E30 Zone

well hello everyone, ive been a bit of a lurker for a while, so this is my first post. first of many i hope!

so, i was happily driving my e39 daily on the motorway a few weeks ago, when this happened... on the M25... in the outside lane...

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it doesnt look quite so bad in the pics, but the roof is destroyed, as well as the bonnet and screen obviously.

the eagle eyed among you would have noticed its a v8 engined 540. and its got a manual box! i had always wanted to build a v8 e30, and now i guess my mind was made up for me. so ive just picked up this:





and i plan on combining the two into a fast road/track day car. ive been driving the e39 daily for a few years, so the engine and running gear is well trusted, and obviously i have every part i could possibly need from the e39! so here starts my journey, i need to figure out everything i need to know to do the conversion, and how much stuff i can use from the e39. am i likely to be able to use (will it be benificial) brakes/suspension etc? i have converted a few wiring looms before, but never a BMW, so thats something else ill have to figre out.

im gonna hit the search bar now, so you have any links to particularly interesting build threads i'd love to read them!

Wow, this thread has serious potential , lots of pics please. E30 looks v nice.

This will be interesting, good luck.

That must have been a nasty shock when the bonnet went up!

Good luck with the conversion. Project car looks worthy!

Cheers fellas, yeah it was a bit of a shock to say the least! I don't know how I didn't actually crap myself! Thank fuck I managed to stop without hitting anyone/anything else!

I'm off down the workshop today to have a good crawl round under the e30 to see what I'll need. I know it needs a few little pieces of welding to start with so we'll see how it goes.

More pics to follow!!

the struts on the 320i will be 47mm and the smaller of the two available standard items the other being 51mm,your 320i will have drum rear brakes so you should also update to a rear disc conversion . you'll probably need coilovers running a v8 .

best of luck,love the black 2dr btw

thats interesting about the struts, ill have to look into that further. i'll think i'll end up having to get coilovers, but i've got plenty to do before i actually start swapping the engines, so i might get some cheap lowering springs or something for now - off to the for sale section!

regarding the brakes, would it be possible to use the e39 brakes at all? it just happens that i had recently rebuilt the calipers, so i'd like to use them if i can. plus they're free!

so i had a closer look at it today and found a few bits i need to sort first. the diff seems to be losing one of its flanges! it works fine, but one side doesnt seem to seat in correctly, i can actually pull it in and out. not so far that it loses drive, but it defo needs attention





i also found the exhaust is a bit squashed, it doesnt look too bad in the pic, but its actually squashed to about half its normal size! no idea how it happened, but its gotta be sapping what little power the 320 engine has right? ill be using it as it is for a bit, so i guess ive gotta make the most of the 320 engine, if only temperary!



i was very surprised to find the original bmw tools in the boot! looks like theres only one small bit missing. are these worth any money to the standard resto guys? i haven't inspected them closely, but they appear unused!



so then i moved to the engine bay, and found the throttle cable seeming to be missing some bits! turns out i was only getting about 2/3 throttle with the pedal right down - no wonder it was so slow! i ended up bodging it with a few spare nuts so i can get full throttle, its not much faster though to be honest!



as far as i can tell ive only got one bit of welding to do, on the drivers side sill, near the front. its not very bad really, but the pic looks terrible - had to drive accross grass to get to the workshop so its super dirty. plan on tackling this next weekend hopefully.

Get the carpets up and boot carpet out ad get the camera ready, theres some rust lovers on here! Good luck with this and its going to be a good thread!

Nobby_N wrote:theres some rust lovers on here!

I thrive on it,

Interesting thread.

The exhaust is meant to be like that. Ideally it would be pushed up further and that flat bit is where it passes under the rear subframe.

Should be interesting.