E30 Zone

Now i been doing a little research and thinking and want to make something different, now i know many people have done the m30 engine the m20 turbo, even an m5 engine in now my dad used to have alot of rover v8's (old sdi's) now i know what your thinking its a bmw why put one of those in but these engines are pritty bullet proof and they make a lovely sound and i can pick one up relatively cheap, now what i need to know what is the complexity of this has anyone had any experience with v8's in an e30 and is there any other options engine wise i may concider?? thanks.

use a bmw v8 or something like a ls1 not a rover v8, theres good resson buick dumped it years ago cost far to much to tune them for very little bhp.

chris

TVR/ rover V8 monster in an e30


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Put a lexus v8 in it, ive just about finished thank god lol

toughyv8 ha a rover v8 in his e30 and it sounds great

rover V8's are plentyful and make a nice noise and are pretty light.

Depends what you want to do long term I guess. Although no authority on Rover V8's I believe it becomes a costly business trying to get over the 250bhp mark.

to be totally honest i dont mind what sort of v8 i put in it as long as it sounds awsome, looks awsome, comes quite cheaply and is easy to obtain parts, o and is reliable and goes fast lol, i just like the idea of the rover one as its cheap and easy to come by where as an american v8 although many are powerful they are not easy to obtain parts and you would never really hear one before although i am going to be stripping it down and rebuilding with new and improved parts!!!

Rover V8 is light and compact having it's cam in the V so that might save some dicking around with the servo, some of the quadcam V8s seem to have huge heads. Can be run on factory carbs if you don't fancy too much wiring. I guess you'd need to salvage the ignition system from the donor (or did they have points?).

It might not be the best V8 you can fit but as you say, it's easy to get, easy to buy bits for and sounds good. Why not give it a go if you like the idea.
jk

the american V8's must have the most plentyful supply of parts in the world though, ebay.com

small block chevy, go on!

Ford, Chevrolet and some other American V8s are the most abundant engines in the world, and parts are often mega cheap!

I'd go American personally.

yeah as said im just bringin in idea's of what to do with it, i mean im sure there is american v8's somewhere in england otherwise how else would so many american cars be in this country, at the moment i am just looking seening complexity and how much time and money its going to cost me and although it will be special and i am never getting rid of my e30 as wouldnt get the money back on it. now i know this may sound silly but what is the difference in short and normal block and what advantages, i would also like to know about what sort of diff i may run would a e30 diff handle and infact fit onto a different prop??, i know i have lots of questions but you dont ask you dont get, thanks

Thats my Lexus v8 to a tee!

"sounds awsome, looks awesome, comes quite cheaply and is easy to obtain parts, o and is reliable and goes fast lol"

Plus they are very economical,all alloy,rev very well,super cheap for parts here,adaptors for toyota manual gearboxs are always availible,easy to tune,250hp factory for the oldests ones and 340hp for the late ones.

Need i say more?

For M60 conversion please check Tino´s pages:

Motor Mount Brackets
http://www.300mm.de/new/typ5/typ5.html

Conversion
http://truemer.cfmx.de/rubrik.cfm?cid=14

Regards,
Patrick335i

drifty325i wrote:Thats my Lexus v8 to a tee!

"sounds awsome, looks awesome, comes quite cheaply and is easy to obtain parts, o and is reliable and goes fast lol"

Plus they are very economical,all alloy,rev very well,super cheap for parts here,adaptors for toyota manual gearboxs are always availible,easy to tune,250hp factory for the oldests ones and 340hp for the late ones.

Need i say more?

Looking forward to seeing more of this once you've finished

Indeed my friend, its not to far away

Patrick335i wrote:For M60 conversion please check Tino´s pages:

Motor Mount Brackets
http://www.300mm.de/new/typ5/typ5.html

Conversion
http://truemer.cfmx.de/rubrik.cfm?cid=14

Regards,
Patrick335i

Patrick is there a copy of the above links to the v8 conversion in English?
Cheers Spadge..

toughyV8 has a great rover v8 in his but the problem is its not faster than a 325i

he admitted it would prob get beat by a healthy 325. so whats the point in putting it in?

that sentance actually sounds stupid now i read it back.

but if it doest produce that much power its better to go for a american V8 and get some good power for the same pain and cash.

there used to be a supercharged v8 e30 down in North London a while back. It was a yellow one built by a local tuning company. I think if u want to know more about it find a number for speedline graphcs and call them they used to work for the guy. That car was QUICK! probably the fastest RWD car i have seen for a while bar modern hypercars of course.

But it had crappy weight distribution and handled like a dog wearing leather socks and trying to run on ice. :p

_Slyder_ wrote:But it had crappy weight distribution and handled like a dog wearing leather socks and trying to run on ice. :p

that sounds tricky, guess that dogs not too clever.

prisspringle wrote:cost far to much to tune them for very little bhp.

Not unlike the BMW M20B25 then.

ric325i wrote:toughyV8 has a great rover v8 in his but the problem is its not faster than a 325i

I've seen Toughy's E30. Isn't it a pretty much standard 3.5 carb. engine?? Surely a 3.9efi would be a reasonable option in an E30?

That might be Prism Motorsport? Twin turbo TVR IIRC. Dips does know a lot about this

A small block V8 would be lovely! And probably less weight than a 6pot!

_Slyder_ wrote:there used to be a supercharged v8 e30 down in North London a while back. It was a yellow one built by a local tuning company. I think if u want to know more about it find a number for speedline graphcs and call them they used to work for the guy. That car was QUICK! probably the fastest RWD car i have seen for a while bar modern hypercars of course.

But it had crappy weight distribution and handled like a dog wearing leather socks and trying to run on ice. :p

maxfield wrote:That might be Prism Motorsport? Twin turbo TVR IIRC. Dips does know a lot about this

jamies correct, as for the handling i couldnt comment. it is infact twin turbo'd rover/tvr hybrid and has now evolved into a full blown competative race car with its builder behind the wheel.

In PPC mag, there's an article in which dave walker recently mapped it.

StuBeeDoo wrote:

ric325i wrote:toughyV8 has a great rover v8 in his but the problem is its not faster than a 325i

I've seen Toughy's E30. Isn't it a pretty much standard 3.5 carb. engine?? Surely a 3.9efi would be a reasonable option in an E30?

think it was yeah? but i have no idea about the 3.9efi? i was just thinking of his version.

so if you have met toughy have i met you? im the scruffy student looking guy, long hair, stupid hat and back then i will have had a lachs silver 325i which got horsed everywhere!

ric325i wrote:

StuBeeDoo wrote:

ric325i wrote:toughyV8 has a great rover v8 in his but the problem is its not faster than a 325i

I've seen Toughy's E30. Isn't it a pretty much standard 3.5 carb. engine?? Surely a 3.9efi would be a reasonable option in an E30?

think it was yeah? but i have no idea about the 3.9efi? i was just thinking of his version.

so if you have met toughy have i met you? im the scruffy student looking guy, long hair, stupid hat and back then i will have had a lachs silver 325i which got horsed everywhere!

If you were at Durham Services early last year then yes. I'm the gadgie with the black Touring.

Kos wrote: jamies correct, as for the handling i couldnt comment. it is infact twin turbo'd rover/tvr hybrid and has now evolved into a full blown competative race car with its builder behind the wheel.

In PPC mag, there's an article in which dave walker recently mapped it.

That article said it was a twin turbo BMW derived 5L in the Prism E30. To be honest you can't really tell what it is from the pictures with the huge polished plenums and plumbing everywhere

jkarran wrote:

Kos wrote: jamies correct, as for the handling i couldnt comment. it is infact twin turbo'd rover/tvr hybrid and has now evolved into a full blown competative race car with its builder behind the wheel.

In PPC mag, there's an article in which dave walker recently mapped it.

That article said it was a twin turbo BMW derived 5L in the Prism E30. To be honest you can't really tell what it is from the pictures with the huge polished plenums and plumbing everywhere

its a 5.0 rover/tvr v8 very heavly worked

jkarran wrote:

Kos wrote: jamies correct, as for the handling i couldnt comment. it is infact twin turbo'd rover/tvr hybrid and has now evolved into a full blown competative race car with its builder behind the wheel.

In PPC mag, there's an article in which dave walker recently mapped it.

That article said it was a twin turbo BMW derived 5L in the Prism E30. To be honest you can't really tell what it is from the pictures with the huge polished plenums and plumbing everywhere

how many car doy you know off are too powerfull for a set of rollers !

Isnt the old rover v8 based on a yank v8 anyway? from memory it was a buick? get a jap v8 i no it hurts to say jap v8 but trust me they are amazing engines.We love em down here

@Spadge:

I dont think so.
Perhaps you can contact Tino. The 335i conversion has also been translated.

Regards,
Patrick335i

drifty325i wrote:get a jap v8 i no it hurts to say jap v8

Yes it is. No jap crap on our forum, please.
Not so serious
Jan

Rover V8 - now very old, not very powerful (190 bhp from the Vitesse unit) and expensive to tune. If all you want is a low tech V8, go the Yank route.

BMW 3 litre V8 - 218 bhp or 289 bhp from a 4 litre. You'll buy an old 740i for peanuts.

yea,rover v8 old hat now mate really not worth the hassle,ls1 is the only v8 worth anything these days cheap to buy new,secondhand very light,very tunnable,just look at wayne greatrix e30 m3(my fav bmw of all time) in ppc mag theres as link to it on here some were,oh yea ls1 cheap to fix if goes wrong,service,you might need a prograble ecu ect thou or away from the v8 i find that vauxhall red top turbo is the cheapest of all convertions to do,no need for a new ecu £800 or so buys you a complete engine ready to go in ,use omega manual gear box 204bhp 206fbl of torque very tunnable,light im doing one myself to my 318i 2dr, start with a good engine with good fuel econ dont throw hard earned money at an old engine or you my wish you haven't started it, keep it light good luck

zimm_zimmer wrote:yeah as said im just bringin in idea's of what to do with it, i mean im sure there is american v8's somewhere in england otherwise how else would so many american cars be in this country, at the moment i am just looking seening complexity and how much time and money its going to cost me and although it will be special and i am never getting rid of my e30 as wouldnt get the money back on it. now i know this may sound silly but what is the difference in short and normal block and what advantages, i would also like to know about what sort of diff i may run would a e30 diff handle and infact fit onto a different prop??, i know i have lots of questions but you dont ask you dont get, thanks

A short block is just the block with pistons, no sump.
Long block is usually the heads/sumps rockers, but no ancilaries.

BIG block, is anything over the 350 (chev) 351(ford) The rest are small block which is like comparing an m20 to an m30. There is a way to build a torque montsre in a chev, get the 327 crank into a 350 block, and it give you a 37? I think.

Been a while, so it could be wrong, but the general idea is there.

have a look at this conversion then see what ya think, this is gonna be a crazy car when finished!!!

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh ... p?t=699289

gall.

Interesting idea on the brakes front. Floor mounted pedals running master, then to slaves pushing on the servo.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh ... 289&page=5

What i did, instead of making a complicated remote linkage:

- bought a Tilton floor mounted 'box, although i could've kept the standard pedals
- relocated the booster inside the cabin space, and instead of mounting it on the firewall in the engine bay, i've mounted it in the exact same space but on the cabin side on the firewall. This setup left only the master cylinder in the engine bay clearing a LOT of space, making room for the exhaust pipe.
- activation of the brake booster: i've mounted 2 slave clutch cylinders on the rod activating the booster, and the 2 master clutch cylinders are activated by the brake pedal. This way i could've relocated the booster in the trunk if i wanted to, the booster is now activated hydraulically by the 2 cylinders instead of direct linkage from the brake pedal. No rigid connections, rods, etc.

Much simpler, and probably cheaper than the setup you've used. BTW, 2 cylinders are used because they can leak - so if one leaks the other one takes over, so the brakes can't fail.

Sorry, no pics of how it now looks, i've just done it a few days ago. And it works...