325ix s54 futzing and putzing

[monkey_boy]

I recently picked up an s54 swapped 325ix and so figured I should start a thread to keep track of it. First order of business was to spend a few weeks driving it, get a feel for condition and what I liked or not, and several maintenance items.

Overall it's a blast to drive and condition is about what I expected, but there are definitely some changes that I'd really like to make.

Vehicle is a 1990 325ix sedan. BrilliantRot. Manual. I will put up a few poser pics here at some point in the near future.

[monkey_boy]

Maintenance

The main belt tensioner and/or idler were making some noise so went to replace them and the main serpentine belt. The tensioner was simple.

Ran into a little issue with the idler, though. The bolt for the idler is long and also mounts the alternator and it couldn't be removed without dropping the coolant and radiator.



Didn't want to do that, and wanted to make it easier for the next replacement, so resorted to a BFBC.



Pic of old tensioner and idler. They were pretty worn, maybe original. Replaced the upper alt bolt with one about a half inch shorter, so now the idler can be replaced by unbolting the alt and tilting it sideways. Things are much quieter now.

[Czur1991]

Hey man, how do you like the way the motor pulls? does it feel relatively quick?

[semaj4712]

Sweet, show more pics of the car

[Gnarles]

Is this the one that was on BAT?

[CorvallisBMW]

Is this the car that was built by Blunt?

[Kershaw]

oh cool, you bought it? seems like a sweet ride.

build thread. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/fo...p/87203/page1/

[Julien]

Is this the car that was built by Blunt?

Nope, Jake @ classic daily

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2108324-E30-325iX-S54-Swap

[Nick_S]

AWD S54 E30? Can't imagine a better configuration.

[2mAn]

Certainly looks like that one. Glad the enthusiast who bought it found his way here. btw OP I like your style. EFF pulling the raditor, Im cutting this bitch off :up:

[litu]

Sub

[CorvallisBMW]

Certainly looks like that one. Glad the enthusiast who bought it found his way here. btw OP I like your style. EFF pulling the raditor, Im cutting this bitch off :up:

^This. Exactly what I would have done!

[goarmy]

very nice to see this! I might post my ix after paint

[monkey_boy]

Hey, thanks guys. For some reason I wasn't getting notified of any responses on my post!

Czur1991 - motor feels great and pulls real strong with the 3.91s. To be honest, though, I don't feel that comfortable hot rodding it much due to the brakes. The pedal is soft and with a lot of travel, and I don't feel comfortable if I need to do some hard/unexpected braking.

And yep, as a couple of folks noted, the build was done by Jake and Classic Daily, and it is the ride that was on BaT.

[monkey_boy]

Frankenpan

Was crawling around under the car doing some other stuff (posts coming up) and got a look at the pan. I'd heard that Jake forgot the dipstick tube at first and had to go back and put it in. I guess that's a wad of JB weld... a bit ugly?