Project DRTE30 - E30 335i

[jamjars]

well, i have decided to start a new thread, mainly to compose everything into one big post, change the misleading project title, and get rid of the clutter...

so, off to a start.

My car.

it started out life as a 1990 e30 318i auto.
stock as a rock - $3000, 255,000kms, full history, tape deck, fully original and immaculate (uncracked dash)

only issue was the usual drivers seat rip.... but hey, shit happens.

things it has so far;
-king springs 'super low' rear and 'low' front
-soundstream single din DVD head unit
-angel eyes
-colour matched bumpers and mirrors
-15" 'nemeto' bbs rs replicas, 15x7 et20, 205/55/15 nexen tyres

i did have a 'is' front spoiler until the last BMWDCSA cruise i went on.... now i just have a slim black front lip

now, onto the goodies:
after purchasing a whole turbo setup, i decided to turbo the m40b18, i had 95% of the parts - custom manifold and dump, manual conversion parts, turbo, FMU, intercooler etc, but after being offered a 300,000km m30b35 from an e34 with matching getrag 260/6 dirt cheap, i jumped at the offer and started selling off the turbo parts (still have manifold )

the engine:
-1989 m30b35
-300,000k's
-brand new head/cam/rockers/valves etc 2 year ago.
-full service history and middle aged/elderly owner most its life till 2 years ago when pasted onto his son.
-was converted to manual and powerchipped by his son, before being replaced by an s38.

and the head is immaculate on the inside!

so, onto the project.

parts so far:
-m30b35 - $300
-getrag 260/6 w/2 y.o. clutch - $350
-second getrag 260/5 for parts - $75
-powerchipped ecu - $20
-e30.zone 'lee parkes' m30 e30 engine mounts - $250
-e28 528i auto radiator - $69
-second new e28 radiator (manual) - $245
-16" thermo fan - $130
-manual pedal box/conversion parts - $50
-new thrust bearing - $70
-325i linkage with 318i linkage plate and 325i output flange - $90
-tailshaft - 323i - $200
-alternator, ps pump and exhaust manifold - $300
-325i engine rubber mounts - $70
-m20 exhaust - $free
-heat shield - $55
-3.91 medium case diff & royal purple oil - $160
-servicing parts & fluids - 180
-assorted nuts/bolts - $50
-gasket set with new thermostat & switches - $150.

brakes & suspension:
-mazda s4/5 rx7 turbo calipers rebuilt - $140
-adapters brackets & hose fittings - $70
-vw 280mm corrado rotors (yet to come) - $200

theres still a few more parts to come/be remembered.

onto some pics of the car pre swap:

when i first had her:








and my first set of rims/mods




onto the recent rims:
nemeto mesh 15x7


and photoshoot done by Sean Lamonby





now for the big lump....



mum said to hide it... so i did


the clean as head

under a filthy cover...




the 'cheap' e28 528i auto radiator that eventually failed...


now, in order to mate a 3 series driveshaft flange to a 5 series gearbox, you need to swap flanges.... this involved a custom socket, and a shitload of force!!!




how to lower an e30 on the cheap:

digital thermometer & temp switch (yet to be fully wired in)



more parts arriving...

and assembling the m30 parts



started ripping the m40 out on a thursday night...



engine was out on the 4/8/2012

m30 going in... man its one big lump!


that was sitting in 'position 2' - the most forward position.
unfortunately that meant the distributor cap sat on the radiator, and the main pully was mm's from the radiator too


and the sump was sitting on the ps rack

the first of many hiccups...

battery relocated to boot


then it was time to move the engine to position 3 - further back.
this was done by loosening the rubber mounts inplace, removing the drivers side engine mount.
the motor was sat on the passenger mount inplace, lowered onto the subframe, then picked up by the exhaust manifold where the drivers mount was loosely attached and slowly lowered onto the rubber while being done up.
that gave much more room at the front

but none at the firewall :/


the next hurtle was no power to the ecu. this was fixed by ryan - turns out there was no power wires to the relays.
then came the rooted battery. so had to buy a new one.
then the starte was jammed... talk about bad luck!
once all that was sorted, it was time for the first startup.


this was downpipe only startup, at 10pm... my neighbours love me.
some more work was done hooking things up, bleeding the clutch (reverse bleed), cooling system bleed, and it was time for the first run!

that was the first time it moved under its own steam such a happy moment!
then we took it one step further.... down the road.
no bonnet,
no exhaust,
no fucks given.

then it was a case of playing with the minor details, such as c101 wiring (3 wires swapped for heater, windows & economy swingometer)

suspension not quite settled yet..



after 2 weeks or so of driving the car around as is with the 4.45 diff, disaster struck...

this is why you should always buy new parts that are critical... i guess we learn the hard way though!
so, $240 later i had a new BEHR radiator coming from schmiedmann thanks to 'Beamer Tuning'

while the radiator was on its way, i decided to rip the engine back out to fix some things...
these were:
-sump & timing case gaskets
-engine mounts
-firewall
-gearbox seal caused by rubber insulation (removed while engine out)

i also picked up an $11 set of cobra recaro LS replica's

then it was time to take the engine back out..

we all know hammers fix everything...

i couldnt resist!


while it was out, all the gaskets were done (sump was pretty bad gasket wise! but immaculate - no sludge)

i also deleted the flanges from the exhaust to give more steering clearence - thanks to ryan



ryan milled the engine mounts out 5mm, for more firewall clearence, and put a 7mm spacer on them to lift the motor from the ps rack

while removing the tailshaft flange to change the seal on the gearbox, this accidentally happened...

it was re-welded, but later snapped when put back into the car.

while waiting for a few things, i picked up a medium case 3.91 e28 diff from u-pullit. i also then picked up a 3.15 e30 medium diff to steal parts from to fit the e30
e30 3.15 on the left, e28 3.91 on the right

inside the 3.91


very very few metal buildup - its in good nick!

and the 3.91 with e30 rear cover and flanges, ready to go in


and my 4.45 buildup :/


the diff install wasnt too hard, but i did manage to strip a thread in the top subframe mount on the diff, but easy fixed!

the new rad inplace:


and bashing the firewall



then the heatshield test fit


once all that was done, it was time to put the engine back in!
it was thursday, and eurofest 2012 was 10 days away.... tight schedule!
mmmmm dat angle!

it was bolted up by friday night,

the new head clearence was good, about 5mm


and my mazda calipers arrived saturday morning


saturday morning i was bolting up the exhaust, when i noticed the gearbox mount re-snapped...

eurofest was looking dim! so after half a dozen messages and a few phone calls, i bought back my old getrag 260/5 i used for the flanges & linkages..
so my sunday night date with the missus' involved driving out the other side of town to pick up the gearbox... so romantic! haha
monday morning, the engine was back out, and the fun began!

neither myself nor ryan had pulled apart a gearbox before, but with the help of the bentley manual, we got started.
we had to make our own 'bmw sppecialist tools' to push the input shaft through the bellhousing aswell.



unfortunately, the first time around, the slector was stuck in 4th, so we pulled it apart again and fixed that.

we swapped rear cases and the motor was back in tuesday night. eurofest was back on track!


the exhaust was then welded up, the engine hooked up and everything re-bled and bonnet was put back on by thursay night.



however friday night i split a bottom e28 radiator hose, which meant no eurofest on sunday but this was fixed on tuesday, and since the car has been running nice. the only issue is that it keeps popping out of/wont select fifth gear, but only sits on 2700 at 80 in 4th so no biggie to fix that just yet!

the thermo works well, but is incredibly loud! with the 88 degree thermostat, it doesnt budge over half. i want to swap that for a 77 deg one though.

the torque is pretty amazing!

in fourth gear flying up a steep hill at 80km/h, it took of like a rocket when i put my foot down!

and the wheels spin very easily on take off, so im slowly learning that point of traction with it.

also have to install an o2 sensor soon, my idle is rough

the exhaust rattle has been fixed, and that is a 4cyl tacho, so divide those revs by 1.5 and its about 750-800

next on the list is treehouse racing control arm bushes as the exhaust is hitting on the stock ones.


and i should be ordering 280mm vw front rotors on wednesday.

my 'vehicle modification application' forms have been sent in, just waiting to hear back on what i'll need to get this registered properly.

thats about it for now, long i know!
ill keep this updated with the brakes & suspension thats yet to come, and also the outcome for registration.

until then, keep it real!

[jamjars]

and if anyone is after a long read, or more small details, my old thread is here:
http://forums.eurocca.net/showthread...671#post609671

[rcs_888]

So many lolz

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[luke]

Good stuff Jamjars.

Let us know how you go with the registration process. Did you apply to modify the brakes, or wait to see whether its required? My money is on that they won't require modified brakes, but time will tell.

[rcs_888]

Because of the large capacity increase they will require it lol. An with our applications you can just write down what brakes he will be running an they will say yes or no its not acceptable.

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[jamjars]

Good stuff Jamjars.

Let us know how you go with the registration process. Did you apply to modify the brakes, or wait to see whether its required? My money is on that they won't require modified brakes, but time will tell.

i'll text you as soon as the reply comes in!

the only modifications i listed on the form were the engine and 280x22mm fronts,

in the comments section i mentioned about the 2.7lt capacity and car already having brakes & suspension from that, and also an increase in master cylinder size. its only just over the 20% as you said, but time will tell what they require!
hopefully not a brake fade test :/

in the end i went with the rotors from this site, just meyle blanks and hawk hps pads, $250US shipped,
same place i got the rebuilt calipers and brackets from
https://sites.google.com/site/e30brakesolutions/

just about to order ebc green stuff and stock rotors to freshen up the rear too through Schmiedmann, should be just under $200 for that lot

[Kewliest]

Its annoying the way the e30 has low hat profiles, makes the brake upgrades and wheel choices more of a pain in the ass for brake clearance!

[rcs_888]

Did someone say 5lug???

Jimmy an i have been working on making an idiot proof kit with the capabiloty of changing to 5 lug and bigger brakes in a weekend.

At the moment its looking like were going to make some billet hubs running timiken roller bearings. This way we can make the hubs tp what ever offset we wqnt to compensate for hat heights

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[jamjars]

udates:
rotors and pads arrived today - meyle blanks and hawk hps pads from the google site - $250us shipped,
probably wont get a chance to install them until the new year due to going away & work.

in the meantime, i've been playing around with autodesk,
i managed to get a free version of autodesk inventor professional 2013 due to signing up as a student back in the high school days (even remembered my password!)

so ive been playing with the hub design, currently this is what i'm upto:


stock e30 hub minus the bearing race, not fully finished yet.
will have it stress analysed, and then create a e30 5 lug hub from this, and have that stress analysed and communicate with an automotive engineer about a new hub. worse case it will be good for track if its safe.

now just to find a bearing to suit the e30 stub...

edit:
picked the brakes up from the post office:


$520 US shipped for all that, pretty much everything you need! all from here

[Kewliest]

Thats not bad, there is a mob in the Uk that do custom kit with brand new components and their 280mm kit has 1 or 2mm more caliper to wheel clearance then the stock brakes but it works out to be around 660 AUD before shipping so factor in another 100-150 i would think on top of that.

They also do a 300mm kit for 430GBP before shipping, im not sure on the legalities of the kit as someone mention that the wilwood calipers arn't ADR compliant on here maybe (something about dust seals or something-a-rather not sure on this). I havnt enquired any further with these yet so not sure what caliper they use.

http://www.wms-brakes.co.uk/ website is there (without pricing)

You need to be a member to view the thread on e30zone

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?n...read&p=1732405

[jamjars]

Thats not bad, there is a mob in the Uk that do custom kit with brand new components and their 280mm kit has 1 or 2mm more caliper to wheel clearance then the stock brakes but it works out to be around 660 AUD before shipping so factor in another 100-150 i would think on top of that.

They also do a 300mm kit for 430GBP before shipping, im not sure on the legalities of the kit as someone mention that the wilwood calipers arn't ADR compliant on here maybe (something about dust seals or something-a-rather not sure on this). I havnt enquired any further with these yet so not sure what caliper they use.

http://www.wms-brakes.co.uk/ website is there (without pricing)

You need to be a member to view the thread on e30zone

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?n...read&p=1732405

yepp, you need dust seals on the caliper pistons to be road legal in aus, however apparently some people get away with this by it being 'overlooked' but not wiling to take that risk. otherwise the wilwood setup would be alot simpler...


well, about to go ahead and order some maintenance items.... overthetop maintenance....

-new leads
-new rotor cap and button
-new plugs (purchased)
-walbro 255lph intank pump (slight modification needed - overkill, but a good pump for 'future mods')
-new pressure regulator (possibly adjustable??)
-new fuel filter & lines
-new injectors (thinking ford 24# F2LE-B2A injectors, or just cleaned stock injectors)


hoping to do this with the walbro
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=134915

basically, the reason i'm doing this is because the engine has a rouhg/surging idle with missfire, and misses badly until 1500rpm under load then goes away...
and now sometimes it will ping/shudder badly under heavy load at most rpms, especially when the engines warm. it also loses a massive amount of power uptop occasionally, and sometimes will snap out of it at 4500rpm and boost to redline, or missfire ocasionally uptop too... its weird, and hard to pinpoint,

my other issue's are sometimes a hard start, sometimes a fuel smell in the engine bay, and very high fuel usage (15-20l/100).

hence why i'm going all out, as she needs abit of love aswell.

I also picked up an e28 528i for $400
it's blue, it was bagged, and its manual.
plans are to take the manual box, single mass flywheel and clutch and whack into mine. then make my money back from the rest of the wreck...

if anyone wants any e28 parts, hit me up.

[luke]

Sounds like a good bit of maintenance Jamjars - quick question on the 24lb injectors - will the EAT chip you have accommodate them? I've read very mixed reports on how far the Motronic computer is able to compensate for bigger injectors - 24lb would seem too far without a chip change.

I've been looking at running EL Falcon 4.0 injectors in mine - they're 19lb the same as the Mustangs (but you won't read about them on any US / UK forums obviously).

If you wanted a slightly bigger injector, you could go to AU Falcon, which are 3 pintle and rated at 20lb. The Falcon guys use them as an upgrade on EA - EL Falcons, so they should work - and are obviously pretty cheap.

[jamjars]

Cheers for the tips luke,
im not sure, i'll have to get my chip number and email EAT, but the guys in the US apparently run them, they perform slightly better than the 19lb but less mpg apparently.

Also now the starter motor is on its way out, keeps jamming... Luckily its parked on a hill so i roll start it if i need to! Haha

contemplating entering the Mt alma hillclimb this year aswell

[jamjars]

not much to update on this really,



solved the rough idle issue - changed the spark plugs, and turns out the air box was resting on the leads...

so spending that money on other things these days.


so far, i've done 1700km's since engine swap, absolutely loving it!

next on the agenda:
suspension,
going to have a crack at these:
fully cheap coily's uleh

if the springs turn out to be too soft, ill look at h&r race, but for now its better than my non existent suspension. its beyond a joke now...

picked up a elcheapo strut brace,
can feel some sort of difference (suspension stuffed)


ohh, and RIP E28.... you wont be missed.



however,
a new side project has is keeping me busy for now

i'll leave a few hints.

320i - snapped timing belt. $450

+


'mysterious' m20

more to come on that one

[Varden]

jamjars wrote:ohh, and RIP E28.... you wont be missed.

and some cheeky sods been doing skids in your driveway!

more to come on that one

2.7 stroker!!!???