Drove the E36 for a week to get an idea of the engine, after that it didn't take long to get the engine out:
The project was in a mate's garage so I didn't always have access, which at times was a good thing but all in all it took nearly 3 months until I got the engine in there and all bolted up:
A few weeks of tinkering with the odd niggle and got to the point of being happy with the engine bay (or so I thought!):
Had some running issues where it wouldn't idle when warm, changed the lambda sensors which solved a slight misfire but not the idling issue until I plugged it in:
It was nice having fun with it as a weekend car, but it was still full fat so I decided to start stripping it down, still running the front 2 leather seats until I find the right bucket seats. All the boot is stripped and the cabin has had the carpet, rear seats and doorcards removed. Next step is to remove the black headlining and remove the sunroof in preparation for a Safety Devices roll cage:
Amazingly on stripping the interior I haven't found any rust! The only rust I have come across is on the n/s/f door and wing.
The badge probably won't be to everyone's taste, also sprayed the front and rear spoilers black, have seen it done on other cars and think it really suits the E30:
The engine is the M52B28 with EWS delete, M50 manifold, E30 M3 exhaust. The gearbox is from the 318iS. Suspension is Bilstein B8 shocks with H&R springs and I fitted an E46 steering rack.
On the to do list is get my LSD rebuilt by Gareth, clean the cabin a bit more by removing soundproofing etc, fit the roll cage and source bucket seats, all in preparation for my first track day which I hope will be in January or February
