E30, shoehorn, m30. i knew it wasnt dead.

[DRIFTBOY]

Going back to the heater pipes - the pipe T'd off the top hose goes to the bottom stub on the heater.

The clicking noise when it's wrong is an unhappy heater valve, apparently it will get damaged if used for a long time like it.

[Toby_Unna]

...and the heater won't work once you're moving, which doesn't help when you're trying to determine whether your cooling system's bled properly or not!

[ric325i]

balls balls, balls i cant check if the thing clicks or the heater stops as i cant drive the thing



ok just been to check if i have pipes right way and....






yeah i will but putting hose clips on the T- piece very soon, how we love the cable ties




so the top pipe runs to the top pipe on the bulk head and the T-piece from B & Q is going to the bottom one!

see i did listen!

[ric325i]

you may notice on the pics above i have changed the water pump and got a new pipe to replace the son-of-a-bit*h

pipe that bust!

but here is to clear it up

new and old pumps


how dif the internals are! look at the blades! BMW are super efficiant!





dont know what thispic shows but i took it so it going up

[/img]



new pump and new thermostat





and again




so now i have been playing with the engine mounts before i get stuck in with the cooling.

i also dont have the rubber O-ring in the thermostat so may have to get one from bmw then put the thermostat back together....agian?

[Andy335Touring]

When you put the new O-ring on make sure the little arrow on the 'stat points upwards, not sure if it makes much difference but i read it ages ago some where.

No O-ring = slower warm up

You don't need to drive it to check you've got the pipes the wrong way around, just rev it up.

[Andy335Touring]

Nope !

so the top pipe runs to the top pipe on the bulk head and the T-piece from B & Q is going to the bottom one!

see i did listen!

Going back to the heater pipes - the pipe T'd off the top hose goes to the bottom stub on the heater.

[Rik178m]

Nice conversion mate. What radiator and fan are you using?

[ric325i]

Nope !

so the top pipe runs to the top pipe on the bulk head and the T-piece from B & Q is going to the bottom one!

see i did listen!

Going back to the heater pipes - the pipe T'd off the top hose goes to the bottom stub on the heater.

hey you can see my confusion there!! cant you

you see the big T from the top rad hose goes to the top stub
and the bottom pipe which i have cut into and placed my T piece goes into the bottom stub.

is this right?

or should i switch them?


i will be starting it tomorrow so i want to get it right. new job has taken over this week.

bloody rad pipes doing my head in

ok here are some pics to explian


that big rubber T runs to the top stub and the bottom B&Q plastic T runs to the header tank and the bottom stub.

right or wrong?

[DRIFTBOY]

Wrong!

[ric325i]

Wrong!

balls!

how funny is that!

so can ijust leave my B&Q T-piece in its place and switch the 2 pipes over on the bulk head?

going to try tonight

cheers driftboy, i hope to be drifting again soon

[DRIFTBOY]

No probs!

Yeah, just swap them over on the heater stubs!

[ric325i]

sweet i would love that to be the problem for the bleeding. i am actually begging it is!

so i will do that once i have put the engine mounts back on.

[ric325i]

update on that.

the guy at the garage who tried to bleed the system said the gasket could be gone as its strange that only one pipe running to the heater was hot.

maybe it was because i did it wrong?

i am a fool.

[Lennerd320i]

as i've been told, when you are encountering problems with the cooling and only one pipe is hot it should be due to the rad. Don't forget that you have a rad inside in your car as well.

try to find a spare one and replace? (i know, the one in the interior is hell of a work to replace)

[ric325i]

as i've been told, when you are encountering problems with the cooling and only one pipe is hot it should be due to the rad. Don't forget that you have a rad inside in your car as well.

try to find a spare one and replace? (i know, the one in the interior is hell of a work to replace)

i never ever knew that. its sounds a bit mental

i dont fancy changing no internal rad

[SPADGE]

update on that.

the guy at the garage who tried to bleed the system said the gasket could be gone as its strange that only one pipe running to the heater was hot.

maybe it was because i did it wrong?

i am a fool.

He is talking shit then mate
It is highly unlikely that your headgasket would cause this problem.
I suspect you still have air in the system or your new thermostat is fecked or both. That is assuming you now have the plumbing correct which it appears you do.

[ric325i]

cheers spadge.

the plumbing will get set the right way around tonight and i have not tested the new thermostate yet as work has too over but tonight is the night.

its good i have all this information before i get going on it tonight. but i expect to be asking a few questions later

would love it if the thing bled tonight i have missed driving the noisy beast

[gareth]

with the pipes connected backwards, the coolant won't flow through the heater matrix (the proper name for that 'other rad'!!!) as the valve will be pratting about!

any luck then?

[ric325i]

i think i had them the right way round? well actually i dont. i have swithced them round but i coulndt get it to bleed.

i only tried once. i think my panic over getting water in the right place got water in the wrong place. like all over teh engine etc.

i lost control of my hose pipe. oh well.

now the bloody thing has cut out and wont bloody work.

im letting it dry out before i go and see if i can get some power out of it?

so to let you all know i live in manchester the window is down, it wont start at pressent but you can still steal the bloody thing if you want to.

[DRIFTBOY]

Don't lose heart dude!

I know they are generally stupid, crap and rubbish but do you have the 3/5-series Haynes manual?
The way they tell you to bleed the cooling system in there actually works for me (makes a change for a Haynes manual! ).

If you haven't got it let me know and I'll post it up tomorrow, I'm too right now and my head hurts!

[ric325i]

I will get the old beast sorted but its MOT time at the end of the month and that scares me.

I think I need the rubber O-ring in the thermostat to make the thermostat work correctly? I was hoping I could do it without the O-ring but its there for a reason and I guess its to hold it solid in place so the thermostat can open and close without any problems?

I need to try a few times as the water is not getting round the system I assume it's the O-ring restricting the operation of the thermostat?

So may give it a go again to night before I go and get drunk.

Temp got too high so I had to stop then the battery died which was unusual.

I changed the water pump so I best check the belts are running right.

All good fun.

If I get it through the MOT I will be putting more cash into it and changing a few parts.

[Toby_Unna]

I will get the old beast sorted but its MOT time at the end of the month and that scares me.

Ric it'll just MOT like any other E30, don't worry about it. they'll emissions test the car as if it was a 535i and if it happens to fail it's easy to sort.

and as for the engine... worst case is spend £100 on another, swap the good/new bits over, job done.

imagine if it was a grand's worth of M3/M5 engine you'd cooked, now that would be a bit of a problem

[ric325i]

Ric it'll just MOT like any other E30, don't worry about it. they'll emissions test the car as if it was a 535i and if it happens to fail it's easy to sort.

yeah man i know i have even spent some time looking for a new lump but only came up with buying another 535i and the ones i have looked at are sweet.....temping basically

imagine if it was a grand's worth of M3/M5 engine you'd cooked, now that would be a bit of a problem

yeah that would have been really bad.

and i hope they wouldnt have rotton pipes that split or if i was playing with BIG power, exspensive engines i would have the cash to change all the hoses too.

[Andy335Touring]

All the washer does is seal the 'stat so water can't get by when it's closed, this would mean you have a slower warm up because some of the water escapes around the rad whilst the engines warming up. It shouldn't stop it bleading ?

[ric325i]

well a slow warm up aint that bad as the thing just gets hot.

i have found my old thermo which had the rubber O-ring attached so now i can just use that.

but i have now got another problem

it wont start! no power?

on friday when i was TRYING to bleed the car i splashed the engine bay with water - not much but i did. dont know if thats the problem?

but i have sprayed wd40 all over the place but that was 2 days ago! i was bleeding it, it was dark so i put the side lights on to see my dash better and watch the temp but the temp rose to high so i switched the engine off.

lights off let it cool and started it again but nothing?

so i had a look at some connections to see if i had done something while chageing the water pump and all seems fine?

so nothing. i left the window open all night (no power to close it) while i charged the battery to see if i had drained it?

battery charged i got th window up and went to work.

back to car after work and it was dead? nothing no crank over or lights on dash? so messed about for a while and nothing? i there is power in the battery as i can spark 2 spanner together off the terminalls how much power though?

there should be enough to atleast poweer the lights on the dash?

so checked all earth and they seem fine, checked all starter motor wires and solinoid wires but still nothing.

i charged that battery all night even thought the charger sayis its full, attached it to my car and tried to start it, the lights came on the dash so i got excited and set myself in teh car turned the key and i got a few clicks form some thing (not startermotor) and then lights off and nothing

it seems i dont have a circuit? normally when i touch the earth to the battery with the positive connected i get some sparks but nothing?

nothing at all? is the battery dead so it cant hold charge or do i have a circuit problem? cant figure it out?
is there a trip switch or something? it seems to trip out?

well all these problems have turned me into a zone camper or should that be for all teh problems?
bit of an essay there. sorry.

[gareth]

try putting the headlights on while cranking it. if they go very dim or go out, it's the charge in the battery. maybe you left an interior light on and finished the battery off during the day?

these batteries are big and take a long time to charge so if it was flat before, it may have ony been about 25% charged by the morning.

re the water, you'll probably be ok. i dowsed my engine bay in degreaser and then jetwashed it all yesterday before the ashford meet and it still worked afterwards!

[ric325i]

yeah i thought it could not be the water but i still had to put it there.

right i will put the batery on charge for another night see if i can get more from it?

my idea on electrics is pretty poor.

[Toby_Unna]

i've got a sh1te scrapyard battery running my e30 which works fine but won't crank the car for long before it runs out of juice. hence it sees the charger a lot. it only needs 20 mins or so on fast charge (3 amps) from stone dead before it'll spin the thing over happily.

so i guess either your charger or battery is dead? or the big wire running to the starter then alt is loose or making a bad connection?

i'm not sure, but i don't think charging the battery more will help you mate.

get a multimeter (they only cost a few quid!) and measure the voltage across the battery terminals. should be a solid 12.5 volts. then keep watching as you crank it, or try to crank it. if the voltage drops right down to a few volts, something wrong with battery/charger. if it doesn't, something wrong with car/wiring/starter etc etc

are you coming to the Santa Pod meet in a few weeks? tow it there and Gareth/Martin/Andy/I will get it all nicely sorted for you. then race you.

[ric325i]

i've got a sh1te scrapyard battery running my e30 which works fine but won't crank the car for long before it runs out of juice. hence it sees the charger a lot. it only needs 20 mins or so on fast charge (3 amps) from stone dead before it'll spin the thing over happily.

so i guess either your charger or battery is dead? or the big wire running to the starter then alt is loose or making a bad connection?

i'm not sure, but i don't think charging the battery more will help you mate.

get a multimeter (they only cost a few quid!) and measure the voltage across the battery terminals. should be a solid 12.5 volts. then keep watching as you crank it, or try to crank it. if the voltage drops right down to a few volts, something wrong with battery/charger. if it doesn't, something wrong with car/wiring/starter etc etc

are you coming to the Santa Pod meet in a few weeks? tow it there and Gareth/Martin/Andy/I will get it all nicely sorted for you. then race you.

sweet advice

im going to put the battery in the front and see if i can run it from there?

there must be an easy answer i just need to find it.

seems to trip out so it cant be the battery in therory.

oh and cheers for the offer of teh fix but i think im in germany for the beer festival? pod is the 23rd i think?

well if it worked i think i would give ya a good run for your money with my short dif worth a try though

[ric325i]

right no idea why but with the battery in the fron tthe bitch fire and fires gooooooood!

right rad out rubber ring in and i will try to bleed im wishing myself luck

[Toby_Unna]

fingers crossed Ric

make sure the rad and top hose are both full (with the hose off). then hold the coolant tank up while you bleed it, gives a better head of water to force air out.

[ric325i]

thanks man right guys is this the right way around?



haynes says spring towards the engine

[Gunni]

Thats correct.

[ric325i]

good man

[ric325i]

well it didnt work
balls


i dont get it? i filled as much as i could with water before i started trying to bleed it but i couldnt.

it started fine and i was progressively bleeding the system but after a few times i let the temp rise more but the bleeding just goes mental!

after a while the gentle bleeding turns into erratic water spaying and firing out the header tank. the tank was high above the rad and thermo.

also the pipes to the heater matrix were not getting hot at all so theer was no hot air coming out the blowers?

i have the top rad hose with the T-piece running to the bottom stub on the bulk head but it doesnt seem to flow round the system.



so has the gasket gone? i am going to try and bleed it again tomorrow but is there a point?

if the gasket has gone then it wont bleed, right? well i may try to blled it even thought its spraying like a tiger marking his ground

almost ready to try a new engine?