1988 BMW E30 - NOW ON EBAY!

I'm Adam, (everybody calls me Barton)

26, from west london and work doing electricity transmissions

just bought a 1988 BMW E30

so here's a little look at what i've owned, so you can understand a little more about me...

my pride and joy (and the car I learnt to drive in) - have spent all the time since making the car better and better



my daily of 3 years until I sold it to fund a bmw



the cortina I owned for a few weeks


and my current full restoration project



and now, the most recent project... the e30

so far:

couple of quick pics on the phone of the 320i







picked up a 2.5

plan is to fit it next weekend

the engine is/was filthy and had quite a few leaks (oil over absolutely everything), so i've ordered a complete gasket set and some head bolts to give it a mini freshen up

whilst i'm waiting for the bits, I made a start cleaning some parts

inlet side of engine:


some smaller parts:



took off and cleaned the t/b and oil fiter bracket

removed the exhaust manifold

started to clean up the exhaust side of the engine

sooooo much oil. don't really know where its all come from

thans for the comments guys

here's some more progress on the e30
Cleaned up the inlet manifold, fitted with a new fuel pressure reg and 6 cleaned and tested injectors, new gaskets, and a properly cleaned t/b and icv



Cleaned the insides of the airbox and maf unit, new gasket fitted (new filter to go in)


front of block stripped, revealed the cam seal letting oil out

de-greased (cam seal has now been removed, awaiting new seal when rebuilt tomorrow, half moon seals have been re-sealed with hylomar)


rear of head also seems to be leaking, i've re-sealed the half moons



Head removed from block, for new headgasket to be fitted, rocker cover gasket was also leaking so this will be replaced


collected a few bits for the rebuild / swap incl z3 short shift conversion


head has cleaned up like new, so with the valve reground should be mint

i've done a bit more whilst steve's got the head

cleaned the loom


bolted a few bits back onto the block



painted the rocker cover


then rubbed back the raised bit


this is the stage we got to today, big thanks to steve for sorting the head





todays update

we finished assembling the engine, fitted new timing belt and tensioner, waterpump, temp senders, adjusted valve clearances etc.

plenty of seized bolts etc, and just generally taking the time to tidy the engine up as it was going back together slowed progress. that and the fact that when we got the engine out, we realised the clutch had seen better days, but couldn't get a replacement, being 3pm on a sunday

so until next weekend i'm left with this:


and this



over the week, i'll give the engine bay a tidy up (try and sort the leaky PAS reservoir and hoses), clean the gearbox, fit the Z3 short-shift and new gear linkage bushes, and get the final few hoses on the engine

bought and fitted a new clutch

took the rest of the gear linkage out to replace all the bushes, and fit the z3 shifter

cleaned up gearbox, fitted new mounts


fitted a new steering guibo, has taken a lot of play out of the column


gave they bay a quick clean


have also fitted a new guibo to the back of the gearbox, and re-attached the slector rod with new joints, and fitted the z3 shifter into the car with all new bushes

tonight I removed the propshaft centre bearing (eventually) and am awaiting a replacement

engine in


bonnet on


got a bit of a random oil leak coming from somewhere I cant see, could be the cam seal, which was replaced, if it stays like it is (minor leak) i'll leave it for the time being

if it gets worse, i'll have to strip a few bits out to have a look and maybe re-seal it