cameras ready prepare to flash

[s14brent]

****AS OF 6/30/2017 Photobucket requires $400/annual fee to host images and as of 08/25/2020 I changed my hosting account again!****
****EDIT: I only updated most of the e30 content only!! some of the earlier images were lost unfortunately*** I tried my best to fill in where needed!




My car used to be cool….you might recognize it when the previous owner had it. I bought it after it had been sitting for almost a year with a bunch of body damage and much needed maintenance. main things it was bought for was stromung exhaust, ground control coilovers, and it already had a 3.73 lsd diff. The car had potential, it was just neglected for a long time unfortunately.






When I got her, she looked like this but imagine a few months worth of dust caked on it. I picked her up from san diego, car had a crazy oil leak (both vc and rear main seal), ended up getting an oil change since the car was sitting for a few months, and had them fix the valve cover gasket as well. The car didn’t have a head unit, so I installed one in an autozone parking lot, and swapped the temp gauge (cluster) since I noticed the gauge was inop. It was sprinking so I got some new wiper blades as well since I had a long drive ahead. The fuel pump was pretty much dead/on the way out, decided after driving around a few hours that I should be okay driving it home to vegas anyways.



^ finally made it home from SD!! one of the only first pictures I have of this thing finally at its' new home!


First thing I swapped out was the fuel pump. Added in a walbro 255 and the previous owner included a new fuel filter so I did that at the same time. Changed the icv hose as it was ripped/leaking from there, spark plugs, new wires, new cap/rotor, new clutch fan/fan blades, fixed the ps leak with new reservoir/lines. everything seemed to run fine, installed ie silicone coolant hoeses, etc. Still leaking bad from rear main seal. The plan was m20 turbo after a motor refresh.
It had a fare share of electrical gremlins to figure out, battery terminal was cracked, fogs weren’t working, ignition switch was covered in what looked like dried up glue and was intermittent so i replaced that, replaced 6 button (pos) obc for one that works. installed a viper alarm and rewired stereo to have a plug since I planned on wiring in a different head unit that matched the interior better. Rewired fuel pump for constant 12v, took and found out abs didn't work. Installed treehouse fcabs and replaced front and rear sway bar endlinks since they were in really bad shape.




[img][https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-RqSv75z/0/39d4fb6a/L/i-RqSv75z-L.jpg[/img]




I started to collect some front end parts that needed replacement. Fender was mounted, rolled, then removed for prep/paint. Most of the front end was sourced locally (friends, and junkyards). I had to order the new euro bumper trim. (rear bumper has a crack in it, still have not been able to source a clean bumper that needs little work). Also replaced bottle caps for some style 5’s with 42draft design (18/20mm) adapters. New (used) hood was acquired, I tried to fix the hood on there, but decided against anything with body filler. Front end still needs to be pulled out another 1/4" on the driver side.







I ended up finding a front valance/bumper - tried to prep/and spray them bronzit in my back yard lol





Came out pretty well to my surprise.

To be continued....

[s14brent]

The plan was to go m20 turbo….sold my stromung exhaust, started collecting parts.








Got this authentic Hartge spoiler,it’s in rough shape. Not sure if I’ll use it still, but I definitely don’t want to do any body work if I don’t have to. Also got a super nice set of style 4’s here on r3v.




Spent a lot of time redoing things like I bought this nardi wheel, it came with NRG slim hub/QR. Ended up selling the NRG stuff, got a momo hub and a works bell nardi adapter. I also lowered the steering wheel angle by using some square tubing as a spacer.

also installed a nakamichi cd300

when I was in SD picking up the car, I got a great deal on this megan racing carbon bucket seat. I ended up ordering some custom rails from wedge brackets. (not a huge fan of having anything megan racing on the car, but I plan on throwing this car around auto-x and occasional parking lot drift event, so the price was right). It holds surprisingly well, feels a lot like my bride zeta 2 I used to have.



I ended up selling both my style 4’s and style 5’s. picked up a set of redrilled/refinished (by vr wheels) bbs rs’ from a friend. I didn’t necessarily like the idea of rocking adapters. But now the way the center bore is on these RS’ though, I really wish I could run a stud conversion on these. If I could find some authentic rs’ centers in 4x100 that would probably be ideal.



To be continued…..

[Old city bimmer]

look good. nice work

[s14brent]

I was checking classified ads looking for a good deal on an already built head to try to save some money. The most cost effective way was to just get the head done locally, but was contemplating vac’s stage 2. I’m glad I sat on it so long, because I ended up scoring this 97 m3 (auto) that was vandalized.







Did a compression test before the pull, it’s about 183-186 across the board.
and the next day the shell sold locally.



I also picked up a lincoln mig welder off a buddy of mine. You can see it with its new cover I bought for it in the background of a few of the pics earlier



To be continued………

[s14brent]

Started to make a list of parts needed….went to the local junkyard thinking I’d get maybe one or two items off the list….



Ended up finding a 98 328 that was for the most part complete when I got there. Scored a zf trans and m50 manifold on day 1. Guibo was in good condition! (radiator and starter were for someone else), ended up running out of time so I had to go back the next day to get the rest of the parts. Day two I grabbed the driveshaft, flywheel, 540i maf, and a bunch of obd1 sensors (not shown).
Glove box was for a friend.


Fast forward a few weeks, it’s hard to scale the time/progress since I’m playing catch up here, but my work schedule sometimes slows this down and the car will sit for months. I ended up finding a 95 325 at a different yard, wiring harness was untouched, still had silver label dme soI picked it up just in case, but I plan on running a red label 413 with this. (red label dme and 24lb injectors were bought off bimmerforums for cheap, red label dme’s are impossible to find still in car out here it seems. Grabbed an Obd1 o2 sensor and decided at this point to purchase knock sensors new since I took off about 6 of them, and all of them managed to just fall apart in the process. Took the m50 manifold off the 95 since I had to take it off anyways. Ended up finding another bosch 800 maf that day also, grabbed it in case I have issues with the other one. Spotted a 525….was tired and decided to go back in a week.






Turns out the 525 that was there was in rough shape…..the oil pan had a gnarly leak, drain plug was stripped (cleaned up nicely with 12x1.5 tap, one pass)and the rest of the pan was covered in caked up oil/dirt. the pan had obviously been dropped before with signs of pry marks and rtv. Grabbed the pan, pickup and dipstick/dipstick tube and went home. When I got home to clean up the parts, metal shavings came out of the pick up. =\ Been keeping an eye out for other 525’s but might end up just using they cleaned up well. Pulling the pan was not difficult, just time consuming really. At this point I’m in about $15-1600 for the swap. Not too bad!
To be continued……

[KW E30]

i remember seeing this car, good to see you bring her back to her glory. sub'd

[s14brent]

I finally had some time to do some much needed maintenance on my e36 m3!(sorry not a e30 update) I had to get rid of a dreaded exhaust leak, also blocked off the SAP and changed manifold gaskets & hardware (ended up using n52 torx headed studs), did the same with the downpipes, pressed out studs and put in new grade 8 bolts with brand new oe copper nuts. I ended up swapping out the whole drive shaft with a 328 ds i had laying around for my e30/s52 swap, same goes with the manifolds, pressed the studs out on them before I started the job to help finish this job in a timely manner!! I replaced csb and flex disc (guibo) with all new hardware. I added akg shifter bushings, akg's shift selector rod, and replaced the shift selector itself and the seal behind it. (did the same for the zf going into the e30) Cleaned up some spots that had surface rust too! Glad that's over!! The car sounds and feels 10x better! no more sloppy shifter and annoying exhaust leak!!

a lotta nuts



shifter stuff:


guibo - crack is whack


surface rust clean up

[s14brent]

Now that my daily driver's all sorted out, I've had some time to work on the car a bit. not much progress, it seems like ever step forward has been two steps back. Pulled the M20 out first chance I could get. The OE motor mounts snapped in half on the way out.


I got lucky, the motor was only like this for a few days before it sold locally.



installed some new studs onto the s52



got the clevis out of the way with some junkyard spares.




also scored some non-abs brake lines while i was out at the yard



I believe my car was built on a friday afternoon in germany...because look at this crap



I'm gonna need more air.....(previously had a 30gal). I scored a 60 gallon husky 2nd hand, decided to ceiling mount the air hose reel, it needed some reinforcement.


Once the AC components were taken out I started to think of not putting it back in as planned. Make this car more of a weekend warrior with occasional track days. I'll also I'll be spot welding the engine bay to tighten it up a bit.



much better! about 70% done. I need to shave the abs brackets and air box brackets. Ran out of wire wheels and cut off discs... Not looking forward to doing the prep and paint.

[N2MYE30]

Great work so far! :up:

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Awesome car great work so far. Im jelly of your air setup.

[s14brent]

thanks guys'!! I was trying to get this car done by May and ready for a speedventures track day (3rd weekend of may), but who knows how close I'll get to be done. If I keep up the pace I think I'll be fine, but I need to start working more to keep this project going and done how I want.

here's a photo of it before I pulled the motor to see how the bbs rs' fit.

[ThatM20Guy]

Awesome car! I’m looking into getting my first E30 here soon, can’t wait.

[s14brent]

figured I'd post some progress. started stitch welding the engine bay.





dropped the front x-member and steering rack.




noticed I was getting some moisture in the air lines from my air tools..decided to add in a water separator before the reel.



got my z3m pre-bent knob from understeer. added with akg shift selector rod.



steering shaft linkage got some lovin....old bushing had some tears in it. those rivots were a PITA...ended up burning up my dremel 300' carbon brush (contact pins)...ordered some replacements and bought a dremel 3000 to use meanwhile. kind of nice to switch back and forth when it starts to get hot now.....so unnecessary though lol

ireland engineering poly bushing and dungeon motorsports e36 rack kit



front subframe reinforcements welded in







subframe was stripped down, and painted earlier. decided to prep the 97 m3 rack I have but only got to degreasing it before I ran out of sunlight.


i have some e30 lemforder inner/outer tie rods, new boots and some steering rack spacers I'll be adding before it goes on. engine bay needs a few more areas of improvement, then prep/paint. I have been avoiding pulling out abs wiring. totally looks like a pain in the a$$

[CorvallisBMW]

Nice work! you scored at the junkyard, I'm super jealous (they're shit up here). Keep it up!

[Northern]

Looks good!

Any reason you're not staying OBD2?