My E30 restoration , Need Help , Post is a little long.

[zippy320]

Hi Guys

I have a 1988 E30 320i Automatic ,Been in my family since new ( Dad purchased it new and its been mine since my univ days) After sitting in the garage for almost 8 years waiting, Iv decided to do a small mechanical and cosmetic restoration on it . To get it started and moving again , Im going to try and be as detailed as possible .

Apart from the Exhaust and exhaust manifold the cars original and unmodified. Its always been serviced by BMW since new and its last service 8 years ago was at BMW SMG, replacing the main belt , oil service , spark plugs , filter , injectors cleaned etc.

Car has a few issues I want to sort out so will take it step by step.

My first issue , The car wont start .Which was also a reason why its been parked off for so long.

Iv purchased thus far:

New Bosch external fuel pump
New Bosch transfer pump
New Bosch Fuel pump relay
New Bosch W8DC spark plugs
BMW Timing pick up sensor
BMW Oil Filter
6 liters of oil from BMW (I had no idea what oil it uses so just asked them for it)
Meyle Fuel filter
New bonnet shock from BMW ( I love this part! No more bonnet falling on my head!! )

What I have done thus far ,

Car has spark and turns over , The internal fuel pump was not running , I tested it with a light and it was receiving power . I haven't tested the external pump though .

What I found , removing the internal pump , I found alot of rust around it , and on the pipes , the pump is clearly dead . The Tank is half full of petrol.
I also found dirt in the tank as well as a little surface rust around those areas where fuel was not present .

Before installing both new pumps and filter , I want to have the tank and lines cleaned and washed and (de-rusted?) Maybe replace the rubber fuel lines as well . ( Fuel lines are original so im sure they must be a little degraded? )

I need to get the car started before I can have it towed somewhere to remove and clean up the tank . All that dirt and rust will surly damage and clog up my new pump and filter. I want to confirm that the car can in fact start before I take it over to have it cleaned ( also want to be able to drive it back home)

How can I start the car without having the lines connected to the fuel tank?

Is there anyone in Durban that I can have the car towed to have the tank cleaned? Someone who wont kill me on cost? What should I be paying for this?

How many meters of fuel pipe should I buy?

Please help. All advice would be much much much appreciated , I don't know if im over my head with this , but would really appreciate all your help.

This is just my first stage, other items I wish to do include,

Transmission was replaced by BMW 8 years ago , only did 5000 kms on it , I want to replace the filter and fluids once I get it started.
Need to do a full service on it , engine oil , diff everything.
Need to replace some of the suspension parts , Diff , Flex disk. center bearing etc.
Power steering is leaking (fix/it durban replaced it 10 years ago , they did a hopeless job on the steering , its always leaked even after they replaced it)
Recondition the braking system.
Fix the air conditioning (don't think it works after sitting for 8 years)

Only once I have it mechanically perfect , then only will I be able to start with the body.

Regards

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Here are pictures of the tank and pump . Tank is also very dirty , (no leaks though)

Pump is still a mess even after I had cleaned so much of the rust of it.

Tank still has 97 leaded petrol in there! Does petrol go off? Does it go stale? I don't plan on reusing the petrol , Just curious .

 

[Nikhil]

Wow this is an awesome thread! Replace the tank and pump and make sure the lines are clear of blockages because that looks like rust!

 

[Luis Malhou]

I did this on the 850, but it was a plastic tank!

Petrol goes off and can gunge up, so best to replace all the hoses, clean out every pipe. That tanks either gonna cost a lot to clean and repair, so maybe search for another one. Then fit everything back with new hoses. It will probably have 8mm fuel lines, normally 2, one to feed and a return. The steel pipes normally corrode, especially if been standing for so long as they can collect water from the fuel, so best bet is remove the complete steel lines running under the chassis and find a brake or hose place that bends and makes brake lines. They can normally bend to the samples lines, if possible in aluminium tubing.. thing of all that weight youll save!!! They also place a ridge on the ends where the rubber hoses clamp. I did this all myself as I bought a fine pipe bender.

If there is not enough fuel pressure at the rail then the car wont start, needs around 1.5+ bar min.

If you turn the key can you hear the fuel pump humm, or buzzing then start there.

 

[zippy320]

Thanks guys for support! I still wonder if im a little over my head with this but Im gonna try my best to get everything done .

@ Luis Malhou , yup tested it , that in tank pump was soo rusted up , it was dead beyond belief , no noise no buzzing , Thats the reason why I purchased a new pump , but it looks like I would need to find a new holder for the new pump as well . Did your 850i stand parked of for a long time as well?

I took a few more pictures of the fuel tank , tried stuffing my phone down there but it was a little to big .

I had taught about buying another tank and just fitting that on but its so hard to find good E30s out there these days , I have a few leads on a few tanks but am not sure of its condition or if the older metal bumper tanks would fit on the later plastic bumper E30s .

How many meters of rubber pipe should I buy? Im going to order them from BMW , they did ask me how many I would need , I had a blank face lol

Here are a few more pics of the inside of the tank , Does it look bad? That is the original leaded petrol , maybe mixed with a little bit of unleaded (I occasionally threw in a liter or two while the car was sitting )

I need to start the car before taking it over to have its tank cleaned / replaced , without drawing fuel from the fuel tank , can I fill petrol in a bucket and just point the hose down into that? Thus allowing the new pump and new filter to draw fuel from the bucket in stead of the tank?

 

[wikked]

Definitely get rid of that old fuel.

 

[zippy320]

@wikked , Yeah! im def going to remove that old petrol , I had a look at the tank again an the internal filter that I removed , This stuff thats in there that I think is rust , seems to be a fine powder like material , brown in color , Also I was told that when rust reacts with copper / Brass , it turns green , The fuel pump pipes are they made of copper / brass? This isnt green , Im going to try and polish and repair the pump instead of having to find a new pump fitting , as Iv already purchased a New bosch replacement pump for it. Will post up pics when im done.

 

[Major]

Honestly if I was in your position I'd go about removing the tank entirely as is. You can try your bucket trick to troubleshoot bad fuel, just keep in mind that that bucket will empty quickly if you don't put the return line in there as well. Initially you'll be pumping old fuel through the system and out the return which is sitting in the lines/rail, be sure to dump that.

 

[moranor@axis]

i would also remove the tank you ether going to have to send it off for coating or fit another one so you may as well make life easier now and take it out

 

[Nikhil]

Dude if you doing it do it properly the first time :=): replace the tank and the complete fuel pump unit ,lines and filters. Take out the injectors and get an injector recon kit from ebay its like R500 and a simple diy. The last thing you want is a messed up fuel system again.

 

[zippy320]

Hi Guys!

Yes for sure , there's no doubt , I want to have the tank removed ,cleaned out and sealed professionally. What do they seal? Im also worried now about any rubbers or pieces that are attached to the tank once removed . Would these pieces be disturbed and damaged? Would they then start leaking?

I taught about fitting a new tank , im sure a new one from BMW would be a little to expansive for me , and a good second hand unit would be really hard to come by, the tanks iv seen (before realizing I needed a tank ) looked terrible . I think my tank is just really dirty , I had a look again and after cleaning up the old fuel pump , It didn't look like there was any real rust on it , Looks like the fuel itself has caused this grimy grainy sediment . I wont rule out rust though but I don't think its as bad as I thought .

My bucket "trick" is there for me to troubleshoot the cars non starting issue , If it starts with the new transfer pump which runs to a new outside pump then at least I know that , that's one problem solved. I would use new petrol in the bucket. ( Don't trust that old fuel )

There after I would have the car towed someplace to have the tank sorted out.
I really do want to fit new lines and rubbers as well if needed , but im not really sure how to go about doing this , I don't know of any place that makes these lines and im not sure if BMW would still supply them.

I have found that silverton radiators do in fact empty and clean out fuel tanks so will give them a call.

Iv cleaned up the old transfer pump . Attached a picture below , I will attach this new Bosch pump to it to replace the Original VDO pump that was there .
It had heavy layers of some sort of sediment , that broke up in my hand revealing the metal below.

 

[zippy320]

Just thaught I would update, Rebuilt the fuel pump , Hopefully I did it correctly . Next step will be to find a good garage who would remove the tank and clean it .

BTW , Once I have the tank removed , should I replace anything ? I know the Propshaft has to come off , When BMW replaced the gearbox 8 years ago , I had them replace the propshaft coupling and bearing , Now that its been sitting for so many years , should I have it replaced again?

New Rebuilt pump

 

[AndreasSA]

I would not start the engine before the complete fuel system is absolutely clean!

 

[zippy320]

I would not start the engine before the complete fuel system is absolutely clean!

Wont be doing that ,The pump was out of the tank , So thought I would get the project going by rebuilding the pump with the new pump .

Next step will be to have the tank removed , lines cleaned or replaced and then only will I fit the new part in .

 

[GPGrobler]

Hi Zippy,

I got my E30 started by fitting the external pump and at first only fitting a pipe in place of the internal pump with a fuel filter in the line before the external pump to keep the dirt from the tank entering the pump and the injectors/fuel rail.

 

[zippy320]

Hi Zippy,

I got my E30 started by fitting the external pump and at first only fitting a pipe in place of the internal pump with a fuel filter in the line before the external pump to keep the dirt from the tank entering the pump and the injectors/fuel rail.

Thanks so much GPGrobler!
I'm going to try this , I have also established that my fuel tank isn't rusty or damaged but really dirty in the sense , the fuel has crystallized and turned to what iv read online as varnish.

I guess I'm lucky though, could have been worst, my first step is to make sure he car runs before towing it to have its tank removed and cleaned .

 

[GPGrobler]

Just a link to some info you might find useful:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/101-...s/591425-1986-325-e30-fuel-tank-question.html

 

[zippy320]

Ooh ! Thanks ! Will help when I attampt to drain the tank .

 

[zippy320]

Hi Guys! So a little update , I called around , ALL over , finding out costs of removing , cleaning and sealing my fuel tank , as well as flushing or replacing the lines , And the prices Iv been getting were really ridiculous , Not to mention the fact that I would have to have the car towed all over to get this done. Silverton in Pinetown Quoted me R2500 just to clean the tank and seal , I would first have to find someone to remove it as they dont remove tannks.

I think if you provide a service , of tank cleaning , you should at least know how to remove the tanks from the car. But maybe E30s are a little to complex for them.

Anyway it was working out to costly for me to have this done +/- R9000 with all the running around etc, What I did was , replaced all rubber lines myself , Purchased new fuel pipes, Flushed all original metal pipes (surprisingly clean) replaced the filters and flushed out and cleaned the tank as best I could , there was no rust in the tank , thankfully , but a fine powder , which cleaned up to reveal tank metal.

As per my previous post , I rebuilt my in-tank fuel pump and purchased a new external fuel pump. Decided to test my Original external pump and it still works fine so I cleaned that up and reinstalled it .

Added alot of fuel system cleaner to the fuel tank mixed with new fresh petrol , Now waiting on BMW to get me a new intank fuel pump gasket so I could reinstall the intank pump.

I have also replaced the old Fuel pump relay with a new one from Bosch as well as fitted a tiny inline fuel filter between the cars original filter and the fuel rail , (temporary) Its a see through filter so I could view the quality of fuel going through.

Anyway Will keep you updated . Next step ,
Install pump, New spark plugs , change all oils , flush cooling system and then have BMW (if not to pricy) or a good mechanic replace the timing belt and set the tappets? , I know the current belt was fitted to the vehicle by BMW many years ago , and I think iv probably done less then 5000 kms on it but will have it replaced anyway.

Will keep you updated.

Car already smells new (Smells of petrol inside LOL)