Back in the saddle

[hotsaucewizard]

Hi guys,


About six years ago I sold a tiburon v6 turbo that I cobbled together. I used the excess cash to get out of a payment and into the best car I ever let go.. a 1991 black on black 318is. I ended up selling that to get into an e46 m3 and while that car is a unicorn of it's own, I always had a hole in my heart for the e30.


Tomorrow I'm finally picking up a 1991 325i after years of heartache. 1 owner, local car, no rust, 164k before odometer died, fresh headgasket, water pump, timing belt, "seals", crack free dash, already converted to R-134a, loose as HELL steering which is perfect because I'll be swapping the rack anyway and updating the suspension....


I think this is the one. It's auto (for now) so I get the 4.10 and it has the optional LSD.. unfortunately the front seats are destroyed but they're comfort seats so they would have disappeared eventually.



I'm thinking m20 budget boost until she pops and hopefully by then I will have ordered and cleaned up an m60 to plop in.. although I'm starting to wonder if just working the m20 might be fun enough... I also miss my s54 but that seems pretty unreasonable.



Anyway.. thrilled to be back!!

[hotsaucewizard]

Ok, car is home safe and sound after a sketchy drive home.. suspension is worse than I thought. Super loose steering in the middle and the front shocks are a straight up dangerous ride lol.. decent bumps in the road cause the car to bounce for a good 3 seconds. For a quick budget friendly fix I ordered some raceland coilovers today. Once I get the car up in the air I'll be assessing what all is needed. Probably looking at a full suspension refresh. Overall car is pretty clean aside from a couple of dents on the hood, a trunk full of minor dings (not hail), and 27 years worth of paint wear.










The seats are completely shot in the front but no big deal as this little e30 is something I never plan to sell and will never be finished with. PO removed the purple tint (but not residual adhesive) from all but one window so tonight I removed the last tint and went at the windows with adhesive remover and a razor. Tint guy at my dealership said as long as I clean it up ok he'll tint the car for $100. Here's my toasted seats:






Additionally, my check panel is kind of upset with me




Also my OBC screen is flickering unless I push on it but nbd there. Also also my brake lining light flickers a lot and my abs light isn't happy either. PO told me this vehicle sat for awhile under a car park... was purchased from some old lady. I guess rats were in there and chewed on some wires here and there... a quick dive under the hood confirms another project area but this is ok with me I suppose because longterm goals include standalone engine management. Here's a few pics of some trashed wiring haha.. gonna have a fun time finding out what all of these disconnected wires are. Figured out one already pretty quick, cruise control. No need for that, hopefully it can be deleted easily enough.






I have a feeling my ABS light has something to do with these fucked up crash sensors




Not quite sure yet what this little bit is but this was chewed off completely




Also the PO was explaining something to me about the washer reservoir?? The pump isn't hooked up and I don't see the harness... he was saying there's some little part that he couldn't put in because he had to drill a hole... perhaps the old pump? Haven't gotten that far.




Anyway that's as far as I've gotten after getting it home today. I'm on the fence about continuing to drive it around because I'm so eager but I should probably just start tearing the whole thing down and cleaning it all from the frame up. We'll see

[hotsaucewizard]

ah right, i've also got to remove that pinstripe tomorrow

[hotsaucewizard]

started tearing down the front suspension in anticipation of the coilovers arriving on friday and all of the rubber is SHOT


looks like i'm gonna have to wait for a suspension refresh kit as well before i get the car back on the road

[Cptcarisma]

Looks like a mouse munched on your drivers seat...
Good luck with the build!

[hotsaucewizard]

in the process of installing the coilovers, i found that just about every bushing is shot, my passenger side strut mount is shot, and i also need new tie rods

considering doing it all at once with a suspension refresh kit from fcpeuro, an 80a (maybe 95a but that seems like overkill) poly bushing set from garagistic, and a faster steering rack from where ever I can find the best deal


still trying to pick out wheels and most of my suspension is shot so for now i just dumped it on it's nuts to see how low it goes
keeping it in the garage until all of the suspension is redone but it feels nice to have completed a first step on this thing




one interesting note.. PO said the car had rats at some point chewing on wires
my front struts didn't have bump stops.. wondering if a pack of rats ate two entire bump stops haha
anyway here's my new pig slammed on its nuts

next steps are

1. refresh all suspension, add poly bushings wherever I can
2. manual swap
3. get stock M20 running on megasquirt
4. turbo M20
5. ????

[hotsaucewizard]

pulled the (barely) functional headunit and saw some interesting wiring


followed it and found this.. hmmmmm. never seen one of these

[hotsaucewizard]

a quick google returns a matching remote part ID... gonna give it a shot and see if i can get this thing working

edit: yikes nevermind i'm not paying $100 for a remote

[hotsaucewizard]

Found a getrag 260 with 183k on it for $375 shipped to my door... seems like a fair enough deal

[hotsaucewizard]

turned out to be $301.75 shipped to my door with a 90 day warranty.. fair deal?

[Blake B]

Seems fair enough, i'm shopping for one now and i'm looking at about that price locally

[hotsaucewizard]

ok so i'm starting to tear down in anticipation of the trans arriving


i removed the cruise control and i notice now there are two throttle cables remaining? one is verified connected to the throttle pedal... the other? i'm not sure


i've tried googling and everything i can find so far doesn't show this cable attached at all... can someone tell me what this one is?? has painters tape on it. i feel like this should be a really easy solution but all google combos so far turn up nothing..

[hotsaucewizard]

i've googled most word combos i can think of... i feel like an idiot

i'm guessing some sort of cold start mechanism?

[hotsaucewizard]

and yes i like to drink and work on cars... so there's no confusion i slap a taped number on just about everything i disconnect

then reassembly is a thoughtless breeze - paint by numbers

obvious stuff doesn't get a number but this is the first "i'm not sure what this is but i'm disconnecting it anyway" i've run across so far



although i should add i only do this when i'm pulling motors lol

[hotsaucewizard]

current state:

trans shows up friday. from the previous owner i snagged a manual pedal assembly, driveshaft, various springs and grommets and whatnot, master cylinder, spare reservoir so i don't have to cut a hole, and a shifter assembly.
paid $300. might have overpaid but it's all there and ready to go, no shipping, no sourcing, and it was paid to the guy before me who wanted to do the manual swap but couldn't... i feel ok enough about it.

done for tonight, have a whole day off tomorrow to pull the motor/trans