UPDATE! Buyer had to back out unfortunately, but last week it passed BAR visual, technical, and the 25 mph sniff test, but failed the 15 mph because of a rich running condition (NO and HC barely above allowable limit). I have since replaced the crank position sensor which was causing a stumble/vibration at low RPM as well as reverted back to stock green-top injectors and the stock tune. Should pass on the next effort!
Sigh...I'm know I'm going to regret this, but baby #2 is on the way, and if I'm going to have a second car (which this is) it has to have 4 doors.
Car is located in North San Diego, CA.
Asking $20,000 (OBO), which I understand is at the high end of the market, but this is a special car (especially once BAR legal), for a special buyer. If you or my wife knew how much I'm put into this car and how much of a loss I'm taking, you would both kill me. There's over $25k in just parts alone in my last year of ownership.
First thing's first. This car is not yet BAR certified, but it is CARB legal. It has all the required emissions equipment installed and functional. I'm scheduled for my referee appointment in late November (completed, nearly passed) and it should pass as that has always been the end-goal of the build. I figured before I went though the trouble, I'd see if I could get my asking price from the non-CA buyers or someone who understands the process in CA before completing that effort and listing on BAT (which I really don't want to do).
Like every E30, this one has a bit of a story and I think 5(?) owners. From what I was told, it was grandmother driven and garage kept for most of its life, before being professionally converted to 24V. Long story short, by the time it got to me, it had been basically driven into the ground. Every bushing, bearing, and wear item had been neglected and was pounded into dust. The S50 was alive, but barely. I went through absolutely every system and either rebuilt, bought new, or upgraded to make it reliable and quick for the track, yet comfortable enough to daily. On track it's predictable, planted, responsive, quick, balanced, and raw. It's way more fun than my 550 hp M4 simply because you're so connected and the experience is so analog.
The motor I bought it with ended up breathing it's last breath on the back straight of my local AutoX after eating an exhaust valve (see previous posts) and self-destructing. I ended up finding a motor that had been recently rebuilt by Korman Autoworks in N.C. that was ready to go into a guys e36 but he sold his race car and was liquidating parts. I decided to swap that in rather than rebuild my grenaded motor. I don't hesitate to say this car is now perfect. I'm not going to say there aren't remnants of it's history, but everything fixable has been fixed. The motor is strong and pulls hard. I'd guess in the 260 WHP range based on similar builds.
Here are the relevant details:
Delphin Grey Metallic 1989 325i.
Paint is probably a 8/9. There is some very light sap damage to the clearcoat on the roof and decklid. The hood appears to have been repainted at some point (scratches in the color coat) but looks good from 5 ft. There is some rock chipping to the front end and mirrors and a few small door dings. VERY good shape overall though.
Some moron flattened the front pinch weld jack points and although it crushed the weld, it hasn't significantly rusted or caused damage otherwise.
There is absolutely zero body rust or damage.
Rebuilt OBDI S50
New valves and OEM springs when head rebuilt
Rebuilt Dr. Vanos unit
New coils
Elring head gasket and all new seals and OEM head bolts
Brand new OEM hydraulic lifters (valvetrain is nearly silent)
Bottom end tested for clearances and bearing wear and left alone
New timing chains and guides
ZF 320 from a 75k mile 328i
198,000 on the chassis and only 50,000 on the motor, less than 1,000 since the rebuild.
Gas gauge doesn't always work, despite my best efforts to repair it, but the reserve light reliably does work.
Drivetrain:
E28 engine mounts
M50 intake
K&N cone filter
Bimmerworld silicone intake boot
540i MAF
Rebuilt and flowmatched pinktop 24 lb S52 injectors
S52 HP fuel pump
TMS tune
Custom welded baffle in E34 oil pan/pickup and safety wired oil pump nut
Garagistic PU trans mounts.
Rebuilt the ZF with all new seals, bearings, shift detents, brass clutch pivot pin, and new TOB.
UUC lightweight Stage 2 flywheel and M5 clutch
New slave cylinder
Threaded rebuilt starter
Rebuilt alternator
Rebuilt steering pump
Rebuilt rear medium case 3.25 Limited Slip Diff with 4 clutch Thayer Motorsport 45% locking disks.
Z3 short shift with rebuilt linkage and delrin bushings
UUC machined stainless knob and ebrake handle.
E36 driveshaft and new giubo and CAB.
Stainless impeller water pump
Moshimoto M3 radiator and new hoses
SPAL pusher fan and dash switch
Custom 2.5" Castro Motorsports exhaust system with cats, resonator, and muffler (sale will include short-tube stainless headers, not CA legal, but goddamn they sound good)
Suspension/Brakes:
CA Tuning coilovers
CA Tuning camber plates
Reinforced front subframe
VAC Wilwood front 11.75" brakes with PFC carbon metallic pads
Stock rears with Hawk HP Plus race pads
Rebuilt ebrake with new cables
Stainless brake lines
Porsche 944 booster
Functional ABS
Purple tag 2.9 lock-to-lock E46 330i ZHP steering rack and all new lines and reservoir
Solid garagistic front control arm bushings/lollipops
Front and rear garagistics strut tower bars
Borbet type A (staggered) 16x7.5 , 16x9 (they're powdercoated BMW motorsports blue, and plastidipped gloss grey metallic)
KA Motors extended wheel studs and lug nuts
Toyo Proxes TR1 245/45/16 rears with no rubbing!
Exterior:
Rperformance ducktail spoiler
KA motors medium flares
Euro grills
Complete euro bumpers
Tinted Euro crosshair ellipsoid smileys with Retrofit HID lowbeams and LED highbeams
Euro projector fogs
IS rep front spoiler
Ceramic tint
Interior:
No AC but I have every component to install
Sparco Milano 2 reclining and folding alcantera seats
Garagistic machined aluminum seat adapters
Sparco sliders
Sparco 4 point harnesses
Custom fabbed bolt-in rear roll cage with removable harness and cross support bars (to accomodate baby seat!)
Crack free dash!
Ebay ///M pedals
Aftermarket Sony stereo with bluetooth
Viilante tri-stitched 350mm steering wheel
Pleather tri-stitched shift boot and ebrake boot
Working manual sunroof
All switches, lights, power windows and mirrors all work.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I truly love this car, but circumstances change and it's time to move on to the next thing. If you'd like to chat about it, PM me and we can jump on a call or just come by and check it out.
Sigh...I'm know I'm going to regret this, but baby #2 is on the way, and if I'm going to have a second car (which this is) it has to have 4 doors.
Car is located in North San Diego, CA.
Asking $20,000 (OBO), which I understand is at the high end of the market, but this is a special car (especially once BAR legal), for a special buyer. If you or my wife knew how much I'm put into this car and how much of a loss I'm taking, you would both kill me. There's over $25k in just parts alone in my last year of ownership.
First thing's first. This car is not yet BAR certified, but it is CARB legal. It has all the required emissions equipment installed and functional. I'm scheduled for my referee appointment in late November (completed, nearly passed) and it should pass as that has always been the end-goal of the build. I figured before I went though the trouble, I'd see if I could get my asking price from the non-CA buyers or someone who understands the process in CA before completing that effort and listing on BAT (which I really don't want to do).
Like every E30, this one has a bit of a story and I think 5(?) owners. From what I was told, it was grandmother driven and garage kept for most of its life, before being professionally converted to 24V. Long story short, by the time it got to me, it had been basically driven into the ground. Every bushing, bearing, and wear item had been neglected and was pounded into dust. The S50 was alive, but barely. I went through absolutely every system and either rebuilt, bought new, or upgraded to make it reliable and quick for the track, yet comfortable enough to daily. On track it's predictable, planted, responsive, quick, balanced, and raw. It's way more fun than my 550 hp M4 simply because you're so connected and the experience is so analog.
The motor I bought it with ended up breathing it's last breath on the back straight of my local AutoX after eating an exhaust valve (see previous posts) and self-destructing. I ended up finding a motor that had been recently rebuilt by Korman Autoworks in N.C. that was ready to go into a guys e36 but he sold his race car and was liquidating parts. I decided to swap that in rather than rebuild my grenaded motor. I don't hesitate to say this car is now perfect. I'm not going to say there aren't remnants of it's history, but everything fixable has been fixed. The motor is strong and pulls hard. I'd guess in the 260 WHP range based on similar builds.
Here are the relevant details:
Delphin Grey Metallic 1989 325i.
Paint is probably a 8/9. There is some very light sap damage to the clearcoat on the roof and decklid. The hood appears to have been repainted at some point (scratches in the color coat) but looks good from 5 ft. There is some rock chipping to the front end and mirrors and a few small door dings. VERY good shape overall though.
Some moron flattened the front pinch weld jack points and although it crushed the weld, it hasn't significantly rusted or caused damage otherwise.
There is absolutely zero body rust or damage.
Rebuilt OBDI S50
New valves and OEM springs when head rebuilt
Rebuilt Dr. Vanos unit
New coils
Elring head gasket and all new seals and OEM head bolts
Brand new OEM hydraulic lifters (valvetrain is nearly silent)
Bottom end tested for clearances and bearing wear and left alone
New timing chains and guides
ZF 320 from a 75k mile 328i
198,000 on the chassis and only 50,000 on the motor, less than 1,000 since the rebuild.
Gas gauge doesn't always work, despite my best efforts to repair it, but the reserve light reliably does work.
Drivetrain:
E28 engine mounts
M50 intake
K&N cone filter
Bimmerworld silicone intake boot
540i MAF
Rebuilt and flowmatched pinktop 24 lb S52 injectors
S52 HP fuel pump
TMS tune
Custom welded baffle in E34 oil pan/pickup and safety wired oil pump nut
Garagistic PU trans mounts.
Rebuilt the ZF with all new seals, bearings, shift detents, brass clutch pivot pin, and new TOB.
UUC lightweight Stage 2 flywheel and M5 clutch
New slave cylinder
Threaded rebuilt starter
Rebuilt alternator
Rebuilt steering pump
Rebuilt rear medium case 3.25 Limited Slip Diff with 4 clutch Thayer Motorsport 45% locking disks.
Z3 short shift with rebuilt linkage and delrin bushings
UUC machined stainless knob and ebrake handle.
E36 driveshaft and new giubo and CAB.
Stainless impeller water pump
Moshimoto M3 radiator and new hoses
SPAL pusher fan and dash switch
Custom 2.5" Castro Motorsports exhaust system with cats, resonator, and muffler (sale will include short-tube stainless headers, not CA legal, but goddamn they sound good)
Suspension/Brakes:
CA Tuning coilovers
CA Tuning camber plates
Reinforced front subframe
VAC Wilwood front 11.75" brakes with PFC carbon metallic pads
Stock rears with Hawk HP Plus race pads
Rebuilt ebrake with new cables
Stainless brake lines
Porsche 944 booster
Functional ABS
Purple tag 2.9 lock-to-lock E46 330i ZHP steering rack and all new lines and reservoir
Solid garagistic front control arm bushings/lollipops
Front and rear garagistics strut tower bars
Borbet type A (staggered) 16x7.5 , 16x9 (they're powdercoated BMW motorsports blue, and plastidipped gloss grey metallic)
KA Motors extended wheel studs and lug nuts
Toyo Proxes TR1 245/45/16 rears with no rubbing!
Exterior:
Rperformance ducktail spoiler
KA motors medium flares
Euro grills
Complete euro bumpers
Tinted Euro crosshair ellipsoid smileys with Retrofit HID lowbeams and LED highbeams
Euro projector fogs
IS rep front spoiler
Ceramic tint
Interior:
No AC but I have every component to install
Sparco Milano 2 reclining and folding alcantera seats
Garagistic machined aluminum seat adapters
Sparco sliders
Sparco 4 point harnesses
Custom fabbed bolt-in rear roll cage with removable harness and cross support bars (to accomodate baby seat!)
Crack free dash!
Ebay ///M pedals
Aftermarket Sony stereo with bluetooth
Viilante tri-stitched 350mm steering wheel
Pleather tri-stitched shift boot and ebrake boot
Working manual sunroof
All switches, lights, power windows and mirrors all work.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I truly love this car, but circumstances change and it's time to move on to the next thing. If you'd like to chat about it, PM me and we can jump on a call or just come by and check it out.
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