So first I will introduce myself, my name is Skylar, Im 22, Im a Porshe/VW/Audi tech at BTM Motorwerks/TD Performance. My favorite BMW is the E30 M3, I currently drive a 96 GTI VR6 that is getting to the point that its not daily-able so its going to "race mode". I've been to every bimmerfest in my dads e39 540 then his e34 M5 and now his e34 Alpina BiTurbo B10.

. . .onto the car. Im picking up a 1988 Alpine White and the body is perfect! No rust under the windshield and one ding. The interior is tan and the seats are beat up but the dash and headliner are perfect. The down side is that it has 190k, so its a bit aged. The engine runs strong from the test drive. The only things that need to be fixed are the drive shaft needs replacing or rebuilding, the rear control arm bushing need to be replaced, and the shift bushings are gone. A lot of work has been done though, water pump, rear diff replaced, and the timing chain tensioner was upgraded and they said the chain was good enough to keep in 10k ago. So its cool there, the only plans to mod are strengthening performances to the engine, coilovers, EVO2 lip, EVO3 wing. Im picking up a set of gold 16x7.5/16x8 BBS RS301's off my dad tomorow.

The only questions I have are what should I look for with 190k under her belt? I heard rod bearings go bad from oil depervesion but could be avoided with a windage tray? If it does come to that can it be replaced with the oil pan off in the chassis? Also where are the best places to buy E30 parts?

I would post pics but I can post links since Im new, if someone wants to post them for me I can send the links via PM. Well thanks for reading my long introduction hahah, I will be posting a lot here with progress and questions.

Great to hear you picked up an e30 M3. 190K isn't that high, I'm past 280k hehe.

Your local enough that I hope to see it sometime at a meet.

You said your father has an e34 m5 and now a B10. is this him by any chance? :stickoutt Greg's the only guy I know with those two e34's. You weren't the one that drove the damaged 318 to bimmerfest last year where you?

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b388/paintpro21/2007%20bmwcca%20winter%20party/DSC04436Large.jpg

post some pictures.

Hey Skylar! Glad to hear you found one! Post some picts asap!

Hhah yup thats my dad' So Im the son of a major BMW buff. Hahah. So your screen name is paint pro, do you work at a paint shop? I had something planned for the m3 to be painted. But yeah I will deffinatly be going to the local meets. . .oh and yeah I drove that busted Ti last year, to sell it.

What up Matt, yeah I had this other one that was a friend of my boss's in line just yours was so tempting. I will post TONS of pics once I can, expecially with the BBS's.

nah, I'm not an automotive painter. The user name is from 8 or so years back when I joined a paintball forum. old hobby.

I'm Eddy, I sat at the same table with you and your family at the Elaphant bar, and when we went out for ribs.

I've just recently reached a point on my e30 M3 that I would consider close enough to complete. Your going to love your car, except the lack of torque around town.

We need to meet up sometime. I hope your taking it to bimmefest, we'll get a good e30 M3 caravan going down there, since a number of us bought them since last years event.

i'm new here, been looking for an e30 m3(also my favorite car) for a while,
anyway, if you don't mind me asking Skylar, how much did you get the car for?? i wanna have an idea. thanks
carlos

welcome skylar

Oh I remember yah Eddy, yeah the next BMW meet or something I will bring it out and let you know. It doesnt run well right now with the drive shaft and bushings so I have to fix those ASAP, thats what tax returns are good for. I will be definatly bringing it out to bimmerfest.

ElKurly, I picked it up for 9g's. He was asking 11 but since there were a few things needed to be done I talked him down.

Nice move!

nice!
too bad you got to scott first before i did...

so what is recommended for m3 with 190k?? what should you do, leave it stock? make sure its reliable or just rebuild with aftermarket parts??

You have to look at what you want the final product to look like. Are you building a fully preped track car, a weekend car, a daily driver, a show car? what mods do you want to do to the car.

I knew what my M3 would look like when complete, a year before I bought it.

Once you have your plan, you need to look at what it will cost to do it, and what steps can you save money on. if its a track car then getting a shell is fine. if its a show car then you don't care about extra mods you need a super clean outer body, and maybe your willing to repaint. if its a daily driver then you want a car that is comfortable on the street, with torque friendly engine mods.

I paid 10k for my 280k mile car, that came with jacked up body panels and no interior except for a recaro driver seat. but it came with a mountain of uninstalled parts, a new motor and new transmission.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b388/paintpro21/e30%20m3/Picture011Large.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b388/paintpro21/e30%20m3/DriverLarge.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b388/paintpro21/e30%20m3/parts1.jpg

Almost everything it came with, was something I was going to buy on my own. so I saved a ton of money not having to buy expensive mods. and I've sold of a few K in parts I don't need, and still have another 3-4k in mods that I can sell. so once thats done, its really like I bought the car for about 5k :D

you really have to run the numbers, and understand what everything costs.

now the car looks like this.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b388/paintpro21/2007%20bmwcca%20winter%20party/DSC04432Large.jpg

sweet! beautiful car.
i'm looking for a weekend/daily driver(maybe) car.
i'm not too worried about cosmetics, mainly the engine compartment.
I mean, if the car has more than 170k+ miles, what should i worry about first? i want the car to be reliable. should i be thinking of rebuilding the engine if it hasn't been done? or go through a preventative maintenance and replace things if the engine still runs strong??
would it be wise to replace cams, etc(aftermarket parts) on a 170k+ mi. engine?? would the engine still handle it??

if your thinking of reliable make sure you have deep pockets, maintaince can be a pain. but e30 m3s are just how can i put it, just plain worth it in the end.

sweet! beautiful car.
i'm looking for a weekend/daily driver(maybe) car.
i'm not too worried about cosmetics, mainly the engine compartment.
I mean, if the car has more than 170k+ miles, what should i worry about first? i want the car to be reliable. should i be thinking of rebuilding the engine if it hasn't been done? or go through a preventative maintenance and replace things if the engine still runs strong??
would it be wise to replace cams, etc(aftermarket parts) on a 170k+ mi. engine?? would the engine still handle it??

I would avoid any car that needs a rebuild unless your original intention was an s50 swap. a true rebuild costs a fortune on these cars. you don't need to replace cams and other things like that. get a compression test done on the motor, look at service records and take it to a shop that knows s14's. DSR in the fremont area services a number of them. so get a pre-purchase inspection.

What you need to replace really depends on whats already been done. suspension bushings might be shot. rubber hoses, fuel injectors, distributor, spark plugs/wires, all could be ageed or recently replaced.

s14.net is having some technical problems right now, but it should be in at least read-only mode right now. go browse that forum A LOT, after hours on that site searching for questions you have, you'll have a better idea of what to look for.

thanks. i've been looking at s14.net for a while now, they do have a lot of info.
thanks again
carlos

Uhm so I've already had my first big problem. . .I pull away from work today and am excited to take it for a night on the town and I heard something go out in the engine and now its missfiring and compression is leaking so I figure a hose or spark plug. Pull it back into work and sure enough the spark plug didnt like its home so it left, and took the threads with it too. Great. My boss was ready to leave so I couldnt really do anything but look at it and curse (alot), and cry cause my new toy is already to go under the knife.

My question is what is the best way to solve this? I know helicoils are strong enough for spark plugs but these are high compression engines. PLUS+ BMW just had to use a spark plug that is a rare size and pitch. I hope I could do it without taking off the head but if it comes down to it I will do what I need. ARG!

On a lighter side, the car is 100% mine now I got some cool pics before it broke my heart. Hah. Just sucks I cant post em.

damn that sucks Skylar. Yeah I know helicoils can be used for plugs, but that sucks to do it on a car like yours. after an incident like that I would want to really look into that motor, I wonder what other problems it might have in the top end and bottom end. If your going to really open the motor up anyway, and you see you need a head rebuild, then you might as well buy a new head and start with that.

god that sucks. I know it wasn't your bottom end, but I think it's time for a 2.5L build :D

Yeah. . .I guess the valves were adjusted and the chain looked good when torn apart so I know maintenance was done regularly, I just dont understand how it came it unless it was lose or over tightened recently. I might just take the head down and do a valve job unless I find a used rebuilt one for a good price. Oh well.

A 2.5 would be sweet, but the goes for 2g and parts supporting that and other stuff would be as much as a S50/S52 and we have a S52 at my shop that just needs the deck surfaces cleaned up. We'll see.

Sh*t happens.

when s14.net gets up and running again, you might find a rebuilt head on there. I thought I saw one on there back when it worked, and the sig mailing list has parts like that floating around.