New owner, BMW 325iX Touring

[econti]

That's exactly the seat fabric that I want to use in my E30. Very nice

[kid325e]

Nice pickup on the Ball Joints! The GTi looks great. I'm so impressed with the instrument clusters in the new cars - congrats.

[mike.bmw]

Congrats on the GTI and that's a really clever solution to avoid using a T fitting! The engine in the E30 is looking clean. Were you able to resolve the issues?

[D.Martijn]

Last thing I needed to do, to get the Alpina vent gauges all finished up was connecting the vacuum line to the intake manifold.
The kit came included with a Tfitting to tie into the existing vacuum line that goes to the FPR. I didn't like how this would have looked so I decided to order another block off plate which has two vacuum connections.
I think this is was used on the Eta.


I might have to shorten the FPR vacuum line just a little more though.


I also got a new daily as I am planning on registering the E30 on some classic plates after Winter, when the weather get better again.
Decided to get myself a VW Golf GTI mk7.5 Performance :)

[D.Martijn]

Quality work as usual!

That gauge is very cool. Nice work as always.

Thanks guys!

[mike.bmw]

That gauge is very cool. Nice work as always.

[Tzantushka]

Quality work as usual!

[D.Martijn]

Today I went ahead and went to my work to modify the adaptor for the sensors. When trying to screw in the temperature sensor, the end of the probe touches/closes the hole where the oil needs to pass through off.
I used a drill to make the "chamber" for the oil a bit deeper.

When I tried fitting the adaptor on the hollow bolt of the oil filter housing, the hole on the adaptor for the oil pressure sensor was pointing down. I wouldn't be able to screw in the sensor so it needed to point to the front of the car.
I screwed the adaptor in loosely and tested a couple of washer to determine the thickness that the copper gasket needs to be. I found some left over copper stock at work and made 3 washers, all with a slightly different thickness so I could see which one fitted the best.


It's tight but fits in there, I used some sealant on the 1/8NPT threads of the oil pressure sensor just to be sure..


And also cleaned up the mess I made inside + took a picture with everything turned on :)

[D.Martijn]

It's been a while..
I did start looking at my engine and tried starting it but I'll make a separate post about that one.

However, I saw a post on an 325iX Facebook group that the inner ball joints are available again from BMW. I immediately decided to buy another set for myself and one for my uncle.
~72€/each at the dealer, not too bad.






I also got a repro Alpina vent gauge. I only had a temperature gauge as of now, but liked to have engine oil pressure as well without having to install some ugly round gauges in the middle console etc..
So this was the perfect fit!




And everything connected!


I still need to screw in the sensors, I didn't have extra diff oil and need to modify the adaptor I bought
I plan on running the sensors for the engine oil like this, both on the hollow oil filter housing bolt


A few weekend ago I also helped a friend remove his engine from his E30, it had very low compression (2bar) on 2 cylinders and the other 4 also had low compression overall about 9bar..
He was also having a ton of oil blow by, we suspect his piston rings are done
After some carefull manouvering we got it out! He already rmoved the transmission and cylinderhead, next up are the crank and pistons

[D.Martijn]

oh man, those under trays are basically NLA. how did they even manage to scratch the roof like that? I feel like compensation is in order.

What the phuck did they do?! Tow it open trailer through a bunch of low hanging branches?? Cricky. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would definitely be asking for compensation from them for that if it was me. That's just careless on their behalf.

As far as I can tell they are still available, part no 51711965609, 95€.

Yeah I'm not sure how they managed to do that.. maybe passing some road with low hanging trees? Not sure.. my antenna was also folded against my roof. Bot sure if they did this to load it on the trailer or it's because of the tree branches..?

Yeah it will get sorted!

[econti]

I would definitely be asking for compensation from them for that if it was me. That's just careless on their behalf.

[djjerme]

What the phuck did they do?! Tow it open trailer through a bunch of low hanging branches?? Cricky. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jeenyus]

oh man, those under trays are basically NLA. how did they even manage to scratch the roof like that? I feel like compensation is in order.

[D.Martijn]

This week I finally got a message that my car arrived ot my local BMW dealer. I went right after work together with my brother and uncle to tow the car back to our workshop


Had to get used to not having a brake booster the first couple of meters but the towing went pretty smooth. It wasn't that far either.


And at it's home for the next couple of months..


Unfortunatly the shipping company left some marks... I should be able to polish these out but still.. it sucks


They also managed to fuck up the under tray...


The plan is to now remove the egine, check for wear and then start sourcing parts for the 2.8 stroker if the original pistons/cylinders are still ok.

[D.Martijn]

That's an amazing trip! That road to Stelvio is pretty iconic and I'm pretty sure has been a wallpaper background on my computer a few times. Just beautiful. I say do what makes most sense. Stroker is cool, m20 turbo is also cool. I think either way, some sort of standalone or diagnostic tool seems like a great investment for these long road trips.

Thanks man! It was amazing unfortunately couldn't do the whole trip as planned, maybe another time..
Yeah it will all depend on how the parts look when I disassemble the current block. Not planning on adding a turbo so if I don't go the original route, stroker it is.

Seems a little odd that rod bearings would make it drop in RPMs that violently.

Stroker is kind of a waste of time unless you can easily and cheaply get the parts. It doesn't make a huge difference.

Yeah, I'm thinking the rpm dropping is some electrical problem. Just coincidence that the bearings went too..
I mean there are plenty of kits for sale for a reasonable price. I'm just looking for a little extra oomph.

Fantastic trip! Curious to see what they find when they tear it down. My brother is currently backpacking in that area and I get to hang onto his IX while he is away :)

Thanks man! The garage in Swiss won't do a rebuild or further diagnose. Once the car is back in Belgium, it'll go into my own workshop where I will take it apart.
Awesome but take care of it ;)