Another silly question..

[visionz]

Hihi.. erm.. i was just wondering how hard is was to put a m535 engine in an e30? i am told the block is too long and will hit the rad.. was also thinking of putting a 530 engine in it.. but would much prefer the 3.5..

what exact parts would i need for this conversion? engine, gearbox, engine loom, ecu anything else? cheers

[Geeman]

If you do a search for the M30B35 install you'll find quite a few articles covering this subject.

You can take the engine from the E28 or the later E34 (preferred). Custom mounts are needed, along with an E28 radiator... plus other things.

Giles.

[visionz]

lol balls to that.. i just read up on it a little.. bit too much work this blokey told me that the 530 engine is a pretty much straight forward fit.. (it aint no longer than the 325) he tells me.. true? ..

[Geeman]

That's bollox.

The early E34 530i used the same 6 cylinder M30 block as the 535i, so larger than the M20 units. The later 530's were V8's so even more problems!

Go the 2.7 route in your other thread dude... a lot easier to install!

Trouble is, the M30 3.5 conversion is such a nice sounding and fast engine in an E30... It's very tempting!

[visionz]

i know that power would be mental in an e30.. but i dont realy have the time, money or time to remove my car from the road to fit a new engine.. seems very expensive.. will prolly have to go 2.7 route.. just gotta find one now lol.. this bloke i know has a 2.7 motor.. lightened/balanced cammed.. sounds mental and revvs like sheet.. but he wants silly money for it..

[M5pilot]

If you plan out an M30 conversion before dismantiling your car it will not take long.

You will find everything you need to know from E30Zone or a few german websites (e30.de).

[ed325i]

Its not that hard to fit if I can do it myself on the drive.


ED

[visionz]

how long did that take you ed.. and what did you have to do?

[ed325i]

I fitted a MK1 golf servo, lowered the m30 engine/gearbox in, put a 5mm bit of ply under the sump to keep the sump off the cross member, put gearbox mount on and e30 m3 prop on and then moved the engine back as far pos, made my own engine mounts fitted these and removed bit of ply from under sump, welded the m30 exhaust down pipes to the E30 front pipes and shortened the gear linkage, fitted the engine loom, fitted E28 rad with E34 air con fan. Thats about it I think. I was in no rush to fit it but you should be able to do it in a week end if you get all the bits together.

ED

[gareth]

mine took a while (spread over a month or so iirc) but i'm a perfectionist, was working partly on a farm and partly at my dads. i reckon if you got everything ready (M3 prop and exhaust, bought engine mounts etc etc) you'll do it in a week. that is allowing for the problems you will have and delays waiting for parts.

it's silly things that'll hold it all up. one of mine was finding the bellhousing bolts from the autobox won't fit the manual box!

if everything goes 100% to plan and you have a mate to help out, it could be done in a weekend. mine took longer as i changed all belts, water pump, oil & filter, checked bearings etc.

if you want to use a M3 exhaust, i can give you a copy of a mating flange drawing to mate the M3 exhaust to the 3.5 downpipes. you can use the 325i system but it's a smaller bore than the 3.5, whereas the M3 is the same as the 3.5.

oh, mine went in without needing a smaller servo. you DO NOT need to shorten the gear linkages... instead of using the M30 linkages, just use 325i linkages then it all drops in!

one last point, you state using a M535i (E28 535i) engine. this is not as good for the conversion as the engine from the E34 535i or E32 735i. the later engine will connect a lot easier electrically and doesn't have a water port from the rear of the head. the E28 engine will need an extra 30mm of bulkhead bashing to get it in.

[ed325i]

I used the 325 gear linkage and still had to shorten it my engine must be further. I used the golf servo so i could move the engine over because I didnt like exhaust mainfold flange being so close to the steering. someone alse on here said they have an m3 exhaust and its the same as the 325 one. Every one has there own way of doing things if you look on the e30.de site they say you have to mod the floor for the exhaust to fit

ED

[ed325i]

Here we are I have found it.

I've got an E30 M3 supersprint backbox that fits perfectly onto a standard 325 centre box, the pipe diameters seem to be the same. I've also got a complete E30 320is system (Italian M3) identical to the M3 system and they all match up with the standard 325 system. Is it the actual boxes not the pipes that help with gas flow/power??

As you can probably tell I've been collecting exhaust systems for my conversion, my garage now looks like a breakers yard

ED

[gareth]

re: the exhausts: the M3 system is a much larger bore than my 325i system was. that said, both of mine are/were scorpion stainless units. though both use the standard fittings/clamsp/gaskets etc.

re: the loom: it's possible (i've heard) to modify the M20 loom to fit but it's not necessary. keep the engine loom and ECU from the M30 donor car and in essence, you only need to connect to the main multiplug in the engine bay, battery earth and battery positive. that's it except for some minor fiddling.

have a read through the posts below (will take a while) as most of the problems will be covered in there.

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m30

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m30

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m30

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m30

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... hlight=m30