Taff*tune e30 335i Touring

[SHAKEELE30]

damn, i heard if you have a btb 6 brancg, you cant you any shorter steering racks, is this true.

Ive got a lach silver touring atm as a little project to keep me busy for some time yet. want my arches similar to yours.

And also have you strenghend your bodywork to put coilovers on, aslo heard that you need to do this in order put coilovers on an e30, any idea?

[dips346]

And also have you strenghend your bodywork to put coilovers on, aslo heard that you need to do this in order put coilovers on an e30, any idea?

who told you that ??

[SHAKEELE30]

read it one of these thread here, cant seem to find it atm..

[sideways-taff]

Its the rear turrets that need strengthening if you fit coilover rear shocks. I've just got the original arrangement of seperate shock and coil on the rear, just using a 6" coilover spring instead of the twin cone style standard spring. My rear turrets are however strengthened but not at the top which is where they usually fail. If I do end up getting a true coilover rear then I'll weld in a plate under neath the turret top to strengthen it.

I've no idea about the BTB exhaust manifold, I'm currently just going to run modified standard manifolds as having a 6 branch would be a waste right now because of my plans to bolt a HX50 holset on there sometime next year.

The arches were a lot of work to be honest. The fronts were simple, just a case of pulling the lip and flat out into a nice curve, I've also formed roundbar to weld to the lip to give it some strength and a nice round edge rather than a razor sharp edge. The rears I had to cut the inner skin away from the outer, cut the second skin off the lip then as with the front bend the lip and flat out and pull the whole lot as far as I could. It was all done with hammers too. I welded in a roundbar the same as the front to give it strength as its going to rub theres no question about that!

[dips346]

looks ace mate ,looking forward to more pics

[ric325i]

what have you done with the dissy? looks like a very useful edition there.

[sideways-taff]

I've got three ignition outputs from the ECU for the wasted spark coilpack thats sat on the battery tray.

[ric325i]

ah ok complicated wasted spark stuff. i thought it would be something like that, not for the driveway mechanic on a limited budget

nice work thought #


this will be in prep for your turbo im guessing?

[sideways-taff]

Well its just that the dizzy was pretty much worn beyond its working range so it was just worth bringing the engine more up to date with a wasted spark system to get a more consistant spark across all six cylinders, especially with the later turbo addition.

[ric325i]

well to get you in teh turbo mood have you seen Driftboys m30 turbo? its in the engine swap/forced induction section, it was toby unna's old set up from PPC mag.

Sump and manifolds swapped and a big angry snail stuck on the side.

hope you like it

[1an]

nice looking car fella,

could you tell me what the fittings where for your hydro wand, i take it, that it is sitting inline with the rear brakes, i.e the rear brake line goes through the wand? do you have any pictures of where you fitted it into the rear t-piece please.

[sideways-taff]

The brake lines are completely redone throughout the car, none of them are standard BMW items. In the engine bay I remade the lines out of coppernickel pipe and fitted 10mm bulkhead fittings on each inner wing and one on the bulkhead for the hydraulic handbrake. I've used Goodridge e30 braided brakelines from the bulkhead fittings to each caliper. The lines inside the car are all custom made braided hoses with a 10mm concave female at the bulkhead to a 7/16ths banjo on the back of the hydraulic handbrake mastercylinder then a 3/8ths banjo from the front of the master cylinder back to another 10mm concave female fitting to another 10mm bulkhead fitting back through above the left rear trailing arm. On the rear I've got a hardpipe running from the bulkhead fitting to a 10mm t-piece then a short length of hardpipe to a bracket for the left rear and a long hardpipe running across the top of the diff to the right rear. From them I've got a 10mm concave female swivel fitting on a length of braided hose thats clipped onto the trailing arm and all the way up to the caliper with a 10mm male convex fitting.

Be careful when you order the banjos and the banjo bolts, you need two short banjo bolts, one 7/16ths and one 3/8ths. I mistakenly ordered a normal 3/8ths one and it was too long. You don't have to use the banjos though, simple convex swivel fitting will work just fine but that does mean that you have hoses either popping up vertically or down onto the tunnel which doesnt allow you to run nice open curves in the hose. The banjo fittings are a whole lot easier to work with too.

[sideways-taff]

Incidentally here's the enginebay pipework

[ric325i]

looks great

you used an e36 rack. ive got to do it yet but i know the steering mech is a bit fiddly around the down pipes.

what parts did you use for the U-joints? looks like a very nice way to do it.

[sideways-taff]

The universal joints are just the standard E30 ones. The only mod I've done to the column is where the rubber coupling once was. I cut that out, then bored out the nylon bush in the top section so that the spigot in the bottom section would slide further inside it then cut the end off the spigot before it hit the UJ as it spun, then just bolted the two parts up tight and jobs a good one, they line up fine on both splines and the bolts slide through the grooves in the splined ends on the rack and column so I saw no need for a big alum spacer. The standard m30 front manifold does fowl on the column so I've chopped the pipe off it and I'll reweld a new one on at a different angle to meet the other manifold further away from the column.

[Colonelk]

hello chap, didnt realise you were running megasquirt and planning to go turbo

Where are you looking at getting the holset from?

Do you mind me asking how much you paid for your MS box too?

Im hoping to blow up..... errr... I mean turbo the senny over next year.

[sideways-taff]

Fancy seeing you here! haha

Not sure where to get a holset from, not really looked into it that much yet. I saw one go on ebay a while back for £240 or so.

The MS cost me ~£370 I think, can't remember now. There's probably another £100's worth of wiring, connectors and wasted spark stuff added to that though.

[sideways-taff]

Update then

I decided to take the rear end out because the subframe bushes were shot to pieces. I had a nightmare with the bush centres corroding and attaching themselves to the studs so they had to be cut and drilled out.


I stripped the rear end down, cleaned up the subframe which is now ready for a lick of paint.


The rear diff plate has been cleaned up and poly bushed


Bottom hose to the radiator had to be custom made from off the shelf bits


The engine is now all done bar an expansion tank and jubilee clips.


And the polycarbonate windows are all cut, ready for finishing touches once the car has been painted.



Template used to maximise the use of the 8x4 sheet of polycarbonate. All in - £125.

[sideways-taff]

It finally runs
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZP4wJc2jZs

[Theo]

What a great project, really good to see a build like this. Are you going to fiddle with the fuel supply at all? I was getting fuel surge in my trackcar even when there was still about 3 gallons of fuel in the tank. Also, I don't hold much hope for that little diff - they really can't handle much abuse compared to the larger version found on the 325i/M3.

[murran]

you guna make it to brawdy then? really cant wait!

[sideways-taff]

Murran, yeh I'll have it down at Brawdy, hopefully I'll be able to get it running half decent by the end of the day on Saturday so that I can give it a bit of a thrashing. All I have left to do now is finish the exhaust (silencer will be here Friday afternoon... eek), I need to seam seal the left rear wheel arch after cutting the two skins apart (needs a bash in one place too as its rubbing on the tyre) and then do the front tracking.

[oi_oi_savaloy]

Awesome.

[SHAKEELE30]

WTF is all those wires, looks a bit similar to my house fuseboard.

Some crazy stuff there, well done mate. Cant wait till its all sprayed up...

Your first fire up video made me laugh, sounded funny...

[Dreamracer1]

I hope you've put a dab of nail varnish (Max Fuctor) or something on all those connector screws to stop 'em coming undone with the vibration, cause they will.
Since you have gone to so much trouble to keep things tidy it would be a shame to drift to a silent halt!

[djk]

Just read the whole thread on driftworks This build is incredible. The quality of this guy's work is simply astounding. I'm gonna go and have a lie down.

[Dreamracer1]

Yeah I know. I've had to clean me goggles twice. But you can still miss a stupid thing like that.
I agree the quality is top draw. Give the man a pat on the back he deserves it if only for the patience!

[blitz877]

nice looking project this mate giving me some ideas

[Nay]

Looks stunning mate. GL with the events next year! Make sure you wack up some vids as well! I want to hear it when its done!

[Jhonno]

I hope you've put a dab of nail varnish (Max Fuctor) or something on all those connector screws to stop 'em coming undone with the vibration, cause they will.
Since you have gone to so much trouble to keep things tidy it would be a shame to drift to a silent halt!

or worse!!

[Theo]

Did you make that alloy panel bracing the dash to the transmission tunnel or is that an escort part?

[sideways-taff]

I made the panel. Its a one off and panel beaten to match the shape of the top of the tunnel.

[Theo]

I see, nice work. I might try and emulate it! Useful for mounting switches/gauges and should hopefully reduce vibration in the dash.

[Dan320is]

Awesome project! Really inspires me to get my touring finished although it wont be anywhere near as good as this.

Oh, and where did you get the PCD adapters from in order to fit your wheels?

[320dave]

what wheels are fitted in the first photo iv seen them afew times before they look awsome.