E30 Zone

Hi there,

Thought I'd start a thread for my M30 conversion, I'll be taking pics along the way so hopefully it might be helpful to others, even though it's been done loads of times before!

The car is a 320 facelift model so should be a straight forward swap (hopefully!). I bought the car off of a zone member last year and have done a couple of trackdays in it before I decided to do the engine conversion.

Plan is to do the engine conversion, tidy up the bodywork with a few patches of welding that need doing, convert the rear brakes to 325 discs and polybush what ever needs doing while it is off the road. It already has uprated suspension and yellowstuff pads, but I expect I will need bigger front brakes for trackdays.

Car parked up ready to be stripped, not much room to work but it's undercover at least:




Engine to go in, going to change oil, filter, plugs etc first. Trying to find a non dualmass flywheel and clutch to go on it but proving difficult so may settle for the dualmass I already have:



M535 radiator, compared to the standard M20 one:



Engine and box ready to be lifted out next weekend, prop, exhaust etc all off under the car:

About time

Sorry for the delay, far too much over Christmas!

Nice one keep the updates coming i do like a build thread.

Nice, good luck

Aother m30 ftw

Nice, another m30 on the zone, can be made into a very livley engine too. great on track days. out the corners and blast down the straights awayfrom the jap crap. as for the yellow stuff pads, good choice i run mine with tar,ox discs and have no problems stopping at all. Boiling point becomes your enemy though so a high boiling point dot 5 or new pipes all round and the sylicon stuff can be used.

zaust wrote:Boiling point becomes your enemy though so a high boiling point dot 5 or new pipes all round and the sylicon stuff can be used.

dot 5 is silicone, 5.1 isn't and is what you need if you don't want to change pipes.

What are yellow stuff pads like from cold?

Thanks for all the comments

I should have the M20 out this weekend, and I need to make a big order with Cotswold to get engine/gearbox mounts, throttle cable, z3 shifter etc etc, then I can start thinking about getting the M30 in place.

Zaust, cheers for the advice on the brakes, I'll try my brakes as they are then and see how I go. I must admit I was very impressed with my Yellowstuffs the last 2 trackdays I have done. I did get them fading, but to be fair I was doing a lot of hard braking from 100mph+ and the fluid is god-knows how old!

chu346 wrote:

zaust wrote:Boiling point becomes your enemy though so a high boiling point dot 5 or new pipes all round and the sylicon stuff can be used.

dot 5 is silicone, 5.1 isn't and is what you need if you don't want to change pipes.

What are yellow stuff pads like from cold?

When cold they are cr*p, But they warm up very quick and bite well.

Out it comes




Picked up my 325 rear trailing arms today as well

Next job is to fit the e36 rack I've had for ages, and get the M30 ready to fit

What diff you going to use?

I've got a 3.64 for now, but think I'll probably go for the 3.91 as it will be a track car

3.73 for track will be better

Are they easy enough to get hold of Rav? I'm just going to try a few different ratios using open diffs for now, and when I find one I like I'll get a LSD in that ratio

3.73 aren't plentyful, 3.64 would be better, a 3.91 will br revving it's bolloks of in 1st and no Top end really either.

I too would avoid a 3.91 ratio, a 3.73 is id say on the limit with an M30, any higher and first gear is gone. You dont need a short diff with these engines because of the huge torque curve. i will be going back to 3.64 as imo its the perfect ratio for what i need.

Ok, I'll give the 3.64 a go and if a 3.73 comes up I'll give it a try as well

Minor update, have given the engine mounts a coat of Hammerite tonight!

Took out the steering rack today and getting the e36 rack ready to fit. Should have my starter and alternator back this week, the auto electrician who works with my dad is reconditioning them for me. One less thing to go wrong when it's all put back together!

Going to a few scrapyards next weekend to get an electric cooling fan and 328 prop

Bristol_Jer wrote:Took out the steering rack today and getting the e36 rack ready to fit.

Let me know how you get on with the exhaust manifolds clearing steering coupling Got to do the same job myself

Me too, i've got a Z3 rack ready and waiting, but i know it'll be a painful weekend. I hate exhausts

Bristol_Jer wrote:..I'll try my brakes as they are then and see how I go. I must admit I was very impressed with my Yellowstuffs the last 2 trackdays I have done. I did get them fading, but to be fair I was doing a lot of hard braking from 100mph+ and the fluid is god-knows how old!

You can tell if you get fade from overheated fluid because the pedal goes soft.

If the brakes stop working but the pedal stays hard then the pads gave up first.

Hope that helps!

keri-WMS wrote:

Bristol_Jer wrote:..I'll try my brakes as they are then and see how I go. I must admit I was very impressed with my Yellowstuffs the last 2 trackdays I have done. I did get them fading, but to be fair I was doing a lot of hard braking from 100mph+ and the fluid is god-knows how old!

You can tell if you get fade from overheated fluid because the pedal goes soft.

If the brakes stop working but the pedal stays hard then the pads gave up first.

Hope that helps!

In that case it was the fluid as the pedal went soft, thanks for the info

No problem!

leeparkes wrote:

Bristol_Jer wrote:Took out the steering rack today and getting the e36 rack ready to fit.

Let me know how you get on with the exhaust manifolds clearing steering coupling Got to do the same job myself

Will do! Just got to get some pipes sorted out, then I can trial fit the engine and see what I need to take the grinder to!

Get some pics up when you tackle it buddy, ie where you had to make the cuts.

I'll be taking plenty of photos Lee

Went to 4 different scrap yards today to get some bits, couldn't find a 328 prop, but did manage to get a nice big cooling fan and mk1 Golf servo:



Had a quick play with the steering rack, I've got the spacers sorted to mount the rack and a solid aluminium guibo in place of the rubber one so that all fits ok. Should hopefully have the engine and box together soon to trial fit the engine and find out how everything fits together! I'll probably look to getting one of the solid bars for the end of the column if clearance is still an issue. I'll sort some pics of the rack progress tomorrow as it's too dark to get a decent photo now.

You don't need to change the E30 servo for the Golf one, it all fits in the bay as it is.

was that fan originally mounted in front of the rad or behind? I ask as i had a brain fart when using a pair of shitroen BX fans on my M30 conversion originally. They were supposed to go behind the rad but i reversed them and put them in front. the problem came to light when it blew hot air forwards (!) then it occurred to me that the aerofoil on the fan would be the wrong way round. I reversed the polarity to spin them the other way but they were terribly inefficient and were later replaced with a fan that was the right way round

Rav335uk wrote:You don't need to change the E30 servo for the Golf one, it all fits in the bay as it is.

I was thinking ahead, may need some extra room in the future for boost pipes etc....

gareth wrote:was that fan originally mounted in front of the rad or behind? I ask as i had a brain fart when using a pair of shitroen BX fans on my M30 conversion originally. They were supposed to go behind the rad but i reversed them and put them in front. the problem came to light when it blew hot air forwards (!) then it occurred to me that the aerofoil on the fan would be the wrong way round. I reversed the polarity to spin them the other way but they were terribly inefficient and were later replaced with a fan that was the right way round

It's an e36 A/C fan, was mounted in front of the rad so all good there

spot on

Hope you also got the two speed fan switch/sender from the rad? This will allow you to use the original low speed resistor and have a nice two speed setup at two temperatures. (essentially replicating the aircon E30 fan wiring)

I didn't unfortunately, but they had loads of e36's there so will just pick one up next time I'm there

Im sure ive read you can transfer the whole e36 fan loom to the e30.

That would make sense, the E30 one seems to be an additional loom. I made my own loom up and routed it OEM stylee, even using the correct relay positions / fuses in the fusebox.

the wiring diagrams here will help a lot with this, very clear and easy to follow.
http://www.autolib.diakom.ru/CAR/BMW/19 ... 0DIAGRAMS/
you're looking for the wring to/from the high speed relay and low speed relay in the fuse box.