[Lochstar8]

3PedalJake your pullers are far fancier than mine, I ended up using a combination of a ball joint press and for the most part multiple drill bits. I had to drill out the rubber and center of the bushings because there was so much corrosion between the steel and aluminum, than I chiselled the aluminum shell out. Which ended up working better than I exspexted only takes about 10 minutes a bushing (took me five hours to figure out this method with the tools I got). In honesty in my rage of destruction removing the bushing I didn’t even realize they were 2 piece fortunately I have threaded rod and some large size washers and many zip ties I can likely make work when pushing the new ones in. As of right now I have every bushing removed except the front subframe bushings but I think I can get them out. If I can’t make my method work I’ll probably DM you to get the links for those pullers.

I’m actually ecstatic there’s somone like yourself doing this project at similar timing to me. Thanks for the help I’m sure I’ll be back with more questions as I progress but unfortunately I need my car for the next 3 ish months so I won’t be dropping the subframe in my actual car any time soon. The progress your making looks fantastic btw.

[3PedalJake]

Lochstar8 Thanks for the kind words pal. The way you're doing it is best with the spare subframe and getting it ready in advance. There's too much pressure and too much to go wrong to try to pull it and refurb before reinstalling it. The front subframe bushings I highly rec that tool ZGator posted. Theres just no place to get a collar on there it's just a thin tube. This guys tool has little tabs that grip the only tiny space available to push against. This is his website his name is Dave and he's happy to respond to emails. https://forsvaraengineering.com/.
Hi-5 for getting it removed the caveman way, it can always be done with privative methods, it just takes a lot of bloody knuckles and swearing. If you don't get that tool with the band clamps at least pick up some good hose clamps the size of the lower control and trailing arm bushing, you need to squeeze that gap in the aluminum shell shut before you have any hope of inserting it.

Happy to have you along on my journey bro! *Cheers!*

[3PedalJake]

Today finished hanging the new suspension goodies; M3 wishbone and guide rod and ECS trailing arm. The toe arm is the only OE part, I thought about the manzo adjustable like I put on the 330i, but I had the Lemforders sitting around so put them on, maybe upgrade that someday later.
All went as well as can be expected except the springs, getting the lower control arm back in it's place is a challenge but with a bottle jack, a floor jack, some pry bars and a ratchet strap I managed to wrestle them back in place. Tomorrow just have to get the brakes and e-brakes installed and this phase of the project will be a wrap. Time for a beer

Leaving the rear suspension torque specs here for anyone interested...

Rear suspension torque specs:

Subframe to body: 74 ft-lb
Tension strut to body" 35 ft-lb
Lower control arm both ends: 122 ft-lb
Shock to control arm: 28 ft-lb
Shock to body: M10 20 ft-lb M14 27 ft-lb
Shock mount to control arm: 45 ft=lb
Trailing arm: 74 ft-lb
Toe arm: 74 ft-lb
Guide arm: 74 ft-lb
Upper control arm: 74 ft-lb
Axle nut: M24 185 ft-lb M27 310 ft-lb
Sway bar bracket: 15 ft-lb
Sway bar to link: 43 ft-lb
Diff front: 74 ft-lb rear 122 ft-lb

[3PedalJake]

Today got the e-brakes installed, finished rebuilding my calipers and got the brakes all hooked up. Buttoned up all the stuff you have to take apart to do this job; tunnel shields back underneath and trunk liner back in the trunk. Don't hesitate to take out your frustrations on the trunk liner with a rubber mallet, it's won't go back in place by asking it politely, it needs a good beating.

With that the rear subframe/suspension/brakes are done, time to move on to the next project, replacing the rotten flange exhaust manifolds. But not before a beer

[ZGator]

so pretty and shiny! whilst I did my complete front end - the rear has not been touched.

I took a look yesterday at mine - damn you (j/k), I am about 1 year in rust behind you for the rear . mostly surface rust but the lower mounting points closest to the ground are losing integrity.

[3PedalJake]

Thanks Gator! I see you're from NE so yah I'd bet on similar corrosion. Mine spent the first 6 yrs on it's it's life in MA then the rest in Jersey, which isn't far behind you on salted roads. I did my fronts over 2 years ago, then had kinda multi-year setback and that mountain of parts has been collecting dust ever since. Glad to have them unboxed and reflecting some light now.

[colorado.e9x]

I love this thread. Helpful info here 3P. For whenever I must tackle a subframe. And whenever I get to my ebrake on the 330 (it never had one since I bought it in 18').

If anyone else wants to DIY paint calipers without it being too crazy, I took some different steps for a fantastic result!

Do all the prep and spraying normally, the only difference is in the paint.

1. High temp primer (I skipped this)
2. Some neutral colored engine enamel or high temp paint for base coat. White, silver, gray etc. I chose Duplicolor Ford Gray
3. Duplicolor Metalcast. They have loads of colors. It's a transparent so it will act as a tint over your base. The more you apply, the darker it gets.
4. High temp clear coat. I used VHT Gloss Clear Engine Enamel.
5. I haven't done this yet, but I wish I did. A polish and professional ceramic coat

With this combo I got the exact color I was looking for. Blood red. It matches my DEPO Blacklines perfectly

[3PedalJake]

colorado.e9x Interesting technique need some pix! Your car really is striking looking, that color is so unique and with the hood and other accents really stands out, bet those calipers really pop! I was never a big fan of the TitanSilver and somehow I ended up with 2 of them. I's growing on me a little but it's really about the snooziest of granpa colors.

[colorado.e9x]

Thanks 3P! I love it. I've put a lot of time into it. Still not where I need it to be, but it's a good start. I was never a fan of yellow until these last couple years and just said screw it. This car was ~almost~ the color of strawberry milk. Here's a pic from today!

[3PedalJake]

That's a thing of beauty colorado.e9x The calipers look great, blood red as you said. That's a color that never came out of a can on it's own like that, you're an artiste bro.

[3PedalJake]

Today got my rusted flange exhaust manifolds swapped out for equally old but way less rusty ones. 11 of the 16 studs spun out with the nut frozen in place, I replaced the studs and copper nuts while I was there. Holy moly that's a cramped place to work. It was easy when I put headers on the 330i, what changed? Oh yah, I had the subframe off and could reach right up from below to fasten and unfasten that time. Working from the top with the subframe on it's all strictly by feel and with tacit understanding that BMW engineers assume mechanics have 3 elbows and 3 wrists.

[colorado.e9x]

Originally Posted by 3PedalJake

That's a thing of beauty colorado.e9x The calipers look great, blood red as you said. That's a color that never came out of a can on it's own like that, you're an artiste bro.

The can colors were too vibrant for me. Had to do something haha!

Those manifold studs look like a pain. I'm not looking forward to the day that I have to do the same

[3PedalJake]

Today repaired a couple of the underside heat shields. They were nasty so first powerwashed them and hit them with aluminum brightener. The spots that were corroded away are where there is supposed to be clip nuts that hold some of the plastic splash shields on, they were missing and the splash shield was kinda dangling there. It wouldn't have fallen off or anything but I like all the places for fasteners to be fastened to something. I cut some patch pieces from an old retired heat shield and JBWeld-ed + pop rivets to hold them in place, and since this is tucked under the plastic shield you can't even see it... good as new

[3PedalJake]

Today got the 330i exhaust hung in the 325i and with that the 325 has functionally a 330i powertrain. Of course there is still a lot of differences but the parts that make the GoGo are 330i now; that is the 3 stage intake, the Bimmerlabs 325 to 330 tune and the 330 exhaust.

colorado.e9x I went with your suggestion and nixed the idea of new studs and went with bolts. They're 10.9 grade and new copper exhaust nuts. I don't think it's going anywhere and as you said, no bomb to defuse next time it has to come down.

I'll point out some of the differences between the 325/328 and the 330, at least as it pertains to RWD 6MT models for anyone interested.

Engine- Same block except 325/328 has single stage intake manifold where the 330 has the 3SI with DISA valves.
ECU- The 325 is obviously dumbed down since the 328 even with same single stage manifold makes significantly more power.
Exhaust- The 330i has a higher flow exhaust with the vacuum actuated second outlet.
Transmission- 325/328 have Getrag GS6-17BG while 330 has ZF GS6-37BZ/DZ.
Driveshaft- The 325/328 has a Giubo in front and a U-joint at the diff, the 330 has Giubo front and rear. This also makes the input flange on the diff different.
Axles- The 325/328 have ABS reluctor ring on the end of the CV joint of the axle whereas the 330 has it's reluctor in the wheel bearing.
Axle carrier- Slight differences to accomodate the different ABS sensors and smaller e-brakes on the 325/328
Brakes- the 325/328 have smaller caliper brackets and smaller brake rotor. The calipers are the same.

[StradaRedlands]

Wow that looks BRAND NEW underneath!

[3PedalJake]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

Wow that looks BRAND NEW underneath!

Thanks pal that's just what I'm aiming for When this car was made a new BMW was out of my range, now that I can afford one I find I don't like any of them. This is the next best thing, DIY new car, I just need to do the new car smell mod

[Lochstar8]

Looks fantastic! Btw . and when I had my exhaust off last I did the exact same thing you did with the header flanges drilled the studs out and used zinc coated bolts and lock washers. And the exhaust is still on after 5 years now. and for some reason I’ve never thought of using a 330 exhaust with the valved muffler. My car sounds like a stock Honda civic maybe even quieter.
(great now I want to spend more money)


“Small” update on my progress:

Got all the bushings out of my second subframe had to buy some miscellaneous items from princess auto (tractor supply/harbor fright for you Americans). To get the front ones out I used this (picture attached.) the threaded end of the 3 inch quick disconnect has a perfect inner diameter for the rear larger bushings and the other end has the perfect and I mean very snug fit for the smaller front bushings. And it worked flawlessly with some threaded rod for like 16 bucks Canadian. Anyway brought the subframe to the shop for the sand blasting and chemical stripping and despite my initiale resentment with going powder coating this guy convinced me (mainly the price it was far cheaper than por15 and 2k urethane). I’m getting a textured powder coating which supposedly wears a little nicer than a smooth coating does. And I’m going to likely attempt wrapping it with ppf after words which sounds crazy but in the winter they put about 16 million pounds of rocks on the road just in my neighborhood so i need all the chip protection I can get. Oh and I ended up buying a welder to fix the cracked toe arm bracket, weld came out surprisingly nice despite it being a pretty cheapy welder. Anyway thought I would throw a little update out there and I should be getting the subframe back some time next week (I’ll post pictures).

[3PedalJake]

Today got the brakes bled with the Motive power bleeder. While I was under the hood saw a few things my BMW OCD wouldn't let slide. The strut braces looked like they had warts with the paint bubbling up from rust underneath, stripped them and primed and painted. The little mushroom bolts the hold on the front fascia were all rusty so wire wheeled them and painted them too.
This is why everything takes longer than I think and the funny part is I'm only OCD about my Bimmers and my Harley, everything else I'm halfway to slacker lol.

[3PedalJake]

Lochstar8 thanks so much for the update. Your bushing removal tool is brilliant! What is it a pipe coupler of some sort? I scratched my head over that for so long and watched videos of guys beating them out with hammers and burning them with torches, I knew I wasn't going that route but couldn't find anything that worked as a puller so broke down and bought that tool.

Nice work with the welding. I think the wrap is a great idea too, when it gets nasty you can just pull it off and add some more, only really matters on the rock facing surfaces and you can still get to them. Can't wait to see the powder coated subframe, that's like shiny car pr0n to me

[Lochstar8]

3PedalJake yeah I tried the sledge hammer and heat method and got one sniff of that burnt rubber and changed my mind. Here I’ll post a more detailed photo of the full setup I used so others can maybe replicate it. Obviously for the photo with the whole conglomeration imagine that bushing is in the subframe. As I don’t currently have the subframe to demonstrate. The coupler it self isent deep enough to push the entire bushing out but you can get it roughly 60-80% of the way out which in my case was enough for it to just fall out. The smaller bushings do get stuck in the coupler but I used a 3-jaw gear puller to press it out of that. The second photo is just showing both the larger (back) and smaller (front) bushings fit inside the coupler.

Disclaimer: I used a different method for the two rear larger bushings because I didn’t have this method at the time. it worked for removal but it won’t work for installation so I needed the method described with the coupler and threaded rod. For removal only I used that same 3-jaw gear puller and grabbed the pipe of the bushing holder with 2 of the arms and I straddle the other arm over the Main cross (square) section of the subframe. Which worked well for me I’ll probably update this post with a picture of that for demonstration when I get the subframe back.

Pretty farmer engineering but got the job done. But if your somone who’s doing this over a weekend just buy the proper tool from this guy. It will save you lots of time and hassle.

[3PedalJake]

Great pix Lochstar8 ! Farmer engineering is the best engineering, they are the original MacGyvers. For the sake of our readers, where did you source that little gem?

[3PedalJake]

Posted today's adventures in the "What did you do to your car today" thread. https://www.e90post.com/forums/showp...ostcount=25092