My '88 Touring | 320i to M50TU

[Koen]

Hi everyone :)

My name's Koen and I'm a 24 year old student from the Netherlands. I've bought a 320i touring last year and have been restoring it since. At the moment I'm in the middle of swapping an M50 2.5 VANOS engine into it.

This is the way it looked when I had just picked it up, pretty beat up and plenty of rust. But hey, I'm a student and the budget is tight ;) Picked it up for 350 euros which would be around 500 bucks I guess.







Right after the purchase I did some work on it, went on holiday in the UK with it and drove it for about a year. It looked like this after that:









Now it's like this:





Waiting for this:



Oh, by the way, I've put a 10" subwoofer in it as well:





Tried to keep it inconspicuous :)

Right now I'm tackling some rust issues and preparing everything for the M50. Besides, pretty much the only suspension parts that aren't new yet are going to be replaced within the next month or so.

Well, that's about it. Hope you like it. I'm not sure if I'll be very active in terms of post count but I've been reading along for some time and felt it would only be appropriate to register ;)

[The Humjet]

So jealous!!! Very nice touring for 350 euros far out I need to move to Europe.
Also very jealous if those seats that's even the colour I need them in aswell.
Good luck with the conversion. Since your Dutch I know you won't settle down just for an m50. I'm expecting massive turbos and insane drifting on those European back roads later on.
Also very nice sub placement there.

[F34R]

Damn your cheap tourings lol

Welcome and excited to see this unfold =)

[Pantless Spency]

Welcome! nice car i love the sub placement :D

[Koen]

Thanks guys!

It was pretty cheap alright... But you know how these things go, you always end up spending way more than you planned :p I'm near 5000 euros now :? Still, it has been worth the trouble and money so far.

And indeed, an M50 is pretty suited for turbocharging (or so I've read), so perhaps that will happen next year or when I get bored, whichever comes first ;)

[rich4rdee]

shittin?

[Koen]

I wish ;)

[Blackout]

FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.
So jealous right now.

[e30Nicko]

+1 on the sub placement. :up:

I like what you're doing. Keep it up

[Roysneon]

+1 on the sub placement. :up:

I like what you're doing. Keep it up

I was just thinking the other day about where I could put a sub for a little bass that wouldn't hinder the functionality of the boot (I love to use the touring as a truck). That's just perfect.

Looks great with a little love added to clean it up plus the M50 swap is cool too. I'm thinking an M50 touring would be an awesome daily.

[Koen]

Thanks everyone! I feel right at home already :mrgreen:

@ Roysneon: All in all it's about 12 litres (sealed), just enough for this woofer. I've managed to get an amplifier and my iPod into the glove compartment:



It can play pretty loud, but more importantly it offers just that bit of low end extension the regular speakers can't really manage.

The M20B20 was already a joy to drive. It's not quick in the heavy touring (or any other E30 for that matter), but on the other hand it is very smooth. It has a nice "laufkultur" as the Germans put it. :) Besides, even though it had done about 360k km / 220k miles it was still in pretty good nick. 190 kmh / 120 mph was still quite easily achievable.

I'm hoping to clean the car up further after the swap. Replace some exterior trim, polish the paint... All in good time ;)

[cbouchez]

Very nice! Same colour as mine.

[Erik]

So baulin'

[!AjHoWzA!]

Nice! Love tourings! Really thinking about getting one in the future. But welcome and cant wait to see how this thing unfolds

[Koen]

@ cbouchez: Malachitgrün FTW 8) Here in the Netherlands there are literally hundreds of tourings in Diamantschwarz... This colour is actually kind of rare ;)

@ Erik: :pimp: Love those wheels in your sig... Which brand are they?

@ !AjHoWzA!: Thanks... Tourings are pretty hard to come by in the USA right? Anyway, if you ever consider buying a euro touring and importing it, just let me know and I might be able to find one for you.