Hi Everyone. Im really happy to join this community of people and cars to introduce my latest project, a 2005 330i ZHP, A08, Sedan with 184k on the clock.

A little history on myself first... My name is Tim, I'm a Euro specialty mechanic in Annapolis, MD. I love cars and have owned at least 30 over the past 15 years. When I'm not at work, Im in my home garage working on my own projects or customers cars. I'll save my stories of other projects for later since the real focus of attention here is my newly acquired ZHP.

A few years ago a bought a 2003 VW Jetta 1.8t 5sp from a customer at work that couldn't afford the repairs. Paid a few hundred for it with intentions of parting it out and making a little money. I was very preoccupied with a personal customers 95 Porsche 993 engine reseal, timing chain and transmission replacement that I never even touched the Jetta. Fast forward to last weekend when a friend of a friend reached out to me asking about my Jetta and mentioned he wanted to trade me his 05 BMW 330 straight up for the Jetta. He said the engine was hydro-locked on the BMW. I figured Ive got nothing to loose and made the trade. Both parties satisfied with the deal and boom history was made!

After looking over the car and it's featured I realized it was different than all the 330s Ive driven in past years. Thats when I discovered this forum and that my deal of a century netted me a ZHP for absurdly cheap.

I pulled the spark plugs and cranked the engine. This resulted in 6 geysers of black gold shooting out of the cylinders! Awful mess. Put the plugs back in and it started right up and idles smooth except that it billowed smoke from the tailpipe. Long story short, bad Crankcase vent valve (oil separator) caused oil to be sucked up the dipstick tube. Replaced all the PCV stuff and the engine runs perfectly with no smoke. Score!!

Now comes the fun part! Considering the low price of admission, Ive taken it upon myself to restore this car to its former glory and keep it for myself. No thoughts of selling it in the foreseeable future. Dirty is an understatement. Id like to document and share the entirety of my project with everyone here. This story is developing quickly and progress being made everyday. Ive only had the car for exactly 7 days at the time of this posting. Hopefully someone here can point me in the direction of where I can post this build/restoration.

TLDR: Got ZHP super cheap, dirtiest car I've ever cleaned, restore and build. Stay tuned.