Andrew's Sterlingsilber 90 325iS -> 318iS

[e30lyf]

nice car :)

[Andrew325is]

The little car is starting to look better. I touched up a bunch of rock chips and the spot on the bumper where the paint was worn off. And I touched up the black paint on the lower sides and the rear.

[Stanley Rockafella]

I got a new thermostat. It's Calorstat brand, made by Vernet in France. It's an 80 °C one. I tested it on the stove and it opens! So I put it in the car and bled it again and it's not overheating! :)

:nice:

[Andrew325is]

I found a nice set of 0270/0380 Silver cloth door cards. I think it'll make it more cozy inside compare to the solid vinyl in there now. In the future I want to do the seat centers in cloth too, but I haven't decided on the pattern yet. Maybe I'll keep my eyes open for some 0270 or 0380 sport seats.

[Andrew325is]

I got a new thermostat. It's Calorstat brand, made by Vernet in France. It's an 80 °C one. I tested it on the stove and it opens! So I put it in the car and bled it again and it's not overheating! :)

[Andrew325is]

I recently installed H&R OE sport springs and bilstein B6 shocks and what you see below is how the rear springs sat with the weight of the stock 4 door on them. I couldn’t live with it so I put the stock rear springs back in. Car felt really strange to me. Jeffnhiscars told me they were supposed to be like that, and I do believe him to be correct, but I just couldn’t live with those springs on the rear.

I absolutely love the sport springs on the front though. I also installed the IE 22mm front sway bar. My car really didn’t end up any lower and the feel and driving manners are just fantastic.

I’m also of the opinion that the pre facelift e30’s look better lowered a bit than the post facelift ones. Something about the rear wheel well on the older ones.

The rear spring like that doesn't seem good at all. Good idea putting the stock ones back on.

[e30RS]

Great find and well done.

[325e '87]

I recently installed H&R OE sport springs and bilstein B6 shocks and what you see below is how the rear springs sat with the weight of the stock 4 door on them. I couldn’t live with it so I put the stock rear springs back in. Car felt really strange to me. Jeffnhiscars told me they were supposed to be like that, and I do believe him to be correct, but I just couldn’t live with those springs on the rear.

I absolutely love the sport springs on the front though. I also installed the IE 22mm front sway bar. My car really didn’t end up any lower and the feel and driving manners are just fantastic.

I’m also of the opinion that the pre facelift e30’s look better lowered a bit than the post facelift ones. Something about the rear wheel well on the older ones.

[Andrew325is]

The radiator, hoses, and heater core are all new so there shouldn't be anything in them. But I think I found the problem (fingers crossed). I pulled the thermostat and I heated it on the stove in a pot of water. It doesn't open. I heated it up to 100 °C. Brand new Wahler thermostat... I think I'll pick a different brand. I'll definitely be testing these before I install them now. :)

[Jokester]

How does the radiator, expansion tank and lines look? My m54 was doing the same thing and it turned out to be a bunch of debris was stuck in one of the lines that fed to my water pump.

Hopefully the vacuum filler will end the mystery for you. Keep up the good work. Cooling issues are the worst.

[Andrew325is]

Right now I'm dealing with an issue of the car overheating. It ran a little warm driving to the beach the other day (the needle stayed on the 3rd line), but it didn't overheat. Now it goes to the edge of the red, so I've had to pull over driving and let it cool down. I've bled the coolant twice and the second time I jacked the front of the car up. Since the entire cooling system is new I'm thinking it must just be an air pocket somewhere blocking the flow of coolant. I also thought of the remote possibility that the head gasket isn't good, so I checked the coolant for combustion gases (with the block tester) and the fluid stayed blue and I checked the compression and it's about 150 across all cylinders warm (range of 148-152) so those tests suggest the head gasket is okay. It's kind of frustrating that bleeding air from the M20 is difficult. I ordered a vacuum filler (Airlift 550000) so hopefully that'll do the trick.

[Poorhouse]

I've read concerns like that too posted by people on the forums, but from the data I've been able to collect that appears to be an internet rumor only.

Good info.

what are you talking about...

i "KNOW" enough to say that this car would look exponentially better with at least a set of HR OE Springs.

[Rootznation]

looks super clean bro

[Andrew325is]

Took it to the beach today. :)

[Andrew325is]

I'll have to think about that. I had H&R Sports on my last E30, but it would bottom out going over bumps haha. I agree it does look good. The shocks appear to be pretty recent on this one, so I think I'll leave it for now.