Jesse Owens - Schwarz 323i

[Hooffenstein HD]

As some of you may know from my old thread, "The Legend of Ron Burgundrot", my last car was a pig and after being written off by a careless driver I was in the need for a new car. I wasn't ready to leave the E30 game yet though so I picked up a well maintained, 2 door, 323i from a friend of my father. The car was well looked after in terms of maintenance but it had some pretty dodgy "modifications" which I've mostly removed. There was numerous fake M Badges and stickers over the car, and it has some terrible trimmed door cards and seats which will be replaced ASAP. Despite the dodgy mods it actually come with quite a few good parts, including a "low km" german imported engine, new clutch, M tech springs etc.

Specs as of 22/11/2012:

E30 323i, 2 door, 5 speed.
M-Tech Springs
Bilstein HD
SuperPro Urethane FCAB
15x7 et29 Rial Mesh wheels. Full set, including spare wheel.
205/50/15 Kenda Komet SPT2 all round, including the spare.
Momo Prototipo Steering Wheel
ZHP Shift Knob
Top Gaiters M Stitched handbrake and shift boot.

[Hooffenstein HD]

Before:


After:





Also did this. In the box it weighed 13.8KG. There's still a bit in there that I was too lazy to get. It's probably an extra 1.5-2KG. I got sick of the heat though and stopped




Next step is to remove similar amounts of weight from the front. Probably remove the A/C since it doesn't work anyway.



Small change but I really like it.

Before:


After:




One of my transmission mounts was old and cracked. It actually felt like there was a significant amount of movement in the drivetrain because of this as it was real hard to change gears while braking.

I may have gone a little overboard, but I bought a set of Condor Speed Shop Solid UHMW Engine/Transmission mounts. They're still in transit.




Put my Momo on there too. It had a good condition M Tech 1 wheel which is now on the wifey's 323i.

[Hooffenstein HD]

I have ordered a set of Bilstein Sport B8 from the USA, once they arrive I'll be putting the H&R Race from my burgundrot car in here and swapping all this suspension into my wifey's 323i.

[Kewliest]

Boot cleaned up ok, did you just use a heat gun and turps or something?

I found that the leather hand brake lever from an e34 fits in ye old e30 and looks heaps better then the plastic stock one.

Ps nice grandpa shoes

[Hooffenstein HD]

They're some cheap boat shoes from Asos. Great for bumming around the house on hot days.

I just used one of these on the sound deadening. Pushed it under and carefully peeled off the tar. It lifted pretty easy, mostly stayed together in large pieces.

[Hooffenstein HD]

I found that the leather hand brake lever from an e34 fits in ye old e30 and looks heaps better then the plastic stock one.

Would go well with the Top Gaiters leather hand brake boot too. It's on the to do list but it's a matter of finding one at the wreckers. Not exactly an item I feel like paying "retail" on.

[Hooffenstein HD]

[Hooffenstein HD]

So, it was getting a bit hot when copping a thrashing. It wasn't too bad though. 20 minutes of 5,000RPM + and the temp would be creeping over the 3/4 mark, I'd back off for 5 minutes or so and it would be back down to around half way.

It's been getting worse though, so I decided to investigate.



I can't see where it would be contacting. Turning by hand, the remaining blades are clearing everything. My assumption is that the flex in the engine/box is not only making it harder to change gears at times but also allowing the fan to make contact somewhere. I have no idea though.

[Hooffenstein HD]

Actually, I had a better look and it has been hitting on the radiator. The engine mounts are looking pretty sad too.

[luke]

Your new car is looking very neat.

Hope those solid engine / trans mounts work out ok. I'm running standard rubber engine mounts and Noltec 'street' urethane transmission mounts to limit the movement of my M30 in my e30, and for a daily drive I'm finding they transmit too much driveline noise / vibration into the cabin. You might find a combination of the solid engine mounts and rubber trans mounts is the hot ticket.

Good luck with the fan - obviously you'll want to fix that one ASAP!

[Hooffenstein HD]

Thanks for the kind words.

I think the solid mounts will transmit a considerable amount of vibration and noise but I doubt it will be as bad as the stripped pig I was driving around before.

[MillRat]

The new engine (and especially the gearbox) mounts will be very noisy, particularly as you have stripped out the sound insulation. For some (like me) that is not a problem though.

You will need to be vigilant with them though and constantly check that they have not come loose as the urethane crushes down and imprints into the bush. This takes the tension off the nuts/bolts and they start to work loose.

[Hooffenstein HD]

The new engine (and especially the gearbox) mounts will be very noisy, particularly as you have stripped out the sound insulation. For some (like me) that is not a problem though.

You will need to be vigilant with them though and constantly check that they have not come loose as the urethane crushes down and imprints into the bush. This takes the tension off the nuts/bolts and they start to work loose.

I'm not too concerned with the noise. I won't be taking any more sound deadening out and I plan to keep the interior as complete as possible. I'm getting hounds tooth door cards and matching rear seat. Matching sports seats would be nice but it's hard to find them on my budget.

EDIT: I couldn't do it. All foam/rubber insulation from under the carpet has been removed. Most of the sound deadening too. Carpet and rear seat is going to stay though.

[YorT]

You've inspired me to do the same on my car.

[Hooffenstein HD]

Hit a damn kangaroo coming home from a spirited hills drive last night. Thankfully, I had slowed right down as I had already seen it on the side of the road. Still didn't stop the dick from jumping straight onto my car.

He came in from the side and really, it hit me as opposed to me hitting it so the damage is very minimal. There's a decent sized dent on the front, right guard and some claw scratches on the bonnet. The windscreen copped the worst of the impact, so I'm pretty happy that it survived and the wifey and I weren't repeatedly kicked in the face. Not sure what happened to the Kangaroo after it staggered off into the distance. Hopefully it was okay.