New owner, BMW 325iX Touring

[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 ;)

[ndfspd67]

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 :)

[econti]

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.

[jeenyus]

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.

[D.Martijn]

Again with an update, Just got back yesterday evening from our roadtrip to the Alps. Overall a great trip, only ended badly.. :(

First day, headed to Germany via Luxembourg. First fill up at the gas station :)




Drove a bit further towards France and had a little picnic at the side of the road. Living that Touring live


And driving through Germany towards the Schwarze Wald.


Awesome roads and even better views!




Arrived at the first hotel of our trip. After a few half liter beers and a great dinner we went to bed.


Second day we dove further down Germany towards, Switzerland. Pretty wunderfull once we were met with this view


After driving for a while through Switzerland, we arrived in Austria. Where we had a picnic at the side of the road.




And second hotel on our trip in Austria. Very friendly owners!


We arrived a bit earlier as we only did 250km that day. We made a small walk towards the lake and had dinner afterwards.




We got up pretty early. The hotel was only 20km from Silvretta




Almost at the top, quick picture :)




And at the top, greeted with yet another great view




Driving down Silvretta we met some locals :p


Then we drove towards Stelvio in Italy


As it was midday we had lunch at a restaurant just at the start of Stelvio pass


After 30min of climbing we were at the top! Can't believe we drove all this way to the top






We then drove from Stelvio to Tirano where we had our next hotel. This is where things take a turn.
There was a long stretch of tunnels we went through. In one of the tunnels, it seemed like the engine died and started right back up - there was a sudden drop of rpm.
Not sure what caused this but we guessed maybe some oxygen starvation because of the long tunnels.. idk.

We arrived safely in Tirano without any more drops in rpm.

The next day we drove back towards Switzerland to Bernina pass. Got up Bernina just fine, when going through St Moritz I again had a few drops in rpm.
We got to Julier pass where we stopped at the top to check a few things out. I checked the rotor and distributor, alternator and battery voltage, earth points.. All looked good.
When we decided to get back on track, I started the engine and heard a knocking noise from in the block.... it was running on what seemed 5 cylinders.
I shurt the engine off, decided to remove the sparkplugs and found nothing. Reinstalled them, tried turning the engine back on, ran just fine.

Started the descent, when I needed to press the gas pedal again, I felt some vibration in my foot, decided to turn the engine off and coast towards the first driveway.

This is where we decided to call our assistance.


After a couple of hours, the towtruck arrived.


The next day, the car needed to go to an official BMW dealer. Luckily there was a dealer pretty local (30min drive) in Chur. After some more calls and waiting, they diagnosed the car. (They also thought it's probably connecting rod bearings.. just like I expected.)
And told the Assistance it's not something you fix in 48h time and thus the car needs to get repatriated bac to Belgium.

To still continue our trip we got a loaner VW Tiguan. The day after we drove back to Belgium.


Currently the E30 is still at the BMW dealer Alpina Chur in Switzerland.
I got a call today from the Assistance and they are currently looking into the repatriation of my E30. They told me it will take upto 10 working days..

Can't wait to get it back at home!

Now is the question, Do I rebuild the current engine to original spec of to I stroke it to 2.7 or 2.8l..
Suggestions?

[D.Martijn]

It looks good. Nice job. If you put a lip on the backside of the long bar and drilled holes in it, you could route the wire there with zip ties and it would not be as noticeable. Just a suggestion for version 2.

Thanks man. I first wanted to rout the wires through the upper tube but frankly that was too much hassle for me. He'll only use it a couple of times through out the year.

[rzerob]

It looks good. Nice job. If you put a lip on the backside of the long bar and drilled holes in it, you could route the wire there with zip ties and it would not be as noticeable. Just a suggestion for version 2.

[D.Martijn]

So next week we'll start our roadtrip to/through the Alps.

The week we come back, my uncles is participating in a timed rally that weekend with his 325iX Touring. In preparation for the rally he wanted a light bar as there are some sections where there will be no lights. (There's a drive when it's evening/night and one the next day)
I had already ordered some Hella 5000 lights, today I got some steel to make the bracket and some wiring loom tape + some small hardware.

The Hella kit comes with pretty much everything you need. Pretty nice wiring loom as well which made this a lot easier.

Bracket made and fitted, we made sure that he can still use the front tow hook


Should be plenty strong :D


With the lights fitted.


We took power from the right side of the engine bay, routed the power wires against the firewall and decided to make a bracket that mounts onto thestruts to hold the relais.
Also split the wires that go to the lights with a connector so it's easy to remove just the light bar without having to remove the wiring harness in the engine bay.


First time switching the lights on, it works!


And some black paint. Pretty happy with the end result.