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The One That Didn't Get Away [100K Mile E30 325is]


SteelBlue

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@gilber33 Yeah, definitely don’t look nearly as pronounced in this pictures. Think I’ll go with the red and black ones.

Have had a stumble or bogging if I quickly blip the throttle in neutral and sometimes when I’m blipping to rev match on a down shift. Figured I’d clean the throttle body and IAC. They weren’t really dirty or gummed up enough to make a difference in my estimation, but nice to have it done regardless. Throttle cable had a fair amount of slack in it. Adjusted it, response feels much better and tighter. Still get a little stumble or bog on a quick tap of the throttle, but it’s better. 
 

Added a coat of black paint to the cowl vents as they were the last bit of trim that was faded.

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Wanted to do an engine bay detail as it was pretty grimey and the rest of the car has been fairly sorted.

 Materials: 

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Wanted to use Purple Power but they didn’t have it, bought whatever was the strongest. Spray bottle for mixing cleaner. Lug nut brush, wanted something small with a half way been fine and coarse bristles, this worked well. Leaf blower for drying. Not pictured, full can of Gunk engine degreaser.

Put a tarp down to avoid staining my parents driveway.

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Before:

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I bagged and taped a couple of electrical areas. I was not using a pressure washer, so this was mostly just a peace of mind thing.

Sprayed full bottle of degreaser and let sit for 10 minutes and rinsed the bay. Used a combination of the spray cleaner and the brush then to do a more thorough cleaning.

Blow dry off.

After:

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Is it perfect? No. Am I satisfied? Yes.

Currently air drying with the hood open before starting. Car is going to need a wash to get the grime that splashed off during cleaning.

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4 hours ago, GunMetalGrey said:

The last one you did looked stellar, I look forward to the same result on this one. 

Should be doing it rather soon, just ordered a replacement VCG among some other smaller maintenance bits.

One of them being a clutch for my fan. Wether it be my engine bay cleaning(which seems unlikely), or just failing, the fan now spins constantly instead of engaging and disengaging based on engine temp. Sounds like a Jeep or something.

On another note, was going through some of the invoices that Auto Clinic provided me from the previous owner. To my surprise, 5 years ago they had the cluster pulled and the speedo sent for a rebuild. Guessing this might be why my odometer is still working.

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As you can see, this car has not been driven much in the past couple of years. This invoice was dated 6/6/2014. Mileage was 98,453 then, and just about 6 years later, mileage is 106,XXX. Which I've probably added close to 1,000 at this point.

There was also an invoice from September of 2013 for a timing belt kit replacement. Mileage was only a couple hundred less than the 98,452. If I remember correctly, timing belts are 50,000 mile or 5 year consumable? With this little of driving over that period of time, should I be too concerned about it? It was 7 years ago, but the amount of miles seems pretty negligible. I would replace with the Gates Racing if need be.

 

 

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25 minutes ago, P_Roloff said:

I second that. It’s not worth the risk of blowing the motor if it lets go. Also, might want to get to that fan clutch before it grenades, I’ve seen some gnarly pictures of ones where the fan let go, not pretty. 

I’ve already purchased, should be here in a couple of days.

I’ll keep that in mind for the timing belt.

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Some pictures from last night. Not completely satisfied with these, need to do some more playing around with night shooting, car angle, camera angle, etc. Going to be doing a lot more experimenting in this location though. Ton of different lighting levels and background options to work with, just didn't have a ton of time.

This lighting really tells all in terms of your paint quality. This thing needs a paint correction badly.

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New wheels. E39/E38 Style 5's. 16x8, 23ET. Will be running 4x100 to 5x120 42 Draft Designs adapters. Wheels will be wrapped in 205/45/16 Kuhmo Ecsta PS31.

Tires on these are in almost new condition, so will have those dismounted and will sell them. Should be close to breaking even on what I paid for the wheels and tires. 

Old wheels will be posted for sale shortly. Took them off the car and put the stock wheels back. I kind of dig this look.

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When my buddy who runs a wrap business has space in his schedule, I'm going to have him wrap the window trim black. Think it will really change the look of the car. And then can always go back to the chrome if I can my mind.

My fan issue was actually not with my clutch fan. Turns out the resistor(I assume)is "stuck" open on my auxiliary fan, so it is just always running. Not nearly as concerning, but would still like to fix the issue. I've seen there's something like changing a relay or fuse of the fog-lights to the one for the fan and that by passes? I don't know, I'll likely just get a new resistor.

Got my small maintenance parts package as well. New VCG, rocker shaft cover plug, crankcase breather hose, air filter, spark plugs, and a clutch for the fan. Will start this probably throughout the week.

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16 minutes ago, suspenceful said:

I must be a n00b because those stock wheels look just like the Style 5's you bought, lol.

They’re pretty much exactly the same except for the center waffles. These have the hex, other wheels have more of a flush center. Also the dimensions of the wheels.

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