1987 BMW e30 325 build thread

[Kershaw]

Be extra careful with the rusted metal hard lines. If you put too much pressure on them, they'll break because they're really rusty. Get all new hoses clamps, and cut all the old ones off. Obviously be careful with sparks and fuel vapors. Once you get it started, turn it off and don't start it again until after you do the timing belt.

Soak every nut and bolt you see with PB blaster. Every single one. Clean out your sunroof drains. I don't know how you're going to fix the roof, but you'll need to do that before you install a new windshield.

Best of luck with ticketfest- i mean h2o.

[corythomulka]

Be extra careful with the rusted metal hard lines. If you put too much pressure on them, they'll break because they're really rusty. Get all new hoses clamps, and cut all the old ones off. Obviously be careful with sparks and fuel vapors. Once you get it started, turn it off and don't start it again until after you do the timing belt.

Soak every nut and bolt you see with PB blaster. Every single one. Clean out your sunroof drains. I don't know how you're going to fix the roof, but you'll need to do that before you install a new windshield.

Best of luck with ticketfest- i mean h2o.

H20 for me has been fine the past two years I've went. No tickets at all. Just gotta not be an asshole. Plus my hotel is right next to the action now so I'll barely have to drive anymore.

Definitely gonna be replacing A LOT of shit. Surprisingly enough she's not as rusty as I thought she'd be. However she's really gonna need a lot of love and new parts especially once I get the 5.0 in.


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[corythomulka]

Alright so it's been a stagnant few weeks so I figure I'll update this on my day off and hopefully you guys will be able to lend me a hand. Current situation is that my apartment complex desperately tried to kick my e30 out and I didn't want to waste time and money getting my m20 running. So, I had my buddy pick it up and were deciding to just go right into the engine swap. I've been just pricing everything out based on estimates and things I've found online. My current battle is which suspension and brake set up I would like to use which will also influence my wheel set up as well.

My options are split between keeping the 4 lug, getting a moderate brake kit, being happy running 16" wheels and if not then just get the 4 to 5 lug adapter plate

OR

convert to a e36/46 suspension entirely, get 5 lug wheel possibilities and more sizes, bigger brakes.

Ultimately it seems like it would be the cheaper option to just swap over to the newer model suspension, and better in the long run because eventually more power means bigger brakes so I might need to switch to a newer model suspension set up anyways.

HOWEVER, there is a 3rd option I've found which I could run a two caliper set up on my 4 lug wheel set up which could prove more than efficient. And if I ended up doing drifting or something of that nature I could just run a hydraulic hand brake to one of the dual calipers in the rear. I think this would be a happy medium cost option but would ultimately suffer if I was just driving the car around the street.

I've also decided to just get a stock clutch set up for now which I'll just upgrade later. No reason to pay $800+ for a 500+ hp set up that I don't even have yet. As opposed to $150-200 for a 300hp oem set up kit. Also looking into making my own hydraulic conversion clutch kit because cable sucks. Pricing for that is in the picture minus the cost of a bracket i need. Really don't wanna pay $600 plus to convert

I think that's about it for now. Here's a picture of my current grocery list and costs for what I need to get this girl going. Still don't know what I'm doing for suspension yet which is another thing dependent on the lug/brake set up. I'd love to have a beige interior but I may or not not just run some good front seats with a stripped and painted interior.

Idk how much m20 swaps are worth. This e30 has like 200k on it though so I'm assuming not much especially since it's an i version. It'll be for sale soon if anybody wants it.

Thanks in advance guys. !

(Enjoy the picture of my 10 years of sitting suspension rust )




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[corythomulka]

Okay! Sooo. It's been quite some time since I've updated this post and I've been having some hard times financially so I haven't done too much BESIDES buy another e30. so basically I convinced my girlfriend that one could be hers, the crappier one, and one could be mine, the cleaner one.. essentially the plans now for these things are to get them both running and go from there. My girlfriend wants to keep hers basically stock anyways. Just clean and stock. So I'm going to take the interior from my new project car and swap it all into her e30. I'll probably take the shitty back seat and put it in mine then buy new racing seats for the front. They both need brakes, suspension stuff and obvious cosmetic work. Both need fuel pumps and tunes ups to get running. I plan on doing the plastic bumper swap, I may even try to order the EVO bumpers because I kinda like them better but I'm not 100% sure yet since the only options I found are from duraflex and some other website that is slipping my mind right now. The 5.0 is being put on hold because I reallllyyyy want to get all the cosmetics done first so I definitely have a car/cars to take down to OCMD this year. HOWEVER If I can get all that done and then manage to 5.0 swap it then I will definitely. I kinda leaned toward doing a m50/52 swap for a little bit but I may try to get a vert shell and do it in that one since I still realllllyyyyy want a vert e30, we'll see one thing at a time.

That's pretty much my super brief update. Also I'm trying to move back from Maryland to New Jersey again so I can really start putting maximum effort into these things. Hopefully my union transfer goes though, if not I'll just do something else in the mean time because the show must go on. Anyways, if you guys have any advice on anything going on here. Just let me know. Always open to new opinions. Thanks for reading !


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