Common e30 problems? (Page 3 of 3)

My 'What breaks on e=30s' list

Guibos
Rocker arms (usually intake as those are heavier valves)
Water pump
Wheel bearings
Head gasket
Fuel tank connector tube (the S shaped tube between the two saddle tanks.. Responsible for two major car fires in Lemons)
Bad grounds overheating the ECU, resistors, etc.   Check your grounds!
Vacuum leaks, but as that just effects idle, who cares for racing?   

-John

If it's leaking, it's probably rusted through. Since it's an integral part of the tank, the only fix I was comfortable with when it happened to my E30 DD was to replace the tank. Someone who is more handy with these sorts of things might have a cheaper solution, but when I see rusty tubes around fuel, I tend not to want to mess around. YMMV

BTW, I found a used non-rusted fuel tank pretty easily.

If you don't know if it's a problem, you might consider dropping the tank to inspect it. To do that you'll need to remove the exhaust and drive shaft first. (Might was well replace that suspect guibo while you're at it. :-) )The tank itself is just held in with five bolts.

I wonder if the stock guibo will be used with a Ford transmission?

I think the guys have hit all the common E30 headaches

Our personnel experience on where to beef up the car and what to expect to change....

Timing belt and water pump (use loctite on the 3 water pump bolts)

Crank position sensor and spark pick up sensor

Add an oil pressure guage and check the oil pump pick up

Wheel bearings

Add wheel studs

Rear brake calipers need a small spring clip to stop the caliper separating under high use.....with out this in place, it will cause crashing and trauma!

Rear subframe mounts and bolts work loose and can tear off the under body

Fuel pump mounts can break, so beef them up and we fitted a metal plate to cover and protect that area in front of the rear drivers wheel

Remove the pulsation damper in the fuel line after the pump...they can fail

We moved the fuel filter into the engine bay and heat protected it....simplifies the rear area and easy to change

Exhaust route hampers the propshaft removal, so we moved it to side exit

2nd gear synchros get abuse from boy racers

Cooling system is overly complex with too many hoses....lots of removal can be done

Electrical system has been mentioned!  We pretty much stripped out the whole system and ran our own!  84,85, 86,87, 88, 89, 90 engines and looms have changes, so don't think you can change an engine and keep the old loom! 

Earths

Power steering delete, remove pump, drain rack and enjoy the feedback through the steering wheel!

Aircon - strip it all out

Rust on the drivers floor pan can increase the need to strengthen the cage mounts

Handbrakes shoes are fiddly and crap

Fuel return and carbon canister is rubbish, get rid!

Re-fueling the stock system can be slow due to poor breathing on the tank and it can back up the fuel filler, the breather hose is squashed behind a plastic plate in the rear passenger wheel arch.....its braided and old....change it for re-inforced plastic one.

2 fuel pump systems can give issues......re-wire them both and re-earth

Fuel level sender is a joke

Stock brakes with good pads are excellent

14" wheels suck

Ride height gives nose bleeds......cut springs carefully and spend time testing the ride

Anti roll bars and end links are small and wear out

Axle shaft bolts to diff vibrate loose and come out, loctive all these

Hub nuts can be a real nightmare to come off, especially at the track......spend time removing these, inspect the threads and don't over torque them or hammer the locking tab too much

Check the 2 brake line flexis about the rear subframe....lots of guys change the 4 flexis at the wheels and neglect these 2!

Change and flush brake fluid!

Rear trailing arms need manually adjusting to get good alignment.....learn about alignment principles and buy a couple of tape measures........same with front....

Front top mounts can get ballooned ..... look in the engine bay and note the shape of the top turrets before and after each race!

Oil leaks from camshaft seals in head

Adjust valve clearances often

Change the oil and filter

MAFs and idle control valves can play up

Clutch master cylinder needs a gymnast in the foot well to change.....

Apart from that, they are a walk in the park.....as long as you don't overheat!

Fine, you won't miss it at all.

We deleted power steering on our E30s. It's totally fine, even in the pits, but then again, I'm used to cars without power steering.

You want to plug them! The fluid keeps the rack lubricated. A cheap fix is to simply take one of the hoses that go to the steering pump and loop it from one hole to the other. They also sell plug bolts on the interwebs, but simply plugging the holes restricts flow, making the steering harder and wearing out the seals. This being Lemons, you might not care. Otherwise check out Condor's plastic delete kit: http://stores.ebay.com/Condor-Speed-Shop

I'd actually strongly suggest the aluminum one.  We destroyed the plastic one, got a replacement and then it leaked even though we didn't tighten it down too much.  The aluminum one which we finally got has worked very very well in comparison.

Also Condor was offering them for $35 somewhere else.  That seems over-priced.

The first car that I was going to race at Lemons was an iX that had had the front axles deleted.  I bought it (for far less than $500) and brought it home.  And then I started to look through parts diagrams and quickly discovered that very little was compatible with the rest of the E30 line.  The engine is very different, suspension totally different, trans different, etc.  I ended up finding another E30 for $400 (which we destroyed at our first race) that was more straight forward, and we ended up running that and I used a bunch of iX parts on my daily driver.

Given how bad the iXs are at this point I feel like anyone who shows up in one is a better man than me.  Parts are hard to find, 3x the price of the normal E30s and they aren't particularly reliable compared to the 2wd version.

I have also read that the PS fluid does not lubricate the rack, that it's a sealed unit....but just because someone says that's the way it is on the internet doesn't mean its true. If that were true, then this delete "kit" would make sense http://www.tcmotorsports-store.net/tc-m … r-kit.html