My '87 325 - Nörm

**128keaton** · 02-23-2020, 03:18 AM

I finally have everything correct on what the engine is. It IS a B23 block, with a B25 rotating assembly (for the 1mm of clearance. B23 has a 76mm stroke versus the B25's 75mm stroke) and B23 pistons. I knew that it had either B23 or B27 pistons as they were not dished. I'm considering trying to source a B25 block and swap my good 885/B25 head onto it. That head is so fresh! Would be a bit of work, would not like taking that engine out again. Or, and this is the "economical" and "keep the rare engine and funny combination" route, attempt to get the 027 AFM fitted properly and get it dialed in correctly. This might require buying a new 027 AFM, as I made a terrible mistake of not marking my original position. Oops. Is there a way I can put it back easily? I was planning on using the known good resistance values reported here on a stock 325i AFM and adjusting from there, but that might be in vain. Car runs too rich, so add more air.

**superj** · 02-23-2020, 08:49 PM

The older clusters can have the battery board ledt out id tou solder some wires in. What did yours look like

**128keaton** · 02-23-2020, 10:34 PM

I did have to add a ground to one side. I didn't spot any typical signs of leakage though. The sockets received voltage, but no light would show. I just ordered a bunch already in the sockets, so I'm going to see if that helps.
The oil life indicator works sometimes, so the SI batteries might still be a problem.

**128keaton** · 02-25-2020, 10:40 PM

Before

After

Little progress pic after some plastidip

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**superj** · 02-26-2020, 09:06 AM

fog lights work good.

did you do the rubber strip on the bumper in plasti dip?

my son wants one of those sunroof visors so if you get rid of it, let me know and I will take it from you.

**128keaton** · 02-26-2020, 09:09 AM

Originally Posted by superj

fog lights work good.

did you do the rubber strip on the bumper in plasti dip?

my son wants one of those sunroof visors so if you get rid of it, let me know and I will take it from you.

I did! Everything that should’ve been black is now black. I have mine still, don’t want it. I think everything is still with it, I’ll see when I get back. OEM BMW

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**superj** · 02-26-2020, 09:12 AM

nice. that is what he wants. he is trying to buy all the little optional things you could get from the accessory booklet I have. I told him I would pass on the fuzzy seat covers though.

so that actually works well on the rubber bits? hmm, I might hit up the e30s we got then. the kids have been using some stuff I had from the jeep days but its really oily and attracts dust so this would be better stuff

**128keaton** · 02-26-2020, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by superj

nice. that is what he wants. he is trying to buy all the little optional things you could get from the accessory booklet I have. I told him I would pass on the fuzzy seat covers though.

so that actually works well on the rubber bits? hmm, I might hit up the e30s we got then. the kids have been using some stuff I had from the jeep days but its really oily and attracts dust so this would be better stuff

Perfect. I’d love to do that on this car, have an OEM+ build, but I’m gonna settle for enjoyable. PM me later and I’ll snag some pictures.

Plastidip takes a few days to really dry well. I think there is some finishing spray that helps the finish from attracting dirt, but it’s the front of the car. Anything the car drives into or through is gonna get itself on there somehow. The bumpers on mine were pretty gouged and rough, and I already had the plastidip, so I had nothing to lose. I’ll upload a video in a bit of me painting and showing as I paint.

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**superj** · 02-26-2020, 12:11 PM

alright. thanks

**128keaton** · 02-27-2020, 04:08 PM

Well I finally replaced the rear lid brake light housing.

IMG_3372 by keaton.burleson, on Flickr

Looks better.

A bunch of rain has been hitting us this week and the rear seats were wet. Looks like I need to figure out if the sunroof drain is clogged or something. I don't think its window seals, they were dry after opening. Also, I thought I had a parasitic battery drain, but I'm thinking the battery is just old and bad. Electrical stuff like draw and finding shorts is not my strong suit.

**128keaton** · 02-27-2020, 08:18 PM

Poured water into the sunroof drain, the drain appears to be clear, but the rear area exits in a weird place.

Is this normal?

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**superj** · 02-28-2020, 05:51 AM

yes, that's the normal spot. the drain tubes run down the window frame between the rear window and the rear side windows. it connects to your trunk vents that are behind the carpet.

open your sunroof and make sure everything is clear up there. you can use different materials to push down the tubes to make sure they are fully clear.

also, you can unhook the head liner and visibly check stuff. the head liner hooks to the top with the old school rods that go through the top material at those seams. the seams are loops that the rods slide through. these types of headliners are easier to replace, to me, then the new style one piece foam ones

**128keaton** · 03-02-2020, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by superj

yes, that's the normal spot. the drain tubes run down the window frame between the rear window and the rear side windows. it connects to your trunk vents that are behind the carpet.

open your sunroof and make sure everything is clear up there. you can use different materials to push down the tubes to make sure they are fully clear.

also, you can unhook the head liner and visibly check stuff. the head liner hooks to the top with the old school rods that go through the top material at those seams. the seams are loops that the rods slide through. these types of headliners are easier to replace, to me, then the new style one piece foam ones

I poured water down the tubes and both seemed to drain, but that doesn't mean something isn't partially clogged and gets overwhelmed. I also noticed the side rain-rail trim was loose and found that where it snaps into the body, some of the gaskets were missing.

Thank you for the tips about the headliner, I need to replace the dome light brackets eventually, so that is a huge weight off my mind there.

I've also ordered new trailing arm bushings, new subframe bushings, new diff mount bushing, new brake discs, new brake pads, and new rear wheel bearings to get the subframe rebuilt and swapped. Looking forward to that lovely 4.10 ratio.

**superj** · 03-03-2020, 05:59 AM

those rear bushings being changed out make autocross a lot of fun because the car doesn't try to turn farther than you are planning.

when you turn now, do you feel a weird shifting and the car tries to turn a little more? that's the subframe bushings, if you do

**128keaton** · 03-03-2020, 02:14 PM

Originally Posted by superj

those rear bushings being changed out make autocross a lot of fun because the car doesn't try to turn farther than you are planning.

when you turn now, do you feel a weird shifting and the car tries to turn a little more? that's the subframe bushings, if you do

Yes, the car definitely does do that. Kinda annoying. The entire rear half of the car feels loose, everything rubber is original so it makes sense.

I was tinkering with the car yesterday looking for idle fixes (small fluctuations at times) and I noticed that the temp sensor harness has very little resistance to ground. If I unplug the other temp sensor connector, it no longer is grounded. Assuming normal or?

I know the car runs rich, but it shouldn’t idle up and down so much at lights (maybe 100rpm) but sometimes it dips after revving to almost dying at times. The harness on this car is really not great, I might just slowly replace the entire thing.

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**superj** · 03-03-2020, 10:00 PM

I don't remember if they ground through a shared point,i knid of think not since usually the sensor is the ground.

A hunting idle is so common and plagues so many people. Not a lot of people report back what fixed their problem, if they fix it

**128keaton** · 03-07-2020, 12:15 AM

So I decided to swap harnesses, but much to my chagrin, the early/late harness swap is a bit challenging. Right now, I cant' get the car to start. It will turn over, but not run. I tried splicing in the C104 properly, but something tells me I've done something wrong. No spark. Any ideas? I ran green C104 wire to green at C101, black from C104 to black at C101, and the fuel rate (white/yellow?) to white/black on C101.

**superj** · 03-07-2020, 10:28 PM

No, no idea here. I am a few hours from home so i cannot check the bentley

**128keaton** · 03-07-2020, 10:48 PM

Originally Posted by superj

No, no idea here. I am a few hours from home so i cannot check the bentley

Haha no problem, I’m planning on running around with a multimeter for a few hours tomorrow

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**128keaton** · 03-16-2020, 04:02 AM

Got the car running finally. Turns out, I didn’t need to use the green wire at all. Loose ground on the passenger side fender well. Oops. Runs much better with the new harness, still need to build an adaptor for the dynamic oil level sensor, replace the oil pressure sender with the unit with the newer connector, and tap into the ECU loom for the C104. Right now I have two wires going across the firewall to get tach and fuel rate to the gauges. Also I have a C101 again, which is great haha. No more butt connectors. Everything on the body side is heatshrinked and waterproofed. O2 wiring is better, not happy with the surplus wire, but still WIP. Might search junkyards for an O2 sensor harness.

I had the subframe rebuilt and all ready to go until i found that the bushings were upside down:

Please ignore the bent dust shields...

So disassemble, press bushings out, flip, press bushings in.
I also separated the auto’s back shaft from the driveshaft unit, so I’ll be swapping that one in since it looks dang near brand new.

New Bosch pads and centric discs going on. I had purchased both the diff bushing and the wheel bearings but the diff bushing looked great (heck the bushings I pressed out of the subframe and control arms looked pretty good) and I figured it would be easier doing the wheel hub with the subframe attached to the car. Also ran new soft lines on the rear half of the car. Calipers looked fantastic so reusing those.

I’m building up a small hoard of probably worthless parts I need to get sorted soon. Eventually, A/C will be addressed on this car, I’m hoping one of the two compressors I have are good and I can rebuild with the right oil for R134a. I have a ton of R12 I can get access to if need be. Seems like it would just be easier to go new condenser, lines, dryer, evap, and compressor, but that’s a tad pricey. I know I need new lines already, but just something else to budget for in the future.

I’m tempted to rebuild the seats soon, checking with a local shop here to see what their price would be.

Ebay exhaust coming Monday, whole catalytic converter section and muffler. Hope it all fits. Sometime this week I’ll probably attempt to re-introduce the 027 AFM, now that I think I have the intake/vac issues all sorted. Car idles up and down ever so slightly still, but I imagine it’s just because of the richness at idle and the AFM being unable to compensate, so it’s just in an oscillation loop.

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**ZeroDarkE30** · 03-16-2020, 06:44 AM

Getting close! I replaced those rear brake lines that go over the subframe with it still in the car and it was a pain. Right idea to do it now with it all out. With it out you might want to just grease the caliper up.

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**superj** · 03-16-2020, 09:16 AM

and we used the old compressor and ac stuff with propane instead of either freons and the system blew something like 46 degrees at the vent.

we had to take the fittings off the compressor and clean it out inside though. full of weird little pebbles. we used normal pag oil from Walmart and, until yesterday when Jason pulled the powertrain out, the ac was awesome

**128keaton** · 03-16-2020, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by superj

and we used the old compressor and ac stuff with propane instead of either freons and the system blew something like 46 degrees at the vent.

we had to take the fittings off the compressor and clean it out inside though. full of weird little pebbles. we used normal pag oil from Walmart and, until yesterday when Jason pulled the powertrain out, the ac was awesome

“When Jason pulled the powertrain out”
Yup, BMW.
Sounds like I could probably squik by with some lines then. Looks like one of mine was nicked or pinched at some point.

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**128keaton** · 03-16-2020, 09:44 AM

Originally Posted by ZeroDarkE30

Getting close! I replaced those rear brake lines that go over the subframe with it still in the car and it was a pain. Right idea to do it now with it all out. With it out you might want to just grease the caliper up.

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I’m so ready for it to be done. The 4.10 is really exciting as well as the idea of a better general “feeling” car. Might do the steering rack next!

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**128keaton** · 03-23-2020, 12:21 PM

Finally got it all swapped. Flipped the bushings and it went in. I need to replace the rear wheel bearings and CV axles, but I ran out of time/help. Still need to redo timing belt and tensioner since the pulley has a squeak I don’t like. Car drives and handles much better, and I’m sure it’ll be even better when I get the coil overs on. I’m waiting to save $$$ to just buy new wheel hubs, discs, and pads. Might as well take my time and do all of it properly.

Car has been driving fine until today, going to work, it felt like it was missing or the clutch was slipping, at higher RPMs in fourth. I just went through a puddle so maybe some water was sucked in? Hope it’s not the clutch or a head gasket. I checked the oil and I didn’t see anything that would point towards a head gasket. The coolant in the peanut is mostly blue, but there’s a bit of what I’m hoping is rust in the bottom. Doesn’t appear to be consuming coolant, but I digress.

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