Lachs Silver 1988 325 Sedan

[TFJR]

August Update

August Update:
I've been steadily making good progress on my "i" cylinder head conversion for the E30. I've all but taken the car off the road until the cylinder head conversion is complete due to an external head gasket leak I noticted at the beginning of the summer. About once a week I take the car out for a 30 minute leisure cruise. It being a dusty summer, I start the drive by taking it to a U-Spray place called The Car Wash Palace, wipe her down of dust and enjoy the visceral and analog experience down the road. I have to say I've been really looking into getting a 996.1 Carerra 2/4. As much as I love E30's, I really love Porsche and think I'd get more out of the ownership experience.





I dropped off the spare cylinder head I had with Autosport Seattle, located near the Ballard bridge. The machinists came highly recommended from a few locals. They're going to inspect, pressure test, clean and mill the head. They'll also likely do valve stem seals and gaskets. I also ordered the Bimmerheads "Ultimate Head Gasket Kit" & OEM head bolts through Bimmerheads. This will all be paired with a SSSQuid tuning chip, 19 lbs injectors and a Scorpion catback exhaust. Ideally I'd be doing cams and headers but with how little the car is being driven, I deemed it not worth the extra investment.









The car goes down to my painter next week to have the side mirrors and iS side skirts painted up & installed. I had purchased a set of lightly used side skirts from a member last summer in Bend, OR. I had been having a friend store them for me for an entire year. Sadly, when I finally got to Bend the side skirts were missing the front pods. I didn't waste any time and ordered all new hardware + pods through Blunttech. This paint work + finishing off the shadowline trim will complete the exterior of the car for me for a long time. Beyond some very light tint I'm not too sure there is much I'd change on the exterior to fit my tastes.









I'll update with pictures with the iS sideskirts installed soon! Sorry about the iPhone shots.

[TFJR]

Summer Update: I hope everyone is having a great summer. I've been away on business and time off for the past month in New Orelans, Western Mass. DC and the southern Virginia coast.

I'm still plugging away at the cylinder head refresh and conversion, piece by piece. I recently got my i intake manifold and valve cover powder coated by a gentlement in Tumwater, WA (just outside of Olympia). He is a fellow bimmer enthusiast and gave me an excellent price on the work peformed. They look outstanding in person.





I also got the Squid Tuning chip.
I purchased a Scorpion catback exhaust at the E30 Picnic. I had one on my last M20 E30 and thought it sounded quite nice, albeit maybe slightly louder than I'd like.
Next up I'll sending off my spare i cylinder head to a shop local to me in Ballard.

My other big focus has turned to the rear suspension and doing an elevated refresh. I'm looking for a set of rear trailing arms, a rear subframe and an OE sway bar to have powdercoated. I have the complete Garagistic 80a set of bushings I'll be using.

After attending the E30 Picnic twice before, I finally got to bring my own E30 this year! It was a great event. I love this community

[TFJR]

Here are a couple of pictures of the Alltrack. I love the color personally. We plan to do the APR Plus program with it (+64hp) as well as their DSG tune which is covered under the Plus Program. The 6 year/72k mile bumper to bumper warranty is nice to have.






- Being upset about the leaking head gasket really didn't do me any good. I decided to dive into the project and get started:

I sent the valve cover + intake manifold off for powder coating. These were extremely disgusting so I'm excited to see them come back all pretty. I went with gloss black with silver accents



I got my SSSquid chip for my 173 DME. I ordered the 327i conversion chip, 91 octane, 19 lbs injector, Stage ".5" - I've heard nothing but good things about these and it should be a considerable bump in power for the Super ETA.



I am dropping off the 885 cylinder head at Autosport Seattle (Ballard) in the next week to get refreshed. I'm having them mill the head, pressure test it, clean it, do the valve stems, seals and inspect anything else that looks ripe for replacement. I want this thing to be solid so I might as well do it right the first time.

Lastly I struck gold and found new, OE, 0269 anthrazit sport seat fabric here on the forum! I'll update with install pictures later on this summer.

[TFJR]

Been a while since an update. I wish I could say this was a happy one.

I began to notice an oil leak about 6 weeks ago. Couldn't see anything apparent underneath the car.. started looking from the top down. Head gasket is seeping oil out at a slow rate. I'm pretty bummed as I really didn't want to do anything more with the car this year.

I'm taking my spare 885 cylinder head I purchased from Austin! to Autosport Seattle in Ballard. They're going to refresh the head; milled, cleaned, pressure tested, valve guides, stems and seals + take a look into the valves and cams to make sure they're up to the task. I'll pair this to a set of 19 lbs yellow top injectors I have, as well as a 91 octane SSSquid 2.7i tune for my 173 DME. It'll be sweet once it's all back and buttoned up, it's just that the timing really sucks. My wife is ending her first trimester in pregnancy and I'm budgeting for the baby.

In happier news we traded in our '16 Golf hatch for a new '18 Alltrack SE DSG in Great Falls Green metallic. Got a great deal on the car, our trade and financing. The F31 Msport will have to wait for that next promotion!

In other news someone please buy my Hartge's so I feel less guilty about dumping money into this cylinder head! LOL

[Mpolito3355]

[/QUOTE]


Wow Heated seats with crank windows =0

[TFJR]

I would swap out the front with E90 drop hats to get the front down just a smidge.

Jealous of that 3rd pedal. Im hoping that I can finish up my swap at the end of the month...

The front is already on E90 drop hats. I’m stumped!

[2mAn]

I would swap out the front with E90 drop hats to get the front down just a smidge.

Jealous of that 3rd pedal. Im hoping that I can finish up my swap at the end of the month...

[TFJR]

Nice morning for a cruise around the city. Decided to stop and snap a few photos.

SEM trim painted my euro grills with OK results. BMWCCA Badge + Bosch euro smilies


This hood alignment eats at my OCD




The rear ass sag also crushes my OCD. I have 10mm spring pads on H&R OE sports with E46 M3 Heavy Duty Mounts on new Bilstein HD. Not sure why the hell it sits so low (this is with nothing in the trunk, less than half tank of gas. WTF.




I love this Garagistic clutch stop, great mod well worth the money




Happy St. Patricks Day everyone!

[TFJR]

Have you thought of adding some wheel spacers? Looks like they could be beneficial in the rear to help fill out the fender a little more. Just my $0.02

The wheels are et26 which is right in line with where I'd like them to be for my style. I do have 5mm spacers for the rear but decided against it.

Nice work on the Hartges & the manual swap! Car is looking great.

No need for spacers, that's how the Hartges looked from the factory + if it's regularly driven, and the wheels are more flush then you'll hit a mid-corner bump on a high speed corner at some point and the tyres will hit and mess up the guards.

Contemplating going back to 15s myself as 16s are getting hard to get with the correct load rating for the s2 e30 - good choice!

Thanks for the nice words! Finding attractive 15's & 16's is not easy to find for the E30 these days. I was picky in that I wanted something period correct & OEM+ in fitment and aesthetics. These Hartge's fit the bill nicely for what I am going for. I want to build an early coupe next that I'd love to put Alpina 16" wheels on.

Cheers.

[lukeADE335i]

Nice work on the Hartges & the manual swap! Car is looking great.

No need for spacers, that's how the Hartges looked from the factory + if it's regularly driven, and the wheels are more flush then you'll hit a mid-corner bump on a high speed corner at some point and the tyres will hit and mess up the guards.

Contemplating going back to 15s myself as 16s are getting hard to get with the correct load rating for the s2 e30 - good choice!

[iXguido]

Have you thought of adding some wheel spacers? Looks like they could be beneficial in the rear to help fill out the fender a little more. Just my $0.02

[cheffy30]

the gletscherblau plays the light nicely too ... don't go out on me...

[wworm]

youre making me wish I had a bigger respray fund! I love how different lachs can look in different lights.

[scabzzzz]

Agreed on above, 3.73 is what you'll want with that gearbox and the I head.

Hartge's look great. Very natural looking on that color car.

[2mAn]

Dont make any sudden changes because the S3.73 is perfect when you get the 885 head on there. just hurry up and do it. Im close to doing the 5-speed myself... I cant wait. Then I will be looking to swap out the open 3.73 for a LSD unit