'88 e32 735i Autotragic, Project Codename: Old Man Balls

[pandaboo911]

I figured I'd throw my somewhat recent project up on here. My e30 has been giving me grief and I have no motivation to work on it lately.

Some brief background on this car, it sat in an airplane hanger for close to a decade. It was meticulously maintained by an elderly gentleman up until sometime around 2006, when it was bought by some guy who drove the car until things started going wrong, which is when I picked it up for a cool $1600.

The engine bay was still clean when I bought it, aside from some duct tape intake repairs, motor idles perfectly, pulls strong.

Here's some pics of how it looked after I bought it and fixed the shitty intake repair.





glorious blue interior


engine bay is clean as a whistle


The thing was a boat to drive, all the front end bushings were shot, the brake rotors were warped, all 4 shocks blown out and leaking, tires were probably about 10 years old.

First thing on the list was new suspension all around and replacing brakes & bushings as needed.

E39 540i coilovers fit onto an e32 with some mods:


I ended up welding the coilover on slightly too high, so I will need to remove the sleeve and re-weld it lower at some point in the future, but for now the car drives wayyy better.

Then I bought a set of 19" style 95s and resprayed them,
the car sits lower in the front now no worries :D







Shortly after this, I started having some driveline problems develop. The driveshaft was knocking against something under the car, and the transmission started shifting really hard.

I suspected the trans was blown, so I decided to rebuild the valve body. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of this, but it was one helluva job. I'd never done an automatic trans before. Turned out one of the springs inside the valve body that controls oil pressure had broken, meaning the trans shifted at max oil pressure, and assuming the engine was at WOT.

The driveshaft knock was just the exhaust heatshield sagging.

I've taken the car on several road trips to LA and back and really racked up the miles, and it hasn't missed a beat.

There are some things planned for this car, short term plans are repairing a leaking differential and adding some supporting mods for this,
so here's a little teaser for this summer:




cheers!

[2mAn]

Yessssss. I like seeing the other car threads. I think the wheels are too big though honestly

[pandaboo911]

Yessssss. I like seeing the other car threads. I think the wheels are too big though honestly

True, I think they're perfect. They look dumb in that picture since the car is sitting too high. I'll get some pics of the current setup.

Also relevant:

[fresh_TD]

I picked up an e32 back in December, 5spd though. They are solid cars. I like driving mine

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[gdrumm93]

Sweet I'd love to see an E32 build. I'll be looking forward to watching it progress.

[bostonvert]

This thing looks soooo good, great car!

[pandaboo911]

'88 e32 735i Autotragic, Project Codename: Old Man Balls

Today, a treat especial! decided to tear into the diff, lots of fluid was seeping from the gasket, and the diff started to whine at 70+ mph.

Unfortunately it's not possible to replace the gasket without pulling the whole diff, so it had to come out.



The fluid was pretty bad, it's totally black and had lots of little gold particles inside. But then I thought wait an open diff with metal particles in the fluid? Fuuuck. To my surprise I discovered the car actually has an LSD!! Win!! So the gold stuff was probably clutch material.







Most 735s didn't come with an LSD, I guess this has the winter package.

I was dumb and dropped the diff without unplugging the speed sensor, so that broke.doh!!



Up next:



The late model m30s have a common problem with the oil filter housing. The anti drain back valve is plastic and wears out. So there's no oil pressure on initial startup for 8-10 seconds as the housing fills up. I got a filter housing from an e34 m5 with oil cooler ports.

This cooler will hopefully keep the motor reliable when this goes on..




It's a stock k27 off an early 745i. I'll be using all the stock 745i bits and stock 735i ecu to run 8 psi

[kronus]

oooh.

keeping it auto?

[pandaboo911]

oooh.

keeping it auto?

Yeah, I've looked into the 5 speed swap, but I would need a manual 735i driveshaft, which are hard to find since there's only like 5000 manual 735is in the states.

I've come to like the auto trans. It's not as bad as I thought. In manual mode you can still tear trough the mountains without the thing shifting at 4000. It shifts at 6300 if you beat on it

[pandaboo911]

Oops.. Went full 200 lb gorilla on this one



After $40 of lsd diff oil. It's in..

[kronus]

dude those do not get impacted on

[pandaboo911]

'88 e32 735i Autotragic, Project Codename: Old Man Balls

dude those do not get impacted on

Impact all the things!!


Pro tip for anyone with a stock m30b35. If you replace the stock injectors with bosch Design 3 injectors (p/n: 0280155700 or 0280155710) you will gain 3-4mpg and a significant amount of torque. Not to mention the idle is butter smooth now.

In my case I went from 12-13 mpg city to a solid 17.

The injectors have the same flow rate and are a direct swap.

Here's why it's a worthwhile upgrade:


The blue injector is an ev6 in the video, but the design 3 (plastic body, ev1 connector) have the same 4 pintles, and same spray pattern.
Still hugely better than the stock 1 pintle injectors which basically spray like a garden hose.

[pandaboo911]

'88 e32 735i Autotragic, Project Codename: Old Man Balls

Gonna use this accidental double post to compile a short list for the turbo setup.
It's gonna be a thoroughly tested setup, several people over on mye28 have run this same setup with good results.

- stock m30b35 long block
- m106 bottom mount manifold
- m106 downpipe
- stock 735i midpipe
- modified m106 wastegate (9 psi)
- Begi 2025 adjustable RRFPR
- 24 lb bosch blue top injectors
- TCD Turbo Chip
- TCD O2 Sensor clamp
- 179 ECU (late e34 m30)
- modified m30 AFM
- Air-air intercooler*
- m102 bypass valve*

I'm basically going to hook up an MBC, dial down the boost and use a wideband to adjust the RRFPR, working up in small increments to 8-9psi. The o2 clamp should interupt the o2 sensor signal as soon as boost comes on to put ecu into open loop.

So far I've figured out everything except the intercooler and bypass valve. I'm not sure if running an intercooler is worth it.

I'd have to find a small intercooler that fits either in front of the aux fan or under the radiator. In either case, it would be very small and provide little benefit. The car is never going to see a track. I've read that an intercooler isn't really needed for low boost. Any input here would be very appreciated :)

Still have to find an m102 bypass valve, since I want it to look as oem as possible and still pass visual. An aftermarket bypass valve would surely raise eyebrows. the m102 bypass valves are super hard to find though. If it can't find one I'll probably run a plastic bosch bypass and hide it somewhere under the intake.

If it ditch the intercooler idea and run an m102 bypass valve it would work easily with all the oem intake stuff that I have.

Anyway, thats the plan.

[stonea]

Sub'd for M106 stuff