E30 320i into 328i into 332i with S54 engine (road / track)

[m3dtm]

Back in 2008 I bought a nice looking Diamant Black 320i from a lorry driver. At the time I was on the look out for a decent 6 cilinder E30 without a sunroof to store with the idea of turning it into a road/track car.
A BMW friend told me he knew of a Diamant Black E30, first owner, lorry driver who wanted a new car (bought a Golf). After inspecting the car I parted with 650 Pounds and drove it home, straight into a garage where it stayed for a couple of years.

At the beginning of 2012 I decided to start building my E30 track car, so began stripping it. The idea was to strip the car, have a full cage welded in, fit the AP 322mm brakes I bought from Wayne and get the relatively light 2.8 liter engine from the E36. With the engine slightly reworked I hoped to get somewhere between 210-230 bhp.

So first we stripped the car to a bare shell.









John

[m3dtm]

So with everything removed I delivered it to a specialised shop to have the cage fitted. We discussed the full cage (from the front struts to the rear struts) and I was able to spec it to my needs, adding some extra bars and asking them to weld it in as tight as they could. When I picked up the car I was really thrilled by the work they did.









Some of the extra bars where the ones in the back securing the diff and underneath the dashboard preventing the engine swapping places with my ffeet in case of a frontal.

John

[m3dtm]

For this conversion I worked together with a workshop we had been using for rentals and track support. We discussed the conversion and I opted for the lighter alu 2.8 liter engine from the E36. With some modifications we should see at least 210 bhp and possibly up to 230 bhp, according to the workshop owner. As I had worked together with him for over 10 years I trusted him and entrusted him with most of the work.
I arranged the fully welded cage myself, got the AP 322 mm brakes, had Intrax make a special 1K2 suspension set and ordered new E30 M5 front suspension from BMW.
The workshop would put everything together and arranged the rear suspension from a E36 323ti Compact as well as the 2.8 liter engine. On top of that the car would be painted Alpine weiss as this gave it a better base to work with colours and stickers on te car.

It took a lot of patience from my side, but finally after months of waiting (he said it would only take 1.5-2 months to build the car) it was ready to be picked up.
A customer of mine rented the car from me and we went over to the UK for a trackday extravaganza from RMA, tackling Brands Hatch, Donington and Silverstone in three days.

On Monday we went to Brands Hatch...





The car only just passed the noise test producing if I remember correctly 96 Db. It ran fine and my customer was very satisfied with the car. He already hinted at buying it from me.

John

[m3dtm]

At the end of the day we put it back on the trailer and drove all the way to Donington Park.

The next day we were less impressed with the car. Going through the Craner Curves the car felt unstable. So we swopped places and I just tried to feel what was going on. The left rear wheel bearing was gone. Nice one with still an other day at Silverstone as well.
Fortunately, Graham Clarke lent me his car and we tried to source a new wheel bearing for a 323ti Compact. In the end we succeeded and they arranged for us to pick it up in Northampton the next morning.

So we left early and trailered the car south to Silverstone. The next morning we picked up the new wheel bearing and found Eugene O'Brian kind enough to do the work.
At Silverstone the car ran well again and my client fall in love with the car.





Driving back home he get nagging me saying he wanted to buy the car from me, but my idea had been to keep it as a rental for my customers and repay for the costs of building the car. That way eventually the car would have cost me next to nothing and I would end up with my beloved E30 track car.

John

[m3dtm]

Next were two days of training at Spa with the same customer driving my E30. I know the Spa circuit really well having spent many, many hours on the track myself and coaching other drivers in all sorts of cars. Amongst them quite some hours in a nice Diamant Black 325i track car fitted with the 2.5 liter M50 from the E36.

So at Spa I could make a good comparison and naturally expected my car to feel faster than the black E30. Suspension and brakes were better than on the black car and I had the 2.8 liter engine instead of the 2.5 in the black car. Weight was at least similar if not to my advantage.
However, driving the car at Spa it did not feel faster at all. The engine to me even sounded as if it was complaining all the time. as if it had more than the normal friction. Just a feeling of course. So I rang my long time friend from the workshop and he assured me the engine was running fine and it must have been me being used to driving much quicker cars around Spa (at this time I also owned my first Radical SR3).







Since I had worked with him for over 10 years I trusted him. How wrong and naive can you be...

Anyway, after five days of training in my E30 the customer persuaded me to sell the car to him. This renting business didn't really appeal to me. I found it really hard sitting next to someone who isn't as sensitive with the pedals as yourself and who occasionally overrevved the engine while change down instead of up a couple of times. So we struck a deal and from the next season onwards we now used "his" E30...

It only took a while to regret that decision.

John

[Mr-Lachs]

Ive just found this thread John, really interesting build!! Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Spa must have bee outstanding!! Fabulous photos too.

Kind Regards

Mr-Lachs

[m3dtm]

Thanks for that Russell.
Hope to find the time to write the rest as well as it now has the S54 engine from the E46 M3. That is if it is of any interest to others.

John

[rix313]

Spa is certainly on the lost of tracks to drive. Need to find a championship that has a round there and get involved

[DanThe]

More photos please

[m3dtm]

So now that I sold the E30 I no longer had to worry about the car, if someone looked after it or thrashed it to bits. Besides that I had my Radical SR3 to play with (and GTD40 I wanted to convert for track days).

While coaching the new owner the car grew on him, not as an E30 (he is not into older cars and doesn't know much about cars), but as a very nice track car. When he started out he hired an E36 325i and occasionally an E36 M3, but as he got more and more familiar with the E30 he really liked it a lot. Just the way it moves around and communicates on the limit, you can really feel everything as it dances around, where the E36 seems to filter some of the feeling out. We always say the E36 feels more like sitting on a comfortable couch at home.
The more he trained in the car, the more he liked it as a device.

At the same time while coaching some of my clients I occasionally brought along my Radical to use that for my self in the last hour, just to keep my self sharp and on the edge. Naturally, he got curious and wanted to experience the SR3 as well and after a while we struck a deal on the SR3 and I bought a newer SR3 RS (see pictures above from Spa).

In the meantime I missed my E30 and we already agreed if he ever was to sell the E30 I would buy it back. So now this customer wanted to use the Radical as well, but we soon found he still needed a lot of coaching before he could really explore the full potential of the Radical.

This made me think and after a while we discussed the possibilities to get my customer up to the right level. We could either further develop the E30 into a serious racer or we could try to find a different touring car that was a step up from the E30.
Turning the E30 into a serious racer would cost a lot involving different geometry and suspension, bigger brakes, less weight and a better engine. Remember this car still had an alu 2.8 engine and I always had the feeling it wasn't turning out it's full potential. But I trusted the guy who built in the engine, having worked with him for years. No need to check the engine as long as he said it was fine. It must have been that I was doing a lot of time in much quicker cars that gave the feeling the E30 was not so quick... (wait for it, I'll get to that).

Converting the E30 into a serious racer would cost serious money, where as buying a prepped E36 M3 would be a lot cheaper. So I contacted some guys I knew, a suitable car was found and we made a deal in which I bought back the E30.
The old was back home again and I started making plans to convert her into a quicker car.







John

[m3dtm]

As soon as I had the E30 back I started thinking about which engine to put into the car. For sure I didn't want to put the S50B30 in. This engine sounds really great and with the right exhaust you can make it sound really old school, but it is not the thoughest of engines and they do break.
On top of that the 3.2 M3 engine has more torque lower down, making it a better choice. But the S54 is an even better engine that will stand abuse of 11,200 rpm easily.

The S65 also crossed my mind, although the sound of the engine can't match that of a straight six. And the E30 is a very light car at the back making it very hard to handle all that torque. So I decided to try the S54 first and see what that would be like.

First job I did however, was fitting original yellow head lamps from France which I bought years ago.

Here you can see the car with the yellow head lamps at the work shop while work started on the engine swap.



John

[m3dtm]

With the car back home and my decision to put a S54 engine in, I thought it might be a good idea for others and many a forum discussion to get some acceleration figures from the old set up. How quick is the E30 with a alu 2.8 litre engine and 3.73 diff and how does it compare to a S54? Will it be worth it in the end or doesn't it make that much difference?

So together with my son we warmed the engine on some of the local B-roads. The Intrax suspension really feels great on track, so you more or less expect it to be a bit harsh on the public roads, but not the ones fitted on the car. In effect the set up complete with semi slicks from the last wet training to me felt like every car should feel. Secure and planted, but not bobbing around. Firm without any roll I wouold say.

With the engine warmed I floored the accelerator with the car accelerating away. However, the engine noise was more impressive than the shove in the back. I looked over to my (12 year old) son, but to him it seemed pretty quick. I couldn't help but be dissappointed, so I braked and accelerated again, and again. This engine no longer had it's full potential and in my mind I went back to a couple of occasions when the former owner shifted from 4th to 3rd where he was supposed to hit 5th. He had over revved the engine a couple of times and apparently this had taken it's toll.

How could I possibly sell this engine, although I wanted the money to recurr some of the costs of the more expensive S54 plus gearbox. In the meantime I had already bought the new engine plus 6-speed gearbox. So there was nothing I could do but to sell it needing at least new bearing and possible overhaul.

The new engine looked very impressive indeed though and I couldn't wait till to get it fitted.





So off to the workshop and instead of getting the 2.8 out myself I simply asked them to do it for me saving me some time.
While picking up the engine and gearbox a little later to deliver it to the new owner (fortunately a friend and E30 enthusiast) there was no sign of an alu 2.8. Instead the lump lying on the shop floor looked like a genuine M50B25. Just to make sure we got a magnet out which stuck to engine like ....

I couldn't believe the guy I had worked with for over 10 years, hiring BMW's from him for my customers and even have him built a couple of track day BMWs for my customers, had put a normal 2.5 M50 in the car even though I specifically ordered and paid for an alu 2.8 to get the lighter weight in the front of the car and with the 2.5 manifold and new ecu a much better performance. All my complaints in the past about the lack of performance had be right after all. He had just put in a regular 2.5. Coupled to the mis shifts of the former owner no wonder the engine felt a bit lame. Getting performance figures from the old set up was useless. Here's hoping the new engine would make a big difference.

John

[JoshH]

Can't wait for the next instalment John! Shame about the M50 mix up

[Superleggera]

interesting read - looking forward to your right up on the s54 and thoughts on how it performs.

[m3dtm]

With the E30 now in the workshop test fitting could finally be started. Where I had the idea we would just fit the engine at once, Michael (workshop owner) was committed to do the best job he could possibly do.
As the S54 has a rather large airbox it was fitted without one first. Getting the engine in was fairly easy though, using original BMW engine mounts from the Z3 M (if I remember correctly).





With the car on ramps the gearbox was fitted and supported by a rather large axle stand to enable Michael to make a bespoke bracket to hold the gearbox firmly in place.



With everything in place we looked at the engine bay and it was immediately clear the airbox would not fit with the brake servo. I had read on internet that a brake servo from the Golf Mk1 might do the job, but Michael suggested trying the brake servo from the E90 M3, having a smaller diameter as well.
This would also mean seperate brake fluid bottles had to be fitted, so we needed to find space for that as well.
So we decided to relocate the water tank from the left fender to the right hand side where normally the battery is on the 4 cilinder cars.





So Michael duly set to work and got rid of the small brackets that hold the water bottle and as I wanted the engine bay to be resprayed anyway he just made it look clean again.







John

[m3dtm]

With the car on ramps we closely examined the underside of the car and noticed both jacking points where badly corroded and needed replacing.







On top of that Michael spotted a previous repair to the left sill and couldn't stand it. In his eyes they had done a lousy job so he fixed that as well.





With all the welding and prepping done the E30 was sent to the painter's.



John

[bimanut]

More!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bimanut]

More!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Demlotcrew]

[m3dtm]

Hi all,

Back for some more. Hopefully, I manage to complete the story on the forum this weekend including small video.

So the painter got to do his magic. Apart from the small repairs we asked him to respray the boot as well, as this looked a bit shabby with all the wheels and tools that had been in the back during transport to Spa, Silverstone, Donington and Brands Hatch.

When we picked the car up it turned out they had painted the smaller parts plain white instead of Alpine Weiss. So a slight delay there since they had to do it again, this time in the correct colour.

Pictures are from the first trail...







John

[m3dtm]

Back in the workshop work could finally be started to get the engine in. At least that is what I thought...



Years ago when we stripped the car to turn it into a track car I took of everything I didn't find necessary, including the very light head shield. Silly me... on many an occassion while coaching the former owner and client at whatever circuit, I always had to remind myself NOT to put my foot up against the transmission tunnel, or my race shoes would meld to the car. Unfortunately, the little shield had long vanished, so I asked Michael to put some insolation on the car where the exhaust runs along as well as the transmission tunnel itself.









Having run the car up to temperature (speed ) I can say it really is effective.

Of course this also meant I had to wait longer still before I could finally drive the car for the first time with the S54 engine.

John

[m3dtm]

An other issue we encountered was with the exhaust manifold that just didn't clear the front suspension arms by maybe 1 - 1.5 centimeters (say up to 0.6 inches).



Michael suggested he slightly altered the shape of the exhaust, but as I didn't want to compromise the free flow of the exhaust I asked him to think of an other solution.

A friend of his deals in race parts and came up with these uni balls (high quality from the US and not from China).





Job done!

John

[m3dtm]

With all this fettling the project was now months overdue and my patient was thoroughly tested. I had hoped to drive the car during the autumn enjoying the slippery roads with this high revving engine, but winter was now nearly there. And as soon as the authorities start to use salt to fight the slippery roads the chance to test drive the car would be over, let alone drive it for fun.

Fortunately, the engine was dropped in pretty soon. First without the engine cover, can't say I like the looks that much.







To clear the large air intake we fitted a smaller brake servo. We could have gone for the booster of the 2002 tii or get one from the Golf Mk1, but instead we opted for the servo of the E90 V8 M3. This is also a lot smaller than the original E30 booster, but double. This way we could stick to having it fitted in the right place instead of moving it all the way to the front of the car next to the radiator. I don't fancy a long rod all the way to the front (does this sound funny?).



For this brake servo we fitted individual pots and therefore the water expansion tank had to be relocated from the left front to the right front, just where the battery normally is on 4-cilinder cars.



John

[m3dtm]

Final result:

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s213 ... g~original

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s213 ... g~original

Yes that is a little shiny plate on the bulkhead acting as a mirror. Helps checking the engine on that side...

Oh, forgot to mention that Michael stripped down the wire loom as well. Never a bad thing to get rid of excess weight.

John