Project Izzy: The AWD Money Pit

[stonea]

Me too, I always try to read the ix builds, or at least keep them bookmarked so I can come back to them later. Hopefully I should have some updates with in the next week or so.

[DIIRTY-30]

I know this might be batting far left, but in regards to the oil capacity issue. Aside from the given s54 housing, if your thinking of doing a custom job. Have you considered just running a dry sump, or something along those line? Never really have poked my head under an IX since i rarely see them near me. Not sure what issues arise with them for swaps as far as the pans concerned.

[stonea]

Dry sump has been mentioned in the 24v ix thread before and personally I wouldn't do it unless it was like a S54/38/62 something that was worth the extra money. Also since it is my daily I would prefer a traditional oil pick up. If I was still going with the fraken pan then I would probably get Tyler at Arc Asylum weld it up and add a "box" off to the side to allow more oil capacity, but I decided that going with the the e53 x5 3.0 oil pan was a much better solution. It solved my oil capacity problem along with fabricating a new pick up, and the best part.... no more flimsy 325ix diff!!!! However it requires a new front subframe that DarkSideofWill has been designing. I also had the new problem of creating a custom front driveshaft as well as what ever I would use for the half shafts. However I've changed the plans once again with where I want this car to go (still using x5 parts just a different engine). This time I'm certain of what I want to do. My car is currently in the shop getting a new head gasket and also some head work done and getting them try figuring out a charging issue thats been plaguing me since day one. I didn't really want to update this thread with my new plans until I had a car to post pictures of.

The good news is I'll have pictures to post Tuesday though!

The better news is I'll still have pictures even if I don't have Izzy back yet ;D

[stonea]

Well I've been promising updates, but I keep coming up short. Well now I at least got something. First off Izzy is up a running. Head gasket fixed and some minor work to the head. Also got all new ignition components, plus fuel filter, and some sensors (CPS, TPS, ect). I haven't picked her up yet but should be able to swing by Friday to grab her. Also FINALLY figured out the charging issue that I've been having. I replaced everything it could be expect for the D+ wires running to the C101 connector (pin 12 I think) and the wires running from the battery. Well turns out I bought a faulty rebuilt alternator and the shop replaced with a OEM rebuilt one and now everything should be operational. I just need to find a ride to go pick her up and she's mine again!

Now onto some other news. Remember that girl I meet with the e30? (on page 6) Well over the summer she called me asking if I knew anyone who wanted to buy her car. She was moving to California and couldn't take it with her. I told her I would keep an eye out for anyone and I started thinking about who would be perfect for it and then I realized it was me, lol. I called her and said I would take it. It was priced for 1.5k and I would have been stupid not to pick that up in the current e30 market. She said she needed it for 4 more months until she left for Cali, which was perfect cause I had plenty enough time to save up for the car plus a little budget for the winters project. Well I picked it up on Tuesday and I'm in LOVE with it. Its a little 1989 325i auto thats rust free and very unknown milage. It drives a hell of a lot better than Izzy when I first got her. I was planning on doing 5 speed, coilovers, and a swap, but honestly the little auto isn't all that bad. I've always heard that e30 autos suck, but I think thats from people who think anything other than a 5 speed is the devils work and should be burnt in the hell that it spawned from. For the time being I'm going to focus on maintenance and making her look a little better. Maybe crack and buy some lowering springs and 15" wheels, but nothing insane though. After a little bidding war with some guy who wanted to gut it, cage it, and 2JZ swap it I ended up paying $2,000 and a promise that I would treat her right. Anyway onto a couple of pics I have of it!





I'll go into my future plans for the ix when I finally get her back.

[stonea]

Happy Post 1,000 to me!!!!!

Anyways I FINALLY got Izzy back and she runs great. Recewerks in Virginia Beach did the work and they did a great job. My favorite part is the owner called me almost every other day to keep me in the loop. Even though they were working on a $1,500 crappy car I saved from rusting away in someones back yard they still treated it and me like it was no different than one of their swapped e30s, Dinan e39 M5, or e46 M3 racecar they had in the shop. I did find it funny that they had my car parked next to a Maserati when I pulled up. The cheapest car next to the most expensive car, hahaha.



I have noticed a lot of rattles at idle though. I think I'm only noticing them now because my AC compressor made so much noise before it was unbearable and the shop removed the belt while it was in there. When I gut the interior to fix some mild rust I guess I'll just have to make sure that everything is properly tightened down and snapped into place.

Here are some welcome home pics next to her new garage mate.




There definitely is a difference in the way she drives. I wouldn't say the engine pulls harder, but its definitely healthier. Even though I have a healthy engine I'm not happy with the power, but I guess thats a good thing because I have plans to fix that.

Now I've been looking into using my M54 for a engine candidate for a while now, but that recently changed. I really want this car to be special some day and the M54 just isn't that special in my eyes. Its a great engine, but I'd rather save it for a future daily (thinking e34 touring :devil:) also the main reason I was using the M54 is because I just had it sitting around. I started thinking about what engine I want and did the typical S54, euro S50 phase and even thought about a S52 (Even though I don't particularly like it), but still none of it was really what I wanted. Then my taste in cars kind of changed and I really started to like period correctness. I found a M30 on craigslist and started looking into the M30 swap and kind of fell in love with the motor. It seemed to be exactly what I wanted, but it still didn't have that pop I was looking for. Then I stumbled across Corvallis' M30 build and discovered the beautiful e32 745i and the M106. That was what I wanted, I wanted a AWD "factory" turbo'd M30 e30.

Pic of Franks M106 Swap



So the plans are to attempt a M30 swap into a ix and on top of that fit a factory turbo into it. Corvallis had some very close clearance issues with the wastage, but since the ix strut towers are vertical and more forward I think I should be fine. Now I have seen a couple of s38 ix swaps on e30.de so it does seem possible, but a lot of them were custom oil pans so it looked like that was the route I was going until I found this picture.



The oil pan is just a tiny bit smaller the the M30 bolt pattern and with an adapter this guy made, he made it work. I didn't like how back yard engineered that looked so I came up with another idea. I just need to design a m30 bolt pattern flange and once I get a x5 oil pan I'll cut off the M54 bolt pattern and get someone to weld the custom M30 one on. I think this is the best, quickest, easiest, and cheapest route. I'm also keeping the x5 pan because according to Corvallis build thread he's using a very tall gear (2.97?) and the e53 x5 came with a 3.07 in the diesel X5 and its the tallest gear ratio BMW offered in AWD. Someone on the forum is designing a custom subframe for the ix that will allow clearance problems with the oil pan and front diff. All that remains is a U joint front driveshaft and I need to do something with the front half shafts, but I might just go custom on those.

I also recently came into some pretty cool parts which is good and bad. Good because I think they're really cool and didn't cost me much, but the bad is I'm addicted. I'm now on the hunt for cool, rare, and unusual parts to install onto my ix and thats not going to make my wallet happy.

ix headlight washer tank.


South African/Euro M3 auxiliary fuel tank.




My future plans also include Ground Control Coilovers, Massive Lee's Street BBK, custom quick steering rack ratio, M Tech 2 kit, and Alpina/Kopi 15" wheels. This winter I want to fix everything that needs fixing on the 325i and hopefully I can get started on the ix this summer (school permitting).

Let me know what you guys think of my new plans and if you have anything to add or change. I had a lot of help with the other ix guys who want to go 24v, but I'm wondering into unknown territory with this swap and I'm on my own.

Also I would like to apologize for the future quality of pics. In my own stupidity when I was working on Izzy I got pissed off and called it a day and forgot to lock her up. When I came back I noticed someone stole my Nikon DSLR, the part that confuses me is that they didn't take my GoPro or Alienware that was in the trunk too. It sucks, but living where I do I was just happy I still had my computer and GoPro, and really my car. Anyways for the time being my pics are being taken with my Galaxy S6 and GoPro until I can afford to get another camera.

[stonea]

As of 28 years ago today Izzy rolled off the BMW assembly line!

Happy Birthday Izzy!!!!

[ccsdo5]

aww man that's a bummer about your nikon. I can't find my dslr but it was pretty beat up so I'm just going to get myself a D7000 sometime soonish.

The thing I don't like about that adapter plate for the oil pan in that picture above is you now have two gaskets instead of one, and you need to raise the engine the amount of that plate to keep the front drive shaft level with the transfer case.

I'm curious to see what that modified IX sub frame will look like to allow the X5 oil pan. I would be concerned mostly about figuring out a steering rack solution. This all sounds big baller custom which is pretty cool. I'm starting to wish I didn't part out my IX and I tried to put a m50 or something in it.

sub'd for future progress on M30 turbo swapped IX ;D

Also I still have that spare subframe and oil pan from my IX if you still want it, sorry I totally forgot to get a shipping quote for you.

[stonea]

I was bummed about the camera at first, but living in Norfolk thats a part of the deal I guess. Like I said I still have my GoPro and computer with CAD and all of my other programs on it so it could have been worse.

I'm pretty excited about how the subframe works out. He's designing it to accept a e46 xi rack, but we're not 100% sure that'll work. Will is designing it for his swap and doing it in his free time so it may be a while before anything actually happens, but that gives me time to track down a M30 g260 and a M106 turbo system. No matter what I'll need a custom drive shaft though, front and maybe rear depending on where I place the M30 in the engine bay.

I'll still take the ix subframe and oil pan though. I will need a couple of weeks for a paycheck though. Buying a second car and getting a shop to do the head gasket has taken a toll on my bank account.

[e30m3s54turbo]

Cool project!!

On the ix headlight wiper kit did you get the ix wire harness?

[stonea]

Cool project!!

On the ix headlight wiper kit did you get the ix wire harness?

Unfortunately no, I bought a regular e30 kit before I knew there was a difference and then I noticed the ix washer tank was different. e30lyf sold me his ix washer tank and Im keeping an eye out over in Europe for the harness. If nothing pops up for a reasonable price I'll just lengthen everything. I'm also on the look out for a auxiliary gas tank fuel gauge.

[e30m3s54turbo]

Pm on wire harness for pics, so I can send text pics.

[jeenyus]

awesome build. lets see more of that clutch fan. ;)

[stonea]

No huge updates on Izzy. She needs a passenger control arm ball joints and I think she needs new CV's in the front. I'm on the hunt for some spare front half shafts to send off and get rebuilt so she can stay road worthy this winter. Oh I did get a flat when I was trying to leave for winter break, but that wasn't a huge deal. They needed to be replaced and I already had two new tires sitting in my room.



The Z3 needs work, bushings are worn out, rear shocks are leaking, needs rear brakes, and throwing a check engine light. I just don't drive it enough to justify dropping insane amounts of money into it, but thanks to insurance I'm should be getting the respray from the tiny accident 1 year ago or so and hopefully once thats all fixed up and she's looking pretty I'll start dumping money into her again.

I've actually been doing some work to my dads touring. It needed rear brakes to pass inspection but the ix touring has ventilated rear brakes and I couldn't find them anywhere. Even blunt couldn't find a set. So I ordered him some new regular ix calipers and rotors to convert his touring.



Some comparison pics:






All buttoned up and done. I've taken the rear brakes apart so many times that it didn't take to long.


I also did the rear socks and shock mounts although I don't have pictures of it. I was to busy trying to figure out how the hell to get to them.

Now onto the blue car.... I've been doing a bit of work on her. The car starts, runs, and stops which is good. Yet to leave me stranded also another plus, but it isn't 100%. It kind of has a rough start up, also on start up it revs pretty high but then settles down. I replaced the refurbished AFM from Bav Restorations and once I ruled that out I put the refurbished AFM onto Izzy since thats who it was purchased for. Then I put the old back onto the 325i and it got A LOT worse. I slapped the refurbished one back on and still just as bad. Threw the original one from Izzy on and it went back to normal. Tried ICV, same thing the the new one and it made it worse, put the old one on and still just as bad, took it off again, new one on.... no change, old one on back to "normal". I want to try swapping out the ECU because it seems when I swap out a sensor it acts up or makes it worse.

New ICV


I did get her back to my dads place though and up on the lift. Very happy with my buy, only one rust spot by the "manual" transmission brace support bracket, but its not to bad. I used rust killer and stopped it until I drop the trans for a 5 speed swap (a ways away) and can properly fix it. Other than that its super clean (minus the leaky oilpan gasket).



As you can see the exhaust is bad, but seriously the chassis is very clean and rust free. Well... except for the sunroof lol, but seriously I can't explain it but the chassis has two rust spots on the car. The transmission brace mount and the sunroof. There must have been a manufacturing defect or something because there not a sign on rust ANYWHERE else on the chassis.






I have a bad fuel smell and I think its from one of these hoses or the fuel pump seal is trashed. I just didn't really want to deal with it yet.



I also got some "beauty" stuff done. Dyed all the trim black replaced the cracked turn signals with my old ones and cleaned out the interior. I might throw my old gray interior in because its in better shape than the one that came with it.

You can kind of see the dyed one off to the side.



I should probably make a new thread for the blue one, but hopefully I shouldn't have to much to do. The plan is to get Izzy cancer free, painted, on colis, and a bbk before I start fooling around with the 325i to much. I probably won't be able to even start thinking about the engine project

[audiquattrot]

i'm plagued with the same sunroof rust that started this year. Don't bother trying to fix it. I grinded the spots, and now its just full blown cancer on the entire panel. Have a replacement one going in this spring.

btw have you tried replacing the blue & brown sensors by the temp housing for the blue car? My iX had similar issues, and it ended up being those sensors.

[Kershaw]

The brown sensor is just for the temp gauge, doesn't do anything for the DME. The blue one is for the DME.