About time i posted up some pics/info on the Auld Barge

[BadDave]

I figured it was about time I finally got round to putting a little something together for in here.

The barge came about due to some over exuberance in the old Malachite 325i tourer one January evening a couple of years back.

Basically i killed it, as 1 or 2 on here can testify.

I went on the hunt for another BMW to run around in till I could find a suitable replacement E30,and acquired a 1998 E39 528i Touring in the interim.
This then took me on the E30 hunt.

At this point there was limited set criteria,other than it had to have decent bodywork and be structurally sound.

After several weekend trips looking at various E30's in 2dr,cabby and touring guises, a mate gave me a call and said he knew of one locally(to him in Edinburgh). I took a trip down and went to look at it,along with 4 other's that day,then went back to buy,what is currently my weekend/ongoing project.

Here it is in it's original state when I decided to part with my hard earned.


And after I/we got it back up the road.



I stripped out the poverty spec"comfort" interior,carpets, boot trim etc and fitted the Sports seats from the now deceased 325 touring


Next on the upgrade list was the brakes.
I'd already made a budget upgrade, so fitted some 302mm disks and Brembo 4 pots fron an E38


Which fitted neatly inside the wheels I had fitted at the time


Then progess was made on the suspension.I'd acquired a coilover conversion kit, so that was fitted along with some alloy R/J topmounts.




An opportunity for a bit of discount at GAZ meant these showed up on the doorstep.


Next up was a set of 18's for a touch of councilness with some rubber bands attached


The incar entertainment was also ongoing.

As the mighty M40B16 was a bit like a 40 a day asthmatic with bronchitis, it was duly replaced with an M20B25 along with it's gearbox,prop.3.64:1 LSD and chipped ecu.This negated a necessary upgrade in spring rates for the front.The 350Lb springs were ditched and the spare 450Lb ones fitted, but I wasn't exactly happy with them.I came to the conclusion that they were too soft for my needs and driving style, so I bit the bullet and ordered a pr of 550Lb spring and a pr of helpers, courtesy of Faulkners,which, once fitted made an immediate difference,although TBH, I'm still not happy with them and a further,stiffer upgrade could well be on the cards.

Rear leccy window motors and sunroof motor were fitted, and the 18's were sent off for a refurb and to get unbuckled and powder coated and came back in Anthracite(ignore the photoshopped IX arches for now)


Recently progress has been made on a ITB setup,which will be contolled by a DTA setup.I'm planning on using 2 sets of injectors and letting the ECU switch between the inner and outer set


I've been working on the next evolution brake upgrade which involves 6 pot calipers and some 335x32mm disks with alloy bells and caliper brackets.




Mock fitted to a spare strub/hub assembly


An M3 master cylinder will be fitted in the interim until the rear conversion is ready to fit,then an adjustable pedal box setup with be fitted(shown trial fitted to what's left of a breaker).


Rear setup(Work in progress)There will be a pr of mechanical h/brake calipers going on there as well
P.S
I know,the calipers upside down



I'll update as and when there's anything worthwhile to add.

[Jhonno]

I think you need bigger brakes..

Or more power to make use of them...

[ImysE30]

Brakes look awesome

[Dezzy]

They are impressive brakes no danger. What power will the throttlebodies bring the m20 donk too? Surely not enough to warrent that stopping power? Lovely set up though

[daimlerman]

Looks better in the metal parked at the curb at my gaff!
When you fitted the power roof,how much of the headliner tray did you need to cut away,please?
I robbed the power roof from the ex 2.7 4 door before it went to China to be re-cycled into cheap Tesco toasters....want to fit it to my touring,one day...

[gcs325i]

They are impressive brakes no danger. What power will the throttlebodies bring the m20 donk too? Surely not enough to warrent that stopping power? Lovely set up though

I think with the size of the turbo that'll be forcing air through the throttlebodies (when Dave gets round to finishing building it ) will mean the brakes will just about be adaquate.

[SteSE]

Impressive, any more info on the ITB setup?

[Dezzy]

Now that's more like it is that a t3 blower. Very impressive set up that

[BadDave]

I think you need bigger brakes..

Dan
I think a nice pair of J hook 355x32 or 36mm AP or Alcon disks would look good inside the wheel with a CP6600 AP 6 pot caliper

Or more power to make use of them...

I'll have to get round to building that 2.8L M20 lump at some point, to make better use of them

Now that's more like it is that a t3 blower. Very impressive set up that

That would be a T4

Impressive, any more info on the ITB setup?

What would you like to know??
The bodies(2 sets) are from a Suzuki GSX600R- K2/K3 model with the original ECU controlled 2nd set of butterflies removed.

The inlet manifold has been made from 2 M20B25 inlet manifolds.

The original fuel rail is attached as it normally would to the inlet mani.

The finger's on the ITB's still need to be extended and the 2nd set of injecters(M20B25 Bosch ones)still need to be attached along with it's fuel rail.

I also need to fit some longer silicone hoses, as the throttle pot currently fouls on the thermostat housing

[Rav335uk]

Wow!!, Love the ITB's and the brake set up.
You have been busy then?

[Dezzy]

That's a big rs500 blower nice. Is it on standard bearings mate. That will be interesting. Is the compression standard?

[BadDave]

That's a big rs500 blower nice. Is it on standard bearings mate. That will be interesting. Is the compression standard?

It's similar in spec to an RS500 blower with the exception of the wastegate(external in this case).
I haven't stripped it down far enough to see if it's running a 270deg or 360deg bearing TBH.
I've only removed enough to allow me to rotate the compressor and exhaust housing's so the oil I/O ports are vertical,instead of tilted about 35ish degrees

On the 2.8 when it gets built I'll be looking at keeping it around the 8.5/8.8:1 CR
Std CR on a 2.8 build is roughly about 9.4:1 CR so with the 3mm decomp plate and MLS gasket, it'll mean less gets shaved off the piston crowns to get the desired CR

[BadDave]

Wow!!, Love the ITB's and the brake set up.

Cheers Rav.

The ITB's were quite easy to replicate once I'd seen how others have gone about it.
No specialist tools or fabrication eqpt required.
9" grinder,file,hacksaw and that's about it TBH.

Disks and calipers were a lucky Ebay find.
The O/P listed them as Willwood instead of Wilwood and was selling them on behalf of a mate.
I did make a cheeky offer as soon as I spotted them and was informed that they'd let the auction run till the end .
Fortunately no-one else liked the look of them and/or they didn't check for mis-spelt listings, hence their going on the tourer

The rear setup is still very much in the development stage and is still a fair bit away from completion.

You have been busy then?

I need to keep myself out of mischief somehow

[Dezzy]

What do you reckon the possible bhp is you could achive. Must be 300+ surely with that spec. You will be able to run 12-15 psi of boost if not more will you not? Very

[BadDave]

What do you reckon the possible bhp is you could achive. Must be 300+ surely with that spec. You will be able to run 12-15 psi of boost if not more will you not? Very

Some of the guys in the US are getting 450-500ish bhp and similar torque figures with 22-25psi .

I'll settle for 9-12psi and 300ish bhp with similar torque to start with


The main priority is to get the front brake kit fitted,finish off and fit the throttle bodies and ecu and then get it mapped.
Also fit the new dash/data logger and hook up all the sensors

[Dezzy]

Impressive mate nice work

[billgatese30]

Still looking as council as ever with those turd brakes I see.

[Rav335uk]

The ITB's were quite easy to replicate once I'd seen how others have gone about it.
No specialist tools or fabrication eqpt required.
9" grinder,file,hacksaw and that's about it TBH.

Now I like the sound of that, I wonder if the same can be done with the M30 inlet manifold???

[BadDave]

I'd imagine the same techniques would apply to the M30 Rav

I did have to butcher 2 M20 inlets in order to get them to fit, as the runners on numbers 1 and 6 were too curved to get the silicone hose on at the correct angle.

If you have a look at an inlet mani side on, you should see what I'm on about.

I should also mention the runners for 1 and 6 are a slightly different shape too.

[Rav335uk]

Will do in the morning Dave.

[BadDave]

Brake upgrade now fitted,along with an E30 M3 master cylinder in the mean time.

[nickso]

does the brake upgrade replace those squeaky ones you had at the meet?

[320Touring]

Gawd, is this turd still on the road?

Looking good fella!

Although, accordigng to Jake, You and I never use our brakes

[BadDave]

Gawd, is this turd still on the road?

Fraid so.
Haven't managed to kill this one YET

Although, according to Jake, You and I never use our brakes

I've heard him mention something to that effect on the odd occassion.
Can't for the life of me figure out how he came to that conclusion though.
UNLESS the brake lights aren't working.

[BadDave]

Little update.

Not much been happening on the E30 as of late.
Purely down to the fact that I've been enjoying the Alpina too much.

Have however fitted the rebuild the M3 diff.Treated it to new bearings/seals/40% lock up and a poly bush.
Fitted a poybushed adjustable rear beam and poly'd trailing arms
Finally fitted the E36 rack and alloy steering guibo too.

After some testing,I wasn't too happy with the spring rates, so have upgraded both front and rear springs to somewhere nearer to my liking.

[gareth]

so, springs removed and solid bits of steel pipe replacing them?!!!

Incidentally, what spring rates have you gone for?

[BadDave]

Just some 550Lb on the Front and 275Lb ones on the rear.

Occasionally I think the fronts could/should be a bit stiffer

[gareth]

Interesting... I'm running 500lb front and 400lb ish on the rear

[billgatese30]

Just some 550Lb on the Front and 275Lb ones on the rear.

Occasionally I think the fronts could/should be a bit stiffer

Interesting... I'm running 500lb front and 400lb ish on the rear

Gareth, are you running on the standard rear spring perch. Dave is on a coil over damper rear end which requires a significantly softer spring rate as it is much further away from the pivot point.

[gareth]

I know that And yes, i'm running coilovers (leda ones), soft springs are for girls

[MarkT]

Nice thread. Like the brakes! Where did you get the top mounts from and how much?

[BadDave]

Nice thread. Like the brakes! Where did you get the top mounts from and how much?

Front mounts came from Compbrake.
Can't remember exactly how much I paid for them,as there were several items on that order.
I do recall them being on offer at the time of purchase though,hence the car not having adjustable mounts.

Check the Compbrake website for current prices

Rear mounts came direct from Gaz and were ordered at the same time as the rear coilovers.