Author Topic: JP 91iS (Read 83683 times)

JP 91iS · « **on:** September 02, 2008, 11:47:21 PM »

My member album has disappeared since the site was updated sometime late 2012/early 2013 - so most of my photos are gone. Kind of a bummer. If the album never comes back, then someday I'll go back through and find them from my external hard drive. PITA.

Name: JP Crawford
Location: Riverside, CA
DOB: 6/12/83

I picked up this diamantschwarz 318is last week from a small town about 15 miles from where I live. It had been sitting in this barn/garage for over a year with no garage door, and no extra protection. I live(d) in Iowa so the weather range from mid-summer to mid-winter can be pretty extreme. The way I found it was that the cable guy saw some of my E30 grills displayed in my garage and told me about it. Used to be his but he had a starting issue with it. $500: non-running and one seized wheel. I figure what the hell and go take a look.

Right now I'm driving my second E30, an alpine 86es that I picked up for $100 last year from another nearby town. The first E30 was a short lived bronzit 89 325i coupe that I fried the wiring on

. When I picked it up, the 86 was running/driving but no interior, bumpers, sunroof uninstalled, and plenty of rust. I have pieced it together like Frankenstein with parts from my 89 and a 90ix that I had access to. Main problem with it is the rust. I had to weld new pieces in the floor and there are holes in the quarters and trunk. I did some por15 but lost interest and never got around to retro fitting the plastic bumper on the rear.

Basically I never gave this car enough love. But now something new has come along. When I went to check out the 318 I found that it had a few interesting features: no sunroof and a nice black headliner. Plus very little rust, which was the deal breaker. The only rust I could find was along the bottom lip of the trunk, the jack points and the wheel edge of the driver front fender. But all of it was surface only so nothing to worry about. Bad parts are the driver door has a shallow dent, the passenger door has many door dings, the front valence has been smashed and the lip is gone, small dent in the roof and a small out-dent in the trunk lid.

The sun faded roof and hood, the seriously cracked dash, the cracked leather sport seats and the minimal rust lead me to think it was a California car. This was confirmed when I found a 1994 towing receipt stuffed into the headliner trim from Hollywood, CA. As soon as I got back to town with it I gave it a quick power wash and pulled off the rotor on the seized wheel. They had left it parked with the ebrake on so the shoes were stuck to the rotor. And then the best part: I put a good battery in and it started right up! I was pretty excited when that happened.

So, the 318is is never going to drive on the salty Iowa winter roads as long as I have the drty 86. I'm going to start the BMW service Inspeciton II on it tomorrow since I have no maintenance history. So far I have fixed the broken hood latch and put the center grill back on. I found that the rear wheel wells have been slightly rolled, so its already primed for a drop. The E36 Bentley is on its way and I have been reading up on here until my eyes bleed for the past couple days. I like what I see and I'm happy to join the M42 club

.

One question though, the yellow oil service light is on. (none of my previous E30's had the service lights work). But the small yellow square stays on even when the key is out, is it supposed to? I'm going to pull the cluster and try to fix the tach so should I replace those batteries or pull out that board entirely?

Jimmy Lewis · « **Reply #1 on:** September 02, 2008, 11:59:48 PM »

Hmm, that is odd that it stays on even without the key. I never use the light anyway, so I personally would just pull the bulbs, but I've had the cluster out way too many times to justify doing it again just for warning lights. But honestly, the board can be slow, but your questions will eventually be answered. This is a different kind of e30 board, haha. Welcome.

JP 91iS · « **Reply #2 on:** September 03, 2008, 12:14:41 AM »

Thanks Jimmy, I'm thinking there is an electrical problem somewhere and that's why the previous owner had starting issues. The dash needs to be replaced so I'll definitely give it a good check when I'm under there, but until then I'd like to knock out any small issues that might cause problems. I tried to reset the indicator lights by bridging the pins at the diagnostic port in the engine bay but either I was doing it wrong or had the wrong pins because nothing happened. The car has an Alpine keyless entry system installed that still works, maybe something with that is draining the battery?

EN318isPDX · « **Reply #3 on:** September 03, 2008, 10:26:18 AM »

Very nice find! How many miles are you it? Never seen that headliner before! Or the Wireless entry! Good score! My 318is is a Cali car too. No special emissions

JP 91iS · « **Reply #4 on:** September 03, 2008, 03:21:09 PM »

It has 168,300 miles. I've put on about 15 miles just driving around the block and to the parts store. People on r3v told me that the black headliner was an option on the 318is. But I like the slicktop - not sure if it reduces any weight but its nice and simple. I don't know about the emissions on mine.

EN318isPDX · « **Reply #5 on:** September 03, 2008, 03:30:29 PM »

Quote from: JP 91iS;55973

It has 168,300 miles. I've put on about 15 miles just driving around the block and to the parts store. People on r3v told me that the black headliner was an option on the 318is. But I like the slicktop - not sure if it reduces any weight but its nice and simple. I don't know about the emissions on mine.

Start out by checking into the vacuum hoses around the intake, they are known to cause the M42 running and idle issues. As for the slicktop, it may offer a lil less weight, perhaps the black headliner only came on non sunroof models? Very nice start though. Look into the mess under the intake thread and make sure you replace the plastic coolant piece!

JP 91iS · « **Reply #6 on:** September 19, 2008, 03:10:14 PM »

I'm currently cleaning up the engine bay and dealing with the coolant and vacuum hoses under the intake. I'll put some pictures of all that when its done.

I wanted to put these pictures up though. I read in one of the threads that White Gas makes a good degreaser so I wanted to try it out. From what I could read-up on it, white gas is just gasoline without any additives and has a lower octane. Its used for camping stoves and lanterns. I bought a gallon of it at an outdoor store under the brand of Coleman Camp Fuel.

While I had my intake manifold off I wanted to clean it up so I used the white gas to clean the gunk out. I put it into a spray bottle and used a wire brush and plastic brush, afterwards used a hose to finish it off.

Before: (sorry I don't have a real camera so the pictures are bad)

After:

I'm satisfied with the results. It's not a miracle product, but it works. It does require some careful handling though.

JP 91iS · « **Reply #7 on:** September 25, 2008, 03:10:12 PM »

My engine has this yellow gunk dried all over it. Looks like a careless spill that was never cleaned up and dried to a hard crust. I couldn't clean it off with any chemical products and using a wire brush was way too slow.

So I borrowed my friends $5 Harbor Freight sandblasting gun. The problem is that you can't use it anywhere without making a ridiculous mess. So last weekend I built this sandblasting cabinet from an Instructable. (link to it is here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade_ShotGrit_Blasting_Cabinet/)

It was way too cramped with the manifold and the gun in there so I had to modify the setup using a hose:

This made it much easier to get a good finish. The first time through I ended up with a cloudy look where I hadn't done a uniform job. It turned out really nice for only a couple hours and around $30.

The problem now is that I don't ever want to get it dirty. I was thinking of giving it a few coats with high-temp clear matte paint. Anybody have some input on that? I'm not sure how that would turn out.
Something like this:

Matt-B · « **Reply #8 on:** October 02, 2008, 01:20:45 PM »

that yellow shit, is cosmoline, put on cars to prevent corossion from salt water on voyage from germany.

Up to dealer to clean off, many didnt.

<3 Im returning the favor. not a bad deal, is there a sunroof in the 318is?

JP 91iS · « **Reply #9 on:** October 04, 2008, 06:56:10 PM »

Quote from: matthew-mayhem;57750

that yellow shit, is cosmoline, put on cars to prevent corossion from salt water on voyage from germany.

Up to dealer to clean off, many didnt.

<3 Im returning the favor. not a bad deal, is there a sunroof in the 318is?

Yeah, I just found out about the cosmoline the other day from reading around. Can't believe that it baked on that engine for 17 years before somebody (me) decided to clean it off. My iS didn't come with a sunroof but many did. I like it.

JP 91iS · « **Reply #10 on:** October 08, 2008, 09:53:58 PM »

This past weekend I finished putting everything back together.

I deleted the throttle body heater plates and the unnecessary lines beneath the intake. I used shorter TB studs and tried to run the lines to look as stock as possible from a quick glance. While I had my intake off I cleaned it out and gave the upper intake manifold a light coat of VHT high temp aluminum paint. I bought some 4-hole injectors and had them refurbished at Witchhunter.com. To plug the coolant ports I just used the old hose cut off and plugged with a bolt, silicone and a hose clamp.

edit: I forgot to mention that while I had the radiator out I flushed out a few handfuls of gravel that had made its way into my tank! I also blew out all the shit stuck in between the fins. The bleeder screw hole had been filled in with silicone, so I replaced the screw with an aftermarket one made of brass. Only problem I can see with it is that it may be easier to strip the plastic threads on the radiator, especially when the screw has been heated up by the coolant.

Here is a shot of the engine bay the way it looked when I first got it. This is before I had done any work:

The plugged coolant ports:
I'm a little worried about the air bubble that will be trapped in the coolant pipe - but I don't know how it would ever escape into the system to cause problems so I think its ok.

The vacuum lines from the valve cover to the throttle body:
I used a "crankcase vent hose" from O'reillys. It came in a little box for $2.99. It was 5/8 inner diameter but was kind of stiff and would fold at a sharp bend, so I used one of the original 90* elbows. I used a 180* junction to connect it to the stock hose coming off the valve cover.

The vacuum line to the Idle Control Valve:
Same crankcase hose from O'reillys. 90* bend off the stock lower ICV hose, one 180* junction in the middle.

Refurbished injectors:
I bought these Bosch 1280150556 injectors from dbgrubbs. I sent them the Witchhunter.com to be cleaned, refurbished and tested. They did a nice job but its expensive. I'm glad I did it though since the before/after test results showed a nice improvement. They replaced the filters, o-rings and caps - also a multi-step cleaning process.

And here's how it looks today, all put back together and clean:

Fired up and runs a lot smoother than before. I won't be giving it a proper road test though until I check out a couple more things. I'll be checking on the timing chain/sprockets as well as dropping the oil pan to have a look around. I'm pretty sure they both have issues since there are noises coming from the top and bottom end.

ponchiz318 · « **Reply #11 on:** October 09, 2008, 09:07:31 AM »

Very impressive. I like the attention to detail. Makes me want to do it myself...... but I need to purchase tools first. My dad took them to Mexico.....damnit!

ose30 · « **Reply #12 on:** October 10, 2008, 01:54:43 AM »

Quote

My engine has this yellow gunk dried all over it. Looks like a careless spill that was never cleaned up and dried to a hard crust

You can blaim Hans or J�rgen at the engine plant. I suppose it is no cosmoline coating it is somekind of clear lacquer. I have owned two new E30's back in the late '80's and had a chance to look that coating when these cars were new. It was certainly a stuff which was not able to remove with simply washing procedure. Sandblasting was the only way to go. This "clear stuff" turned yellow very soon also in new cars, if i remeber correctly my cars had nice yellow engines when they were about 1 year old.

RustyTheDriver · « **Reply #13 on:** October 11, 2008, 09:36:32 AM »

wow man looks amazing. I admire your tenacity. I would've given up or just not bought the car altogether

ponchiz318 · « **Reply #14 on:** October 11, 2008, 10:04:54 AM »

Quote from: RustyTheDriver;58276

wow man looks amazing. I admire your tenacity. I would've given up or just not bought the car altogether

I've seen my share of clean e36 verts. Then when I turn around and look at mine, I weep.....

But, I do know that money well spent on the car would give me great results. Patience is something I have to live with.
I completely agree with Rusty. Your car and work has inspired me to fix mine.