Lifted E30 V2

[Jdesign]

That elbow is wild. I bet this make a hell of a difference. Glad to see progress on this!

[GunMetalGrey]

I started it yesterday. 
Didn't drive it

More on this pressing story later

[dealindave]

In for updates. Saw you moved to the mountains and was wondering if this project went with. Hoping to see it in the next Gambler 500 as I've wanted to run a lifted E30 in it since I heard about it a few years ago.

[SteelBlue]

dealindave said:

In for updates. Saw you moved to the mountains and was wondering if this project went with. Hoping to see it in the next Gambler 500 as I've wanted to run a lifted E30 in it since I heard about it a few years ago. 

It is currently sitting in Appleton.

[GunMetalGrey]

dealindave said:

In for updates. Saw you moved to the mountains and was wondering if this project went with. Hoping to see it in the next Gambler 500 as I've wanted to run a lifted E30 in it since I heard about it a few years ago. 

It didn't make the cut to be brought with right away, as I didn't have an actual place to live yet. 

I'm in a house now with a 2 car garage, parking on the side for two, and room for two in the driveway. 

My intent at this time is to find another E30 out here and swap the driveline between the two. The lifted E30 game is amusing, but I miss having something that does corners, and think the diesel would be a hoot in a lowered chassis. I've got the truck if I want to go rip around in the woods. 

But who knows, maybe I'll get it out here and find some places to mess around with it and change my mind. 

If anyone has a hookup on shipping cars let me know!

[GunMetalGrey]

I forgot to update this, but the car got shipped out to me many weeks ago. 
It has largely just sat here so far, but the other day I got tired of trying to start it and decided it was time to try different things.

It started with a "lift" pump for the fuel feed from tank, which is for this specific engine which I found weird. 
Didn't really change anything.

After that I started thinking about glow plugs. I have never really known when they should be on, so I decided to leave them on and see what happened. 
Well put a stick up my rear and make me talk, the damn thing started immediately after having the plugs on for about 15 seconds and leaving them on during cranking. I shut them off after it started and it missed a bit again so once again I turned them on for 15 or so seconds and everything was ducky. 
I have repeated this process a couple times over the past few weeks and it is always working which is cool.

Since the car has arrived back in my possession it no longer makes full boost per a one run test. The turbo screams away but only musters up 5 psi. I need to verify this again, then buy an air compressor I think to be able to check for leaks, though I would think something that is allowing that much air out would be evident! 

Beyond that I'm unsure what the fate of this car is.

[patsbimmer1]

GunMetalGrey said:

Does this car have a switch to manually operate the glow plugs?  I've only ever seen them initiated by the ignition switch.

[YoungCR]

GunMetalGrey said:

After that I started thinking about glow plugs. I have never really known when they should be on, so I decided to leave them on and see what happened. 

Your compression ignition engine has a pre ignition chamber in the head which requires heat to ignite the fuel, hence the job of the glow plugs on colder days. Anything below 35 degrees the motor probably won’t be able to generate enough mechanical heat to get the job done on its own. 
 

As Pat said usually it’s all just tied into the ignition system. Did the E28 have a glow plug controller?

[GunMetalGrey]

patsbimmer1 said:

Does this car have a switch to manually operate the glow plugs?  I've only ever seen them initiated by the ignition switch.

It sure does have a switch for them lol.

The stock E28 does have a controller for them, but in going manual and not fully caring about electronics I didn't concern myself with pinning the flywheel and finding the injector that has a sensor in it to tell the ecu what is going on. I am flying completely mechanical at this time.

[Jdesign]

GunMetalGrey said:

Since the car has arrived back in my possession it no longer makes full boost per a one run test. The turbo screams away but only musters up 5 psi. I need to verify this again, then buy an air compressor I think to be able to check for leaks, though I would think something that is allowing that much air out would be evident! 

Beyond that I'm unsure what the fate of this car is. 

I would guess boost leak. does the turbo spin freely? a bad or sticky bear could cause less boost too.

[GunMetalGrey]

Jdesign said:

I would guess boost leak. does the turbo spin freely? a bad or sticky bear could cause less boost too.

Turbo is doing everything it can to make pressure, but the lil guy can only do so much. 
It does actually make about 10psi, but is not opening the wastegate, you can hear air escaping somewhere.
I took each part of the intercooler circuit apart and everything looks fine and mouth tests fine.

I left plenty of things behind in WI thinking we wouldn't have enough room in the truck to bring them along, but that truck was pretty empty! Oh well!

[GunMetalGrey]

Why do people on FB think used air compressors are worth their weight in gold?!

I'm trying to follow a budget, so the boost leak testing hasn't happened yet, but I think I'm going to grab one of these guys. 
Anyone have experience with one of these?
https://www.harborfreight.com/8-gallon-15-hp-150-psi-oil-free-portable-air-compressor-64294.html

I haven't run air tools in a long time because electric tools are so good these days, but don't want to go to a pancake compressor. I feel like this one would be convenient to stick up in the rafters and hook a reel to it.

[HipMF]

Bike pump?

Compressed air is better than no compressed air, but I would apply the harbor freight rule here. Are you going to use it more than once? Then get a decent one. An air compressor takes up too much space to have one that's not quite good enough for what you need it for, but it still works so you keep hanging on to it forever...

One of those cigarette lighter tire infiltrators should be good enough to find a boost leak, and then you can just throw it in the trunk...

[gilber33]

I have a Husky 8 gallon Air Compressor that is very similar to the HF one you linked. Used it for my air nailers on our home renovation, building my garage, building the shed on the back of my garage and it has never had an issue. I would have more faith in the Husky compressor vs the HF compressor.

[GunMetalGrey]

HipMF said:

Bike pump?

Compressed air is better than no compressed air, but I would apply the harbor freight rule here. Are you going to use it more than once? Then get a decent one. An air compressor takes up too much space to have one that's not quite good enough for what you need it for, but it still works so you keep hanging on to it forever...

One of those cigarette lighter tire infiltrators should be good enough to find a boost leak, and then you can just throw it in the trunk...

Twas thinking about a bike pump as well, but having a compressor at the house for tubeless tires and various other things is never a bad thing.
Cigarette lighter pump is likely too loud to use for boost leak testing

gilber33 said:

I have a Husky 8 gallon Air Compressor that is very similar to the HF one you linked. Used it for my air nailers on our home renovation, building my garage, building the shed on the back of my garage and it has never had an issue. I would have more faith in the Husky compressor vs the HF compressor. 

That was one place I didn't look (somehow) and the extra $10 is likely well worth it!

Thanks gents!

[straight6pwr]

they are all the same. the only question is which is easiest to return/replace when the time comes?

or you could just pick one for a random reason. the McGraw is pretty, it is Gulf Porsche colors.

[HipMF]

straight6pwr said:

they are all the same. the only question is which is easiest to return/replace when the time comes?

or you could just pick one for a random reason. the McGraw is pretty, it is Gulf Porsche colors.

This is more or less what I was thinking. A year or two down the road a guy picks up an air tool figuring, "oh, I have a compressor, this will be perfect.", then realizes what he actually has is basically a 12v tire inflator pump with an 8-gallon tank on it. </rant>

[jc43089]

I would not get an oil free compressor, they are all very light duty and won't last doing real air tool things.  I have a small Puma compressor that I bought used for 60$ several years ago and it works good when I don't want to use the big compressor.

[Jdesign]

jc43089 said:

I would not get an oil free compressor, they are all very light duty and won't last doing real air tool things.  I have a small Puma compressor that I bought used for 60$ several years ago and it works good when I don't want to use the big compressor.

I have an oil free compressor that I have had since 2003. Works great to this day.

[GunMetalGrey]

Went the Husky route, and need to find an air reel (when did those get so expensive?!) 
Conveniently the whack schedule sizing works out well for the inlet of the turbo (60mm) to use a 2" rubber coupler to a 2" Sch. 40 cap with a pressure regulator on it. 

Now to take it out of the box and figure out where my boost is going!
Then after that I need to find where my brake fluid is going....