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Cirrusly Blue - The Daily Driver E30... now SUPER powered

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    Cirrusly Blue - The Daily Driver E30... now SUPER powered

    The History

    Some of you may know that I sold the Aluminum Monster. Basically over the years I had overbuilt it to do what I originally wanted it to do and then with it simply being a track car, I had been daily driving a '08 C350 for over a year and I had grown bored of it. It was a great car, but it was too new for me. When I bought a "new" car that was to be the racer, the monster was left sitting in the garage. I missed daily driving an E30, and basically within a 24 hour period, I sold both the Daily Benz and the Aluminum Monster. The story behind selling the Monster is also an interesting one, but thats for another day.

    I had a plan and I had to be more deliberate this time with what I bought and how I modified it. You see, I love modifying and this time, I wanted to start from scratch, but needed to make sure I didnt take away from the daily driving ability of the car. I loved how my '86 ES rode with its upgraded suspension and solid rubber bushings. Firm but not rough. Add A/C and a manual and you have a perfect E30 to daily.

    The Plan
    Both of the previous E30s were already modified when I bought them. The things I was looking for this time was a 4door 325, that was original and hopefully was a manual and it needed to have A/C. I knew that it would probably need work to function properly, but I didnt want to have to start from scratch. To make matters worse, I was sticking to a tight budget because I needed racecar money for the racecar. I found a few good candidates, but I didnt get that feeling until I drove this one.

    The Winner
    I was a pretty sure the winner was going to be a 1986 Arktikblau 325e. However, it was ~300 miles north and I was getting frustrated with the seller. He had basically bought it out from under me, and was flipping it. Thats fine because its still in my budget, but I was going to fly and drive a car that I wasnt totally confident in. Then suddenly, this one popped up on craigslist.

    craigslist1 by 2mAn

    craigslist6 by 2mAn

    craigslist8 by 2mAn

    Theres good and bad in all of these pics. Clearly this isnt a factory color, and its an auto. BUT, its either a 325i or its a SuperETA and the cluster looks like its a 325i, so thats good. The seats arent the right ones, but they are sport seats and look brand new.

    I took an Uber with the cash stuffed into my sock since it was in a slightly sketchy part of LA. Met the owner and looked over the car. Interior looked really good with the exception of the cracked dash. Engine bay had turned an odd green as a result of the yellow cosmoline caked on the cirrusblau engine bay. All the components on the motor looked new and the valves sounded really good. Drove it and its what I expected for a cheap E30. Most of the stuff worked and some didnt.... like the odometer. And the pass window. The tires looked horrible too. I lowballed him and he took the offer. It included dealing with the DMV and a smog, so I was happy. Stereo also didnt work, but on my drive home I was checking the glovebox and upon closing it, the stereo kicked on. Drove it home and remembered that I had to run some errands. Figured this was the right place to take a pic and an appropriate end to the first post of the car.

    Getting started by 2mAn
    Last edited by 2mAn; 12-05-2018, 03:11 PM.
    Simon
    Current Cars:
    -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

    Make R3V Great Again -2020

    #2
    Nice! How's the paint doing? I kind of dig that colour.
    Great score on the rear headrests too!
    1988 Atlantisblau Euro/Japanese 325i Cabriolet
    1989 Schwartz 325i - now M50 powered! - now very dead
    1998 Toyota 4Runner Limited
    My 17,000km Big NA National Parks trip!

    Comment


      #3
      Looks good man!

      Comment


        #4
        So now that I had picked out a car and had plenty of cash left to make it mine, I immediately looked at what the problems were. I needed new odometer gears, new tires, and to swap over to a 5speed. The manual swap I wanted to take my time with so I wouldnt pay through the nose for parts and I could make the changes here that I want to tighten up the shifting, mounting,etc.

        The tires were a top priority and with a spare that had already blown out, I wanted it done ASAP as possible. Searched craigslist up and down. I didnt want to just buy tires for the bottlecaps, so I was looking at 15s ... and then 16s and it looked like I was going to have to run all over LA to get wheels here and tires there. Then I found a set of ESMs on the R3V classifieds. New tires too and not too far from me. Message sent, deal done and I was picking up the wheels that night. Juan is definitely a BMW fan, theres also a 2002 hiding in the garage thats mid-resto

        Heres the old side shot
        Getting started by 2mAn

        and an after!
        Getting started by 2mAn

        Threw all the bottlecaps in the car and gave them back to the guy I bought the car from the next day since that was when we were smogging the car. The car already felt MUCH better, and I was already in the process of searching for a suspension setup, but man it felt nice and smooth, especially with the stock suspension + auto trans + meaty 205/50/16 tires. I didnt like how it looked though so suspension needed to happen. My friend Will swears by the Turner J-Stock suspension, and Ive always been a fan of the IE3 / Bilstein setup so I was trying to make deals on both. The IE3 setup got sold so I said, screw it, lets try this new setup. Drove out to San Bernadino to pick it up that Saturday and Saturday night I was trying to get the rear suspension installed while my wife was upstairs cleaning the apt haha

        Getting started by 2mAn

        Also figured while I was under the car to check what the ratio on the diff is. I think an auto should be a 4.10, but thats not what the tag said...

        A 3.73 is fine, LSD wouldve been better, but I will live with this
        Getting started by 2mAn

        Embarrassingly, I couldnt get the rear springs out, and being that I was on a time crunch I finished up the shock install and wrapped it up. I was already planning on having JMP install and align the front struts, so I figured I would deal with the rear springs later.

        One of the other issues I wanted to address was the power window switches were spotty, so I pulled them all out to clean the contacts and get the crud out.

        Getting started by 2mAn

        mid-way through...
        Getting started by 2mAn

        After this was done, they all worked better, still dont have a functioning pass side window though and I still need to address this.

        While I was making progress, I wanted to see what was going on with the stereo since it was not working at all now. Pulled the trim out thats on the side of the glovebox to have access from the side and saw this:

        Getting started by 2mAn

        This might be why the 13 Button OBC wasnt lit up!... Sadly my hand is too big to get the plug in, with everything installed, but I fought it for a while and it ultimately beat me. I will have to pull the HVAC panel out and address it all properly. I plan to purchase an OBC light from Garagistic when I order the VDO cluster gears.

        Called it a day and snapped a pic

        Getting started by 2mAn

        Shes coming along nicely...
        Simon
        Current Cars:
        -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

        Make R3V Great Again -2020

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Sea Aych View Post
          Nice! How's the paint doing? I kind of dig that colour.
          Great score on the rear headrests too!
          Yup rear headrests and armrest too! The rear headrests might get replaced with a nicer setup, but its not a big deal

          Originally posted by CYN RNS View Post
          Looks good man!
          Thanks! I hope you are going to update the Aluminum Monsters thread soon! ;)

          So with the suspension plan in place, there was a few other things that are still bothering me. I hate the missing lip and front plate. Im hoping those who have made the front plate delete panels will make another run, but I got lucky that I found a cheap IS rep lip locally, so I went and bought it. When I went to install it, I saw that the painter of the car sprayed right over the center oil cooler vent and I thought, this is something easy that I can paint black so slowly eliminate all of the old blue. The iS lip was fairly straight forward, but there was only unbroken clips on the outside corners, so I used those and a bunch of zip ties in the middle to hold it on... Its a rep-lip IDGAF

          Getting started by 2mAn

          like my paint booth? haha
          Getting started by 2mAn
          Simon
          Current Cars:
          -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

          Make R3V Great Again -2020

          Comment


            #6
            Congrats, brother! Always fun starting a new project
            -Brad, AlphaTeam Motorwerks, LLC
            91' 318iS - S54/6MT Swapped
            08' E90 M3 6MT - Daily
            04' Chevy Duramax CCLB - Work Truck/Hauler


            Originally posted by IronJoe
            Alpha Team: running through e30s, gringo icebergs, and 19 yr olds.

            Originally posted by 2mAn
            Brads a standup guy even though he likes buttsex

            Comment


              #7
              Sweet! Glad your back in an e30 looking forward to where this one goes.


              1989 325is l 1984 euro 320i l 1970 2002 Racecar
              1991 318i 4dr slick top


              Euro spec 320i/Alpina B6 3.5 project(the never ending saga)
              Vintage race car revival (2002 content)
              Mtech 2 turbo restoration
              Brilliantrot slick top "build"

              Comment


                #8
                so after the last post it was about a week of having the car. It felt like it was moving along nicely with minor issues to deal with. I was anxiously waiting to see and feel the J-Stock suspension on the car, and shes been doing good as a daily driver, except for one thing that I havent figured out yet. On the initial cold start, she fires up right away and purrs at idle, but then after about 30 seconds- 1 minute it stumbles and dies. Hard to start after this but eventually it gets going and once its warm its a non-issue. This is the biggest thing thats annoying me right now. Any ideas? I thought it might be the ICV, and I will clean that out soon, just dont know if theres something that clicks off after the ~30 seconds that then makes it hard to idle. Coolant Temp Sensor seems to be another one that causes cold start issues.

                Anyways, I shared that info with Jerick @ JMP and dropped the car off. I was more concerned with the suspension and when I picked it up, WOW expectations were blown away. Looks awesome.

                Sitting so pretty by 2mAn

                Sitting so pretty by 2mAn

                she fired up right away and I started to head home, but was hungry so I stopped at In&Out. Couldnt resist taking another pic

                Sitting so pretty by 2mAn

                Suspension certainly feels tight. Its not firm or as harsh as other made it seem like it would be. Im very happy with it. Jerick also said he noticed a crimped fuel line that he replaced and he thought that the problem would be fixed. It fired up no problem this morning, but then it had the same issue. Looks like this will be the headache for me to deal with haha

                One last thing was that the trunk mustve had a major swamp going on recently because it smelled BAD. I pulled everything out that I could, but it was bad. On top of that, the trunk tools looked like they mustve been pulled from the bottom of the ocean. Bought out a bunch of parts from a r3v member and it included the collection of his tools. I have a few people I know that need them, but anyways I picked the best ones for myself and replaced the old rusty crap.

                heres a comparison shot.
                Getting started by 2mAn

                swamp thing!
                Getting started by 2mAn

                still missing a few tools, but definitely a step in the right direction
                Getting started by 2mAn


                And that brings you up to date. Ive been tight lipped this last week because I really wanted to wait until my initial phase was done, and Im there now. It wont look much different from here, but there will be upgrades here and there as I go along. Im happy to be daily driving an E30 again. This ones a looker IMO
                Last edited by 2mAn; 08-24-2017, 11:43 AM.
                Simon
                Current Cars:
                -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

                Make R3V Great Again -2020

                Comment


                  #9
                  Your cold start problem could be the cold start valve?


                  1989 325is l 1984 euro 320i l 1970 2002 Racecar
                  1991 318i 4dr slick top


                  Euro spec 320i/Alpina B6 3.5 project(the never ending saga)
                  Vintage race car revival (2002 content)
                  Mtech 2 turbo restoration
                  Brilliantrot slick top "build"

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by ThatOneEuroE30 View Post
                    Your cold start problem could be the cold start valve?
                    Forgive my ignorance because I havent owned an M20 car in nearly 5 years, but I would think if the cold start valve was bad, it would be really hard to start immediately and then go away. The car fires up no problem but then after 30sec-1min it becomes a bitch until the Coolant Temp is reading almost in the middle.

                    Do 325i even have them? I thought that extra injector was just a 325e thing
                    Simon
                    Current Cars:
                    -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

                    Make R3V Great Again -2020

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by 2mAn View Post
                      Forgive my ignorance because I havent owned an M20 car in nearly 5 years, but I would think if the cold start valve was bad, it would be really hard to start immediately and then go away. The car fires up no problem but then after 30sec-1min it becomes a bitch until the Coolant Temp is reading almost in the middle.



                      Do 325i even have them? I thought that extra injector was just a 325e thing


                      I think you might be right. Derp moment my bad, My m20 knowledge isn't the best especially in the stock form.


                      1989 325is l 1984 euro 320i l 1970 2002 Racecar
                      1991 318i 4dr slick top


                      Euro spec 320i/Alpina B6 3.5 project(the never ending saga)
                      Vintage race car revival (2002 content)
                      Mtech 2 turbo restoration
                      Brilliantrot slick top "build"

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Wooh! Congrats Simon, I kind of dig the color actually. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
                        '89 Schwarz E30 M3 Cabriolet Build

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Have you verified the VIN to see if it's a SETA or 325i? I know the 325i's dont have a cold start injector, so if it's firing up fine when it's dead cold, and then falling on it's face after a min or so, it could easily be the coolant temp sensor NOT referencing the DME that the engine is getting up to temp, to cut down on the extra fuel??

                          Just a thought.
                          -Brad, AlphaTeam Motorwerks, LLC
                          91' 318iS - S54/6MT Swapped
                          08' E90 M3 6MT - Daily
                          04' Chevy Duramax CCLB - Work Truck/Hauler


                          Originally posted by IronJoe
                          Alpha Team: running through e30s, gringo icebergs, and 19 yr olds.

                          Originally posted by 2mAn
                          Brads a standup guy even though he likes buttsex

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Doesn't have a cold start valve. I would change the two coolant temp sensors to start off..

                            Dude, that suspension setup look REAL good. I'm actually a little jealous...

                            edit; what size tires are those?
                            Originally posted by wholepailofwater
                            Q
                            :devil:


                            WTB: Dove Grey e36 Front Door Panels (2 door)

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by spiDmang View Post
                              Have you verified the VIN to see if it's a SETA or 325i? I know the 325i's dont have a cold start injector, so if it's firing up fine when it's dead cold, and then falling on it's face after a min or so, it could easily be the coolant temp sensor NOT referencing the DME that the engine is getting up to temp, to cut down on the extra fuel??

                              Just a thought.
                              Its definitely a 325i

                              I guess I will research how to test the CTS
                              Simon
                              Current Cars:
                              -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

                              Make R3V Great Again -2020

                              Comment

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