e30 316 rebuild from Finland

[loekaaz]

You should have left it the way it was and we would have a new Rusty Slammington on the forum

[Sbimy]

Totally amazing work, all this parts remplaced and welded...

[E.Three.0]

so you finish my dream build, and then start another one, immediately after... haha I'm so jealous man

[loekaaz]

Engine out, ready to be scrapped:

[MrViicc]

can we be best friends?

[Pazi88]

Yeah i'm always using the tractor

[Pazi88]

It's been bit quiet, but at least I got new TIG welder.


I discovered that it's too heavy to carry around, so I made this for my welders:






And finally last week I got the parts I was waiting. First the new guiderail for upper chain because the old was cracked:


Then a upgrade parts for rattling VANOS unit. The brown piece on left is the old part and the parts right are the new upgraded version.


Then new coolant, oli and oil filter and everything is ready (the oil and coolant were mixed because leaking headgasket).


Finally short test to make sure that everything is working: http://instagram.com/p/uD3EReHD1h/

[loekaaz]

that trolley is fucking brilliant!

[Sbimy]

I'm interested about this vanos upgrade, can you tell me more ?

[Pazi88]

I'm interested about this vanos upgrade, can you tell me more ?

In the m50/m52 before 3/1995 the BMW uses this kind of VANOS system:


The fault in this is that the chain sprocket doesn't have any preload, so it will start making noise when worn.

From 3/1995 BMW started using upgraded vanos which has spring plate for creating preload:


To upgrade the older VANOS you need to change the parts 11, 10, 9 and 6:

1x 11361403823
1x 11361403550
1x 11361403822
3x 11361403824

You can find the same set form dr. vanos for example.

[DER E30]

That's a TON of work! Amazing attention to detail!


I too use tractor for engine pulling :

[Sbimy]

In the m50/m52 before 3/1995 the BMW uses this kind of VANOS system:
[IMG]

The fault in this is that the chain sprocket doesn't have any preload, so it will start making noise when worn.

From 3/1995 BMW started using upgraded vanos which has spring plate for creating preload:
[IMG]
To upgrade the older VANOS you need to change the parts 11, 10, 9 and 6:

1x 11361403823
1x 11361403550
1x 11361403822
3x 11361403824

You can find the same set form dr. vanos for example.

Thx a lot

My e34 make a little strange noise around 3000rpm, but i don't know if it come from vanos... So i'll do it and i'll see !

[Pazi88]

After finishing the engine, it seemed to work fine. So I went to dyno to get the papers, so I can get this legally registered in finland (I have to prove that engine has less than 204hv). After little bit of tweaking we got the low enough numbers from the engine.


But just after day this happened:


Suddenly the temperatures started rising and there was big cloud of mist. So I stopped and we towed the car to inspect what went wrong:


So nothing serious. The fan just hit the radiator and broke it. I need the change it electrical one, so that would not happen again.

Also after driving few hundred kilometers, I found several things that need to be fixed. First of all the seat belts weren't working. That's because I accidentally mixed belts from different model year. So I had to change them to match each other.


Also the drivers seat felt very loose, even after fixing that. So I took it apart again and found this:


Good place to learn tig welding:


And after that fix, the seat felt solid again.

Then smaller things. For example new license plate lights:


And I took the tint off the headlights (not legal in finland):

And notice how high it is I had to raise it to get the whole thing registered. That's because you need to have at least 8 cm ground clearance to be legal. Don't worry. I will lower it again, after I get it registered

And then to that other e30. First we removed the crusty old rear section:




Only big hole left:


Welding some new sheet metal:


Unfortunately, I forgot to take the picture from finished piece. But here's picture of my brother trying to dig through to floor by hand


Then we started fixing the framerail:


All rust cut out:


And weld new pieces in place:


Both fixed:

[chucky332]

The white E30 reminds me of the ship of Theseus paradox haha... (if you dont know what I'm talking about its the thought experiment that asks if you replace all parts of the white E30... is it still the same car?)

Very impressed by both of these builds. Wish I had a barn to fix cars in haha.

[Pazi88]

The white E30 reminds me of the ship of Theseus paradox haha... (if you dont know what I'm talking about its the thought experiment that asks if you replace all parts of the white E30... is it still the same car?)

I don't think it matters how much original car there is This is not some matching number build. More like zero budget missile build

But it's starting to be winter in Finland, so next road test for the turbo e30 will be in spring. Because of winter I sold my audi and got more suitable winter beater:


But there isn't going to be anything special in that so let's move to the e30.

From the white one, we removed lots of rust with few cuts:


So now there is huge hole in the trunk floor:


And we had time to make "patch":


That flat sheet metal can look bit wobbly.But next we will add new frame beams for the seat belt supports and for the rear axle, so those will strengthen up the floor. We are also using e34 axle, so we cannot fit the stock gas tank. Instead we are going to put fuel cell in the trunk and it will be sunk to trunk floor and that will also give more strength.