Lifted E30 V2

[Jdesign]

Soooo.. This took an excellent turn. Where did you find the motor?

[GunMetalGrey]

I went to a friend's place who is always building crazy stuff and he had it sitting in an E46 that he was working on making his commuter but ended up buying an e90 335d instead. 

He knew of the lifted E30 and offered me what I feel like was a good deal on the motor along with his assistance and knowledge if needed. 

From what I'm learning, these motors are not common stateside and finding parts for them is even trickier, especially if I'm looking for E30 diesel specific parts. 

The block is based on an M20 so the large items are simple, motor mounts from the E motor bolted right up, oil pan swaps right over, transmission works, but it's all the little stuff that will be work. The cooling system being the primary difference. 

Luckily this example is a fully mechanical injection setup and doesn't need any wiring other than a starter to run, so that helps me out a lot. I will be building a small harness (or modifying an old E30 one) to get coolant temp, engine RPM and other associated things. 

I want to make sure this thing runs before I start spending too much money on it, so I ordered a new timing belt along with an oil filter and will be starting the motor out of the car to ensure it's good to go, and then it will be a free for all to stuff it in the car and get it running as quickly as possible.

[HipMF]

GunMetalGrey said:

Also, what's up with all of the lifted cars having mouse nests in them?

Outdoor storage?

So, now instead of calling it "The E", will it be "the D"?

[GunMetalGrey]

HipMF said:

So, now instead of calling it "The E", will it be "the D"?

It most certainly has been referred to as the D lately

[Earl]

Have you tried looking for amy weird cult pages for the turbo diesel lincolns? Being that those had this motor, someone might have a stash of parts over here to fix them. Also, did Canada get these? I know they got m51's and some of the other 90's era diesels.

[GunMetalGrey]

Earl said:

Have you tried looking for amy weird cult pages for the turbo diesel lincolns? Being that those had this motor, someone might have a stash of parts over here to fix them. Also, did Canada get these? I know they got m51's and some of the other 90's era diesels. 

I'm hoping I don't need any major parts that aren't available online, though I will say it is amusing searching some of the part numbers from realOEM and getting no results....
I think North America saw about 3,500 524td's per the work of someone on a forum contacting BMW. 

I've learned so many things about diesel's and how their whole system works, and I'm quite excited to get this thing running!

There certainly are a few funny things though, like how do you bleed the cooling system of something that won't get to operating temperature while idling?

[Earl]

[B C]

Wikipedia shows that it also came in this Bertone Freeclimber

[GunMetalGrey]

It was a one or two year production in the Lincoln, and the Bertone should be even easier to find

The parts I need for it are chassis specific or stuff that I wouldn't buy used. 
Like the water pump, the bearings are pretty bad, but luckily that one is easy to get. 
E30 specific radiator hoses are available from ECS as Euro Only, but will run me $75 before shipping. 

The timing belt tensioner is slightly rough though, I think the OEM's didn't private label anything due to the low volume of parts, but the genuine BMW tensioner/idler is $100. 
Finding parts for the Lincoln appears to be even worse actually. 

I'm looking forward to starting attempts this weekend

I also need to remember to buy diesel oil, looks like it's quite different from standard engine oil.

Edit: just found the turbo diesel section of MyE28, this should be quite useful!

[Earl]

That Bertone is sick=P Couldn't you run those ribbed for her pleasure universal radiator hoses for now?

[GunMetalGrey]

Earl said:

 Couldn't you run those ribbed for her pleasure universal radiator hoses for now? 

I think I'll be able to get away with that, yes. 

I'm avoiding spending any money on it until I know it runs, which I wish wasn't on my brain considering what I paid for it, but better to know earlier than later! 
He was going full speed on his project with it so I'm not too concerned, but it will take what I'm assuming will be another 300-500 to get it fully grafted into the car and I don't want to start spending before I'm certain I can make it work!

[Jdesign]

I don't blame you for being cautious about spending money on it. Im not sure how that injection pump works, but make sure its bleed properly and cleaned well before you start cranking it over. I know that old mechanical injection diesels wont start with air in the line and old fuel tend to gum up the insides of the pump if it sits long enough.

One thing I would also be cautious about when you do finally get it to start, is it running away from you. Keep something to suffocate that sucker if she takes the "D" and starts screaming.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-pxsViKF88

[KaiserRolls]

Smother the turbo inlet with something. Properly sized block of wood would probably do it. Don’t use hands though

[YoungCR]

Yeah I'd read up everything you can about the injection pump. As Jason suggested I'd make sure it's fit for starting first too as that's most expensive and critical part. Fuel filter should be changed and I'd suggest priming it with Lucas diesel injector cleaner after cracking all the injector lines to bleed air out. It surprising how much air can be in there.

As far a maintenance you should always be running a fuel additive too to help maintain the pump seals and keep the injectors clean. For oil, 1 gal of 15-40 rotella is $13.99 at farm and fleet, its what I run in the M20's anyways.

[GunMetalGrey]

I appreciate the input gentlemen, as this whole motor is a new endeavor for me.

Got a good bit of progress this weekend, put the E30 oil pan on it, with the e28 pump (internal pressure relief) 
There are straps that hold the block together, thought that was interesting. 

I changed the timing belt on it as well, the old one was quite cracked and we all know how m20's like their timing belts...
It's kind of odd because the timing belt is a multi-rib on one side, and a timing belt tooth style on the other. 
I wish I would have taken a picture under the valve cover because it is not like a normal m20!

Pulled a whole bunch of random crap off the motor, like cruise control, and all of the other 5 series niceties. 

Luckily a friend of mine was in town this weekend who has done a bit of work with older diesel VW's and he came over and lent a hand. I can confidently say that he is the reason I am posting this update. 
We put both fuel lines into a bucket of diesel and hooked a vacuum pump up to the #6 injector return and started sucking diesel through the system. After that we hooked up a sketchy array of batteries and a charger to get the thing to crank over. The starter motor is just about 3x stronger than the gas motor so it takes some grunt to get it moving! 
I cranked the starter while he cracked injector lines to bleed air out, and we could start smelling a little bit of burnt fuel, no running, just something happening. 
Decided to crack open the harness (it was on at this point) and connect the glow plugs together and give those some voltage before cranking it. 
It ran on the first crank after heating the glow plugs! 

Went for another go and had some humor to go with it!

I didn't have the drain line for the turbo, and the turbo is in need of a rebuild so I threw it on just to quiet things down a touch, well apparently the turbo feed moves a lot more oil than I would have thought. 
Brett took a second to kill it because the motor was actually running without human intervention, so he had to actually remove the 12v wire from the fuel solenoid (which was a bright yellow wire that was barely clipped to the battery for this exact reason)
You can see/hear air working out of the system in the second video, it was shaking and running poorly to start, then an injector cleared and it started running somewhat well. 

Next steps, insert motor in chassis, get proper oil flow and fill block with coolant, then get the motor to the point where I can verify the thing will run on its own without throttle assistance. 
Step by step I will get this thing rolling coal! 

Current state of compressor wheel

Current state of compressor housing

[suspenceful]

Cool shit. You embedded the same video twice, FYI.

[m42b32]

This is going to be awesome

[Jdesign]

Woah! Glad you got it to kick over and run. This is going to kick ass!

[GunMetalGrey]

Well either Flickr is being dumb or my connection here is mediocre. Not sure which one. 

Ordered a rebuild kit for the stock turbo, going to just rebuild that one.

[GunMetalGrey]

Okay, this is getting annoying. The links pull the video in then when I post it just goes white.