E30 Zone

Just did my M52B28 e30 swap into my touring, I now have some issues;

1. Gearbox / Clutch rattling when engaging. I have a 6.4KG m20 flywheel and a uprated clutch / pressure plate, Gearbox is a 318i G240.

Flywheel was freshly ground, have done about 100kms so far.


2. Power steering pump whining and no power steering. I think I got the wrong hosing and have it hooked up backwards, larger 22mm going to reservoir and 19mm to the rack, is this wrong? Reservoir is full and it just whines.


3. Brakes are jamming after a while and the pedal becomes hard. This may have something to do with using a MK2 Golf brake booster, Nothing else on the brakes was touched. I have twice travelled on the motorway at 100km/h and the car stops accelerating and slows right down to a stop as if I have my foot on the brakes.

I'm afraid I can't help you with the gearbox rattling, sure someone else will be along shortly

As for power steering pump - none of the reservoir outlets are under pressure, so these are just 'push-on' with jubilee clips for security. The larger outlet from the p/s pump goes to the rack, banjo bolt to banjo bolt. The smaller one goes to the reservoir, again only a push-on/jubille clip connector - iirc of course

Are you sure the vacuum hose for the servo has been connected correctly? Has the clevis/pushrod arrangement all been re-assembled correctly, or is this for a LHD car?

Yeah sounds like I have the powersteering backwards then. High pressure going to the reservoir and other smaller side coming from the rack. Doh.


Yes vacuum hose connected, One way valve connected and the right way around. Booster was a direct swap, other than a small rod inserted as the center rod on the booster was a tad shorter. Could the booster be bad? I am using a MK2 golf one, What was the Clio one that can be used

Brake problem is likely to be that the small rod is slightly to long, or the pull rod is too tight. The brake cylinder isn't getting fully back to its rest position.
Clutch noise could be an issue with the matching/angles of the release fork and release bearing to the M20 clutch. Did you do any mods. to the fork and what release bearing are you using?

Which one is the pull rod? I did have to adjust the long rod from RHD side to the booster as it was pulling the pedal just enough to keep my brake lights on. But the brakes are fine 90% of the time, If I jack it up they aren't stuck it's only when I use them alot that the pedal gets hard as if the booster isn't working?

I may source anew one or recheck the spacer - I made it against the e30 one so it was identical,

Any ideas what the Brake binding issue relating to the spacer is reffered to in the e30 wiki, this sounds like my issue - Too long or too short?
http://ns1.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... _M5x#Servo

-The servo may need a slight adjustment - some do, some don't. The trouble is that the rod from the servo to the master cylinder often isn't long enough to make full contact. This leads to a high brake pedal, and binding brakes.


As for clutch - I'm using this.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/F1-STAGE-2-CLUT ... 33&vxp=mtr

It uses a SACHS pressure plate, not sure what the disc or throwout bearing is. Clutch for was the one that came with the gearbox - 318i m40 getrag240.

I used the F1 Stage 3 last time, with a getrag 220 - I liked it except the stage 3 was ceramic 6 puk and a pain to town drive with but was a great clutch. So I went with a stage 2 this time so it has more slip when engaging. Maybe it needs to be bed in?? If I give it some revs it does not really do the rattle..

Hmm, So I have installed the e36 power steering reservoir back in, and wrestled in the 328i e36 power steering high pressure line. Ran out of ATF to top it up so will be trying it tonight. But that's hopefully the power steering now sorted and plumbed the correct way.


I've been told elsewhere that the brake booster rod must be too long so I will be removing and installing a slightly shorter spacer to see how that goes.. All I can think of really

Bugger - Power steering is now sorted, but I think the engine has blown its headgasket. Hadn't even warmed up yet was just cruising down the road and a big plume of white smoke started coming out the back. I stopped and checked out back and it was coming out the exhaust, quite slowly but with revs abit was coming.

I left it and came back to it an hour later and its only smoking a little but noticeable white smoke from the exhaust. Doesn't really smell like anything though. GRRRRR!

I haven't even been able to give this car a proper drive yet

That could be normal, you get quite a lot of condensation in these motors when sat around in cold weather. Unless you're getting oil in coolant and/or coolant in oil, or bubbling exhaust gas in the reservoir bottle, I wouldn't be crying head gasket yet.

It's summer here at the moment (New Zealand), It doesn't really get cold enough here at the moment to get any condensation. Have yet to check the oil and water for any crossing of fluids though..

The motor did creep to close to 3/4 mark on the gauge the other day when I was cruising in town. I've read they cook pretty easily when they run at even slightly higher operating temps?

Any sure ways of checking a coolant passage hasn't blown into a cylinder?

Check the plugs, most common cause is a crack in the head around the valve seats

Will do, What would I be looking for specifically? I literally changed them in the weekend so they will look brand new.

Discolouration due to the coolant being present in the combustion chamber

Okay looks like I panicked abit. Has not blown white smoke again.

Issues and I guess resolutions;

1. Gearbox / Clutch rattle when engaging clutch - Seems to have almost disappeared now, Have put about 200 town kms on brand new HD clutch and lightweight m20 flywheel. I think it just needed to bed itself in!

2. Power Steering whining - Lines were backwards, Now using e36 m52 high pressure line to rack with the reservoir to pump m52 line, then the e30 rack to reservoir line.

3. Brakes sticking on - Removed the master cylinder and placed a shorter space (~5mm shorter), Have been on a few drives and the brakes are alot better now and I don't feel the pedal getting hard anymore.


So all is good, Only issues I have is possibly the VANOS seals need replacing. When warm the engine hesitates abit in the lower RPM and power feels very flat between 2500-5000rpm. Still pleased with the result, Huge thanks to DanThe for the ECU - I think I'm one of the only in NZ to complete an m52 swap in an e30 without going OBD1 (No doubt someone would have possibly got one going with the EWS wired in though but not that I can see on our local forum - More likely no one has even done a m5x swap into a touring that I know of!)

sweet all good now then

Wellington

What a beautiful city

willnz wrote:Ok, I am a bit far away to just drop in and look.. I am near Raglan. Have done several conversions, the first about 4 yrs ago now, still running sweet.

DanThe can supply vanos seals as well.

Oh cool, You must not be on Bimmersport ? I know of not even a handful, but most were done OBD1 ways. Plus one that just sold on bimmersport wasn't sure how it was done.

Cheers will talk to DanThe for the VANOS seals. How necessary are the cam locking and sproket tools for the job? Not sure where I could get locally without buying them when only using them once.

Cool will keep that in mind, Just bought some seals of DanThe. He also showed me a simpler method for removing it without removing the vanos from the motor. I'll wait and see how I go about it.

Pretty anxious though, haven't really given this m52 good run yet barely over 4.5-5k rpm just feels a tad flat so going to sort out the VANOS first.

willnz wrote:
Bimmersport is too full of tupperware heroes for me