325i Sport Hill Climb build-time to turbo
Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 6:23 pm
Figured I would start a project build for my turd. Owned it for 5 years now and it's getting close to "finished" (if there is such a thing) in this guise.
This is how I bought it:
Picked it up off a friend of mine at a decent price. Came with an 18 point safety devices cage as well as he was turning it into a hill climb car as well, before selling to buy a Clio Cup car.
He had started removing the sunroof but never finished it and it had a fibreglass sheet taped in place over the hole. A local rally hero and fabricator makes blanking plates out of steel he shapes over a MDF form so I dropped it round to him to be plated out:
Not a great picture but this is it spot welded in placeL
After driving it around on the road for a while the top hose blew while I was hooning it. Unfortunately I didn't notice and buy the time I saw the temperature gauge it was too late and the head was cooked. By a stroke of luck, another local e30 owner and hill climber (martinpallot on here) was selling his m50 conversion. It came with an m50 and m52 and I chose the m50 as one day I plan on boosting it.
So with the help of a couple of mates we ripped out the m20:
And dumped in the m50:
And that's how it sat for ages as work got incredibly busy so I had no time for it and needed to source a few bits.
So bought some AKG engine mounts and e36 (I think) engine arms and got the engine sitting on those. Gearbox is solid mounted on a modified crossmember as I am using an e30 box so it sits at a different angle.
Then I bought some bits and bobs like WMS brakes and renewed bushes and drop links and left the car for ages as I was getting fed up with it. I also installed a refurb z3 rack with lines and splined shaft from DanThe. Not a great pic:
Eventually got round to doing more so finished off welding in the roll cage mounts. All looking like this now:
Will be painting it white when the weather warms up a bit.
Test fit of the cage:
I think it looks cool as shit
Seating position:
Not really sure where I am going to fit this, e30's are really narrow!
Had a go at skinning the boot. Saved 4kg (this was before I tidied it up) but will probably go for fibreglass or carbon when the pennies aren't so tight:
I then moved house. Annoying went from a large garage with power to a small one without:
So it has been sat for about a year now with me doing almost nothing to it bar starting it occasionally. Decided I need to pull my finger out and finish the turd so have rigged up some lights ghetto style in the garage. Space is tight though:
Started on the jobs that have irritated me like cleaning up the brake servo. During preparation:
Painted:
Then the starter motor went, and being an idiot I dropped a bolt down into the box and flywheel. Oh well, the box has been rattling really badly so it's an excuse to pull it out and put my decent box on it. Only has 81k on it and is quiet as far as Getrag boxes go. Here it is, waiting to go in. Will give it a good clean first and wait for the weather to improve a little first.
These also arrived yesterday, will clean up the engine loom nicely:
That's it for now. I'll try and update as much as I can. Thanks for reading
This is how I bought it:
Picked it up off a friend of mine at a decent price. Came with an 18 point safety devices cage as well as he was turning it into a hill climb car as well, before selling to buy a Clio Cup car.
He had started removing the sunroof but never finished it and it had a fibreglass sheet taped in place over the hole. A local rally hero and fabricator makes blanking plates out of steel he shapes over a MDF form so I dropped it round to him to be plated out:
Not a great picture but this is it spot welded in placeL
After driving it around on the road for a while the top hose blew while I was hooning it. Unfortunately I didn't notice and buy the time I saw the temperature gauge it was too late and the head was cooked. By a stroke of luck, another local e30 owner and hill climber (martinpallot on here) was selling his m50 conversion. It came with an m50 and m52 and I chose the m50 as one day I plan on boosting it.
So with the help of a couple of mates we ripped out the m20:
And dumped in the m50:
And that's how it sat for ages as work got incredibly busy so I had no time for it and needed to source a few bits.
So bought some AKG engine mounts and e36 (I think) engine arms and got the engine sitting on those. Gearbox is solid mounted on a modified crossmember as I am using an e30 box so it sits at a different angle.
Then I bought some bits and bobs like WMS brakes and renewed bushes and drop links and left the car for ages as I was getting fed up with it. I also installed a refurb z3 rack with lines and splined shaft from DanThe. Not a great pic:
Eventually got round to doing more so finished off welding in the roll cage mounts. All looking like this now:
Will be painting it white when the weather warms up a bit.
Test fit of the cage:
I think it looks cool as shit
Seating position:
Not really sure where I am going to fit this, e30's are really narrow!
Had a go at skinning the boot. Saved 4kg (this was before I tidied it up) but will probably go for fibreglass or carbon when the pennies aren't so tight:
I then moved house. Annoying went from a large garage with power to a small one without:
So it has been sat for about a year now with me doing almost nothing to it bar starting it occasionally. Decided I need to pull my finger out and finish the turd so have rigged up some lights ghetto style in the garage. Space is tight though:
Started on the jobs that have irritated me like cleaning up the brake servo. During preparation:
Painted:
Then the starter motor went, and being an idiot I dropped a bolt down into the box and flywheel. Oh well, the box has been rattling really badly so it's an excuse to pull it out and put my decent box on it. Only has 81k on it and is quiet as far as Getrag boxes go. Here it is, waiting to go in. Will give it a good clean first and wait for the weather to improve a little first.
These also arrived yesterday, will clean up the engine loom nicely:
That's it for now. I'll try and update as much as I can. Thanks for reading
