Snowflake: The 4-Door, Alpine White E30

[gdrumm93]

I bought my first E30 in July of 2015. I had very little experience with cars in general, let alone 80's BMW's, but I wanted to have a solid platform to work on and learn from and I instantly fell in love with the classic styling. I found an '89 325i on Craigslist and bought it right away. I didn't really know what I was getting into. The previous owner had put a 325e engine in it, it wasn't running, and it was missing several pieces. The car has a decent amount of rust, the rear valance is really bad, and the rear quarter panel is damaged. I was quickly overwhelmed with everything that had to be done, including floorboard repair, a total interior overhaul, central locking jacked up, and a completely rusted out fuel tank that had to be replaced. I was working on a limited budget (still am, haha) which made everything take even longer. I could dedicate a whole build thread to that one, but I'm not going to. Recently I located a rust free, almost perfect body, decent paint and totally complete 1991 325i. It isn't running, and doesn't have a title at the moment, but I got her for a pretty smoking deal. Her name is Snowflake and this thread is dedicated to her. I collected a bunch of parts for my previous E30, so I have a lot more to work with now, and a better starting point. I've got a lot of ideas for this one, and I have not decided 100% which way I'm going to go with it.

My first E30

[gdrumm93]

Snowflake: The 4-Door, Alpine White E30

Here's Snowflake when I got her:





When I got her home I gave her a bath.


I started to work on the engine after that. It is a little dirty but complete.


It was completely locked up and I knew from the previous owner that it had blown a head gasket so I started disassembling it. There were three broken head bolts and lots of corrosion. When I got the head off I found that cylinder walls were pretty rusty.


I decided to pull the rest of the motor out and start to build up another good M20 block. I have to pull the transmission anyway since I'll have to do a manual swap. Here's my good block.


For now I'm going to rebuild the m20, and do a few mods. After I get the car built up pretty solid, I'll start working on an engine swap. Seriously considering building an M60 at the moment...



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[gdrumm93]

Didn't get a lot done today but I did do some powder coating.

Before:


After:


Still got a few more parts to do. The big things are the oil pan and valve cover.



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[gdrumm93]

Painted my block today:


I'm getting all new freeze plugs, water pump, etc. just left them on for masking purposes.

Also powder coated my oil pan and fuel rail:


Got half the parts for rebuilding my m20:



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[mike.bmw]

Wow, lot's of good progress and good photos! Looking forward to seeing this build thread.

Good luck!

[gdrumm93]

Wow, lot's of good progress and good photos! Looking forward to seeing this build thread.

Good luck!

Thanks, I'm definitely excited about this build. More updates soon.

[gdrumm93]

Pulled the transmission and exhaust from my red e30 last night.

I'm sending this other e30 to be scrapped. I took everything I needed off of it.

I'm in the process of sandblasting these Ireland Engineering headers so that I can ceramic coat them.

Got tires on these a little while ago. RS reps obviously but they'll be ok for now.




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[jeenyus]

great progress. that oil pan looks amazing.

[2mAn]

Why did you scrap the coupe? Is it already gone? I need the late side trim!!!

Snowflake is going to be pretty nice when its done. Just going OEM rebuild on the M20 or are you going to add any improvements? You can build a legit 2.7i with what you have. Eta crank with the correct B25 pistons and 885 head will be a lot of fun

[gdrumm93]

great progress. that oil pan looks amazing.

Thanks! I think it came out pretty well if I do say so myself.

Why did you scrap the coupe? Is it already gone? I need the late side trim!!!

Snowflake is going to be pretty nice when its done. Just going OEM rebuild on the M20 or are you going to add any improvements? You can build a legit 2.7i with what you have. Eta crank with the correct B25 pistons and 885 head will be a lot of fun

The coupe was wrecked in the front and I had to take lots of pieces from it (cut off the whole rear valance and most of the trunk.). I don't have the space or time to do anything with it. It's being scrapped tomorrow so I may be able to pull that off for you.

I could do that but I'd like to get this car up and running again soon and long term I'd really like to build up either an M20B30 (don't really know what the machining costs would be on that) or do an M60/62 swap.

[PerryJ]

Are you doing the sandblasting and powdercoating yourself?

[gdrumm93]

Are you doing the sandblasting and powdercoating yourself?

Yeah I do it all myself. I can't decide what color to do the valve cover and intake manifold.

Not much of an update today. I pulled the locked up engine and transmission today and did some engine bay cleaning. I'm hoping to get some work done on the new engine tomorrow.


#monstertruckstatus



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[gdrumm93]

Quick update on Snowflake, I've made a bit of progress since my last post. I ceramic coated my headers black.

Powder coated my intake manifold a pretty sweet color.

I got the block in and I'll be putting everything back together now.

I didn't realize that airbag model had different pedal assemblies the non airbag models. I guess it's not the big of a deal. Supposedly I won't need the return spring. Couldn't pass up on the opportunity to powder coat my pedals.




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[Butler]

That fresh power coating.... YUM!

[gdrumm93]

Been awhile since the last update. I've made some progress. The engine is almost back together now. I still need to put the radiator and button up a few more things. Also I'm waiting on a brake booster. This one fell apart when I took it out.

The G260 is in its new home. I also installed a uuc dssr (which required some modification to fit the Z3 shifter [emoji53])

Z3 shifter. I need one of those rubber surrounds for it.

Clutch and brake pedal are in. Take note of that shiny powder coating.

That Milli Vanilli cd though.

Cleaned up 885 with 272 regrind cam

Mustang injectors installed on my freshly powder coated fuel rail.

New NGK ZGR5A plugs should make my m20 happy.

I couldn't use the Ireland engineering headers that I ceramic coated with the exhaust that I have (at lest without some modification that would cost more than I can spend right now) so I had to use these eBay headers.

The engine is almost back together now.

Manifold and valve cover looking pretty fresh.

That's it for now. I ordered my coilovers last week, and they should be here soon. I'm super excited about that! Snowflake is gonna look nice with a drop. I'll also be rebuilding the brakes, installing an adjustable subframe and LSD, and putting in a 330ci steering rack.


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