Yet another 335i in the making - Engine now in and running

[winx]

I took a week off last week to get my conversion done, but unfortunately ended up working for my dad for most of the week, only managing to steal a few hours here and there on the car, so not even managed to get the engine in yet! This now means progress will be slow as my parents place is 180 miles from where I live!

Base car is a 320i touring, picked up from Coventry a couple of weeks ago. Here it is parked up to my in between car - 525iX.


A month or 2 ago after deciding to do the project I bought an M30 engine from Theo:


Then got the car oop north to Derbyshire, were hopefully it hasn’t found it’s final resting place!




Week off started with this arriving on Saturday morning, this is were 60 hours of my e30 play time went”¦ bugger!


Got to work finishing off the wiring loom on the M30 (had been tidying it up a bit at work when I could grab a few minutes on the sand blaster at work.




First night I got the front end stripped as I decided I wanted to try and spruce up the engine bay a little


Found a small sport of rust under the n/s wing so that came off and got Ku Rusted then red oxided and painted:



During a quick lunch time break (broke the digger!) the engine came out:




Then I started to get some weir noises from the timing cover of my other weekend toy so it was change the cambelt time! Another few hours lost”¦


Same treatment as behind the wing for the engine bay as well as getting rid of the airbox bracket on the n/s inner wing







Then on Sunday morning I decided to try and ”˜pop’ the M30 into place before the Grand Prix ”“ I have to watch it really, working at McLaren people always ask about the GP and I look stupid if I can’t comment! Fortunately this one turned out to be the best of the year imho.
Anyway engine is nearly in, dad comes out to help whilst I am underneath manoeuvring the gearbox he decides a crowbar and pry bar would be useful, this denting and scratching my new paint. So out came the engine again!


This is how it stands at the moment, with a long way to go yet but good to have got it started, hopefully be able to spend a few more weekends on it before my 2 weeks off at Christmas, will be a perfect excuse to get away from the family!:
Sorry to not be able to show more progress and if you have all seen this before, but when I was looking at doing the conversion, it was great to be able to look at pictures of it being done!

[Ziggy]

Looks like you're gonna do a nice job of it!

[Morat]

You should take it to work on the test track and tell them that if they won't provide a McLaren road car you'll have to drive a rival!!

Nice work so far

[winx]

well luckily I regularly roadtest the f1 roadcar so the e30 will have a small shakedown after a test once it is done!

[ROC]

Good work, I imagine everyone on here would be jealous of that workshop space

[Theo]

Good work!

Looks so clean and proper, would love to have the patience and attention to detail to make everthing look shiney and new.

[gareth]

it's going to be a carbon copy of mine! lovely little garage to work in, you lucky swine!

what do you do up at mclaren?

[Alex]

looking good, hope it all goes to plan

BTW your touring looks lovely

[Sanchez]

looks like a nice straight car to start with.

Good Luck

[winx]

it's going to be a carbon copy of mine! lovely little garage to work in, you lucky swine!

what do you do up at mclaren?

Call it flattery fella!
I work in the customer care department, servicing, rebuilding for new owners and generally looking after the F1 road cars and gtr cars. Then occasionally get involved with the mcmerc slr but not a lot at the moment.
Currently my dream job!

[winx]

to everyone else - thank you for the positive comments!

[ric325i]

good man another e30 m30

i was planning to clean and paint all the engine bay and the engine but time and lack of patience got involved so i just whipped it in and out a few times. (yes im immature too).

im glad i didnt take too much care over it though as a few bars and 2 jacks were used to get the thing where i wanted it. now i have cleaned up as much as i can and will paint some things now.

still only primer on the rocker cover

looks like a top project! keep the pictures coming

[turkey]

Excellent work, looking how clean that engine bay comes makes me wich i had more patience with mine now!!!

Keep the good work up, looking fwd to seeing the finished project!

[gareth]

it's going to be a carbon copy of mine! lovely little garage to work in, you lucky swine!

what do you do up at mclaren?

Call it flattery fella!
I work in the customer care department, servicing, rebuilding for new owners and generally looking after the F1 road cars and gtr cars. Then occasionally get involved with the mcmerc slr but not a lot at the moment.
Currently my dream job!

cool, sounds like a pretty sweet job I only ask as through my job, and my last one, I've had quite a lot of dealing with both McLaren Cars (or whatever they're called now) and McLaren Racing. I've worked on force measurement equipment for the F1 wind tunnel, 4 poster suspension test rig and last week some loadcells for some fairly brutal chassis strength / stiffness testing. There are a few more but i'm sworn to secrecy on those

[winx]

if you came anywhere near the prototype dept then you will have been about 50yards from my desk! let me know if you come down anytime to genesis and I'll pop down and say hello!

[gareth]

[winx]

Engine went in last night, unfortunately not got time today I don't think to get it running but it feels good to be bolting things back together again for once! Pics will be up once I get to a decent internet connection.

[winx]

and it runs! - noisily due to no exhaust but sounds ok... Packed up the workshop again so no more updates for another few weeks now afraid!

[gareth]

nice one! bet you're grinning from ear to ear now!

nice to see another M30 is fired up for the first time with no exhaust, shame it's a bit illegal / antisocial to drive like that as they sound great!!!! Very WW2 fighter plane-esque!

[turkey]

Was this the engine with the snapped rocker arm? Is it a head re-build job?

Asking as i got an M30 in the garage with the same problem...

[winx]

well I'll tell you in a month or 2 when it is on the road! I decided to try and replace it without taking the head off, undid one side of the headbolts and knocked the rockershaft back to replace it. Soooo, I'll let you know if the headgasket goes, I personally don't think it will... famous last words

[turkey]

That sounds like a plan i might need to try, guess it helps being the last one at the end. They don't very strong them cast ones, seen some billet ones on the bay but can't justify the £450 for them!

Well on the conversion your doing a very good job there, it will be good when it's on the road, they really are so much fun

[winx]

Well after getting seriously hacked off last time I worked on the car a couple of weeks ago I went back up to Derbyshire to have another go, this time on my own without any 'help'!

First off build up the Z3 rack:


Then in place:


Engine ready to go in again, this time with a load leveller which made it a breeze!


And in!



The dog was getting rather fed up of watching so decided to give him a walk, but feeling lazy and wanting some fun decided to take him for a 4 mile sprint!:


Oil Cooled bolted up and connected:


M3 rear diff, needs a new bush:


And renewed:


M3 prop ready to be bolted up:


and exhaust:



And that is as far as I got!
And finally a sneak peak of my new seats:

mmm, yum!

[whipsey]

more of the seats

[DRIFTBOY]

That is going to be a very nice car.


And those seats....

[winx]

cheers fellas, hoping to get more done this weekend as I am heading back up to Derbyshire.

Whipsey, you can have a look at the seats tomorrow!

[whipsey]

cheers fellas, hoping to get more done this weekend as I am heading back up to Derbyshire.

Whipsey, you can have a look at the seats tomorrow!

will do

[winx]

Well no progress to report on the E30 but thought I would show what is taking up alot of my time at the moment!
Got the next race on 16th November so in a bit of a rush!

Spent a couple of hours giving it a real rough and ready rub down ready to paint it (just so it is all the same colour, it has had such a hard life racing it'll never look nice!)





Short video of it when it was last running (months and months ago!)

[punk_sy]

nice touring build mate just wondering who you comp with ?

[winx]

Southern Counties Off Road Club, event on the 16th is at Broxhead Common I believe. Do you compete as well?

[adit]

more of the seats

i doubt it, ron dennis might be a zoner!!

[ric325i]

your vid is well funny! actually the guy who made this vid:



is the guy who towed the 2 door e30 i we broke a few weekends ago good bunch of lads and they let us use the area to break and swap the motors over

[punk_sy]

i dont comp i do some trialing well used to with buxton and district years ago(learnt how to drive at 12ish)and now my dad and bro go with emorc .
a mate used to do some comping and i still love the buzz

[whipsey]

more of the seats

i doubt it, ron dennis might be a zoner!!

what are you on about adit?

[winx]