AWDBOB's Newest AWD- Heidi

[AWDBOB]

http://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E30-325...ers/ES1928128/

I like where your head is at but those bumpers won't bolt up to your car. Those are for early cars with small taillights. Your car has the facelift larger taillights and therefore can bolt on plastic bumpers. The reason ECS says it will work is because some early EURO only iXs had smaller taillights before they did a facelift and brought the iX to the states for MY 1988.

I'm too poor for Euro bumpers anyway!

[AWDBOB]

Got a smidge of car time today.

Installed the SSSquid chip (thanks Jesse) and the 173 ECU. Was surprised to see a 380 in there and not a 153. 380 was just a later version of the 173 to my knowledge, so it was replaced at some point?

Chip is a STG1 for 93 octane. Tuned for M50 injectors, gotta install those soon.






Studded snow tires for the winter.



DZ102s for the rest.





Accidentally ordered the wrong color E82 mats. Anyway, here are some fitment pictures for those who are curious.





Car came with a pretty decent MT1 wheel thankfully. I still need to put some serious time into some scrubbing in here.




These came in too!



She's gonna be going under the knife sometime soon. Between still waiting on an IE package, and with it being prime mountain bike season, car time is at an all time low.

[audiquattrot]

Awesome! One thing I hated w the h&r springs was the rear sag....I put thicker rear spring pads in the rear to even out the height....even thicker ones 15mm (x5 ones) after I installed the lukebox.

[fight4life28]

Coming along nicely, Glad to see your back with a clean rust free IX. Tell me how the H&R with bilsteins ride, Ive been thinking to go that route, along with IE bushings.

[AWDBOB]

Awesome! One thing I hated w the h&r springs was the rear sag....I put thicker rear spring pads in the rear to even out the height....even thicker ones 15mm (x5 ones) after I installed the lukebox.

I was actually thinking yesterday 'how did he (you) get his to sit level?', so that makes a lot of sense now haha. Your front looks pretty low, too, compared to other iX H&R cars I've seen. Did you cut a coil? My brother runs the H&R/Billys on his iX, and the rear sag definitely is meh. I'm going to try to cook up something to remedy this, as it was one of the main reasons pushing me towards coilovers initially. But I'm not going through that again just yet haha.

Coming along nicely, Glad to see your back with a clean rust free IX. Tell me how the H&R with bilsteins ride, Ive been thinking to go that route, along with IE bushings.

Thanks! My brothers car (along with a ton of other guys I know, including the kind fellow above you) run the H&R/Billy combo, all with great results.

I have IE bushings coming for the diff, trailing arms, and subframe too. Swing by and I'll take you for a ride so you can get a feel for it when it's done!



Also, this is a pretty cool update. My red iX went to my good friend who was very passionate about continuing the build from where I left off, so I gave him all of the parts I had saved up for it, and he finally finished it all up! Lowering the coils a hair in the front and it's all done. So stoked about how it ended up.

[audiquattrot]

I was actually thinking yesterday 'how did he (you) get his to sit level?', so that makes a lot of sense now haha. Your front looks pretty low, too, compared to other iX H&R cars I've seen. Did you cut a coil? My brother runs the H&R/Billys on his iX, and the rear sag definitely is meh. I'm going to try to cook up something to remedy this, as it was one of the main reasons pushing me towards coilovers initially. But I'm not going through that again just yet haha.



Thanks! My brothers car (along with a ton of other guys I know, including the kind fellow above you) run the H&R/Billy combo, all with great results.

I have IE bushings coming for the diff, trailing arms, and subframe too. Swing by and I'll take you for a ride so you can get a feel for it when it's done!



Also, this is a pretty cool update. My red iX went to my good friend who was very passionate about continuing the build from where I left off, so I gave him all of the parts I had saved up for it, and he finally finished it all up! Lowering the coils a hair in the front and it's all done. So stoked about how it ended up.

I need to overhaul my rear bushings badly. Yes I'd love to see how it feels. Btw I never cut any coil up front. That was how it sat after my h&r bilstein hd install

This was a pic from over the summer w 7.5mm lower rear spring pads. Note my 1990 doesn't have that 50lbs of trunk tar in the trunk. U might wanna rip all that out if u want to shed weight back there. When I put the lukebox and amp shortly after this pic, I went 15mm lower rear spring pads to compensate for the weight. Looks even better now..and still hauling a full sized spare back there

[fight4life28]

Your buddy real fixed up your old IX, Last time I saw the car it looked alittle beat up and was missing trim, Did you guys do all the rust repair at the same time? It really turned out great, Is he going to put the ix trim back on?

I'm going to start saving up for H&R's with bilsteins, Currently replacing bearings and ripping apart the head, Rear and Front suspension.

audiquattrot- Your one of the main reason's I was looking for a e30 IX, I love reading threw your build and looking at your car, Your very helpful for us IX's guys too.

[rzerob]

I run H&R with Bilstein HD's ix specific and I like the ride a lot. As for the height it went lower than I wanted but I am use to it now. My other E30 I have GC's with Bilstein and the ride is slightly harsher but I am not complaining. I have heard good things about Koni's, but I will stick with what I have until they give me any issues.

Are cars are older and the design was to allow us to feel the road. My ride and suspension setup might not be as smooth as a Cadillac but if I wanted something like that I would not have bought an E30.

[Panici]

Looking good! Subscribed for updates!

[audiquattrot]

audiquattrot- Your one of the main reason's I was looking for a e30 IX, I love reading threw your build and looking at your car, Your very helpful for us IX's guys too.

thanks man! I appreciate the comments! :) Glad I was a positive influence to your purchase

[VintageBimmer]

nice car! makes me miss my iX :(

[Nisse Järnet]

I'm too poor for Euro bumpers anyway!

I can get bumpers for you almost free, but the shipping would probably not be worth it :(

[Nisse Järnet]

Oh really nice pics btw, the red one looks awsome :D

[AWDBOB]

I need to overhaul my rear bushings badly. Yes I'd love to see how it feels. Btw I never cut any coil up front. That was how it sat after my h&r bilstein hd install

This was a pic from over the summer w 7.5mm lower rear spring pads. Note my 1990 doesn't have that 50lbs of trunk tar in the trunk. U might wanna rip all that out if u want to shed weight back there. When I put the lukebox and amp shortly after this pic, I went 15mm lower rear spring pads to compensate for the weight. Looks even better now..and still hauling a full sized spare back there

Oh, most definitely. I already investigated that area, and that tar needs to go. I did rear bushings on the red car, and it made a very noticeable difference in feeeels.

Your buddy real fixed up your old IX, Last time I saw the car it looked alittle beat up and was missing trim, Did you guys do all the rust repair at the same time? It really turned out great, Is he going to put the ix trim back on?

I'm going to start saving up for H&R's with bilsteins, Currently replacing bearings and ripping apart the head, Rear and Front suspension.

Oh, yeah! He actually kept all of the iX trim off, got the 'i' fenders that I gave him painted, and put the RS' that I gave him on haha. Woke the whole car up, that's for sure! I probably should've taken a weekend and finished it before I sold it, but oh well!

And definitely, bushings will wake your car up! If you get poly bushings for non-moving parts (subframe and diff), M3 CABs, etc, the car will feel like a totally different animal.

I run H&R with Bilstein HD's ix specific and I like the ride a lot. As for the height it went lower than I wanted but I am use to it now. My other E30 I have GC's with Bilstein and the ride is slightly harsher but I am not complaining. I have heard good things about Koni's, but I will stick with what I have until they give me any issues.

Are cars are older and the design was to allow us to feel the road. My ride and suspension setup might not be as smooth as a Cadillac but if I wanted something like that I would not have bought an E30.

I agree 100%. My 530iT is made for all of the comfort and smoooooth cruising, but if I had that in an E30 it would take the entirety of the driving experience away.

If you have the $$, I would HIGHLY recommend going Konis. They blow Billys out of the water on a GC kit, but for coil springs Billys work just fine.

Looking good! Subscribed for updates!

Thanks, man!

nice car! makes me miss my iX :(

Everyone needs an iX! I'm glad to see the love being poured back into them as of late.

I can get bumpers for you almost free, but the shipping would probably not be worth it :(

Oh really nice pics btw, the red one looks awsome :D

I could only imagine what shipping would look like on bumpers!! I have all of the stuff for plastic bumper swap, I may just throw it on to see how it looks :p.

And thanks, man! I'm a bit jelly of the way the red one turned out, but every time he brings it over I remember why I sold it....

[AWDBOB]

Alright, lets talk exhaust.

I picked up the Magnaflow 16535 catback, and am going to go with the IE Long Tubes (stage 2, they call them, lolz).

My question for you lies in the midpipe design. My end goal with the car is basically a ported head, IE Billet 272 cam, and ITBs on the stock bottom ended M20.

I want to make sure I'm not going overkill by straight piping and deleting the cat (doing this for power, not sound), so I wanted confirmation on that subject, and also, want to know what diameter piping I should run in the mid pipe for duals. Also, for flow, do I have to cross the mid pipe at any point?

Long tubes have 2.25" open collectors, and the Magnaflow (supposedly) has 2.25" OD piping, before the muffler.

What are your thoughts? I don't want to go overkill and make this all worthless by losing too much backpressure.