It's baaaack.. And it's time to go..

[oscar90 0]

Theres some amazing offers on the table here, as said above! take them up!, you get your car going, and worst case you have a few 'IOU's' to repay maybe, projects piss most people off, its the nature of them. It WILL be worth it when it's all going and legal and you can drive it.

just another opinion

[Shady 0]

What you have listed, does not seem that major. If someone on here is happy to help spend a weekend on it, DO IT. 2 or 3 brains is better than 1. I see cars all the time pop up Trademe as unfinished projects, they always say they have spent over, eg $20G on it and only want $5-$10G. Thats ALOT of $ wasted, just so the buyer has a head start on it. Dont be one of them people.

I admire what you have done FrantiC, hence the reason why, once I sell my Honda, I want to do my E30 (completely different engine though) but reading what you've done, has made me want to make my E30 unique also.

My brother has had his Anglia in his garage for 6years now, all in bits as a rolling body. He wont part with it, cos he knows he wont get his money back so he is just going to hold it until he can be bothered. Hes rebuilt it FIVE times since he got it, about 15years ago and this would be SIXTH time. Its still in bits, but he still owns it!

So park the car up, take your time (you got 12mths man!) You can do SO much in that time. Just spending 1 day a week on it or even 1 day a month and you will get there. So many people on here that can help you thru it or have contacts.

[Shady 0]

I'd take up those offers. And if it still runs like crap, park it up, take your time. If when you get your licence back, it still no good. THEN sell it.

[bellicose 9]

I just looked at it now...

The wiring is dodgy as hell, The connecters to the coilpacks are weak and barely hold together. There are heaps of oil leaks everywhere.

Here is what the car is in need of:

New coil packs, The ones in there are way to finicky, the connectors are too lose and dodgy.

New valve cover, Just realized mine has a massive crack in it. Oil leaking from everywhere, oil filter housing, valve cover, oil pan gasket, rear main seal (dripping from gearbox bellhousing).

Everything needs an extreme clean and tidy up.

Needs a respray, the paint on front fenders and in the engine bay is ruined, deep scratches from the exhaust manifold going in etc.

New bonnet.

I really would like a new ECU, I HATE megasquirt with a passion.. When it goes we are best of friends though..

I would probably pay someone if they were willing to give it a shot and sort the wiring out. It's way too dodgy I probably need to go through and fix it up.... But I definitley need new coil packs...

OK I guess it aint that much.. But still I am no auto sparky and the wiring side of things drives me insane. If someone does want it, I would be keen on offers for parts.. Not separating anything from the motor though, or turbo setup. Can sell special bits like the exhaust manifold and downpipe, throttlebody with blocked off ICV and oil breather holes (idle adjust with the throttle plate screw - heaps of megasquirt guys run it this way saves time trying to hook up a idle valve, and it runs perfectly fine this way too).

Motor stays together though, Since the MLS did a good job of sealing. Lol.

None of that seems a major, the paint side of it is easy. My mate owns a paint shop in Hastings that i can use ANYTIME i want, i come over to Napier to visit my mum quite often, so put 2 and 2 together and you get your paint fixed in a weekend and i get to see family, job done.

If only i had the kinda offers on the table when i was younger i would've finished so many "projects".

[Guest FrantiC]

For some viewing pleasure...

I have not taken pictures of anything since before I had the exhaust done as the camera had died. So heres some..

Showing where I got the external wastegate welded to, and changed the turbo orientation to fit.

The headgasket I first blew with only about 20km's on it. 12psi and stock headgasket with the 9.5:1 CR. There is a stock headgasket behind to show how bad I blew it lol.

And the massive turd a bird left on my car in the impound lot.. hah.

[Guest FrantiC]

None of that seems a major, the paint side of it is easy. My mate owns a paint shop in Hastings that i can use ANYTIME i want, i come over to Napier to visit my mum quite often, so put 2 and 2 together and you get your paint fixed in a weekend and i get to see family, job done.

If only i had the kinda offers on the table when i was younger i would've finished so many "projects".

Dude I can prep and I would pay you abit of $$$ if you were willing to do that aye.

Cheers for all the offers guys it really is pushing me to keep at this.

[Greg111 13]

Hey John, my turn to chime in now, (even though this is a FS thread), as the others have said, way too much money has gone into this and proberly only a little bit more may need to go in to get it back up to speed, it's easy to make a motor reliable if you're willing to take the time to do so.

To start with, take the dash out, (very easy to do, did Doug's dash on his M325i in 20min), fix the assosiated wiring under there that goes through the fire wall, get new coils, get connectors, wiring and maybe a new ECU etc etc, the oil leaks can only be a few things, rear main, sump, rocker cover etc. Time consuming i know but don't you have nothing but time now?

Cars are expensive any way you look at them, i've spent two months on mine so far and the bills up to two grand but i have a passion for what im doing and the car so i'm not too worried cause i know i'm improving it and i'm gonna enjoy driving it a lot more too.

As some have said, you have come this far.....

I'm also happy to help if need be.

[Guest FrantiC]

Hey John, my turn to chime in now, (even though this is a FS thread), as the others have said, way too much money has gone into this and proberly only a little bit more may need to go in to get it back up to speed, it's easy to make a motor reliable if you're willing to take the time to do so.

To start with, take the dash out, (very easy to do, did Doug's dash on his M325i in 20min), fix the assosiated wiring under there that goes through the fire wall, get new coils, get connectors, wiring and maybe a new ECU etc etc, the oil leaks can only be a few things, rear main, sump, rocker cover etc. Time consuming i know but don't you have nothing but time now?

Cars are expensive any way you look at them, i've spent two months on mine so far and the bills up to two grand but i have a passion for what im doing and the car so i'm not too worried cause i know i'm improving it and i'm gonna enjoy driving it a lot more too.

As some have said, you have come this far.....

I'm also happy to help if need be.

Might look for a dash removal DIY and see where I from there.

I think my best option would be to go back to a single coil distributor setup instead of wasting my time with millions of wires and ignitors to run 3 coils.. I don't even need the wasted spark anyways.

[kerry 10]

keep it keep it keep it.

[c.robertson00 11]

I can help you out to get all the non-wiring bits sorted out bro. I feel guilty as if it was that cluster that f**ked all your wiring. Dont sell it man! Its not worth it

[Guest FrantiC]

I can help you out to get all the non-wiring bits sorted out bro. I feel guilty as if it was that cluster that f**ked all your wiring. Dont sell it man! Its not worth it

Nah I'm not blaming the cluster aye man, no doubt I would have mucked something on the install. Only the bottem lights worked on it, the fuel and temp gauge didn't work at all. When I tried to start her up the starter wouldn't do anything I thought the battery died or something and I smelt a real bad burning smell with the key on, took it out an the whole car had filled with smoke lol.

All pouring out from the the glovebox and dashboard. Blew fuse #4.

Ahh I need time to check it all through, My dads not happy with it either.

[Shady 0]

I want you to finish it, get it mint, so you can do a video of it. Just looking at the photos, you know its gonna go nuts.

[DRTDVL 0]

Welcome to the Family man...

9 months and roughly 10 grand... not including the cost of the 205 or 406 is what i've spent getting my pre-built racecar up to a race standard.... I've got atleast anouther 15 grand min before i'll be happy with it... more like 20 - 25...

Ecu = Save you pennies... I can ask my friend who has a Haltec E8X sitting in his lounge doing nothing how much he would sell it to you for... Otherwise save up, talk to people who know wiring/good at electrical stuff, and start a game plan for it. What aftermarket ecu's are other E30 turbo boys running? If they are running a haltec / link / what ever, ask if they have redone the loom, do they have wiring diagrams they can share with you.

Wiring = Lots of work, but damm would it be worth it... De-loom and make a new loom... Running only what you need. Espically if your going to be looking at a new aftermarket ecu, spend the next 6 months planning the new loom. Talk to others that have de-loomed their car/running aftermarket setups. IT will be one of the best things you can do... make it look all nice and tidy, anouther bonus is it saves weight! My friend REMOVED 7.5kg of excess wiring from his car.

Project cars = help from others!

Other projects cars = you assisting them to learn or get IOU's for your projects...

Bimmersport Family

[antil33t 90]

Might look for a dash removal DIY and see where I from there.

http://home.comcast.net/~cdeegan9/dashboard/dashboard_1.html

Done gogoogogogog

[Guest FrantiC]

Welcome to the Family man...

9 months and roughly 10 grand... not including the cost of the 205 or 406 is what i've spent getting my pre-built racecar up to a race standard.... I've got atleast anouther 15 grand min before i'll be happy with it... more like 20 - 25...

Ecu = Save you pennies... I can ask my friend who has a Haltec E8X sitting in his lounge doing nothing how much he would sell it to you for... Otherwise save up, talk to people who know wiring/good at electrical stuff, and start a game plan for it. What aftermarket ecu's are other E30 turbo boys running? If they are running a haltec / link / what ever, ask if they have redone the loom, do they have wiring diagrams they can share with you.

Wiring = Lots of work, but damm would it be worth it... De-loom and make a new loom... Running only what you need. Espically if your going to be looking at a new aftermarket ecu, spend the next 6 months planning the new loom. Talk to others that have de-loomed their car/running aftermarket setups. IT will be one of the best things you can do... make it look all nice and tidy, anouther bonus is it saves weight! My friend REMOVED 7.5kg of excess wiring from his car.

Project cars = help from others!

Other projects cars = you assisting them to learn or get IOU's for your projects...

Bimmersport Family

EVERYONE, is using Megasquirt aye. I'd say 90%+ of the m20 turbo setups on e30tech are megasquirt controlled.

I'm thinking to go back to standard dizzy type ignition, I don't need the wasted spark it's more trouble than it's worth.

[ED1RTY 2]

I have a G4 Link Storm minus the wiring. Pm me an offer.

There are so many offers out there for you man!

I know its hard.. Im in the same situ.. Fast car that spends all its time in the garage..

At least finish it and then decide

[mark247 38]

Will be worth a royal ton more when its completed too

[Grant 4]

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but there comes a time when you have to cut your losses and move on.

It does sound like that this is one of those situations. It sounds like it is a complete money pit, and unless yu have an endless supply of money, then I think you are taking the sensible approach to all this.

Whatever you do, good luck, it sounds like you have plenty of genuine offers of help on here, should you decide to keep it.

Cheers

Grant

[Guest FrantiC]

It's hard to decide... No one seems to keen, just offers for parts but I am not keen to separate it all just yet..

I just pulled the center console and all surrounds off the dash board to check out the wiring. I'll try post up pics later of what i found..

But so far:

- the splice where I added the 12V power to megasquirt from the ignition is toasted.

- Reverse lights wiring is toasted (auto to manual conversion, I did the wiring over a year ago for this, by the gear lever).

Slowly pulling it apart, I can smell more burned wires but I'm sure it must be more than what I saw as there was soooooo much smoke.

One thing I am worried about is the 12V line to megasquirt from the 12v+ switched ignition wire was not fused, It ran directly from there to the pin 86 on the main relay, where Megasquirt gets it's power from. Hopefully the ECU isn't toast!!

Edited October 17, 2009 by FrantiC

[Guest FrantiC]

Pic's of wiring fail.

Also the #4 fuse had blown.. So I am guessing somewere the wire has metled through and created a short.

This is going to be fun??

[Shady 0]

may be tow it to a auto sparky, get them to inspect it & give you a quote (not estimate, as they can then charge more) and that way, the wiring side of things will be done & warrantied etc. Dont wanna DIY that kinda stuff unless you are 100% sure you know what you doing. Dont wanna f--k up the wiring & blow every thing (which has almost happened)? But everything will work out, just keep your mind to it.

[mark247 38]

may be tow it to a auto sparky, get them to inspect it & give you a quote (not estimate, as they can then charge more) and that way, the wiring side of things will be done & warrantied etc. Dont wanna DIY that kinda stuff unless you are 100% sure you know what you doing. Dont wanna f--k up the wiring & blow every thing (which has almost happened)? But everything will work out, just keep your mind to it.

Finding someone clued up on megasquirt would be a bit of a task.

Edited October 17, 2009 by Mark247

[Shady 0]

Im meaning the wiring thats all fried. Id prefer a pro do it, if I was in that position. As for computers etc, theres always someone who knows something?

[Guest FrantiC]

Barely anyone around here knows much about Megasquirt.

I'm gonna pull it all apart, see how bad it is. See if I can fix some of it up.. I mean I can wire up, I always solder / heatshrink my connections etc. My old man is a sparky, though he's not fully clued up on computer type electrics (like the ECU), He can help with the main wiring I guess (He wants me to get rid of the car tbh lol).

[Shady 0]

Parents always say that.