1984 BMW 325e project

Ahh the much maligned Eta, they get no love from the BMW fanbois....

ive had many BMWs over the years and I really wanted an e30 again but they are really starting to appreciate, I think partially because of the drift tax. When I worked at a BMW shop in high school, you could pick up decent sub $1k runners all day long. I had my eye on this car on FB marketplace for quite a while. They guy was pretty out to lunch with his $3k ask so after 4 months I sent him a lowball offer and he accepted. Turns out he was moving to FL and he had to get the car out of the garage. The market for disassembled cars is a small one but this fit my ven diagram of cheap, model I know well and local perfectly. 
 

the motor, trans and various suspension parts were out of the car but it was a roller so I picked it up with a uhaul trailer on 12/29. 
 

I decided to do a timing belt, WP and tensioner while the motor was out since the PO had no clue when it was last done. This is maybe a 45 minute job with the engine out vs 4 hours in the car 

I borrowed a hoist from a buddy and stabbed the engine back in the day after I got the car 

I did an inventory check and made a list of what was missing. Had to sort thru a ton of stuff to figure it out, it came with doubles and triples of a lot of suspension parts but was missing all this basic stuff 

The next day, I wanted to get the trans back in the car. I had some new shifter bits laying around from my last e36 and some of it crosses over but some doesn't. There is a "knuckle" on the shift lever that has a bushing inside that wears over time. Usually you replace the whole knuckle but when you have a stick of delrin and a lathe, why not do it yourself!

first step is to turn the OD then bore it to size, I lucked out and had a drill bit that was very close to the shift lever shaft 

Test fit in the knuckle before parting it off 

next problem, the PO had pulled off the output shaft flange, presumably to replace the output shaft seal. It's a 30mm but you don't have a lot of clearance inside the flange around the nut. Back to the lathe, this socket was hard as woodpecker lips

Once I got that done the transmission install went smoothly. The rear ujoint is pretty notchy so I'll probably be pulling that back out before too long to have it rebuilt. 
 

the car came with a lightweight aluminum flywheel installed and I had a brief moment of panic when I remembered that these cars have a funky dual crank sensor setup where one reads off a pin in the factory flywheel. I looked through the inspection hole and luckily whoever built this flywheel put a little steel pin in for the inductive sensor to read off of. 
 

back up top, I reallllllly wanted to test fire this thing but I didn't have an intake boot. Cardboard to the rescue! Relax, I have a rubber one on order 

After pumping the funky 5 year old gas out and connecting the ground strap that I missed, it started up briefly before dying again, no doubt due to the massive vacuum leak from my budget intake setup

i went around to nut and bolt all the suspension since the PO had pulled the subframes for poly bushings at some point. Everything seemed torqued so I dropped it down and pulled some string to align it and adjust the camber plates

Thats it for now, should get some fresh parts in a few days and then the fun continues!

First project in the new garage?  Looking good.

HundredDollarCar said:

First project in the new garage?  Looking good.

yep, first car to pee pee oil on the new floor lol. 
 

SWMBOs exact words "you didn't even wait 24 hours after the garage was done before you dragged that home"

Progress this week, got everything i could buttoned up while i waited for the coolant hoses and the air mass meter boot to get here from Eeuroparts. 

It had started and died with the carboard intake boot of awesomeness and i had assumed that it was because of a massive vacuum leak. Unfortunately even with the new boot it wouldnt run. I was suspect of the crank sensor because the PO had installed (and never run) an aftermarket aluminum flywheel (JB racing). 

For those not familiar with this generation of Bosch Motronic, there are two crank sensors, one reads the starter ring gear for engine speed and the other is a "reference" sensor that reads off a single pin pressed into the back of the flywheel. Many aftermarket flywheels dont have this pin becuase they are intended for later Motronic 1.3? cars which use a more conventional 60-2 crank trigger. This flywheel did have a steel pin in it but i wasnt getting a pulse from the reference sensor on my 'scope

However, the other sensor was getting a great signal off the ring gear

I swapped the sensors around to make sure the reference sensor was working and i got a strong signal when that sensor was placed by the ring gear. Berk. So the sensor is good, but the reference pin is too far away

i stuck my calipers in there and sure enough, the speed sensor was 57.5mm from the flange and the reference pin was 58.8mm. Sadly, 1.3mm is enough for a mediocre inductive sensor to not work right. Luckily for me with the inspection cover taken off the bellhousing, i could tap the pressed in pin outwards a bit. With a few well placed hammer whacks i got it to 57.8mm. Good enough!

After that, i connected the coolant hoses up. i was one hose clamp short so i used the old double them up trick...

after that, viola! i had spark and it started and ran poorly (pig rich). Looks like i forgot to connect up the coolant temp sensor with this funny looking jumper:

Ive heard about some kind of janky repair shop trick with these cars where they add a resistor to the coolant temp sensor loom to trick it into running richer to clean up the idle. maybe thats what is going on here?

once that was connected it leaned right out and ran great. Went for a quick rip to the gas station and parked it back at the house. Ill get back on it after work today and button up the other stuff

I dont know how to upload a video but i have one of it cruising around. Its silly loud with the header and glasspacks...

Looks like a solid base! I think I had that cts issue on my '84. Mine was actually a second cts mounted in the heater hose line back by the brake booster. When it started to go tits up it would run RICH. From what I remember before deleting it; it was a dealer installed thing to alleviate some weird drivability issue back in the day. What are your plans for the car? What color is that?

iansane said:

Looks like a solid base! I think I had that cts issue on my '84. Mine was actually a second cts mounted in the heater hose line back by the brake booster. When it started to go tits up it would run RICH. From what I remember before deleting it; it was a dealer installed thing to alleviate some weird drivability issue back in the day. What are your plans for the car? What color is that?

AHHA! so thats what it is...there is also an inline temp sensor on the heater hose under the intake, im guessing thats where the other end of this jumper goes. 

I plan to keep it stock for now, we are doing a little vintage event in March/April with it but other than that just drive it and maybe an auto-x when the weather warms up. 

Color is Saphirblau Metalic, its been painted before but it was a very high quality glass out job so it looks factory (it was saphirblau from the factory)

My '86 bronzit car was an ETA with a dinan chip. Not sure what they drive like without a chip, but I adored that car. Good mileage, reliability, and torque around town. Freeway speeds were low but it cruised great.

Can't wait to see where your project goes! If I ever build another E30 I'm going to find a vert with the same color combo as yours and swap an ETA in. 

I buttoned up a few more loose ends this weekend and took it for a long shakedown drive. It's running better and better the more I drive it but there is more to do for sure. It's got a shimmy around 80 and it pulls to the right, I need to get it on the rack and do a proper alignment. 
 

this thing must have a chip in it because it will wind the tach right off the scale before it hits the limiter around 5500 rpm. Between that, the aluminum flywheel and the header it really rips! Total hoot to drive. Working on removing the nasty purple tint right now 

I ordered a muffler for it, the glasspacks are too much for me

My long drive Sunday caused an unfortunate failure, the alternator rubbed a hole through my brand new lower radiator hose. New on is on the way and for now the duct tape is holding in the coolant 

i worked on the power steering yesterday. It was missing a number of parts including the reservoir, reservoir bracket, supply hose a s banjo fittings. I had some of it laying around and some of it I had to order. I made a bracket for the reservoir 

got the hoses in 

bolted in the res and boom I have power steering!

The next issue was the oxygen sensor, some people say it doesn't do much on the early Motronic system but at a minimum I don't like having a hole in the exhaust where the sensor goes. The correct Bosch sensor is about $100 but there is a Ford one that is identical except the connector. I happen to have a nice set of DT connectors lying around so why not...

strip, crimp, assemble. I got these DMC crimpers as well as the smaller frame style for $40 off CL a few years ago. Stolen?

same below on the car side 

with the headers on this car the sensor loom runs right over the exhaust. A buddy at a Cup team gave me some of this heat shield tubing they use on their oxygen sensor wires (among other things) so I cut a little piece and used some bailing wire to wrap it to the transmission crossmember 

with that fixed, next up is finishing the exhaust 

What make and where did you get that crimper and terminal set from? I have a mk2 vw I need to clean up the engine wiring on and use to use those connectors when I was a heavy equipment tech.

Also love the build as I've had half a dozen 80's bmw's through the years.

rattfink81 said:

What make and where did you get that crimper and terminal set from? I have a mk2 vw I need to clean up the engine wiring on and use to use those connectors when I was a heavy equipment tech.

 

Also love the build as I've had half a dozen 80's bmw's through the years.

i bought the crimpers from a guy on CL years ago. They are pretty hammered but they still work well. I have both the AFM8 and AF8 from Daniels Machine. The AF8 has a turret head positioner which is really nice to have. I think you can buy some knockoff versions of this style of crimper on Amazon but I'm not sure. 
 

the connector assortment i got from a friend as a Christmas gift years ago, he works in Motorsport wiring and built it for me. 
 

Amp makes a DT and DTM compatable connector series that is a bit cheaper than the Deutsch stuff and for what we do is probably totally fine. There is also a different terminal style that fits the DT series that is a lot cheaper than the machined gold or nickel plated terminals. Those stamped terminals take a different crimper but if you are starting from scratch it doesn't really matter 

I can't speak to the quality but these are dirt cheap 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L9XNFGG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_fabc_cr5.Fb6F9ARTM

I know when I worked at a well known aircraft manufacturer, DMC (or any other) crimper had to be checked for calibration at a set amount of time.  I imagine that a pair that gets sufficiently ugly eventually won't be calibrated anymore at which point it doesn't have a lot of street value.  That price is still 1/10th of new, I think, and the crimping dies add up as well.

Not sure if I'd assume stolen; still a good score.

Cool project, sounds like you have a good idea what you're doing.

Had to detour from this on Friday to work on my friends turbo EA falcon

The cluster on the e30 has been a bit flaky which is a common issue on these cars. One of the causes is the ground studs for the temp and gas gauges, they both have nuts that back off and corrosion forms between the contacts. The quick and dirt way to fix it is to tighten the nuts back up but the proper way is to pull the cluster a paper, clean the contacts and reassemble with some dielectric grease. 
 

the patient is ready:

once all the screws are out you separate the case and unbolt the fuel and temp gauges one at a time:

Once the contact areas are clean, put a dab of dielectric grease on there and button it back up:

while that was going on, I had the printer going because I needed some M6 thumb nuts for the cluster trim. They were missing when I got the car and I didn't want to order them. 
 

step 1, go to McMaster and snag a CAD model:

step 2, use Fusion 360 to turn it into an .stl file

step 3, slice it with Cura:

step 5, send it!

Finished parts: