The Pearl Chronicles (aka White Lightning)

[HardyNugget]

White Lightning

How's it going StanceWorks! My name is Michael, I am 17 years old and I was lucky enough to pick up my very first BMW e30 a few weeks ago. I've been really excited to start this thread and I hope I don't disappoint! Anyways, Let's get into it.

So let me get all of the boring stuff out of the way like a little introduction and why I bought the car and stuff (If you don't want to read this, please feel free to skip to all the car stuff. Don't worry, I won't **** you for it ).

I've been in love with BMWs ever since I first got into cars which tbh was only like 3 years ago haha. I've been lucky enough to daily a 2001 740il these past few months, but I've always been on the lookout for an e30 as it's probably my favorite looking car ever. 3 weeks ago, after a 3 year search... sort of, I was finally able to purchase one. The car is a 1987 BMW 325e sedan (ugh eta... I know ). I really made an effort to get a normal i model, but this one was an original owner car so I really couldn't pass it up. The owner lived about two hours away, so on a Saturday morning I made the drive up North with my Brother and Dad.

Nothing really eventful happened, we went up, checked it out, bought it and drove back home. The owners were an older couple and some of the nicest people I've ever met. I ended up finding out it was actually the girlfriends car that she couldn't drive anymore due to her knees going out on her . She had named it Pearl, so I just decided to keep the name and add my own little flare to it (hence the White Lightning part) They had done nothing to the car other than maintenance. It is literally bone-stock, how it came from the factor other than the shocks which he replaced cause he felt the ride was a little too rough. That's about it for boring stuff, let's get into the pictures!



Gotta love those diving boards


The paint needs some work, but for being the original paint from the factory it looks pretty darn good.


There is nearly no rust anywhere so that's sweet.


Dashboard cover cause it's obviously cracked lol


Odometer still works so that is the real mileage according to the PO. Fuel gauge doesn't work so that needs to be fixed.

And for my favorite part about this car...

Houndstooth Interior baby! Pure sex

Sorry for the shitty phone pictures, from now on I'll be shooting on a pretty decent camera. I am by no means a photographer, but real camera pictures are definitely gonna look better than phone pics.

I've pretty much done nothing to the car other than wash it and de-badge it. I bought new emblems, but they didn't fit so I gotta either return them or do something to make them fit in the little grommets. I also bought a bunch of little maintenance parts to make sure it runs in tip-top shape.


Before stripping her of her identity haha


This stuff took forever to come off... maybe I could've done it a better way... oh well


The 3 broke off, I guess it doesn't matter since it won't be on the car anymore


This stuff wasn't coming off. it kinda just looks like scratching from the emblem so I guess I gotta do some paint correction. No biggie, I planned on doing that anyway

And here she is in all her badgeless glory!



Oh! and here is all the maintenance shit I bought:
Spark plugs
Valve cover
Distributor Cap
Timing Belt
Water pump
Air Filter
Fuel Filter
Oil Filter
etc...


I probably forgot a few things, but you get the gist of it. Maintenance is boring, but its gotta be done

I am by no means mechanically inclined so don't bash me if I do shit the wrong way lol, I plan on learning a lot with this car and pretty much doing every thing it needs. I really don't wanna pay for labor at a shop.

Planning to do all the maintenance stuff the following weekend since I won't be home this weekend. Took her to get gas today and she kinda left me stranded. All of a sudden she started idling really weird and the exhaust literally sounded like a motorcycle so I guess it's the exhaust. I could only drive in 1st gear cause she wasn't going fast enough to shift into 2nd. I literally had to drive home at like 5mph lol. Anyone have any ideas what it could be?

As for the future of Pearl... I'm probably gonna be super basic and do an m50 (maybe s52?) turbo swap. I was also thinking American v8 like a 5.0 motor from the foxbodies or an ls1. I think it goes without saying that I will lower her and get some new wheels and of course tuck the god awful diving board (I really don't mind the old model bumpers they just look so weird due to how far out they are). I'll probably daily her for a bit as I'm trying to get rid of the e38 pretty soon and get something newer to daily while I make the White Lightning nickname actually make sense I don't plan on going super low, I want her to be fun to drive and not scrape on every little incline I run into.

That's pretty much all for now guys, hope you enjoyed the intro and if you have any questions or tips please let me know! Oh! and if you wanna follow me on instagram or twitter they're both in my signature

[Benwalsh91]

welcome, I look forward to seeing this progress!!

I can see if I can get hold of some euro grills and lights and ship them over if your interested.

[hinrichs]

wow what a clean slate to start with

[19birel]

Very clean car, have fun with it!

[MikeyRa]

Looks clean!

Your driving issue sounds more like MAF or ignition from your description to me.

[HardyNugget]

welcome, I look forward to seeing this progress!!

I can see if I can get hold of some euro grills and lights and ship them over if your interested.

Aw yeah, That'd be sweet! I really wanna get it low before I do anything else exterior wise, but I'll let you know later on. How much should I be expecting to pay?

wow what a clean slate to start with

Thanks man, and yea I was stoked to be able to pick up such a clean example.

Very clean car, have fun with it!

Thanks a lot, I'll make sure to enjoy it!

Looks clean!

Your driving issue sounds more like MAF or ignition from your description to me.

I have the spark plugs and just ordered the spark plug wires as the PO did say that it could use some new ones. Hopefully that'll fix it along with the distributor cap. If not I'll look into doing something about the AFM. Thanks for the help!

[bwwaaaa]

Looks like a really clean car to start with. I actually think 2.7 can be a lot of fun with the right supporting mods. Look for a limited slip, and a chip to wake it up a little, and you'll have a torque-y, backroad, bomber. Eventually an 885 head swap can give you homebrew stroker M20. Lots of potential there!

As for the idle issues, also check for vacuum leaks. I had similar issues over the years, old lines get cracked and can cause things to idle and run funny. Otherwise check your basics (fuel, spark and air). Sounds like you're already on the right track though.

Looking forward to seeing more of this car, enjoy!

[Darkyoshi154]

The eta gets alot of shit, but it's definitely not a bad motor! I cannot recommend enough a Conforti chip(or something similar). My buddy has an '86 eta that he was able to swap a 'chipped DME into and it REALLY woke the car up!

Welcome to the E30 family!

[HardyNugget]

Looks like a really clean car to start with. I actually think 2.7 can be a lot of fun with the right supporting mods. Look for a limited slip, and a chip to wake it up a little, and you'll have a torque-y, backroad, bomber. Eventually an 885 head swap can give you homebrew stroker M20. Lots of potential there!

As for the idle issues, also check for vacuum leaks. I had similar issues over the years, old lines get cracked and can cause things to idle and run funny. Otherwise check your basics (fuel, spark and air). Sounds like you're already on the right track though.

Looking forward to seeing more of this car, enjoy!

Chip, LSD, 885 head... I'll definitely keep that in mind. Considering the chip is only like $200 I'll probably pick one up really soon so thanks for the advice! I'll be sure to check for vacuum leaks as well! Thanks for the input man! I'll be looking forward to seeing your car as well haha

The eta gets alot of shit, but it's definitely not a bad motor! I cannot recommend enough a Conforti chip(or something similar). My buddy has an '86 eta that he was able to swap a 'chipped DME into and it REALLY woke the car up!

Welcome to the E30 family!

Good to see some eta love up in here lol, thanks for the warm welcome. I am super excited to be part of the "family"!


Alright guys I really need your input on suspension. I wanna go low, but not too low. It will be my daily for quite a bit so do you think I'd be satisfied with just shocks and H&R sports? Or should I just go Coilovers? I'm worried about coilovers because I can't weld I knew these cars require it Really any advice at all would be greatly appreciated!

[Benwalsh91]

I would honestly hold out for coilovers, I am sure someone on here can give advise on a local shop to you who could weld them up. but if you go springs you would probably want to go coilovers down the line so it might be worth waiting a little longer now and doing it once.

[Fruttolo]

I would honestly hold out for coilovers, I am sure someone on here can give advise on a local shop to you who could weld them up. but if you go springs you would probably want to go coilovers down the line so it might be worth waiting a little longer now and doing it once.

+1 on this, springs don't go low and with the way these cars are designed it's not worth it, good coilovers are the best choice.

Very nice beemer, I had one that looked about the same except it had euro bumpers and was a wimpy 316i

[cblock406]

Nice clean E30. If you are going to be dailying it for quite a long time I'd be go with spring/struts. Dailying a slammed car on stiff ass coilovers gets old and this car doesn't deserve that.

[HardyNugget]

Alright guys quick update! To be completely honest, I've been lazy as shit and just this week is when I actually got some stuff done. I've cleaned out the idle control valve and replaced the spark plugs, the wires, the ignition rotor and the distributor cap (I didn't take pictures cause there was nothing out of the ordinary, all of that stuff is boring, and I really didn't feel like it ). Sadly... none of those were the solution to my problem She starts right up and she warms up fine idling at around 1k rpms, but once she's warm she drops to just above 500 rpms and the idle is pretty erratic. I have no clue what it could be and if I could get any advice on anything I should check or replace please let me know. Thanks.

[Fruttolo]

Mine was like that, even worse as it stopped running, then I discovered a leak in the rubber thingy that goes from the MAF to the throttle body and it was better but still did as you describe. It was a tiny crack under it and the piece costed like 17€ so worth a check.
If it doesn't solve it, I'd guess it's the MAF itself or one of the temp sensors that the ecu relies on to adjust injection and timing (it's been years since I looked but if I remember right there is a blue sensor under the intake manifold that usually causes problems like that, maybe anyone with more experience can add something or prove me wrong)

[MikeyRa]

My issues on mine was the wires at the plug for the MAF were corroded and I chased that issue for weeks until I pulled the little rubber boot back and saw them.