My Hoopte30 Project Attempt #6 - the painless way to earn cash back every day

[AWDBOB]

OG R3V member Eric drove his rad 318iS slicktop over to the HQ from Ohio and we swapped his interior from Tan to Black and had a blast doing so!

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



I bought an auto Vert that was supposed to be decent mechanically and is more or less a basket case, which is par for the course. Would like to turn it into a cruiser so the lady can enjoy E30 life.

It was supposed to only be in need of a CSB. Turns out the steering rack is shot, needs Timing Belt service done, cluster inop, needs a driveshaft, needs brakes all around, and may need a transmission? After driving it some more, it hunts at 60mph from 3rd to 4th gear. Manual swap is the obvious answer but I like the idea of keeping this one auto.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr



I have a fresh 9.4:1 2.7L M20 in from Kevin, this time with a 272 cam so I can more accurately track the results. Will be going with Jake's standalone.

But the real fun part of all this is that I am having a custom M20 scavenged, stepped primary, header built for the car with 1 3/4" primaries. My buddy Matt is an artist with designing/fabricating, and him and I have been wanting to build something cool for a few years. I told him about my desire to make a header that works with AC/Oil Cooler that is also designed to make power with results at a higher quality point and he loved the idea. He's been drawing up ideas for a month or so, and I'm dropping the car off this week to start. He's going to jig the engine bay and the header so we can produce these. There are the AAF and the Rhom headers that are too far on the race car side of things, you can't get RD headers, and IE is out of stock on all of their stuff, so I thought it would be fun to design one with him with the aim of being a street car that makes great power. Pretty excited, as I've wanted to do something like this for a long time!

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[craz azn]

Eager to see how the header build unfolds! I'm a huge fan of custom exhaust fab, and header designs.

[e30austin]

my old black car had the same auto trans issues. the former owner took the car to Jiffy Lube (!!!!!!!) for diagnostic, they told her the trans was bad, so she sold it to me.

i drove it with the auto for another couple years without issue. point of the story: wouldn't even worry about it, just keep driving. in town, i generally lock out overdrive anyway.

[AWDBOB]

Eager to see how the header build unfolds! I'm a huge fan of custom exhaust fab, and header designs.

I am getting excited as it gets closer!

my old black car had the same auto trans issues. the former owner took the car to Jiffy Lube (!!!!!!!) for diagnostic, they told her the trans was bad, so she sold it to me.

i drove it with the auto for another couple years without issue. point of the story: wouldn't even worry about it, just keep driving. in town, i generally lock out overdrive anyway.

This is good intel. All of my 4hp22 experiences led quickly to auto trans deletes. The guy I got this car from loved that the vert was auto- it's definitely meant to be a cruiser.

The only space in my garage currently is in front of the Tii, so that is where I assembled the M20. Someday I'll have a normal garage space again.

After accidentally bottoming out the pilot bearing and spending a morning finding a tool locally to remove it, I made sure to use some emery cloth on the snout of the input shaft and greased everything well, and the trans slid on perfectly. I have PTSD after exploding the clutch, but it went on smooth like buttah.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr



The same ugly ancillaries went back on the motor because they worked. Eventually I'll redo all of this. Going to be hilarious with the big dog header in a shite engine bay. A few more things to put together and we'll be in business!

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

Trying to save the Cabriolet has proven to be interesting. Whoever did the timing belt 10 years ago never loosened the tensioner bolt post belt install to give the belt tension, so it's been loosey goosey and had approximately 3min of run time before explosion

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


As seen here, tensioner fully compressed, hence the loose and destroyed belt

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr




Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

Got the timing belt/WP service knocked out on the cab and the car no longer gets hot! The water pump had excess shaft play, and I think there was a ton of air in the system. Threw a good tstat in it that mjweimer gave me forever ago. Fixed some vacuum leaks and the car runs great. Threw it up on the lift and found the control arms have scary play, so those are on order. Once that's done, she's cruisin'

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr



Tii surprised me with how well it's coming back to life. I'm just doing a couple passes with 205 on each panel to pull the dead skin off and it's looking better than I thought it would. I have the original 13x5" steelies and original caps, so I got some tires so I can put them back on the car.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[mjweimer]

Oh that Riviera blue....my favorite '02 color. So happy to hear you are going back to the steelie's.


That 'vert will be a really fun car. Perfect time of the year to get that one buttoned up and on the road.

[AWDBOB]

Oh that Riviera blue....my favorite '02 color. So happy to hear you are going back to the steelie's.


That 'vert will be a really fun car. Perfect time of the year to get that one buttoned up and on the road.

Yessir, I love Riviera as well! The motor is locked up on the Tii which breaks my heart. 3/4 cylinders are perfect, but one is completely destroyed. So who knows where Tii things will go.

If the vert plays nice it'll stay, but so far it's proving to be too much of a project to save on top of all the other things I have going on.

--------

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but the new engine is the same as the last, shaved deck 2mm, e crank/rods, late i pistons, etc.

This time around, however, I added an IE "billet" 272 cam so I know exactly what's in there for documentation purposes.

New engine is in and running. I let oil pressure build with the fuel pump fuse out. Fuse in, and she fired right up! Cam break in appears successful. I do the Lucas ZDDP additive with some 20w50 supertech for first start up and cam break in. Then drain it out right away with a filter change and put in Mobil1 15w50 with some ZDDP (not a full bottle) and run that until 4-500 miles. Then begin normal oil change intervals. Been doing it that way since my first built motor in my high school Evo.

Today the car goes to the fab shop to start on the header design! I added a stock oil cooler, so the header will be designed around rubber engine mounts, stock oil cooler, sanden AC system, and full sized lollipops. Super stoked.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr





Edit: I also got one of papa Frankies billet door handles when he had an overstock of drivers handles. Drivers side only for hoopty, of course. I now feel like a king amongst peasants every time I get out of the car

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[2mAn]

That 02 is coming along so nicely!

[e30austin]

fill the cylinders with ATF, put the car in 4th gear and rock it back and forth. been lucky a few times doing that, maybe you will too. :)

[AWDBOB]

That 02 is coming along so nicely!

Thanks man- the nicer it gets, the harder the M42 drop out in the corner of the shop stares at me...... if getting it on the road didn't also require getting a full mechanical refresh otherwise I'd be more into the idea.

fill the cylinders with ATF, put the car in 4th gear and rock it back and forth. been lucky a few times doing that, maybe you will too. :)

I found out she was seized after a good soak with ATF/acetone in the cylinders and some generous persuasion.

[AWDBOB]

Turns out you can swap a driveshaft without taking out the cat section. Swapped driveshaft and crank sensor on the vert and she's sublime

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

[AWDBOB]

No one wanted the cab on the cheap, so I ended up fixing most of the issues. I've been driving it a bunch and it's been a blast. With some fresh tires and a touch more suspension love, this thing would be a great 3 season hooptie daily.

-The control arms/bushings were shot, those made a huge difference.
-The 3rd/4th gear hunt at 60 I found was caused by an improperly adjusted throttle cable. It was a half inch out of adjustment and the trans didn't know when to shift up/down. The bonus of this find is that the car will rev out to 7k now, WOT is actually functional on the TPS, and with the throttle opening more/earlier it solved some drivability issues, and the car is much quicker.
-Found out the crank sensor was hitting the balancer causing RPM dropout. Put another crank sensor on and spaced it out by the thickness of the washer.
-Swapped a fuel pump and relay which fixed some intermittent long starts.
-Bleeding power steering fixed a sticky feeling rack (old fluid was shot and had moisture in it)
-Inop speedo was both a bad sensor and a bad pigtail
-Swapped a different catback on it that was far less rusty, because I had it and a set of good gaskets on hand
-Installed caps, a factory lip, and undertray to give it a lil' exterior boost

That about does it with project Cab. I'll keep cruising it and fixing small stuff until it sells.

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

[AWDBOB]

Got the tii all cleaned up and got the og 13x5 steelies on. Car came out great for what it is.

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

[2mAn]

How cheap is cheap on the Hooptie Cab? Is it auto?