The Summer 'Lob in' conversion....

[leeparkes]

Ok...Thought id do a bit of a thread...

The Alpina B10 engine was an epic piece of German engineering but i fancied a change. initially M50 Turbo was the favorite but with time,fabrication and the summer here its gone on the back burner till winter.
I wanted my E30 back on the road asap.


So ive lobbed a M52 b28 in to get me by.

Bought a 98 E36 328i manual cabby with a nice steel liner lump and quite a few M tech morsels to punt on...



Didnt stay in for long On the deck with a E38 728i sump fitted ( cost of sump £60 delivered)

Ready to lift in.







And started to feed in.





And resting on its mounts..



Now....A bit of sound advice...If you are doing this swap, Trust me, Get Danthe to do the loom job!!! sounds easy when you see it on paper but tackling it aint for the faint hearted Its not so much cutting one plug off and grafting on another its the ballache of re routing and cutting out all the unused wires so it sits nice against the bulkhead.
Then EWS to flap about with!!

Wiring action





It had this shifter in the E36, below the ball is the same as Z3 1.9 but the stick is about the same length as a standard E30 item.
Was it a different shifter on the E36 328i ?
Here it is...



Either way its gone in the E30 as it felt nice
As did the 328i gearbox, linkages and 328i prop with the bearing moved.

Next up a very nice 3.15:1 Z3 M rebuilt 1.5 way 4 plate slipper





My old faithful E30 M3 50mm piped Scorpion system with separate resonator



This system had STW tails but they stuck out a bit to far like with all M3 systems and fancied a change so.... Lemans tail pipes with the perforated inners gutted, then re fitted at a slightly different angle (pointing up)

Ill get a better pic but here it is




Well with not too much fuss its Fitted and it drives

Ive ditched the engine covers as i prefer the look without










Ill do a tally up of how much its cost later but i know im under 1K

There you go,The lob in swap
But more importantly the E30 is back in action!

[jimbom30cab]

RESULT !!

Nice one Lee, i'm fitting one next week also so thanks for the inspiration. Yer, Dan did the loom for me and looks a super job.

You'll be looking about for a M50 Inlet and TB next I guess??

What's the engine revs like at 70mph?

Nice work mate

[aze30]

awesome stuff lee

[bhups]

Top work mate!

[Speedtouch]

Looks like a neat conversion. I guess it saves quite a bit of weight over an M30B35 boat anchor - do you notice any difference in the way it drives?

[leeparkes]

No it pretty much feels like it normally does, i am going to get it back on the scales though to see whats what.

Cheers lads!

[leeparkes]

Ill check the revs Jim and get back to you.

[TheMeathead]

awesome job lee, end of next month should see the alpina m50 in mine ;)

just need a clutch and a few other little bits and its time for action. should be interesting.

[craigieeb]

Nice1, good going there fella,

Feels nice jumping into the old e30 when you've been out of it for a while doesn't it

[leeparkes]

awesome job lee, end of next month should see the alpina m50 in mine ;)

just need a clutch and a few other little bits and its time for action. should be interesting.

Ah yes the other pina


Craig, nothing has the feel of an E30

[magpie]

the only way to go Techno ! check out the mpg's

[bss325i]

I've been smoking about in an M52B28 E30 the last couple of weeks. Think ive driven my E46 M3 once in that time!

Nice work Lee!

Surprised you haven't noticed any difference in front end weight.

[leeparkes]

Like i said it pretty much feels like it normally does.
It may feel different when pressing on and throwing it about, ill let you know.

[ImysE30]

Good work !

Nice and clean

[leeparkes]

Its not so rosey mate, i have no speedo due to (i think ) the Z3 trigger wheel isnt playing ball with the E30 sensor and back plate
Also the engine is stuck in limp mode which may be related to the speedo issue

[Kos]

Did you sell the B10 donk in the end ?

[leeparkes]

Yes mate, it went overseas.

[leeparkes]

Its not so rosey mate, i have no speedo due to (i think ) the Z3 trigger wheel isnt playing ball with the E30 sensor and back plate
Also the engine is stuck in limp mode which may be related to the speedo issue

For anyone using a Z3 diff with there conversion you must use a Z3 back plate and speed sensor, E30 back plate will fit but will not work due to the trigger wheel being the smaller E36 type.

Anyway the car is out of limp mode now so its Back on track

[jimbom30cab]

how do you know the engine is in Limp mode Lee ?

[leeparkes]

Car wouldnt rev over 5K

[jimbom30cab]

arh ok, like a safety limiter thing. Thanks.

[appletree]

I'm having a issue with a Z3 diff to, as far as I know the back plate is a Z3 item but I think I have a e30 sensor and it is bottoming out on something before the sensor bottoms out on the back plate.

Does this sound like a similar thing to you?

[HairyScreech]

Oh dear, just about to put a z3 diff into mine, I have the whole chunk though so diff, back plate and sensor. Will let you know what happens.

[DanThe]

Matt, the E30 sensor is longer, I have a short sensor here you can have

[h2ggv]

You made that look super easy great work

[craigieeb]

Are you getting a "true" speedo reading using the E36 trigger ring and the Z3 Sensor?

[appletree]

Matt, the E30 sensor is longer, I have a short sensor here you can have

Thanks Dan, I'll call in next week if that's ok?

So in theory I could also use a e30 back plate and e30 sender?

[leeparkes]

Matt, the E30 sensor is longer, I have a short sensor here you can have

Thanks Dan, I'll call in next week if that's ok?

So in theory I could also use a e30 back plate and e30 sender?

No, i was using an E30 back plate with E30 sensor.

Not sure if the Z3 sensor will work with a E30 back plate but the E30 and Z3 plate are slightly different round the sensor hole, Z3 hole sits in a couple of mm deeper towards the trigger wheel.

Btw i havent checked how true the speedo reading is yet Craig.

[DanThe]

Matt, the E30 sensor is longer, I have a short sensor here you can have

Thanks Dan, I'll call in next week if that's ok?

So in theory I could also use a e30 back plate and e30 sender?

No problem just give me some notice

Ive used different Z3 diffs as they came and the speedo is as normal

[Gert_8]

I'm not known for using the word; Epic, but that was Epic, Lee

[G-Bear]

Good work there Lee

[HairyScreech]

As long as the chopper wheel has the same number of teeth/cutouts as the e30 version then it should give the same reading.
It is the e30 dash that interprets the signal to give the speed.

In theory you could put the chopper wheel between the output and cv on one wheel if you had a funky diff and it would make no practical difference. (say for a diff conversion or a large case swap).

[craigieeb]

Yeah, totally agree with that

I was just wondering if Lee's was giving a true reading
as I'm also using the smaller E36 trigger wheel and the smaller pick up sensor in my 2:65 lsd

and my speedo is out by a good 10mph,

Where as before when I was running the 3:64 lsd, the speedo was pretty accurate (to within 1-2 mph)

Just thought there might of been some interruption of the signal due to the size of the actual fins on the trigger wheels,

E30 flairs out at the end, where as the E36 doesn't

[HairyScreech]

Shouldn't make a diff-erence (see what i did there? )

Is it out by 10mph all the way through?

What tyres are you running?

I will let you know when I finish getting mine in and get the exhaust on if I get the same thing.

[craigieeb]

Boom Boom! hahaha

The tyres are 195 50 16's
but
when i was running the 3:64 diff, with a more or less correct reading................. I was running 215 45 17's

and yeah, it's about a 10 mph difference throughout the range.

Unless the speedo it's self has decided to play up, at the same point as changing diff's etc





**Sorry for the total hijack Lee mate **