Five Star

I catch up on sleep I miss out on. That or far too much uni work..

Is it hard to choose a song? With a good HU ipods are amazing. And don't settle for anything less than uncompressed music.

Try http://www.bmwe21.net/forum/ for the best solution. Those lot know pretty much everything to do with e21's.

Ipod + ipod compatible unit?

Sounds like a very, very nice project

Gutted, I feel for you. When I was at school my e21 had a big long key mark along it's red paint Took a few hours to buff that one out. Still can see it if the wax job isn't good enough.

Bahaha knox. Oops I mean looks nice

Mine got scratched pretty bad, not broken though. My poor e21.

Rear speakers are a waste of money anyway

NCEA doesn't mean anything, even if you're going for uni. Hell, they'll let you in even if you didn't get UE (which is easy as, I got it in 6th form). Although apparently some uni courses have specific entry requirements. Although I've seen none. As long as you pass, uni results don't really matter either. Well, unless you're going for law, health science or something equally as horrible. Hell, usually they will only look at your 3rd year marks if you're going for post-grad. I was going for cambridge, but the school refused to let us sit it because one person was going for the cambridge scholarship. If they got bad marks compared to NCEA it was going to look bad so nobody sat them. I didn't really get on with my school... If you were only 6th form how is it you were organising BS meetings in a bar huh emma?

Pfft rears. Are all your amps grounded in the same place? There's mixed opinions on RCA's picking up noise from power wire, with a lot of people saying it's impossible. But I figure it's not worth the hassle to find out.. If you list all your gear and check all your wiring that'll help a lot. Have your RCAs ever touched? That generally buggers up pioneer units good. As long as you're not going for 130db+ , if it looks like a strong connection and it's all sanded you should be fine.

Mine were buggered from the previous owner, took them off with a plummers wrench.

Same problem with my e21, but the motors are similar. My head was gone, but I'm getting a new one. You can take the engine apart with a flat head and a wrench if you need too. Although a socket set would make like a whole lot easier. Breaker bar + socket for the headbolts. Buy a haynes manual or find one on the net (they can be found pretty easy, I got one for my rarer e21). It might take a little while longer than professionals doing it, but it's well worth it. You'll need to use a torque wrench for putting the headbolts back on. It's not that hard at all, it just requires patience, time and logic. At the end of the day you'll have new gaskets, belts etc and not much to worry about engine-wise for a long time. Especially if you replace the head (or so I keep on telling myself..)

I had a similar problem with my e21.. I ripped out the cable going from the fusebox to the battery and chucked some spare 8ga in its place, everything worked far better from then on. Same goes for upgrading my grounds.. Worth a shot anyway.

Flag the rears and I'd be happy Edit - If you're looking at brand new in your price range jaycar amps and components are the way to go. No doubt. They skip a lot of the middle men so you get a great price on a decent pair of speakers. They're not going to win any SQ competitions, but then those speakers alone would use up most of your budget.. Also, BMW stock systems aren't always bad. With the JBL MS-8 (I believe, I didn't look it up to make sure I had the model number correct) and some small modifications (well, for SQ anyway) some americans using a stock BMW source and speakers won a SQ comp or two.

NZice? Try http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums/ they know what they're talking about. But first have a look at this: http://www.fastfoursforumscarclub.com/temp...udios/faq.asp#0 Are you planning on doing it yourself? 2nd hand is fine, but there's the obvious risks of no warranty and fakes (if you buy through trademe). Try and go for HU with at least 2 preouts, 6.5's components upfront, a 4 channel and a nice SQ sub. 2nd hand you might just be able to do that incl. wiring and making your own subbox. The 6.5's are just far better for mid-bass. If you can make a mount for them it'll be worth it. Listen to all the gear before hand in a shop, preferably. Although watch out because different displays have different enclosures, which means they'll sound different to what you'll have in your car. Any left over money get a bit of dynamat extreme in your front doors. I've gone the 2nd hand route in a BMW before so if you need any tips just ask. A very, very viable option here is also to go the jaycar route. Their components are great, as are their amps. I haven't heard much on their new sub. Old alpine HU's are also very nice Good luck and post updates!

I think your number ends with a six actually

Well I made it all the way down to dunners without my car. Just need to source some new parts and I should hopefully have it down here soon. I'll let you know when I'm up and running. Cheers, Tom

Indeed the black car does live in Havelock. A few houses down from me infact.

Apparently an e30 320i head is exactly what I need, surely someone must have one lying around...

Hi, I was wondering whether you have a complete cylinder head for a e21 320/6 and manifold gaskets for the intake. Thanks, Tom

Mine just went So time for a new one. Can get it picked up pretty much anywhere in the country, but will pay for postage if needed.

A head to suit an e21? Mine just went..

My vote is for the 2nd set.

Hawkes bay/Dunedin works as I study in Dunedin, and the car lives in Hawkes Bay. I'll take it down there if petrol gets a bit cheaper, or when the engine is fully done. I get the head back tomorrow from the shop. Here's to hoping there were no cracks.. As for sounds, e21's don't work. The stock speaker locations don't work at all, so I took to the door cards (I spent a year avoiding it, but in the end bit the bullet) and mounted the speaker mounts by drilling into the door. It hurt to do it. Head units are fine, although I did put in new wiring for it as the stock wasn't up to scratch. The sub will go behind the passenger seat. Sorry passengers... Currently I've got: Sony cdx-m630 Head unit (3 RCA outs, decent EQ, plus it was free!) Rockford punch 5 inch components (temporary till I decide on 6.5 inch components) An old alpine 4 way to run the components semi-active JBL 75.2 Running the 6x9's JBL 6x9s I'll be changing pretty much all of the set up. Next on the cards is a DD3510, chucking the 6x9's, sub amp(possibly a new jaycar mono), new components and amps relocated to the boot. I'll get decent pics when I take the car out of a garage. It's got a whole lot of mdf dust on it in the photos due to my brother stealing my mdf and cutting it up. The dust is carcenogenic though, so what goes around comes around... Edit - Oops, I'll clean the interior later when I finish mounting the crossovers...