Zinno M3 Project

[M-technik-3]

Car looks familar. It was a S14 car correct? Dump the E38 wheels heavy and ugly IMO.

You can't go wrong with a Stromung and VSR center section.

It is still a S14 car yes. I would never buy an e30 M3 with a swap. If you're swapping you don't get the point of the car.

What I meant was it was for sale on S14.net. I get the S14 thing, have three.



Here are my two 88's.

[enigmaticdream]

What I meant was it was for sale on S14.net. I get the S14 thing, have three.



Here are my two 88's.

Ah, the car was never posted anywhere for sale. It was by word of mouth.

Clean looking M3s.

[GOT8SPD]

Here are my two 88's.

You have two e30 m3s? Well....I'm just fucking jelly.

[M-technik-3]

It was luck of the draw, right place right time. Far under market these days. OP looks cool looking forward to more updates.

[XW70]

I also picked up a set of these that I'll be working on refinishing.

SSR mesh? or epsilon?

Gonna look wicked on the m3, great build so far

[enigmaticdream]

SSR mesh? or epsilon?

Gonna look wicked on the m3, great build so far

Work Ewing Mesh

[XW70]

Work Ewing Mesh

Even better!

[enigmaticdream]

It has been a while, but I haven't been stagnent. When I started this, this was all catchup from since I bought car.

So since I had made it to Bimmerfest East. My daily, the 87 325is decide to break a rocker arm. Sucks, but that's okay. I decided to daily the M3 in the mean time. Ultimately I fix the problem along with the other 11 rockers, and the cam, and the gaskets, and the head, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, I happened upon some H&R race springs during our NC Oktoberfest and decided to get a set of used J-stock setup shocks for the time being. I couldn't take being a monster truck anymore in the vehicle. I did the rear first, then did the front end over a friday night.

BEFORE:


REAR DONE:


I don't have a picture of the front. Nothing out of the ordinary.

After that and getting the 325 back on the road. I retired the M3 for the time being. The next thing up was some overhauling of the engine. Not that anything was wrong, but I needed a valve adjustment. Later I found out I misread the duration of valve adjustments, but since I had already cut her open I proceeded anyway.

List of work done:
-Valve adjustment
-Powder coating valve cover/intake manifold (wrinkle black with white accents)
-Replace all oil hoses
-Reinforce front subframe, powder coat flat black
-Install TMS J-Stock suspension
-Correct roll center via Massive Brake spacers (13mm)
-Install part 1 of 2, front Bimmmerworld 22mm front sway bar
-Rod bearing replacement
-New oil pump (Sport Evo was NLA :( )
-Reseal upper and lower oil pans
-Replace PS lines
-Inner/Outer tie rods
-Replace spark plug wires
-Replace engine mounts (and ultimately transmission mounts)
-Installed Recaro SRDs
-Clean stuff along the way
-I don't have pictures, but prior to this I replaced the chain tensioner with the e36 variant

I picked up a set of these. So far, so good, so sexy...


140k ain't no thang. I find it incredibly hard to believe that the head hasn't been rebuilt, but the vin on the head matches the body and the exterior is cover with grim. I was blown away to say the least after remove the valve cover.




During the remove of the front subframe I found out that I was about to have a critical failure of the engine mounts. The mounts were dated 87.


No joke on the 87


So, due to finding out the motor mounts were toast. I ordere AKG "group n" mounts with trans mounts to match.


Finally, I got to the rod bearings. I removed the oil pans and oil pump. It isn't the prettiest, but nothing out of the ordinary.




A slight mark, but the rest looked good. Note the plastigauge, you WILL use it when checking clearance for rod bearings.


Ultimately, everything underneath was pretty much reassembled and cleaned up.


Then I reassembled the top with freshly powder coated bits from Renewed Finishes.




These bits got installed at some point...


Roll Center Spacers


As well as camber plates


Added these to the interior.


To end the night, this is how the car sat prior to breaking heading over to the GF's house one night...Ignore the painter's tape on the lights. I did it as a joke prior to AutoX.

[kalib0y]

nice project. I dig the wheels the car came with

[enigmaticdream]

Thus continues the adventure of this car. The Vintage finally arrived and the car wash ready to take it there. The Vintage for the uninitiated is a big vintage BMW event in NC. The main event is on Saturday, but there are events on Friday and Sunday. It is always a good time.

Anyway, my buddy Art drove back to NC from NM for The Vintage. We had a nice photo shoot at some college. His car has probably the only wide body BBS body kit in the US. It was formally mine that I kind sold to him :) It was better meant for him being able to fit it properly.






The Vintage was a blast with the weekend ending with parade laps at VIR.





One of the problems to address once I got home was the cooling system. It was not happy sitting idle for long periods. Being well experienced in a bad cooling system I had methods to work around it. I replaced everything on the cooling system.

Sensors


Reservoir


Thermostat


Radiator


The water pump casting on the block. I took this to see how good the interior of the block was. I'm quite happy.


Pretty much done minus a few bits.


The car over the past year has been running well. We took it to Bimmerfest East and several AutoX events. Over the winter more work was in order with parts that showed up, but that's for another time.

[lucidy]

I lol'd at "Being well experienced in a bad cooling system I had methods to work around it. I replaced everything on the cooling system."

Beautiful car mate! Any update on the work mesh's?

[M-technik-3]

nice updates

[jhaurimn]

Looking good. At plans to get those work mesh's on?

[enigmaticdream]

Only update on the Ewings is that 3 need straightening and I had new bolts matched for them. They are M8 with a 12mm diameter flange. 99.9% of M8 bolts have a 13mm diameter flange.