Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

[dvallis]

So weird. Just spent 30 minutes typing this post and it disappeared. Ugh. Retype.

More progress. Bolting things onto the cold side today.

Started with the bitch tube. Previous owner had it epoxied in and amputated with a saws-all. That's not right.



Removed that ridiculousness and cleaned out all the gunk. Looks like there was a bit of burn through on the lip when it was manufactured.



Replaced it with our proper tube and gasket. Good fit and seal.



Other end of bitch tube. Spring on first, zip tie closed. Then washer and gasket. Seat bottom in block. Once the manifold is on, seat the top of the tube then remove zip ties.



Added the water hoses next and test fit the thermostat.



Speaking of the thermostat, what's up with this? Original OEM thermostat has blanks on right side in the cast, but no holes.



Exact same MPN has M14 x 1.5 holes. Will plug them. Anyone know the deal here?



Moving on. Tapped and plugged the thermostat heater body heater outlet.





Built the fuel rail and brackets. Nuke is nice gear.



Here's the end product today. Intake manifold, fuel rail, thermostat, bitch tube and oil dipstick installed.







Next up: Oil system, belts, finish the thermostat, install exhaust manifold & turbo.

[cscracker]

Older cars with Motronic 1.0 (motronic basic) needed all 5 holes for various temperature switches and sensors. Newer Motronic 1.3 cars only need 2 sensors, so it makes sense that they wouldn't drill and tap the holes for them. Not sure why they'd have the same part number, though.

[parkerbink]

Looks great!

[ForcedFirebird]

Speaking of the thermostat, what's up with this? Original OEM thermostat has blanks on right side in the cast, but no holes.


Exact same MPN has M14 x 1.5 holes. Will plug them. Anyone know the deal here?



.

Older cars with Motronic 1.0 (motronic basic) needed all 5 holes for various temperature switches and sensors. Newer Motronic 1.3 cars only need 2 sensors, so it makes sense that they wouldn't drill and tap the holes for them. Not sure why they'd have the same part number, though.

It's all the same casting, but the eta had the fan switch in the housing, and the holes were tapped for them - later cars had the switch moved to the radiator. They used to have 2 different part numbers, then melded them together and now when purchasing, there's a note (use only in conjunction with) that it requires 2 plugs, part number 07119919228 and 2 seals part number 07119963200...

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=1423-USA-11_1986_E30_BMW_325i&diagId=11_0759#07119919228

See in the link above, there's two #1's with the same part number, one for up to "up to 9/87" and the other says "from 9/87, use only in conjunction with".

[dvallis]

Thanks guys

[2mAn]

Awesome to see the motor in there, but more importantly the cockpit looks amazing.

Nice work!

[dvallis]

Got some good work done on the oil system.

Oil filter housing with new gasket and sandwich plate installed.



Permatex Ultra Black on sealing face. I know some guys get it to seal fine without, but using this just in case.



Housing installed. Note the AN fittings for remote oil pressure sensor, turbo oil feed and oil cooler lines.



This custom oil cooler has 2X the capacity of our stock E30 unit. Built it out of off the shelf piece parts.



Hoses routed nicely.



Oil cooler installed. Fits well behind the kidney grille. Snuck our hoses in beside the left inner headlight.

That headlight can will become a cold air intake since we have high/low beam headlights in one unit. Realized my headlight cans are super ghetto rusty. They've gotta go.

[ThatM20Guy]

Did you use ultra black on the sandwich plate as well?

The interior looks amazing btw. Crazy clean!

[dvallis]

Sandwich plate has a really large flat rubber gasket. Its going to seal like heck so we skipped Ultra Black for that. Problem with the oil filter housing is its got a skinny round gasket. If either mating surface is uneven, pitted or whatever you can get leaks. But it can seal perfectly as designed. Block and housing have to be pristine with a new gasket.

[dvallis]

The interior looks amazing btw. Crazy clean!

By popular demand will take some more interior pictures. :devil:

[dvallis]

Lots of good stuff in the works.

Condor shifter and tunnel boot installed



Thermostat assembled



Finally rocking an alternator belt. These things are skinny (10 mm) compared to the newer BMW belts.



Alternator hooked up. Notice the through frame wiring job. We did a lot of work making it a clean build.



Fuel rail supply hose fabricated and installed.



Fuel regulator and return hoses are a work in progress. Dual sensors are for gauge panel and data acquisition system.



Remote oil pressure sensor installation. Has dual sensors like fuel pressure. Ret tape means NOT TORQUED YET. :devil:



That's all for now

[dvallis]

More big pieces going on today:

I need a heat shield to protect the spark plugs from the exhaust manifold. The stock exhaust gaskets have a shield, but they are paper. I'm not crazy about them. I'm upgrading the exhaust and turbo gaskets so it's time for a custom heat shield.

Here's the starting point. The mechanically astute among you will note the gasket goes on the other side of the manifold. I'm just marking it for clearace cut outs.



Finished product including DEI heat / sound shielding. I love this stuff.



Test fitting the heat shield. Perfect.



Started looking at clearance for the down pipe



That got me thinking about the turbo. I test installed it, clocked to the right orientation and started looking at turbo tubing.



Needed the intercooler in place to look at air tubing so I installed the fans first.



Intercooler installed. Things are moving quickly now.



In my best Apollo 13 voice: "We need to connect THIS to THIS".



And we have this. Works for me. But I need some other bits for the intercooler intake and outlet sides. Going a bit custom from KA Motors kit since the intercooler is relocated and we've got a different intake manifold.

[dvallis]

More turbo plumbing.

Replaced the high beam headlights with these 5-3/4" velocity stacks. They fit nicely on top of the headlight cans. Outlet is 3-1/2" OD. Passenger inlet is for turbo intake air box. Driver inlet is for engine bay cooling.



Using a K&N RC-4680 filter. 4" ID flange, 6" base, 4" top, 7" long.



Filter is not here yet, so I made a cardboard prototype to size up the space.



Prototype air box for the filter. Will be covered in the same fiberglass / aluminum heat shield I used for the firewall. Any way to keep engine bay heat out of the intake is good. PV = nRT is a law, not a suggestion. This post has some good real world data. Lowering turbo intake temperature by 20 F resulted in 30 HP gain.



That reminds me I need to look into a turbo blanket and heat tape.

[Digitalwave]

Love the heat shield you made for the manifold. The airbox looks good too.

I don't think the empty headlight is going to do anything to help cool the bay. You should consider running hood vents for aerodynamics and cooling.

[dvallis]

I'll take some engine bay temperature measurements with the driver inlet plugged, and open. Will let you know how it works out.