the Black Spot... a euro bumper '87 325is with track mods

[miguelpppires]

I keep the rotas purely for track use now. I still have them in the garage with the stickies. If I were to do it again, I would be Style 5 Euro weaves as my street set up and keep rotas for track use. The Rota rim sticks out at least 1 inch beyond the fender, however, I stretched the tire a smidge so it looks like the wheel doesn't protrude.


What country?

Portugal, the land where you can't do anything to your car unless you pay the government to have it printed on the car documentation ahah
I'm currently running 15'' jr31's +20 7.5j and the front is just barely legal, figured I would have issues with the rotas in 8j, might just have to run 8j on the back and 7j on the front
Thanks a lot for the insight and pic!

[paynemw]

For the SI reset:
http://www.billnoren.org/bmw/e30reset.htm

Thanks man. Super simple. I've always found weird little things with my car, being that it's an early body, with an M20b25 from factory, and a M1.1 fuel management system. I have the late style diagnostic socket, when I've typically found early model components.

I really should stop messing around and buy the Innovative Goods SI Board Shift Light set up.

I also started collecting parts for the LSD rebuild. Things have been slow on the car, but it's better running like a champ!

[paynemw]

I did some canyon carving the other weekend and was really annoyed by the valvetrain noise, and I hadn't made any adjustments to the valves since I had the engine rebuilt (~5K since rebuild) and decided to do an adjustment. I just so happened to befriend this shop in Denver called Denver Beer and Oil and we collab'ed on an informative video on adjusting the valves, after a good friend John White helped me before I blew up the engine the 1st time.

Here's the video:

I still need to replace the rear wheel bearings and rebuild the diff. I finally found a shop to do it.

I also had a buddy drive the car and he told me I need to get significantly stiffer springs to work more effectively with my heavier sway bars. So add that to the list.

[Albie325]

I saw that vid posted to the FB group the other day and figured it was you, nice work!

[paynemw]

Update time!

I noticed I had some type of bearing failure in the rear of the car, and based on where the sound came from, it was a rear wheel bearing. I originally thought it was the diff, but since I had the shop put in new FAG bearings, the sound has disappeared.
I had a local euro vehicle shop that focuses mostly on Audis but dabbled in BMWs and Mercedes as well. I had them replace the rear wheel bearings because who wants to deal with that stuff?! While I was there, I had them vacuum test then recharge my unknown brand aftermarket A/C system that I ruined the same weekend I blew the engine on the car like 3 years ago?! Well I ordered a bunch of newer BMW r124a compliant o-rings and swapped them in.

Here's the part numbers, I had a few left over.


I also finally sourced rear black vinyl panels to go with my early model manual window black vinyl door cards.

I also bought an unbroken HVAC panel. It needs to be cleaned though, any recommendations?


Nothing is broken, unlike the panel currently in the car. Just dirty.

Look, no tabs are broken!! Whoa!


I also picked up this nice Blue Sea 12V USB port that fits almost perfectly in place of the cigarette lighter. The cheap chinese one broke a month in. I think I have a picture of it somewhere in this build thread. I also snagged converter so I can run the Continental Radio with my sub in addition to the normal 4 speakers.




The car is driving phenomenally, and I'm happy with the built M20B25, but wouldn't mind a tuned ECU to get a wider power band and maybe squeeze out from 21MPG to 25MPG.

[paynemw]

Update!
So now that I've done a bit of work to get the car functioning correctly (A/C & wheel bearings) I wanted to focus some efforts on cleaning up the interior. My old HVAC panel was somewhat damaged and missing tabs, etc. You can see here that I had broken tabs (the bottom is pushing out & there are bits broken around the A/C buttons which causes the button to fall out. The Radio also falls out all of the time even though it sounds amazing. Here's a picture of what I took out:



I picked up a nicer & unbroken used HVAC panel from someone on R3v Facebook and also snagged a VDO Continental TR7412UB-OR from Race German and did some cleaning of the harness. I'm anal retentive with wiring, thank you pops.



You can see that I've re built the 13 button OBC connection harness, and I have a proper BMW antenna wire, with a proper AV & signal wire connection and my old Alpine radio harness into the OEM BMW Radio harness (with Premium Sound but missing the OEM amp).

I wired in the VDO radio & put in a line output converter to push signal to the subwoofer too (but this needs to be adjusted).


The finished product looks amazing, the replacement HVAC panel has all of the tabs, not missing portions and the radio sits in the bin perfectly. I just don't

like how terrible the UX is with the software of the VDO radio. I hope someone talks to them about it too.



What do y'all think?

[paynemw]

Lot's of small little fixes here and there!

I finally got the rear window defrost working! Did a bit of cleaning on some connections and put in a functional switch, getting 12 volts at the rear window!

I also got the little trim pieces on the rear window seal locking corner pieces in and looking right.

I would love to delete the check panel, or convert it to a overhead map light, anyone got suggestions on something that can be done in that space?

Getting around 21.5 MPG here in Denver area... makes me quite happy.

[AWDBOB]

Nice little updates. It is this kind of stuff that is the fun part of long term e30 ownership- always adding, changing, tinkering, etc etc. Are you still actively trying to sell the ole gal?

[amcp]

I think so, Seen it posted on the bookface.

[paynemw]

Are you still actively trying to sell the ole gal?

More like if a serious buyer comes along maybe, but realistically not actively pushing.

I think so, Seen it posted on the bookface.

Any leads? I need to figure this thing out because it's not clear how some of sensors can be overridden.

[paynemw]

i pulled the car listing!

but...

one fog light was out. the other had a broken adjuster and both lenses were kaput....


both housings pulled off the valance

broken tab

err.... and warped housings, thankfully no breaks



I don't know if this is repairable, need to do some practice plastic welding



parts...

what sucks is the glass is roughly $50 a side (left lens & right lens) and complete used ones are roughly $1400 on ebay...

I'd love to find a cool replacement that'd be much cheaper or a delete panel. Any ideas?

[mjweimer]

i pulled the car listing!

<SNIP>

I'd love to find a cool replacement that'd be much cheaper or a delete panel. Any ideas?

What about the early Euro valence fog delete panels?

There are two versions...depending on whether you have an early or late valence:

Up to 9/1985:

Left p/n = 51 71 1 906 287

Right p/n = 51 71 1 906 288


9/1985 up to 9/1987:

Left p/n = 51 71 1 933 767

Right p/n = 51 71 1 933 768


I believe the parts above are held in place with these clamps p/n = 51 71 1 933 759



The early blanks are NLA but available on Ebay, the later are active parts but might be a challenge to source in the US since BMW has pulled a lot of the Euro parts from the system unless you have a vin. Schmiedmann has the later parts in stock for $16ea.

[Jb325is]

Looking good! Glad you're keeping it... I definitely regret selling mine even though it made perfect sense at the time.

Where did you end up on the diff? I've done the 4-clutch twice, using BMW wear plates and Porsche clutches then machining the carrier cap to get the pre-load back to stock, or close to it. This was an incredible track setup, but not too sure how it would go on the street. Now that I'm building up a street car, I'm considering going the 3 clutch route but not too familiar with what people are doing these days.

[paynemw]

I plastic welded the tabs back together and re-assembled everything, so the fog lights are back in. I still need new glass, but I'll deal with that when I need to.

[paynemw]

Last day with the Black Spot...

I couldn't believe the day actually came, but I had to say good bye to a great car.

The Black Spot is now moving on to live in Apache Junction, Arizona and spend some days on the track...



Bye bye Black Spot... have fun down there!