E30 Zone

Updated 2nd page

Well as the title suggests i got another E30 for the costly sum of Ԛ£50 was walking up near a local park near mine and saw it looking worst for ware in a over grown driveway, didn't looked like it had moved for a while, so knocked on the door and chatted to the owner asked him if it was his and he wanted to get rid of it. Story was he went up his drive too quickly and cracked the sump on some hardcore, and its sat there for about half a year. He just hadn't got round to scrapping it so i gave him the Ԛ£50 he wanted for it and got it back to mine. Wasn't looking to good but there was no rust on it at all Had a pond in the boot but thats just from the rubber seal, so drained that out and no rust there either. Touch.


Gave it a little t-cut and started blacking out the chrome

316i power plant

Engine out, whats going on here....

unsuspecting donar car and my black M50'd E30

Engine using a proper hoist this time

New engine in, not bad for a weekends work, still got alot to do but much much easier second time round.



Another E30 saved from the scrappy, and should be quite nice when its done!!! [/b]

nice work dude, can't argue with that purchase price!

So what's going in the donor car?

Edit: just looked at that pic again and realised it's an E34, thought it was the E30 you'd just purchased as I was looking at the black one with the tasty rims & non-e30 powerplant.

Excellent work dude! Ԛ£50 is not a bad price for the car, just make sure that the brakes and susp is upto the job of using the m50!

got any leather in that e34???

what a bargain!!! you got the 2.5 e36 engine? she will go like shit off of a shovel.

Nice one mate, what a bargain

Leathers already on ebay at the moment
Well im guessing the brakes and suspension won't be to good, but im changing the rear legs to 325 items to convert to disks and with the front im probably going with the 325 shocks and a big brake setup, heard i can use adaptor plates, then 540i calipers and tt disks, so looking into that. On my black one i went Z3 rear and E36 front, so mixing it up a bit this time and been differen't. Also retained the E30 servo this time, and it only just touches the inlet manifold, but once the box is bolted up properly it should just have clearance. so should be better than the little golf servo in the black one.

Nice one. Extremely cheap!!!! Wouldn't mind an m50 for mine sometime. Seems a really good conversion.

what a bargain!!! you got the 2.5 e36 engine? she will go like shit off of a shovel.

Yeah i know my black one already does especially with the 318 diff in it still

Looking to make the gearing longer in this red one as well cause the black one hits the limiter at 110mph

Possible E28 diff with E30 output flanges?

nice one mate,you dont hang around much either thats how i got my first e30 touring as well,passing someones drive spotting it,knocking on their door then driving away with a bargain

EOS wrote:

what a bargain!!! you got the 2.5 e36 engine? she will go like shit off of a shovel.

Yeah i know my black one already does especially with the 318 diff in it still

Looking to make the gearing longer in this red one as well cause the black one hits the limiter at 110mph

Possible E28 diff with E30 output flanges?

If I recall correctly the diff from an e36 will fit up no problems.

320Touring wrote:

EOS wrote:

what a bargain!!! you got the 2.5 e36 engine? she will go like shit off of a shovel.

Yeah i know my black one already does especially with the 318 diff in it still

Looking to make the gearing longer in this red one as well cause the black one hits the limiter at 110mph

Possible E28 diff with E30 output flanges?

If I recall correctly the diff from an e36 will fit up no problems.

Any more info on this? I want to go as low ratio as possible to cruise on the M roads etc...without changing the gearbox.

EOS wrote:

320Touring wrote:

EOS wrote: Yeah i know my black one already does especially with the 318 diff in it still

Looking to make the gearing longer in this red one as well cause the black one hits the limiter at 110mph

Possible E28 diff with E30 output flanges?

If I recall correctly the diff from an e36 will fit up no problems.

Any more info on this? I want to go as low ratio as possible to cruise on the M roads etc...without changing the gearbox.

do a search for m50 conversions- most dudes use the full e36 running gear.

I've never done it so dont want to give out what may be incorrect info

Well that would help finding a prop to fit if its got a E36 diff as well!

banging job there chap what power are the 24 valvers as they are fairly easy to come by.
wouldn't mind a bit more power myself top job keep them pics coming

Well there meant to be 193bhp standard, not sure what my black ones running never had it rolling roaded. Its got a chippeduk race 3 chip to run with out the lambda signal, straight through stainless exhaust on 328 manifolds, K&N air filter, viscous fan removed, along with the powersteering pump. So hoping its near 200bhp, but not really worried as on the road it flys and seems to rev really nicely as well.

wow, damn i wish i had the mechanical know how to swap an engine over the weekend. looking good

that's the way to do it

You should take it back to the previous owner and offer him a ride in it once you're done. He'll be amazed!

Take the diff out! 525i's use a Type 188 diff that is often E30 compatible - rear casing is different but it might just be what you need diff wise.

Nice thread Mate, liking it a lot. These Alpina C2 boys don't like it up em!

You should take it back to the previous owner and offer him a ride in it once you're done. He'll be amazed!

Yeah I will do, I told him what I had done to my black one, and he said he saw it about liked the look and sound of it

Lucky i've still got the 525i I'll take the diff off that and see if it looks like it will fit up. The last one i did the diff looked huge!!! So i didn't bother taking it off.

Later E34 diffs (Typ188) are E30 big casing types - even if the casing is different you can get a gearbox/doff specialist to take the guts out and rebuild it into a standard 325i open diff casing.

Well finally started working on the car again, just moved house so not much got done.

Finally started it last weekend, first turn of the key and she fired straight up, after sitting for more than a few months, well impressed, unlike the neightbours, 9:00am with no manifolds

Just a few pics, changed slightly on the outside.

Got these wheels cheap on ebay, were kurbed to bits so had a little dremel session and sprayed them black, not perfect but i like them and adds to the look of the sleeper


In this you can just see the half leather recaros, another ebay bargin, from a rover, was a nightmare bodging up a subframe safely
And the 80mm drop. And the low and slow stickers, thats what its all about.



And after replacing the subframe bushes



I finally got the 325 rear arms on the back, with new pads, shoes and cables.



Just finished the prop, got to size that up and fit that, and just got my selector length done so now i can change gear.

Waiting for a big special parcel in the post, which will make this one a bit more special than the last M50 project i did.

Also thinking of a colour change, the options are stay red, just change the bonnet and boot black? Or spray the whole car dark grey? Im edging towards going dark grey with it, whats your opinions?

Rat look!!!

Prima grey all over then

My VW golf GTi MkII is definatly sporting the rat look at the moment after professional neglect

Actually, keep it red, looks good with the black bits and wheels!

Few taster pics





Just need to pull my finger out and finish it lol

Awesome!!!!!!

Very inspiring.

Mini update, haven't really had alot of chance to work on it as been saving towards a house and other expensive time consuming things which prevent me working on the car.

Managed to sort the oil feed to the turbo and sumps coming off this weekend for the return.

Decided im going to run the beast using MS so should be something interesting to learn as i go along.

Finished putting together a prop and fitting the gear selectors so it actually drives under its own power even if its alittle loud with no exhaust etc....

Oh and it changed colour...

Its going in the shop soon to get done properly. Helios blue the same as my golf.

Is that an Ebay turbo kit you've got there?

Excellent work, will be keeping an eye on this thread as it is where I would like to be heading

love this car eos mate,comming together so dame quick,you;ve got to do a video of it running dood good luck mate car is

how you doing the downpipe?e36 rack on there or not?

Absolutely fucking awesome! Loving it more every minute. M50 turbos are the way to go with 6 pots, especially bang per buck.

project not bad for 50 quid