Well as you guys may or may not know, I sold my old MT2 E30 sans MT2 and everything I put on it to put onto this, a 02/91 production 318i with 132k.
Oliver off to his new owners :(
The purchase of this new E30 was the result of a crazy idea I got a few nights before Spring Break began. With my old E30 sitting in the parking lot undriven since the CV axle flew off on the highway back in February, I called up my friend Weston to see if he wanted to sell his 318i he bought last summer with a blown head gasket. We worked out some details and agreed on some conditions since I didn't have any money to give him, just collateral till I sold my MT2 e30. A week later Me, Maks, and my friend Matt rented a U-haul and towed my old E30 to Houston to begin transferring parts over.
Me and Matt (mostly Matt) had gone down to Corpus Christi the Sunday before to slap a head gasket on the new E30 and see if we could make it home. Weston had spent quite a bit of money on this engine (new seals, head gasket, thermostat, timing components, etc) to get it up to snuff, but he couldn't get any compression afterwards. Turns out the alignment peg in the block was interfering with the shaven head sitting right. Matt pulled that out like nothing was there, much to Weston's disgust as I had been on the phone previously with him trying to get it out.
With the new E30 up and running and all the oil/coolant burnt out of the exhaust, I headed to to the car wash to give it a good cleaning before we left for Houston later that night.
I've never had an E30 with nice paint. That was why I sold the old E30, I didn't want to have to do bodywork on it.
This is what it looked like the next morning in Houston:
Slicktop goodness
Minus this stupid thing:
Old Bavauto sticker:
BMW alarm and keyless entry, that works!
Please ignore the valve cover. The original one is in 3 pieces for some reason. (Idiots)
Things needing attention:
Door stopper is all mangled:
Only spec of rust on this car. Going to get fixed soon.
Burning coolant/oil do a number on an exhaust tip:
Anyway with both cars there and only a few days left before Spring Break was over, we started transferring parts.
Got started on pulling engines:
We left the AC compressor and power steering in this car as both are all new and honestly, the car's few only good points.
Next we did the same to new E30:
Made this discovery afterwards, it came off with the engine. lol
Next we bolted back up the transmission to the orange engine (look at the valve cover) and started installing it into the old E30.
Was a bitch for some reason BTW^^^^^
The following day we made the discovery a very important shipment had been delayed fucking up all of our plans. So we had to scrable to get 2 running engines back together in 2 cars without redo the seals and a bunch of other little shit I wanted to do while they were out.
So we had to improvise......
My bad oil leak turned out to be a cracked upper pan.
Then Maks had to leave back for Dallas. Luckily for me Matt stayed for an hour and we got the new M42 in the new E30.
I spent the rest of that day hooking up everything in the drivetrain in that car.
The following day my friend/roommate Kevin showed up to buy a new E30. Since that wasn't happening till later in the day, he helped me swap the suspension and interior. This was Saturday afternoon by this point. We were leaving by Sunday.
Pulled springs/struts
RX-7 on the right and E30 on left.
My E30 had a brand new spare in the trunk.
Spotless
Had some shenanigans with just springs installed, no shocks.
>Click for video!<
Took part of the interior apart and discovered a smoker owned my car at some point.
Finished swapping the interior and drove from Houston to Austin at 10pm Sunday night without a problem:
The new E30 dubbed "Odee" looked like this the next day:
Slicktop goodness:
Fast forward to the middle of April I started on front end stuff as everything was blown/original. Drove the new E30 to my cousin's ranch outside of Canyon Lake to do some work a Thursday night after class.
Getting started
Tackling everything with this made my life easier
Then I removed the old rack
New Z3 rack, tie rods, (not pictured) new hoses, and res
I spent the night before cleaning it in my apartment's tub lol
With that bitch in the car and the firewall modified I move onto getting the lollipops off of the old control arms. Benefit of being on a ranch, firewood and stones are abundant to make an impromptu fire pit. :)
With the lollipops burnt off, I took a dremel and sliced down the inside to get the remains out.
New goodies
Shame they don't fucking fit. Never buy Powerflex EVER. This was the second time this happened (and a third time happened this weekend with OEM control arms!)
Difference in 20 year old control arm and its replacement
Anyway finished everything up to get it rolling again. I had to wait a week because I was planning on installing the new AC stuffs the following weekend and wanted to get it charged and the E30 aligned at the same time.
Now a week later I came down to install new AC stuffs and convert to R-134a. The write up on that is here: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=246743
Just posting 2 pics from that.
Lastly I did the front wheel bearings. 20mm spacers wear them out after awhile.
Rotor and caliper off
Nut "locking tab" hammered out
Removing the studs
One 36mm socket and a breaker bar later
Bolted the wheel back on to pull the old hub off
Had to take off the dust shield to get the inner race off with a gear puller
New FAG bearings
Nut on and locked in place
Installed the studs on the new hub
Both bearings lost their grease from the rear, these were Pex brand
Then installed these front and rear, much more livable than my Hawk+'s
So yeah I've been a little busy. Next up in the coming weeks are the trailing arm bushings, CV boots, transmission seals, and rear wheel bearings. Just waiting for school to finish up. ;)
Oliver off to his new owners :(
The purchase of this new E30 was the result of a crazy idea I got a few nights before Spring Break began. With my old E30 sitting in the parking lot undriven since the CV axle flew off on the highway back in February, I called up my friend Weston to see if he wanted to sell his 318i he bought last summer with a blown head gasket. We worked out some details and agreed on some conditions since I didn't have any money to give him, just collateral till I sold my MT2 e30. A week later Me, Maks, and my friend Matt rented a U-haul and towed my old E30 to Houston to begin transferring parts over.
Me and Matt (mostly Matt) had gone down to Corpus Christi the Sunday before to slap a head gasket on the new E30 and see if we could make it home. Weston had spent quite a bit of money on this engine (new seals, head gasket, thermostat, timing components, etc) to get it up to snuff, but he couldn't get any compression afterwards. Turns out the alignment peg in the block was interfering with the shaven head sitting right. Matt pulled that out like nothing was there, much to Weston's disgust as I had been on the phone previously with him trying to get it out.
With the new E30 up and running and all the oil/coolant burnt out of the exhaust, I headed to to the car wash to give it a good cleaning before we left for Houston later that night.
I've never had an E30 with nice paint. That was why I sold the old E30, I didn't want to have to do bodywork on it.
This is what it looked like the next morning in Houston:
Slicktop goodness
Minus this stupid thing:
Old Bavauto sticker:
BMW alarm and keyless entry, that works!
Please ignore the valve cover. The original one is in 3 pieces for some reason. (Idiots)
Things needing attention:
Door stopper is all mangled:
Only spec of rust on this car. Going to get fixed soon.
Burning coolant/oil do a number on an exhaust tip:
Anyway with both cars there and only a few days left before Spring Break was over, we started transferring parts.
Got started on pulling engines:
We left the AC compressor and power steering in this car as both are all new and honestly, the car's few only good points.
Next we did the same to new E30:
Made this discovery afterwards, it came off with the engine. lol
Next we bolted back up the transmission to the orange engine (look at the valve cover) and started installing it into the old E30.
Was a bitch for some reason BTW^^^^^
The following day we made the discovery a very important shipment had been delayed fucking up all of our plans. So we had to scrable to get 2 running engines back together in 2 cars without redo the seals and a bunch of other little shit I wanted to do while they were out.
So we had to improvise......
My bad oil leak turned out to be a cracked upper pan.
Then Maks had to leave back for Dallas. Luckily for me Matt stayed for an hour and we got the new M42 in the new E30.
I spent the rest of that day hooking up everything in the drivetrain in that car.
The following day my friend/roommate Kevin showed up to buy a new E30. Since that wasn't happening till later in the day, he helped me swap the suspension and interior. This was Saturday afternoon by this point. We were leaving by Sunday.
Pulled springs/struts
RX-7 on the right and E30 on left.
My E30 had a brand new spare in the trunk.
Spotless
Had some shenanigans with just springs installed, no shocks.
>Click for video!<
Took part of the interior apart and discovered a smoker owned my car at some point.
Finished swapping the interior and drove from Houston to Austin at 10pm Sunday night without a problem:
The new E30 dubbed "Odee" looked like this the next day:
Slicktop goodness:
Fast forward to the middle of April I started on front end stuff as everything was blown/original. Drove the new E30 to my cousin's ranch outside of Canyon Lake to do some work a Thursday night after class.
Getting started
Tackling everything with this made my life easier
Then I removed the old rack
New Z3 rack, tie rods, (not pictured) new hoses, and res
I spent the night before cleaning it in my apartment's tub lol
With that bitch in the car and the firewall modified I move onto getting the lollipops off of the old control arms. Benefit of being on a ranch, firewood and stones are abundant to make an impromptu fire pit. :)
With the lollipops burnt off, I took a dremel and sliced down the inside to get the remains out.
New goodies
Shame they don't fucking fit. Never buy Powerflex EVER. This was the second time this happened (and a third time happened this weekend with OEM control arms!)
Difference in 20 year old control arm and its replacement
Anyway finished everything up to get it rolling again. I had to wait a week because I was planning on installing the new AC stuffs the following weekend and wanted to get it charged and the E30 aligned at the same time.
Now a week later I came down to install new AC stuffs and convert to R-134a. The write up on that is here: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=246743
Just posting 2 pics from that.
Lastly I did the front wheel bearings. 20mm spacers wear them out after awhile.
Rotor and caliper off
Nut "locking tab" hammered out
Removing the studs
One 36mm socket and a breaker bar later
Bolted the wheel back on to pull the old hub off
Had to take off the dust shield to get the inner race off with a gear puller
New FAG bearings
Nut on and locked in place
Installed the studs on the new hub
Both bearings lost their grease from the rear, these were Pex brand
Then installed these front and rear, much more livable than my Hawk+'s
So yeah I've been a little busy. Next up in the coming weeks are the trailing arm bushings, CV boots, transmission seals, and rear wheel bearings. Just waiting for school to finish up. ;)
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