Saved from Purgatory

[gdavid]

I'm really enjoying this thing now, it has been a long time coming but it is finally running right and a blast to drive. I wish I had a better basis for comparison, the car came with an engine that was dead on one cylinder and the stock m52b28 in my sedan is connected to an automatic transmission so it is like comparing apples and oranges. This project ended up with an odd combination of modifications including some pretty extensive changes while skipping some of the more commonly accepted upgrades. In the end it is a 3 liter displacement with the m54b30 intake cam, stock m52 intake manifold, cats in place but gutted muffler exhaust, hakentt tuned DME and the stock open 2.93 diff. The hakentt DME definitely improved the idle in closed loop (even before I figured out the clogged exhaust) but I never ran the stock DME with anything but the clogged up exhaust so I can't compare the two otherwise and am probably not curious enough to swap it back.

I will go ahead and put it up for sale after I finish up a couple final items, and it very well may not attract any offers that I'd be willing to accept, but there is only one way to find out.

[gdavid]

I swapped thermostats with another from the pile of used ones I tried when it was running too warm and it is only getting up to 140 degrees per my OBD reader. I should have tested it in a pot of water first. I really loath cleaning the RTV off of the thermostat housing and head again.

I have a gap between the windshield and the weatherstripping on the front of the top. The clamps appear to be as tight as they can go but I seems like the top is too taught or the frame is bowed up. I'll get it figured out but the wind noise is pretty bad.

[gdavid]

I've become pretty adept at changing thermostats at this point but believe I'm finally done with getting it to run the right temp. A unmolested Behr 88 degree thermostat is in the car and it is getting up to temperature, I haven't checked the real time, actual numbers but it is reaching the center of the dash gauge (as little as it is worth). For a temporary fix the windshield gap, I have a small strip of household weather stripping in place which has filled the air gap and stopped the whistling noise. The cloth appears to be too taught (it was replaced shortly before I bought the car in 2018) and it pulling the front bow back, even through the pins are in place and it is fully latching down. The latches are adjustable but appear to be about as tight as they can go. The factory weather-stripping appears to be in good shape.

I have this top adjustment and a small punch list of things to finish up on the car and I'll advertise it and see what interest it brings. I see clean looking verts advertised cheap all of the time on craigslist, less than half have nice interiors but there are a few. If it brings a fair price, it will improve the budget for the white 328 sedan I just picked up and push me in the direction of manually swapping that car but if the vert can't bring $5k, I'll just keep it as a toy and the white car will go on the road with minimal work as a boring but clean beater. In the mean time, my beat up hellrot sedan is continuing to soldier on.

[gdavid]

I had a noise coming from the rear suspension that I couldn't identify, none of the usual bushing suspects. It turned out that the bottom of both rear springs were snapped off and sitting there loose in the middle of the spring perch. FCP euro has a set of lesjofors $40 each, I used the spring manufacturer catalog to get the vert specific part number which didn't match what fcpeuro listed for the car. I will find out if they are correct soon enough.

[Eric93se]

Unreal ! WTF is going on !

[spyderg0d]

Vert had larger rear coil springs to compensate for the weight difference. Coupe springs will make the rear of the car sit 1" lower. And they will compress easier as well, not by much, but they will.

[gdavid]

I'm convinced they are the stock vert springs. I asked Greg, who parts out a bunch of verts, about this and he said he sees it all the time. I ordered vert replacements.

[gdavid]

The new springs arrived today and are in place. I am confident they are correct for the vert, lesjofors 4208424. Like I posted previously, fcpeuro had them for $40 each but they don't show up for the vert and their picture of these looks like a front spring.

It has been my experience that to get the driver side spring in place you need to drop the exhaust unless you compress the spring somehow. I was too lazy to mess with that so I compressed the spring in my comically large voice and held it in place with two tie down straps while I put it in place. This worked so well that I used it on the passenger side as well to aid positioning the rubber seats.

[Jacksone30]

The new springs arrived today and are in place. I am confident they are correct for the vert, lesjofors 4208424. Like I posted previously, fcpeuro had them for $40 each but they don't show up for the vert and their picture of these looks like a front spring.

It has been my experience that to get the driver side spring in place you need to drop the exhaust unless you compress the spring somehow. I was too lazy to mess with that so I compressed the spring in my comically large voice and held it in place with two tie down straps while I put it in place. This worked so well that I used it on the passenger side as well to aid positioning the rubber seats.

Do you have a before and after pic of how the car sits after the new springs went in ? My mechanic advisor indicated my 97 vert is sagging a bit.
I am thinking to replace them . $40 each is in the budget plan for the spring.

Im doing front end refresh- may do this while the car is up on all fours in May.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[gdavid]

I'll take a picture tomorrow and try to get the same angle. Here is a pretty recent shot, shortly before replacing the springs. Not a great angle for gauging tire gap, just a random pic. Other pics earlier in this thread may have a better angle but were different tires. I think it ok only brought the rear up about 1-1.5"

[gdavid]

This is with the new springs and I honestly can't tell any difference. The car had a full tank of gas in this pic and I can't recall what the level was in the last pic with the broken springs. Most likely a 1/2 tank. The distance from the center of the wheel to the closest point of the wheel arch is 12.75" right now. That should be a usuable metric for you to check.

It has the stock vert springs up front which makes the front sit high but they looked like this new.

According to Greg (66 6), he sees broken springs all of the time, he suspects many guys are driving around with broken springs. The last 1.5 coil provide vert little hight but do keep the spring in the right position.

[MrFixItBuilds]

This was an awesome read. I bought my 99 as a project car, but its in such great shape, its likely just to get what needs to be refreshed done, and then I find myself a good shell with rough engine/trans to be my actual project car.

Only issue is that I'm in Iowa, and rust free e36s are needle in a haystack.. Well that and I need a bigger garage.

[gdavid]

I sold it today. Bittersweet, I enjoyed the car but just didn't need a convertible. I believe the new owner will be joining the forum.