Project Red Mist - 1986 325es M20B25 swap

[hoki06]

I bought this car on a whim a couple weeks ago from a local kid that had some recent bad luck and needed to dump the car. I had been thinking about picking up a project car but no garage and city parking made that nearly impossible. Luckily for me, I have become friends with a local indy shop who has performed work on my E36 M3 track car as well as my 128i daily driver.

Big shout out to Glenn and Delta V Motorsports in Richmond, VA for letting me store and work on the car at the shop!

http://deltavmotorsports.com/

Here are some specs given to me from the PO:
1986 325es
1990 325i engine, trans, and wiring harness (approx 149k miles)
3:73 LSD
New-ish front struts, springs, pads, and rotors
Hartge headers and valve cover
Extras that came with the car include dirty but untorn E36 Vaders, ellipsoid HID headlights, euro grills

According to the PO, the swap was around 80% complete and needed the following:
Replace radiator with 'i' style
Replace some hoses in the cooling system
Reinstall all intake pieces
Finish/check wiring which includes opening up the firewall hole for the DME plug
Replace rear shocks/springs

I would consider myself fairly mechanically inclined but I have never done anything this in depth before which is part of my reasoning for buying the project. I am also completely new to E30s so I'm doing my best to research and learn while finishing the car properly. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and like to do things right the first time. Couple that with only working on the car a couple hours per week and that means it won't be running as quick as I had originally hoped. My goal is to have it driveable by September.

So far, I have done the following:
Installed new 325i radiator with late style top mount
New lower radiator hose
New t-hose (connects thermostat housing, heater core, and overflow tank)
Swapped 5k tach for 7k tach that came in a box of spares

I just received a late style expansion tank, stock air box, clutch fan, and some other small pieces that should be most of what I need to get it running besides some small hoses. Which leads to the dark cloud looming over my head.... wiring. I'll make a separate post soon about the wiring and hopefully people can chime in an help me figure some stuff out.

Enough talk for today, time for pictures!



Engine bay shot from PO


New radiator installed


Cluster after swapping in the 7k tach

[hoki06]

I'm hoping someone here can lend a hand identifying what some of these loose wires are in the glove box area. All glove box and surrounding panels are removed so I'm not sure where the wires were originally located or what they were connected to.

Any help with these would be great!

Overall view of the DME area


C104 plug


Unknown wires #1 and #2


Unknown wires #3

[kistler#7]

IIRC,
The black wire from the c104 is tach signal, I wired it to the negative electrode on the coil

Mystery #2 is for glove box lighting

Mystery #3 is for the OBC

I believe the other c104 wires go to the OBC or fuel economy gauge but I am not using either

Also check out this page on E to I wiring

http://strictlyeta.net/technical/328i_6.html

[anabolice30]

Hartge valve cover very nice

[hoki06]

IIRC,
The black wire from the c104 is tach signal, I wired it to the negative electrode on the coil

Mystery #2 is for glove box lighting

Mystery #3 is for the OBC

I believe the other c104 wires go to the OBC or fuel economy gauge but I am not using either

Also check out this page on E to I wiring
http://strictlyeta.net/technical/328i_6.html

Thanks for the info and especially the link! I've been on that site multiple times but somehow missed that page. That is incredibly helpful and exactly what I was looking for.

Hopefully I'll make some more progress this week and weekend with the wiring to get closer to firing the car.

[hoki06]

Minor update and a question or two for the masses.

After a lot of work travel the past month, I finally got back to the E30 last night. I gave up my search for an early '87 wiring harness and decided to make my current harness work. I cut the original C104 plug off and spliced in my own connector to keep it somewhat clean. I just need to open up the hole in the firewall so I can push the DME plug through and get the grommet in place. I also need to check the entire harness and make sure all plugs are correct and grounds are connected.

The cooling system is almost done, all hoses are now in place as well as the clutch fan and shroud. I need to get mounts for the late style expansion tank and get that installed.

Now.. questions that hopefully someone can provide answers for.

Question 1: My main harness plug (C101) has the red/yellow pin 20 wire on the harness side for ABS power. The body side of the C101 plug, pin 20 has nothing. I want ABS to work so do how/where do I need to get power to the ABS module? Since the body side of the plug doesn't have a pin 20 wire, does that mean the ABS already has power elsewhere and I'm good to go?

Question 2: Coolant temp sensor(s). The 'e' radiator I pulled from the car had 2 sensors on the drivers side (see picture below). The 'i' thermostat housing has 2 (maybe 3) holes for sensors that currently have plugs. The new 'i' radiator has only 1 hole for a sensor on the passenger side. How many/which sensors do I need? Can the holes stay plugged?

Two sensors in the 'e' radiator


You can see one of the plugs on the thermostat housing

[Wschnitz]

Opie you should give me that valve cover ;)

nice car!

[hoki06]

Bump, any help with either of those two questions would be great

Opie you should give me that valve cover ;)

nice car!

Thanks! I'll give you the valve cover if you give me some cash ;)

[hoki06]

Some more research has shown that the two sensors on the side of the 'e' radiator pictured above are high and low thermo-time switches which are not used in the Motronic 1.1/1.3 system I have now.

If my thought process is correct, I only need 2 temp sensors. One for the gauge (blue top) and another for the DME (brown top). Does that sound correct?

[E30NJ]

whooo ahhh. Hartge valve cover

[Thujalvi]

The blue one is for the DME and the brown one for the temp. gauge.

[Chinampa]

hey another richmond E30!

[2mAn]

I think that kid (PO) was a member on here... Car looks familiar

[PimpinWalrus]

Saw this car out front of DeltaV the other day dropping off parts for Glenn, it looks really good! I just finished an e to i swap, if you ever get stumped on something let me know!

[hoki06]

I think that kid (PO) was a member on here... Car looks familiar

He was, I found the old for sale thread when researching the car pre-purchase.

Saw this car out front of DeltaV the other day dropping off parts for Glenn, it looks really good! I just finished an e to i swap, if you ever get stumped on something let me know!

Thanks! There's not a lot left to do to get it running, I just need to make some time to knock stuff out. I might take you up on that offer if I get stuck on something!