I been wanting to make a maintenance/progress thread for my ix for a while so here it is. It's an 88' 325ix so 5-speed coup etc, the precious owner converted it to euro bumpers and grills, it has some rust but nothing bad. The car is my DD so I haven't been able to do much work on the actual car, just collecting/cleaning parts for future plans. I still am not 100% sure what I to do for the engine. The m20 stays because ix and I bought an e36 m3 crank for the 89.6mm stroke but as far as boost/NA goes I don't know what to think. I really like NA but I also like a lot of power. The bottom end is going to be forged regardless, s52 crank & rods then a set of custom pistons (maybe JE or MM). The unknown I have are the bore diameter (86mm maybe) and compression ratio for boost/NA. idk maybe build a lower cr NA with the option of running low boost.
Here is a small list of what I have managed to obtain:
s52 crank
New IE HD rocker arms
New stock valve springs (not sure if I want to use them they came with the rocker arms)
ARP head studs
Extended spline length front drive shaft
I also have a lot of spares for the drivetrain if things decide to break:
front diff x3
oil pan x3
front drive shaft x3
rear drive shaft
front cv shafts x2 sets
transmission
transfer case
rear diff
Things I want/need to obtain/decide on:
Megasquirt
s52 rods
Cam??
Piston size??
Front diff upgrade??
GC ix coilovers
Alpina rims
New Lach paint
A lot of other things I don't want to think about now lol
Here is the car, I love these pics:
Interior is pretty minty, crack free dash, no tears in the seats, nice carpet etc. here are some old pics from when I first got the car(kick panel replaced:)) I also finally tracked down a break in the oil level sensor wiring so now I have no illuminated lights on the dash or check panel yay!
So those are my thoughts for the long term here is what I have been up to recently:
Over Christmas break I tore down my spare ix m20 and found the oil intermediate shaft bearing was mangled. I picked up a new inner bearing (Part # : 11 11 1 264 196) from pelican. I had a lot of trouble finding a new outer bearing bearing (Part # : 11 11 1 280 863). All of the dealerships I went to said the bearing was on back order from Germany and they didn't know when or if they would become available. All of the online sights I usually go to (Blunt, Pelecan, Turner, Bravauto) all said it had to be special ordered, out of stock, or NLA. After some searching I found http://eeuroparts.com they showed in being available from their warehouse. I ordered two and after a little over a month they finally showed up, yay!
With the increased stroke of the s52 crank the rotating assembly just kisses the oil intermediate shaft. I don't know how much the shaft needs to be machined down so for now I just cleaned up the casting a little. Hopefully it will be enough, if not oh well another reason to be in the machine shop.
Old fubar outer bearing
Lathe love
New bearings and machined oil intermediate shaft
S52 crank I picked up. Shitty pic but the crank looks great. Can you tell I'm a college student and my bedroom is my work shop haha.
With the s52 crank and m20 you need an oil seal spacer. Thing is like $200 from MM & IE or $50 from someone on r3v. I like my money so I made one myself fo free.99
Disassembled my spare set of front ix breaks
Sandblasted said front breaks:
Rebuild a set of front axles. These things were a real PITA. There is a c clip that you have to spread and then pull off the head of the axle. It is literally impossible to do. So I cut one end of the clip off and pulled it through. Even then I had to beat the shit out of it to get the head to slide off the axle.
I sand blasted the heads and repainted them. #showcar
Also had to order new axle nuts. Went to the dealership and got the part number but they wanted too much so I ordered a used set off ebay.
I noticed that both of my drivers side front cv boots were torn so I decided it was time to swap in the axles I rebuild a while ago. One thing kinda led to another and I ended up replacing a lot of parts.
Got every thing pulled apart. Out with the old and in with the new
Took a break and went on vacation in Europe and picked up some euro goodies at a junkyard in Munich
Cleaning my smileys
Got everything ready to be put back together when I noticed a bit of a problem. Broken subframe bolt :'( Funny I didn't even notice it broke until I came back from vacation and was ready to put it all back together. The bolt stayed in the subframe when it came down.
I bought an extractor and tried to get the broken subframe bolt out but nothing would work. Soaked it in penetrating oil for 3 days, tried heating it with a torch, nothing... ended up drilling it out and retapping the hole. Put the subframe back on and the new bolt fit perfectly! Thank God! Such a relief seeing I had to drill it out with a hand drill.
Got the new smileys installed and the city lights all wired up after dealing with finding a break in the passengers side wiring.
Got the new front driveshaft all welded and painted
So after all the work I now have rebuilt front axles, new control arms with m3 offset bushings, motor mounts, power steering rack, pump, and reservoir, upper strut mounts, all new belts, euro smileys, German check panel, and new fluids in the front/rear diffs transmission, and transfer case. I also tracked down the broken wire for my oil level sensor so now I have no lights on the dash or check panel! yay
As a reward for all the work I went to a car show and found a 1957 Isetta! So cool!
That's all for now.
Ray
