Slowly but Surely- 325iX, 325iS, and E30M3 resurrection

[blue91lx]

I like naming my vehicles after women, specifically those who leave a mark of upstanding character.

Heidi is a cool chic, west coast born and raised, with a clear vision and desire for adventure, but treads with caution and logic; self aware and optimistically realistic.

1988 BMW 325iX

Amidst my last iX build, I started to realize the importance of finding a solid shell to build off of, so, I cut my losses where I was at, sold the red car, and found this gal hiding in eastern Washington. The car is rust free (why I bought it), and was dealer maintained. Not a single light on inside, AC blows cold, clean carfax, etc. The entire car is sound, and I feel it will prove to be a great starting point.

I tend to go overboard with cars, so this time my plans are simple. Clean, aesthetically pleasing OEM+ look, with similar drivetrain aspirations. Suspension refresh, top end refresh, and subtle bolt on mods. Once the gents on this site find an effective solution to tuning ITBs, they're definitely in order. S54 swap in the far future, but for now, the goal is to refresh and enjoy the car.

Now, onto the pictures.

Fresh off the truck- I have some cleaning to do.










And after a quick wash, no wax.











First mod- Euro Grills. The car had headlight covers it's whole life, so the lenses are mint underneath.









And, that's where I left off. Tons more to come; I've been stockpiling parts :p.

[CleanNeon98]

Clean body, nice pickup.

What's different on the Euro Grilles? All I can notice is one has a smaller opening on the driver's side.

[yellow2000S/R]

Originally Posted by CleanNeon98

Clean body, nice pickup.

What's different on the Euro Grilles? All I can notice is one has a smaller opening on the driver's side.

The top bar is solid instead of being split. It makes the top of the opening flat.

My brother was talking bout your car AWDBOB.

[blue91lx]

Originally Posted by CleanNeon98

Clean body, nice pickup.

What's different on the Euro Grilles? All I can notice is one has a smaller opening on the driver's side.

Thanks, man. He nailed it below on the Euro grills. Top bar is closed so it gives it an 'eyebrow', so to speak.

Originally Posted by yellow2000S/R

The top bar is solid instead of being split. It makes the top of the opening flat.

My brother was talking bout your car AWDBOB.

Your brother's car is looking great! I follow his thread over there as well.

[Shipman]

You already know how I feel.

/subscribed

[Got Insulin?]

Originally Posted by blue91lx

so this time my plans are simple.

Originally Posted by blue91lx

so this time my plans are simple.

Originally Posted by blue91lx

so this time my plans are simple.

Originally Posted by blue91lx

so this time my plans are simple.

Originally Posted by blue91lx

so this time my plans are simple.

Originally Posted by blue91lx

so this time my plans are simple.

liessssssssss.

[blue91lx]

Originally Posted by Shipman

You already know how I feel.

/subscribed

Originally Posted by Got Insulin?

liessssssssss.

[blue91lx]

Some Sunday fun cleaning her up a bit more and going over the car.

The benefits of purchasing a car from the PNW:

Rear upper strut mounts are minty. Struts, on the other hand, not so hot.



How a battery box should actually look (kind of blew me away).



Was excited to see that someone just did brakes and rotors, and then I saw it was done at the dealer on the Carfax



A little K&N action. Was nice to see a brand new OEM filter in there, though. This car was maintained well, and it shows everywhere.




Spent literally four hours cleaning years of brake dust off of these wheels. There is hardly any paint left on them anyway. More reason to get 6ULs.

Before:



After:






SO, now that I'm digging into the car more, I'm getting a better idea of what needs to be done.

-I found the timing belt sticker, and it was last done in 2004, but only has about 20K on the belt. Needless to say, I have a Gates tbelt and OEM components waiting to go on once I find the time. Cap, rotor, plugs, water pump, tensioner, etc, y'all know the drill.
-I have a spare rear subframe and trailing arms that I'm building, welding in a camber/toe kit, trailing arm bushings, rwd subframe bushings, etc. Going to drop that in and do a diff bushing as well, NOT delrin this time around, I learned my lesson last time.
-The shift linkage needs to be refreshed badly, so I ordered all of those bushings along with a Z3 1.9 setup. Going to try and find an old wood shift knob to compliment the grey interior.
-Need to get some fresh E82 floor mats.
-Purchased a set of 205/55r15 Dunlop DZ102s since Tire Rack had a sale and these tires are dry rotted.
-I will not be building another set of Ground Controls just yet. I'm going to roll around on Billy's/H&Rs for a few years and slowly put together coils.
-It needs a catback. I'm going with the Magnaflow unit.
-Door hinge on the drivers door is sunk into the door. I need to remedy that.
-Passenger Window Motor is shot.
-Hood shock is blown
-New clips for behind the pop outs

Seems like a lot, but really isn't too bad. Once all of that stuff is taken care of and the engine bay is cleaned up, I'm going to start prepping the car for paint!

Until next time!

List of everything purchased so far (these things add up fast):

Euro Grills
M50 Injectors
SSSquid Chip (Stg1)
K&N Drop In
173 ECU
OEM Plugs, Cap, Rotor
Gates Timing Belt
OEM Tensioner
OEM Water Pump and Tstat
OEM Belts
M3 Offset CABs
Z3 1.9 Shifter
E82 Floor Mats
Leather Shift Boot
IE Rear Upper Strut Mounts
IE TA Bushings (street)
IE RWD Subframe Bushings (street)
IE Diff bushing (street)
H&Rs
Bilstein HDs
Dunlop Direzza DZ102s 205/55r15
Garagistic Shift Bushings
ZHP Weighted Knob

Next up:

Magnaflow Catback - $550
IE Long Tubes $620
IE 272 Cam $275
HD Rockers $300
RHD ITBs $1400

[blue91lx]

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.


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.

[blue91lx]

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 2.5" 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.

[yellow2000S/R]

My brothers car is on stands with exhaust cutoff waiting for me to build him one.

He has used eBay headers and they'll be going to single 2.5" exhaust with hf cat and Vibrant stealth muffler at the back.

He has a billet 272 cam, IE rockers, and I can't remember what springs but he has upgraded lol. 2.7l with the 885 head, swapping an I intake mani on.

[empera]

dang she is nice! happen to want some stock 325e wheels with fresh tires? lol

[c7scayman]

In your opinion, is a black 91 318i 5spd MT for $1500 a good deal?
146k miles
Cracked dash
A/C/ broken, but heater works
Power windows work
No rust, but the paint is badly worn. The car is almost dark gray.
Ripped seats. Broken corner amber lights.
Drives fine and no CELs. It handles fine and accelerates well.

[yellow2000S/R]

Originally Posted by c7scayman

In your opinion, is a black 91 318i 5spd MT for $1500 a good deal?
146k miles
Cracked dash
A/C/ broken, but heater works
Power windows work
No rust, but the paint is badly worn. The car is almost dark gray.
Ripped seats. Broken corner amber lights.
Drives fine and no CELs. It handles fine and accelerates well.

Yup. 30+mpg.

[blue91lx]

Originally Posted by yellow2000S/R

My brothers car is on stands with exhaust cutoff waiting for me to build him one.

He has used eBay headers and they'll be going to single 2.5" exhaust with hf cat and Vibrant stealth muffler at the back.

He has a billet 272 cam, IE rockers, and I can't remember what springs but he has upgraded lol. 2.7l with the 885 head, swapping an I intake mani on.

Good to know, thanks. Head setup sounds about exactly where I'm going to be. My catback is dual 2.5", so I think running single before that may not sound the best. I bet his setup sounds great!

Originally Posted by empera

dang she is nice! happen to want some stock 325e wheels with fresh tires? lol

Thanks, man! And naaah haha I have my own collection of bottlecaps I can't get rid of.

Originally Posted by c7scayman

In your opinion, is a black 91 318i 5spd MT for $1500 a good deal?
146k miles
Cracked dash
A/C/ broken, but heater works
Power windows work
No rust, but the paint is badly worn. The car is almost dark gray.
Ripped seats. Broken corner amber lights.
Drives fine and no CELs. It handles fine and accelerates well.

Originally Posted by yellow2000S/R

Yup. 30+mpg.

I'd say it'd be a pretty solid purchase as long as it's not rusty! 4cyl paaawwhhhrrr.

[yellow2000S/R]

The magnaflow catback is only 2.25". The tips are dual 3".

PMing pics of my bros exhaust if you care to see how I just ran it. Waiting for a 2" U bend to come to hack up and make a Y collector for the headers.

[blue91lx]

Originally Posted by yellow2000S/R

The magnaflow catback is only 2.25". The tips are dual 3".

PMing pics of my bros exhaust if you care to see how I just ran it. Waiting for a 2" U bend to come to hack up and make a Y collector for the headers.

Finally got a chance to measure tonight, and you're right. The people of the interwebs misinformed me. If you're curious, that 2-1 into the muffler is 2.5", so it shouldn't restrict any flow.

With that said, collectors are 2.25" and the catback is 2.25", so midpipe will just stay dual 2.25".

And yeah, thanks man, I'd definitely like to see how you ran it.

[Shipman]

The old red one looks great, me need

[blue91lx]

Originally Posted by Shipman

The old red one looks great, me need

I know right, I need it back haha.



I put the 173 ECU in with the chip and M50 injectors, and the car starts, struggles to run, and shuts off. Can't even keep it running.

The guy making the chips is a great guy and I've used him plenty of times in the past, but I got 3 faulty chips for the touring, and now this issue, I'm not sure what to think....

[Shipman]

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