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adro

1990 E30 325i SE

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1 hour ago, adro said:

I also run it on 91 as that’s what the fuel map on the Turner Motorsport chip is.

Is that US or NZ octane? If its US 91, its about 95 in NZ.

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10 hours ago, KwS said:

Is that US or NZ octane? If its US 91, its about 95 in NZ.

😳 I had no idea. Thanks

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11 hours ago, KwS said:

Is that US or NZ octane? If its US 91, its about 95 in NZ.

I was thinking the same thing.  There's RON, and something else ==> US number is lower for NZ octane rating.

 

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51837866039_63885fdf8f_b.jpg 51837622303_44584289dc_b.jpg 51837514266_42355d2654_b.jpg

Got a new lens today so took the E30 out for abit of a test. 

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On 1/4/2022 at 8:31 AM, adro said:

😳 I had no idea. Thanks

Put some 95 in it and it will wheel spin in 4th 🤣

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@adro Gorgeous shots and car as always! Need an Mtech 2 wheel for mine.

You are running H&R Sport with front drop hats, correct? It sits really nice - no facelift 'reverse rake' how do you find the ride (practicality) with that setup?

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1 hour ago, Sammo said:

@adro Gorgeous shots and car as always! Need an Mtech 2 wheel for mine.

You are running H&R Sport with front drop hats, correct? It sits really nice - no facelift 'reverse rake' how do you find the ride (practicality) with that setup?

yes, Koni's, E90 top/drop hats and H&R sport springs. I do have 10mm spring pads in the rear to make that sag less...could do with another 5mm imo. I use to think the ride was abit harsh, but now I think it's perfect, depends on the roads really but for city, highway/spirited B roads and the odd driver training track day i think it's optimum. It's quite different to the Eibachs in the E46 but I guess thats an apples and oranges comparison. 

Edited by adro
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1 hour ago, Sammo said:

Put some 95 in it and it will wheel spin in 4th 🤣

I've got 1/4 of a tank to go! 

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3 hours ago, adro said:

yes, Koni's, E90 top/drop hats and H&R sport springs. I do have 10mm spring pads in the rear to make that sag less...could do with another 5mm imo. I use to think the ride was abit harsh, but now I think it's perfect, depends on the roads really but for city, highway/spirited B roads and the odd driver training track day i think it's optimum. It's quite different to the Eibachs in the E46 but I guess thats an apples and oranges comparison. 

Nice, thinking of either going this way or with match ST springs and shocks - their advertised drop is right between the H&R sport and race (really enjoyed their Coilovers on the E46).

Will definitely be picking up some extra rear spring pads to dial out the butt-sag!

Edited by Sammo

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Having thoughts of moving the E30 on as it’s not getting much use and we are heading overseas at the end of the year. So figured I should probably cert the manual swap and try sort a few things in case I do end up actioning that train of thought. 
 

Ever since iv owned this car it’s had a low idle surge and really bad fuel economy, as it was a weekend warrior most of the time (setup for daily duties if needed; aircon, cup holders) it didn’t really bother me too much, but I did replace a bunch of parts hoping to fix it….a reasonably big list of parts. It always pulled well, just fuel economy and the 650rpm-500rpm surge when hot. With the E39 and the E46 needing love i put the e30 issues on the back burner. 
 

i had the throttle body apart last weekend and the ICV was measuring the correct ohms, reset the throttle stop and reset TPS. Tightened the valve cover and things got a bit better for a little while then the surge came back. (Previous to this I had done all the multi metering of ECU pins, changed the coolant temp sensor twice…thermostat twice, gone through every trouble shooting thread on E30 Zone) 
 

this week I adjusted the valves, as I’ve now done 15,000km over the 6 years of ownership😢 and iv always wanted to do it, seems like a key part of M20 maintenance. I also bodged up a fairly agricultural intake adapter for the DIY smoke machine, but it turns out it could shove move pressure in, unlike the ghetto glove method previously used and I found smoke teaming out of the valve cover, just under the intake manifold section, it actually looked like it was coming from the injector rail but it was actually rebounding off it. New VCG (elring) and boom. Idle steady….you are kidding me!  I did a poor adjustment though and the thing was ticking like a Subaru Leone, so second adjustment and being a lot more careful I believe it’s correct now, still ticks abit but a lot quieter than the first. I did notice the new VCG already looks to be wet, so I’m guessing either I have a slightly warped cover or these Elring gaskets are a one time use thing.

iv only done one hot run out to the hut which the idle was steady and the car felt great (I also finally put a tank of 95 in it) but I haven’t managed to smoke test it again since the second valve adjustment and not sure if the fuel economy has changed.

ironically on the way home the ABS light started coming on intermittently so that’s next on the list of things to sort. Certs booked for early next month. Since is just a gearbox swap with no re-power it doesn’t require hoops. Pretty happy about that. Some photos…

It’s pretty clean in here 

51905125010_006a8c2d70_b.jpg 51905124975_de9a6ccfd0_b.jpg

You can see the new gasket looks like it’s already leaking here

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My ghetto intake adapter for smoke machine 

(pod filter adapter that came on a 2nd hand AFM, VC bolt washer from M54 & RTV) 

51904805889_192021db96_b.jpg 51904614803_0337efc7a5_b.jpg 51904849354_2093b2f137_b.jpg

 

Edited by adro
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IIRC you dont need hoops if there isnt a power increase, and you can prove all OEM parts were used in the conversion (not a custom drive shaft).

Car looks amazing.Sort of thing i'd love to own, but know its way out of any realistic price range i'd pay.

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6 minutes ago, KwS said:

IIRC you dont need hoops if there isnt a power increase, and you can prove all OEM parts were used in the conversion (not a custom drive shaft).

Car looks amazing.Sort of thing i'd love to own, but know its way out of any realistic price range i'd pay.

Yeah that’s what the cert guy has said on the phone. I was holding off thinking I would do a steering rack swap to Z3 or purple tag but don’t see me getting that done anytime soon, or getting any value out of it if I did get it done. The 370mm steering wheel actually makes the rack feel a tad faster anyway. Having it running properly does give me cold feet on the sale front but iv got abit of time up my sleeve to make that decision, might be one of those situations where if I get my asking price it goes and if i don’t then I’ll store it…as opposed to fire selling it. I’ll be keeping an eye on what that white 4 door goes for though. 🧐

Edited by adro
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Defo PM me @adro nearer the time (but sort out all the niggles first :)))) hehe).  Would be keen to have a chat about it depending on how the current fleet looks then, got the R53 GP back from the painters yesterday having sorted out cosmetic work and it is looking good.  Few more minor niggles to address then to the market it goes!  

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Just now, E28E30 said:

Defo PM me @adro nearer the time (but sort out all the niggles first :)))) hehe).  Would be keen to have a chat about it depending on how the current fleet looks then, got the R53 GP back from the painters yesterday having sorted out cosmetic work and it is looking good.  Few more minor niggles to address then to the market it goes!  

Ok sure will. We need to do a photo shoot regardless. Good luck with the R53 sale, looks like a fun car! 

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Looking great, very jealous of those pristine manifold heatshields - mine are all flaky.

I have an intermittent ABS light as well - thought I had fixed it by removing and cleaning sensors last weekend but popped up again today.

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26 minutes ago, Sammo said:

Looking great, very jealous of those pristine manifold heatshields - mine are all flaky.

I have an intermittent ABS light as well - thought I had fixed it by removing and cleaning sensors last weekend but popped up again 

I’m really hoping it’s a wheel speed sensor and not the module 😬 

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Spoke to soon. Can barely hold idle at cold start,  surging until it’s warm then once warm it idles fine. Guessing I still have a vac leak….no abs light today though 😝

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10 minutes ago, adro said:

Spoke to soon. Can barely hold idle at cold start,  surging until it’s warm then once warm it idles fine. Guessing I still have a vac leak….no abs light today though 😝

Grrr a process of elimination!

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it's been a weird week. Went about trouble shooting the cold idle, back tracked what I had done and started again. Everything checked out. Ran like a champ warm but was like it had lost it's cold start functionality. Since motronic 1.3 has no manual adjustment for idle speed and all the inputs seemed to be working i swapped out an ECU for another one I got off Bimmersport a while back. Last time I used this ECU i had this bucking/lurching in every gear around 2500 rpm (which lead me to rebuild the driveshaft..which was good to do regardless). This ECU has a fuel map tuned for "Marks Rally Car" which i understand had a nice set of headers on it, my car has no 02 sensor and no cats so i guess is reasonably unrestricted. Swapped ECU's and its fired up perfectly. Hot run out to the hut has yielded the best fuel economy yet of 10.1L/100km (according to the OBC anyway) car feels strong, and I think that lean condition/stumble was probably because I was running 91 octane last  time this chip was in the car, now I'm on 95 it's purring. After idling for a while it does have a little 50rpm stumble but it's very minor and seems to correct itself. It's still got the old VCG on it but once I'm happy with the valve adjustment I'll put on the Victor Reinz one i got off Gavin @euroitalian. Great service and prices as always from Gavin. I got the power steering reservoir o ring for the E46 off him too.

Cert tomorrow for the gearbox swap.

51904614813_c5d7bd7644_b.jpg

 

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Cert obtained. Well it's still going through the process of paper work but it's passed it's inspection with the final piece of the puzzle being a wheel alignment showing no more than -1.5 camber up front which I got today. Thanks to @Autoglym for the use of the hoist and @Olaf for assisting.

_DSC2808 _DSC2811-2

Before the cert I met up with a mate who was dropping his recently sold Golf off to the freight depot.

_DSC2764 _DSC2766

 

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it'd have to be one of the nicest 4dr e30's around.  damned clean underneath!

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On 3/9/2022 at 2:39 PM, adro said:

wheel alignment showing no more than -1.5 camber up front which I got today

Quick question, was this a requirement of the cert process? Guessing it was due to the car being lowered? 

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1 hour ago, 325iRod said:

Quick question, was this a requirement of the cert process? Guessing it was due to the car being lowered? 

From memory, need to be within 0.5 of OEM camber spec for the car for cert.

Edited by Sammo

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