https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/ Share the latest photos of your E30 en Sat, 11 Apr 2026 13:03:40 GMT vBulletin 60 https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/images/misc/R3V.jpg https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/ https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/general-forums/members-rides/10159008-1986-325e-couple-with-m52-stroker-5-speed-and-more Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:47:18 GMT
It runs and drives great so far, but the temp gauge reads high and coming from driving an E46 for more than a decade, not seeing that needle dead center is giving me anxiety. Especially in Phoenix, AZ where we are already in the mid 90s and it's barely April.

My plans are to sort out a bunch of little things, keep up on maintenance and drive it. I'd like to eventually get AC installed, it's a factory AC car, but this won't be my daily driver.

I almost bought an S52 swapped sedan a few years ago, but it was in Vegas and I didn't fully trust the seller. I ended up buying /rescuing a 1974 Plymouth Scamp instead. It was a lot of fun but I realized I liked that car, but I didn't love it, so I sold it a few weeks ago. Then I found the E30 on Facebook marketplace and was able to work things out with a really great seller.



]]> Members Rides digitalrelay https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/general-forums/members-rides/10159008-1986-325e-couple-with-m52-stroker-5-speed-and-more https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/general-forums/members-rides/the-project-forum/10158612-the-ongoing-story-of-hilde30 Wed, 01 Apr 2026 02:51:58 GMT
My hope in writing this is to keep a log detailing everything I do to the car, not just for personal satisfaction when looking back, but also in case the info can help someone else. Never done a write up like this so hopefully it’s decent to read. Kind of torn between doing this as a scientific style write up or a narrative. Guess we’ll see where this lands.


Part Zero: My First Mistake
I got this car back in early 2021. I was a freshman in college who decided that his pockets were too heavy and that engineering courses hadn’t gotten hard enough yet.

After months of browsing the local car listings and seeing one too many rotting S chassis, I found a listing on Facebook marketplace for a 4 door late model in delphin metallic and instantly knew it was the one.

I ended up scrapping together every last cent to my name and bought the car. It was far from perfect. It had no AC, the car would shut off if I turned the blinkers on, it knocked on a cold start, and the headlights would somehow trigger the ABS. But it was mine, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I named it Hilde, short for Hildegarde, after looking up cool old German names (I was a bit naive at the time but looking back I could’ve picked worse).

I drove it every summer when I was back from school, wrenching and doing small fixes to keep it running. I learned the ins and outs of the ignition system, became a pro at diagnosing a gunked up idle control valve, and cleaned out my fair share of rats nests. I also ended up replacing the melted motor mounts and the exhaust (which had about an 8” long rust hole???) in my college apartment driveway.

By 2023, the engine knock got so bad that it wouldn’t go away when warmed up. On top of that, one day while parking at my apartment, I drove too far to the left, so one of my wheels was in a dip, causing the car to rest on the oil pan, giving it a decent sized crack. So I deemed it too risky to drive and decided that I would learn to rebuild an engine, but I wasn’t ready to dive in (engineering classes turned out to be pretty hard!). So I parked it up in the barn back home, and there it sat until Summer 2025.


Part One: Barn Find (Unfortunately Mine)
After moving back home from grad school, I got bored of the LinkedIn 9-5 job search, and needed to find an out. One day, I wandered out to the barn, and there it was in all of its rusty dusty glory: my beloved E30.

After giving it some gas and starting it up, it was immediately apparent why I had forgotten about this car in the first place. The engine knock was horrific. I never did figure out what the noise was, but there was only one way to find out.

I started my diagnosis by doing a compression test. The results weren’t perfect, but the difference between cylinders wasn’t enough to cause alarm, given it was a cold comp test, not warm. I decided that pulling the motor would give me the best opportunity to determine cause of death. So I got to work labeling all the wires and hoses, drained all the fluids, and disconnected the shift linkage and guibo (about to fall apart by looking at it wrong) from the transmission.

After pulling the transmission brace, I was greeted with yet another pair of melted mounts! It’s a miracle the entire driveline hadn’t dropped out on its own accord previously. Also for some reason somebody had left a yoyo on top of my transmission?? (String shown in the pic below)

After that, it was pretty much just carefully pulling out the motor/trans in one piece. Way easier than expected. Definitely helped to have an extra set of hands and a leveler for the hoist.

Took advantage of the car still rolling for a quick photo op. Still can't get over this pic.

From there, it was smooth sailing. Take the head off, strip the block down, and discover… pretty scored up pistons and cylinder wall. We found the culprit! It was piston slap all along. Unfortunately, that meant that I’d need to get some machining done, along with oversized pistons.

Yeesh…
I thought long and hard, and ended up buying all the replacement parts I’d need to rebuild the engine. Only then had I realized that I’d need to ALSO pay a machine shop to work on the block and just about everything else. You know what they say, measure once cut twice. I also received some pretty gross looking “refurbished” connecting rods, which didn’t instill confidence in the direction I was taking.

So, back to the drawing board I went. Ended up getting a refund for pretty much everything! My new plan was to find a good engine to swap in, as it seemed that doing an engine swap would actually be cheaper than rebuilding my M20 (RIP).
​
(Let's hope the pics actually show up this time. Is there a secret to getting more than 5 pics on a post?)]]> The Project Forum dice2012 https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/general-forums/members-rides/the-project-forum/10158612-the-ongoing-story-of-hilde30 https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/general-forums/members-rides/10158382-my-85-euro-imported-325e Sat, 28 Mar 2026 04:46:30 GMT
So I think the S was just added to the trunk at some point to make it look "cooler" and because the ES weren't available in 85 someone along the line insured it as an 86... I'm technically the 4th owner, however owner #2 never registered it before his passing, his friend helped the widow sell the rest of the guys collection and bought this one. He refreshed suspension, clutch, rad etc and drove it with the BMW club for a year or 2 but he's in his 80's and listed it in December, I knew the seller, had a friend inspect it and bought the car sight unseen.

Here's the happy new car nerd the day after I got it, photo thanks to my dad. His dad, owned a Bronzit e30 sedan, he let me take the wheel on the last leg of the drive to my cottage more than a few times back in the day before I was of legal driving age. So I have fond memories of driving with my Grandad in an e30.


]]> Members Rides cb750r https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/general-forums/members-rides/10158382-my-85-euro-imported-325e