Money pit 325E

[Tibboy12]

This is my 1987 325E that I bought right around the beginning of Covid. It started it's life as an automatic, but soon it received a 5-speed swap.

Since then, I've been slowly chipping away at the car performing tune ups here and there, interior swap, bigger wheels, fixing rust on the floorboards, cow catcher, 3.25lsd etc.

A MONEY PIT..

What's currently in the works?

885 head swap. I have the head and intake at a machine shop in Portland right now, and I pretty much have all the swap parts in hands. I need to send my fuel injectors to Frank LeoGrande to get rebuilt, and then I want to paint the valve cover/intake once that stuff is back from the machine shop. I want to get this swap running good then eventually, I want to run bigger injectors and possibly a higher performing camshaft and a chip... then turbo lol

I also picked up replica IS side skirts and a racing dynamics rear apron. I'm talking with a local painter right now about getting those two-parts paint matched.

The goal is to have all of this done before the picnic; we'll see if it happens!

Stay tuned for more updates from my shitbox.

[82eye]

looks great. are those borbets ?

[Panici]

Subscribed for updates.

What colour is your car? I quite like it!

[Tibboy12]

looks great. are those borbets ?

Schmidt's 16x9 all around!

[Tibboy12]

Subscribed for updates.

What colour is your car? I quite like it!

Royal Blau! Thank you. The paint has seen better days, but I'm hoping to do a respray here one day.

[Tibboy12]

Hello! I made some progress on my 885 head swap today. While I was taking the intake off, my buddy Mike showed up and stayed for a few hours till we got the head and engine harness out. Overall, the cylinders look to be in decent shape. I’ll upload some photos tomorrow of the walls to see if any of you notice something where I should have the cylinder walls honed. What would you all recommend I use to clean the top of the pistons and inside the cylinder walls?

My biggest question is related to hoses, especially coolant and hoses connected to the ICV. I’ve purchased the CA tuned late model coolant hose kit, is there anything that doesn’t come with it that I should order? I’m going to look at some real oem diagrams tomorrow. I’m also just curious if there’s additional hoses that I’ll need to purchase as well for this swap.

[iso_hi]

You should be fine if you're planning on using the early expansion tank. If you plan on using the late model hose you'll need the later expansion tank that goes on the drivers side and an updated water pump. You'll also need the coolant crossover tube and the updated timing cover that it mounts to. I used my early model expansion tank to not have to swap my water pump but I did remove one of mounting tabs on the coolant crossover tube since I didn't have the newer water pump that it bolts on to. You'll also need a new radiator with since the hoses are on opposite sides on the early model. Good luck!

[Tibboy12]

You should be fine if you're planning on using the early expansion tank. If you plan on using the late model hose you'll need the later expansion tank that goes on the drivers side and an updated water pump. You'll also need the coolant crossover tube and the updated timing cover that it mounts to. I used my early model expansion tank to not have to swap my water pump but I did remove one of mounting tabs on the coolant crossover tube since I didn't have the newer water pump that it bolts on to. You'll also need a new radiator with since the hoses are on opposite sides on the early model. Good luck!

Yeah that's my plan since I just bought a new early expansion tank from BMW lol.. Just going to chop off one of the mounting tabs on the coolant crossover tube like you mentioned.

My buddy just bought an 87 325E so I shipped him all of my top end parts like ICV, ICM, AFM, fuel injectors, spark plugs wires to get his car running minty. Perfect timing haha.

I have the head off, doing some cleaning on the bottom end, engine bay then hoping a friend of mine will come over to help finish the job up! Itching to get this running with the weather in the PNW warming up.

[Tibboy12]

My neighbor Aaron came over with his handy new icon torque wrench from harbor freight! While he got most of the top end back together I spent a majority of the time getting the manifolds bolted back in… took forever.

What’s left is installing the intake, I tried to last night but realized the bitch tube needed to get pushed down. I ended up pinching the o ring and it ripped. After the intake, I can get most of the wiring harness hooked back up, coolant hoses, radiator etc. I realized the hole for the wiring harness on the firewall needs to be enlarged. Fingers crossed first start goes well!