nighthawk's first e30 - alpinewhite 87 325is

[nighthawk]

Hello r3v, I have been following this forum for quite some time now so I thought it would make sense to start a build thread to somewhat show my progress with my first e30 I purchased.

To start off, I am Alex, a 20 year old college student that loves old bimmers and working on cars. I am not new to them, my first car I bought with my own money was a 93 e34 525i and it was probably sealed the deal with me and bmws even though it was automatic. Here is a picture of it before I sold it after owning it for a year.



Then I sort of wanted something newer and decided to get an e46. I ended up buying a 01 325ci which came with a ton of options like heated seats, etc. Here is a gay pic of me next to it before I got over the roof rack phase.



After owning this e46 for about 2 years I started missing the design and style of the old bmws. Plus some of my friends had e30s which made me want one even more. This brings me to the e30 this thread is all about: 1987 325is alpine white. It's advertised price on craigslist was $1700, and I didn't really want to pay more than 1000. Here's a pic of it the day we went to go look at it.(sorry for the bad quality)



It was in pretty bad shape and I knew it needed work on it. We had to push start it because the battery was dead. When we started it, it was pretty loud. The exhaust had somehow bent right after the exhaust flanges at the headers and they eventually broke off so they were just sitting there. It would barely hold an idle without stalling.

There was obviously a ton of work that this car needed: dents everywhere, interior was crap, poor running engine, bad tires, etc. Now that I look back at it, I don't know how I managed to look past all of this LOL. I told my dad if we could get him down, we would by it. Earlier I already talked him down over the phone to 1200, now after seeing the car, I offered him 700. He said he couldn't do it so I offered him 800. He said alright just because he knew me and my brother(who was also there) would love it.







Sorry if i've bored you guys so far

Then slowly I have done work to it, starting with the timing belt and water pump. Also the tbelt tensioner, cam seal, oring, thermostat, distributor cap, rotor, spark plugs, valve cover gasket, valve adjustment, new coolant, new oil, pretty much anything I could think of that needed attention.

Here is the broken exhaust:


And the 'spare' that was in the trunk


Doing Work:






After all of this it still had a bad idle, which we eventually found to be the intake manifold gaskets, particularly the one closest to cylinder 1.
Also did a compression test and everything seemed great. Previous owner did say the head was rebuilt a couple years before, don't know how accurate that is though.







Then I drove it and continued to work on it and things were great for a while. Did I mention that this was my first manual car?

ES Valance found at junkyard for $15 with hardware and fog lights :grin:;D


Me, My little bro's e28 535is, and friend mike's e39


bro's e28



Everything was good until I decided to be an idiot one day following my friend home on a rainy day and took a turn a little too sharp. I ended up spinning side to side and then tapping a rock that was just off the road. My es valance that I had was scratched up and the mounting hardware all broke into pieces.

Yeah, Yeah, I learned my lesson. I have to drive the car around without even a metal valance because it was all bent up.



Just recently however I came across an 1991 e34 535i at a local junkyard with the m30b35. I decided to bite the bullet and buy it because it looked so clean. I had my brother go and get it because I promised my sister i'd go with to st. louis that weekend.. He got the engine, e34 g260 trans and driveshaft, and ecu, all for around $320.

Why M30? Because I already have 2 friends doing M50/M52 swaps and I like to be different.;D Plus It was cheap, and because torque.
So now the plans so far, although they could change:

Finish this semester and start the swap the beginning of summer:
Probably buy engine mounts like garagistic or something like that.
Change gaskets and seals while engine and trans are out.
Most likely will run m20 harness.
Probably will need new coolant reservoir because its an early model.
Get some buddies to weld up an exhaust.
Buy odds and ends like throttle cable, etc.

Still don't know what to do about an electric fan and radiator. might just use the e30 radiator if all goes well.

again sorry about the crappy pictures, will try to take better ones in the future. Please feel free to comment or ask questions, I will try to update this thread as best as I can.

[nighthawk]

So I took off the valve cover and everything looked great. Also I did some research and apparently I have an M30 from an e34 that had EML so the throttle is electronic instead of a cable. My question is: which throttle body would be ideal to replace it with? A normal b35 one or b34? Is there a difference?(looks, power)??

[trippmann]

if it were me id stick with a b35 throttle since you have an m30b35. As far as your rad and fan problem goes. use an E21 rad "it bolts right up and is thinner than the m20 rad" and you're going to have to use an electric fan "or two if you plan on keeping the AC". there's a thread around here about how you should set the fan up since this swap can have over heating problems in stop and go traffic with the ac on.

i plan on attempting this swap this summer also once i find a good donor car.

[nighthawk]

if it were me id stick with a b35 throttle since you have an m30b35. As far as your rad and fan problem goes. use an E21 rad "it bolts right up and is thinner than the m20 rad" and you're going to have to use an electric fan "or two if you plan on keeping the AC". there's a thread around here about how you should set the fan up since this swap can have over heating problems in stop and go traffic with the ac on.

i plan on attempting this swap this summer also once i find a good donor car.

thanks trippman, my uncle had a b35 throttle body laying around that he let me have. I am still looking into the radiator and fans, seeing what I can find.
I did however order some parts on friday:

-Bilstein Sport Shocks Set from turner motorsport, to go with my H&R Sport Springs.

-Garagistic m30b35 motor mounts

-used E46 678 steering rack

-maintenance items such as gaskets, rubber mounts, etc.

-e34 throttle cable

Also I did a compression test and it came out good with 170-175ish on all cylinders

Now I'm just waiting for the parts, should be in a week or so. :)

[KI4UJO]

I was at that car today, express pull-n-save row 48. I also own its audio system. When I first saw it, I did consider pulling everything, but instead I bought a 24v donor off CL this week. To ask, where are you in TN?

[nighthawk]

I was at that car today, express pull-n-save row 48. I also own its audio system. When I first saw it, I did consider pulling everything, but instead I bought a 24v donor off CL this week. To ask, where are you in TN?

I live in franklin. I think I might have met you at that junkyard once. I think you were getting speakers from an e30. You talked to me about how to adjust the AFM. This was a while ago though

[KI4UJO]

That was me. I ended up putting an e36 harmon kardon system in mine, with an e34 headunit and changer. Those speakers turned out rather nicely in my rear deck.

Not trying to threadjack, but an M30 is a good solution to an afm problem.