Build Thread?

[B C]

Glad to assume you are wiring up the MS3 on this

[GunMetalGrey]

Snap said:

Glad to assume you are wiring up the MS3 on this

Of course, I finally have a sort of base tune and need something to control the engine past atmospheric pressure!

[GunMetalGrey]

So I know we have been complaining about Garagistic lately so I figured I would post this for a bit of contrast. 
I order soft brake lines for this, as I will explain in a moment, and went with condor for reasons that I'm unaware of. They made the shipping label on a sunday which surprised me, and got delivered on thursday which was neat. 
Package contained a few extras

There was a steering wheel ad in there too which I didn't take a picture of, and their packaging was nice. Overall they do a great job in my experiences with them.

I was debating changing the brake lines on the rear end of the car (above the fuel tank / sub frame) while the sub frame was still on the floor. I asked a friend to come tell me what he thought about it and he asked me to point out which lines I was questioning. He then grabbed a side cutters out of his pocket and pinched the lines shut lol. 
In all honesty it was a very good thing, but was quite funny at the time. The lines were pretty crusty and the soft lines are quite old. Going to bend up some new hard lines tonight and get the sub frame back in the car with the new brake lines. 

I plan on doing the other lines when I replace the brakes, which I will probably do 2 days before a half mile race, along with painting the calipers and possibly rebuilding them.

[Earl]

Condor is a great company to deal with. I have had nothing but great experiences with them and their customer service. I've been told that Revshift actually machines their UHMW bushings for them but I'm not sure how valid that statement is.

[Jdesign]

someone said:

I asked a friend to come tell me what he thought about it and he asked me to point out which lines I was questioning. He then grabbed a side cutters out of his pocket and pinched the lines shut lol. 

This man earns a gold star for saving you from future brake failures. LOL

[m42b32]

I have had nothing but awesome experiences with Condor, I will definitely continue to order parts from them.

I will be replacing a number of my brake hard lines soon as well (they're fine, I just want to properly delete the ABS), what tool are you using to make the bubble flares?

[GunMetalGrey]

I have a flaring tool but it doesn't work well with US sized brake lines so I am hoping to find something close in size pre-flared at the parts store today.

[HipMF]

I have a spare piece somewhere that I bought for up north. If you can find it, you can use it.

[P_Roloff]

http://www.chasebays.com/chase-bays-front-to-rear-brake-lines-rear-hard-line-delete-82-91-bmw-e30/

No clue if it's a reputable company, but it's kinda intriguing.

[GunMetalGrey]

Picture of brake lines being replaced (after removal)

After about 3 hours I finally came up with this, and it was stupid. Though in the long run it will be worth it. 

After doing this I went to get the subframe back in and ran into the subframe lower plate (?) not lining up on the drivers side but being fine on the passenger side. Don't know why, and will be looking into it tomorrow.

[KaiserRolls]

Is the diff bolted up in that picture?

Or just say f it, drill new holes and send it home

[KaiserRolls]

(Jk)

[Daggerty]

GunMetalGrey said:

After doing this I went to get the subframe back in and ran into the subframe lower plate (?) not lining up on the drivers side but being fine on the passenger side. Don't know why, and will be looking into it tomorrow.

How long was it on the jack stands?

[GunMetalGrey]

Daggerty said:

GunMetalGrey said:

After doing this I went to get the subframe back in and ran into the subframe lower plate (?) not lining up on the drivers side but being fine on the passenger side. Don't know why, and will be looking into it tomorrow.

How long was it on the jack stands? 

It's been in the air for a couple weeks. I never really though about the chassis shifting though...

My plan is to lower the subframe to ensure the metal pin the presses into the chassis is in straight. I would find it hard to believe it isn't, but double checking doesn't hurt.

I checked the bushings quick and everything seemed concentric.

If everything checks out there I may bolt it up snug and set it down slowly and see if that side shifts over.

Thanks for the thought!

[GunMetalGrey]

Got the subframe in, the side plate went it fairly easily after I set the car down. I did just remember that I forgot to tighten the diff bushing down. 

The end result of camber appears to be a bit more drastic than I was thinking it would be. I measure with my phone for extreme accuracy and I was getting about 0.2 degrees of negative camber. Here is a low quality picture! 
 

I'm happy to have the car back on the ground, as I can start pulling the engine now to get that ready for boost again!

[GunMetalGrey]

I feel somewhat accomplished on what I got done this weekend.

It was very odd taking this car apart and dealing with a bit of road grime, that doesn't normally happen!

Test fit the new radiator, and still don't know what I'm going to do about an expansion tank. I was thinking about doing an aluminum e36 one but I don't know if it will be thin enough to fit without hitting something. Any suggestions are welcome!
I'm excited to have a larger radiator that should actually have the capacity to keep the engine cool. 
 

Started by pulling the motor (after the front fell off) and I managed to yank the core support without removing the fenders which was quite nice. 

Pulled the motor out with relative ease and didn't do too much tensile testing during the process. 
I did find something as the motor was coming out that I haven't noticed before. I was pressing my hand against the steering u-joint while undoing fuel lines and noticed that it was moving. I gave the joint a wiggle and sure enough there is play in the upper joint. So that needs to get replaced! New ones are NLA unfortunately. Pic of coupling in question. If you have an upper u joint without play please let me know!

oofta that's blurry. 

Separated the trans and the motor and inspected the flywheel and clutch. I'm not overly sure how I feel about it. The flywheel looks like it wasn't all mating evenly, but the clutch disk shows that it was. 
Opinions?

The pressure plate side looks fine and worn in well.

After that I disassembled more things and pulled the head off. This was slightly sad as everything had been working fine! 
All of the top end stuff was fine, and the block cleaned up well as it had been decked last year. 
Now to get the new head gasket setup and install that.
 

I was mildly annoyed when I was rearranging my shelves to fit more parts and moved one of my ECU's over to another shelf. I got confused because I thought my ecu was still in the car and I had just moved the 413 with the TRM m52 chip in it. I went to the car and pulled the ECU out. 
I was using a plain 413 all summer.... I had bought a $250 chip that was setup for an m52 on a 413 with some other changes, and never used it because I forgot that I fired it up on the stock one first. That was annoying to say the least! I will never get to use it either  
I just wonder if the car would have felt a significant amount better with that or not, and now I'll never know! 

More next time!

[B C]

I have an upper joint

I might have 2 because I too noticed they are NLA and began collecting them.

[straight6pwr]

early e30 or e30 m3 coolant tank near the driver's strut tower?

[GunMetalGrey]

straight6pwr said:

early e30 or e30 m3 coolant tank near the driver's strut tower?

I am trying to find a bolt in solution, as the thought of welding brackets in makes me cry a little bit inside. 
I'm wondering if I couldn't sneak an aluminum (slightly thinner?) e36 expansion tank on the DS of the radiator and just make a bracket or two for that. 

Maybe @Earl could chime in about converting from an expansion tank to an overflow tank? that would solve most of my issues I believe.

[straight6pwr]

I'm like 50% sure the e30 m3 one just bolts to the battery tray, no brackets required.