Alpine e30 progress/build thread
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Well, its been a few months since I've done anything, I got aircraft paint remover and have been slowly working on the wheels and man is progress slow. Two are disassembled and I have begun stripping one of the faces but haven't had much time to get it done, hopefully I can get the ball rolling and have them ready to go by the spring.
I am preparing for a massive overhaul weekend on my spring break in March, I've got everything for a full brake job (except the braided stainless lines), brake fluid reservoir grommets are leaking so those will be replaced too, lower oil pan gasket and oil change, rear differential mount, rear shock mounts, trans/diff fluid change with appropriate redline fluids (I have two quarts of royal purple sychromax but have heard a number of negative things so I am going with redline...anyone want to buy the sychromax?), pulling the cluster and fixing the speedo needle since its like 5 mph off, and tie rod ends/front end alignment. This is all in preparation for the 1000 mile drive back to school, should be interesting for sure haha.
Two things:
recommendations on braided stainless brake lines for someone on a budget? Ireland engineering has a full set (DOT approved, teflon lined/braided/coated) for $95 that I am considering
My radiator looks quite old and is possibly original, do E30's have the same radiator failure expectations as e36's? Mine already has a new t-stat/water pump/hoses/fan clutch.
EDIT: Also need to fix the drivers side headlight, wont light when you turn the switch but if you hit it hard enough it will blink, most likely a connection issue.
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I had Royal Purple Synchromax in my g250 and then switched to 50/50 redline d4 and redline 75w-90NS (only because of gear rattle with lightweight flywheel) and it was much quieter, most likely the noise reduction was due to the increased viscosity though. I use Royal Purple XPS oil in the engine though and it is fantastic. Check my build thread for head pics after 45k miles.
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I had Royal Purple Synchromax in my g250 and then switched to 50/50 redline d4 and redline 75w-90NS (only because of gear rattle with lightweight flywheel) and it was much quieter, most likely the noise reduction was due to the increased viscosity though. I use Royal Purple XPS oil in the engine though and it is fantastic. Check my build thread for head pics after 45k miles.
Ive heard much better things about their engine oils (Saw your pics, incredibly clean!) Its more just the synchromax I have heard sub-par things about, it seems to break down/thin out much faster than other equivalents
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Wheels are looking really good and everything too for that matter. Keep up the good work!
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Id spring for some OE non-stainless brake lines and save some money. Thats just me though.
Would the difference not be noticeable? I figured that while I was replacing the lines I might as well upgrade while I'm in there, but if it isn't worth it that would change my mind
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I am not the expert at all, but I tend to go for the cheapest rotors (not ebay) that you can get at a local parts store or online parts retailer, the highest quality pads you can get for your intended application, the highest quality fluid, and OE rubber lines and hydraulics.
I tend to believe that this combination will net you the best braking performance per dollar.
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A very important part of replacing rotors is to thoroughly clean the hub surface. Check for run-out with a dial indicator if possible, if you don't have one make sure every spec of rust scale is gone. Any run-out will cause the "high" point in the rotor to bump off of that sides pad and will wear a thin spot on opposite sides 180 degrees apart. The rotor then will have the same symptoms as a "warped" rotor. That being said I would avoid China made ones. Centric parts are cheap and the last time I bought them for our Nissan they were made in Canada. They have a nice dual directional grind on the face, some parts store rotors I have gotten before were not even surface ground. I have the gold coated brembo slotted rotors on the front of the Maxima and they are excellent and still look good after 3 years of being a winter beater, but they are a bit spendy.
Eh
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I have a set of coated Balo rotors for the car (much cheaper than others, OEM supplier to Audi and generally good reputation) and OEM Bosch pads. I have a quart of ATE super blue, bought it right before it was banned, for the fluid flush but I might have to pick up a quart of the gold to top it off just in case. I did some research and a full set of ATE rubber lines is only $75 compared to a $95 minimum for braided stainless so I may just go with the rubber and spend the difference elsewhere, I've got some time to look and see if it is worth it
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CaTuned just came out with set of stainless lines. Great guys to deal with
http://www.catuned.com/p/106/catuned-brakes-brake-lines-bbk#.Uu77Tsvnav0
Hadn't seen these, thanks!
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Well, I'm home for "spring" break which means the e30 is officially out of storage! At the end of this week I will be loading it up and driving about 1000 miles back to school. Before I go I've got quite a lot to do. I ordered a bunch of parts and over the next few days I will attempt to finish everything
Last night I did the rear shock mounts. Drivers side took about 20 minutes total:
New heavy duty RSM's with ECS Z3 reinforcement plates
And then came the passenger side aka satan's top nut. Took a few hours and ended up removing the entire shock to get it off:
\Original bmw shocks with 144k on them, total junk. Once I get some more money I will be replacing these with Bilsteins
That explains the clunk I was getting in the rear...
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Look into mustang and camaro shocks. They are cheaper than the bilsteins and also offer better performance
Never heard of that as an option, you did mustang shocks on your ti right? They're a direct replacement?
Got more done on the car today, I need to buy new H4 bulbs for my headlights because one isn't working right, not burnt out though which is odd.
Replaced the rear differential mount with a Powerflex purple bushing (middle between street and race hardness)
Really clean inside the diff, pretty happy about that
Bushing wasn't as bad as it looked on the car, still replacing it though as the rubber had softened significantly
Powerflex bushing installed, went together extremely easily. New cover gasket installed and everything torqued to spec, filled it with Redline 75w-90 gear oil.
No clunking when going from a stop or over bumps, responsiveness on acceleration and deceleration is definitely better as well and the ride quality hasn't changed at all
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Nice move on the RSMs
I have the same diff mount and I am happy with it as well.
Im not a fan of the camaro/mustang shock idea for a car that you want performance out of. Without knowing any damping characteristics, you just have to assume they are not well matched to whatever springs you will be using.
You can argue that the typical street-driven car owner may never perceive a problem with it, but a properly matched system will have a better ride and better handling at the same time.
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Snap, you get the adjustable dampening shocks=) They are a lot cheaper than e30 options and there are many more options. They are usually a bit stiffer/harsher than e30 shocks due to being for heavier cars as well.
The KYB AGX shocks are one of the common ones for either the camaro or mustang shocks. I have heard good things about the Strange 10 way adjustable mustang shocks as well=)
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A bit of a big update for the last few days!
I replaced my lower oil pan gasket to try and fix a pretty big oil leak:
Pretty sure it is the lower pan gasket (mostly at least) and I figured it would be good to crack it open anyway
Just about had a heart attack...
Turns out this is pretty common on the m42, it is a bolt holding the upper oil pan to the block and apparently it isn't uncommon to find multiple
I put the bolt back an re-torqued every one I could get to including the bolts for the oil pickup. Almost all of them were correct thankfully
Cleaned up the whole lower oil pan and the mounting surface on the upper pan:
Decided against using any RTV on the gasket since the surfaces cleaned up so nicely, it will be much less of a project if I have to open the pan again and it should seal just as nicely
All torqued down and filled with Castrol GTX high mileage 10W-40 and a new Mahle oil filter
I drove it around for the rest of the afternoon running errands and did find some oil leaking down onto the pan but from what I can tell the lower pan gasket is sealed nice and tight. I think I may have to do the upper pan gasket and front crank seal but for now I am just going to keep an eye on them. IT is MUCH MUCH less leaky than it was before though
Now for the fun bit....
I loaded up the car and set off from Milwaukee, WI to Bethlehem, PA.
Into Illinois
And then Indiana
(Gary, Indiana sucks)
Didn't get a picture of the Ohio sign but here is a panoramic view of the entire state
And by the time I got to PA it was dark and I managed to find a pretty large snow storm which added another three or four hours to my trip, had to stop regularly to clear the snow and grime from my headlights and grille
Thinking about some mud flaps on all four corners...
And here is my car after about 900 miles and 18 hours at a rest stop right before my destination, I really like this picture actually
I was hoping to never let this car see the salt and snow but seeing as it's my only running vehicle I had no choice, hopefully it will be fine over the next week or two in the winter weather. It looks like it won't be dipping below freezing here in PA anymore (And the town ran out of salt haha, what luck!) so I should be good in terms of keeping any rust at bay.
Overall, after a total of over 900 miles and an entire day's worth of driving I can honestly say I am never selling this car, every time I got out I couldn't help but turn around and stare for a bit and I loved every minute behind the wheel, it ran and drove absolutely beautifully!
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