Project: R3D3MPTION?

[D_Eclipse9916]

Like Jake, I saw the opportunity for some wrench time with it being so nice outside for Sunday. So I cleared the calendar and planned to work most the day on "car projects" AKA garage cleanig and get some work done on the E30. Had my buddy Jason come over to do his S54 rod bearings as well and get use of my engine stand butt....we all know how that goes

Spent the first couple hours doing more organizing and cleaning in the garage (boring I know!) and then I decided to look at what needed to be done to pull the motor. This thing is grungy, and everything underneath the car is russsssssssttyyy.

Since I knew we weren't going to be reusing the exhaust, I didn't even bother trying to take it off. Sawzall with a dull blade and an angle grinder did the job of cutting the exhaust off. Gotta drop by Home Depot and grab a couple more blades.

After the exhaust was off I went to take off the trans mount. I usually do this fairly early in the process as it drops the trans down just enough to make getting the "bitch clip" off the top of the trans easier. Well...RUST. The stud inside the frame broke off. I will have to cut out that portion and weld in a new stud but for now I just undid the motor mounts themselves. The bitch clip was a bit more annoying as it was covered in "everything" and ended up just disintegrating. Took off a couple more things and hooked up the engine hoist and dragged her out.



Dave already found a buyer for the dropout engine and trans and was able to reach him to schedule pickup hopefully this week!

We still had Jason's S54 on my engine stand so I decided to tackle more cleaning and the diff cover swap. Guess which one came out of Dave's car?




Dave picked up a different differential ratio that was LSD out of an E28. I discovered much to my chagrin that the fluid was not drained before delivery and had to clean up the small spill the resulted. Cleaned off the old gasket, cleaned up the mating surfaces and got the diff ready. BMW now uses liquid gaskets which actually makes it a little easier to install. Completed and ready to put back in.




I stopped at this point and since the car is in the air, I am hoping to get Dave over before moving forward. There is a large amount of rust on brake lines/fuel lines/shocks/springs etc. Before I start installing parts would be a good chance to make any moves if he is up for it.

After getting all this done earlier than I suspected, I helped Jason finish off his rod bearing job.


After helping him put it together, we realized he did not order a safety-nut prepped oil pump nut so we called it a night?/early afternoon.

I have to finish up painting the nursery and nursey bathroom and finish wiring my sound system for the movie room before jumping back into the E30 but hoping to have this done before the end of February (hopefully January). Gotta see how much rust/suspension prep puts us back.