Really no big plans for the car this year other than some continued maintenance. I addressed a big portion of things on top and front of the motor last summer. Aiming to target the lower portion and the rear.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I still have this Ireland Engineering cat back I bought last summer and never had installed, so that will be a big thing I’ll look to have done. 

OFHG for sure, and possibly looking at having the RMS and crank seal done. Have the trans resealed, new guibo, trans mounts, slave cylinder, drive shaft CSB, etc. Starting to build out the shopping cart on FCP.

Hopefully just a lot more miles this year. I’ve owned this car for 4(5?) years now and I think I’ve only put on like 2-3K miles. 
 

Jdesign said:

Where did you order from? 

Condor speed shop

SteelBlue said:

Also, my matching shift boot arrived this morning. Think it ties in nicely without being gaudy.

Where did you order from?

I went with the tried and true Continental head unit. This was my first time doing any kind of stereo work(other than the speakers in my truck). The install was pretty straight forward, but was a little confusing at first because there weren’t some of the wires that were mentioned in the install. Realized I had to peel the loom back a little to exposed them.

Was great to hear actual music come from the speakers instead of the R2D2 noises. Heard a little bit of thump coming from the rear deck speaker. Pulled it out, realized that the little rubber seal that sits on the metal frame of the speaker had come undone in one portion. Used some flexible super glue to get it set in place.

Sounds great for what it is, and really glad to no longer use a Bluetooth speaker.

P_Roloff said:

I believe the donut gaskets can both be replaced, however I have only ever done the one that sits loose between the flanges on the cat and cat back section. 
 

I’d like to preface this by saying I have an aftermarket muffler so it might not be the same, but on mine, one donut is pressed onto one of the pipes on the cat side, with an inch or two of pipe extending beyond it, and the other cat side pipe ends in just a flared flange. On the cat back side, both pipe ends are flared. Thus, when you put them together, the small protruding pipe section on the cat side serves to line everything up, and once it’s nearly in place you slip the other donut in between the two flared flanges on the second side and then bolt everything together to hold it all in place. 
 

So yes, you should in theory be able to replace them both. The donut that is pressed on will probably have to be cut off, however, if your exhaust is anything like mine was. 
 

I also just took a closer look at your pictures, and it appears one of your bolt flanges is broken in half on the cat side, so that’ll be your bigger issue here. That’ll require fab work of some sort because those wont come off/go back on due to the flared pipe ends. 

Yes, the flared bolted flange is the issue. I was incorrectly using the donut gasket and the flange terms backwards for what I was trying to describe. But yes, I'm starting to look around for local shops that could cut the flared end off after the cat and weld a flared piece back on, or just weld the flange on.

I am using the Ireland Engineering catback exhaust which is pretty much a factory replacement with just a slightly different muffler(only in sound, dimensions appear the same).

I’d like to preface this by saying I have an aftermarket muffler so it might not be the same, but on mine, one donut is pressed onto one of the pipes on the cat side, with an inch or two of pipe extending beyond it, and the other cat side pipe ends in just a flared flange. On the cat back side, both pipe ends are flared. Thus, when you put them together, the small protruding pipe section on the cat side serves to line everything up, and once it’s nearly in place you slip the other donut in between the two flared flanges on the second side and then bolt everything together to hold it all in place. 
 

So yes, you should in theory be able to replace them both. The donut that is pressed on will probably have to be cut off, however, if your exhaust is anything like mine was. 
 

I also just took a closer look at your pictures, and it appears one of your bolt flanges is broken in half on the cat side, so that’ll be your bigger issue here. That’ll require fab work of some sort because those wont come off/go back on due to the flared pipe ends.

Might have to bring it somewhere for this to be fabbed.

it’s dripping because I was soaking all bolts and nuts in rust penetrate

YoungCR said:

The conti unit is the best choice unless you want to shell out money for the “Blaupunkt” Bremen SQR 46 DAB. The Clarion FZ-102E has been discontinued which sucks because it just needed updates like modern Bluetooth.

I was gonna suggest contacting Car-Feteria in milwaukee but looks like they finally closed up shop. Maybe r3v or elsewhere might have suggestions for old school stereo shops that still repair OEM units. 

I purchased the Conti unit last night.

Also, my matching shift boot arrived this morning. Think it ties in nicely without being gaudy.

I also added a tube of the Lucas fuel treatment someone had suggested.

I was gonna suggest contacting Car-Feteria in milwaukee but looks like they finally closed up shop. Maybe r3v or elsewhere might have suggestions for old school stereo shops that still repair OEM units.

I pulled the deck out, and un hooked the speaker wires from the back of the deck, and then turned the radio on. According to the trouble shooting process outlined in this post, if you don't hear the bad sounds when the speakers are undone, then it's the deck. Which was the case for my test, no noise made when I undid the wires and turned the deck on, and turned it all the way up. As soon as I would touch one of the speaker wires to the deck, the sound would come back.

I wasn't able to recreate the second portion of his post where you plug a speaker into the back of the deck. I have a non powered speaker on my desk that I brought to the car and tried plugging the positive wire into the speaker output on the deck and grounding the negative wire on the radio chassis. Was not able to get a sound. But that could be because I didn't have a connector on the wire and was just sticking the bare wire in, or I wasn't grounding it properly.

Regardless, I think I have gotten to the point that I can make an assumption that there is an issue with the deck. I even tried the method of using electronics cleaner on the volume knob and the receptacle of the deck outlined in this post. But no luck.

My next choice is to now either go with the continental or find an OEM replacement. Leaning toward the Conti.

Looking on eBay, do these CM5908's really go for hundreds of dollars?

**I'm assuming this connection is for if it had a CD change in the back?

Reading another thread on R3V, apparently it's for a 5 or 7 series that used the same radio but had an LCD display.

Carpet extraction, Leatherique, and exhaust are the first bits on the list to start the season off.

Actual spring can't come soon enough.

SteelBlue said:

Probably will just end of buying this.

https://www.iemotorsport.com/product/exhaust-hanger-kit-e30-m20/

I'll have to check, but it looks like the cat back came with 4 exhaust studs and nuts.

I’m lacking on sleep, sorry I was thinking about the exhaust manifolds when I wrote that. That IE kit has everything you’d need from the manifolds back.

YoungCR said:

This and I would just plan on getting a full set of studs/nuts to replace them. It’s tedious but you’re likely to have a few of those nuts seized to the stud and will only come out as one.

Probably will just end of buying this.

https://www.iemotorsport.com/product/exhaust-hanger-kit-e30-m20/

I'll have to check, but it looks like the cat back came with 4 exhaust studs and nuts.

Boris3 said:

Exhaust removal can be a pain. Start spraying down assorted exhaust bolts/nuts now with penetrant of choice. 

This and I would just plan on getting a full set of studs/nuts to replace them. It’s tedious but you’re likely to have a few of those nuts seized to the stud and will only come out as one.

I did take the interior apart to make it easier for them to do the repair. Now it’s exposed and ready for them to replace.

You can see where it appears to have been leaking based on the carpet. It might be the O rings that failed, but I’m just going to replace all of it.

SteelBlue said:

Posted in the FB group chat, but was able to score two pretty rare items for a steal on eBay last week. They are in pretty good condition, the dead pedal has a little bit of the paint flaking. I’m not sure if these are painted or powder coated from the factory. 

I don’t know what the proper way to “restore” these would be. Media blasting and then powder coated? Or would it be better to just leave them as is? The valve cover would be a really good candidate for dry ice cleaning.

Sandblast, Powdercoat, Sand. And I would clear powercoat over the top.

Posted in the FB group chat, but was able to score two pretty rare items for a steal on eBay last week. They are in pretty good condition, the dead pedal has a little bit of the paint flaking. I’m not sure if these are painted or powder coated from the factory. 

I don’t know what the proper way to “restore” these would be. Media blasting and then powder coated? Or would it be better to just leave them as is? The valve cover would be a really good candidate for dry ice cleaning.

Only issues are that the shifter in neutral sits at maybe a 10-15 degree tilt towards the passenger side, not a huge deal, but a little annoying. Another thing, and maybe this is me only used to driving cars with factory shifters, is the 1-2 throw feels a little more difficult. If I had to rate the 1-2 throw, it would be maybe 4.5-5 out of 10 in terms of effort needed. Where as the others are more like a 3-3.5, compared to stock which I would say was like a 2-2.5. Only other thing, is that the ZHP weighted knob must not fit the profile of the shifter itself as it has maybe 5 degrees of rotational play in it. It doesn’t feel like it would come off, but it’s a little annoying that it rotates a little, and makes a little bit of clacking when going through the gears.

UUC did not include the six Allen head bolts that connect the collar to the carrier arm, so I bought some Phillips screws of the same pitch. They were a little longer than the ones that would have been included, so they had to be shimmed with some washers so the screws wouldn’t contact the ball the shifter pivots on. My only thought as to why the couple of things might be out of whack.

Overall, very pleased with it, even without the DSSR, it feels extremely tight and directional. For me, this car exceeds at the warm summer evening, back road, sunset country cruise with the radio(Bluetooth speaker in my case) playing some good tunes. Really hard to beat.

B C said:

Cool story!

explain the steam cleaned undercarriage? Is it particularly oily? Or are you about to park it over some mirrors at a car show?

Trans is pretty grimey, but it’s honestly just something that I’ve wanted to do and even more so want to do after being introduced to dry ice blasting. Just having things cleaned, and knowing that they are really cleaned, makes me feel better. It also makes things much more enjoyable to work on when they are clean.