`88 Sedan track car build - here's Siobhan! Made the front page of Jalopnik!

[kingston]

I've decided to switch directions with my `88 325 SETA Sedan. Instead of building a '327i stroker,' I've decided to pop an M50TU under the hood.

* UPDATE: The M50 is installed. And removed. An S52 under the hood is now making me giggle! *


When I first got Siobhan

After the first round of work, she looked more like this...

This is with Billstein Sports & H&R Sport springs all around. Gold powder-coated BBS RX wheels are 17x7.5. ET38, running 10mm hubcentric spacers

And a little interior work...

MOMO steering wheel and ZHP shift knob shown here. Not shown are the black leather heated Sport seats up front, or the black leather rear seats that replaced the old grey cloth comfort seats...

Almost forgot the Hella Euro Smoked smilies:D

Diving board bumpers will soon be giving way to plastics!

Some of the goodies I bought for Siobhan (From Guten Parts, naturally!)


Basically doing a total suspension refresh. Al bushings, Sways, drop links, half-shafts, Control Arms, Tie Rods, LSD, etc... Of course, I did the water pump, timing belt & tensioner, new coil, new IE plug wires, plugs, etc...

So, I'm loving the way Siobhan handles, but the M20b27 (SETA) motor is lacking. My clutch is also going out. What to do, what to do?

This.


An M50TU from a 1994 E36 325is. Complete with Getrag 250 transmission, Intake Manifold, Throttle Body, Red Label DME, UNCUT wiring harness, A/C, Power Steering Pump, Motor Mount Arms, Injectors and 17 years of oil & grime!

A little work done...

Intake Manifold, Exhaust Manifold, Valve Cover & Fan Clutch removed (after pic was taken)

Cleaned up the Motor Mount Arms


Got a set of modded OBD-II headers from Tim England (Philo on R3V). SUUUUUPER happy with the headers, and Tim gave me a GREAT price on them, too!

Old headers vs. Tim-modded OBD-II headers!

More updates soon!

[jaywood]

Looks like a fun project!

Nice car

[kingston]

Looks like a fun project!

Nice car

Thanks Jaywood! Yeah, I'm enjoying the work so far...

More progress...

Today I pulled the Power Steering pump, the Alternator, the thermostat and housing and the water pump. Here's how she sits now

And of course this latest round of work revealed more parts that I need to order. The Thermostat Housing was cracked (plastic), and surprisingly the Water Pump was still the original (I guess) plastic impeller one!

Got the Zionsville Motorsports Brake Booster...

This is a pre-modded E21 booster. Ready to bolt up and use with the stock MC and reservoir!

More updates soon...

[Tico Frank]

subscribed.

[kingston]

subscribed.

Heh! I wanna see YOUR build thread, Frank! You may finish before me!!

[kingston]

Minor update:

Mostly I've just been ordering parts (which is fun!). Levent at Guten Parts is sending me the oil pan & gasket, dipstick & tube, head-to-exhaust manifold studs, thermostat housing & thermostat, Castro's airbox, Rogue coolant hoses, new fan switch (from a `96 z3 for cool runnings!) and a few other odds & ends.

Thanks Levent for being one-stop shopping!!

Pulled a few more parts off the block tonight, and continued with the remove-clean cycle!

[kingston]

OK, I'm off this weekend, so it's time to DO WORK!

First up, the motor mount arms had some minor blemishes that I didn't dig, so...

Painted with flat black Rustolium

Removed the old starter, and transferred the front mounting plate to the new one.


Got all the accessories on the intake side removed and started cleaning. This thing was FILTHY!!

Cleaning this thing up has been far and away the most time-consuming part of the project.

More updates soon!

[kingston]

More progress!

I hate wiring, so I'm starting with an adaptor. I may pay someone else to do it later, so I can use the E30 M3 wiring covers. That'll hafta wait a while, though...

Got the wiring adaptor from EricT. Thanks man!

The block is cleared of all accessories on both the intake and exhaust side now...and the garage looks like a bomb went off in there!

Tomorrow I'll finish cleaning the engine and paint the block. May go ahead and get the head off tomorrow as well, depending on how much farther I get on other stuff!

More tomorrow! I'm beat! :yawn:

[JCarp90]

I've busted my ass helping you work on this. Seriously. Sweat and blood, bruh.

[green]

Kingston, looking good man. You're making me jealous, what with your 24 valves and all....

[kingston]

Kingston, looking good man. You're making me jealous, what with your 24 valves and all....

Heh...thanks man! There's a LOOOONG way to go still, but things are shaping up!

[Tico Frank]

You gonna paint the block? If so what color?

[kingston]

Hey Tico Frank!

I'm planning on painting it DupliColor Cast Iron. Josh Anderson (Janderson) used it on his M50 block, and I thought it looked perfect!

Here's a pic from his thread (which I used with his permission).


Here's my dilemma...I'm planning on powder coating the valve cover red, too, as Janderson did, but that was something I ALWAYS wanted to do, even back when I had my `94 325is. But, given that he's already done that, maybe I should go with a different color. There's only so many colors in the world, and Josh certainly wasn't the first (or second, or third, or hundreth) person to do that, but I don't want to be Cap'n CopyCat, either...

I've thought about doing it in gold so it matches my wheels, but I dunno...that might be a littly BlingTastic for me...

[Tico Frank]

I like the color on jandersons block as it will hide any dirt/grime but as for the head go all out. Since your wheels are goldish powder the valve cover goldish. I think I'm going to chrome plate my block. lol

[Rich@GTBPerformance]

Looking good kingston!

Looking forward to seeing what that block looks like when you have it cleaned up.

Maybe you should powdercoat it... I am thinking orange :)