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gilber33

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Introducing myself and my first BMW. I come from a long line of Volvos but wanted something new for a weekend car. Needed to be RWD and manual. Found this e30 locally and thought this would fit what I was looking for.

My plan at this point is to take care of all the oil leaks and replace all gaskets and hoses. Other than some suspension improvements,  it will be staying stock. 

The engine is pulled and on a stand. I'll tear it down,  most likely have the head rebuilt and will get everything small cleaned and blasted so it looks like new. And I'll paint the block. 

Here's my progress some purchasing the car on Sunday. Ill update it periodically. Since this is my first BMW, I'm sure I'll have lots of questions. 

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Welcome=) It's actually been through two members. 

Here is Andrews thread in case you want to go through and see what's all been done under the last owners ownership. 

Might save you time and money replacing thinks that have already been taken care of. 

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4 hours ago, SteelBlue said:

I believe this car was from a forum member. Welcome!

The garage looks like a very nice place to work. What are your plans for the car?

Correct. It's still in the for sale section and before him a friend of mine owned it. 

The garage definitely does its job. I built it last year with the help of family and friends. 

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For now I would like to get it reliable and replace all maintenance items: engine gaskets, seals, clutch, ignition, hoses, etc. And then appreciate the car for what it is and really learn how it drives and handles. Next would be suspension and exhaust. And eventually getting the paint and rust taken care of. 

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1 hour ago, gilber33 said:

Correct. It's still in the for sale section and before him a friend of mine owned it. 

The garage definitely does its job. I built it last year with the help of family and friends. 

20180608_000110.jpg

For now I would like to get it reliable and replace all maintenance items: engine gaskets, seals, clutch, ignition, hoses, etc. And then appreciate the car for what it is and really learn how it drives and handles. Next would be suspension and exhaust. And eventually getting the paint and rust taken care of. 

This makes it look like working on cars might actually be enjoyable. Very nice!

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7 hours ago, SteelBlue said:

This makes it look like working on cars might actually be enjoyable. Very nice!

It does. Watched a couple episodes of top gear tonight while working on it. 

32 minutes ago, YoungCR said:

Congrats on the purchase! Excited to see continued progress on this car 

Thank you. 

Tonight I just about stripped the rest of the engine and pulled the head to do the head gasket. Will most likely also take the head in to have new valve stem seals put in. Broke two or three exhaust studs and had to cut one off. Was also very pleasantly surprised by what good of shape the cross hatching was in and there was zero lip at the top of the cylinders. Almost makes me want to pull the pistons and rods to replace the bearings and have the block professionally cleaned. Not sure if its worth it though. 

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On a side note: does anyone know how to remove the shield around the crank? Both seals appear to be leaking a little, but it's hard to tell if I can remove the shield without removing the crank. 

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The aluminum part around the crank is the seal holder.  To remove it you need to remove the crankshaft hub and the intermediate shaft pulley.  Then it comes off and the front seals can be replaced.  Also I'm not sure what your plans are, it sounds like just resealing?  Do not remove the intermediate shaft bearings unless there is something wrong.  They are difficult to get and need to be turned and then honed to size.  I learned that lesson... I've done a full rebuild on an M20 so any questions just ask.

Nice R, I have an 05 VR.  

 

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1 hour ago, jc43089 said:

The aluminum part around the crank is the seal holder.  To remove it you need to remove the crankshaft hub and the intermediate shaft pulley.  Then it comes off and the front seals can be replaced.  Also I'm not sure what your plans are, it sounds like just resealing?  Do not remove the intermediate shaft bearings unless there is something wrong.  They are difficult to get and need to be turned and then honed to size.  I learned that lesson... I've done a full rebuild on an M20 so any questions just ask.

Nice R, I have an 05 VR.  

 

Just replacing as many seals and gaskets as I can. I did more research on the front seals it seemed like one of those things that if they are not leaking, then to leave them alone. It also appears that it would be extremely difficult to do these with the engine on a stand and not in car because of how much force is needed to break the crank bolt loose. 

I think and may be leaving those alone. And since you're offering. What two sensors do these plugs go to? They are the two that wrap around the front of the engine. One appears to be an rpm/timing sensor but the other was missing (as in it looks like it broke off or was cut off on the other side of the engine). Thinking maybe the AC compressor since this had an AC delete at some point. .

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And nice R. I had an 04 V70R M66 a few years ago and loved it. Not sure why I sold it, but wanted another and found my current 07 S60R last year with only 78k miles.

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12 minutes ago, gilber33 said:

Just replacing as many seals and gaskets as I can. I did more research on the front seals it seemed like one of those things that if they are not leaking, then to leave them alone. It also appears that it would be extremely difficult to do these with the engine on a stand and not in car because of how much force is needed to break the crank bolt loose. 

I think and may be leaving those alone. And since you're offering. What two sensors do these plugs go to? They are the two that wrap around the front of the engine. One appears to be an rpm/timing sensor but the other was missing. Thinking maybe AC?

With an Impact it should come off pretty easy.  Then just tighten it to torque spec once the engine is back in the car so someone can hold the brake with the transmission in gear.

The one that goes sensor that looks at the harmonic balancer is the crankshaft position sensor, the ECU uses it to control timing and also drive the tach.  No sure the other one, what's the other end look like?  It's not the A/C.

 

Wow, low miles.  I just hit 200k but I have replaced a lot of stuff, bought it at 165k from the original owner.  It will be for sale soon though because we have 3 kids now.  It was fun, but what a money pit and so hard to work on things compared to a BMW.  Mostly because of the engine being turned the wrong way 😝

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1 minute ago, jc43089 said:

The one that goes sensor that looks at the harmonic balancer is the crankshaft position sensor, the ECU uses it to control timing and also drive the tach.  No sure the other one, what's the other end look like?  It's not the A/C. 

 

Wow, low miles.  I just hit 200k but I have replaced a lot of stuff, bought it at 165k from the original owner.  It will be for sale soon though because we have 3 kids now.  It was fun, but what a money pit and so hard to work on things compared to a BMW.  Mostly because of the engine being turned the wrong way 😝

I have no idea what the sensor on the other side looks like; the harness for that sensor was cut/broken right where it comes out on the exhaust side of the engine. Also found the oil pressure sensor wire was broken too. Definitely needs some work. I think I'll be leaving the crank seals alone unless I find the courage to do them when I put the engine back in.

And yes, it was a gem. Flew to North Carolina to drive it home. All I knew for a long time was Volvo engines, so they are really easy to me. With the low miles, I hope that the car stays relatively maintenance free for a while, although I have done a good amount of work on it already.

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9 minutes ago, jc43089 said:

With an Impact it should come off pretty easy.  Then just tighten it to torque spec once the engine is back in the car so someone can hold the brake with the transmission in gear.

My only impact is a Craftsman battery impact. That DEFINITELY will not do it. I will see if I can borrow a friend's Milwaukee impact. That's my best chance.

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Just now, gilber33 said:

I have no idea what the sensor on the other side looks like; the harness for that sensor was cut/broken right where it comes out on the exhaust side of the engine. Also found the oil pressure sensor wire was broken too. Definitely needs some work. I think I'll be leaving the crank seals alone unless I find the courage to do them when I put the engine back in.

And yes, it was a gem. Flew to North Carolina to drive it home. All I knew for a long time was Volvo engines, so they are really easy to me. With the low miles, I hope that the car stays relatively maintenance free for a while, although I have done a good amount of work on it already.

The main thing I thought was strange on those Volvo engines is that the "valve cover" is what holds the cams in, so in order to reseal the top end you are loosening the cams, and also the VVT hubs and setting cam timing is tedious.  Although if I did it again it would go much quicker.  I just fixed my angle gear coupling and the AWD worked for a month and now it doesn't again.  VIDA says no AOC pump pressure, so I get the joy of removing the driveshaft and AOC input flange just to get clearance to remove the pump.  I just replaced the filter and fluid so maybe it dislodged something and messed up the pump?  There goes another 300 bucks...

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2 minutes ago, jc43089 said:

The main thing I thought was strange on those Volvo engines is that the "valve cover" is what holds the cams in, so in order to reseal the top end you are loosening the cams, and also the VVT hubs and setting cam timing is tedious.  Although if I did it again it would go much quicker.  I just fixed my angle gear coupling and the AWD worked for a month and now it doesn't again.  VIDA says no AOC pump pressure, so I get the joy of removing the driveshaft and AOC input flange just to get clearance to remove the pump.  I just replaced the filter and fluid so maybe it dislodged something and messed up the pump?  There goes another 300 bucks... 

I agree. It is a goofy setup. I will admit that the more I worked on cars other than Volvo (BMW, Audi, VW) there are some things that I have found more complicated and some things I found more logical. For example, the cooling system on BMW and Audi: so damn complicated compared to Volvo. But the organization of the engine and the simplicity of the mechanical components on the non-Volvo cars is nice.

1 minute ago, jc43089 said:

A Milwaukee 1/2" impact would have no trouble at all.

That's good. I'll try that then.

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4 hours ago, KaiserRolls said:

Welcome to here. 

 

Can we place bets on how long until this gets 24v swapped? 

 

1 hour ago, SteelBlue said:

2

It will be a while. My 1.5 yo is becoming a big sister on Friday; hence the "plug and play" nature of this car for the time being. 

 

But while I still have some free time: removed the rockers and loaded up the head and flywheel to drop off for surfacing tomorrow. I was going to have new stem seals put in, but what was a $200 job at the shop went to $300 plus extra if I wanted them to touch the valve seats. So, valve stem seals look good. I don't see any  build up on the stems indicating that they are leaking badly, so I am leaving it as is and just getting it decked for the new head gasket. 

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6 hours ago, KaiserRolls said:

Congrats! 

Thank you!

5 hours ago, patsbimmer1 said:

Nice progress!  I'll think you'll find a lot of Volvo love here, my wife has a '12 XC90 and we love it!  Maybe I missed it but where are you located?

My wife has an 06 XC90. We really like ours as well. Great for trips and will be great for hauling kids and their stuff everywhere. 

And I am in Cedarburg.  

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On 6/11/2018 at 8:48 AM, gilber33 said:

What two sensors do these plugs go to? They are the two that wrap around the front of the engine. One appears to be an rpm/timing sensor but the other was missing (as in it looks like it broke off or was cut off on the other side of the engine). Thinking maybe the AC compressor since this had an AC delete at some point. .

20180610_202056.jpg

One is for the crank position and the other is for the pulse sensor on the spark plugs wires

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