Alpine e30 progress/build thread
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if they have any in stock, here are your 16" bottle caps. $800 for the set if they are fully refurbished is pretty good if you ask me.
Dan
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if they have any in stock, here are your 16" bottle caps. $800 for the set if they are fully refurbished is pretty good if you ask me.
That's not a bad deal!
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Speaking of wheels...
I spent the long weekend out of town, so I didn't make any progress on the car. However, I did stop at a pick-n-pull that was on the way. The only BMW in the entire yard was an e38 that had arrived very recently, and in the back seat I found a set of 16x8 et23 style 4 wheels! These are the same size and offset as the 16" style 5's, but they have radial spokes and more importantly, they're one of the few OEM forged wheels. These need a refinish, but they're straight with minimal curbing which is all I really need. They'll be great as auto-x/etc wheels!
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love those! seriously you have the best choices now that youre 5 lug. maybe not the perfect width/size combos, but, so many cheap choices!
Dan
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Nice score.
https://www.instagram.com/_jdesigner_/ http://nevertoolow.tumblr.com/
🥳SOLD BMW E24 633CSI - BMW M30B32 🧪SOLD HCH ES9 - 1.3 LDA
👽BMW E30 325IC - Toyota 1JZ-GTE ⏰ HONDA EF9 CIVIC SI - JDM B18C5
☠️BMW E36 318i - Ford 5.0 FE302 🚴♂️ GT-Labomba - 26x2.75 Freeride
🤹♀️SOLD BMW E36/7 Z3 - BMW M54B25 🧓SOLD BMW E10 2002 - BMW M10M05 -
Finally got some more things done over the last few days. Got started on the transmission, it was caked in grime so after scrubbing for over an hour I decided that nobody will see it and it's good enough for now.
With the trans 'cleaned', I went through and did the complete shift pin repair. I didn't realize that you needed a small slide hammer to get the covers off until it was too late to go rent one, so I made a mini one out of some scrap metal I had laying around. It just so happened that I had a piece of pipe that fit perfectly over a 1/2" steel rod, so between that and some random hardware, I ended up with this:
As you can see, it worked perfectly as there is a freshly removed cap and spring on the end of it in that picture. With the old parts out of the way, I used the proper drifts to tap in the new bushings/pins/springs/caps. The snap ring for the reverse detent was an absolute pain, but it finally went together. All that's left to do on the trans is the shift shaft seal, install it, and then change the fluid once it's in the car!
When I bought the engine mount arms I was planning to use, I didn't realize I needed the later style driver's side arm with the slotted hole in the bottom left corner to fit the pattern on my block. Fortunately, this was easily resolved with a bit of drilling and filing.
With the driver's engine mount arm installed, I was now able to whip up a bracket to secure the lower mounting point of the coolant return pipe:
Don't worry, I will be replacing those rusty bolts holding on the engine mount arm, I didn't have anything better to use at the time.
While I had the grinder and welder out, I went ahead and chopped out the ABS pump mounting brackets, used a flap disk to smooth out the remaining welds, and sprayed a coat of primer over the newly exposed metal:
With the grinder I'm more of a butcher than a surgeon (and the limited access didn't help either), so before I do any bay painting sometime in the future, this area will have to get a little bit of body work, but it's smooth enough that it will be good for now.
I also made a bracket to mount the Hella sharptone horns behind the grilles. For whatever reason, the core support I installed on my car has a threaded stud right behind the center of the grille that wasn't there on the original, so I made a bracket that mounts to that feature out of some hefty flat stock to hang the horns off to each side. With the black shrouds you basically can't see them behind the grille which is perfect.
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My replacement core support also had that stud, and man was that convenient to have for mounting things lol.
Looking good!
I hate that one offset hole in the block, M50NV does the same thing when compared to M50. -
horns arent something you normally think of as an upgrade unless you are a subaru guy that wants to have pink horns to match the pink sti emblem, but in my dadcar I often wonder if people even hear me when im trying to roadrage them
I never thought of it before either, and initially it seems silly, but the number of people who aren't paying attention or just don't care while they drive in the downtown Milwaukee area is ridiculous... I figure it'll at least slightly improve my chances of not having to find more clean body panels!
whered you buy the trans pin rebuild stuff?
It's all available from BMW! I got it everything from Tischer for around $70. Here is a great DIY that also has all the necessary part numbers: https://webspace.ringling.edu/~dplassma/bmw_diy/shift_pins/shift_pins.html
If anyone needs/wants to do the same thing to their ZF 5-speed, you are welcome to borrow the drifts for setting the bushings/caps, just shoot me a PM.
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It's all available from BMW! I got it everything from Tischer for around $70. Here is a great DIY that also has all the necessary part numbers: https://webspace.ringling.edu/~dplassma/bmw_diy/shift_pins/shift_pins.html
If anyone needs/wants to do the same thing to their ZF 5-speed, you are welcome to borrow the drifts for setting the bushings/caps, just shoot me a PM.
thanks for the info! i'll def. take you up on that if I drop my trans for any reason.
related to that note, when you stuff your engine/trans in, I'd love to help for the knowledge. the other instances i've installed or removed a 24v from an e30, the whole front of the car was missing.
Dan
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I have a ZF laying around and the shift pin kit. Want to throw them in there for me?
Somewhere in the middle of getting that reverse pin snap ring installed I told myself "I'm never f%$#ing doing this again".... that being said it really wasn't horrible and I'm easily persuaded by beer haha
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More things done!
Installed the clutch slave and related brackets so I could make the hard line that connects the slave to the flex hose
Also installed a stainless steel pivot pin, retainer spring, and a new clutch fork. Throw-out bearing and pilot bearing will be here this week, along with an FX stage 2 clutch kit with the chromoly lightweight flywheel from Gripforce (Ebay 20% off sale came in clutch...heh). Going to pull all this apart to clean/grease everything, but just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I also replaced the leaking shift shaft input seal, this job was sooo much easier with the trans outside the car.
The M54 doesn't have a great place to mount the e30 coolant temp sensor for the cluster, so I shaved off one of the coolant temp sensor locations from the lower radiator hose and will be tapping it to accept the e30 sensor (along with some JB weld for good measure). Because it is plastic, I had to add a grounding wire to the housing of the coolant temp sensor by drilling a hole through one of the edges and soldering a wire into the hole. The other end of the wire is a ring lug that will be grounded to one of the studs holding the vanos assembly to the head. I need to re-solder the connection as it didn't bond to the brass, but it should work well once that's re-done.
I got the fuel system as far as I can till the engine is installed. I'm using an S54 fuel pressure regulator housing with the 3.5 bar fuel pressure regulator from a 530i. I used an M12x1.5 to 5/16" barb to adapt the FPR housing to the pair of fuel lines at the frame rail in the e30 engine bay:
The charcoal canister from my car is in great shape so I am going to attempt to retain it to avoid having the car smell like gas and be ever so slightly environmentally friendly. I used the fuel rail hose clip from the M42 to secure the FPR housing in place and orient the outlet towards the engine.
Access to the brake bias valve isn't great, but I routed everything in a way that I should still be able to get my hand down there and turn the knob with the engine installed.
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fyi, my tank vent line with filter to the atmosphere doesn't give off any odor. i applaud you for worrying about nature, and all that.
Dan
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Dropped off the oil pan to have the baffle welded in this morning. Once I get that back, it can be bolted in, and the engine will come off the stand for good (hopefully). I have a gripforce stage 2 clutch (sprung hub) and chromoly lightweight flywheel ready to install, and then the transmission can be mated up with the engine and the whole shebang can go in the car!
For those of you 24v people, is it easier to install the engine and trans from the top or to remove the subframe and install from underneath?
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of all the engines i've pulled from e30s, a 24v isnt one of them, despite me owning two. i still have an opinion though, this is the internet, after all.
does your hoist have a leveler? the engine will have to go in at a steep angle from the top. a trick I've read is to air out the front tires and jack up the rear of the car to reduce the angle of the dangle.
Dan
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of all the engines i've pulled from e30s, a 24v isnt one of them, despite me owning two.
does your hoist have a leveler? the engine will have to go in at a steep angle from the top. a trick I've read is to air out the front tires and jack up the rear of the car to reduce the angle of the dangle.
I have a hoist but no leveler, wouldn't be hard to get one though. The other issue I have that I just realized is that the garage door opens over the engine bay so I can't hoist things super high, maybe not the best layout for this... that may force a bottom entry. How steep of an angle are we talking? Like more than 45 degrees?
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