Alpine e30 progress/build thread
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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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https://youtu.be/Z3ncelZ0PBc?t=1m5s
no load leveler, but some helping hands instead. looks like they had to get the hoist about 8' up in the air (hence, pulling the car outside). let me know if you want help!
Dan
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I remember closing the garage door part way to get the engine hoist high enough when doing mine and brians engines. Food for thought.
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Dan
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Thanks for the tips guys! I'll have to look and see what kind of space I have. Pulling the car into the driveway could block one of the people who lives in the house from getting their car in/out of their parking spot so that may be a problem... I'll have to investigate and take some measurements. I just picked up the welded up oil pan so I can get back on this as soon as I get back!
joe!!! https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=423153
Ugh... why do these things always have to come up when I just bought something else! That's a pretty decent price, especially since it includes shipping
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Ohhh man. Those style 15's
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🥳SOLD BMW E24 633CSI - BMW M30B32 🧪SOLD HCH ES9 - 1.3 LDA
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🤹♀️SOLD BMW E36/7 Z3 - BMW M54B25 🧓SOLD BMW E10 2002 - BMW M10M05 -
Haven't had much time to work on this, but was able to sneak away for an hour today. Got the oil pan back from the welder a week ago, mounted it up with a new gasket for good today:
Then went to test fit the power steering pump:
Damn. The feed line to the pump contacts the oil pan, causing the outer mounting bolt to be misaligned by around 3/4". I haven't heard of anyone having pump mounting issues with the e34 oil pan, so I checked realOEM, and found that BMW has a different part number for the RWD and AWD e46's. You can apparently use both the Luk LF-20 and LF-30 pumps (I have the 30) with this swap, and I would be very surprised if there were actual differences in the pump itself between the different drive types. You can't buy the brackets separately, so I'm thinking the mounting brackets place the pump in a slightly different spot, hence the different part numbers.
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If I can't get a cheap set of brackets from a rwd car the cut/bend/weld route will be the best bet. The front bracket would be really simple, the rear has a weld nut for the outer bolt, as well as a 90 degree flange that will have to be adjusted to compensate for the rotation of the pump assembly relative to the block.
I did some more research and based on pictures comparing my brackets with the brackets from a RWD M54 (and E36 M52, same part), it looks like those will rotate the pump up closer to the underside of the alternator and give me the clearance I need. This picture from ECS (sorry for the upside down comparison) shows the top bolt of the pump much closer to the inner mount hole, compared to my picture above:
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Redrill the one hole in the mounting bracket?
yeah, this seems like a no-brainer. if the bolt ends up too close to that side flange to get a wrench on it, you could switch to a socket cap bolt.
Dan
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yeah, this seems like a no-brainer. if the bolt ends up too close to that side flange to get a wrench on it, you could switch to a socket cap bolt.
The problem is the rear bracket, since that outer bolt just passes through the oil filter housing casting and threads into a second bracket on the back side of the pump.
Modifying that bracket to match is definitely doable, its just more than drilling a hole since the weld nut either needs to be moved or a new nut welded on, and then once the pump is rotated that flange needs to be cut and welded at the correct angle to mate up with the corresponding hole in the block for that bolt. I think the cleanest solution is just to get the right brackets from a RWD e46 or m52 e36.
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Haven't made any progress on the car in the last few weeks between too many things to do and not enough motivation, BUT I finally ordered a swap harness! This will integrate everything from the gauges to the fuel pump relay, as well as provide an OBD2 port to read data and codes from the ECU and flash new partial tunes without pulling it out of the car. This should greatly simplify the electrical side of things once the motor is in the car. It isn't cheap, but it will save me huge amounts of time over sourcing all the needed pigtails from various e46/e39 body harnesses and getting everything right when wiring it up. I am hoping to spend more time on this again soon, with the goal being having the engine and trans in the car by the end of August.
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