The m54b30 E30 build (NL)

[jmaul10]

Yeah its been a bit of a journey over here as well, have learned a ton and I think the biggest lesson is its never as easy as outlined on the web. Glad to hear you might have figured out your gearbox issue. I think I tracked down the ps pump problem. The motor came out of an e46 330i so originally came with the lf-20 but looks like they sell an upgrade kit to the lf-30 which is on this engine and the brackets might be slightly different then whats on a e46 with the lf-20 or e39 with the lf-30 so purchased a cheap used e39 ps pump with the brackets on ebay and hoping the ps pump is clocked a little counter clockwise so that the inlet clears the pan. Fingers crossed. If not I am at a total lose.

[maxpostma]

In the last couple of weeks I think my dad and I removed the gearbox about 5 times trying to find the cause without succes (messing with different throw out bearings and trying to find wear marks). Yesterday I removed some material of the inner fins of the gearbox and that seems to have solved the horrible noise.
Quiet strange because there weren't any serious wear marks.

Now we can finally continue making some real progess.

[maxpostma]

Did you have to do any modification to the m54 oil pump pick up tube when using the e39 sump? Thanks for your time wish I had found your post earlier!

The pickup tube is from an e38 728, as well as the sump. I didn't use the e39 sump.

[jmaul10]

Did you have to do any modification to the m54 oil pump pick up tube when using the e39 sump? Thanks for your time wish I had found your post earlier!

[maxpostma]

Great thank you, was wondering if you had any issue with your power steering pump setup not sure whats going on but the engine we pickup use a lf-30 and the inlet from the reserve interferes with the oil pan so that the bracket that holds the pump can not be bolted up. Searched a bit and found were someone made a custom bracket and ran a longer belt but was wondering if you had the same issue or if not what is your setup. Thanks again for your help.

Don't really have this problem, the steering pump is an original BMW e39 part which clears the e38 sump perfectly.

[jmaul10]

I deleted the charcoal canister and just connected th fuel vent line directly to the purge valve. I did the same thing with my mx5, and that worked perfectly.

Great thank you, was wondering if you had any issue with your power steering pump setup not sure whats going on but the engine we pickup use a lf-30 and the inlet from the reserve interferes with the oil pan so that the bracket that holds the pump can not be bolted up. Searched a bit and found were someone made a custom bracket and ran a longer belt but was wondering if you had the same issue or if not what is your setup. Thanks again for your help.

[maxpostma]

In the process of doing the same swap for my son and was wondering are you running fuel tank vent line > charcoal canister > m54 purge valve or something different.

I deleted the charcoal canister and just connected th fuel vent line directly to the purge valve. I did the same thing with my mx5, and that worked perfectly.

[jmaul10]

In the process of doing the same swap for my son and was wondering are you running fuel tank vent line > charcoal canister > m54 purge valve or something different.

[maxpostma]

The throw out might be too tall.

That looks like the only real variable there... You sure your clutch disc is oriented correctly?

Put everything together with a z3 1.8 TOB (which is 5mm shorter) and it made the same noise initally, after depressing the clutch a couple of times and revving it it slowly faded away. Now it barely makes any noise.

Perhaps because everything is new, it needed to run in a little

[dude8383]

The throw out might be too tall.

That looks like the only real variable there... You sure your clutch disc is oriented correctly?

[maxpostma]

Perhaps anyone can help me with this...

I used:
A e36/e46 pilot bearing
A e36/e46 slave
A e36/e46 fork
A zf320
A e30 master
A e30 clutch + pressure plate + flywheel
A e21 323i 30mm tob

but it makes a really scary noise when I start to press on the clutch paddle
like a metal to metal sound, and it gets worse if you try to press it harder.

Yesterday I took everything apart, but I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.

[maxpostma]

Quit a while since an update:

Went to the local wreckers for some small parts and I found out that there are 2 types of radiators, a big and small one.
Unluckily I had the small one, so I ordered a new z3 radiator which fits much better:



there used to be a big gap with the smaller unit:


Also made the shifter linkage work. But it felt really strange, like it wouldn't go in fifth. After some research I found that the guide pin for fifth gear was stuck. So everything had to be taken apart again



All for this stupid bitch, luckily the part only costs a couple of euros:


The exhaust is also almost finished, made it work with old exhaust parts that were laying around:


Lastly some technical stuff:
The OBD 2 port works perfectly with an Aliexpress bluetooth unit:


Really cool to see, when the coolant becomes 91 degrees Celcius the fan kicks on in slow mode via the pwm signal of the ECU.
When it becomes 104 degrees the fan speed increases:

[maxpostma]

Heading in the right direction

Another update with lots of small steps heading in the right direction:

First of I sold my black E30 for more than I bought it for, which is nice because I kept the red leather sport interior :)



Now for the project:
I added mounting holes for the center bearing using rivnuts because the bolts were all the way over to 1 side, now it's way more secure:



My dad made some brackets for the e39 530i pusher fan (it's the one controlled with a pwm signal), hopefully it will work well.



Also bought a reservoir for the windshield fluid:



It will be placed here:



Also finished all the coolant lines and added coolant. This is te result of the first attempt



and now for the interior stuff:

Bought an android radio on the internet which fits perfectly in an E30, but it's supposed to stick out about 20mm, didn't like it so this happened:
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2fpdRxv]


2 became 1:



All mounted up, something you'ill hate or will love. But I think it's really nice to be able to use your navigation, spotify and gauges using an obd2 scanner:



Cut some of the carpet in the boot and mounted the rear strut bar:


That was about it.

[maxpostma]

you can run a 5spd e46 fan assembly with the dme controling it pwm. it wires directly because it only controls the speed. the fan has a big power and ground wire

Yes I know, it's already mounted and wired up, thanks tho :)

[drum4fun27302]

you can run a 5spd e46 fan assembly with the dme controling it pwm. it wires directly because it only controls the speed. the fan has a big power and ground wire