Alpine e30 progress/build thread

[m42b32]

I figured I would share because I found this pretty interesting info on my car! Over on Maxbimmer.com, a user named "SickFinga" has access to BMW's production data for all US market models from 1983 onwards. If you provide the last 7 of your VIN he can apparently find out how many were produced in that color combo, rarity of options, etc. He can also find where your car lands in the production of that model.

I asked about my car (EE74776) as I have known that it was fairly late in the production of the US market 318is. What I didn't realize is just how close to the end it was! Apparently, the last one by VIN is EE74778, and the last by actual build date is EE74774. That puts my car as the 3rd to last of 9,779 US spec 318is's ever made, and the 5th to last to roll off the production line! It would be interesting to run the carfax's on the other VINs to see if they are still around.

[jc43089]

Interesting!  I worked on an e36 sedan that was made in the last month of production, 4/98, according to selections available on realoem.

[YoungCR]

Thats really cool! Glad you saved the car

[Jdesign]

@m42b32

You think you could ask him to run mine? I tried joining Maxbimmers.com 4 times now and just keep getting errors.

1984 633CSI;

6728547

[m42b32]

Jdesign said:

@m42b32

You think you could ask him to run mine? I tried joining Maxbimmers.com 4 times now and just keep getting errors.

1984 633CSI;

6728547

http://www.maxbimmer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157862&page=148

Here you go!

[straight6pwr]

that motor looks good in there.

[Jdesign]

m42b32 said:

http://www.maxbimmer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157862&page=148

Here you go!

[m42b32]

@Jdesign looks like he can't get the info since the e24 started production before 1983, bummer... you don't see many in that color combo!

[Jdesign]

m42b32 said:

@Jdesign looks like he can't get the info since the e24 started production before 1983, bummer... you don't see many in that color combo!

I see and I replied. I have yet to see another online ANYWHERE with the same color combo and options 

[m42b32]

Did some things!

I got the adapter harness ready to install by covering all the sections that were bare wire with braided sleeve to keep it tidy, and cut the heater hose ends out of the old hoses so I can start messing around with those. E36 M3 clutch lines fit perfectly, ready to bleed the clutch/brakes. I'd like to get them bled before I can't reach everything to check for leaks, so that's next on the agenda. 

Got the front suspension all bolted back together. Finally installed the 1/2" roll center spacers I've had sitting around for a while. Unfortunately, Garagistic is the only one who still sold 1/2" spacers and big surprise, they didn't fit at all. Had to drill out all 4 holes from 5/16" to 3/8" so I could get the bolts in, and also file down the ridge they keys into the strut housing as it was too tall. These had to have been made by hand by a blind dude on a crappy mill, no CNC machine has tolerances that bad...

Test fit the front wheel and I'm glad I didn't go any larger, I have about 1/4" of clearance so that's perfect (hard to see in the pic, you get the idea). 

Then I got bored so I did a test fit of these wheels for fun. No they aren't real, they're some Barbarossa AC Schnitzer style wheels I traded some DS2's for a few years ago. Some people say they were an early run for ACS, but I'm pretty sure they're reps like Alutecs/etc. though they appear to be pretty high quality and are real 3 piece. They are 17x7.5, with an offset probably around 35,  they fit really well with a 10mm spacer. I'm thinking I might refinish these as trial run before I do the BBS's. Only problem is two barrels are slightly bent and new ones would have to be custom made, any recommendations in the greater Milwaukee area for having wheels straightened? 

[Jdesign]

Hmmm. If they are real 3pc wheels I would do some deep digging.

Are they 40 hole? How much do they weigh?

[m42b32]

Jdesign said:

Hmmm. If they are real 3pc wheels I would do some deep digging.

Are they 40 hole? How much do they weigh? 

Yup 40 hole, there isn't much info about them online, nobody has really documented any re-sizing, just comments about 'probably custom'. Any idea where I could find a list or something with common lip dimensions like the bore size for the face, hole pattern diameter, etc? Not sure how much they weigh, they don't feel heavy though

[Jdesign]

m42b32 said:

Yup 40 hole, there isn't much info about them online, nobody has really documented any re-sizing, just comments about 'probably custom'. Any idea where I could find a list or something with common lip dimensions like the bore size for the face, hole pattern diameter, etc? Not sure how much they weigh, they don't feel heavy though

Wheelwhores or stanceworks is a good start. not sure. I will say that from what I read, the 40holes are reps, but extremely high quality to the point of them not being "reps"

[m42b32]

Jdesign said:

Wheelwhores or stanceworks is a good start. not sure. I will say that from what I read, the 40holes are reps, but extremely high quality to the point of them not being "reps"

You're definitely right. I did some more looking last night and found one or two instances where someone was selling some Barbarossa ACS wheels that were 16" or even 4x100, neither of which ACS ever produced (in 3 piece) as far as I am aware. I think its a pretty safe bet that they're technically reps, just an oddly high quality 3 piece rep haha

[Jdesign]

It seem like they were probably made at a time when the smaller wheel company's were getting swallowed up. Thus you get a short run of these high quality wheels. Some designs stayed and adapted into the larger brands, others just disappeared. That's pretty much the story with my Eclairs. Info on them is unobtainable.

[straight6pwr]

Jdesign said:

That's pretty much the story with my Eclairs. Info on them doughnut exist

fixed.

[KaiserRolls]

Just got caught up on this. Great work Joe

[m42b32]

Got the power steering pump sorted! Sourced a pair of E36 M52 power steering pump brackets that rotate the pump enough for the feed line to clear the oil pan

Once I got the inner bore of the ECS power steering pump pulley enlarged enough to fit I got the pump mounted and serpentine belt installed. 

With that done I started working on the secondary engine harness. The harness I have is from an automatic e39 530i, so after a lot of going cross-eyed over wiring diagrams and connector pin-outs I removed all the wiring for the automatic trans and post-cat O2 sensors (as I will be coding them out), as well as a few other miscellaneous connections on both the secondary and main harness. Only thing left is dealing with the wiring for the e39 e-box fan and temp sensor, as it appears to be tapped into some other wires running to necessary connectors so I want to be sure I can remove it without disrupting any necessary functions.

Some of what I've removed so far:

Cleaned up secondary engine harness. E-box fan wiring and sensor are the brass temp sensor and white 3 pin connector, those will likely be removed before I re-wrap everything and install on the car. 

Not pictured: I sorted out the starter wiring with an M20 starter cable (m42 cable is integrated into the engine harness), removed all the e39 specific grommets/fittings on the harnesses and started re-wrapping the sections near the DME, started installing and routing the adapter harness.

[m42b32]

More work done yesterday!

Removed the e-box fan wiring and sensor, re-wrapped some sections, and the secondary engine harness is ready to go:

I found a good deal on a UUC DSSR but it is the 189mm version and not the 198mm that the ZF requires. Fortunately, I had a brand new late model e30 shifter rod joint on the old g240 that is approximately 9mm longer than the ZF part. Using that joint with the 189mm DSSR works perfectly, hopefully there is enough clearance for the giubo. 

I ran it through the gears a few times and the shifter feel is incredible with the DSSR and new detents, the throw is a little bit longer than with the g240 (which is good, it felt a little too short last year). 

On M54 swaps there really isn't a perfect answer to what to use for heater hoses and the only documented solution that fits without kinks for the lower hose is a section of hose from an e9x that costs over $100. I happened to have a piece of an e36 s52 expansion tank return hose laying around, and there is an S bend section of it that wound up working really well. 

Test fit the intake manifold to make sure everything clears, and after some adjustment to the starter cable it fits no problem:

Plenty of clearance for the booster:

I did more wire harness cleanup, finalized everything at the B+ junction, re-installed the m42 harness cover, and routed everything through the hole in the firewall. You can also see how the lower heater hose fits in this pic too.

B+ junction close up:

Everything pulled into the passenger foot well and connected where possible, hopefully it fits under the dash without filling the glove box... 

[m42b32]

Didn't have the tool for the oil filter cap on the wagon so I gave up on that and worked on this all Saturday afternoon instead. 

The M42 wire harness cover holds the harness really high up in the engine bay and interferes with my Mason Engineering strut brace that I would really like to retain, so I came up with this to manage all the harnesses:

It's a piece of 1/4" steel rod formed to the contours of the HVAC cover with a few nuts welded to it. It mounts to the attachment points of the old M42 cover base and provides a really sturdy place to secure all the harnesses. You can also see in that picture that I sorted out the heater hoses at the firewall. The upper return hose is a trimmed Gates 28468 (5/8" hose with a sharp 90 bend at one end). It is nearly touching the manifold so I added a piece of braided harness cover at the contact point to prevent abrasion of the hose. That hose will tee into the return line from the head before going to the expansion tank. 

With the heater hoses and wiring sorted the next thing to do is install the intake manifold! Its a tight fit and there are a few connectors underneath that are an absolute PITA, but its on and doesn't foul anything so I'm calling that a win. The wire harnesses are nicely secured and look nice and tidy above the manifold. There is still some arranging to do where they pass through the firewall, but I will finish that once I have the harness made for the water temp/oil temp/ oil pressure gauge senders.

I also had to remove the charcoal canister, I wanted to try and make that fit but unfortunately it would've completely blocked access to the rear brake bias valve, so back out it went. I may look into mounting a canister from a newer car somewhere else, but for now I will just vent it with a filter. 

I'm getting to the point where I can reasonably quantify the remaining tasks needed to start the car in a list, which is exciting. If it all goes reasonably well, I'm hoping for a first start before the end of January. Here's what I have left on the engine:

- Find appropriate length fuel line to connect fuel rail to FPR at frame rail, connect vacuum line to FPR. Add filter for vent line.

- Finish gauge sender harness

- Re-tap upper radiator hose adapter to M14x1.5 for e30 cluster temp sensor, add second 1/8-27 NPT port for VDO gauge sender. 

- Find and mount coolant expansion tank, route remaining heater hoses. 

- Figure out upper/lower radiator hoses. Add coolant. 

- Source power steering high pressure line, mount reservoir in e46 location, sort out feed/return. Add fluid. 

- Install intake boots, source MAF. 

- Source/install headers and O2 sensors

- Brake booster vacuum line and check valve

- Install catch can/pcv and route hoses

- Add oil (I should really do this asap so I don't forget)

As far as making it to the picnic:

- Re-mount gas pedal (mounting bracket epoxy let go)

- Bleed brakes

- Bleed clutch

- Install giubo, CSB, e36 m3 driveshaft

- Re-install heat shields and complete exhaust 

- Install rebuilt 3.15LSD diff with new condor bushing.

- Connect intake to factory airbox or fab up a custom intake box. 

- Wire up horn/relay harness

- Install 16" Spal pusher fan

- Complete modified center console with VDO gauges, engine fan override switch, E36 window switches, and OBD2 port. 

- Modify ECU flash to eliminate speed sensor RPM limit, force emissions readiness, etc.