E30 M52

[B C]

A year ago when I popped my engine and parked it out at the inlaws' place for long term storage I had a little mouse problem (they live in the woods). Not only did they nibble on the o2 sensor wires, they took my entire bag of dill pickle sunflower seeds and ate it, leaving the shells inside and outside my car. I set lots of traps but after clearing them all a few times I decided that trying to fight a mouse problem at a house in the woods would be like Will Smith's character in I Am Legend trying to take on the entire population of those infected zombie things.

I called Chadley, he brought over the Chummins and towed me back to my house where its safe.

Well I thought I had cleared all the sunflower seeds but alas, here are more

E30 booster removed. Here it is next to the reman. E21 booster I will be installing. It is only slightly smaller diameter but it does sit tighter against the firewall. We will see how that works.

Check out the booster hardware access hole in the brake pedal!

Neet.

The E30 throttle cable was replaced with an E34 M50 throttle cable

I act like this is some sort of marvelous progress but in reality its not. Forgive me.

Next up: modify/shorten the E21 booster threaded rod, bolt it up and finish cleaning the engine bay.

[YoungCR]

Progress is progress!

[Jdesign]

Nice!! that booster looks like a great way to save space for the intake manifold. I dont think I have heard of anyone using an E21 booster before even though it seems like the most sensible option.

[B C]

There are so many different ways to do this swap and a handful of conflicting information I have found. Everyone seems to complain about the E21 booster and the heavy brakes due to reduced mechanical advantage. Between a reman. booster (not a 36 year old used one), a new master cylinder, and some pads with a good cold bite, I think I should manage

[Jdesign]

Snap said:

There are so many different ways to do this swap and a handful of conflicting information I have found. Everyone seems to complain about the E21 booster and the heavy brakes due to reduced mechanical advantage. Between a reman. booster (not a 36 year old used one), a new master cylinder, and some pads with a good cold bite, I think I should manage

IMO I think brakes are such a hard thing to judge because everyone has their own opinion on what they are looking for and how they feel.

[B C]

I would also wager that a lot of people put far too aggressive pads on street cars. Even the Metalmasters on my car (purchased per Turner Motorsports' recommendation) arent very wonderful around town. They work fine, but compared to newer cars and ceramic pads, it leaves me wanting some more cold bite.

[B C]

Grimey oil filter housings require no fewer than 3 brushes, 2 rolls of paper towels, and 3 cans of brake cleaner/simple green to clean up. There are so many nooks and crannies in the casting.

I'm considering it good and moving on.

[B C]

I have formed a rough list of milestones to be up and running in September. I'm unsure of my ability to get it all done in time. It needs to be done properly and I wont install a temporary anything to be up and running. it needs to be complete.

7/22 - finish cleaning and painting engine, finish cleaning and painting engine bay, brake booster modified and installed

7/29 - cams installed/timed, new CSB installed on driveshaft, oil pump shaft replaced and safety wired, trans input seal replaced

8/5 -  Front and rear main seals replaced, engine and trans fully assembled as a unit with M50 oil pan installed

8/12- Subframe removed, CABs replaced with smaller Treehouse lollipops

8/19 - Engine, trans, and subframe installed and in the car

8/26 - Figure out exhaust routing, install fan, all electrical and plumbing connections made

9/2 - Finish exhaust, install bumper + valence

9/9 - bleed brakes, clutch, coolant, add oil, prime engine, start engine, test drive

9/16 - fudge week

9/23 - fudge week

[B C]

Cutting and re-threading the rod on the e21 booster is a royal pain because of how difficult it is to hold the rod steady and keep it from rotating and wobbling

But it is finished

[GunMetalGrey]

I enjoy coming to this thread and seeing updates! 
Keep up the good work!

[m42b32]

Fall meet or bust!!

[KaiserRolls]

Bust meat or fall!

[B C]

bust meat or fall!  hahaha!

The forum has felt a little bit slow lately so I'm glad to know the thread has some traffic.

I was on Joe's case to make it to the picnic and now I'm in the hot seat.

It's going to be mighty close

[straight6pwr]

Snap said:

The forum has felt a little bit slow lately so I'm glad to know the thread has some traffic.

the summertime boom in a Midwest town. gotta get all the activities in.

lovin the updates.

[B C]

Between a kid's birthday party out in bum-fudge land and a dinner date all I got done was a few finishing touches on the brake booster. My revised tune did arrive though. 7100 soft limit, 7250 hard limit instead of the 7400 limit before, stock is 6500, also set for 93 octane instead of 91 as it was mistakenly set for before.

[Bassboy3313]

Keep it up!

Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk

[B C]

The brake hard line retainer needed some modifying in order for the E21 booster to sit flat on the firewall since it does not stand off as far as the E30 booster does. It looks like this may not be an issue if all the firewall insulation was removed but I like my firewall insulation.

There are two spaces for the hard line to snap into and one of them simply gets cut off with a dremel.

The firewall gasket is either NLA or im not seeing it on RealOEM. I gave it a go making my own gasket with some gasket material but ended up just running a small bead of clear silicone that wont bond the booster to the firewall

The booster is in and connected but I will leave the kick panels off until I can find a clutch return spring.

When I did my manual swap I dont think I had the clutch return spring, and it isnt really needed except to pull up a 1/4" of dead travel in the pedal when its disengaged. I find myself instinctively lifting the backside of the clutch pedal with my left foot. It isnt hurting anything but my subconscious mind obviously cares about it so I better install a return spring for it.

Its also possible that the automatic pedal box didnt have the provision for the spring attachment or something. I forget.

[Jdesign]

More progress! I like this. I had no idea your car was originally an auto. Intradusting!

[B C]

Time for my daily micro update with almost negligible progress!

I received some more gaskets and seals in the mail. I cleaned up the crustaceans inside and outside of the water flange on the rear of the head, replaced the gasket, I dont care that it has a small bead of embedded silicone, im adding my small slather of gray RTV anyways.

I started working on the rear main seal

We have a nice little groove here. I will install the new seal with maybe 1-1.5mm protrusion so it rides on a clean surface and doesnt hang up on the groove when being installed.

Should work like a charm. If I ever need to mess with it again I will do a speedi-sleeve

[KaiserRolls]

DUDE

THE DAMN LAST 1/4" OF PEDAL TRAVEL

My car was also manual swapped at some point in it's life.

I cannot stress how often I pull the pedal up with the top of my foot.

Drives my OCD insane