E30 Zone

I've got a '93/94 316i touring and would love a 2.8 in it, I'm just wondering what sort of costs are involved? I can get hold of a E36 328, just looking for someone to fit it in my touring!

DanThe is in Staffs and this is right up his street.

Eko is in Devon and has plenty of experience at 24v swaps

If either of them are too far im up near Gatwick.

The cost of doing it correctly is a lot higher than you'd think.

What's your budget?

Dezzy wrote:The cost of doing it correctly is a lot higher than you'd think.

Indeed!

Long time no see Dezmondo!

bss325i wrote:

Dezzy wrote:The cost of doing it correctly is a lot higher than you'd think.

Indeed!

Long time no see Dezmondo!

I'm in and out mate.

People think swapping these donks over is easy and payment = 4 cans of special brew and 10 fags.

Dezzy wrote:The cost of doing it correctly is a lot higher than you'd think.

What's your budget?

I'm just trying to find out how much it is,

I've got just over £7200 in my savings so it not a issue of my budget, its more of if I want to spend £xxx on a 1994 touring!

Dezzy wrote: People think swapping these donks over is easy and payment = 4 cans of special brew and 10 fags.

aint that the truth !

320stu wrote:

Dezzy wrote:The cost of doing it correctly is a lot higher than you'd think.

What's your budget?

I'm just trying to find out how much it is,

I've got just over £7200 in my savings so it not a issue of my budget, its more of if I want to spend £xxx on a 1994 touring!

You might want to consider a 94 316i with an M52 already fitted in that case

No one has a ball park figure then?

magpie wrote:

Dezzy wrote: People think swapping these donks over is easy and payment = 4 cans of special brew and 10 fags.

aint that the truth !

in fairness it is easy to do the swap if you have all the right bits, i think its the time scale people misunderstand and the what the tech's time is worth

320stu wrote:No one has a ball park figure then?

It depends on how far you want to go.....

Chucking a 24v donk in there can be done for £500 or less.

To do it correctly can be very expensive.

To get the donk in the bay you need, Exhaust manifolds, Brake servo, Sump and oil pick up pipe, Engine loom, Radiator and Engine mounts. For starters.

Then you need to upgrade your brakes to cope. Also a steering rack upgrade is a very good idea.

My 24v conversion cost well over 6k and I did most of the work myself.

Can be done for well under £7200 mate! That's about what I've spent on mine so far and that's a long way from being just an M52 swap.

An upper limit of about £1500 should cover you for donor car, engine mounts, exhaust manifolds, sump & inlet manifold etc. You will get a hundred or so back when you scrap the donor, maybe a few tenners more depending on what you sell on ebay.

You will probably also want an LSD. A used one will set you back £300-£450 depending what ratio you want. You may also want to pay to have it rebuilt, another few 100's.

You already have vented front discs and rear disc brakes, having a touring. And the thicker front struts and front/rear anti-roll bars too. So the minimum you will want to do is a re-bush all round and perhaps new springs and shocks. Budget another £600 or so for quality stuff.

So to fit yourself and to make a proper car of it, in the region of £2.5-£3k. To pay someone to do ALL of the work (including suspension etc), expect to pay for around 40 hours labour. That's £800 on the cheap. More likely in the region of of £1250.

320stu wrote:

Dezzy wrote:The cost of doing it correctly is a lot higher than you'd think.

What's your budget?

I'm just trying to find out how much it is,

I've got just over £7200 in my savings so it not a issue of my budget, its more of if I want to spend £xxx on a 1994 touring!

£7200, you could build a belting car with that! Get it done!

Thanks for the info guys, I'm going to have to have a think where I want to go with this one,

Stu. you have PM on RR mate.

just buy eko's car job done

Sorry to jump in but if the cost are so prohibitive what engine options are worth going for insyead? I also have a 316i and was considdering the same conversion i was thinking it was around £1600

engine or donor car £400 .
318is g/box if needed £60
Danthe Loom £120
Danthe remap ecu 7k rpm limiter,ews delete £150
e36 rack £30
x2 e34 uj's £50
m20 flywheel and starter £50
danthe zaust manifolds and down pipes £225
325i zaust middle and rear sections £150 [used scorp]
Danthe fan loom £45
325i clutch kit ??
325i prop £40
LSD £300
m50 inlet £120
m50 e34 sump kit £140
Danthe p/s pipes £125
Danthe steering linkage bar and uj mod £65
Rad + fan £70

this is based on used parts^my donor car cost me £700 for a low mileage fsh 328i auto .

i make the raw materials only @ over 2k without suspension upgrade or labour and more costs will be added easily for gaskets and fluids ehen rad temp sensor etc etc .

it's not a 2k monkey swap if done by the codes of practice .

i have done my own conversion and had one happy customer welcomed into 24v power by converting his 318i 2dr .

funk me

reality check.

yup

When i did the touring the conversion came in at around £2.5K give or take £100.
Thats me doing all the work myself.
Pretty much the same as Mick's.
As said above it's how far you want to go but imo 2k plus labour is about the right price for a nicely done usable conversion.

magpie wrote:engine or donor car £400 .
318is g/box if needed £60
Danthe Loom £120
Danthe remap ecu 7k rpm limiter,ews delete £150
e36 rack £30
x2 e34 uj's £50
m20 flywheel and starter £50
danthe zaust manifolds and down pipes £225
325i zaust middle and rear sections £150 [used scorp]
Danthe fan loom £45
325i clutch kit ??
325i prop £40
LSD £300
m50 inlet £120
m50 e34 sump kit £140
Danthe p/s pipes £125
Danthe steering linkage bar and uj mod £65
Rad + fan £70

this is based on used parts^my donor car cost me £700 for a low mileage fsh 328i auto .

i make the raw materials only @ over 2k without suspension upgrade or labour and more costs will be added easily for gaskets and fluids ehen rad temp sensor etc etc .

it's not a 2k monkey swap if done by the codes of practice .

i have done my own conversion and had one happy customer welcomed into 24v power by converting his 318i 2dr .

The M52 conversion I did cost the owner more that that in parts because he bought pretty much everything new from BMW including a new genuine rad, e34 UJ's, etc.

Then obviously labour on top.

Oh yes, and brand mew scorp centre and rear. To loud though!

my customer bought the brand new mongoose system from ebay i think and it's a deep tone and not a rasper like the scorpion,pretty sure it was around £500 .




stering rack upgrade^^






the finished job was fully tested as agreed with the owner before any coont starts up ...OK,the engine was up to temp as it had just been filled up with coolant and bled before fitting the bonnet back on and the fan loom conversion tested to be fully working before going out on the road with it < i shouldn't have to really type all that out but with the amount of Zone c0cks about of late i feel i should .you know who you are

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as you can see the brake light switch needed sorting out !

Seeing that list really puts into perspective the amount of work and money. Although it seems to actually get the engine in the bay doesn't cost much, getting everything else to fit and work and to get the engine running is where the real expense is.

Add on new front struts and a rear disc conversion, and doing the bushes while you're at it and it looks very expensive.

Other way for Stuart is full M20 2.5 conversion as a simple swap over. So in effect making his 316 touring a 325i.

capnmchl wrote:Seeing that list really puts into perspective the amount of work and money. Although it seems to actually get the engine in the bay doesn't cost much, getting everything else to fit and work and to get the engine running is where the real expense is.

Add on new front struts and a rear disc conversion, and doing the bushes while you're at it and it looks very expensive.

Doing the work yourself,or as much as you can and buying in the bits that you cannot do,is a very satisfying way of spending six months.
You end up with the E30 that you wanted,built with your own hands.

My touring cost me in the region of £3k,to buy,convert to RHD and re-build with M50.My aim was to build a car that would last for 10 years with little more than routine maintainance needed.

Think it's about 4 years,now,only thing it's needed has been new rear brakes and new clutch master/slave.

daimlerman wrote: My touring cost me in the region of £3k,to buy,convert to RHD and re-build with M50.My aim was to build a car that would last for 10 years with little more than routine maintainance needed.

Think it's about 4 years,now,only thing it's needed has been new rear brakes and new clutch master/slave.

Brakes are service items so you cant really count them, but as for the clutch cylinders I always recommend fitting new when doing the conversion, same with the clutch itself. Yes it adds to the initial cost but it gives you the best start out. You can lash a conversion together with second hand parts for cheap, but you will only end up replacing them down the line which will always cost more.

Pretty much comes down to the old saying, you get what you pay for. If your penny pinching in the wrong places your going to end up paying more in the long run.

daimlerman wrote:

capnmchl wrote:Seeing that list really puts into perspective the amount of work and money. Although it seems to actually get the engine in the bay doesn't cost much, getting everything else to fit and work and to get the engine running is where the real expense is.

Add on new front struts and a rear disc conversion, and doing the bushes while you're at it and it looks very expensive.

Doing the work yourself,or as much as you can and buying in the bits that you cannot do,is a very satisfying way of spending six months.
You end up with the E30 that you wanted,built with your own hands.

My touring cost me in the region of £3k,to buy,convert to RHD and re-build with M50.My aim was to build a car that would last for 10 years with little more than routine maintainance needed.

Think it's about 4 years,now,only thing it's needed has been new rear brakes and new clutch master/slave.

I'd love to do it myself but don't feel I have the skills to carry out the job, I've not even changed a set of disc and pads myself for about 20 years and when I did they were only on a mg metro!

320stu wrote:

daimlerman wrote:

capnmchl wrote:Seeing that list really puts into perspective the amount of work and money. Although it seems to actually get the engine in the bay doesn't cost much, getting everything else to fit and work and to get the engine running is where the real expense is.

Add on new front struts and a rear disc conversion, and doing the bushes while you're at it and it looks very expensive.

Doing the work yourself,or as much as you can and buying in the bits that you cannot do,is a very satisfying way of spending six months.
You end up with the E30 that you wanted,built with your own hands.

My touring cost me in the region of £3k,to buy,convert to RHD and re-build with M50.My aim was to build a car that would last for 10 years with little more than routine maintainance needed.

Think it's about 4 years,now,only thing it's needed has been new rear brakes and new clutch master/slave.

I'd love to do it myself but don't feel I have the skills to carry out the job, I've not even changed a set of disc and pads myself for about 20 years and when I did they were only on a mg metro!

Seven years ago I was in the same position!
But as a youth I had re-built and installed a tuned A series engine into a mini.

E30 is built on the same basis as a Meccano set....

daimlerman wrote:

capnmchl wrote:Seeing that list really puts into perspective the amount of work and money. Although it seems to actually get the engine in the bay doesn't cost much, getting everything else to fit and work and to get the engine running is where the real expense is.

Add on new front struts and a rear disc conversion, and doing the bushes while you're at it and it looks very expensive.

Doing the work yourself,or as much as you can and buying in the bits that you cannot do,is a very satisfying way of spending six months.
You end up with the E30 that you wanted,built with your own hands.

My touring cost me in the region of £3k,to buy,convert to RHD and re-build with M50.My aim was to build a car that would last for 10 years with little more than routine maintainance needed.

Think it's about 4 years,now,only thing it's needed has been new rear brakes and new clutch master/slave.

I rebuilt all my suspension over the summer and did a manual conversion in august with my 316, but I retained the 41mm struts and the rear drums. So if I were to do an M50/2 conversion, I'd have to upgrade the front struts, get new springs front springs and would probably opt for a rear disc configuration, which in my eyes would mean new trailing arm bushes, discs and pads and shoes and a possible rebuild or new calipers along with cables pipes and hoses. It's all that stuff that adds up.

To be honest I would like to do an M50/2 conversion, it would definately be a step up from an M10, and I could do most of the wiring and modifications myself, but it'd still cost a fair amount.

Obviously on M10, 40, and perhaps M20b20 cars, the conversion is worthwhile, but is it worth doing on an M20b25?

I built an M20 2.7 for my second E30,this was a 320i moredoor,so came with 45mm front struts and rear drums.
I was quite happy with it until the very first Zone Roam,where it comfortably out-performed 325i's in a straight line,but was sadly lacking on the twisty bits....

A suspension re-build,with bigger,51mm front struts and M/tec springs with Boge gas dampers followed very quickly!
At the time,I was also running a 316i touring,I could not detect a real life difference between the two regarding braking,although the touring was ABS equipped.

The lesson that I learnt was that worn out dampers are just plain dangerous,lower,stiffer suspension helps,but worn out dampers must be changed.

Hmmm dubios residential street driving there