New e30 318i, what should I do to it?

[bstarr3]

Bought a 1991 318i with 167k. PO had it for five years and seems like he did maintenance in the vein of 'wait until it makes a noise'. He did a good job of keeping up with things, but didn't do much in the way of preventive maintenance, e.g., no work on the timing system.

Per PO, here are the thing that have been done in the past two years: new driveline with new guibo, driveshaft, mounts, bushings, and diff (open, sadly), new shifter from a z3 with all new bushings, new struts front and rear (no performance upgrade here, just OEM), new water pump, radiator, fan, tstat, temp switch, alternator. Car has very clean black vinyl comfort interior and crack free dash.

I'm wanting a reliable dd, here. I will invest in maintenance and wear items that will keep the car running well for me, but don't really care about performance upgrades at this time, with a few exceptions. What I want to know is, what things need to be done?

Here's my list of maintenance/mods, in roughly descending order of importance:

1. replace blower motor (broken currently)
2. replace t chain tensioner
3. replace fluids/filters
4. replace sealed beams with H1/H4
5. replace odometer gears (stopped @ 164k)
6. possibly mess under intake? (total n00b)
7. one day 4.10 lsd
8. once car is sorted mechanically I'd like to source a cardinal sport interior, but that's just cosmetic and way down the list

This is where I run out of ideas. Do I need to take the valve cover off to check timing sprockets? When there should I replace valve cover gasket?

Basically at this point the engine idles quiet, runs smooth, pulls strong, and doesn't leak. The cooling system was the only thing that came on the mechanic's radar during ppi; he replaced the temp switch and flushed the system and it's fine now. Aside from the things above, what should I do to make sure this engine serves me well? Are there any other wear items that should be fixed at about this mileage?

[DesktopDave]

Welcome to the 'Club!  Sounds like you really have a good idea of where you are & where you're heading.  I've done virtually the same stuff as you have (to the same car).  I'd  avoid the tensioner upgrade personally unless you're overhauling the  entire timing chain system. Check the gears & let us know what they  look like.

The only thing I missed on your list is to check the front suspension.  The front control arm bushings (FCABs) are prone to wear, as are the outer steering joints and the P/S rack seals.  All are fairly cheap, if a PITA to install.  I'd recommend Lemfoerder (maybe Meyle), don't cheap out or you'll just be doing it all over again.

Cooling system is pretty marginal on the M42.  Keep a close eye on it.  I'm glad to see that the PO replaced the radiator and water pump.  I consider them wear items, as they don't last like the older BMW stuff.

I have no specific evidence to support this, but I suspect that loading up the idler gear with a new tensioner is asking for trouble.  We've had a few of them blow up less than a year after the M44 tensioner was installed.  It could be that this update was done too late; the jury's still out IMHO.

The H4 headlights are a great upgrade.  Cibie stopped making the CSRs, but the Hella lights are excellent as well.  Better than ellipsoids AFAIC, as they've not had 30 years to oxidize.  I've heard that AutoPal H4 lights (EBay brand) are OK as well.  Anything is better than those sealed beams.

[deansweet]

blower might be blown resistor?

[DesktopDave]

Here's some other stuff...

I'd recommend using synthetics for all the lubes.  They protect better, perform better and will even save a bit of money.  I gained about 2% better fuel mileage just due to synthetic gear oil in the diff, and synth ATF in the tranny.  There are three different Getrag 240's in the e30...they are usually labeled.  It'll be on the passenger side, hard to miss.  Mine's a yellow label, so it gets ATF.  I tried gear oil but it made shifting worse.  The ATF definitely works better.  There's a green label "special lube" version too, I believe it's a synthetic oil high pressure gear oil but available only at BMW dealers.

As far as motor oil, my M42 seems to do best with thicker oils.  I'm running Mobil1 10w40 currently but I plan on doing 20w50 next oil change.  I'll have to see what the next used oil analysis tells me before I switch for sure...I was running 0w20 but it's apparently a bit too thin for an old motor going on 300k miles.

Used diffs are only as far away as a salvage yard...any e30 or z3 diff you're likely to find is a direct fit.  I'm running a 3.73from an '87 325is.  That car was a great donor...it lent me a black leather sport interior, cruise control and power sunroof as well.

[bstarr3]

Thanks for replies.  So, are you saying that I shouldn't mess with the timing system until it starts to make noise, or that I should just plan on replacing the whole thing now?  Several threads I've read said that a new tensioner is a great idea if it hasn't been replaced lately, as it will make the chain, sprockets, and even rails last longer.  

After reading more about the mess under intake, I've decided that I'm going to go for that mod as well.  I'm planning on cleaning out my intake manifold and also cleaning and wrinkle coating the intake and also the valve cover while I'm at it.  How hard a job is cleaning the fuel injectors?  My only misgiving about the mess under intake is that the cooling system just got flushed last week, so that's sort of a wasted effort since I'll have to do the whole thing again to clean up the hoses.  

As far as the blower, my understanding is that the blown resistor will make it so the fan only blows on hi, but not on lower settings.  This one doesn't move air at all, so I'm planning on replacing both.

Thanks for the info.  I'll definitely be coming back here for more help soon.