Rescuing a 325e... with pizazz

[hi its me alec]

There is a wire that goes to your starter. I believe its the black one with a green line.
Thats what gives power to the blower motor, power windows and I forget what else.

Beautiful...

I'm guessing power mirrors and sunroof are the things you were forgetting. I'll be sure to check that when we take the manifold off at the shop, no doubt you guys are correct about that being the problem.

[iwantspeed]

check closely for corrosion around were the wiring to the starter gets bolted down.

when It happened to my buddy when we went to pull the starter,
I get to the first bolt.
I applied a slight bit of pressure and sheared the whole rod off the starter
" well there is your problem"
everything was connected properly just was not making full contact.

I hope you figure it out.

[88driftIS]

so how bad is/was the rust on the bottom of the car? Trying to compare it to what I am working with. lol

but other then that, look like it's coming along. hope you get the electrical stuff figured out. I hate dealing with that crap.

[hi its me alec]

so how bad is/was the rust on the bottom of the car? Trying to compare it to what I am working with. lol

but other then that, look like it's coming along. hope you get the electrical stuff figured out. I hate dealing with that crap.

I'd say that it's a 5/10, 10/10 means that the chassis is no longer fit to be a car. It probably has 4 or 5 years left until it needs to be scrapped or completely rebuilt. Something important will definitely rust through and fall off in 10 years. That's why I bought the other e30 though, now I don't have to deal with fixing anything, I have a new chassis for half the price of a good welder. Everything just switches over..

[88driftIS]

Cool, mine looked a lot worst then it was, the sheet metal was toast in the front floor boards/wheel well, but the rails where still good. so I just cut thefloor out and welded new stuff in.

[hi its me alec]

Cool, mine looked a lot worst then it was, the sheet metal was toast in the front floor boards/wheel well, but the rails where still good. so I just cut thefloor out and welded new stuff in.

Unfortunately, my rails are crumbling. haha

[hi its me alec]

Hey guys... long time no see :D

Well I finally got the car back today. I'm embarrassed to say this, but I just paid $1980 for a shop to finish my swap for me. I have plenty of self-confidence and know that I didn't need to do that, but it was too frustrating for me to keep digging in without any experience. What it really came down to was, several other people helped me with the swap, which was a catastrophic error, because I couldn't account for the mistakes that others made. Plus it was a piss poor decision to buy a $200 engine with no accessories or history, especially when a legit choice can be hand for around $600. But in the end, that wasn't my problem. I should have done everything myself, every step of the way. It would have started all along if I had the correct engine harness adapter.

Also, I discovered that my fuse box is shot, and that's the reason my windows have never worked on the passenger side.

Now it just has a couple problems to sort out, and I'm good to go for the winter. Just needs a fan, exhaust, and oil filter housing gasket. Feels great to have a turn-key car sitting in my garage, that's for sure.

[hi its me alec]

Also here's what I'm using for shocks/springs.

- Almost blown bilsteins - $75..
- e36 M3 dinan springs - $50.. will cut a dead coil off the top of the front springs and hope for the best as far as ride height is concerned. The springs are from a '96 and have no markings



I've seen lots of naysaying about the e36 springs on an e30. But they will fit, and I'm sure the weight difference is somewhat negligible. obviously it's not ideal, but I need to align the front of the car after this steering rack is finished.

I plan to get GC coilover kit once I have some cash moneys. Along with the springs, I also bought some 96 M3 struts to tinker with for 5lug purposes..

[hi its me alec]

and as of monday, I brought it over to a shop to pound out the e36 rack and build the exhaust.





1 of the tie rod ends was bashed in pretty good.. so I bought a new one from the dealer. Progress is nice ><

[MR 325]

You paid $1900 and that's how they left the engine bay?

[hi its me alec]

You paid $1900 and that's how they left the engine bay?

Oh man, you should have seen it before I spent 10 minutes making it 'photo-presentable'. For that money, their work is an embarrassment. They didn't even get the coolant gauge working in the cluster which was one of my only specific demands. I'm sad it had to happen this way. Fuse box cover was under the driver's seat (obviously it was on the car when I dropped it off.) The brake lines they fixed were all hanging underneath the car, sloppily done. The wiring harness was all tangled with the MAF harness and another random blue wire that goes into the cabin by itself. So I would assume he wired it straight to the ignition or something weird. I don't want to talk about it though, the car starts and runs. I wish there were e30 geniuses locally to come to my help whenever I need it. (edit: actually I should say, I wish blunt and mtriple were my buddies :P)

I'm going to bring it back there and demand a couple things along my journey with this car.. I paid them way too much money for what I got. I expect a free front end alignment next week once it's up and running. My goal is to wring the place dry and never go back.

[hi its me alec]

Alright.. well I sold the e36 dinan springs and picked up a set of RD (Electrodyne) e30 springs. So that's a relief, lol

Also found these locally and am putting a deposit down today. 16x9 and 16x10 in 5x120. I don't have a penny to my name right now, but I'm going to find a way to make it happen. Now offering HJ's for 10 bucks

[VasFinest]

Wow, the over all progress from when you picked this car up til now is insane. Good work man! Love the interior.

[hi its me alec]

Bought 1 RS so far :P

[hi its me alec]

car is on the ground.. lots of problems left to work out.

- can't figure out why my billy sport collar nuts ALMOST fit, but have little rubber gaskets instead of something that holds the strut insert in place. so the car is on super shot stock inserts

- got the wrong m20 coolant temp sensor from dealership

- cold start issue (going to replace M50 ecu coolant temp sensor)

- exhaust rattle on FCAB

- alignment because the wheels are like this -> | /

all that will be sorted out today hopefully. so here's the car on the ground with electrodyne/RD springs, e36 rack, nice quiet exhaust, 02 sensor installed, and shit. slowly but surely. and hey, winter is almost done now, so much for this being a winter only car, lol.