10k RPM – 1991 Diamantschwarz 318is Slicktop – 231hp NA M42

[chriso]

A little delayed, however, I did get the radiator into the car a little over a week ago.

Turns out, the engine is fine, and I only have very minor coolant leaks in a couple hoses, as well as a vacuum leak under IACV.


Out with the old






And in with the new.



I have the shroud - I just haven't put it in. That's coming this weekend after I redo the rest of the coolant system to prepare for E30 Picnic!


I also received my other hoses and such from FCPEuro!





I'm excited to get this all put in.

[getouth]

Nice! Do it right the first time!

[chriso]

It's been a while! However, I have been working on the E30.

The project began. The first course of action was to remove the alternator, mounting brackets, etc. to get at the oil filter housing gasket which was causing my (main) oil leak.



I was pretty quick to disassemble things familiar to me, like the alternator brackets, and such. However, I quickly realized I didn't really know too much about the M42, or the overall layout. It's definitely a lot different than the M20, obviously.

After removing the Alternator mounting plate, I was clearly able to see how bad the oil leak was, and it appeared to have been left untreated for quite a while. You can also see the next component that had failed that I needed to replace, which was the coolant connector pipe. You can tell by the pool of non-BMW coolant on top of the block.



I cleaned all of the built up oil off of the block before pulling the oil filter housing. It took way long than it should have, to be honest. Then, I pulled the oil filter housing to see how bad it all was.



All in all, not bad. Just aged and worn. The o-ring had flattened and turned into plastic. Easy fix. New gasket and o-ring, then I can move onto the hoses!

Not to fast.

After this point, I became pretty overwhelmed because I realized I had to remove all of the wiring to all of the sensors, and had to take nearly everything bolted to the engine off to replace all of the hoses, which, none are easy to get to. I nearly gave up and brought it to a shop, but McGyver happened to be local, and agreed to come over and help out, therefore, saving the day and my sanity.

We got everything off, and started replacing hoses, which looked pretty much universally like this:



and this:



and this:



The entire flange is missing from the coolant pipe! Luckily, we found all of the plastic, as it was held together by the old worn o-ring.

We had to remove the upper intake manifold to access a lot of the hoses, and while we were at it, McGyver recommended changing the lower manifold gasket as well, which was a good idea, as it was almost blown.

At the point, we replaced all of the remaining hoses and reassembled the drivers side of the engine bay.



Next, I was left to my own to replace the valve cover gasket, which I knew I could do myself!

And, quickly, I realized this was a great idea.



Oil was filled completely to the top of the spark plug well. The seal was completely blown.

This was also the case for #2. #3 and #4 were clear of oil.

Overall, I was impressed with how clean it was.



I put the new gasket on, and this is where I found out one of the valve cover bolt holes is stripped. On well. Not leaking any oil yet, so I'll leave it.

I had a couple wires to fix, because I mixed up the Oil Pressure Temp Sensor wire and the Coolant Sending Unit wire. This caused both my oil pressure light to be on, and my coolant gauge to not work. I spent way too much time trying to figure this out, and even purchased a new sensor and slightly overfilled my oil.

With everything sorted out, I took it for a ride.

It was pretty rough for the first 20 miles with a bit of a rough acceleration, but this was due to residual oil in the spark plug wells, as well as the huge amount of oil that was went into the engine when I replace the spark plugs.

After this, the car ran flawlessly, with perfect idle and no leaks.

Score!



Until, of course, I drove it into San Francisco an cracked my oil pan.

[mike.bmw]

Nice. It's amazing the car ran before swapping all those worn hoses, right?

I did this last year and was shocked that my car ran with almost every hose and gasket failed under the intake. Hopefully you'll see a nice bump in gas mileage now that all the vacuum leaks are gone.

[Musij]

Good to hear you're giving it the care it's been needing for so long. Let me know how the oil pan replacement goes. I've done them multiple times on my m20s but never on the m42

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[chriso]

Interior is nearly complete!

Thanks to a R3v local, I was able to pick up an MTech 2 wheel!



Unfortunately, my alternator has died, so I placed an order from Blunttech, and it should be here soon!

[mike.bmw]

Beautiful wheel! I've been thinking about the same swap. What did you use for a spacer and what did you do about the airbag light?

[chriso]

Beautiful wheel! I've been thinking about the same swap. What did you use for a spacer and what did you do about the airbag light?

No spacer, I have two I need to pickup at the Dealer, though.

I honestly have had no issues hitting the stalks, and may not use the spacers. It has about as much space between the wheel and the stalks as my 135i from the factory. I'm going to install the spacer later today, though, and try it out.


As for the airbag light, I have a really weird check panel - it's tinted a black matte, and I don't see any options on it except for an SRS light in the center of it. I was at a meet with McGyver, and he was telling me about removing the Airbag brain, but when he saw that, he just unplugged it instead.

I'll have to take a photo later, I've never seen a check panel like it on an E30, but it's factory.

[wworm]

put a helicoil in that valve cover bolt hole! I would just for peace of mind

[mike.bmw]

As for the airbag light, I have a really weird check panel - it's tinted a black matte, and I don't see any options on it except for an SRS light in the center of it. I was at a meet with McGyver, and he was telling me about removing the Airbag brain, but when he saw that, he just unplugged it instead.

I'll have to take a photo later, I've never seen a check panel like it on an E30, but it's factory.

Thanks for the info. We probably have the same check panel. The slicktop specific 318is check panels are different than others I've seen.

Mine looks like the one on the top here:




And here's some information on the 318is panel:

318i came with the delete panel. It really only gives you your SRS and Seatbelt light up. I saw a couple at the yards but never thought anything of them.

The 325i check panel comes with a lot more wiring in the pigtail, and like stated above, yes, you will need the complete wiring harness and sensors to make it work properly? Seems like a project that might not even be worth it IMO :/

[chriso]

Thanks for the info. We probably have the same check panel. The slicktop specific 318is check panels are different than others I've seen.

Mine looks like the one on the top here:




And here's some information on the 318is panel:

That's the one! I just unplugged it. The PO had already triggered the SRS light. I'm pretty sure they had an MTech wheel on it before, and swapped it when they sold it. The airbag wasn't even entirely screwed into the wheel, so it was moving around. It was pretty scary, actually.

[chriso]

So, I have been short on time, and needed help diagnosing what I need to repair on this car to get it decently road worthy. There's been a lot of noise coming from it, and since I don't have a garage or access to a lift, I decided to bring it to a local shop to check it all out for me. I'm also not very mechanically inclined if I don't know what I'm looking for.

This is the embarrassing part. (Some obvious things removed, like the fact that I only had water in my cooling system)

Here's what they found:

Drivers Front Wheel Center Cap Loose Causing Rattle
Drivers Brake Heat Shield Rattles, Tried to Bend, Recommend Replacement
Both front springs are not loaded with vehicle at ride height - Recommend Adjustment
Drivers rear wheel bearing noisy - Recommend Replacement
Drivers rear spring broken at bottom coil
Passenger front control arm has play - Recommend Replacement
Tie Rod Assemblies have play - Recommend Replacement
Knocking sound from steering column, steering knuckle hitting power steering line - Recommend bending
Drivers Door light switch inoperable - Recommend Diagnosis
Valvecover gasket leaking onto exhaust
Fan shroud held on with Zip Ties (My handy work)
Connector between AFM and Throttle Body hanging freely
Brake fluid failed moisture content test and greenish color - Recomment flush
Timing cover gasket leaking
Upper oil pan gasket leaking
Shift Rod Seal Leaking
Recommend changing both engine mounts
Drive Shaft Flex Disk Cracked
Both Control Arm Bushings cracked - Recommend E36 M3 Upgrade
Passenger Side Front Brake Duct Missing
Both fog Lenses cracked
A/C System R12 - Recommend upgrading to R134a
Central Locking Inoperable

Due to all of the seals needing replacement, I'm seriously looking into and considering an S50 swap.

[freeride53]

[chriso]

That's definitely my car, but this was probably before I purchased it. When was it from?

[freeride53]

Mid April? My parents Snapchatted me it on the way to Davis from the Bay Area. They're pretty accustomed to Diamantschwarz 318's by now hahaha