Joe's E30 325i Sport

[TriggerFish]

It's not repairable. Welding is strongly not advised on e30zone

 

And for completeness, the extent of the damage. Quite some going! Chipped the rocker itself too on the valve...

 

 

 

Must have had some force behind it!

 

[Mikek3111]

Ouch

[sigarland1987]

That's just not fun, new engine time I'm guessing?

[TriggerFish]

It's not fun, no! I'm off work this/next week, so should be able to crack on with it, as I have no holidays booked, and the weather isn't playing ball so far for going out on the bike.

 

The bottom end seems OK, so just a new head. The combustion chamber wasn't breached in the head, just the water jacket, so the valves and pistons survived OK. I dropped the sump yesterday evening (not the horrid job I was expecting,, but without an engine hoist it would have been a nightmare) and found the rocker eccentric retaining nut in one piece. There is some swarf in the sump, a little more than I expected, but I'm hoping it's all in the sump and not stuck to the walls of the block/crank/rods. Will check it all out later on. I'm glad the nut was in one piece and hadn't been crushed and spread itself around the oil ways.

 

I've already got a new head on eBay. It's a 2001 casting (they stopped putting these in cars with the E30/E34 around 93/94, I think, so a 2001 cast is late), and it was used for a few hundred miles before the car it was fitted to was written off, so fingers crossed it's OK. The old head is with someone who builds race e30s and is in the same estate as the friend from whom I was going to borrow a valve spring compressor (their's was too small), and the new head is going there, so hopefully that'll be sorted ok. (swapping valves over)

 

 

[TriggerFish]

Block cleaned up. Sump cleaned up and refitted with new gasket plus gasket sealant. This was not the horrific job I was expecting. I loosened off the nuts on each end of the engine mounts, but left them on the thread. Then, using an engine hoist with a strap looped around both engine arms, I raised the engine up enough to remove the sump without needing to take anything else off. With the nuts still on the mounts, I didn't need to do battle with getting the mounts to line up with the subframe/engine (which isn't fun.) Without a hoist, I do not fancy repeating this job!

 

 

New crank position sensor fitted along with new brake vacuum pipes. The other vacuum pipes are to the FPR, which has been replaced already, and from the rocker cover to the throttle, which will be replaced once both those two new parts are fitted. I'm hoping that this will even out my cold idle and hot starting problems.

 

Now all I can do is wait for the head to turn up and then crack on with that. Although, due to wanting to give me something to do with my week off, the 330d has very kindly started leaking something from the front of the car. And it's off the road as I noticed both rear tyres have dropped to the wear markers. New ones are on order, but I don't want to risk it until they're here and I CBA to swap to winter tyres for a couple of days. This is the second set of rears I've been through to one set of fronts which are still on 3-4mm! One set of rears was depleted in between 6-8k. Opps! Yay!

Edited 1 August, 2016 by TriggerFish

[TriggerFish]

I got the head back today. It got a sign off as being OK from the guy who did it (used to specialise in building E30 race cars/engines, but has since moved onto R50/R53/R56 Minis instead). For the £80 it cost, I'm glad I didn't bother doing it myself. He removed the valves from the old head, took out the new valve stem seals from the old head, transplanted them into the new, and then lapped the valves into the new head. The tool alone would have been £40+, so it's not bad value at all, IMO.

 

Anyway, photos!

 

The head was a 2001 casting (they stopped making this engine is 1993), so is quite late by the standard of this engine. I don't know when/if BMW stopped making these. I'd be mildly interested to find out though.

 

Considering it's not been cleaned, it looks lovely and new. Ties in with the 'only done a few hundred miles before the car was written off' story.

 

 

 

 

The all important 885 stamp to ID it as a 2.5/2.7 head.

 

 

And the equally important date stamp (my other two were 87, and 89, I found out)

 

 

And then my ever helpful cat arrived to assist...

 

 

Just as I was finished putting the last studs in, and scraping out some awful rubber gasket stuff, I found this rough-edged hole in the head. My heart sank. I poked it with a long, thin stick, and the stick went quite a long way. I got some water, to see where it went, if anywhere.

 

 

Much to my massive relief, it's just a badly cast hole for an oil-way to the camshaft journal. Phew!

 

 

So, onward with the rebuild, and 90 minutes later, including a lunch break, it's all back together again.

 

 

 

I did notice that at least two of the rocker nuts where lose, so it looks like this is pointing squarely in the face of user error! :( I shall use Loctite this time, just to be safe!

[TriggerFish]

Well, it's all back together again.

 

I went to fire it up, but no dice. The plugs were dry, and there was no spark. By this point, I assumed it was the CPS, and went home as it was late. I was thinking it over at night, and it occurred to me, maybe I've plugged the CPS and the CID into the wrong sockets...

 

I went back today, and I took the ECU plug off to measure the resistance of the CPS. I don't like the analogue mutli-meter I have down there, and didn't get the reading I was expecting. I bridged the two pins at the ECU with a length of wire and then checked for resistance in each of the two plugs to work out which was which (closed circuit = CPS plug). Once I'd found which one it was, I plugged them in, and tried to fire it up. Hey presto! It lives! After a minute or so of hunting it settled down in a lovely, rock solid idle. Much better than it was better. Do I thank the CPS, or the renewed vacuum pipes? Or both? Either way, not going to complain!

 

Bleeding the coolant was a total pain, as ever with this car, but it seems to be done now, about 10-14litres later! Luckily it's just tap water for now. I don't know how I'm going to get any decent level of antifreeze to stay in there though...

 

It did get a bit tappy at the end of my running session, so I whipped the rocker cover off and it all looks OK in there. I fired up the engine with the rocker off (it doesn't run too well) and cylinder 1 sounds a bit tappy. Hopefully it's just the valve clearances... The oil looked quite runny, but I don't know how runny hot engine oil should be. I'll wait until it's cold and see what it's like then. Assuming it's back to normal viscosity, then I'm happy! I just need to drain the oil (again - this was just to flush out any debris I missed) and the filter, and then book the MOT in.

 

 

And just for interest (someone might find it interesting, I dunno!) here's a couple of videos (both at 1x speed, I didn't upload the slow-mo one) of the engine running/turning over. Notice how much difference there is in thickness between hot and cold? Ignore the colour - I'm hoping that's just old mayo from the rods/crank and the filter

 

 

 

It's most noticeable to look in the pools of oil in the corners of the head and look at the speed of the ripples/movement of the 'bow wave' to get a feel for the differences.

[TriggerFish]

It's done!

It's taxed, and it has a full year's MOT (with no advisories either).

 

It failed the MOT initially on handbrake on one side, and no rear brake lights (I'd knocked the switch while poking around with the ECU). Once I'd fixed those two things, it went through.

 

Then, immediately after the MOT, on the way home, it died totally. I thought at first it was the fuel pump, so went to Wycombe to get another one, only to find out it wasn't the fuel pump. The wiring loom from the 'block' to the inlet manifold is a known weak point, and mine had been repaired by the PO (which I later improved upon). One of the fly lead wires had broken down internally, and was cutting power to the injectors, so it wouldn't run. I got it home (it still worked in some positions) and then replaced the length of wire, and tada! It lives again.

 

I'll be at Gaydon tomorrow if any of the other BMW owners on here will be attending...

 

Once home from failing the initial MOT, I broke character and washed one of my cars!

 

 

Then I even waxed/polished it!

 

 

And then it broke down. I hope this isn't going to be a repeat occurrence...

 

 

When it broke down, an Astra came around the corner behind me making a horrid rattling noise. I looked over just in time to see its exhaust pipe depart from the car! He took it in good humor though, as we sat broken down together.

 

Also of mild interest, I had two offers of help - one from a BMW, the other from an Audi. A Merc drove by shouting something about 'crap', but I didn't catch the rest. 

[TriggerFish]

A little update on this...

 

Since some teething issues (new radiator, new temperature sensor for the dash coolant display, spacing out the water pump pulley to stop it hitting the crank trigger wheel) it's been a largely reliable 2,000 miles. It's getting around 23.5mpg though which isn't great! It does go well though, that's for sure. I've not done any timing or anything, but there's a hill on my way home where it changes from a 30 to a 60 and everyone tailgates if you don't start going above 30 before the NSL sign. I like to wait until the last second and then floor it away at the sign just to try and prove a point to the douche sat 2 inches from the back of my car (and it's fun ). Anyway, my replacement, mapped 330d (my last one finally died, so I got another, but with a newer revision of the engine and more power) and the E30 hit within 5-10mph of each other around the same point of the hill. Given the difference in theoretical power output, I'm pleased that the little 325 can hold its own so well.

 

I plan to get a video of both dashboards and overlay them on top of each other (luckily BMW kept the same speedo increments, so a transparent upper video will allow you to easily track like-for-like performance.

 

The car is currently in the garage/lockup for the winter, and awaiting a new throttle cable. The one on there snapped, despite only being 12 months/2,000 miles old. I took it to BMW to find out that there's a parts and labour warranty, so left it with them while making use of their awful 116d sport loaner (hateful, hateful car). BMW rang me after three days to say that they couldn't get another cable - there was none in their warehouse and none in Germany either, and told me to come and get my car back (driving it home with a shoelace throttle out the window was fun given I'd had to deice the windows!). Anyway, I failed to find an aftermarket option, so was looking out of luck at this point, so thought I'd post on the e30zone facebook group to see if there was an alternative...

 

After having posted on e30zone to try and find a replacement throttle cable, a shining example of all that's good about car communities appeared. 

 

Someone who works in a dealer checked the warehouse stock, and found that the Slough warehouse had some in stock, and suggested I try BMW in High Wycombe as they're within range of the Slough depo. I did this, and had one inbound to BMW in Wycombe for the same day. This coming after Specialist Cars BMW in Tring said that the part was on world-wide back order and couldn't be obtained, and then sent me home with a broken car with a hand actuated throttle. I'd love to say that this is the first screw up by BMW Tring, but sadly, it's not.

 

Still, the car is able to be fixed easily with only a trip to Wycombe to suffer as a result.

 

 

And there it rests, alongside my soon to be scrapped 330d (just need to pull the exhaust, engine/box, loom, propshaft and it's done).

[sigarland1987]

Grab the steering wheel from the E46 as it will be a facelift sport wheel I am thinking and these sell well on all the parts places for BMW's 

[Paul007]

Is that a K reg Rover PB3.5 I can see?

[TriggerFish]

Yep, steering wheel is in the parts pile. I know the sort of people advertising it all is going to attract, and I'm not sure I can face it yet, so I'm still procrastinating on it!

I don't know the model, but yes it's a 3.5 rover. Never moved, some small holes in the rear arches from having been (seemingly) sand blasted some time ago. No other progress though. Its all there inside and doesn't look like it's fsr away from being roadworthy, assuming the mechanical bits are ok. There's also an old Yamaha motorbike in there along with a 'noddy bike'.

I bought the e30 out of winter hibernation today after the crank pulley on my replacement 330d failed. Seemingly a common problem as a result of the crank pulley being part metal and part rubber with the two parts separating. Great design from BMW there!

I also treated it to a new window isolator switch which lifts the centre console nicely.

[sigarland1987]

yes agreed on the people it attracts... wotz ure last price...knuckle draggers, have been breaking an E39 and its just not an easy process, wish I would have known as needed a spare wheel when my flappy paddle wheel goes for refurb! 

 

Car is looking really good, can't beat the E30 shape, and is nice to see you bring it back from the dead. 

[TriggerFish]

That's the ones! So far I've managed to avoid the 'best price bruv' brigade, but I doubt it'll last! :(

[sigarland1987]

Saying that the majority of the E30 zone guys are pretty good and actually prefer OEM or OEM+...more the E46/36 Fam drift boyz, just starting to affect the E39 at the moment. always intrigued me why someone would want to weld a diff of a motorway cruiser.

 

They are good cars to work on though, been tinkering with my 530d and always have found things to be in a easy to reach place, can imagine even more so for the E30. 

[pip_vrs]

Just read all of this, makes me miss my e30

[TriggerFish]

Saying that the majority of the E30 zone guys are pretty good and actually prefer OEM or OEM+...more the E46/36 Fam drift boyz, just starting to affect the E39 at the moment. always intrigued me why someone would want to weld a diff of a motorway cruiser.

 

They are good cars to work on though, been tinkering with my 530d and always have found things to be in a easy to reach place, can imagine even more so for the E30. 

 

Yes - either OEM/OEM+ or full on modded twin turbo V8 style things. Anything in between seems to be slated, which is a bit of a shame really. It's not the nicest (online) community, although everyone I've met in person buying/selling parts has been great. I guess the E36/E46/E39 are very cheap right now - as they start to get rarer they'll fall back into the hands of the enthusiasts, rather than drifters who just want some fun - much as the E30 did and E36 is starting to do. And yeah - welded diffs seem fun, but not for something to be driven on a road. I was at a drift place yesterday for a charity event (I had a go in an Ultima with a 6.3l LS3 V8 - wow! :O ) and the MX-5 were hoping/scuffing at such low speeds, it must be a nightmare on a road.

 

Yep, most E30 (and E46) jobs are very easy. Hardest thing I can imagine doing on the E30 now its all rebuilt would be the clutch cylinders and their piping. Some things like the rear brake lines which run about the petrol tank/diff/subframe would be a nightmare to replace without dropping it all down, but 'day-to-day' (used loosely!) servicing is easy. Even the cambelt is easy as with the radiator removed (two pipes and two bolts) then you've got all the access you need through the radiator grill. Plus it's largely well designed too without too many stupidly inaccessible areas which helps.

 

Little things, like the headlights/bumper not needing to be removed to change a bulb (looking at you, Polo GTI!) or not needing to drop the front subframe to change a wishbone bush (Fabia mk1) make keeping then going quite simple. The crank pulley on my 330d started to fail due to rubber fatigue, and even that's simple to get at. Remove mechanical fan, and then all the access you need is there between the engine and the radiator - something you'd never get with a transverse engine.

 

Anyway, onto the E30 itself... On the way back from the drift day yesterday (you couldn't run your own cars, sadly) I pulled over onto some mud to let some traffic past on a single track road, and on turning right back onto the main road found the car crabbing badly sideways, which isn't unexpected, nor a problem, until the steering got really heavy as I tried to pull it back to straight. I'm not sure if it's a result of dropping the revs and the PAS reducing the pressure, or another problem, but something to look at as it was pretty unpleasant and made for a not very elegant pull away! 

[TriggerFish]

So not much has happened to this recently - it's still safely tucked away for winter.

I did push the boat out and treat myself to an eBay special lights on warning buzzer. I'm used to a) auto lights b ) having a warning they're left on if set manually. This has neither, and I keep leaving them on at work and getting a call from the parking guy to go and turn them back off.

In more interesting news, I've ordered myself something much more interesting.

Doesn't reveal much does it?

To map an older car like this, with a closed system ECU and no obd you have to change the eeeprom chip. You can get pre flashed chips, like a generic remap, which is what it's running at the moment. This works, but idles badly when cold and runs rich all the time.

You can get people to map them with either emulation hardware, or I guess by removing, flashing, refitting, checking, repeating. Both will be expensive, and hard to find someone willing/able to do it.

There is of course the stand alone option, like an emerald or megasquirt. Or there's what I have.

https://www.millerperformancecars.com/store/war-chip/best-bmw-chip-miller-w-a-r-chip-detail

This plugs into the eeeprom slot and lets you write, and flags your own maps to it. Meaning I can write my own, and upload/modify them as I like. :) I'll ideally need an AFR gauge, but otherwise, this is all that's needed.

Should be something fun to mess with come spring time!

Edited 22 January, 2017 by TriggerFish

[pip_vrs]

My e30 just had a generic chip in it, went well but like you said it's not setup properly.