ttrousdell's Project Thread (E30 M3 & S38 swap content)

[ttrousdell]

It is now a year and a half that i have owned my e30 and I think its time I created a project thread detailing all the work I have done and all the work to come. Enjoy....
I bought the car the way you see it in the pictures below. 133K for 3800 bucks.










I owned the car for 6 weeks and life was awesome, then this happened...



So youre probably wondering what the hell happened. I bottomed out the car on the FDR in the city, cracked the oil pan and had to drive a mile to get off the exit. Unfortunately the bearings cooked. The car was put on the tow truck and with me in the back seat, we proceeded to drive back to my house on the island. Before we could even leave the city, at a red light a drunk driver ran into the car while we were stopped. The result of that night is what you see above. I ended up getting $2700 from the drunk Betty White look alike which i used to by a parts car. More to come...

[Ramgoat]

I think everyone should see this thing and how it looks now. pics of present day or ban! :P

[BMWerke]

i have seen the beast in person, post pics asap. keep updating

[bzboardz]

wow looked like a clean e30 to start with!

[ttrousdell]

Doin Work.

After everything cleared with insurance, and i convinced my parents that keeping the car was a good idea, I begain looking for a parts car. I could have bought new bearings and the body parts i want, but i was pretty ignorant as far as cars go at this timeso i figured getting a parts car was a good idea.
October 2009- Since i commute to college i needed to get a new car and fixing the 89' would have to wait till spring. I found this on craigslist. I originaly intended to use this as the parts car but it was way to nice to part. Anyway heres what I picked up in Brooklyn, 1990 325i for $1800. 105K

[Bmil951]

Subscribed for what promises to be an interesting thread.

[KennyT]

In for subs.

[ttrousdell]

The parts car in all her glory

January 2010- Parts car: 1988 325is. Picked up this peice for 1400+ the head from the 89' 120k auto.


All 3 of my cars..this is getting kind of rediculous.

My grandparents came in clutch and allowed me to use their garage for the part out. In two months, it would go from a car to a worthless shell. Well let the part out begin...

[CorvallisBMW]

Good work! sub'd for more pics.

[ttrousdell]

Part out cont.

Some more pics of the part out.


Eventually it became a worthless paperweight. Gave the shell away Tiago (toointoxicated60). Little did I know at the time, Tiago and I would become good friends a few months later.

Now that the shell was gone, i had a shit ton of parts that had to be brought back to my house on the south shore

It took two trips to bring all the parts back. heres the engine in all her dirty glory.
Time for the M20 teardown and swap.

[ttrousdell]

m20

Now that the part out was complete, I could turn all my attention to the motor. New goodies..Block and head gasket set, water pump, timing belt.

Breaking it all down




The hardest part was preping everything for paint. All the parts were covered by a layer of grease. Started out using engine brite but found out that pure gasoline worked alot better as a degreaser plus i had a shit ton of it.

[ttrousdell]

m20

Now that it was all degreased, i could proceed with painting.

I used $6 dollar 500 degree paint from autozone which has stood up well so far. For the block i used a few coats of primer and then the fire engine red. I think its a nice color for the block.



Moving along. Think it was early march of 2010 when this was taken.
Blue Moon is the best beer i have ever had.

[ttrousdell]

M20 Teardown Complete

By April, the engine was done. I chose to use the same clutch and pressure plate since it was in good shape. I had the flywheel resurfaced and a few pounds taken off. Cost me about $130 at the local machine shop.





Coming up the M20 to M20 swap then the M30 to M20 swap

[Ramgoat]

Thanks!

[ttrousdell]

M20 Swap

March 10' removed the fried M20B25

April-time to drop the new M20 in.



Finally in...