Lee Parkes' E30 Alpina B10.

[DRIFTBOY]

Now that is exactly what you or me would do Gareth, this bloke might actually take care and put a rag around the filler hole and pour the oil carefully!

Poofter!

[leeparkes]

Now that is exactly what you or me would do Gareth, this bloke might actually take care and put a rag around the filler hole and pour the oil carefully!

Poofter!

lol,no im one of those who slops the oil all over the rocker cover too,i hate it when it runs down to the manifold and starts smoking when you start it up

might get me a funnel from the pound shop.

[gareth]

i found that the top of a 3 litre bottle of spring water fits into the rocker cover and actually screws in and holds itself there, makes a perfect funnel

takes me much more effor to cover the rocker cover in oil now, though i still manage it somehow!

[DRIFTBOY]

no im one of those who slops the oil all over the rocker cover too

Aaah, a proper man then!

[zaust]

Look's 100% neater and better than my sling it in job....

[E30Mark]

Spray a bit of 'tyre foam' around the rubbery bits, leave over night and dab off any excess. Will look like new without any physical effort!

[leeparkes]

My mounts arrived today from beefy and couldnt resist giving them a lick of silver hammerite (they needed it)







Oh and ive brought myself a new toy off e-bay



all what is left to do now is the sump gasket,then ill be taking the car to be weighed before i pull the M20 out,

Nearly there!

[Rav335uk]

Them mounts are fooking heavy

[leeparkes]

First question

Is this where i connect the wire to make the windows blower work? (where screwdriver is pointing)
sorry for the poor picture it is off my phone.



Second question
Does the curve in these down pipes follow the e30 floorpan or will they need to be cut before the bend?




The exhaust im considering is twin 50mm pipes straight through to the standard 325i back box (no centre box) but im not sure if it will be too loud

Thanks!

[Rav335uk]

Blower to work , wire to small nut *mm i think.
Exhaust cut off b4 bends, but don't do it untill the manifold and down pipes are on, match up cut and either weld or slice and put exust clamps on.
Hows it going??

[zaust]

I bought 2x left side exhaus clamp and made down pipes. Much more clearance. Remember to cut the manifold down pipe join nearest the steering uj and turn 90 degrees and weald back.

[Rav335uk]

Remember to cut the manifold down pipe join nearest the steering uj and turn 90 degrees and weald back.

No need to do that, heat it up and it will come loose, thats what i did and then turmed it 90 degrees

[leeparkes]

Which one needs turning 90 degrees out of these two?





Brought myself a load leveller today,£28 from machine mart,should make life a little easier trying to wedge the big six in!

Im going to need an engine mount as one of the m20 mounts in the e30 is a bit squashed (other side was replaced about a year ago so its in good order) but im thinking should i go for a polly bushed one (it will be going on the exhaust side) or do standard ones cope well?

sump gasket is still to be done and im dreading it,the plan is to lift it with the hoist then support it on axle stands by the mounts then work round it,

Im trying to work out how to mount the fan for the rad,its an e34 aircon fan and its not light,im tring to work out a way to mount it to the rad itself

its all coming together nicely and cant wait to test drive it!



Then its all ready to drop in

[Rav335uk]

Here u go mate.
Exhaust Clearence after a bit of grinding for the flange


Get the n20 mounts, poly ons are 5hit and will split after a couple of weeks, on the forum somwhere.

Rad will need custom mounts made.Easy.Get some steel strapping from a builders yard , already got the holes in it, bend and cut to shape and fit.

[leeparkes]

been getting the car M30 ready,swaped the washer bottle for the e34 one and plumbed it all in,i was doing this last weekend but when i cut the lug off the bottom of the bottle and i cut a bit too much off,left 3 pin holes in the bottom and took about 3 days to empty,fixed and tested
it today so it went back in.


Rav,i think i know why your gearbox flange didnt fit,it needs to be off a 325i and yours was a 320i,both M20 but the part numbers are different,im confident the m20 prop will hold out after reading what power folks have put them through

[Rav335uk]

Didn't know the 2 were different.
Went to the BBB meet, what a drive!!
Saw another m30 just comleted, basically the same as mine bar the rad and e36 2.8 rad.

[leeparkes]

Todays action!

Sump gasket is done and it is a vile job but im glad ive done it while the engine is out of the car,doing one with the engine in the car would be a right nightmare and i think id let it leak.
anyway its done now and heres a few pics

Oh and ive got a feeling the load leveller will be a handy bit of kit!












while id got the engine in the air i decided to pull the gearbox off and check the clutch just for peace of mind,ive got a receipt for it but you never know,anyway all was good here it looks like new







Gearbox back on and lowered down onto my home made wooden stand,its resting on the mounts as i didnt want to put any pressure on the sump









As far as im aware the engine is now ready to drop in the E30 and it is now waiting under cover down the side of my house





Next job is to rip the M20 out of the E30 but not sure when it will be

Maybe next weekend...

[Rav335uk]

Theres me about to offer you a hand tomorrow as i'm doing nothing.
Well maybe not now.
Btw, are you going to put in a speedtouch chip, and if so, what ecu do you have????

[DRIFTBOY]

Nice work dude!

I don't think it is possible to change the sump gasket with an M30 installed in an E30, I'm sure it's an engine out, or at least lifted up, job. And yes, it is a pain, there seem to be hundreds of sump bolts!

It might be worth checking the tightness of the bolts after a few hundred miles as some of mine came loose at the back and caused a huge oil leak!

As for the load leveler, it's not necessary to get the engine in if you put rope around the right places on the engine (more towrds the front seems best with the gearbox attached to get the right angle down and in), but they can be very useful!

What a result with the clutch too, not cheap these days!

I still think that is one of, if not the best, looking M30s I have seen, very nice!

[leeparkes]

Quick update:

The car has been on the weigh bridge this morning with the M20/b25 in and it weighed in at 1242 kg,
im starting the swap on thursday and once the M30 is in it will go back on the 'same' weigh bridge to see how much weight its gained.

Get your bets in!

Im guessing it will gain 40 kg

[Morat]

Keep your foot hard down and it should shed weight at a reasonable rate

30kg!

[DRIFTBOY]

I would guess somewhere between 30 - 40kg, I can't wait to find out though.

It's a very regularly posted question / debate on here so it will be great to have a difinitive answer!

[Rav335uk]

I'd like to know aswell

[winx]

very jealous of the cleanliness of that engine Looks like you are doing a proper job, look forward to seeing more progress and also the weights

[ImysE30]

Nice work, credit to ya

Will it be ready for the next meet?

[raj1980]

interested to know the weight difference too.

[leeparkes]

UPDATE:

Turned the M20 off for the last time today and made a start on removing it,everything is disconnected up top just need to get underneath in the morning to remove exhaust,prop,etc then its ready to be lifted out,


Ive hit 'el problemo'!

just before i cleaned up tonight i thought id see how the fan and radiator fit,the fan is going to be straight forward as it fits nice and snug behind the rad,but when i came to test fit the rad its too big
Ive obviously got the E34 rad that doesnt fit its about two inch's too long.
here's the pics and you will see what i mean





Im going to have to think about what to do on this one,how much do second hand E28 535i rads go for?

[Rav335uk]

Brand new rads from ECP is now £90 for a e28 one.Saw Dave from M-tec at the BBB meet and he told me what he was paing for it.
That rad is way different to my e34 535 rad.
Whar yr is your e34??

[leeparkes]

What yr is your e34??

November 89

[Rav335uk]

funny, mine was a 1990.
You can use your origional rad atm, so should be ok.

Need a hand at all next week???

[leeparkes]

You can use your origional rad atm, so should be ok.

My M20 one is in good nick and not that old,
ive heard someone say they are using there M20 one with no problems,Ive been searching just and cant think who it is (im itching to pm him)

ill need to some how modify the top hose if i go down this route,

mmm...

[leeparkes]

Need a hand at all next week???

cheers,ill let you know
wont be working solid on it though,ill be using spare hours in the days to get it done and light nights help too

Planning to get it done by next weekend wish me luck,lol

[gareth]

hahahahahaaaaa, good luck

[ImysE30]

Good luck Hopefully be done before the 31st

If you want any help, i'll pop down as well

[leeparkes]

I had a few hours to kill today so i got cracking on it,with quite a bit of progress.

Ive ripped the M20 out,
but it was'nt as easy as planed,the power steering pump kept hitting the slam panel and the load leveller wouldnt give me the angle i needed,i could of jacked the back up to help but didnt have time so i just removed the power steering pump and it came out a dream.
Note to self: dont buy another load leveller

sorry no pics of the removal of the M20 as i was in mission mode
but i do have these two





Once the engine was out i couldnt resist getting to work on it,

pulled the gearbox flange off the M30 after undoing the super tight 30mm nut and it slid off with a little resistance,the M20 on the other hand gave me a bit of a fight,got the nut off but it wouldnt budge off the splines,my puller kept sliping off the guide pin so i had to make a puller out of an old metal guibo cover, bolted to the flange then put an old (was my grandads) spanner between the cover and the pin then tightened the three nuts on the flange in sequence and it came off,anyway it slid on the M30 box with no problems,gave it a touch of thread lock then relaced the locking plate


M30 flange




M20 325i flange on the M30 gearbox (just hope the prop fits)and see how long it lasts)




Ive also done some prep work on the E30,fitted the accelerator cable off the E34,uncliped the brake lines running across the baulk head and lifted them up then gave the baulk head a massage with a 2 1/2lb lump hammer,some say it doesnt need to be done but i wanted to do it now rather than later,ive also been mocking up the fan and working out how to fix it to the body,needs to be as close as possible to the the rad,ill take some pics tomorrow.



I went to swap the selector rod and linkage off the 325i but ive got a question!

As you will see in the pic below the position of selector rod on the m20 is different to m30,ie,the rod gets fastenend to the knuckle through the left and on the other it gets fasenened through the right(does that make sense)lol,

Will it make a difference?id rather be sure now rather than trying to swap it over when the M30 is in the car

The pics will hopefully explain,circled orange.

M20



M30



Getting closer,the M30 will 'probably' be going in on wednesday!