S50 track car / Touring not so track car

[MrBenn2]

No offense taken dude. Glad to have you back on board.

My memory certainly isn't what it was on on this stuff from 9 years ago and I'm having to re-learn loads .

My fuel pump had died when I went to restart it. I think gummed up as the tank didn't have much fuel in. Anyway, replaced with the old standard pump just to check she would fire and all good. Do I really need to fit the 5 bar pump in, as I've read its controlled by the regulator not the pump?

[MrBenn2]

. Do remember with timing gear on with standard ECU 158.6 mph. The vacuum sucked the glass out of the wing mirrors.

What?!

[HenryM3]

I’ve read and it’s been said on m3cutters that the standard m3 or 3 bar pump is fine and there is no noticeable difference. I’m investigating why I’m loosing pressure to 0 when I switch off but have a solid 5 bar when the pump primes. Next is taking the fuel rail out to see if injectors are leaking or there’s a FPR problem. Question remains is why did BMW put a 5 bar pump in if a 3 bar will do. Perhaps if your working at the top end of the revs (track days) it might run a bit lean. I don’t know.

[MrBenn2]

Right, the standard one will stay in there then. When I removed the pump the short length of 'in tank' fuel line had also split so I wasn't really happy with that setup.

[HenryM3]

I did the same thing when I built mine, put the wrong piece of rubber pipe in the tank. Took me forever to realise why the engine had stopped and wouldn’t start. You could hear the pump running so dismissed that. Because there had been so many wires soldered I assumed it was one of the solder joints. It makes me palpitate even now just thinking how much I pissed about to eventually get to a 2" piece of rubber hose.

[MrBenn2]

The first time I tried with normal fuel pipe, that did not last long at all and 'ballooned' right up. This is supposed to be line for inside the tank, I expect the crap clips I used had put a split into it which over time opened up.

She was in a very sorry looking state so I treated her to a little wash.



The weather looks a lot better for next week so hopefully get her up on stands and get working on the ever growing list of jobs I'm writing.

[MrBenn]

So thankfully some nice weather at last and some progress

My good mate Nick kindly offered to help me out with getting this thing back on the road, hes owned plenty of e30's in the past, so a perfect helping hand

We got her back up on axle stands to give her a proper once over.

I had fitted a set of WMS brakes maybe around 5 years ago, that I'd got second hand off here. My efforts had been a bit half arsed.... The disk was rubbing the back plate, and the back plate was rubbing the track rod end. I hadn't fitted the proper 2 or 3 mm spacers behind the wheels. A bit of a pigs ear, shall we say. So some angle grinder action on the back plates and the correct spacers located in the many boxes of "spares" and it was looking a bit better. Wire brushed the disks and a quick once over with some emery paper and they were looking good as new

During this messing about with the front brakes we discovered a significant amount of play in the front right suspension/bearing. Didn't take long to find the culprit, a totally knackered control arm bearing on the bottom of the strut. Thinking back, these are the same ones I think used while racing in the PBMWC and they weren't even new then! So a few new parts to order there.

Moving on. The exhaust was almost sitting on the floor as all the rubbers had perished and split. So we got it back onto its hangers with some jubilee clips. I think I should have done it this way the first time round, we got it fitting much better within a few minutes, but an extra pair of hands with this sort of thing makes all the difference. I can remember laying under the car with the exhaust laying on me, swearing at it for many hours. Didn't work!! Few more bits to order.

Obviously 9 years has taken its toll. There are many rust areas to deal with etc etc but I'm still hoping it won't take too long to have her back on the road.

Replace the front control arms and book it in for an MOT and see what they say I need to do, is the plan, I guess.

[DanThe]

Great day for it today, you will need better condition ball joints/bearings all round now its got S50 power

[MrBenn]

Yeah I hear you Dan. Probably do all the wheel bearings while its up in the air again, almost certainly needed on the back. The rest of the bushes are already replaced with new or powerflex black.
I have pretty bad rust on both sides at the bottom corners of the wind screen. Is that an MOT fail? I think I can probably patch something in, but I don't want to have the screen out at the moment. If I can avoid doing it now that would be great as I'd just like to put a few miles on her and see how it goes.

[DanThe]

Good time to do the lot, id just put some tiger seal around the windscreen rot to keep mr MOT man happy for a while

[MrBenn]

Not the most interesting of updates. The new control arms arrived yesterday, and it wasn't wet today, so a few hours in the cold and got the old arms off and mainly swapped over.

(here is a rusty control arm, I forgot to take pictures of the new ones, but they aren't really interesting? Are they?)

I snapped one of the bolts on the control arm for the anti roll bar bracket. So a new set of brackets is on order.

Managed to remove the old lollipops with the m3 bushings intact fairly easily, but I have also ordered a new set of them too as they're over 10 years old now.

Thanks to Danthe ;) I'm also replacing the wheel bearings, track rod ends and pretty much every bush now. That should take care of next weekend if the parts all arrive in time.

Few other jobs I've spotted. The rear copper brake lines need replacing and probably the solid fuel lines too. One step forward, two steps back.

[rix313]

All part of the fun mate. Keep going! I am having a quote for plastic coated hard lines at the moment as I'm going to replace all mine. I'll let you know the outcome. The material cost isn't that horrific, much cheaper then what I have paid with BMW in the past.

[DanThe]

Kronflex tubing is what I use for fuel lines, its plastic coated aluminium, used in all sorts of motorsport applications
Kunifer or cupro/nickel brake line is the only stuff to use, copper is not really fit for purpose in my opinion

Also if you fancy a non rubber droplink, mondeo rear drop links fit the front perfectly without having to buy rip off U brackets

[flybynite]

Kronflex tubing is what I use for fuel lines, its plastic coated aluminium, used in all sorts of motorsport applications
Kunifer or cupro/nickel brake line is the only stuff to use, copper is not really fit for purpose in my opinion

Do you mean Krontec Dan? If so I agree completely

Also agree about Kunifer, only stuff I use also.

[DanThe]

Krontec, thats the stuff

[MrBenn]

Thanks for the reply Dan, but alas, its a day too late and the rip off 'U' brackets have already been ordered. Nearly as much as the control arms!! At least it'll all still be BMW ;)

That Krontec looks good stuff. Do you need to flare the ends or anything before putting the rubber tube on?

Kunifer. I'm on it

[DanThe]

Yes I put an Op 1 on the ends, you can also buy compression fittings etc

[MrBenn]

So not a bad weekend for getting some hours in on the motor.

Put in some fresh anti freeze, ran her up to temp and changed the oil and filter. No dramas.

The interior fan wasn't working , and my memory was that in the past it had only worked on speed 4. I don't think it would be possible to get the fan out with the engine in place, taking the engine out in not an option at this point, so, some patience with a long screw driver moving the fan back and forth with the help of a can of wd40 and she is back up running again, and now on all 4 speeds

Decided to check the clutch and put it into gear while on the stands. Gave it a tiny amount of throttle and there was significant knocking in the transmission tunnel. The centre bearing rubber was completely gone. It was brand new 10 years ago and has never been driven. WTF!!! So now the exhaust and prop has to come off

Some new bits arrived and got bolted on.

(mmm rust)


Gave the engine a clean. With an oily rag.

Got the passenger seat bolted in too. Mounted on standard e30 rails, using adapters from massivebrakes.com

Steering wheel needs some attention. Anyone know what's good to make it black again?

Fuel guage reads half full when its empty so I must have the guage designed for the m3 with the long range tank in the boot, so that needs swapping to the standard item. Might get one of the euro ones that tells you the amount in litres.

Anyone know what I need to do to make the oil temp gauge in my cluster work?

[DanThe]

That looks like a standard fuel gauge for an M3 not the version for the extended range so the fault will more than likely be with the sender/senders depending on what tank you have fitted

Oil temp gauge is easy, the terminals on the back of the clocks tell you what signal they need and the S50 will have a temp sender fitted in the oil filter housing

[MrBenn]

The confusion continues with this fuel guage..... That is what I thought Dan. But it will show the red light on and half a tank. Car is a 318i and has a standard 55l single sender tank, which the M3 should also have.

Well you make that sound very easy. Do I need to swap the temp sender in the filter housing?

[DanThe]

Easy to test the sender by removing it refitting the plug and tipping it up while watching the gauge, you can also short the sender wire to earth which should give a full reading on a working gauge

The S50 oil temp sender will run the gauge fine

[MrBenn]

Sooooooo..........this arrived on Thursday. Bought unseen on Sunday night after seeing an ebay advert with 5 poor photos, for the princely sum of ........ONE thousand pounds... (advertised as having oil pressure issues)

Anyone recognise it?

Anyway. The last few weeks have made me do some very hard thinking about this project.

10 years ago I wanted the best track car I could build for my budget. 10 years on, I haven't driven on a track once in that time, and now I just want a car I can use and enjoy on a daily basis, with maybe a track day thrown in, once in a blue moon.

Was a lovely day today, and got the engine out by 2, just before it stopped being a lovely day.

[DanThe]

One 10 year project is never enough

[MrBenn]

No no no no no NO!

The touring will be sporting the majority of the other cars nice bits by this time next week.

This conversion was designed, so it could be as plug and play as possible with another e30. Unfortunately I didn't consider the ABS unit....the carbon airbox tubing for the air filter goes where it lives. and the filter is mounted under where the ABS unit would live on my current car.
We've spoken about the MK60 ABS unit and I've seen people fitting them in the battery location. I wasn't planning on doing it now but looks like I might have to and relocate battery to the boot.

[DanThe]

So its going to be an S50 touring
The battery tray is a terrible place for an ABS pump in my opinion, the closer to the master cylinder it is the better

[MrBenn]

It is going to be a S50 touring

I might keep the gaz, for those 'blue moon' track days. But will be fitting the bilstein B12 kit, well that's the current thinking anyway, but I am open to suggestions.

Duly noted on the ABS location, probably best to buy one then, and see where it fits as close as I can.

Cheers

[DanThe]

See about half way down the page here viewtopic.php?f=88&t=206096&start=140

Ive since moved it inside the car just because its now full on race spec

[MrBenn]

That might just work in that position you know

[MrBenn]

Few more hours on it today, removed the exhaust, heat shielding, prop shaft. gearbox and selector linkage etc. Gave the engine bay a once over with some degreaser a brush and hose.

I presume the yellow stuff around the strut towers is waxoil. I'd like to clean it off. Petrol and a rag?

Found some more of the dreaded brown stuff, but so far, these are the only two bad areas I've found and both are repairs I feel confident doing myself, so those are jobs for tomorrow.

[MrBenn]

I got this bit cut out and replaced today. I'm self taught, be kind

[MrBenn]

Spent the day removing everything from the 2 door, in preparation to remove the engine. So, airbox, exhaust, prop, gear linkage, wiring, radiator, power steering, oil cooler, electric fan wiring, fuel lines, etc etc

I got the oil cooler fitted onto the touring after fighting with a slightly bent front valance, which got unbent with a length of 4x2. Then routed the wiring for the electric fan. Which is now going to be swapped over to the SPAL fan I've had sitting here for years. Still needs connecting into the fuse box. I managed to remove most of the connections from the old fuse box after some good advice from Dan, but after faffing with a couple of them for 5 minutes or so I just chopped them off and will remake the connections. Dan can I buy two of the special push spade connectors please

Lots of other general meddling and at the end of the day got my mate round for a helping hand, and it was removed.

[MrBenn]

Thursday was spent removing the front subframes from both cars.

While I had it back off the car, I decided to give it a bit of tlc. The Eibach anti roll bar was rusting all over the place (wasn't new when I bought it) and the powder coating on the subframe was also bubbling and rusting in places so it was rubbed back, rust treated, primed and painted. All very roughly. It is under the car afterall. It'll have a bit of clear waxoil too when I buy some.

Friday I mustered the enthusiasm to tackle the rust in the front footwell. It was worse than I'd thought. But it got chopped out and patched back in. It is by no means perfect. I wish I had the time and skills to do this better, but it is solid now and who in the hell is going to see it anyway.

[MrBenn]

Another long day of it today.

Removed the front struts from the touring. Took the disk and calipers off the struts and refitted them to the 2 door to keep it in a rolling state.The front subframe off the touring had already been refitted to the 2 door.

Refitted the front subframe to the touring and while it was all easy to get at, I upgraded the front section of the steering UJ. I bought this thing from the states and it took forever to arrive, so it didn't get fitted all those years ago. But I'm glad to be able to use it now as it gives quite a bit more clearance from the exhaust manifold.

Then it was the dreaded job of swapping the diffs over...... If this diff ever has to come off again I"m changing it over to studs.....

Then for a final hurrah we dropped the engine back in. And had a celebratory can of cider.

[steve_k]

nice little update.

as for the diff studs? do it, makes it so much easier, when i did mine i fitted a set of reinforcement plates while i was there (just in case).

[MrBenn]

It was definitely on my 'wanted to do' list of things, as I remember this job being an utter c***, but my mate came over today to help out and he was convinced it wasn't that hard, so, they were duly removed. As I'd remembered, it was the refitting that is the terrible part of this job. While this was happening it was noticed that the UJ boots were well and truly F'd, Sooo that then lead to removing the drive shafts and swapping them over. Funny how what you imagine as a few hours work, turns into two weeks work