E30 Zone

I've been planning this by scrolling the forums, thinking things over, and preparing things without taking the car off the road. As of last monday I turned the key for the last time with the M20 under the hood. Here is what followed:

My marathon work-out: I'm seeing the finish but I'm not quite there.

Monday:





Tuesday: Test fit.


Made brackets. Which turned out wrong so needed to be cut out again.


Stock air filter housing:


G260 prep


Testfit 2: The radiator + fan doesn't fit now. So I need other engine mounts. I went to the junkjard and I tried the E36 ones but had trouble mounting them in the end. So altered them and the fan and rad do fit. So distance is good but engine mounts suck. I fixed something so I can use the stock M20 rubbers.



Wednessday: Remodeled the fire wall to get the engine further back as needed:


Coolant reservoir brackets:



Thursday: Made the radiator brackets and air filter housing brackets


Dumped the engine back in and connected the gearbox, driveshaft, shift linkage, clutch, fuel, starter, some electronics:


I think I still need one more day of flat out wrenching to get the hardware done. Ãaf all goes well I can turn the key on saterday but this time with a S50B30 under the hood.

Cheers!

What I did to prep things: (Without taking the car out of order.) It's my daily driver



New engine: 1994 euro S50B30, got 119.000 km on it.



Modification to the oil pan:



Some ass ruined almost all valve cover threats so I needed to put helicoils in.



new parts:



Modifications to the brake booster + pedal box:




preparing for LPG:



Getting the wiring done:



It's done already. I made a mockup for the firewall and got the 4-pot wiring covers. It just looks neat.

I've also installed the brake booster, MC and pedal box to gain space for the upcoming swap. I hope the picstures show how much room you gain by doing this. It was all relatively cheap:
-spare pedal box (15 euro's)
-welding (did it myself)
-sandblasting + paint (10 euro's)
-MC (new at 70 euro's via ebay)
-brake booster (15 euro's at the breakers)
-brake fluid (10 euro's)

I guess this is good starter for the LHD budget swappers.

Brakes are a little harder then stock but not to hard for me. What you do miss is the initial bite at the start when braking. For reference everything is stock at the four corners aside from the pads at the front which are Ferrodo DS2500.











20mm 42CrMo:













-dent for the S50 headers
-home made anti roll bar
-new roll bar links, new bolts, new steering end links
-strengthend engine mount points
-modified angle to fit the E36 engine mounts
-sand blasted and painted
-E36 steering
-Tree house lolypop copies
-rvs steering rubber delete

Amazing work!

ARB and pedal box look like great ideas wish I could have down these mods to mine!

crossie wrote:Amazing work!

ARB and pedal box look like great ideas wish I could have down these mods to mine!

Thanks Crossie.

I started the engine on Saterday and made the first test drive on Sunday so the swap took me (no extra help) exactly one week. It's running great with some minor issues to solve. The looks and power should have been a standard factory option. It suits the chassis perfect.

I'll post some additional pics of the last day. (Where I mollested the 600,- pound BTB x-pipe to fit the original headers )

Well done! you turned the key before me,get the last pic,s up maybe (a video too). How is your btb exhaust? what small issues do you have? Are all the instruments working etc?

Ok I started the car on saterday and made the first test drive on sunday. Still some open points but overall the engine is running quite good. All the things I've left can be done during the weekends or evenings.

Remember I bought that bad ass BTB exhaust with x-pipe? I had to butcher it to fit the stock headers:












Open points:
-oil cooler (the stock E30 cooler crumbled and fell to pieces when I took it off so I didn't want to use it.)
-power steering pump is whinning
-something with the electric windows is not working (the unloader relays are connected though) Perhaps the starter relay is broken?
-I have no indicator lights anymore??
-finish up the dash
-some other wiring stuff (rev counter, service indicator)

Info about the electric windows is welcome

good job !

Ok I got everything back in one piece. Also got the LPG vapouriser mounted (it's getting crouded there) and the strut brace. Lots of open points left but it's a nice ride.

Looking good
What vaporiser have you used? Is it rated for the hp?

It's a Prins Autogas VSI vapouriser. It's rated up to 300 hp. The injectors I'll use are keihin injectors rated 50 hp each. But with the amount of time I've latelly it'll be a slow process. Since I had to change the coolant lines slightly it seemed to be a good idea to have the vapouriser mounted already. It's the same with the LPG injection points in the trottle bodies. Those are ready for use as you can see in the pictures.

Ps. I took the vanos appart since it was leaking oil and was not functioning properly. It's all viton now. A 5-7 hour job that took me 5 weeks....... ARG!

^^^^ Great stuff!

Any ideas what the power steering pump whine is....?

Mikey_Boy wrote:^^^^ Great stuff!

Any ideas what the power steering pump whine is....?

The S50 pump I've bought from someone of the forum here was a broken one. I've found a regular 6 cil pump local to me which was a direct fit. The whine was instantly gone. So my search for a S50 pump was a big waste of time/money/trust.

DMS wrote:It's a Prins Autogas VSI vapouriser. It's rated up to 300 hp. The injectors I'll use are keihin injectors rated 50 hp each. But with the amount of time I've latelly it'll be a slow process. Since I had to change the coolant lines slightly it seemed to be a good idea to have the vapouriser mounted already. It's the same with the LPG injection points in the trottle bodies. Those are ready for use as you can see in the pictures.

Ps. I took the vanos appart since it was leaking oil and was not functioning properly. It's all viton now. A 5-7 hour job that took me 5 weeks....... ARG!

Have you used the setup before or going off recommendation? Interested as I will be on the lookout for a new front end kit rated for 260hp+ soon, are you using Prins management too?

I've attendent a 6 months internship at Prins Autogas so I'm quite familiar with the system. Also I've run it on my E12 with a M30B35 fitted. At 211 hp it was performing very good with lots of room to spare. I think it can handle the S50 but in the end I'll just have to install it to be sure.

did you fix the window?
I had to wire an ignition live to the mine to get them to work - wiring under the dash seems not to be getting any power.

did you get the rev counter working? - I know you need a 6 pot rev counter chip that fits in the dash board! - I still need to wire mine to the ECU

crossie wrote:did you fix the window?
I had to wire an ignition live to the mine to get them to work - wiring under the dash seems not to be getting any power.

did you get the rev counter working? - I know you need a 6 pot rev counter chip that fits in the dash board! - I still need to wire mine to the ECU

Hehe I didn't wire the dash just yet when I posted that. So when I connected the button next to the alarm lights button. I've no idea how that's called. They were working just fine.

The rev counter is working I just connected the ecu wire to the rev counter wire. Works like a charm. No need to add any box. What so even. Assuming you got a six pot counter.

Small update. It's been running for 3 months now. I've bought the vanos seal kit from Beisan and replaced all the seals. Other then that I haven't been doing much. It's running OK but there are still points that need attention, but the weather is %^$^&^(:
-Thermostat needs to be replaced
-Seems to be on the rich side (I don't think it'll be completely solved when I replace the thermostat.)
-There is still a small oil leak upfront

Nice to have would be better brakes but I'm working on that:
-Audi TT 312mm
-E38 4-pot these seem to need a 25mm spacer which I don't like much
-all in 16" hartges.

what ecu did you use, was it one without ews, or with and you got it reprogrammed?

I used a non-EWS ECU.

-Thermostat is replaced
-Running rich is solved

My evening classes are almost finished then I'll have a bit more time to fix some open points. First things will be brakes and idle (it's running a bit rough on idle: so I'll start by synchronising the throttle bodies).

nice work!

can not wait to see more progress!

By the way have you still get the spare pedal box or did you sell it?

crossie wrote:nice work!

can not wait to see more progress!

By the way have you still get the spare pedal box or did you sell it?

Thanks! Me too I'm stoked about getting a bit more time in the garage. However the E30 won't get my full focus. I really want to get the E12 family car up and running.

What about the spare pedal box? It's just a regular pedal box. (I still have it tho.)