My 1988 325is Lachssilber Daily Build

[roids333]

What's up fellow r3v members, my name is Zach. I used to be a Mustang owner, up until a few months ago when I got t-boned in my 2003.





I've always had a nagging voice in my head telling me I should get an e30 after I got to drive a friend of mine's; it had no power steering and was the first stick car I every really drove. I realized quickly I was not into straight line racing as much as I thought I was. After losing my Mustang I had to pick up a car quick to make it to work and school, and a friend of a friend happened to be selling his '88 Lachssilber 325is. I've owned it for a little under two months, and looking back I definitely overpaid for somebody else's project. But, you live and you learn and this car certainly still has potential, it just needs a little more work than initially expected. I'm hoping that by making this post I can lay out a goal for the car and stay on track better. I also definitely want to hear some forum input, I'm using this car to learn too so maybe I can avoid common mistakes by being active in the community. Enough talk though, on to the pictures!















Soon I'll be updating this with what exactly has been done to the car already, and what I plan to do maintenance and performance wise. Until then, thanks for reading!

[SmallDave]

I'm not sure what you paid but to get a good looking grey coupe IS, that's hard to find! Look forward to seeing the progress!

[E30NJ]

Late model coupe in grey. Nice! Sub'd.

[roids333]

Well it's been about a year since I bought my e30, and so far its been quite reliable actually. I never got around to listing everything done to it, so here's everything I've found myself or in the paperwork:

-Bavauto reinforced strut tower mounts
-Bilstein HD struts
-H&R race springs
-AKG80a subframe bushings
-AKG80a diff bushing
-Condor motor mounts
-16mm rear 20mm front eibach sway bars
-Poly sway bar bushings
-AKG front adjustable sway bar endlinks
-272 Schrick cam*
-153-300 TMS chip*
-ARP head studs
*Has not been visually confirmed

In 2014 the car dyno'd at 160hp at the wheels

[roids333]

The clutch fan hit the radiator at some point, and one of the previous owners saw fit to replace it with an electric pusher fan using a volvo relay. I quickly learned how skilled an electrical engineer someone who owned this car was



I cleaned up the wiring and still no success, even a new radiator switch was not reaching temperature and "closing". This leads me to believe the radiator is somewhat plugged somewhere, it was damaged when the old clutch fan destroyed itself so I'm replacing it soon anyways. As can be seen in the previous picture the car's radiator support had been repaired terribly and was rusting again. The car had been in an unreported front end accident and the whole front clip repaired, but not up to spec to say the least. I plan on a removable radiator support and strut tower brace soon, so for temporary ease of mind I wire wheeled the whole thing, used rust converter on it, then painted it with rustoleum. Luckily it was mostly surface rust but due to it being bent out of shape the front bumper alignment isn't quite right.

[roids333]

I replaced the timing belt and tensioner promptly when I heard an unfamiliar squeak from the front of my engine. The PO had recently replaced both with gates racing equipment, however the tensioner had seized and was grinding away at the belt. I'm glad I caught it when I did. My first major job on this car was rear wheel bearings. The passenger side was so bad it sounded like a jet was flying by at highway speeds. I was too cheap to shell out for a BMW puller, so I just made my own out of a pvc collar, all thread, and some washers and nuts



About 1,000 miles and a track day later I think I can say my DIY was pretty successful. Speaking of track days, my local e30 group NCe30 puts on an amazing annual Oktoberfest event. This year was at altimahaw speedway where they set up an autocross/track course that was a ton of fun. Awesome cars and great people all around.





Between this being my first track day and the fact that I had to drive the car home after the event, I was pretty cautious. The night before was rainy so we got to practice sliding around a bunch which was also great, until the back end stepped out on that last turn and I thought I was going to plow into a wall. I made it home in one piece though, its a testament to e30 engineering that I was able to beat on a 27 year old car at the track for a weekend and continue to drive it every day.

Next were some rear trailing arm bushings since the old ones were falling apart, along with a new seat. The seat itself made a world of difference since the padding had fallen all the way through on my old seat, making me sit on the rails.



I've been chasing an oil leak since I bought the car, first thing I did was replace the valve cover gasket and rocker shaft plugs. After sealing that I realized it was the bitch tube, so that's next. I got rid of the taurus side skirts, and here's how she sits now.

[Kershaw]

Looking pretty good!

[PimpinWalrus]

Nice build man, its looking good. I love the nce30 group, everyone is extremely nice.

[badwella]

Awesome car, man. I've got the same car but an '89. Unfortunately, the PO removed the silver door cards from mine and replaced them with black. I'd love to get my hands on a clean set and get back to the original way my car was built. Your interior looks great (minus the cracked seats).

Anyway, looking forward to the future updates.