noe30's 89 325i build

[mr.vang]

what do you use to clean the dirty carpet?

[NuthinFancy]

Still posted glad to see your still doin good with the car. I love how clean the car is.

[noE30]

Power sprayed the under body yesterday, cleaned off all the nasty oily undercoating. I was planning on spraying some new stuff tonight but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen. My short shifter kit from understeer.com came in today, so as soon as I can get to work on it again I'll be making some good progress. This has taken way too long already, hopefully I will be driving it late this week.

[noE30]

I'm currently do a clutch job on my e30. I keep breaking clutch master cylinders, the rod snaps right off at the eyelet, broke 3 this year alone. So I decided I was going to buy a clutch kit, slave, mc, trans mounts, quibo, and driveshaft support bearing. I don't know why they keep breaking so I'm just gonna replace it all, everything needs it anyway.
Here's some progress pics, I dropped the trans, clutch, flywheel last night but didn't take any pics yet.


IMG_0177 by m_colby, on Flickr

Nice gash taken out of the oil pan on the driver side, I need a skid plate. How do the race skid plates mount to the rad support? Do they just use self taping screws? My rad support is kinda messed up as you might be able to see, I wonder if it would still work? I might just make my own as my father owns a welding shop.

IMG_0182 by m_colby, on Flickr


IMG_0175 by m_colby, on Flickr


IMG_0174 by m_colby, on Flickr

Clean under body, rust wise that is, ignore the oil slick.

IMG_0171 by m_colby, on Flickr

Since this doesn't say S4.10 does that mean I have an open diff?

IMG_0153 by m_colby, on Flickr

Diff seal I have to replace.

IMG_0152 by m_colby, on Flickr


IMG_0150 by m_colby, on Flickr


IMG_0149 by m_colby, on Flickr

[einstein57]

Nice build

[noE30]

Thanks guys. Going to clean up the m50 today, ill get some pics before I start tearing it down.

[ethrtyiS]

yeah for real. makes me want to turbo my m20 so bad. subbed. we want more updates!

[NuthinFancy]

That's really a sick car . I would like to see more . I'm posted!!!

[noE30]

This is gonna seem like kinda a useless bump to most people but I just wanted to keep track of the progress.

Well I just picked up an 1995 m50tub25 for 116$ ( $66 for gas and $50 for the engine). The plan is to tear into the engine and rebuild it over the winter and hopefully swap it next spring/summer. I will post picks later tonight once I get it on the stand hopefully. Also I've got some good news in general, I've finally landed a new job which I start this coming monday, more money= more progress!

[noE30]

Well it runs and drives again! My new IE header came in today so I installed that as soon as I could, which really wasn't all that soon. Finally had the header installed at about 930pm and me and some friends decided it was time to start it up for a bit. Currently I only have the headers installed so it was loud as hell with an open header, I hope I didn't upset too many neighbors haha.
Heres a few pics off the engine bay with the new headers in. I'm hoping to go to the exhaust shop tomorrow, I'm making a short exhaust video as well.

I need to get some good exterior pics as well now that it's all back together.

[noE30]

Well the car ran yesterday for the first time four months! We just mocked up the old exhaust (mani to cat section) and started it up. It took 3 tries but on the third it started up and stayed running, it was loud as hell haha. I still can't drive it yet though, still waiting on my IE header. Tracking says it will be here the 23rd. Today I'm going to install a new fuel filter, paint my new front valence, hope fully get the bumpers/ hood back on. I'll get some new pics to show it all back together.

[noE30]

I made lots of progress today.

I replaced my leaky heater core finally (no pics of that). I'm just glad to have my interior back together finally.
Engine wise I basically have the entire engine back together except for the dist. cap/ rotor (will be here tomorrow) and my IE headers (early next week.) Tomorrow I will install the cap and rotor and fill the car with oil and coolant. Here's a few pics of how it looks now as I just got back from working on it, I was determined to get it back together tonight. I think tomorrow I will put the hood, bumper, and valence back on as well and wash it too. I cannot wait to drive it again, last time I drove it was November in a snow storm. I know the car is mostly stock, slow, and boring but for some odd reason just thinking about driving it puts the biggest fucking smile on my face haha. There's just something about driving an e30..




And here's a pic of the e30s home for the last few months. Not the greatest but it does the job.

[noE30]

Worked on the car some more today.
Today I officially installed the VC/ pulleys/ spark plug wires. Tomorrow I need to run to the auto parts store to pick up the IM gasket set and a A/C belt and Alt. belt. No longer need a Ps belt as I deleted the whole assembly with one of the block offs for sale on the forum. I also sorted through the mess of coolant hoses, vacuum lines and, misc. connectors. When I get the final parts in the car will be ready to go at that time.

The only thing holding me back from driving it this week is my exhaust. A few weeks ago I decided to order one of the ebay ss headers. I read all the threads on r3v and decided it was the best bang for the buck, even though there were known issues. Well I received my set a few days ago and tried to install them... They were no were near use able, the fitment was Way off. The vendor told me that I would basically have to force them on the exhaust studs because "that's how they were designed." I emailed him and decided to send them back and get a refund. So tonight I ordered a set of the IE Shorty SS headers, hopefully these work as exhaust is my only issue at this time. :curse:
Heres a pic, showing how far the spacing of the exhaust runners were off. I tried pulling them together so they would slip over the studs and it wasn't working at all.



Finally I had a chance to set the car back down on it's own wheels and clean the garage, the e30 has been on jack stands for months.


Ghetto rigged oil cooler will be properly mounted soon. Also please ignore my fucked up radiator support, that will be cut out and fixed this summer.

It's looking pretty good, seeing it on the ground today really got me excited to drive it. Hopefully IE ships fast so I can drive it soon haha. I think I will just leave the car on the ground for now, I think I can still install the header while it's on the wheels. At that point I will have to drive it open header to the exhaust shop to get the new exhaust fab'd up. Maybe I'll make a little open header exhaust video haha.

[noE30]

So I've been sick for the last two weeks and haven't gotten shit done, but I'm better now and on spring break so I'm back to working on the e30. The last parts I need will be arriving this week, spark plugs, dist cap/ rotor, TB gasket, and some random shit.

A few days ago I realized that when I installed the intake manifold I didn't install the oil return tube too like a dumb ass. So today I pulled the intake mani. again (pretty quickly too, I'm getting better lol). The only issue I had was breaking the seal of the new gaskets. When I installed the gaskets I used this permatex sealant stuff and it like super glued the damn gaskets, we couldn't get the manifold to break free even while pulling on the manifold itself. Finally we broke the seal and pulled the manifold, then cleaned the gasket surface and ordered a new set at the local auto parts store.

Im getting pretty damn excited to drive this thing again. There are a few parts that are coming in on Thursday, so I am hoping to be able to have it running Thursday night or Friday for sure. But based on how this project has went so far it probably won't be done for a few more weeks...

[noE30]

update:

Tonight I reinstalled the head and the Intake mani. together as one piece, that was real fun. Tomorrow after class I will reinstall the pulleys and belts. Whats the best way to tesion the alt. belt and ac. belts since they have those adjusting brackets, I striped the ac one trying to take off the belt and I don't want to fuck up the brand new part I bought.
Also I ordered the chinese replica header off ebay(I know I know ebay=garbage but whatever) I broke one of the OE manifolds so it had to be replaced anyway.

Heres a shitty cell pic of the head/I.m. back in the bay. I'll get some better pics tomorrow.