Project E30

[Chris]

woo hoo for 3 day weekends! I got quite a bit done this weekend even though I had family in.

Removed the headliner and sunroof. There is a metal compartment the sunroof slid back into that I'll have the cage guy cut out. This will allow for an additional 1-2 inches of headroom for the rollbar. Ill also have him weld in the stock sunroof panel from the inside so it looks nice and clean from above.

I got my gauges working!! I swapped the gauge cluster from our parts car and replaced a blown fuse and now everything works except the odometer- which isn't a huge deal because I'll do all the maintenance regardless of the mileage. My temp gauge was right in the middle, a nice thing to finally know and my fuel, tach, and speedo work! Its a nice relief since I thought I was going to spend hundreds on aftermarket gauges.

I also got started on the big suspension and brake project for next weekend. I removed the front shock and spring assemblies, and cut off the brake dust shields for improved brake cooling. I also installed the front stainless steel lines.

Next weekend we'll finish the entire suspension, front CA bushings, rear shock mounts, SS lines, pads, tranny and diff. fluid, and whatever else we can manage.

The brake dust shields should just unbolt on the front.
I will have to come down and check out the e30 soon.



Nick

they do but don't slip over the hub... besides its much more fun using my grinder wheel-O-death!

[Chris]

pictures are up under E30 project:

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[ScottyB]

i love these projects, i must live vicariously through you!

[Chris]

haha thats awesome!

[D_Eclipse9916]

Damn good job, cant wait to see it when its done.

[Chris]

Check out Eric's car!! This is only the first coat of paint. Its getting 2 more coats of black and then a clearcoat. Even though its a track car, it really needed a new paint job. He met a guy at work that is doing it for a great price.

Before:











After!

[ScottyB]

nice, i think i like it better than the hydrid-freak multi colored version :lol:

[Andy]

The thing looks ready to chase 007 around the streets of Europe

[Feersty]

Awww man, I liked the blu..

[Chris]

Awww man, I liked the blu..

and the silver, and the red door... but yeah I liked the blue also but black fits the track car better.

[.RJ]

black on black! mad max!

[Chris]

Its a love/hate relationship with this E30... and right now I'm not loving it.

Good news is we got in all my suspension and brake components this weekend, but when I went to bleed the brakes I absolutely cannot get fluid to come out of the 2 rear calipers! I called Chan and he said to bleed the lines right at the master cylinder, which I tried. I then took out the bleeder screws to make sure they weren't clogged, but still no fluid will come out. The front 2 calipers bleed fine. I bought a pressure bleeder and it wont' even build up pressure... so I'm thinking its the master cylinder that needs to be replaced. I'm going to order a 25mm master cylinder kit from Bimmerworld (a performance upgrade thats even bigger than the E30 M3's) but I'm a bit concerned it isn't Spec E30 legal. After thinking about it, who cares at this point... I'm not racing for a while so I'll just get this and see if it solves the problem.

Any other ideas on why I can't get fluid to the rear lines?

Also the gauges I had working now are not. It blew the fuse again, so it wasn't as easy as I thought.

In other news we pulled the engine from our parts car. I need to create directions on the "Chris and Eric way to pull an engine". Lets just say it involved lifting the body of the car up in the air by using a ratcheting strap attached to the roof of the barn, and dragging the engine on a palet with my dad's 4 runner and his John Deere tractor!!! Pics up soon!

[.RJ]

The calipers are probably clogged up. Price out reman master cyls and rear calipersfrom both advance, autozone, napa, etc. They're not that expensive and probably worth the piece of mind - every time I start prepping a street car for the track I replace the master cylinder, I would not want to go into T1 the first session and end up with a free trip to the gravel trap.

[Andy]

Wow, I've never heard of clogged brake lines. That's quite the pile you have there. I don't know shit about Aryan cars but could the proportioning valve be a possible cause of this?

[BLINGMW]

so did you figure out where the block is? Do the rear calipers actually function at all when you press on the brake? Do you get fluid by cracking any of the rear lines? There is a prop valve, could be that.....

but yeah, either way, the new master isn't a bad idea for a track car. It's ALMOST a GOOD idea. :wink: I personally wouldn't bother with the 25mm master, but I know it isn't much more $$ than stock, so go for it if you like the idea.

[Nick325is]

I had a similar problem when I bled my brakes over the winter holidays. Using the pressure bleeder I could get no fluid to come out of the rear calipers. I switched back to the traditional 2 person method of pumping the brake pedal and the brakes bled fine.
I could not get the pressure bleeder to work at all on my car or my dads. It worked fine on my brother's 328is though.

Good luck with the e30 Boobies.

let me know if you need any help.


Nick

[Dave]

try pulling the brake line off of the caliper and then pump the pedal. If fluid comes out, then the caliper is f'ed.
If no fluid comes out, remove the line leading to the rear brakes off of the master cylinder. If fluid doesn't come out, MC is f'ed. If fluid comes out, you have a big clog in the hardlines.

[PDenbigh]

To add to the advice, just in case you didn't realise it - going with a larger MC will give you a stiffer pedal and less travel. Depending on the current setup this might be great or it might be bad. Sean's E30 has the hardest pedle I've ever felt and I personally don't like it too much. Going any stiffer would make the car darn near impossible to stop.

[Chris]

thanks for the advice guys.

Dave- you might be right. I believe there could be a clog in the hard line. fluid wont' come out if I remove the line from the caliper, but it does at the MC. How do you clear a clogged line?

Chan- the 25mm MC was actually a lot cheaper than a new stock one, but just a little more than remanufactured one... so I'll give it a try.

Pete- I'm glad you mentioned this... didn't even think about that. I really hope it doesn't make it too hard to push the pedal down.

Nick- I bought the pressure bleeder after trying the traditional way, so both aren't working.

[Chris]

oh yeah- here are pics of us moving the engine:

under E30 project:

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