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I don't like white cars, yet I bought one. Story with pictures of my AW 325e

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    #46
    ...and I did change it.




    Now I have a rubbing issue - front right rubs the plastic lower well liner on a left turn. Found out the right wheel has way more castor than the left one. Car drives great, no pulling whatsoever. Looked at old photos - it has been like that before the alignment. Shouldn't the guy have caught that?
    Anyway, will look into it, cause it was late yesterday and I was tired.
    '85 Alpine Weiß 2-door with m20b30 ground up build

    Comment


      #47
      Control arm bushings are just as they should be. Next is to check the LCA if it got mangled in some way after all the tow rides, they always tied the car down by the right LCA. Would be a shame, it is a brand new Lemförder unit.
      Pic for attention.

      '85 Alpine Weiß 2-door with m20b30 ground up build

      Comment


        #48
        You may not have liked white but Alpineweiss is my favorite color for E30s and your car is a fine example of it. I like how the MTech 1 valances and thin (european spec to me, normal to you) bumpers make the car look longer and give it a lower profile look from the side.
        Last edited by varg; 07-18-2019, 06:53 AM.

        IG @turbovarg
        '91 318is, M20 turbo
        [CoTM: 4-18]
        '94 525iT slicktop, M50B30 + S362SX-E, 600WHP DD or bust
        - updated 1-26

        Comment


          #49
          Thank you! As a matter of fact, white really grew on me to the point I wouldn't have it any other color. Maybe I should change the title one of these day.
          Same happened with the MTech 1 - at first I thought it would look worse, but now I love it and can't wait to have enough piece and quiet to mount the side skirts.
          '85 Alpine Weiß 2-door with m20b30 ground up build

          Comment


            #50
            Beautiful car. I really like the wheels in the latest photo.

            Comment


              #51
              Thanks, Mike! Yours is also e beaut!
              Onto some not so fun stuff.
              Before leaving for vacation with the GF, we went to a track day. Managed to knock off more than a second off my personal best time. However, when swapping back from track to street wheels/tires, the DS wheel rubbed against the back metal inner fender badly when turning left. Turned out, my powerflex LCA bushing turned 180 degrees, causing less caster and hence rubbing. Bummer, but couldn't fix it on the track, so I drove like that. Until last night. Up on the lift, swapped the LCA bushings for normal OEM ones - both wheels rub in the back of the fender while turning. Swapped in offset M3 LCA bushings. DS is better - no rubbing, but PS rubs like crazy against the front of the inner fender while turning left. And I have another "issue" - DS wheel sticks further out from the fender lip although it has more camber. PS is tucked under the fender lip, has less camber and rubs the front plastic inner fender while turning left, as mentioned. Measured the LCAs, they appear to be identical.
              Any ideas what I could check next? I plan on swapping in another LCA on the passenger side just to see if there is a small difference that I missed.

              Now, some more not so good news. After the track day, the engine developed a rattle, which sounds like a loose eccentric on one of the rockers, and started leaking oil from the valve cover gasket. So I get to adjust valve clearances over the weekend and use the opportunity to clean up the mess and put in a new gasket.

              Also, while on the lift, I noticed why my engine was dancing around.



              I'm sure I had tightened everything up, but oh well. Put in a self locking nut this time instead of the OEM one.
              Last thing I did yesterday eve was put the car on the newly acquired car scales, keep in mind those are in KGs:



              This is with a spare wheel and a bit shy off half a tank. Not too bad for a street car.
              Thanks for checking in and don't hesitate to give any advice on the wheel position issue :)
              '85 Alpine Weiß 2-door with m20b30 ground up build

              Comment


                #52
                In regards to the bushing rotating, you can drill and tap a hole and fit a bolt in, grind the end down to a point and it'll bite into the bush and keep it located
                sigpic

                (clicky on piccy to get to thread)

                Comment


                  #53
                  Hello r3v, time to drop an update, which is basically a cry for help.

                  Originally posted by econti View Post
                  In regards to the bushing rotating, you can drill and tap a hole and fit a bolt in, grind the end down to a point and it'll bite into the bush and keep it located
                  Thanks econti, I was thinking about doing that, but ended up copying my solution from my m10 powered e30. It's basically a welded on and ground down piece of metal snug tightly into a slot made in the bushing itself.
                  More complicated and time consuming, but better in the long term IMO.




                  Installed them and now it's a bit better. Passenger side still rubs slightly on left turns but nothing crazy. I'll get it dialed in eventually.
                  First I need to pinpoint this stupid rattle/knock in the engine I've been chasing for the past month an a half. I don't drive the car anymore because of it, only start it and warm it up once in a while after I change something. Here are the symptoms and what I've done so far:

                  Symptoms:

                  Rattle when engine running, rpm dependent, not movement or under load dependent. It is there even if cold started. NOT there when I start the car after 4 or more days of not driving it, but by the time I switch off the lights in the garage, close the door and lock it, get back into the car, the rattle is already there - quiet, but already there. It gets worse when the engine reaches operating temperature. It got progressively worse/louder over the course of about 10 days of driving after the last track day. I can hear it pronounced listening from the top of the engine, less pronounced from the bottom with the car on the lift, but still loud enough.
                  On that trackday the oil DID get to the 150oC mark briefly, which is about 300oF, but the oil is now changed. Water temp never got over the middle mark.
                  Oil pressure is 1.3-1.4 bar (18.8 psi - 20.3 psi) when idling on warmed up engine and always has been.

                  The engine DOES have a windage tray and crank scraper.
                  No noticeable power loss ( nor gains as well for that matter :D )

                  What I've done so far:

                  Oil change (flushed the oil cooler too) - didn't work
                  Rocker arm eccentric to valve stem clearance adjustment TWICE - second time was on the engine 10 days not started, did them 0.25 - no change at all
                  Inspected the oil tube over the rockers - clean, oil passes through, isn't low enough for the rockers to hit it.
                  Checked as best as I could for rocker arm and eccentric premature wear (everything is brand new) - no visual issues
                  Verified following twice: timing, bolt on cam sprocket, jeesus bolt and crank sprocket too - nothing out of order
                  Cam sensor doesn't hit the trigger in place of the distributor.
                  Cam belt tight enough, not slapping about
                  Started engine without accessories belt - no change
                  Unplugged coil connectors one by one while engine running to listen if the noise would change - no change
                  Pressed gently against the clutch on warmed up engine - didn't feel it through the pedal.
                  Listening with a screwdriver from the top I can hear it between cyl 2 and cyl 3, when listening from the bottom on the pan - almost everywhere. Not on the block though.
                  Pulled the plugs, in order of appearance








                  What I still haven't done yet:

                  Compression test, but did one before this rattle emerged - average of 210 psi across all cylinders on a warm engine.
                  Check the drive pulley on the oil drive shaft (it is a brand new unit, the solid one, not stamped steel one)
                  Pull the pan and check bearing caps.

                  A short video:

                  This is "M20 noise" by G K on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.


                  So, if anyone has any input for me, highly appreciated.
                  I'm waiting on a tiny camera with an LED to stuff into the cylinders right now. But would like to know if there is anything else I can check before pulling the pan off. Really don't want to do that.

                  Help, please
                  '85 Alpine Weiß 2-door with m20b30 ground up build

                  Comment


                    #54
                    It sounds like it could be something hitting your windage tray/baffle.
                    How to remove, install or convert to pop out windows
                    http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=297611


                    Could be better, could be worse.

                    Comment


                      #55
                      Originally posted by rzerob View Post
                      It sounds like it could be something hitting your windage tray/baffle.
                      I wouldn't rule that out, it does make sense. Still the question remains - why all of a sudden? Sure, I can drop the pan and check it out, but need to find the root cause. Prematurely and severely worn rod bearing(s) causing the rod(s) to move around? Why would it fail so early and why does the oil pressure stay high despite? Just questions for me to think on, don't mean to be a dick.

                      Also, there was some new development yesterday eve. A copy paste from my cry for help in the m20 specific section:

                      A member on here (zoomer) bought a small LED USB camera and called me immediately, he picked it up in my area. We went ahead and stuffed it into the cylinders and sure enough - valve to piston contact.
                      We took the timing covers off and did find the belt to be a bit loose, but the timing marks still line up perfectly. Adjusted the tensioner, belt is now as tight as it should be - marks still line up perfectly good.
                      Here comes the weird part. We rotated the nuke to retard the cam about 4 degrees, assembled all the stuff and started the car for about 3 seconds. Noise was LOUDER and now with higher frequency. Returned the nuke gear to zero, started again - a bit better but still there.

                      Now the question is - why did this engine cover over 3000 kms without making valve to piston contact and start doing it after a hot oil event? Both things seem to not be connected. Is it possible that the belt stretches under any load, even idling and causing the valve-piston contact, but returning to normal when engine is inop? That seems sci-fi to me, but has anyone encountered that?

                      I really don't want to reassemble the engine without finding the cause of this crap.

                      Another thing that comes to mind - the woodruf key on the crank sproket potentially could have failed, causing the timing mark to align, but the crank would be on the incorrect position.

                      What I intend to do next is rotate the cam gear in the opposite direction, start briefly and if it doesn't knock/rattle, I'll check compression numbers and take it from there. Definitely will check the woodruf key on the crank sprocket, but if anyone has some other pointers, would be happy to read them.
                      '85 Alpine Weiß 2-door with m20b30 ground up build

                      Comment


                        #56
                        Hello to everyone reading this,

                        Time for an update on the problem with the rattle.
                        The people in the M20 section have been very helpful and pointed some stuff along the way.

                        What has happened in the past 3 months:

                        End of September: A member on here (zoomer) bought a small LED USB camera and called me immediately, he picked it up in my area. We went ahead and stuffed it into the cylinders and sure enough - valve to piston contact.
                        We took the timing covers off and did find the belt to be a bit loose, but the timing marks still line up perfectly. Adjusted the tensioner, belt is now as tight as it should be - marks still line up perfectly good.
                        Here comes the weird part. We rotated the nuke to retard the cam about 4 degrees, assembled all the stuff and started the car for about 3 seconds. Noise was LOUDER and now with higher frequency. Returned the nuke gear to zero, started again - a bit better but still there.

                        I wondered - why did this engine cover over 3000 kms without making valve to piston contact and start doing it after a hot oil event? Both things seem to not be connected. Is it possible that the belt stretches under any load, even idling and causing the valve-piston contact, but returning to normal when engine is inop? That seems sci-fi to me, but has anyone encountered that?

                        I really didn't want to reassemble the engine without finding the cause of that.

                        Another thing that came to mind - the woodruf key on the crank sproket potentially could have failed, causing the timing mark to align, but the crank would be on the incorrect position.

                        Turned out I didn't turn the NUKE cam gear in the correct direction, but the opposite
                        Using the below link as reference, I was a dumbass and advanced the engine instead of retarding it.

                        https://help.summitracing.com/app/an...ing-a-camshaft


                        Guess joke was on me.

                        October: First and foremost I did a leakdown test, I had to buy the tool to do it. I did it twice for each cylinder just to be sure. All were below 15% leakage, which I hardly could believe, yet again the engine ran under 5 seconds with the advanced nuke gear. So the test showed all valves are seating good enough.
                        Next order of business was taking off the oil pan - what a pain with a scraper and a baffle.
                        Oil looked mint, not even the slightest debri in it, when I filtered it through the finest painter's filter.
                        No heat discoloration either on rods or crank, no play in any rod or whatever I could reach in there.
                        There was e tiny little smidge on the scraper, where a rod bolt had touched it ever so lightly. So small, the camera wouldn't catch it. Ok, so off with the scraper. Assembled everything, poured the oil back in and fired it up. Still clacking, right from the start, same noise again temperature independent but RPM dependent, sounds like only one element is hitting another once per revolution.

                        Next up - discovered a tiny play in the crank sprocket, so small it was unnoticable from above the engine, only when the car was on the lift could we spot it.
                        From a spare m20 - pristine sprocket with the woodruf key to go with it and the play was gone. Fire it up - same noise.

                        Listened at it again pinpointed the following:
                        From above: more pronounced between cyl 2 and 4
                        From beneath: more pronounced between cyl 5 and 6, but only if you listen without a screwdriver or similar to the pan. Screwdriver to pan says it's everywhere .....
                        Removing the alu cover in front of the trans and below the pan makes the sound more pronounced.
                        Flywheel doesn't have any play, but does have some slight oil drippings, that are spread by the centrifugal force starting from the flywheel bolts.

                        I still hadn't done the test starting the engine with the valve cover off due to lack of motivation to work on this issue anymore. But it is a must, since it DOES sound like valvetrain.

                        The rocker shaft lock key was firmly and correctly placed, checked it twice whilst previously looking at the valve lash. BUT it wasn't the same on a previous attempt to resolve the problem. The intake rocker shaft was twisted to the side, the lock key was a bit loose and allowed the shaft to be slid forward as well.

                        For what it's worth, the rocker shafts are not OEM units, they were NLA at the time of engine assembly so I went with RUVELLE brand. And there was a small issue with them - at the front of the engine they are a tad too long and at the back of it a tad too short. This caused a huge oil leak the first 500 kms which I fixed. And yes, the locking key fits in place, all the holes seemed to line up.

                        Member Lugnuts suggested the shafts may be the issue in the M20 section.

                        November: I got laid off, so working on chasing this down was put off naturally.

                        Present day. After squaring stuff out, last Wednesday evening was the night of truth - I was a crusader set on a mission: either find out what's wrong or don't go home!

                        Whoever says you need to disconnect the water radiator to remove the cam while head/engine is in the car, send them this pic. Could be early 325e specific though!



                        I resorted to trying this, because I failed to find a suitable container to capture the coolant. Thought we had one in the shop, but it went missing.
                        What I had to do is, besides the obvious removal of clutch fan, fan shroud, cam sprocket etc. was remove the coolant hose clamp located on the frame rail intake side, remove the inner fender (early models have this protruding into the engine bay lower inner fender) and make sure the jeesus bolt doesn't jam up against the radiator fins. I used a plastic bottle cap, tight enough to stay on there while turning the crank and shallow enough to allow for a 22mm wrench to fit onto the bolt.
                        In my case, the 16" SPAL was in the way, but thankfully upon initial install, I made my life easy with some simple brackets and these handy wing nuts.




                        These shot portrait better how much room I had to play with




                        Just enough, so I went ahead and started removing the rocker shafts.
                        Intake side one was REALLY hard to remove. Like, so hard, I had to take my time and remove it in a total of 4 hours, being careful not to mar the head casting in any way.
                        Very much worth mentioning is that it was twisted to the side, resulting in the key allowing it to move forward from it's originally intended position in the head. Keep this in mind for later in that post
                        It was really difficult at times, given the limited space and leverage I had. In the end, it came off and so did the exhaust side shaft (so much easier), followed by the cam itself.

                        Needless to say, the culprit was found, I'll let the pictures do the talking for me. Below are the cam lobes and the corresponding rocker arm above them.








                        Sure, all of the rockers have some sort of weird wear pattern. But that number 3 exhaust rocker ...... never seen anything like that wear patter.

                        So, now the only thing left not inspected are the shafts.
                        Previously I stated the following in the M20 section when I asked for help:

                        Originally posted by gnmzl View Post
                        ...As stated, they looked legit aside of that length issue. Holes and retaining slots were spot on. Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough, really hope this endeavor will help someone in the future.
                        This statement is wrong.



                        Pictures don't really show it well, but the holes are not perfectly matched and neither are the rocker positions. True, the misalignment is small enough to not cause any issues.
                        Granted they stay in place and not rotate or slide about.

                        Here is my thoughts on what happened, please feel free to correct me if you think I'm daydreaming and have a more serious problem:

                        Since the intake valves were kissing the pistons ever so slightly, the pressure from that event goes into the rocker pivot point and that is the rocker shaft. The intake shaft get slightly bent (hence the difficult removal) and also rotated and slid forward. Combined with the slightly misaligned oil holes on the shaft, this leads to not enough oil pressure for the spray bar on top of the cam. Oil starvation occurs and all rockers and cam lobes suffer damage. Exhaust rocker on number 3 suffers the most for some reason, assuming my valve lash adjustment was out of spec on this one, and it causes the clatter.

                        So ... ok, cause of weird rattle found. Now I need to make sure it never happens again.
                        By chance, a brand new set of IE HD rocker arms is sitting in my closet. It was a deal you can't say no, so I grabbed them about a year ago.
                        A set of OEM rocker shafts is also in my closet, thanks to you gents - ordered one as soon as I saw the comments they were again available.
                        Now what i think doing is:

                        - Polish the pads on the new set of rocker arms.
                        - Talk to a reputable machinist to see if the cam is salvageable.
                        - If cam is kaputt, buy a new one and have the lobes polished as well, or polish them myself (I'll have a spear cam to train on lol )

                        I wonder how to make sure I get oil flow to the correct places before that.
                        How stupid is the idea of removing the timing belt and spark plug and give it a few revs via starter? In theory shouldn't do harm, but it seems to me like a stupid idea and genius at the same time.

                        Any input will be greatly appreciated.

                        Moral of story: walks like a duck, talks like a duck, chances are it is a duck.



                        '85 Alpine Weiß 2-door with m20b30 ground up build

                        Comment


                          #57
                          Long time no update, but I've been battling this cam issue head on.

                          The whole story is here

                          https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/for...n-my-m20/page4

                          The results are - Schrick 288 is better than dbilas 292.
                          This is the Schrick 288 with the air filter installed



                          This is the dbilas 292 without the air filer.



                          The Schrick made 213 whp without the air filter and the same Nm as the dbilas 292 without it.

                          Dyno picture



                          Then went for a good drive around and took some pics of the car being dirty








                          Next on the list is some cosmetics and an attempt for an exhaust mod.
                          Oh, I swapped the diff out for a 3.25 unit - much better to drive. It had the 2.79 left over from being an ETA car and it was way too slow on acceleration.
                          '85 Alpine Weiß 2-door with m20b30 ground up build

                          Comment


                            #58
                            Cool car!

                            What are you using to monitor Oil pressure at the Track?

                            A 20 PSI dummy light works wonders.

                            I was up above it, Now I'm down in it ~ Entropy - A Build thread.
                            @Zakspeed_US

                            Comment


                              #59
                              Thanks!
                              I use a VDO gauge from a Mk1 Golf/Rabbit cabrio
                              You can kind of see it in this picture, where it was temporarily hanging above the ashtray on one of the bolts holding the center console to the dash.



                              Currently it's mounted in one of the air vents, using a 3d printed one.

                              This replaces any of the center vents for an BMW E30 and will fit a 52mm gauge.


                              The sender unit is mounted on an extension piece which doubles for the "dummy light" too.



                              Will post pics of the interior soon to give you an idea of what it looks like in the vent.
                              '85 Alpine Weiß 2-door with m20b30 ground up build

                              Comment


                                #60
                                I realized I never shared how the 3d printed piece for the oil pressure gauge sat.



                                Back in May, my brother and I took the car to the track again.



                                My brother next to the car



                                Unfortunately, the car developed yet another issue on the track, that took me some time to resolve. From 4000 RPM and upwards, the power went down instead of up, it felt just as fuel starvation. I spent about a month chasing that around, replaced the fuel pressure regulator, removed both stock fuel pumps and put in an AEM one with 270 litres per hour. Nothing helped, took it to the tuner and he said the knock sensor is registering the increased engine noise as pings. Not sure what caused the engine to be noisier, we increased the threshold for the knocksensor and everything went back to normal. Apart from my O2 sensor controller - it went whack, showing either too rich or too lean with a full unit off, when the car had the ratio just fine. So we switched off the correction and now I need to change the O2 sensor and controller and make use of the one built into the ECU master.

                                A buddy and I decided to use the opportunity and while both our cars are running, take some photos of them together.




                                And finally, my attempt at a picture with a fancy filter.



                                Things to do on the list:

                                - switch O2 sensors and remove O2 controller in favor of the built in one.
                                - put back stock fuel pump setup, as the AEM fuel pump is super loud.
                                - figure out how to mount crooked mtech 1 skirts
                                '85 Alpine Weiß 2-door with m20b30 ground up build

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