So I have always loved E30's since one of my good friends had an '89 325is a few years ago in college (hence the '07 join date). I decided to pick one up on a budget this summer to have something to tinker with. I wanted a 318is for the lightweight and gas mileage and after a month or so of looking for one that looked promising (with Ronal LSs...one of my favorite wheels) for sale in TN. I called the guy up and talked to him about the car for a while then decided to make the 4 hour drive to take a look at it.
Here are some pictures from the for sale ad:
Mechanically, the car had a very loud timing 'tick' noise that disappeared with high RPM. The PO told me it just needed a new timing tensioner and that would go away - he seemed like a quick-fix kind of guy, which I really found out about later. If it weren't for the smoked hellas and the Ronals, I probably would have walked BUT after kicking the tires for a bit I got him down quite a bit and drove off with the car.
Before getting the timing issue completely resolved the woodruff key ended up shearing and the car pulled time. A compression test showed unfortunate results and I decided to swap in a new ~70k M42 out of a '94 auto 318.
Old timing gears/chain/all of the rails were shot and there was a lot of gunk built up.
New motor for comparison
Heartless
Once the engine was sorted the car ran great and I was off to fix some of the small cosmetic stuff that bothered me. The not-so-perfect paint on the car is something I don't mind at all, it's nice not having to worry about door dings/bird shit all the time.
Taking off the front plate and adding a buddy's spare factory lip made a huge difference on the front end.
Couple coats of wax made a big difference on the hood/roof/trunk
Swapped the steering wheel/shift knob
Painted some trim pieces that were faded
PO was either in a hurry or is technically challenged as the smoked hellas were wired horribly and almost all of the adjusters were broken
Cleaned it up and repaired all of the adjusters
and wired in the city lights
then added Euro grilles
So she sat, most of the simple small annoying things were fixed. Now was time for suspension. I had planned on GC's w/shortened strut housings from the get-go but after spending that money on the motor swap I was finding it difficult to justify. I was looking around for ideas on a budget-friendly option that would let me go low while still maintaining good handling. That's when I stumbled on Grippy's thread here.
I decided to go with the same basic setup, H&R races all around with one coil cut up front and the KYB camaro shocks in the rear. After a few pm's back and forth with grippy about what he would change I decided to go with 15mm aftermarket drop-hats and Bilstein sports in the front. Once all of the parts were in I made the trip to a friend's place (LJ851 on here) as he has done it before and I have zero "real" tools at my apartment.
Last picture before the trip to put on the suspension
Getting started
Misc parts...cut the Bilstein internal bump stops in half
Camaro KYBs and H&R races installed in the rear, as a side note we had a set of the E30 rear KYB gas-adjusts that we were able to compare to the camaro model and the dampening and rebound were both much improved on the camaro part.
Comparison of the stock spring to the cut H&R race...really shows how compressed the factory spring must be in stock form
All done up front!
Rolled the car out and after a quick test drive I could not have been happier with the ride height and the performance of the new suspension. It's not too harsh, cuts body roll down to almost nothing, and is very confidence inspiring through corners.
First picture on the new setup
So that's basically where the car is now. The new suspension/steering wheel completely changed the car from a boat to something very fun to drive and the M42 is getting around 35mpg consistently on the highway. I figured it was finally time to take some decent pictures so here it is as of today:
and my favorite from today
The 195/50 tires are the next thing to go, which will be replaced with 205/50s. Other than that my only real plan for the car is to drive it!
Here are some pictures from the for sale ad:
Mechanically, the car had a very loud timing 'tick' noise that disappeared with high RPM. The PO told me it just needed a new timing tensioner and that would go away - he seemed like a quick-fix kind of guy, which I really found out about later. If it weren't for the smoked hellas and the Ronals, I probably would have walked BUT after kicking the tires for a bit I got him down quite a bit and drove off with the car.
Before getting the timing issue completely resolved the woodruff key ended up shearing and the car pulled time. A compression test showed unfortunate results and I decided to swap in a new ~70k M42 out of a '94 auto 318.
Old timing gears/chain/all of the rails were shot and there was a lot of gunk built up.
New motor for comparison
Heartless
Once the engine was sorted the car ran great and I was off to fix some of the small cosmetic stuff that bothered me. The not-so-perfect paint on the car is something I don't mind at all, it's nice not having to worry about door dings/bird shit all the time.
Taking off the front plate and adding a buddy's spare factory lip made a huge difference on the front end.
Couple coats of wax made a big difference on the hood/roof/trunk
Swapped the steering wheel/shift knob
Painted some trim pieces that were faded
PO was either in a hurry or is technically challenged as the smoked hellas were wired horribly and almost all of the adjusters were broken
Cleaned it up and repaired all of the adjusters
and wired in the city lights
then added Euro grilles
So she sat, most of the simple small annoying things were fixed. Now was time for suspension. I had planned on GC's w/shortened strut housings from the get-go but after spending that money on the motor swap I was finding it difficult to justify. I was looking around for ideas on a budget-friendly option that would let me go low while still maintaining good handling. That's when I stumbled on Grippy's thread here.
I decided to go with the same basic setup, H&R races all around with one coil cut up front and the KYB camaro shocks in the rear. After a few pm's back and forth with grippy about what he would change I decided to go with 15mm aftermarket drop-hats and Bilstein sports in the front. Once all of the parts were in I made the trip to a friend's place (LJ851 on here) as he has done it before and I have zero "real" tools at my apartment.
Last picture before the trip to put on the suspension
Getting started
Misc parts...cut the Bilstein internal bump stops in half
Camaro KYBs and H&R races installed in the rear, as a side note we had a set of the E30 rear KYB gas-adjusts that we were able to compare to the camaro model and the dampening and rebound were both much improved on the camaro part.
Comparison of the stock spring to the cut H&R race...really shows how compressed the factory spring must be in stock form
All done up front!
Rolled the car out and after a quick test drive I could not have been happier with the ride height and the performance of the new suspension. It's not too harsh, cuts body roll down to almost nothing, and is very confidence inspiring through corners.
First picture on the new setup
So that's basically where the car is now. The new suspension/steering wheel completely changed the car from a boat to something very fun to drive and the M42 is getting around 35mpg consistently on the highway. I figured it was finally time to take some decent pictures so here it is as of today:
and my favorite from today
The 195/50 tires are the next thing to go, which will be replaced with 205/50s. Other than that my only real plan for the car is to drive it!
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