E30 Zone

Howdy Folks,

It has been a long time since I've posted on here, mainly due to having left Ireland for Canada, and then having moved from Canada to the US.

I picked up this low spec 325i back in September and have been plugging away at it since. The original plan was to spend no more than $5k in making it a nice reliable, well handling car.

I wasn't doing too bad until last week, when the budget well and truly went off the rails (engine swap time).

Anyway, as I found it:
PS - imagine how many timed I washed my hands after driving it, bleeuuucchhhh.







Dead frogs everywhere


Just manky






It had some redeeming features, primarily that it was solid where others are not. Still some rust to fix, but nothing too intimidating.







I started right into it, by doing the following:























LSD












New brakes throughout







e46 330i Rack


BBS Wheels









New iS Lip (yet to be painted)




I then turned my attention to the interior.
Out with the beige and in with the new











Recaro Seats with e30 brackets





I'll be pulling the carpet once warmer weather arrives, then fitting a black one.



But in bigger news, I just bought a single turbo'd Toyota 1JZ with a Nissan CD009 6 Speed box, which I'll commence squeezing in to thew e30 pretty soon.



..now, you're all up to date on the last 5 months of e30 ownership.

I am just loving this thread ! Excellent work !

HartgeH27 wrote:I am just loving this thread ! Excellent work !

same here, looking forward to seeing the progress

e30mclow wrote: Dead frogs everywhere

Pretty sure that's the first time that phrase has ever appeared on the Zone, and it'll probably be the last!

Thanks Folks.

I've found a pair of Recaro Confetti SRDs that I wouldn't mind having, but I'll hardly sell mine in time.

The known issues I'm about to have are:

1) Need to swap to a front sump on the 1JZ (Easy, and about $100-150)
2) Need to notch said sump to keep the engine back (it'll otherwise hit the subframe)
3) The CD009 box is big, so a sledge will be taken to the tunnel
4) The BIGGEST issue - Brake Servo. Even the ole tried and trusted Clio unit won't do. Most people run unassisted brakes, which I don't fancy.
5) Piping the intercooler while retaining the front panel and bumper - If anyone has experience mounting a FMIC neatly, please slap up a few photos.

Good to be back on here by the way!

I had some serious work done on my m20 which resulted in 325nm which required some extra stopping power. My engine builder used the clio servo but additionally a swiss standalone electric servo to run the Willwood front brakes. I have an understanding but am not an engine builder so hope my layman terms make sense.

HartgeH27 wrote:I had some serious work done on my m20 which resulted in 325nm which required some extra stopping power. My engine builder used the clio servo but additionally a swiss standalone electric servo to run the Willwood front brakes. I have an understanding but am not an engine builder so hope my layman terms make sense.

Hmmm interesting...I've seen a few guys run those electric assists on drift cars. I presume they're $$$.

The wilwood 4pot front should suffice for me, which is what I'm planning on down the road (if I'm not upside down in the bushes before then).

looks a decent 2dr you got there , i did notice the lack of diving boards

Agreed Mick, decent Euro spec ! No diving boards !

HartgeH27 wrote:Agreed Mick, decent Euro spec ! No diving boards !

Yup, I had to remove the overkill diving boards from by previous e30 in Canada.
One of those "I should never have sold it" cars.

Thats really going some mate !!
Your definately not playing at this
Why the frogs though?

Mart.

Why the frogs?

I live on a narrow sand bar off the coast of North Carolina. The Atlantic Ocean to one side, 5-20 miles of shallow fresh water on the other. All sorts of critters at only about 5ft above sea level.

Great project and location

I'll look forward to seeing more updates.

Bit of a difference from my snow on the ground and fog bound Morley.

Mart.

Picked up the donor car the other night. The rain was incredible, I was soaked through and had to risk the drive home sans pants.

Egyptian construction methods were adapted in both the loading and unloading of the car. I then jammed some wheels off my S4 in under the arches so the neighbors don't panic about there being a another heap in my driveway.















I got it running real quickly, so now it is just a matter of tracing wires and getting things ready to be pulled out.

looks fine , nothing to see here move along




subscribed .

Great topic. Following.

What model E30 did you sell?

Rodolfo_Pereira wrote:Great topic. Following.

What model E30 did you sell?

The one noted above was a very low mileage 325iS.

Other regrets include the cheap sale of these

My m5


and the ultimate regret - the m3

Driving the neck off of it these days!

Who is the go-to person for 325i tuning chips these days?

It used to be someone by the username Speedtouch if I recall correctly. I need my rev limit increased as I'm hopping off the limiter around tighter Auto-X courses.







Video from Sunday.
Came 16th out of a field of 61 cars that ranged from Cobras, Corvettes, race MX5s and some nuts Focus RSs. The little e30 did well!

[youtube][/youtube]

maurice (speedtouch) is still on here so send him a PM, he should be able to help.

steve_k wrote:maurice (speedtouch) is still on here so send him a PM, he should be able to help.

Good to know! I'll get at the ECU this weekend and see what number it is before wasting anyone's time.

Some nice photos from Saturday's event. I somehow evaded the camera lens all day Sunday, so no photos of the flat out stuff.

Next day out is on Sunday, so I’ll have more videos then. I gave the e30 a solid going over on Saturday, setting up a homemade alignment jig in the work warehouse. Looking forward to Sunday and seeing the difference.

I didn't take photos of how I set the whole thing up, but I essentially shot centerline down the underside of the car, marking the front & rear subframes. Then I made up aluminium straight edges for camber & toe measurement.
I set the ride height at a point where I'm in no risk of damaging the front wheel arches, while trying to avoid looking like a jeep. I marked gradients on the rear eccentric bolts for various camber/toe points, and printed labels for what the gradients on the front camber plates equate to in degs of camber.

I'm now sitting where I feel I'm best setup for boring road driving, but with the ability to knock the camber in right before a track day, without upsetting anything.




I also got the ole twin snail Audi out for a rip for the first time in about 6-8 weeks.
I had forgotten what power was like

Scored a massive e30 parts hoard this weekend!
Dozens of new in the bags/boxes sensors, gaskets, seals and various interior/exterior trim pieces.

I've never seen an e30 in my area, but was lucky enough to snag all of this stuff only 2 miles from my place.



I think I have every component to rebuild and m20 x 3 except for head gaskets.
3-4 OEM Radios in there too, and a nice air-con prefacelift front spoiler.

I also pulled the motor and trans from the Lexus and started measuring things up.

I'm not sure if I go the cheap/practical route and replace the front rad support with something homemade or not. If I did, I could reuse the really nice rad/fan/IC setups that came off of the Lexus.

The only thing I'm waiting on before ripping into the e30 is the decision as to what I'll do about brakes. I'm leaning towards trying to make a Renault Clio servo fit with an Audi master...





Swapped out my chrome for black kidneys

Another one!

This is what $200 looks like.





'86 325eS manual, which I believe has the 2.7 bottom end (I haven't looked yet).

This thing actually started with a jump and drove onto the trailer!
I bought it as a test mule chassis for the 1J swap, which allows me to continue driving the white one.

It is pretty disgusting, but:
2.93 LSD
Pop Outs
Sport Seats (haven't looked to see how bad they are under the covers)
Tech 1 Wheel
12 button OBC
The isn't operable, and most certainly has critters in it.

Versus how cars are in Ireland/England, it is pretty rust free, just not worth pumping money into.

Should see a return on the $200 one in parts though.....

I got home last night to find my 1JZ front sump swap waiting for me. Feeling inspired, I whipped the engine and box out of the dummy car so that things are lined up heading into the weekend.






A solid target for this weekend will be to get the following done:

- Remove any non-applicable items from the dummy car's bay.
- Swap the sump out on the 1J
- Set the engine in the car for the first time, so as to get an idea of what I need to do to fit a rad+fans+intercooler in the tight space.
- Measure up and order engine mounts.

That'd be a huge victory!

In order to get the engine and box in as one unit, I'll likely need to remove the entire front subframe and offer it back up while the engine is suspended from something.. For now I'll just position them independently and get clearances sorted.

Made some progress this weekend (long weekend here).

As mentioned, I managed to get the m20 out of the dummy car late last week, so then set about test fitting the 1J in an e30 bay.
Just to see how much of an issue the servo would be, I test fit the engine with it in place - a no go.

I removed the servo and dropped the thing in as far back as it'd sit.
This shows the space behind the head due to the adapter plate on the block hitting the transmission tunnel:




I marked up the tunnel and proceeded to persuade it:




Heater core hoses also needed to be bent slightly so as to avoid hitting the head.



That all left it sitting pretty, with the wastegate clearing the subframe, the steering column obstruction free and the 3" downpipe in a pretty manageable position:






My initial plan, in order to save money, was to reuse the 30" wide rad from the sc300 and section out the chassis legs on the e30. I proceeded to chop the chassis legs, then said F this, so I'll be ordering a Nissan s13 rad soon. It should fit nicely and allow for a slim pusher fan, rather than the twin pullers I was going to try and use.

Work area to the front.


The weather turned wet so I couldn't try and wrestle the CD009 in, plus I was pretty tired.
That'll be a bigger challenge, as I've seen that this was another e30 owner's solution to the tight space



So the main things on the list right now, in order of ball ache:

1) Figure out if I can offset mount a Renault Clio brake servo in this space:


**Can anyone on here eyeball that, and say with any form of confidence that a Clio servo would fit, if it were say 2-3" nearer the fuse box?**

Even better, can someone tell me the diameter and thickness of a Clio unit and I'll mock up a template? That'd help so much..

2) Fit the Nissan box and see where the gear lever comes out (I reckon 3" further back than the e30)

3) Start figuring out if I want to totally/partially strip the e30 wiring loom, in case I ever want to revert back to an m20/m50.

4) Shorten the Nissan Titan driveshaft and have the e30 UJ welded on the diff end.

5) Figure out turbo sizing....big & laggy or small and violent?

Out with the awful carpet and in with the red

damn thats some pretty cool projects you got going on man, I actually really like the white e30 with the red and black interior. looks the business with the set up underneath too

very nice, my mate has an E30 with a 1jz swap and its an animal.

Only problem is he is not on here

I look forward to more progress!

Things have been happening and the engine is now in the new chassis

The last m20 powered drive (August 31st)




Engine coming out








Cleaning of the bay






Scabby upper support fixed up




Remaining harness items re-ran and lower support removed






Reinforced & painted subframe






Softeners for rad & IC contact areas






Servo delete and master cylinder relocation (using a 19mm twin circuit master)


Pivot point adjustments









It now clears the intake manifold by about 10mm.

Erm....tunnel modification..
What a lovely clean tunnel/firewall it had






Still not enough


That's better.


Engine dropped in for the first time on Sept 7th.


Rad/IC Support. With the 2 bolts removed, the whole lots slides up & out, allowing the engine and box to slide forwards (thanks to the slip yoke joint on the driveshaft), which results in approximately 30mins of work to have the engine hanging on the hoist.




Tacked for now with left over material. I'll make something out of aluminum now that I know the concept works


Front trimmed to allow room for the 3" IC. This was the minimum required, but I'll most likely removed the entire section behind the bumper.




Everything fits!






3" IC Piping mockup. The aim is to keep the foglights and ABS pump, which I think I've cracked.
The elbow off of the TB will be aluminum.





BOV Location




One should always match the curves of one's washer bottle when choosing the correct IC piping


Revised lollipops which make room for the 3" downpipe.


As of last Sunday the car is on 4 wheels while I make some gearbox measurements. I want another 1" of underside clearance, so the tunnel will need to be chopped up a little more.



Hoping to have the last of the "engine in" measurements completed this weekend, such as:
- Check downpipe clearance
- Measure new PS hoses
- Check external wastegate clearance on front subframe (may need to cut and patch a notch into the subframe)
- Finalize IC piping
-Pick an expansion tank location

After that, I'll remove the engine for the last time and address the above. Hoping to have it at least running by Nov 1st. That'd be a pretty quick 2MO build from the date that I pulled the m20.

I'll then move onto a full respray.

You don't hang around do you. That a solid effort for a month of weekends work.

Superb work there mate, it`s a credit to you.

Mart.

Please stop embarrassing us with your speed on your project........

Impressive work and looking forward to seeing the final tunnel chopping. What are you planning for seat position? Looks like the gear stick location will be slightly further back than oem? or can you move the stick location to the top of the box?

Tedswagon wrote:Please stop embarrassing us with your speed on your project........

Impressive work and looking forward to seeing the final tunnel chopping. What are you planning for seat position? Looks like the gear stick location will be slightly further back than oem? or can you move the stick location to the top of the box?

I'm planning on using the original seating position and shifter position.

I'm in the middle of making a shifter that mounts into the box from the black inspection hatch seen on top. It is a little finicky but I think I have it cracked.

Last weekend I:
Made a sturdy tunnel cross brace and trans mount.
Totally redid the removable lower rad/IC support
Offered up a driveshaft to assess options
Sectioned the front subframe for external wastegate clearance
Removed the engine and box for the final few checks



My CNC


Chassis brace/trans mount 80-90% complete. I'll do the final adjustments and last of the bolt holes once things are in their final position.



Getting an idea of the front half shaft length/alignment




Downpipe in


With the removable lower rad support, it is easy to pop the engine forward and access the bell housing bolts



After that, the engine is straight out the top. It is rather tight, but just about manages to fit.



With it out I was able to start the final few beauty items.
Last night I began wire wheeling the block as well as semi-polishing the aluminum bits. I'll paint the block tonight before doing the valve covers/plugs and accessory belt.





I don't want them actually polished, just cleaner looking.