New Addition to the Stable!

[TRAK WDW]

What’s up R3V members! My name is Harp. Decided to buy an E30 as a daily/fun car so that I could take my m3 off of daily duty. The m3 is an excellent daily, but I decided I wanted to save it for track duty and canyon runs where I can actually put the S54 to some use!

Anyways onto the E30, I found all the VIN tags to match on all panels and a clean title. Just received my oil analysis back from Blackstone Labs and everything looks good besides the normal rod bearing wear of lead and copper. No coolant or fuel was found in the oil.

It’s an 89 325i Sedan with all original AW paint and the stock M20 motor with ~320,xxx miles. Starts up solid everyday for the 60 mile commute! :D

Mods the car came with:

5 speed swapped
Stage 1 Race Clutch & LW Flywheel
AKG 75D Engine & Trans mounts
E36 Rack & Pinion (Love this!)
Eibach springs/Bilstein shocks with E90 drop hats
M3 FCABs
Hawk Pads
HID Low Beams w/ cut off
New starter, slave cylinder, timing belt, water pump, fuel pump & other small bits

What I installed in the past 2 months along w/ full fluid flush and valve adjustment:

3.73 LSD w/ new Lucas LSD fluid
AKG 95A Diff Bush
Z3 2.8 Shift Lever
Bottlecaps

Photos (Thanks to my buddy, Ian):







A few pics of my m3, the track widow:





And hardparked on street tires..


Thanks for looking! Happy motoring!

[MPLFoster]

Nice.

[bmk]

Ill keep an eye out for you in SD

[Dj Buttchug]

clean b caps would be cool

[TRAK WDW]

clean b caps would be cool

haha yeah those were just some spontaneous shots on the way out to JCCS. I'll post some cleaner pics in a future build journal.

wow lots of members from SD! :up:

[2mAn]

Were you the guy we randomly ran into on Mulholland a few weeks ago?

[CirrusblauS52]

Nice.

[e30damen]

That E46 looks great

[TRAK WDW]

Were you the guy we randomly ran into on Mulholland a few weeks ago?

haha I wish! sorry, I don't think that was me, but I do believe you ran into a buddy of mine? His E46 looks very similar to mine, same wheels too

[TRAK WDW]

Nice.

Ill keep an eye out for you in SD

Nice.

That E46 looks great

Thanks guys! Appreciate the comments! :up:

[betty_white30]

we need some rolling shots!! dope pics

[SteadyAim.]

Love it!

[freeride53]

Hey were you the dude who waved at me on Torrey Pines in La Jolla?

[TRAK WDW]

Hey were you the dude who waved at me on Torrey Pines in La Jolla?

Haha yeah I believe so, i'm down in La Jolla every day :thumbsup:

[TRAK WDW]

Hey guys... just wanted to bump this for a question I have...

Long story short:

When I changed the oil last, I used Valvoline 20/50 SYN synthetic. This oil (as well as the previous max life) would burn quite a bit. About 1 quart a month.

I was told this was normal... and I found that hard to believe. So I decided to switch to Valvoline 20/50 VR1 Conventional and my m20b25 has not burned a drop of oil in the past month with the same hard driving and redlined daily... I've been checking my oil once a week for curiosity/safety.

I've researched this oil and understand that this is very bad to use with any cars that have Cats equipped b/c of the elevated levels of zinc additive (but my cats did pass smog... just below the borderline, so I already decided to add cats in the future).

I'm also going to perform a compression/leakdown test within the next couple weeks, so I will post results afterwards. Depending on these results will indicate whether or not my motor is suitable for a rebuild or not. If not, I have another M20 lined up

My quick question is: Is anyone you know (or yourself) running this VR1 oil on a street driven car and are you (or your friend) burning oil?