A taste of whats to come...

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

I'll be honest, it turned out WAY better than I anticipated as well. At the end of the day, i'm dying it black so I knew eventually it would turn out great, I just didnt think it would be so quickly. I used 5.5 cans for 5 light coats, each coat was just over 1 can. I bought a firm brissle brush meant for cleaning dishes, and after each coat dried I would thoroughly brush through the whole carpet. It dries really fast (about 10-15 mins), and once it was brushed out, I would do the final brushes in a specific direction. Then I would apply another coat, let it dry, brush it out, and do the final brush in the opposite direction. The repeat and final brush side to side. As for spraying technique, I used the same technique I would use for any other spray. About 8 inches away, smooth strokes and light coats. Hope that all makes sense

[asp gti]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

The whole thing looks awesome, that engine looks mean! Cant wait to see it all buttoned up!

[MechEngg]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Carpet turned out great.

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Thanks guys. Slowly its getting closer and closer to first start up!

[witchcraftz]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

5 cans is quite a bit but the results are great! I was thinking of pulling the headliner and doing this to make it black...

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

So here is a very long overdue update. In a nutshell, the car is running! I switched careers back in January taking on a job that took up much more of my time. Realizing that I was way in over my head on this swap with all the fabrication involved, I towed the car to a friends house and paid him to finish the swap with my help so I could see and help the progress along the way. Many things changed along the way in comparison to the original plan, but I’m happy about the way it turned out. I’ll put some of the key changes here if anyone is interested.

1) We used the stock E30 coolant tank instead of the E34 540 after countless hours spent trying to figure out how to mount the 540 tank without too much interference and modification from the hood. We decided that the E30 tank would look much better and allow us to make use of the 318is wiring covers and the M3 wiring cover. The 318is covers had to be trimmed and modified neatly but it turned out nicely.

2) To make the coolant houses for the heater core a bit simpler, we also swapped out the rear coolant accumulator for one from a 740i. There is a slight difference on how many outlets it has and the positioning of the outlets.

3) I really liked the original positioning of the oil filter housing on the block of the 540i, but due to its interference for the upper rad hose, this had to be changed. We used an E39 housing and built some brackets to hold it behind the driver side headlight.

4) I’m using a large velocity stack air intake which takes up a lot of space on the passenger side and for this reason I don’t have a windshield washer reservoir planned out yet. Still looking into that.

5) I used the Garagistic exhaust manifolds, but the passenger side was about 2-3mm from the footwell. I really didn’t want to mash in the footwell, so the exhaust shop welded an extension to the manifold, then put vbands on after for ease of future removal and re-installation.

6) Also used the Garagistic 6speed driveshaft, but it wasn’t aligning properly. We built some temporary shims to lower the center bearing of the driveshaft, and over winter I will have to remove the driveshaft and modify the ears so it sits straight.

Those were the major changes that we had to do. The car is now running, but there are definitely some kinks to work out.

1) It has quite a lumpy idle at this time. This could be due to many reasons. I know I have an exhaust leak somewhere on the driver side before the o2 sensor. Im guessing its either at the exhaust manifold to engine block connection, or at the part where the exhaust shop welded the extension to the garagistic header. Will need to find that leak and fix it.

2) Check for vacuum leaks. So far I don’t know if there are any, but once I fix the exhaust leak, I’m going to do a smoke test just to ensure its all running nice and smooth.

3) Brakes are virtually non-existant. I used the Garagistic bracket with Wilwood pedals and the recommended master cylinders. Using old brakes at this point but still need to fiddle with the balance bar to adjust the bias properly. Will be looking at getting the IE BBK pretty soon to help out with the stopping power.

4) Power steering. This one is being a real ***** to me. Originally, I had a Z3 2.7 L2L steering rack that I bought from rack doctor. Using the original steering pump, we put the car together, and when I would turn the wheel sharply when the car was on the ground (stationary), it would make a strange vibration and loud noise. It was also creating quite the whine from the pump. We replaced the steering pump with a refurbished unit, and same thing was happening. So my friend replaced the Z3 rack with his E36 M3 rack. The vibration stopped, but still while driving, it whines like crazy! As the revs go up, the whine gets worse and then it basically screams when you are turning a corner, unless press in the clutch and coast through the turn at which point it quiets down a bit. We are quite puzzled by this. I’ve talked to some friends and most think that the refurbished pump is garbage and this is whats causing the problem, but the other consensus is that perhaps the steering pump is too powerful for an E36 or E30 rack. The E34’s had a steering box instead of a rack, so we are wondering if that has something to do with it.

I’ll take some pics of the engine bay and post them up a bit later. Still need to put back the interior and some of the Mtech trim pieces on the outside of the car. Now that its back home, I can start slowly working out the kinks and hopefully have it running smoothly before the snow falls here!

P.S. if you took the time to read all this, thank you for your support!

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Here are some pics from Yesterday.


Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

[Ur0Drivr]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

You're welcome for my support! It does sound like a pump issue with the steering rack. Hope you get that sorted asap buddy. The car is awesome and I'm super happy that you have it back on the road!!

[Circuits]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Did you get it all sorted yesterday before the snow today?

Car looked great at coffee Patryk! Excited for you that's it coming together.

[Danaldson]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

awesome to see it out again pat. sounds awesome too.

[e30mclow]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Looks great!

Always in for e30 content, so improve the regularity of the updates from now on!

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Now that the car is back in my possession and I can take some time when modifying, i'll definitely be updating it more. Will post up some pics of the engine bay as well now that its semi-final.

[Geobmx4life]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

AWESOME Pat, I've been waiting to see this rolling, can't wait to see it and hear it in person....congrats!!!

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

So happy to see this car on the road again!! Congrats on getting it going one way or another Pat!!

[GINCH]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Way to go Pat. What a huge undertaking! Proud of you that you stuck with it and it didn't end up on kijiji for sale as a partially completed project like so many of these things go. Can't wait to see it!