1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

[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

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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[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

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]

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]

so the radiator will sit on those brackets and you'll use the stock plastic mounts on the top?
also, how close is the pulley to the rad? I had to ditch my ac/power pulley. Too close for comfort.

Yeah it uses the stock rubber doughnut mounts.
I have about 3/4” of clearance from my pulleys.

If I used a 535i radiator I bet I could use a engine driven fan.
Needed to swap the M30 cluster temp sensor.

For an E30 cluster temp sensor.




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[LowR3V'in]

so the radiator will sit on those brackets and you'll use the stock plastic mounts on the top?
also, how close is the pulley to the rad? I had to ditch my ac/power pulley. Too close for comfort.

[st.petebiodiesel]

I am proud to announce that my car moved from it’s resting place on the side of my house under its own power!

Couldn’t run it for long since I was still waiting on my radiator. Which I received today.

Just a cheap $95 eBay radiator. I couldn’t use the one I had because it didn’t have the channel at the bottom for the rubber mounts.
I was going to hook up my heater core but the pipes in the engine bay are pretty corroded. So I’ll move that to a project for another day.
I borrowed some coolant hoses from my Brother’s E24.

The lower radiator hose had to be modified.


I’m going to build a mount bracket for the stock early e30 coolant reservoir on the drivers side of the engine bay. I know I could just buy a late model e30 reservoir but I could spend that money better elsewhere right now.
My car was blocked in by my Brother’s wrecked e24 which currently had no front suspension. So I moved it.

Even without an engine/trans e24s are really heavy.
Test drive was a little loud with no exhaust system other than the down pipes. I think these engines run better with some exhaust pressure also.
Warmed up it runs pretty well.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=nBHix-o2WgU

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[st.petebiodiesel]

1987 325e sedan M30B35 swap

Time to sort out the pedals.
Disgusting auto pedals.

Sexy manual pedals.

Many people think you need a manual pedal box when doing a manual swap, and I’m here to tell you that isn’t true.
The only difference between the auto and manual pedal box is the provision for a clutch pedal spring.
A quick search on r3v proves that many remove this spring when it breaks, proving it unnecessary. You can swap your pedals from auto to manual without swapping the pedal bracket.
New pedals.

New slave from a 318i.

Lines hooked up from the clutch master cylinder.






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[lukeADE335i]

I did something similar on my swap.

The screws won't rip out - there's not a lot of pressure on the CSB - just look at the rubber supporting the bearing - it is really soft / flimsy.

Be sure to check the alignment of the shaft before you drive it - the 88 on CSB has shorter legs so the alignment is probably a bit different. It'll vibrate like crazy if the driveshaft isn't straight.

[st.petebiodiesel]

My car spent all of it’s 217,000 mile life as an automatic which meant the driveshaft was about 7” short.
Real OEM says the auto 325e driveshaft is 52.25”. A manual 325e driveshaft is 58.38”.
And a E36 325i manual driveshaft is 59.52”. I’ve heard from somewhere you can use the E36 driveshaft but it requires flipping the CSB around.
I found a 1988 325i driveshaft locally for $200. The Seller said he sent it to a driveshaft shop to have the CSB replaced and re balanced. The U joints felt solid even though they were the original ones.

Compared to the auto shaft.

One small problem was the CSB was the wrong size. I guess somewhere between 87 and 88 BMW changed the CSB size.
I could of swapped the CSBs but since this one was new I just drilled some new holes in the mounts and used some large self tapping screws.


Yeah I know the screws aren’t as strong as the threaded chassis inserts. If they end up ripping out I’ll put a rivnut in the CSB mount. They seem pretty strong compared to the stock CSB bolts.

This driveshaft was a little bit short so the splined slip yoke had to be extended about 1.75”

Not ideal, but it will work.
I’m so close to test driving this turd. Just need to put together the cooling system and sort the pedals.







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[st.petebiodiesel]

Got some valuable wrenching time in this weekend and squared away my shifter.
I drilled my chassis shifter plate to pick up the original holes for the auto shifter on the trans tunnel.


As you can see the holes are elongated so I can fine tune my shifter position without having to cut and re weld my selector rod again.
Here is the selector rod.

I had to shorten it about 3.2” for my G240. I think it’s an original 325e selector rod.
1st gear

2nd gear

3rd gear

4th gear

5th gear

Gotta say it’s pretty satisfying rowing through all the gears. I do need to replace the shifter joint on the transmission input rod, it is super wore out and causing a great deal of play in the shifter.





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[ThatOneEuroE30]

Id hammer that down pipe in a little. I think that ear is for putting the engine on a stand. If you ever need to rebuild it. You might have difficulty mounting it

[st.petebiodiesel]

Today I got the exhaust system closer to completion.
I was going to weld 2” V band clamps to each separate down tube, but then I thought I could combine both manifolds and down pipes into one piece. This way I would only need to buy 1 set of V bands.

I cut the down pipes as soon as they turned straight.

Followed by a dual 2” inlet collector to a single 2.5” outlet.

I tack welded everything under the car to ensure proper alignment.
The most important detail about this setup is that you can remove the manifolds/down pipe/ collector together. This requires no exhaust joints till after the collector. The entire assembly is a little cumbersome, but it can be installed as pictured.

My dog Boris inspects all my work.

All was looking good till I tightened the exhaust studs.
The FWD manifold down pipe was hitting this ear on the engine block.

My options were hitting the down pipe with a hammer for clearance, or cutting off that ear on the engine block. I’m pretty sure it won’t matter.



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[st.petebiodiesel]

What's the link too? i have to sign up to see it.

It’s my Facebook page. Try this link.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fAXy-XiZIOI

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