I've been meaning to start one a build thread for a while now. Just never found time to put one together but now I'm finally getting to it!
Throughout highschool I had a love for e30s and wanted one as my first car. However my parents got a deal from a family friend on a cheap car no ones ever heard of. A Suzuki esteem.
Ive literally never seen another one haha. It lasted me throughout highschool and into my second year of college before the transmission went out. The hunt for my e30 began.
I wanted a manual, alpine white, two door, late model, 318, with relatively low miles. Months searching and I finally found one for sale. A 91 318is. I researched what to look for when buying one of these. My father and I went to see it.
None of the problem areas had any problems. He had supposedly rebuilt the engine, it had a spare bucket seat, a recap, and a nardi wheel. I was hooked. He wanted 4,200 for it but we talked him down to 3,500 because the door had bad paint, the mileage was just shy of 200k , a window motor was going out, and the rear seat was missing. My father test drove it and drove it home as I had only had one lesson in driving stick.
Before my dad let me drive it on my own he wanted to ride with me. We hopped in and I drove it with no problems, way Better then I drove his 91 honda civic.
First thing I wanted to do was put in new seats and seat belts. I found seat belts at pick a part and put them in. Of course I shorted out the car as I crimped a wire from the battery blowing s relay and an online fuse. One week and I already broke the car haha. Fix that and then track down some seats. The seller recognized my car and led me to its old build thread. Found here. http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=219821
So now I knew what had been done to the car.
Needed a new cat to pass smog
tester said engine was in excellent condition for its age and mileage.
I then picked up some new emblems
No issues for a while until school started again and the roads were horrid. As the engine is an m42 the pan is low and as the car was slammed my pan sat around an inch from the ground I broke my oil pan to many times...4 times to be exact...course I blame my girlfriend at the time for the horrible roads to her college.
At local meets I was known as the oil pan man and was always asked what number I was on.
I finally decided to raise the car. I picked up some eibach lowering springs at a meet, which had a limbo contest
ended up third lowest. Was a fun last hurrah before I raised the car. 
Got an is lip with splitter and some skirts off a Taurus to help visually lower the car since I raised it about 4 inches
Cleaned out the garage for a flat place to work on the car
Needed new tires as mine had wore to the inner belts
got some toyo proxes r1r to go on my 949 6ul wheels. Front wheels are 15x9 with 195/50 rears are 15x10 with 205/50 
Then on a trip to big bear for my girls birthday my heater core burst. Got towed home and bypassed the core. Then decided to redo the coolant system. So new radiator, water pump, fan clutch, thermostat, and fan temp switch.
Still have the core bypassed. No AC or heat sucks but oh well.
Took a trip up to the snow
Christmas I got new headlights, a csb since mine was non existent and a new did bushing. Also some tools too
Went in to change the oil filter housing gasket and o ring as they were leaking. Then found my alternator which I had already replaced once had cracked.
Parking at school was horrendous and often had to longboard to it from a neighborhood so I designed a rack for it and had my dad lazer cut it out at his machine shop and had one of his welders fashion it to my rear strut bar. I then also threw in some wood paneling since the trunk had been stripped bare
I now also have the side carpeting in the trunk also. Looks real sharp.
Then I noticed some clunking when turning. I started to investigate and noticed the passenger side motor mount had completely broken free from the surface and was resting on the steering rack.
Ordered a reinforcement kit from garagistic to have our shops welders fix the subframe
Since I was dropping the subframe I decided to redo the front suspension. Ordered the suspension kit from CA tuned that came with control arms, CABs, end links, and tie rods.
I also had been having an issue with my injectors. I figured they were leaking since my mileage was garbage and I was getting gas In The oil. So I pulled those and got new ones
also picked up the coolant temp sensor that goes to the ecu in hopes it might help the gas mileage. Was told if it's bad the engine doesn't realize it's warmed up yet and constantly runs rich.
Also figured I should redo my valve cover gasket as well. And since both the intake manifold and valve cover was off I sent them off to get powder coated.
also sent in the oil filter cap. Still haven't put them on as the engine is still hanging from this and I don't want to scratch them 
I then also finally decided to do my csb and diff bushing too. One bolt on the drive shaft wouldn't come loose and I ended up stripping it so I grinded it off. I got the drive shaft out and finally saw the condition of the csb
literally non existent.
I ordered some new motor mounts since mine were shot and then some engine spacers from condor speed shop to raise the oil pan up so I can drop the car again on my old springs I kept
Right now I'm still in middle of swapping the old springs in, waiting for the motor mounts and new drive shaft bolts and nuts to come in so the car is sitting like this
I'll post pictures once I get it back on the ground and running. Plan on sea foaming it afterwards too just to rid all the gunk out that I figure is in there from the look of the injectors.
Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk
Throughout highschool I had a love for e30s and wanted one as my first car. However my parents got a deal from a family friend on a cheap car no ones ever heard of. A Suzuki esteem.
Ive literally never seen another one haha. It lasted me throughout highschool and into my second year of college before the transmission went out. The hunt for my e30 began. I wanted a manual, alpine white, two door, late model, 318, with relatively low miles. Months searching and I finally found one for sale. A 91 318is. I researched what to look for when buying one of these. My father and I went to see it.
None of the problem areas had any problems. He had supposedly rebuilt the engine, it had a spare bucket seat, a recap, and a nardi wheel. I was hooked. He wanted 4,200 for it but we talked him down to 3,500 because the door had bad paint, the mileage was just shy of 200k , a window motor was going out, and the rear seat was missing. My father test drove it and drove it home as I had only had one lesson in driving stick.
Before my dad let me drive it on my own he wanted to ride with me. We hopped in and I drove it with no problems, way Better then I drove his 91 honda civic.
First thing I wanted to do was put in new seats and seat belts. I found seat belts at pick a part and put them in. Of course I shorted out the car as I crimped a wire from the battery blowing s relay and an online fuse. One week and I already broke the car haha. Fix that and then track down some seats. The seller recognized my car and led me to its old build thread. Found here. http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=219821
So now I knew what had been done to the car.
Needed a new cat to pass smog
tester said engine was in excellent condition for its age and mileage.I then picked up some new emblems
No issues for a while until school started again and the roads were horrid. As the engine is an m42 the pan is low and as the car was slammed my pan sat around an inch from the ground I broke my oil pan to many times...4 times to be exact...course I blame my girlfriend at the time for the horrible roads to her college.
At local meets I was known as the oil pan man and was always asked what number I was on.
I finally decided to raise the car. I picked up some eibach lowering springs at a meet, which had a limbo contest
ended up third lowest. Was a fun last hurrah before I raised the car. Got an is lip with splitter and some skirts off a Taurus to help visually lower the car since I raised it about 4 inches
Cleaned out the garage for a flat place to work on the car
Needed new tires as mine had wore to the inner belts
got some toyo proxes r1r to go on my 949 6ul wheels. Front wheels are 15x9 with 195/50 rears are 15x10 with 205/50 Then on a trip to big bear for my girls birthday my heater core burst. Got towed home and bypassed the core. Then decided to redo the coolant system. So new radiator, water pump, fan clutch, thermostat, and fan temp switch.
Still have the core bypassed. No AC or heat sucks but oh well.
Took a trip up to the snow
Christmas I got new headlights, a csb since mine was non existent and a new did bushing. Also some tools too
Went in to change the oil filter housing gasket and o ring as they were leaking. Then found my alternator which I had already replaced once had cracked.
Parking at school was horrendous and often had to longboard to it from a neighborhood so I designed a rack for it and had my dad lazer cut it out at his machine shop and had one of his welders fashion it to my rear strut bar. I then also threw in some wood paneling since the trunk had been stripped bare
I now also have the side carpeting in the trunk also. Looks real sharp. Then I noticed some clunking when turning. I started to investigate and noticed the passenger side motor mount had completely broken free from the surface and was resting on the steering rack.
Ordered a reinforcement kit from garagistic to have our shops welders fix the subframeSince I was dropping the subframe I decided to redo the front suspension. Ordered the suspension kit from CA tuned that came with control arms, CABs, end links, and tie rods.
I also had been having an issue with my injectors. I figured they were leaking since my mileage was garbage and I was getting gas In The oil. So I pulled those and got new ones
also picked up the coolant temp sensor that goes to the ecu in hopes it might help the gas mileage. Was told if it's bad the engine doesn't realize it's warmed up yet and constantly runs rich. Also figured I should redo my valve cover gasket as well. And since both the intake manifold and valve cover was off I sent them off to get powder coated.
also sent in the oil filter cap. Still haven't put them on as the engine is still hanging from this and I don't want to scratch them I then also finally decided to do my csb and diff bushing too. One bolt on the drive shaft wouldn't come loose and I ended up stripping it so I grinded it off. I got the drive shaft out and finally saw the condition of the csb
literally non existent. I ordered some new motor mounts since mine were shot and then some engine spacers from condor speed shop to raise the oil pan up so I can drop the car again on my old springs I kept
Right now I'm still in middle of swapping the old springs in, waiting for the motor mounts and new drive shaft bolts and nuts to come in so the car is sitting like this
I'll post pictures once I get it back on the ground and running. Plan on sea foaming it afterwards too just to rid all the gunk out that I figure is in there from the look of the injectors.
Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk
haha but really I'm doing the tyranny fluid. 
yeah I know I've got an oil leak. Just haven't really looked into from where...
I'm only afraid that the engine might not clean the hood now because of the spacers but I guess we will see. 
really like how they turned out! Great quality from Matt!
anyone know what model it is? Or if it even is a legit recaro?
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