1988 Alpine White 325iS Build

[Blake B]

I've seen some wild PO mods and "fixes" but wow..

[2mAn]

Oh and lastly I totally spoke too soon earlier, check out how the from iS lip was mounted

Good move selling the E36 M3. They are decent cars, but I doubt you'll miss it...

As far as the lip mounting process, the lip still looks like the OEM clips could work to replace those other clips lol

[KIRIEIW]

Good move selling the E36 M3. They are decent cars, but I doubt you'll miss it...

As far as the lip mounting process, the lip still looks like the OEM clips could work to replace those other clips lol

You know I think your right, in a strange way I'm glad it's gone because it's one less car to maintain.. Four 90's BMW's... enough for me. Not to mention these are all I own so all are daily's..

Also yup seems I got lucky. The lip doesn't have any cracks (Yeay!!). I got some new clips at work so plan on getting it installed sometime this week. Guess the owner didn't want to spend the $$ on OEM clips, regardless I'm glad he picked up the damn lip after if fell off lol.

[KIRIEIW]

Alight guys got some more work done like normal.. Bad news from the machine shop, valve guides are a bit worn. He said I could probably get by only doing the valve stem seals but screw it.. Lets just rebuild the damn head. He's installing new guides as I type this.


In the meantime I replaced the heater core (did I fail to mention the heater core way bypassed?). I purchased a new heater core from FCPeuro only to find out the heater core wasn't leaking, but the valve was leaking. I had my Dad mess with it at his work the other day, he opened it up and "rebuilt" it. Aka drilled out the factory rivets to open the damn thing up, cleaned the inside, inspect the O ring, ect. It's now secured with a nut/ bolt combo. I also installed the new heater core I already had on hand because why the hell not.



Lets see,, Oh I also rebuilt the shift linkage. It was pretty worn and the shift shaft seal on the trans. was leaking. With the new shift shaft seal and brand new shift linkage parts she's good as new..



Lastly I rebuild the driveshaft, new center support bearing and guibo. 100% this is the worst guibo I've ever seen. EVER. Hands down. It fell apart in my hands shortly after taking the picture lol. It's surprising to see how much stuff hasn't been replaced over the years and still original.

Before:









Almost done...

















For some reason the new heater core doesn't come with "foam" attached like the factory core I removed. Thankfully I had some foam around the house, already had the 3M tape on it.















Valve fully re-assembled again. This damn thing is like $250 new from BMW so figured it was worth a rebuild attempt.

[jhaurimn]

That guibo is impressive, wow.

[mike.bmw]

Nice work. I replaced my heater core and valve recently. I got the same heater core from FCP and it did ship with foam in the packaging that I had to apply. It wasn't enough though, so I had to use some extra.

[ForcedFirebird]

Nice!

I am surprised the guides were worn with so little mileage. We rebuild a lot of m20 head at the shop, and typically only exhaust guides are worn past spec, intakes not so much. Perhaps the valve adjustments weren't up to date and caused premature wear.

Seen giubos near that bad over the years - specially about 9yr ago when e30's were cheap as e46's are today. Always called it the "mop" syndrome since they kinda look like a tangled mop head in there lol.

[KIRIEIW]

Damn I thought my heater core seemed like an "open box" package! It definitely wasn't installed before though.. But no wonder it didn't have any foam included. Thankfully the foam on the old core was in good shape so I could transfer it over, plus wrap that new foam I had at the house around the entire core.


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You know that's funny, he mentioned only the exhaust guides were slightly out of spec. He's one of my buddy's that works full time at my local machine shop, helping me with this M20 head after hours. In the end I decided to just do all the guides since he's charging "friend prices" for labor/ just have a fresh head I don't need to worry about later down the road.

[KIRIEIW]

One last update for today.. They were supposed to go on the Mtech but I already have euroweaves that car, and stock white 14" basketweaves. I present to you.. 16x7 Genuine Alpina wheels. Seeing how small R3v is these days I'm sure some of you already seen them posted in one of my other threads..
Anyways check out how much Alpina charged me for ONE center cap and THREE Alpina Logos. Took a bit of time and thinking for me to pull the trigger..



I just got the tires dismounted this afternoon, the center caps disassembled, and plan to drop everything off at the powdercoaters sometime tomorrow. I feel bad in a strange way considering lowering the car and changing the wheels.. Car still has BMW stamped shocks so it needs to be done at some point but..

[ForcedFirebird]

Hopefully he used replacement guides. Before buying machines, we used to outsource to a local and he would line the guides rather than replace if I didn't specify. Turned out he was using 7mm liner bearings and not 6.98 which is correct, so they would often end up exactly the same "out of spec" as worn guides. Derp. So happy he retired and sold the shop, but water under the bridge a since we now do almost everything in house.

Replacing the guide causes the valve to set deeper in the head to get them concentric, which hurts flow by a good margin. :/

[KIRIEIW]

So I decided to call my machinist after ForcedFirebird's insight.. Thankfully he replaced the guides rather then "knurl them" back to spec or whatever your old machinist would do. He charged me penny's to replace the valve guides.. I guess this whole time it was a "while your in there" sort of thing but regardless glad I had them done to make the top end of this engine nice and fresh. I want to keep this car for many years..

Good to have a friend as a machinist.. I always kick him down a bit extra. Somewhat strange but he was working on a cylinder head for the Ford dealership when I arrived, I always assumed dealerships would "up sell" a new cylinder head rather then have a machine shop work on it.. Surprise to me.


Anyways so a quick run down on my fresh cylinder head..

-16x New Valve Guides
-Hot Tanked Cylinder Head
-New Corteco Valve Stem Seals
-Very light resurface (wasn't warped, just to have a nice mating surface)



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I got the cylinder head back this afternoon from my buddy and got right to business. Cylinder head is now bolted back on with a new Goetze headgasket, I also got the manifold lined up in all the studs, and bitch tube re installed.. I had to take off for the day though so I'll need to screw all the manifold hardware back in place tomorrow. But at least its on!



I also got the iS lip back on. Got lucky, the lip didn't have and broke tabs . I bought 10x brand new clips at the dealership and clipped the lip back on.






















I also picked up some brand new in box Eibach springs, new KONI Yellow adjustable's are on the way in the mail.















The elring manifold gaskets are grey for some reason.. OEM BMW gaskets are a dark grey/ black.. My meticulous ass bought the correct gaskets lol.

[hochiminh]

Always enjoy your build threads man.

[robrez]

Good job and good thread. The reason I’m still ok r3v.

[KIRIEIW]

Thanks guys,


Well I got a ton of work done this afternoon as well. Should be ready for a first start early in the week, and first time I can drive the car . Fingers crossed it shifts into all gears buttery smooth, ect. OG owner seemed like a very honest guy so I have high hopes all should be well.. Especially with that new Guibo!



I'll need to take a trip over to the dealership tomorrow,,, (Forgot to grab one from FCPeuro, lower coolant hose to coolant pipe to be specific). All the other brand new coolant hoses are installed such as the heater core hose, upper radiator hose, ect. I just completely forgot to add that hose to my shopping cart on FCP.




Also does anyone know how the fuel lines are supposed to be routed on a early 2.5i M20? I guess since this is such a early 88' I have the older style fuel rail (and fuel injector harness). My fuel inlet nipple is closest to the firewall,, Whats the correct way to route the fuel line on this style fuel rail?

[KIRIEIW]

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