The first year was purely just gathering parts and maybe a few tinkering sessions
During this process ive gone from a single fella owning a red but more pink 1990 320i se to being engaged (some may remember my poll thread asking if I should get a standalone ems or a ring) and having 3 kids while getting myself a 1989 325i sport.
Anyway enough chit chat lets get on with it.
This is what it all started with, my first e30 bought while I was 19

Pity it was only a 2.0 but still good fun
The turbo Idea came from my mate with a 1996 imported impreza wrx that we both modified to push out 330bhp, he said it’d be funny if we both had 2.0 turbos, so off I wet collecting parts for a low boost build after reading so many threads both on here and a few others, most were the old school bodge jobs that had rrfpr and tweaked afm’s
I got myself a cheap ass Chinese manifold and a few other bits like a turbo, intercooler and 24lb injectors from the states




Poor e30

After reading so many things I bought myself a M20B25 later low compression engine complete to dump in with the turbo

Stripped it down

Fitted cheap ass manifold

Painted and manifold installed


I thought progress was going quite well but sadly my grandmother passed away, she lived in cornwall and I live near Liverpool so the bmw had to go to fund the trip down to the funeral
But to my good graces I got another E30 a couple of weeks later after I sold a few of the turbo bits and another car I had but this was a fantastic buy
1989 325i sport with 137k miles on
Seen better days but not all that bad

Bought it and I was on my way like a kid in a candy shop again
I gained some motivation again started to repair the damage on the car

But I had a bigger surprise when on my birthday morning my misses gave me a big box, little did I know that it would be the start of this restoration and turbo build
Want to see whats in the box? Course you do

She was a crafty bitch and actually contacted a fellow zoner behind my back and bought it.
So the build was back on but this time I wanted to do it properly not bodged, I started gathering parts again but better this time around, One zoner in particular was like an agony aunt for me answering so many questions and helping me source so many vital parts (you know who you are, if you want credit just say so and I’ll name and shame you)
Bigger holset h1c turbo

067 clubsport rack

Alloy 2.5inch intercooler

3 inch stainless downpipe

Braided oil feed line with adaptor for m20 block

Megasquirt MS2 V3.0 ECU

MS bespoke loom

I was so excited I started fitting stuff way before I should have


while the manifold was off I changed all the studs in the head for stainless

So it gets to winter and the progress stops because the car is outside and its far too cold and wet to work on it.
Christmas morning comes and yet again my misses proves shes one in a million by giving me yet another amazing present in the form of this bad boy

Yes it’s a chinese GT35 but itll do, ive read good and bad things so I decided ill give it a shot
Test fitted it


Laid up for the winter and gathered more parts but I also had a big shock
Someone broke into the yard I stored the car at and decided it’d be a good idea to smash the rear window

B**TARDS!!!!
Luckily within 20 mins of putting a wanted add up, in true zone spirit I was offered 3 screens so I chose one from a reputable breaker on here



Decided while I was doing the screen I thought id polish the car and clay bar the paintwork



Spare is on the front due to a flat tyre
I then started thinking in every different direction about what parts to get
I got myself some 440cc bosch green giants
Intercooler boost pipes and silicone couplers
Gauge pod and gauges



An10 Turbo oil drain kit

Oil filter relocation kit and oil cooler

E30 Fuel pump modified with E36 M3 pump unit

New inlet manifold to clean and paint black to fit the 440’s to and drop in all in one


But then I thought about how to stop the B**CH when she’ll have more power and the brakes were already quite inadequate (hence the front end damage)
I thought id try and make my own kit using skyline calipers front and rear and a few smart decisions with discs
But after a lot of messing about with grinders, burrs and drilling discs to fit, I decided to go with something tried and tested
BMW E34 540i calipers front and rear
Scored the front brackets first all the way from germany

These were designed to be used with the above caliper and an audi 312mm disc
Picture from google to compare the calipers

Difference between stock e30 disc and audi one

Front calipers after a quick scrub, paint and rebuild


Havent done rears yet
This leads me on to a bet I had with a mate that it wouldn’t be running be a certain date, I had a cambelt, waterpump, thermostat and rad change to do. More on this later but I didn’t have much time left to do it in.
My camera on my phone decided it didn’t like being dropped so I didn’t get any pics of the cambelt install. While it was stripped down I also cleaned and painted the cam belt covers and pullys etc
While I was working at the front end I also decided to fit the intercooler to see how itd look
Cheeky tub

Stripped the front end

Saw this

But carried on regardless





Put the valance back on but it wouldn’t fit so had to chop a few places

First of many cuts. Trim fit remove trim fit remove, I was trying to keep the mounting point hence the ball ache

Doesn’t look like it but the intercooler is behind there

painted the rocker cover

basically the bet consisted of a few beer tokens if I could make the engine start and run, drive across my works yard, stop at the other end and make the return journey.
On the day before the deadline with a fresh jerry can of fuel and a nice battery this happened
http://vid1299.photobucket.com/albums/a ... 8691vu.mp4
bear in mind this is the first time it has ran in about two years. I think that’s quite nice ïaŠ
after warming up I had a big shock. The engine had decided that it didn’t like the oil I had chosen so it dumped it onto the floor underneath the car
Luckily I caught it before it did any damage, I traced it to my remote oil filter kit. In all my haste the braided lines were not fully tight so I cleaned it up and tightened the lines
Then after a double and triple check including bleeding the water system I did this
http://vid1299.photobucket.com/albums/a ... sez0vk.mp4
I WON THE BET
After driving it with the new calipers, discs, pads and fresh fluid all round the pedal was so squishy and lack of feel
I figured the master cylinder would be way too small for the 60mm front pistons so I got myself a E32 735i double chambered servo with 25mm master cylinder


During this servo swap I noticed a bit of orange powder fall as I was taking the glove box out
After a bit of poking about at the tiny hole I found this

I thought while im there ill go on a rust hunt as I already knew there were a few small patches
Drivers footwell

Passenger footwell

Under the passenger front seat

My heart sank so much I debating selling up and going back to my roots in vws but a few mates convinced me to grow a set of balls and get it welded up so started looking into what I needed and started buying the supplies
Just before I found all that I bought all the stuff I need to build the exhaust
3m of 3 inch stainless steel pipe
3 inch mandrel bends
2x 3 inch self locating v band kits
Stainless welding gear
But one trouble was my turbo was a Garrett 5 bolt outlet but my downpipe was a 3 inch v band so I ended up buying an adaptor from the states
Waited 3 weeks for it to arrive and it’s a work of art, comes with the gasket, v band clamp and flange for the dowpipe
I couldn’t resist so to try and make myself feel better I fitted it to the turbo the to the manifold with all new stainless hardware to avoid rusting ïaŠ also had to modify the dowpipe and cut 3 inches from it to fit

I also bought a clutch just the other day, XTD stage 3 6 puc from another zoner, cant wait to get that in

Well that’s where I am as of today, skint and so much more work to do, I do have a cost list of what ive spent but im not going to publish it incase my misses sees it haha
Im sure ive missed so much out and a lot of photos as I didn’t want to bore people too much
I will update it when I make some progress but winter is stopping me
Any advice or what I should do is welcome, but please can all A**holes stay away