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E30 ground up build and M60B40 conversion

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    E30 ground up build and M60B40 conversion

    I have been working on this build for a few months now and have taken lots of pictures so thought I would share them up here and keep a bit of a build journal.

    I picked up this 318i from a guy who works on BMWS and had this one sitting in a vacant block next to where he lives. It was pretty well a bare shell with no bars, no engine, and no interior other than a very cracked dash and instrument cluster. But it was very straight, with minimal rust. I then picked up a 325i coupe that had a m20 with a blown head gasket but pretty well all the interior, a rear bar, and popout windows. This thing \/ \/ was riddled with rust though.



    Hopefully some will get some enjoyment out of the build journal like I have enjoyed building it to this point.

    Needed to just make a start so thought I'd start in the engine bay. That didn't last for too long though as I started to think bigger engines.








    Ideas and desires started to change along the way. I was originally going to put a M30B35 in it but then thought nah, just whack a M60B40 in it if your going to go to that much trouble.



    I ended up selling the donor M30B35 car and made a bit of money on it which enabled me to get the M60B40 engine.


    The M60B40 was very dirty when I got it. Many years of grime built up on it.




    I cleaned it up a bit with the jet wash.




    Bit of rust in the normal places. The rest of the car is really good though.







    Engine brackets and mounts arrived so time to test fit the engine and work out where to beat the firewall in.






    Cleaned all the front crossmember and Diff carrier up and etch primed them just to stop surface rust forming on them as I still had to weld all the strengthening bits on them which I made myself.





    Took a lot of wire wheel work to get the crossmember cleaned up.







    I will clean all the welds up and make them look pretty.





    In hinesight I could have made this strengthening plate a bit wider but I still think it is plenty strong enough.




    So after the first trial fit of the engine I had to take it out and do some more beating of the firewall and leading edge of the tunnel as my engine sits a bit higher.



    I needed to massage the firewall up higher than in this picture to allow for the water pipe outlet that runs across the back of the engine to clear.



    My engine sits up a bit higher due to the engine mounts I'm using which are e39 525TDS motor mounts (part number: 22111094248). They are 3cm higher and give the needed clearance for the bigger e36 steering rack I'm putting in. These aren't available here in Australia so had to order them from the UK. Of course you can probably use some from Garagistic that are the same height but I deliberately chose to use rubber mounts here for the engine and gearbox as I didn't want too much drivetrain vibration/harshness. I'm using poly stuff everywhere else though.


    e39 525TDS motor mounts




    And its in.

    Not for long though, still have to finish all the engine bay shave, and rebuild the engine, but more on that later.








    Well I decided to leave the engine rebuild for a while, and there are a few things I need to think about for the engine bay, so while I was waiting for some more parts to arrive for suspension and drivetrain, and to save up some more money, I decided to start on the underside of the shell.

    I knew this was going to be a huge undertaking and painful, so I determined in my mind to attack it and keep going until it was finished. Just over 40 hours later it was done.

    To do this job I decided I needed to put the shell on a rotisserie. I ended up making one out of two $80 engine stands.





    Now to start on that body deadener





    I found the best way to get this off was with an angle grinder with a big coarse wire wheel on it. It is one messy job and not for the light hearted!






    So thick some of this stuff.


    #2
    Little bit of rust I would not have been aware of if I didn't do this. I couldn't see it on the inside of the floor but it actually went into a hole when I cleaned it up.



    Messy job!








    Every time I ground some off I would spray that area with etch primer when I'd finished for the day.

    Comment


      #3
      More stripping of the underside.



      About 6Kg in total was stripped off.
      I know, I know, some people have said "but BMW put that on there for rust protection," and "It's going to be noisy." Well for the noise issue I'm going to put some sheets of Dynamat on the inside of the floor. You only need to cover 25% of an area in each place to stop it resonating. And I have fixed the rust spot in the floor which was under the coating, etch primed everything, and all the seams have been sealed up again.







      Applying the seam sealer.






      Next it's time to 2pk prime the whole underside, stone guard the inner guards, and apply the base coat, Kandy coat, and clear. Looking forward to seeing it all in paint finally.


      Getting closer.
      All 2Pk primed and sanded back. Was finally able to get the stone guard on all the inner guards. Not far from colour now.......









      And the colour is on












      So happy with the end result. The pain was all worth it.

      Comment


        #4
        Super impressive man. Will you come strip the undercoating off of my car next? k thnx
        1989 325i LS Swap (Money Pit):https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho...d.php?t=244933
        COTM Feb 2019: https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho...d.php?t=428404

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          #5
          That looks fantastic.

          Comment


            #6
            well, that escalated. wow.
            cars beep boop

            Comment


              #7
              This is awesome. Great work, sir.
              Originally posted by wholepailofwater
              Q
              :devil:


              WTB: Dove Grey e36 Front Door Panels (2 door)

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