elias

Finally got things moving with the e30. Fixed the touareg last week, so hired a trailer, rolled the e30 out the garage and down the driveway, loaded it up and took it to the panelbeater. It’ll be there for 2-3 weeks getting the rust hole fixed, the engine bay resprayed and the boot lip area rust will be sorted as well. 

picked up an engine crane off my mate, and made a start on the m52 refresh. Did the vanos rebuild last night, took a couple attempts to get the bearing preload right but not too bad. Reinstalled that hopefully it all works nicely. 
 

so far plan is to replace rear main and it’s housing gasket, sump gasket, valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket. Wire tie oil pump nut, delete the oil level sensor from the e34 oil pan, and do fresh oem pcv System. Anything else that’s work doing? Do the front timing covers ever leak? Seems like a bit of a pain to do with it being jammed up under the head gasket. 
 

1 hour ago, Olaf said:

I bought almost everything from FCP Euro.  They were a mix of Lemforder, Febi, all sorts.  Plenty of info on my build thread.

Sweet as I’ll take a look at your thread 

25 minutes ago, Olaf said:

I did my entire e30 with RUBBER.  It's firm without rattling my fillings, supple when it needs to be.  I think I did e36 front TABs from memory.  There are many providers of OEM and aftermarket in rubber.  Unless you're going racing on track, stick with rubber is my recommendation.

Right ok, yeah car won’t be going near the track, have the 135i for that. Which supplier did you go with? Anyone in particular you’d reccomend. 
 

58 minutes ago, Neil McCauley said:

80A is totally fine for a street driven E30 - I had purple Powerflex engine mounts / M3 offset LCA / 6x rear subframe / diff / rear suspension tops all in 80A and it was awesome.

Gearbox can be a little too aggressive despite the theory that you should match them to the hardness of the engine arms.

Sweet as that’s good to hear, would you recommend going with the offset LCA bushings? Also thinking of getting the raised rear subframe bushings as the car will be lowered. 

Been a bit slack with this project recently, trying to come up with a plan for rust etc, and needing to figure out what’s going on with the gearbox in my touareg. 
 

anyway, decided to let a panelbeater sort out the rust/engine bay paint work, so the car will be getting dropped off for rust repairs to the rust hole under the cowl, rust around the boot shut, and full engine bay respray after Anzac weekend. 
 

then I will begin working on the engine refresh in the meantime now that all the parts have arrived from overseas. 
 

also picked up a purple tag steering rack and cleaned it up, should sort out the bus like steering feel of these e30s. 

Thanks for the suggestions regarding the gearbox detents, spoke to Kayne Barrie, and will get him to sort that out for me, get him to give it a good look over at the same time. He’s doing “all stuff” as he calls it for $300 so I’m pretty happy with that, I will trust his judgement on what needs doing and what doesn’t.  
 

managed to snag a manual pedal box and some new tailight lenses as well as a dash mat last week for it too. E30 part pricing is so wildly all over the show that it really pays to be patient and keep an eye out for a deal. Had multiple people tell me they wouldn’t sell me a pedal box for less than $800, ended up picking mine up for $120. So much money to be saved if you can find a seller that doesn’t charge e30 tax. 

23 minutes ago, Sammo said:

I've just got 80a on my CABs and sway bar bushings, which don't impact NVH as you would expect - I would keep it fresh OEM rubber everywhere else though - certainly for engine / trans / diff, although have heard subframe may be OK with Poly.

Right makes sense, unfortunately I’ve already got 80A poly engine mounts as they make mounting the m52 much easier/better. Will most likely do 80A poly for control arms, rtab, swaybars, and subframe then and oem rubber for diff and trans. 

Looking to order some replacement bushings for my e30 in the near future, want to do the whole lot. Looking online almost everything appears to be poly or delrin. Now I’ve got some solid UHMW bushings in my 135i and it’s noisy and rattly which i don’t mind so much in that car as it’s uncomfortable anyway. 
 

however the e30 I am building as a result of this, it’s meant to be a nice comfortable sporty street car, getting an m52b28 and a zf box. Question is has anyone had any experience with the 80a poly suspension bushings? Are they still quite soft and quiet like oem, they are marketed as OEM+, with apparently no increase in NVH, would just like some first hand experience though. 

cheers!

picture of said e30 in its current state.

I believe this to be the owner, genuine bmw enthusiast and builds cars to a high standard. The s65 swap 1m clone he has built speaks for itself. 
 

https://www.instagram.com/_restowen_?igsh=MWI4YmV0d2hkYWd2Yw==

That is a beautiful car, mtech 1 by the looks of it. I’m currently in the process of building something very similar, m52b28 swap into a pfl e30 Sedan, but a light blue color. 

11 hours ago, Mad_Max said:

I'll try measure them in the next day or so and check, first glance tonight suggested they were both the same size but will confirm and can go from there, the discs themselves are probably best being scrapped so you may be able to fit larger discs if the caliper carriers are right - I'll have a good look when I can.

I'm based in Invercargill so freight may be a pain - do know a courier though who's usually pretty good and heads from here to Auckland about once a fortnight.

Right no worries, if they’re the same size then that’s all good, should be big enough car will never see the track. I guess just pull whichever ones are the least corroded/in the best shape particularly as far as handbrake cables etc are concerned. Sweet that sounds good I’m in no particular rush so no stress. 

Just after one set, want to ditch the drum brakes on my pfl 320i. So I’d need calipers, arms, handbrake/cables assembly etc everything required for a disc brake swap. I’d imagine the 320i would have bigger brakes so maybe the ones off that?

where abouts are you located?

Hell yeah 

Have you got any of the following?

manual pedal box 

clutch hardline

clutch reservoir 

disc brake rear end?

medium case diff (low 3s ratio)

1 hour ago, MD13 said:

Think NZ couriers are sh*t. Ordered 3 things:

One from wellington, one from CHCH and one from Highland park Auckland. I'm in Browns Bay.

Wellington was next day. CHCH took 3 days. Highland park was just over a week... Pass the parcel.

Yep it’s unreal, within Auckland is painfully slow. Over ordered stuff from the states that arrived in 3 days, regularly takes well over a week within Auckland 

22 minutes ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

Shiny bits starting to come back from the painters! Re-assembly time, with kid gloves so nothing gets scratched or marked. Excited!! 

Probably a stupid question, but which spoiler goes on that boot lid? My e30 has the exact same holes, so may be easiest to just cover them with a spoiler

I owned a silver e91 325i for quite a few years and it was an awesome car that gave me only minor issues, the odd misfire from a bad ignition coil and a wheel speed sensor failed. Fantastic cars that are a pleasure to drive. 

2 hours ago, ash-89 said:

Hey team,

Looking to buy a manual 320 or 325 - not too concerned whether pfl or fl / sedan or coupe.

Preferably with a WOF and rego and no rust (or very very minimal rust).

From Auckland, but happy to travel around the country for the right one.

Thanks heaps

Having been in the same boat not long ago, unless you’re spending big $ on a mint garage kept example they all have rust, it’s just a matter of how hard you’re willing to look. Only way to get a truely rust free one is to strip it all back and start fresh from there. 

31 minutes ago, BMTHUG said:

looking good buddy! love your car !

Cheers, thank you!

Thought I’d update this, car is pretty much how I want it now so no real need to change much, especially with having picked up an e30 as a new project (there’s a thread for it on here too if you’re interested).

car drives great, works perfectly, couldn’t be happier with it, feels special to drive. Took it out for a summers evening drive and got some photos. 
 

As above. Looking for an e30 manual pedal box, doesn’t need to have the master, have a new one already. Also interested in clutch hardline, interior trim/rubber boot, prefacelift windscreen/seal. 
 

also looking for a zf 328/m3 (e36) driveshaft 

cheers. 

8 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Yeah i drove the box before and after so felt like it was worth it at the time, paid in upper 300's NZD iirc. Probably depends on the box too, some maybe better than others. Just doing the 5th is with new shifter\shifter bushings is still going get most of the way to peak OE setup.

Yeah might just do the 5th and fresh shifter bushings all round maybe a dssr too as I’m missing the selector rod, unless I can source an oem one for cheap.  

13 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Yeah @Vass would likely lend them out for cheap. Not sure what the part prices are like these days, but Schmeidmann was much cheaper than all the US places when i did mine.

Had a quick look now, about $300usd for a full detent kit or is it worth just doing the 5th gear detent? Hard to try and draw the line somewhere of what to replace vs what to just run as is. 

26 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Detents done? Worth doing imo for improved shift quality

I don’t believe so, does it require special tools? 

No ground breaking progress as of late but slowly chipping away at some jobs. Have got a panelbeater coming to look at/quote up a repair for the rust hole under the cowl sometime in the next week. Have acquired a zf 5 Speed Box which should be better than the g220 I had previously, and have been busy spending a fair few hours prepping the floor for some rust treatment.
 

Stripped the sound deadening off the floor, and cleaned it all up, started wire wheeling the rust spots in preparation to have my brother weld some tiny holes shut and then epoxy prime, seam seal and paint the floor. Then into the same for the boot. 

Not the most fun work, but worth doing now to make sure it stays rust free in the long term. Hoping to get the rust hole fixed in the near future, then to prep and paint the engine bay. 

2 hours ago, Tobias01 said:

Car looks awesome! Need to join for a drive once car is back in the road! 

I second this, will join for a drive once I finish my e30 one day.