My Euro Swapped 325es (13+ year project)

[Il Duce]

Thanks! And yeah lol I was midway through changing my fuel tank there

Amazing haha. Big fan of the channel. Hope your car shows up on an episode someday!

[WestCoastEta]

Thanks! And yeah lol I was midway through changing my fuel tank there

[Il Duce]

Awesome build! This your car in the Donut garage?!

[Chilezen]

I go back and forth on whether I'd ever want it to be mint. I don't think I'd be able to enjoy it as much if it didn't have the spirit of a shitbox.

Not having to worry about a scratch or ding here and there has a priceless satisfaction to it

[WestCoastEta]

I was scared at first when I started reading the post lol, it's been working fine since we saw it?

Oh yeah haha other than the gas tank incident it's been great, no issues!

Amazing. So glad you stuck with it... just imagine, some day you will make another dumb decision to get the car painted... it will be months of stress and then suddenly you will have a mint car and wont know what to do with yourself

I go back and forth on whether I'd ever want it to be mint. I don't think I'd be able to enjoy it as much if it didn't have the spirit of a shitbox. Plus I recently bought another 30+ year old BMW that I'm focused on keeping mint for the time being 😬

[E30SPDFRK]

I was scared at first when I started reading the post lol, it's been working fine since we saw it?

[2mAn]

Amazing. So glad you stuck with it... just imagine, some day you will make another dumb decision to get the car painted... it will be months of stress and then suddenly you will have a mint car and wont know what to do with yourself

[WestCoastEta]

So it turns out I didn't fix the engine dying issue lol



After a few months of smooth sailing the issue came back. Sometimes the car runs, sometimes it doesn't. Doesn't matter how many wires I jiggle, whether the car is cold or hot, if it's been sitting for weeks or midway through a drive. So in the interest of not driving myself completely insane, I decided to take it to the pros at Leichtbau, who many of you know as Byron & Khalil. After a few days they finally came up with the culprit: a faulty immobilizer relay somewhere under the dash. I'm not sure if this was an aftermarket immobilizer or what, but they just bypassed it and it's been great since then.

A few weeks later I decided my car wasn't broken enough, so I decided to ruin the fuel tank by misplacing a jackstand while adjusting my ride height 🥴 Long story short, the tank dented directly under the fuel pump, severing the hose between the pump and the pickup tube. So I had to swap the tank and diy fix the pump. Not the most fun project, but gotta love a nice before & after.



I realized after this that I've touched almost everything on this car by now, which is a cool feeling since I had no clue how to work on cars when I first bought it.

The last update for now is this dope Hella heckblende that I found on a Japanese auction site, still in its original packaging. There's something really satisfying about unboxing a NOS part from the 80s.

[2mAn]

Those look so good!

[WestCoastEta]

New shoes. 16x8 Style 4s from an E38 with 215/45s with 18mm adapters front/20mm rear



Also copped a new knob & boot. I think this combo fits the interior a lot better than the last one



Slowly getting everything dialed in. I took the car in for an alignment and it drives 100x better. It sits slightly higher on the 215/45s, and it's just enough extra clearance to not scrape on everything.

So far I haven't had any more issues with reliability. Next order of business is to make it look nicer - PDR, painting the airdam... also more aesthetic Euro mods I've been saving for a rainy day 😎

[WestCoastEta]

Thanks! My 540i is broken at the moment so I've been driving the E30 around town for errands, and so far no major issues; though I do have a few things to sort out - the heater isn't blowing hot and the motor only works on full blast.

But more importantly, I got a new set of wheels. Going to dial in the ride height before posting them here, but they're 16x8 BMW wheels that AREN'T Style 5s.

[CubbyChowder]

I saw this E30 through Donut Media at some point and started following you on IG. This thing has a lot of character, it was cool to stumble across this thread just now and read through it and see how long of a journey it's been. I bet having it back on the road feeling better than ever is super gratifying!

[2mAn]

Glad that drive home when smooth Max. Funny that after all this time just having a M20B25 is a huge improvement haha

soooo anything new?

[WestCoastEta]

Well 8 and a half months later, I finally feel confident enough to say I have a perfectly functional 2.5i swapped E30.



I didn't think it would take this long, but as with any big project, I ran into tons of little issues along the way. I made mistakes, I got stuck, and I probably placed about 15 separate orders from Pelican. But ultimately everything was solvable with the help of forums, Youtube, and trial and error. I'm lucky enough to have a shop space at work with a bunch of tools, and most importantly, a parking spot. I won't break down every minute detail of the swap, but here are the major milestones.



Prepping the new engine was pretty straightforward. I replaced all the gaskets and seals. New plugs & wires. New belts. Cleaned the injectors. Ran the throttle body through an ultrasonic cleaner. Degreased the shit out of everything. I decided on using Permatex The Right Stuff for the oil pan... but I dropped a washer into the oil return tube and had to redo the whole thing. The first of many pains in the ass.

Speaking of pains in the ass, I decided to repaint the valve cover and intake manifold while the engine was on the stand. I figured a few coats of paint stripper would remove the old blue paint without any problems. I was dead wrong. I spent WEEKS trying to remove the old powdercoat. I bought every type of aircraft remover I could find, but nothing made a dent. In retrospect, I should have absolutely paid a professional to hot-tank the parts, but I was extremely stubborn and insisted on doing it myself. Eventually I managed to strip all the powdercoat off, and I resprayed them in VHT wrinkle black. Thankfully, I couldn't be more happy with the results.



So the new engine was finally ready. Before pairing it to my transmission, I cleaned and resealed the old Getrag. Since I have a single mass flywheel, I got about 12 pounds shaved off by a local machine shop and mated it up to a brand new clutch.

Finally, it was time to swap everything into the car. After cleaning 35 years of grime out of the engine bay, I managed to get the engine installed it all by myself in a few hours.



I installed poly engine & transmission mounts, and I also made a DIY chassis mounted shifter out of the sheet metal shifter carrier. This is one of the pieces I'm most proud of. Paired with a DSSR, the shifts are fantastic compared to before.



Besides the engine, I also swapped my tired 2.93 diff for a 3.73 that I resealed and pumped full of fresh gear oil.



Finally, I swapped over to a late model cooling system with a Z3M radiator. I added a SSSquid chip for a little extra bump. And to top everything off, I treated myself to a very long-awaited upgrade. Dope ass seats.



After all the components were installed, I went to fire it up and... nothing happened. I had fuel, but no spark. So I spent several weeks hunting down gremlins to get to the bottom of this, and ultimately found that my ignition wiring from the DME wasn't spliced correctly. Between my 86 chassis and 87 engine, there were a lot of nuances that were hard to identify. But eventually I got the wiring sorted, and the car started up.

After an initial test drive the car felt great, but I noticed the clutch pedal was extremely creaky. So in went a new master/slave cylinder – although I find "master" and "slave" to be extremely outdated, so I prefer to call them the Chad & Beta cylinders.

Finally, it was time to drive the car home from work. I made it approximately 3 miles before this happened:



The engine cut out on the freeway and wouldn't start back up. So I had it towed back to the shop, and the very next day the car started right up with no issues whatsoever. But the day after that, it wouldn't start again. No fuel; no spark. I spent the next week or two trying to diagnose this intermittent issue, and ultimately after cleaning and reconnecting all the grounds and other connections the car consistently started back up without dying. So I drove the car home without any issues, and I've been driving it around town reliably ever since.



I still have a long ways to go but it feels like a completely different car now. I really couldn't be more stoked.

[moatilliatta]

Making good progress, A little low for function, but has good style. Liking the momo way better. I wouldn't worry about BOOSTING, id just do what you can the best! Mufflers aren't too expensive, plus it'll sound a lot better. Looking forward for more progress!