E30 1986 2-door from ESTONIA - restoration project.

[MarkoEST]

Rocker cover removed. From the inside it looked good. No wear on the camshafts. So they will stay.



One way or another i had to remove the cylinder head beacuse of the gasket leak. What i find odd was that doesn't matter what manufacturer gasket you take (ELRING, VICTOR REINZ) the coolant holes wont line up properly. I tried many different ones, but still the same. And i don't remember the old one which was installed, was it lined up correcly or not. And i didn't take pictures. How stupid of me! I couldn't try OEM cause only gasket cost 120 euros. And just throw the money and find out later that everything is the same i pointless. I could use that 120 euros for something else for example.

New gaskets and head bolts.



New gasket installed and as you may notice, in the middle near the pistons are coolant holes and those won't line up. Is that okay or is it something that i should be scared of ?

[MarkoEST]

Weird that timing belt had a hole in it. Nobody know since when. I bought the car in this condition. Probably previous owner replaced it. I have to ask but i bet he won't remember. Well thats not very important at the moment. What is important that the engine stayed in one piece and didn't break it. Cause if that timing belt would have broken it would have been a pretty awful mess and a mission to find another engine. Nowdays finding an decent M20 in my country is already a mission close to impossible. Whats left of them are in use or taken to the scrapyard. Yes, in the states there are probably many of those but to ship it here from other side of the world would be too expensive.

Stripping it down to a bare block.

[MarkoEST]

Bought myself a engine stand. Much easier to work with the engine and you can also roll it upside down if needed. Also the height is perfect to work with it. You can take a workshop chair and sit on it while working with the motor.







I don't know, maybe it's a taste thing or maybe i have a bad taste, but i hate when people painting rockercovers. You just killing the beauty of the original brushed aluminium look. We will fix that too. ;)

[MarkoEST]

I think this is and will be the sweetest part of the car. Not many have dogleg gearboxes except for M3's and few of the E21 models and also some older E30 323'i had this as a factory option.


I tried to find the indetification number or something that could say what kind of gearbox this is ? Only what i could find is the "GETRAG" written on its side and thats it. Maybe it's buried under that layers of filth. I have to clean it anywway before installation. Hopefully i will find it then.

[MarkoEST]

Next step was to lift the engine off. But before that we had to get rid of the exhaust system, propshaft and more. Unfortunately i don't have 4 post or even 2 post lift, i have to do everything on the floor. It's doable, but it would be more enjoyable on the lift. Can't complain at least i have warm garage and lots of room to stack stuff.







Engine off. Now we can inspect it bit closer. This car came from the factory with M20B20 inline six engine. Now its been bit "upgraded" if i may say so. The lower part or the block is from 2.7L ETA engine (M20B27) and 885 cylinder head from 2.5L engine. It also has lightened flywheel and custom headers which are scrap. I already found a guy who will build me new ones.
Every seal, gasket nut and bolt will be replaced in some point. I want this engine to be with NO leaks and when you open the hood (in some language bonnet) it has to look like new.

[MarkoEST]

You have a great workspace there!
Lots of room to lay everything out.

At that time i had lots of room, +14C all year around but there were some difficulties with the owner. I will explain it later in the future post when the time is right.

[MarkoEST]

nice work. keep it up.

Thank you! I'll do my best. :)

[MarkoEST]

Every bolt and nut and washer will be bagged and tagged. Otherwise when im starting to assemble the car i won't be able to remember those few thousand fastening bits and pieces which came off the car. So i bought whole buch of mingrip bags for that.



For a change some new parts i have managed to find and buy. Front foglighst made by HELLA. If i remember correctly also the original ones which came off from the car were made by HELLA. But yes, old ones had cracked glasses and burnt reflectors.I definately needed new ones. Luckily these are available in a autoparts store not only in the dealership and thats why the price is also more affordable. I think they were around 90 euros per pair. But what you can't buy any more are the frames for the foglights. These are 3D printed by my friend and cost me 25.- euros per pair. Better than no frames at all.



Same story with the front indicators. No other solution than original ones from BMW.


And a ///M badge for the i would say rare steeringwheel. I have 370mm one M-Tech wheel.

[Panici]

You have a great workspace there!
Lots of room to lay everything out.

[MarkoEST]

Thw whole floor is now visible.



Stacking everything what comes off the car. I think i need to organize parts a little bit ?



Concider it done!

[MarkoEST]

Concidering that the windshield part was okay, i can not say that about the floor and front corners. I knew that there will be something. At least drivers and passengers footwell corners. Those you were able to see already from the outside that there is "minor" bit of rusted panels.

These pictures will speak from themselves.

[MarkoEST]

And again every E30 owner who had to restore their cars have to face a certain fear when removing windshield. Underneth the seal there is always rust or even rotten through. Mine had no visual defects at all. Not even a small piece of surface rust.

[MarkoEST]

I truly hope that all who are reading this thread won't be bored cause of the long list of pictures.

I removed all the glazing. Front, rear and sides. As i mentioned then the rear and sides will be cleaned off of that awful window tint and will kept clear like from the factory. Windshield was worn out, full of scratches and couldn't see anything through. So it will be replaced when the time is right. So removing it didn't matter will it come off in one piece or cracked. It came off the with the cracks. And it was an accident sort of. Actually i did it on purpose. :)






Usually when people are owning E30's, they want to upgrade sound and speakers. In the front it's not a problem, but in the back where rear shelf is located they are usually cutting holes in to the body to fit bigger speakers. Usually 16:9 oval speakers. Cause mine had bigger speakers i was so afraid that some stupid owners had cut the holes to the body and by that ruing it. I consider myself lucky again. Nothing! One of the previous owners has been smart enough not to do that. Instead they have modified the shelf itself. Boom! One less place to do the welding. But still there is a hole in the middle. I think it was for the subwoofer.

[MarkoEST]

Removed the front bumper, headlights, front panel and so on.




I didn't notice before removing parts that this has has been in a small accident. You can tell by looking at the front panel. It's bit bent and someone incompetent body shop worker tried to fix that. Didn't work out as well as he probably wanted. But i will take care of it and getting it fixed and it will look as good as new.





And for the final statement. Please don't hit me too hard. This is my very first video ever and i didn't have the courage to talk in the video, so i added subtitles. In time i will get better and improve myself. Just give me some time. Thank you!

[MarkoEST]

Next stop is start taking out the interior piece by piece.



Those awful looking purple tinted windows have to go. I try to clean them and put them back as they should look. There won't be no tinting at all. In our country tinted windows are only allowed for the rear glasses. Drivers and passanger side front ones have to be clear otherwise police will pull you over and you get a fine or they take away your incpection.



Both seats out. I also have idea what to do with the seats, but this i will keep for later as a small surprise. :)