But it’s -6 degrees here and I just don’t fancy being under the car! So thought I would do a quick update of how my car stands after owning it for just over a year:
When I sold my last ”˜toy’ I wondered for a couple of months what to get next, having had a string of high powered cars from a 400bhp front wheel drive Mk1 Focus to a 500bhp Mitsi Evo 7 I wanted something rear wheel drive, cheap (I was trying to buy a house at the time) and fun. Step in the E30! For whatever reason I prefer the touring shape and decided to base it on that. After reading on these forums on what to do for power I settled on an M30 conversion for cheap moderate power. As it happened the engine turned up before the car! So off I went to deepest darkest Kent to a fellow zoner and collected an M30 with a complete conversion package...
Then came the car, after looking for about a month and looking at about 5 that were complete sheds I came upon this one:
Deal was done and car bought. It’s a 320i poverty spec with about 150k miles on it. The mileage didnt really bother me as I knew I was going to renew/modify most of the running gear. So drove it home and immeditately started to pull it apart:
After sprucing up the engine bay, I dropped the engine in (oh how I wish it was that quick! My workshop it 200 miles away from where I live ”“ parents farm is in Derbyshire, I live in Surrey! And I did alot of mileage to and from over a few months!)
Whilst I was at it I added a Z3 rack:
And a 3.25 lsd
I also added smoked hellas and painted the kidney grill ”“ I was bored one evening!
Then I added Hartge (h36?) springs and dampers, from what I was led to believe they were setup for an s38 engine and the m30 is similar so thought it would be a good idea. As it happens it was! Luckily the dampers had been refreshed recently as well which was a bit of luck.
Finally I decided I needed to stop (unlike a few hairy moments on the drive home from collecting the car!)
First silliy idea was McLaren SLR 8 pot calipers and ceramic discs, however they need 19”a wheels and a new set of discs and pads cost circa £15k plus (retail though I do have a few lying about!)
Another option was McL F1 calipers, but again they needed 17”a wheels, and I really wanted to stay with 15”a bbs... so that lot went back on the shelf for future projects ïaŠ
Having searched the forum WMS came up, a quick call to Keri and a set landed on my desk:
From right to left is the standard front caliper, WMS 4pot kit and the stuff used on the McLaren F1.
Having done my first trackday in it I was sliding all over the place so decided some more supportive seats were needed:
And some better tyres, so got another set of BBS from the zone and a set of Toyo R888s:
So that was the first chapter done, I drove it for about 1500miles of which about 300 were trackdays, and the engine went pop! On pulling it apart there was 5mm of endfloat in the crank and the bores were oval shaped. So having priced up new pistons (£800 on their own from BMW) another engine was purchased!
Or rather a donor car:
Engine was pulled and it was sent on it’s way, having as much fun with the grab on the tractor first!
I transferred my Shrick cam over into the new engine and plopped it into the bay.
200 miles later it was mixing oil and water... Fantastic.
So off with the head again using a genuine headgasket this time, all back together just in time for the 200 mile trip back to Surrey at 9pm on a Sunday night. Filled up with fuel and 200 yeards down the road it at 2.5k rpm accelerating gently no 2 exhaust rocker snaps. Fantastic
So got my old man to tow it home, transferred all my stuff into the trusty disco and went home with my tail between my legs...
After a couple of weeks of swearing under my breath every time I thought of the e30, I went back up north and stripped it all down again, then rebuilt it.
200 miles later it was losing water on the way back to Surrey (this time 100 miles into the journey). Fantastic
So after the car sitting under a cover at my place in Surrey I got it back oop north, stripped it down and got the head pressure tested... yup cracked. Fantastic.
So another head was bought and installed. 400 miles (notice it wasnt 200 something this time!!) later number 5 spark plug fired out the side of the head, all the threads were stripped... Fantastic
Unfortunately this time I wasn’t alone in the car and was on my way to a friends party along with 500 odd other people. Grabbed a lift from a mate who passed us on the side of the road, went to the party and got dumped the next morning as I dropped her at the station!! Can’t really blame her, she was rather fed up of the amount of time I spent on my 2 turds!
I then had the pleasure of an 8 hour ride with the AA as I got the car back to Derbyshire once more. Fantastic.
I was so fed up with the uncertainty of old cars I went out and got one with a warranty!
Unfortunately not the silver or grey car but the red one!
So having left the E30 in the workshop for 3 months I decided to do somthing about it, Simon13’s dad helicoiled the sparkplug hole for me, skimmed the head and then for good measure I got it pressure tested.
I got up to the farm and decided a good car cleaning session was in order:
Whilst my workshop is big, it has been a complete mess for over a year as I have been fixing the E30 instead of keeping it clean! So I bit the bullet and bought some racking in an attempt to clean it up.
Well as you can see whilst I haven’t done as well as some other Surrey dwellers (yup that Mr13 again!) it is a little better and I can find stuff now, I even separated all the new and old nuts, bolts washers etc into LABELED blue bins!
And a load of bits turned up for the next stage, rebuild the new head, and refurbish the rear end of the car,. Including modifying the rear beam to be adjustable for toe and camber from the recent group buy, polybushes for the beam, superflex bushes for the trailing arms and a walbro fuel pump for future engine upgrades...
Also part of the rear end renewal is a 3.64 diff, more suited to trackwork than the original 3.25, but also bearable for ring trips. (I can’t be bothered to change diffs for different trips!)
I bought another beam and trailing arms to modify rather than have the car in the air and not moveable for ages:
So that is where I am at the moment, wondering how I have managed to get this far with so many hurdles in the way, wondering how many, if any, of the failures are down to me or whether it’s just bad luck for 2009? Hopefully 2010 will be better!
I am also spending the time that I shold be outside working on the car researching engines, I have decided to move away from the M30 some time next year but am unsure whether to go S54 of LS1 at the moment, both seem to have pros and cons!
they're usually pretty though.
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