Vass

Tee hee

Now up on Marketplace. Didn't realise it was Chch based until now. Not in a position to buy myself but happy to go have a look for whoever is interested. 

If, as you say, it is a 320i and is running on 5 cylinders then that's a substantial upgrade since they only came with 4 from factory...

Smartarsery aside, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the N46 engine that this would have come with is one of the worst things BMW has come up with in recent history. Some mechanics are known to flat out refuse to work on them due to how problematic they are. They're plagued with issues and are very rarely worth saving. Especially if you're paying someone else to do the work instead of DIY. And especially if that someone is BMW. You'll end up with a bill that's multiples of what the car is worth.

Did you pay them for the work of replacing the valvetronic motor out of pocket or was it some sort of recall/insurance arrangement? Did they offer you any feedback as to what the faults might be before proceeding with the work? From what I know the timing chains stretching is one of the many known issues on the N46 so I would think it weird if they didn't offer to change those out "whilst they're in there". That could be considered as an oversight and used as an argument against having to pay twice for labour I guess. But then again, I wouldn't be taking a car like that to BMW for engine work in the first place.

As for the cam cover "being too hot to touch", I wouldn't take that as much of an indicator of anything. BMW engines jut run hot in general. Mine runs just fine but even the plastic top covers are too hot to touch after a regular commute.

Also, before the cruise I set out to finally ceramic coat the wheels, a mission I didn't manage to get around to right after the suspension refresh. Naturally, I underestimated the severity of the task and overestimated my abilities. Despite having only done around 3,000km and objectively not even being that dirty, took forever getting them perfectly clean before applying the coating. A bit of elbow grease on the plastic scraper rubbing off remnants of the old balancing weights, several cycles of regular washes followed by a good few hours on the clay bar getting after the niggly tar spots and... 5 hours later I had finished on one wheel. Madness. If only I had money left over to pay someone else to do it. Will need a good long weekend to get the rest of them over the line. Mission for the Christmas break maybe.

Had another fun run up to Kaikoura this past Sunday with a group of colleagues. The bimmer was by far the least exotic of the bunch and might have looked a bit out of place among a group of V8's & restored classics but great fun to drive none the less. Was great fun listening to the Mustangs roar in the twisties and keeping up with the Aston on the straights.

The 240z was the highlight for me. Fully restored fellow straight-6 and looking absolutely immaculate. Awesome writeup on the project if anyone cares to know.

As expected, without any passengers on board there was no sign of rubbing from the rear. Car felt nice and planted throughout and unsurprisingly felt more nimble than the previous time on the same route without the added weight of other humans on board. The no-crank gremlin reared its head just once along the way but started up after a few turns of the key. Will need to have that addressed sooner rather than later.

Alignment & WoF next week, then cert the week after. Hoping for some smooth sailing.

Looking good! Hope you'll snap out of the 91 octane habit once the new engine is in though

On 11/24/2023 at 7:44 AM, Olaf said:

no-crank:  I know you've already replaced the fuel pump.  Have you done the fuel pump relay?  Also the DME relay.

No, those are originals still. Should have a few spares lying around but might throw in some new ones with the next parts order if they're not extortionately expensive. Only just cropped up this issue so haven't really done much on it yet. 

On 11/24/2023 at 7:02 AM, Eagle said:

Yeah E46 msport seats are probably the worse BMW seats ive experienced on longer trips. Worn bolsters dont help but ive never had any issues with other old BMW seats. My Recaro is a joy to sit in and worth every $.

On 11/24/2023 at 10:18 AM, Harper said:

100% agree. I have had multiple people ask me what the pole positions in my M3 are like on longer drives, and my answer is significantly better than the stock ones. If I was going on a long drive in my compact I would probably go through the effort of swapping the recaros into it because they are that much better.

Weirdly, the leather Msport seats in my old 325ci felt much better than these alcantara ones. Would have thought they'd be the same apart from the covers but those felt way more plush and didn't screw my back up nearly as much.

I'll need to dig through your build threads to see what all is involved in getting aftermarket seats installed. Would those technically require cert at all? Aftermarket seat rails and all? Haven't looked into it properly yet.

I'm quietly holding out hope for some decent E63 M6 seats becoming available at some point, those look to be the best straight swap plug-and-play solution out there. Hella rare though and asking for silly money whenever they do come up though. 

Some niggly issues still present and a new one that's popped up:

• Experienced a weird no crank, no start issue for the first time ever. Old man wanted to try his hand at driving on the wrong side of the road at some point in the roadie so I let him jump behind the wheel. Stalled it the first time, forgetting to take the hand brake off. Then stalled it the second time straight when he couldn't quite get the feel of the clutch pedal right. The third time the car flat out refused to crank. Cycled the key a few times without any luck. Tried taking the key out and putting back in, locking-unlocking doors etc. I ended up jumping back behind the wheel and after a few more cycles the she started right up. Happened a few more times since then - will start the first time sometimes but will then intermittently refuse to do anything on other occasions.
  Have done a bit of Google'ing and looks like the culprit might be the ignition switch so will take it apart and clean it out in the near future the problem becomes worse. Apparently, other symptoms of a bad ignition switch can include electric side mirrors and headlights, fog lights, turn signals not working, which is interesting.
• Potentially related to the above, I've decided to get a brand new starter with my next parts order. Not sure what else to turn to to eliminate the rattle but that might be one of the last rolls of the dice. I did have a mate take it apart, check the brushes, clean and relube the insides when I did the engine rebuild but I suspect it might have taken on some damage when I briefly had it misaligned whilst hunting for the leak from the back of the block. Bit involved of a task but worth having a new one for some longevity. Not even fazed by the task of removing the intake manifold at this point anymore. Will also give me a chance to have a look at the ICV again and check what that D3 [211] code is all about.
• Been having an intermittent issue of the driver's side HID headlight not wanting to turn on. Sometimes it'll just take an extra minute for it to light up, sometimes it'll need a smack, others it'll work perfectly fine. I suspect it'll be something to do with the ballast or a loose connection as if it was a bulb then it probably wouldn't turn on at all. Will need to go on a mission of swapping components over to opposite sides to figure out what the culprit is exactly. Could even be the ignition switch, apparently, who knows...
• The seats... Quite like the look of the Msport alcantaras but damn they're really uncomfortable on longer trips. I got used to them after a couple of days but the backrest is just way too firm and eats into the lower and mid-back too much for comfort. I keep having to slide around trying to find a comfortable position and still end up with a sore back by the end of the day. Will need to take on the mission of cleaning up the X5 seats I still have sitting in the garage at some point and trying them out. Retrofitting heated seat wiring could be another cool DIY project as well.

34 minutes ago, mmario said:

How useful is an air compressor ? I don't have one yet.

Are the likes of the Supercheap/Repco ones ok for a home noob mechanic or do you need to spend more coin ?

Yeah pretty useful, especially for blowing out dirt & dust, used it quite a bit when rebuilding my engine and still do occasionally on smaller cleanup jobs.

The one I've got is just about the most basic one you can get, this one from TopmaQ that I managed to snap up used for like $100 off TradeMe. It's small, loud and not powerful enough for any serious tools beyond just blowing compressed air or inflating bike tyres but what it does it does well enough. I'd definitely go with a bigger one if I had a bigger garage but I'd say it's worth having on hand even if it's just the smallest one. I reckon the SCA/Repco ones will be just fine for weekend use in a home garage.

Got back from a round trip down south and up the West Coast with the parents last week, clocking up around 2,400km across 6 days.

Threw in the old stock rear springs beforehand. Whilst it didn't completely eliminate the rubbing, it isolated it to only the harshest dips in the road when catching them at high speeds, but overall much better and meant I could drive with way less stress and way more confidence. Considering this was the first road trip I've taken the car on with 4 adults and a bootful of luggage on board, I can't really complain about the little rubbing still remaining. This was an outlier of a situation and with 1-2 people on board, I don't think rubbing will be an issue on the stock springs.

Some absolutely amazing roads out there and an absolute ideal place to put the car through a proper stress test after the big rebuild. Some small issues aside, the car performed perfectly and effortlessly ate up the km's. Queenstown - Glenorchy is still my favourite bit of road in the country but also enjoyed experiencing the Queenstown - Te Anau and Wanaka - Haast routes for the first time ever. The folks loved their first time in NZ as well, saying it felt like they've been to 5 different countries in the short time here, such was the variety of landscapes behind every new mountain ridge. Good good times.

1 hour ago, Cammsport said:

And do you fill them back up with oil? 

No, I didn't. Not sure if you need to? The guide I followed claimed they would fill right up once you go on a proper drive and the oil pressure builds up. Bit of lifter tick at first is normal. 

11 hours ago, Cammsport said:

Has anyone "bled out" hydraulic lifters before during a rebuild? 

Not N47 ones but M54 ones, yes. Not sure if they're the same or similar. Just used vise grips to hold the wee bucket and pull it out of the lifter, then disassemble and clean out. Pretty straightforward. 

Bummer man, hopefully no damage done to any of the mods you've fitted and easily transferred over to the new(er) motor. Long road ahead but super rewarding no doubt, keen to keep following the journey.

Honestly I'm a bit puzzled and impressed by how you've managed to fund and execute such a build whilst still being a uni student? Only car I could (barely) afford to keep going back in my uni days was an old rustbucket Nissan Primera, and even that was a hand-me-down from the parents 😅 How do you do it? 

4 hours ago, Harper said:

Not sure where you guys are looking but https://www.eibach-shop.com/ has different spring sets available for E46 coupe/sedan/touring/compact, all with 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder variants and even x-drive where applicable. All with different rates dependent on type. Definitely not only one size fits all. That was half the reason I went for them for my 330ti. No one else makes springs specifically for 6 cylinder compacts.  

Yeah interesting that. Just looked it up on that page and it gives E2067140_7 as the 6-cylinder touring part number but then any vendor site seems to lists them without that final digit. Demon Tweeks where I ordered mine from listed those springs as compatible to all chassis types (except the compact maybe, didn't pay that much attention).

Just lumped 4 passengers into the car for a day trip to Akaroa, looked at how pressed up into the arches the rear tyres looked even before rolling out of the driveway and decided to take the missus' Outback instead. Would not have been a pleasant experience.

I think I'll keep the fronts but throw in the old springs in the rear before setting off on the longer road trip down south in the coming week, might then look to try out the H&R's further down the track. Would have to be next year's project though, have well and truly exhausted my toy allowance for a good while. 

8 hours ago, Olaf said:

Back to tyres and a Summary - possible clearance issues with e46 touring by running e90 255 section tyres in place of e46 245 section tyres at rear on e90 offset.

Thanks mate! That's a solid bit of analysis there and I reckon the right conclusion. When it's time to change tyres 245's is what I'm going with. Still heaps of life left in the current tyres though so will try and get my money's worth out of them before the switch.

I believe the Eibach spring were one-size-fits-all solution for the E46 unfortunately so that might be part of the issue. Obviously with E46-specific Style 68's the rubbing is not an issue as @adro can attest to but with different offset rims and wider tyres I really am pushing my luck.

Interesting thing is, the original Touring springs I took out (I've referred to them as Msport springs a number of times now but actually still don't know if they even had separate Msport ones or they're just regular Touring-specific, RealOEM doesn't seem to give me part numbers for springs for some reason) are actually shorter than the new Eibach ones. I guess they might just be that much stiffer...?

Good news is I took the car for a good run up to Kaikoura today, a round trip of roughly 400km and with -2.5° camber and the trimming-bashing I'd done, the rubbing is now greatly reduced. Had my ~100kg dad sit in the rear left seat and there was only 4-5 instances where any sort of rubbing occurred, those being over really pronounced rough patches in the road, most other situations where rubbing had occurred previously it now handles without issues. I reckon with just myself or 1 other passenger in the car (which is likely to be the scenario 90% of the time going forward) the rubbing will be very minimal.

Will take the wheels off in the next few days and check where the remaining rubbing has migrated to. Might be able to trim back or bash in those areas some more.

All in all, another awesome road trip with the folks. Went up to Kaikoura through Mt Lyford and back down along the coast. Had never taken that route up before, a good 30 minute detour but well worth it! Encountered very little traffic along the way, awesome views and delightfully twisty roads throughout, got to put her through her paces nice and proper.

Also, to revive the Akebono debate somewhat, don't want to jinx it but I'm very much enjoying them. I do get where you were coming from in regards to the reduced initial bite but I feel like I've adjusted pretty well. You do need to press down quite hard if you want to stop in a hurry but overall I've found the pedal feel to be pretty much linear and predictable. They've handled some spirited driving quite well, no squeaking or fading and the wheels are still nice and clean. Feels like an solid upgrade in every way switching from the old rusty rotors and pads anyway.

Spoke too soon on the rattle front, must not have been VANOS related as it re-emerged again at startup this morning. Pretty much out of ideas as to what else it could be at this point. Weirdly, the rattle either isn't there or isn't noticeable when the car's been sitting in the garage overnight or for a few days, only when it's been parked outside for even a short while. Absolutely no clue. It is only mild and very hard to capture on video so can't even convey it properly. Guess I'll just have to live with it and hope it's not terminal.

Took the car for an alignment this morning, went with the closest shop to home this time which happens to be a Bridgestone Tyre Centre barely a km down the road. Oh boy...

Brought it in having written down the specs to aim for: -2.5° camber at the rear, 0 toe and just a checkup of the front end. Also wrote down the torque spec for the trailing arm bolts to chassis - 77Nm - to save them the hassle of looking those up. Even left 24mm & 27mm wrenches that I had just bought specifically for the camber arms on the passenger seat.

Pick the car up a couple of hours later, tech said he got it pretty close to what I wanted and all seemed to be tracking straight during the test drive. Took a short detour on the way home and noticed a feint clunk coming from the right rear when going over imperfections in the road surface so decided to check things over.

Good thing I did.

Left camber arm outer jam nut completely loose.

Right camber arm inner jam nut completely loose.

5 of the trailing arm bolts needed a good 10-20° to get to 77Nm.

The remaining one on the right side trailing arm was completely loose and needed a good 2-3 full turns.

Don't think I'm ever getting over my trust issues at this rate.

Thank f**k I'm mechanically minded and caught onto it having only driven 2-3km. I seriously shudder to think of how many cars might be out there in everyday use that are absolutely unsafe to drive. Aunty Sharon could be out there happily tooting around, oblivious to the very real possibility of one of the wheels on her trusty Corolla all of a sudden deciding to start pointing sideways at any given moment.

Seriously, am I stupid or is this borderline criminal negligence? 2 wheel alignments in a row. WTF is going on!?

I've now got a theory as to what happened the first time around when it was BMW, in that instance the loose jam nut was the inner one on the left camber arm - the one with the tricky access due to the exhaust pipes being in the way. When I picked the car up, I remember the fuel economy on the cluster display reading something like 17L/100km so they must have left the car idling the whole time they were working on it for some stupid reason. Then when the time came to tighten everything up, the exhaust pipes would have gotten nice and hot, they wouldn't have wanted to go near there so either just left it or forgot to come back to it.

This time around it was simply incompetence/inexperience.

Still a bit rattled, I tightened everything up and went back for a chat. Didn't really want anything but felt that this was f**ked up enough that I couldn't just leave it be without speaking up.

Explained to the guy what I'd discovered and how this could have ended very badly had I not checked. He was genuinely surprised and offered to check it over again if a had a spare hour. I didn't. He said that he nearly refused to take the job on as he'd never worked on BMW's or cars with a similar trailing arm setup before but then got help from a more experienced mechanic who walked him through the process, checked over and approved his work. The trailing arm bolts he had simply tightened with a rattle gun and tightened the jam nuts by putting his whole body weight on the wrench, mimicking how he'd done it, leaning onto the wrench with both hands. He had quite a puzzled expression when I told him he also had to have a wrench holding the rod in place when doing so. I'm no mechanic but you really don't need to be one to figure out how these things work.

"Wheel Alignment Specialists" my ass.

Got a call back from them a few hours later offering to give me a good deal on tyres and a voucher for a hot drink or something to make up for it. Thanks.

Don't even know what the moral of the story is here. Trust no-one...?

Short drive going out to dinner with 3 passengers on board later that night, no sign on rubbing so far but don't want to jinx it. Longer test tomorrow with a day trip to Kaikoura on the cards. See how she goes.

12 hours ago, Neil McCauley said:

DID SOMEONE SAY 2-DR TOURING E30?!? I would do shameful, sinful things for one of the four Luchjenbroers Tourings, especially the BBS kitted ones. https://www.e30.de/fotostory/f02340/f02340.htm

Awesome concept but those rear side windows just look all sorts of wrong. Way too big and out of proportion, makes it look like a hearse. Almost need another pillar to break those up. 

1 hour ago, M3AN said:

Spring pads squish pretty quickly into their "nominal state" so that rear end will drop by a few mm's soon enough.

Thanks but that's not what I want to hear right now

I'm at my last throw of the dice as far as making these springs work at this point. Didn't have rubbing issues on the previous setup.

The main differences between old and new are the solid subframe bushes that raise the subframe closer to the body somewhat. Not sure by how much but those are staying regardless.

The rims & tyres are new but the old Style 194's were exactly the same offset and with 255/40R17's on them were the same width and diameter as the new 255/35R18's to the millimetre.

All that leaves is the new Eibach springs. I'm going for another wheel alignment tomorrow morning, will have them tweak the rear camber to -2.5° (-2.0° is BMW spec and you're allowed to be 0.5° beyond that when going for cert). Having now trimmed the bumpers and arches back a little more and bashed in the inner layer of the guards somewhat, will see if the extra bit of camber will remedy the rubbing. Can't say I'm overly optimistic.

If that doesn't solve it then will throw in the old Msport springs in time for cert. Would love to keep matching springs front and rear but it is what it is.

Ordered the 15mm spring pads Thursday, got them in the mail last Tuesday, threw them in on Wednesday. Felt nice and beefy the pads which made me hopeful. 

Just to be safe, also kept the bottom spring pad doubled up and slightly trimmed back the inner side of the rear bumper and guard lip where they looked to be rubbing against the tyres.

Whilst underneath the car I gave everything a quick look over and discovered a jam nut on the left rear camber arm completely loose. Obviously wasn't best pleased, having gone on a 900km road trip the weekend just past in a car that was essentially unsafe to drive. Although no harm done, this just isn't good enough from any professional service, especially with what BMW charged me for an alignment. Access to that particular nut is a bit tricky with the exhaust in the way but I easily managed to get to it with an open ended 27mm wrench at a slight angle and tightened it up.

Called BMW up the next day to voice my displeasure. The service rep was very attentive and apologetic, he remembered the car and offered to bring it back in for a checkup. I didn't feel like wasting my time at that point as I'd already tightened the nut myself and the car feeling fine driving into work that morning so declined. He asked if there was anything else they could do to help out so I mentioned that I would need another alignment in a month's time before going for cert so he offered to have that done free of charge, so I have that lined up at least.

Anyway, the thicker spring pads looked to have raised the rear by more than the 10mm I was expecting, even looks a bit raked now but did even out the arch gaps front and rear.

Drove fine and no rubbing at first, but with 4 people in the car, the suspension settled again and the rubbing returned over bumps and slow right turns, although not as severe as before. More tinkering was required.

Trimmed back the bumper and inner lip a tad more, gave the top inner edge of the guard a little bash and gave the camber arms 2 full turns (8 x 1/4 turns).

Then took on another little side-mission rebuilding another VANOS unit with new seals but leaving the insides of the pistons alone this time. Dropped the housing off at a machine shop for a wash, cleaned up the rest of the bits, gave the insides of the bores a quick polish following Mr. M539's example and resealed the pistons.

VANOS unit bolted up, I went to tighten up the solenoids but discovered there's not enough clearance to get the exhaust one without bashing in the radiator so created another custom tool for the collection - a short handle 32mm spanner.

Cleared adaptations and went for a lap around the block. First signs seemed promising. Did only have just the one startup thus far but if that was anything to go by then I might be onto the source of the rattle. Must have crushed the needle bearings inside the pistons when installing the anti-rattle rings. The ABS trifecta lights lit up right after setting off though. Pulled over, reset the steering angle calibration but the trifecta came right back as soon as I started moving. Probably due to my tinkering with the camber arms knocking the toe out of whack and the wheel speed sensors reporting contradicting speeds. The axles didn't feel happy either with a a thump from the rear when pressing down clutch. Didn't expect the extra bit of camber to affect the toe that much but it has rendered the car virtually undriveable for the moment so will still need another alignment in the meantime. Will look to get one booked in first thing in the morning.

The throttle felt a bit weird with some random surging in revs going on but probably down to having cleared adaptations and the VANOS seals needing some breaking in. Also got a couple of weird codes I hadn't seen before so parked her up for the night.

• 5E19 - CAN DME/DDE, engine torque not adjustable
• D3 [211] - Idle speed control valve, mechanical fault, jammed open

Not sure what that's about, hopefully a longer drive sorts it out. Will be happy to have the startup rattle resolved though. Fingers crossed.

9 hours ago, C-130 Hercules said:

Some sort of half decent inspection camera can come in handy

I ordered a cheap endoscope off Aliexpress for all of $7 US, the USBc type with a phone app. Only used it just once so far but worked surprisingly well for how ridiculously cheap it was. A great little gadget to have on hand.

I'm a sucker for a good deal off Aliexpress in general. Not the highest quality stuff obviously but great for small items you'll only use occasionally. Some other notable ones are a fuel pump lock ring tool, hose pliers, little brushes, pry & pick tools, specialty pliers etc, all for around $10/each or less. Oftentimes see the same stuff rebranded and sold for 3x the price locally.

8 hours ago, E63 said:

This looks like something I’d be after, especially after seeing a glowing review of Toolpro gear a few posts up. I’d have to see how much it goes for on sale before making you an offer though.

Think I paid $200 for mine around 4-5 years ago.

8 hours ago, Eagle said:

Toolpro ratchets suck and fail easy like most of the cheap brands.

Lifetime replacement though. I've only broken a 3/8 one so far, and that was probably my own stupidity, trying to break loose a bolt that was too big and done up too tight for it.

5 hours ago, E63 said:

Their ratchet seems too big to be convenient for auto though.

Yeah a bit of a clunky one that. Still has its uses though. Was doing the valve cover yesterday, came in very handy and got into places an impact driver wouldn't have.

I got a mate an AEG one as a thanks for helping out with some welding just recently, feels more robust and is more compact with a different battery orientation. Pricy though, both skins and batteries are roughly twice the price of Ryobi.

4 hours ago, Palazzo said:

Ryobi one+ batteries are crap. We have 5, 1 works.

Have had 3 x 4Ah & 1 x 9Ah batteries for around 3 years without issues. Your mileage obviously varies though.

I've also got a little collection of custom speciality tools going.

• Thin 18mm spanner for doing up front sway bar links
  
• Short handle 32mm spanner for doing up the front VANOS solenoid without bashing in the radiator
  
  
• Deep wall 32mm socket for the rear subframe mounting studs
  
• Starter mounting bracket to test run the engine without the gearbox attached
  

12 hours ago, Apex said:

The price or the car?

I'm a sucker for an E30.

I'm a sucker for a touring

I'm a sucker for a black Bimmer.

Ticks all my boxes.

Barbara could do with an older sibling.

It's not even priced that badly. I'm still a good number of years off from being able to justify owning one though. I just hope that something like this (or this exact one) becomes available again when I get there.

Ohhhh lord, this is dreams!

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/4406638080?bof=K62wTdXG

Might not be pro grade of course but most of my arsenal I've bought from Supercheap, almost exclusively when something's on sale. A big toolkit suitcase when it was 50% off has been getting me 90% of the way there for the past 3-4 years now. Most things Toolpro are lifetime replacement warranty. Had a 3/4 ratchet fail on me, walked into the store and came away with a brand new one 3 minutes later, didn't even ask for a receipt or anything. Latest addition is a set of ratchet spanners when they were on sale for sub-$100 a few months ago. They always have a few days around Christmas/Boxing Day where it's 50% off storewide so always worth a punt.

Then I have an assortment of random spanners, deep wall & impact sockets, 3/4 & 1/2 extensions & swivel attachments that I've sourced whenever the situation required it. Good to plan ahead and have everything on hand when you need it of course but then you might be spending hundreds of extra monies on kit you never end up using.

Power tool wise I've also jumped into the Ryobi universe, found it to be the best bang for the buck with a very extensive selection of tools available. The electric ratchet has been handy to have in many a situation. The impact wrench paired with a 9Ah battery handles most things thrown at it. I've taken off an M54 crank bolt without issues. Only thing it couldn't handle so far was the 46mm front hub nut. Had to borrow the services of my mate's AEG impact - that thing is an absolute brute (1550Nm tightening torque!), and costs accordingly. Otherwise, I've found Ryobi great for hobbyist use. Probably not tradie standard but if you take reasonable care if the tools and not throw them around needlessly then they'll last. Haven't had anything fail on me so far (knock on wood) and also have a whole lawn care suite so get plenty of use out of the battery collection I've got going. 

Could be worth it if you get a whole crash damaged 325/525i as a donor and use it to transplant everything over, and do all the work yourself. Would be quite involved so you'd have to be really keen for a project. 

If you're buying just an engine and paying a shop to do the work then it'll never be worth it. 

In either case, unless there's anything that's uniquely desirable about the particular body/chassis, it'll be much cheaper & easier to just sell up and buy a ready made 325i, or better yet a 330i if you can find one. But then what's the fun in that...

Are the undertrays just taken off for the picture or you're not running any at all? Won't be looking as clean and shiny for too long without them.