Alpine e30 progress/build thread

[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.

[m42b32]

Accomplished a bunch of odds and ends over the last week.

- I'm 99% sure my oil leak is coming from the passenger side gap between the halves of the profile gasket. I cleaned the area really well and applied some RTV over the gap. Hopefully this stops, or at least slows the leak. 

- I also went through and replaced the bulbs in the marker lights, turn signals, and fogs. The driver's side running light still doesn't work with a new bulb, so I'm going to have to go through the wiring behind the bumper and find the problem. 

- Replaced the cam position sensor o-ring as it was weeping quite a bit from there. Turns out the threads in the timing cover where the sensor is secured were stripped at some point in the past. Used a helicoil and it's back in business, hopefully no more leaking from there. 

- Swapped the speed sensor from the old small-case diff into the new one as the plugs were different. Should have a working speedo now

- Re-upholstered my shift boot and e-brake boot with an M-rain boot set from 2M/Matt-B on r3vlimited. Install was pretty easy and I'm really happy with the results. I had him sew a shift boot with a smaller hole for my shifter, it's still a little big so I'm going to pull it off and tighten it up a little eventually, but for now it's good. 

Biggest change in the works: 

I'm switching wheels... The Weds just don't fit right on the front of the car, they poke too far due to the spacer needed to clear the brakes...the wheel specs essentially became 16x7 et3. I looked into every method I could think of to get them to fit properly, but re-barreling is super expensive and I didn't want to convert to coilovers and run a ton of front camber. 

It took a bit of time to find something that would be an acceptable replacement and also fit appropriately. I ended up coming across these:

They are a square set of BBS RS061. These are 16x8 et20 (5x120 bolt pattern) and were specifically intended to be run on the E30 M3 so they clear the brakes perfectly without spacers. They are pretty dirty but they should clean up really well. As far as I can tell they have never been split and are in original condition, they aren't perfect but will be good enough for now. 

Minor annoyance, the center caps don't clear the 75mm bullet nose studs I currently have installed...

I'm going to swap these studs with the set I have on the e36 and I should be good to go. I'm a little sad to not be running the Weds (for now at least), but I have always wanted a set of RS's so it's not a bad trade off haha

[Jdesign]

Nice scoop on the wheels. whats your plans on refinishing? OEM silver and a polished lip?

[m42b32]

Jdesign said:

Nice scoop on the wheels. whats your plans on refinishing? OEM silver and a polished lip?

Thanks! For now I'm going to run them as is, but whenever I do re-do them I'll be going with either gold or silver centers and polished lips/bolts.

[Boris3]

m42b32 said:

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,

Dredging this back up re bleeder screws. Turns out that bleeder screws differ for ATE and Girling calipers, taper seals/seats in the calipers are supposedly different? Maybe that explains the thread length difference 

Girling fronts: #34111121206 (FTE R0086)

ATE Rears/Fronts: 34111153197  (FTE)

That said most vendors don't make any distinction (and many don't carry the Girling bleed screw), through the difference does show up on Real OEM. I replaced the bleeders on my Girling fronts with the ATE bleeders which have been fine. Maybe the Girling bleeders don't seat well on the ATE front calipers?

Another BMW mystery...

[m42b32]

Boris3 said:

Dredging this back up re bleeder screws. Turns out that bleeder screws differ for ATE and Girling calipers, taper seals/seats in the calipers are supposedly different? Maybe that explains the thread length difference 

Girling fronts: #34111121206 (FTE R0086)

ATE Rears/Fronts: 34111153197  (FTE)

That said most vendors don't make any distinction (and many don't carry the Girling bleed screw), through the difference does show up on Real OEM. I replaced the bleeders on my Girling fronts with the ATE bleeders which have been fine. Maybe the Girling bleeders don't seat well on the ATE front calipers?

Another BMW mystery...  

Thanks for the info! Definitely good to know because I want to put new ones in that actually work. Right now I have the bleeders from the old girling calipers in the M3 ATE calipers, they seem to have stopped leaking after swapping those in but who knows...