E30 Zone

Nice progress Mr Rash. When's the paint work coming? Thank you, hoping to start sanding in a few weeks ready to paint the car in my garage over summer. We will see how that goes! My old man is encouraging us to fix the paint on the E36 first, which might make for some much needed practise before we...

You Lied to me Alex !!!!!!!! You said you were not an engineer . Your problem solving and thought process in doing so is remarkable ! The way you attacked each individual problem was sensational to say the least, but, the end result is something to be very proud of and I really hope your build in t...

I got the front E30 sports seats reupholstered using the Lseat covers too. It was actually more challenging than I anticipated and took an extremely long time to do. I chipped away over multiple weekends to get them done, really taking my time to get them right. https://youtu.be/JHjHgi6n1gk It might...

Thanks Mart, even when we are disagreeing on something (quite regularly), I wouldn't change dad for the world. He keeps me on the straight and narrow. Long may that continue!

Haha cheers Ben! He's more than useful at times, you may well be right.

Back with another E30 interior update. I dove head first into recovering the rear seat bench with some Lseat leather covers I picked up ages back. I figured it would be best to learn all the hard lessons on the rear seat before I try to do the fronts, which seem much more complicated. Effectively th...

Thanks Mart, I will look him up!
I do have full leather seat covers on the shelf which have been staring at me for a while which I'm hoping to make use of. But the jury is out on it currently, decision will need to be made very soon though!

Cheers!

It's been a little while since the last update but I'm back on the E30 project and moving on to the next phase. After swapping the cam sensor and still having the exhaust pots and pans noises, I have decided to park that and get back to it when I am driving the car again. For winter I've tucked the ...

600 rpm tick over seems a bit low? 750 might be better. Ben Yeah it seems like 600-650rpm currently, which I am imagining is stock E36 tickover for one of these? Probably for emissions reasons. No doubt it's my stiff Condor engine mounts making it feel a bit more vibraty at idle at this lower engin...

Back again with another E30 build update. After the previous video where I shared my experience of how the car drives, I set about trying to address some of the more unpleasant traits it has. I took the majority of people's recommendation in going for 3.64 ratio diff to get rid of my silly short 4.2...

Thank you Ben, and yeah it seems you may be right about the lack of baffling, a real shame that. Looks like a great exhaust shop you're linking me to there, that's exactly the kind of place that could sort it out for me. Hoping for more local if I go that route though. Let's see how it sounds with a...

BMConversions Dan has suggested the Scorpion exhaust mid-box can be vulnerable to getting ruined so a repack might be a good idea. If I can find a place willing to cut open and reweld the stainless. Yeah it was interesting about the gearbox suggestion. But I think changing my diff to the 3.64 will b...

A little overdue maybe, but I've now had chance to put some miles on my M52 converted E30 and ready to share my experience. The car has been awesome in many ways, and it's exceeded my performance expectations massively. It's an absolute hoot to drive, the M52 is strong and feels like a junior S54, a...

I've been really enjoying driving the E30 and I've done around 200 miles in it now. I'm learning to drive it better but there are a few things that definitely need changing for it to be the right balance for me. I'll elaborate on all of that in the very near future and talk about how the car is to d...

Yeah I'm still feeling really pumped about it!

Howcome you fell out with your car, did you face problems?

BenHar wrote: ↑
Tue May 14, 2024 6:16 pm
Well done, Alex.

Tyres won't last long at that rate!

Ben

Cheers Ben! Haha indeed, I had to give it some stick, it's given me plenty recently.

All feeling much more worth it now it's road legal and usable.

martauto wrote: ↑
Tue May 14, 2024 5:24 pm
Spot on mate, it`s a great feeling when you have built it from scratch to know very little was needed for a test.
Credit to you !!
(and the "old man" )

Mart.

Thank you Mart, yeah I was feeling particularly proud of what we've done when it got the pass.

Finally, after what feels like forever, the E30 build is road legal! https://youtu.be/HTgp7AeJ_dM?si=z0BySZ_eBf8DNRm8 On the buildup to the MOT test, I ended up swapping in a brand new PAS pump to remedy the tired original one, tinkered with the headlamp aim by adding some shims into the bottom moun...

Back again with another M52 E30 update for you. A mixed bag of news really, some additional and unexpected issues, but in equal parts some great news! The Good: By some miracle, my clutch no longer seems to be slipping. All we did was remove the slave cylinder and refit, but nothing appeared wrong. ...

Cheers Mart, yeah I think you're right, there's a good chance the MOT might flag up some stuff I didn't even think of. But I feel like I should wait until I at least don't have any known reasons for it to fail. With the clutch, I'm also a bit worried about driving it far, even as far as the MOT cent...

Well, I did the unthinkable and booked an MOT for the M52 swapped E30. I was so excited to get this car road legal and start enjoying it and shaking it down ahead of summer, spurred on by a few fair weather days. Knowing it was ambitious, I set about reassembling the car. In theory I should have onl...

Cheers Mart, I'm really chuffed with them, they're remarkably solid. Much more so than I anticipated. Which is lucky when you're near enough trusting something with your life. That sounds like a very interesting lead on free or cheap timber! I thought £70 was a bargain for these, but it would have b...

Hey guys, another little update for you, although this time more about the garage setup I'm in while working on the E30. https://youtu.be/YThmzuZyJ38?si=0o05xmRQ4TyMDMXP I got a bit fed up of wedging myself into such a tight gap beneath the car. Axle stands just aren't giving me the lift I need to w...

Currently enjoying working my way through your videos. I've just bought a 325i coupe which is in need of work so will no doubt end up doing some of the work you've had to do. Would be chuffed if I can get it half as good as yours looks. Keep up the good work 👏 Awesome, I really hope the vids come i...

I've been busy getting the cooling system completed for the M52 swap E30. I'm really happy with the result on this one! https://youtu.be/yd6HcgEcV0w I decided to forget the idea of trying to use the viscous fan, even though I know they are super effective. There's just not enough room between the en...

I'd definitely recommend upgrading to brakes to suit the increased power, but from a practical standpoint there's no reason you couldn't run the original E30 brakes, even with the rear drums. In truth the fronts do the vast majority of the work anyway so those are the main thing worth upgrading.

I'm using E36 328i calipers up front and E46 325i calipers at the rear. I can't remember the piston sizes off hand but they're much more substantial than the stock E30 brakes so should have no trouble slowing the car down. You'll have to hang on for a genuine report on the brakes though, I've only f...

I have just got my e90 booster would these work rather than bending brake lines https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175464644294?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=CfWbZDI9QQ6&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=rCEZxzLfTk6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY In theory yes it would work, but I'm with flybynite i...

Perfect, glad you got away without clevis modification.

Yeah I think you've about nailed it on reducing spillage. keep the reservoir sealed and hopefully it will hold most of the brake fluid in. Aside from that, work quickly to get the lines in.

I'm pretty sure I reset the brake light switch on an E30 at some point in the past. Setting it goes something like this - you have to push the switch centre back into the body of the switch and it sets itself when you put the switch back into place. In other words, take the switch off, reset it. The...

Ahh yes, I've had many a frustration with brake line nuts, they are pretty much designed to spoil your day. I find heating up the thing it's screwed into (usually caliper) can help a lot as it increases in size slightly, then carefully spraying some penetrating oil on the nut itself to cool it - shr...

No worries, sounds like you've come up with a good solution. Hope the brake booster swap vid helps you out too.

Hi mate, these are the exact lines I used for the rear with my 5-lug swap, and it seemed to fit great for me:
E30 Inner rear brake lines: https://ebay.us/qEnkSk
E30 front brake lines (used as outer rears): https://ebay.us/p5oE51

Hope that helps!

Thanks Scott, really glad you're enjoying the vids. If you follow along maybe I've made the process more possible for you?
The bad news though is it still won't be quick or cheap to do. :') I think it will all be worth it in the end though!

BenHar wrote: ↑
Mon Jan 22, 2024 8:15 pm
Brilliant, well done.

And thanks for the name drop!

Ben

Cheers Ben, and haha glad you appreciated it!

Can't promise I can stick religiously to the correct terminology though...

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