First E30 - 316i Touring Rescue - (Update: Now MOT'd!)

[iDemonix]

Car doesn't have to be older - just the engine (or the engine to be of indeterminate date).

Is the wiki wrong?

"While catalyzers were installed in 1989, UK MOT requirements only demand that cars built after 09/1992 meet certain exhaust requirements"
https://www.e30zone.net/e30wiki/index.p ... #Catalyzer

[Brianmoooore]

There's a couple of errors in the wiki article. It's two months out - it's after July '92, not September, and it's now illegal to remove a cat. from an earlier vehicle if one was fitted at the factory.
BUT.
The after July '92 bit refers to cars as they were new, with original parts. Many parts will have been changed by now which may include fitting a replacement engine. The post July '92 bit then applies to whichever is the oldest out of the engine and body, but of course, the replacement engine might just have had its engine number defaced and be now unreadable.
Unless you provide an earlier photo of the underside of the car to an MOT tester, clearly showing a cat in place, then there's no way he'll ever know, as long as the removal isn't bodged, or obvious signs, such as a lambda sensor, left in place.

There are also other ways of making a post July '92 Touring pass a MOT without a cat. One is to create a car that BMW never made, such as fitting an iS M42 into the car, which makes for a very agreeable and economical daily driver. Other, later engines can be used as well (M44, M52, etc.) Doesn't matter if both the car and the engine is post July '92, as long as it's a combination BMW didn't make.
Another way of making it pass without a cat., is to do what I do, and run it on LPG. It then only has to meet the pre August '92 emissions regulations, but should actually meet the post July '92 emissions level without a cat., since LPG burns so cleanly.

[iDemonix]

No real update, just a nice pic of part of the new daily life for the E30!



If anyone is on Insta, give me a follow on @fastbikesslowcars and I'll do the same.

Definitely a few bits to sort next year (rattly exhaust, headlining, sunroof seals, still need to get the tracking done!), but enjoying using it to nip the shops and hoon about (slowly) in.

Hope everyone has a good xmas.

[Shutthatdoor]

Great photo and glad to see it looking so good

[iDemonix]

So, a few posts back I replaced the fuel pump + assembly. The reason being that the old unit was very loud, and I thought it'd be good to replace it. Unfortunately as I was already over budget, I can't remember where I sourced the pump from, but I knew it wasn't a decent Bosch unit.

Anyway, the old adage of 'buy cheap, buy twice' came true, the pump got louder + louder over time, until eventually it'd only push 32psi to the fuel rail, and when turned off the pressure would drop immediately to 0.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=282388

Details + pics in the above post, but it boiled down to replacing the fuel pump with a proper Bosch unit, I also replaced the intake boot (as I've had it on the shelf for ages, just not got round to it) and the vacuum pipe that elbows off the boot and feeds the ICV and a couple of other bits (as it had a split in one end). When the intake vacuum bits didn't fix it, I bought a manometer/pressure gauge, and realised it was the pump.



New Bosch unit in, almost silent inside the car now, and no more bogging down issues or 10s of cranking to fire her up.

[ah]

No real update, just a nice pic of part of the new daily life for the E30!



If anyone is on Insta, give me a follow on @danwalkersgarage and I'll do the same.

Definitely a few bits to sort next year (rattly exhaust, headlining, sunroof seals, still need to get the tracking done!), but enjoying using it to nip the shops and hoon about (slowly) in.

Hope everyone has a good xmas.

Well from how it originally looked in the first pic,it’s an absolute credit to you,well done.

[iDemonix]

Well from how it originally looked in the first pic,it’s an absolute credit to you,well done.

Cheers mate

I'm moving house on Tuesday, today I took the E30 back and stored it in a family member's garage today ahead of the (100+ mile) move. Picked the worst day of torrential rain, and an hour of gridlock due to an accident, making it a 3hr+ journey! But she made it back fine, and other than the fact my tracking needs sorting (and lack of powah), was a fairly pleasant drive!

Christ I want an m52b28, though.

[iDemonix]

Slight update to the thread as I did some more work.

She failed her MOT on emissions. I took the old O2 sensor out for a look, and it had fallen to bits, so I ordered a proper Bosch one to replace it:



Tried again with a tank full of emissions cleaner/reducer, and whilst this sorted out the issue of failing the HC (hydrocarbon) emissions, the CO was still a mile out (down to 1.3% from 6%, but needed to be 0.3%).

Ended up relenting and finally buying a system to replace the old one, however, I didn't want to go through the faff of having the downpipes modified to clear the ARB and steering column again, so some chopping was required:



Rather than cut + weld, a local fab shop cut them for me, and then sleeved the new system:



This makes removal/refitting a much easier job!

I cut some slits in the sleeve with an angle grinder, bought a cheap clamp from Halfrauds, and voila:





First attempt:



Second attempt with new O2 sensor + tank full of emissions cleaner:



Final attempt with the new system:



Road legal for another year!

[Shutthatdoor]

Well done and happy driving. Good to see an update

[martauto]

Mart.