shade while parked doesn't help much, because sunlight coming through the windshield raises the entire interior temperature of the car, essentially baking the dash. Just my 2 cents...

On the other hand, just run it without a dash mat (which I think are ugly) and enjoy the fruits of your labor until it eventually cracks! :)

Thanks! I'm surprised it all came off as easily as it did, I was pleased. And yeah that makes sense regarding the mat. It's not like my cars will ever be driven anyway so I guess it doesn't matter much in reality

Nice find! How's the interior? I'd kill to stumble across something like this around me, but I haven't seen an e30 sitting in a driveway/yard in forever.

It is well used, but complete! Cracked dash from sitting outside. Don't let the shiny photos fool you, this thing has some rust from sitting, but nothing that is structural like the last iX.

The area of Indiana that I am in is unique regarding finding cars. It was home to several large GM plants for quite a long time, and there was a bunch of money here for many years that bought fancy cars and lived in fancy houses. Housing neighborhoods built for GM execs, etc. Then, all of the plants closed down and most of the people/money left. Quite a few people retired here when the plants closed and are now getting up there in age, with their old 80s-90s cars sitting outside sharing the "I'd like to get that car back on the road someday" mentality.

My M3 came from a guy who lived in one of the aforementioned GM neighborhoods, and several of these other cars have as well. However, because this area was home to GM (and because Indiana is a pretty red white and blue state), most folks only buy American, so the euro driveway finds aren't picked over like most places, as there are only a few old Bimmer enthusiasts scattered about.



Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[luckybk]

Had an e28 with a blue interior, really liked it. im new to this thread and the number of projects within projects is staggering. labor of love.

[AWDBOB]

Had an e28 with a blue interior, really liked it. im new to this thread and the number of projects within projects is staggering. labor of love.

I really dig the blue!

Welcome to my madness. I get offered a bunch of cars/parts and somehow justify buying them, all while never getting anything done on my keepers, changing directions every time I make up my mind. This is all happening in the Midwest while my M3 sits in my pop’s garage on the east coast discouragingly watching me tumble down stairs of distractions, indefinitely avoiding making a space for it out here

[AWDBOB]

I have been so busy lately I haven't been updating this thread! I'm in the middle of four engine jobs and a part out, it's a wild ride.

My good buddy Mr. Vic brought his beautiful '87 Zinno iS to me for a timing belt, manual swap, and suspension refresh. I put on some Billys and H&Rs, disassembled for timing belt and discovered his head gasket was completely shot. Luckily I had a fresh head build on the shelf (885 w/ billet 272 cam and new old stock Febi rockers, pre casting grossness), so we went that route and he's going to bring the car back a little later on for the manual swap once I clear out some of these other projects.

Vic's car:

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


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The news y'all have been waiting for- I brought my 3.1L home today from the saint of a machinist I have been using for years now. I was planning on selling the 3.1L due to cost, but it turns out, if you're easy enough to deal with and you refer enough business, sometimes good karma comes around! He felt bad about how long it took and was appreciative of my patience among other things, so the bill I received was a literal fraction of what I had put aside for it..... so 3.1L is going in Linda, once and for all!! The icing on the cake is that whodwho is almost done with my Megasquirt unit.

Head: 731 casting, Billet split duration 284/280 cam, HD rockers, RHD valve springs, +2mm valves, porting by RHD

Block: M20 block, M54b30 89.6mm crankshaft, M54b30 rods, block bored to 86mm with torque plate, custom 4032 JE pistons profiled to match the 731 head, 10.5:1 compression

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr





Also, my 2.7L stroker is almost done, waiting for the block to be shaved and engine assembled. I will be selling that shortblock once I get it back.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[digger]

nice spec build for street motor. how hard did rama massage it? weird ass piston dome though

[AWDBOB]

nice spec build for street motor. how hard did rama massage it? weird ass piston dome though

He massaged it pretty heavily. Opened the throats up for the valves, opened the ports up quite a bit, and opened the combustion chamber back up after putting the chubbier valves in there.

I wish they would've started with a better core, though. This thing was hammered at some point. The area I thought was corrosion was a spot where someone else had already welded. Luckily the fellow I use is good at repairing annoying stuff like that. All good now, though.

Yeah, when working with TEP on the pistons, he had to go that route because the 731 combustion chamber is small, so it bumped up compression quite a bit. The head CC'd what it did stock with the bigger valves which is better than what it would've been. When I first contacted him about having them made, he said, and I quote "This is an unusual combo with that Small Chamber 731 head...Have you CC'd the chambers? Stock that head was 37cc but with valve changes, etc. it could be less or perhaps you modified it and opened up the chambers?"

[e30austin]

hell yes!!!! excited for you :)

you will have to let me know what you think of it. i am considering building an engine for my cabrio, eventually...

[rzerob]

Glad to see things worked out for you Bob.