1991 E30 M42 Alpine White

[DPINEDA]

Hi, just wanted to introduce my self and my new Daily Driver...
Just got my first e30 m42 a few months back. Love every minute of it! Good and bad...lol  I live in Miami, Fl.


Car was in bad need of tune up and and a little TLC, but over all I thought it was a good base to start with. Still work in progress:-)

So far I've replaced/changed:
1. Oil & Coolant
2. Spark plugs
3. New lower oil gasket and drain plug
4. JVC radio
5. Front Hub Bearings
6. A/C blower/resistor
7. Hood insulation
8. Stock exhaust
9. KYB F&R shock (I'm on a budget:-)) I'll do bilstiens next...
10. New Tie Rod Ends
11. New oem Strut mounts F&R
12. Racing Dynamic Blue E30 Springs (Will put them in this weekend hopefully. Haven't had time...)
13. Febi Bilstein Shift Knob
14. New L&R OEM Control Arms and Lillipop bushings
15. Bavarian Dashboard cover (for now. later I will replace the complete dash)

What I think I should do next: (open to suggestions)
1. Replace all vacuum hoses
2. Replace all upper gaskets
3. Replace exhaust valves
3. Replace tensioner pistion (already ordered this week. engine is starting to sound like a diesel engine...lol  Yes I'm driving easy. Don't want chain to go)
4. Get some nice rims and do some cosmetic work...
5. S52 swap maybe next year:-) I know some of you will hate me for wanting to remove the M42...lol


I posted some pics on my album.

















Looking forward to meeting you guys on the forums!

Danny the new rookie:-)

[rjcaptsean]

Welcome Danny!


Looks pretty nice!  You have been pretty busy and off to a good start.  Definitely get the vac hoses done as they are probably all 20 years old.

I brought an 89 325i back from the grave a couple of years ago (still an ongoing project), but I recently purchased a 91 318ic.  I dont have much experience with the M42, but from all I have read, it seems like it's gonna be fun.  

Looking forward to some updates to see your progress!

[Hey-u]

Nice looking car. Welcome to the board.

[DesktopDave]

Good bit of work there, I'll bet it's tight after all that suspension work.  I like the gold wheels too - nice detail there.

[Romrog318is]

i like the wheels!!
i was getting ready to do this to mine haha but maybe i wont now :p

[DPINEDA]

Thanks guys. I put in the racing dynamic springs this weekend. Drives and feels soooo much better! I'll post some new pics tomorrow.

The wheels are not painted gold. They are actually real bbs basket weaves factory gold. I read on a post that they were a rare factory option back then. I'm missing all of the center caps.

[DPINEDA]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any updates on my profile, but much has happened since. I will try to summarize and not bore anyone

So early last month in November I decided to change my shot motor mounts with E28 mounts has some have done here. Obviously the engine needs to get jacked up a few inches to swap the mounts out. Apparently when I did so, because I didn’t disconnect any of the radiator hoses for being lazy I cracked the radiator. I was doing the work at a buddies house and on the way home I over heated. Apparently that was one over heat too much for my gaskets to handle. To make a long story short I started leaking coolant into my engine. The oild turned like chocolate milk! I removed the head only to fine 3 cracks, 1 already repaired crack, and a shave job done to the head that almost none of the groves were visible any longer.

Bottom line I needed a new head. I contacted a few guys on the forums selling M42 heads. The lowest price I found was $170 shipped. The day I was going to make the purchase I decided to go to my local Junk Yard and see if they had brought in any new E30’s. To my surprise they had just brought in a 1991 M42 a few days ago! I pulled the head out and took it in to the machine shop for inspection. The head was in mint condition! It had never had any work done to it and the previous owner mush have taken good car of that engine. I got the head rebuilt anyways. I figured since I had already gone through all this work I might as well do it right.

I just got the head back yesterday. I’m planning on starting to put everything back together this weekend. Since I’ve had my car in the garage for the past few weeks I went ahead and did some other work to it. I gutted the entire car out and installed the dynomat imitation material from homedepot and lowes. I’ll go into more details in the pictures.

My mechanic experience is very limited, but I can do it anyone can...
Lucky for me my friend ‘Monty23psk’ lives near me and his E30 knowledge is excellent! He has helped a lot…

I have kept a detailed list of parts and prices I have bought so far:



Valve Cover and Intake manifolds taken off:


Close up of Cams


Upper Timing cover off






Look how sharp the teeth were...ouch



Cams:


Top Chain Rail


Chain sprockets:






Chipped tooth:-)

[DPINEDA]

Since I was waiting for the head to get rebuilt I decided to do some interior work:




Painted Rear Deck:


Carpet before pics:


Carpet After pics (used duplicolor carpet paint flat black:

[DPINEDA]

More interior pics:
The black mat you see if from home depot. I was about $100 bucks. I like it because it comes in a large roll about 4' x 100'. Good for larger areas of the car. The one from Lowes is the metalic looking one. Sameone Monty23psk used on his car. The black one sticks less than the silver one. I will not know how good they are until I can drive my car again:-)













I cleanen my engine bay too:




Picked up my freshly rebuilt head yesterday:-)





Can't wait to drive my E30 again!
I'm also going to be updating my car audio with new JL Audio component speakers and some new amps. More on that later:-)

I'll document as much as I can when I put everything back together.

[monty23psk]

Carpet came out nice. Looking good with interior metal, rustless.

[E36-italia]

are you afraid of dirt? what's the name of the color? hospital white? ;-)
serious...pertty clean car!
(wish I kept mine that clean)

[DPINEDA]

Lol @ hospital white.
No, it looks cleaner in the pics. Def got its blemishes.

[DPINEDA]

Did some work last night. Drained and took off the oil pan. Look how brown the oil got from the coolant leak...




Also changed my transmission mounts.
Jacked up transmission with mounts about to come out:


New mounts installed:

[monty23psk]

Your guibo is bad, at least what it looks like in the last pic. Change that out.