Lagunengrun 325i

[mbonanni]

Got my h&r sports today! Installed the rears and got about halfway through the fronts when I realized I need to get a new nut for the strut, Those nylon lock nuts are single use right?






Picking up this Recaro LX this Friday as well, just need to find a decent passenger so I can get them recovered [emoji41] If anybody knows of one let me know. I was also looking at Corvette C4 Seats, they seem like they might be a nice fit into e30s, and they have power bases. Would be cool to utilize that, has anyone sat in these seats before?

[mbonanni]

Don't be fooled by the pictures, the paint is very faded and peeling. The car sat inside for 8 years, but the previous owner moved it and let it sit outside for 2 years and the sun really beat on it. I plan to get a full respray once I have it all mechanically dialed in. Might be in awhile, but it's in the plans.

The wheels well turned out great, they could've used one more coat all around, but I think it will be fine.

If this heater core valve ends up working I may just leave it, because that is an expensive part.

Hopefully I will have an extra hand when bleeding the brakes, but if not Im sure it will go well. Just got the remanufactured rear calipers in, I love new clean parts, very satisfied with these. And at $45 each I may just replace the fronts as well, but well see.

[wworm]

brake bleeding is a lovely, very easy thing to learn to do and once you know how, its an easy thing to do quickly as a diagnostic tool for less than ideal pedal feel.

[DesertBMW]

Laguna green color only came on Coupe in early 1991. I would say it is rare. BMW makes upgraded heater valve now for E30 but it is not cheap, part number is Part #: 64-11-1-386-707-M9

[cheffy30]

i'm gonna do my wheel wells like that too...
thanks for the inspiration...
subscribed.

[AwakenNoMore]

looking great so far! Your Laguna paint is in much better shape than mine ever was, which is why mine is now John Deere Blitz Black.

[mbonanni]

Was able to get some work done on the car today. New control arms, m3 offset control arm bushings, 21mm vert front sway bar with new bushings and new end links.



I should be getting the remanufactured rear calipers, rack boots, and h&r sports this week so hopefully next weekend I can manage to get those on with new brake pads and stainless brake lines. I do not think I have ever bled brakes so that will be a first, looking forward to that.

Anyone know how to fix bent/twisted seats?

[mbonanni]

New e brake shoes, rear sway bar end links, and rotors put on. Only one picture,



I got held up putting the new rear pads in because the calipers on both sides are frozen. The piston won't budge and I figure this is from sitting for 10+ years, so I ordered some remanufactured calipers because I didn't want to deal with rebuilding these.

[tak7]

Nice work, car's looking great!

[mbonanni]

Got my rear suspension together for the most part, just waiting on sway bar links in the mail. You can see the rubber coating in these pics.




Ebrake was barely holdin it together



And a pic of the front

[efficient]

I haven't gotten the chance to actually use it, but with a little cutting of the knee bolster the handle is super easy to reach.

Its better then looping the lines like I did and I have a new heater core.

[mbonanni]

1991 Lagunengrun 325i

I haven't gotten the chance to actually use it, but with a little cutting of the knee bolster the handle is super easy to reach.

[efficient]

Had a hectic week with the e30. Went to pick n pull, got a used unit and it was completely rusted out. Bit the bullet and bought a new one from Turner that took forever to get to me, wont use them again.



Turns out this is the wrong valve and doesn't fit my model car, so I have to send this back now. Fed up with waiting I read a few threads and copied someones solution.



I got it all installed and then when I was cleaning my thermostat I ended up tightening it too much and broke the housing. Dumb mistake, but I have extras chillen at another house.

Im still chasing down a misfire so once this is all back together I can get to work on that.

That is smart on the heater valve. Going to do this too.

[mbonanni]

Got everything back together and shes runnin great. Cleaned up the engine bay quite a bit during the process



I have the car on stands waiting for lots of new parts to be installed.



Since I still have a few parts in the mail I figured I would clean up the wheel wells and redo the rubber coating on the inside.

I started with fairly clean wheel wells, just tons of dust, no mud or sludge etc. I'm just showing one of the four corners, front passenger side. Removed all the plastic guards.





I then wiped them down dry with a few brushes I use for cleaning parts. I spent five to seven minutes on each wheel well getting out dirt and dust. In my opinion this is the most important step for a good end result when cleaning parts. Water tends to pick up dirt and grease and bring it to hard to reach spots, it also helps break up anything water cant.





After this I sprayed down the wheel well sthoroughly with a pressure washer. I don't have anything fancy, just a small black and decker 1500psi electric washer. A regular hose wouldve been fine. I then sprayed it with some kind of cleaner, I personally use Fabuloso the purple stuff, and let it sit. Once it sat for a few minutes I scrubbed and rinsed in down. Repeat this step two or three times as needed.




Once it dried I taped off any areas that concerned me. It's getting new control arms, tie rods, end links, steel brake lines etc so none of that was of concern.




I was going to order some 3M undercoat spray but found this at my parents house instead, the brand is mar-byde. I did only one coat per wheel well and it turned out all right. Each one seems to have a different texture, the front two wheels wells are considerably better with a more even spray. As I got to the rear the can was a little less than half full and began to have a more speckled spray, so I will have to redo those eventually but they're fine for now. Pictures are from right when I sprayed it, but they're a lot more dull now and seem to be drying well. I will get more pictures tomorrow of those.





I also cleaned, prepped and spray painted a 21mm vert front sway bar I found in my parts pile. I like flat black because it gives the oem look and a lot easier to find leaks if I ever have any.

[mbonanni]

Update:

Last weekend my dad came by with a compression gauge in hopes of finding an inconsistency that may help me find my miss. Well turns out cylinder #2 had zero compression so off came the head.




At first glance everything looks good, no damage on the pistons or cylinder walls and all the valve spin freely. The next day I take another look from a different angle and find that the exhaust valve on cylinder #2 is bent. I check the piston and sure enough theres a small knick on the piston.



Fast forward a few days I run to my parents house (where I conveniently store most of my parts) to pick up a spare 885 head that I had sitting on top on a b27 bottom end waiting to be put together. When I bought this the guy told me it was clean, pressure tested, decked, got new valve guides and seals plus potentially more. I'm not sure how true this it because I have no receipts to back it up but the head is straight and clean.



Once I got that I cleaned up the pistons and the block surface to prepare for the new gasket





And in good fashion I spent a few minutes and cleaned up the intake manifold as well as thermostat housing, valve cover, and upper timing cover (pictured later)




Once I cleaned that up I was ready to install the new head. I sprayed the head gasket with copper spray before I put it in, and with the help of a Bentley torqued down the head. I dont have many pictures following this but after I got it on I did a compression test and got really low numbers. Suspecting the timings off I remove the belt inspect the head/came etc and find the cam gear had a notch where the pin sat to line it up. I pulled the cam gear from the head I took off and then got everything bolted up again and timing belt back on.



While putting this in I noticed a corroded wire and followed it up the harness a bit. After I had cut back 2 feet of harness wrap I decided to remove it and do it the proper way. I pulled the wire harness and cut the rest up, finding the wire corroded a majority the length of the harness. So I will be ordering a new connector, some wire, and harness wrap to fix that. Luckily I have a spare harness that I can follow so that its as close to oem as possible.



I can't do much till I fix the harness so I tidied up the engine bay a little bit and will be cleaning that in the next few days. I then found some time to clean and paint some spare strut housings and calipers. These will be going on the car along with new rotors and pads front/rear, bilsteins, eibach pros, and braided stainless brake lines.



I have plans on the side to rebuild the head that came off the car to build a 2.8L stroker using m52 crank, short rods and 325i pistons. That will be pretty slow I assume though.