My Official "E30/M50 (+ S52) Improvement Effort Thread"

[RenaissanceMan]

So I realize there are a ton of swap threads up here already, but I recently acquired a cool E30/M50 that was a great starting platform for creating an E30-based street car that pushed all the right buttons for me in terms of overall performance, simplicity, and driving enjoyment. For anyone interested, I thought I'd log my various projects and share my adventures with y'all.

A little back story... I just recently sold my E30/M52 GTS2 racecar that I had been campaigning and evolving for many years. A change in our financial situation forced me to take a temporary hiatus from racing, and I decided it would be better to sell the car for now than to let it sit and not be used. My wife, being perpetually-cool about this stuff, was supportive of the idea of me using a portion of the money from the racecar sale and purchasing my buddy's street E30. This would be a car that could share duties with my X5 as a daily driver and allow me to still enjoy an E30 on a regular basis.

The car already had a ton going for it, including an M50 swap with a really strong 2.5, headers, tune, custom Borla/UUC exhaust build, Ground Controls, Ronal 15"s, and a ton of other nice performance parts and aesthetic improvements...

I've made several smaller repairs and improvements so far which I will document in this thread, but the larger project I have going on right now is preparing to swap an S52 into the car with a simultaneous conversion to OBD2.

In the meantime, here are a few pics taken shortly after I bought it... I'll be adding some more project photos as soon as I convert them to a smaller filesize.

[RenaissanceMan]

Although the interior was in pretty nice shape when I got the car, the original black sport seats that were in the car were pretty worn and needed some restoration. Fortunately, my parts-hoarding tendencies resulted in my already having another pair of sport seats that my father had reupholstered years ago and installed in my brother's 2002. That car was eventually sold but we kept the seats and some other parts. Since they had been in my storage unit for years they were pretty dry and dusty. So, I took out my trusty Leatherique leather rejuvenation oil and proceeded to massage it into the leather with several applications in the sun. The dry leather softened right back up and returned the seats to their original condition. Definitely an improvement over what was in there before.

[RenaissanceMan]

The car came with working A/C, but had a tendency to overheat at idle. Also, air vent temps would only drop to acceptable levels while at speed. It had a single pusher fan mounted in front of the condenser, but it wasn't providing enough cooling for both it and the radiator. I had purchased a really powerful Spal 1850 cfm pusher fan for my racecar that worked fantastic keeping it cool at idle on the grid, so I decided to order the exact fan and try it on this E30. It made a huge difference. No more overheating at idle on warm days, and vent temps stay cooler, as well. I mounted the fan in the exact same location as the less-powerful one, trying to cover as much surface area as possible. I'm pretty pleased with the results, as I was concerned I might have to install an additional puller fan in order to keep the temps down.

[RenaissanceMan]

The one weak point on the car has been the brakes. Just like my E30/M52 racecar originally did, this car suffers from a super-hard brake pedal with weak vacuum boost as a result of using the E21 booster. Although the brakes work, I cannot lock them up in a panic stop and it takes a lot of pedal effort to really dig into the pads. My solution (expensive experiment??) is to try using the 325ix booster to see if I can more efficiently stop the car without as much pedal effort. So, I bought a reman ix booster and will be running it with a remote reservoir from a 2002tii. I also purchased an E34 M5 25mm master cylinder to use with it. Although I will be upgrading to a Massive BBK race kit front and rear at the same time the S52 goes in, I want to first address the brake boost issue so I'm not just simply putting a band aid on the problem. Once I have everything installed and tested, I'll post the results. In the meantime I'm struggling to try and find a spacer/tube for the booster. The reman version doesn't come with the OEM spacer so I may be forced to purchase an entire booster assembly from a salvage yard. If any of you have one of these spacers you'd be willing to let go of, please let me know! I included a picture of what I need for reference. :)

[flyboyx]

Welcome back. You are a member since 2004 with 52 posts. Hope you stay longer this time.

[Kershaw]

There's also a build thread forum specifically for this topic.

Nice progress on your car.

[RenaissanceMan]

There's also a build thread forum specifically for this topic.

Nice progress on your car.

Oops, sorry if I posted in the wrong place. Moderators, feel free to move this if you need to-

[agent]

I bought a reman ix booster and will be running it with a remote reservoir from a 2002tii. I also purchased an E34 M5 25mm master cylinder to use with it.

If you want to drive my Bronzit car you know you're welcome to. It has an E32 booster with 25mm master.

[RenaissanceMan]

If you want to drive my Bronzit car you know you're welcome to. It has an E32 booster with 25mm master.

Thanks, buddy!

[2mAn]

This is a wonderful thread, I look forward to your updates. Can you PM me about your experience in GTS2 as I have an aluminum M52 in my E30 and I plan to build my car to "compete" in GTS2 eventually

[RenaissanceMan]

Motor tear down

So here is the S52 I bought, and a few pics of the subsequent head removal. Got a sweet deal on the motor and the matching ZF trans. The only issue I knew I had to deal with was a loss of compression on cylinder 6, most likely the result of a money shift based on what I was told. The motor supposedly only had 80k on it, and from the looks of the insides I believe it. Crosshatching in the cylinder walls is intact, and the lobes on the camshafts literally look like they have no wear. Pretty pleased so far. After removing the head, I took it to the machine shop downtown and they are currently checking everything out. They worked on my prior motors in my racecar and do a phenomenal job. All the guys in the shop are also racers, which is kind of cool. :)

[RenaissanceMan]

It's the little things...

I've slowly been going through some of the other aesthetic details in my free time... My goal with this car is to essentially refresh it from the inside-out... Inside referring to engine/tranny swap stuff as well as the interior of the car. Paint is not awesome but it's quite presentable. A partial respray will ultimately complete the first phase of the refresh.

Due to age, a bunch of little rubber seals and what not were pretty disintegrated; specifically the cowl wiper seals and the power antenna seal upon first inspection. So, I replaced those and cleaned up the areas around them while I was in there. I added some before and after pics...

Whenever I find mismatched hardware I'm trying to also correct that, as well. So although I don't have pics there are a bunch of screws and bolts that had gone missing at some point in the car's history and replaced with different hardware. I try to get that stuff matched up and replaced as best I can as I encounter it.

[RenaissanceMan]

This is a wonderful thread, I look forward to your updates. Can you PM me about your experience in GTS2 as I have an aluminum M52 in my E30 and I plan to build my car to "compete" in GTS2 eventually

sure, what would you like to know?

[2mAn]

sure, what would you like to know?

obviously the competition varies from region to region, but how competitive is the M52. Was yours stock or totally modified? What kind of other cars were other you competing against?

[RenaissanceMan]

obviously the competition varies from region to region, but how competitive is the M52. Was yours stock or totally modified? What kind of other cars were other you competing against?

sent u a pm