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[zxert]

My name is Zachary Wolf. Good to meet you. Here is a story of how I got to where I'm at. If you're like me you've already stopped reading and scrolled for pics, went "meh" and went back to something exciting with less words.



My love for BMWs started with E30s. Here are 5 pictures. Then no more e30 business.
1. Just got it. March tags. Photo was taken in may.


2.


3. G35 was sold because boring


4.


5.


M10 motor. ***** it. Sold it. Got a free Cadillac! Thank you father in law!



LT1 motor. RWD. Loved it. Too big. Sold it. Sorry pops in law.

After a couple of build threads that shall not be named. Rusty, Hank, Igor, Greene. I fell in love with E28s. Plus I like the fact that they actually have some balls, m30 does anyway.

Craigslist ad showed these two pics. Listed for $1300. Will need work to run.





Showed up. Depressing. Interior sucks. Electrical issues. Not one light in the car worked, cluster dead. It did start and run. But as I test drove it the lower panel fell down and trapped my foot. I almost hit some guy, he was either Canadian or Russian, who knows.

I asked the guy if he would take $800, Nope. Told him I'm taking a huge chance on this car and the highest I'll go is $840. I told my wife, who was a little sketch, but fully supportive, which is incredibly sexy. Thus the $840 e28 is born.

Trip home from the gas station. Lower dash panel almost killed me again.







Home safe. Protected.


Stoked.



More posts to come.

[runningpanda]

Nice start man

[Stephen]

dude, just rip that lower panel out, takes like 3 seconds and your feet will be freed. Did that on the drive home getting my e30

[CubbyChowder]

awesome

[Adam.]

I **** that lower panel. I kept getting my feet stuck behind it and pulling it off. In the end I got angry and ripped it out and through it away.

[T3rd Ferguson]

Originally Posted by Adam.

I **** that lower panel. I kept getting my feet stuck behind it and pulling it off. In the end I got angry and ripped it out and through it away.

people pay good money for those if they arent broken

[zxert]

Fuse #6

It ran but not so good. The cluster was 100% dead, but if you put a fuse in #6, it would work for .5 seconds and blow the fuse.

Pulled out the iphone and an ETM
http://www.e38.org/e28/e28_88_etm.pdf



Got to work. Basically you just look up the circuit that's popping, in my case Fuse #6. Looking at the Fuse 6 diagram you can find out whats on it. I just started unplugging connectors and relays until it stopped popping. If you have a hard time finding where a connector is at, for example C500, you can look in the index and it will give you a page to the location diagram. Very nifty. Love you BMW.

Turns out it was the "Reverse Light Switch Circuit" that caused the issue. Of course it was the last thing I checked. The wires for this circuit run from the transmission, into the cabin right where the shifter is. They are easily chafed after a ton of shifting.



I found the issue was shredded wires that were shorting against the body and popping the fuse.



Some butt connectors/shrink wrap/electrical tape later. Boom. No more fuse pop.



Everything I needed to fix it, I already had.



Bad ground.



I saw that one of the ground was bad, the one that goes from the hood to the fender. The area was also super dirty. I'm pretty annoyed by dirty crap, so I did my best to clean it up. Deleted a super crisp sticker, it said something about not shaking babies. Germans are pretty silly. But 80's Germans are Silly Billies!



High five for Frankenstein Duct Tape Vacuum Attachments!

I'll go over it again with a toothbrush and APC when I have a few to spare.

Cleaned the corroded and dirty hardware.







Used an extra wire crimp I had laying around to button it up.






Total Spent: $0

[D&W]

keep us updated i like this

[amichaels]

nice grab for the money. hope no terrible issues along the way!

[OpelWagenGT]

Unlike an e30 where you can take the lower dash pannel off and no one will notice the e28 is different. Mine was comming off and I debated taking it off. BUT it unveils a mess of stock wires and uglyness specifically if your interior was tan, people will notice. I can show you in some photos how I got mine to stay up if you like.

can't wait to see progress.

-Aron

[zxert]

Originally Posted by runningpanda

Nice start man

Thank you. Love your e28.

Originally Posted by Stephen

dude, just rip that lower panel out, takes like 3 seconds and your feet will be freed. Did that on the drive home getting my e30

Originally Posted by Adam.

I **** that lower panel. I kept getting my feet stuck behind it and pulling it off. In the end I got angry and ripped it out and through it away.

Originally Posted by OpelWagenGT

Unlike an e30 where you can take the lower dash pannel off and no one will notice the e28 is different. Mine was comming off and I debated taking it off. BUT it unveils a mess of stock wires and uglyness specifically if your interior was tan, people will notice. I can show you in some photos how I got mine to stay up if you like.

Originally Posted by T3rd Ferguson

people pay good money for those if they arent broken

Haha. You can tell how annoying that panel is by the response the post got. I actually grabbed it for a second preparing for the manliest rip and throw you've ever seen. Then what opel said came into mind. Goosfraba. I chilled out and fixed it up so its good to go. Still need a new panel.

I know the old me would've thrown it out driving down the road, and drove back to run it over several times. Its been a while since I've done a good MECHANIC SMASH.

Originally Posted by CubbyChowder

awesome

Originally Posted by D&W

keep us updated i like this

Originally Posted by amichaels

nice grab for the money. hope no terrible issues along the way!

Thank you guys very much. I've been lurking here forever, finally my time has come!

Updates early tomorrow morning. I still have to get my damn pictures uploaded right. I have like 5 more posts to get caught up to today.

For now. Here is a picture of Rosie O'donnel. Enjoy.

[TeckniX]

not a bad purchase, but you lucked out that shit wasn't worst. haha.. How did the oil/coolant/mt-90 not cost you a dime?

[zxert]

B82rez

Negative negative terminal



Not so positive positive terminal



The battery terminals were jacked and corroded. I had an extra negative terminal lying around so I threw it on. My first purchase was a positive battery terminal for $4.

Also, the old Walmart battery died. Bought a new replacement with higher CCA's, Duralast GOLD. I love GOLD! $106



Total thus far $110

More to come after lunch.

[zxert]

See foam.

It started and ran. Not well, but ran!

I dropped a can of seafoam in the gas tank with about 6 gallons of 91. The car gets 91 from now till... ever. Mostly Chevron or Shell. In most of my experience the difference is between 20-30 cents per gallon between 87-91 octane gas. If I fill this car up I'm paying an average of $4.50 more, per tank. That is nothing compared to the slight mileage increase and knock prevention it provides.



91 gas or nothing.

It ran better, but not great. So then I bought another can of seafoam, this time pouring 1/3 in the crankcase and sucking up 2/3rds of it up through the Fuel Pressure Regulator vacuum hose. This runs directly to the intake manifold.

#3 in this diagram.


Just remove the hose and suck the liquid from a clear container, so that you can see how much is going/left. Do your best to suck as much fluid as you can while keeping the car alive. Once all of it is in the engine, kill the engine.

Reconnect the vacuum line. I waited 2 hours, more of by force than choice. Started it up. INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF SMOKE. I ran the car at night as to remain stealthmode. The idea is to do a quick Italian tune up on it, right after the seafoam. Find that road, you know, the one you can go balls out on, four lane, divided if possible. High RPM, get close to redline. Slow down, take off, slow down, take off.

20 minutes later the car was a completely different beast. Still smoking after 20 minutes, I was kinda worried. But it stopped a minute later.

Idle is smoother.

Nice increase in power.

Car runs less rich.

I highly recommend to anyone, TRY THIS PRODUCT.

I've used it on the following cars with no issues.
E30
LT1 Cadillac
Kia Sorento
Infiniti G35
E28 535is

Every one was worth the money.

[zxert]

First Drive

I have to say that I love to drive this car. I got it running and took it to work. On the way there I realized, I'm finally driving the car I've wanted for so long. It felt so nice.

Then as I was smiling and driving my pile of crap, the clouds parted, a ray of sunshine shone down on me. It was as if God was saying, "Congrats, Enjoy it".



This is my favorite car so far, hands down. I love it. No homo.

No more mushy crap. Onward.

Department of Motor Waitingcles.



I showed up to register the car in my name, without an appointment. I'll never make that mistake again, ever. I ended up waiting a ridiculous amount of time to get it registered, only to be told the total was $187. Ouch. The waiting was bad enough, but that $187 could be better spent on Jonas Brothers Tickets.


I was also told that now I have two days to smog it. Rad.

Valve Trouble

We all have grown accustomed to the uncomfortably loud mechanically driven valvetrain of our BMWs. But this m30 was REDICULOUSNESS!

I decided to tackle the job. All you need is some feeler gauges and the strength of 17 apes. The method I used was putting a wrench on the alternator and a thumb on the belt to keep tension to rotate the motor.

Also, it was raining. So we build a tent for the e28.





Pulled the cover.



I did .10 on the valve side. BIG Mistake.

Not only did this method of turning the engine blow my alternator bearing, it also made the valve noise worse.

Have a listen. Listen for the bad alternator and loud valve tick. Terrible

From E28

After some searching I came across a post from ShawnD on the roadfly forums about adjusting the valves on the cam side. The issue stems from the eccentric wearing a groove in the top of the valve stem, making any feeler gauge adjustment useless. So I pulled the valve cover for another try.

Check out ShawnD's post http://bimmer.roadfly.com/e28/messag...w30/60209.html

This time I put the car in 3rd gear and bumped it up the driveway. My wife came out as I was bumping it up and gave me a wtf are you doing look. Apparently a large man in a blue wife beater and overalls trying to push a car up the driveway and grunting, with a black greasy face is funny.



After the second try. Bingo. PERFECT! Baby smooth idle. More power. Very quite(for this motor). Thank you ShawnD, Joe my father in law for building me a tent, and my wife for staying up till 3am with me while I got it all done.

Done. Almost.



New valve cover gasket, felpro. $17

Alternate Alternator.

Luckily I had an old alternator from my E30 sitting around(84 318i). It just happened to be good because the techs at Kragen didn't know what they were doing about a year ago.

An important thing to check on when swapping a used alternator is brush life. Simply pull the regulator of the back of the Alternator and check the size of the brushes. New ones can be had from Bosch for about $40.

The ones from the garage stock alternator were better.
Old vs New on the right



Strapped the new one in. I also cleaned the area with a toothbrush, paper towels, and AWESOME.



Before




After


Total Spent this post: $204

Running Total: $314

[AMGwheelwhore]

I like how your keeping track of the expenses, might steal that from you. Nice build keep it up.

[willis]

[DoinicDenson]

I kept getting my feet stuck behind it and pulling it off.

[zxert]

Hello from Sacramento. Its a cool 82 degrees here in the California state capital. This whole first paragraph is a waste of your time.

Change of liquids.



Changed the oil. First time with a cartridge style filter.

OEM MANN! Filter $7
Valvoline VR1 20w-50 6 quarts $32



Old oil was SUPER Black. The seafoam probably contributed to that.

Trans-fluid was next. My phone died after I got the car in the air. The drain plug should show you how bad it was.

Redline MT-90 2 quarts $24



Yikes bro!



Much better.

I didn't have a fluid pump. So I just used a clean spray handle from a random bottle and sprayed 50% of the fluid in. After 1 hour I couldn't spray anymore. So I invented this deal out of a funnel and an old high pressure PS hose from my g35. Dropped it in from the engine compartment and gravity did the rest.



This completely cured the hard notchyness of the transmission. Worth every cent. Thank you Redline.


Oxygen

My idle was sitting around 1200. Unplugging the o2 ground in the engine bay didn't change the idle one bit. This lead me to believe that the o2 sensor was bad. A new sensor from Pelican Parts is $162.50.

Luckily mye28.com has something to say about that. I read that you can use an o2 sensor from a 1986 Ford Taurus v6, Bosch Part# 13913. The connectors are different and far too short, but this sensor costs $35.00.





Much better.



They are not delicious.

Old Sensor. Its located on the drivers side of the exhaust pipe, just rear of the drivers seat.



Cut the old sensor off, maintaining the wire positing. I just tied one of the white wires in a knot, as there are two whites(hot, signal) and one black (ground).



Strip the new sensor wires.



Butt connectors. I love em.



Crimp. Shrink Wrap. Electrical Tape. Zip Ties. This bastard is never coming off. Looks ghetto.



Twist the sensor a few times relative to the number of turns it takes to get the new sensor tight, before installing it. That way when its all tight you have no twists in your wiring.



Done. Idles at 800rpm. Stoked.

O2 sensor $35

Total this post: $98

Total overall: $412

Heres a pic of the car because this thread is boring.

Hopefully going lower soon, after smog and after I fix this steering issue. More on that later.

[Tom Cruise]

It's looking real good man! Love how thorough you are. Also just noticed your in Sacramento..maybe I'll see you around. Hope that smog goes well.

[zxert]

I think I did see you on 80 east between Watt and Madison. There was a guy in a grey mint e21, a white guy, with longish hair. Gave me a strange look. I look young and drive an old car, pretty strange.

Maybe I'm mistaken.

Thank you, and for sure you will see me around. If not at junkyards, then at meets.

[Donjuan45i]

Subbing to try seafoam on my e28. Looks good man. I'm sure the car loves you right back. You gave it a second life. I want to to a valve adjustment on mine. Mines not super loud but definitely a hungry sewing machine Lol.

I'm the same way I also use ethanol free 91 octane. I traded my newer more practical Nissan for mine. Guy was like ok deal wtf!!? The rest of the world doesn't get it. In my e28 is where its at!

[zxert]

Originally Posted by Donjuan45i

Subbing to try seafoam on my e28. Looks good man. I'm sure the car loves you right back. You gave it a second life. I want to to a valve adjustment on mine. Mines not super loud but definitely a hungry sewing machine Lol.

I'm the same way I also use ethanol free 91 octane. I traded my newer more practical Nissan for mine. Guy was like ok deal wtf!!? The rest of the world doesn't get it. In my e28 is where its at!

Right on man. Definitely do the seafoam. Do a valve adjustment, its very easy. Just make sure you do it on a level surface with the car in 3rd gear and bump it to turn the cam, don't fry your alternator like I did. I did .10 on the cam side and its about as good as it gets with this valvetrain.

People don't understand what its like to have a car that has a soul. My g35 was fun, fast, and good looking. But it had no soul. This BMW reminds me of a stallion. Its strong, built tought, beautiful and $840.

Getting On track now...

I realize that this forum is made up of people that cross lines as far as race, sex, age, beliefs, spirituality. But I feel very guilty for not mentioning this part of the build. I guess I'm nervous that once people find out my story they'll dislike me, which is stupid.

About 3 years ago my life made a terrible down turn. I had tried everything I knew to make myself happy, but all of it was shallow. Sure, I was "happy" in some terms. I owned my own house at 23, drove a g35 coupe, had money to blow, had friends, family, a good job, everything people want in this world. But none of it was enough. I turned down what I call a dark street, drugs, alcohol, hallucinogens. Back when I was doing them, they were awesome. Sometimes its hard to see where you're at in the fog. Sure, all of these things are good for a little while, but they all take you farther then you want to go and cost you more than you want to pay.

At the time I was an Atheist, Scientist, Biologist, Philosopher. I knew everything about Evolution and how Christians were all simple minded fools. Then, one night I felt like I was being steered toward destiny. I got down on my knees and asked God, "I don't believe in you, but if you're out there, come help me". Before I finished my sentence I sensed a presence above me, absolutely blew my mind, so much love. A small voice inside of me said "I'm not out there, I'm right here and I always have been. This whole time I've been waiting for you to turn to me". That day I quit drugs, stopped alcohol, dropped my anger, left my temper behind. The old me died and a new man was born. Without the drugs, my friends disappeared.

I met the most beautiful girl in the world. You know, that one girl who you look at and her eyes seem to draw you in, like two black holes not even love itself can escape. That girl, when she smiles, it makes your stomach drop. I married her, our two year anniversary is in two weeks. Marriage is like an e28, if you're lazy its going to go to hell in about 2 months. But if you spend time on it and work hard, every day can be a blasty blast. Of course with the occasional roadside breakdown. Haha.

Now to move on to this car, in my story.

MY e30 was not doing so good. My father in law saw what I was driving and gave me, for free, a Cadillac Fleetwood. I drove that for 9 months until I started to get the E28 fever. Starting in early March, I started praying every day for Gods help in getting an e28. I just prayed, asking God, in his time, to please help me get a good running E28 535is 5speed. Every day for about two months. I got discouraged at first, because frankly, my old lifestyle caught up with me, I have $0 a month to save for a new car. Suddenly I got an answer, a very clear one. Sell the Cadillac and buy an E28. I put the Caddy up for sale and waited, patiently, praying. An e28 with a busted oil pan came up in San Fransisco, $1500, mighty tempting, but I couldn't sell the Cadillac. It wasn't the right car. After two more weeks of praying and waiting a guy came out, bought it cash, no issues. He drove all the way from San Jose. The next day, I prayed, and got an answer that the car I need is ready. I found this e28 on craigslist and checked it out. It was listed for $1300 and the owner liked me and gave it to me for $840. I took a big risk on this car, none of the electrical stuff worked... All the while I prayed and waited on God for answers. It all worked out so wonderfully. I am so very thankful to have what I have.

You may not understand my beliefs or my choices, but I think that the most important nut on the car is the one in the drivers seat. These cars are shown as the primary focus here, understandably, because its the tie that binds us together. But, behind every car is a living breathing owner with a story too long to write. I believe its these cars that bring us here and that its the stories, interaction and fellowship over cars and life and its many wonders that keeps us here.

There is something special about this car. I feel like my story, everything I've been through, to finally have it, makes me love this car. To some people cars are just a tool, to me its a machine. I see design, engineering, passion, beauty and soul. This particular car is mine for a reason. I've decided to name the car Gilead, which means monument of testimony in hebrew, because this car is a monument... on wheels.

I am reverently thankful to God, my wife Joanna and my Father in law for what I have. I am thankful to all of you in this community for stoking the flames of my passion for cars and for your fellowship, laughs, support, stories and general craziness.

Thank you also for reading this load of crap of a post.

[Funtington]

[QUOTE I am reverently thankful to God[/QUOTE]

TESTIFY BROTHER!! Praise God for your salvation.

[244Brick]

Originally Posted by zxert

I feel very guilty for not mentioning this part of the build. I guess I'm nervous that once people find out my story they'll dislike me, which is stupid.
.

You know man, this is one of the most humbling things I've ever encountered here. I feel so blessed to know that God has lead you here to share your testimony. At times i feel dumb for not absolutely knowing why i'm a Christian, but i rebuke the thought because i know it's what i'm made for. It's just a natural tendency to desire his presence.
But
There are probably more Christians here than you think, but it's a shame that we don't wear our faith proudly. I'm inspired to continuing walking strong within the Lord and this community, praying that God will allow our love for him to spread throughout this forum and beyond. All because of one courageous step of faith.

Thanks man.. You have my full support!