5 Lug swap coils?

[Tyler325i]

I am doing the five lug swap to my 90 e30 and was wondering what kind of coil kit I would be able to run with this so I don't have to hunt down pieces and parts. I have the front m3 set up off a 97 e36, and rears are off the z3 (i6) roadster but on the hubs so essentially I'm still using the suspenssion off the e30 in the rear and e36 in the front.

[IxTech]

calling clavenzero or whatever your name is.

[bimmer630]

Just use E30 lowering springs. they fit the M3 front struts

[clavinZERO]

Just use E30 lowering springs. they fit the M3 front struts

To keep it easier, I agree.

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Unless you want to mess with matching up spring rates and spring widths and shock damping, you might be happy on stiff e30 fitment aftermarket springs because they fit the e36 m3 struts.

If you were to get aftermarket camber plates, if I am not mistaken, you can often times change the plate or whatever on the bottom so that it fits either stock or other sized springs (like from a coilover kit). So if you had the front strut from an e36 m3 coilover kit and the steering knuckles from e36 m3, the caster and wheel-well alignment would be on par. Whatever struts and springs you decide on should just match the needs of the car it is going on, but this is probably obvious to you. I think ground control actually makes a bastard kit for this situation lol.

Knowing that you need e30 camber plates, e36 m3 steering knuckles, and e36 m3 fitment struts... You can now find springs to match shocks and struts by looking in other subforums for tried and true combos of different spring rates and proper shocks that can work with them. Height would be adjustable due to the nature of most coilover setups, right? Bam. Makes me wanna try a new setup someday.

You would also need to make sure the shaft on the struts fits through the camber plate you use. On my setup, the e36 Bilstein Sport strut shafts fit fine into the stock e30 mounts, but getting a socket in there required creative thinking (socket grinding).

For example, brand X has a ficticious 450lb spring that pairs well with brand Y adjustable shocks. You then get brand V plates with a lower piece that holds brand X's spring diameter. Mount to car and adjust height.

I could be way off base, but I think that is what a lot of people are doing. If not, slap me with a big large trout because I am typing this as I am falling asleep. Kthx.

PS - now I clearly have more research to do and more info to add to my 5-lug swap webslte that is under construction. Special thanks to Art (Aptyp on r3v) for a lot of ground work there.

[z31maniac]

If you don't want to mix-and-match, you could always just buy the Ground Control "bastard" kit.

[bimmer630]

And dont go and buy early production E36 struts like I did. The first 2 (?) years of E36 production, they used a strange upper strut mount with a whacky sized upper strut shaft, so my bilstien sports required custom camber plate bearings from GC and I lost a little bit of travel

[z31maniac]

If you buy the GC kit, you don't even need cores. They build the strut housings from scratch.

[Tyler325i]

well this bastard kit sounds nice.... i just need to find one. im not super worried on how much i pay for the rest of the it because i am already a whopping $50 deep into this with all 4 e36 m3 calipers, rotors, front hubs, brake booster, and steering rack. just need a few more things for the front and its done, then the rear i think im going to go with the m roadster hubs so i dont need to change out the trailing arms because im quiet the lazy ... if you know what i mean.

[Tyler325i]

also has anyone heard of the e36 m3 rear hubs working? because if so i could pick those up for like $25 and that would save me a lot of money and time to have this baby on 5 lugs sooner.

[bimmer630]

No. Rear hubs have to either e30m3 or z3/318ti

[Tyler325i]

That's what I thought but I just wanted to make sure