E30 M52
-
Last night I pulled the car out into the street with the open headers disrupting suburbia. There were 2 ~10 year old boys walking down the road and they watched me pull the car out with some sort of curiosity and fear on their face as if my next move was going to be a full throttle charge right at them. Being less of a psychopath than that, I simply turned the car around and pulled it back in the driveway for some coolant bleeding. I didn't scrape my skid plate or exhaust on my driveway entry which is very surprising. The two boys then walked over after i shut the car off and said "HEY, NICE CAR!" . Lesson of the day: Loud=Nice.
I let the engine idle for 15 minutes or so and it got up to operating temperature for the first time to bleed the cooling system and top off the fluids. Everything is looking good so far and it has a rock solid idle. The lifters were a little noisy compared to the other times I have ran the car so perhaps they will pump up all the way once I start driving and build some more oil pressure and be nice and quiet again, regardless even if they don't, its still less racket than a certain previous engine I owned with solid lifters.
The fuel is very old and unfortunately I have a pretty full tank of it to burn through so once the exhaust is finished I will need to resist the urge to accelerate hard until I can get some fresh fuel in there since im sure the old gas wont jive well with the 93 octane tune.
-
Last night I pulled the car out into the street with the open headers disrupting suburbia. There were 2 ~10 year old boys walking down the road and they watched me pull the car out with some sort of curiosity and fear on their face as if my next move was going to be a full throttle charge right at them. Being less of a psychopath than that, I simply turned the car around and pulled it back in the driveway for some coolant bleeding. I didn't scrape my skid plate or exhaust on my driveway entry which is very surprising. The two boys then walked over after i shut the car off and said "HEY, NICE CAR!" . Lesson of the day: Loud=Nice.
I let the engine idle for 15 minutes or so and it got up to operating temperature for the first time to bleed the cooling system and top off the fluids. Everything is looking good so far and it has a rock solid idle. The lifters were a little noisy compared to the other times I have ran the car so perhaps they will pump up all the way once I start driving and build some more oil pressure and be nice and quiet again, regardless even if they don't, its still less racket than a certain previous engine I owned with solid lifters.
The fuel is very old and unfortunately I have a pretty full tank of it to burn through so once the exhaust is finished I will need to resist the urge to accelerate hard until I can get some fresh fuel in there since im sure the old gas wont jive well with the 93 octane tune.
If you hold 3k idle for 2-3mins the lifters should bleed. If not. Rinse and repeat
-
If I hold 3k idle for 2-3mins my neighbors ears will bleed.
jk
the exhaust cant go on soon enough though.Lol
-
If you hold 3k idle for 2-3mins the lifters should bleed. If not. Rinse and repeat
Agreed had to do it last year and this year also had some ticking the other day when I started it.
-
-
I just ordered a dash cover, we shall see how this turns out
https://www.covercraft.com/us/en/product/suedemat-custom-dash-cover.DMS
-
I just ordered a dash cover, we shall see how this turns out
https://www.covercraft.com/us/en/product/suedemat-custom-dash-cover.DMS
-
An S52 is just an M52 with fat cylinder walls.
That’s backwards
-
That’s backwards
dangit, you are right
An M52 is just an S52 with fat cylinder walls
-
Maiden Voyage:
I drove the car 5 miles to drop it off and get some exhaust pipes welded once and for all.
Even with the smaller brake booster the brake assist is decent, probably better than before thanks to a new booster and MC but the pads have always had crappy cold bite and are pretty worn now so the pedal travel isnt ideal.
I dont know if its the engine mounts or if the headers are just too close to the body but it vibrates everything. Its awful! Hopefully I get used to it or the exhaust work helps things.
The car idles solid, throttle response is great and it moves right off the line without bogging. I only had the car up to 3000 rpm but it definitely felt really slow off the line compared to my Infiniti. I was waiting for the in-rush of boost that I got used to with the last M20 build but it was just stale
At one point while cruising in 4th or 5th at low rpm, I couldnt tell if i was losing throttle response or just not used to the fuel cutoff/dead zone in the pedal. I pulled onto the shoulder to investigate but before i came to a stop it seemed like everything was fine and perhaps just my imagination. Between the extremely loud exhaust and fear of breaking down, I had plenty of anxiety, so it could have very well been my imagination.
Right after that though, the temp gauge started climbing around 3/4, but not quite to the red.
This is where hitting the dash and tapping on the cluster come in to play since the cluster has been known to glitch out.
The needle wasnt responding to my usual glitch remedy so i pulled over and turned the car off. When i clicked the ignition back on the needle snapped back to 1/2..... hmm alright. my destination was just a few blocks away so I kept going.
I arrived, shut off the car and popped the hood. There was a small puff of steam. The source of the steam was a coolant hose that was just about to slide off the water pump housing. Im very surprised it did not pop off and belch coolant everywhere.
I had idled the car for 15 minutes before and checked everything over a few weeks ago. But now with some revs and some pressure I suppose it pushed it off.
The clutch felt great, i did hear the clutch disc “skipping” a little during engagement though. Couldnt feel it, only heard it. So I hope this is just from the metal surfaces sitting for a couple years and will go away after some drive time, like when your rotors get rusty.
I didnt scrape on anything. Even railroad tracks.
I should be able to pick the car up tomorrow night. I sure hope I like it better once the exhaust is on.
-
I'm sure it will all be fine. You know you're driving a car for the induction noises and it's NA power so you'll never get that sensation. My S50 rocked steady all the way to redline but it never had any of that oomph that I had come to expect from the 135. You know this of course but I'm sure it feels weird still after a turbo setup before.
2011 E92 M3 6MT ZCP - ESS 625 supercharged
2007 Z4MR
2003 E39 M5
2002 E46 M3
2021 X5 40i -
You should borrow bens temp gun
-
The rattling is just from open headers. I had the exhaust fall off of my Corolla (maybe from jumping curbs) and it would rattle your teeth out with it open after the cat.
Also these engines shine the most ABOVE 3000 RPM. You will like it once you get used to it. I think it is less obvious on OBD2 but on OBD1 the vanos point around 3500RPM is like switching on noticeably more HP.
Edit: Also you might have had a bubble of air in the cooling system, I usually hold the revs around 2000 when bleeding to get some velocity of coolant to carry the air into the radiator to come out the bleed hose.
-
I think what you may have been dealing with in terms of "stale" power is the fact that you were used to boost building without increasing throttle input.
Now you'll need to lean on the throttle more to get more out of it, which will be a change of habit.I'm glad to hear things are going alright!
-
The rattling is just from open headers. I had the exhaust fall off of my Corolla (maybe from jumping curbs) and it would rattle your teeth out with it open after the cat.
Also these engines shine the most ABOVE 3000 RPM. You will like it once you get used to it. I think it is less obvious on OBD2 but on OBD1 the vanos point around 3500RPM is like switching on noticeably more HP.
Edit: Also you might have had a bubble of air in the cooling system, I usually hold the revs around 2000 when bleeding to get some velocity of coolant to carry the air into the radiator to come out the bleed hose.
Yeah, it was tough to bleed the system in suburbia when its idling like a top fuel dragster. When I pick the car up I will come armed with a temp gun, gallon of coolant, and bleeding supplies and do it in the parking lot.
I think what you may have been dealing with in terms of "stale" power is the fact that you were used to boost building without increasing throttle input.
Now you'll need to lean on the throttle more to get more out of it, which will be a change of habit.I'm glad to hear things are going alright!
Yeah that is true, your initial throttle input to accelerate gradually gets an added dose of power once the turbina wakes up.
Im feeling a little more excited about things today. Yesterday I had plenty of chaos unrelated to the E30 that contributed to the anxiety of the maiden voyage. I have to be happy that it idles well and doesnt leak oil. Here's to hoping a simple re-bleed tonight will have me running cool for years to come
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login