Oh "Black Betty Schwarz" Bam-a-lam 88 325iC Refresh Dream Car.....

[rustneversleeps]

About myself Just an East Coaster from Canada and found my 2nd owner or I would be the 3rd of a proud owner of Triple Schwarz 88 325iCA..
It's US built 325iC brought here to Canada 7 years ago And bought from a family member Sister"and yes it's ladies car Found it Sept 2016 at the right place at the right time.
So all I've been doing for the last 7 month is Googleing and getting lots help on this forum..I learn fast..lol
I say perfect timing I paid 2650.00 USd and looking forward to learning about this 325iC.
I also can't get over how advance and options it has for back in the day,and seem to be easy to work on "Cross My Fingers"..
Forget about motor jobs,Tranny,Or rear Diff,I'm not that advance yet,but maybe some day I like to try the coil over and give it a lower stance.

FUN!
This car has given me more joy than i have had in a long time.Don't tell my wife that.
I 100% have fallen in love with this dream Car that I could not afford back in 1988 "36,000.00".
Now old,retired and no gray hair yet time to have fun.

Anyways this is my first post in the project forum,and id like to say hi to everybody.
I've done alot of research on here and thought it was about time to introduce myself and join the fun. Good to meet all of you.
Look forward to building on the old 1988 325iCA e30

Well i guess it time to start a refresh on this Black Betty Schwarz .Ya Black Betty Schwarz Do i really need a name it's really a 88 325iC Automatic Triple Schwarz loaded,lol..
I figured i share my car and how well it held up for 30 yrs old car "next year" and a few odd things on the way and just to keep a log on my progress,If that OK...
Bought the car last Sept and did a few miner things then parked it for winter month.Yup never winter driven hell i don't even want to drive it in the rain..
Fast forward 7 month and it's time for some major work at least for me anyways..
So first to come off is the timing belt,Water pump and all the hoses and belts and anything that needs to be replace.
I think i have OCD and i want everything perfect first it was a few hoses that lead to changing them all including vaccumm hoses and everything else that needs fixing..
It guess it has to be done cause the previous owner didn't know when it was done,and he had it for 7 years.
I can't believe she had no repair records except for Oil change before she sold it to me and rad Coolant sensor man 7 years no receipt what a dufuss.
She maybe did 3000-5000 Miles a Yr so may as well do it..the 4 years are there.
Mileage stopped at 60,000 miles and the gears are done but still not turning over.still can't figure that out.
Come next year I'm going to get the whole thing Both IS board refurbish when i'm not using the car..
So this won't be a step by step build but odd thing that i found along the way.
Like NO Thermostat ,big square hole in the back seat "pics later"really weird.
Some Chinese sticker on the shock tower in the engine compartment pics later,I like to get it desifur and to see what it all means
and maybe to get answers if I'm stuck...
So I guess that it...
What she look like today..


here's my first fix..I guess i can't up-load you-tube

[IceWhite]

Great intro!

Good call on replacing the timing belt.



Hope you don't mind.

[rustneversleeps]

cool and how and ya no problem...Always something new tech...
It was my first fix on the E30..Light wasn't working for some unknown reason took it apart and the wires were hanging and was missing a spring
I had tons of small automotive springs that i had found i needed plop it in with a washer and it works now..
i guessing the missing spring must have made the light stay on all the time and the PO just decided to unplugged it..
I tried embedded everything in between the YouTube icon this that copy,paste [].

So your gonna keep me hanging..

[rustneversleeps]

Well i decided to install new stereo in the car...this what i found under the kick panel drivers and when i took the stereo out was even worse...
The only thing i did without making it worse was to tie wrap what i could and put the kick panel back on..



then i found this ground wire later found out that this goes to the cluster..



and in further investigation found this in behind the stereo not connected looks like an alarm of some sort and some more cut wires..





looks to be an alarm system



I also found to cut wires red and blue. time to clean someone else mess.

[rustneversleeps]

What a PITA to take Low speed fan resistor off.I know it would have been easier just to take the rad out but to much work and then pull the other rad to get access to the other rad to get to the resister...But i did it the hard way and and was very tight fit to get a screw driver in there..
screws were seized so the next best thing was to drill out the screws and and use the dremal tool..
It took some time but got her done...



one more to go..



Here's where the dremal came in handy but it was hard to get the other screw so drill again till it came off...
Attention when using a drill make sure you don't go through the rad i put a block of wood just to hold it in place...



I order a Bosch but was the wrong one .So i return it and bought the right one for my fan....Magna hard wire it will be soldered and shrink tube will be added...





Now today job is to cut the resistor out and install the new one and cross my fingers the low speed fan works cause everything else checks out...

[rustneversleeps]

Painted my muffler didn't like the dull gray color and stuck out like a sore thumb so I painted it black ..

[rustneversleeps]

Have good news when i did my TB and water pump and camshaft seal I thought it was leaking from the camshaft seal but it's not..since it was hard to see with a light i used a long Popsicle stick and tape a q-tip up and rub it near the camshaft and the q-tip cam out dry as a bone...

I know there's a leak coming from the oil pan up front,rear looks OK.

Would it be possible while driving the the oil is running up the block from the front of the oil pan then when parked it leaks back down on the AC bracket...