My 1991 E30 320i M-Tech II!

[E34 5er]

Hi all,

I've been out of the BMW scene for a couple year now, ever since I sold my E32 740iL to a fellow board member and started travelling the world. I have now fully moved back to the states, and have been importing some cars from Japan, as I spent time there and absolutely loved a lot of the cars they had over there- especially stuff that was never brought to the U.S! The amount of rare AMG and Alpina cars I found from the 80s and 90s was quite surprising. I was able to snag one rare AMG for a good price, but my dream car- an E34 Alpina B10 got away from me as it was just too much out of my price range. Then, a couple months ago, I saw a couple rare M-Tech II E30s for sale. I didn't know much about these models, as there isn't so much info on them online. I was able to win one of them at auction, a one-owner 320i. I wanted the 325i, but I'm happy with what I got for the price.

So apologies if that was a long introduction, but I'll be making this thread sort of my build/restoration thread. I also just started up a YouTube channel, here's a sneak peak of the car as it sits right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm9hKRM445Q

My plans for the car are just to get it back up to spec. It's going to need some paint work on the spoiler, as the paint there is completely shot. The front bumper also needs to be fixed up as it has a few scrapes. Other than that the body is pretty straight and it's never been in an accident. I think it will clean up nicely.

As for maintenance, does anyone have the specs on the M20B20 engine? I know they were never sold in the U.S, I am using the M20B25 as my point of reference. I am going to be replacing all fluids and filters, along with the valve cover gaskets as those seem to be leaking slightly. That will be to baseline the car and then take things from there. Any advice would be appreciated (like what viscocity oil would you guys use, and how many quarts is needed, will valve cover gaskets from the M20B25 fit this engine).

In the meantime, here are a few pics of the car from right before it left Japan. I wish I could have kept those plates (they are the original plates from 91), but they are required to be turned in when the car is de-registered, dammit!
PB071196.jpgPB071118.jpgPB071133.jpgPB071124.jpgPB071122.jpg

[superj]

that's cool.

I had a 90 4 door mtech2 318i that looked like the brother to yours. same color and interior, just a stick and an m42.

that body kit just grabs the eyes

[E34 5er]

^That sounds like a cool car, do you have any pics? Was it a U.S-spec car? I thought the only M-Tech's we got stateside were the cabriolet models.

[superj]

i have a pic but not here at work. I will have to try and remember to load it later. it looks just like yours except a four door and different rims.

it was a euro model. when he brought it back and it came into port, he lived in Atlanta. some big bmw dealer in Atlanta did the work on it for many years until he moved to texas. that where I picked it up.

I found all this out from bmw of Atlanta after his wife told me about it, when we purchased it. it came with a big folder of work history and the work done in America was from the atlanta dealer.

[superj]

dsc02415.JPG

[E34 5er]

^Nice ride.

Quick update, I started work on the E30 today. Started by getting the car running again, thought the battery needed replacement, but seems it might have been just some loose terminals. I then went on to remove the perished hood insulation. Before I could get any further, it started pouring rain out of nowhere, so had to leave my work at that. Tested out the electronics, everything seems to be in good working order except for the radio. Absolutely nothing working on it. The CD changer in the trunk doesn't even eject. Going to spend a whole day off to really get into things and start tuning up the car, just bought about $500 in parts so I'm very ready to get this project rolling.

Pics and videos will be coming soon... Stay tuned.

[superj]

none of the cd changers in the trunks ever worked on my e30s. the car phones do sometimes, though

[E34 5er]

Quick question for you guys, I am replacing the center hub cap logos on my wheels (14 inch BBS)

The item number I'm looking for is 09-24-029. I have attached a pic. The measurement is about 2.75 inches
What do you guys recommend I get? Here are some pics20190306_154957.jpg20190306_155005.jpg20190306_155753.jpg
I calculated that the diameter is about 70mm, but the biggest one I found was 65mm: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...mm-36131181080
Any recommendations?

EDIT: I just went ahead and ordered a new set of BBS center caps that are 70mm. They are supposed to be real BBS caps, so hopefully it was worth that investment. Updates coming soon!

[superj]

Those ones in the pic look odd so hopefully the bbs ones are better

[E34 5er]

^Odd in what way? Obviously they were very badly withered, but they looked to be the original caps for the wheels.

[superj]

maybe its because you popped the center part out. looking at the car pics, I see they are from normal center caps but I guess I have never seen the center part popped out. that is what threw me off

[E34 5er]

Ok, lots of work done on the E30 this week now that I had a bit of free time. Will go over them soon in a new post.
Quick question though, I want to tackle the broken odometer gears next. On garagtastic website they have an "A" and a "B" version for the KM cluster:
Version A- https://store.garagistic.com/KMH%20m...scription=true
Version B- https://store.garagistic.com/KMH-mot...scription=true

Is there any way to tell which motometer gears my cluster uses before I open it up? I wanted to have the new gears on hand to install as soon as I took the old ones out, and not have to wait for them to ship.

[superj]

One looks like motometer and the other looks like vdo gears. I wonder why both are titled motormeter.

[E34 5er]

Hi superj, yes, I know my cluster is a motometer unit, but on garagtastic website they have an "A" and a "B" option for the motometer unit (see links above). They both are different and contain some different components.

[superj]

Yes sir. Those gear sets look like moto and vdo sets but those dudes are cool at garagistic, call or email them and ask how to tell

[E34 5er]

Ok, so I did a ton of work on my E30 last week.

Started off by taking off the horribly disintegrated hood liner and put in a brand new one so I could work in the engine bay without that crap falling down on me:
Old Hood insulation



Made just a slight fitment adjustment after that last pic, already made such a difference in the look once you open up the hood!

After that, I decided to change out the valve cover gaskets, and try my hand at valve adjustment. With the valve cover off, I pressure washed it but didn't spray paint it or anything like that.
Before:

valve cover gasket
Sorry, can't find the pics I took so I pulled a screenshot off a video I shot for my YouTubechannel.
After: new valve cover gasket

Next up I’d figure I may as well change the old air filter, especially with all that old hood insulation that was floating around the engine bay.
20190317_181137
After that it was time for the ignition tune up.
First off was to change the rotor:

20190318_144903

That rotor was a bit of a bitch to get in, mainly because the fan is so close, but after some finessing I finally got the new one bolted in.

After that it was time for the new cap:


Finally it was time for the new spark plugs.



After getting all that done, it was time to put in a new battery. I first went to get my old battery tested, and it was as dead as could be. It was from August 2013, and the car wasn’t driven much since 2015, so it was to be expected. Wanted to put in a Bosch unit to match with everything else in the new ignition parts, but the Champion battery at Pep Boys was literally half the price ($110 instead of $220) so I had to go with that.



Then it was time to perform oil and filter change. As per the owners manual, I went with 4 liters of 20W-50 and a Mann filter.

What was annoying was the old oil filter was put on waaay too tight. Had to use a few tools to finally pry it out. Was quite annoying, I’m pretty sure it’s only supposed to be screwed in hand tight. After that put in some new coolant, topped off the ATF for the tranny and the power steering. All fluids finally done, and no leaks to be found.


So that’s pretty much it for the mechanics, now I’m on to the electronic issues (mainly odometer fix and radio).

[superj]

nice that there are no leaks. that's always a plus.

[E34 5er]

Yes, the car is really sound mechanically now. The steering starts too feel a little light when going over 75MPH, hard to explain. Steering is really tight and precise up to 75 with good weight, after that it starts to lose a bit of feeling. I'll check the suspension components, but they seemed to all be in good nick when I first looked through the car.

[HurtCobain]

Yes, the car is really sound mechanically now. The steering starts too feel a little light when going over 75MPH, hard to explain. Steering is really tight and precise up to 75 with good weight, after that it starts to lose a bit of feeling. I'll check the suspension components, but they seemed to all be in good nick when I first looked through the car.

Nothing wrong with you changing the tranny fluid but check the color of it before you do should have changed the transmission pan gasket and filter and hit the hex bolt with a new washer don’t want anything leaking I replaced all of the items I stated above on mine it’s running healthy use the good stuff like redline next go other then that OP good work!


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[E34 5er]

Hi all, I finally got my E30 pretty much 100% to where I wanted it a couple months ago, had an absolute blast each time I drove it. Was definitely the lowest on HP from all my cars, but was the most fun out of all them to drive! Everything now works on it both mechanically and electronically. I've had her for just about a year now, but I've come to a decision that I'm going to go ahead and sell all my cars and get a fresh start (selling pretty much everything I have, want to go into 2020 with a clean plate on my hands).

So my E30 is now on BaT, and you can probably expect to see my E34 and other cars up there soon as well. For those who are interested, here is the link to the auction.
Out of all my cars, I'm going to miss the E30 the most, and hope that I can get another one sometime in the near future. Easily one of my favorite BMW platforms of all time, now that I've had a chance to actually own one.