UK E30 M3 number 2.....

[bradnic]

look at that windage tray.. yum

[jhaurimn]

I hope you have a baffle for it!

[BSS]

Unfortunately i did not have time to order a baffle this time round but i will be sure to have one fitted before the next track time.



Sump parts cleaned up before being fitted.



New vs old water pump.



Some brake upgrades were needed as well so some Pagid RS29's, new front discs, goodridge braided hoses and bled through with ATE type 200 fluid saw to that.





As you can see the rear axle beam bushes were totally shot and upon removal the date stamp was 6 so one can assume they were the original 1986 ones!







Out with the old and in with some new Lemforder ones.



The diff oil was in a sorry state! :o No untoward noises though and seems to lock up ok. Some fresh castor SAF-XJ went in.



Four wheel alignment done at a mates garage after......





... four new Yokohama Neova AD08R tyres

https://www.yokohamatire.com/tires/detail/advan_neova_ad08_r

A lucky find on a 5 series forum were these Recaro SRD's for a bargain price. I wanted some more supportive seats as the standard ones are useless on track and even hard road use to be honest and it also means i can keep the original ones nice with minimal use.
I will get these trimmed in black leather to match at some point.



A couple of pairs of theses were ordered from Germany, correct Recaro E30 brackets to mount the SRD's.



Just enough time the night before the track day to get the drivers one bolted in with a 4 point harness i had.

[E30 Wagen]

Very nice M3! I really want that tool for replacing the subframe bushings.

[CorvallisBMW]

Those seats look great

[BSS]

Thanks guys.

The tool is very handy as not only does it do E30's, it also does E23, E24, E28, E32, E34, E36 Z3 and compact.

A couple of pics from the track day last Friday at Abingdon.

http://www.motorsport-events.co.uk/abingdon.php

The car behaved very well and was a joy to punt along, most notable were how good the tyres were!

It has highlighted a couple of areas that need addressing one of which is the wear in the gear linkage giving a less than positive gear change and despite overfilling with oil to the first kink, the constant fear of oil starvation means a decent baffle is going in!

[BSS]

So a bit of an update. A horizontal baffle plate was ordered from Frank at rsgarage.com.pt and fitted along with a fresh fill of castrol 10w60. The picture is not my actual sump as i forgot to take one but its exactly the same.





This sloppy mess was replaced with all new bits from BMW including a Z3 1.9 shifter which has tightened things up.



The well proven upgrade of 25mm master cylinder from an E32 750i was also fitted which has improved pedal feel.



A sparco/Hartge style alloy strut brace has also been fitted as it will clear a DTM style carbon intake.





The A/C system was not blowing cold, had not been converted to R134a and had no gas in the system. The condenser was looking worse for wear so a new one plus new receiver/drier, new dual pressure switch, R134a port adaptors and some new seals along with a shot of gas had the system blowing cold just in time for...........





....an epic weekend at the Ring! :)

I have driven 3 different E30's there now, an S50B30 touring, my 325i sport and this which is by far the most enjoyable!
The trip was not without its hiccups though, the A/C compressor decided to seize on the way there and cooked itself nicely and at some point on track the compressor bracket broke which is a common problem.
The slightly worn alternator bushes saw a belt make a bid for freedom on track as well but a spare belt was fitted to keep going and i have new bushes ready to fit.

I also got brake judder from the OSF so I'm pretty sure i warped that disc. I'm mulling over some brake options at the moment and some Evo cooling ducts will be going on.

Despite replacing the gear shift parts with new and a Z3 1.9 shifter I'm still not happy with it so i may go down the DTM shifter route but that would also mean group N engine and gearbox mounts from either BMW or AKG. If anyone in the UK has this set up i would love to see how much extra noise and vibration this gives.

[BSS]

Time for a another update of the last few months activity in some sort of order.





This was fitted before some time back but forgot to post about it. Its basically a Becker traffic pro but a BMW branded retrofit item for later models which has an AUX in, matches the dash illumination perfectly and doesn't look as offensive as the early 00's Pioneer that was in there when i bought the car.





A lucky find on eBay got this Italvolanti 360mm steering wheel as used on some of the Group A cars but Ive yet to fit it as before i bought it i had already sent the 370mm tech 2 wheel i had off to Jack at royalsteeringwheels.com.





I ended up going with black alcantara with M tri colour stitching as no one who does steering wheels seems to do suede as per sport evo.



As said in my last post i was going to to fit some evo brake ducts so it was a case of new ducts, tubes, lower engine cover and all 4 wheel arch liner sections.



During the last Ring trip the exhaust note got some what louder and i had noticed a popping sound on overrun at high RPM when on track, this was confirmed as a flame out the tail pipe by people following me as as the rear silencer has some corrosion and a small hole where they always start to go, i guess on pop to many caused the end to blow out.

The rear silencer was replaced with a second hand Eisenmann rear silencer as a temporary measure until a new OEM one is bought but no pic of this yet.



Also another thing mentioned in the previous post, worn alternator bushes replaced.

Some new rear discs and pads as well as a new pair of front discs and a reface of the paid RS29 front pads meant it was ready for.....





Another trip to the Ring which was not without drama but no real car related issues other than an OSF calliper that started to stick but that was sorted by stripping and cleaning the piston.

Once back it was time to make the car a little more road friendly so the pagid RS front pads were swapped out for some OE pads to get rid of the rattling and squealing as well as the savage brake dust!

Another thing ive not been happy with for road use is the front ride height as despite shortening the internal bump stops on the front B8 bilsteins, over harsh bumps or unavoidable potholes it was still bottoming out with a horrid bang. Great on track, crap on road.

For those of you who have read the thread from the start will know i ended up using a new set of eibach springs and as they don't do M3 specific ones, just 4 cylinder or two types of 6 cylinder spec springs for 2dr/4dr saloons i went with the 4 cylinder spec ones.

The OE front ride height with 16" wheels is 568mm and i was down to 520mm so a drop of nearly 50mm.





A pair of sport evo spec springs were worth a try as they are meant to be approx -15mm compared to the standard M3 springs so with these now fitted the ride height is 555mm so close enough.
More importantly no more crashy ride!

Interestingly the rear ride height on the eibach springs is pretty much bang on OE ride height at 533mm.




Thats it for now.

[BSS]

A LONG overdue update!

While it was tucked away last winter ive acquired a selection of go faster parts to give the 4 pot a kick up the arse.



After Photobucket decided to try and ruin the internet I have been putting off reloading all my pics to another photo hosting site until now and this thread is the first one I've done so after spending hours sorting this and reloading pics I can now update whats gone on in the last 8 months.







The Becker wasn't cutting it for me and a lucky eBay find was this period brand new old stock Pioneer KEX- M700.



Coupled with this JL audio bluetooth receiver hidden away it gives the best of both worlds of having a nice looking head unit and being able to stream music from any bluetooth device.



New under dash panel while I was in that area.





As seen in my previous post one of the go faster goodies is a JB racing billet flywheel and above shows the weight saving.
This mod has given a nice improvement in responsiveness to the engine and well worthwhile.





The old clutch dated 11/86 so the original to this car! It wasn't slipping but it was getting a bit on the heavy side plus there was not much life left in it upon inspection.



New Sachs clutch kit, new Genuine prop centre bearing and Guibo coupling all went on with the flywheel in time for a forthcoming road trip!

[BSS]

For those of you that have read this thread from the beginning you may have seen me mention that I had an impending wedding. Well I got married in June which lead me to my honeymoon in august.

What has this to do with my M3 I hear you say? Well The wife and I had two weeks off work and instead of lying on a beach for two weeks we decided to do something different.

I've always wanted to do a European road trip taking in some of the Alps so I worked out a route with an overnight stay in a different city each night for a week with us leaving the car at an airport so we could fly out to Santorini for a weeks relaxation.

So, onto the road trip! The exact route was planned loosely around a route used by one of the companies that do driving tours round Europe but tailored to fit in with what wanted to do so the route went like this,

Calais via the tunnel - the Nurburgring - Munich - Burghausen - Innsbruck - Bolzano - Chur - Zurich - Stuttgart



As we were driving through Germany it seemed rude not to stop off at the Ring for a couple of laps and more to the point to show the wife what the fuss was all about. My wife is not the greatest of passengers and it took some persuasion and reassurance to come for a lap so after which she said 'that was not as bad as I thought it would be' we did another and I'm glad we did as it was a much cleaner lap with less traffic and a better flow.
This was followed by the obligatory meal at the Pistenklause and some drinks in Adenau.

The following morning we headed south toward Munich via a large section of the romantic road taking a more scenic route instead of sticking to the autobahns.

http://www.romanticroadgermany.com

Still managed to stretch the M3's legs on the autobahn though!



Parked up in a side street in Munich city centre. Even in its home town its surprising the amount of attention an E30 M3 can attract as several people waking past this sport would stop to have a look and take a pic!







We met up that evening with family for traditional German food and beer.



After leaving Innsbruck we headed toward Bolzano in Italy... the long way round!
This was so we could travel via the Grossglockner high alpine road in Austria.

https://www.grossglockner.at/gg/en/index

The following morning on route to Switzerland we tackled the famous Stelvio pass.

http://www.stelvio.net/english/

This was one of the highlights of the trip for me as it is simply breath taking.



Along the route we took from Chur to Zurich which included the San Bernardio pass, we made a stop off at the Verzasca Dam which was used in the opening scene to the James Bond film Goldeneye.

I tried to keep this post mostly car related but there was much more I could have wrote about and posted pics of.

Needless to say, the M3 was in its element on some of the greatest driving roads in Europe!

I took with me a selection of spares and tools including a pair of crank sensors, fuel pump, relays, hoses but I didn't need to open the tool bag once!

Approximately 3700km's covered without a hitch and this fortifies my opinion that a well maintained E30 is one of the most reliable cars you can own!

After we flew back a week later then drove home from Stuttgart it was back into use on the Monday for the daily commute to work.
Its now tucked up in storage for the winter until I get some spare time to fit the rest of my go faster bits.

[bradnic]

EPIC post. So glad for the update! Love the radio.

[2mAn]

LOVE that radio! haha

Wonderful update. Side note: Your wife is more tolerant than mine. We went to Germany in April and I rented a M2 to take to the ring. I convinced my wife that my first lap would be the one to go with me and though I was going extremely slow, she still got car sick. haha The rest of my laps were MUCH faster while she sat in the Devils Diner with her cousins

[AWDBOB]

What a fantastic update. That road trip is a dream of mine. I'll just have to borrow your M3 for a week and you can come to the US and borrow mine for a roadtrip here ;)

[parkerbink]

Amazing thread, congratulations on the wedding & car!

Thanks for sharing!

[BSS]

Thanks guys!



While on the subject of my wedding, I used my 325i Sport as my car to drive to the church which is part of the family being the car I had when I first started dating my now wife and both our sons came home from the hospital when they were born.



As my wife was feeling a bit left out I bought her this 325iA convertible from a friend who restored it some time ago but lost interest. Its got a genuine Alpina C2 2.7 engine which I sold to my friend ten years ago so after I bought the car from him I put the staggered Alpina wheels on it and gave it to my wife on our wedding day as a surprise.

Bonus is I get to occasionally use it! :-)