M30 guys how are they holding up?

[rs4pro3]

Any problems encountered by anybody? overheating? etc... Just wondering as I'm trying to decide if I want to redo the M30 swap when I have funds, or go a different route. My screwed up M30 discouged me but I miss the power so much.

[george graves]

No overheating that I know of - (temp gauage busted! Still!) I've got to do something about that!

The new stock m20 rubber motor mounts I used are about toast (been about a year). They are very deformed. Vieved from the front or rear they look like a parallelogram rather then a square.

Motor still pulls like a tractor - and almost as smooth as a m20 (well a bit buzzy up real high)

Everything seems to be holding together well (execpt tranny/motor mounts) - that was expected.

Diff seems to handle the added TQ (3.73 LSD).

I've had some aweful front tire wear but that was due to some ansy broken control arms. I think....

Ely, How FUBAR is your motor?

EDIT - on the only thing I HATE - 14-18 MPG!!!! (insert a long string of cuss words here)



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[rs4pro3]

Blown rings more then likely. It's been stripped down, I'd have to find a good short block to start with if I do the swap again.

[george graves]

Go 3.5 or a L-block!

[bmw335ist]

the m30 love

my freind lovenbmw's has the newer m30 he loves it.
my car is striped and I am going to start over about the first of the year

[rs4pro3]

Ya it would either be a 3.5, a Euro, or a 3.3 with a high duration cam and some light port work. I loved the 3.3 as it was a very revable engine, once I stuck the 3.5 it lost it's low end grunt but would take off like a mofo from 3k on.
I believe on my block also I had a coolant passage blocked, as every time I removed the block drain, the watter would barely come out like it was clogged or something.

[JPbmw]

Ely what ever happend to your car? i didnt know you were having trouble with it :|

[rs4pro3]

Less then 1-month old Alternator belt snapped, Battery light never came on as the Alt was high output so the car was able to run off the battery for a good while, By the time I realized it was to late(heavy interstate traffic). Engine overheated and blew the rings(lost compression and head and gasket checked out A+). Due to past frame damage I parted the car and purchased an 85 325e with 40k on a rebuilt eta engine.

[JPbmw]

so what are your plans for it?

[rs4pro3]

I'm unsure, I've swapped suspension, interior etc.. over to it but can't decide what engine if any to swap into it.

[Operator62]

Ely, which transmission did you use? I can't remember. I'm kind of need of a crossmember seeing as how the 318i's won't work. It isn't wide enough. I also need the shifter thingy. lol Not the rod, but where the ball part of the shift lever sits in. Actually, I've got a lot of questions for you Ely. Would you mind if I instant messaged you sometime soon. I've gotten my motor and tranny dropped in. Just needing a few more parts to make things right.

[george graves]

Ely - M3 Ryan and I (ok him) fixed my temp gauage - it seems as if there theren are two temp sensors in the m20 harness - and some (one two) were mixed - we spliced two wires and at lest one of them got my temp gauage working - here what I've learned.

My temp gauage is reading totally normal - it warm up much faster then a m20 motor (use to take 5 mins to get up to temp with a m20 - now it like 2 mins)

I tested it buy doing a hard free run (lots of 40-80 pulls) pulled off the freeway and got behind a big truck in a fastfood restruant drive thru line. Idle'd for 10 mins behind a huge truck - never went beyond 1/2 mark.

Once it did it didn't want to go back down till I left and hit 40mph on a side street - the it dropped back to the usuall mark(40% out of 100%)

The motor runs differently - either I was running full rich before or I am now - time at the gas pump will tell (don't trust the OBC yet) - Decell is defiently different - but low rpm's suck now, motor needs a few revs to get off the line, before I could start off in second at idle and not touch the gas till I was rooling....

I'll keep you up to date - Ryan's euro m30 was awesome - I can't imagine a l-block in a e30 - that would be such a amazing motor. IT reves so freely, but you do need 91 pump gas...urrr - that's $3.44 here right now...

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Let me know what up - later!

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[rs4pro3]

ok cool George, sounds like the engine temp sender for the ecu isn't reading correctly now.
I used a Getrage 260/6 tranny and an e30 cross member with e30 tranny mounts(had to shim slightly).

[Operator62]

Ahhh, I see. Well, I guess I am in search of an M3 crossmember. Any ideas on how much that'll cost? It's either that, or I make one. I've got an older tranny apparently and it's mounts are different.

[george graves]

I paid $5 for mine from a guy on the sig