The Worlds Slowest 24v E30 - now with MORE SPEEDS

[Chinampa]

I think its micarta, I had to space it up since the radiator I got was loose on the stock rubber mounts. Its on my list of things to do to make a proper mount/shroud for it

[Chinampa]

I cant stop buying car parts.

Just picked up some <1000 mile h&r race springs


As well as some US ellipsoids


Gonna try to get lots of work done over break, stay tuned for me breaking my car.

[Chinampa]

25 Things E30s Can Do to Break Your Spirit! Number 9 will surprise you!

Got a LOT done over spring break. Sorry for vertical pics im a peasant

Rode some dirt scooters



Visited my shitbox, spoiler: it doesnt run


E30 STUFF
Got a new plastic thermo housing to replace my leaky aftermarket aluminum one.


Gross. I had to pry it off the engine with a foot long flat head.


Managed to break the brand new plastic housing.......


Got this new china quality aluminum housing from bap geon within the hour. Swapped the rubber gasket over from the Febi part since I guessed the febi rubber would be higher quality than the Uro parts.



Don't you love working on swapped cars? I can fit a whole three fingers in to install this inch of fuel line.



Oh yeah i pulled my subframe


Made a bushing press out of a socket and some other equipment


Skip a few steps and you end up here


Aaaand skip a few more and you end up here


Few more nuts and bolts tightened and...

Suspension all done. again.

Still need to sort out why its having trouble starting. I'm thinking its the cam position sensor which of course is specific to non vanos engines...anyone have a m50nv cam position sensor lying around?

[Jake]

Wow, subframe replacement in 3 easy steps!

Lots of work done over break, good on ya. Bringing it out to the carshow/autocross?

[Chinampa]

Wow, subframe replacement in 3 easy steps!

Lots of work done over break, good on ya. Bringing it out to the carshow/autocross?

Hopefully, i need to sort out some running issues before I try to make that drive

[D_Eclipse9916]

Ugh looks like your subframe bushings came out intact, jealous. And no rusty ebrake lines....goddamnit.

[Chinampa]

Ugh looks like your subframe bushings came out intact, jealous. And no rusty ebrake lines....goddamnit.

Oh believe me, all of that was there. Was too busy breaking things and swearing to take pics. I'm running one ebrake cable right now because the other completely froze on both ends

[Chinampa]

Back with more "progress"

Finally got her to run decently and completely got rid of the idle and no start issues i was having. Turned out to be the temperature sensor. Of course I hate having a running car so as soon as it was fixed I decided to hunt down my water leaks.

The passenger side water leak turned out to be the sunroof drain, which had just come disconnected from the opening in the rocker panel. Easy fix.

The driver's side however, turned out to be coming from behind the HVAC box where the blower motor meets the firewall. This meant removing the dash and the entire HVAC unit.

The dash is just about ready to come out in this shot


Dash out. Starting to look mildly terrifying.


Pic of the collection of parts I had removed. I was starting to wonder if I'd remember how to put this all back


Removing the blower fan cover was a supreme pain in the ass with the M50 intake in the way. Needed to get to four nuts that held the hvac box against the firewall.


Things got a little more intense when I needed to remove two hose clamps that were holding the heater core lines on. There was no way I could get them with the intake manifold in place so...

Intake removed


This is starting to look more and more like a junkyard car


The little bastards that caused all this


Heater box finally loose and just sitting on the trans tunnel in this pic


The culprit. Compressed shitty 27 year old foam.


Got a new gasket for the firewall in the mail as well as some new firewall grommets, hvac foam gaskets, and an R134a type expansion valve for when I finally get around to installing air conditioning in this thing again.

Just waiting on those parts then I can finally reinstall the carpet and have a nice e30 again...hopefully


At least she looks good broken down

[Chinampa]

I think I've turned every bolt on this car now that I've dug into the dash...milestone or sign of a really shitty car?

[Jake]

Milestone!

Looks like it'll be really sweet once it's all buttoned back up

[*insertusernamehere*]

Should have gotten an e36

[ScottyB]

shitty milestone!

under dash work is the worst. how much blood did you lose?

[Chinampa]

shitty milestone!

under dash work is the worst. how much blood did you lose?

None! Surprisingly. I actually almost got the whole thing out using the factory toolkit

[Chinampa]

Got it put back together! (kinda at this point, seats and stuff went back in right after this.)

Next up is replacing the speed sensor in the diff after I ripped it out by accident and tracking down the rest of the parts I need to install A/C.

[Chinampa]

Went on the first long-ish drive yesterday since I got this thing all back together and running right, ran 100% the entire time through ~30 mins of 55mph back roads. I noticed the temp gauge is really unstable at idle but once I rev it up it steadies out. Turning on things like headlights and the blower fan makes the temp gauge jump as well so I think somethings fucky with a ground somewhere.

Found out if I turn on my headlights, blower fan, window defrost, and subwoofer the temp gauge will read in the red and the ecu will cut power to the car... fun stuff.

[Senor_Taylor]

Just sell it to me, no worries.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Beej]

My old swapped e30 had the same deal with the temp gauge, terrified me that I was blowing up an expensive motor.

Anyway, I tightened down the 6/7/8(?)mm nuts on the back of the cluster that are apparently grounds and it went back to normal - might be worth a shot.

Congrats on the progress!

[Chinampa]

My old swapped e30 had the same deal with the temp gauge, terrified me that I was blowing up an expensive motor.

Anyway, I tightened down the 6/7/8(?)mm nuts on the back of the cluster that are apparently grounds and it went back to normal - might be worth a shot.

Congrats on the progress!

Thanks! I tried tightening them when I had the cluster out and it they seemed okay, I'll give it another shot

[Chinampa]

In other news I think my fuel pump shit the bed. Started losing power on the highway randomly

[Chinampa]

Turns out it wasn't the fuel pump! I was testing the fuel pressure at the pump and just before I was about to put the cover back on I fiddled with the pump plug and the slightest movement shut the pump off. Rigged up some zipties to hold the plug firm and I think its problem solved.