WIBIMMERS

I know, I know, I know, I moved and abandoned everyone, but the car and truck both have WI plates so it kinda counts, right?
The real reason is to keep track of things, and this forum format is pretty slicks.

So, I bought another E30. Like any logical man I made sure to buy one that was thousands of miles away, and too low for any sanely priced shipping company to touch. 
Took my truck to WI to say hi to a few people, fly out to CA for work, then fly back to WI so I could load up the car on the trailer and head home with it. Nothing like a 4,000 mile round trip to grab a car!

So the real question here is; why?

This is a car that has been mentioned from time to time, a handful of you know it, but never had much presence on the internet or in person. This is the car that a friend purchased shortly after he saw me rebuilding my first E30 and thought it looked cool. I've been working with this car since day one, and know the details on all of it, so minimal surprises.
He's owned the car for around 10 years, and it has seen an M10, M10 turbo (shortly), M50, and the current setup. It has been the bastard child of many projects, but what I really wanted was the current drive-line. 

Car Details:
1984 318i
Rear euro bumper on, front in the car to be put on
full late model brake swap
houndstooth / black leather interior
Koni adjustable suspension, poly throughout the whole car for bushings
M3 steering rack

Engine Details:
S52 OBD1 Swapped
11.5:1 Pistons (bored over)
MLS Head gasket (.01" taller than stock to compensate for block and head decking) 
Shrick Cams
Bavarian CNC port and polished head
Upgraded valve springs
Solid lifters (?)
M50 Intake manifold
Riot Racing big bore throttle body
3.5" Euro MAF
24lb injectors
Turner Underdrive pulleys 
ARP hardware throughout 
Ceramic coated headers, full stainless exhaust from Mr. Asparagus's NA setup

Needless to say, the car can really get out of its own way. 
We rolled the car across a scale a year or so ago which was very similar to how it sits now, and the scale showed 2,400 lbs. Lightweight NA power is a whole different ball game from what I've known. 

The car needs plenty of clean up work as it has been "neglected" for many years, a lot of the finer details are not in a way that I appreciate. 
I'm excited to be back behind the wheel of an E30 that will actually be enjoyable to drive (the diesel noises were cool before, but the rest was strongly mediocre).

Until next time!

Since everyone else on here has white coupes I figured I'd join the crew!

I was sitting in Oregon on a job site and came across a posting for an E30 from Cali, claimed one owner vehicle, with some mediocre pictures. 
Chatted with the seller, got more pics, a video or two, and I sent him some money to hold the car for me to arrive. Two days later I show up to his place in California with a trailer, worked out a deal, and left with the least rusty E30 I've ever seen. 
I was surprised on arrival to find two spots on the exterior with clear coat gone, but only on the hood and trunk which is easy enough to work with. 

Service record of one shop its whole life, original owner on the title, and I've now become the second registered owner of it. 
Every vin tag matches, one or two door dings on the whole car, it is astounding. 

So what's the plan?
This is my long haul project car, the culmination of everything I've learned from working with E30's over the years. I am in no rush to get this completed as I want every facet of it to be exactly what I've desired. The intent is to completely remove the interior and replace it (interior is mediocre and tan) with black/grey things and custom seats that I've been working on. Driveline will be the S52 from my other E30, in a shaved and repainted engine bay. Suspension will be a hybrid of what I've got in my blue e30 and a mix of new parts. 

I promise this is (one) of the last E30's I will own...

California is always scenic, ft. E30 and Titan with lightweight clear coat mods. 

So I had to take a trip into Idaho for work and drove the 128 there. I was about to head back home and was scrolling around the map on my phone, and this caught my eye. 
In my experience google likes to route through some random shit from time to time, so why did it not make this my primary route?! Turns out to be the windiest road in Idaho.

Turns out to be excellent condition pavement, massive drop-offs on the downhill side, and a ton of fun. Made a couple laps of it!
I haven't pushed that car too hard before, and I didn't really want to find the limit of it with the consequences that were present, but man that thing really maintains traction.

suspenceful said:

1. I doubt the deer's insurance agent is going to assume 100% fault for him/her.

Looks like the deer's insurance agent is around for questioning this morning....

SteelBlue said:

Has the forum been slow the past few weeks? Almost everything has a day or more for the last reply.

It's summer man, we are all out driving our cars! 

Wait, wrong forum.

KaiserRolls said:

Turns out this speed was super accurate. 
45mph she really came alive, this wasn't too surprising as I have determined most ball joints are bad in the current axles. New axles seem to have better ball joints so that should help.

Did my first off-road adventure with it and holy crap driving manual in demanding off-road terrain is a wild time. I should be good at dancing after this!
Slipped a front wheel into a pond, whoops.

BlownRing Motorsports is now offering comprehensive compression and leakdown testing services exclusively to WIBimmers members! 

Our standard compression test includes:

Weeks of doubt about the head gasket being bad
A compression test to prove that the motor is okay
A shoulder to cry on once the compression test is complete
One complimentary forum post explaining what has happened

Get yours done before the winter build season so you can ensure to have a holiday full of "While you're in there's!"

^picture of at least one of your cylinders

Feel free to keep an eye out for vehicles that you want in WA, I purchased a vehicle in WI and would be willing to do some low cost shipping of a vehicle from WA to WI.
Gas is cheap, work is in short supply, perfect time to drag a trailer around for a few days!

I finally made it to Mecca 

I saw the only thing I needed to see, and headed out

15 holes in the roof later...

Test fitting and marking more holes

Added a wire to get them running without buttoning the whole car back up. 
I'm extremely pleased with how they turned out!

Dave, you will be getting a message from me! Thanks for the help on that, didn't know you were still lurking on this thread!

So it's been a lot of truck stuff lately, but we're back to the BMW way of life.

I enjoyed seeing Jake's car hanging around, and I am getting sick of driving a crew cab long box truck around in the Seattle area, so I was on the hunt for a new and smaller daily. 

So far the chassis feel is awesome, and it corners a lot better than the truck.... 

It's just a 128, but that seems like the move for now, reliable, good gas mileage, and overall a bit easier on the budget. Sport seats and the sport steering wheel coupled with the paddle shifters make it aight. It's got something that sounds a lot like the BMW performance exhaust on it, which sounds just fine. 

Cars our here are super awesome due to the lack of rust.

REKIII said:

Wow, aren't you all a bunch of fancy fvcks.  Too bad we all cant be as wealthy as all of you here to be high brow enough to afford High end BMW's when we are 16.

I roll hard in my high end BMW though. Wait...I think I had that backwards, I hardly roll in my "high end" BMW.

Was it even high end in 1989?!

I don't know if it's their vehicle choice as much as it is the attitude of what is now being considered the "WCEC Bro".
I don't really care what you drive or put money into, if you like working on your car that's cool. But if you are going to rant on and on about how great you and your car are and how you will race anything and beat it and how it was clearly designed as a racecar not an econobox I will get annoyed with you.

Did you ever find your turbo? In post #1 you stated that it was missing, I would like to think that the thieves returned it.

Please update!

Took what I'm assuming will be my last bike trip for the year, went up to Marquette, MI and rode with a couple non broken friends. 
Got this shot, which I find pretty neat. Trail gaps always look cool, and I had a friend ride the trail below for some context. 

straight6pwr said:

uh oh. just got home, smelled some coolant in the last mile and the temp gauge was above half. #saturdayinjeapardy

KaiserRolls said:

Ask Ben if you can borrow his temp gun

Yeah, you need to make sure that it's actually overheating and not just the cluster. Chances are it's not actually overheating. Did you check the temp with a gun yet to make sure it's overheating? Because it may be a loose nut on the cluster. Did you verify the temp yet? I would probably hit it with a temp gun to ensure that it's actually overheating.

This isn't my work, but @Jdesign was in my neck of the woods yesterday and found the illusive m5!

Looks like the new owner took to driving it instead of storing it!

This may have been the best 8 minutes of my life (usually it's only about 30 seconds...)

Daggerty said:

Isn't that what owning a car and being part of wibimmers is about though????

Fixed that for ya