ShellyJoe88

*UPDATED*
Now with FI

I picked this car up about a year and a half ago as a replacement daily for my M3. Seemed like a good idea until I decided to start tracking the e30 and realized the potential these cars have.
It was originally a 318i
The PO had the 24v (1994 OBDI 325i/525i M50b25 Vanos) swapped into it already. Unfortunately, nothing that the PO did to the car, including the swap, was done correctly. That being said, I have had to correct a LOT of issues.
-None of the gauges worked
-Suspension was all wrong (spring rates where poop and tie rods, ball joints etc had to be replaced)
-Headlights where cheap eBay reps and the quality shows
-Wiring on the headlights, engine harness, interior lighting/sound system where rat's nests
-Seats where broken
-Poorly painted valve cover
-Mismatched plugs
-JB Weld on backside of bumper trim (to keep it from breaking even more?)
-Uber sweet Walmart special radio and speakers
-Head gasket and damn near every other gasket on the motor was leaking oil or sucking air
-Diff was replaced w/ an open 3.73
The list goes on and on...and I am sure that I have yet to discover some other issues


I am currently on deployment, so photo sharing from my extensive build will be put on hold for now. For now, I will just introduce the car. When I start my build thread, I will share my not so awesome discoveries as well as most of the modifications.
So, here it is:
look closely and you can see the harness wrapped around the master cylinder and also laying on top of the motor


what it looked like from day one



replacing the old wheels/wiring/suspension etc...Note the old wheels on the e30 vert in the back.



new LCA's and Treehouse Racing Eyeballs


back to OEM Weaves...free wheels FTW
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Kempsville almost killed the oil pan, so I picked this up: E30 Motorwerks Skid. Hands down, the highest quality skid you can get for the e30


here is my track set (bbs rs's), I bought them already painted Orange..currently rebuilding them to fit the new wheel wells

Wiring fixed


a rolling shot with the stickies...Thanks Jan for the great shot!


one last shot for now...this is when I got home last year. Props to my best friend Fuzzy for letting me stack car parts in his living room wile I was IA! Im am currently doing this again...so 2x the props for this man


more pics will be added as soon as I get some free time.

track tires and a bit of autocross




more pics will be added as soon as I get some free time.

MIKE

Young L

sweet, pickin up a 316i coupe tomorrow from a guy that is pcs'in. doesnt seem to have the issues that yours has but ill following along to get some pointers as I am not very familiar with this car type.

captainsperry

scrape the shocker sticker.

BeefCake

fixed

ShellyJoe88

feel free man. This is my 2nd e30 (owned an '85 325e before). They are great cars, and relatively inexpensive to get them where you want them.
Edit: Check for rust...especially in the rear strut towers.

ShellyJoe88

I am not exactly sure what causes a spark plug to explode, but I am sure it had something to do with the "quality" work of the PO. After removing the head, I discovered that one of the spark plugs was a 4 prong wile the other 5 had a single prong. WTF...

ShellyJoe88

Rear license plate filler for US models



also, here is a pic of the skid installed...no more puckering up over every bump on the road.

ShellyJoe88

Cheapo street wheels

16x7 et5

16x8 et0

jaqattack02

What's a 24v for us non-BMW speaking members? I see it's an inline 6, looks like probably out of an E46?

ShellyJoe88

In a nutshell, a 24v swap is usually out of an e36 325,328,M3 etc...the motor codes(without getting into too much detail) are usually m50/m52(2.3,2.5,2.8) or for non e36 M cars and S50(3.o), S52(3.2) for the e36 M3's. The motor can also be taken from e46's...the e46 M3 has the s54(3.2) If any other BMW guy wants to add some info on these swaps, feel free. I am in no way an expert.