What's up guys! I'm Danny. I've been a long time member over at r3vlimited.com, which some of you know it a pretty good site for E30 content. I recently discovered GRM (HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS SITE FOR SO LONG??) and here I am to introduce myself.
Here's a brief overview of my time on r3vlimited.
Red car. I bought this car back when I was 17 for like three grand or something. It came with a terrible maaco paint job and all the trim painted along with it.
I drove the little 89 325is auto daily to school and work for a while and eventually did some scrub tier modifications to it, like lowering it with used springs and some blown M3 shocks I bought from a member on here. Eventually it was rear ended while I was driving home like two or three months later.
The unfortunate demise of the paint dipped red blob lead to the purchase on a 1991 318is. I had never driven a manual transmission before but I was undeterred and went with my dad to pick this up all the way down in the south bay. I think I paid 2800 bucks for this? In 2008 also.
Then I hit a deer.
This led to the birth of the "Panda" and of course, me living "The Panda LyFeStYlE" because i was a dumb 18 year old.
The car was down on power due to it only having four cylinders so I elected to turbocharge it. I was still in high school and working as a janitor at a grocery store so fund were limited. I ended up turbocharging the car and had it running on MegaSquirt for about two grand. It made 167 whp. I should have spent that money on a swap or something. This car is also when I started going to AutoX and tracking it.
Unfortunately due to living in California I was eventually given a referee ticket by one of our boys in blue. Rather than spend the money to put the car back to stock (and because I threw away most of the stock stuff), I chose to junk the car and part it out. The turbo "kit" actually went on to live in another member's car for a while before he sold it.
Due to this I bought a 1989 325i sedan. I got this for 1500 bucks in 2009 (crazy prices on E30s nowadays).
I did some basic mods, H&R race and Bilstein sports and some other stuff. It was a fine car.
Did some more track day stuff with it. I even split a track day in it with my Dad which got him started on track day shenanigans.
I got bored of the power and swapped an S50 into the car.
I got it all BAR certified and it was fun! Until it was rear-ended in front of my parents house, totaling the car.
That brings us up to 2011 and I had bought a pretty cool stock E30 sedan (I think I paid 3000 for it, again crazy prices nowadays) that I swapped an S50 into and subsequently BAR'd so it could be smogged here in California. There's a bunch of other stuff done to it. GC coils, short shifter, LSD, ltw flywheel, recaros, luke box, yada yada yada.
I drove the car with it swapped for a long time with no issues other than some wiring harness bullE36 M3 which was eventually corrected by Ryan G Motorworks in Auburn. I had a couple other cars during this time, 92 Honda Civic, couple of XJ Cherokees, Nissan Hardbody, Mitsubishi Might Max, JKU Wrangler, even a 1974 2002 and now I have a newer WRX as a daily. I also had a couple of other E30's like my Dad's 1989 325is, a 1991 Convertible I bought and sold, an ex-girlfriend's 1990 325i and a few that I parted out.
Did some AutoX events with the car and stuff.
Continuing down the trend of track shenanigans I took it to Thunderhill, a local track here in NorCal in September of 2017. The car ran great all day but I pushed it a little too hard and popped the headgasket. I tried to limp the car home (about 90 mins away) but was unsuccessful and it had to be towed home.
I removed the head a few weeks later and found on interesting damage to the number three piston.
Based on the damage to the piston I decided to buy a spare engine that I'll swap in. Then this project got put on hold because My dad, brother-in-law and I bought a 1986 325 which we turned into a track car. We'll go more indepth on that real soon-like.
That pretty much brings us up to present day. Unfortunately, between working long and difficult hours and building up the family race car, my own car was lacking. This was the state of my garage:
I worked with my family to get the engine out of the car so we could roll it around and organize my garage.
Got the E30 rolled out of the garage and started organizing.
Once it was all done this was the result. New Husky toolbox, new work bench, engine put on stands instead of the floor, really it was so much better than it used to be.
It's certainly not GarageJournal material but I'm pretty happy with my little two car garage. Brother-in-law is a master electrician and he's going to help me put in some extra lights in to brighten the place up. Debating on some sort of flooring treatment when the swap is done.
Basically, working on the track car with my family made me remember how it's fun to wrench on cars and has give me some motivation to get back on mine. I'm making this thread to hopefully hold me accountable and get this car back on the road and fix the issues 20 year old me had allowed to slide.
As a quick heads-up, I'll be cross-posting several posts from r3vlimited over to here so I can maintain both threads.
Thanks for looking! Updates to come!
So, as you may have learned in the first post, my father, brother-in-law and I got a wild hair and decided to build an E30 for track day shenanigans. This is a semi-budget build that we're all splitting the cost on. The original plan was a Lemons car but after reviewing the rules we decided against it in favor of just building a fun track day car. We may prep it for the Lucky Dog Racing rules later on.
So in the midst of my S50 car being totally out of commission from when I blew the engine at Thunderhill, we found a 1986 Eta with a 5-speed that didn't run very well for 800 bucks at a local junkyard. Trailer'd it home because it was unregistered and wouldn't make the 50 mile drive home anyway.
Got it home and into the backyard.
Spent a couple of bucks on it to get it running and the engine had a real bad knock. With this unfortunate development, coupled with the fact that every single rubber piece of this car was rotted and clunking around, we abandoned our Lemons plans and began work on making this fun.
So out came the old eta lump.
The engine bay was real dirty.
We purchased a used B25 motor from a local guy who I've known for years. We installed a new TB/WP and other gaskets with it on the stand. The transmission also got a short shift kit from Condor Speed Shop. We're using Condor's mounts pretty much all over this thing.
So that's how the car sits. We've ordered an IE Stage 3 kit with bilstein sports for simplicity of install and All new suspension components. We'll be dropping the rear subframe soon for an overhaul. The engine is almost ready to go in, need to install the crank scraper and IE baffle in the oil pan before it goes in. The front suspension is almost apart and we need to replace the front driver's side hub because my dad can't be trusted with an impact gun and ruined a lug bolt hole. 
Got the IE pan baffle installed.
IE Crank scraper installed.
IE Stage 3 springs installed with Koni SAs.
And hey the engine is in!
Some other stuff happened too, got the front end buttoned up with some Condor offset LCABs, new lemfoeder CAs and Tie-Rods and some IE fixed camber plates.
Subframe out
Working on getting everything separated. So much crap on the axle bolts.
Burning out the old bushings.
Ready to go back in. Condor Speedshop bushings on the diff, TAs and subframe. (Seriously, shout out to these guys. Every single thing we've got from them has been direct fit, no hassle, no bullE36 M3. Awesome company.)
Brother in law working on the rear brakes, using brembo blanks and Hawk HT-10s.
And everything back in. Stainless steel brake lines, and new fuel filter while we were working in the back.
Front brakes done too. Same treatment as the rears, stainless steel lines, brembo blanks and Hawk HT-10 pads.
Got the clutch and brakes bled, driveshaft hooked back up and everything spins with no weird noises. Woohoo!
This is where the team name was originated. My dad is a pretty hilarious dude and one day while working on the car and someone was installing something I said "That looks sorta sketchy", and we all shrugged our shoulders and finished what we were doing. My dad pointed out that was a perfect name for our racing team. Thus, Sorta Sketchy Racing was born!
And of course, the XJ.
Its a green, 5 speed, 1999 Cherokee Sport with 207k miles that I picked up off craigslist for pretty cheap. Just kidding, I probably overpaid but I really wanted the stick shift, in a 99 model year (before the head changes and coil on plug) and in a green or blue. So I drove it home, broken leaf spring and all.
It had some issues, clearly. Its originally from Pennsylvania and therefore is a little rusty (at least for a Californian! Sorry east coast dudes). There was a small rust hole beneath the driver's side rear door that I patched with fiberglass (badly). It may be cut out for some 2x6 rockers at some point anyway. Replaced the A/C compressor, starter, and did basic maintenance (plugs, cap, rotor, wires, you get it). Also threw a 3" rough country lift on it.
Also put some 31x10.5 BF Goodrich's on it.
The goal for this thing is to be a daily driver/mild offroader/camping rig. So of course it needs some bumpers and other things. Got the front bumper and winch mounted today.
That brings us up to the present! Stay tuned for more Sorta Sketchy Racing!
Welcome,
You guys are killing me with the e30 builds, I also was on R3Vlimited for many years. Sold my last e30 a few years ago but I still check C-list once a week!
Builds look great, I’m a big fan of XJ’s also as I’ve had 3. Here on the east coast the thin floors and rockers rot out but look good till you poke’em with a screw driver.
rattfink81 said:
Welcome,
You guys are killing me with the e30 builds, I also was on R3Vlimited for many years. Sold my last e30 a few years ago but I still check C-list once a week!
Builds look great, I’m a big fan of XJ’s also as I’ve had 3. Here on the east coast the thin floors and rockers rot out but look good till you poke’em with a screw driver.
Thanks dude! Some info on that darn rust coming up in this post.
Had the opportunity to work on the cars a bit this week. Got the new wiring harness installed on the S50 car which was nice. Previously I had a check engine light because of a 1281 code which is "ECU memory supply". Investigation revealed some burned wiring on the engine harness. Now, I am absolutely terrible with wiring so I shipped a spare harness out I had to Redline Motorsports in Alabama who rewired my harnes nicely.
Bunch of stuff removed.
The offending harness comes out.
New harness went in without issue and started up fine. Except I had a low oil pressure light which went away with a little bit of RPMs. I tried a thicker oil, that didn't work so I put the old oil back in and added some more... and some more... and some more... and the issue went away! Weird, still gotta deal with that.
Got the new rear bumper and tire carrier installed on the XJ!
But... found this lurking underneath...
Nothing structural, but certainly not something to be ignored. Not sure how I'm going to deal with that just yet. I have a set of Bushwhacker flat flares which are going to be installed before I do anything with it since I have to cut into that area to fit the rear flares. Any advice would be appreciated!
Wow almost a year between updates. I guess I didn't keep my promise on staying up to date with this thread. A lot has happened in a year, including a torn ACL, surgery, and recovery (still going). Here's an update on where the fleet is at:
The little green race car is still running strong. We put a half cage in it from Garagistic and a new NRG seat.
The Jeep has moved on, I sold it to a nice guy who bought it for his son in Arizona who is a geology student and plans to use the 4x4 much more than I was.
Here's how it looked in the for sale ad.
I sold the Jeep because I was tired of having two old vehicles I was constantly working on. As I near thirty I have realized that it's fun to work on cars for FUN, not because you HAVE to. I bought a 2018 Audi S3 to replace the Jeep as my daily driver. I like to hike but most place I go the 4x4 and lift on the Jeep really wasn't needed. People say you should buy a car for the 95% you actually use it for not for the 5% you think you will, blah blah blah. Its a nice car.
Recently my brother in law (Keith) was contacted by a dude we both know who said his dad had an E30. The guy told Keith they were clearing out his Dad's property and we could have the E30 or they were gonna send it to pick-n-pull. Of course, I said "yes I would love an E30 for free even if its been sitting in a field in the country uncovered for 10 years. What could go wrong?"
So we went and picked it up.
Luckily there were several tractors nearby which we used to push it onto a trailer we'd brought. Got it home and looked it over more closely and boy, is this thing ROUGH. At the same time though, its totally COMPLETE. The tires even held air once we hooked them up to my compressor!
Rolled it outside to give it a wash and take a better look at it. The basics: 1984 325e 5-speed. Paint used to be Polaris Silver and now is nonexistent. Clutch is dead and goes straight to the floor. Turns over with a good battery and doesn't make any weird noises. Got it to actually start with starting fluid (amazing after sitting for 10 years). Driver's rear quarter is smashed and whatever hit it wrinkled the wheel well but didn't damage any suspension points as far as I can tell. Ordered up a clutch master and slave, a fuel pump and filter and we'll see if I can't get this thing to go.
The power of pressurewashing -
Not sure what the plans are for this car yet. Maybe RallyX car like irish44j? Could maybe flip it with a coat of paint and some new seats. Gonna hear it run and decide then I think.
Okay last update post to catch you guys up on my life which is currently dominated by German automobiles from the 80s and 90s.
This car is a 1997 M3 which my buddy bought from a guy back around 2012. I actually went with him and checked out the car with him when he bought it. The M3 had like 290k on the chassis at that point in time but the previous owner had swapped the engine to one with around 130k miles. I think he picked it up for 5500 or 6000, I can't remember. He drove it around for a while as kind of a second car and had a good time with it until he started to get really serious with school around 2014 or so. The M3 got driven less and less and eventually ended up parked at his parent's house. In 2017 ish he was driving it on the freeway when he threw the serpentine belt and the engine started to overheat. He pulled over before it got bad. The extra heat though blew the expansion tank which led to him replacing the entire cooling system at a shop. He drove it a little and eventually just parked it at his parent's place in the garage.
My buddy is moving to New York in mid August and reached out to me a few weeks ago asking what he should do with the M3. He's got some family stuff going on and another, newer, more reliable car to take with him to NY so he was hoping to have me help him sell it or part it out or something. It hasn't been registered since 2013, needs a headliner, and tires. I offered to buy it from him at what I thought was a fair price for the car and he gave me the friend price. So... 2500 bucks later I have a 97 M3. I went and trailered it home, threw a battery in it and it fired right up.
The interior is in nice shape but there was a god awful smell of cat piss and mouse poop. Spent about 3 hours yesterday vacuuming, extracting and spraying the interior down. The smell is much much better but it still needs some work.
Found where they were hiding (under the rear seat).
The low fuel light is also on, which may be attributed to the mice chewing at some wires under the backseat, gotta take a look and see if I need to reconnect some stuff.
Anyway, two big projects along with my S50 swap car and the racecar means I am quite busy. :D
Issues to address, in order:
Blower motor doesn't work. Tires are totally shot. Headliner is torn and sagging. The smell (oh my god the smell). Front brakes have zero life left.
Everything else seems to be in okay/decent shape though honestly.
Got started a couple of days ago getting at the blower motor to see if its bad or if a mouse house was blocking it from spinning.
h[/imgttps://imgur.com/W6CySrLhttps://imgur.com/W6CySrLhttps://imgur.com/W6CySrLhttps://imgur.com/W6CySrLhttps://imgur.com/W6CySrLhttps://imgur.com/W6CySrL https://imgur.com/W6CySrL https://imgur.com/W6CySrL https://imgur.com/W6CySrL https://imgur.com/W6CySrL https://imgur.com/W6CySrL https://imgur.com/W6CySrL https://imgur.com/W6CySrL https://imgur.com/W6CySrL
Initial inspection of the engine bay shows its dusty but otherwise free of mouse damage to any wires or other things. However, while I was working under the hood the smell of mouse poop was overwhelming. I looked at the under hood insulation and noticed there was a saggy portion that had some significant weight to it when I pushed up on it. I took out the insulation and found this: (warning, gross).
Yes, that is a mouse house (and mostly bathroom) under the hood between the insulation and the bottom of the hood. I just threw it all away. Unfortunately that distracted me from properly documenting the rest of the journey which was getting to the blower motor (it was uneventful). I spun the motor by hand and it moved freely, turned on the ignition and SUCCESS, the blower motor works as it should. I lost a couple of the little metal clips that put the cover over the squirrel cages though so I had to order them. Looking past the blower motor it was clear to see that the cabin air filter was extremely clogged and likely original. Getting to the cabin air filter involves removing the glove box. So I did and found even more mouse houses and mouse poop on top of the glovebox (HOW??). I can't believe where these little critters have got to.
Its apart for now while I wait for parts to arrive (hopefully tomorrow) at which point I'll toss it all back together.
Replaced the torn, dead tires with some Continental Extreme Contact Sports from tire rack. I used to sell a lot of these tires at a shop I worked at YEARS ago and I never had one complaint with them. Being that I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this car or flip it I figured something between crazy street semi slicks and crappy all seasons was a good compromise. I went with the stock staggered setup of 225/45/17 fronts and 245/40/17 rears.
I buttoned the stuff surrounding the blower motor up and started the car, looking forward to cold A/C on my face and...
Still no blower motor. I'm thinking there must be a loose connection in there somewhere or maybe the motor is just toast. At least its not THAT hard to get at. Since I was discouraged by that and I needed some positive reinforcement, I took the M3 for a little spin to my parents place. I discovered along with the fuel gauge that the speedometer is also not working. I think I might have to pull the cluster and reflow some solder since the thing barely lights up and won't do the needle sweep dance I've seen on the internet. When I got back home I checked the wiring underneath the backseat and did not see any obviously damaged wires. I wrapped some electrical tape around some which had a bit of insulation worn away and put the back seat back in.
Glove box went back in (I hate the glove box sag but I don't care enough to do anything about it.
Being that I was discouraged from the blower motor repair failure and I didn't feel like taking it all apart again I looked into this big box of parts and deciding to replace the air filter.
Old air filter is old, but at least not original!
I continued my cleaning journey and of course the mice had gotten into the trunk also.
I cleaned that up and decided to pay some attention to the silver E30. I had previously got it to start for just a second on starting fluid and believed the fuel pump was dead. The new one came in so I decided to install it. The original one is the original from the car, which is not surprising.
Threw the new one in and we have fuel pressure! We also have a TON of fuel leaks from the original, 1984 fuel hose. I would replace one piece of hose under the hood and a new leak would pop up. So I ordered 15 more feet of fuel injection hose so I can replace everything in there. It still won't start on just the fuel but I know it'll fire once I can get the fuel where it needs to go.
In reply to r3vhappy :
Be sure to check the blower motor resistor/final stage unit! When mine failed, the blower would only work on the highest setting.
In reply to Turbine :
I'll definitely have to check that too. It was too hot this weekend to dive back into the car so I'll try again another time.
We're in the middle of a serious heat wave right now so I couldn't get out to the cars to work on them until about 9 pm tonight.
I bought rear pads and rotors to replace the ones on the burgundy car. So I popped off the rear slide pins and pulled the caliper and found they have at least half life left... Apparently I underestimated how long they have to go. So I just regreased the slide pins and put it all back together. Now I have some cool Hawk HPS pads and rotors for the rear of the silver car I suppose. While I had the rear tires off though I looked at the state of wear of all four because I'm headed to Thunderhill for a track day on Saturday the 22nd. I ordered up four of these:
225/45/16 is a weird size that not much comes in. I debated with myself about buying some R888s but decided against it since the burgundy car still gets driven a lot on the street. I was very happy with the StarSpec ZIIs that are on the car and everything I have heard is that these are even a step better. I'll let you all know how they perform on the 22nd.
In other news, I went to move the M3 out of the driveway to work on the burgundy car and it's battery was dead. I drove it somewhere the other day and came out to see the hazards were flashing which is odd. It has some crappy aftermarket alarm in it and I think there is a parasitic draw from it somewhere. I just unplugged the hazard switch for now and we'll see if that fixes it. Also, I jumped it and now the blower motor works so... who knows? I love 80s and 90s German cars.
Thunderhill is always a great venue and Saturday was no exception. We ran with NCRC, which is our favorite group, on the east track using the bypass. The forecast was for 100 degrees and very smoky (lots of fires in CA right now). I went out on the first session and was starting to feel confident with the car, the temp was staying exactly where it is supposed to and I was happy with the performance of everything. The new Dunlop ZIIIs were nice! I think I had them a little too high on tire pressure because they were a little skatey but it could have just been the cold track and first session jitters.
Until the last lap of the first session where I came over the bypass of turn 5 and hit some uneven pavement. My car made a loud noise and started to feel very shaky up front. I actually thought I had popped the bead of the right front tire off and was riding on a flat. Half a lap later with my hazards on I had limped the car into the paddock.
Diagnosis: blown up wheel bearing. Called around to the few parts stores in the area and what a surprise, nobody carries a front hub for a 30 year old German sedan.
So my day was done at 9 am but my Dad's and brother in law's wasn't. I loaded my car up on the trailer and drove the hour and 20-ish minutes home to drop it off with plans to come back and run the green car in the last session of the day.
While I was gone my Dad and BIL kept running the green car and that was going well! Temp was staying consistent even in the heat and smoke, tires were almost gone but we knew that going into the day.
I got back with the trailer and learned the throttle cable broke, causing my Dad to have no throttle while coming around turn 11. He was able to put it in neutral and coast into the paddock with no issue. My Dad and BIL attempted a heroic fix with bailing wire and duct tape (which I was not aware of).
They kept running the car successfully (somehow) until the throttle stuck wide open on my Dad causing him to have to just drive off track and into the dirt.
So, fun day but now I have two broken cars to contend with.
OjaiM5
Reader
8/23/20 2:27 p.m.
Enjoying the posts and have to say the e30 is one of my favorite chassis. So fun
OjaiM5 said:
Enjoying the posts and have to say the e30 is one of my favorite chassis. So fun
Thanks man! I love your M5 build. Those are so cool.
Yesterday I went out and put on my Thunderhill east and west track stickers on the red E30.
We're going to need to buy two sets of tires for the green car. We're stuck between deciding amongst these:
We've had the RE-71s and liked them a lot but boy, they sure wear out fast. I have a total of one (1) 15 minute session on the ZIIIs and liked them a lot as well. Curious if anyone here has any experience with the RT660s. What tires do you guys think we should get? We're going for a 205/50/15.
After that I got under the M3 and started work on the front brakes. They still had maybe 5% on them but I'm pretty sure I'm going to flip this car so in the interest of doing what is right, I felt I should replace them. Went with Akebono pads and Zimmerman rotors.
Old and busted:
Quite a lip here. Thinking these have been pad slapped at least once.
New hotness:
I also changed the oil and spark plugs just to get a new baseline on the car. Inside were Bosch 4 prong spark plugs which I have never been a fan of. I pulled them out and they looked like this:
I'm no expert in spark plugs reading but it looks okay to me I suppose. Would love to hear opinions. To my surprise, the NGKs I installed were also four prong. Maybe there's something to the four prong thing after all...
I threw the vanity cover back on the engine because you know, its the little things.
Okay so now I really need a hand if you all would be so kind. The two really big issues that I'm dealing with now are 1. aftermarket alarm kills the battery overnight (I am going to work on pulling this out completely). 2. The fuel gauge and the speedometer do not work. My theory is to send the cluster off to be rebuilt but if anyone has some insight I would love to hear it. Electronics and wiring is NOT my strong suit.
Accomplished some big stuff today! First up was the headliner in the M3. I recruited my parents to help because well... my parents are super cool and they wanted to be involved. The headliner in the M3 was in absolutely terrible shape and was being held up with tape and some staples in places.
Took down all the trim pieces and were able to pop the headliner out in less than an hour with my dad helping out.
I bought four yards of suede material from the local Joann's fabric store which was much more than I needed. Everything I read online said 3-3 and a half yards would get it done but I really didn't want to do this twice so I bough a little extra. I think it cost me like 35 bucks after a 20% off coupon? Not bad.
Cut out all the holes for the trim pieces and various things. This turned out okay, not great but certainly not terrible and and absolutely better than what was in there.
This is what I mean by it is just "okay". There are some bubbles and wrinkles because I did this in my front yard with wind. I would give our efforts a 6/10 with the difficulty of this particular job being a 4/10.
My mom wanted to be more involved so she used the extra material to make a new e-brake boot and shifter boot. Not bad. No pics of the shifter boot because I forgot.
Then while I was at the parts store getting some brake fluid and some wax and some bulbs and some blah blah I noticed some cool copper colored wheel paint and thought... that might look decent. I did this with almost no prep other than some scuffing with 400 grit paper and spraying it. I took a picture with just the front wheels done for perspective (I also bought silver wheel paint in case I decide to switch back to that color).
I thought it looked kind of cool so I did the rear wheels.
I'm on the fence. I am pretty sure I'm going to sell this car once I get the title after I go to the DMV (with the smog that I passed today!) and fix the cluster (fuel gauge and speedo are still dead). I'm not sure if this car will command a higher price with the JDM/DTM HotBoi community or with some more purist type of people so I may go back to the silver.
Oh and last but not least I popped some new roundels on the car. Always looks so much better.
Any tips on the cluster? Let me know!
I've run RE-71R's and now run the RT660's. They feel the same on track, but the Falkens last the entire 20 minute session. The Stones will get greasy a little past halfway into a 20 minute session.
MINIzguy said:
I've run RE-71R's and now run the RT660's. They feel the same on track, but the Falkens last the entire 20 minute session. The Stones will get greasy a little past halfway into a 20 minute session.
Thank you for the insight! How do they wear? Any significant difference?
Loving all your project vehicles and posts. Keep at please.
