My 24v e30 DD Project

[hi its me alec]

Well, now that I'm about to start driving this thing, time I start sharing my progress over here at SW. I'm cross-posting this from BFC but will update this one more.



It's a 1986 325e, 225,000 miles, pretty much all original.



Bought this thing for $841 in the summer of '08, no rear brakes, lots of hail damage, lots of rust.


Before its first wash


Cleaned up the interior... ehhhhh


Wood glue... mother f*cker


My gf at the time drove the car around for a while, so I ditched the old smelly leather seats and threw in some $20 recaros


*OEM mystery box**


Walked out to the car one night, someone felt the need to show some e30 love


Got some basketweaves with snow tires, and the exhaust fell off on the same day..


Some non-fubared suspension parts and us ellipsoids


X eleventy-billion


Drilled some holes and installed IS spoiler


100% eyeballed


replaced this old 'front subframe' and installed good control arm shtuff




scars from battling this old beast


replaced m20 fuel lines


got the e36 radio working..


and here are some more quality pics of the car at this point.


next to my e46, when i lived at my old apartment














and then... went and got an M50 for $200

[hi its me alec]

So my ex-gf drove the car after the water pump pulley snapped, which blew the headgasket because she drove 20 MILES!!!! to work in the red, so it never ran very well after August. So around February I saw the end of the M20B27 and picked up the M50.. didn't want to deal with timing belts or distributors, plus I figure the turbo potential is awesome.

So around March, out came the motor..


This was my first time ever working on a car this intensely. Never pulled a motor before




engine on the stand.. under 90,000 miles, from an automatic '93 325is.


got it reasonably clean


e32 740i brake booster, e34 525i master cylinder, remote brake fluid res


and threw Mr. M50 in




rear main seal is pretty much shot, as well as the shift shaft seal.. but we all know i'll be taking this engine out soon anyway


could be slightly better, but i'm happy with the way everything lines up. the linkage was modified after this picture


peace out, M20






and during the swap, scored some houndstooth seats and door panels, separately I might add!




new shifter location. feels super brand new



new cluster in


linkage after modification


then i found that a spark plug was stripped off in the head.. so f*ck..


and we absolutely could NOT get the car started. problem ended up being the adapter harness I had made for the M20-M50 connectors. the guy made it wrong and that ended up costing me over a year and $2000 to be diagnosed and fixed at a shop. if i would have made the harness myself or otherwise gotten the correct one, the car would have been driving in april of 2009.

In trying to get the car started, I made a couple mistakes. Burned a mint red label DME


Got the seats in


correct DME mount from 318


bought an e36 steering rack


bilsteins


sexy sexy


premium sound speakers front and rear




in another attempt to get it running, i swapped the engine harness and DME for a matching set out of a 5sp 1993 325is. super intimidating to dive into this project without prior experience.


and throughout all this, made some headway on my e46...

[hi its me alec]

So this is me, labeling the harness.

1. oil pressure sensor BRN/GRN or BRN/GRY
2. front coolant temperature sensor (ECU) BRN/RED BRN
3. rear coolant temperature sensor (Gauge Sensor) BRN/YEL BRN/VIO
4. crank position sensor YEL
5. cam position sensor YEL RED/WHT BRN/ORG
6. VANOS solenoid RED/WHT GRN/BLU
7. knock sensor, 1-3 BLK NCA DME PIN 70
8. knock sensor, 4-6 BLK NCA DME PIN 69
9. throttle position sensor (TPS) BRN BRN/BLK RED/YEL
10. intake air temperature (IAT) sensor BRN GRY
11. idle control valve (ICV) WHT/YEL RED/WHT WHT/GRN
12. Evaporative emissions valve BRN RED/WHT



some emergency surgery




killed some knock sensors and replaced them


and got the new harness in..


then last december, after i couldn't get the car to crank anymore, got it towed to a shop..


and on october 18th of this year, 3 shops and $2000 later, i have the car back in awesome shape.


after some cleanup on my part, turn-key engine with no exhaust or o2 sensor


helloooo






Now I'm waiting on my exhaust shop. I have an o2 sensor and Spal 16" single speed fan ready to go. Got the dungeon motorsport steering rack swap pieces ready to go. Next step after the car is driving will be GC Coils and rear end.

[hi its me alec]

Here are a couple pics.. still don't have my camera so I had to use mom's

As you can see, I desperately need to replace both front fenders, both front doors, and do some major surgery on the driver quarter panel and rockers. Also the gas pedal mount rusted out. Will definitely need to cut another e30 up.



Also.. I REALLY wish this car deserved a full detail Just did this for fun, pretty much

[hi its me alec]

And this is ONLY for SW, I'm not sharing this with any other group yet..

A friend of mine started up an LLC called RecycleBMWs, and right now we're getting off the ground via e30s. In the future we'll be going to auctions and getting e46s and M cars. We have a LOT of cars already, we both love e30s a bit too much and we found a lot of good deals locally. So, looks like our e30 hoarding will definitely come in handy for my car



This one is actually my own parts car.. picked it up for 200 a long time ago. No title though unfortunately. Luckily this thing barely has any rust.







2 M52 and an M50









So, I'll be making several pilgrimages up to the shop with the e30 to snag some parts. I also need to learn how to paint!!

[MikeG]

looks like itll be fun. That X5 looks great too

[Vegas13]

damn man. i couldnt handle that frustration. the car woulda been sold a long time ago


nice work man. especially your first time around

[hi its me alec]

damn man. i couldnt handle that frustration. the car woulda been sold a long time ago


nice work man. especially your first time around

Yeah, well... sometimes you just need to bend over and take it right up the butthole. Suffice it to say, I love the car more than I love money or my own sanity.

Thank you

[Vegas13]

E30's will do that to you lol

[hi its me alec]

Also here's what I'm using for shocks/springs.

- Almost blown bilsteins - $75..
- e36 M3 dinan springs - $50.. will cut a dead coil off the top of the front springs and hope for the best as far as ride height is concerned. The springs are from a '96 and have no markings



I've seen lots of naysaying about the e36 springs on an e30. But they will fit, and I'm sure the weight difference is somewhat negligible. obviously it's not ideal, but I need to align the front of the car after this steering rack is finished.

I plan to get GC coilover kit once I have some cash moneys. Along with the springs, I also bought some 96 M3 struts to tinker with for 5lug purposes..

[hi its me alec]

Update part 1 - Sold e36 Dinan springs, bought e30 Racing Dynamics springs for $45



Update part 2 - Took profit from e36 spring sale, and am about to put a deposit down on..





I'm totally broke right now with payments to make.. but I don't care, I'll borrow money if I have to. These babies are local and 5x120. 16x9 and 16x10, corvette offset, perfect for adapters. will 5lug swap and rebuild wheels to fit in the future

[Vegas13]

very nice!! 16 staggered is bad ass man!

[hi its me alec]

very nice!! 16 staggered is bad ass man!

Thanks man. I'm shitting bricks over here

I photoshopped this about 2 years ago...

[Vegas13]

Veryy clean!!!

[runningpanda]

Gotta love bleeding a little for the sake of the auto. I've cut up my hands and arms countless times working on the e28.
Sweet project man.