Plsnoread- My '89 325is - Mostly hopes, dreams, and tool hoarding

[badwella]

The e30 hasn't run in nearly 3 years and sat for a long bit of that duration without being turned over. So, as an extra precaution, I used ZDDP paste and doused everything in the valve area with this Zinc startup oil. I'll be replacing this motor with the 2.8l stroker later, but I don't really know how long that will be. Anyway, I don't want to screw this head up or wear a pattern in the Schrick cam.



Relocated my power steering reservoir down low. Used the factory bracket but welded an upside down 7 shaped piece of metal.



Here you can see that bracket better. It's bolted straight to that hold down where the distributor went in the e21's (I think that was the right car).



Cut my feed hoses to fit and it looks pretty good.

I'm not happy about the staining on my alternator. I powdercoated it but didn't clearcoat it so the little drips of fluids stained it pretty badly. I'll have to remedy that too.



Test fitting the new strut brace.

Also fabbed up a bracket to hold the AFM.





Here's the bracket up close. I turned the ICV vertical and painted it black so it's not so much of an eyesore anymore.



Better view. Refurbed my AFM and painted it black. I have a cover for this from an e34 which is why it's upside down.



Had to cut the headlight cover to fit around my quick disconnect



View from the back. Using zip ties to hold the headlight covers on for now. I had to shorten them to clear the new wing panels I welded in.



Traded in the Toyota for a Tiguan. At least we'll be a family of German cars now (getting rid of that stupid Saturn really soon)

This is my new workshop. A pop up canopy over the engine bay. Sucks most of the time right now due to the heat, so I get up around 4 am on weekends and work until 10am or so when it gets too hot.



My lazy and sleepy dog, Roman.



Repainted the afm cover I pulled from the e34 and installed it. Almost looks cool, but not as cool as not having an AFM at all.



Artsy fartsy shot taken at sunset. Decided that I wanted some sort of heat shield for my air filter. Found this universal cone filter shield on ebay for $16. I don't particularly like the polished stainless though. I may powdercoat it black to keep in line with my black theme.



Still a few things missing, but she runs. Once I get the brake reservoir installed and the brake and clutch bled, she'll be able to drive. I'll get started on the exterior mods then. I have a genuine Mtech2 spoiler, genuine touring ('is') sideskirts, new is lip and splitter, the vinyl wrap, 16" wheels, etc.

That's it for now. I'll continue to post progress shots and other little progress pics along the way.

[badwella]

Got tired of looking at that mismatched intake and throttle body so I installed the TB I had powdercoated a while back. I had given it to my machinist at work to bore it out to 64mm to use the M30 throttle plate, but he never had any free time. I'll give him the other one to do this on so I'm not waiting on him.





Also, an update to my 'too much shiny metal in my bay' issue. I replaced two of the hose clamps on my upper radiator hose with Gates PowerGrip hose clamps. Basically just industrial strength heat shrink. Not as cheap as regular clamps, but worth the cost to me.



Trying to fill and bleed my brakes. Had an issue with the remote reservoir leaking at the elbows.



So, I tried using the original reservoir that came off the E32 I pulled that master/booster setup from. Leak under control, but couldn't ever get my rear brakes bled.

I realized I might have damaged the internals of the master cylinder so I went back to my original e30 setup. I'll see if I can rebuild that master cylinder from the e32 so I can get the 25mm bore again.



Made sure to bench bleed the master cylinder this time.



Anyway, got the brakes and clutch bled last night and she drives under her own power for the first time in 3 years!

[danielpak_ek9]

awesome work man! I have a question. your depo smoked lights, do they give enough light in the dark since its smoked? or is it as good as oem lights?

[tak7]

Nice work and engine bay Badwella

awesome work man! I have a question. your depo smoked lights, do they give enough light in the dark since its smoked? or is it as good as oem lights?

The lens itself is clear, so no effect on light output. It's the black painted guts and crosshairs that give the smokiness.

[ArtFoodBMW]

I like this car. It's giving me bad ideas

[badwella]

Lol. I thought this thread had all but disappeared. Hadn't been updating it since I changed jobs and moved from Arkansas to Kansas in October.

awesome work man! I have a question. your depo smoked lights, do they give enough light in the dark since its smoked? or is it as good as oem lights?

Nah, like tak7 said, the light is clear but the crosshairs give the impression of a smoked lens. However, I will say that I was a little underwhelmed with the light output of the H1 bulb. I think one of those HID kits is in my future.

Also, if you do get the DEPO lights, be sure to check for any gaps in the sealant around the lenses. Early sets had leaking problems. I found a small area that looked a little suspect to me so I ran a bead of clear silicone around every lens to ensure no leaks. None so far after 5 months.

I like this car. It's giving me bad ideas

This car gives me bad ideas too

[badwella]

Well, since I'm back in, I might as well update what I can.

Back in August 2016, I accepted a new engineering position making chemicals at a facility in KS. Start date set for October 3rd. So, no more jerkin' around and dragging my feet. This car had to be drive-able before then.

So, to move forward, I vinyl wrapped and installed my new OEM valance. Priorities, right?



With the bumper back on.



Looks like crap still, but at least it's in once piece. . . sort of. The turn signals gave me a bunch of problems. I somehow crossed my wires so both sides would turn on at the same time and flicker like I had my hazards on. My dad came to visit and helped me fix my stupid mistake.

[badwella]

After the valance was on, it was time for real important stuff:

touring sideskirts (commonly referred to as the 'is' sideskirts)



Super hot down in TX so I had to buy one of those popup shelters to keep the sun off me.



and the other side



While I was working, I decided to finally shadowline the trim as well.


I took the removable stuff off, but kept the lower trim on the car. Scuffed with scotchbright and used Krylon Supermaxxx satin black paint. I have the SEM stuff, but I actually find this holds better.

Other priorities include filling my e34 tool tray with things. Ordered that warning triangle off amazon. Doesn't fit well and is super cheap though.



I need the pliers and the 16mm spark plug socket. If anyone has any that they'd let go for cheap, hit me up!

[badwella]

So, now with the important stuff done, I decided to take it for a test drive.

It died on me a few blocks from home and I couldn't get it back. Ended up having my wife tow me with our Tiguan. Sorry, no pics.

Well, I started the normal troubleshooting things. Checking for spark (yes), fuel pump, etc.

I don't remember what led me to this, but I thought it was my fuel pump. I had the TRE fuel pump already so I paid a little more this time to get the proper Walbro unit.





The great thing about switching between these two is that I've already done the connector conversions. These are nearly identical in every way so it only took a few minutes to swap.



Back in the car along with a new fuel filter and it still won't fire up. Crap. Now, did some more digging and thought it might be the fuel relay. Had to wait a few days for a new fuel pump relay to come in. That did the trick!

Took her for another test drive and kept hearing this awful clunk coming from the rear end. All my wheel bearings were new. My wheels were torqued down. What the eff. .. .

After some digging I decided to check my driveshaft. Balls. Turns out the rear u joint was toast. Tons of play.

Ordered a rebuilt one online (can't remember where, but it was around $300).




Put that baby in and the clunk was still there. Crap!!!

Put the rear end on jack stands and let the wheels spin. The new driveshaft had balancing weights welded right where they would hit the friggin' gas tank! Easy solution: use a couple washers to lower the differential. Problem solved.



Before I knew it, it was time to ship my car off to my new home




My wife poked fun at me for being so emotional while she drove away. She'll never understand. . . .

[badwella]

Before she was shipped off I took a bunch of photos for evidence in case something was damaged. I took off the front lip and splitter before shipping since it's pretty much a guarantee that it would get ripped off being moved from trailer to trailer.

Interior shot (unfortunately it's the only one I can find right now, but I'll add them when I do).



view at the rear end when they were hooking it up on the trailer. I added the Garagistic tow hooks to help with the transport (and give me some peace of mind).



Sweet white powdercoated diff cover. If I can ever find a Z3M cover I'll powdercoat it too. I'm really digging the white.

Fast forward to a week later and I'm working at my new job. I park the e30 where I can see her everyday from my office window. 'tis a beautiful sight.



On the way to work one day I'm driving along at 70 mph and I hit a pothole then the rear end starts fishtailing. I am able to make it to work by driving 45 mph the rest of the way (a few miles). I immediately suspect the toe adjustment brackets and eccentric bolts I installed.

Pulled off the wheel after work in the parking lot and see this:







Yep, one of the nuts fell off and lost one of the eccentric washers. So, I had to wait a week to get new ones in. Got to drive my Uncle's El Camino to work though. Talk about a boat!



Got these babies in and torqued the crap out of all the nuts on all four of the trailing arm bolts.

[badwella]

So the trailing arm fiasco happened in late October/early November. My wife, son, dog, and I are living with my aunt and uncle until we can find a permanent place.

After viewing 32 houses with our realtor, we finally found a place. We had to go full price to beat out the other bids, but we got the house. Best part: it has a two car garage!!!



Not much else has gone on since then, but I've acquired new parts and built myself a smoke tester to help me find my vacuum leaks.



Craigslist score. Suspersprint replica cat-back for $100 from a cool older guy with an e24. He's not a BMW guy, but bought his e24 with the intent on a LS swap. Thought this 3 series exhaust would fit his. It didn't so I reaped the benefit.




Also scored this m20 block from a local european car place who cut me a deal for being part of the local e30 group.



Cross hatching still present.




I've been acquiring parts for a 2.8l stroker. Already have the M52b28 crank and the 130mm rods, an i intake and head, a busted oil pan I plan on modifying for an extended sump. Just need pistons. I haven't decided if I want to go with the used i pistons and machine them to clear the counterweights or get 135mm rods and have custom pistons made. If I do, then I'm going to bore out the block to 85mm and go 2.9l.

[badwella]

So, since I shaved the engine bay, I deleted the washer reservoir as well. I've been thinking about making a custom reservoir for a long time. Sorta decided to put it up in the battery tray location. The IX reservoirs will fit there, but only with the 318i covers, not the M3 wiring covers. I like the M3 ones so I'm going to make a custom one out of 11ga aluminum.

Drew up something in a solidworks program and it'll look like this:



View of the backside. The cutout section is to clear part of the M3 cover.



I'm trying to find an adequate level sender still, but I may just drill and use the oem rubber grommet to reuse the one I had in the oem reservoir. That'll be easy since I didn't modify the harness for the washer reservoir. Just need to extend it to reach the firewall now.

This will my first foray into TIG welding aluminum so it may not be pretty. I plan to powdercoat it black anyway (unless the beads are really ridiculously good looking).

I took measurements of the battery tray area and decided on a 6" tall reservoir.

My calculations show a full volume of 2.5 liters. Trust me, I'm an engineer ;)

[badwella]

Oh yeah, didn't show these pics before.

Got my city lights wired up to run off the [deleted] sidemarkers.



The passenger parking light is brighter because I hadn't fixed the wiring yet.

I bought this genuine mtech2 spoiler off a well known r3v guy for a good price. Or so I thought.




My wife said it looked pretty stupid and I'm inclined to agree without the rest of the bodykit.

Anyway, I thought I would try to repaint it or something since it had like 12 layers of paint. Digging in I found this:





That's a wood screw in there.



crikey! Look at this thing!



Well, it turns out this thing had been broken before and some previous owner decided to make due with whatever they had. Also, that 'stud' was actually a 3" bolt that they had put in from the other side and covered with bondo.

So, I have something to kill time with at least. I plan to repair it and sell it since I'll never use it. I just won't tell my wife how much I spent on it. . . .

[stonea]

I don't know how I haven't seen this thread before. I'm loving the progress and the engine bay.

[badwella]

I don't know how I haven't seen this thread before. I'm loving the progress and the engine bay.

Thanks, man! I posted it mostly on reddit in the project car and e30 subs but now my new company blocks reddit so I can only post here. I'll be sure to update here more frequently so hopefully someone can gain some ideas or suggest things for me.