85 323i grey market euro - M tech 1 build.

[kronus]

don't delete the thermostat, it's a bypass cutoff style and removing it doesn't force flow through the radiator.

[reelizmpro]

After driving the car around with the temps being perfectly fine, it decided to overheat on the way to work. Water is boiling out of the expansion tank through the cap, the upper radiator hose is then empty. Seems to be a circulation problem or massive air pocket or both.

Found out the shop had the heater hoses switched...big surprise there. Seems everything they have done was done wrong. I now have heat and am certain coolant is circulating through the core. Hopefully I can get rid of the air pockets now. I bled the system with the front end in the air. I fill the system through the upper radiator hose per the forum but the water ends up boiling over again, as if the thermostat closed. Upon inspection, the shop installed some Motorad thermostat without an O ring (ugggghhhhhh) . No part number, no arrows or air bleed holes. Going to order up an OEM thermostat and O ring but in the meantime I'm going to delete the thermostat to see if it's the culprit. I'm at a loss right now. Never had such a hard time with the cooling system on my other BMW's.

[rzerob]

When I first bought my car the PO had the auxiliary fan on all the time but no switch. He ran a wire under the dash and had a hook on the end that he wrapped around a bolt. The wire was the ground side so hooking it to the bolt completed the circuit.

The temp gauge didn't work either. It was a scary 6 hr trip home. I kept imagining the engine blowing up. Needless to say I fixed it when I got home. And that wasn't even the worst of it.

[e30davie]

I always wonder how shops can make money on conversions given the time it takes to do the job properly. Then pretty much every time i hear of one being done by a shop they do a shit job. So that answers that question.

[reelizmpro]

Your build sounds like mine(same exact car)-After having The paint shop do a unsatisfactory job I lost interest in the build. I bought a M3 and moved on. One of these days I’ll take the covers off and start again.


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Seriously. So called shops these days do such poor work, it's sad. I've heard the same horror stories from some of the more expensive shops as well where lawsuits were involved so it's not just a get what you pay for type of thing. I just had to rewire an electric fan installation that involved the fan being Zip tied to the radiator and the wiring ran all the way inside the car behind the dash and spliced into a Hot with Key On circuit so the fan is always on. WTF? They wrapped it all with electrical tape and didn't even bother to ground the fan with a ring terminal...just bare wire sandwiched under an existing bolt. Funny thing is the aux fan wiring is right there but instead of doing it the right way, they took more time to do it the wrong way. The bright side (I've been trying to stay positive) is that the used M42 radiator was leaking anyway and they replaced it with me choosing to do the installation this time around.




Regarding the M42 radiator, I went this route mainly due to the built in expansion tank. This cleans up the bay a bit without having to install the late model tank on the driver's fender. I've read about concerns of the radiator not being sufficient to cool the S52 but that has not been my experience. Yesterday, I ran the car without any fans and temps only went above the half way mark after prolonged idling. I believe the trick is properly bleeding all of the air out of the system. This S52 car seems to be more finicky when it comes to this. This method worked for me...With the engine off I jacked up the front end, removed the bleed screw and slowly fill the reservoir until some fluid came out of the bleed screw hole. Reinstall the bleed screw and expansion cap. Test drive. Then when cool, remove some water with a turkey baster until the proper level is reached on the tank. On the M42 radiator, that level is about half way up the tank.

Going to drive it around more before finally dropping it off at the exhaust shop. It's getting there...

[Old city bimmer]

Your build sounds like mine(same exact car)-After having The paint shop do a unsatisfactory job I lost interest in the build. I bought a M3 and moved on. One of these days I’ll take the covers off and start again.


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[reelizmpro]

Been meaning to update this thread...I've just been so dejected over this car. Mainly because it took the shop a year to complete the S52 swap and they did a shitty job. There was much that was done wrong and I had to fix/clean up which defeated the purpose of having a shop do it vs myself.

Anyway, since the last update, I found that both reman GKN axles I got from someone in San Diego started clicking from the inner CV joint. So it was not the diff bushing making the noise but CV joints from both axles. Upon inspection we determined they didn't put nearly enough grease in the inner boots. In the end, I went with O'Reilly axles and low and behold...they were also rebuild GKN only much cheaper with a lifetime warranty. I've put about a 100 miles on them and so far, so good. With that sorted, I just have to deal with the leaky exhaust. The exhaust shop that built this system is incompetent. I brought the car back 3 times and they still can't fix the leaky joints. Currently debating if I should take it back again or just say fuck it and have a whole new system installed at my usual exhaust shop.

[Old city bimmer]

Yes-shipping international and in the US has gone hay wire the last 6 months. Especially for large bulky items


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[reelizmpro]

quite a price bump in 3 years....

https://www.classiceuroparts.com/product/bmw-e30-m-body-kit-tech-mtech-1-i-full-bodykit-spoiler-euro-m-technic-318-325/

with the troubles you've had with this Im tempted to just buy a used mtech1 kit since $2400+ for a replica kit is kinda wild

Wow, perhaps they figure that over time finding good condition genuine M tech 1 stuff will be harder and harder so they can raise their price. I don't know about $2400 ($2k shipped on ebay) though. $850 shipped was a killer deal and is certainly worth it, that's why I went that route but $2k a dramatic mark up. Maybe the cost of shipping to the US has gone up? I've been hearing a lot of complaints about cost of shipping spoilers, etc lately. It has made buying overseas not worth it depending on the item. Try E30 International, he has good deals on OEM stuff.

[Motheye99]

So I'm not crazy thinking there prices have gone up recently. I wanted buy Mtech2 bumper package, used to be 500$ish, now its 950 $

quite a price bump in 3 years....

https://www.classiceuroparts.com/product/bmw-e30-m-body-kit-tech-mtech-1-i-full-bodykit-spoiler-euro-m-technic-318-325/

with the troubles you've had with this Im tempted to just buy a used mtech1 kit since $2400+ for a replica kit is kinda wild

[2mAn]

The CEP kit is great. The only issues I had really were with the front foglights mounting and adjusting or lack thereof and the top of the side skirts where they meet the body being a little off. The fogs mount up okay but there's nothing to keep the fogs from tilting. The adjustment tab is missing from the repro. So I used hot glue to keep the lights in position and white caulking to fill the gaps on the side skirts. Those are my gripes with this kit. Also the front and rear spoilers don't extend into the wheel arch like the original but it's not a big deal.

There was an original kit for $1200 shipped sans deck lid spoiler. That was a good deal. I got the complete Cep kit for $850 shipped with decklid spoiler. Everything is very lightweight yet more durable than oem supposedly. Just depends on your budget and what is available at the time. I didn't see many waves or imperfections on the raw pieces but if there were the paint guy took care of them. The kit looks like oem and you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference especially since there aren't many m tech 1's around.

quite a price bump in 3 years....

https://www.classiceuroparts.com/product/bmw-e30-m-body-kit-tech-mtech-1-i-full-bodykit-spoiler-euro-m-technic-318-325/

with the troubles you've had with this Im tempted to just buy a used mtech1 kit since $2400+ for a replica kit is kinda wild

[Julien]

that came out surprisingly well!

details on the mtech kit? I guess it's a race now, with three 323i mtech I builds going at the same time here.

;D:p

[reelizmpro]

I removed the harness from the old cover and ran it through the late 318i/M3 harness cover and addressed a few things in the engine bay. It's getting there...



So after driving the car around, it developed a clunking sound from the rear end. I suspect the original Z3 diff mount has gone bad. It had a slight crack in the bushing when I installed the diff but gave it the benefit of the doubt. After all, I had never actually had a diff bushing go bad on any of my E30's, surely the newer Z3 bushing will still be good...or not.



Well, it is the only rear bushing I didn't change. In retrospect, I should have done it when the diff was out. When shopping for diff bushings I was going OEM rubber Z3 or M coupe bushings but noticed they had all pretty much quadrupled in price with the MZ3 bushing being around $300! I found a $22 Corteco E30 bushing but read many reviews stating the bushing was actually oversized, cracking the diff covers upon installation. I have seen it happen to a few on this site as well. I'm curious if they are using the same bushings. So I decided to pick up a PowerFlex 80A street poly bushing from Pelican $42. 80A is a softer polyurethane making it a good compromise for the street.



Nice looking 2 pc design with large washers.

On the topic of OEM diff bushings...

I am familiar with the solid rubber design (bottom) but I guess BMW also used semi solid bushings on some models including the Z3's and 318Ti. Even the MZ3 bushing (top) isn't completely solid.



Here is a semi solid bushing from my 85 323i euro 3.46LSD.



I never considered it a wear item but it is and with prices going up, it made more sense to go aftermarket poly.

[reelizmpro]

Someone in San Marcos is selling them on Facebook for $240 / pair.

[pandaboo911]

Where did you buy those GKN axles? I had the same problem with my previous ones, had to file down each spline, but those have long since blown up.

Does the e90 master work without ABS? Did you install a T fitting for the front brakes?
Edit: Nvm just read previous page.