1986 E30 320i daily

[jeffbebe 1560]

I guess it was inevitable that a near-30 year-old car with more than 350K kms has become a project. Aiming to keep it a maintenance project and doing my best not to allow too much mission creep.

Anyway, got stuck in today literally... Starting with replacing a cracked left hand tail light that was glued in with a couple of kilos of sikaflex:

Used replacement cost $80 and brand new OE gasket $25 (E31 equivalent would have been $100 just for the gasket!!!).

[jeffbebe 1560]

Lifters are typically noisy, though the vid sounds worse than it actually is. And not surprising for an engine with almost 360K kms on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms1uaTPWHV8

And clean as a whistle inside...

Degreased, primed, and wrinkled...

I'll let the wrinkle paint cure overnight then tackle the valve timing tomorrow and see if I can do something about the ticking, refit the valve cover with new seals and give the bay a good clean.

Edited November 7, 2015 by jeffbebe

[kulgan 1042]

I'm not laughing to hard.. Promise...rofl.

That Winkle paint looks great. Will have to get some for the 740. And that engine looks clean Not bad for a car of that mileage.

[jeffbebe 1560]

I'm not laughing to hard.. Promise...rofl.

 

That Winkle paint looks great. Will have to get some for the 740. And that engine looks clean Not bad for a car of that mileage.

Laugh it up, Dave, and you can keep your Winkle paint to yourself!! Haha

But in all seriousness, wrinkle paint is seriously good stuff for tidying up an ageing engine bay. It's not as tough as powdercoat though so you have to be more careful when reassembling.

[zero 1162]

Wrinkle paint looks great.

Is that heat proof?

[jeffbebe 1560]

Up to about 150 Celsius, so plenty high enough for valve covers. I managed to scratch the finish this morning being clumsy. As mentioned it's not the most durable finish. Nothing a quick respray won't fix.

[jeffbebe 1560]

Adjusted the valves and reassembled. Ticking's still pretty loud but not quite as bad. Plugs had a fair bit of oil on them at the business end so something else is wrong. Head gaskets were apparently done 4-5 years ago so unless it was done badly it's most likely worn valve stem seals.

At least the bay looks a bit tidier now.

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2132]

looks good

hey since they siliconed the taillights in its almost definately because a lot of E30s leak around the tail lights, the rear window and boot drains directly onto th tail lights. worth pulling out the carpet and the battery and checking if there is any water sitting in the bottom of the pockets on either side fo the car at the back. many E30s i have worked on have had a 20 kg weight saving once the water is all drained out

[jeffbebe 1560]

Thanks Andy, I'll check though water can't have got in after the glued it up. No idea why you'd bother. The OE gaskets were $20 apiece and make a perfect seal.

Changed the oil and refilled with the correct viscosity... Ticking much quieter now. I'd like to say it was my valve adjustments but evidence suggests the right oil has made the bigger difference.

Doesn't solve the leaks though so will check the plugs again soon to see if it was residual oil orbit there is a current leak from the valve seals or head gasket.

Edited November 10, 2015 by jeffbebe

[Kepes 231]

Changed the oil and refilled with the correct viscosity... Ticking much quieter now.

20w50? Mineral? I don't want to start a discussion on oil... but i'm just curious :~)

[jeffbebe 1560]

Manual says 15w-40 or 20w-50 both mineral. I used the latter since we're going into summer and felt thicker would be better with worn lifters, etc.

[jeffbebe 1560]

Replaced the plastic covered rust front and rear windscreen trim with some black from a wrecked fl e30. Looks infinitely better.

Before

After

It's the little things that count!!!

Edited November 20, 2015 by jeffbebe

[Michael. 2313]

Manual says 15w-40 or 20w-50 both mineral. I used the latter since we're going into summer and felt thicker would be better with worn lifters, etc.

I would have gone with the thinner stuff, even thinner again and used a semi syn, 5w-40 or 10w-40 would be ideal.

While some wear might be present on the lifters / shims, I think that doesn't warrant going to a thicker viscosity of oil.

If anything 20+ years of oil deposits built up have narrowed bearing journals and other places oil flows in the head etc, put thicker oil into the mix, in theory you might just end up with higher pressures and lower oil flow, especially on start up where the majority of wear takes place.

[jeffbebe 1560]

If that was the case then I'd expect the ticking to be louder,?especially on start up until the oil was properly lubricating everything. But not the case. Significantly quieter now and maybe placebo effect but the engine seems smoother.

Regular oil changes with the recommended oil seems a better plan than second guessing.

[jeffbebe 1560]

Finally got round to fitting the secondhand springs I picked up. Not stupidly low but a drop of around 2 inches (and counting as it's still settling)... which goes to show how ridiculously high it was before! Rears were easy, fronts a bit more of a pain and required some swearing.

Bought some stock bumpstops and cut them down... because I'm cheap and didn't want to pay $60 each for m tech ones.

Not happy with the dirt but ran out of daylight so obsessive cleaning will have to wait.

Job done:

Before

After:

[Michael. 2313]

Before

After:

Looks just that extra bit better!

Good stuff Jooles.

[kulgan 1042]

Thats a win. Much improved from before.

[jeffbebe 1560]

Also need to fix a start issue. Car wouldn't start after being left outside at New Year's in those two days of heavy rain. Cranking but not firing. I had to wait a couple of days for it to dry out. Presuming a cracked distributor cap but I visible water in the bay apart from a small amount under the fuse box (though nothing in the box). Any other possible causes?

Edited January 12, 2016 by jeffbebe

[Michael. 2313]

Also need to fix a start issue. Car wouldn't start after being left outside at New Year's in those two days of heavy rain. Cranking but not firing. I had to wait a couple of days for it to dry out. Presuming a cracked distributor cap but I visible water in the bay apart from a small amount under the fuse box (though nothing in the box). Any other possible causes?

Hmm, bad ground / power on the battery, main earthing points?

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2132]

check the main ground strap for the engine also.

[jeffbebe 1560]

Forgive my ignorance but would it still crank normally with a bad ground?

EDIT: okay, have just read that bad ground can mean that when the engine cranks voltage to igniters can drop below required so they don't fire. Just wondering how rain would affect the ground strap. Wouldn't an issue like that present itself all the time not just post-wet weather?

Not saying you're wrong, just trying to eliminate possible causes.

Edited January 12, 2016 by jeffbebe

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2132]

water trickels down into all sorts of places, its connected onto the side of the car underneath, have a look if the insulation is cracked and yuk could be your issue.

if you have a pair of jump leads connect one to somewhere convenient on the engine and the other to the shock tower or similar (leave the red one connected to nothing) and crank and see what happens.

(if it doesnt solve but the ground strap is all cracked, worth getting one replicated at auto sparky anyways, same way you did the main power feed in your V12 (i hope!!)

[jeffbebe 1560]

Put some new shoes on the daily.

[kulgan 1042]

Looks good Jooles.

The "projects" coming along nicely.

[Olaf 3319]

Also need to fix a start issue. Car wouldn't start after being left outside at New Year's in those two days of heavy rain. Cranking but not firing. I had to wait a couple of days for it to dry out. Presuming a cracked distributor cap but I visible water in the bay apart from a small amount under the fuse box (though nothing in the box). Any other possible causes?

if it helps, back when I ran an e30 325i it had two 'interesting' issues. mileage was around 130k miles. I'd already replaced dizzy cap, fuel filter, leads, plugs, oil and air filters.

1. Hot start frequently wouldn't start. Cranked over fine, but wouldn't catch.

2. Sometimes it would have a massive miss/hiccup (like a sneeze)... different gears, different speeds, roughly similar engine speeds. (like a 2nd to 3rd gear change when letting the clutch out, or at 80mph cruising in 5th...

I had a couple of RAC callouts, they couldn't figure it.

Solved by replacing fuel pump relay, and the DME relay. At that point the car was 13 years old.

I think these two items are often overlooked; the contacts in the relays oxidise over time. You could crack em open and burnish them, though given the price of new ones, just replacing makes sense.

HTH