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

[e30austin]

This is good intel- at Vintage some moron pulled out in front of me and I had to floor it in 1st while making a u turn on 215/45 200tw tires. I felt the car break loose, hesitate with engine still rippin', and then grab again. I depressed the clutch and it made a terrible sound. I pulled in and said "guys i just destroyed my clutch". The clutch has been fine since then, but I think when that happened i warped the clutch disc and broke or fractured a strap on the pressure plate.

I don't think the motor is long for this world, we just threw the disc back in because I was 5hrs away from home and that's all we had, but I planned on replacing the whole unit again when I build the next m20 that'll let me down.

i've seen this in an instance where the clutch disc wasn't correctly aligned with the pilot bearing and someone let the transmission hang off the clutch disc when trying to install the transmission, which surely bent or warped it, causing the harmonics to be off. i get trying to get home, just saying it so you don't continue to have issues later on!
but as to your u turn story, that was probably the strap on the pressure plate snapping. ask me how i know lol

[AWDBOB]

bummer about the 2.7 but about your clutch issue: the clutch disc is probably slightly warped. i had this happen once. 3 pressure plates in 4000 miles. i know you don't wanna do it again but throw the disc away.

This is good intel- at Vintage some moron pulled out in front of me and I had to floor it in 1st while making a u turn on 215/45 200tw tires. I felt the car break loose, hesitate with engine still rippin', and then grab again. I depressed the clutch and it made a terrible sound. I pulled in and said "guys i just destroyed my clutch". The clutch has been fine since then, but I think when that happened i warped the clutch disc and broke or fractured a strap on the pressure plate.

I don't think the motor is long for this world, we just threw the disc back in because I was 5hrs away from home and that's all we had, but I planned on replacing the whole unit again when I build the next m20 that'll let me down.

[e30austin]

bummer about the 2.7 but about your clutch issue: the clutch disc is probably slightly warped. i had this happen once. 3 pressure plates in 4000 miles. i know you don't wanna do it again but throw the disc away.

[AWDBOB]

love those wheels. looks great!

thanks, homie! Koseis are the juice

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Hoopty had an eventful weekend up at the classicdaily HQ. I went up to offer support for my buddy Andrew's insanely nice jap 320i MT2 car that he was bringing up to Jakes to convert to his Turkey&Cheese standalone and then convert to ITBs. Andrew's car is a beautiful example of a nice, low mileage car that still gets driven. His car has a 3L M20 stroker with S52 crank/rods with flat top 84mm 9.3:1 pistons, a 272 cam and a throttle body bored to accept an m30 throttle plate.

I brought hoopty up to do a pull on the dyno to see what it's making compared to Andrews 3L car, and that's when the fun started......

First pull on the dyno getting things set up, hoopty exploded the clutch. It sounded like it was 50/50 clutch failure or melted piston, and I didn't want to interrupt their itinerary, so I backed it off the dyno and did some diagnosis, upon which I found some rough results.

I borescoped the cylinders and did a compression check despite the car running fine off the dyno while making awful noises.

I then pulled the bowl reinforcement on the trans and metal chunks/shavings dumped out upon removal.

After not knowing what to do, I just focused on helping as much as I could with Andrews car and ITB install.

The following morning, Jake and I decided to do a quick/dirty clutch job so I could get the car home. 3hrs later and I was on my way!

The pressure plate (new M20 Sachs unit) straps failed. First time I have seen one fail like this. The disc itself was perfect.

We got some good data from Andrews car that I'll post in the dyno thread. Jake's standalone runs on RusEFI firmware and has been working out very well.

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



Hoopty's only dyno pull. Disappointing numbers, but I think with some tweaks we could be closer to a desirable number.

Hoopty w AFR by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr



And an overlay of Andrews 3L on stock ECU vs hoopty's 2.7

Andrew vs Boobie - Stock ECU by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[e30austin]

love those wheels. looks great!

[AWDBOB]

Oh baby the 15s were the right move!!! So glad I put tires on these K1s and got them on the car before I messed with spring rates. All of the wheel shake is gone, and the bump compliance is night and day.

I snagged some 205/55r15 Hankook Ventus Prime2's from Priority Tire on the cheap. They have a limited stock of this tire in the stock E30 15" tire size.

Coupon code LEGITPT723 saves 5% and is good until the end of the month. After tax it was only $86/tire.

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

[AWDBOB]

Another road trip down, and hoopty ate up the miles.

I am taking each trip as an opportunity to refine things a bit further.

We spent a week in Appalachia, and against everyones better judgment, I made sure the E30 was the vessel of choice.

A few days beforehand I spent some time chasing a leak on my freshie Sanden R134 AC system, in hopes to finally have cool air running through the vents. Turns out, the only part I didn't replace was leaking.... the evaporator! Thankfully I have a stack on the shelf and got a good used one swapped in in no time. She took about 3lbs of refrigerant and blows so cold I had to turn it down on the test drive to see if the lady approved of the air quality before driving 8hrs east.

I sadly had to do this trip on my 200tw Falkens, as I didn't have time to get tires for my 15" Koseis. With the rear suspension loaded with luggage I was getting some serious rubbing, which was far from ideal, but all was well.

I also spliced in a nice fan switch pigtail in hopes to regain high speed fan function in addition to low speed snowflake aux fan function. Would love it if snowflake = high speed aux fan, so am going to look into making that happen. Installed a new genuine cig lighter socket for all the charges, and she was good to go.

I swapped a premium sound amp in hopes to remedy a terrible stereo interference, but that didn't solve the problem, so I am going to remove the common ground setup, as I assume the system lost a ground somewhere.

I'm still shocked at how good this car runs.

Next round of hooptie improvements needed for it to be the ultimate road tripper:
-rear rubbing quite a bit loaded down. partially offset/tire size on my e38 wheels, but potentially need to swap in stiffer rear coilover springs
-front small bump compliance is mediocre at best. currently springs are 550f/650r. Considering going to a stock spring setup in hopes to smooth out bump compliance and raise the rear more than the GC adjusters are capable of. Sucks, because the car looks great at the current height, but road tripping at this height is far from ideal. Suggestions welcome. Already swapped to the GC street plates up front, which helped a decent bit, but it's not as good as I'd like it to be.
-15" wheels and tires with more sidewall to help the above
-radio fix/aftermarket amp install? decided against lukebox for trunk space, but still feel an aftermarket amp would help the fresh premium sound speakers I installed quite a bit over the stock amp.
-long term, the s3.46 is perfect for the highway but the car doesn't feel as quick as it should with the longer gears. I think a 3.64 would be perfect
-swap wiper motor, it finally gave out on this trip

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

[AWDBOB]

so glad you got to enjoy hoopty ! and had a blast on vintage ..

you bought bothe the 2002 ? parts car and the ti? haha

me too- hoopty has been a treat to have hanging around!

Yes, the tii came with the roundie parts car. It needs a few small cosmetic things, all of which the parts car has thankfully

[QuiqueUy]

so glad you got to enjoy hoopty ! and had a blast on vintage ..

you bought bothe the 2002 ? parts car and the ti? haha

[AWDBOB]

I feel all the pics of the Italvolanti is to torture me some more...

I'm just gonna keep at it until it makes you impulse buy another e30

love this for you, brother. glad to see it :)

you love to see it!

Rad stuff! Already looking forward to next years vintage.

Hopefully more E30, More back roads.

Man, me too. Shocked a simple weekend can be so enjoyable. Either says something about the weekend or my day to day lol. I'm hoping to go down a couple days early next year. Didn't work out that way this year due to obvious circumstances, but I'm hoping next year I won't be reassembling most of a car the week before.

Had an awesome time at The Vintage and already itching to go back to explore more of Appalachia, although some light tints or A/C is on the list for next year.

Man, me too. I bought a book on Appalachia while we were down there and the stoke is high




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I've been chasing a roundie Tii for a couple years and the guy recently went public with the car and posted it all over the internet, which sucked, and I assumed it would result in me not getting the car. Turns out all of you internet folk were bad enough that he ended up accepting my offer, and I now own an early vin Tii and a roundie parts car! Pretty pumped.

It's not secret in the hooptie thread that I have bought lot of cars over the years, which tends to dull the experience a bit..... but when I first set eyes on this Tii I felt that special car tingle that I haven't felt in a long time.

I'll keep you all posted on the barn extraction and clean up.

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

[Simple_Smith]

Had an awesome time at The Vintage and already itching to go back to explore more of Appalachia, although some light tints or A/C is on the list for next year.

[moatilliatta]

Rad stuff! Already looking forward to next years vintage.

Hopefully more E30, More back roads.

[e30austin]

love this for you, brother. glad to see it :)

[2mAn]

I feel all the pics of the Italvolanti is to torture me some more...

[AWDBOB]

This hoopte is best hoopte. Vintage Ready?

this hoopte is best hoopte indeed!!!

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Man, what a whirlwind the past few weeks have been. By some miracle, hooptie v2 made it to vintage in its newly refined state.
The big mechanical changes were:

-New rubber subframe and trailing arm bushings
-14.5mm E30M3/iX Rear Sway
-GC Street Front Camber Plates
-Suspension Techniques Front Swaybar
-9.4:1 2.7L Stroker M20
-Big bore throttle body using m30 throttle plate
-Rebuilt green top m50 injectors
-full sanden r134 conversion
-S3.46 diff
-Ansa Sport catback
-My old filled/drilled E38 style 5s with 615k+ tires for proper canyon adhesion

The big interior changes were:
-kilmat in almost the whole car
-Nice dash install, snuck some nice a pillar trims in there too
-Houndstooth cards
-Low mile premium sound
-put odometer gears in the cluster finally

Man the car feels like a million bucks. Such an improvement over before. The new 2.7 feels like the engine that all of these cars should've gotten. It just feels like a beefy m20b25, runs perfectly smooth, pulls very strong. My butt dyno guess is 168whp, but my calibration is off from the diff change. The 3.46 is too long of a ratio for canyon driving (3.73 would be perfect), but since the car is a daily now that it's done, i'll leave the 3.46 in so i can stack the miles on it.

The change in camber plates and rubber bushings softened the car up perfectly without losing anything I am concerned about. I kept the front of the car raised up a bit for cruise-ability. Looks goofy in photos but drives incredibly well and I can still get a jack under the front of it.

I had 10 miles on the new engine when I had to leave for NC. My last FCP order showed up the night before I had to leave. Somehow, the car didn't miss a beat. I changed the second round of break in oil out in a parking lot in hot springs. The car got 26-27mpgs almost the whole trip with a mix of highway and canyon driving, with the worst fill up being 23mpgs after some hefty canyon runs.

I stayed with a hell of a crew, and we had nothing short of a blast. Was so great to see everyone. Jake took down bluepty, his turbo'd '89 325i, and Simple_Smith took his beautiful jap MT2 320i that he's not afraid to drive. Corey is also a killer canyon run planner, and led us on some incredible drives.

I took my camera down and got a few shots of the hootpies and the MT2 at the "Devils Courthouse".

This shot was taken a day before I had to leave for the Vintage. With hooptie still unfinished, I had to drive up to Michigan to pick up a parts car from Tyler, who purchased Linda, as it had the rear two E38 wheels on it that I needed to drive Hooptie down to NC. Was good to catch up with him! On my way back, the E30 parts car accidentally started a pop up car meet at a gas station. An E36M3 rolled up, an Evo, a TDI and two sport bikes stopped to chat.


Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr



The caravan down was interesting, as we hit over 2hrs of traffic on 75S. Great way to break in a new engine. Only a few of us ended up in the caravan down.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr





Discussing all things hoopty

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