E30 Bronzit Coupe Project

[Cammsport 390]

To bring the MotoMeter speedometer into alignment, first remove the cluster. I won't go into huge detail on this as there's already a heap of good write ups, skip down to the picture of the speedo removed to get straight into it. Remove the lower kick panel. Reach behind the dash and unwind too aluminum knobs, that'll let you remove a black access panel that sits below the cluster. Remove the two upper screws that secure the cluster brackets to the dash (there may be some lower screws to remove, if so I must've left them off last time I was in there for the coding plug). Now  be super gentle with the cluster brackets. Pull them down slightly to jiggle the cluster forwards. Slide the cluster forwards toward the steering wheel until you can see the white and blue plugs at the rear of the cluster. Flick the black retaining clips up and jiggle the plugs off. This will give you more room to bring the cluster right up against your steering wheel. Now just slide the cluster to your left, towards the radio. The cluster should be free! Place the cluster face down on a bench and remove the 9 brass coloured screws on the back. 8 around the circumference and 1 in the middle. You'll be able to remove the blue section from the front of the cluster. Now put your misses red nail polish on the needles ?. You'll see another 4 brass screws on the blue section, directly behind the speedo gauge, remove these. The gauge will come free from the cluster assembly. Look for the potentiometer on the side of the speedo gauge.

Total range of the pot is about 270 degrees. Turning it clockwise will reduce the speedo reading. Anti clockwise will increase the speedo reading.

It's hard to tell, but I reckon turning it about 30 degrees reduced the speed from 120 km/h to 100 km/h. It was a lot of trial and error, making an adjustment, driving using a GPS speed app, making another adjustment. You could alternatively drill an access hole in the blue cover which would let you leave the speedo IN the the cluster assembly to make the adjustments to the pot. The rules in NZ are that your speedo can read +10%/-0%. Either way I'd try dial it in as close as to possible to your actual speed to prevent unnecessary kilometers being added to your beast!

Edited November 5, 2019 by Cammsport

[BMTHUG 1055]

16 hours ago, Cammsport said:

Man I wish I knew this before ? Finally finished the car (cert wise) tonight. Have a weird knock coming from the front right so I'll have to Jack it back up and see what I've left loose. Will make an update with tips and tricks on manifold wrapping and speedo calls etc when I find the time.

awww bugger well for the next project you will know bro haha looking forward to updates

[Cammsport 390]

To keep the certifier happy, I went ahead and wrapped the exhaust manifolds with "titanium lava" wraps. Will hopefully give some relief from heat in the engine bay. 

Fiddly job so I thought I'd give a couple of pointers. Start from the left hand cylinders and end the wraps on the collector portion. This allows you to do the cylinder furthest from the exhaust flange in one foul swoop, containing the ends of the previous wrapped lengths (hard to explain but hopefully that makes sense?). This stuff frays viciously, put a bit of tape on the end when your working with it. Trial wrap the portion you want to do, before you cut the length of wrap. The amount required is deceiving. Used plastic zip ties to initially hold the wrap in place so you don't waste the metal zip ties if you have to do it again. Pull the wrap as tight as possible through the whole process, this makes it look alot cleaner and will hopefully prevent it unwrapping in the future. You can get the metal zip ties super tight buy grabbing the tails with needle nose pliers and rolling the pliers to strain the tie. WEAR GLOVES. I know the fiberglass wraps are super itchy, unsure about this particular material but I didn't want to risk it. That's about all there is to it. Pain of a job but I reckon it looks good.

I read alot about exhausts etc rusting out underneath the wraps either due to the heat cycling and/or moisture held by the wrap. This apparently happens to the cheaper manifolds. I guess time will tell how it holds up, I'll get a very audible alarm if the manifolds do rust out ?

[Cammsport 390]

Certification recheck day! I'll either be crying into my pillow tonight or cracking into a bottle of something in celebration.

Something for everyone at the certifiers.

[Kobra 180]

I'm almost ready to put my car through the cert process, and I'm not sure if I should wrap my manifolds. 

Keen to know how your recheck went.

[Cammsport 390]

Great Success! Certifier was really happy with car and has passed it. Only had a couple of comments, one being that the ride is terrible. I couldn't agree with him more, the springs that were supplied have a spring rate 11kg/mm... That's a stupid amount and would ideally be ~7-8kg/mm. I went with a particular supplier of XYZ suspension after seeing reviews of how good this company was with setting up the spring rates for the E30. After the drama with this supplier of having the perches and springs rub and write off the tyres, waiting literally 7 months to receive a valid NDT report and now this, I might try to find another party that could supply me with the springs that are suitable.

Secondly, the MAF support bracket. I had gashed up a bracket in the shed just to get through the cert process. I managed to convince him of my elaborate plans of boring out an E34 (similar to below) or E36 airbox to make a discrete cold air box. This way I'll retain the OE look of the engine compartment, which as this project has progressed, has become quite important. 

Massive relief as most of you on here know. Cert can be pretty stressful as the huge anomaly is the certifier themselves and the way certain things are interpreted. I've heard of people having to weld in the aluminium spacers on the power steering rack conversions, having to have engineers reports for suspension geometry, having to install 2x driveshaft hoops vs 1 etc so I feel I got off pretty lightly. My best advice (@Kobra) would be to have a talk to your chosen certifier and make sure you're on the same page and that you know exactly what he wants to see. An awesome site is the LVVTA Forum. The professionals there were answering my pesty questions within 24 hrs.

So where to from here? Approached Wife on selling to fund my dream. Swift negative. Means I get to enjoy the work I've done now that its road legal I guess. I'll keep posting random updates for sure. But mainly...

• Replace leaky heater core
• Find suitable front springs with the correct spring rate
• Skid plate to prevent the sump from accumulating more scrapes
• I'd love to find some sport seats in terrible condition and reupholster
• Colour match basketweaves to centre caps
• Paint? Not very motivated after the work involved on Dad's ute ?
• Wife mentioned retrofitting aircon. Not happening.
• Radiator research, basically see whats the biggest OE radiator that fits
• Figure a way to use the OE oil cooler I've found. Preferably S52 oil filter housing
• Intake

✌️  

Edited November 15, 2019 by Cammsport

[Olaf 3317]

Woohoo!  Congrats Cam!  e30 Mega Meet here you come!

[WYZEUP 283]

Congrats dude, such a good feeling knowing it's all done and dusted and you can fine tune it now ?

[Cammsport 390]

Cheers @WYZEUP! You were a help re cert process a couple months back when I messaged you.

Still have the WOF to get when the cert plate arrives, and one of the things I failed a WOF on was headlight direction. Thought I'd show a wee before and after/how-to on the process. Firstly, remove the 2 screw from the grille along with the 3 clips on top.

Then I removed the 3 screws holding the headlight assembly to the car, along with the 3 very brittle plugs at the rear.

You'll be left with something very mad max looking after you also remove the clips from the kidneys.

My WOF guy didn't want to touch the headlight adjusters as they were seized up and didn't want to risk breaking them. A couple squirts of silicone penetrant and a wriggle of the adjuster with pliers on the metal free'd them up good as gold.

Also took off the headlight metal surrounds to remove the light surface rust and give them a quick paint. Only paint I had lying around was Arctissilber from the E36 ? But it actually looks really nice. Job done. Had a quick line up of the headlights on the garage door but now that the adjusters move freely under finger tips, I'll let him use his reflector to dial it in.

A keen eye will notice I've removed the IS lip. This lip is less prone to driveway scrapes when toing and froing from WOF/CERT etc.

[Cammsport 390]

Couple of snaps from the Skid Factory meet at Greenlane.

[Cammsport 390]

On 11/16/2019 at 12:59 PM, Olaf said:

Woohoo!  Congrats Cam!  e30 Mega Meet here you come!

Wof and rego all on today buuuuuuuut unfortunately I won't make the meet ? work and all that jazz ?‍♂️

[Olaf 3317]

congrats on the WoF and Rego, mate!

[modz 148]

On 11/9/2019 at 11:37 PM, Cammsport said:

To keep the certifier happy, I went ahead and wrapped the exhaust manifolds with "titanium lava" wraps. Will hopefully give some relief from heat in the engine bay. 

Fiddly job so I thought I'd give a couple of pointers. Start from the left hand cylinders and end the wraps on the collector portion. This allows you to do the cylinder furthest from the exhaust flange in one foul swoop, containing the ends of the previous wrapped lengths (hard to explain but hopefully that makes sense?). This stuff frays viciously, put a bit of tape on the end when your working with it. Trial wrap the portion you want to do, before you cut the length of wrap. The amount required is deceiving. Used plastic zip ties to initially hold the wrap in place so you don't waste the metal zip ties if you have to do it again. Pull the wrap as tight as possible through the whole process, this makes it look alot cleaner and will hopefully prevent it unwrapping in the future. You can get the metal zip ties super tight buy grabbing the tails with needle nose pliers and rolling the pliers to strain the tie. WEAR GLOVES. I know the fiberglass wraps are super itchy, unsure about this particular material but I didn't want to risk it. That's about all there is to it. Pain of a job but I reckon it looks good.

I read alot about exhausts etc rusting out underneath the wraps either due to the heat cycling and/or moisture held by the wrap. This apparently happens to the cheaper manifolds. I guess time will tell how it holds up, I'll get a very audible alarm if the manifolds do rust out ?

@Cammsport looks like you cut and welded the manifolds to fit?   And to confirm the pics of them wrapped are around the opposite way vs how they fit on the engine? Thanks

[Cammsport 390]

2 hours ago, modz said:

@Cammsport looks like you cut and welded the manifolds to fit?   And to confirm the pics of them wrapped are around the opposite way vs how they fit on the engine? Thanks

Yup, correct and correct. 

[Cammsport 390]

Some illegal parking for an update. 

[Cammsport 390]

Managed to make it out to a small E30 meet after work. 

[Cammsport 390]

Had a wee dabble at the drags last night for the first time. 

Had alot of fun! It was the 2nd to last round for the season so I was fortunate to be able to do pass after pass without any queues or interruption. Managed to do 10 passes and we still hadn't got into the competitive side of it. 

From the get go I was surprised at the time I was getting. At a guess I thought I'd be into the high 13's but after the first pass I was left red faced with a 14.8

After about 5 passes I was starting to get the hang of the staging process, getting traction, not bogging down, not worrying about the person next to me, gears etc. 

A mate text me (just happens to be this guy... https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12314779. He cut his teeth on racing Hondas at this track, so I knew i could trust his advice) and said to drop the rear tyre pressure to 15psi. Lo and behold, I managed to basically shave half a second by leaving the line at higher revs and get a personal best of 14.2. Next time (28th of March) I want to be able to get to the 13s. The above mentioned mate said he'll lend me some proper wheels, perks of the early Hondas and the e30 having the same stud pattern! I'll also take out the sub, spare tyre in an attempt to shave a 0.1 or so off. All in all, heaps of fun and I was stoked the motor/diff/cooling swap stood up to the evening at Meremere. 

[Cammsport 390]

Last round of Night Speed was binned understandably. But fortunately at the round I did attend, the local photographer (Mark Waterson) was able to snap some pics.

The above mid-skid photo seems to show that rear valance is dented? Had never noticed it.

Pretty sure I chopped this guy... 

[Cammsport 390]

Fitted some OE tan "leather" rears into the coupe today. It's the small updates that count right? ?. 

Now to track down something better suited than the tired comfort seats in the front. 

[leichtbau 525]

That looks bloody sharp matched with the tan headliner.

[Cammsport 390]

Another small update, but mostly some pictures. I forgot to mention on the previous Meremere post that I fitted an E21 Kamei spoiler. Fits quite well and is adhered using the 3M automotive tape. It's different and very '80s/'90s, I'm a fan. 

You'll also spot I fitted an OE towbar. I had it tucked away for awhile and never really intended on fitting it. I would preferably have a towbar on the E91 or E36 (did find a westfalia electric retractable for the wagon but it's bloody 50mm ?‍♂️). 

The old battler has been an absolute life saver with the house & garden projects we've been doing. The catch is though, house stuff being done = car stuff paused once again. There's still a HEAP of wee projects I'd like to do on the E30. Cooling system upgrade, oil/water px and temps. But for know I'm loving just driving it around. 

[qube 3570]

love the rear spoiler. looks fantastic.

[Cammsport 390]

Ever since the M52 swap, I've had an erratic temp needle on the dash. I assumed it was the sensor on the block or a bad ground somewhere. I knew that ultimately the temperature of the engine shouldn't get too high as I had wired in a 80/88°c fan switch from an M44 Ti and had an 80°c thermostat. I finally got around to checking the temp of different parts of the cooling system with an infrared temperature gun. The first couple of pictures are of the car at "normal" operating temp, just as the fan switched on. 

These (excessive) temperatures show the temp gauge is most likely correct and I assume the actual water temp is slightly higher than what the gun is reading. I then let the fan run for 10 minutes and checked the temperatures again. With the fan running, temp gauge returns to 12 o'clock. 

Another interesting temp of the wrapped exhaust manifold. 

I have been looking to upgrade the cooling system for awhile. I'm not happy with the M42 radiator as the end tank is susceptible to leaks and popping. The coolant hoses I managed to fit rub on the oil filter housing. Also, I've either put in the wrong fan switch or its not working as it should. It looks like the fan isn't coming on till ~95°c. 

I've ordered a Z3 M radiator (17112227281) which should be overkill for the application. I'll also look at getting a shrouded fan to get rid of the pull-through style zip mounts for the fan. While I'm waiting for the radiator to turn up, I'll come up for a solution for an overflow bottle. At the moment, the 4 cyl engine bay's old intake bracket blocks the use of the 6 cyl over flow bottle. 

Edited January 17, 2021 by Cammsport

[Olaf 3317]

@Cammsport love your work, Cam!

Know what you mean about 'progress on house = no work on e30'.  Kitchen distracts me for next 3 months or so, my e30 is fairly paused.

[nick496 268]

With regards to temperatures on the M52.

I originally ran an 88 degree thermostat in my swapped car, and the temperature needle sat bang on halfway. (Standard E36 6 cyl rad, with the 80/88c switch)
After doing a few track days and general use, I found my Aux electric fan only turned on when I either towed, (high revs slow speed), or sat in traffic on a hot day for a minute or so, before turning off.

Since the temperatures were consistent, I then swapped to the stock thermostat for the M52, which I believe is 96 degrees, in hopes of better fuel efficiency. 
This meant with no other changes to my cooling system, the E30 needle sat in the middle between halfway, and the 3/4 mark. 

My E36 rad later starting weeping, and I swapped to the Z3M rad, as it wasn't too much more than a standard replacement.

 

I will note though, that I never managed to put a temp gun to anything, as I ordered one from Aliexpress, played with a few times in my office, and when I went to use it in the garage, it stopped working.
But figured providing the temp needle was stable, I shouldn't have too many issues.
Though being able to read the actual temp might be useful later on.