Project #30 - Make This E30 Great Again: Brilliantrot1990 325iS

[OSAH racing]

Good platform to start with. the Interior condition looks great. As a rental that Auto is gonna help it not get beat on.

[2mAn]

Good platform to start with. the Interior condition looks great. As a rental that Auto is gonna help it not get beat on.

That’s the plan, being an auto will reduce the shenanigans as it won’t be a speed demon, along with stock suspension. Not sure how long I can keep the suspension stock though, but we'll see.

The tires for the Euroweaves arrived and should be mounted and balanced tomorrow. Went with some Hancook Ventus V12 that I found brand new for a great price. Looks like I’ll have the stock basketweaves will be sold too, but I won’t believe that until cash is in my hand. Plan is to use that money back to get a few more things the car needs.

[Panici]

Nice to see you back in an E30 Simon!
Looks good so far, good to start with something that's a runner.

How does insurance work for something like Turo? If they get in a wreck, is your policy on the hook?

[2mAn]

Nice to see you back in an E30 Simon!
Looks good so far, good to start with something that's a runner.

How does insurance work for something like Turo? If they get in a wreck, is your policy on the hook?

Thanks, its good to be back. Wifey initially wasnt too thrilled that I bought the car, but I had to move it outside and in front of the house yesterday. It was her first time actually seeing the car and she said she likes it. She also said she doesnt think its wise financially that I have 3+ cars when shes about to have our second kid and she goes on leave for a few months, so I need to either get this thing bringing in funds (IE a smart financial move ;) ) or need to prepare something for sale... which is a position I do NOT want to be in lol...

Timing Belt kit from bluntech is coming which will replace the belt, the water pump, thermostat and a few other odds and ends in the area to make it a solid "while you're in there" job. With that and the new tires, the car is essentially ready to drive, but I will need to shake it down before renting it out.

As for Turo, part of the fee the renter pays covers the insurance on the car while in their possession so my own insurance isnt affected. I will have it on my Hagerty classic car insurance once its road legal and registered.

[Mike36]

Brilliantrot for the win. Willing to bet the wifey will want to keep once she sees it all polished up and all! Welcome back to the e30 gang, even if it'll only be for a few months.

[Il Duce]

Welcome back & congrats! Nice looking car. My brilliantrot paint looked a lot like that when I picked my car up. A cut and polish made such a difference.

[2mAn]

Brilliantrot for the win. Willing to bet the wifey will want to keep once she sees it all polished up and all! Welcome back to the e30 gang, even if it'll only be for a few months.

Lets see how long this will actually last. It has a lot of charm, being basically totally stock other than the stereo and (at the very least) a car phone. Still not totally sure what all that wiring was for that I removed, but its out and nothing on the car has been hacked other than the headunit.

Welcome back & congrats! Nice looking car. My brilliantrot paint looked a lot like that when I picked my car up. A cut and polish made such a difference.

Thanks! That's my hope too. It looks like it should polish up nice, but for now I want to get it mechanically sorted out.

I managed to get the tires mounted to the Euroweaves yesterday and was trying to install them since I supposedly had a buyer for the stock weaves. Looks like these wheels haven't been off the car in a LONG time as every single wheel felt like it had been torqued to 250 ft/lbs. I managed to get 3 wheels off and by the fourth one my wheel wrench broke followed by the impact socket. I will try again with some heat and lubrication, but that was frustrating.

Also most of my timing belt kit has arrived from Bluntech and I plan to tackle that this weekend. Ideally with these two done I should be able to start the actual "shakedown" process but I already know that I at least need to figure out why the battery is dead even though its only a year old.

[IronJoe]

Welcome back to the fold Simon I'm so happy for you, and can't wait to see what you'll do with this one.

Actually I'm just happy you'll shut up about Poorsche's for two seconds ;)

[2mAn]

Welcome back to the fold Simon I'm so happy for you, and can't wait to see what you'll do with this one.

Actually I'm just happy you'll shut up about Poorsche's for two seconds ;)

You're right, heres a few pics of the E30 with the Euroweaves on it, as it sits...



Closer shot

[OSAH racing]

Amazing how Porsche like the e30 Photo is.

[Northern]

Welcome back dude! Although you never left and are the reason why this forum is still even clunking along.

I feel like I need to x2 this, gif and all.

I chose a bad time to take a break from r3v apparently. This thing looks like a great pickup.

[varg]

Well how about that.

[2mAn]

Well, got the 911 smogged which means I could focus on this little guy again. Spent my Friday night prepping to remove the Timing belt, and got the fluids drained and generally got as far as I could without the fan clutch tool.

Today was ping ponging between hanging out with family doing Christmas stuff and wrenching. Overall went fairly smooth. The belt didn’t actually look bad, but I’m pretty sure it’s at least 10 years old given that the tires are 13 years old, and the soft fuel lines had a 2013 date on them as well. First major problem I encountered was one of these 3 rotor bolts. Improvised and got this M4 (or M5) triple square socket jammed in there.



Almost got everything off, still have the Crankshaft pulley to remove and then got one broken stud on the thermostat housing which you can see me pointing to below:



Tomorrow I should have the timing belt off and will begin replacing the belt, tensioner, water pump, thermostat and once I get as far as the housing I will have fun dealing with that… Let’s see how long this takes lol

[Northern]

I honestly wasn't expecting you to dig into this so quickly. Love to see it.

Funny that this is like the one time someone buys an e30 with no known timing belt interval and it doesn't look like it would instantly snap if you started the engine one more time.

[Panici]

Almost got everything off, still have the Crankshaft pulley to remove and then got one broken stud on the thermostat housing which you can see me pointing to below:

Ah yes, the joys of old cars!

What's your go-to method of removal in this case?