VIN #336 Craigslist Find. S38 Swapped Euro E30

[downforce22]

Thanks for the comments guys. It is definitely a sweet car and I am amazed at the condition of it. The more I look at it, the more the tails and wheels grow on me.

So we have still been having nonstop rain but received a few things and decided to give it a shot today.

The old air temp sensor was all rusty so I ordered a new one and replaced it. I also swapped out the spark plugs.

Here are spark plugs, cylinder 6 on the left, 1 on the right.


Next to a new plug.


Nothing looks too terrible though.


I couldn't get to the cap and rotor due to the space constraints of the cooling system. I also didn't have time to drain it so I will have to save that for another day. Maybe an oxygen sensor is due as well.


The hood shock and linkage is missing. Not sure what caused it but the whole bracket that should be here is missing.


You'll see my makeshift hood strut in this photo.


I also filled up with some new gas today.

[TimeMachinE30]

Is that a J.Hill Spoiler?

[pbsun]

Is that a J.Hill Spoiler?

Yup

[Eric]

Pep boys off academy has a license plate holder that will bolt I to your euro holes, then bolt your rear plate to the holder. Cost about $5 too!


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[CorvallisBMW]

Holy shit, amazing story! Congrats!

[Herr Faust Schinken]

ooh screw you man

[downforce22]

Pep boys off academy has a license plate holder that will bolt I to your euro holes, then bolt your rear plate to the holder. Cost about $5 too!


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Eric,

Is it this one?

http://www.pepboys.com/product/details/9220867/00241

[Eric]

yup yup! I bought one for the M5.

[enigmaticdream]

Very cool, congrats on the find.

[audiquattrot]

this is mindblowing!

[Raxe]

Nice score! Bet it's a blast, can't beat that sound.

[lukeADE335i]

Here are spark plugs, cylinder 6 on the left, 1 on the right.

Nothing looks too terrible though.

Great find.

The plugs look fine in the photo - no. 4 might be a bit wet, but only looks that way in one photo, others look good.

[e30onBBSs]

Beautiful. I really like the tails and wheels with that nice grey on the body. Is the ix build getting pushed behind lol

[Nats88M3]

The only thing I don't like about this car is..... The fact that is not parked next to my e30 great find and good luck with it! It looks bad ass I wouldn't change a thing other than address the small hiccups and clean up the rust spots!

[downforce22]

Beautiful. I really like the tails and wheels with that nice grey on the body. Is the ix build getting pushed behind lol

Thanks for the comments guys. I hope to get it running right and will get a full cleanup and some nice photos done once it is. As far as the turbo iX goes, the turbo is burning some oil so I figured the bearings/ seals are bad on it. Its an ebay special so I decided to pony up and ordered a precision 5862 which should be here this week. Keep an eye out for that thread.

As for the silver car, I decided to give the ignition system an overhaul with the new cap and rotor. Unfortunately the clearance is so tight that you have to remove the radiator to access the cap. So yesterday I decided to give it a try.

The hoses from the radiator are pretty old and you can tell have been on the car for some time. I drained the system and went to pull the radiator out. Until I ran into this....







Its like some plastic strips of something inside the radiator hoses???
And as I dug around more, they were stuck inside the radiator too. Maybe they are supposed to absorb heat in the radiator, or keep the flow turbulent? Who knows, but they were also jammed into the thermostat as you can see in the pictures, so I decided to pull them out. Those crazy germans. :hitler: Maybe less pressure drop in the cooling system and a thermostat that is not impeded by plastic crap will work better.



And when it was all out, here is the pile of the crazy plastic stuff which is now sitting nicely in the garbage bin.





Also, I believe I found some of the problem with the stumble at idle. The cam seal seems to be leaking so there was oil all over the cap and rotor.





But the cap still looks virtually new. I still put the new one in there since I already bought it.



And the oily mess that was in there. After a compression test and possible outcomes of that, I will address the cam seal.



And as you might expect, I had to take it for a test drive after the tune up. The backfiring has basically disappeared and it drives smoother in the lower RPMs but its still not quite running 100%. Sorry for the wind noise. Check out 1080p below!