1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

[st.petebiodiesel]

I appreciate the song you where listening too No Cigar is great old Millencolin

Nothing like some late 90s Swedish punk when wrenching on an e30.


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[LowR3V'in]

Turbo the thing now. :devil:

[lukeADE335i]

Comparing to a 3.0L turbo in the 135i is a bit rough though Anthony :D

They're plenty quick for a car from the 80s though, and certainly no slouch even in modern traffic :)

The 3.46 would still be plenty of fun!

[st.petebiodiesel]

With your driving impressions, it sounds like you're still running the eta diff?

If so, then the car won't be quick, but throw a 3.73 in there like a 325i and it's a whole different animal ( 0 - 100 in around 6 seconds).

If you want it to drive like a factory 335i would have, then a 3.25LSD is an excellent compromise for a daily drive with a bit more performance.

I’m using a 3.46 diff from a Z3.
A 3.73 would definitely make the car a lot quicker but then I wouldn’t be able to go 80mph at 3000rpm.
I’m probably in between 6 to 7 seconds to 60 mph. I have roughly 12 pounds of weight for each horsepower, so not a super high power to weight ratio.


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[Anthony B]

I’d say that’s a pretty good summary of the m30, with a 262 CR & a 3.15 my car is quick has my better half’s car off the Mark & to about 60km/h after that her f20 135i absolutely walks away from my car with no effort.

I appreciate the song you where listening too No Cigar is great old Millencolin

[lukeADE335i]

With your driving impressions, it sounds like you're still running the eta diff?

If so, then the car won't be quick, but throw a 3.73 in there like a 325i and it's a whole different animal ( 0 - 100 in around 6 seconds).

If you want it to drive like a factory 335i would have, then a 3.25LSD is an excellent compromise for a daily drive with a bit more performance.

[Stvstr]

I read your driving impressions with great interest because I am just finishing up the exhaust on my m30 swap and should be driving it soon, depending on how many mistakes I have made. Thanks for the detailed build thread, it's been helpful to follow along.

[st.petebiodiesel]

Car update: car has been super reliable in its daily driving duties. Never gets hot or refusing to start, no problems whatsoever.
I even took my car on a road trip to Orlando for work without a single hiccup.
The car returns about 21MPG with my 3.46 diff. I also replaced my shitty eBay injectors with a set of OEM e36 pink top injectors 21.5 lbs and the drive ability greatly improved.
Lesson learned, don’t buy cheap injectors from eBay.
My car had the stock radio but it wasn’t hooked up. I picked up a JVC from Best Buy for $90, finally I would have some tunes.
Here’s the wiring, pretty easy to wire yourself.

And installed. It sounds great!

Also got my air filter installed.

My car had a pretty large fuel leak whenever I filled the tank all the way. My fuel filler hose was the culprit.

Easy fix

So here is my driving review of my M30 swapped sedan.
Let’s get this out of the way, M30 swapped cars are not fast. They aren’t slow, but not really fast. “Quick” is how I would put it. There are a lot of stock cars on the road that have more power than a M30 E30. If you want a fast e30 do a M60/62 swap, then you’ll have 60-70 more HP on a stock/reliable engine. A M30 swapped E30 is about as fast as a US e36 M3.
I like the older getrag transmission and the longer gearing. 1st gear limits at 40mph and second 72mph. I’ve topped this car out at 142mph.
My POS e36 goes faster than that, but that’s not the point.
The car handles about the same as a m20 powered e30. Keep in mind I don’t have A/C or power steering, and my engine is as far back as you can get it in the engine bay. Obviously the steering is super heavy at a dead stop but I find it manageable. My car also has a bit of front rake because my rear springs aren’t adjustable.

I’m not really too concerned about handling on this car. I live in Florida which has little elevation change and generally very straight roads. Plus I drive this car mainly on the highway to commute to work. The mostly stock suspension is more than adequate for my driving needs.

One other thing about M30 swaps is they sound the exact same as a m20 car to the untrained ear. You also don’t really get the attention from other car enthusiasts as if you had a V8 swap. When I had my M60 E30 everyone wanted to know what I had under the hood. With the M30 everyone assumes I’m just driving a regular stock E30.

End of the day I am super happy with the car and it is a blast to drive. I plan on swapping in a S38 or turbocharging the M30.

Just happy to have a slightly faster reliable E30 as my daily driver.









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[wworm]

what a great find!

[st.petebiodiesel]

1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

Today was an excellent week for me and the car. I got the front suspension all buttoned up. Didn’t take a lot of pics, but I was kinda in a hurry to finish it.
I replaced both lower control arms, lower control arm bushing, strut mounts, and struts and springs.
Racelands of course. Don’t hate, they came with the car when I bought it. Not installed, just in the trunk.

E36 LCA bushings, much stiffer than e30 bushings but still provide a stock feel. Not really interested in doing Polly anything as far as bushings, been there done that. This car is a street car and will probably never see a track. Plus I like having conversations in the car with passengers/ being able to see out my rear view mirror.

Check out these trashed ball joints I was riding on. So much play.


Here is how the car sits on the racelands.


So I bought a 179 DME off of eBay and it took like 2 weeks to get here. I ended up getting one at the local salvage yard and running that one since I’m impatient.
The other day I thought I’d try the eBay DME. The car felt more powerful in the midrange and I could hear it occasionally backfire after engine braking followed by throttle application. That and the redline was now 6800. Hmmmm.
I knew the DME had to have some sort of chip, but which one???

Not bad for a $30 eBay DME.

So my week was going pretty good, then in my weekly (sometimes daily) check of my local LKQ inventory I discovered this!!!

My brother and I went to check it out the next day, and thank the junkyard BMW gods it had a getrag g260!
Took about an hour for both of us to pull the transmission and flywheel.
Safely in my trunk.


I even grabbed the clutch. The disc still had the Sachs markings on it. Obviously someone had changed it, then given up on the car.

Now I can beat my G240 to an untimely death. It will also be nice to have a normal clutch. This 318 paddle clutch is killing me.



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[st.petebiodiesel]

I was under the assumption it'd need at least 95 but I

m not too savvy on high comp requirements. The problem with it being in an e36 is a matter of weight, right?

Yeah 98 if you want to floor it below 4K and not hear it pinging.
I like the M30 cause you can lug it all the time and it doesn’t care. I run 89 in it now but I’m sure it wouldn’t mind 87.
From a power to weight perspective the engine doesn’t feel all that powerful in a e36. That and e36s aren’t great cars in general. Don’t get me wrong they handle amazing, but everything about them is cheap/shitty/unreliable.


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[wworm]

It’s probably putting down a hair more power than a stock S52. I raced my friends stock M roadster and neither of us could pull away, dead even.
I’m using S52 cams, upgrading to some Schricks and a decent tune it might make 250 to the wheel.
Problem is it’s in an e36 and not an e30.
It also needs 98 octane if you want to have any fun and drive it hard.
Here is the build.

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=411544

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I was under the assumption it'd need at least 95 but I'm not too savvy on high comp requirements. The problem with it being in an e36 is a matter of weight, right? If it were a dedicated track build wouldn't you want it in an e36 due to the significantly more sophisticated suspension?

[st.petebiodiesel]

woah casually dropping a kitchen table built high comp engine build! Thats pretty sweet! Any idea on power figures?

It’s probably putting down a hair more power than a stock S52. I raced my friends stock M roadster and neither of us could pull away, dead even.
I’m using S52 cams, upgrading to some Schricks and a decent tune it might make 250 to the wheel.
Problem is it’s in an e36 and not an e30.
It also needs 98 octane if you want to have any fun and drive it hard.
Here is the build.

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=411544

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[wworm]

woah casually dropping a kitchen table built high comp engine build! Thats pretty sweet! Any idea on power figures?

[st.petebiodiesel]

1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

I’ve been driving the car to work every day for the past 2 weeks and love it, even though the suspension is super wore out. I commute over a 7 mile long bridge across Tampa Bay every night/morning and routinely get it over 100 mph no problem.
However the loose ass front end is pretty scary. Every mild bump in the road makes the steering wheel shimmy and the car to wander in it’s lane uncontrollably until the shimmy subsides.
A quick inspection revealed that my lower control arms are shot. Specifically the ball joints and the LCA bushings.
I ripped out the front suspension today, new parts should be here in time for the weekend.


In the mean time I’m back to my E36 backup car. I really don’t like E36s
This car is a 94 325is with a 12:1 compression OBD1 S52B32 that I built on my kitchen table, TRM tune, and 3.23 M3 LSD.

But I’d still choose my E30 over this car any day. Should have the suspension done by the weekend.


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