Lifted E30 V2

[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

[GunMetalGrey]

The saga continues...

Things seemed good with the new injectors in so I got to swapping pumps with the rebuilt and twice tested (being told both times it was fine) unit. 
Frankly it's not that fun of a task, but it could be worse I guess. 
Remove all fuel lines (again) instead of just kind of smashing them out of the way, and then the pump comes out with a handful of bolts, nuts, and the removal of the timing belt and pump gear.

Did the timing thing again, which involves a dial indicator, it's kind of an interesting process. 

I then played "bleed the lines" for a bit and attempted to start it. Surprisingly it started up pretty quick and didn't smoke too much. 
First thing I noticed; it's loud. Too loud. I also realized it was hazing black the whole time at idle, and idling very low. 

I took it out for a drive the next day and found things to be... wrong? 
Something about the firing / injectors is super loud, and it has no power. I killed it by simply trying to back out of a tiny spot of snow, whereas before I could idle it in 4th gear and it would be fine. Letting off the throttle while driving causes the motor to go silent, and sometimes accelerating (or trying to) causes motor silence as well. 

Plan is to check the timing once again, try more fuel on the global fuel screw, and if none of that works I call it quits on this pump. 

[GunMetalGrey]

Oofta. Realizations are harsh.

Went to re-time the pump and noticed that the timing belt tensioner seemed to be in an odd spot. Grabbed the belt and realized that the tensioner hadn't been tight enough and slipped, relieving all tension on the belt. Super sketchy. 

I re-timed the motor again and ensured the belt tensioner was nice and snug. 
Firing it up resulted in a quieter motor (well, still loud, but quiet when considering it's diesel) but still got black haze at idle. The throttle response is better, and I backed it out and didn't have to touch the gas, so clearly things are better already.
Driving was a bit of a different story, still feels like very little power down low, but once it gets up on the turbo things feel very good and it looses traction immediately. It's odd though because I couldn't get enough power down low to whip a 180° turn in a round thing. 

Things to do: Mess with the pre-booooooost fuel screw, I was driving in the dark so I couldn't see if the exhaust was hazing at WOT before boost (how it should be) 
Mess with the global fuel screw, this will affect idle (more fuel = more idle rpm) and see if that helps things in the low end.
Aaaand the one I don't want to think about, check to make sure I didn't bend a valve. (about $50 a piece if I don't scavenge parts from my other motor) 

I do recall the shop telling me that the supply pump in the fuel pump was a bit lower than spec for feed and pressure (yes there is a pump in the pump, pumpception?) so I may get weird and try a "lift pump" inline with the feed to attempt to relieve that issue, and I'm sure that also helps with power along the way regardless.

[straight6pwr]

hahaha died at "pumpception"

[GunMetalGrey]

Am I doing this stanceboi camber trend correctly?
 

[GunMetalGrey]

She's back in action.
Added some pre-boost fuel, and added a touch more on the general fuel screw. Idle smoothed out a bit and oddly enough the black idle haze calmed down a touch. 
Took it out for a quick spin and she's back to normal operations in terms of power, moving quickly and being responsive to throttle input is always nice. 

As a celebration for making it work correctly, I took it back apart. 
Before the meet I made it to last year I did something with the thermostat housing (replaced the thermostat maybe?) and found some sketchy stuff going on there. 
There are two "blocks" that get sandwiched against the head, and held with three bolts, for the water pump pass through, and the thermostat housing. 1 bolt was snapped, one was stripped, and the other felt weird. 

Took it apart to find exactly what I expected. Broken bolt, two stripped bolt holes, and RTV black on absolutely everything. 

This did require removing the timing belt once again, so I will get the chance to really perfect timing these motors / pumps....

Bolt ended up getting drilled out, and a helicoil put in place, which I did with the other two holes as well. I didn't reassemble anything yet as I was contemplating between ordering proper gaskets or just using RTV red on the whole assy. 

I also finally got my lower 324TD radiator hose from Latvia, which took forever to get.
Replacing my hose "solution" is nice.
Also shown is the fuel filter bracket from the E28, I am going to see if I can fit that to the E30 chassis. 

Fun fun fun!

[Jdesign]

"As a celebration for making it work correctly, I took it back apart"

LOLZ