E30 Zone

Finally got under way (now the weather is good) with my conversion, I'm one of the unlucky ones without a garage only a driveway..

Engine out



Auto box removed



Manual fitted



M30 in place, unfortunatley I had to lift it back out to alter the bulkhead to allow it to sit right back. My mounts are copies of the e30.de ones and I thought the holes were P2 and P3, they weren't and I reckon it's in about P2.5ish



I'm doing the whole project a bit backwards, I'm fitting it in my shed 325 so I can spend as much time as needed doing everything and once it's completed it will be removed and swapped over to my better 325

looks superb Ed

i made my mounts and i also have P2.5

it's the position to have!

no garage is a right pain isn't it

how long 'til you drive it then

charlE30 wrote:I'm one of the unlucky ones without a garage only a driveway..

At least your drive way is flat....

(i do have a garage but it's full of my work gear )

Hope all goes well!

looks good! i didn't have a garage either (though i do now!!!!!) i did mine partly on a mates grandads farm and partly on my dads driveway.

how easily did the engine go in from above? i put mine in from below. having a balance bar would have been handy though...

looking good so far mate, good luck with completion.

Nice one dude

Does the radiator fit ok now ?

looks superb Ed

Who's Ed?

how long 'til you drive it then

I plan to have it finished by the end of this month, it's very dependant on the weather though

how easily did the engine go in from above? i put mine in from below. having a balance bar would have been handy though...

Very easily took about 45 to 1 hour on my own and yes the bar did help a lot. It was just a pity that I had to take it back out to alter the bulkhead. I had the engine in and out three times that afternoon and now the screw thread on the balance bar is knackered It will be going back, I thought buying a branded one, it would last.

Does the radiator fit ok now

Plenty of room although I have a feeling the engine is sitting a little high for the bonnet to close, I'm using new M20 rubbers, this is correct isn't it??

Thank you everyone for your comments, I'll keep this thread updated as I go

Charlie

charlE30 wrote:
Plenty of room although I have a feeling the engine is sitting a little high for the bonnet to close, I'm using new M20 rubbers, this is correct isn't it??

Yeah, M20 rubbers, they always look a bit high, i guess the highest thing on yours will be the AFM ?

now pep's,

i'm just about to start doing mine once i've cleaned the new engine up, how much of the bulkhead needs tobe cut out so the engine sits right and does the m30 head sit in the same place as an m20 head does,if so i can mark the bulkhead before i take the old engine out!!!! saves putting the engine in two/three times.

cheers for any help.

gall

It won't need cutting, it might a tap or two with the hammer but it depends what position the engine is in and how you fit the engine i.e. gear box and engine bolted together or separately.

You also might have to loose some sound insulation

Andy335Touring wrote:It won't need cutting, it might a tap or two with the hammer but it depends what position the engine is in and how you fit the engine i.e. gear box and engine bolted together or separately.

You also might have to loose some sound insulation

a tap or two

charlE30 wrote:

Andy335Touring wrote:It won't need cutting, it might a tap or two with the hammer but it depends what position the engine is in and how you fit the engine i.e. gear box and engine bolted together or separately.

You also might have to loose some sound insulation

a tap or two

Yeah.....................















..............with a sledge hammer

mine didn't need ANY bashing at all. it is very tight though, the bellhousing bolt heads are pushed into the sound deadening! the front is very tight too. 5mm further back would be ideal.

as i fitted mine from below and it took half a day to get it in (with 2 people), i thought it would be fine where it was!

regarding height, i used E30.de mounts, redrilled for P2.5 and with new OEM mounting rubbers. loosening the mount / block bolts allows a fair bit of fine tuning (5mm in each direction maybe?). my sump sits 3mm off the rack and the TPS rubs the underside of the bonnet. this is an auto TPS so maybe it's a bit larger?

if you're lucky like me and get it in at the first attemt, make sure you move the brake pipes a bit first as they're very close to the rear of the head. pulling the rocker cover off and trimming the 4mm x 15mm (ish) lug off will give valuable clearance.

once mine is back on the road, we'll have to have a 335i meet somewhere!

gareth wrote: regarding height, i used E30.de mounts, redrilled for P2.5 and with new OEM mounting rubbers. loosening the mount / block bolts allows a fair bit of fine tuning (5mm in each direction maybe?). my sump sits 3mm off the rack and the TPS rubs the underside of the bonnet. this is an auto TPS so maybe it's a bit larger?

if you're lucky like me and get it in at the first attemt, make sure you move the brake pipes a bit first as they're very close to the rear of the head. pulling the rocker cover off and trimming the 4mm x 15mm (ish) lug off will give valuable clearance.

once mine is back on the road, we'll have to have a 335i meet somewhere!

Thanks for the tips mate, the holes in my mounts are really tight - no room for any adjustment so I'm thinking I could open up the holes a little. My engine still has the auto TPS on and does look like it's the highest point of the engine.

When I fitted the engine I did wonder about grinding off that tab on the back of the head.

A 335 meet would be most excellent

I found a link in your thread to your 72 conversion photo's, looking at your mounts I'm definetly in P3, I just hope I don't have to much of a problem with my M3 prop...

the prop should be fine mate. i could probably move mine back 20 - 30 mm with the M3 one.

if i'd had more time and enthusiasm i'd go for P3 rather than P2.5 as i can't get the dizzy cap off without removing the radiator first!

hey, i've just purchased a 3.5 lump for my e30, just wondering what advise you can give me before i start?

also, i might be acting dumb but i dont know what all this p2 and p3 talk is? can i not just use the m30 engine mounts?

i'll keep u all updated

cheers,

Nate

nate335i wrote:hey, i've just purchased a 3.5 lump for my e30, just wondering what advise you can give me before i start?

also, i might be acting dumb but i dont know what all this p2 and p3 talk is? can i not just use the m30 engine mounts?

i'll keep u all updated

cheers,

Nate

Hi Nate and welcome to the zone

You'll need:

M30 engine (obvisouly)
M30 manual gearbox
Manual or auto loom
Manual ECU
Custom engine mounts available off the shelf or DIY yourself
E30 M3 prop
E30 M3 LSD ideally or use a 3.64 LSD of early sports
E28 535 manual radiator
Electric fan
Suitable exhaust system, I will be using parts from an E30 320is and the M3

There's bound to be parts I've missed off, a good site to explain the P2 and P3 etc is www.e30.de , click on the 335 link then the english button.

Back to my conversion..

Just been out ready to start removing engine mounts and playing with the holes to lower the engine but tried refitting the bonnet just to make sure..... it fit's nearly perfectly The highest point on my engine is the bloody TPS and it touches the sound insulation

Does anyone know if thee is a way round this without altering the holes in mount brackets??

Cheers chaps

Charlie

My tps isnt that high its a manual one.




ED

The highest point on my engine is the bloody TPS and it touches the sound insulation

By much ?

Might be OK ?

mine has rubbed through the sound deadening! if you close the bonnet and then push on the area around the TPS, you should be able to feel how much clearance there is. mine is about 2mm!

I'm going to remove the auto TPS and fit the manual one kindly donated by Andy.. cheers mate

I reckon with this one fitted it will just about touch the sound deadening stuff, there is actually quite a big difference between the two. I'm just going to have to try and work out the wires, on the auto there's about 5 or 6

I will have the wiring and plumbing (without cabin heater matrix) sorted (fingers crossed) by the weekend and I'm going to fire her up

sorry got ya name wrong mate, thinking of ed325i, oops

charlE30 wrote: E30 M3 LSD ideally or use a 3.64 LSD of early sports

m3 LSD's too long geared for a standard engine mate, even Andy's (with big ports, big valves, standalone etc) was (relatively!) sluggish with one of those fitted. the 3.5 isn't actually that torquey low down and struggles with long gearing. 3.64 is a much better ratio and will give in the region of 150mph before you hit the limiter.

the m3 (3.25:1) is a suitable ratio for a turbo m30 (i hope!)

looking good

Toby_Unna wrote:sorry got ya name wrong mate, thinking of ed325i, oops

charlE30 wrote: E30 M3 LSD ideally or use a 3.64 LSD of early sports

I thought you were thinking of ed325i

I will be using a 3.64 not the M3, I thought I'd read in various places about using the M3 3.25. It's been quite interesting reading up on the conversion as quite a few sites contradict each other

Toby_Unna wrote:3.64 is a much better ratio and will give in the region of 150mph before you hit the limiter.

This is what I like to hear

Good luck with yours Toby, your thread is a very interesting read

does anyone know if i can use a 320i inlet manifold to cure the height problem?
also will a 320i loom be ok with a 535 ecu?

The 320(M20) is a differant engine to the M30 3.5 so the manifold wont fit, not sure about the wiring though as i made my own to go with my Emerald ECU.

Oh.....and a 3.46LSD is the dif of choice if you can find one

3.64LSD is second best though

re: the exhausts: the M3 system is a much larger bore than my 325i system was. that said, both of mine are/were scorpion stainless units. though both use the standard fittings/clamsp/gaskets etc.

re: the loom: it's possible (i've heard) to modify the M20 loom to fit but it's not necessary. keep the engine loom and ECU from the M30 donor car and in essence, you only need to connect to the main multiplug in the engine bay, battery earth and battery positive. that's it except for some minor fiddling.

have a read through the posts below (will take a while) as most of the problems will be covered in there.

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m30

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m30

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m30

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m30

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m30

Little update: all the wiring is done and the ECU is where it should be although it is backwards. I've fitted my electric fan and have sorted the coolant hoses, I used the E34 top rad/ heater hose, E28 bottom rad hose and a combination of E30 and E34 thermostat/heater hose. Tomorrow I'll fit them along with the rad and have a play with the shifter linkage, fuel pipes and brake servo vac tube.

Then all that is left will be prop/LSD and exhaust oh and actually getting it started.. probably take longer than it has to fit it all knowing my luck

Nice progress mate, it will be up and running before you know it

charlE30 wrote:the ECU is where it should be although it is backwards.

mine is exactly the same. i managed to get one bolt back in with the ECU rotated 90°. the other side is held up with a tye wrap!

charlE30 wrote:have sorted the coolant hoses, I used the E34 top rad/ heater hose, E28 bottom rad hose and a combination of E30 and E34 thermostat/heater hose.

make sure you connect them the right way round. this means cutting both hoses iirc. if you have a funny tapping noise when you drive that sounds like an insane relay near the glovebox, then it's backwards!

charlE30 wrote:and have a play with the shifter linkage

try the M20 linkages before cutting anything, mine went straight in!

charlE30 wrote:brake servo vac tube.

mine connected straight up

charlE30 wrote:Then all that is left will be prop/LSD and exhaust oh and actually getting it started.. probably take longer than it has to fit it all knowing my luck

what are you doing for the exhaust? M3? if you need a mating flange to weld to the M30 downpipes, let me know as i have one on CAD that you can get profiled.

oh, firing it up should be easy, i primed the fuel system with a quick flip over with no coil connected to make sure which was the fuel send/return lines, connected up and gave it a go. it went: yunk, yunk, baruuuum!!! that's not even a full revolution on a 6 pot!!!

fingers crossed mate!

i should be at home and near the PC tomorrow (ill with chickenpox!!!) so if you need me to check any connections or send any pics over or anything, pm me and i'll try and help.

Andy335Touring wrote:Nice progress mate, it will be up and running before you know it

Might even be before yours Have you sorted the head/block clearance issue on yours yet mate??

gareth wrote:make sure you connect them the right way round. this means cutting both hoses iirc. if you have a funny tapping noise when you drive that sounds like an insane relay near the glovebox, then it's backwards!

Does this look about right for the hoses, top (matrix) hose to thermostat and header tank(lower hose in photo), bottom (matrix) hose to rad/thermostat (upper hose in photo)

gareth wrote:try the M20 linkages before cutting anything, mine went straight in!

I'm hoping mine will too, you could see where I had removed the gearbox bracket and when refitting with the M30 the bracket ended up in nearly the same place

gareth wrote:mine connected straight up (brake servo)

On my servo the feed line is on the fusebox side so I need to extend the hose. On my red un it's manifold side, typically BM trying to confuse people

gareth wrote:what are you doing for the exhaust? M3? if you need a mating flange to weld to the M30 downpipes, let me know as i have one on CAD that you can get profiled.

I'm using a mix of 320is centre box which is identical to the M3, same flange and X pipe with a supersprint M3 rear box, although the latter might change as it's DTM and I don't think it'll sit squarely out of the rear valance. If you could email me the CAD drawing that would be much appricated charle30@hotmail.co.uk

The only thing I'm missing is some suitable downpipes, all my local breakers are pants

Anyone doing a conversion or just wanting to fit an electric fan have a look on ebay.com. I got my original E30 "additional fan" for £27 inc shipping from the USA

the hoses are different to how mine work... on mine, the top port on the heater matrix goes the thermostat housing, the bottom port goes to the header tank and rad top hose.

so essentially, if you connect the fat top rad hose to the bottom por on the heater matrix is should work. your header tank takeoff will then come from the 'other' side of the heater hoses to mine

this is how andy did his: (hope you don't mind andy...)


i think mine is the 'wrong' way round but seemed the easiest way to get the coolant flowing the right way through the matrix. i had already cut one of the hoses (like in your bottom pic) so cut the rad top hose feed at the same point and swapped them over. you'll probably find the hoses fit better the wong way too!

i'll email over the drawings and supplier i used...

I finally received your emails gareth (MSN is sloooow) lots of usefull info, cheers

Looking at Andy's photo my hoses will be plumbed correctly and will have the T piece hidden away under the manifold like the M20

Rad is now fitted as is fuel lines, brake servo, water hoses and shifter

I haven't cut the linkage although idealy I should as it's a little out:



I have checked that all gears can be selected and it works perfectly without fouling anything. It makes me laugh when you read on various sites about having to use a custom or M3 gearbox hanger, the E30 is perfect as is the downpipe bracket..

does anyone have any plans for the mounts, preferable p2 or 3, so i can make them up before i take her of the road?