My 320i..

[jimbom30cab]

Yes, it's very very nice example, one of the best.

[Mitchen]

What sort of shampoo do you use to get that much foam?

[Kos]

What sort of shampoo do you use to get that much foam?

Its not shampoo, it's snow foam

[Mitchen]

Took the old boy to the local ATS Euromaster today and got 4 new Goodyear Efficient Grips fitted and the front tracking done.






And as of tomorrow, weather permitting, the Christmas jobs begin!!

[darkchild]

That's one pampered 320i

[Cypriotgeeza]

That is one good looking E30!

So E30's are getting treated better then we are at xmas it seems lol

[Mitchen]

So a big day for the ol' 320i today!

Spent the whole day at Barry's (bss325i) getting a load of stuff done.. pretty much all the things that were supposed to be done in the past or Christmas but never materialised due to poor weather or bone idleness.

Firstly engine and gearbox mounts were changed. Had been meaning to do these for a while.. Both sets that were removed today were the original 1990 mounts, and the auto transmission mounts were actually flat and melted, whilst the engine mounts were also shot. Not noticed any difference with the engine mounts, but seems the change in gearbox mounts, along with refreshing the gearbox oil and filter may have sorted out my harsh auto gear changes.





The valve clearances were then done, although most valves were fine from last year. Whilst we done the valve clearances we also replaced the rocker cover.. A fresh powder coated cover supplied by Gavla from the Zone (it's silver, that's just the dodgy camera light) .. I've got a manifold to also go on at a later time, but you should all give him a shout if you want to spruce up your engine bays!



Then the throttle body was stripped, aiming again to sort out my iffy idle! A new auto TPS, gasket and rubber bung, plus we replaced the air pipe from the rocker cover to the throttle body.







We then moved on to the front roll bar bushes and drop links.. mine again had everything from when the car was first manufactured, maybe by a chap called Wolfgang from Munich in 1990.. not to be disturbed again until a cold January morning in 2015. I wasn't aware until today, but if you're doing this, you should also replace the metal shackles that the bushes fit into... Mine looked like they were an artefact from the Titanic

We also got round to the rear shocks, springs, top mounts and spring pads... Funnily enough the existing set up was all genuine OEM M-Technik, all in decent condition, about 5 years old and only covered 10,000 miles at most judging by the cars history. Seeing as the car wasn't initially supplied with M-Technik suspension, I can only imagine the old boy who maintained the car for most of it's life, was up-sold it at the dealers, when getting them replaced before. We still installed the new Bilstein B4's and Boge springs I had, so expect to see a for sale add for the M-Tech set up soon



Other than a cheeky oil change 4000 miles after the last one, that's about it for what was a pretty long day.



Now to get these bad boys sent off and refurbed by injectortune

[jimbom30cab]

Wow, i've been waiting for an update on this for ages...

Great work there, should drive like a new car now.

Drop me a PM mate about the MTech rear suspension

Gutted no mention of the new sunroof though

Keep up the good work !!

[bss325i]

Have to say this car drives so nice! Smooth, tight and no annoying interior noises.

[Mitchen]

Thanks Barry!

Jim, the sunroof will be appearing in a couple of posts time (along with a special shout out to you, when it's resprayed and fitted along with a new motor)

[jimbom30cab]

[darkchild]

Nice, I bet that drives really sweetly. Good to see some 320i love.

I fitted new B4s all round on mine last year and it drives so much better. Have you fitted a rear ARB? I added a 325i one to mine last week with new Lemforder drop links and its noticeably tightened things up. Its sitting on its winter 14" wheels at the moment with MASSIVE sidewalls so I'm looking forward to seeing what it drives like on 15" BBS when the weather improves.

[Mitchen]

Nice, I bet that drives really sweetly. Good to see some 320i love.

I fitted new B4s all round on mine last year and it drives so much better. Have you fitted a rear ARB? I added a 325i one to mine last week with new Lemforder drop links and its noticeably tightened things up. Its sitting on its winter 14" wheels at the moment with MASSIVE sidewalls so I'm looking forward to seeing what it drives like on 15" BBS when the weather improves.

Cheers pal.. Funny you should say that.. I just got a rear anti roll bar.. just need to order up the rubber and fittings for it. So in the next update I'll let you know how it drives with the 15's

[Cypriotgeeza]

nothing better then freshening up old rubber!

[Mitchen]

So Valentines day actually turned out a lot better for the car then it did for my girlfriend.. and I don’t think I can stress in this build thread the strain a snapped bolt in the engine head can have on a relationship.. and on mine and Bss325i’s sanity

This lot turned up, so I thought we could get it all fitted on Saturday and still get time to go Covent Garden and wine and dine the enemy.



I decided to deviate slightly from my OEM stance with a rear anti roll bar. An optional extra on my car, not taken up by the PO, but I thought I’d give it a go.



Then more importantly we needed to change the heat shields and all the manifold gaskets. It already had a snapped bolt, which was blowing, and the heat shields were shot to pieces.







Fortunately the snapped bolt was in the top right hand side, so Barry set about drilling it out.. and that's when things turned a bit manic.. let's just say it wasn't easy.. things got delayed, I nearly got dumped, but eventually we ended up with this



To finish things off, we added a resprayed B25 manifold (my mistake) probably going to add a B25 throttle body at a later date (yes I know this is far from original)





I also received the injectors back from injectortune. One thing I'd wanted to do for a long time, which is finally ticked off the list.





See previous post for the state they were in before i sent them off.

I did also get Gavin (Gavia) to respray a thermostat housing that I got, as this was coming off as well..



Unfortunately I'm a twat and i gave him a pre-motronic housing which didn't fit, but we was all too tired and I was too stressed to give a shit at this stage.. So only half of it went on

To conclude, I now have a car that runs better than it ever has, although i paid for it later in the night with an hour of the silent treatment, and by sitting through 'Fifty shades of grey' possibly the worst film i've ever seen... and two seats away from a middle aged man being fondled throughout the movie by his young-ish oriental girlfriend.. accompanied by noises

Next to fix is my handbrake issue, once and for all, as the MOT is now overdue!

[jimbom30cab]

Cool, impressed you got that stud out, bet it was a bitch though.

Are those the o rings for the inlet man to sump/block tube?

How's the idle now?

Can't believe you had to sit through 50 shits , gutted ! Ha ha ha ha ha !

Top work, should have no problems with the MOT now

[Mitchen]

Yes those o-rings go under that black pipe and spring into the block.

The idle I think is now sorted.. seemed a lot better! It's only when I drive for a week or so i notice, so don't want to jinx it, but I think the lumpy idle is finally gone!

Just need to sort my handbrake out and it should whizz through the MOT.. Although the emissions readings will be interesting, as it has been smoking like Dot Cotton lately

[bss325i]

Lol at the couple next to you in the cinema!

[Mitchen]

Not really part of any build thread, but had been looking for this for like 2 years!! It's chromed and with bottletops but as close to my old motor as it gets.

[Mitchen]

Everything sorted for a major period installation this weekend.

[jimbom30cab]

That's a lot of boxes, you are going to be busy

[Mitchen]

They're not all going to be used Jim.. but yeah it's going to be pretty epic

[Automaton]

[polsta]

Good thread good work , keep it comming !! You just can't beat loads of little Bmw bags to open up and fit , loook forward to the sound system install , take lots of pics, epic boxes where did you find it all boxed like that ?

[Mitchen]

So to get over my poor MOT result.. I thought I'd post part one of my period ICE install.

So I’ve always umm’d and ahh’d with what to do ICE-wise. I inherited a fairly horrific modern setup using cheap units, and a butchered installation.

Since then, I had gone with a better quality modern set up, but because of the poor installation before my ownership the sound was never great and needed a full re-wiring. I always loved the charm of period ICE, particularly Blaupunkt, so decided to go full steam ahead with a fully loaded Blaupunkt late eighties set up, befitting an April 1990 BMW.

Choosing the right equipment.
Firstly it’s worth mentioning that I’m fully aware this will undoubtly sound shit at the end of the installation, despite how high-end and expensive the equipment may have been. Car audio equipment like most entertainment technology is advancing in leaps and bounds, and even the most Tesco-value of head units/amps etc. available now, will have a significantly better spec then what was available in 1990, but obviously that’s not why I’m doing it.

Amplifiers

BQA-160
A decent powerful amp for the time with 4 x 40w channels.. definitely worth considering, but on the flip side, will the speakers I’ll be installing manifest the benefits of the 40watts. A bog standard out of sight-in the boot amp.. fancied something more special to be honest.




BQA-107 Quaddro
A nice, surprisingly small 4x25w amp. Again one for the boot, although small enough to probably be mounted in the corner of the centre console/glovebox.



BSA 58-MS
2X25w and could be handy to power just the rear parcel shelf speakers if that was a route I wanted to go down.



Denver SQM108
Now this was more of what I was looking for! It’s a tuner and amplifier and came with a remote control that mounted to the console on a stalk. On the remote you can control the radio settings and also has some basic equalizer options. Retailing for 505 deutschmarks as of December 1989, this wasn’t cheap.









BEA-108E
This was an innovation of the times. A touchscreen equalizer with a built in 4x25w amp. Awesome look to it, just a shame that on an E30, mounting options for such things are limited. Obviously I would have to cut into the center console but at the same time it would still be pretty low down and the auto gear stick would affect visibility.







Nonetheless the look of the equalizer display and the sound bars in a colour befitting the indigo/orange of the OBC, sealed the deal for the BEA-108! Intention was to mount this beneath the heater dials in the center console..



Speakers

Decent conditioned period speakers have been the hardest part to come by. Most are battered now, and the one set that would have been ideal for my set up, I have been unable to find for love nor money! I will keep my eyes open though. Either way for now these are my options..

DL1650 Blue Magic
50w/25w’s not too bad for their size as they are pretty small.





TL 1615 Blue Magic
Nice chunkier speakers with a better output of 150w/50w. However running on a 25w channel amp, I wouldn’t exactly reap the rewards.





CL1025-A3
Great design, but can’t really find any more information about them. Good addition to the parcel shelf though.






DL4031
30w/15w and pretty small, and the fact the selotape had never been removed from the polystyrene. It’d be a shame to break the seal for the sake of 30w’s of rear noise.





Out of these limited options, it has to be the TL1615’s. They’ve got the best spec out of the lot, and also look at home on the rear parcel shelf of an E30.

Headunits
Two choices here, although there was only going to be one winner.

Freiburg SQR39
A good, honest, brand new head unit, nothing too spectacular. The German equivalent of the Melbourne SQR39. Obviously judging from the spec sheet further below this wasn’t a top of the range model. Had I of not got ahold of my next choice this would have been used.







Washington SQR49
A great spec for the times and also comes with phono outputs. 50w total outputs, plus the options for an auxiliary input. It had to be this unit.









So basically initial thoughts were going for the Washington as the head set, connected to the BEA 108 equaliser beneath it. With all speakers being connected to the equalizer.

However I may also connect the rears to the Denver SQM108 and get a little stalk equalizer action going on in the cockpit!

Installation pics to follow tomorrow.

[bss325i]

It's a serious illness!

[Mitchen]

It's a serious illness!

Haha it really is! and I still want more! Although I'm not the only sufferer round these here parts Barry!

[capri_rob]

How did I miss this thread ??

Cracking looking E30 - just right with sensible and very well done upgrades.

Sort the MOT niggles out and this is a definite keeper.

As the rest of it looks so good when you do the brake pipes I would suggest upgrading to the goodridge braided flexi hoses and make sure you go for the ones with the stainless fittings ( the zinc plated ones are cheaper but tarnish quickly )

[Andyboy]

It's a serious illness!

It certainly is. I'm collecting E36 original Philips head units - all 5 of my turds has one now. The missing link was my Touring that some heathen had fitted a Sony POS to, nasty rubbish. Found a W plate Compact at the breakers with the Philips looking rampant - that's now fitted to the Touring and I'm £8 poorer.

One came with the £100 318iS trackmeister in a cardboard box but the knob's missing.

[jimbom30cab]

I loved reading this thread, it's like reading a history text book. Those SAM 108 things are brill, I never knew they existed until reading this. Definitely on the must have list now.

[Rav335uk]

You're sick!

[pacerpete]

You're sick!

Rav , you are definitely a Sony Explode kind of guy

[Andyboy]

You're sick!

Rav , you are definitely a Blaupunkt Karachi kind of guy

78.6 Brum FM innit.


I just bought a fully working early nineties Blaupunkt Seville single slot CD for five pounds.

[e30Passion]

Love it!!! Period audio looks so much better then today's flashy tinky toy crap!

Never understood why they take the paint of the injectors when rebuilding them. I can tell you they will be covered in rust next year if you haven't painted them.