E30 Zone

ok ill try and bring this up to date as quickly as possible here.. got the car in 09 as a 325i auto, converted it to manual, daily drove it and fixed little things here and there, got started tuning the standard ECU in the car which since spiralled into a little business venture tuning and chipping E30's.

few years ago had to patch the rear part of both front arches and since i didnt like the brown interior the carpet came out which ended up turning into a bit of a weight saving quest with me removing alot of sound deadening tar from the interior.

fast forward to late last year after having driven the car daily since 09 i decided to take the car off the road as i now have the majority of the parts i need to turbo the car plus some areas on the car need a bit of rust repair though its 99.9% superficial rust.

now on to the pics, back in 09 shortly after i got it and added a 318is front splitter:





2010-ish, 325i sport wheels and lowering along with some other bits and peices, most notably ECU tuning by myself, Z3 M Coupe gearstick, poly trans mounts and more servicing, oh and some drag racing:







some random pics from 2011, had sussed tuning for M30 AFM and MAF by this point, also deleted viscous fan and fit an electric fan on an adjustable temp switch, 325i sport wheels were sold and bottlecaps bought (again), mtech 1 boot spoiler bought/fitted and started to buy/collect turbo bits from september 2011:













not much happened between the end of 2011 and the start of 2013 bar collecting turbo related goodies, i changed wheels from the bottlecaps to some old 15 inch mille miglia something or others at some point between end of 2011 and middle of 2012 and destroyed a few pairs of rear tyres, also did a head to head race day and a drift day (which sucked with no LSD):




vids from 2012:
(2nd gear cul-de-sac fun)
(head to head race vs MR2 turbo)


that brings us up to 2013, moved into new (rented) house with new GF and kitted out the shed with scraps from work and whatnot, made myself a little workshop and started to get busy on the E30 again, most importantly started working on turbo stuff, the downpipe was a B*TCH and its still needing one or two little tweaks and welding up as its only tacked up at the minute:















and just today a pair of sideskirts arrived in the post, bought them thinking they were zender (lucked out and got them super cheap) but it turns out they are actually hartge skirts! after quickly fitting one and spraying it with a rattle can to get an idea of how they will look:






and yes that is a VW phaeton in the driveway infront of the E30, bought it in november 2012, shortly after the E30 came off the road. if anyones curious the phaetons a 3.2 and uses the same engine as the R32 golf. it keeps me amused while the E30 is laid up under the knife

I like this

I like this

very cool, like this a lot. does the poly trans mounts make a difference?

hongkongfuey wrote:very cool, like this a lot. does the poly trans mounts make a difference?

+1 on both counts.

how much are the g/box mounts ?

the trans mounts dont make too much of a difference driving in a straight line but the first thing i noticed about them was how much easier it was to get gears going round corners quick-ish so rear of engine and box were definately not moving around as much. between the mounts and the Z3 M Coupe gearstick (now with home brew extension + home brew weighted selector rod) i can rip up gears very quickly.. i can pull 1st to 2nd so quickly sometimes it seems as if im beating the syncro's as i get a crunch into 2nd occasionally. only happens sometimes when i manage to shift it uber quickly.

trans mounts and a short shifter make a great difference in feel and also help quicken up acceleration with less time fannying about rowing the standard stick between gears.

those mounts i have are ruff auto technik and came with optional alloy stiffeners for the top. they are for the E36 but when i parted out an E36 i had before i got the E30 i swapped them in along with E36 M3 half leather front seats

random video of when i was running a MAF, it shows a quick-ish 1-2 shift for an idea of the Z3 M Coupe stick (approx 70% shorter throw if memory serves):

ill have to look them up, i have a 2.8 z3 shifter and had a couple of probs under braking into corner

never had any bother finding gears after fitting the poly mounts. i can heel toe down the gears just fine even when braking as hard as possible.. can do it rather quickly also with the M coupe stick too

id say powerflex trans mounts would probably do the same job.. though i have a feeling the ruff ones i have may be stiffer. i bought them at a discount from a local BMW spares place after seeing them sit there for probably around a year.. dont remember off hand what i paid for them but it wasnt too bad. FWIW if you go for the same mounts i have you will get a little audible transmission whine inside the car in some instances.

i've got a short shifter and my car spins up a screech off the rears when shifting up to second and sometimes does it in third .

only in second on the m42 ....second and sometimes third on the m50 and second all day if the m52 had lasted that long can't say about third as the clutch exploded as well

i can do it in 2nd every time, occasionally into 3rd. M20 needs more power to squeak 3rd properly. once its boosted it will probably light up 1st, 2nd and possibly some of 3rd, cant wait haha

have you got a lightened flywheel ?

nah, standard M20 flywheel. should have got one when it was converted to manual though..

won't make much difference when you get the snail fitted

true.. wish this gas/no gas mig i ordered would hurry up and come. got some bits need patching on the body and my sealey no gas mig only goes down to 55a and just blows holes in the thin stuff

mmm.. bird sh*t looking welds few passes with the grinder will soon sort that out tho.




gonna have to do the same to the other rear arch. also a bit on the rear valence below the towing eye. wont see the sills or valence once the ac schnitzer kits on her but want to make it good and solid regardless. dont want the rust coming back any time soon.

more progress.. test fitted the ACS spoiler, more rust killing and fitted sports shocks in the rear.









also stripped the original ugly faded brown material off the parcel shelf and going to have a go at retrimming it in a black leather like material. something cheap and cheerful in case i fuck it up the first go lol

few teaser pics.. she will be worthy of wearing the ACS badges once the front and rear valences arrive and i get them, the spoiler and the skirts painted. also fitted my OMP stainless steel bonnet pins, the wire keepers (dunno what you would call them?) i made up from some steel (i think stainless) cable from an ancient garage door that was dumped in work some time ago. shes starting to take shape looks wise anyway.. f-all else done engine wise tho.




and to add to the schnitzer gheyness i managed to bag myself a full set of schnitzer springs and a pair of shcnitzer front shocks (made by bilstein for ACS back in the day). the car will probably end up sitting a litthe higher than it was before as im guessing the ACS springs are most likely going to be 35-45mm drop whereas the springs i have in her already are 60mm front and 50mm rear. the increase in height will be good for not dragging her underside over things quite so much and should also give some more clearance once the 3 inch exhaust system is built up and fitted.

couple pics i snagged from the ebay listing for the springs/shocks:



have got my eye on a set of 16 inch 4 stud genuine schintzer alloys in need of some paint so ill have to see how that pans out.. also keeping my eyes peeled for a schnitzer steering wheel and whatever other genuine wee bits and peices i can find for the E30 so could be some more goodies coming in due time.

cracked her open after work today. all looking good enough in the head/bores. can still see the hone marks on the bores and all, not bad for 140k odd miles.






time to start stripping stuff off the head and tidying up all the misc bits and peices that have come off her so far.

thats what comes after its all back together, running and motd/taxed

trouble is i do one job on it and notice 3 more that "i may as well" while its off the road. think rear subframe bushes are due a change too, noticed one side sitting higher than the other while shes up on the axle stands