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e30 Quest for Stance

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  • e30 Quest for Stance

    Whats up guys!

    My name is Nick and I like cars.

    hmm... Figure thats not gonna cut it.

    Well allow me to give some background on myself. I joined SW a little over a year ago and made this intro thread Little more familiar?

    Good.

    Well since then I replaced my 325e "eta" engine (2.7L M20 b27) with a '90 325i motor (2.5L M20b25). With my limited skills, time, and tools, the swap took me a total of 4 months to complete

    However it was all worth it in the end.
    Sorry for any inconsistencies, most of this took place exactly a year ago and I'm mostly copying and pasting from my thread on r3v

    Lets get it started in here!

    Phase one: Boredom after graduation leads to blown grad money :giggle:

    Got the car from my cousin a couple days after my birthday (precisely August 8th) Ironically had a church camp the same weekend and had to wait to fawn over my VERY OWN car; God's chariot!!

    Cool rare stuff




    Yes it's on a jack



    Minor(?) faults

    2 tone










    Succumbed to temptation and my first mods arrived!


    Dinan chipped ECU




    Clutch stop<---GET ONE!!




    Friend donated two free Alpine speakers from his vert... Only two working speakers :tongue:


    Ran like a champ but had a FILTHY engine bay!!
















    Obligatory strut tower pic (you couldn't know there was a sticker there before cleaning!)


    I had a hunch that the older couple up the street would trade me my wheels + cash for the style 10's on their vert so I gt bussy making them presentable...

    Most awkward convo of my life 1:
    Anyway:









    All (mostly) clean!



    More packages FTW!



    Prior break in; evidence on trunk itself and passanger door lock (it's actually in the car)




    More tomorrow... That's a start though, innit?
    Originally posted by DragginWagon
    Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

  • #2
    lol

    Whats goin on??












    A bit of damage. Looks as if it was hit before too! That fender is the only one retaining the "factory" paint finish. Recently found bondo under there as well:




    No registration but I risked a trip to my buddy's house for some goodies


    BBS RG003!!




    Had some faults though; major rash and BALD tires!






    Cars like it when you put gas in them :giggle: Left me stranded up the street from my house. Good times...


    At this point in time we started looking at another house. Bank was pwning on payments and we found this bigger yet cheaper house. Suck it Bank of America!!

    O and I **** tandem garages :hitler:

    :moving stuff; see r3v:
    Commence shadowlining! I don't suggest Plastidip for anything other than the side trim :banghead:


    Perfect view :giggle:






    Not bad... Sadly the other side was not finished as I was interrupted by moving :bigcry:


    Also got an is spoiler!




    The weather here in socal could not make up its' mind and it pretty much rained/drizzled from September through January. I concluded that rollin on bald tires was not safe and traded the wheels to someone who could show them more love than I could. What I got

    Don't laugh!



    k u can laugh...




    Then I got rid of these




    And traded them for these




    Sanded and painted trim rings








    Day and night on the road!


    High beam mod




    Awwww yeeeehhh

    Whats that stuff you put in the tank again?? Oh yeeeaah gas! 1:

    Picked up a couple things and got stranded at a friend's house; only this time the lines sucked up some dirt. Unclogged it and a minute excretion from the pits of hell released its grip on the fuel filter and down to the earth it fell, fouling up the air for miles :puke:






    Stuffs








    By moving :mrgreen:

    :More moving:
    Our humble abode... It will be missed!!


    New place


    Facing out of the new place


    ok ok THIS is how you lower a car

    Here's my set up:

    -Eibach Prokit springs
    -JOM shocks/struts






    Working in my friend's garage/stable where my car broke down






    "Ready?? ok, 'releases jack pressure'"
    "It keeps going down!!!"
    "Dam this shts stiff af!!"
    "Dude I can't get the jack out!
    "Fuk it's sittin go the jack! 'insert normal jack to assist'"
    "IT'S EVEN LOWER!!

    ^Pretty much how the end of that nigh went :nice:

    Holy rake batman!!












    Time for the rears!


    In plus test fit lol
















    One problem with the old driveway teehee




    Got it registered the day after we did the rears and I was on my way :

    Originally posted by DragginWagon
    Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

    Comment


    • #3
      3
      Ok so we're in about January/February I believe.
      My friend posted up that his Magnaflow sounded ricey on his 318 and he wanted to trade for a stock eta one. So I traded him for my stock-ish replacement; he even installed it for me
      Don't know wtf this is; wasn't terrible but looked ugly...


      Magnaflow!


      Never got to start it up with the straight pipe :-?


      Yes, those are REAL NASCAR road cars


      Suttle but sounded sexy haha The car liked to pop a little when it got warm. Nice deep sound but not loud and not much drone
      So now is where things start to get bad...

      Fisrt during my daily commute my rear shock bolt stripped and backed out when I was on the freeway :
      Sketchy as fuk!!






      Rocky helping out with the new bolt lol
      btw don't ever intend to use your factory e30 jack; EVER!!
      Tried to check out wtf happened when the left side of my car suddenly had no shock/resistance in the school parking lot. Car went up, stuck my finger under the tire trying to feel around and BOOOM, jack like slipped off, car fell on my fingers but only on the very edge. Thanks God for camber?
      Anyway FUK THAT. Never again.


      Literally the same week I saw this on the way home from school:


      :hitler:
      Picked up my sister on the way and noticed that driving around kept it cool; stopping mad it hot. Well in my stupidity I apparently put it through too many cycles and found this when adding coolant


      I had literally just got the car on the road; maybe driven it for two weeks. Said fuk it and decided to wait and change the gasket over spring break. Added water everyday and drove it for 2 more weeks on the bad gasket.

      : old house got vandalized before we sold it:
      Juuust great...

      On a brighter note, teaser to next update
      Last edited by low-eta5; 05-23-2012, 02:51 AM.
      Originally posted by DragginWagon
      Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

      Comment


      • #4
        4
        I got bored and decided to redo my yellow high beams cuz they were so dull.


        Came out so yellow they almost looked green!! My grandma went on a walk and told me I left my headlights on lol

        I decided to change it up a bit since I didn't have money for lamin-x








        Looks much better to me; almost like the Hella 550 fog lights




        Now the fun part... On my way back from school one day I started to feel more jerky movements than the usual with my stiffer suspension. More of a back and forth motion than up and down. When I exited the freeway the car was idling loudly like I had a major exhaust leak or something and it sounded like a Subaru with a fart can : Picked up my sister and drove home and parked it where it sits today

        Too tired to give you everything up to date now but here's the tare down

        MY milkshake brings all the girls to the yard :giggle:











        Done for the night


        More tomorrow!
        Originally posted by DragginWagon
        Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

        Comment


        • #5
          The Engine comes out

          5
          How to remove the fan with the wrong but surprisingly effective tool (I get the feeling it was made just to do that as it is utterly useless in any other application):


          Messy
          ;

          Taking stuff off. Bich bolts -.-




          Purolator... wut


          Adjuster bolts were frozen there and had no intention of moving





          Removed the head as the autozone chain wasn't long enough across the motor


          Ghetto rigged!!


          Nasty! Fluids were in the cylinder closest to the firewall


          Regulating tranny height


          Had to cut the decently fresh timing belt :puppy:



          I should pause to say that this was not all in one day; this actually took two days!
          1st day Justin(Avuse30) came over and helped with disconnecting stuff.
          We set the hoist angle but couldn't get it out.
          Apparantly we didn't disconnect the clutch line and it was causing the engine to come out sideways lol

          Some time during the same week Jose (jp slick) and we beasted it out at 1AM :

          Clutch stuff




          Ta-da!






          Tranny chillin


          Amusing dog is not amused


          Baaack to my swap; got to swapping over what I needed from the old motor
          Oil pan the i motor came with was toast




          The good pan; cleaned it up a bit but forgot to take pix




          eta block


          i block


          Which oil level sender? Hmmm...


          Winnar: used the one off the eta


          Swapped thermostat housings since I kept all the eta cooling components (cheapo!!)




          Same with the water pump though this required a bit more cleaning. Thanks to Ben (e30Trooper ) for suggesting I soak it in hot water; worked like a charm!




          My friend Justin (J-Sauce) made a contraption where out of a large plastic bin for electrolysis and after seeing the results on some of the stuff he did, I decided why not try the Exhaust manifolds?

          Before:


          After:


          Swapped exhausts; thanks Dustin for the complete i set-up!












          Took the tranny outside (yes thats an e30 seat belt; Dustin's idea(rede30)
          In case you didn't know the bell isn't the heaviest part; deceiving bell is deceiving!!


          Took some time to be a hooligan and take mandatory engine bay pix haha






          I'm hungry so enjoy and stand by for more updates later this week

          Originally posted by DragginWagon
          Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

          Comment


          • #6
            Engine Goes In

            5
            :On Thursday May 5th (2011), the car lived and made it's first trip with the new motor around the block! Words can't describe the feeling of all the hard work and long hours coming to life:









            Well I am not the ricer so the only reason there are so many pix of the "hot air intake" is because I traded it for a used K&N drop-in filter.





            I paid almost 15 bucks to ship mine... He slipped his in a manila :hitler:

            Aaaanyway

            Started on wiring and realized I was missing a few things. Quick junk yard trip was in order


            What I came away with for a little over the entrance fee. Cargo shorts FTW


            Arguably the biggest PITA job to do under an e30: Selector rod bushing. I'm getting pissed just thinking about it...


            Was stick going in like this for the longest time... The hole was just too small and this was after taking a drill to it!


            Eventually got the bitch in. Also had to reform the clip as popping it off distorted it.

            No wonder my reverse lights don't work...


            Like my intake boot?


            So hard to align!


            Yay!


            Oh wait, I Think I forgot something o.O


            Separated both sides and did everything again but with the guibo this time. No pix cuz
            -I gashed my thumb
            -I was already pissed about doing it twice

            First sign of life: got the battery and associated alternator stuff wired up. Messed with the lights a bit
            lows


            lows + highs


            Went on a little trip to get a broken flange welded back on to the i down pipes





            Everyone was giving us crazy looks, even this guy who drove with us for a while
            Originally posted by DragginWagon
            Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

            Comment


            • #7
              Big enough picture dump for the night haha Getting to the good stuff don't worry!!

              Teaser:



              Originally posted by DragginWagon
              Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

              Comment


              • #8
                Just about everything is in place now



                Dad helped me out and traded my old starter for a refurbished one





                Wiring it up...



                lolstarterbolt



                Next finished up the exhaust







                She was all done! However it too me 2 days of trouble shooting to figure out 2 crossed plugs.



                However on May 5, 2011 she started up and created a hell of a smoke show









                And she passed smog first try



                Not too shabby for an 18 y/o with no job aye?
                Originally posted by DragginWagon
                Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Crazy what kind of problems you had with this car! But you did a great job!

                  The us bumpers are quite funny for me, very BIG! I like just the euro version..

                  Nice E30!
                  sigpic
                  http://www.stanceworks.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=72167

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Omfg im glad we don't have these nasty bumpers in europe But nice car, epic wheels and tyres!
                    90 E34 535i/5 OZ Futura, BC coils
                    x '91 E34, BBS replica + BC Racing coilovers

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by GygaxE30 View Post
                      Crazy what kind of problems you had with this car! But you did a great job!

                      The us bumpers are quite funny for me, very BIG! I like just the euro version..

                      Nice E30!
                      And I still had a few more problems! Will update shortly with more stuff. As for the bumpers, these things are just stupid! But I plan to remedy that in the near future with some euro bumpers.

                      Thanks!

                      Originally posted by Vegardb View Post
                      Omfg im glad we don't have these nasty bumpers in europe But nice car, epic wheels and tyres!

                      Thanks man, I hope to get some epic fitment as well!
                      Originally posted by DragginWagon
                      Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        6
                        Since I got it running, I did a few things to it.



                        And it did a few things to my wallet that I'm too scarred to talk about :bigcry:


                        All joking aside, went to a friend's house and got the rear bumper tucked (stage 1 lol)





                        Chillin at Adams Motorsports Park with another e30 I found (still don't know who owns this)



                        Gwaro stopped by day after bimmerfest



                        Yup, the one that got hit

                        Clean garage after the swap... Felt so weird looking at that space again lol





                        Messing with the lights

                        Clear lenses



                        Sealed beam high beam



                        JDM tight yo!







                        Swapped my bulbs; high beam bulb in the low beam and vice versa. Look at the difference! (high beam bulb on the left)



                        My buddy backed in to me at church :/ Busted my minty tail light and warped the metal there...



                        Less than perfect replacement, but it's something plus you can't beat free



                        New wheel



                        Correct 44" fairing





                        Some stickers I collected



                        "Amikay" because it's a replica of a Yakima fairing lol





                        Tic Tac Toe lol



                        What could be the problem...



                        My brand new oil filter :hitler:



                        Back to the garage...



                        Wait, Coolant too??



                        Check out that sexy radiator



                        Other side...



                        Lets fix that...



                        Found those bolts on the floor; looks like they backed out and ground in to the radiator and punctured it



                        Picked up a free radiator from Mike and traded it for an early model one to match my cooling system :



                        Zip ties don't last forever LOL



                        Neither do sunroof cables apparently...



                        My car gave life to another e30! (Kadeem's drift car)





                        Just in time for Archifest 2!





                        Originally posted by DragginWagon
                        Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          looks good ..........

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            7
                            Stopped by Terry's house (recipient of my BBS RG's) on the way back from Archiesfest 2. Hooked me and Kadeem up with some wheels!









                            The plan was to respray them and paint them black but after seeing them on an e30, decided against it and my buddy eventually picked them up to put them on a Honda

                            We took Ortega HWY to Archiesfest and my car couldn't really hang (really awkward shifting between 2nd and 3rd lol)

                            So on the way to have my exhaust welded up I swooped up an open 4.10 diff from JakeP for 20 bucks. Best 20 I've spent!!



                            Exhaust is i manifolds>eta exhaust>Random (OBX?) muffler







                            My buddy AJ gettin down lol











                            Done for the night



                            It sagged a bit so I put this extra hanger to good use (modified below)


                            Need to grind it off a bit





                            Sounds alright, my old system sounded like a hybrid...
                            http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=...type=2&theater

                            Loooooong geeeeeaaaaars
                            http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=...type=2&theater

                            Back to Brandon's house to do the diff

                            2.79 is a big case and the 4.10 is a medium case I believe.







                            WHEEEEEE!!!:giggle:



                            vs.



                            :twisted:
                            Originally posted by DragginWagon
                            Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              8
                              It's against my car's nature to run right at any given point in time...

                              Fuel pump was cutting in and out and left me stranded close to home. Buddy gave me a push with his wagon and kind of tucked one side of the rear bumper



                              Changed the fuel pump with no difference



                              Problem ended up being loose fuse box harness wires and fouled spark plugs from running rich





                              Gaps all over the place





                              Care was fixed but still had the paint rubbed off and had never installed the new lens. Pulled out my bumper using a wire hanger inside a plastic tubing haha





                              Also got this for really cheap from my buddy Dustin. We were laughing at how useless this was but decided to give it a shot. It works surprisingly, better than it should haha









                              Painted and drying. Just sitting on the towers in t he pic. Installed it later that night.



                              Got more stuff from Dustin





                              Sanded





                              Mocked up







                              not really feeling it... Sitting in my garage now

                              Came really close to going with the factory is valance...







                              Buuut I've always dreamed of installing a sport lip and finding one is near impossible. However, through some poking and pestering, I found one at a price I couldn't refuse. It's rough but it gets the job done for now. May try to repair it in the future; of course always looking out for another one out there.











                              Part number?



                              Commence prepping





                              It was minty, think it was a factory replacement.










                              Could not wait...





                              Don't even attempt to sand 4 layers of paint with 600 grit LOL
                              The middle white spot is he original primere. Radiating around it are the various layers of primer and paint





                              Exacto knife FTW





                              Paint



                              Getting ready to swap valances





                              vs.



                              Tucked and painted the front bumper while I was at it

                              Originally posted by DragginWagon
                              Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to strip our cars completely and send them off to get restored. So we make due and make one hell of a unique vehicle.

                              Comment

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