They told me E30s were played out

[gnmzl]

Hello Stance|Works,

Still don't own a camera and still haven't figured out how to take pictures, so time for some crappy phone pics of a filthy car.

Last Saturday there was a track day and naturally I wanted to take this e30 to the track now that it's tuned.
At the shop, about to load the car with the semi slicks and additional gear required for a day at the track.





Then, on Saurday a buddy and I headed down to the track. Here's my car next to his track prepped e36.



Then some photos a photographer at the track took. Please note my professional racing livery, which doubles as rock chip protection.





The car did good on the track, I didn't.
Issues boil down to:
- MAP sensor vacuum line keeps popping off
- ABS non-op, need to look into that
- Feels like there is still air in the brake system, need to bleed again and see if that improves the mushy pedal
- Needs alignment badly

Good stuff to report:
- No temperature issues at all, which makes me very happy (it was a very, very hot day)
- Car is quick
- Nothing broke and made the round trip like a champ

This is the fastest car I've owned and my driving skills need serious improvement. The car shows great potential for decent lap times, now I need to learn how to drive it.
Didn't get enough seat time to get the coilover settings right, and the fight with the steering wheel without alignment was ridiculous, but next time it will be better.

Need to sort out all the little nags before the next day at the track.

[gnmzl]

So thing didn't go in the order I imagined.
I played with wheels a bit before dyno and those mtech1 skirts still sit in my garage and I still haven't taken any pictures of this car, nor have I washed it yet.

BUT what I did was:

Swap the hose from the brake fluid reservoir to the clutch master cylinder. What a PITA, but managed not to soak everything in brake fluid. Just a few drops on the floor mat, which is what it's there for. Now I don't have to worry about it being under stress due to the different location of the nipple on the IX brake fluid reservoir. Felt like I fucked something up when reinstalling the clutch assistance spring or whatever it's called. There was a slight clunk when you engage the clutch. It wasn't broken or anything, so maybe something was done wrong on my end.
Another thing I did was reseal the blower motor covering panel, bad smells were coming in from there. Naturally they still come in, but more importantly, I found a little spot on the engine wiring harness that was rubbing on the intake slightly. So glad I caught that on time. Rerouted a bit and all is good.

Last weekend the gf was kind enough to let me steal some car time. Fixed the pedals issues - adjustment eccentric was way off for the clutch, and the fork thingy connecting the servo with the pedal was never swapped for an e30 unit, it was still the e34 one. So, got that fixed and started playing with suspension.

First order was to throw a 215/45/16 on one of the ET16 GTA wheels and test how it would fit in the front. First, I lowered the front with 25mm (later the back as well another 25mm). A 15mm spacer was installed to clear the calipers:




Obviously, the fender lip would be destroyed. Some camber was added and this was the result:




Not the best pictures, but you get the idea. Still, a little roll would be good for peace of mind. At this point, my phone died, so no pictures of the whole car - sorry.


MORE GREAT NEWS, EVERYBODY!


Yesterday was dyno day FINALLY
This time, only the temp gauge went inop, but the temp switch was still sending correct info to the EMU.
The tuner spent a good hour and some change on it, started at about 155 whp with 220Nm and ended up with this (red is final tune)




Not a rocket, but couldn't be happier with it for what it is.
Saturday is race day!
Till then

PS: Miro, if you are reading this, sorry for the closeups. I will take some better shots to excuse myself.

[gnmzl]

Thanks!!
As soon as the hailstorm warnings are gone, it'll see some serious pavement time.
Talk about "camera money turns into car parts money"

Can't wait to sort out the small stuff and slap the mtech1 side skirts on, so I can play with wheels and tire fitment!!!

[Fruttolo]

Yeeeah I'm so happy for you!
drive it everywhere now

Also I feel you on the "real camera" thing, it happens to me too once or twice a year to think "oh this would deserve a real camera shot", then I remember I can't take a good pic to save my life and camera budget goes flying into car parts budget and my threads have potato pics since '09 LOL

[cblock406]

Glad to hear some good news!

[gnmzl]

The setbacks you've encountered with this car astound me. I can relate to the section quoted above.

Amazing how critical a persevering friend can be to builds like this. Carry on.



P.S. just went through the beginning of the thread, and it deserves the mention that you are quite hilarious.

Thanks man, I try to stay positive and make the best out of it.
It's just that it got a little had to achieve that lately.

Totally agree on the importance of friends involved on builds like this. Really appreciate all the help I got from various close friends and even family on this build.


So, that being said, now is the time for some < James May voice > GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY < / James May voice >!

Yesterday the tuner was kind enough to spend some time with my car despite the tight schedule he has. He worked out the icv settings, tuned it under load while stationary and under load while driving.
The result - car idles solid at 1k rpm with all accessories on or off, cold or warm. It revs up strong and promising all the way up to 7k and I must say, it's a blast to drive, very smooth probably due to the tall rear end gearing and comes alive after about 5k rpm. Very happy about it. Now time to sort the little stuff out like glovebox and dash panels, radio ...

Finally happiness has been achieved with this build.
I had this moment, when it was parked on a quiet street and the sun was just setting down and blazing the car with great sunset colors and all the chrome bits shining. The first moment I felt regret I haven't bought a proper camera yet. But a moment where I thought "Was it worth it? -Totally"

[Miroteknik]

I was devastated. Sure, after that fiasco I unplugged all the sensors and modules and relays and the EMU connected to the laptop, so it was clear the EMU was not total garbage. But I was heartbroken, all that work and money for nothing. Even worse - oil was now compromised. One step forward and five steps back, that's what it looked like to me.
This mishap made me feel so bad, made me doubt my whole hobby related decisions and for a brief time, I seriously considered getting rid of all my toy cars and parts. I was so full of it.

Then, a friend gave me a solid push in the right direction. He said, let's at least diagnose what went wrong and find out if the EMU is toast or not and if it needs repairs send it asap over to get repaired. So we sketched out a plan, got some tools and spend a whole day in the garage, checking out every pin, every module, relay and fuse, continuity and whatnot. You get the idea. Troubleshooting wiring problems is not a great experience, but in this case was a great necessity.

The setbacks you've encountered with this car astound me. I can relate to the section quoted above.

Amazing how critical a persevering friend can be to builds like this. Carry on.



P.S. just went through the beginning of the thread, and it deserves the mention that you are quite hilarious.

[gnmzl]

Thanks man
Didn't mean to rant, but it was a really frustrating experience. And it still hasn't gone away completely.
It's close to being dialed in tech-wise, so I'll just keep going at it. Way beyond the point of giving up anyway.
As soon as there is some development, the thread will be updated.

[Fruttolo]

Dude I'm so sad this keeps kicking your ass like that
You'll get it perfect, don't give up on it

[gnmzl]

Hello Stance|Works.

I thought this thread could use an update.

After that fail on the dyno, the issue was fixed with an OEM cable for the CPS. The car ran fine and I revved it slowly past 5000 rpm. So far so good. Then I got to the tuner's shop, he got in the car, plugged in the laptop and started driving around. It did rev up to the current limiter of 7k rpm, but there was a slight misfire every now and then when I spun it above 5k. So, suspected were the ignition modules and the need of a smaller spark plug gap. We spent some time investigating this issue, but eventually got tired of this megasquirt shit and made a decision to buy an EcuMaster EMU Classic unit.

One evening, while waiting for it to ship in, I removed the wiring harness from the engine bay and the MS2 unit as well. While the intake boot and air filter box were out, I took the opportunity to do a little upgrade, or so I thought. Someone may or may have not noticed in my previous pictures that the brake fluid reservoir was rubbing the intake boot. Nothing too bad, but I wasn't confident it would not cause any trouble once the car is taken to the track. So, given the fact the e32 MC and booster have an identical design with the e30 325ix late model ones, it was only logical a brake fluid reservoir from a late model 325ix should fix my issue. Sourcing one in my part of the world took exactly 3 months believe it or not, but I finally got a hold of one. Onto pics

Before:


After:


Anyone spot the new issue I created for myself with this fix? yes, the hose for the clutch master is now too short and under pressure. Never saw that one coming... nevermind, a new hose is in the trunk and waiting the right time to install. Why is not the right time right now, you ask?

Let's go back to the newly purchased EMU. Once I got delivery of it, work on modifying the wiring harness commenced immediately. Here are a couple of shots how we used my daily driver e30 as a workbench in front of my garage unit.




That was done fairly quickly, as the guide provided with the EMU is pretty straight forward. Only thing I didn't see coming was that the connectors would not pass through the hole for the harness to go into the glovebox. What we ended up doing is take all the pins out from the connectors not removing the insulating rubber part so they stay arranged and assemble the connectors again in the glovebox. Major PITA but eventually we got it done at 1 am in the morning about a week ago. Here's where the ghost of bad luck comes back on stage. Next evening the tuner comes over so we can start the car or at least attempt to start it. Bear in mind, I never plugged in the EMU, just put the ignition key in the ON position and verified everything worked like relays and such. Before installing the harness I took it to the same tuner to inspect and check if all the connections go to where they supposed to go. All checked out, and there we no issues. So he comes over, we plugged in the EMU and he puts the ignition to ON. Suddenly everything the EMU can control turns ON, fuel pump, fan and whatnot. We stare at it puzzled for a few seconds, the EMU doesn't connect to the laptop and we know something is WRONG. I smell gas and hear fluid dripping. Quickly turn the key to OFF and go to check what's going on. Sure enough - fuel is dripping down from the air filter box.
Yes, that's right - the injectors were also turned on constantly, combine that with а constantly working fuel pump and you get a flooded engine.
I tried as quickly as possible to get the air box, intake boot, coils and spark plugs out. We "tapped" the starter motor 3 times to spew out the fuel in the cylinders (what a mess that made on the wall despite my blanket over the spark plug holes) and then spun it for a few seconds without spark plugs to get the fuel out, but apparently I was too slow. There was too much fuel in the oil and it was significantly thinner, over the max mark on the dip stick and reeked of fuel.

I was devastated. Sure, after that fiasco I unplugged all the sensors and modules and relays and the EMU connected to the laptop, so it was clear the EMU was not total garbage. But I was heartbroken, all that work and money for nothing. Even worse - oil was now compromised. One step forward and five steps back, that's what it looked like to me.
This mishap made me feel so bad, made me doubt my whole hobby related decisions and for a brief time, I seriously considered getting rid of all my toy cars and parts. I was so full of it.

Then, a friend gave me a solid push in the right direction. He said, let's at least diagnose what went wrong and find out if the EMU is toast or not and if it needs repairs send it asap over to get repaired. So we sketched out a plan, got some tools and spend a whole day in the garage, checking out every pin, every module, relay and fuse, continuity and whatnot. You get the idea. Troubleshooting wiring problems is not a great experience, but in this case was a great necessity.

What we eventually found was 4 swapped injector wires, 4 swapped coil pack wires and some other small issues. Reason was the difference in the way MS and EMU are wired. MS requires you to "hardwire" the firing order, as opposed to EMU - it wants you to wire in the injectors and coils in numeric order. None of those would have caused the EMU to freak out and switch everything on though .... Finally, after almost 7 hours of troubleshooting we found the culprit. It was the pin of the ECU ground, when crimping it we must have squeezed the pliers too hard and it punctured the wire itself, dangling on just the insulation. Huge cursing session later, it was fixed.
After that we were able to verify the EMU was NOT fried at all and engaged all the exits correctly. All was fine.

Yesterday evening, the tuner came over once again to try and start the car. After some fiddling, it fired up. He battled the idle for a good one hour, but couldn't get it to smooth out. It was late and the car is loud, so we left that for another time and went for a ride. He tuned it a bit while rolling so it can be drivable, despite a bad/wavy MAP signal and we called it a night.

So, in summary:

The car now runs on Ecumaster's EMU Classic. Sadly, it's somehow louder than with the MS unit, but I'll wait to have it properly tuned before complaining. I need to install a small filter in the vacuum line to the MAP sensor, so it doesn't pulse. I had installed a brand new clutch fan, as the SPAL wasn't enough to keep the temps down. That new clutch fan is total garbage, so that needs replaced as well. Need to find some time to get down to the tuner's shop so he can play around with the idle.

That's it. Frustrating as it was, I'm just relieved the car sort of runs now. Maybe after Easter we might be able to do some more work on it.

Until then.

[gnmzl]

Hello everyone still on Stance|Works!

Unfortunately, this car appears to be haunted or something.
After all the obstacles, I thought all was good. Engine broken in, oil changed to Motul Competition 300, swapped in my Nuke gear in instead of the homemade one I had previously installed, put in a brand new oil pump pulley (read the horror stories about old design ones failing). I though it was ready to hit the dyno. Car though otherwise.

Just one week ago, on a sunny sunday, I dropped off my gf at her 3d designer's class and just as she left the car, idle drops down to 500 rpm. For a 5km drive to the shop, it dies twice on traffic lights. Limped it somehow and started shit apart. Verified I had the timing correct exactly four times. Checked the CPS twice (more on that later), TPS, temp sensors, MAP and whatnot. Everything checked out, the weird part was all cylinders were firing. Found a PUNCTURED coil boot, must have been me pinching it while installing, there were some subbing marks. Replaced it and it didn't make any difference. Then I did a compression test on a warm engine.

cyl 1 = 213psi
cyl 2 = 211psi
cyl 3 = 213psi
cyl 4 = 210psi
cyl 5 = 210psi
cyl 6 = 210psi

So, relief of sorts. All pointed to the fuel system. Took it back to my place carefully (didn't want to take up more space in the shared shop with a second car in there) and took the injectors out, since both fuel pumps are brand new OEM Bosch units. Here is a crappy phone pic of WIP:



A friend was kind enough to help out and take the injectors to a shop with a fast turnaround. Turned out the injectors needed cleaning, all work the same, only one is letting 4% more fuel through. They said it's within spec and is fine. Put it all together again and fired it up - still running not to par. I was ready with a brand new FPR, swapped it in and what do you know, runs just fine! That was last Wednesday. Thursday was race tire mounting on wheels day. Saturday was supposed to be raceday. That of course meant Friday was dyno day, FINALLY!

So the tuner made an appointment for the dyno, called even earlier to let me know we can start early. All was going well. Strapped her on the dyno and started the initial pulls.



All good, all good, until when the megasquirt decided not to read above 4400 rpm. We blamed the CPS since it was an aftermarket one. Same friend as before with his kindness blasted off to the workshop and took all CPSs we had, a total of 3. Tried all of them - car doesn't even start now. We swapped the input pins, thinking the aftermarket one was reverse of the originals - no dice. Returned it to how it was with the aftermarket one so I can go home - no start. It was already late and we decided to call it a day. Got a tow to the shop from a buddy with a hardline, made it safe and sound. Left it there and returned yesterday with a repaired megasquirt unit (some chip blew out), ran an OEM CPS cable from sensor to megasquirt, used the best OEM CPS we had (this time tested with an oscilloscope) - she fires right up. Now, I think I have a misfire but not sure. It idles fine, runs almost perfect with the exception it hesitates a bit at 2500 rpm, pulls strong past and before 2500. But it sounds like a misfire, although all cylinders are firing.

Anyway, not all news are bad. While the car was running, despite the self inflicted 4400 rpm r3vlimiter, I snapped a very crappy pic of the performance for that rpm range.



I dream of being able to dyno it at it's full potential soon. Of course, the results will be shared.
Till then.

[gnmzl]

Merry Christmas, Stance|Works!

@oprahhwinfreyy: before I didn't like the mtech stuff, put it on just because it literally fell into my lap, but it is growing on me fast.

Time for an UPDATE!
The previous week we were able to smooth out the issues with the fan and other small stuff (O2 sensor kaput) and did a basic tune:



As it turns out, miracles do happen on Christmas. I was driving by a local tech inspection shop on my way to feed a friend's cats and saw they were open. Stopped by and made an appointment for later on and after i was done with all the tasks, I went ahead and took the car out of the shop.

Here it is warming up in front of shop.



Made it safely to the tech inspection place, waiting for my turn on the brake drums.



The guy liked it a lot and let me through even with a non-op left high beam (don't know what's up yet)
Tucked it away in the garage at my place:



Today, I took it with me to work, here it is at a safe-ish spot in the parking lot.



I must say, this thing pulls great, even with the tall rear end gearing (2.79) currently installed. I did the recommended method for sealing the piston rings already. Once we get it properly tuned and running smooth, it's proper break in time and hopefully we'll see some dyno numbers, very curious to see what it can make.

Some bonus shots of current interior situation and engine bay. The oil pressure sender is disconnected in this picture.




As stated, next on the list is proper tune, hopefully dyno and preparation for going MS3 again.
Looks wise, I should install the Mtech side skirts and lower it on the GTA wheels. But that will wait till spring.

Thanks for reading!

[oprahhwinfreyy]

Test fitting the bumper and mtech1

MMM. Mtech. Yes.

[gnmzl]

I hope everything gets sorted soon, sounds like you have a lot of bad luck with this!

Thanks, man. Bad luck has followed me indeed on this build for quite some time.

BUUT!!

The cylinder 5 issue was solved, at first it didn't want to start, but switched to a "warmer" set of spark plugs and it fired right up! Did a small test drive and apart from some minor issues, it was good. The minor issues were - the fan didn't engage and the engine almost overheated when idling after the test drive. Need to enable the AFR correction from the wideband O2 sensor. Need to figure out how to get the idle control valve work correctly (maybe switch to a better one).
So, once those are sorted, the car can apply for the road inspection sticker and be road legal once again.
No pictures, sorry

[83N]

I hope everything gets sorted soon, sounds like you have a lot of bad luck with this!