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

[digger]

what valve sizes does the head have and and are they compatible with the IE piston pockets?

you should try and get the porting gains quantified on a flow bench combine that with some measurements e.g. throat diameter , port entry area, min cross section at apex to short side where its closest to the roof and guide.

Are you going to run ITB with it? The stock fanimold will do its best to nullify any improvements

[AWDBOB]

So that head is worth 350WHP with correct internals?


Edit - Great vintage pics! :)

Hey thanks- wish we could’ve cruised- there’s always next year!!

and re: 350whp……… if I was a bettin’ man, I wouldn’t be putting any money on that figure, lol. But after experiencing Linda with head work, having another cylinder head that has some decent port work gets me jazzed for the future of hoopty.

[moatilliatta]

So that head is worth 350WHP with correct internals?


Edit - Great vintage pics! :)

[AWDBOB]

Hoopty's gettin' some fixin's!

So....last year or so, I ended up with an exact clone of the "highest HP M20 engine". This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAHlvU6VSy0

It's a 2.8L M20 with a ton of head work, 14:1 pistons and a bunch of other stuff. My buddy wanted the motor, but didn't want to put pistons in it or run standalone, so after selling him the motor, I ended up building him a different, more streetable stroker m20, that he'd be waaay happier with..... which means I ended up with the crazy 2.8.

In a recent turn of events with Hoopty's head gasket diagnosis, I recently found a new in box, non-reground 272 cam in the haul from Mississippi, and took the worked head off of the 14:1 compression motor and took it to the engine Yoda Mr Kevin to have it gone through to see what it was all about.

He said it looked like the head was sent off to have the port work done, and he noted the port work is very nice, and the parts used were all of high quality. They're top of the line Ferrea valves with stems cut down, Ti retainers, and a bunch of other neat stuff. BUT, he said the head was obviously not assembled by the same guy who did the port work. The valves were too long, eccentrics all messed up, springs shimmed weird, and a ton of other small stuff that needed to be fixed.

So after a clean bill of health, hoopty now has a new cylinder head to throw on the stock bottom end! I've had a megasquirt kit hanging around for hoopty for ages, so once I get this head on, I'm going to convert it over to standalone and see how it runs with a fancy head on a stock bottom end.

Got a head gasket, head bolts (finally available again!!) and heater valve from the dealer to complete the setup.

This brings me to the future of hoopty..... I have said spare 2.8L bottom end that needs pistons... the IE Ultimate Street Stroker 2.9L Mahle pistons just so happen to be the perfect choice, as they'll drop right onto the M52b28 crank and 135mm carillo rods with a rebore to 85mm!! So I'll be building that up on the side.

I also have THREE turbo kits that I got with the Mississippi haul, as well as ARP studs, Spec Turbo Clutch, etc etc, so whenever I get around to turning the 2.8 into a 2.9, I'm going to turbo the car using whatever setup I end up keeping around. I assume that'll be in a year or so.

Anyway, figured you guys would like to see this cylinder head, as we all drool over M20s with head work. Should be a blast!

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

[AWDBOB]

FIRST VINTAGE TRIP WAS A SUCCESS!!!

On Wednesday night at 5:30p, hoopty was still fully apart. I had just sealed up the new water pump the night before, and had 5-6hrs Wednesday night to put the car back together for the caravan the following morning with the Rivertown Gear Busters down to Hot Springs, to meet up with Simple_Smith, JakeB and Tim, who caravanned down from Michigan.

No HVAC box, no dash, carpet, etc etc. I somehow pulled it off, and was bleeding coolant by 11:30pm.

The trip down was flawless, and the trip was a blast. We stayed in Hot Springs, and Corey showed me the ropes of NC back road ripping. Out of all of the cars that I've had over the years, this is the most intentional seat time I've ever had in an E30, and it was incredible.

Unfortunately, part of the way through the trip, I discovered that my cooling system was pressurizing due to a small internal leak in the HG. The car held steady temps and performed great the whole weekend, and didn't pop a radiator line until I got home. It was pressurizing the system so much that the air was building up in the coolant res and pushing the coolant down throwing on a low coolant light. On the way home, I kept burping the system of the air at the top and made it home! This explains why I've gone through two heater valves and a water pump already. Sorry Febi for talking smack on your water pumps, when the fault was my own, lol.

We barely spent any time at the show on Saturday, but turbo'd Jakes 02 in the parking lot of the Clarion Friday night. Drove it there sans turbo, drove it back to Hot Springs at 3am making 4psi.

Overall an amazing trip, and can't wait to do it again next year.

As for hoopty, I have so many other projects that need to be finished up first that I won't be fixing the car any time soon, but have some cool things plan in the engine department.

Anyway, here are some photos!


When I started working the night before I left.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


Repaired a ton of hacked wiring down in the drivers footwell, a pillar and passenger footwell. And fixed my cruise by bypassing the clutch switch, so I had cruise the whole way down!

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

Carpet in

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New HVAC box foam, r134 expansion valve, green orings, and new OEM heater valve

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


HVAC box In

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Ready to rip!

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






Vintage photo dump


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

[AWDBOB]

You did say the heater box was disgusting.. the under-dash area lives up to it. I bet it smells significantly better now

Yes- it was a bit intimidating how nasty it was.... but we are getting there one step at a time!

Got the nasty carpet out. With a good clean it'd actually be nice. Not too many uncut gray carpets floating around. I am reinstalling a lesser quality carpet in the car.

Floors looked rusty, which worried me, but with a quick hit of a wire wheel it was all superficial outside of both corners, which I can fix at a later date.

Rust converter, and then am going to use black farm&implement paint, as no one had a POR15 style option available, and time is of the essence here.

Gross

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Better

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



Ground down


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Converted


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




Letting it cure for 24hrs and then will apply farm&implement.

[KI4UJO]

You did say the heater box was disgusting.. the under-dash area lives up to it. I bet it smells significantly better now

[AWDBOB]

Man this car is disgusting. Also finding chewed and pinched wires everywhere, so I am going through EVERYTHING.

It's going to be a crazy week, as I work until 6:30pm every day up until Thursday when I leave early AM. I am pulling the carpet tomorrow and going to see what I find underneath and will do a deep clean with a pressure washer and extractor, then throw it all back together with a deep cleaned dash, new HVAC box, deep cleaned carpet, LUK box, etc etc.

Cluster bulb wiring cut and just sitting bare in dash

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


Map light harness sliced open behind a pillar

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Mouse grossness

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



Cracked dash FTW


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Yoink


Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

Hoopty vintage prep is under way! Snuck up quick.

I put a new Graf water pump on it, and got all of that buttoned up. I found a rough but waaaay better valence at the warehouse, so I threw that on. The drivers side bumper shock needs to be replaced, but hoopty doesn't deserve it. It is way better than before, IMO. The drivers side headlight was held on by zip ties and the bracket was broken in several different places, among a bunch of other hillbilly fixin's that I reversed to the best of my abilities.

Got an r134 conversion coming, but that stuff won't be ready for vintage. Pulling dash tonight/tomorrow to replace HVAC box and get the rest of the grossness out of the interior. When dash is out I will be replacing expansion valve and adding HNBR orings, and will also be installing a Lukbox and sound system I bought from a generous r3ver from Ohio. I suspect the cruise is inop due to rat infested cruise module, so am going to replace that as well. Would be quite nice to have cruise on my way down to NC.

Finally installed the roof rack as well!

As always, I love this thing.

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

[AWDBOB]

Did you sell the black hoopty ? (no idea which number that is at this point lol)

Nope, slowly working on it here and there as I have time.

Got the new M42 running recently, need to change SI board out, install cooling system, have exhaust made, wire radio, etc. It’s almost done though…. Or at least way closer than it was before.

[2mAn]

Did you sell the black hoopty ? (no idea which number that is at this point lol)

[AWDBOB]

Whoot! Vintate! More space for more stuff!

oh yeah!! Stoked for my first vintage experience. It's looking like I'll take hoopty iS. My time is limited week-of, so flying up to pick up Linda from Jakes to then drive it down to NC from MI is unlikely

[moatilliatta]

Whoot! Vintate! More space for more stuff!

[AWDBOB]

More m42! I am definitely 100 percent onboard.

Yes!!! I was joking the other day about m42 swapping everything I have now that gas prices are crazy.

This car will be fun to finish off- it just had an e36 m42 installed with a fresh clutch and whatnot, but won’t stay running due to the fuel pump fuse blowing.

[KI4UJO]

More m42! I am definitely 100 percent onboard.