1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

[st.petebiodiesel]

1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

Finally sorted my coolant system.
I bought a cheap ass 16” 1400cfm fan from the auto parts store. I recently bought a crank sensor from them that was bad from stock. So free fan!!!

I just hardwired the radiator temp switch and wired up the fan. If the ignition is on the fan is running.
My temp sits here after 30 minutes of running.

Here is my crudely mounted coolant reservoir.




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[st.petebiodiesel]

1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

Started building my exhaust today.
First I jacked the car as high as I could.

My plan was to run a 2.5” all the way back with a resonator and a muffler following it.
Here is where I started.

I’m using slip fittings with clamps instead of flanges or V bands. I can always switch later if I find it leaks too much, but being it Christmas time funds are a little tighter than normal.
Here’s what I have so far.



You can see the upward jump in the middle of the car. This is to clear speed bumps. The center of the car needs to be as high as possible for ground clearance issues.
I’m just waiting on my muffler so I can final weld everything together. I’ll be using a Moroso spiral flow muffler. It’s an auger style muffler which is much quieter than a conventional resonator.


We will see if it is quiet enough. May need to add another muffler downstream.
Just waiting on UPS to deliver my muffler.




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[st.petebiodiesel]

Finally finished the exhaust system.

The single spiral flow muffler wasn’t quiet enough for my liking,so I added an additional Magnaflow muffler in the stock location.

The only thing I’m lacking is a proper tail pipe. I just inserted a pipe into the muffler in the meantime. Without this pipe the exhaust bounces off the bumper and makes it louder.

I used 2 exhaust supports for the whole system. One right before the muffler.

And one on the resonator.

It’s just a matter of finding unused bolt holes on the chassis for mounting the supports.
Here are some under chassis shots.


I doubt I’ll have any ground clearance or excessive noise issues. Just need to weld in an O2 sensor bung and install an o2 sensor. The car runs really rich without it.


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[st.petebiodiesel]

1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

So I’ve been driving the car around on test drives lately and noticed that 1st gear pops out pretty often, especially if you try to take off fast. It just pops out and grinds. This kinda makes the car un safe as I can never tell when it will it will do it and sometimes it takes 6 attempts before I can even get it to move in 1st. Major setback!
So I need another getrag G240 from an M10 e30. Not exactly easy to find, however I had a friend with a G240 from a 1991 318is. For those of you who don’t know a m42/m50 gearbox will not bolt up to a m30/m10.
The idea is to swap all the guts from the newer G240 into my broken G240s transmission housing. Hopefully it works. I did find a thread on a 2002 webpage where guys swapping M42s into 2002 or 320s would swap out the rear G240 housings and internals to retain the cable speedo drive.



I think I’m on to something!
So now time to pull my trans. I always knew this day would come, just never thought so soon.
Pretty easy really, remove trans mounts, driveshaft,shift linkage, and loosen the top nuts on the engine mounts.

And jack that fucker up.


Till the cylinder head is all the way on the firewall.

Then just remove the trans.

Here are the 2 transmission next to each other ready to go under the knife.

Early G240s had numerous issues with shift forks etc so hopefully installing the guts from the latest G240 will make the transmission more reliable. The M42 G240 I had sourced was from a 91 318is with a m50 swap. I have even driven it so I know it shifts well.
I hate working on cars so much right now.




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[Stvstr]

I know the feeling, had to walk out of my garage yesterday because it was feeling like work instead of a hobby. But it looks like you are still making progress and your swap will be back on the road soon. Also, your detailed build thread has been a big help to me and probably others, so thanks!

[st.petebiodiesel]

1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

Today was pretty a pretty epic day of wrenching on the transmission.
I found out you can swap the guts from a M42 G240 to a M10 G240 case.
Here is the process.
Remove the guide tube.

Then you have to remove this pain in the ass snap ring. (Its very difficult without expanding pliers)

Remove this plug,spring, and detent roller. I used a large screwdriver to pry out the plug.

Then it’s just a matter of pulling the 10 bolts on the rear case and 1 bolt on the L/H case and splitting the case.

Here are the 2 transmissions next to each other.

Old style.

New style. The only difference I can see is in the shift forks.


Then just reassembly. Main and lay shaft bearings appear to be in good condition.

Sealant.

One thing that is very important is you must have the correct orientation on the detent pin so the roller rides on the cam machined in the selector shaft.

All done, took about 4 hours total. Time to throw it back in the car.






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[ThatOneEuroE30]

That gasket maker for the transmission likely wont hold. It needs to be an anaerobic sealant such as loctite 572 or permatex 51813

How did you go about splitting the case and getting the main/layshafts out

[st.petebiodiesel]

That gasket maker for the transmission likely wont hold. It needs to be an anaerobic sealant such as loctite 572 or permatex 51813

How did you go about splitting the case and getting the main/layshafts out

It seems to be holding the fluid in for now.
Hopefully it will hold up long enough for me to rebuild the G265. I’m just waiting on a shifter shaft seal before I throw the G240 back in my car.

Splitting the cases was super easy, just a large mallet, and some plastic wedges. As long as you don’t remove the driveshaft flange on the output shaft the main and lay shafts will stay in the rear case.


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[st.petebiodiesel]

Was hoping to have everything back together today but Oreillys fucked me and sent my shifter shaft seal on a weekly semi truck instead of the pickups that make the rounds between stores several times a day. So angry because of this. NAPA in Tampa has one so I’ll drive over there tomorrow.
Anyways got the trans back in the car.

I swapped out my throw out bearing for a OEM Sachs bearing. eBay grip-force clutches (FX, XTR, Kupp, etc) are good clutches, but the pilot and throw out bearings they provide aren’t. Often failing within a few thousand miles.

And my Black Friday Revshift transmission mounts. These mounts are way better than through bolted poly mounts. The studs are actually isolated in the mount, providing excellent vibration absorption.

Just waiting on this $8 shift shaft seal. If I were to even start the engine right now oil would puke out of here.

Still waiting on my o2 sensor and tires till I can take this thing on the road full time. So close!



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[LowR3V'in]

can u remember how thick the shims on the input shaft in total?
i'm getting a leak from there even with new seals guessing i put too many in.

[st.petebiodiesel]

can u remember how thick the shims on the input shaft in total?
i'm getting a leak from there even with new seals guessing i put too many in.

I just reinstalled the shim under the pain in the ass snap ring on the input shaft. I had almost no play at all.
My transmission works/shifts great now!
Doesn’t pop out of gear at all. Not really happy with the clutch being so grabby, but I can make it work.
I had to drive 30 miles to get this shift shaft seal.


Took it for a test drive and no leaks period.
Transmission installed!

I tried to figure out why my Engine was still running shitty. I found it was due to the wrong AFM installed. The 179 DME needs a 027 AFM and I had a 066. (Which is from a M20) plugged in the 027 and car ran better than it ever has.
Just waiting on my tires in the mail and this Turd is on the road.


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[st.petebiodiesel]

1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

Finally got my oxygen sensor! Turner Motorsports took over 2 weeks to get it to me.
In the meantime I’ve been helping my friend with his custom S52 Eaton M90 supercharger build. Very badass!


Back to the M30 swap,
I drilled a 1” hole in the exhaust right after the collector. It’s important the oxygen sensor reads from both exhaust banks.


Oxygen sensor installed.

The car runs excellent with the correct AFM and a new oxygen sensor.

My car being a 325 it came equipped with a 2.93 open differential which I’m pretty sure was full off water. The car was a flood car and the diff squeaks like crazy while driving.
I had scored this 3.46 Torsen Diff from a 3.0 Z3 a year ago for $65!!!!!!

For those of you unfamiliar, Z3 Torsen diffs are an excellent alternative to old clutch pack e30 diffs.
You can still read the diff tag.

Z3 diff bushings are slightly different than a E30s. I decided to fill all the gaps in the bushing just for the hell of it.
Before.


I used my favorite all purpose sealant to back fill the diff bushing. PS870 aircraft fuel tank sealant! This shit will stick to anything and is flexible yet solid.
Cardboard under the bushing.

Sealant.

Removing my old e30 diff was going well until I stripped out an Allen bolt.
Which was quickly removed using my crappy mig welder.


VICTORY! Had to sacrifice a socket though.

Old shitty diff out.

Monday I can get a tag for my car and run it through it’s paces so I’m excited/anxious to see what breaks.




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[lukeADE335i]

Great work - will be good to hear your thoughts on the torsen diff.

I need to get my LSD rebuilt sometime soon, and have been tossing up between getting a standard rebuild with new clutches, or swapping the stock LSD for a torsen. The price difference is only a couple of hundred.

[st.petebiodiesel]

Great work - will be good to hear your thoughts on the torsen diff.



I need to get my LSD rebuilt sometime soon, and have been tossing up between getting a standard rebuild with new clutches, or swapping the stock LSD for a torsen. The price difference is only a couple of hundred.

I love torsen diffs, they are much better at putting the power down efficiently than a clutch pack LSD which can only lock and unlock. Torsen diffs can change the amount of torque a wheel receives while still maintaining a locked axle. You can be spinning both rear tires but the back end doesn’t really step out because the diff is constantly changing how much torque each wheel receives.
They do have some down sides like if one wheel completely looses all load it will send power only to that wheel. But for a street car you can’t beat a torsen diff and I feel the 3.46 is an excellent ratio for the .83 over driven G240.
Here is how my diff bushing turned out.


I filled the tank up and started daily driving it for the past week.
The car has many problems but is still pretty fun to drive. The clutch took a little getting used to but after 200 miles it is becoming less grabby. I can now make a launch without the car shuddering.
The Engine also has this weird thing where if you give it any gas off idle the RPMs shoot up to like 2000 rpm. It’s either at its 800rpm idle or 2000rpm no in between, so takeoff is a little interesting. I adjusted the TPS but still as soon as you close click the micro switch for off idle the RPM rise too much. I’m thinking this may be a DME issue here. I’m pretty sure my DME is from an automatic. I’ve swapped the AFM and ICV with known working ones and same thing.

I have no idea what these numbers really mean but I think it means the software of the DME.
This is the DME I’m going to try swapping it with since it’s the earlier DME software revision.

I have heard all 179 DMEs are the same and the only difference is the chip. So maybe I need to get a manual chip.

The next problem is the engine cuts out if the fuel tank is less than a 1/4 tank. Put gas in it and problem goes away.
I pulled the in tank pump and what do you know it is all clogged up and doesn’t work.

I don’t know how rust got inside the sock.

Pretty crusty old pump.

Inside the tank is not that good either, but not that bad.



As long as I keep gas in the car rust shouldn’t continue. It’s just a matter getting all the loose crap filtered out over time.
I’m gonna put a Vega pump in and change the fuel filters pretty often.




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[st.petebiodiesel]

1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

Bought a 1975 Vega pump at Oreillys for $41!!!
Pump P/N

Strainer sock P/N

Here is the pump/sock


Make sure you keep this adapter from your old pump.

Pump installed, held in with a hose clamp.

Pretty simple process really, just needed to make a ground wire since mine crumbled from corrosion. Also had to extend the power wire.

Make sure to use heat shrink to protect the soldered splices. You wouldn’t want any 12 volt arcing in you fuel tank.
Make sure your power wire doesn’t chafe on any of the feed return pipes since they are essentially ground.

I did fix my idle/ off idle RPM issue and it was exactly what I had suspected. I had a Auto DME in the car.
I installed a Manual DME that I confirmed on realoem.com

The bold # on the vin tag on the DME is the cars S/N so you can lookup if it is a manual or not.

This DME is from a 88 e34 535i manual. The idle off idle RPM rise is non existent since it’s a manual DME and it isn’t trying to un-stall a torque converter. The car is much easier to drive now.
Now that that is fixed I went on to improve other areas of the car.
Like new brake lines.




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