Mattt

Oh Yes, i checked valve clearances. They were fine, but i found this lovely banjo bolt for the oil tube in the head just chilling next to a valve spring. Sorted some copper washers and re fitted it with some loctite. Some photos:

So it's become apparent that in order to do my Corona Justice, it's going to need a few years. After chatting with the wife we decided that I should get the BMW to a point i'm happy with it so i'm not rushing the Corona build. After talking with her we decided to give the car a roughly 10-15k budget. The plan: I'm talking to BC Gold at the moment about modifying a set of their E28 coil overs to fit the E23. There's a couple of manufacturers that make them but i've been struggling to get any information out of the certifier about how to get them legal in New Zealand so i'm trying to use a company that's already well established here. I'll custom build front and rear strut braces to help tighten the chassis up. When i fit the coilovers i will also modify the rear subframe for camber and toe adjustment using the Garagista weld in kits. I now have a M30B35 out of an E34 sitting in my garage. I'm going to order a turbo manifold, Micro squirt ECU, GT3584R Ball bearing turbo, 720cc Bosch Injectors, AEM water/Meth injection kit, LS Coils, MLS Head gasket, ARP head studs etc. I will compression test the engine first and if all is good i will remove the head and strip it then have it skimmed. Rebuild the head with mild polishing work, replace all the gaskets and seals, water pump etc to get it ready for the turbo. My research has suggested 600-700whp is quite safe on the stock short block. I'm going to aim for 500whp. I'm planning on only running water/meth injection if i can tune it safely and avoid running an intercooler. My understanding is it should work fine at that sort of power figure, but i'll be keeping a very close eye in EGTs and AF ratios. I also picked up a scrap heap old PFL E23 that had a 4 speed manual conversion. I mainly wanted the Pedals, driveshaft, x member and shifter so i can fit it to a 5 speed box. Unfortunately when i got it home i found the front driveshaft had been taken already, but the rest of the bits were there including a flywheel in the boot (Car had no engine) I have a pair of nice old school style bucket seats which i will fit or i'll source some black leather seats out of a E60 or similar. That can be done towards the end of the build. As she's a heavy tank i'm not looking for amazing handling or power, but i think it should make it a very cool car

So a few updates to this since October. Not long after i got it i noticed that most of the intake hoses were absolutely stuffed. I ordered new ones out of Schmiedmann and when they arrived i fitted those. It helped power and economy somewhat. After reading a complicated online tutorial on how to change the brake accumulator i decided to forget what i'd read and spent 10 mins changing the brake accumulator. Amazingly the car now has boosted brakes and the brakes work much better. Fitted 25mm wheel spacers all around to get the wheels sitting much nicer. Long term i plan to find some 17" Autostrada Modenas and rebuild them to 18" but that will come after other things. The car has always had a hunt at idle issue so after diagnosing a faulty idle control valve I ordered a new one from Schmiedmann in Germany before Christmas. This took much longer than normal and arrived late January. I installed it when it arrived and that improved the idle a lot. It's still a little rough at idle but it's consistent with most older bmws i've driven. It just seems to be the way these things are. I bought some new Component speakers, a couple of amps, a Kenwood head unit and a pair of 8" subs. I built a ported box and installed it all. It's a good, clear system which isn't too loud and still keeps most of my boot space. after having it for a little while i decided that it was a bit too boomy so i screwed a bit of ply over the port and it now sounds much better. I will build a new sealed box for it in the next few weeks. Spent some time masking and repainting the black on the lower sills. The car had been having a really odd fault where at 4k rpm it would fall flat on its face, do a couple of surges and then take off again. Did it everytime, in every gear. It had also been very gutless since i bought it and had weird electrical faults. When you first started the car the windows and heater would work fine, but turn it off and back on again and the heater and windows would stop working. I did a reasonable amount of hunting and cleaning of grounds then gave up and took it to the auto sparky at work with the 200 page electrical diagnostics and diagrams manual for the car and in 2 hours he had worked out that whoever had installed the push button start (presumably because the ignition is pretty stuffed) had bypassed a circuit that disengages and engages the auxiliary circuit when the car is being would over to start. I don't fully understand it, but he ran a new circuit to reinstate it and now all those odd issues have been fixed. Also, the fuel gauge has stabilised now, the trans shifts more smoothly and the car got most of the power i would expect back. I then hunted down a new Distributor cap and Rotor which was harder than expected to find and I fitted those. The old one was corroded and the rotor was stuck onto the distributor shaft. I wouldn't be surprised if they were original. This gave the car more power again. It now feels nearly as fast as a 1300 EE90 corolla so i'm somewhat happy with that. It's not a sports car.... yet. I took it for a fresh WOF a couple weeks ago. It failed on windscreen wipers, No front bump stops, Light on dash for Brake pad wear and leak from fuel pump area. I replaced windscreen wipers right away, sourced some generic strut mounted bump stops which were 86mm long, after test fitting and cutting them down they ended up 25mm long. The good thing is that the front suspension doesn't bang around when going over bumps anymore! I fitted a new fuel line between fuel filter and fuel pump. Then went for a drive and put it back up on the hoist where there was a fuel leak still. I ordered a new pump and fitted that. This time no more leak. Fuel is gold plated at the moment, so for 1/3 the price of a tank to get the pump i was glad to stop the leak. Last i ordered 2 new brake pad wear sensors and fitted those. The light was still on the dash. I grabbed the multi meter to start test the wiring but when i pulled back the sheath to check the wire colours behind the plug on the front sensor i found that one wire was quite stretchy. I cut the plug open, soldered the wire back up and heat shrinked it all. No light. Car got it's WOF yesterday, so i put the wheel spacers back on. I have noticed the car has a fun issue where intermittently it will take a bit of turning over before it starts. Thinking it's the main relay, but i will probably throw it at the sparky again. Either way it does start, just takes a bit some times. Other times it starts immediately. That's old BMWs for you. Right, i'll talk about the fun stuff on a new section

Thanks man. That's very helpful. Unfortunately in the 2 weeks it's been sitting in my driveway it's turned into the grand canyon. Must have been a moist environment where it was for the last 20 years. Is a real bummer, but it saves me a job of swapping the dash boards over!

So I've picked up this old euro import 7 series for parts as it ls a manual and I want to manual swap mine. Well, low and behold the dash in it is mint. No cracks at all. Not bad for a 1978 that's sat in a paddock since 2002. Anyway, I'm extreeeeeeemely paranoid that it's going to crack when I'm removing it. Has anyone got any suggestions of what I could soak on the dash for a couple weeks to try and soften it up before pulling it out? Will armour all suffice or is there something better?

My proper Momo Boss kit finally turned up. Cost a fortune and took forever but worth the wait. Going to get the wheel alignment sorted tomorrow.

Just moved the car. Heater works, windows work, mirrors work. This will be fun.

Thanks guys. Gives me something to look for now as a starting point. Very helpful.

No you can literally push on the door sensor and they stop working As soon as you let it go windows work. I have recently pulled the struts out so I'm afraid there's an issue with the boot wiring. It does seem to be an issue with bmws from time to time.

Hi all. My 85 728i BMW has just started to show its true colours. Currently the electric windows and sunroof ONLY operate with a door open. The heater no longer operates at all and the electric mirrors no longer operate at all. Does anyone have any idea on where to start with this? The fuses are fine and previous threads I've found on this issue have shown the realys to function fine, however they have not posted how the issue was solved

Feeling better about it now. Still putting spacers on it next week. Now has a freshly painted black valance

https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/80616-mattts-e23-land-yacht-discussion/

Forgot to do one of these when I did the build thread. Feel free to discuss

So i managed to get the springs compressed and back on. Not too sure how I feel. It's definitely a lot lower, but the wheels are no where near the right offset. Shouldn't have put my trust in mag and turbo. Anyway, I've ordered some 25mm spacers all around and will see how it looks when I've been for a bit of a drive and everything settled. I suspect the rears may need to be compressed a bit further. Also need some camber on the front wheels. The rear cambers not outrageous which I was afraid it would be, so that's a bonus.

Yard looks like a bmw dealership at the moment. Good news is things are happening. Hopefully have an update Friday night.

I was looking at the j160 simply because they're cheap, 6 speed and everywhere. My little bit of research suggested they should handle it provided I don't treat it like shit, but I am known for eating gearboxes so maybe I should consider something stronger. Was looking at the r154 of course and as said can get bellhousings to bolt straight up. My understanding is a 3vz bellhousing will work as well, just needs a little grinding where the starter bolts up. As you've said I'll have to look into a better diff option. Adapting should be fairly simple. Really want to rip back into this thing but until I get a shed that I can work in I'm I'm bit screwed so I'm not sure about a race!

New plates No doubt I'll get screwed for them by the cops, but we'll see.

Well aware it's been ages since I've updated this. Life has got in the way a bit and because I've decided to go full fucktard on it I'm just going to take my time and get it done right. Not much will happen over the next year as we are in the planning stages of getting my new 4 car workshop sorted. in the meantime I can say what the plans are. I've picked up an all alloy 3.5l V6 2GR-FSE which I will be building up as a twin turbo engine. Looking for 500whp on high boost. That's heaps for this little car The MX5 Front and rear subframes are still going in with the D2 Adjustable Coil overs I think, I might adapt a J160 6 Speed box to work with it Unfortunately although I love the Rays wheels the new stud pattern is going to mean I'll need to sell them for something else. I've decided to go with a set of Work Equip 40s in 15x9 - Hopefully all round. I'm going to powder coat the centers the same shade of turquoise because so many people either love it or hate it and I'm all about pissing off purists. Hoping to run dual exhausts with separate pipes for the wastegates Not sure if i'll be keeping the blue paint, may look at going to something like the old-school factory Toyota white color. Will see how things go as time and money disappears. For now here's a pic of my 2GR when I picked it up

I know a few people will be disgusted by this, but I chucked my personalized plates on it. I have new ones on their way that are the right size and style for it, but I did keep the old Black ones. I haven't really done a lot more to it yet as i'm waiting on a bunch of shit to turn up from Ebay. I have on order: A new rear BMW Badge, new auto gear knob (old ones fucked) new Brake accumulator as the brakes are showing all the telltale signs of low nitrogen, new plates, Momo bosskit for my Momo Indy steering wheel, Dash mat and some stickers. I sorted some 100%, definitely real, totally genuine BBS wheels for it and will sort getting the thing on it's ass ASAP as it'll look a lot better. In the meantime here's some photos of it in all it's Bronzit - Biege glory after a decent groom and some new rims. Side note, was an older couple that owned the lambo - She was driving and it took him at least a couple of minutes to get in it.

Right, the corona has blown into a big ass project which is cool. But i've decided to take my time with her and do it right. Since i'm currently operating out of a single garage crammed with shit for the next year until my new 4 bay workshop gets built ive decided to put it aside for now, not forgotten but just waiting its turn. As i've gone too long without something old, low and obnoxious to drive I kicked a few dollars towards a young man selling an old 7 series. I actually drove beside this car a while ago on the motorway thinking how much i love old 7 series and it popped up for swaps on facebook a few months later. I dropped the guy a message to see what sort of real cash $$ he was after and decided at the time since I was balls deep in the corona project that I couldn't justify another vehicle so nothing really came of it. I had some money recently for a car and decided to flick him a message and see if it was still available. Somehow it was and we sorted out a viewing. I arrived and was told the car had a fresh wof the day before. We had a look over it and decided it was worth test driving. Took it out for a drive and decided to offer him about 3/4 what he was asking. Grudgingly he accepted, we did the transfer online and i drove off in a new 7 series. So, here's a photo of when I got it.

Right. I've been slack as shit on updating this. Where to start? Hilux diff has been sold. I have front and rear mx5 subframes siting in the garage, Mx5 d2 adjusties, steering rack etc. The gearbox tunnel has been finished. Engine has had a rattle can rebuild. Am going to start notching the rear chassis and floor to fit the IRS rear end. Car is going to get 50mm flares all around to fit the wider subframes. Have decided to keep the rota in it.

From what I've read the nb torsen diff will handle up to 350whp. If that's the case it's plenty for a 3S.