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

[AWDBOB]

I sold some shit boxes recently (don't worry, still have hoopty iS), and saw this beautiful creation lingering on my local marketplace for a while, calling me to it, and then grahamsy2k posted it up on R3V. It looked like a steamy pile of rusty e30 goodness, which meant I had to have it.

I was under the impression that the car was very rusty because the car has pretty bad sunroof rust, but upon getting the car home and looking it over, the floors are minty, the battery box has minimal rust compared to most e30s, passenger rear wheel well isn't bad at all, etc etc. The rust seems fairly isolated to the sunroof.

I need/want a winter beater, so I figured what better thing to do than to bring this '89 sedan on one more trip around the sun. I thought it would be funny to do a Youtube video where I part the car out as I drive it to its most minimal state to see how much I can sell off of the car while still keeping it running and then drive it to the vintage as a driving parts car.

The big achilles heel is the sunroof. It's bad/rusty/missing. It doesn't make sense to rebuild the sunroof with good parts, but it does make sense to weld it shut.

In looking over the car, it's missing:

ICV
Intake boot
Battery
Brown Top Coolant Temp Sensor
Coolant Level sensor

and a few other small odds and ends.

I am not sure if the car stopped being driven due to the sunroof rust, or because it had a mechanical failure, or what, but I suppose we're going to find that out pretty soon.

Was thinking E34 525i front springs and E36 Vert rear springs, sell the plastic bumpers and have cheap bash bars made. Who knows. Whatever I can sell off of it I will, to fund the senseless project I will. There's also a 50/50 chance I won't do anything outside of get it running and part it out. But it hurts my soul to send this car to the grave if it has several more good years in it.

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

[AWDBOB]

MMM hoopte.... Still looking like a fun car.

Any lead on someone who can rebuild these wiper motors? It would be nice if they had some speed behind them.

My car is in pieces again, but was looking at the C&C and its just to humid... WAHHh. :p

Just looking at them, and knowing what my old Volvo's wiper motor looked like inside, I'd say it's probably fairly DIY friendly. Crack it open, replace the brushes, re-grease the gearbox and replace the bearings/bushings if necessary. I'd guess the motor bushings/bearings are a standard sized part, it wouldn't make sense to drive up the cost of the motor by using special stuff.

I don't think it would be very hard if you found a good old school electrical repair shop... seems like standard equipment as varg pointed out. Unlikely that it would be worth the hassle to upgrade, but a nice rebuilt one I'm sure would be worlds better than what is on most of our cars.

Man.... C&C was so humid. AND i'm a sweaty italian...... i think i made people nervous with how much i was sweating standing still.

Hoopty isn't getting fancy cylinder head. Talked to Kevin and he said it doesn't have many refinishes left in its future, so I'm saving fancy head for 2.9L m20 in the event that something would happen to it while on hoopty's stock b25.

With Kevin so backed up (i told waaaay too many people how good he was, oops) I ended up picking this already redone 885 off of FB (also listed on r3v). Guy was super cool and met me halfway.

Got a rebuilt head for $260!!!!! deals. He bought a shop and the old shop owner had some random stuff left over from his dealings, one item of which was this 885 head. New Febi rockers from back when they didn't suck, refinished, cleaned, guides, etc. Gonna toss in the 272 cam I got from the Mississippi trip and call it a day.

Have OEM BMW gasket, bolts, etc all ready to put this on..... should happen soon-ish, hopefully.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[varg]

Any lead on someone who can rebuild these wiper motors? It would be nice if they had some speed behind them.

Just looking at them, and knowing what my old Volvo's wiper motor looked like inside, I'd say it's probably fairly DIY friendly. Crack it open, replace the brushes, re-grease the gearbox and replace the bearings/bushings if necessary. I'd guess the motor bushings/bearings are a standard sized part, it wouldn't make sense to drive up the cost of the motor by using special stuff.

[moatilliatta]

MMM hoopte.... Still looking like a fun car.

Any lead on someone who can rebuild these wiper motors? It would be nice if they had some speed behind them.

My car is in pieces again, but was looking at the C&C and its just to humid... WAHHh. :p

[AWDBOB]

Hoopty has been cruising along. I took the car to the local CCA chapter takeover at Cars and Coffee, and..... didn't remember to take a single photo.

The drivers side window and wipers have been wonky since I've owned the car. They recently both completely stopped working.

I sent 12v straight to the window motor and it worked great, so I followed power and found out that the door harness connector was filled with crud. Cleaned and greased and window motor back in action!

Wipers have been intermittent and have had various failures. I did a ton of diagnosing and really came up with very little. I found a melted ground at the g100 prong under the dash. Fixed and didn't solve anything. I jumped pins to bypass wiper relay and the motor didn't work, and then it randomly started working after a few more jumps, so I can only assume that the motor is failing.

I thought it would be handy for other folks to make a short and sweet, straight to the point youtube vid about wiper system diag on an e30 since a typical youtube vid is 80% filler and largely useless. If you want to figure out why your wipers aren't working, see below.

https://youtu.be/hk8Cq9Z7Q6c


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]

My favorite wheel for an E30

Couldn't agree more. Was a "stock steering wheel guy" forever until I stumbled upon these. Makes the car feel like home.

[2mAn]

My favorite wheel for an E30

[AWDBOB]

Italvolanti back in hoopty. This cockpit is beginning to feel like home!

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

Agree 100% on Hoopties!

I got my first "when are you going to paint it" question about mine recently. Maybe some day, but it's really nice to not have to worry about it.
Park it anywhere, drive it on dirt roads, not care if the kid leans his bike against it.

Your's looks great, paint is baking off nicely.

Yes!! I brought the car to a local open house recently and got the 'when will you paint' question quite a bit. It is a nice position to be in, to get to enjoy the car without major concern, but also being able to make the car nice in other ways so that if the opportunity for paint ever arose, the car would be a paint job/body work away from being a very much non-hoopty.

Thats nearly COTM worthy! lol Your list of COTM candidates went from Linda... to the M3... to the Hoopty. If you stall long enough who knows what it will be

Sent you a message!!! Long live the hoopty. When I make it go faster and put a not red valence on it she'll be COTM ready.

How did you know that your head gasket was the culprit for overpressurising your coolant system? I kind of suspect mine is doing the same because I got dried up coolant around the edges of the hoses

I killed a brand new water pump, 2 good used heater valves (ouch $$), and pretty much anything else coolant related before I realized the car was building an insane amount of coolant pressure.

The car doesn't get hot, and runs VERY well, but the system builds and holds pressure in the cooling system, so much so that the air accumulates in the coolant resevoir and pushes the coolant level out of the reservoir so I have to constantly burp the air out. If I don't burp it and drive the car, and pull the reservoir cap even multiple days after I've last driven the car, it still has pressure in the system. The coolant is also gross from combustion. All signs point to combustion side HG leak, to me.

I got possible roof rack that'll could possibility toss on. The are you going to paint it gets old. Car is getting great character, enjoying it. Be cool to see what numbers that head makes.

You should!!! Roof rack just raises the level of hoopty functionality. I can't wait until I have to make a large home goods purchase, because I am going to use this to fetch whatever it is. Buy a grill? I've got a roof rack sonnie, back off with your SUV

Yes, still up in the air about the head. I decided I don't want to put it on the stock bottom end, as the head was cut quite a bit in the past, so don't want to chance hurting it with stock bottom end, and then have to cut it again. Makes way more sense to save it for when I build this 2.9L. But, hoopty head gasket is getting bad enough to where I feel I should stop driving it before I make something worse, so I ultimately need to make a decision soon.

I have a car itch in the worst way possible right now (yes, I know, I have 153429847 projects)..... but I haven't had a go-fast car in a while. Thinking turbo hoopty may be the ultimate form, deeming that head unnecessary. We shall see.

[moatilliatta]

I got possible roof rack that'll could possibility toss on. The are you going to paint it gets old. Car is getting great character, enjoying it. Be cool to see what numbers that head makes.

[efficient]

How did you know that your head gasket was the culprit for overpressurising your coolant system? I kind of suspect mine is doing the same because I got dried up coolant around the edges of the hoses

[2mAn]

Thats nearly COTM worthy! lol Your list of COTM candidates went from Linda... to the M3... to the Hoopty. If you stall long enough who knows what it will be

[Poorhouse]

Agree 100% on Hoopties!

I got my first "when are you going to paint it" question about mine recently. Maybe some day, but it's really nice to not have to worry about it.
Park it anywhere, drive it on dirt roads, not care if the kid leans his bike against it.

Your's looks great, paint is baking off nicely.

[AWDBOB]

Trying to expand into the 5/6er world for the parts bizz..... ended up with a manual 533 partsie as well!

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr


But the real man of the hour is hoopty. I love this car. Its the best car..... ever. If you haven't ever had a hoopty, my oh my would I recommend it.

Finally got my rockymount setup on the car so it now covers biking duty!! Still going strong with leaky HG

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

[AWDBOB]

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

They look like stock size valves, just nice light Ferrea's, but I didn't actually measure them.

I toyed with doing a silicone mold of the ports and getting it on a flow bench, but the reality of it all is that it'll likely never happen, as it just consumes resources that are more importantly spent elsewhere.

Doesn't help that I have nine (yes, 9) E30 project cars at the moment. Before I buy those IE pistons I was going to measure the valves at the very least. Custom pistons from Steve at TEP are the same price as the IE pistons so I also toyed with that, but those guys are so backed up right now I figured the IE off the shelf Mahle options were ideal.

No plans for ITB... keep it simple stupid has been my mentality to actually get things done and in the car, and then from that point can add ITBs later on. Love the idea of it all, but the actual get the project done and in the car game plan usually wins out, and the fancy stuff falls by the wayside.

There used to be pics of some of Knight Engines' ported heads on some forum, (pretty sure he/they did Rob's car) and they were pretty extreme looking.

Edit: NVM it's still up with at least some of the pics:

https://www.speed-talk.com/forum/vie...31132&start=75

Killer link- I was actually looking for that to post with the cylinder head pics but couldn't find it! Certainly a good reference to have in here.



I got a big 6! Yanking drivetrain before selling the rolling shell to a buddy for a grand touring project. Nice to have something different roll through the garage.

Excited to see what trans is in it. It's an '83 633csi which I thought came with a 4sp, but its' a 5sp car. Would be a huge bonus if it's a g265.

Untitled by Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr