What e30 parts fit on e21's?

[winstontj]

So my e30 was totaled Sunday and while I look for another one I'm in an e21 for a bit. I'm going to strip down my e30 because it had a lot of upgrades & mods and I'm wondering what parts I can put on the e21 in the meantime. Strut bars? Do they fit??? Braided SS brake lines? Springs? Front shocks? Rear disc trailing arms? Anything???

I'm going to look for a pristine e30 as the DD and cage & m20 the e21. I played hookie from work today and stripped out and started prepping the e21 for the cage footings etc. so as I do this some things come to mind:

How hard/easy is it to put an e30 rear subframe on an e21? (I know about speedo issues) When I put the m20 in the e21 it'll have the standard OD e30 gearbox and I'd like to use the e30 4.10 40% LSD so the whole rear subframe would be the best choice for me IMO. Will the gearbox fit or will I need to do some tunnell work? I have an e21 323 subframe and CR box but I'd like to use the OD box with the 4.10 rather than the CR box and have to screw around with diffs...

Will our dashboards fit?

Anything else that I'm forgetting???

Thanks - I realize this is a little OT and you guys can be a rough bunch so I appreciate any thoughts other than stupid foolish remarks...

OH anyone have an e21 parts car and want to sell me the in tank fuel pump and the tripple cluster of HP pump, accumulator & filter that hangs below? I'm pretty desperate....

[Teaguer]

None of the stuff you mentioned will fit .

The headlights will bolt in .
And people have installed the late bumper and buthcered the late valance to update the E21 as well .

Diff is no workee .
Rear semi-trailing arms are no workee .

You'll really need a Euro 320/6 or 323i ft subframe for the M20 to drop right in .

[Raxe]

You're in luck, I bought an e21 parts car last month and have been looking for someone who needs anything from it. I'll check if it has what you need tommorow. Anything else at all you want? Only issue is that we're really far apart..

I don't know a lot about e21's, but this is a euro 320 with a 2.0L M20 engine in it and has the cross member for an M20 engine and transmission.

Edit: Eh, I meant 320, not 320i.

[winstontj]

WOW... Well for starters I NEED very badly the in tank pre-pump & the under car pump, accumulator & filter assembly. Mice have also chewed through some of the fuel lines (the big BMW specific ones) down around there - so anything and everything related to the fuel system from the back of the car.

Also interested in that subframe...

thomasjwinston AT yahoo DOT com

I'm in a bind and will pay for overnight or 2-day shipping on the fuel pump stuff if you can get it. The subframe I'd want to ship ground. Please email me and I'll give you more details.

[FredK]

ah crap, what happened!? Do you still have the car or did you junk it?

[winstontj]

ah crap, what happened!? Do you still have the car or did you junk it?

Totally effing stupid... Rookie move on my part! I was driving up Rt. 138 North in Portsmouth, RI, 4 lanes, two each way, I was driving ~40mph in the left hand lane. There was a semi (18-wheeler) in the right lane, our front wheels were about even. I was following an Expedition for about three miles, got a little pre-occupied thinking about stuff, all the sudden I look up and the Expedition swervs to the right litterally about 2 inches in front of the semi... There was a stopped car there making a left hand turn. I hit it at about 40mph which was fast even though the speed limit was 45mph. She was OK, turns out I know her from a friend of a friend (which makes it easier and worse at the same time)...

Car is totaled... totally totaled. The roof buckled just behind the sunroof from the impact... So now I'm SOL but good news is a buddy of mine just gave me an e21 (he got it for $50 and he probably got ripped off...). I'm on the fence as to whether or not I should build the e21 (m20 swap) or if I should grab another e30 and build that. I've got all the e30 parts but I have more e21 parts and emissions on the e21 is WAAAAYYYY better than the e30. I currently have a fuel issue with it and need to get fuel to the motor. Once that's resolved I'll want to know things like can I put e30 strut bars in the e21 or is there anything else that will swap over???Teaguer said no to diff, rear trailing arms & rear subframe... WHY? Is it the bolt patterns? Pickup points on the subframe? Trailing arms spaced too far apart? Lots of guys put e30 trailing arms on 2002 race cars to get cheap access to better stub axals & rear disc brakes... Is it just not a direct bolt on or is there something else that I'm missing?

Here you go FredK:


























Good news is that NO ONE GOT HURT and that my e30 did what BMW designed it to do - keep people alive...

[FredK]

holy side scrolling post batman!

Anyway, good to hear you didn't get hurt. 40 mph sounds like a pretty gnarly collision! The car must have absorbed a lot of energy if it deformed behind the sunroof. :shock:

[winstontj]

yeah sorry I have to use a tunneling website from work to get on here and it takes out all the carriage returns (enter key) when I hit submit... I'll edit tonight.

It was a bad accident & also a very expensive mistake... Good news is that I prepped the floors yesterday in the e21 and welded the footings for a cage in already!

[winstontj]

You're in luck, I bought an e21 parts car last month and have been looking for someone who needs anything from it. I'll check if it has what you need tommorow. Anything else at all you want? Only issue is that we're really far apart..

I don't know a lot about e21's, but this is a euro 320i with a 2.0L M20 engine in it and has the cross member for an M20 engine and transmission.

Tried to email you about the e21 parts - I'm interested in a lot... shortie bumpers, m20 subframe, gearbox, etc...

thomasjwinston AT yahoo DOT com

[FredK]

Hey, at the risk of sounding like a vulture, are you going to be parting out that car at all? I'm interested in the rear body panels, if they're ok.

[Teaguer]

And I don't want to sound like a noob but its always been my understanding that the the only injected 2.0 E21 was the 4cyl .
The 320/6 had the M20 but it was carbed .

And if its a Euro 2.0 4cyl it would still have the lame-o 4cyl subframe .

[Raxe]

Oops, messed up my other post. My 320/6 is indeed carbed (engine is dead thanks to water damage). I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can Winston, my dad has the car right now and he'll be doing all of the dismantling. The front chrome euro bumper is intact but the rear is bent.

[Turf1600]

dude that sucks. I didn't know we both had bronzit e30's.

[atomic]

ouch ???? man that sucks bad hope everyone was fine too ... but hell that will buff out want it ??? j/k

[Rocla]

always been my understanding that the the only injected 2.0 E21 was the 4cyl .

Mine too.