E30 Zone

I thought i'd start a thread as the car is going to go through some imminent changes.

I picked the car up on the 3rd Jan after an inspection by a zoner to confirm that the cars bodywork wasn't hiding any nasties.

The car was originally a BMW demo car at Coopers Colchester, it was then purchased by chap that owned it for 22 years and only had it serviced by the main dealer, after that a guy bought it and carried out an M52 conversion, problem is for some unknown reason he installed a M52B25. The next owner was an ex BMW mechanic who then spent a lot of money turning it into a fast road car, he had the car for 3 months and did one track day in the rain, unforeseen circumstances led it being sold to me.

The car has 109,000 miles on the clock and is in really good condition.

The spec is as follows:

Engine/transmission-
M52 2.5 24v engine removed from a 323i E36
M50 inlet manifold
Custom exhaust manifolds with cats removed
Custom stainless exhaust system in 2 1/4 inch with twin tailpipes
Ecu remapped to suit m50 inlet with 7000rpm rev limit
Electric cooling fan on flick switch
320i propshaft
320i soild flywheel and new 320i clutch
Suspension-
H&R cup suspension kit (springs & shocks)
Powerflex bumpstops
Whiteline front and rear antiroll bars with powerflex D bushes
Powerflex eccentric front arm rear bushes increasing caster angle
Alignment set to E30 M3 spec
E30 325i rear axle mounted with powerflex bushes
325i rear trailing arms polybushed
E36 328i steering rack
Brakes-
325i front brake upgrade with heatshields removed
New front calipers, wheel bearings
EBC USR front discs with yellow stuff pads
Rear disc conversion with new discs, pads, handbrake cables, shoes, backplates, wheel bearings
Black diamond 6 line braided brake hose kit
AP racing dot 5 brake fluid
Wheels/tyres-
Compomotive mo th wheels in 15" powdercoated in Alpine white
Toyo Proxe R888 semi slicks in medium compound
front wheels fitted with 5mm spacers
Interior-
Rear seats removed and back of car trimmed in black acoustic carpet
Sparco pro 2000 grp tech bucket seats with fibreglass backs
Sparco vehicle frames and side mounts
Sparco 4 point harnesses
OMP suade 330m sttering wheel
Alpine ipod stereo

Short term plans:
- I am currently having a M52b28 turned into a 3.0 litre by a zoner and a new loom being put in
- Purchased a 3.64:1 zf clutch plate LSD so this will be installed
- Buy some Compomotive centre caps
- Get the b'stard to stop, the brakes are awful, will try a Clio servo and 4 pots.
- Get any dodgy workmanship sorted.
- Drive it, do some track days, have some fun.
- Any suggestions for short term wins?

Medium term plans:
- Roll cage
- 5 stud conversion
- BBS Split rims

Long term plan:
- Buy an E30 M3

Pictures:

lovely car that with some great spec i seen her on ebay at the time! the wheels really suit it also! regarding the front brakes i know of a few people who fitted mazda rx7 front brake calipers which are a good upgrade to the standard brakes so i believe.

http://www.e30owners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22903

i remember seeing this for sale and thought i had mentally undervalued my car [ it's not for sale] , no disrespect to your car it looks to be a good build


maybe you could colour code the bumpers/mirrors ?

To be fair them wheels on the car look the absoloute tits , like above color code the bumpers/mirrors and an is lip would really finish it off looks wise

magpie wrote:i remember seeing this for sale and thought i had mentally undervalued my car [ it's not for sale] , no disrespect to your car it looks to be a good build


maybe you could colour code the bumpers/mirrors ?

I had the same thoughts on the mirrors and bumpers, that would just mean keeping an eye out on eBay here i take it.

As for the price I think we should gloss over that, I agree I was a bit daft in that area but the most important thing to me was the shell being solid, anyway the initial outlay is forgotten now and as we all know modding cars is where the really foolish money goes.

Thanks for the tip on the brakes madmax!

No need to look on eBay, just remove the bunpers and mirrors, strip them down and have them painted.

bss325i wrote:No need to look on eBay, just remove the bunpers and mirrors, strip them down and have them painted.

Okay, sounds like a plan, I'll take the car up the local body shop and get a price. Thanks!

If the chrome bumpers are good then they are worth a bit.

Sell them and buy some painted bumpers.

Ben

BenHar wrote:If the chrome bumpers are good then they are worth a bit.

Sell them and buy some painted bumpers.

Ben

It's a facelift car with placcy bumpers

Still got the beer goggles on Ben?

I will have some 4 pots for sale in the near future BTW Ian, you will colour code it a hell of a lot cheaper by buying already painted bumpers/mirrors

DanThe wrote:Still got the beer goggles on Ben?

Just saw the silveryish colour in the first picture. Didn't look closely enough at the valance.



Ben

DanThe wrote:Still got the beer goggles on Ben?

I will have some 4 pots for sale in the near future BTW Ian, you will colour code it a hell of a lot cheaper by buying already painted bumpers/mirrors

Hi Dan

Sounds good, let me know some more when the time comes and you might as well fit them along with everything else.

Do you think the 4pots improve braking in general or just stops fade on track?

What are the best pads you guys have found? I thought the DS2500 were good on the Clio Cup and Carbon Lorraine pads were quite good on the Lotus but loada of dust.

I like the look of the 318is front so will look out for the bumper and bottom bit whatever that's called (no, why didn't you buy a 318is comments please )

DanThe has kindly agreed to build and install a snarling 3.0 m52 for me, here's some engine porn of the engine in its current state. He's also managed to source me some Schrick cams!!

We'll be going for a live mapping session to finish things off

There's no replacement for displacement .

Good man
I'm looking forward to seeing this finished

Wheres the block pics!

This should be an awesome build, looking forward to see how she performs As I'm building an m50b30nv all I need is some spikey cams

Nice work, can't wait to see what this puts out on the rollers

very

Ahhhh, block pics I've done a little man wee in my pants

I'm drip feeding to maintain the suspence

Nice

Nice work.

Subscribed

Bought this to be refurbed 3.64 ZF LSD to go in at the same time as the engine

That block looks shit hot a‘a

I looked at this engine the other day whilst at Dan's look forward to seeing the progress!

I need to get a decent exhaust on it, I reckon that or brake upgrade will be next

More engine porn from Dan
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[/URL[URL=http://s6.photobucket.com/user/Muzzman/ ... 1.jpg.html][/URL[URL=http://s6.photobucket.com/user/Muzzman/ ... 4.jpg.html]

Schrick sticks!

Absolute work of art, I want to get another one built just to look at!!!!!

bss325i wrote:Schrick sticks!

I was looking for cams for this engine, these came up and I had to think hard about letting Ian have them
Special tools needed to get them pulled down, cant get the caps on at all even with all the lifters drained/serviced

Super jealous of that spankingly clean block ;)
Intrigued to see what this puts out ont he rollers once remapped. love the white wheels too!

*Dan, i promise i'll get those S52 cams in and get up to Circuit Motors asap ;)

DanThe wrote:

bss325i wrote:Schrick sticks!

I was looking for cams for this engine, these came up and I had to think hard about letting Ian have them
Special tools needed to get them pulled down, cant get the caps on at all even with all the lifters drained/serviced

You are a true gent, you knew it made sense!!!

So I was having a moan about the old girl not stopping and Dan has come up with a plan for a big disk conversion, he's going to space the caliper out with a fabricated bracket.

I'm also seeing if I can find some pennies under the sofa to fit a full Fritz system, I would like to do this at a later stage but we're going for a live remap so it kinda makes sense to do it before hand

More piccies....sump is done.

Sump is sand blasted, acid cleaned and painted same as the block