noe30's 89 325i build

[pogiboy9]

No worries about the cost man it's getting harder and harder to find what you want... friend paid 3000 for something similar but needs a new set of grilles and kidney and headlights.

But beats adding 20k miles to his IS-F and replacing pads for that, 11QTs Tranny fluid, 8 Oil and the list goes one :P so 3K was worth it

[noE30]

You paid 5500 for that? i paid 150 dollars for my e30, interior and paint was perfect no rust, just needed a motor

The original sale price was 5500 but I got the seller down to 4k. Also this was the only rust free late model e30 for sale within 800 miles at the time. I searched everyday and finally found this in Colorado. Like I said in the Op I was perfectly fine paying 4k for this car.

Also the Southwest (cali) is a much different market for cars compared to the Midwest especially when it comes to rust free cars.

[619E30]

But the car is nice, not for 5k though

[619E30]

You paid 5500 for that? i paid 150 dollars for my e30, interior and paint was perfect no rust, just needed a motor

[noE30]

As of tonight, the oil pan is back on and the engine will be lowered down so I can throw the head back on, new oil cooler installed, and also a power steering delete too. (it didnt have a belt on it when I bought and I decided to delete it since i preferred it) I gotta touch up some paint in the engine bay as its starting to chip/peel off.
Tomorrow the head, intake, and all pulleys/belts will be reinstalled.

[noE30]

Did some simple work today, the head is ready to be put on along with Intake mani, I will probably do that tomorrow. Then I have to sort through the mess of coolant hoses and vacuum lines, should be fun..
Ill get some pictures up tomorrow too so I can give a real update on this project.

[noE30]

Little update:

Well this project has been taking way too long! (lack of funds/time) But the good news is that it will be back together and running again soon.

Last Monday I sent the head to a local machine shop/engine builder to get rebuilt, I was expecting it to take at least a week or so, but I found out that it was finished today. Tomorrow I plan to pick it up and start putting it back together. I should be getting a package of parts from pelican tomorrow which has new belts and misc. stuff that I need.

I still need to order a full exhaust setup and new spark plugs. I'm thinking about getting the SS ebay headers and a IE catback. Does anyone have any recommendations for a cat? or should I just run a resonator instead? Also does anyone know of better exhaust nuts to use instead of the oem "one time use ones", I have a brand new set of them but don't really want to use them because they are one time use.

I'll update this again after the weekend, hopefully I have the engine mostly back together by then. I'm soo excited to drive it again, I miss it haha.

[noE30]

Nice work. Love projects like this.

Thanks alot! I only wish I could have as nice of project as yours is. I read through your thread the other day, it got me really motivated to get this done.

[Simon S]

Nice work. Love projects like this.

[noE30]

Another mini update.
Head is off and the block is all cleaned up, I will start to reassemble it on my next day off. Yesterday I cleaned up the valve cover and intake manifold and sprayed them with some vht wrinkle paint, they look great. The paint looks kinda glossy in the pics but it's really a nice flat black. I'm probably going to sand the paint off the letters and stripes on the valve cover.
Heres a few quick cell phone pics

[Hyelifecl]

Cool project. That black box did really make a difference huh. Im gonna get one and try on my benz.

[noE30]

Well I finally started tearing into the engine about 2 days ago. I haven't made crazy progress because 1. I'm taking my time as this is the first time I have done anything like this. 2. I'm labeling every thing so that I can put it back together correctly. 3. I'm broke, only getting 10-15 hours a week at work...

But heres an update.
I've got as far as getting the intake manifold off and now I'm about to pull the head. Each piece I remove makes me more and more excited about getting the engine apart and cleaned up, I cant wait to get it all fixed, cleaned, and back on the road. So far everything is going great, I should be replacing gaskets within a few days at most.

[noE30]

Can't wait to see the progress on this one.

Thanks!

I need to post up some more recent shots of the car. The car is now tint free which looks much better in my opinion. Lately I have picked up a few small things for the car, new resistor for the blower motor and new exhaust hangers. No real progress yet, just starting to piece together parts. With my next paycheck I will probably start buying suspension pieces.

Looking at getting:
New urethane bushings
New/stiffer sways
GC Coilover kit
and maybe GC camber plates if needed.

[BUDNUNTA]

Do they have anything for red cars?

Zymol makes a wax called rouge

http://www.google.com/products?q=zymol+rouge&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7SUNA_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=-oQES_OEI4KalAeplIDuAQ&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCEQrQQwAw

the stuff is awesome on red cars. I use to use it on my zinno
Its just a last step product so a bit of polishing before really helps.



Hunter

[george graves]

Can't wait to see the progress on this one.