1986 325e couple with M52 stroker 5-speed and more

[digitalrelay]

It's been awhile since I've been back to this site. I previously owned a 1989 BMW 325i convertible, but I solid in 2014. Over the weekend, I bought a black 1986 325e couple reportedly with an M52 stroker: M54 internals, M50 head and intake. It also underwent a 5-speed ZF swap, and was upgraded with LSD, coilovers, long-tube headers, magna flow exhaust, and TMR chipped ECU. I reached out to TMR today with the chip serial number, and they got back to me saying this was done a little over a decade ago, and has a 3.2L tune, 91 octane, 21.5 lb injectors, and S52 cams.

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.

[OSAH racing]

Fun Spec. are you doing your own work? I relocated to Prescott Valley from Riverside and need a shop in Phoenix for the occasional job I don't want to do.

Vince

[digitalrelay]

Fun Spec. are you doing your own work? I relocated to Prescott Valley from Riverside and need a shop in Phoenix for the occasional job I don't want to do.

Vince

Nice! I do almost everything myself in my garage. I'll take it in for tires and wheel alignment, but that's about it. I'll ask around though.

[2mAn]

Cool car, I like the wheels but hate Reps so that would be the first thing I would do to 'make it mine' Thats gotta be a fun setup, and when I had my 24v, adding A/C was the only thing that kept it from being the perfect E30 IMO..

Excited to see updates

[82eye]

looks like a really fun car.

[digitalrelay]

Cool car, I like the wheels but hate Reps so that would be the first thing I would do to 'make it mine' Thats gotta be a fun setup, and when I had my 24v, adding A/C was the only thing that kept it from being the perfect E30 IMO..

Excited to see updates

Seeing as I stretched the budget close to max to buy the car, the wheels will be staying for the foreseeable future. The short list includes a new radiator, swapping to the late model rear bumper, which came with the car, refurbing the instrument cluster, and sorting out some wiring anomalies. I'm really loving the car so far though.

[2mAn]

The late model rear bumper should be trimmed a little to fit properly, but I hear ya... handle the important stuff then you can finish it off with wheels... if you want

[digitalrelay]

I've dealt with some minor stuff like clutch brass bushing (came with the car), throttle bushings, adding a phone mount, running a usb-c cable through the console, painting the mirrors, and getting the center caps on the wheels to fit with 3mm spacers.

In the Phoenix heat, I was noticing the temp gauge getting close to 3/4 on the gauge. Although I'm aware the E30 gauge will indicate high on an M5x swap, I decided to upgrade the cooling system anyway. I went with a larger ECS radiator , silicone hoses and separate expansion tank for an E36. I didn't have a coolant level sensor on hand at the time, so I made a cap/plug out of heater hose, a wine cork and two hose clamps. On a long drive, temps started spiking. I pulled over to find I had not tightened one of the clamps enough and it was leaking a bit, and not allowing the system to operate under pressure. After tightening, all has been good.

It took a little more time, but I got the late model rear bumper on the car. I did have to trim some at the wheel well, and it's far from perfect, but a definite improvement over the early model diving board bumper.



I started getting an intermittent check engine light, and the stomp test indicated 1226, knock sensor #2. I also noticed a small oil leak at the valve cover, so I decided to tackle both at the same time.



Here's what the knock sensors looked like...



I ordered the OBD2 style knock sensors, cut the wires and soldered to the older style harness.

Waiting on fuel injector o-rings (the injectors were pretty crusty), and intake gaskets to arrive to put it all back together.

[digitalrelay]

I ordered the OBD2 style knock sensors since they were recommended by Gemini as supposedly nicer units. I cut the harnesses and soldered the old harness on to each. I replaced the valve cover gasket, oil fill cap, which looked to actually be the source of my oil leak, got the intake back on, and cleaned and rebuilt the fuel injectors before wrapping it all up. The car fired right up, all seems good.