327i Project

[aperez49]

Long time lurker here finally getting back to the E30 world. Had a 325es for a few years, then moved into a MINI for about 7 years. Now I got the itch again. My real dream is an 02 (which I have) I just don't have the cash to make that restoration work, so an E30 it is. Lucky for me, my dad owns a BMW shop and is an extreme hoarder so it should be pretty easy to find most parts.

As for the candidate, it's a Japanese '86 318. Diamantschwarz with Anthracite Houndstooth (faded but in decent condition except for rear seat shockingly).

As for the engine, I actually stumbled upon an 88 528e that someone was going to part out, offered to trade him the engine for the labor of stripping the car completely for him. After a scare from finding out the car was actually an 87, the BMW gods smiled on me with the car still having an 885 and the seta pistons. Car is a 5/87 which I thought was pretty early for a Seta. Anyways, journals are drilled out and the head is at the machine shop to get cleaned up and checked out. Bottom end has been cleaned up, piston tops look great, crosshatching is perfect. All the rockers, springs, etc have been cleaned up and are ready to go in as soon as the head is finished at the machine shop.

The body on the car is in fantastic shape considering it's been sitting outside in Miami, no noticeable rust. Going to strip it down and get it painted (maybe a Maaco job unless I can find a local body shop to help me out). Got a major decision to make as I'm really leaning towards doing Graphit Metallic. I plan on blacking all the trim pieces and euro bumpers out with some Plasti-Dip or something else if it looks bad but that seems to be what most people are suggesting. It's getting an is front spoiler and maybe lip, side skirts and trunk lip spoiler.

Interior is another dilemma, I'm not really sure what I want to do. I love the look of the houndstooth, but even though it's in relatively good shape it's a little faded and the backseat is stained beyond saving. I'm going to go talk to a few interior shops and see what they have that might be close to the houndstooth and redo the whole interior but I'm thinking it's going to be significantly more expensive than just doing it in Black Cloth or even Synth Leather. I have some Black doorcards off my old es that I turned into a Spec E30. If I do that, I might have some houndstooth interior items for sale!

Car is definitely getting a Luke Box as soon as he officially starts this new run and a pretty good stereo setup to go with it. Other than that, nothing too crazy, some little bits and pieces here and there to make it my own. Pics will be up soon as I left my Camera is in the shop.

Well I've rambled enough, I'll keep this thread updated as I go along. Feel free to sound off on color and interior decisions!

[aperez49]

Update with Pictures

Updated pictures from initial engine stages.

After a quick cleanup the pistons and chambers look great. Will do a little more cleaning, especially to the surface where the gasket will sit.








Head needed to have the oil journals drilled out before getting sent out to a machine shop for cleaning.




Cleaned out the oil pan gasket surface so that it was nice and smooth



Also took apart cleaned up the Oil Pump while I had it out.








Reassembled:





Cleaned out the Valve Cover while I was at it...



Hopefully I'll get to keep updating this regularly. Should have the head back from the machine shop early next week for reassembly of engine. Also hope to have the car inside the shop next week so I can start tearing that down.

[aperez49]

As this car will be needing a 5-speed swap, I got to looking around the shop for a transmission. Sadly the only option was off an E30 we had stripped and junked a couple years ago. At the time we spent an entire day trying to get the engine and tranny seperated while on the car with no progress other than about 3/4" of seperation and a spinning transmission. We ended up just dropping it all eventually and storing it together in the shop to be seperated in the future, that future was now. After an overnight soak in some Penetrating oil, we started trying again with again absolutely no progress.

New plan of attack became to remove the clutch bolts to allow seperation. One way to do this is to cut a hole in the bell-housing to gain access and then re-weld it after the fact. In order to avoid that, we decided to spin the transmission so that the starter "housing" was off to the side of the block. Then with this magical extention/box end (presumably precision bent by my dad for just such a task) we were able to sneak the box end wrench to the back of the clutch and remove the bolts at which time tranny and engine were finally seperated. Sorry for lack of in progress pictures, but it was a frustrating attempt of different tools until we finally stumbled upon this one.



After that, the clutch still didn't want to come off the transmission shaft, after thoroughly destroying the clutch, cutting off rivots and using a puller, we were finally able to get it off by breaking the collar that sites directly on the splines.




After this it was time to call it a night.. More to come..

[QBANG]

What did you use to clean up the valve cover?

[aperez49]

Combination of gas, spray nine, light scotch-brite pads, brushes and this...

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/specialty-air-tools/engine-cleaning-gun-97014.html

running gas through it. That sprayer is great on most things but only after you remove all the caked on stuff. Normally I'll use a scraper to knock off the heaviest stuff, then use some stiff parts washing brushes with gas, to start loosening the finer stuff off, then use the sprayer and the scotch-brite. Spray Nine (followed by immediate rinsing) is used for more detailed work.

[aperez49]

Next day it was time to clean up the transmission a bit. Nothing too crazy, just wanted to knock the heavy stuff off and have the inside of the housing clean so nothing would get on the bearings when I went to replace the seals.

Before:




After:



Then it was time to remove the front seal and replace it. Clean up the covers and put some Hylomar before putting back together:

[aperez49]

Also cleaned up and painted the Oil Pan:





Also got the head back from the Machine shop looking nice and clean:

[aperez49]

It was time to put the head together. After one last cleaning of the valves, springs, retainers, etc. I got to work. Excuse the pretty bad pictures, I was having a hell of a time trying to focus the camera with greasy hands.

Valve Stem condoms


Putting on the Seals:


A little dab of grease helps keep the retainers and the keepers in place



Valve's all done




Cam went in and started on the rockers:


Everything is in..


New front Cam Seal:

[aperez49]

Plans change....

Well, the engine is pretty much back together:






However, plans have changed. This photo had made me pretty much switch from Graphit to Sterling, but I didn't know it would sway me to a 4-dr from the Euro 2-dr that I had already picked.



Luckily, I had a 4-dr 325i plastic bumper out back that would work perfectly. In fact, I was going to be stealing the wiring/ABS and cooling system from this thing anyways, so now it just saves a little work. It may not look great, but the thing has pretty much zero rust and is in great shape body wise. I've only got this 1 quick picture, but I'll get more this week.



Got to work on the interior: removed cluster, removed existing alarm system and began removal of everything else.





Hope to get a lot done this week in terms of removing interior completely and starting on exterior trim as well so I can start thinking about getting this painted. Still working on plans for the interior, feel free to make suggestions.

[phenryiv1]

Several points:

1. Your build reminds me of how ghetto my Seta-based 327i build really was.
2. The more I see plastic-bumper sedans, the more I wish that I had a sedan over my coupe.
3. Subscribed.

[nando]

nice, looking forward to see how it turns out. sterling silver sedans FTW, fresh paint in this color looks amazing.

[aperez49]

Pat, don't be fooled by the pictures. It's not exactly a fancy build, lots of gas, scotch pads and black BBQ high heat paint, and some time..lol. You have a great build thread going.. luckily I don't quite have the family to worry about just yet so I get to spend all the time I can on the car..lol.

You ever get the chip that was written for the 2.7i? I'd love some info on this so that I know where to go when I start searching for it.. How have you liked the 3.73 on that engine. I have that and a 4.10. I was thinking of installing the 4.10 just to see how much fun it is and if it really annoys me on the highway I'll swap the 3.73 in. Also, any particular reason you went with the 19# injectors?

[phenryiv1]

Pat, don't be fooled by the pictures. It's not exactly a fancy build, lots of gas, scotch pads and black BBQ high heat paint, and some time..lol. You have a great build thread going.. luckily I don't quite have the family to worry about just yet so I get to spend all the time I can on the car..lol.

I just wish that I had had the time to pull the block, clean it, and install it back in the car with a clean appearance. One reason- old oil looks a lot like new oil, so if I have issues, it won't be apparent. I really should have painted the head, at a minimum.

Thanks for the compliments on the build thread. Sadly, after over a year it is still not on the road, and the body looks pretty sad for what ($$$$$$$!!!!) I have into it. I am strongly considering finding an 89+ sedan and swapping in everything that I have, just to have a better chassis to work with. Plus, as I part out an 86 sedan that I bought, I see why it is that I daily drive a 4-door...

How have you liked the 3.73 on that engine. I have that and a 4.10. I was thinking of installing the 4.10 just to see how much fun it is and if it really annoys me on the highway I'll swap the 3.73 in. Also, any particular reason you went with the 19# injectors?

I have really not driven the car at all since installing the 3.73. I had a 2.93S and traded it to a guy out west for the 3.73s. Unfortunately, the week after I pulled the 2.93, we started getting a TON of snow, and I never got around to installing the 3.73s until spring. Between weather, work, and family, the car sat for 3-4 months.

When I did finally get the 3.73 installed, I had already pulled the head for the 327i build, so I never tested it. I had pulled the head to swap on a junkyard "i" head, btu it turned out that that head was seized. Had I just checked the head BEFORE pulling apart my motor, I could have installed the diff and tested it with the stock motor while I sourced a new head, but I tore apart my motor before checking out the head that was going on the car. Rookie mistake.

After the motor was built, I found that the diff (or SOMETHING in the rear-end) has a really bad "thunk" sound when I endage or disengage the clutch, or when I get on and off of the throttle. Since the only aspect of the running gear that has changed is the diff, I assume that I have a bad input bearing.

I just bought a new 3.73S yesterday, but it will be at least a week or so before I get it installed. I am toying with the idea of just re-doing EVERYTHING back there- subframe and RTA bushings, bearings, installing new (or tighter used) axles before I install the diff, but if I do install the diff and the problem goes away, I have bought myself some time. If, on the other hand, I install it and the thunk is still there, then I wasted a lot of time and money...

As for the other questions-

You ever get the chip that was written for the 2.7i? I'd love some info on this so that I know where to go when I start searching for it..

The guy flaked on the 2.7i custom MarkD chip. I do have a 173 with a MarkD chip tuned for the 2.5 with 19# injectors, but it is not yet installed. I actually have not even adjusted my valves yet. I have just been too busy. The car has sat since I put the motor together. I don't want to run with the chip until I get the valves adjusted, I get it tagged and, I get good gas in it.

Also, any particular reason you went with the 19# injectors?

I went with 19#ers just to eliminate the possibility that I would not have enough fuel down the road, plus I got them for cheap AND it seemed that most of the chips were tuned for 93 with 19# injectors. Call it me following the herd on that one...

[aperez49]

Well it's been over a month since my last post.. but work has been happening on the car, engine is in and maintenance items on the underside have been taken care of. It's just been a little slow since the shop was busy and the lift was occupied. Anyways, while it was still on the ground I got to work stripping the interior.




Tried to organize the wiring a little bit. Didn't want to cover it completely since it becomes tough to get through all the tight spaces with the added rigidity of a full electrical tape wrap, but at least I got the bundles together.



Carpet came out next, almost forget what a pain in the ass this is every time..


Now we've got this..


That was pretty much it for the interior work for now. Car will be painted before I do all the radio wiring and the interior will be sent off for recovering. I'm also dying the carpet black, though not sure which method I'll go with yet..

Got another update to write, but that'll happen tonight.

[aperez49]

Got around to pulling the block and tranny that was still in this car (though no pictures since I had left my camera that day). Then I cleaned out the engine bay a little bit since I was going to give it a rattle can job.





Before putting the new engine in decided to do some maintenance work on the underside. One of the tierod ends needed replacing so we put in a newused one.


This wheel bearing was no good...



Newused one goes in..


Figured it was time to do the subframe bushings and get to test out the custom made rear subframe bushing puller..





New ones go in..