Lifted E30 V2

[GunMetalGrey]

Donor, meet your transplant patient.

So it's looking like everything was successful at this point, I took it up and down the road the shop is on a couple of times, and it was quite enjoyable. 
The new motor feels much healthier, and the turbo sounds just as good  
It could use a valve adjustment, but that isn't anything major. 

It looks so tiny next to the truck, but the side steps on the truck are 12.25" off the ground, and the rocker pinch weld is at 12.13" off the ground, and I am very pleased by this! 

I'm surprised at how much the tires are still rubbing the chassis after doing the "body lift", so it looks like the 3lb sledge will need to fix that.

Next is to finish buttoning things back up and get it road worthy! 

Until next time!

[Jdesign]

LOVE IT.

[suspenceful]

Can you please have this thing ready and reliable before winter for once?

[GunMetalGrey]

suspenceful said:

Can you please have this thing ready and reliable before winter for once?

Tall order to fill, as I already started messing with adding more power... 

Yeah, I'd prefer to have it ready to rip this winter, I will keep modifications to a minimum at this point. 
I will add an intercooler, but that's nothing drastic. 

Anyone have power steering stuff for an M20 laying around? I've got a fairly good leak from this one,  not quite sure where right now, but I know there is duct tape on some of the hoses so I can't imagine it's going to be anything good! 

I plan to work on getting more of the car back together this evening. 
After that the welder comes out and we add some plating underneath for skids and such!

[HipMF]

[GunMetalGrey]

This thing made it to the meet, and that was cool. 
I need to clean some botched work by the PO with the cooling system, but everything went well on the trip. The turbo is obnoxiously loud on the highway and earplugs are damn near required. 

The diesel will be on hold / beater duty for a bit while I get a couple other cars finished up. I've got some work ahead of me!

Should be fun!

[GunMetalGrey]

I added the block heater plug to the car, which will come in handy with the dropping temperatures.

Just flip the cap open and plug in the female end of an extension cord!

I also added new marker lights on the bumper, I think I will be adding a few more, as I quite like the way it turned out.

Andrew Noggle (Noggs photography) took some photos of Jason and I this weekend, they are looking pretty damn cool!

I took this photo awhile back, and just looked at it again the other day and decided to take the color out. 
I think it looks quite cool now.

[Jdesign]

That was such a blast! We need to do it again soon. Maybe my car will be lifted too and we can both drive through massive puddles.

video-1540085052.mp4

[dealindave]

Updates have me going from six to midnight. Mentioning dropping temps just further reminds me I need to hurry up and finish my winter beater E30.

[Bassboy3313]

Looking awesome!!

[GunMetalGrey]

Nasty rear window with peeling tint

Goodbye!

No more rear tint! Of course one of the heating grid tabs came off while installing too, so I gotta figure out how bad I want that back...

I need to go grab the lock strip from the junkyard, because new ones are really expensive for the rear and mine came out in many pieces!

[GunMetalGrey]

This thing has been really grumpy about the lower temps, I feel like air is entering the system somewhere and the cold is making it all worse. 
It will be pulled into the shop soon to get an external wastegate, a fuel pump swap (for science, and because I have $1500 in that pump now...), and to be re-timed. 

It makes an inconvenient amount of torque, and down very low. Snow traction takes some effort.

[Jdesign]

Any diesel is grumpy in cold temps. How new and what amperage is your glow plug relay and the glow plugs themselves. Does it improve as it warms up? do you cycle the plugs a few times before starting it?

Also is that the same window, you just pulled it to remove the tint?

[GunMetalGrey]

Jdesign said:

Any diesel is grumpy in cold temps. How new and what amperage is your glow plug relay and the glow plugs themselves. Does it improve as it warms up? do you cycle the plugs a few times before starting it?

Also is that the same window, you just pulled it to remove the tint?

I know the pump is timed a bit hot, so I was going to back that down a touch and see if it helps. I do think there is a touch of air somewhere.
I run the plugs once before starting, but maybe I'll run em twice?

120A relay for the glow plugs, battery cables feeding them, stock relay was 80A so I've got plenty of overhead. New plugs were put in this one. 

New window (junkyard)

[Jdesign]

If its really really cold out, I will cycle the plugs on my truck 2 or 3 times before cranking it over. My ALH TDI jetta needed 5-6 cycles at times to even start coughing.

[GunMetalGrey]

^ I will try that more often to see how she goes!

What's easy to chase with a diesel engine? Speed!
Wait, that's not right....
 
I want to extract more out of this thing, and an easy place to start is an external wastegate to get some top end power back. 
I bought a 38mm wastegate after hearing that you can usually bolt them to the EGR valve location with a bit of modification.
I ended up needing to make an adapter, but since the new wastegate came with flanges it was quite easy!

@HipMF I haven't welded in a year or so, and this was my first go (I went a bit fast it appears). I think you'll be good to go for your manifold! 

Gotta clean up the splatter and try to paint it, but I look forward to seeing how this will change things!

[GunMetalGrey]

Cycling the glow plugs (it's on a switch, may as well just leave em on longer) seemed to help, but it wasn't super cold. So we shall see if that continues to be useful.

Got the wastegate bolted on. Which really sucked, there is very little room to put hands, let alone wrenches and the like.

And I must say....

Holy shit, major change. Didn't expect it to be so noticeable. 
With the internal gate you would get up to boost pressure, then it would feel like it was getting choked out (all torque no HP) and wouldn't feel strong up top. 
That has changed greatly, it builds boost like it used to but once it gets up on the wastegate it just pulls until limiter without the feeling that it's being choked out. 
10/10 best mod yet. Thing scoots real good, and once I get the intercooler in I will be adding more fuel and that means we get to go even faster. 

Side note; open wastegates sound real odd on a diesel. It almost sounds like a big vacuum leak when it opens up. 
Side side note; $60 wastegates are complete crap.

[Jdesign]

Im curious to hear it. Internal gates suck, im sure this made a huge impact on the power curve.

[GunMetalGrey]

This thing has pretty much just sitting lately.  It started leaking diesel again and the wastegate stopped working (no surprise for a $60 gate). 

I decided that I needed to test the new pump, and wanted to use the new injectors that I had in this engine. The ones in it were starting to seep, so I started by replacing just the injectors to ensure that those were functioning properly. Changing these things is a fair bit of work, and always involves a breaker bar with many feet of extensions. 
It looks like it's got 12 cylinders!

Cleaned up the mounting surface and threads in the block and put the new ones in.

They had previously been used so bleeding them was a very short affair, along with actually knowing what I'm doing with them. 
She fired up pretty quick and it took a second to push the rest of the air out of the lines and it sat and idled quite nicely. 

These injectors made a significant difference in the running of the motor, it is much smoother and seems quieter than before. I was running with the intake manifold off (always weird) so I didn't see how it drove, but I would imagine it's better than before. 

Now the plan is to swap the fuel pump to the new one to see if it works, or if that pump has issues. Hoping it works, as I will then have new injectors, a new pump, and a healthy motor.

[HipMF]

The bro and his dozer