Meatballs 1988 Tech 2 Sport

[macas]

I'll get some pics up over the weekend, think they cost £18 from the stealers with a little discount, would make the touring a minter Jim!

Little taster...

That looks fantastic mate!!

[Meatballs82]

Thanks mate - still got loads to do - engine bay is minging and wheels need a refurb asap.

Booked into a local garage in 2 weeks time for new clutch inc master and slave cylinders and lighter flywheel, E46 clubsport rack, front arms with M3 bushes, new arb bushes links and clamps, cambelt & waterpump. It drives nice anyway but can't wait to see what difference it all makes

[Kedge]

Thanks mate - still got loads to do - engine bay is minging and wheels need a refurb asap.

Booked into a local garage in 2 weeks time for new clutch inc master and slave cylinders and lighter flywheel, E46 clubsport rack, front arms with M3 bushes, new arb bushes links and clamps, cambelt & waterpump. It drives nice anyway but can't wait to see what difference it all makes

Shot gun ride please!

[Meatballs82]

No probs!

[polsta]

its amazing how a box of shiny bits arriving from the stealers can relight the flame!

I love getting a delivery of clear bags with part numbers and BMW stamped on them.. Almost more than driving the car itself.. Nice to see an update

me too , something so cool about getting little nuts etc come from germany to your stealers to pick up, got loads of bags here myself ready to go

bet you cant wait to get the alpina schizzle on matt, i looked at a set myself the other day and am pondering it over

[scott180gtb]

Matt the car looks stunning.

Black is my favourite colour on the E30.

You won't believe the difference the rack and fly make!

[Meatballs82]

Same here Scott, most of my cars have been black, but I think the E30 looks especially mean!

Will report back when the new morsels are fitted

[kieran325]

Looking good Matt, well done to all involved

[Meatballs82]

Looking good Matt, well done to all involved

Thanks mate, wouldn't have been possible for me without all the info here on the zone and countless hours of help / guidance from a few of its members!

[bmandy68]

Looking good Matt ready for the summer mate.

[Meatballs82]

Just about Andy! will see you at a show somewhere soon no doubt.

[bmandy68]

Too right mate, be good to catch up.Nice looking sport matt and rust free lots hard work been done by u and the lads.Would love a set of alpina alloys my self,sets your car off well.

[Meatballs82]

Not updated this thread for a while so thought I'd revive it!

I had the new clutch and lightened flywheel, master and slave cylinders and stainless clutch hose, cambelt, w/pump and thermostat changed, fresh brake fluid and new cap and arm fitted in May - couldn't stop grinning when I got it back from my mates garage! The flywheel has made a subtle but noticeable difference to the way the car responds, I'm used to it now, but all the scaremongering of ''easy to stall'' and ''the car will decellerate sooooo much quicker'' seem to have escaped my car!

Then I took a trip over to Dan's yard beginning of this month to get my 067 rack and pipes fitted, along with new Burton MK2 Escort eng mounts and custom steering linkage. Its so much sharper now I almost scraped the n/s on his gatepost on my way home! Def the best mod the car has had so far - I had to learn to corner the car again its so different! parking up is a breeze now, and the steering has a nice weighty feel to it, chuffed aint the word!

Thanks again to Dan for doing a very thorough job - was good to meet you after the last few years dealing over the phone!

Not got many pics to post, here's some of the new rack in place.



Excuse the filth - this will be rectified over the winter

[G-Bear]

Nice work there Matt. I spent the last couple of days fitting the same. All off Dan. The quality and fit of his pipes is excellent. Just drove it round the yard briefly, before getting the rear of it up in then air to change my exhaust. It felt good with fewer turns, steering felt a bit heavier, perhaps due to the solid linkage over the original tired rubber guibo'd one, also haven't sorted the track yet.

[scott180gtb]

This ^^^

Club sports racks completely transform the E30. Dans kits are excellent.

[G-Bear]

A quick question about the 067 rack; I got fresh locking washers for the track rods to put in. Yet there was no notch on the rack to house it, rendering them useless. Looking on RealOEM E46 track rods have a bolt on the end. I just put some thread lock on, wound them in and pulled the tight with mole grips.. What did you guys use/do?

[Meatballs82]

A quick question about the 067 rack; I got fresh locking washers for the track rods to put in. Yet there was no notch on the rack to house it, rendering them useless. Looking on RealOEM E46 track rods have a bolt on the end. I just put some thread lock on, wound them in and pulled the tight with mole grips.. What did you guys use/do?

I bought Lemforder E30 track rod assy's which have some sort of lock ring that you can tighten

[scott180gtb]

Thread lock minus the washer. I cleared it with Dan just to make sure.

[G-Bear]

Mine are E30 track rods too. Cheers gents... the answer I was hoping for..

[Meatballs82]

Decided I'm going to hunt down and destroy the cause of the crap throttle response when cold I've had for a while. I'm getting some very similair sypmtoms as laid out in the first post here...

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... rough+idle

So far I'm pretty sure my blue temp sensor is duff after testing lastnight, got a genuine one on order. I'll be replacing all seals and gaskets on the inlet side as per a few threads I've read on here lately. testing, cleaning and resetting the TPS if req'd. Never been able to find a leak on any pipes /hoses and I fitted furbed injectors last year which made a good difference. Also got a BBTB on order courtesy of Maggspower too.

Any other tips or tricks from anyone thats done this before?

[SAP1]

Awesome build mate just read thru all 15 pages! How much do those 067 racks go for mate?

[Meatballs82]

Awesome build mate just read thru all 15 pages! How much do those 067 racks go for mate?

That depends on who your friends are!

Danthe is the man to speak to mate - he'll look after you!

[SAP1]

Awesome build mate just read thru all 15 pages! How much do those 067 racks go for mate?

That depends on who your friends are!

Danthe is the man to speak to mate - he'll look after you!

Lol okay I shall be speaking to him pretty soon

[G-Bear]

Any other tips or tricks from anyone thats done this before?

Might be worth going for the TB bypass on the cooling system, whilst you're at it. Said to get better fuel economy. Coolant feed to the TB isn't really needed in our climate.

I just ran a new hose straight from the back of the block to the stat housing, it's not the best solution but was up against time.

When I've got time to spare this is how I'd rather do it..

http://garagistic.com/index.php?page=m2 ... ter-delete

[Meatballs82]

Nice one, will give that a read later!

[Meatballs82]

This is carrying on from Speedtouch's ECU chip thread...

The previous owner just popped in again to give me this printout, he spent 2 hours going through his paperwork for me bless him! Looks like it was running 165 BHP after the chip

Got back from work and whipped the box out, car wouldn't start. Reconnected it, car it started fine then cut out when I unplugged it again. There is some numbers on it but didn't lead to anything when searching.





There's a white plug with 3 pins but not connected to anything, the black plug is 2 pin. Can't imagine trying to sort that lot out myself!

Few questions, am I right in thinking there's no point chipping the ECU as the piggyback is mapped for the current chip in there? Is it worth forking out for a live mapping session, or should it be removed and run one of your chips instead?

[Speedtouch]

Well, it would be possible to remove the piggyback and re-instate the original ECU wiring, then you could have the chip of your choice, or have the original chip re-programmed.

Just a thought; perhaps they removed the original ECU chip when fitting the piggyback, so I suggest you open the ECU lid and check that there's a chip actually fitted - the car won't run without it on the standard ECU alone!

If there is none, try fitting one, then unplug the piggyback ECU and see if it will then run without it...

Yes, you could take it to a Unichip specialist to get it remapped, but expect it to be quite expensive, and for probably little or no gain over what has already been achieved.

[DanThe]

You might be better off removing the complete loom/ECU with that uni-chip connected and selling it on to a turbo-meister/engine builder.

[Meatballs82]

I'll give the fitters a call next week and see what they can tell me about it, no idea what it'd be worth but I'm already swaying towards removing it and just running a chip anyway. Will check the ECU to see if there's a chip in there, thanks!

[Simon13]

if the engine is standard then the unichip is a waste of time really, that white plug is for switchable autos. The gearbox loom connected to it, I think its for kick down.

The uni chip is a piggyback so the original ECU chip will still be there. If it was my car and a stock engine i'd remove the unichip and fit a BBR starchip. Speedtouch will sort you out, its by far the best chip on a stock engine I've driven. Others will testify

Bexleys at the time were always fitting these unichips, I guess it was because they couldn't remap the motronic.

You could bin the AFM with the unichip which was seen as a restriction on the inlet side of the engine. Its not that bad really. Is yours running the AFM still?

[Brianmoooore]

I just ran a new hose straight from the back of the block to the stat housing, it's not the best solution but was up against time.

This IS the best solution. Beware of anything you read on a US site!
You're quite correct that the TB heater isn't required in the UK, and although it should increase power and economy, you'll need a very accurate measuring system to detect either. The effects are very small.
The main advantage is to eliminate a common place for coolant leaks to occur, simplify the engine bay, and make working on the car a little easier in that area.

[Meatballs82]

if the engine is standard then the unichip is a waste of time really

You could bin the AFM with the unichip which was seen as a restriction on the inlet side of the engine. Its not that bad really. Is yours running the AFM still?

As far as I know the engine is standard, AFM is present and connected, not tested it though. I have one of Byrons BBTB's on order too.

[Meatballs82]

On a different note my O/S handbrake shoes started rattling about last week so I bought some shoes and a fitting kit just in case, glad I did now as once again I found evidence of bodgery by John Hurst, the BMW Specialist I trusted to do my welding last year

When I first got the car I took it there, He said I needed rear discs and pads so I sent them down along with new shoes and asked him to fit the lot. I stripped down the brakes today to find some pretty old looking shoes, and one was held secured by cable ties... Dodgy Bast*rd.





To add insult to injury came a heavy shower of rain and the fact I had snapped both caliper bolts without realising as they had rusted into the thread. I knew the calipers were quite old but didn't get spares so I just cable tied the caliper back on for now to get the wheel back on and put the car away for today!

So now the spare time I had saved to fit my throttle body next week will instead be taken up fooling around with the brakes, thanks to John Hurst Automotive, Pingle Street, Leicester. http://www.hurstautomotive.co.uk/ ''Keeping you on the right track''

[DanThe]

Animals! So what happened to the new parts you gave them to fit?

[Meatballs82]

Animals! So what happened to the new parts you gave them to fit?

The discs and pads are fine, and also Pagid so more than likey the ones I supplied. I guess the shoes went in the bin when he couldn't be bothered to fit them, so he either put the cable ties there or saw them and left it anyway!