So I've been a long lurker on R3v and when a question pops up in my head, I've always found an answer on R3v. So Ty guys! My native language is Estonian so excuse me for any spelling mistakes.
Anyway the story on the car... It originally was a 318 touring from the factory.
It was brought from Germany to Estonia in 2005 and at that time it was in really good condition. As far as I know it has had 3 owners.
The second owner swapped the M10 engine for an M20B23. The M20 was from an 83 323i and when he made the swap, he didn't open up the engine and when it finnally started it came out to be in really bad shape, like really bad shape.. Every gasket leaked oil, piston rings were none existent and so on...
So he sold it to a young dude and that was a disaster... He just drove it for half a year. Didn't do anything.. no oil change, no nothing, he destroyd the suspension, put on huge shitty ass tires which destroyd the front fenders.
It's my first car. I've been a long time fan of old bimmers since I was a kid.
I knew that the car was in rough shape but the body was good, it is a touring and I liked the fact that it has no chrome what so ever, so I bought it . First evening the poor M20 already left me at the side of the road for a couple of times... Anyway we managed to keep it running somehow, which pretty much was a miracle, because literally everything was fcked. So we went to shoot some pictures with friends.
So the engine finnaly died two weeks later, just could'nt get it to start, no matter what we did and tried. I've have never worked on cars before in my life, well some little things here and there on friends cars... But I have always liked the idea of a project car and have spent countless hours on forums researching and I really wanted to learn, so I decided to as much work myself as I could.
So I bought a "new" engine which is a M20B25 1989.
The engine was already opened up and the cylinder walls were good and I thought it's perfect that way so I can change every gasket and make sure everythings clean and working well. The 885 head and all the missing parts came with it ofcourse.
So when we pulled the camshaft out of the head, this was what we saw...
So I was really dissapointed, the head was scrap...
Searched for a new/used head for a few weeks and finally found one for really cheap. Took it to a machine shop to to make sure everything was fine.
Well then one day I got bored and got the old engine out.
By the way I did alone for the first time in my life, only help I had was a little loader/tractor. Took like 8 hours, a couple of beers and a lot of swearing because of old rusted nuts and crap haha :D
At first I thought that I would not waste money and time on making it pretty but I just could not slap it together with a shitty looking valve cover and intake and so on :D So I painted the valve cover, intake and exhaust manifold, of course with high temperature paint.
(Sadly no before pic of the valve cover)
Then I got myself a garage.
Then finally I got all new bushings and stuff for my gear linkage, assembled the motor and bolted the trans to it. And then struggled for a few hours with my best friend to get the motor in the car.
So here's all the parts I changed for new stuff.
Intake gasket
Exhaust gasket
Head gasket
Valve cover gasket
Oil sump gasket
Waterpump gasket
Thermostat housing gasket
Throttle body gasket
Throttle body warmer coolant whatever small gasket.
Shaft seal
O rings
And so on, every gasket I could find on the engine was changed for a new one.
Piston rings
All new bearings
Waterpump
Belt and tensioner
Head bolts
Clutch
Clutch release bearing
Output cylinder clutch
Motor mounts
Transmission mounts
Guibo
Spark plugs
Rotor
Oil filter
Fuel filter
Air filter
Belts for generator and powersteering.
Thermostat
Waiting for my new radiator, distributor cap and spark plug wires.
Last 3 things and then I hope I can get it started.
Anyway I'll update as I go along, there's a lot of things that need attention, but in time I'll get her there :)
The plan is just to restore it, some nice wheels and lowered suspension, It will be my daily for hopefully a very long time, no plan of ever selling it.
Anyway the story on the car... It originally was a 318 touring from the factory.
It was brought from Germany to Estonia in 2005 and at that time it was in really good condition. As far as I know it has had 3 owners.
The second owner swapped the M10 engine for an M20B23. The M20 was from an 83 323i and when he made the swap, he didn't open up the engine and when it finnally started it came out to be in really bad shape, like really bad shape.. Every gasket leaked oil, piston rings were none existent and so on...
So he sold it to a young dude and that was a disaster... He just drove it for half a year. Didn't do anything.. no oil change, no nothing, he destroyd the suspension, put on huge shitty ass tires which destroyd the front fenders.
It's my first car. I've been a long time fan of old bimmers since I was a kid.
I knew that the car was in rough shape but the body was good, it is a touring and I liked the fact that it has no chrome what so ever, so I bought it . First evening the poor M20 already left me at the side of the road for a couple of times... Anyway we managed to keep it running somehow, which pretty much was a miracle, because literally everything was fcked. So we went to shoot some pictures with friends.
So the engine finnaly died two weeks later, just could'nt get it to start, no matter what we did and tried. I've have never worked on cars before in my life, well some little things here and there on friends cars... But I have always liked the idea of a project car and have spent countless hours on forums researching and I really wanted to learn, so I decided to as much work myself as I could.
So I bought a "new" engine which is a M20B25 1989.
The engine was already opened up and the cylinder walls were good and I thought it's perfect that way so I can change every gasket and make sure everythings clean and working well. The 885 head and all the missing parts came with it ofcourse.
So when we pulled the camshaft out of the head, this was what we saw...
So I was really dissapointed, the head was scrap...
Searched for a new/used head for a few weeks and finally found one for really cheap. Took it to a machine shop to to make sure everything was fine.
Well then one day I got bored and got the old engine out.
By the way I did alone for the first time in my life, only help I had was a little loader/tractor. Took like 8 hours, a couple of beers and a lot of swearing because of old rusted nuts and crap haha :D
At first I thought that I would not waste money and time on making it pretty but I just could not slap it together with a shitty looking valve cover and intake and so on :D So I painted the valve cover, intake and exhaust manifold, of course with high temperature paint.
(Sadly no before pic of the valve cover)
Then I got myself a garage.
Then finally I got all new bushings and stuff for my gear linkage, assembled the motor and bolted the trans to it. And then struggled for a few hours with my best friend to get the motor in the car.
So here's all the parts I changed for new stuff.
Intake gasket
Exhaust gasket
Head gasket
Valve cover gasket
Oil sump gasket
Waterpump gasket
Thermostat housing gasket
Throttle body gasket
Throttle body warmer coolant whatever small gasket.
Shaft seal
O rings
And so on, every gasket I could find on the engine was changed for a new one.
Piston rings
All new bearings
Waterpump
Belt and tensioner
Head bolts
Clutch
Clutch release bearing
Output cylinder clutch
Motor mounts
Transmission mounts
Guibo
Spark plugs
Rotor
Oil filter
Fuel filter
Air filter
Belts for generator and powersteering.
Thermostat
Waiting for my new radiator, distributor cap and spark plug wires.
Last 3 things and then I hope I can get it started.
Anyway I'll update as I go along, there's a lot of things that need attention, but in time I'll get her there :)
The plan is just to restore it, some nice wheels and lowered suspension, It will be my daily for hopefully a very long time, no plan of ever selling it.
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