Please meet Carol my 1988 325i Vert

[Mpolito3355]

Hello to the R3vlimited world.

i figured now would be a great time to introduce you to Carol.

Carol is my 1988 325i Cabriolet in Cirrusblau Metallic (paint code 189) with Natur interior.


Also please forgive me but i bought this car last year and have finally found the time to share with you guys ........


Anyway ........ i was looking for my first E30 searching craigslist for one to pop up that would be the perfect start for me when i found Carol.

it was a craigslist add in Sweet home Alabama (not my home) that i saw " 1988 BMW 325i Convertible ". i never wanted a Vert but it peaked my interest.

IMG_1758 by Michael , on Flickr

IMG_1759 by Michael , on Flickr

00G0G_i8JF3c190Vk_600x450 by Michael , on Flickr

00y0y_7KOGuG3jPsz_600x450 by Michael , on Flickr

The craigslist ad stated he was selling for his aunt so i figured i would text him and ask about it. After asking for some pictures of the engine to make sure it was still in the car and everything looked on the up and up i decided to take a trip the next day after work to go take a look at it.

After a 2 hour drive i arrived at his aunts house where they introduced themselves. she was a older lady named Carol who after talking with her and looking at the car i come to find out it was her husbands car that passed that she didnt want to keep but wanted to find it a good home for it. After looking at the car we talked turkey and the next weekend i rented a car trailer and went and got the car.



Finally at home ........inspection report.......

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Needs a cleaning .....a good one

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Also something i didnt notice till i got home...... one grille is newer then the other and one headlight doesn't match ........... i also didnt check the car-fax....... JK lol

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Also the thing on the intake boot is a performance piece that the P.O installed its to let fresh air flow into the motor from all different angles i think it adds 35 HP but dont quote me on that

Anyway after some cleaning ......

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

And heres one of the reasons i bought this car besides it being 2 owner car and it runs with no rust ....... also this is before cleaning

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

And starting to take apart things

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Wanted to bring her outside and take the top down to inspect everything......

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Carol by Michael , on Flickr


So then i decided to change the oil in the car i used 15-50w Mobile 1 with a mobile 1 filter till i got my Mann filter for my next change ...... let me tell you what a pain in the behind this was ......i like to think of my self of having mechanical ability but i struggled with this thing for 2 days .......... so because its a vert it comes with a stock oil cooler because of that it rotates the oil filter housing 90 degrees so instead of looking at the ex. mani from the side and twisting off with both hands now you have to grab in between the two exhaust manifolds and use one hand to twist..... not a problem if you change the oil regularly but if you dont know when the P.O changed it then its really hard to get off. So i destroyed the oil filter with oil filter wrench's , i deformed it, i twisted so hard with a wrench it moved the car upward with the amount of force i was putting on it , i even stuck screwdrivers in the middle for leverage (heres the then not leverage the way the oil filter is installed with oil cooler). At this point i really didnt know what to do in the mean time my wife comes in the garage and askes me whats wrong i tell her and she goes "why dont you heat it up with the heat gun?" i told her it would never work and sent her away ....at which point i grabed the heat gun and it came right off

Carol by Michael, on Flickr

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

In the mean time i converted to the stock intake boot and the idle got better (oh yea had a un-regular idle)

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

I also ordered a bunch of stuff to do timing belt , new fluids , and some misc. stuff ......

20190328_143333 by Michael , on Flickr

20190328_142805 by Michael , on Flickr

Also i dont have any pictures but i rebuilt my factory radio so it can accept cassettes again because i honesty love the factory look as much as possible how ever it works but there is a noise when it plays like a white noise or a skipping almost without skipping.

Anyway i followed this link to take it apart , https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...pair-BMW-Radio do your self a favor if your planing on doing this and wear gloves to take the old belt off as it is like tar also i used rubbing alcohol with q-tips to clean everything. the new belts you order off amazon but there an assortment but a few do fit. The little o-rings for the playing action are a special size (ill edit it and find out but i have a bunch so if anyone really needs them let me know) i tried sanding down a o-ring but i could never get it perfect enough to play and its a pain....... also get a good set of precision screwdrivers preferably magnetized.

So i was sick of looking at the mismatching headlights and the mismatching grilles so i ordered a new headlight and some S.E.M trim black spray paint. (i swear by this stuff )

I took eveything apart and washed with dawn and water and a plastic bristle brush then wiped down with thinner

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

I think it came out alot cleaner.

Carol by Michael , on Flickr


Just some more pictures of me actually driving it

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

Carol by Michael , on Flickr

20190327_161558 by Michael , on Flickr

20190320_160231 by Michael , on Flickr

Then i found some BBS basket weaves 15's

20190412_160740 by Michael , on Flickr

20190611_172327 by Michael , on Flickr

that last picture was right before my daughter was born so alot of things stopped for a few months.......

well two weeks ago i figured it was time to change the timing belt ..... well then i started thinking and it has a few leaks from things i dont like and plus i really would like to run boost so.... theres that well anyway this happened

20200111_210805 by Michael , on Flickr

20200111_210758 by Michael , on Flickr

20200112_141611 by Michael , on Flickr

20200113_084714 by Michael , on Flickr

20200113_084720 by Michael , on Flickr

So thats how she looks now , i still have to get the motor on the stand and start planing the full build ........

Well R3vlimited i welcome to you Carol

[mike.bmw]

Welcome, congrats, great intro post! Painting inside a box is brilliant. I've never thought to do that, but it looks useful for small projects.

[ODB]

Looks way better with the matching headlights.

[Mpolito3355]

Hey r3v , been a while but theres this whole Covid thing going on and i dont know if you guys heard but well its been really busy with work....... anyway

i have decided after alot of thought which way i want my build to start heading and i have started taking necessary steps that i have to. During my build i will document the whole process and steps not only for you guys but so i can remember most things that i do. There will also be alot of DIY and i know it has prob. been done a million times but more info should be better for the e30/ R3v community.

so lets see ...... last time i had the motor taken out and it was sitting on the floor basically since i dropped the Engine,Trans/Gearbox, and front suspension out in one unit. I plan on going over the suspension anyway so this seemed like the logical choice.

20200222_082512 by Polito, on Flickr

i was going to keep everything in for the summer to be able to drive it but i would have had to do a decent amount of work with the way i would have been driving the car and after looking at a few leaks on the floor i decided i wanted to just start the build early. For the most part this has all been untouched its whole life as far as "upgrades" which is nice that nothing is half assed (technical term).

20200420_091822 by Polito, on Flickr

20200420_091829 by Polito, on Flickr

20200420_091842 by Polito, on Flickr

20200420_091929 by Polito, on Flickr


Good news is all the leaks have preserved the nuts from being rotted on.......

Anyway first step was getting the Transmission off the motor

20200420_122248 by Polito, on Flickr

the bell housing bolts i have put in order on what i removed for my specific year and model which might differ depending on ....well who touched your car last lol ......The transmission bell housing is held on with 4 E14 external torx bolts, 4 E10 external torx bolts, 1 10mm bolt which holds on the metal shield between the bell housing and the motor , and the starter bolts which looks like someone has replaced before judging by the reman from BMW sticker and the fact its two bolts and not more torx bolts. Also i dont know what everyone makes a big deal about removing the starter it was really easy ........

20200420_122909 by Polito, on Flickr

20200420_123706 by Polito, on Flickr


so transmissions free , now to move on to the pressure plate bolts , they are all 6mm allen.

20200420_165029 by Polito, on Flickr

20200421_102124 by Polito, on Flickr

The clutch wasnt in bad shape but is going to be replaced. I took the flywheel off by taking one of the bolts i bought for the engine stand (12mmx175 which is the same thread as the ones i took out of the motor but the ones on the motor are way to small to mount on a stand) and one of the pressure plate bolts and locked down the flywheel like that then used a 3/8 braker bar with a 19mm socket to crack them all loose.

20200421_102241 by Polito, on Flickr

20200421_094746 by Polito, on Flickr

this is with the flywheel off and that metal plate i was saying was held on with that 10mm bolt

20200421_103159 by Polito, on Flickr

Then i used my handy dandy straps to lift the motor off the subframe (cut out seat belts (the weave pattern in seat belts are so strong they dont break next time your at a pick and pull grab a few =] ) ) and mounted the motor on the stand. only thing left between the two was the power steering pump which is COVERED in oil.

20200421_120112 by Polito, on Flickr

anddddddd this is where we left off finally =]

20200421_151643 by Polito, on Flickr

[Mpolito3355]

Today i got some work done ,

I started by draining the oil today nothing fancy just a 19mm bolt but might differ depending on if it was replace with something different.

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

and then this happened , boys and girls dont be like me and forget to put the retaining pin so the motor cant turn.

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

Yes thats the motor turned around all the coolant from the block drained onto the floor , didnt realize it since my head phones were in and i didnt hear turn over........ also i hate coolant everything about it the way it gets all over and sticks to your skin the way it feels just everything.......

anyway minor setback got everything cleaned up and moved on. Took out the block plug for coolant to drain the rest..... a 19mm bolt also i believe might be 17mm i was frustrated so just kinda keep going.

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

Next was time to get the fan clutch off

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

there is four 5mm allen that hold on the plastic part of the fan, to break them loose i had two 5mm allens and when i tightened one to let the fan not spin i loosened the others, at the end allen bolt i re-tightened the one next to it so i could do the same to the last one left and then i was able to just re-loosen the one again.

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

Next i took off this metal tube that i labeled in a photo down below 7C it is just a pipe so a rubber hose doesnt touch the fan, there is two 10mm bolts that hold it to the motor.

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

You dont need to but i loosened the alternator so i can pull the belt off, its a 13mm nut on the back of the bracket to loosen and then used a 19mm wrench on the front bracket to relive tension on the belt.

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

This is the belt routing for alternator and the A/C. The Alternator goes around the harmonic balancer(closest to the block), the water pump pulley and the Alternator. The A/C goes from the 2nd slot on the harmonic balancer to the compressor. And not pictured but the power steering belt goes from the first slot (farthest from the block)

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

I then took my fan removal kit which is basically a long 32mm wrench and another piece of metal with two holes drilled out to keep the waterpump pully from spinning , I put the metal holder on the harmonic balancer and then took the 32mm wrench and a dead blow hammer and hit the wrench till it spun. ALSO REMEMBER THE FAN CLUCH ASSY IS REVERSE THREAD

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

I then wanted to take off coolant hoses and figured i would label all them and then take picture where they go on the block so if anyone needs it they can reference it.

1C - WATER HOSE PN# 11531287651 ( FROM WATER PUMP TO THERMOSTAT HOUSING)
2C - WATER HOSE PN# 11531718982 (FROM THERMOSTAT HOUSING TO METAL PIPE)
3C - RETURN HOSE PN# 11531722743 ( HEATER HOSE FROM HEATER CORE TO THERMOSTAT HOUSING OR EXPANSION TANK)
4C - HOSE, INLET PN# 64211380527 (HEATER HOSE TO GO TO HEATER CORE INLET)
5C - WATER HOSE PN# 11531722218 ( UPPER RADIATOR HOSE)
6C - WATER HOSE PN# 11531718980 ( LOWER RADIATOR HOSE)
7C - PIPE PN# 11531719788 ( METAL PIPE)

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

E30 m20b25 by Polito, on Flickr

and thats all for today.