Jdesign

Pulled an all nighter last weekend but I got the car back on the road for the trip to Milwaukee. It was very nice to surprise Ben as he hadn't seen his car in 6 years. Deja vu for me driving a BMW to the Saint Kate hotel too to pick him up as I used to get customers there frequently working at the dealership.
The battery negative clamp had been cracked on this car for a while and I finally broke it taking the old dead battery out. Replaced with just a standard slightly longer cable as I never liked how tight the stock ones are. The chassis ground is the footwell side of the back seat. Also tired of traditional batteries failing even with trickle charging so I upgraded to Costco Item Number 1355853 Group Size H8 (49) Interstate AGM Battery. It won't show up in their system as a match though. 

I set myself back a little bit trying to start the car as I flooded the engine, which is super easy to do on M60's. There's a few posts on other forums form the same guy stating that he can get one started by just pulling the plugs on one bank and adding a little oil to seal the rings. I gave that a shot as it had been 7ish years probably since the last time I had done it. After not having success with that though I ended up pulling the plugs on both sides and airing it out for a couple hours while I recharged the battery and worked on the passenger door and fender. 
Door and fender swap was pretty straight forward but I did it in a hurry just to get it done. The side skirt doesn't fit right as the pinch rail must've been pulled out a little bit at the fender mounts when it was hit. I forgot to replace the door hinge sleeves too so both will come back off but I'm super happy with how these used parts matched up. Door stay reinforcement plates are a must, super simple install. I still have to replaced the drivers door as well as that one is actually ripped out. 


Very happy with how the car ran and drove though. Pulling the intake I destroyed the throttle cable bushings but glad I finally bought a pair of Billet Throttle Cable Bushings as it improved the drivability a lot getting rid of the throttle delay from the slack. 

Getting some big things off the checklist felt great and glad to be driving on of the cars again. Got a few items left on the punch list but this car will be pretty well sorted before winter storage and ready to rock next spring. 

Local autox last weekend. Took 1st in XSB and 3rd/69 total drivers, car was co-driven & did well
@Rekpoint was there too

 

Next up is USAIR lapping day

Went to the drag strip at WIR a few weeks ago, what better time to try out launch control for the first time than being on the spot. I failed every single time, I think I can get in the 12s, I just have to learn how to send it properly.
Now I want more power, but I also want to save up for a g87 once I finish paying this one  off before next summer. 

Last Wednesday I took a drive down to Chicago and finally picked up the car!

The dyno tuning had been done a week and a half prior to that but they wanted to further dial it in on the street and work out any little drivability issues it had. As for power numbers, on pump gas it made 401 whp (not sure on torque numbers for that). As for E85 though, the numbers were a bit more shocking... in a good way

I did end up driving it back from Chicago and besides the 105 degree weather I baked in, it was a pretty enjoyable drive home. The car felt great and the engine didn't skip a beat. I will say though that the clutch is a little more difficult then it use to be. Especially when getting the car rolling in first gear. The one in there is technically only rated for like 480 lb ft torque so we'll see how far that gets me. There are a few things I wanna take care of on it like an oil change and address a few small things but other then that very excited to have the car back to enjoy the little bit of warm weather we have left. 

I couldn’t find any more time lol. 1-6 place was basically all within half a second from 1st 

Changed out the expansion tank/paired with the new cap - unfortunately I think I’ll need to wait until an HPDE to see if the issue is 100% resolved. 
 
Autox at Golden Sands last weekend. Fun site being a banked oval, even with limited course layout options 
took 1st in XSB (small class) and 4/34 total drivers 

Next weekend is the second local event, the site (fairgrounds) was repaved/made larger so will be interesting to see the layout 

Had a productive weekend despite the heat. Water Pump and Valley Pan done, new knock, crank and cam position sensors, billet throttle cable bushings, Intake w/ new PCV installed. I was going to do both the valve cover gaskets even though they didn't really need to be done but doing the right side turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. I think 4 of the studs backed out and 2 of them stripped going back in. The fun part is the studs are threaded into the CAM BEARING CAPS 🤔🙄 Not happy about that and haven't had this issue before on other M60's. I cleaned up the threads with a tap & die and hand tightened things as tight as I felt comfortable, the spec is only 10Nm and thankfully the lower back corner held tight. The center stud is barely hanging on though, Hopefully no leaks otherwise it'll be quite the job to properly fix that. Gonna leave the other side until it absolutely needs it. 

Engine bay is all back together besides the fan and intake. Just need to replace the battery and battery negative cable before startup. If all goes well and running issues solved it'll be onto swapping out the front doors and fender. 

Sheesh, long overdue for an update here. 
 
I’ve been lagging on getting this done; the spring ended up being completely full (like, every single weekend from January to May) with water ski team maintenance stuff, and the season went until May to now. The team hasn’t had an official member dedicated to fleet main fence in a long time so the backlog was enormous. Like, waterlogged and rusting boat trailer bearings that haven’t been repacked in a decade, rotting trailer floor, and broken bilge pumps and blowers, enormous. 
 
I’m finally getting a chance to get back into cars though thankfully, and have made some good progress! It feels amazing to be finally getting somewhere.
Fuel tank is back in and the tank-adjacent stuff is plumbed in. I’m holding off on installing the fuel hardlines until the engine comes out and goes back in so I don’t accidentally damage them. My brake hardlines seem to fit nicely though, which is exciting!
 
And tonight, for the first time in something like 20 months, the car’s subframe and chassis were reunited. Big stuff! My only concern so far is that the fuel tank neck is contacting the subframe because of the subframe riser bushings; it doesn’t seem to be severe though, so I’m probably going to leave it. Don’t have much of a choice I guess.



Engine oil has been drained, PS hoses disconnected, a/c lines are unhooked, and all fuel/intake/other things have been disconnected in the bay other than the starter ground strap, oil cooler lines, coolant hoses, and the DME. The plan is to button up the rear end ASAP and get it back on four wheels so that I can reposition it, then yank the engine and get cracking on the swap stuff/timing belt. Also planning to get the HIKfab skidplate welded on by @rampelsauce while the engine is out, should make it a snap to weld and repaint. 
 
Hoping to make a lot of progress this fall. I’d love to get it done, but I’ve made promises like that before (look at how long it’s been sitting). It WILL get done before next summer; the ski team is doing an 80’s themed show and it’d be sacrilege to not have the quintessential 80’s car not running for it. 

This is really useful! Thank You!

Huge photo dump. By the time I sold the e30 I was pretty well over it. The old car problems were enough for me and it was taking time and money away from other things. Ultimately, our family may be looking a little bit different in the next year or so and I wanted something that I could fully enjoy with my girls. I went camping with my girls for a weekend with my brother and his new camper and they absolutely loved it.
So, I bought this complete and utter turd of a camper and have spent the last two months or so rebuilding in. It's ironic that one project leaves and another takes its spot, but this one is going to make so many memories and my girls are beyond excited to use it. My focus and priorities have shifted to them. A "racecar" will still find a new home with me someday as long as it's red per their requirements. 














Still got to put my 3D printing to use with this exterior box. 


The inside is 98% done. 




That's it for now! Hope everyone here is doing well and I've always been grateful for the wealth of knowledge here and all of your help during my ownership with the e30. 

Not BMW related but fun car stuff so figured I'd share. I took the Bronco for a day trip to Tigerton OHV park on Labor day and spent the day exploring the trails there.


=

 
Didn't take pics of any of the harder stuff but we got into some proper rock crawling in a few places where the skid plates and lockers came in handy. The only bummer of the day was that my wheels picked up a few scrape marks from some hidden rocks in a very avoidable (lol) mud hole... I'm considering switching them out to some steelies from a black diamond model so I don't need to worry about it as much next time. 10/10 though, would do it again.

Had another autox event as USAIR this last weekend. New layout this time around which was interesting. 

i coned my fastest run, but still had a time on the books good enough for 1st in XSB and 3rd/132 total drivers 

 
I’ll have to change the expansion tank out to my spare new one. Same-ish issue from the lapping day persisted even with a new cap. I think the neck/threaded portion of the tank is screwed 
 

Started working on things a month ago and have slowly been plugging away. Working on chasing the not revving past 3k issue along with coolant and oil leaks. Digging into the motor has shown its Texas roots though as I'm finding lots of dry rotted stuff. Water pump had a small leak at the bottom so that lasted 30-40k. Valley pan has never been done though so going through that whole ordeal. Also found the water pump pulley was missing a chunk 
Just like every other M60 intake though I've managed to strip 2 of those shallow T30's, even on my "bench vise". There is enough clearance around the throttle body to get an angle grinder in there to square off the head just a little bit to give the vise grips a place to hold onto. All will be replaced with standard hex heads like I've done in past. Got the intake completely disassembled and power washed and I've been working on the fuel rail today. Replaced the FPR and found all the injector O-Rings are dry rotted so pulling those and working on a jerry-rigged injector cleaner/tester as I saw at least a couple nozzles looked clogged.

Manual E91 that looks to be well cared for.
https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/cto/d/cary-2008-bmw-328xi-speed-manual/7654669593.html

 
Clean E34 530 manual 
https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ram/cto/d/saint-paul-1994-bmw-530i-v8-speed/7654034859.html

 
Cool zender kitted E12 with flintstone floors
https://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/d/lockport-1981-bmw-528i-e12-first-five/7652762140.html

 
Cheap E30 vert with nice seats $3500 (this will sell fast I bet)
https://stcloud.craigslist.org/cto/d/new-london-summertime-fun-car/7650738383.html
 
 
This man is crazy to think he will get $50k for an E24, but boy is it pretty.
https://williamsport.craigslist.org/cto/d/sunbury-1977-bmw-630-csi-series/7651386162.html

This S50 swapped and front-end dinged e30 went quick, Madison phone number. 
 SOLD Wrecked 91 318is S50 Swapped - R3VLimited Forums

I also saw one 2 weeks ago in an unexpected place unless you are a nerd as myself and were aware of the factory M31's odd list of places it was used... 

Epoxy that into a shift knob lol

Got a call from the shop this afternoon with some updates. They figured out what was causing the misfire issue and it was not the coils. After rewiring the original m50 coils back in they tested it out and the issue once again presented itself. They then pulled the injectors and ran them on a test station to find that supposedly a couple of them were staying stuck open. Threw a different set of injectors in it, did a pull and the issue appears to be gone. I do feel a bit frustrated as we went down this rabbit hole of diagnosing these coils, ecu and wiring just to find out the main cause of the issue was not related to any of that and was just a few bad injectors. I am glad to hear the issue was resolved though. They did ask if I wanted to wire the b58 coils back in but I told em to just leave the m50 ones in. They had it on the dyno this afternoon so if all goes well I should be hearing from them early next week!

Wow I didn’t realize they were that valuable. I pulled them off. If anyone wants them make me an offer. They have a 4 wire connector. I don’t know if the motors work because I had no door card and therefore no buttons 😂  My other car is a sedan so I don’t think they would fit anyway. 

I would recommend E-coat.
PPG E-Coat Powercron 6000CX is a semi-gloss black electrostatic liquid coating. Think powdercoating, but liquid instead of powder. The benefit of e-coat over powdercoat is it is very good for tight tolerance/holes/features where you dont want coating buildup/uneven thickness. Its a commonly used automotive coating.
The downside is it is less UV stable than powder.
Try Swiss-tek or Hartford Finishing

I do! I have the full license, didn't know it could disable TPMS either, that's cool. 

Sounds good to me. We'll figure out a day. 

I seem to recall having seen one of these motors in the past... just can't seem to remember where...
 

Diesel e28
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1018627386255833/?mibextid=6ojiHh
 

A little update on whats been going on so far
First off I wanna point out that the engine wasn't leaning out, it was having a random misfire condition that showed lean on the wide band since the 02 sensor was picking up the oxygen mixed in with the unburnt fuel. I realized I forgot to make that clear in my last post which I understand would cause some confusion as to why we were chasing a spark issue if the car was running lean lol.
Anyways, as per the original plan, they rewired the coils power and ground and rebuilt the sub harness to add a second relay. Although the car did slightly improve it did not completely correct the misfire issue. It did however correct the voltage loss we were seeing on the bore scope before so that was a plus. Next thing they tried was swapping in another set of known good b58 coils and a different set of plugs to eliminate a chance there was a bad coil even though they were new oe elders. When they were swapping them over the tech noticed that the coil boots didn't appear to be sliding all the way down to where they needed to be. Sure enough there was about a 10 mm gap between the spring inside the coil boot and the top of the plug! The swap brackets I was using weren't allowing the plug to fully seat. Thinking that they had discovered the main source of the issue, they ordered and installed some longer springs inside the coil boots to fill the gap. After all that they tested it out and the Issue still existed. Last thing they tried was pulling out the ms3 pnp and temporarily wiring in a ecu masters emu black to see if it was an ecu related issue. No change, misfire was still present. 
At this point they had eliminated just about everything that could be causing this thing to essentially hit a wall when under heavier load (more then 20% throttle input). The engine runs great otherwise. Idles fine. You can drive it around under light throttle with no issue.
Only idea at this point was to remove the b58 coils and wiring and switch back to the m50 coils I originally had in there which I knew for sure worked fine. Took a trip down there last Tuesday and dropped off the pigtail harness and the old coils. Haven't heard anything yet but hoping to get an update by the end of this week.