325ic Calypso Euro Conversion - Houndstooth & dbilas now, MT1 & MM 3.2 stroker coming

[bradnic]

Mtech1 spoiler arrived today. Vert side skirts are in transit.

Ordered a euro valance and received a BMW MISLABELED diving board valance instead! Definitely a BMW error - incredible.

top part is a repro 41331933772 euro valance. bottom is a 41331933771 US diving board valance mislabeled as a 772 euro.


Not the only person with this problem either.

[sonomabimmers]

i have a manuAL top and while i love it. I've always wondered about the electric. can't wait to see.

[bradnic]

Next project after the MT1. My car was a 7/90 build, the last month manual top verts were produced. cool thing is the sheet metal in the top compartment is fully stamped with all the power top mounting points.. So an electric top retrofit is absolutely feasible.

Yes I know nobody does this. That's why I'm doing it. Already have about 90% of the parts including an electric top.

[doorman]

My wife's texts when she'd drive the E39 usually involved her love of the car!!

At least your wife seems to be on the same wavelength as you for motor work.

[bradnic]

Wife drove the car.. Stroker and FI definitely happening lol

[sonomabimmers]

dang looks really good man. had a busy weekend with my calypso vert as well. good stuff

[bradnic]

My OEM euro valance is finally arriving this week. Will get it body schützed and painted just in time for the vintage

Busy with the car all weekend:
- thermostat housing replacement to deal with a coolant link
- reworked the ITB throttle linkage, grinding off part of it that wouldn't let me tighten mounting nuts correctly
- swapped ECU tune to deal with high idle. a 3rd tuning is coming

Spent all day today reworking my hardtop, re-gluing the headliner and replacing all the seals. We didn't want to drive all the way to Asheville with just the soft top... learned our lesson picking up the hardtop in Toronto lol.

Anyway the hardtop rework came out GREAT! Was really concerned about the adhesive soaking through the headliner cloth, but it all worked out. Bottom line: DON'T use 3M headliner adhesive, use Permatex.

STEP 1: strip the headliner back to the rear window (don't pull it off the window area). Since I was replacing the hardtop seals I went ahead and remove them at this step too.

STEP 2: scrape all disintegrated foam off the hardtop and back of the headliner cloth. be as thorough as possible. Took me over an hour to get it clean enough to not be concerned about lumps

STEP 3: follow instructions and lay out 3 coats of adhesive, changing directions each coat and waiting 5-10 minutes between them. I also brushed the adhesive flat between coats and removed any lumps by hand.

STEP 4: wait a bit and start attaching the headliner from the middle and work your way out to the edges. Take your time as it takes at least 30 minutes for the adhesive to start setting. I used my hands initially to smooth out the cloth and then followed up with a roller. BE SURE TO USE A ROLLER designed for this purpose. It is amazing how good that roller is at smoothing out the headliner!

STEP 5: let it sit a few hours before moving it.

STEP 6: Clean up the headliner fabric after the glue sets (still waiting on this). I picked up a portable steamer which should help here.



No pics of the seal work unfortunately, but it took about 3 hours to replace the front and rear seal. If you don't have patience I'd recommend not doing it :-) still gonna go back and selectively add adhesive to a few spots. The original seals where glued in place in certain areas, and there was also some black silicone or adhesive used in certain areas.

[bradnic]

fporro just posted this Hartge Japan H20 interior in the Hartge group on fb. cool to see OEM leather + houndstooth. every OEM houndstooth interior I've ever seen has anthracite/blue/brownish cloth bolsters

[bradnic]

True.. Probably just routed to a catch can

[JeLani]

How's this for cool? from e30.de, look for "Manfred: 325i"

Note carbs and relocated brake booster

Also a re-routed valve breather hose, where to? Kinda old photo i know.


Sent from my payphone using Tapatalk

[bradnic]

The ITBs flow more than stock obviously, and I did add the M30 AFM, mustang injectors and tune. I've been pretty careful and thorough with the build.. I just don't get why the surging idle happens. As you can see in the vid the itb vacuum is all balanced now. I'm not touching the throttle in the vid. I tried disconnected the ICV wiring and it had no effect on the idle - what you would expect with the engine warm.

So at least for now I'm stumped. Tempted to pull the ITBs and throughly inspect them, but there's no reason to think that will really help.

[2002jm]

:)

I was just thinking that something got unplugged, or a vac. line pinched and is leaking??:)
jm

[bradnic]

well it was fine stock :-)

[2002jm]

:)

My hartge does just the opposite. It starts cold at about 1100 and then in about 3-4 minutes it drops to 850. Wonder if your warm up system is messed up??
jm

[bradnic]

Well 30 minutes of tuning and I just couldn't get the idle to drop. pulled the battery connection, let the engine cool a bit. Car starts up and idles at 800 rpm, and within a minute it's back up to 1400-1500.

Every attempt to drop the idle results in the engine surging between 1000 and 2000 rpm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGn-lDeB0Hk


I have a note in to the sssquid folks to see if they can do something about the tune.