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E21 323i - The Bride Of Luger

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E21meister View Drop Down
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    Posted: 30 Sep 2010 at 10:45pm


Saw the car on an eBay ad and unfortunately, it got a lot of bad press on an E21 forum as the guy had bought it a week previous and had put it up for sale with the rider that it needed servicing.
Well, I had a hunch it was a decent car despite all of the bullsh*ttery given off by the seller, so I drove down to Worthing. Story goes the guy is an Alfasud nut (he has a tii with a 1.7 lump I'd love to own), he bought the E21 partially on a whim and at his Father's recommendation. Unfortunately he didn't like it and needed funds fast to buy another 'Sud he'd seen on the 'bay, hence the rapid slashing of the price. After two-and-a-bit hours of poking, prodding and looking for the usual E21 issues, I bought it. In fairness to the guy, he made all of the classic mistakes when listing it which contrived to make the car more moody looking than a Moody Blues reunion tour.

Problems? theres - well not much actually. It had done just over 128,000 miles so a few things are a little 'baggy', but it has a sheaf of BMW dealer receipts and nearly all of the MOTs, including head gasket work and new discs about ten years ago. The cars only done about 2000 miles in the last 7 years, so a bit of fettling is required, y'know, servcing, timing belt etc. This car will be kept completely standard as the Luger will be the 'mad' car when it's finished and I did primarily buy this to get my E21 'fix' in the meantime.

Leather interior (with Recaros) and genuine Alpina steering wheel & gear knob (bought in the late 90's according to the dealer receipt). Niiiice.




Now it all goes a bit shonky...
An Alpina fusebox - for those high-performance B8, B10 and B16 amp fuses!



An Alpina ashtray - no doubt to stub out your Alpina cigarettes, of course lit by an Alpina lighter. Mind you, when I cleaned out the ashtrays I found half a zoot  Eondered why the car smelt a bit funky. The joys of Morroccan Old Holborn, eh?



Now we're just getting silly.




Then there's the audio install, I reckon it dates back to the early 90's. Old-school or what? (and not all in a good way either) Note the subtle use of household flex for the power cable, and the small colony of scotchlocks round the back of the centre console. And the non-working rev counter. And a decent Kenlowe fan that stays on when you put the fuse in. Needless to say it's all getting re-done. Along with a couple of the MOTs being done in Streatham (and the other 'stuff'...), I've got this image of Denzil from Only Fools & Horses cruising round in it back in the day.




And yes your eyes don't deceive you, that is a carpeted boot. Proper job too, with the backing and vinyl edging. This car must have been garaged most of it's life as the boot and boot lip are rust-free behind the panels.



Since I've bought the car, it has had something near a re-commissioning (well the car's only done 2000 miles since 2003) as I wanted to tackle a litany of niggling faults, so that she'll be completely reliable as a daily driver.
A re-commissioning you say? Well how about:
New plugs, timing belt, tensioner, water pump, oil, oil filter, air filter, PAS belt, alternator belt, ballast resistor for the Bosch radiator fan, new injectors from my parts pile (a mate of mine used to work for Bosch so got stuff at cost - we filled our boots  :D).
Rebuilding a warm-up regulator for the K-Jet as the idle speed is erratic.
Stripping and repainting the pulleys, various brackets and crank balancer, as they were all rusty.
Degreasing the whole engine bay - 28 years worth of caked-on grease get tedious after a while.
Repairing a crack in the sump that meant evvvvvvery last drop of oil had to be drained before I could make with the chemical weld. And various little wiring bodges that had to be ironed out. Did anyone that owned this car previously ever hear of solder?
That said, I found out it's had new wheel hub bearings and exchange  front brake calipers, so the car's had new bits on it recently.
Now it's getting somewhere near my standard.

I've done over 3000 miles since I bought the car back in April and it hasn't let me down. Been some near misses though.For example, I racked up close to 300 miles in one weekend in June as I was helping my mate with his engine swap (no pics at his request) in his E36 'M3' Compact back in June, so had to drive up to Wickham. I'd not done that much mileage in it and as I'd just serviced it, so thought I'd rack up the miles for a while in it.
It repays me by conking out. In the middle lane of Euston Road, opposite Euston station. Grrreat, picked your spot well...   I pushed it into a nearby street and go through the usual drill under bonnet to try & locate the problem; conclude that I can't get it started with the tools I have and go into the reception of the University College London building I've parked outside to get pen & paper to make up a sign to keep the warden at bay. The bloke at the reception desk goes:
- "That's an E21 isn't it?" (he can see it from his desk on CCTV)
- "Er yeah."
- "I used to have one of those."
Turns out he's a BMW nut and has owned several, including an E30 M3 and an E24 635csi. After chatting for about half an hour, I go back outside and have one more look under the bonnet before the breakdown lorry comes. For all of the cranking over, there's no smell of fuel. Notice the fuse for the fuel pump isn't sitting in it's holder properly.
SORTED!

Saturday: We went to Enfield Pageant to get various bits & bobs for his car; somehow subconsciously I've manage to find the only other E21 at the whole show, an X-reg Kasmir Gold 323i. Bloody wish my camera phone battery hadn't conked out.

Sunday: Crystal Palace Hillclimb.



Check out my other post on this and this excellent Flickr album (not mine):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/retroscenemag/sets/72157624166866810/?page=8

I've also taken it to a few other shows this year:

Knebworth Classic Car Show:



Classics On The Common:



Bromley Pageant:




The 'Drive-it-day' to Munich Legends:




It was great seeing my friend Gary's' car in the metal; it was like seeing a ghost (I had a Henna car with 15" RAs on)!

I've even taken it as far as the BMWCC gig at Gaydon and down to The Brighton Speed Trials. Just getting it ready for winter where it might have to venture out of the garage on occasion if my daily driver Rover isn't back on the road.

To Be Continued...




Edited by E21meister - 30 Sep 2010 at 10:54pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote E21meister Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Oct 2010 at 10:13pm
Time for an update:
Lots of little jobs to do on The Bride, a few of them getting ticked off. The exhaust downpipes had started to rattling like a bitch, so thought it would be a simple job to tighten the bracket that comes off the gearbox. Only I'd completely forgotten it didn't have one. Well, doh. Luckily I found one on The Bay Of E for a cheap price, some etch primer, Hammerite and new nuts & bolts later:



And fitted. Well not the gearbox bracket, I couldn't get it past the crossmember bush. Job done. Now I've got to fix the blow I can hear now the rattle's gone.



Right now the car's my daily driver until I finish my Rover. Including hauling wood around to make a flower bed. Good for traction, would have been a bitch for anyone rear-ending me. Hopefully it will be in hibernation before the Winter sets in.



Recognise these wheels? They're Mark's old Fondmetal cross-spokes (hey, my wheels have been featured in Retro Cars and PPC! :D ) with a good set of Toyo Proxes, I'll put them on when the spring comes, still deliberating over whether to paint the centres gold.



It isn't all roses, alas: the chemical weld repair I did to the sump I while back decided to fall out right outside my garage after driving back from my workshop on Sunday, delightfully depositing the contents of the sump on the floor. If I can't get a steel one from someone, I'll have to faff taking it off my spare M20B23 lump and even then it's gonna be a ballache changing it over.



Edited by E21meister - 11 Oct 2010 at 10:14pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Brown Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Oct 2010 at 11:36pm
Get the solvol autosol on those rims and they'll shine a treat. Rim wax helps keep them that way too!  I think the gold centres could work well and would make a change from black.
2002
e30 M3 2.3

wanted - early e21 316

"e" numbers make me giddy
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote E21meister Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Oct 2010 at 12:38am
An update about the sump spill; last Saturday I refilled the now-empty engine with fresh oil so that I could drive it a ¼ mile (not the Santa Pod kind) down the road to my local garage so that they could fit the sump I reluctantly bought and refurbished from Fritzl’s bits. Irony was I could have got a cheaper one if I’d waited but hindsight and all that, but at least I’m reminded why I don’t buy anything off them…
Anyway, I started the car and heard a sound like the bottom end was knock-knock-knocking on heaven’s door.

Angry

The engine must have been starved of oil long enough to knock out a big-end bearing. B#llocks. Drove it down there and left it with them, as I needed to get the new sump back from my workshop. I resigned myself to the fact I would have to pull my spare B23 lump out and build up a short engine.
This is where it gets a bit weird. Picked up the car on Monday (not worth shelling out bucks to fit a sump to a knackered engine, right?) refilled the engine with the oil that had dripped right through to the drip tray, started the engine and –
No knock. At all. Took the car for a short drive (floored it to 4000rpm, took off at a low speed in a high gear), no sign of the knock. I have a theory that the oil pump had some kind of airlock (as the oil light was on en route to the garage on the Saturday) or a piece of debris blocked the pickup so possibly the gears in the pump were running without oil, hence the clattering sound. I’m ordering a new pump along with a set of big-end bearings for piece of mind. And I’m gonna build up the spare engine anyway, I need to brush up my engine building skills in preparation for the day I get down to building my dream 3.0 M20 engine…
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Brown Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Oct 2010 at 10:28pm
If your going to pay out for a 3 litre you might as well go the whole hog and build a 3.1.
2002
e30 M3 2.3

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"e" numbers make me giddy
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote E21meister Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2010 at 10:56pm
Ah, but with a 3.0 you're using off the shelf bits - S52 or M54 crank, 325i pistons and 320 conrods. With a 3.1 you'd have to buy custom pistons - not really worth it for an extra 100cc.
The research continues...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cabrio Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Oct 2010 at 5:49pm
Oh you E21 boys always looking to save money LOL
E30 Register joint coordinator - Competition Secretary - Contact name Neil for PM and Email - cabrio_e30@yahoo.co.uk - be aware addicted to E numbers
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