E30 Zone

Right, going to actually make a proper thread and try and update it for once.

Started off as a nice clean 318i lux (apart from rotten rear arch inners) then engine died so decided to put my stage 2 CA to some use as it was sitting in the garden doing nothing at all.



So all started off with just general striping and found some nice water patches under the sound deadening.
Started cleaning up the engine bay and decided to delete the battery tray completely and eliminate the box section that sits in the arch. Got a bit carried away and a lot of brackets and stuff got cut out.



Then got my engine and gearbox mounts from Slide motorsport. Good set of mounts however they were SR20 mounts so the engine mounts refused to sit flush on the subframe. Ended up having to recut them and reweld them in a new position (only a fanny's hair out) and sent back so, Matt made a new set and moved the engine back another 15mm the box sits nice and centre in the gear stick hole and still leaves plenty room for the gearbox to be unbolted from under the bonnet.

Wiring took about a week or so to do as found several SR conversions but wasnt happy with the way some of them just bypass fuses and relays so made my own conversion with a bit of help and knowledge exchange with Matt at Slide.

Will try and upload the video of it firing up first time later.

Once the engine was in, decided to tub out the arches and also put in some reinforcement from the strut tops to the chassis. Working in a pipe bending company with anything from 3" NB pipes to 30" NB pipes kicking about in the yard, it was obvious how to make the top sheet of the arch tub :thumbs:







Finished product with the engine sitting nicely:smokin:



Wiring wise, the fuse box got moved under the glovebox and the ecu sits lovely in the standard position (will get a better pic later)



Gearbox side of the loom and the amplifier got sited on the steering rack side, using the pedal box hole to run the wires through and found a nice grommet that fits nicely (pic to follow)

The break servo is an R33 Skyline unit with a non ABS cylinder. Will get some photos later. It got shifted further away from the engine by around 15mm and a big heat shield made as it sits very close to the turbo.

Intercooler wise, I will go for a mid mount set up and try and keep the viscous fan. Its a US spec Mitsubishi eclipse FMIC that is just wide enough to have a CA radiator to fit between the inlet and outlet ports. Also allows for very short pipework. That is a job for tomorrow to fit the rad and intercooler.

Its going to sits roughly so but under the slam panel.



Also nice and shiny DW super cool radiator came today in the post with a WHAM bar! :wack:



Now the rear axel is a bit work in progress, going to reinforce it a bit and adding camber and toe plates to correct the spastic camber as I like cars LOW:smash:
There are some guys on one of the US forums that sell them but I refused to pay $150+ for something that I could easy work out myself and make myself

Using the 5 series camber bolts and working out their eccentric travel, made some brackets at work which get welded on. Will see how much adjustment they give, but got a feeling camber adjustment will need to be bigger so will have to make my own bolts with a bigger eccentric but this will do for now.







Think this is enough for tonight. Ow! My first set of wheels for this car. Enkei copies 15" x 8J ET0 But I ideally want some 9J at the back to fill out the bolt on arch kit I will be getting soon from Team Sunset lads :thumbs:

Small update since its sunday and a day at the trails is ruined by rain.

Been busy working on the rear axel as still waiting on the headlights to turn up which, I need to finish my rad and MMIC set up.

Photos are self explanatory, decided some reinforcement on the diff cradle would be beneficial and been working on the toe and camber plates. Machined them from the sizes worked out off the e39 m12 camber bolts.
The way the inner pivot (camber) is positioned, will give me 1.25 deg. camber correction. If this works out to be not enough, will be making another set and my own eccentric bolts which will increase the camber correction.











Now need to get payed, get this and the servo bracket and pedal box powder coated and then get my bushes ordered.

Anyone recommend any polybushes? Kind of wanting to get the Ireland Engineering ones as they seem to be almost nylon and not polyurethane but dont want to run solids as the car will be a slammed daily drifter.

Finally got my headlights so working on the mid mount intercooler set up. Main problem is created by the 52mm core rad and the fact I want to keep the viscous fan.
Progress is getting slower as I broke my left elbow and not as mobile now (imagine a tortes stuck on its back )
Probably time to get the spastic 4.27 diff welded at work

allright vlad its ollie have to ask with thoughs wheels ar you roling the arches ? i know your getting some of thoughs of sun but was thinking of getting some as they look nice

interesting project you have going there Vlad,the work looks good so keep the updates coming .

craggsyE30 wrote:allright vlad its ollie have to ask with thoughs wheels ar you roling the arches ? i know your getting some of thoughs of sun but was thinking of getting some as they look nice

Will be getting bolt on arches from team sunset lads. Ideally I want 9J at the back to put the power down because that CA used to light the rears up in 5th on in the s13, and this will be lighter and have a more retarded final drive

magpie wrote:interesting project you have going there Vlad,the work looks good so keep the updates coming .

Cheers mate, hoping its going to be on the road soon as I want to run the engine in before the snow comes.
Off to my bat-cave for more graft now

haha yh so is that the plan then the e30 a every day car and the s13 a drift slag ? with a little e30 side action

e30 is gona be mostly every day but I struggle driving straight on daily basis. And the 13 may get re-shelled with an r32 or a fd rex or just wide body the 13 and build a 400 to 450 sr for it (still will have plates and a tax disc, just rude not to )

Awesome swap! How difficult was it to get the CA in and running?

JdmFanBoy wrote:Awesome swap! How difficult was it to get the CA in and running?

Got the mounts from Slide Motorsport. They fit pretty well and the wiring took about a week to figure out. Not very difficult just takes a bit time and patience but I went the long way and included all the nissan relays in the loom so all works like oem.

actual awesomeness.

Haven't updated in a while. Not done much work in past month due to lack of cash and broken elbow (broken bones didnt stop me for long) but got some stuff finally done and made a bit more progress.

Made a jig to flip my car as Im sick of welding upside down. This thing makes life so much easier! It can go all the way upside down too!



So started working on the back arches, had to cut out the whole half of the inner tub as it was rotten and make a new tub. And then cut out for my bolt on arches.



The first arch is now fitted. Really good fit and looks bad ass! :smokin::thumbs: Thank you to Darren from Team Sunset for providing these bad lads! Cant wait to get them all on and fill the arches out with my new wheels!









Oh and finally got around to stripping off the turbine housing off the T28H and a spare T25 I had. Will get one of the guys at work (30+ years experience turning) to bore out the T25 housing so it fits the big, bad T28H from a pulsar should be fun!

Oh and think I decided to forge the CA, its extra 750 quid ish but I suppose then I can treat it to a z32 maf, 555cc injectors and a custom map from H-dev.....wonder what it would make at say, 1.4 bar

For now, that is all.

Looking good man! Like the diff carrier reinforcing, good idea.

Cheers dude think I will be using a different diff now. Got a 4.1 small case to weld up but got a feeling the motor will blow it to smithereens so will be looking for a 325 auto diff now.
So, now have a 4.27 small case and a stock 318i small case diff if anyone wants to buy or maybe swap for some other parts

Small case once will be fine once its all welded up. We had a 4.1 small case in an E36 M3 Compact and it lasted a year no problem with lots of drift days and a few competitions.


Cool project!

See some guys I spoke to said they blew a small case to smithereens with a stock S50 in an e30 drifting. I have a spare diff at the ready.....will see what its like I suppose

Once you weld everything they last no problem at all.

If you just weld the bare minimum such as four welds on each of the spider gears, yes it will break.

But I've never seen one break that has all the gears welded and the input shafts welded to the gears and cross pins as your essentially making a straight solid axle then.

small case open diffs are worth feckall anyway so no harm in welding on up completely and if it does break, what about it

Ahhh! Well I will be trusting the welding of the diff to a guy at work who's been welding for 30+ years, should last then! And mine is a 4.27 diff, its going to be almost equivelent of having a Nissan Serena Sr20DE Auto diff in an S13 .... I wonder if it will light the rears in 4th in the dry

Hello mate,

I've just bought a tatty, thrown together e30 drifter with a ca18det in it ( up and running !) with the intention of reshelling it into an immaculate standard 316 non sunroof cromie i already have and wondered if you could give me any pointers on wiring. As it is the ca's running but battery is not charging, the seller said it needs one more wire connecting. Also there's no rev counter and no charge light.
I'm picking it up Thursday night so i should be able to be more spcific by the weekend LOL.
By the look of the wiring i will have much work to do.

I seriously love those RPF1 copies. They look excellent

Hey guys, sorry not been on for a while. Been stuck with no place to work on my e30 due to some shit happening.
Ianb - you buying it from Slide Motorsport by any chance? Where about's you based? I could send you my wiring diagrams in a PDF but mine are done the long way and include all the relays and everything so, in other words, works like it would from factory. The rev counter as far as I know works if its a 4 pot one. Havent been able to test it on my own yet still
Also will need to know what year the car is and original engine, correct me if Im wrong but think there were variations between the e30 looms somewhere.

And verde - cheers dude! Wish I could get a bit closer to getting her on them

Actually, there was a little progress. Got my front top mounts from RPM. Very nice bit of kit and worth the money.


And had the 4.27 diff welded at work. Will get the original one welded at some point too as a spare and then start looking for a 325 auto diff.

I was reading this and getting excited to see more updates or even a second page.

More updates please!

It's looking so bad ass.

Havent had a chance to get anywhere near it recently, just got the other rear arch done the other week and have unnecessary metal to remove from the rear end. Will try and get some pics up later