E30 Zone

Hi all,

Ive been lurking here every day for the past few years and have recently bought this as a project:

The car is well known to me, as its original owner lived round the corner from where i grew up, and i went to primary school with his daughters. I can clearly remember them beign picked up in it! They kept the car for a very long time, approx 17years and then it was sold into the trade.
I was offered the car a few years after this, however i declined as i felt the asking price was too steep.
So when it became available at a more realistic price last month i felt i should step in and save it!










My plans are to refurb the wheels, get it Mot'd and Taxed then as funds allow do a full refresh on suspension/chrome/interior etc...

Nice find - how much was it? The suspension ride height looks strangely high though

Awesome!

Moordoor chrome rightness...

I very almost bought this car with the intention of breaking lol


Good luck with it fella

Darren you hero! get stuck in.

Good find.......now start cleaning

Simon13 wrote:Darren you hero! get stuck in.

+1

were the centre caps missing when you bought it?

adit wrote:

Simon13 wrote:Darren you hero! get stuck in.

+1

were the centre caps missing when you bought it?

No, all the centre caps, locks, lock covers and keys where there,
and the car has still managed to retain its original floor mats!
It really is un-molested, the service book, owners manuals etc.. are still in the original plastic wallet.
It still has its original dealer sticker on the rear screen - although it is tired and flakey!
Ordered the new tyres today and a bunch of stuff from the dealer and booked the wheels in for a refurb in Jan.

what a lovely old Turd,

it may be a More-door but it's still a piece of Alpina Heritage well done,

Diddler will be proud of you !

Very rare find good luck with the fix up

nice find will be nice when its sorted.

the ride height is defo a tad tall lol whats going on there?

Will make a nice car with a bit of love!
I saw it for sale recently,well done with the purchase.

I bet it feels wonderful to purchase something you admired in childhood.. the exact reason I own E30s myself. A friend's Dad owned the first one I'd seen.

Bit of an update:

Wheels went from this:


To this:


Very pleased with the results of the refurb, and the new Badges help set it all off.

I picked up this exhaust and 6 branch manifold recently:




I am not too sure if i should fit it, is it a bit 'council'? The car at the moment is running the log manifold with a standard system.
Do any of you guys recognise it? It says made in germany, but with the tiny middle boxes i am guessing it may bit a bit too boomy and loud, what do you rekon?

Starting to gather some shiny new parts up:


I have decided to 'spec' the car up with more factory options while its all stripped in the bodyshop, and have bought:
Complete air-con set-up
Headlamp wash/wipe
10 Button On Board Computer
OEM Tweeter Pods
Rear Head Rests with fitting kit.

So thats where things are at the moment......

nice purchase

wheels look great after refurb

That is awesome. I love a moredoor.

The manifold is a genuine RHD Alpina item which were made by Janspeed.

looking forward to watching the progress on this

Oh and another Alpina saved!

i just typed that out, but someones beaten me to it. Sell it to me! lol not sure on the exhaust don't recognise it myself

That must be one of the first C2 2.7 going by the build number. Pretty near the build number on mine.

Also the manifold is really nice , I was very close to getting one but the seller sold it to someone else for £50 more when we already shook hands on a price. Good luck with your restro.

Today i managed a bit of a DIY refurb on the badges......

Went from this:

To this:


When i bought the car the original 2.7 lump had been removed, and although i got it with the car i decided not to fit it. This is so i can do a full strip down/ rebuild when time and money will allow.
What i have managed to do is fit an early hc 2.5 that i know is good and healthy.
But - i managed to fit a later flywheel onto it, without the crank pickup pin, and as my car has the early motronic 1.1 it has the crank sensor in the bellhousing
So i have 2 options

1) Try and get an early flywheel and take the 'box out to change it, or-

2) Convert the car to motronic 1.3

Very nice

Send me ya address via PM, I've found what ya after

Don't convert to the later motronic.

If you do, you will then need to source an Alpina motronic 1.3 ECU which is near imposible to find.

Look for an early fly wheel as they a reasonably plentiful.

kieran325 wrote:Very nice

Send me ya address via PM, I've found what ya after

Thanks- but i got the other 2 i needed yesterday from the dealer - think they had been on back order from Germany....

bss325i wrote:Don't convert to the later motronic.

If you do, you will then need to source an Alpina motronic 1.3 ECU which is near imposible to find.

Look for an early fly wheel as they a reasonably plentiful.

Is the later motronic system not better? - My long term plan is to rebuild the 2.7, tweak the head, good cam, BTB3 and system with a MAF conversion, so it will probably need a custom live chip anyway?

The other issue i have is with the ecu on the car - its been repaired back in 2006 by someone called NWR, Nigel William Rodgers, and the invoice states "remanufactured ecu".
The case still has the alpina sticker, but i havent yet taken it apart to check the EEPROM chip. How will i know an Alpina chip is still in there?

Yes, the later Motronic 1.3 is better, having more load sites for better resolution, and they do away with the failure-prone flywheel sensor (the pins tend to drop off!). Also, they are easier to chip, having only one PCB instead of two.

I can supply a C2 2.5 EPROM which can be fitted into any Motronic 1.3 six-pot ECU to give the 2.5 a useful boost, or even a B3 2.7 one should you later require one.

If your Alpina ECU has an Alpina chip, it will probably have a label on it to say so, or none at all. (BMW EPROMs have a silver label on, with a part number, e.g., 1 267 356 378).

Had a quick look inside the ECU:



The EPROM has a silver sticker with a short 5 digit number written on it.
Its also sitting on a jumper board, so i think its an Alpina original......
Any else know better?

It would help, perhaps, to provide the number.

It looks from the photo as if a 24-pin EPROM has been inserted into a 28-pin socket. I wouldn't expect the likes of Alpina to bodge things like that!

Speedtouch wrote:It would help, perhaps, to provide the number.

It written by hand, and its very small.

It says 677.2

or 6 > 7.2

looking good darren where about in n ireland are you? who done you wheels?

e30325itourer wrote:looking good darren where about in n ireland are you? who done you wheels?

Thanks im in Bangor,

NU-LUK in Carrick did the wheels,

Would you have an early flywheel with a pickup pin on it by any chance ? lol

darren_mk wrote:

e30325itourer wrote:looking good darren where about in n ireland are you? who done you wheels?

Thanks im in Bangor,

NU-LUK in Carrick did the wheels,

Would you have an early flywheel with a pickup pin on it by any chance ? lol

Sorry mate dont have one if you dont mind me asking how much did nu luk charge pm if you want






Thomas

e30325itourer wrote:

darren_mk wrote:

e30325itourer wrote:looking good darren where about in n ireland are you? who done you wheels?

Thanks im in Bangor,

NU-LUK in Carrick did the wheels,

Would you have an early flywheel with a pickup pin on it by any chance ? lol

Sorry mate dont have one if you dont mind me asking how much did nu luk charge pm if you want






Thomas

I was about to ask the same thing...

Just want to ask a bit of advice:

I cant make up my mind about the Motronic conversion as I have pros and cons.

If I stay on the original system I will have to take the gearbox back out, and most importantly FIND an early flywheel. Ive had no luck with the wanted ads here or the Irish e30 site. Plus if I stay original future tuning will be limited.

If I upgrade to 1.3 then I will have to strip even more of the car to bits when I really just want her running again. However, having the later system is going to be better in the long term for the rebuilt 2.7 and maf conversion etc... and by changing over now I will save myself work for the future.

I really can't decide.

To make matters worse a local chap is breaking a tech 1 and wont sell the flywheel separately from the engine. Plus I already have a 1.3 engine loom, crank pulley/sensor, plugleads etc... so all I need for the conversion is the ecu and loom to the c101. So call to a local BMW breakers later and they quote me £150!!! Is that the going rate? It sounds too much.

Anyway, what do you reckon I should do?