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That is a great find! I love the purple. Retro MTB paint jobs are the best. Ive been playing with bikes a lot lately. I finally built myself a 20" BMX after not having one since my early teens. Its a ton of fun on the pump tracks in 'Tosa and Brown Deer.

Found a 1993 Stumpjumper M2 on the curb this past fall. Retail on this thing was $1300 at the time, which is mind boggling. Was set up with 1.25" tires, bike computer, stupid åĕRő handlebars, but otherwise complete and original. I cleaned off the 20 years worth of dust, change a bunch of stuff and I've been using it as my main bike for a couple months now. I feel a little guilty about it, because it's actually in really nice shape, and there's probably someone out there that has a huge boner to buy a rare bike they had, or wanted, when they were a teenager, but free is free.

I will add pics later, but progress is being made! (famous last words) E30 has the linkage modified, rack installed, pump rebuilt, and is waiting on one section of 14mm ID power steering hose to get fully bolted together. Gotta bend the high pressure line to fit it as well, hoping I can get it right the first time without kinking. After that, it gets bolted together and test driven. Fingers crossed. I also decided to put a new ATE clutch slave in with the new line since a) it already has to come out, b) the brand i bought apparently has a habit of stranding folks within a few thousand miles, c) ATE is the OEM manufacturer, and d) mine went to the floor once last year randomly and never did it again. I'll throw the old one in a ziploc in the trunk just in case though. For the line, I went to Pegasus and bought a premade -4an braided stainless brake/clutch hose. I got the 21" version with one end straight and one end at 90 degrees. I also grabbed a spare 24" hose section in case the 21" isn't long enough (I measured with a piece of baling wire, it was a ROUGH estimate) and a s a spare. Total cost for both hoses and the two brake fittings needed to go from AN to M10 bubble flare was less than the Chasebays premade part. We'll see how it is to install but it seems to be a good alternative if you want to ditch the stock multi-piece clutch hydraulic setup and spend closer to $40. I also took the time to solder and marine heatshrink the C191 connector wires. When the engine someday comes back out of the car, I will properly install a waterproof connector but for now it's permanent and i trust those more than butt splices on those itty bitty wires. I can't foresee a situation where I'd need the intake off without the head also coming off, at which point the engine is getting yanked anyways. Snagged some headlights from @The Full Banana earlier this year, and found that the lenses were already cut off of them. Going to heat and pry the busted lens out of my low beam and silicone the freshie in for now, and source a low beam U.S. ellipsoid housing/lens (driver's side, if anyone has one) to put in the other set and restore this summer when I have more time. Getting closer! Can't wait to get some shakedown miles in, the deadline for the vintage is creeping up fast.

Been slacking on driving and working on this. I've tossed around the idea of selling but don't think I can do it - it's too competent for the money, I have no idea what I would get to replace it short of a E9X M3, and i neither want to spend the money on that nor need another summer only car. Anywho, some maintenance! 149,000ish/January 2026 - new front struts, along with every associated wear item (bump stops, strut mounts, washers, dust boots, hardware) in the strut assembly. New top hats too cause they're cheap. Not sure if i put it in the last post, but I threw in some new Meyle HD front sway links last year too, so all the front suspension is brand new save the springs themselves and the tie rods, which feel fine. 150,074/This week: Oil change, LM Special Tech 5W-30 and a Mann filter. SO easy to do on these cars, I wish my F250 had a filter insert. So much less mess. I held off on driving this car this winter until late January to keep salt off (I needed to take it to get an emissions test to renew the registration), and I think in addition to some strategic fluid film this summer, I will likely park it next winter fully unless the truck breaks. Not worth smashing the front bumper on an ice chunk or risking some yahoo sliding through an intersection into it, plus salt=gross.

Spotted this one a 2nd time in the past week or two; this time at west side woodmans.

I had some timing cover leaks that I had to fix. Brakes are done. I used stainless hard lines which do not seal as well at the fittings as NiCopp lines. I had couple small leaks. A bit more torque at the fittings fixed the issue. Clutch hydraulic lines are done and it looks like clutch works ok. I put driveshaft, diff and axles in. Tightened whole front suspension minus tie rods. I still need to shorten stock e36 tie rods for this setup to work. I have a z4 manual rack that I will put in I just need to figure out the splines. I hope they are the same as e36 rack so I could reuse my Woodward u-joints. Valve cover lost its beautiful blue color for the more modest wrinkle black The stupid intake manifold flange was warped. And my shitty welds were full of pinholes. No wonders that I could not set the idle below 1.2k rpm. 2 hours later and the flange started too look flat again I spent whole evening chasing pinholes. I think I got them all. I welded new downpipe and rest of the exhaust. Its a 3" going into borla XR-1 muffler to Vibrant super quiet resonator and side exits on the driver side. I still need to weld a beauty ring for the side exit. I got a 4" stainless pipe for this.

It’s alive. Priming oil pump was a pain. Had to use sprayer bottle to pump some oil thru the galleries to get the pump going. Its loud I need to fab up down pipe and exhaust. Zf 320 was sitting dry for couple years and now have detent issues. I hope some atf and heat will loosen things up. Redid the oil drain with the flex I painted some brackets and added intake manifold brace. I also finished steering shaft for the e36 PS rack. But in the meantime i got my Z4 manual rack and will have to shorten that shaft a bit, or make a new one. The splined bits are from Woodward and are fairly cheap so might as well make a new shaft. I reused the timing guides that came with the motor. I was putting the motor together 3-4 years ago and stupid me instead of changing the guides i said fockit. So one of the guides, the lower horseshoe one is cracked. So i replaced this guide and I am still fighting timing case covers. They just did not want to seal. Stock metal gasket and RTV didn't do much. I used copper spray this time and a set of new gaskets. I cleaned up some interior wiring and tuned idle a bit, I mean recalibrated TPS. It was idling at modest 3700rpm before adjustment I also reassembled rear hubs and put the calipers and new rear disks. I tried laminating carbon for the first time. Overall it was not that bad (i guess we will se results tomorrow once it cures. Stretching carbon fabric around corners is a bit tricky and corners came out kinda meh. I will try again tomorrow to see if i can make it better. I used Epon 828 epoxy resin and epikure 3200 hardener from Westlake. Also used 3m 77 spray adhesive to hold fabric in place. I did 2 layers of "amazon special" carbon fabric (3k twill weave) covered it with peel ply layer and breather and used storage vacuum bag. Mold was prepped with 5 coats of release wax and 3 coats of PVA. I mounted brake and clutch reservoirs. It is incredibly tight but it works. Engine an transmission has poly mounts and there is barely any movement so I should be fine Temporary exhaust I needed to resurface intake manifold flange. Flange had a high spot by cylinder #2 and was not sealing and vacuum leaked like crazy. A bit of a sand paper, new gasket and my all time favorite copper spray and its fixed. I got my ADU display. It integrated with MaxxEcu over can bus very well. I am waiting on some bolts for brake caliper carriers, some m10 brake line fittings and v-band flanges to fab the downpipe and the rest of the exhaust.

Nice progress!

Isnt that why we are all doing BMW things?

Also bought an N54 intake manifold and plan to retrofit that when the garage is warm enough (too poor for a heater). Choosing this route over the 330 “3 stage” intake swap to avoid dealing with pesky DISA valves - the power gains are pretty similar: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1902505 I understand modifying an N52 is relatively pointless, but I’m doing it for the sheer sport of it.

Found an Armaspeed carbon intake + snorkel for sale. I wanted a Gruppe M, but they’re too hard to find for the N52. Hoping the sound signature is similar! Haven’t tested the sound yet, but fit is okay at best. It’s marketed as a 325i intake, which I thought would be identical. It seems too tall and sat slightly proud. Relocating a power steering line got it good enough to close the hood. Will be keeping my eye out for a Gruppe M in the future.

I decided to go with ADU5 digital display in the middle and will use 80mm analog tach and speed. I started making some molds to build CF cluster bezel. I will receive my ADU in two weeks. I am trying to make the car drivable and somewhat reliable so I can take it to Vintage. The goal is to have it on the road first week of March and shake it down and fix whatever falls apart. I finished engine harness and tested all circuits. Bought new wally world AGM battery and amazon special battery tray. [/url][ I got a nice deal on ID 1050x injectors. I was a bit disappointed with fitment and the fact that I will loose beautiful stock m42 injector harness box/cover. But I could not find ev6 sized injector that would flow 1000 or more cc's. [/img][/url] I finished all oil lines and coolant lines. I used stainless hardlines for turbo coolant and turbo oil feed. Radiator hoses are generic amazon silicone 90's joint with stainless tube. Cheapo bead roller struggled a bit with stainless tube but it got the job done. I finished welding exhaust manifold Added some vacuum ports to the intake. Don't mind the welds I forgot what to do when welding a massive heatsink of aluminum could not get the welder dialed. 160 amps was to low. 200 amps was destroying the tungsten and it would weld like crap. It is sealed and will be covered and not visible Need to redo the turbo drain. It will most likely crack when the manifold expands due to heat. I will add flex section closer to the oil pan. To do list. 1. Start the motor and if it doesn't explode immediately bring it to temp and fix leaks if any. 2. Fab up Turbo to IC pipe. 3. Fab up downpipe and rest of the exhaust. 4. Fab up clutch hydraulic lines 5. Mount brake fluid reservoirs 6. Assembly all brakes. Buy braided steel brake lines.

Anyone going this year? I went last year and had a ball, anyone who’s anyone should consider attending! https://www.atthevintage.com Beyond the mind meltingly cool cars (S38 swapped E9, anyone?), it’s a fantastic group of degenerates that all love this old iron and want to keep them on the road. I met so many people with wonderful stories to tell, from a woman who took Euro delivery of her ‘76 2002 and still owns it, to teenagers buying their first projects, and everything in between. I’ve been less active with cars the last few years but this brought it back fast. Like the sticker says, do it for the kink.

Hey all - I have some random stuff I figured I’d list in case anyone needed it before it got tossed. EDIT: HUSCO is sold! Everything else I still have. Probably going to toss the auto trans this spring when I clean all the extra shit out of the storage unit. 1) Auto trans for a M20. Shifted fine, has around 204k on it. Fluid looked good. I probably have most of the linkages and stuff for it laying around still? Pulled to manual swap. $free.99 2) Factory catback. Off brand, pretty sure it’s a Bosal? Small rust hole, otherwise fine. Perfect to use for the front section pipes, gut it, or patch the small hole and replace your even rustier crapcan exhaust. $40? 3) Standard 4-spoke steering wheel. In solid shape, I couldn’t bring myself to throw it without checking here first. Just dirty I believe, no major dings or tears/wear. 4) E30 Husco armrest. Top vinyl is bad but new covers are available for like $120 on eBay. Metal all looks good. $100obo for the WIBimmers folks?

Tossing these out there for the crew - I have a set of 15” IX weaves that need some love but are complete. All caps are present and would be excellent wheels with a repaint. I initially was going to refinish but decided I’d rather sell and fund a 5 lug swap so I can go to larger brakes and run my M System turbines instead. Asking $450 OBO Pics: will be added tomorrow - forgot to take some. Tires still on, paint peeling, yadda yadda

I vote either full analog with a tiny digital, or go full bore on digital and make it fit nicely and look as sleek as you can. A hybrid approach I think would kinda clash? Whoo progress! This thing is gonna rip!

I thought that logo and the hofmeister link sticker were two of my favorite gems of the trip - I kinda want one of the stickers for my tool box And nothing exciting haha! Unless…. No, I mostly want the room to install a dedicated battery cutoff with a nice mount plate and maybe a heat shield. I keep nuking batteries in the fall when I forgot to disconnect the battery; there’s a parasitic draw somewhere and I’ve never worked that hard to find it. I hoped the new radio would do it but no dice. This is the battery switch I plan to use: It’s a marine rated switch and we use them on all our ski team boats; some have had them installed for 15 years in what I would call a pretty brutal environment (vibration, heat, water, cold) with zero issues. This car used to have one of the screw type disconnects on the terminal and it sucked. I’m envisioning doing a flush mount in a bracket similar to this, mounted right in front of the strut tower so I can reuse the factory ground location. I’ll have custom cables made (and probably put them in some sort of cable hider, maybe something printed?) so it all works and looks fairly OEM.

What other things??? That is so cool

I never posted photos from the Vintage this year; the photo dump is at the end. Such a fun event that I’m going back this year! I put a lot of miles on it overall last season, driving it up until late November before finally putting it away. Had a minor issue with a hanging e brake halfway through the summer but beyond that it ran and worked great! I ended the year at 212,283 miles on the odometer, so over 7000 miles? Pretty proud of that. Took it up to Hayward in June, the Vintage in May, and all over the state after that. The z3 shifter made a world of difference, and I love the Stromung catback - it’s a little droney at neighborhood speeds but it sounds so good when wrung out that I don’t care. Minimal to no drone on the highway is way more important to me, and I can’t hear any over the wind noise! Winter projects: - Put in rebuilt alternator. Had it done at MJ Auto Electric in Butler and they did a great job, it looks excellent. - E46 rack swap (AAE 3310N). Currently in progress, I’m working on getting the steering coupler shaft thingy out now and fighting the upper splined joint hard. Any tips are welcome, it’s stuck fast. - Rebuilt PS pump, I’m swapping in a ZF to replace the Vickers that it had in there. Luckily got a ZF with all the brackets so it’s a direct swap - Replace all PS lines and the reservoir, goes hand in had with the rack swap. - Address a small coolant leak coming either from the looped throttle body heater hoses or from the thermostat gasket itself. - Correctly repair the C191 injector harness; I admittedly kludged it together to get it working last time and need to go back and fix it correctly with good heat shrink and crimp connectors. - If I can find good used speakers (or if anyone has recommendations), replace the blown rear speakers. - Replace the literally worn through seatbelt buckle. Old car problems! - Valve adjustment - New oil dipstick o-ring, the tube is dirty and im assuming the crankcase pressure is just enough to blow oily air past that o ring. - Replace the tee fitting for the headlight washers; it’s never worked and it’s annoying. Might put in a smaller fluid bottle to give more room for other things - Replace the cracked drivers side low beam; I scored a full set of ellipsoids from an old member here a month ago and I’ll probably refurb using the best lenses from both and new adjusters. MY EYES!!!! - Realign the muffler (it sits slightly twisted currently) and smoke test both the intake and exhaust to look for leaks. I’m almost positive I have some leaks in the cat section, but honestly with wanting to go to a header + universal cats at some point soon I’ll probably just use exhaust tape or JB weld to patch and send it for now if/when I find leaks. It isn’t winning any concours awards anyways. Anywho, here’s the trip pics! A sweet print they gave out at the CCA museum! Skidplate hit I took on Shenandoah from a fat ass rock. The HIKfab plate saved my trip and maybe me - oil on the tires where I hit it might’ve sent me off a cliff. Obligatory Buc-EE’s stop. Clean bathrooms, but man, sensory overload. You can pry kwik trip from my cold dead hands. Tail of the Dragon! Some company for dinner at a German restaurant in Hendersonville! As a Wisconsinite, I can genuinely say that their food was pretty top tier and on par with the best bratwurst up here. One of my favorite magazine articles ever was Sam Smith’s piece on the alpina 2002 at Laguna Seca. Seeing that car in the flesh was incredible. My favorite feature was the metal strips riveted over the back window to keep it from flying out at speed! I have never seen so many Alpinas in my life. Between the 15 or so inside and the 25ish outside, it has to be one of the largest gatherings ever in North America. This guy won sticker of the week in my book! Japanese market LHD e36 M3! Group drive on Thursday! Maybe 150 cars? We caused a huge traffic jam on the way out of town, sorry not sorry. I saw at least one overheat 😂 Mt Pisgah - one of the best drives of the trip. I want to run it again this year with the quick rack - the factory one was definitely a hindrance. A phenomenal view, finally. I spent most of my time in the mountains in the rain and fog, even getting caught in a flash flood warning in Shenandoah. The top was far closer to “water resistant” than “waterproof” Leaky roofs call for desperate measures Two days before the trip, I smoked an absolute hoss of a raccoon on I94 and narrowly avoided taking out my oil cooler. I ran like this most of the way down, picked up a new lower valance in Chicago on my way by, and swapped it once I got to NC.

Very cool! I don't remember seeing that in the accessory catalog.

Little winter storage update, I found a pretty rare part I had to buy. These things have been NLA for like a decade and rarely pop up, because honestly who the hell would buy an OEM carbon brace for a 328i. Engine bay is filthy I know

Would be awesome to keep analog gauges, but have some sort of P3 digital vent gauge that is subtle/matches the BMW amber color. Wonder if you could hack up an OEM vent to fit one of these https://p3.io/

Only if it's a set of 3

Update once every 3 years I am committed( at least for now ) to get that thing on the road. Turbo manifold is done. Just need to finish welding the wastegate take off. I am still waiting for 3" stainless for the downpipe and exhaust and will finish the wastegate and manifold once I get it. Surprisingly my old downpipe from m10 fits but upside down :P. It's been a while when I left off the engine wiring harness. I restarted the process couple days ago. I took me a while to go thru my documentation to figure out what goes where. I just have to terminate the harness with two circular connectors and should be good to go. I also started working on coolant hoses. I got the heater core connection figured out. Turbo coolant hoses are also planned. I have bunch of stainless tube to hardline the turbo coolant and oil lines. Now the question: Dash/gauges? 1. Do I do digital dash 2. Digital Dash with analog tach 3. All analog with small 2-3" screen to display can bus data from ECU. i.e. EGT's, Timing, boost, oil T, oil P Did a little rendering. I looks kinda meh but gives you some idea.

Thanks. Already have the posting update set on FBM. Not a surprise that more common listings for the e46 xi models show up for Minnesota and Michigan There have been a few for WI though more often for full cars in the $1.5 to $3k range. Working on this thing I can see why, everything up front is much harder to deal with than the RWD models. LKQ in MKE allows yard access ($3 entry fee) and much to my surprise in November they did get a more recent addition of a 2004 330xi that I managed to get to a few days after it showed up. I picked up the driver's fender and lower fender liner, as well as a driver's side front door. Passenger side on that car had taken the hit, suspension was stock/blown, and driveline bits went early. Prices are not too bad, and you can waive the 90-day return guarantee add-on fee and, in some cases, return a "core" which drops the parts cost further.