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Thread: 330Ci Build

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Durham, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    198
    My Cars
    04 330Ci

    Cool 330Ci Build

    Hey guys, so I haven't posted anything in well over a year. I lost the sedan too my shitty landlord (I'm sure you will all want to hear this story so I will post about it later). I bought a 330Ci yesterday for 2k so you can imagine what might be wrong with it. It's pissing out white smoke from the exhaust when its running. it idles really rough. It has 255,000k so its definitely not new. the body is in reallllly good shape, and as I am pretty familiar with these engines I decided that was all I really cared about. I had the car towed to the shop today to have a compression test run to check and make sure its not a blown head gasket or something causing the issues, as its lost power is smoking and releasing a lot of oil. Hopefully just the notorious CCV issue and it will be back up and running. If not I have sourced an engine with 187,000k for 750$. Will update again tomorrow with info from the shop.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    88
    My Cars
    2001 BMW 325xi, e46, m54
    As long as it's something you like to work on or fix up. I know cars can last a lot longer than people think (my daily driver is a 91 explorer with 260,000 miles)... But in my opinion 2k seems like a lot for a vehicle with 255,000 miles. Especially considering there is a lot of stuff that's gonna need to be done. I don't know where you live, but rust is a big issue where I'm at. Even newer cars have a lot for rust underneath. I always think about all the brake lines and everything else that's gonna need to be replaced. But again I live in the rust belt. You may have bought an awesome car, but it sounds like you will have a lot to do. I think of resale value as well. Your odometer is always going to say 255k and it's gonna go up. If you drive it for a year or two it will probably be over 300k miles. It could run amazing, but most people won't even consider buying something with 300,000 miles on it. Considering you paid 2k for it and it sounds like you have stuff to fix as well, I would assume you will end up with around 3grand in that car and probably never see that money again when u sell it someday. It's not just the engine. Your transmission has 255,000 miles.. all of your bushings and motor mounts and everything is gonna have those high miles and thus be wearing out... If you buy a new engine for $750 and let's assume that next year u need a tranny, maybe another $750... Assuming you did all the work yourself and aren't paying for labor, there's another $1500 in parts.. and the engine will be used with almost 200,000 miles on it as well... It's not like your throwing a fully rebuilt certified engine. God forbid you pay a shop to do it. I'm not trying to trash talk your car, just my opinion, but this sounds like a bad investment, unless you like to work on stuff and just want a project. Could have probably paid $3500 upfront and got one with less miles on it and runs fine... So to summarize lol, I would just say that unless you plan to keep this car for a long long time, then I would not invest too much time or money into it.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Durham, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    198
    My Cars
    04 330Ci
    I completely understand where you are coming from, however I did not buy this car to re sell. As you stated I bought it as my project/track build, and really never intend on selling it. hopefully can get it to run for as long as I want it too. 2k for a 330ci in Ontario is an amazing deal as the others I had found where all similar km's and about 4k. so 50%. I had looked at an 03 with 223,000km and it needed an new windshield, new sunroof, some body work and other things and he wanted 4700$. I have sourced a plug n play motor with 178,000 for 750$. so a new motor to throw in the car and buying the car only cost me 2750$ so far so I still have 2 grand to spend to get to an equal or better level then the other car I had been looking at. too buy a 330Ci with 100,000km on it safetied and e tested here is still around 10 grand. The rust issue was actually the exact reason I bought the car. It hadn't been driven in winter and was always stored in a garage so the body is SOOOO clean. probably one of the cleanest e46 bodys I've ever seen. The shop didnt get a chance to run the compression test for me today they said hopefully can get to it tomorrow. It is also quite a possibility that it is just the CCV causing the issue which is a 100$ fix. but again totally understand what you are saying about the car not having a ton of value but thats really all I wanted because I didnt intend to spend 4000 dollars on a car that I just want to change and drop more money on anyway if you get me. i.e coilovers. possible engine swap down the road etc. and just another point my last sedan was at 266,000km when the clutch blew and I decided to drop a new heart in, however the engine was still going strong I only did it because I was ripping the tranny out anyways.
    Last edited by Brickk; 03-22-2018 at 01:49 PM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Durham, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    198
    My Cars
    04 330Ci
    also just realized you have been talking in miles. As I am from Ontario I have been talking KM's which the conversion is 255,000km on the old engine now which is 158449 miles new engine has 178,000km which is 110,604 miles.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Durham, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    198
    My Cars
    04 330Ci
    So a little update, not for sure yet but it sounds like it may just be leaking oil somewhere, starting to really sound like a bad CCV. The shop still hasn't managed to do the compression test (a week to do a compression test is ridiculous in my opinion, am I wrong?) but I called today and they did say they've looked at it a bit. I asked if there was a chocolate milkshake waiting for me in my rad he said that there wasn't so thats a good sign. I'll post some pics of the car as soon as I get it back to the shop.

    Once all is good an up and running going to through on a staggered setup 18 x 8.5 fronts 18 x 9.5 rears and most likely buy a set of megan racing euro coils for aroud 1400$CAD if anyone has a better idea for suspension setup for a similair cost feel free to throw in some input. I've heard good things about megans for the price.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Durham, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    198
    My Cars
    04 330Ci
    decided to just start doing the tests myself as the shop was slacking hard. Took out the coil pack and spark to see if there was oil on them and no surprise there is. Going to buy a reader Next Week and confirm the codes are actually what he claimed they where which was just misfires. Again leading to bad ccv. Going to check for the "chewbacca" noises this weekend

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Durham, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    198
    My Cars
    04 330Ci
    IMAG0038.jpg
    Picture of the car.

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