Chip and Dip

Ran across a local deal for a new Dinan chip with paperwork for $70, so I picked it up. Not a huge improvement in power, but noticeable. I probably would notice it if I removed it now, but overall the engine is running great.

I also finally got around to replacing the fan belts, and putting in Amsoil synthetic 20w50 oil and gear lube. I've been running 20w50 dino oil till now. There is still a slight leak from the front main seal, but I decided to go ahead and do the oil now. Engine seems to like it. Runs nice and smooth. Hard to say if it's a genuine improvement, or s psychological one, but I like it. Shifter is a little smoother. I'd tried Swepco oil before and it made the tranny really notchy, so I went back to synthetic ATF. The Amsoil stuff feels good, probably comparable with Redline.

Got the steering linkage installed. That was the final bit. Steering is dead solid, no slop at all. I was concerned that there might be some slop in the steering rack since I got one from a junk yard, but not at all. I expected it to tighten thing up some, but not as much as it did. Amazing that just a tiny bit of slop can make such a big difference in steering feel.

So, at this point the car is 100% fixed, now, when time permits, I can focus on upgrades. Eventual plans are 15" wheels (ESM or Ronal mesh), koni shocks, and some upgraded sway bars. I also need to add a subwoofer as the 5.25" speakers in the car are definitely overtaxed. Not jumping on these right away, plenty of time, and I need to focus on biking more.

Final step in the steering

Last part of the steering equation. There was still a little slop, and I determined it was coming from the steering linkage. Expected some, but figured it was an easy item to fix later. The only problem right now is that my 535is project (http://535isrestoration.blogspot.com/) is currently occupying the garage while I wait for replacement struts, so I can't put the new linkage in until I get it out of the garage.

I also experimented with a shift lever that I got out of a Z3 in the junk yard. Turns out it's too short for my tastes, so I'm yanking it out and putting the Z3 1.9 lever back in. I'll do this all at once as these are both easy jobs.

Cost: $105 (steering linkage u-joint)

Back on the road

Got all the big items done. Here's a full list:

Rear end

rear control arm bushings

subframe bushings

final ss brake line segment installed

dif mount

e-brake pads

exhaust hanger

Brake system flush

wheel nut holders

Driveline

center support bearing

guibo

cv boots and clamps

transmission rear nut retainer

transmission shifter seal

transmission Rear main seal

Flush w/Mobile 1 synthetic ATF

Shifter rebuild

Z3 shiftlever

rear carrier bushing/support

delrin front carrier bushings

lever ball socket

shifter washers

support retention clip

Fixed backup light short

Shifter rubber boot

Shifter u-joint and retention pin

Steering

Z3 rack

new tie rod ends

new hp ps hose

New boot clamps (zip ties)

Body

rear quarter side trim & clips

Only significant issue is I have to re-do the power steering fluid return line. The stock line is too short and just doesn't mate up well, and I'd have to bend it to 90 degrees to fix it which would kink it. I'll just cut it off and clamp a reinforced hose to it. Until then the fluid reservoir isn't firmly bolted.

The interior is still not fully assembled as I will install a little dynamat on the rear wheel arches, need to adjust the e-brake, and will check the heater core for leaks. I also want to convert the power window defeat button into a starter kill.

Just got it back from alignment. They tell me I have a "Radial Tire Pull" so I'll rotate the tires and see if that's for real or BS. If it's real I'll have the tire shop replace the tire as it's pretty much new.

Rust

Pulled up the carpet to cut the firewall for the Z3 steering rack installation and found this:

Don't really want to fuss with it right now, as I'll have to completely pull the carpet, remove the soundproofing, etc... So I just wire brushed what I could see and treated it with a rust eater/inhibitor. Looks like this now:

Will also need to determine the source of the water. The foam under the carpet is a little damp, so I'll probably need to check the heater core and sunroof drains later. Need to get it back on the road first.

Just about completely torn down now. I figured I'd tackle the big items all at once, and there is no shortage of those. Items I found after taking it appart:

CV boots are trashed

Transmission output shaft is leaking

Guibo has significant cracks

Center support bearing is completely shot

The only one that really surprised me is the center support. I would have assumed I would have felt shaking or knocking, but no sign. Here is what it looks like:

Here is a full list of the things that will be done in this stint:

Z3 steering rack

New tie rods/ends

New subframe bushings

New control arm bushings

New CV boots, and repack the CV's

New differential bushing

New guibo

New driveshaft support bearing

Complete shifter linkage rebuild including Z3 shift lever

New transmission output shaft seal and shifter seal

Flush differential, fill with Swepco 201

Flush transmission, fill w/redline MTL

Here is the current state of the garage, quite a mess, but all that's left to remove are the shift linkage support and seals.

Starting the Big Jobs

It's starting to get wet and cold here in Seattle, well, relatively cold. So I decided to get racking on the rear end rebuild and steering rack. I found a 98 Z3 steering rack at a scrap yard for $120 delivered, got it the other day and it looks to be in good shape and includes the tie rods and ends. I've had the subframe bushings and several other rear end parts lying around, just waiting for me to dig into the back end. I figure it will be more enjoyable if I take my time, working a little bit each day, only until I feel like I've accomplished something.

I decided to drop the entire rear end. The upper fill bolt for the rear differential is a little stripped and I can't get it out with it in the car, so it's a good time to go ahead and take care of all of the rear end parts that need replacing.

Started today. Got it jacked up, exhaust out, and about 80% of the rear end bolts undone. It's been pretty simple so far, the main axle bolts still had the factory retainer in place, and once that was off they came out easy. I decided to stop today when I got to the drive shaft bolts, they are on there pretty good, which is expected, so I'll tackle them later.

I also have a complete shifter rebuild including the Z3 lever on the way, will probably do that now as well.

Finally some movement

Been a while and busy with the move to Seattle. The car started to show signs of leaking coolant, and the best candidate was the water pump. Sure enough, I pulled the old one out and it was a complete POS. The impeller was stamped metal instead of cast, the bearings and seals were crap, and the housing even snapped while removing it. Replaced with a proper Meyle water pump, car runs just a hair cooler now and doesn't leak a drop.

Cost $60.

I was also just driving around in the rain and the rear end was just sliding all over the place, so I decided I couldn't stand living with the crap tires that came with the car any more and had to do something. Upgrading to 15" wheels and tires was going to cost $1k-$1.2k, and I really didn't want to do that yet. I want to get the other items sorted before doing that. So, I had a set of Falken 205/60R14 tires installed on the car. Huge improvement, but then that was expected as the old tires were mix and match POS tires. I'd held off doing the tires because there was so much slop in the steering that an alignment was pointless. However, I have a Z3 steering rack on the way and some other items to fix it up right. More on that later.

Cost: $375 installed.

Clean-ish engine bay

The previous owner let the car go with a significant valve cover gasket leak for a while, so the engine has been caked in oil gunk since I got it. There is also a leak coming from the oil filter housing and a coolant leak from somewhere that I can't identify, so the first step was to clean the engine bay. To replace the oil filter housing gasket I was going to have to remove the alternator and tear into the car anyway, so it was a good time to flush it out.
I removed the alternator, radiator, and hoses, and then went at it with a hose jet attachment (not a power washer) and a whole lot of de-greaser. The results are pretty good. Previously I couldn't see any of the silver color of the front engine cover, oil filter housing, or power steering pump.

New Seats

Finally got the e90 seats installed (well, almost, the passenger seat isn't in 100%, but it's livable). Here's a pic:Why? The original driver's seat was very worn out, and it drives me nuts when a seat has slop in it. The cover was torn, lots of slop, and the cushions were long since beaten into submission. Why e90 seats rather than the more popular e36 seats? Age and price. I got these for $250 delivered, and since they came from a car newer than 06, they are in much better shape than any e36 or e46 seats I could find. I didn't realize I could get e90 seats in manual, I assumed they were all power, but these fit the bill perfectly. I'm guessing from the manual controls these are likely leatherette.

Normally I wouldn't have bothered with seats before doing the steering rack, sway bars, etc... but I found these at a good price and decided to jump on them.

In retrospect, fitting them was pretty simple, 2 plates on each side, just had the find the right position to offset these seats, put the old seat belt clips on the new seats, and it was all set. However, it took me a while to find the ride position, due to interference from the original mounting bolts, so I ended up having a shop do 2 sets of adapters for me. Ended up costing about $150. I could have just bought bar stock and drilled it myself, but at the time I didn't know it was going to be that simple.
They look great in the car. At some point I'll have the rear seats redone to match the leather on these ones. Total cost for seats, shipping, several versions of mounting plates, and hardened bolt hardware came to about $425.

Hoses, Intake complete

Finished replacing the vacuum hoses under the intake, several were significantly cracked, and installed everything. Did the idle control valve while I was at it. Now the car finally idles right. It was ok before, but idles near perfect now. I also noticed better throttle response, and less lag off the line. Overall the engine feels like it's running exactly like it should now.

I wasn't able to do the oil leak yet, as there is some bushing blocking the bolts I need to remove. I'll either do that later or let the shop do it, if it's too much of a pain. Here is a shot of the engine bay with the painted intake installed. I haven't put the wiring cover back on yet, or cleaned it up.

The idle on the car is ok, but its never been perfect. It seemed to be getting a little worse, in a way consistent with a vacuum leak. So I decided to replace the vacuum lines under the intake and the idle control valve, as the hoses were noticeably cracked and this is a common cause of this issue. While not difficult, this is not trivial. I had to remove the throttle body and intake. Here's a shot of it torn down.
I had to take it off to verify the parts to order, and while I wait for those to show up, I decided to go ahead and paint the intake. Pimpy, but given the cosmoline and dirt on the motor, I figure painting it black is a good way to dress things up a little. 1 coat of engine paint primer, and 2 coats of gloss black engine paint.

Here is a shot of the intake, cleaned and primered. I cleaned it with simple green and brake cleaner. A good greenie-weenie scrubber and water came in handy.
Here is a shot of the finished product. After painting I sanded the raised portions.
The engine paint says it take 7 days to fully cure, and since I have to wait for the parts to show up, it's a perfect time to do it. I'd do the valve cover as well, but not yet, I'll get to that later. Total cost in paint is $15, with enough extra to do the valve cover later.

Odometer and front air dam

Finally got off my butt and fixed the odometer a couple of weeks ago. Cost $80 for the new gears. Unfortunately when I got done, the left side instrument cluster bulb went out, probably from moving it around, so I'll have to take it out again later and fix that. But, now I can determine what kind of mileage I'm getting.

Also, today I finally got the brake cooler intakes painted black. Unfortunately BMW no longer makes the clips for these, so I had to steal one from the left side and use double-sided sticky tape on the bottom of each, but they seem to be held in well. Also, I took the bumper off, and with a big cresent wrench, and some small wood blocks, managed to bend the front air dam back up. Apparently it had gone over something pretty big, as the whole thing dipped down and made a pretty noticeable gap below the front bumper. It's not perfect, but it's good enough that I'm not feeling the urge to replace that front section. Here's a shot of the finished product.

Brakes

The brakes on the car were pretty weak, and there was some fluid leaking from the master cylinder reservoir grommets, so in the interest of safety I decided to tackle the brakes next. Also, since I could not get any fluid to some out of the right read caliper, I knew I wouldn't be able to bleed the lines if I disconnected them to work on the rear end.

New parts are:

• New rear calipers
• Stainless Brake lines (DOT)
• Textar pads front and rear
• New front and rear discs
• New reservoir grommets

Total came to about $550.
I wasn't able to use all of the brake lines, as the line between the rear axle and frame are a PITA to get to, so I figured I'd wait until I drop the rear axle to do those.
Overall, the pedal feel didn't firm up as much as I'd hoped, but I'm sure I'll net more improvement when I get the last section of the brake lines replaced with the stainless ones. Though much of the feel is likely to due with the size of the master cylinder and the overall dated design of the system compared newer BMW braking systems. However, overall braking is much improved. The Textar pads are supposed to be OEM, and they definitely bite like they are. While the pedal is mushier than a newer BMW, the overall braking power seems to be equal to an e46, which is a nice improvement.

Running total: $4175

Back on the road

Finally, all wrapped up, suspension all fixed up and running well. Finished the suspension install last night, car drives great. Doesn't feel like it needs an alignment, and since I'm on the stock wheels with junk tires I won't bother for now. Very solid, not quite handling on rails, but then it's got 14" wheels with junk tires and the stock swaybars, so I don't expect much, but it is very fun to drive. Gone are all the knocks and bumps. When I removed the control arms, one of them was so badly worn that I could move one of the knuckles around with just my hands. No question they were shot, and the shocks appeared to be the original units.

Plus, I got a new surround for the computer and installed it properly, along with the e36 radio, now it looks like a proper interior. Right now I'm just using a tape adapter for the ipod, but will wire in the dice unit later when I get a CD changer cable that works.
Since this picture was taken with a flash, it really shows all of the stains on the carpet, which are a lot less obvious in normal light, though I'll probably shampoo them at some point.

The brakes are ok, I flushed the system but the bleeding screw on the rear passenger caliper didn't leak any fluid, so I will likely need to rebuild or replace that caliper. The discs are definitely very worn, with a significant lip from wear, but the car is stopping well. When I pressurized the system to flush it, there was fluid leaking from below the reservoir, so I will likely need to replace the master cylinder and the seals there at some point, but it's not critical right now, as the brakes are working fine. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement in the braking system, but I'll wait till I decide to completely gut the system and do it all then.

More stuff

Didn't have the tool to press the M3 control arm bushings on, so I had a local shop do it, $50, well worth it.

I also picked up a 97 factory cassette player off ebay, along with the e36 wiring harness for $50. I've soldered it in, so rather than the loose connections of the e30 I have an e36 plug harness. The plan is to plug in the iPod using a Dice adapter, but that will come later. Normally I wouldn't do stereo stuff while the car is not drivable yet, but I couldn't pass up the deal.

I also got 2 pair of Nakamich 5.25" coaxial speakers for $45 each, shipped. Again, too good of a deal to pass it up.

e36 Head Unit $35
e36 Wiring harness $15
speakers $90
pressing in bushings $50

Running total: $3625

Getting started

Here's the big job, parts all here, new front end, springs and shocks. Here's the car ready to start.

Utter stupidity

Here is a monument to my own stupidity.

I purchased a new hinge about 2 weeks ago, knowing the lower hinge pin was broken. So, I got the part, removed the pin, and put in a nice neat plastic bag for when I was ready to fix the passenger door. And put in on the windshield so it would be easy to find.

Well, a couple of days ago I decided to drive the car, came home from lunch to pick it up. And without looking drive off. Now, I've removed the passenger door, a surprisingly simple job....and no hinge pin...moron...now I've gotta order another one before I can put the door back on. Sometimes my own stupidity is just annoying....

Suspension

I was on the phone with a friend of mine this weekend, and while talking to him I realized that I didn't really have a good reason to spend the extra $250-$300 to get Koni shocks vs Bilstein Touring. Plus, if I do decide to get Koni eventually, then I will really be able to judge the difference between the two. So, I went ahead and ordered a set of H&R OE Sport Springs and Bilstein TC shocks. This is the same setup I had on my old 318is and it works well. Not as jittery as Bilstein Sports, and because the OE springs only drop the car about .5-.75", the TC shocks still work with them. This is the last of the major suspension parts needed to tear into that. So once these arrive I'll be able to take care of the biggest fix this car needs.

Cost: $470

Running total: $3435

A mistake, and redemption

Did the valve cover gasket, and did the motor mounts and transmission mounts. As expected, they were badly worn, but what I didn't expect was that both of the lower mount bolts on the motor mounts were missing, so the engine was basically only held in by gravity. This explains why the motor mounts felt so badly. But, after the valve cover gasket and the mounts, I started the car up and it ran very poorly. Couldn't even get down the street without it dying on me. It was late, and I was tired so I just parked it and decided I'd check it out later.
Well, I got the latest shipment of parts from BMW, and figured I'd take a poke at it. Turned out that the intake boot had gone from being a little torn to almost completely split in two. Most likely from rocking the motor when putting the motor mounts in to make sure the engine was centered. Fortunately I'd ordered one in the BMA shipment, so I slapped it on, turned the car over and it tan like a top, even the cold idle runs pretty well. There are a few other hoses that I'll need to take care of , but the engine is running really well now. No odd noises (from the engine), no valve noise, just runs great (well, almost great, still needs a little tuning)