1990 325i--Helga

[cgk_iii]

Whats up r3v. Being on the forum for a couple years searching through threads, bugging people for advice, and sourcing parts, ive decided to finally start a build thread.

A few years back in 2011 i picked up my first e30. Ive always loved these cars; my dad had two 85' e30's back in the 90's. An 85 325 automatic and an 85 325e 5 speed, which were both really fun cars to ride in at the time and ever since then ive had a soft spot for them. My cousin, who is a forum member, (dbith57), got his e30 a bit before i got mine and he was telling me how much he loved it, and how he remembered my parents having e30's when we were all kids. After that conversation with him, i was sold into getting one for my self.

so here she sits nice and ugly:



not so pretty, but it was a solid platform to work on. The plan for the car is to do a 2.8L N/A motor and get the suspension/brakes back to good condition with a few upgrades; cosmetics can come later.

some pics of one of my dads 85 from back in the day. Cant find many pics of either car, but i might be able to dig around in some old photo albums to find more.








Thats it for now! Ill try and keep the build thread up to date as much as possible. Any comments are always welcome.

[cgk_iii]

found some pics when i first purchased the car back in 2011. there was a shitty alarm system installed which would go off while i was driving. engine sounded healthy and was fairly clean, except for that cone filter sucking in hot air.









interior was pretty rough....





So i stripped it down and found a great deal on a rough set of m3 seats which i couldnt pass up... pretty good condition houndstooth door panels, and a decent anthracite carpet.





i have an early model carpet that im going to swap out soon for this heavy late model carpet since it seems like the early model carpet has less padding.

[cgk_iii]

So i one day i was driving down the road and i heard what sounded like a bolt flying off the car, followed by some thuds on the passenger side front wheel. jacked the car up and WHAM the the strut just fell out of the mount.


so i went online and ordered some new shocks and struts with mounts, control arms, control arm bushings, tie rod assemblies, rotors and brakes, and sway bar links.






Untitled by cgk325i, on Flickr

by cgk325i, on Flickr

by cgk325i, on Flickr

[cgk_iii]

after replacing the frunt suspension and brakes, i noticed how bad my steering rack was leaking so i ordered a new z3 rack and an ireland engineering urethane steering coupler to clean up the slop in the steering.

since i was so used to the old rack having no power steering, i just went ahead and took out the pump and reservoir.

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since this was once an airbag car, i had to modify the firewall. die grinder with a carbide burr bit cut through it with ease.

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soon after the front suspension overhaul, i took a trip to the junkyard to gather some parts. halfway there i noticed a cloud of white smoke trailing behind me and when i got home i started digging into the motor and found this:

Untitled by cgk325i, on Flickr

Untitled by cgk325i, on Flickr

by cgk325i, on Flickr

obvious coolant in oil..

[cgk_iii]

After that unfortunate event, i decided it was time to start building the motor.

started taking disassembling the head

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by cgk325i, on Flickr

by cgk325i, on Flickr

by cgk325i, on Flickr

by cgk325i, on Flickr

so dirty.

by cgk325i, on Flickr

sent the head off to the machine shop and started to clean up/paint the intake manifold and valve cover.


by cgk325i, on Flickr

by cgk325i, on Flickr


then started to collect parts.

2.8L from an m52b28

by cgk325i, on Flickr

ETA rods

by cgk325i, on Flickr

"bavauto" headers ceramic coated

by cgk325i, on Flickr

Bimmerheads 274 regrind cam and heavy duty rockers

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windage tray and valve springs, and rocker shaft. along with other parts.
Also i got new eccentrics and retainers but i couldnt find a picture of that.

by cgk325i, on Flickr

[cgk_iii]

When i got the head back from the machine shop, (my neighbor) it looked great, but there was something very important missing... NO VALVES!!?!? So i went over to my neighbors told him the valves were missing and he tells me that he gave them back..

i digged around everywhere for them and found NOTHING. So couple days of searching, and throwing things around in anger, i went back and told him there was no valves to be found, to which his response was "ill look for them in the shop" ... weeks go by...months go by... still NOTHING.

finally i gave up with him. i figured it was nice enough for him to resurface the head for $40 so i didnt feel it was necessary to start complaining about the valves so i went looking for a new set.

headed to the junkyard with hopes there would be a motor in good condition or a motor without a snapped timing belt and then i came across a 1991 vert. the top end looked brand spanking new. New water pump, new timing belt, pulled the valve cover and it looked fresh. Pulled off the head, inspected the valves, and was shocked how good of condition the valves were.

75$ later, i had a good head and new valves for my motor. this was me facing my neigbors house when i got home --> :finger:

Untitled by cgk325i, on Flickr

by cgk325i, on Flickr

[cgk_iii]

let the valves sit in chem-dip over night and hit them with a wire wheel on a bench grinder. after cleaning them up i started to lap them.

by cgk325i, on Flickr

before:
by cgk325i, on Flickr

after:
by cgk325i, on Flickr


After lapping the valves i threw the head in the car and took off to the race shop to assemble.

by cgk325i, on Flickr

cam bearings were in really good condition with minimal wear.

by cgk325i, on Flickr

by cgk325i, on Flickr

I didn't get any pictures when installing the cam/rockers because my hands were covered with assembly lube. Found some cheapy ebay headers laying around the shop and mocked it up...


by cgk325i, on Flickr


by cgk325i, on Flickr

and then with my headers...

by cgk325i, on Flickr

[cgk_iii]

new/painted t-stat housing

by cgk325i, on Flickr


after assembling the head i started to clean up the block. I couldnt proceed with the 2.8 build at the moment because of some personal issues, so i decided to just throw the head on, get a tune, and then at some point when things clear up, ill get to rebuilding/stroking the block.

used a brass wire brush and a lot of all purpose solvent to clean up the piston heads and block

this stuff is great..
Untitled by cgk325i, on Flickr

by cgk325i, on Flickr

I noticed that the engine was tilting a bit and looked down at the motor mounts, only to find out that they were busted.. dont really know how that happened since they were in good shape before i started to take things apart..

ARP head studs installed

by cgk325i, on Flickr

head back on.. things are looking/feeling good. motor turns smoothly when rotating by hand. valves adjusted to .010" after torquing the head down with ARP's torque sequence. ready to roll.

by cgk325i, on Flickr


after the install, i ordered new motor mounts, 20w50 penn grade 1 oil (the green stuff), and a new mann oil filter. Got all the hoses/belts on and its ready for start up and a noisy 20 minute cam break in ;D

by cgk325i, on Flickr

[cgk_iii]

the last of the 20 min of break in:

https://flic.kr/p/p8UNBz

first test drive:

https://flic.kr/p/p8TVr9

i got so much shit that day after breaking in the cam and going for test drives around the block. 5 neighbors ended up complaining.. 1 guy came over to me and started asking if i had a v8 under the hood lol.

heard a lot of rattling underneath the car, so i inspected the driveshaft and sure enough the CSB was DESTROYED.

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very happy with the end results but theres still work to be done...

but then a couple weeks later, this happened....

fuel leak :hitler:

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[KIRIEIW]

Ha nice Center support. Maybe I'll see you driving around, I'm also in San Mateo.

[cgk_iii]

update:
-Found an engine harness at the junkyard down in san jose for only $43
-took off intake manifold and valve cover and cleaned it up/repainted

Untitled by cgk325i, on Flickr

Untitled by cgk325i, on Flickr

[cgk_iii]

Ha nice Center support. Maybe I'll see you driving around, I'm also in San Mateo.

should be back up and running in a few weeks. i'm usually in the down town area.

[cgk_iii]

so there has been some updates since my last post, but i havent had a chance to post any pictures since my phone fried last week..

After cleaning everything and replacing all the burnt items, the car fired right up the other night and it sounded great with the new tune and 17lb injectors. a few more things with the interior have to be buttoned up then will be getting a muffler installed.

will post pics as soon as my phone is back in working order..

[E30stan]

dont loose heart, keep up the great work!

[cgk_iii]

ill put this here for now

Untitled by cgk325i, on Flickr