New E30 340i project now to be M52 B28 turbo!

[E30BeemerLad]

W58 gearbox comes from the N/A MK4 supra as does the 2JZ N/A engine dude. The 2JZ will also be found in the Lexus GS300

if you do a google for a company called Rush Imports in Australia they may well have bellhousing adaptors as quite a few aussies have done the manual conversion on the lexus V8

[MarkT]

I take it that a mr2 turbo, flywheel would be suitable?

[E30BeemerLad]

You'll have to wait for Riley to wake up on the other side of the world to answer that one lol

[MarkT]

What i was thinkong of doing involved using the 325 box and an adaptor plate to mate the two together, then make up a shim to go between the 325 flywheel and the end of the crankshaft, this will allow for the thickness of the adaptor plate and the difference in depth between the engines if you can immagine. Really handy thing is that the starter motor runs off of the gearbox IIRC and a custom flywheel/new ring gear doesn't have to be developed!

Anyone know what torque a standard clutch can take?

[MarkT]

D'oh just double checked the box, started runs off the block. Silly tosser lol..

Looks like a custom flywheel

[drifty325i]

Cheers fella

Gearboxes, where do the w55 (me)/w57/w58 range of boxes come from and who manufacturers the belhousing adaptors? Also, what flywheel to run a na 2jz or an mr2 turbo clutch? And what engine is the na 2jz? Supra?

Sorry about all the questions, bit of a learning curve. Also (lol) have you any engine bay pics etc. just as a reference.

Probably not going to run the existing brake system but upgrade to a bespoke pedal box

Many thanks

Mark

Hi Mark,

The W55s come from older (85-89) coronas,sprinters,celicas, and older supras. Have a look on www.a1turbos.co.nz , they prefer to use the N/A 2JZ Clutch and flywheel setup over the MR2 one now.

Ill see if I can dig up a photo, none of them are much good. Ill take some more this weekend if I get a chance to go out to there.

No worrys about about the questions dude keep em coming

Riley

[drifty325i]

D'oh just double checked the box, started runs off the block. Silly tosser lol..

Looks like a custom flywheel

Id say the TQ would smash the BMW gearbox pretty quick, use a Toyota one mate it will be easier

[MarkT]

That's fair enough mate, there's a fair few FI scandinavian e30's running 325 boxes and a lot of torque. What did you do to modify the propshaft?

PS are their clutch/flywheels a good investment? Or can something stock be modified?

[E30BeemerLad]

I reckon the boost junkies get away with E30 box etc because they just light the rears up when a big slug of boost comes in, so not putting as much strain on it in the lower gears, well that's my theory.

[MarkT]

Why don't they sheer 4 and 5 then? Looking into things by the time I've had a custom flywheel and clutch manufactured, I might as well go down the w55/56/57 route. There's a w57 on ebay for 25 notes with a day to run. Not been able to find many others though.

Fron the NZ website that drifty, the prices are very reasonable, £230 for a bellhousing, £290 for a clutch that'll take 400+ ftlb of torque and £210 for a custom flywheel! All that should be more than adequate an dup for the job in hand. If I went the 325 box route then I'd be looking at £50-75 for me to manufacture an adaptor plate, £350-400 for a custom clutch and another £200-250 for a custom flywheel. Even then if it buggers the box then i'd have spent £400-450 on components that can't be reused anywhere due to their bespoke nature.

One nice item I saw for sale on the site was an inlet manifold which allowed the use of 2 sets of 4AGE ITB's. Costs £420! Or they do a set-up including the ITB's and trumpets for £1080

[MarkT]

Quick update, just purchased a 325 medium cased LSD and also one of the more expensive parts of the build... A lovely weld-in cage from custom cages. Bought a new one second hand lol. Full weld-in job with additional door diaganols and triangulation to strut tops, which is nice.


Quick pic of the offending item.

Not really done a great deal on the car as i'm getting married very soon so have no time until early july.

[Jon_Bmw]

Can you keep me updated with the general fit of the cage and service from CC.

I am looking at getting a cage for the 205, and a fairly naff 6 point bolt in is around the £370 mark(OMP/SD), whereas you pay another £200 and you get a nice multipoint from CC that ties into the rear beam and front struts. You also gain a nice place for your harnesses that almost all 6/10 points don't have.

I bet that is going to be a bit of a workout fitting that in there. Good luck squire.

[MarkT]

I bought it second hand, but I think custom cages should be good to deal with, as they send out a DVD with all fitting instructions etc. Also provide cut to length, notched tubes which saves a lot of time and the profiled feet which also save time in the installation stages. You want to allow 400-600 for installation unless your going to do it yourself. A mate of mine that preps rally cars is going to do mine, also turret the rear end, modifiy the front strut tops and form a diff hanger too.

[Jon_Bmw]

Blimey, I don't envy who had to cut it out then!

The idea if I get a CC one is to tack in all in place, then get a chap who has welded in a massively complex one into his Metro vvti rally to do it for ALOT of beverages!

Keep the pictures coming.

[MarkT]

No mate, it's brand new, never fitted!

[Jon_Bmw]

Phew! I was going to say.

[E30BeemerLad]

I'm going to keep an eye as to how you get on with this project as I have a suitable donor car sat on the driveway already

Also, my brother may be busting his MK3 supra soon, which has the R154 manual box so if he does I'll let you know. They are more expensive than the W58 as they are far tougher, usual price is around the £250 mark

[MarkT]

I'm in two minds with what to do with the gearbox front.. Keep me posted because i'm struggling to find a w55/56/57 box. Which is the biggest deciding factor... I'd ideally like to keep the 325 box out of convienience. I need to sit and do some maths.

It might be possible to use the MR2 flywheel and re-drill/tap to suit a 325 clutch, but then you've the issuse with custom clutches and how much they cost..

Anyway keep me posted lol. Also if he doesn't frag etc, do you know of anywhere good to get them from?

[MarkT]

Few pics of what i've been up to..




Couple of bits of rust, either cut or ground out, need to buy a wire brush attachment for the angle grinder to finish off.


All subframes etc off.


Loads of room in the engine bay, just waiting for the V8


And the 1st bits of the cage.. Got to collect the rest next week with the LSD

[E30BeemerLad]

probably try ebay or www.mkiiisupra.net

[drifty325i]

That's fair enough mate, there's a fair few FI scandinavian e30's running 325 boxes and a lot of torque. What did you do to modify the propshaft?

PS are their clutch/flywheels a good investment? Or can something stock be modified?

I just shortend the factory driveshaft and fitted a Toyota input on the end. Works perfectly. Your probably right you could use the bmw box but mating it up would be a pain and you would have to move it forward more in the tunnel i think.

Standard ones can be used I think, some use the NA Supra setup, ask in Lextreme there are some real experts in there

[MarkT]

Not too bad then? Moving the engine forward might complicate the engine mounts. Would you ues an uprated NA supra clutch too?

[drifty325i]

Yip thats a popular choice of clutch.

[MarkT]

Just a quicky, what modifications have to be made to the supra flywheel for it to fit the 1uz?

[drifty325i]

That im not sure of mate. Jump onto www.lextreme.com and do a few searches, it will be on there im sure.

[MarkT]

Just to let people know if they ever consider this conversion, the flywheel mods include taking out the bolt holes in the centre of the flywheel by 1mm to alter the PCD and putting a chamfer on the opposite side of the ring gear for the starter motor, as it is the wrong way around on the Lexus engine.

Small update, not too much progress as I have been away on honeymoon and geting going again's been an issue. I have finally found a suitable donor car which I am going to pick up tonight. It's a 4 door 325 which should provide all the bits and peices that are missing from both the cars to finnish them and also should hopefully pay for itself.

I'll get some pics up soon, However will provide the project with the rear disked beam, larger front legs, propshaft and a few other usefull bits and peices.

[MarkT]

Small update. No progress made really, however been spending a fair bit of time designing (stealing ideas) for the suspension and also running a fair amount of maths on the engine side of the budget.

I have been in the process of looking at the DTM/ Group A rear suspension set-up and feel that it isn't too much hastle to a) replicate the design and b) manufacture. So the rear suspension geometry is going to have hopefully the same level and ease of adjustment as the DTM cars. The rear sub-frame and trailing arms are going to get reinforced, be fully rose jointed and have adjustment to camber, toe and roll centre. I have decided to change the rubber subframe bushes to nylon ones which I will have turned up. Not too sure about the aluminium ones reacting with the bodywork of the car.

The diff will also be welded to the boot floor (Indirectly lol) and cage will be triangulated to it. The cage I have is the custom cages one with one or two extra bits and peices added on, triangulation to strut tops etc. the other bracing that I'd like to add are down to the subframe mounts and poss a couple of other diaganols too.

With the front suspension the DTM system should be fairly easy to replicate, however I do need to consult someone in the know on the geometry of the lower arms in relation to the subframe, lowering the roll centre etc. I'd like to keep it as simmilar as possible and encorporate aspects such as the additional bolt connections on the rearward mounts.

I'm also entertaining the idea of their adjustable ARB's but there is a lot more RnD involved in this due to the way tapered spring steel is used and the weight of the car will have an effect on this. But it's an engineering excercise to play with at a later date.

And the final developmet for now is that I have an engine for the car. I have decided for what I am after i.e 400-450bhp and a little less torque using the 1UZFE is going to be way too expensive. I am now using an M52 B28. I have just bought a 728i with a replaced engine due to nickasil, so is perfect for what I have in store.

So the plan with the engine for now is to install it on the standard management or Megasquirt or vems and have a shade under 200bhp for me to get used to RWD again and at a later date turbo it. I will also do the necessary when the engine's out like installing the .140 MLS gasket and the ARP headstuds and then turboing will be more of a bolt on process.

From the turboing point of view is to use a TD05 20G or a TD06 20G which should do the job nicely. Unless I can save the extra money required for a Holset and external waist gate.

Heres a link to the pics I've been studying http://www.s14.net/jakesdtmtours/suspension.html

[MarkT]

Another small update. No pics as of yet. After a fair bit of planning I've decide that the 1st thing to focus my attentions on the adjustable rear subframe. 1st item of which is in the pic below.



After spending a lot of time looking at the pic trying to figure out how it works (different nuts etc. locking against each other), I have finally decided that the centre 'nut' in the assembly is actually a turnbuckle, but not in the conventional sence. The turnbuckle when taken out of the assembly will look more like a bolt (i'm thinking about using an M20/22), however with a hole bored through the centre and a reverse thread tapped into it. The half nut to the left is a check nut to lock off the rod end and the flanged nut on the right is to lock off the turnbuckle and also to clamp on the camber adjustment barrel (far right). Mocking up something simmilar should provide this item.

Next thing to look at is the camber adjustment barrel. I have decided to simplify what they have done here. What I intend to do is use some tube (i've 48mm od to hand with a wall thickness of 4mm), weld a plate to the top and have 2 circlip grooves turned into the bottom, a lower disk will be located between the two. Inside this barrel will be a solid round bar with tapped holes in the top, bottom and side. The top and bottom to recieve threaded rod, which will allow adjustment of camber and the side one to recieve the toe adjustment assembly. Fairly straight forward when not typed!

This will then be welded to the rear arm in place of the mounting bush assembly. The trailing arms themselves will be braced something simmilar to the early DTM cars with a triangulating bar between the arms and bracing between the main body, hub and lower suspension pick up, simmilar to the pic below.



Not really bought much for this yet bar some L/H threadded M16 rodends and half nuts and some other bits and peices un-related, full set of bearings and bottom ball joints etc.

[MarkT]

Just picked up this



Evo VIII turbo with a 9.8 hotside, should be good for 370ish bhp which is ample for now. Poss a little more. Not too bad for £90

Also got these too for the princly sum of £50


Pic for reference purposes lol. Going to use these in combination with some G60 disks and some 3mm spacers

[MarkT]

Another little update. Been spending more money

Just won on ebay... Some Gaz adjustable inserts, going down the budget coil-over route with the rally design type coil-over conversion jobbies.


A turbo manifold from the states for the princely sum of £46 plus £10 postage


I know they're LH drive only however the plan is to use it upside down to get around that problem. Other issues involving cracking should hopefully sorted out by some decent bracing of the turbo (less strain on the manifold) and these ones also crack due to the the manifold flange being one peice, so will be chopped up to allow for a little differential movement.

Also bought some G60 discs which will require the bore enlarging to suit the BMW hubs. I've also found a drawing of the bracket required to allow the calipers to fit the E30 uprights and it's so simple to make, it's child's play lol.

[e301988325i]

don't miss the fact that where the wheel bolts go through the disc, the g60 discs are 5mm vs 7mm for the e30 items. 2mm spacers available from 'keri-wms' on here

[MarkT]

That's the ebayer who I bought the front struts from!

Do you mean the retaining bolt 5mm vs 7mm?

[e301988325i]

No, the thickness of the discs where the wheel bolts go through, g60 5mm, e30 7mm

[MarkT]

Ahh, Yes mate. I know about that Read it on GeoffBobs brake conversion thread.

[MarkT]

Just recieved the exhaust manifold, TBH it's quality is pretty good considering it only cost me £50 or so. The mating flange to the head is not perfectly flat, however i'll cut the flange into individual sections per primary and this should mean when torqued up they'll pull flat. It's only a question of .25-.5mm. The welds seem to be tidy and look to have made good penitration, however will need a lot of gringing with a dremil to smooth the way.

Also bought an ebay again lol FMIC for just over £60. The quality is supprising again. The only thing that really lets it down is the fact that the plate/bar design is a lot more open than a more expensive item, thus less cooling capacity. Stupidly bought it without taking any measurements and luckily fits perfectly between the front bumper mounting points

Only other little update, is that the rod end adjusters are now finished thanks to my mate Jon . Simply just an M24x45mm bolt with a L/H thread tapped through the centre. I'll try and get a pic when I've sorted a camera.

So next job is to make up the camber adjustment barrels. Going to be something a little different to the DTM but same basic principal.