The build thread in which I learn what an E30 is... '91 318is

[Nate37]

I replied to your thread regarding the steering issue with a number of possibilities.

Nice work on the dash swap! Total pain in the butt, but definitely worth it. I did mine a couple years ago and it took me 6+ hours. And then I had to do most of it again the next day because I realized the middle clip wasn't seated correctly. Fun times.

Yeah same thing happened here. Realized I had a half inch gap at the front of the dash and none of the vent controls were working right. Fortunately I was able to just loosen all the bolts up and shove it forward a little bit, but it sill added a couple of hours of fixing. In total it probably took me 12-15 hours, but I'm the slowest mechanic I've ever met...

[Nate37]

I’ve got one of those engine support bars, and it’s fantastic. I use it all the time fixing cars. It makes a lot of jobs easier than rolling on the floor trying to avoid a jack or crane legs. You can find them cheaper on amazon or eBay. Side note, make sure to brace the hood open on an e30 or you will have a couple dents popping out of your hood when your done. I trusted my hood shock once, poor choice. Better yet just take the hood off. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can't figure out how to quote more than one post in a reply... thanks for the tip on checking Amazon. I wasn't sure if I needed a BMW-specific one or not. Something like this one will work OK? Where do you typically mount it on the body and engine?

I will get under the car this weekend to check out where it's leaking from and start ordering parts, so I can get this fixed and back on the road.

In other news, this showed up in the mail today. Fresh off the boat from the UK:



A little bit of a splurge (OK a lot), but I'm super stoked about it! Can't wait to get this in the car and see how it looks. I can post an unboxing and install thread over in the stereo forum, if folks would be interested in that.

[e30sh]

Sounds like your new dash is pre airbag. The airbag cars have that riveted on extension to mount the knee bolster.

Car looks like a nice find.

[Conrad311]

Something like this one will work OK? Where do you typically mount it on the body and engine?
.

Yep that’s the one I have, the feet sit just inside the lip of the fenders where they bolt to the chassis.

though as others have said, if your in a pinch a come-along or chain hoist to a tree branch, rafter, etc. would do. The engine brace is super useful to me as a professional but would likely be seldom used on a single vehicle. maybe not worth the space it takes up. I’ve found it’s hard to store it anywhere other than a special shelf I made or in a corner.


p.s. - that blaupunkt is effin sweet, hadn’t seen that before

[Nate37]

First update in a few weeks, but I just now had some time to write up everything that's been going on. Hope everyone had a nice holiday!

I spent most of my wrenching time chasing down the "oil leak", which actually turned out be two separate leaks: power steering fluid and brake fluid. The brake leak was particularly nasty, as the dripping fluid managed to eat all the paint off a pretty big section of my sway bar and a couple other parts. :( It was fixed with a pretty simple replacement of the master cylinder reservoir grommets. P/S leak is a longer story, I ended up replacing the reservoir, hose clamps, and the pressure hose from the pump to the rack. Now that the big leak is fixed (the hose), I can see it's unfortunately still leaking from the body of the pump. I will try a pump rebuild the next time I feel like taking the car out of service for a few weeks, but the weather is good for driving right now. :)

I also got the Blaupunkt stereo head unit installed; more details over here: https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/for...res-retro-look

Here are a couple more pics of the install than I posted in that thread. First, the existing space-ship Alpine and the monstrosity of a wiring harness that I found in the car:





That's about three feet of wiring and components from at least two prior head units in there! I cut out everything back to the factory wires and started fresh, came out looking much cleaner:



And the installed head unit. Looks and sounds great!



The interior is coming along really nicely now. It's got the vibe I've been looking for:




Still quite a bit left to do, the shelf of new E30 parts is not going getting any smaller:


Next on the list are engine/trans/diff mounts, since they are all shot. I also need to figure out a solution for the exhaust, which is super rusty, features a no-name muffler with a crap welding job, and is hanging by a single rubber hanger and a couple zip ties. I'm debating between trying to find an OEM-style replacement muffler, or just going with something like a Supersprint, but I don't want something that sounds like a four-banger with a fart cannon. I already have a Miata with longtubes and a race exhaust for that, lol. Any suggestions on a muffler? Does the Supersprint sound pretty nice?

[mike.bmw]

Sounds like a ton of progress! FYI, most of the photos in your last post aren't working for me... not sure if you can fix that or it's a hosting problem.

Regarding engine mounts... go OEM. They cost a little bit more money, but the consensus on the OE-style aftermarket mounts is they are junk cause a lot of NVH. There are a bunch of options for trans mounts so just pick a quality brand there.

Regarding exhaust ... another option is Stromung. I've been very happy with mine from a fitment and sound perspective (smaller 3" slash cut rolled tip). See my thread (link in signature) for photos.

[roguetoaster]

For sure go OE on the engine mount front, try to find a solid rubber mount for the differential that won't break the bank, and perhaps consider a low durometer non-stock transmission mount as the options out there just don't seem to last, but do work well.

I can second the Stromung suggestion, although I did struggle to get a good seal at the catalyst connection. There is of course nothing wrong with a stock rear section.

[Nate37]

Sounds like a ton of progress! FYI, most of the photos in your last post aren't working for me... not sure if you can fix that or it's a hosting problem.

Regarding engine mounts... go OEM. They cost a little bit more money, but the consensus on the OE-style aftermarket mounts is they are junk cause a lot of NVH. There are a bunch of options for trans mounts so just pick a quality brand there.

Regarding exhaust ... another option is Stromung. I've been very happy with mine from a fitment and sound perspective (smaller 3" slash cut rolled tip). See my thread (link in signature) for photos.

Mike, thanks for the heads up on the pics. I think they are fixed now... let me know if you still can't see all 7 of them. When you guys say go OEM on the engine mounts, do you mean Genuine BMW? I bought the mount kit from FCP, which are all Corteco brand.

Also, I had seen the Stromung exhausts but didn't really like the Youtube videos that I heard. Most of them were pretty poor quality though. Do either of you know of a clip that has audio that's pretty close to the real sound?

[mike.bmw]

Mike, thanks for the heads up on the pics. I think they are fixed now... let me know if you still can't see all 7 of them. When you guys say go OEM on the engine mounts, do you mean Genuine BMW? I bought the mount kit from FCP, which are all Corteco brand.

Also, I had seen the Stromung exhausts but didn't really like the Youtube videos that I heard. Most of them were pretty poor quality though. Do either of you know of a clip that has audio that's pretty close to the real sound?

Yep, go with genuine BMW. As far as I know, Corteco only offers mounts for the E36 M42, not the E30 M42. The E36 M42 mounts will work, but require the locator nub to be filed off. I just went with the genuine BMW e30 m42 mounts to save the trouble of modifying the mounts.

I have some HPDE video with the Stromung, though the audio quality isn't great (cell phone running Track Addict). Give it a listen here: https://youtu.be/hn8f-XjDHxs

[roguetoaster]

Cortecos will be better than dead mounts, I'd say just run them for now as you already bought them. If you are really interested, I have a thread in the M42 section where I chopped a mount open.

I have a playlist of Stromung videos that someone else wanted some time ago, not amazing quality, but it comes through well enough and seems fairly true to form. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThuH...ZHFQ9r&index=1

[Nate37]

Once again it's been a while, but the weather in AZ in Jan/Feb is ideal for getting out and driving, so that's what I did. Now with the quarantine, there's been lots of time to work on car projects, so I made some good progress. First project was to replace all the factory driveline mounts (engine/trans/diff bushings). The old ones were more or less non-functional:





Yep, those trans mounts were completely shorn in half. Couldn't believe the NVH difference once I had all these in. It feels like a completely different car. Wish I'd done it months ago.

In other news, I made this impulse buy, which actually turned out to be one of my better life decisions. Big props to SlickAlpinweiss who sent me this re-covered beauty from HI amidst a global pandemic in a mere 3 days:



Bonus, I can give up on troubleshooting the pesky SRS light!

My most recent big project was to try to clean up the engine bay a bit to make it a more pleasant place to work. I got sick of staring at this disgusting mess every time I opened the hood:



A buddy suggested I try the Chrisfix "Engine bay SUPER CLEAN" method, and I gotta say it worked pretty well. I still want to get rid of the Cosmoline, but I'm pretty happy with the result so far:





I'm going to do some detailing work on the exterior and trim replacement this weekend. I think the next project is going to be replacing sway bar bushings and end links (which I can see are shot). Then I may pull the valve cover and intake manifold, clean up and replace the hose mess under the intake (nearly all of which I can see are cracked), inspect the intake ports on the cylinder head, and then hot tank the intake and valve cover to clean everything up. Also need to troubleshoot a weird hesitation I sometimes get from a stop and when lugging the motor (accel from high gear/low RPMs).

Overall though, the more to I do to this car, the more I love it. It's a blast to drive and only getting better, it's easy to work on, and I can really get behind the simple and thoughtful engineering that went into everything.

Gratuitous garage shot:

[Nate37]

Cortecos will be better than dead mounts, I'd say just run them for now as you already bought them. If you are really interested, I have a thread in the M42 section where I chopped a mount open.

I have a playlist of Stromung videos that someone else wanted some time ago, not amazing quality, but it comes through well enough and seems fairly true to form. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThuH...ZHFQ9r&index=1

Also, thank you (and @mike.bmw) for all the advice on the engine mounts. Your post on the M42 mounts was actually really interesting, and thanks for the advice on the locating nub. I ground those off in the machine shop at work before I even started, which I'm sure saved me a headache. :)

[mike.bmw]

Awesome, glad the mounts made such an improvement. You may want to sort out the mess under the intake before trying to diagnose the hesitation issues. Lots of vacuum connections in there. :)

[Staszek]

Following, this is looking great!

[Nate37]

Awesome, glad the mounts made such an improvement. You may want to sort out the mess under the intake before trying to diagnose the hesitation issues. Lots of vacuum connections in there. :)

This is an excellent point. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a couple vacuum leaks, some of those hoses and the intake elbow all look pretty cracked.

Following, this is looking great!

Thanks! Helps to have a bunch of extra time on my hands now.