My E30 daily beater / track Sl*g
Discussion
So.. winding back to December '05 I brought the BMW from ebay for a knock down price having made a offer. So headed home that night with a new car to replace the now dead Manta 1800.
Almost a week later I had the car fully serviced to BMW Maintenance 2 standards and a fresh set of springs and front tyres before friend of mine did a few pictures for his website.
Bar swapping off a few bits and bobs, including having Powerflex bushes installed into the rear subframe after i popped one, curing a misfire with fresh leads and a new dizzy and fresh rear tyres, the car continued on though the MOT without a hitch. It passed first time with only an exhaust bush being an advisory!
And so i went to university, and the BMW went with me, though in December '06 on the way to MPH at the NEC , a truck ahead pulled this into the road...
Which resulted in this...
The car got towed home and I had to survive for the best part of a month without transport while at university (Anyone who's lugged their shopping home on foot knows that 'fun' :wack:
So when i got back for Christmas the car needed a new sump, a quick appeal on E30zone resulted in a sump for a bargain price and so i spent a nice 6 hours freezing myself silly
So after that happened I decided it was time to sort the suspension issue, by this time the car was bouncing about on the springs, and it felt like a boat.
After a trawl though E30Zone, a 325i Sport turned up that was being broken locally for bits. A deal was struck and a few weeks later i picked up this little lot, in addition to which i added a set of front lower Powerflex wishbone bushes.
After cleaning.... I discovered this
One trip to a scrapyard proved fruitful
Around October last year i got ahold of a 3.91 ratio LSD and installed it
Some seat swapping with my Manta project and a TRS harness later, this was in.
Went on aDWYB day till the TPS broke, fixed it a few days later but i got a good day still outta it
Some rust
....
Which was cut out and fixed, with this as the result
More bits coming, got the studs though a BMW Stealers, but not bad considering it was only about £5 for the lot :wack:
The bearings.. curtiousy of SKF, since i'm there on a year's placement i asked about maybe buying new wheel bearings from them, instead i get them free of charge!
:wack:
Still gotta go to Daventry and pull an E36 rack and coloum for a conversion, fresh crush washers for the hoses, new power steering fluid.
Also getting new RTA bushes (BMW originals for £12 a side)
Braided brake hoses
and Castrol SRF brake fluid
And all this before the MOT's due in August :wack:
Hoping to get this all sorted and maybe do a Ring run or Le Mans next year
Almost a week later I had the car fully serviced to BMW Maintenance 2 standards and a fresh set of springs and front tyres before friend of mine did a few pictures for his website.
Bar swapping off a few bits and bobs, including having Powerflex bushes installed into the rear subframe after i popped one, curing a misfire with fresh leads and a new dizzy and fresh rear tyres, the car continued on though the MOT without a hitch. It passed first time with only an exhaust bush being an advisory!
And so i went to university, and the BMW went with me, though in December '06 on the way to MPH at the NEC , a truck ahead pulled this into the road...
Which resulted in this...
The car got towed home and I had to survive for the best part of a month without transport while at university (Anyone who's lugged their shopping home on foot knows that 'fun' :wack:
So when i got back for Christmas the car needed a new sump, a quick appeal on E30zone resulted in a sump for a bargain price and so i spent a nice 6 hours freezing myself silly
So after that happened I decided it was time to sort the suspension issue, by this time the car was bouncing about on the springs, and it felt like a boat.
After a trawl though E30Zone, a 325i Sport turned up that was being broken locally for bits. A deal was struck and a few weeks later i picked up this little lot, in addition to which i added a set of front lower Powerflex wishbone bushes.
After cleaning.... I discovered this
One trip to a scrapyard proved fruitful
Around October last year i got ahold of a 3.91 ratio LSD and installed it
Some seat swapping with my Manta project and a TRS harness later, this was in.
Went on aDWYB day till the TPS broke, fixed it a few days later but i got a good day still outta it
Some rust
....Which was cut out and fixed, with this as the result
More bits coming, got the studs though a BMW Stealers, but not bad considering it was only about £5 for the lot :wack:
The bearings.. curtiousy of SKF, since i'm there on a year's placement i asked about maybe buying new wheel bearings from them, instead i get them free of charge!
:wack: Still gotta go to Daventry and pull an E36 rack and coloum for a conversion, fresh crush washers for the hoses, new power steering fluid.
Also getting new RTA bushes (BMW originals for £12 a side)
Braided brake hoses
and Castrol SRF brake fluid
And all this before the MOT's due in August :wack:
Hoping to get this all sorted and maybe do a Ring run or Le Mans next year
fieldl said:
Whereabouts did you mount the harnesses ?
The eyelets were screwed into the seatbelt mounting points both on the back seat and down beside the seat, the waist strap is bolted to the seat's subframe, crude but does work wellsniff petrol said:
Rather than the E36 rack have you investigated the option of a Z3 rack? quicker rack and apparently bolts straight in - Pistonheader "ShropshireMike" is the man to ask. Maybe ask on the BMW forum.
E30 in white looks great BTW.
Hehe they do look good in white, and yes did look into a Z3 1.9 rack (2.8 turns lock to lock i think) problem is, they're rarer than rocking horse poo... and i need to swap the rack out asap since the old one's shot and won't pass the MOT in august E30 in white looks great BTW.
And so after 2 days.... Ugh I loath this car so much however...
One new hose from Pertec, good for 5000psi though cost me £80!!!!
New rack in place, after having to space it out with washers , drill out the holes to 11mm on the forward mounting points on the cross member and jacking the engine up to slip the new rack in. The return line is still E30 but was duely 'tweeked' to the right point in a vice but still needed some more in siture, real swine of a job to be honest!
Mounting point on the E36 rack that needed cutting back to not foul the sump
Got it all in, fired up and put fluid in....... no leaks
More fun today resealing the manifold... and then MOT cruch time
One new hose from Pertec, good for 5000psi though cost me £80!!!!
New rack in place, after having to space it out with washers , drill out the holes to 11mm on the forward mounting points on the cross member and jacking the engine up to slip the new rack in. The return line is still E30 but was duely 'tweeked' to the right point in a vice but still needed some more in siture, real swine of a job to be honest!
Mounting point on the E36 rack that needed cutting back to not foul the sump
Got it all in, fired up and put fluid in....... no leaks
More fun today resealing the manifold... and then MOT cruch time
Edited by Sf_Manta on Wednesday 20th August 12:11
Well, finally finished. Just need to get the car tracked up and off to the MOT
bay tomorrow at 3.40pm
Just got my setup for my conversion, it's a bit bodged since i miscalulated the length of spacer i needed
I'll correct this in the updated drawings if anyone's interested in having a spacer made up for their E30 to covert it to E36 rack spec and do away with that crappy rubber donut.
bay tomorrow at 3.40pm
Just got my setup for my conversion, it's a bit bodged since i miscalulated the length of spacer i needed
I'll correct this in the updated drawings if anyone's interested in having a spacer made up for their E30 to covert it to E36 rack spec and do away with that crappy rubber donut.Thread reserection time!
After a couple of months work, the car's been just used to go to work and back. Though one day the clutch started slipping and i soon found out after i'd had it replaced, that the engine had been missing it's rocker cover gasket. This was replaced along with a breather hose and it hasn't leaked any oil since :thumbsup:
Problem now is the starting up is noisy because of the morrons at the garage who left the motor loose!
It's gradually getting better since the gears are bedding back in, but not impressed! I've since swapped the starter out for another one but it is still noisy, mainly down to the ring gear having been damaged.
Besides that, Christmas was spent replacing the now leaking water pump for a new one, which follows the replacement of the radiator which sprung a leak back in November. I also found time to install the anti roll bars from a E30 Touring which have tightened up the handling no end
The rear wheel bearings are still to be replaced with the RTA bushes along with the braided hoses. I haven't had the time to drop the subframe off due to time and weather constraints and these will have to wait till the summer when i'll have 6 weeks off and good weather to do it in.
And after popping into the Autosports show on Saturday i got myself something new
After a couple of months work, the car's been just used to go to work and back. Though one day the clutch started slipping and i soon found out after i'd had it replaced, that the engine had been missing it's rocker cover gasket. This was replaced along with a breather hose and it hasn't leaked any oil since :thumbsup:
Problem now is the starting up is noisy because of the morrons at the garage who left the motor loose!
It's gradually getting better since the gears are bedding back in, but not impressed! I've since swapped the starter out for another one but it is still noisy, mainly down to the ring gear having been damaged. Besides that, Christmas was spent replacing the now leaking water pump for a new one, which follows the replacement of the radiator which sprung a leak back in November. I also found time to install the anti roll bars from a E30 Touring which have tightened up the handling no end
The rear wheel bearings are still to be replaced with the RTA bushes along with the braided hoses. I haven't had the time to drop the subframe off due to time and weather constraints and these will have to wait till the summer when i'll have 6 weeks off and good weather to do it in.
And after popping into the Autosports show on Saturday i got myself something new
Just a bit of news, ordered up a brand new LUK Clutch to replace the dodgy one and also got my good flywheel in at the machine shop for refacing and lightening
Stock flywheel is about 8kg+, and from what research i've done and people have mentioned, i can have it taken to 6kg safely with it being rebalanced.
Should liven the old BMW up a bit
Stock flywheel is about 8kg+, and from what research i've done and people have mentioned, i can have it taken to 6kg safely with it being rebalanced.
Should liven the old BMW up a bit
Edited by Sf_Manta on Tuesday 10th March 10:40
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff