My 91 325i track car

[kts]

The jack handle should just stand up...

Thanks for the tip. I just found a photo of someone's trunk with it like that the other day. It looks odd but it works. I need to fix a leak in my trunk and then I can finally properly store the jack back there.

Cig lighter orange trim does not like the crazy glue.
I used plastic epoxy, also made by super glue from 99c store. Worked great.

Thanks for the tip about the plastic epoxy, I'll have to give that a shot. I need to find something like that too for my E36 and the damn cheap ass plastic on my Depo headlights.

[Blackout]

Cig lighter orange trim does not like the crazy glue.
I used plastic epoxy, also made by super glue from 99c store. Worked great.

[FunfGan]

Nice work! Cars looking good. The jack handle should just stand up...

[kts]

Back from Europe and had some time to work on the car a bit this weekend.

At my last track day one of my instructors thought my car was down on power. Pulled the plugs and did a compression test.

All the plugs looked like this: (Unknown mileage, probably under 5k miles)



Compression test results


cyl 3 I cranked over a few extra times the first time when a neighbor came to harass me and distract me so I redid it twice after, got the same 170 both times.

Engine was cold and the test was done dry. Numbers are all close which is good but they are a bit higher than what the Bentley recommends. Not sure if my gauge reads high or if I have carbon build up. Engine has 140k on it so I think it's probably a bit of both.

Attempted to fix my cigarette lighter with super glue. It held about 2 seconds.


Pulled my blower motor and found out why it sounded like an army of squirrels were fighting each other when the fan was on above 2.



Damage to the blower motor housing


At higher speeds I'm guessing this crack splits and opens up more thus all the rubbing and the burnt plastic smell I would get.

I kept digging to get to the wiper linkage which I also need to remove and replace but it was giving me some headaches so I stopped for now.

I need to hit up the junkyard this week to find suitable replacements for the blower motor and the wiper linkage.

I removed the passenger side seat so I could get the VAC floor/seat mouts in and a shiny new Sparco Evo 2 Plus installed. (Installing the passenger side first so I can figure it all out, then I will tackle the driver's side.

The crime scene under the passenger seat.


I unpacked the VAC floor mounts and discovered they gave me 2 different lengths. :(





Going to call them tomorrow to see if the shorter one will still give me enough space to also install their anti-sub harness mounting brackers. If so I'l get to installing them tomorrow. I'd still like both sides to be identical set ups so may see about getting VAC to send me another set of long mounts and I'll return the short ones.

Back to tackling the wiper linkage after the Ravens finish playing.

Oh yea, and I finally have a complete toolkit. Yay!

[iSOregon]

looking good. I have also been bitten by the track bug! I foresee a lot of money I dont have being spent...

[kts]

Had to do some work on the STi this weekend since it's a little over due for some of the 60k service. So I had to finish installing the new steering wheel so I could get it out of the garage.

Height comparison of the wheels. (New Sparco on the left, old Momo on the right. Forgive the cat hair.)


Installed


Driver's view of the cluster when installed.


Since this wheel is shorter it will be a pain to check the speed when driving around town but when on the track this will be great since it will be easier to see how fast I am going, something I usually had to guess before since the old wheel blocked the top of the speedometer.

I thought they were both 350mm but I need to measure them. I think the new Sparco wheel is actually 330mm.

Took the car out for a spin and WOW the new wheel feels amazing. Every time I touch it it feels like it's going naughty things to my hands. I love it.

Also found a jack at the yard the other day. It came out of an E28 and although the part numbers for the E28 and E30 jacks are supposedly different it looked just like an E30 jack and it worked on the 2 E30s in the yard that I tried. Other than 1 spot of missing paint it looks like this jack is brand new.



Also grabbed all the bits to tie it down to where it is supposed to mount since those were gone on my car. Now I just need to figure out the proper way to mount the jack so the handle isn't sticking out.


After that I had to focus on the Subaru. Got it all done. I always dread transmission fluid and diff fluid changes, the fluid really does smell like death.

Tonight I'm going to try to find the time to switch out one of the rear lights for a mint uncracked one I picked up and that's probably all of the work the E30 will see for a while, as I'm leaving for Europe for 10 days on Wednesday. When I get back I will tackle the seat install.

[kts]

The previous owner of my car removed the toolkit to save weight and probably make a few bucks selling it. While I have my own kit of tools for the track I kinda wanted the stock toolkit so I didn't have to take my toolbox with me in the trunk everywhere and I had enough stuff for any quick road side fixes.

I trolled several junkyards and managed to put together almost an entire toolkit. Only missing the 17/19mm wrench and the screwdriver as of today. When looking at an e34 at a junkyard this morning I noticed the large tool kit in it had an nice spot for the tow hook, something I don't have in the e30 since my trunk carpet is all missing. So I grabbed it and threw it all on the car this morning.

Before no tool kit and sad :(


Ready to rock and roll


The bonus of this is that the breaker bar w 17mm socket I use for my lug wrench for the lug and stud kit I have fits in the warning triangle spot perfectly. I also threw in the 21mm spark plug tool since that's the proper one for the car I believe. (Not that I'd use either but whatever.)

Now to find the 17/19mm wrench and the screwdriver.

Oh and when I got home last night I found all this stuff waiting for me:



Woohoo seats and mounts! I only had a few minutes to look over it but wow the VAC mounts look so nice.

[kts]

Had a few minutes to work on the car the other night and got a few things worked on.

Installed a rear plate filler.

Before :(



After MUCH BETTER! :)



I need to get some better shots I know, it was dark! I also need to get some screws/bolts that are more flush with the car and to find something to pad between the car and the plate filler. I think it looks much better now. If only we could use Euro-style plates in the US!

I also removed the Momo wheel that came with my car. It's been well used by the previous owner, something I didn't realize until I was at OG Racing the other day and saw a brand new Sparco wheel. It looked and felt amazing, I had to have it.

Old wheel:


It's an easy install, remove the 6 bolts, unhook the horn wire, and reverse for the new one. The only issue I ran into is that the horn button for the Sparco is a 2 wire vs the Momo which is a 1 wire and I'm only wired for a 1 wire button. I'm running the Momo horn on there for now. I will get another Momo horn so I can remove the decal off of it and replace it with the Sparco one I have. (I could do that with the current horn I have but I want to keep it all as it in case I ever revert back or sell it.)

No pics of the new wheel since I suck.

A bunch of goodies are arriving at my house today, I can't wait. :)

[OhioriderAaron]

Great thread so far, and nice job with the changes you've done! :up:

[325ix]

Well, if you find out, definitely let us know. Maybe the PO knows? I would love to do this on my car.

[hpde30]

Thanks! Do you make it down to Summit Point at all? That's the closest track to me. I'm going to try to make it up to NJMP and I hear there is a new track near Reading PA that I am also going to try to check out next season.

I'm going down to Shenandoah with Trackdaze at the beginning of October. www.trackdaze.com for more info. I'm at NJMP a lot though, I have 8 days scheduled there from now till the season is over, lol.

I heard about that new one being built. Liberty Bell I think its called. Looks great on paper, hopefully it comes to fruition.

[kts]

It kinda looks like E36 trim. Hard to tell at that angle. I'd have to see it close up and probably a direct side shot. But if my memory serves me correctly, it does look kinda like the trim on my E36.

I'll have to get a better shot of the trim. It's pretty flush with the body.

Looks a lot different then the trim that is on my E36.

[drutt23]

It kinda looks like E36 trim. Hard to tell at that angle. I'd have to see it close up and probably a direct side shot. But if my memory serves me correctly, it does look kinda like the trim on my E36.

[kts]

What car did the side molding come from? It doesn't just look like white E30 trim.

I have no idea. They were on the car when I bought it. It's definitely not just painted E30 trim, it's a totally different design.

I've done a lot of Google searching to see if I could figure out what they came off of but no answers. It looks close to some European E30s I found photos of online but most of those photos were small and it's just too hard to make an accurate decision to what it actually is.

[325ix]

What car did the side molding come from? It doesn't just look like white E30 trim.