Has it really been over 6 months!?
Been having lots of fun with the car, approaching 10k kms on the 5 cylinder and it has performed nearly flawlessly. Only had one issue where the fuel pump relay went (I always have a spare in the glovebox, but I finally bought a new OEM one). Otherwise I haven't done anything major. I got the Motronic ecu tucked properly away above the clutch pedal. But now I am gearing up for the next project on it: the BMW LSD to help with traction.
I found this housing on Ebay - from california. Seemed like a lot less effort than getting the rusty one sandblasted, so that'll be my starting point. The plan is to rebuild it with new clutch packs, bearings and seals. I entertained the idea of putting a truetrac in the volvo housing and save the custom work, but a lot of the parts to rebuild them are NLA. Oh well, the 2.93 BMW rear end will play better with the transmission gear ratios.
I also flipped the ackermann inserts to get the steering to a point where it feels like the car tracks normally on turns (not feeling like it's dragging a tire)
And most recently, got rid of the old square panel lights for the more modern style. Now on the hunt for proper 760 lights.
And now that this project is in a good place, I've been getting distracted with my BMW E21 build. A friend called in the spring with an E36 M3 that he was parting out, so now I'm working on dropping in an S52. I guess this makes my car collection redundant, 2 5 cylinder cars, and 2 S52 powered cars!
The thread if anyone is interested:
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2450977-83-320i-S52-swap-and-eventual-rebuild