Up for sale is my 88 325is with an OBD-I S52. This has been an amazing car for me that I never really had any intention of selling, but as the usual story goes life happens and family stuff comes first so this has to go. This car has been built pretty much ground up with the eventual plan being to do time trials and some club racing. That said, it only made it out on track twice in the past 4 years, though it has seen some regular autox use over the past 2. To that end reliability is of utmost importance so I almost always put in new parts rather than used. Everything below was purchased new by me unless otherwise noted, meaning that almost every wear item has been replaced in the last 10k miles. The parts list pretty much speaks for itself (and I’m sure I’ll forget some stuff), but the way this car drives and performs truly is greater than the sum of its parts.
The car:
- 1988 325is – VIN matching, 100% rust free southern car
- Cosmetically 7.5/10. Overall very good condition, but normal dings and scratches to be expected from a 26 year old car. The paint shines up well and a proper detail would bump it up to an 8.
- Plastic bumper conversion, new euro trim, new roundels, is lip
- 144,xxx on odo, true mileage unknown though odo gears have been rebuilt and work
Engine:
- OBD-I S52 with approx. 100k on it. This motor came out of my M3 that was totaled and has been under my ownership for 8 years. Motor was gone over before the swap, valve train was immaculate and bottom end looked great too. Replaced all pertinent seals and gaskets (except HG) and rebuilt VANOS as a preventative measure. Oil pump nut red loctited.
- New water pump and thermostat
- New drive belt, tensioner, and upper idler pulley
- 3.5” intake & MAF
- M50 manifold
- 24# injectors (rebuilt and flow tested by MEPEH about 1k miles ago)
- Raceland headers
- Custom 3” headers back catless exhaust, single piece with V-band for easy removal. Generic muffler at the end, not very quiet but sounds nice
- TRM tune
- AKG solid motor mounts
- Harness soldered and shrink wrapped
- M42 radiator with 16” SPAL pusher wired to a/c switch
- New OEM Bosch alternator ($texas)
- New O2 sensor
- Raceskids skid plate
Drivetrain:
- G260 with fresh fluid (stock trans)
- White325is trans brace – using stock trans mounts
- Completely rebuilt shift linkage
- UUC Evo3 SSK with DSSR
- UUC weighted shift knob
- Active Autowerke lightweight flywheel (bought used)
- Stage 1 6 puck unsprung clutch (came with flywheel) - this clutch/flywheel combo has an amazing feel and is nowhere near as rough as it sounds like it should be. Not as on/off as most unsprung clutches are.
- New master and slave cylinders
- New rebuilt driveshaft from Bimmerworld (approx. 1000 miles on it)
- New CSB
- New guibo
- 3.73 LSD, rebuilt last winter with 40% lockup (bimmerdiffs.com kit)
- Homemade clutch stop
Suspension:
- J-stock springs with matched Bilstein’s (about 1k on the setup)
- E90 drop hats
- KMAC race camber plates
- E36 M3 control arms
- Urethane offset CAB’s
- Eibach strut tower brace
- White325is shock tower brace
- Turner rear shock mounts
- IE weld in camber/toe rear subframe adjusters (posi-lock style)
- Urethane subframe, trailing arm, and diff bushings
- All 4 wheel bearings replaced within past 3k
- 95 M3 rack
- 21MM cabrio front sway bar, IE adjustable endlinks
- 18MM H&R rear sway, adjustable
Interior:
- Clean dash (2 small cracks)
- New gray carpet from stockinteriors.com
- Bmwpedals.com pedal set
- Podi vent gauge setup – water temp, oil temp, oil pressure, voltage
- New shift boot
- E36 leather ebrake handle (used)
- Momo Mod78 steering wheel with 1” spacer
- Alpine deck with iPod hookup in glove box
- Kirk 4 point bolt in roll bar – proper SFI padding
- Sparco pro2000 driver’s seat on OEM sliders (using Massive mounts)
- Corbeau passenger seat, no sliders (used)
- G-Force 5 points harnesses, both sides
Fuel System:
- The car had been sitting for some time before I bought it and ended up having a rusty tank. Once that was addressed I was having cavitation issues running below ½ tank at autox so I went with a surge tank setup mounted in the trunk.
- New fuel tank
- New in-tank pump (low pressure) and sock
- Integrated Engineering surge tank setup with new Bosch 044 (mounted in trunk)
- Braided nylon fuel hose running to and from surge tank
- New fuel filter
- All other soft lines replaced with injector hose, all new hose clamps
- Replaced fuel rail (used)
- New FPR
Wheels and brakes:
- 1 set of Apex Arc-8’s in anthracite with square 235 ZII’s – 70% life left
- 1 set of Apex Arc-8’s in hyper black with square 235 NT01’s – 80% life left
- Rear fenders rolled - no rubbing issues
- Motorsport hardware stud kit with aluminum race nuts
- IX booster (used)
- New 25mm MC
- 2002 remote reservoir
- UUC BBK up front, new Hawk DTC-30 pads and Wilwood rotors in last 500 miles
- Rear stock calipers, rebuilt last winter with new seals and IE brass bushings
- SS brake lines all around
Miscellaneous/Extras:
- Traqmate data acquisition system with integrated video (this is awesome)
- KAmotors flares (not installed)
- Full set of Bilstein sports with 5k on them
- Stock seats come with car (front and rear)
- New heater core
- A/C components (not installed)
- OEM front brakes
- OEM spare weave
- Spare filters/oil
- Smoked front turn signal lenses (not installed)
- New power steering hoses I never got around to installing (nothing wrong with current hoses, just preventative)
- Pretty much any e30 or e36 part from the garage you want (there’s a full 5 shelf rack worth)
- Spare brake pads (both F and R)
- Spare front wheel bearing
- Dinan tune (pulled in favor of TRM)
Cons:
- The carpet is aftermarket and the fitment is slightly off. I also cut a section out under the passenger seat to mount the data acquisition and video systems. If converted back to a street car this would leave a bit to be desired, but looks good at first glance and with the fixed back seats and roll bar you can’t really tell.
- Some sound deadening has been removed. 50lbs worth from the trunk and some from the trans tunnel and back seat area. The carpet has sound deadening, but less than stock carpet so it's definitely louder than a stock car inside.
- Though submerged and in the trunk, the 044 does whine a bit.
- Rear speakers not currently installed
- Passenger side tweeter not installed (broken clip)
- Sunroof motor starting to slip on closing (I don’t use it much but opens fine and closes easily with some help)
- IS spoiler has some cracks in the paint
- Passenger side mirror is cracked
- Rear door panels are black, fronts are tan. Was in the process of converting to black interior to match the seats and never got to the front door panels.
This is a car that can be driven on the street but packs some serious performance. Thanks to the data acquisition system I can tell you that as it sits the car will pull 1.4g+ laterally and 1.2g under braking on the NT01’s. Throw on some Hoosiers and those numbers will be even higher. Have people who drive Vette's, STi's, E46 M3's, etc. ask "what the hell is in that thing?!" has yet to get old. The car does need some small things to be really clean, but overall it’s an incredibly solid car, especially mechanically. You could buy this thing and drive it straight to the track with no worries. Conversely, since nothing permanent has been done in terms of race prep it can fairly easily be returned to street car status (and probably for a profit).
I know that this is a very specialized car and that the best thing I could do from a monetary standpoint is to part it out. However, everything on this car works so well together and creates such an incredible driving experience I'm hesitant to rip it apart. I'm asking $14.5k with all extras, but will entertain offers.
The car:
- 1988 325is – VIN matching, 100% rust free southern car
- Cosmetically 7.5/10. Overall very good condition, but normal dings and scratches to be expected from a 26 year old car. The paint shines up well and a proper detail would bump it up to an 8.
- Plastic bumper conversion, new euro trim, new roundels, is lip
- 144,xxx on odo, true mileage unknown though odo gears have been rebuilt and work
Engine:
- OBD-I S52 with approx. 100k on it. This motor came out of my M3 that was totaled and has been under my ownership for 8 years. Motor was gone over before the swap, valve train was immaculate and bottom end looked great too. Replaced all pertinent seals and gaskets (except HG) and rebuilt VANOS as a preventative measure. Oil pump nut red loctited.
- New water pump and thermostat
- New drive belt, tensioner, and upper idler pulley
- 3.5” intake & MAF
- M50 manifold
- 24# injectors (rebuilt and flow tested by MEPEH about 1k miles ago)
- Raceland headers
- Custom 3” headers back catless exhaust, single piece with V-band for easy removal. Generic muffler at the end, not very quiet but sounds nice
- TRM tune
- AKG solid motor mounts
- Harness soldered and shrink wrapped
- M42 radiator with 16” SPAL pusher wired to a/c switch
- New OEM Bosch alternator ($texas)
- New O2 sensor
- Raceskids skid plate
Drivetrain:
- G260 with fresh fluid (stock trans)
- White325is trans brace – using stock trans mounts
- Completely rebuilt shift linkage
- UUC Evo3 SSK with DSSR
- UUC weighted shift knob
- Active Autowerke lightweight flywheel (bought used)
- Stage 1 6 puck unsprung clutch (came with flywheel) - this clutch/flywheel combo has an amazing feel and is nowhere near as rough as it sounds like it should be. Not as on/off as most unsprung clutches are.
- New master and slave cylinders
- New rebuilt driveshaft from Bimmerworld (approx. 1000 miles on it)
- New CSB
- New guibo
- 3.73 LSD, rebuilt last winter with 40% lockup (bimmerdiffs.com kit)
- Homemade clutch stop
Suspension:
- J-stock springs with matched Bilstein’s (about 1k on the setup)
- E90 drop hats
- KMAC race camber plates
- E36 M3 control arms
- Urethane offset CAB’s
- Eibach strut tower brace
- White325is shock tower brace
- Turner rear shock mounts
- IE weld in camber/toe rear subframe adjusters (posi-lock style)
- Urethane subframe, trailing arm, and diff bushings
- All 4 wheel bearings replaced within past 3k
- 95 M3 rack
- 21MM cabrio front sway bar, IE adjustable endlinks
- 18MM H&R rear sway, adjustable
Interior:
- Clean dash (2 small cracks)
- New gray carpet from stockinteriors.com
- Bmwpedals.com pedal set
- Podi vent gauge setup – water temp, oil temp, oil pressure, voltage
- New shift boot
- E36 leather ebrake handle (used)
- Momo Mod78 steering wheel with 1” spacer
- Alpine deck with iPod hookup in glove box
- Kirk 4 point bolt in roll bar – proper SFI padding
- Sparco pro2000 driver’s seat on OEM sliders (using Massive mounts)
- Corbeau passenger seat, no sliders (used)
- G-Force 5 points harnesses, both sides
Fuel System:
- The car had been sitting for some time before I bought it and ended up having a rusty tank. Once that was addressed I was having cavitation issues running below ½ tank at autox so I went with a surge tank setup mounted in the trunk.
- New fuel tank
- New in-tank pump (low pressure) and sock
- Integrated Engineering surge tank setup with new Bosch 044 (mounted in trunk)
- Braided nylon fuel hose running to and from surge tank
- New fuel filter
- All other soft lines replaced with injector hose, all new hose clamps
- Replaced fuel rail (used)
- New FPR
Wheels and brakes:
- 1 set of Apex Arc-8’s in anthracite with square 235 ZII’s – 70% life left
- 1 set of Apex Arc-8’s in hyper black with square 235 NT01’s – 80% life left
- Rear fenders rolled - no rubbing issues
- Motorsport hardware stud kit with aluminum race nuts
- IX booster (used)
- New 25mm MC
- 2002 remote reservoir
- UUC BBK up front, new Hawk DTC-30 pads and Wilwood rotors in last 500 miles
- Rear stock calipers, rebuilt last winter with new seals and IE brass bushings
- SS brake lines all around
Miscellaneous/Extras:
- Traqmate data acquisition system with integrated video (this is awesome)
- KAmotors flares (not installed)
- Full set of Bilstein sports with 5k on them
- Stock seats come with car (front and rear)
- New heater core
- A/C components (not installed)
- OEM front brakes
- OEM spare weave
- Spare filters/oil
- Smoked front turn signal lenses (not installed)
- New power steering hoses I never got around to installing (nothing wrong with current hoses, just preventative)
- Pretty much any e30 or e36 part from the garage you want (there’s a full 5 shelf rack worth)
- Spare brake pads (both F and R)
- Spare front wheel bearing
- Dinan tune (pulled in favor of TRM)
Cons:
- The carpet is aftermarket and the fitment is slightly off. I also cut a section out under the passenger seat to mount the data acquisition and video systems. If converted back to a street car this would leave a bit to be desired, but looks good at first glance and with the fixed back seats and roll bar you can’t really tell.
- Some sound deadening has been removed. 50lbs worth from the trunk and some from the trans tunnel and back seat area. The carpet has sound deadening, but less than stock carpet so it's definitely louder than a stock car inside.
- Though submerged and in the trunk, the 044 does whine a bit.
- Rear speakers not currently installed
- Passenger side tweeter not installed (broken clip)
- Sunroof motor starting to slip on closing (I don’t use it much but opens fine and closes easily with some help)
- IS spoiler has some cracks in the paint
- Passenger side mirror is cracked
- Rear door panels are black, fronts are tan. Was in the process of converting to black interior to match the seats and never got to the front door panels.
This is a car that can be driven on the street but packs some serious performance. Thanks to the data acquisition system I can tell you that as it sits the car will pull 1.4g+ laterally and 1.2g under braking on the NT01’s. Throw on some Hoosiers and those numbers will be even higher. Have people who drive Vette's, STi's, E46 M3's, etc. ask "what the hell is in that thing?!" has yet to get old. The car does need some small things to be really clean, but overall it’s an incredibly solid car, especially mechanically. You could buy this thing and drive it straight to the track with no worries. Conversely, since nothing permanent has been done in terms of race prep it can fairly easily be returned to street car status (and probably for a profit).
I know that this is a very specialized car and that the best thing I could do from a monetary standpoint is to part it out. However, everything on this car works so well together and creates such an incredible driving experience I'm hesitant to rip it apart. I'm asking $14.5k with all extras, but will entertain offers.
Comment