Lazurblau 325i project thread

[TheWipprSnappr]

Not a huge update but the 5 speed swap is coming along, slowly but surely. My fiancé and I just purchased a home so things have been pretty frantic lately with projects having to sit on the backburner for a bit. This weekend I had some free time to chip away a little more.



Input and output transmission shaft seals replaced. I did go with elring seals and I have since heard the horror stories so there is a good chance I will go back through before I install the transmission and replace with genuine bmw to leave no doubt.



Then I installed the new mounts and bracket, the slave and ss line from ecs tuning and test fit the new shifter setup. Much better fit this time around using the genuine shifter arm. That "lightweight" shifter arm I got with the trans is pure junk.



Going with the X5 shifter over the 1.9. I like that it is a long lever to put the knob closer to the steering wheel while still retaining a nice short throw.
Banged through the gears a little bit and it felt amazing!



I did bend the lever forward a little. For a cheater bar, I used the top half of my floor jack lever. It actually worked really well since it barely fit over the shifter it allowed the bending force to spread over the whole lever.



Can't decide quite how much to bend it yet. I will have to wait and see once it is installed in the car where the best location is. I actually kind of like the lean, gives it an old school vibe.

Lastly I installed the new clutch fork, pivot pin and t/o bearing.



I didn't take any pics of it, but I also prepared the interior by removing everything that would be in the way. (I left the auto shifter in for now, in case I need to move the car.) Hopefully I can make some more progress in the coming weeks. That's it for now.

[TheWipprSnappr]

Had some more time this weekend to work on the car. Made some pretty good progress on the swap and was able to get the auto trans completely out.


The hardest part I would say was getting the top trans bolts out.
The winning combination for me were 3ft and 6" extensions with a breaker bar entering on the top of the trans from back at the output shaft. I let the transmission down off the mounts and there was enough room to get to the bolts.

To get on the starter top nut I removed the airbox and intake boot and used a swivel to get a socket on the nut and had someone hold it while I broke the bolt loose. You can see said nut just to the right of the threaded stud.



I basically followed the steps of getting to the bolt outlined here:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=177024&highlight=starter

Once all the bolts were out I was able to remove the shield between the bell housing and the block and access the bolts (3 of them) that mount the torque converter to the auto starter wheel via the opening on the passenger side. (sorry don't have photos of this.) once that was done I (along with my dads help) was able to slide the trans back and down with little issues.

Only thing I messed up was disconnecting the fill tube and not plugging up the hole in the pan so I kinda made a mess. Ive read you don't need to remove this to get the trans out but I just didn't want it in my way.


Getting closer now. A couple more free weekends and I should be cruising again (hopefully).

Also ordered a new steering wheel, and it came in last week. Momo Monte Carlo 350mm with black stitching.


I haven't mounted the wheel yet but I can already tell im going to love it.

[jeenyus]

great work!

[MR E30 325is]

Your E30 looks fantastic. Really digging the stance, wheel choice, and color!

[TheWipprSnappr]

great work!

Thanks a lot!

Your E30 looks fantastic. Really digging the stance, wheel choice, and color!

I really appreciate that. Goal is to make it an aggressive street car with some simple, tasteful styling.


Also working on prepping my mtech1 spoiler I bought awhile back. I think that will add to the aggressive street look im going for.

[TheWipprSnappr]

Well, I suck.

First, the good:
Replaced rear main seal and installed new pilot bearing.

Yep, that's it.

The bad:
Back when I ordered all the hardware for the swap I bought the m42 flywheel bolts by mistake.
I called BMW of Columbia, MO to see if they had some M20 single mass bolts in stock.... 2...they had 2....I realize I'm the idiot in this situation but I don't understand why they don't have 30+. I don't have experience working in parts departments so maybe this isn't uncommon, idk.
Moral of the story, double/triple check your parts before you buy. Lost an entire weekend of work.
Oh well, what else can you do but order the right ones and go from there.
Hope to have more progress next weekend.

[2mAn]

E30s look great in blue. Love the progress

[TheWipprSnappr]

E30s look great in blue. Love the progress

I definitely agree. Thanks, taking longer than I'd hoped but it'll be worth the wait I'm sure.



Thinking of doing the window trim black to match the other trim and the future mtech 1 spoiler.
Thoughts anyone?

[TheWipprSnappr]

Pretty stoked. Lots to update after this weekend.

Finally got the right flywheel bolts in so I installed it along with a LuK clutch kit I bought from a r3v member last spring.


Only thing left to do to prep the trans was fill it with some fresh fluid. I didn't have an allen key big enough for the old fill and drain plugs so my dad made this fine piece of ingenuity (lol).

Then installed the new regular hex head plugs.
I was only able to lift the car about 2 ft off the ground for all this which made it a huge pain in the ass. I had to slide the trans under on on a piece of plywood first and it only cleared the bottom of the car by a couple inches. Once underneath my dad and I were able to lift it up onto his atv jack. This thing worked perfectly to get the trans up and allow for flexible maneuvering.

The handle on it comes out so it was able to slide under.
Didn't get to snap any pics while jacking it up but once we had the input splines flush I took a few.








In order to give the trans a better insertion angle I strapped the engine to my stut tower bar and winched it back to drop the back of the engine down. This allowed the bellhousing to clear the trans tunnel more easily. With the bellhousing shield in place on the back of the block, it was just about jacking the trans up at a slight angle and aligning the splines. Once I knew it was flush and in as far as it would go I threaded a few bolts in the corners of the trans I could reach and evenly tightened the bolts to pull the tip of the shaft into the pilot bearing. For what I was expecting it was actually pretty painless. A bit of wrestling with it at first but it pretty much went right in.

After maybe an hour of patiently trying to access all the bolts (and reinstalling the starter) and tighten them down to spec, it was sitting pretty in its new home.


After that I moved on to the shifter.
Pretty straight forward installation. I actually installed the trans with the shift arm and rear carrier attached which made things easier.
Here it is installed with the Ireland Engineering DSSR.

Since the car was auto from the factory, the hooks for the rear carrier had quite a bit of rubber coating on them preventing the mount from sliding back far enough so I just took care of that with a razorblade.


here is a quick snapchat of the shifter in action. I cant express how much I love the x5 shifter. https://www.flickr.com/photos/144377.../in/datetaken/

Also installed the driveshaft with new guibo but didn't take any pics. Also remembered to preload the bearing, something I forgot last time around.

Next items were the clutch hard line, and slave line.
After quite a bit of research I really didn't find anything that explained bending and fitting the hard line so Ill provide what I experienced.
I used "Brake Pipe" - BMW# 34326755555.
I was able to bend it using a simple line bender my dad had lying around.



EDIT: Here is a quick sketch of how the bends look from the side.


I basically eyeballed the distance between the clutch master and the tab and guessed on where to make the bends. I got pretty lucky and got it basically the first try(only had to rebend once). Getting these lines to fit and look good was almost as satisfying as installing the trans lol.

As the day ran out I tackled one last thing and attached the reservoir hose.


Took this at some point during the day. ( I think after the trans was installed.)

She has been very patient so far during this process, and wont be too much longer now until she gets to see the road again.

What's left on the to do list:
- charge battery
- bolt dust shields back on
- bolt exhaust back on
- bleed clutch system...when bleeding the new clutch system is it required to bleed the brakes as well? I cant imagine much air getting in the brake lines if all im doing is pressing the clutch, but wanted to make sure.
- wire up reverse light switch
- I also have a 3.73 lsd to install but I was going to wait awhile, just so I could experience the 4.10 with a manual trans first.

[TheWipprSnappr]

Success! Got everything finished up this weekend and put the car on the road.



Didn't take many pictures (too busy driving it!), but the car feels amazing. The manual transmission engages all gears perfectly and the shifter is absolute butter.



Wired the reverse switch as outlined here: http://www.rtsauto.com/bmw-e30-trans...tic-to-manual/ and fired up first start after charging the battery. Put about 70 miles on it while breaking the clutch in this weekend.

I can tell the 4.10 is going to be a huge issue for highway driving. Im going to install the 3.73 asap to get the most out of the gearbox.

Also just a few things Im gonna need to go back over and check:
-small exhaust/heat shield rattle
-small driveshaft vibration
-needs clutch stop since new clutch engages/disengages very high on pedal(lots of wasted pedal travel)

Despite the small issues this is seriously the most satisfying experience I've ever had working on a car. Going through the gears down the highway and getting this car closer to the way I've always envisioned it is worth every dollar and minute spent on it so far. For anyone wondering if its worth it, I would say its the best decision I've made with this car.

Final note: Installed the 350mm Momo wheel.



Super awkward feeling at first going from the 385mm mtech 1, but what a difference it made while throwing the car around the corners.

[TheWipprSnappr]

Swapped out the open 4.10 this last weekend for the 3.73 lsd. Pretty painless install, lining up the bolts was by far the hardest part, mainly just time consuming. If I ever go to replace the mount I will probably just buy the diff stud kit. Also I replaced the driveshaft csb and fixed the driveshaft vibration.



PO must have had a torn inner boot because this thing was caked in grease, I wasn't able to wash it so I scraped as much off as I could and shined up the flanges.

Before:


After:


hard to tell anything was done since the staining is still present but it is far cleaner than it started. I hate putting dirty parts back on a car, but I just wanted it in there, so I convinced myself just scraping it off would suffice.

All back together and torqued down:


Also put the interior back together with a new shift boot.


Also bought a recaro logo shift boot awhile back and put it on to test the look and its just a bit too much IMO, I think I'll stay with the oem black.



With everything buttoned up, I loaded the car up that afternoon for a trip back to KC so I could drive it for the week and not even 5 miles from my parents place, my rear tire blows. I didn't even bother taking a picture because I was untethered and my rage knew no bounds. What a fucking joke. It was just about due for a new set anyway but I really just want to drive it already. :hitler:

[e30m3s54turbo]

I like the work on your project.....

[TheWipprSnappr]

thanks! you're B6 tribute is very inspiring!

[CorvallisBMW]

Great work!

[TheWipprSnappr]

Thanks!