My Forever Car: '89 325i Touring

[-J-]

Long time no update, mostly on account of a three week work trip to Germany. It's wasn't all work though; I did get to drive the 'Ring for the first time. I now get why people travel the world to drive there... There really is no other track in the world quite like it.

Anyway, back to the Touring. With the rear components finally cleaned up I could move on with the rear suspension assembly.






Fun fact: a Miata 3-4 transmission synchro hub is just barely bigger than an E30 bearing, and with a slight grind works perfectly as a bearing press. You know, for all of you out there that dick with Miata transmissions but also dick with E30 rear suspensions




This is what needs to be removed in order to fit the E46 325i rotor. It hurts cut into fresh OEM parts like this, but it must be done


The mounted dust shield with caliper. Future me really wants to fill the gap between the shield and the top of the caliper, but for now I just want to drive the damn car


Hub, studs, and parking brake installed


That's a lot of rotor. And yes, the slots are opposite of what StopTech recommends. However, the PFC front rotors have directional cooling vanes and must be mounted with the slots angling backwards, and it'd look weird having opposite-facing slots. The StopTech rotors have straight vanes and the instructions that came with them say they can be mounted either way without affecting performance


The Elcoy/Nasieg kit calls for E30 front soft lines but since I chose to mount them in the lower position for the miniscule CG height advantage it required a different hose solution. The E46 M3 rear lines did the trick. I plan on making a damper-mounted bracket to support the line


Gratuitous old-and-busted-vs-new-hotness shot...


And the finished product. There are multiple hundreds of hours in this shot alone. I left the eccentrics in the stock E30 position until I can get the DTM alignment kit installed

With the rear sub-assembly finally complete the next steps will be installing the Bimmerworld anti-roll bars and fitting the sub-assembly. That's tonight's task. It's starting to feel like I might actually drive this car again!

Also: for the weight-weenies of the world I grabbed some old vs. new component data.


Kosei K1 15x7 with Toyo RA1 205/55R15 vs. Apex ARC-8 17x9 with Continental ExtremeContact Sport 255/40R17. 8lb difference


Kosei K1 15x7 with Toyo RA1 205/55R15 vs. Apex ARC-8 17x10 with Continental ExtremeContact Sport 275/40R17. 11lb difference


E30 front caliper and bolts, pads, and rotor


E46 M3 competition package caliper and mounting bolts, Elcoy adapter bracket and mounting bolts, PFC V3 rotor for E46 M3 competition package, PFC Z-Rated street pads, 25mm wheel spacer, extra lug stud and nut (from going 4->5 lug). 12lb difference


E30 rear caliper and mounting bolts, pads, and rotor


E39 540i rear caliper and mounting bolts, Elcoy adapter bracket and mounting bolts, StopTech slotted rotor for E46 325i, PFC Z-Rated Street pads, extra lug stud and nut (from going 4->5 lug). 4lb difference

So, here's the breakdown:

Front brakes +24lbs
Front wheels and tires +16lbs
Rear brakes +8lbs
Rear wheels and tires +22lbs

Front unsprung mass +40lbs
Rear unsprung +30lbs

Total mass increase of 70lbs.

Grip and thermal capacity come with a price, and unfortunately that price is weight. I don't anticipate any brake or tire overheating issues though, so there's that.

[-J-]

nice work upgrading all the hardware and tearing into the rear end.

one trick for the diff studs is to just use longer bolts for the front mounting hole. and run the bolts from the bottom. this at least helps get 2 out of the 4 mounting bolts lined up.

Thanks! I'll keep this in mind if I need to drop the diff again.

e30s break the motor mount ears off the front subframe, and can break/mangle both front and rear sway bar mount tabs with uprated sways, but that's about it in terms of cracking.

Good to know. I plan on reinforcing the front when it's out for the swap.

Bummer about the rust, but I'm sure you'll handle it with ease.

Excellent work!

Thanks! Beer and swearing usually helps ease the pain of rust removal, haha.


As a small update, I've spend the last few nights bending the stainless hard lines. They shouldn't rust which is why I chose them, but one thing I didn't anticipate: stainless lines are much stiffer than standard steel lines and don't appreciate being bent. My finger tips are currently numb from manhandling the lines into shape...


Stainless lines hurt to bend by hand, but damn is it worth it


The main line going to the rear. This line SUCKED to make, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out

Upon removing the rear main line I also discovered that it had been repaired at some point. It was cut just ahead of the fuel filter and was replaced with copper tubing. It wasn't leaking, but I'm still slapping myself for taking this car on track without doing a full brake system inspection. Thankfully the brakes shouldn't be an issue with this car for a very long time after this.

[MR E30 325is]

Bummer about the rust, but I'm sure you'll handle it with ease.

Excellent work!

[kronus]

I know that rear subframe cracking is more of an E46 thing, but E30s crack their fronts, right?

e30s break the motor mount ears off the front subframe, and can break/mangle both front and rear sway bar mount tabs with uprated sways, but that's about it in terms of cracking.

[iwantspeed]

nice work upgrading all the hardware and tearing into the rear end.

one trick for the diff studs is to just use longer bolts for the front mounting hole. and run the bolts from the bottom. this at least helps get 2 out of the 4 mounting bolts lined up.

[-J-]

e30s actually aren't known for this..

I know that rear subframe cracking is more of an E46 thing, but E30s crack their fronts, right? I was more or less ripping on BMW in general, haha. I also want to keep a close on my welded spots in case they decide to go.

I really considered the diff stud kit, but got hung up on the stock vs. subframe riser debate. I may go risers but wanted to check clearances for the DTM alignment kit first. For the time being I'll lower the subframe for diff removal, but once I decide I'm going with studs for sure.

[kronus]

BTW, recommend to use a diff stud kit. it makes reinstallation a lot less annoying.

[kronus]

nice! you've been busy.

I opted for grey because it makes cracks a bit easier to spot, and we all know how much BMWs love to crack subframes.

e30s actually aren't known for this..

[-J-]

I completely blew the June 15th goal, namely because of this:


Well fuck


Kids, do your pre-purchase inspections carefully

I found these after peeling back the factory undercoating. The fender lip was already going (which helped make the flare/no-flare decision) but I had no idea it was this bad. It had to be dealt with while the rear suspension was out.


Also found a bunch of failed under coating causing rust. Corrosion is a bitch


Out came the shears and welding gear






I spent the better part of a day wire wheeling every rust spot I could find


To seal the metal I opted for KBS coatings RustSeal. It's very similar to POR-15 and is offered in several colors




Far from perfect, but I plan on a full glass-out respray where all rust will be dealt with properly

In parallel with the rust repair I was able to make good progress on the rear suspension modifications. The subframe and arms were a lot grosser than expected, so many an hour was burned wire wheeling the shit out of them. I didn't get any pictures but they certainly weren't show pieces after the wire wheel. Besides, they were getting paint anyway. I did get a few welding pictures though.



I'm no pro but I can occasionally lay a decent bead


I used the Garagistic reinforcement and eccentric kits




Unfortunately the ARB tab reinforcements were nowhere near fitting. Time to get creative


The Bimmerworld ARB kits come with tab reinforcements as well, but they don't have the vertical component that significantly increases stiffness. This is giving me flashbacks to formula SAE...


Welding finished. The direction of slots isn't standard, so don't copy this if you're just looking to do camber and toe correction

Since I'll be using the DTM-style camber and toe adjusters I opted to use the eccentrics for sweep angle and roll center adjustment. I did a fair amount of research and settled on a sweep angle range of 15deg to 13deg and a 0deg to 2deg arm angle as viewed from the rear. Fully adjusted this should yield a rear roll center height of 2.44in and reduced camber and toe change with travel. If anyone is interested in a more detailed explanation I'd be happy to share. Otherwise I'll keep my nerdiness to myself, haha.


The KBS coating requires a chemical etching of the surface in order to adhere


It also looks pretty gnarly


I hand brushed them and it sucked. I would highly recommend spraying this stuff


Fresh and clean at last

I opted for grey because it makes cracks a bit easier to spot, and we all know how much BMWs love to crack subframes.

Next up I'll be assembling the rear suspension, forming all the hard brake lines out of stainless, and putting everything back together. It's been a long ass month without my E30...

[-J-]

While I contemplate how big of a hole I need to carve into my fenders, I decided to move onto the rear.

As an E30 right of passage, the Touring's rear subframe has been removed. After much sweating and swearing, I beat this thing out of the chassis.


I now feel the pain of every E30 owner before me


Because it can never be easy, I immediately stripped the subframe bracket bolts and had to drill them




Resorted to the tried-and-true 5/8ths lag bolt method


To say my subframe bushings were shot is a bit of an understatement

With the beast out and into the shop, disassembly could begin. It all went surprisingly smoothly, until the right hub removal...


Words cannot express the frustration of trying to remove this hub. I burned a whole day on this motherfucker

Turns out that when I initially tried to tap out the hub from the back I didn't hit it square, and the result was a hardened lip on the end of the hub. The tight tolerance on the bearing meant extreme resistance when they met. The assembly wouldn't fit in my press, so I spent a few hours trying different fixtures and going medieval with a hammer. Lesson extremely learned.


Finally blown apart

This weekend I'll be back in restoration mode. The goal is to drive this thing by June 15th.

[warshark]

you are surly a boy racer at heart you are enjoying this i am sure

[mach schnell]

Im thoroughly enjoying this thread

Hell yes.

[wworm]

lol holy shit. this is sick

[2mAn]

Im thoroughly enjoying this thread

[-J-]

Attach said thread hyperlink please.

I'll be sure to do that in a few years when I start said thread, haha.


The chassis upgrades have begun.




I have a sneaking suspicion that the lift will be occupied for a while...

On the list:
- Nasieg/Elcoy Speedshop BBK + 5-lug kit
- Rebuilt E46 M3 front calipers with StopTech rotors
- StopTech Sport front pads
- Rebuilt E39 540i rear calipers with StopTech E46 325i rear rotors
- StopTech Sport rear pads
- Garagistic stainless steel soft lines
- Stainless steel hard lines with stainless steel fittings
- MRT front roll center correction kit
- Apex ARC-8 wheels, 17x9 front, 17x10 rear
- Continental ExtremeContact Sport tires, 255/40R17 front, 275/40R17 rear
- Kamotors standard flares (possibly Ultrawides... I bought a lot of tire.)
- Rebuilt 3.73 ratio diff with MFactory adjustable LSD
- Garagistic rear subframe eccentric kit (for sweep angle and roll center adjustment)
- IRP trailing arm adjustment kit (for camber and toe adjustment)
- Revshift 80a polyurethane rear subframe, trailing arm, and differential bushings

Should be a solid weekend, right? Time management has never been my strong suit.


2.5 degrees of camber with mostly highway is a bitch. But it's beyond worth it while cornering



The brakes came apart easily enough


Score, new park brake hardware!

I started with the front axle, thinking it'd be the easy part. My naivety is palpable now...



Problem #1: The hardware

The hardware supplied in the kit was grade 8.8, which is equivalent to US Grade 5. Stock BMW hardware is 10.9 (US grade 8 equivalent). I'm not looking to downgrade on fastener strength, so this wouldn't do. Also, the bolts supplied were not long enough for proper thread engagement. Also also, the nuts supplied were Nylocks; plastic parts intent on retaining saftey-critical hardware near 500C brake parts does not sit well with me. That's a really long way of saying I sourced ARP hardware for the kit.

(This is in no way intended to shit on the Nasieg/Elcoy kit; the machine work and finish of the the parts is phenomenal. I should have looked at the hardware before starting.)


There we go, proper thread engagement and mechanical locking nuts

For anyone interested in what I used, the front bracket bolts are M12x1.5 (ARP PN 664-1006) combined with E46 M3 driveshaft nuts. Front caliper-to-bracket bolts are OEM E46 M3 front caliper bolts. The rears are M10x1.5 (ARP PN 662-1002) which thread directly into the bracket. The rear caliper-to-bracket bolts are OEM E30 caliper bolts.

With the brackets sorted, the new shield and hub could be installed.


The kit installed flawlessly into the new Timken hub

Problem #2: rotors.

When I went to install the rotor and caliper bracket, the pads hung off the rotor by about 10mm. FUUUUUUUUU

A lot of head scratching followed, combined with a lot of Google work. The rotor part numbers were definitely E46 M3. The caliper markings definitely matched E46 M3 parts; hell, they came off of an actual M3 I owned! After hour 2 it dawned on me that there were two E46 brake packages: standard and competition (or CSL, depending on who you talk to). Standard rotors are 325mm, comp rotors are 345mm. 20mm diameter difference means 10mm radius difference... The exact amount the pad was hanging off. But since the caliper part numbers matched, where was the difference?

I had ordered a used genuine caliper to rebuild after finding an aftermarket recasting, and it came with the carrier bracket. Some quick measurements confirmed that the carrier brackets I had cleaned and repainted were 10mm taller than the bracket supplied with the genuine caliper.

TLDR; COMPETITION/CSL E46 M3 BRAKES HAVE A DIFFERENT CARRIER THAN STANDARD. This wasn't mentioned in the kit instructions and it could have saved me several hours.

So I had two options: buy another carrier (most likely mated to another caliper), clean them up, paint them with another batch of G2 one-time-use paint, and reinstall, or order E46 M3 competition front rotors. Lizard brain took over and screamed BIGGER BETTER, so I searched for new rotors. I'm not a fan of drilled rotors because of the stress cracking associated with them, so I only considered slotted. And you know what I found? PFC are the ONLY reputable manufacturers of slotted E46 M3 competition package front rotors. PFC's have served me well on the Spec Miata and Bimmerworld was having a Memorial day sale, so fuck it...


My bank account is still smoking, but lizard brain is pleased

Time to check wheel fitment.


Alright, that's a bit tight


Oh boy, I may have fucked up a bit here

Problem #3: SO. MUCH. TIRE.

Much cutting to follow.