White e21 320

[Ralphbrown]

Hi there

Recently bought myself a beautiful e21 from a classic car auction. It was the first car i saw and instantly loved it. It had been restored by the previous owner and is in great condition. Almost on rust on it at all! It even came with a bag full of history and included a photo album of the restoration from start to finish. It was a good deal too!

I actually bought an e30 a couple of months ago as a running project but it just didn't compare to the e21.

It drives perfectly and I couldn't be happier with it. However it has an oil leak from somewhere. I investigated it this afternoon and it seems to be from the camshaft oil seal but I could be wrong.

Here's the only picture I have, from the auction before I picked it up.



Thanks for looking,

Ralph

[Jeroen]

Welcome here Ralph, and congrats on a great deal on a beautiful clean car then! Better make sure that's where the oil leak is before you start on the fix but it is likely to be the camshaft oil seal indeed

[uwbuurman]

Welcome, mate! Nice car! Are you gonna sell that e30? Just to make your e21 look a bit more original, you can paint the sills and the lower part of the front valance black, aswell put two black stripes on the valance.

Hope you can fix that oilleak. Good luck with that! I'm looking forward to more pics!

[Ralphbrown]

Thanks for your replies. Pretty sure that's where the oil leak is coming from, I had a look while it was on the ramp and it seemed like the only place it could be.

Yeah I'm trying to sell my e30 but not having much luck. It looks terrible which probably doesn't help.

Hoping to tackle the oil leak next week, I bought a new seal from BMW yesterday.

Will have more pictures soon, too busy enjoying driving it!

[Mihajlo]

Hi!
Nice car!
Post some pics of interior.

[cobbler2u]

Hi welcome
looks like you got yourself a nice one there.
I'm always on a look out for car auctions.
Which auctIon was this a
Cheers

[Ralphbrown]

Today I fixed the oil leak, was pretty straight forward and now there's no leaks! It was the camshaft seal after all, it wasn't burst or anything, I just think it wasn't pushed in far enough. I replaced it anyway since it was already in bits.

However the engine sounds a little tappety now, I don't think it's anything to worry about but it's just really annoying. Any ideas how to sort that? I did some googling and I read that it's really common in the m20 engine. Is tha right?

Here's some pictures mid repair






I bought the car at a Morris Leslie auction, near Perth in Scotland. They don't have them too often. My e21 was the last car of the auction and was a really late entry so it wasn't in any of the catalogues. Think that's why I got it cheap

[Jeroen]

Did you check your valve clearances?

[Ralphbrown]

No I didn't, how do I do that? Could I have knocked the timing slightly out? I drives just like it used to just noisier. Thanks for your help, I don't work on engines very often so I'm learning as I go with the guidance of my boss

[Ralphbrown]

Haven't posted anything in a while so here's a small update

Recently got some new alloys, BBS RS reps. These are a bit wider and have Toyo Proxes so the handling has improved massively. Needed 15mm spacers all round for them to fit though. I didn't realise how low the offset had to be!

Also got some black and silver plates which aren't exactly legal but so far I haven't been stopped by the cops.



I plan to put my BMW in the garage for the winter soon but so far I love driving this car. It's just perfect. Was perfect on my 4 hour drive to the isle of skye. I did it at night on my own and loved every minute.

I bought myself an old Jeep for the winter too