Alpine e30 progress/build thread

[B C]

Z3 rack is great, be warned, by summers end it will feel normal to you and only after driving a car with the stock E30 rack will you remember how great it is

[Daggerty]

Snap said:

Z3 rack is great, be warned, by summers end it will feel normal to you and only after driving a car with the stock E30 rack will you remember how great it is

That's why he's getting the other one finished before the fall cruise.

[YoungCR]

I got the honor of first passenger! Car felt great and exhaust sounded great. Thanks Joe!

[m42b32]

Daggerty said:

That's why he's getting the other one finished before the 2020 fall cruise.

Fixed that for you haha

[m42b32]

Had a blast getting this to the picnic and so stoked to finally have it on the road. I believe I fixed the leaking bleeder screw issue as well (so far so good at least). It turns out that the replacement bleeders I bought were likely just a hair too short. It seems that I was bottoming out the threads at the same time that the tip would seat at the base and as a result I wasn't getting a tight seal. I installed the longer bleeder screws from the original non-m calipers and re-bled everything, so far it looks like they are holding well. The brakes are MUCH better.

[Boris3]

Curious as to which replacement bleeders you were using / length? I've had issues with bleeders that came on a set of Centric remanufactured rear calipers. Snapped off a bleeder on Friday trying to snug it down. Went a wee bit too far.

[m42b32]

Boris3 said:

Curious as to which replacement bleeders you were using / length? I've had issues with bleeders that came on a set of Centric remanufactured rear calipers. Snapped off a bleeder on Friday trying to snug it down. Went a wee bit too far.

Thats a bummer... do you drill the bleeder out and re-tap or is the caliper ruined?

I just looked it up, they are "FTE" brand bleeder screws that I bought from AutohausAZ. I'll have to get the length measurements next time I am at my garage, but I replaced them with the original bleeders from my e30's old calipers as the threads were about 1/4" longer, and they seem to be doing much better (brakes feel better, no visible changes in the fluid level in the reservoir). No drips on the wheels, though I haven't been underneath since the picnic to inspect them up close.

[Boris3]

Went ahead and ordered another caliper since I need to have a working one in place by this weekend. We'll see if the one with the snapped bleeder is salvageable or I'll return it to get the core charge refund. Not sure what screws Centric uses.

I've got a couple of spare bleeder screws from Bimmerworld and from ECS (think they are also FTE). Used them on my front calipers and they have been fine. Good idea about measuring.

[m42b32]

I forgot to take pictures at the picnic, but Andy snapped this one!

[AsparagusMike]

Those 15" or 16" wheels?

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[The Full Banana]

That looks damn good.

[Earl]

AsparagusMike said:

Those 15" or 16" wheels?

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16"

They looks so beige instead of gold from the lighting lol

[m42b32]

Put in the indigo vert sport seats I got from 6670charger last year, after years of searching for nice seats in the correct color. The camera flash makes the creases in the leather look worse than they are, a huge upgrade over the original ripped seats. 

Still haven't washed it properly, because it wont stop raining every time I have time. Some day...

[Jdesign]

Love those wheels on there and I feel your pain about this rain

[m42b32]

I've put over 100 miles on the car already, fixed a few little issues here and there and I'm starting to get a list of all the 'refinements' I want to make.

I was having a bit of binding and the occasional creak from the steering so I did some investigating after work today. It turns out the drop hats were rubbing on the inside of the strut towers as the struts rotated with the steering. To remedy this I pulled the struts yet again, changed the top hats out for the standard e30 top mounts to remove 0.5 degrees of camber and swapped the drop hats out for the standard top hats. The drive home was much smoother and the steering feels way better. The half degree of camber didn't make too much of a difference as far as wheel fitment, but the front is sitting a bit higher now.

Also slapped this bad boy on the driver's side quarter window:

[m42b32]

154k: Changed the oil with Mobil1 15w50 over the long weekend. The m42 has the easiest drain plug ever, forgot how quick the changes are!

The rear tires have been rubbing on the un-rolled portion of the quarter panel lips and chewing up the sidewalls of the tires. Finally got around to rolling them today after work

I pretty much worked the front half of the lip to match the rear half of the quarter panel, went slow and used a heat gun and only got one very small crack in the paint on one side, but it is way underneath the lip so it's no big deal. Loads more clearance and no more rubbing on the drive home!

Thanks for lending me the roller TJ!

[m42b32]

I have started leaking oil pretty badly so I parked the car back in the garage after the Brew City Cruise Night last night. I am fairly certain the leak is coming from where the front and rear halves of the profile gasket meet on the passenger side, it looks like they have either worked a gap between themselves or were never properly sealed in the first place. I really don't want to pull apart the entire engine to repair this as the PO had a headgasket and timing components done (includes the profile gasket...) about 5 years ago at EAH. My hope is that I can clean the whole area really well and then put some RTV in the gap to seal it up, we'll see how that goes.

[Boris3]

What oil were you running before the recent Mobil 1 change? New synth cleaning out old (Dino) sludge in the seals?

Profile gasket leak where the timing cases meet is a possibility. Mine weeps a bit here. Oil filter housing leaks can also throw oil all over the place.

[m42b32]

Boris3 said:

What oil were you running before the recent Mobil 1 change? New synth cleaning out old (Dino) sludge in the seals?

Profile gasket leak where the timing cases meet is a possibility. Mine weeps a bit here. Oil filter housing leaks can also throw oil all over the place.

Its been a while since I changed the oil last so it's hard to remember exactly. For the first few years I had the car I used Castrol dino oil, but I recall switching to synthetic a change or two before hitting the deer. It's definitely possible that the switch started cleaning things inside and made the leak a lot worse...

[Jdesign]

Ive had that happen in the past switching to syth.. When you say profile gasket, is that oil pan, valve cover, or something else? I've never had a M42.