Never really done a build thread before on a project of this scope. I am a little late on getting this thread started, and it will be missing a lot of pictures of the progress that has already happened, but I would like to log the evolution of the car.
I have never had a project car before, and have several friends who love their e30's, so I started looking for one.I found this "gem" on craigslist. A 1991 diamondschwartz sedan. The exterior was pretty rough, but the tan cloth interior was in decent shape, minus the dash. M42 mated to a 5 speed, started up fine, and went through the gears. I figured why not, and handed the guy $900 bucks.
He said the car would over heat after a while, and thought it might need a new head gasket. At the time, I didn't realize that these things crack like glass when they get hot.
I drove it about halfway home (~30min) before I noticed it was pretty hot. Pulled over in downtown Atlanta and let it cool down. After it was cooled off, drove it all the way home. On this trip, I realized that EVERYTHING in the front end needed replacing. Shocks were non-existant, and every bump in the road sent the front end wandering all over the road. It was a little unsettling at 70mph to have 20 degrees of steering play in a front end that was barely attached.
When I got it home, I pretty much immediately tore into the motor. I was a little confused by the god awful coolant lines and vacuum lines. I was then even more confused by the head gasket. Head gasket looked new, a thorough look over the head revealed a heathy crack in it. Damn.
Here is the 318 in the garage with my roommates. I was pulling out all of the interior because it smelled like ass. The carpet was filthy, but a few hours with a steam cleaner fixed that.
I searched for a head and a motor and was coming up empty, so I decided to take care of the shitbox front end. The little 318i received new control arms, m3 offset CAB's, bilstein sport front shocks, h&r race springs, and an e36 steering rack. It took me a little while to get it all in, but it wasn't difficult, nor really that expensive.
After I got all that in, I picked up an m42 for 200 bucks, dropped it in, and started playing with the car a bit. I couldnt really get into the 4cyl. It is kinda buzzy, sounds weird, and is terribly under powered. I did find out though, that someone had dropped in a 410 LSD. So that make the car fun to slide.
Annoyingly, a pretty serious oil leak, and a shot CSB kept me from driving the car for a while, and I still hated the way the car looked.
My dad has been in the auto refinish industry my whole life. My parents had a date set to move across the country, so I bit the bullet and put two weeks of ass busting into painting the car with his help before he moved. So at this stage, I have a better looking car that sits in the garage.
I toyed with the idea of turbocharging the m42, and fixing all of its other problems. I tallied up all I would need and even started collecting parts.
Thats when I discovered the m30, and scrapped that idea completely. I spent the next 8 months turning any and all spare cash into parts to get the m30b35 I had bought, ready for my 318. It was a painfully long process, but I lucked out on some awesome parts along the way.
not done yet...
I have never had a project car before, and have several friends who love their e30's, so I started looking for one.I found this "gem" on craigslist. A 1991 diamondschwartz sedan. The exterior was pretty rough, but the tan cloth interior was in decent shape, minus the dash. M42 mated to a 5 speed, started up fine, and went through the gears. I figured why not, and handed the guy $900 bucks.
He said the car would over heat after a while, and thought it might need a new head gasket. At the time, I didn't realize that these things crack like glass when they get hot.
I drove it about halfway home (~30min) before I noticed it was pretty hot. Pulled over in downtown Atlanta and let it cool down. After it was cooled off, drove it all the way home. On this trip, I realized that EVERYTHING in the front end needed replacing. Shocks were non-existant, and every bump in the road sent the front end wandering all over the road. It was a little unsettling at 70mph to have 20 degrees of steering play in a front end that was barely attached.
When I got it home, I pretty much immediately tore into the motor. I was a little confused by the god awful coolant lines and vacuum lines. I was then even more confused by the head gasket. Head gasket looked new, a thorough look over the head revealed a heathy crack in it. Damn.
Here is the 318 in the garage with my roommates. I was pulling out all of the interior because it smelled like ass. The carpet was filthy, but a few hours with a steam cleaner fixed that.
I searched for a head and a motor and was coming up empty, so I decided to take care of the shitbox front end. The little 318i received new control arms, m3 offset CAB's, bilstein sport front shocks, h&r race springs, and an e36 steering rack. It took me a little while to get it all in, but it wasn't difficult, nor really that expensive.
After I got all that in, I picked up an m42 for 200 bucks, dropped it in, and started playing with the car a bit. I couldnt really get into the 4cyl. It is kinda buzzy, sounds weird, and is terribly under powered. I did find out though, that someone had dropped in a 410 LSD. So that make the car fun to slide.
Annoyingly, a pretty serious oil leak, and a shot CSB kept me from driving the car for a while, and I still hated the way the car looked.
My dad has been in the auto refinish industry my whole life. My parents had a date set to move across the country, so I bit the bullet and put two weeks of ass busting into painting the car with his help before he moved. So at this stage, I have a better looking car that sits in the garage.
I toyed with the idea of turbocharging the m42, and fixing all of its other problems. I tallied up all I would need and even started collecting parts.
Thats when I discovered the m30, and scrapped that idea completely. I spent the next 8 months turning any and all spare cash into parts to get the m30b35 I had bought, ready for my 318. It was a painfully long process, but I lucked out on some awesome parts along the way.
not done yet...
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