Alpine e30 progress/build thread
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More progress on Sunday but forgot to take pictures...
- Rear ABS sensor holes plugged and sealed
- Lower license plate holes plugged and sealed behind plate filler
- All handbrake parts reinstalled, still need to adjust
- Found a brass adapter (3/4" to 5/8") that connected the E30 expansion tank hose to the e30 m42 expansion tank hose and got that spliced/routed
- Started wiring for SPAL fan, going to have it always on with ignition for now. Wiring to temp switch and manual override in the cabin later.
- Replaced drivers door interior handle and got the door reassembled. Old one came out in 7 pieces... all my doors and locks work again!
- Rear rotors are used (but appear to be nearly new) so I wire wheeled and painted the hats, cleaned the rust from the friction surfaces
- Installed a new battery as the old one was so dead it might as well have not even been connected
I'm hoping to have it on the road a few days before the picnic to work out any major issues and have some time to clean it really well!
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Can you measure the expansion tank for me?
Height, width, and thickness?
Trying to figure out if I can fit something like that in my car.Car is looking good!
Sure! I will be there again tonight so I will take some measurements.
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What'd you use to plug the ABS sensor holes?
I found that a 3/4" plug fits really well, I used a metal plug like this one:
installed it from the underside with silicone (cleaned off the excess), and then folded the ears flat on the back side to lock it in place. Looks really clean from underneath, other side is covered by the seat.
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Got the radiator sorted. Ended up using an e36 6cyl upper hose to clear the airbox and then spliced it into the original M42 hose. Instead of just splicing it I added a piece where I can mount a water temp sender for a VDO gauge, but currently the sensor hole is just plugged.
Completed the wiring for the Spal fan, it is currently set up to always be on with the ignition. I will eventually be adding a temperature switch and override switch in the cabin. I am getting power from a fuse tap for the relay and direct to the power distribution block (fused) for the fan. I have heard mixed comments on mounting relays horizontally but they usually revolve around water getting in the contacts, and since this one is a sealed plug I think it will be fine. I wrapped the entire harness in black non-adhesive vinyl tape and routed everything along the factory harness for added stealthiness. While I was doing electrical things I also wired in the 9006/9005 connectors for the ellipsoids.
Rear brakes are done! I decided to hold off on swapping master cylinders until sometime after the picnic, i'll have a bit of a long pedal travel but it should be perfectly fine for now.
With that done I test fit a rear wheel, really happy with the fitment. This is not fully compressed as I just jacked up the wheel till the car started to get light on the jack stand. I have very little room to the fender lip so I am almost guaranteed to need a roll in the rear to avoid serious rubbing. Anyone have experience rolling fenders or have a roller I could use?
I also started re-booting the half shafts, and when I went to install the new inner boot, it turns out the outer boots I had bought fit like crap (Meyle brand, OEM was really expensive for what it is). It looked like a generic boot and didn't have the right lip on the larger end. Thankfully I ordered from FCP and they will let me return them, and in the mean time I ordered different boots so hopefully they will get here soon.
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Can you measure the expansion tank for me?
Height, width, and thickness?
Trying to figure out if I can fit something like that in my car.Car is looking good!
10.5" tall, including cap, not including lower connection and level sensor, 3.375 inches wide, 2.375 inches deep. The outer edge sits flush with the upper frame rail seam, and the bottom of the tank is 1" above the top of the seam.
Hope that helps!
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@wasnt m3 should have a fender roller if I am not mistaken.
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I do have a fender roller. Free rental to any forum member.
That would be incredible, I'll shoot you a PM when I'm back in town on Sunday
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Got some potentially bad news today, UPS had a train derailment and it is delaying my last package of parts. Supposed to be delivered tomorrow so we will see!
In other news, I finally back in town and made more progress after work today. Got my new Stromung exhaust installed, the tip is perfectly centered in the cutout after very minimal adjustment and everything fit together really well, couldn't be happier with the purchase.
10mm wheel spacers arrived from Motorsport hardware, these are needed to clear the front brakes and I now have about 1mm of clearance between the anti-rattle clips and the back of the wheel face. I got all four wheels mounted and set the car on the ground (for the first time!) to check fitment in the front. The spacers have pushed the front wheels to a 16x7 with an effective offset of et3, which was much lower than I was hoping so I was concerned about excessive poke. With the car on the ground and rolled back and fourth a bit to let things settle, it wasn't as bad as I expected, but still not great.
I got the car back up in the air and pulled the struts. M3 struts are a million times easier to remove than the standard e30 ones as you can unbolt them from the tie rod/control arm mount instead of splitting the ball joints, had both of them out in less than 30 minutes
I have two options as far as adding camber to the front. I have some fixed camber plates that should add maybe 1-2 degrees when combined with the standard strut mounts. I also have a set of the E30 "camber correction" strut mounts, though I do not recall how much camber is added. I could potentially use both the correction strut mounts with the fixed plates, though they may add too much and cause the springs to hit the inside of the strut towers. I guess I will have to mix and match till I can get things to work. Both will require normal struts hats as opposed to the drop hats so the front will be raised up a bit.
Other things accomplished:
- Front lip installed. (I lip for now, the IS lip is still in primer)
- Fogs and brake ducts installed
- Axles torn down and cleaned, awaiting boots
I guess I could post this one up too:
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e30s arent setup that way earlmeister. the knuckle and the strut are one piece.
car is looking awesome! love how wide that tire looks up front.
Dan
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You could add shims between the knuckle and strut to add a touch of camber
This way you keep your drop hats
It looks sketchy but is very very common
I wish it were that easy on an e30! The M3 struts are two piece but not like the e36/later cars, the split is horizontal between two cast parts:
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Got cut short on Wednesday due to the nasty storms rolling through, but in that time I installed the camber plates and camber correction strut mounts, got the fan mounted for good, and a few other odds and ends.
Last night I went in determined to drive it home. Got there at 5pm and worked all the way to 2:30am.
- Brakes flushed and bled
- Cooling system filled and bled
- Power steering hoses/reservoir assembled, filled and bled
- Rear sway bar links shortened and installed
- Axles re-booted and installed
Got the wheels on and set it on the ground, I did a half-assed string alignment to get the toe zeroed but I will definitely need to get a proper alignment asap. The gas is pretty old but it smelled ok, definitely going to dilute it with fresh 93 once the tank reaches half and add a can of seafoam to clean out any gunk. Cranked it over for a few seconds with the ignition leads off to circulate the oil, put the leads back on and it fired right up!
Test drive went as well as I could've hoped. Handles great, rear sway bar is a little creaky over dips, and I definitely need to fit the e32 master cylinder ASAP as there is way too much travel in the brake pedal.
Drove it home last night and to work this morning, felt really good to have it back on the road! It runs nice and cool and everything seems to be working as it should.
Only issue I have found so far (other than all the oil leaks, but those were there before...), is that the passenger front caliper bleed screw is leaking a little bit of fluid. This is likely contributing to the soft pedal a little bit. I cleaned it off this morning, along with the paint in that area...dammit, and tightened the bleeder down a bit more. Checked it when I got to work and it's still leaking. Its possible I got some junk on the mating surfaces, so after work I'll be pulling the bleeder and cleaning them as best I can. Hopefully that solves it...anyone have any experience with this?
Driving impressions:
- Z3 rack is worth its weight in gold (seems to be the going rate anyway...)
- Shifter almost feels like it's gated and the placement is perfect
- Smaller steering wheel is amazing
- Needs a lighter flywheel
- Brakes are not confidence inspiring at the moment
- A speedo would be nice because guessing won't be fun when there is a cop checking speeds and there is no traffic to match pace with. Hoping to have that sorted shortly (body side plug and sensor socket on the diff are different)
- I feel every pebble in the road and it's awesome
- Poly mounts on the m42 really aren't that bad, NVH is definitely up there though
Going to give it a good wash after work today, and then I'll see you at the picnic!!
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In other news, I finally back in town and made more progress after work today. Got my new Stromung exhaust installed, the tip is perfectly centered in the cutout after very minimal adjustment and everything fit together really well, couldn't be happier with the purchase.
Looks good! I got mine centered by readjusting the front pipe but I don't have anywhere near the clearance as you've got between the exhaust tip and top of the rear valance. I end up with about 1/4" max and as a result it hits on anything but smooth roads. Kind of annoying. Hangers/straps are about six months old. What am I missing?
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