Yet another M30 conversion!!! Clutch help please!?!

[turkey]

Hello everyone,

I'm fairly new to the E30 game, but after wanting a beemer for the past year i finally saw one that i liked at a bargain price that i could'nt turn down...

Heres where i'm up to... After driving it back i'm pretty sure i blew the head gasket on the way home, and as i also wanted more power i've decided to do the M30 conversion. I now have a donor 535i and enough information to carry it out (I hope anyway!) engine mounts on the way (cheers beefy) and weather permitting i'll get the E30 prepped up this weekend!

The help i need is i'm looking for the M5 clutch to uprate it as i plan using the car for track days and having alot of fun driving in it and need something more heavy duty than the standard one, i must of spent 2hours online searching for one but cant seem to find one, could anyone help point me in the right direction please. Also where can i get an appropriate lightened flywheel as i would also like one if it's within my budget,

Cheers for all your help,

Shaun.

[Theo]

Hi Shaun,

Welcome to the forum, good choice of car! I'm not sure how necessary an uprated clutch is to be honest, i used a standard LUK E34 clutch on my track car (335i) and it didn't slip. There's a guy on here who had a turbo 335i with 330 ft/lbs or so and his standard Sachs E28 clutch didn't seem to slip when I went out in the car!

If you are really set on an uprated clutch it might be worth looking into whether an e36 m3 clutch friction disc might work - they are also 240mm and have the same spline configuration as the e34/e28 clutchs.

For the lightweight flywheel the easiest thing to do is use the E28 535i flywheel which is a fair bit lighter than the E34 535i equivilant. No doubt you could get the flywheel lightened further at a machine shop which has the facilities to both lighten and balance it.

[turkey]

Hello,

cheers for your help, well if i don't need a clutch then thats all good, just from some information i found and having the engine out i thought i would be a wise move to upgrade it. Out if interest how much difference will a lightened flywheel make, and heres a stupid question but as i haven't changed a clutch before is the flywheel behind the clutch or infront or in other words will i have to take the clutch of to get the flywheel?

Cheers again for your help!

[Theo]

Not sure what difference the lighter flywheel will make, I fitted an e28 one yesterday having used an e34 one thus far, looking forward to seeing what difference it makes. It should allow the engine to pick up a bit quicker, but I doubt it will make a substantial change, annoyingly the e28 clutch is heavier than the e34 one which makes the weight saving less significant.

Clutch needs to come off for a flywheel change. The layout is Engine/Flywheel/Clutch/Gearbox.

[Jhonno]

Lighter flywheel can make a massive difference

[turkey]

cheers for the help, think il wait to get the gearbox off to see how worn the clutch is, and in the meantime anyone know of a cheap place to find the e28 flywheel as prices i'm finding so far are around 300... or is that the going rate? Also if i do decide on a clutch will the e34 clutch work with the e28 flywheel?

cheers,
Shaun.

[DRIFTBOY]

Hi, and welcome!

easiest thing to do is use the E28 535i flywheel which is a fair bit lighter than the E34 535i equivilant.

Yep, I think about 5kg lighter, not sure how much heavier the E28 clutch is over the E34 one but it can't be that much, so should still save a significant few kilos!
I've used an E28 535i/M535i clutch for well over a year and the only time it slipped was a brutal 2nd gear, 5000rpm standing start at Santa Pod...
well, you have to try these things!

Your clutch is most likely old and a bit tired so a fresh good quality standard one should be well up to the job.

The E28 clutch and E34 flywheel and vice versa are not compatible!

E28 M30 flywheels should be £100 at the most!

If you do take your flywheel off it's also a good chance to replace the crankshaft rear main oil seal and the gearbox input shaft seal.
They aren't very expensive and it's only a very small amount of extra work to do now, many hours to do when it's all together though!

Good luck!

[turkey]

cheers, i like the sound of under a to for the flywheel, but still cant find a place to buy them, back to google i go.....

[DRIFTBOY]

I had to keep look out for one for quite a while, eventually one turned up on Ebay and I won it for about £70

M535is do seem get broken up fairly often so might be worth ringing around BMW specialists.

[turkey]

think theres 2 bmw specialists near me so will have to find exactly where they are and hopefully get one by next month,

Cheers for all your help,

Shaun.