Lifted E30 V2

[GunMetalGrey]

I stood true to my word, but have been on the road for work and not updated!

The pump swap was successful, and I have concluded that I am done monkeying about with the "rebuilt" pump that I had bought, which is sad due to the amount that I have invested in it, but I gotta cut my losses. 

I am now attempting to leave it alone in terms of power, and just work on improving things. Like a better intake, and adding an intercooler to the stock intake location.

I'd love to make it to the picnic, and have passed the sign on to @HipMF!

[B C]

I’d love to see you guys and your cars make it again this year. You have been through hell on that pump and its great knowing its operational now

[Jdesign]

Man, this thread just got me all "pumped up". See you at the Picnic!

[GunMetalGrey]

Took the power steering fluid res out as it was seeping fluid from somewhere. 
I had a spare M20 res. and hoses, but the one that runs to the rack doesn't fit anymore because I lowered the subframe and left the motor high. 

The one hose I took off had a barbed fitting on the rack, so I will be getting some new hose and just using that again. 

I also sold my spare motor (bare), a few extra injectors, and the problematic pump.

[GunMetalGrey]

I'm (allowing my engine to breath air that is) cool finally! 

Surprisingly very little contact with anything, and the 135° coupler on the intake ended up being the saving grace of this whole attempt.
Grilles fit back on, so now when I come off the highway the engine wont be completely heat soaked! 
Wahoo!

[B C]

happy to see an update here

Nice job with the routing, looks about as good as you can do with a configuration like that

[YoungCR]

Agreed. Any noticible performance gain?

[Jdesign]

That elbow is wild. I bet this make a hell of a difference. Glad to see progress on this!

[GunMetalGrey]

I started it yesterday. 
Didn't drive it

More on this pressing story later

[dealindave]

In for updates. Saw you moved to the mountains and was wondering if this project went with. Hoping to see it in the next Gambler 500 as I've wanted to run a lifted E30 in it since I heard about it a few years ago.

[SteelBlue]

dealindave said:

In for updates. Saw you moved to the mountains and was wondering if this project went with. Hoping to see it in the next Gambler 500 as I've wanted to run a lifted E30 in it since I heard about it a few years ago. 

It is currently sitting in Appleton.

[GunMetalGrey]

dealindave said:

In for updates. Saw you moved to the mountains and was wondering if this project went with. Hoping to see it in the next Gambler 500 as I've wanted to run a lifted E30 in it since I heard about it a few years ago. 

It didn't make the cut to be brought with right away, as I didn't have an actual place to live yet. 

I'm in a house now with a 2 car garage, parking on the side for two, and room for two in the driveway. 

My intent at this time is to find another E30 out here and swap the driveline between the two. The lifted E30 game is amusing, but I miss having something that does corners, and think the diesel would be a hoot in a lowered chassis. I've got the truck if I want to go rip around in the woods. 

But who knows, maybe I'll get it out here and find some places to mess around with it and change my mind. 

If anyone has a hookup on shipping cars let me know!

[GunMetalGrey]

I forgot to update this, but the car got shipped out to me many weeks ago. 
It has largely just sat here so far, but the other day I got tired of trying to start it and decided it was time to try different things.

It started with a "lift" pump for the fuel feed from tank, which is for this specific engine which I found weird. 
Didn't really change anything.

After that I started thinking about glow plugs. I have never really known when they should be on, so I decided to leave them on and see what happened. 
Well put a stick up my rear and make me talk, the damn thing started immediately after having the plugs on for about 15 seconds and leaving them on during cranking. I shut them off after it started and it missed a bit again so once again I turned them on for 15 or so seconds and everything was ducky. 
I have repeated this process a couple times over the past few weeks and it is always working which is cool.

Since the car has arrived back in my possession it no longer makes full boost per a one run test. The turbo screams away but only musters up 5 psi. I need to verify this again, then buy an air compressor I think to be able to check for leaks, though I would think something that is allowing that much air out would be evident! 

Beyond that I'm unsure what the fate of this car is.

[patsbimmer1]

GunMetalGrey said:

Does this car have a switch to manually operate the glow plugs?  I've only ever seen them initiated by the ignition switch.

[YoungCR]

GunMetalGrey said:

After that I started thinking about glow plugs. I have never really known when they should be on, so I decided to leave them on and see what happened. 

Your compression ignition engine has a pre ignition chamber in the head which requires heat to ignite the fuel, hence the job of the glow plugs on colder days. Anything below 35 degrees the motor probably won’t be able to generate enough mechanical heat to get the job done on its own. 
 

As Pat said usually it’s all just tied into the ignition system. Did the E28 have a glow plug controller?

[GunMetalGrey]

patsbimmer1 said:

Does this car have a switch to manually operate the glow plugs?  I've only ever seen them initiated by the ignition switch.

It sure does have a switch for them lol.

The stock E28 does have a controller for them, but in going manual and not fully caring about electronics I didn't concern myself with pinning the flywheel and finding the injector that has a sensor in it to tell the ecu what is going on. I am flying completely mechanical at this time.

[Jdesign]

GunMetalGrey said:

Since the car has arrived back in my possession it no longer makes full boost per a one run test. The turbo screams away but only musters up 5 psi. I need to verify this again, then buy an air compressor I think to be able to check for leaks, though I would think something that is allowing that much air out would be evident! 

Beyond that I'm unsure what the fate of this car is. 

I would guess boost leak. does the turbo spin freely? a bad or sticky bear could cause less boost too.

[GunMetalGrey]

Jdesign said:

I would guess boost leak. does the turbo spin freely? a bad or sticky bear could cause less boost too.

Turbo is doing everything it can to make pressure, but the lil guy can only do so much. 
It does actually make about 10psi, but is not opening the wastegate, you can hear air escaping somewhere.
I took each part of the intercooler circuit apart and everything looks fine and mouth tests fine.

I left plenty of things behind in WI thinking we wouldn't have enough room in the truck to bring them along, but that truck was pretty empty! Oh well!

[GunMetalGrey]

Why do people on FB think used air compressors are worth their weight in gold?!

I'm trying to follow a budget, so the boost leak testing hasn't happened yet, but I think I'm going to grab one of these guys. 
Anyone have experience with one of these?
https://www.harborfreight.com/8-gallon-15-hp-150-psi-oil-free-portable-air-compressor-64294.html

I haven't run air tools in a long time because electric tools are so good these days, but don't want to go to a pancake compressor. I feel like this one would be convenient to stick up in the rafters and hook a reel to it.

[HipMF]

Bike pump?

Compressed air is better than no compressed air, but I would apply the harbor freight rule here. Are you going to use it more than once? Then get a decent one. An air compressor takes up too much space to have one that's not quite good enough for what you need it for, but it still works so you keep hanging on to it forever...

One of those cigarette lighter tire infiltrators should be good enough to find a boost leak, and then you can just throw it in the trunk...