89 325 Vert light fixer-upper Craigslist steal

[jeenyus]

Also, I never noticed this missing, but did today. What would be plugged into what is circled?

this is an AUX fuse box. Nothing is plugged into it unless you want something to be plugged into it. For example, for my power seats i use this fuse box and have a wire coming off the other end providing me with 12v to my seats.

[jrossowvue30]

I've heard a locksmith can cut you a key with proper title etc. Havnt done it personally so maybe call a few places.

I called a locksmith that I've used, who gave me the number of a guy he thought could do it. That guy doesn't do it for older cars but gave me the number of a guy who will. That guy can and will do it, but for $157. I guess you have to pay a premium when you're in a pinch like this, at least the guy will come to the car.

[jrossowvue30]

I've had a few days to spend some time on the vert project and got a few minor things done. I was having a really hard time keeping it running at start up. I decided to go ahead and replace the coolant temp sensors. I read that it can cause a poor start and a idle issue due to running rich. Got them replaced and the car starts and will idle now, not great because there is still an air leak but I don't have to give it throttle to keep it running at start up. The bottom sensor gave me some trouble, but my wiring harness to my injectors wasn't even screwed on so that moved itself out of the way and I was able to get a deep well socket on it and crack it loose. However, no matter how I started the screw it back in, the side of the sensor that the little metal harness clip slides onto is facing downward, and it was like this on the one I took off. I don't have the hands or the patience to get that little securing clip in there that way. Any tricks?
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

Last week I made a huge mistake, and destroyed my driver side door.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

I was going to pull the car out of the garage to give the car a much needed wash. I didn't close the door latched, and looked over my other shoulder as I was backing out and completely failed to realize the door had swung open. It caught the garage door opening and destroyed an otherwise perfect door. I've been sick to my stomach over it for over a week. I was able to find a few doors to replace it with, ended up buying a bronzit door, then found one that was almost Cirrus Blue so I also picked that up. When looking at the car I thought it would be a close enough match to not have to paint it right away, but when I got it home it's not really close. The door is a cirrus/glacier blue mix, so it's just a little too silver to not get sprayed soon.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

Other than the paint I am happy with the door. The car it came off of was orginally silver before a blue respray. The door was originally white. Both of the resprays before were poorly done so it will be more work for me when that time comes.

Somehow after I disconnected my old door the plug for the wire harness slipped past the opening. It looks like it should just pop back into place, but I am having my issues. I can get one clip and the two tabs through the hole, but when I try to get the other two clips through the other clip pops off and falls back into the body. I had to take a break, I will get back to this in the next day or so but these are the little things that I hate about working on cars, the obvious "easy" things that are fiddly and annoying.
by J Ross, on Flickr

One of the main issues has been air leaks. I bought this car knowing nothing of its past. I was told the engine has been out, it came with a bin full of loose nuts and bolts and too many wires and hoses unplugged to count. I tracked down a bunch of obvious leaks with a can of carb cleaner but know there are more. I got a simple smoke tester off eBay so Yesterday I finally put that to use. I discovered I've got a pretty sizable leak at the crank case breather hose connects to the valve cover. I ordered a new hose and that should be in this weekend. All of the other hoses seemed to be good, but I had a ton of smoke coming up from the back of the valve cover.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

This picture is of it first starting to rise. It billows out after 15-20 seconds. I initially thought it was just coming up from the exhaust because that is cut off at the bottom of the down pipe, but looking under the car it doesn't look like that is where it is coming from. It was alarming to see, and also surprising because although the car idles rough, it doesn't idle that rough and I would think if something was leaking that bad I would not even be able to get the car to idle at all. It is a tight spot and there is so much smoke that I cannot find where it is coming from.

I've also started to disassemble to parts car I got last week. Hopefully one day next week I'll have time to remove the g260 and all the other parts for the manual swap.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

[Mpolito3355]

I like the color .....yet again I'm bias =)

[gnmzl]

Happy to see you coming back at it.
For that smoke leak, I'd check if the rubber plugs are baked or even there.

[jrossowvue30]

Happy to see you coming back at it.
For that smoke leak, I'd check if the rubber plugs are baked or even there.

I’ll take a look. I’m not familiar with any rubber plugs back there but if there are supposed to be some there is probably a good chance they are in bad shape.

[gnmzl]

I’ll take a look. I’m not familiar with any rubber plugs back there but if there are supposed to be some there is probably a good chance they are in bad shape.

Yes, they usually are in very bad shape, especially if the PO was lazy.
It's PN 11331264519, number 13 in this diagram

http://bmwfans.info/parts-catalog/E30-2-doors/Europe/325e-M20/L-M/mar1985/browse/engine/valve_timing_gear_cam_shaft/

There are four of them, two up front and two in the back of the head. When you pop up the head cover, you would see them. They plug the slots for the rocker shafts, you can see these slots in the below picture (that's the back side of the head, where your leak is forming)

https://imgur.com/wetmk3Y

Hopefully it turns out to be those little plugs, as they are easy enough to replace.

[jrossowvue30]

Yes, they usually are in very bad shape, especially if the PO was lazy.
It's PN 11331264519, number 13 in this diagram

http://bmwfans.info/parts-catalog/E30-2-doors/Europe/325e-M20/L-M/mar1985/browse/engine/valve_timing_gear_cam_shaft/

There are four of them, two up front and two in the back of the head. When you pop up the head cover, you would see them. They plug the slots for the rocker shafts, you can see these slots in the below picture (that's the back side of the head, where your leak is forming)

https://imgur.com/wetmk3Y

Hopefully it turns out to be those little plugs, as they are easy enough to replace.

I ordered 4 of them and they came in. I think they were a part of the problem as they look like they've shrunk and don't seem to fit very snug. Unfortunately I don't have a new valve cover gasket, which was definitely an issue as it was kinked. Hopefully the VCG will be in by Wednesday.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

[jrossowvue30]

My Valve cover gasket came in this morning so I dedicated some time this afternoon to get that buttoned up. Got the Elring gasket.

I pulled the old cam “plugs” out and they’re not as soft and supple as the new ones. I cleaned the areas, put a light bead of RTV on them and slipped them in. They seemed to slide in no problem and seem seated fine but the tops all have a little hump to them. This causes the gasket to not seat flush.

Looking at the old vs the new ones the plugs look the same, they’ve all got a distinct peak to them. I bought these off FCP and didn’t think anything of them when they arrived to look and see that they’re not a flat surface across the top.

Is this how they’re supposed to be or are there BMW OEM parts that are flat across the top? I thought about putting them in the freezer so they’d shrink and fit in there but then they’d still have the point in the center. I was really looking forward to being able to seal off the last of the leaks but this has thrown me.

[jrossowvue30]

Moving on from the VCG. I installed the cam plugs and VCG and my air leaks seem to be solved. I also replaced the crankcase breather hose and at this point I've got a pretty solid running car again. It stumbles a little when returning to idle and I am wondering if that is because of my exhaust, or lack there of. That brings me to my next move, which is exhaust. I've got the exhaust off my parts car but its a eta. I was thinking I would bolt it up just to get it to an exhaust shop so that I wouldn't need ear plugs. Any issues short term running a eta exhaust for a few miles?
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

I would be happy to stay stock, but my stock exhaust is absolutely rotted out and the cost of a stock OE exhaust doesn't seem to make sense since I would need a new cat, mid pipe and back box. Factor in that the pipes were sawzaw'd off it seems easier to just start over. Someone has a complete exhaust on craigslist for $200, but they're a few hours away and nobody else seems to have anything any closer.

I picked up some long tube headers a year or so ago. I got them used but the guy who sold them to me says he thinks they're IE knockoffs. I know they're not necessary for a stock motor but I got them for a good price. I'm going to try to get the car in for exhaust this week. If I run these I'm obviously going cat-less and debating if I should go two-into-one or keep it dual out to the muffler. I've run Vibrant resonators and mufflers on other cars and really like how they're quiet when they need to be but have that sporty growl when you get on them.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

At this point I am ready to drop the getrag 260 from the parts car but I am not sure if I am ready to drop the auto from the vert and install the getrag all at once. I am going to lose my garage space in the next few weeks so I really just need to take what I want/need from the donor and send it on its way. Laying on my back all weekend just doesn't sound super fun to me, but neither does driving an automatic e30...

[e30vert]

What a steal on the Cirrus Blau vert! Looks like you are slowly making some great progress. When I see all the rust it makes me really grateful to have a West Coast Cirrus Vert! Keep it up! Shame about the door.

[jrossowvue30]

It's been a few weeks since I've been able to get much done, with the coronavirus going on and some other crazyness in my life I've had to take some time to focus on other things. I felt like I'd gotten the car to a place where I needed to get the exhaust on. I still had the cat and rear part of the exhaust. I knew the muffler was beyond saving, but when I pulled the rotted heat shield off the car I found a surprisingly okay cat.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

I had the car towed to a shop around the corner and dropped the exhaust off. The plan was to weld the section with the cat back onto the downpipes and cut the pipes past the cat and do a y and go single pipe out to the muffler. The shop did a fine job and it is now at least tolerable to start and drive. The plan is to do something custom or aftermarket once the rest is sorted.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr


The shop is only a few miles from my house and in that 5-7 minute drive I had things happen. I think I am at the point where things are just going to fail due to age and lack of use every time I start it. I could smell a really strong gas smell and it felt like my breaks were sticking. There were not issues the last time I drove it. When I got it home the hoses that go from the hard line from the tank to the fuel filter and from the filter to the hard line both let loose. This moring I went and got a few feet of 5/16 fuel line and replaced all of those old lines and also replaced the fuel filter. I didn't mess with the brakes today but after the drive they're incredibly spongy so there is definetely some work to be done there.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

I also gave the car a much needed wash yesterday. It was chilly and windy so I more or less was just attempting to knock off the grime.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

[jrossowvue30]

Today I took my first drive in the car with the top down. I finally got around to getting the starter wired up correctly so that I could get power from the unloader relay. I now have working windows. One of the rear window regulators was bad but a shop was able to rebuild it. I also bled the breaks and knocked the rust off the rotors and I've got good strong breaks and feel comfortable driving it.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

I had those tires mounted in 2007 so they're reeeeaaaalllllyyyy sketchy so I did not go far, just around the corner from the house. New tires will be this week's goal.

I also put the original driver's seat back in. It would appear that the previous owner was 400 lbs as it is twisted all out of sorts but I just really wanted to have it in there. Much to my surprise it has a working seat heater. You can see in this picture just how bad it leans to the inside.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

The passenger seat is in good enough shape that if I wasn't going to have to redo the driver's seat I would leave it as-is. The inside bolster is pretty well worn, probably because the fatass that owned it before me couldn't fit in there without rubbing against it. I would be willing to live with that because I love old leather and think it gives a bit of character. I'm now going to explore getting the front seats redone.
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr
Untitled by J Ross, on Flickr

Overall I am really happy with how things are progressing. It is fun to drive despite the auto but I know that the more I drive it the more it will spur me onto the do the manual swap.