My next irrational purchase

[JasonWilson48]

So here is the actual project after I sold Project Delco...

Build:
1990 325i
Bronzitbeige Metallic
Engine

1. Torn down and rebuilt S52 (claims 5,000 miles since the rebuild and cam install)
   • new rings
   • new main bearings
   • new rod bearings
   • crank machined
   • Schrick cams
   • block honed
   • new timing chains and guides
   • rebuilt VANOS
   • new cylinder head
   • VAC oil pump and oil pump nut lock
   • VAC oil pan baffle
2. M50 manifold
   • Billet Turner Motorsport M50 manifold swap kit to retain factory self draining catch can
3. KA motors sealed intake to high beam
4. Turner shorty header replica exhaust manifold
5. Bimmerworld Magnaflow 24v swap exhaust
6. S54 oil filter housing
   • AN oil cooler lines to kidney mounted oil cooler
7. Condor Speedshop poly motor mounts

Suspension

1. E30 M3 5-Lug swap
   1. VAC E30 M3 bump steer correction kit
2. BC Racing DS Coilovers (Upgraded to track spec internals by Redshift)
3. Front E30 vert sway bar
4. Rear UUC sway bar with trunk mount reinforcements
5. Poly bushings front and rear
6. New inner and outer tie rods
7. New front aluminum E30 M3 control arms
8. Condor treehouse style control arm mounts
9. AKG motorsports rear shock mounts
10. Reinforced rear subframe with eccentric bolts for adjustable toe/camber

Transmission

1. 217 Getrag 6-Speed pulled out of a 2011 E90 328i
2. Poly bushings

Differential

1. 3.73 Medium Case LSD
2. Poly bushing

Interior

1. E30 M3 Cluster (or maybe modified to look like one… I don’t know how to verify)
2. E30 M3 370mm M Tech 2 wheel
3. E30 M3 map light rear view mirror
4. IS beige interior

Brakes and wheels

1. Turner Motorsport E30 M3 to E36 M3 front brake caliper and rotor adapters
2. Rear E30 M3 Massive Lee brake kit
   1. Wilwood superlite 4 piston calipers
   2. Two piece rotors
3. E90 brake booster and master cylinder
4. Stainless Steel brake lines
5. 16x8 Style 5 wheels with some Falken RT660s that had had like 50% of life left

Other

1. OBD2 ECU tuned by Markert Motorworks
   1. Thinned wiring harness that eliminated secondary O2 sensors. No catalytic converter.
2. E46 ZHP purple tag steering rack
3. Garagistic steering linkage slop elimination kit
4. New fuel pump and housing assembly

15MAR2025 - Find, flight, road trip back
This car I found on the Facebook R3V group page (I know this is sacrilegious to some here). He sent me videos, and we talked on phone for a few hours. I got the whole back story of the car, and we also chatted about Project Delco I had at the time. After the talk he sent me even more videos and forum posts from here about the engine tuning at Markert Motorworks. I took a day, came back to him with an offer, he countered, and we agreed on a price. I later was able to do some sleuthing and figured out he had a R3V account based on certain information. He hasn’t been active for a few years, so he didn’t have a build thread of this car. (ATLe30)

The next step was figuring out logistics. So again, I took the most reasonable approach of immediately buying a plane ticket for two weekends out. I tried coaxing some friends and family to make the trip with me, but I couldn’t get anyone to make the weekend trip with me on short notice. The day came and my fiancé dropped me off at airport at 5am, Flight from Philly at 6am. I landed in ATL airport 3 hours later. I then took a train to a nearby town north of Atlanta, and walked from the train station to the bank. I proceeded to withdraw a wad of cash, and sat in the bank’s waiting area for 45 minutes.



On that waiting room couch I proceed to have a conversation with this young girl, who was waiting for her parents over in the next room talking to a banker. I spoke with her for 30 minutes. She did not know a single word of English. I know very little Spanish. It was amusing to say the least.

The time of inspecting and going for a test drive was all a blur. I knew I was buying the car, so there wasn’t any negotiations and I knew about all the minor issues. I ended up leaving these suburbs north of Atlanta around 3pm. Stopped for wiper blades and gas (gas gauge works intermittently) before getting on the highway.

After stopping for gas one time, the odometer gears stopped working (great). I didn’t even hit the trip reset button. I just noticed it stopped working when I looked down after getting on the highway and saw it wasn’t moving. It stopped working with 220 miles on the trip odometer reading. So I just estimated out miles with my phone since I didn’t trust the gas gauge.


Got stuck in traffic, and started hearing pulsing noises coming from rear brakes at low speeds, only when I wasn’t pressing them. I pulled over and examined. At the time I thought the calipers were seizing up, but I didn’t have the tools to start taking things apart. So I took the mentality of “if it breaks I will fix it”, and kept driving. This turned out later to be just a scored rotor due race pad material build up. It was fine for the trip, but I used a metal brush drill attachment to “resurface” the rotors when I changed to street pads.

The car was averaging 26 mpg (pretty good considering it has a 3.73 rear end) I was able to cruise at 80 mph at about 3500 rpm with the overdrive 6^th gear. Driving through the night was made easier by listening to podcasts through one ear phone (car came with no radio because, race car). I did have heat though as it transitioned from 75 degrees in Georgia to 40 degrees once I got to the DC area and north home to Philly.

It took me 3 gas stops, and extra bathroom break, one stop for food, and in total 14.5 hours to get back from the Atlanta suburbs to my home in Philadelphia. (Every stop I checked the oil and inspected underneath the car for leaks/damage.) I went to sleep at 5 am, completing my 24 hours of E30 acquisition. I couldn't get it in my driveway since the car was so low. So I left it in the street, slept for 2 hours, and drove it out to the suburbs to my mom's house. There is sat until I could find time to raise up the coil overs and put some bigger tires on there.



This was also my first fly and drive home, and I think it was a success. Alas, this wraps up the first post. Much more to come withe my plans for the car.

[JasonWilson48]

Extra photos: airport, Virginia rest stop, home

[82eye]

nice purchase.

[Northern]

Car looks good, Spec list sounds amazing. Obviously room to grow with the odo, sound system, brake pad issues, maybe a diff if you do a lot of highway driving.

[2mAn]

Oh man, yes this is 100% better than the first car. Motor looks like a riot!.. Easy fixes that will get the car to a solid "driver" and less racecar.

Tires dont look undersized, what are they? 225/45/16 should be the right size.

[uturn]

Cashmere Beige! Looking good!

[JasonWilson48]

APR2025 - So after I made it back without any major break down. The first issue I ran into was my driveway.

I tried backing into it at 5am, and scraped the crap out of the exhaust mid section cross pipe. So, I had to nervously leave it on the street (I live in Philly, so people around my neighborhood like to mess with cars that look sporty), unload all my crap, and get some sleep.

The next morning I drove it 45 minutes to my mom’s house in the suburbs where there is a less problematic driveway. I was able to clear some room out of the garage, let it sit there for a few weeks while I came up with a plan. I ordered some new cheap street tires, that I wanted to use to test out a higher ride height and fitment. I didn’t want to order the same size tire knowing I need all the ground clearance I can get to make it up my driveway. In the mean time. I also took the car out for some short drives after work some days to not let it sit for too long.

At the same time I was digging into the process of registering this car in PA. I really had only two options. It had to be registered as an antique or classic, since it had no catalytic converters and the secondary O2 sensor wiring was removed during the build. PA has emissions inspections, so I obviously would not pass. The other option was to basically get a donor wiring harness, and add cats, but that was going to take too much time, money, and effort. Overall, not too much of a down side going antique. PA says you can’t drive at night and can only drive once a week to “events/parades”, but no one enforces this unless a neighbor makes a complaint or something… yada yada yada.

Another catch about registering the car antique, is that you need to submit color photos from all 4 angles of the car. Since I had the style 5 caps , the car looked stock to the untrained eye. See the photos I took below.


So about a month and a half after I parked it up in the suburbs, I got the new tires delivered, installed, and had a free day to go and raise the coil overs. It is a paint having to haul around all my tools, jack stands, and floor jack. Especially when I’m doing this work after a day at work. However, I got the car raised a few inches, and was ready to try getting in my driveway again. It was a success! The night I got it in the driveway, there was some great lighting, and that is now my profile picture as you see now.

I will keep the updates coming to catch up to present day, but I am currently very busy, and the car is sitting due to some clutch issues. It is kind of bumming me out as I am bleeding, replacing parts, bleeding again, and I am getting frustrated. I think once I get the clutch sorted I will have more motivation to make a longer post next time. Until then, I’ll keep checking in and scrolling R3V.

[JasonWilson48]

Additional photos (I guess I can only add 5 per post?): Fixing the odometer gears, figuring out the size break pads to order (fronts i knew were E36 M3s, but the rears were a certain wilwood), the evening I got it in my driveway, My two hoopties next to my brother's Accord jammed in our driveway, my fiancé (her first ride, and her her first time doing a burnout lol)

[JasonWilson48]

Oh, and while I was going antique, thought I might as well get a custom plate to fit the build. The previous owner added the the fake carbon badging. I think I will eventually remove the badging and the beaten up mtech 1 replica spoiler. For now, it stays. the bumper was also from the previous owner having a trailer incident on his way to the track. I have updates for that, but not in this post.

[AWDBOB]

This seems like a great purchase! I definitely envy the M3 5 lug/Cluster, as it's something I've been trying to make happen for the better part of a decade. All you need is an M3 rear seat and you'll be set. E38 style 5s on E30M 5 lug is about as good as it gets for me.

I was watching the first car you bought, glad it went through good hands and got where it needed to go.

Make sure your pedal box isn't cracked/flexing causing hard to diagnose issues. Literally every box I pull out of a parts car is cracked.

[Northern]

Hell yeah

[JasonWilson48]

MAY-JULY 2025
Ok, this will be a full post to catch up to present day…
I cleared out a spot in the garage


Next, for more details about the tires on the car… They are now Falken ZIEX 950s in 205/55/16. I went real skinny and tall to get as much ground clearance as I could for my driveway, while not hitting the fenders. I bought the cheapest semi-performance tires I could find ($230 for all 4 on Tirerack when they were on sale). The tires themselves are fine for street driving. I pushed them a little, and they obviously have way less grip and turn-in than the 215/45/16 Falken 660s that were previously on the car, but they work for now. They are good for burnouts though 😊. I am going to rock these for awhile until a good deal comes up again on tire rack for some other summer performance tire for next year. I will also try out a size wider with similar sidewall height. I want wider tires, but can’t afford to lose ride height with my driveway situation. I basically maxed out the BC coilover height and got rid of most of the camber, so this will due for now.


Small things:
- Car is registered in PA
- Odometer is fixed
- Fuel gauge isn’t reading correctly, but I am not digging into the SI board or fuel sending units for now. I will live with the trip ODO to guess my gas level
- Changed out hawk DTC-60 for some HP+ for street driving. Had to order from SUMMIT racing as they were the only website I could find where I could order both HAWK HP+ pads for front E36 M3 calipers and rear Wilwood Superlite calipers. Keeping the DTC-60s for the future when I track the car. I’ll throw them back on. I also scuffed up the rotors, and used them again since they had A LOT of life left. All worked great after bedding them in.

[JasonWilson48]

Did a first pass interior cleaning, but I was in a time crunch. So I need to go back through the carpets with a proper carpet cleaner. Then I may die it black, but I honestly don’t care too much about interior colors/design in my cars, as long as everything is clean and functional.
BEFORE

[JasonWilson48]

After
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[JasonWilson48]

Stole the rear carpet and floor mats out of Project Delco before I sold that. So, put the rear carpet line in the trunk, did some terrible cuts for the rear strut bar. In hindsight, I could have done this a lot easier with my multi-tool. However, I was being lazy and had a utility knife in my tool bag next to me at the time.

I got a set of ninestitch shocks for my birthday. So one of my winter projects this year will be fixing those