E30 M3, A different kind of s14

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  • E30 M3, A different kind of s14

    Postby steeldonkey » Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:54 am

    With another child on the way i needed to have my sensible head on and either keep the AMG Wagon or maybe even look at something newer and more sensible like an m5 touring or something.

    But then i spotted this on ebay and thought i would have a look being that I was popping over to the Uk for a few weeks.
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    So, story goes that I had swung by to stay with Herr Smith (ollie) for a few days so with one mention of an e30 m3 we were blazing a trail through the December snow to Bicester where we finally arrived in the snow tyre equipped C32 in fine spirits to a yard full of old WW1 and WW2 tanks and rotting Alpha's. hopes were not high at this point as generally piles of rusty rotting machinery are accompanied by other piles of rotting machinery.

    Anyway upon meeting the owners father he pointed to a pile of e30 shaped snow and produced a broom which after some action produced a very blue e30 m3.
    At this point the car had no plates, so after cranking it over myself and Ollie did the kind of ultra through inspection that you do in minus 6 degrees in a load of snow, namely mooched round it while it warmed up and tried to put our hands through any of the standard e30 rot spots (if i remember correctly Smith did the Mclaren approved "jump up and down in the back and see if you fall through or anything falls off" test. The other issue was the car was still registered in Holland and had no MOT or proper title documents.

    Being that neither of us were able to put a hand through the body and Smith hadn't shot through the boot floor i took it for a spin, in the ice on aged "champiro" tyres. Much to our surprise other than being biblically loud, way too low, switching its self off randomly and having no real traction it was ok.

    We subsequently p***ed off to thaw out drink booze and watch the DTM golden years while I gnawed away at the idea of making an offer, with one project already well underway and another child immanent I really didn't need this thing. However they are only getting more expensive and if i am going to have one I am not going to pay through the nose for it, so it was a bit now or never.

    A few days passed and I caved, persuaded my long suffering partner to sell her 320d, have my C32 until she wanted something else and i would use the e30 m3 daily, it was the only way buying it really made sense. That said i was still not fully committed so made a low (ish, low is a relative number when it comes to e30 m3's) offer on the basis that the car was MOT'd and delivered to Smiths folks house in the price.

    The seller agreed,
    sh*t, sh*t sh*t, b*llocks i have bought a old car i don't need, F**K.


    A week or so later the car arrived, it had needed a few rubber brake pipes for the MOT, but had a 12 month ticket, which was the important bit as it allowed me to get it registered and taxed and therefore mobile.

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    Smith did some sterling work in coordinating the registration of the car (without his help i wouldn't own it, so much of the blame / credit goes to him for getting it into the uk) suffice it to say that it needed to be trailer to the DVLA office for an inspection before we could get documents produced for it despite it having been registered previously in the uk.

    While it had sat on Smiths parents drive, the brakes had failed totally (always a good reassuring start) so having kicked about the options it was decided that it would go directly from the DVLA offices to Mosley Motorsport to get a check over and the brakes fixed so that when i flew in it was in some sort of running order.

    Mosleys fixed the brakes (hoses not properly done up (thanks whoever did that, you are a dick)) fixed the cutting out issue, dodgy pin on the ignition, fitted new front drop links, a new uprated rear diff bush, balanced the throttles, replaced a load of rad hoses and gave it a full set of fluids. After that little lot, it received a gushing
    not a bad car that
    from Nigel Mosley.

    At this point i flew in to pick the bugger up, and attend a wedding / see family and friends what this meant was that the car went from sitting about doing nothing to doing over a thousand miles in a week, a bit of a baptism of fire. The car performed admirably for an old bus and never let me down though it did reveal a few niggles, the most annoying of which was that it randomly main beamed other cars at night, this was temporarily resolved by wedging a costa coffee receipt behind the wiper stalk, though not before i had indicated to every chav and dickhead in a 200 mile radius of Birmingham that i wanted a drag race.

    So after that epic a bit about the car:

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    Its a late (December) 88 car and is unusual for a few reasons: it has no sunroof, it has cruise control and it has an american spec front bumper. it was bought in Dingolfing in germany, where bmw also have a very large plant, so it may have been a employee car hence the weird spec? Or possibly a US soldier (cruse, us bumper). The US bumper is a bit of a plus as the side markers mean i don't have to make any holes in the wings.

    The car also benefits from a map light mirror, upgraded (for 1988) sound system and a full OBC.

    It was originally red, but was repainted in 1998 in Germany, the colour may not be everyone's taste but its a proper engine out job with everything having been painted (engine bay under the sound deadening, under the carpets, the lot) so it will be staying blue while i own it, unless i have some sort of Arianism and decide to do a full factory resto.

    Now, onto the work and whatnot:
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    steeldonkey
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    Re: E30 M3, A different kind of s14

    Postby steeldonkey » Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:54 am

    First off, the stereo was arse, i wanted something that would cover, Navigation, media, Bluetooth and CD. So a Becker it was ,i really wanted a cascade, but i dont want to pay £750 for a second hand unit, if one pops up for sensible money i will be on it.

    As it is I fitted an Indianapolis Pro. All the connectors for these things cost a fortune so I just bough t some mini iso blocks and made up my own mic and aux lines etc (the mic is just there at the moment as the hole was already present.

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    The main beam issue drove me nuts, so that was quickly sorted with a replacement stalk, complicated slightly by 24 year old wiring :roll:

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    Done:

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    Next up the ABS lamp went off suspiciously close to the alternator light, a quick stamp on the pedal confirmed that the abs was certainly not working at it should which ment the lanp had been p***ed about with.

    Dash out and split down, oh looky, what a surprise:

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    Some arsehole rather than fixing the problem had cut through the circuits on the board with a scribe and wired the points to the alternator lamp.

    As the board tracks had been cut i needed to link into the last good position.

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    Bingo, working fault lamp

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    The alternator was also behaving oddly, almost like the recertifyer was earthing, a search revealed that captain crimp had been in again :roll:

    Unrequired random live extension linked with no insulation, nice.

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    Load of junk removed.

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    steeldonkey
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    Re: E30 M3, A different kind of s14

    Postby steeldonkey » Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:55 am

    I am not a fan of the old bed spring chain tensioners as they dynamically ally force, and being that its an old engine i may have some additional end float on the crank.

    So out with the old leaky one.

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    In with the nice evo one

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    The black grills were all chipped and generally looked shabby, so a coat of etch and a fel layers of satin to refresh them (will probably switch back to chrome but for now at least they are tidy).

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    Then spanked it over the mountain a few times:

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    Got to love Champiro tyres, less grip is more fun sometimes
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    steeldonkey
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    Re: E30 M3, A different kind of s14

    Postby steeldonkey » Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:55 am

    Nasty fuel smell traced to perishing regulator hose.

    Old, very crap.

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    New genuine shaped replacement

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    Oil leaks, lots of them.

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    Will tackle them one at a time as i do other jobs.

    Inlet cam cap is fist in line:

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    Again more crap work, rather than replace the 66p seal, just put a load of silicone on it, awesome.

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    Done properly with new seals

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    Annoying ziptie bundle of Ht's and king lead

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    New tube and fittings (king lead replaced also as it was tired)

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    New choke switch as its a bit on the rich side.

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    steeldonkey
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    Re: E30 M3, A different kind of s14

    Postby steeldonkey » Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:55 am

    Few more snaps at its too low ride height (shortly to be changing).

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    The front suspension on the car is nice frsh looking Koni adjustables, the rear however are some nasty looking creamy rusty saggy struts.

    So, package arrives:

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    steeldonkey
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    Re: E30 M3, A different kind of s14

    Postby steeldonkey » Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:56 am

    Now you may be wondering why i am not fitting Koni's to the rear, and its a fair question. I have had Koni's on the back of other M3's and they are brilliant and very long lasting.

    Unfortunately they are also a complete bastard to adjust, the front's are top adjustable, the rear however need to come off the car every time, and need to be torn down so you can compress the damper rod to engage the valve, this makes initial setup very laborious.

    The Avo's are rebuild-able, and on car adjustable and come with a silicone damper boot, so on with it.

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    old junk (think these are tein springs as they are green but painted over with black (patented e30 rear barrel spring remover pictured at bottom).

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    New (avo adjustable damper unit, Rogue engineering topmounts, eibach springs)

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    Sometimes i think i should work for health and safety, but then i also think about buying some spring compressors....

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    Done

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    steeldonkey
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    Re: E30 M3, A different kind of s14

    Postby steeldonkey » Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:57 am

    Bit more progress (some of it done in the dark, assembling engines in the dark is never a good call but i was on a bit of a roll). Anyway finished it off last night and took if for a run to hear the difference.

    Pulled the old air box off (accidentally deleted the pic of this) and it was reassuringly dry and clean which either means that the separator on the s14 works brilliantly or that i am not getting too much leak down. I am of course assuming that it is the latter :D

    initial fit up to work out what needed to be done.

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    As you can see its a nicely made thing with proper flanges milled in alloy then bonded into the carbon box.

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    Had to make up a hos adaptor for the breather pipe, fortunately i had a choppped up s54 plenum lying about so i was able to use that to complete the job.

    Fitted

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    Once fitted i thought it would be rude not to take it for a spin (apologies for the video angle, ziptie headrest mount was not of a pro standard!) and it sounds really nice, little bit of a pick up in performance which i would attribute to making sure everything was tightly sealed rather than the box its self.

    Cars handling a bit weird as its on eibachs at the rear and Tein? at the front, also with the stiffer AVO dampers the thinning Champiro rears are getting a bit lively :lol:

    Anyway vid:

    https://vimeo.com/67850230
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    steeldonkey
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    Re: E30 M3, A different kind of s14

    Postby steeldonkey » Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:57 am

    Bit more work done over the weekend (once again quite a bit done in the dark by the light from my phone :roll: ) i really must get some proper work lights.

    With the s14 being both an old and expensive engine I was keen to be able to keep a close eye on oil pressure as the idiot light only comes on under 7psi which is way way too low to be of any real use.

    Most aftermarket gauges look pretty sh*t, as do the panels with most of the e30 versions taking up storage which is at a bit of a premium in the e30 and require the dash or console to be cut.

    After some searching I located an ashtray replacement mount in the states which allowed me to retain the useful front cubby and didn't require any chopping of the dash or other panels. this was made to my spec with two gauge holes and a fag lighter hole.

    The panel is nicely made with a good sharp bends smooth edges and a sand blasted and painted finish.

    Next up i located some old school VDO gauges from an old Audi/golf these are the same make as all the dash instrumentation so all the fonts and branding match the existing equipment, i was keen to find a set with complete pigtails and lighting looms.

    This was secured from a chap on e30 zone and i used some of the cut off wiring from the e36 to make up splice in looms that are more or less self contained using bmw wiring.

    The e30 lighter is integrated into the ashtray so not suitable for this application, so i robbed the one from the track car and trimmed the lighting ring a touch to make it a snap in fit.

    The only other work required was to make up some brackets to secure the gauges from some thin strip aluminium.

    With that done the pod was wired into the accessory and lighting sockets.

    resulting in this:


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    I am very pleased with the appearance as it blends in nicely with the interior and has non of that aftermaket gash feel to it.

    I am of course similarly pleased with the 2.6 bar cold idle and 1.2 bar hot idle! :D
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    Re: E30 M3, A different kind of s14

    Postby S2000 » Wed Jun 12, 2013 10:34 pm

    I keep seeing this around and it looks cracking!
    2003 Porsche Carrera 4S
    2001 BMW M5
    1988 Ford Mustang GT 5.0
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    Re: E30 M3, A different kind of s14

    Postby Straightsix » Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:16 am

    looks so good a havent seen it in the metal yet tho :(
    Evo FQ-340 MR running (415/400) :D
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