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

[blue91lx]

Originally Posted by rocknrace03

the key is to not care.

should i care that my fozzy requires 2-3 quarts of both oil and coolant between fuel fill ups.... yes, but do i really?.... no, not at all. not enough to pull a motor anyway...

Oh I am 100% with you there, and will be the action plan once I have the non-negotiables figured out like water ingress, heater valve, etc etc. Almost there!

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The new rear springs settled after driving for a bit, and they worked out perfectly. The car feels like a million bucks now. The subframe bushing NHV was lessened to an acceptable level with proper shocks out back.

Re: HVAC mouse nest, I pulled the HVAC cover again to reorient the cover over the blower motor itself and sprayed a ton of air in there with fan on full blast and a vacuum and I think got most of it out. I have a newer heater core I'm going to put in when I swap the heater valve to hopefully get the rest of the nest!

I installed a MarkD chip and the car idles very low. Makes me wonder if, even though the ECUs were the same between Auto/manual cars if MarkD would tune differently for manual cars, causing it to idle low with the resistance of the torque converter.

Got hoopty #4 back on all fours! Did H&R OE Sports, KYBs, brakes all around, and a few other small odds/ends like ebrake cables/hardware, brake hoses, etc. Nice to have the suspension sorted! I know I keep saying it, but this car is really nice. When's the last time you pulled an ebrake cable right out of the housing without a fuss?

Oh, and after many long nights of coolant bleeding, the Forester is back in action! Feels great to drive the car a bit with all of the improvements before I sell it. With the new suspension, engine, turbo, clutch etc etc it really feels better than it ever has, under my ownership. I would not recommend anyone buy an older used turbo Subaru that hasn't been largely refreshed. This thing needed everything, and I was diligent about maintenance along the way.

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[blue91lx]

I needed more work, so I bought what I am calling the "un-hoopty". A buddy needed bailed out of the project, so I stepped up to the plate. 100% rust free, fresh paint, rebuilt motor, 1990 325iS finished in Alpine White II over Tan.

The plan is to button up my ****boxes and sell them all to transition to this nicer car. Will it actually stay a non-project, you may ask? Highly unlikely. But we're surely going to try!

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Oh, and the GF's Outback engine came in so I took possession of the car. The entire time her sister had it and it was overheating I was pretty sure the HGs weren't bad since I had my guy do the heads and whatnot. I kept telling them to check the heatercore. They said it was an engine.

I got the car, and in the first 5mins I found this under the drivers side floor mat. Heater core is bad, engine is fine. Can't return the engine, or the car, lol. So my buddy who was going to do the engine is now going to do the heater core, and I am going to do the engine. What fun!

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[PAdutch]

Is it the real world... E30 M3s are now 6 figure cars:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...ign=2022-02-01

I haven't been paying attention. Wow

[blue91lx]

Originally Posted by PAdutch

Is it the real world... E30 M3s are now 6 figure cars:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...ign=2022-02-01

I haven't been paying attention. Wow

Yep- pretty insane what's happened to the E30 market over the past few years.

164k miles, original motor, sold for over 100K.

A similar car to Linda, my red iS that didn't have any of the fancy motor work sold for $36K. Another one just sold for $28K.

I am slowly getting all of my cars sale ready minus the hoopty and M3, and am going to jump ship while the gettin's good.

The two recent red iS examples similar to mine. I have less good paint, but way more fun engine stuff, that seems to do much better than perfect paint in all of the auctions I've watched.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1990-bmw-325is-52/
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1989-bmw-325is-70/

[blue91lx]

The hoopty and I went up to the ClassicDaily HQ this week for manual swap and hangs! We had two solid days of wrenching, and intended to manual swap hoopty and swap an m20 on a vert he is trading some labor on for an e28.

I had planned to do a valve cover gasket and heater valve before I went up there, but the trip got pushed forward a day, so instead I trekked a very leaky, untested car 5hrs north.

I left out of the parts warehouse early Wednesday to grab a few last minute items.

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The trip up was a success, but not without casualty. The heater valve really gave out (rivet fully failed) about half way up. No overheating, Hoopty is a sweetheart! The guibo was also living on a prayer but handled 5hrs of 85-90mph with mercy and gentleness.

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Within a few hours, the auto trans was out, and the subframe assembly/engine was dropped out the bottom of the vert!

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Tim prepping the new M20 for the vert required some assistance.

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After a fight with the pilot bearing, the manual trans was in! I bought a car last year that came with a manual swap full of nice bits. I used a late model, 140k g260 I got from a customer who sold his e30, e36m shifter, all new delrin bushings, DSSR, new shift selector, 13lb lightened m20 flywheel, stock sachs PP/clutch, FTE clutch master/slave, and the $75 S3.73 from FB marketplace which ended up being great. While we were putting the trans in, Tim was up on the rolly-steps replacing the exhaust manifolds with ones that had good studs, as these snapped every stud upon removal. Tim was also kind enough to press on the new CSB on to the manual driveshaft.


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I dropped the car down to do some engine bay stuff like valve cover gasket that puked on the trip up, and also swap the heater valve/heater core. Not a terrible job, but there are a few specific bolts that are a pain. The new valve had a leaking Oring, so I had to pull the entire assembly back apart to throw the orings in from the old valve and hope they didn't leak. I transitioned to the passenger seat and employed bimmerbuddah to massage a few of the pesky bolts into place the last time around. Around this time, Simple_Smith stopped by to snag some trunk tension rods and hang.

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Time was running out, so we threw the exhaust back up/bled the clutch hydro and forgot the heat shields, fixed that, and then dropped it back down. The car moved backwards and forwards, success!

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I had to leave in the AM, and the test rip around the compound was a success so I loaded up and headed out. Realized a mile down the road that I forgot to bleed the cooling system after the second heater valve removal, so I did that on the side of the road after she got a little warm and all was well. Car is much happier with the manual, and the mission was a success! I have some vibration on decel that I'll investigate once I get time, but until then, she's a manual ripper. We didn't have time to finish getting the m20 swapped in the vert, but deemed getting hoopty done to be of higher importance, due to the fact that I had to drive it home on a timeline. Jake is making killer progress on installing his new Dynojet, so the next plan is to go up to do a video on a stock car being converted to megasquirt, using hoopty as the victim. Felt great to get out and drive an e30 with some risk involved. Driving untested 30y/o cars on extended trips keeps you honest, lol


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[blue91lx]

Jake (ClassicDaily) bought a truck in Texas over the weekend. His plan was to drive it up to Indy, hang and get the 318 hoopty running, and then take Linda up to MI.

A buddy locally had an e21 he was looking to offload due to a move, and the trailer was already rented for Linda, so Jake picked up the E21, and driving back figured out that he had driven the truck 900+ miles only making 5-25psi of oil pressure. At stop lights the "low oil pressure" warning ding would activate, even though the gauge showed 40psi on the cluster. Some gnarly top end noises later we confirmed [lack of] oil pressure with a laptop and realized that the seller moved the needle so "0" was "40"psi and let him set off on an 18 hour journey with the truck. The motor is salvageable, but it needs an oil pump.

This changed plans a bit, so we dropped the e21 off at my warehosue, and I lent Jake my Xterra to head back up to MI so he didn't have to rent a $450 one way uhaul to get home.

TLDR: Linda is at the ClassicDaily HQ getting finished off!

-She's getting rust repaired: small spot on drivers fender, small spot at battery box. Some clear failure redone, a rocker dent removed, rockers repainted, few dents removed, trim shadowlined, etc
-Dyno tune: this involves fabricating an intake pipe to remove AFM, finally, and getting a proper TPS set up so it's not just running on manifold pressure
-Cruise control bracket fabbed
-A/C conversion finished off with Sanden Compressor and custom lines


This should bring the car to the next level to get it ready for sale! With cruise, cold a/c, and dyno numbers I think the car will do well, and will help me thin the herd. It's a sad day, but I did what I wanted to do with the car and have found that the hoopty style builds suit me much better than the nice cars that I build and have trouble enjoying. End goal is M3 and hoopty in the stable. Hoping to get there sooner than later, but you all know how that goes by this point, lol.

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[blue91lx]

Hoopte 318 runs!! ClassicDaily Jake came down last weekend to pick up an e21 parts car he was stashing at the warehouse and we tried to get the M42 running to no avail. Pinned out coil packs to ECU, manually pulsed injectors, etc etc.

He had to head back to MI and it sat for a week. Yesterday I had the thought to swap the oil/coolant sensor plugs on the side of the head and she fired right up! Super stoked, because this means I can start to button up other areas of the car, get exhaust built, etc etc.

It has been daunting getting this car with a cut chassis harness and blown motor, to now hearing it run!

The cluster I put in the car apparently was on its way out, because I now have a maxed out coolant gauge with ignition on.

The new Febi water pump I installed on Hoopty #5 (325iS) failed so I have to fix that. I also dropped a 2.7L crank/rods with a nice late model i block off at the machine shop. With how slow Kevin works I suspect Linda and 318 will be sold by the time he's done. Going to put a 9.4:1 2.7L stroker in hoopty on the cheap since I had the parts, whenever the other projects slow down.

Also, hoopty #5 is still pretty biohazard, so I'm going to pull the dash and rip the interior apart and do an extensive clean, once I find a replacement dash.

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[blue91lx]

Picked up a fairly not rusty slicktop '91 318 yesterday! Also overflowed into the bay next to my current warehouse spot and it's waaaay nicer than spot #1.

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[DocWalt]

Damn! So many old BMWs, lol

[blue91lx]

Originally Posted by DocWalt

Damn! So many old BMWs, lol

Yes, it is a wild ride! I parted out three rusty cars this week.

Linda's (red 3.1L late model car) rust repair is underway up at ClassicDaily. For the r134 conversion I ended up with this bracket: https://lcwylieco.bigcartel.com/prod...ersion-bracket
and this compressor: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/vta-04709-vua

Jake is going to make the lines.

The initial rust repair was only battery box and drivers fender bottom, but they ended up finding a touch more in that area, so it's all getting cut out and repaired properly.

Getting everything right before she gets put up for sale.

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[blue91lx]

Ever since I got into E30s I have wanted to attend the Vintage, a giant vintage BMW event in Hot Springs/Asheville, NC. This year I finally get to go, but it snuck up quick, so I am doing last minute prep for the drive down to NC on hoopty, the patina ****box 325iS.

I put a new Graf water pump on it as the Febi unit I used initially leaked, and got all of that buttoned up. I found a rough but waaaay better valence at the warehouse, so I threw that on. The drivers side bumper shock needs to be replaced, but hoopty doesn't deserve it. It is way better than before, IMO. The drivers side headlight was held on by zip ties and the bracket was broken in several different places, among a bunch of other hillbilly fixin's that I reversed to the best of my abilities.

Got an r134 conversion coming, but that stuff won't be ready for vintage. Pulling dash tonight/tomorrow to replace HVAC box and get the rest of the grossness out of the interior. When dash is out I will be replacing expansion valve and adding HNBR orings, and will also be installing a Lukbox and sound system I bought from a generous r3ver from Ohio. I suspect the cruise is inop due to rat infested cruise module, so am going to replace that as well. Would be quite nice to have cruise on my way down to NC.

Finally installed the roof rack as well!

As always, I love this thing.

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[blue91lx]

Man this car is disgusting. Also finding chewed and pinched wires everywhere, so I am going through EVERYTHING.

It's going to be a crazy week, as I work until 6:30pm every day up until Thursday when I leave early AM. I am pulling the carpet tomorrow and going to see what I find underneath and will do a deep clean with a pressure washer and extractor, then throw it all back together with a deep cleaned dash, new HVAC box, deep cleaned carpet, LUK box, etc etc.

Cluster bulb wiring cut and just sitting bare in dash

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Map light harness sliced open behind a pillar

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Mouse grossness

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Cracked dash FTW


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Yoink


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[blue91lx]

I leave for North Carolina in the morning tomorrow and had exactly 6hrs to take this:

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To this:

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Put on some jams and went at it. Super stoked it worked out!

[blue91lx]

FIRST VINTAGE TRIP WAS A SUCCESS!!!

On Wednesday night at 5:30p, hoopty was still fully apart. I had just sealed up the new water pump the night before, and had 5-6hrs Wednesday night to put the car back together for the caravan the following morning with the Rivertown Gear Busters down to Hot Springs, to meet up with Simple_Smith, JakeB and Tim, who caravanned down from Michigan.

No HVAC box, no dash, carpet, etc etc. I somehow pulled it off, and was bleeding coolant by 11:30pm.

The trip down was flawless, and the trip was a blast. We stayed in Hot Springs, and Corey showed me the ropes of NC back road ripping. Out of all of the cars that I've had over the years, this is the most intentional seat time I've ever had in an E30, and it was incredible.

Unfortunately, part of the way through the trip, I discovered that my cooling system was pressurizing due to a small internal leak in the HG. The car held steady temps and performed great the whole weekend, and didn't pop a radiator line until I got home. It was pressurizing the system so much that the air was building up in the coolant res and pushing the coolant down throwing on a low coolant light. On the way home, I kept burping the system of the air at the top and made it home! This explains why I've gone through two heater valves and a water pump already. Sorry Febi for talking smack on your water pumps, when the fault was my own, lol.

We barely spent any time at the show on Saturday, but turbo'd Jakes 02 in the parking lot of the Clarion Friday night. Drove it there sans turbo, drove it back to Hot Springs at 3am making 4psi.

Overall an amazing trip, and can't wait to do it again next year.

As for hoopty, I have so many other projects that need to be finished up first that I won't be fixing the car any time soon, but have some cool things plan in the engine department.

Anyway, here are some photos!


When I started working the night before I left.

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Repaired a ton of hacked wiring down in the drivers footwell, a pillar and passenger footwell. And fixed my cruise by bypassing the clutch switch, so I had cruise the whole way down!

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Carpet in

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New HVAC box foam, r134 expansion valve, green orings, and new OEM heater valve

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HVAC box In

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Ready to rip!

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Vintage photo dump


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[blue91lx]

Linda's paint work lookin' good

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[DocWalt]

I *love* those sorts of adventures! Thanks for taking us along!

Linda is looking awesome too

[blue91lx]

Originally Posted by DocWalt

I *love* those sorts of adventures! Thanks for taking us along!

Linda is looking awesome too

maaaaan me too!! I went on another crazy adventure lol. Writeup below.



This past weekend I went on a fairly epic e30 adventure and thought it'd be fun to share with you all. You know, like old forum days.

I recently caught wind of a 6-pack of e30s down in Mississippi, along with a gaggle of good parts. The feller's name was Vinny. Real salt of the earth type of guy. Vinny and his son shared the hobby of E30s together. For many years, Vinny daily drove different E30s back and forth from his home outside of Tupelo to his work up in Memphis. Vinny also spent time in Germany, during which he raided junkyards and got some cool euro bits he stashed in his storage container.

Vinny's son passed away, six years ago. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. His son was into drifting E30s. His son blew up his first creation, and sought to improve upon it. The first experiment was a roller-painted blurple '87 325iS with a turbo M20, fence piping caged, gutted and tuned with a FPR adding fuel with boost pressure, and wideband he watched. The turbo kit was an OEM M21 twin scroll manifold and an HX35. Downpipe was all flexpipe, etc. When this car went kaboom, he started building the next creation, which was a bronzit '89 325i coupe. This consisted of a super ETA bottom end, 885 head, quality manifold, nicer turbo, nice cage, quality suspension bits, etc etc. Sadly, the car was never finished.

Vinny let the cars sit for some time after his son's passing to process, and finally saw it fit to pass them on to a good home. I spent quite a bit of time chatting with him about his experience with E30s, his son's builds, etc etc. We struck an agreement, and the plan was in motion.

I called my buddy Zach, who is a hard working dude always down for an adventure, as well as JakeB and Tim (ClassicDaily) who are experts at their craft, and also always down for a good time.

Now that the team was assembled, I set out to get everything else in place. Jake rented a new 2500 Cummins from enterprise, and had access to a 32' car hauler. I rented a 16' box truck with dolly, and an additional dolly for my Xterra.

There were 6 cars in total. We hoped to bring 3 cars back on Jake's trailer and two behind the dollies, expecting to part out one car down in MS.

Day one, Zach and I got down there around dinner time on Wednesday. We extracted the parts from all over the property in an attempt to see what we had. I started to get nervous, as one does when taking on an adventure like this, due to some parts that were less than ideal. Vinny pointed us to the corner of his shop, where I found what ended up being a pivotal pile of parts his son had purchased for his build but hadn't yet used. There were turbo manifolds, multiple drift suspension setups, new swaybars, wheels, new in box Garrett turbo, handbrakes, etc etc.

Jake and Tim drove down from Michigan on Thursday and got in around 10pm. Meanwhile, that day Zach started organizing the boxes while I set out to part out the blurple retired '87 iS I mentioned above, knowing that at least one car would have to be parted, as not all 6 could be brought home. I had the car fully parted by dinner time, and Zach had all of the loose parts organized and boxed into Lowes moving boxes.

Friday was the big day, as the whole crew was now on site. Jake measured the trailer vs cars while I picked up the uhaul dolly, and around noon after some chattin' we discovered that 3 cars were not going to fit on the 32' hauler. So, it was now game time. Tim and Zach began loading the box truck. I picked the next best part out candidate, a t-boned '87 325eS, and Jake and I went to town, but had a deadline, as both shells had to be scrapped by 3:30pm that day due to scrap yard hours. Tim and Zach finished the truck quickly and came to help with the part out.

By some miracle, we got the second car fully parted down to a bare shell, not leaving any meat on the bone, and rolled into the scrap yard at 3:28pm. Vinny was hanging out with us most of the time, and invited us to stay and hang for steaks and beer, which was the perfect way to end the day.

By Saturday we were focused on getting everything loaded/secured for the drive back on Sunday. Several of the cars had drivetrains removed already, so there were at least 4 loose M20s that needed to be loaded onto the 32' trailer, after the two cars it would hold. A 99K mile SETA coupe and an '87 325iS were designated as the ideal dolly cars, so the '89 coupe and another '87 iS were loaded onto the trailer, behind which we loaded two m20/g260 combos, an m20 shortblock, and another m20 longblock.

We got everything set to go, and were up and at 'em super early Sunday, as we not only had to get back to my warehouse in Indy to unload, but Jake and Tim had to get back to Michigan, and Zach had to get back to Bloomington, on Sunday night.

By another miracle, we made it back to the warehouse, unscathed, after a grueling day of traffic and spending what felt like a life savings on fuel for all of the vehicles. We unloaded the goods, and had a celebratory Mexican meal before the crew headed back to their respective homes.

It was a beautiful thing....... getting to connect with Vinny and not only do business, but make a lasting memory/connection...... it just goes to show that this stuff isn't surface level. There is so much more to these cars that we all love, modify, invest into. There is community.

Anyway, thought it would be fun to share this with the 14 people left on here. The time is now. Go out and do the things you want in life, that will leave you feeling fulfilled.


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Onto some photos-



Upon arrival:


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Parts cars

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Safe and sound!


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[DocWalt]

Holy crap, what a collection! Sorry to hear about Vinny's son, glad he was able to get the cars to enthusiasts at least.

[blue91lx]

Originally Posted by DocWalt

Holy crap, what a collection! Sorry to hear about Vinny's son, glad he was able to get the cars to enthusiasts at least.

Was such a cool experience... we've stayed in touch. I think he was really happy to see the cars go to people who will appreciate them. My hoard is getting quite hoard-ey, lol

The guy hopefully buying Linda the red car is offering two more cars in trade, and I still have an '84 633csi sitting in Indianapolis that I haven't picked up yet. Almost time to get moving on these things!

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Hoopty's gettin' some fixin's!

So....last year or so, I ended up with an exact clone of the "highest HP M20 engine". This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAHlvU6VSy0

It's a 2.8L M20 with a ton of head work, 14:1 pistons and a bunch of other stuff. My buddy wanted the motor, but didn't want to put pistons in it or run standalone, so after selling him the motor, I ended up building him a different, more streetable stroker m20, that he'd be waaay happier with..... which means I ended up with the crazy 2.8.

In a recent turn of events with Hoopty's head gasket diagnosis, I recently found a new in box, non-reground 272 cam in the haul from Mississippi, and took the worked head off of the 14:1 compression motor and took it to the engine Yoda Mr Kevin to have it gone through to see what it was all about.

He said it looked like the head was sent off to have the port work done, and he noted the port work is very nice, and the parts used were all of high quality. They're top of the line Ferrea valves with stems cut down, Ti retainers, and a bunch of other neat stuff. BUT, he said the head was obviously not assembled by the same guy who did the port work. The valves were too long, eccentrics all messed up, springs shimmed weird, and a ton of other small stuff that needed to be fixed.

So after a clean bill of health, hoopty now has a new cylinder head to throw on the stock bottom end! I've had a megasquirt kit hanging around for hoopty for ages, so once I get this head on, I'm going to convert it over to standalone and see how it runs with a fancy head on a stock bottom end.

Got a head gasket, head bolts (finally available again!!) and heater valve from the dealer to complete the setup.

This brings me to the future of hoopty..... I have said spare 2.8L bottom end that needs pistons... the IE Ultimate Street Stroker 2.9L Mahle pistons just so happen to be the perfect choice, as they'll drop right onto the M52b28 crank and 135mm carillo rods with a rebore to 85mm!! So I'll be building that up on the side.

I also have THREE turbo kits that I got with the Mississippi haul, as well as ARP studs, Spec Turbo Clutch, etc etc, so whenever I get around to turning the 2.8 into a 2.9, I'm going to turbo the car using whatever setup I end up keeping around. I assume that'll be in a year or so.

Anyway, figured you guys would like to see this cylinder head, as we all drool over old single cam motors with head work. Should be a blast!

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[DocWalt]

Damn, that's pretty port work!