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5K was a lot for the car. It was a mess when I bought it. The only reason it made sense for me to flip was due to the fact I have access to a body shop, and I have strong connections for cheap parts. But time wise it was a total wash, and I knew that before I bought it. Pretty much every aspect of that car had to be worked on. From swapping the motor/ 5-Speed swap, new subframe bushings, to redoing the interior and repairing/painting 1/3rd of the car. I bet it put over 200 hours into it.
I don't regret it at all though. My only reason for feeling that way is strictly on the fact that car got a new lease on life, and it went to a awesome new owner. I wanted to make it mint again so that it would continue to have really respectful owners.
As for plates, call bimmerparts. Dave sold the shop, but he said he knew a guy who made them. I am sure with some digging they are able to locate who this person is. Thats the best I can do at this point. Sorry I don't have more info.
I will PM you with contacts to the meets. -
We should definitely meet up and show off our cars, if I could only have mine done in this lifetime lol. As for making a build thread, it's in the plans as I would want some sort of a public record of the work done for future reference. Your car looks really clean with all the work you've done. I'm a bit jealous ;), would really like to see it in person.
I don't remember if that red car had ronals or not, but the first time I cought a glimpse of it was 5/6 years ago, shortly after it had "for sale sign", 5k I believe. My brother at the time laughed and said how expensive that is...if we only knew lol.
Any more info on the license plate guy? I would really like to ditch the front plate all together as it literally blocks a 1/4 of the front grill with it's unnecessary gigantic size and looks hideous.
I wouldn't mind if you could pass on some contacts for the meets, thanks! :up:Leave a comment:
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Hello Mustacho!
Thanks for reaching out. I would appreciate seeing your build when I am down in Victoria in the near future. I am curious about how the swap was put together. That torque will knock your socks off. I recommend you produce a thread for the fans!
My red touring that I sold was likely the car you saw. Did it have ronal wheels? There were two red E30 tourings in Victoria. One was mine, and the other is owned by an older man who drives his into the ground. I smile everytime I see it though. I love to see how well these cars are built, and he really continues to put his car through its paces.
As for the license plate, well I am not sure as I just recently put it on. I used to drive this car around without a front plate on, but with the motor going in and the exhaust I feel I will attract too much attention. Apparently a guy in Duncan makes Euro plates to your BC tags. I don't know the name but I will for sure look into it come the fall.
Look forward to seeing your new thread and meeting up in the future. Are you going to any car shows in the future? I get invited to the victoria harbour sunday gatherings, but now that my lady is done with school I am rarely in Victoria. Its not a terrible place to meet others, especially for modified E30's.
Let me know if you want me to pass along some contacts too you for the people who run it.Leave a comment:
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Hey fellow Islander, it's pretty awesome to discover someone who lives near with the same hobby! I live in Victoria and been in the process of getting LS1 swap/resto on my alpinweiss coup done for the last two + years (i'm not doing the swap personally, luckily someone with knowledge/space/tools has offered to do this). It's almost done now. Maybe I will make a thread about that as well.
It's funny you mentioned that red wagon cause I'm quite sure its the same one I used to see around Esquimalt for the longest time. At one point I wanted to buy it but I stopped seeing it around...
You had any trouble with the cops driving around with a German front license plate?Leave a comment:
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E30 Touring 3.0L Stoker M20 - Update!
Soooo after a weekend and week night of work, I can say that I finally have a rolling chassis.
I finished painting all the parts I wanted to install, and then I installed the poly bushings into the rear control arm links.
Once that was completed I Installed the front subframe with freshly painted sway bar.
P1011483 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011484 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011486 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011487 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- I used a motorcycle jack, and man, oh man did it help with balancing the front and rear subframe. Makes it all an easy one-man-job. Once I was able to get the front subframe in I installed the ground control front struts. I roughly set it where I feel it should be, but I know I have a lot of work to do with the camber and height. I will wait until the engine is in to deal with both. I want to make sure the car is correctly weighted and balanced.
P1011488 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011489 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- Then another picture of my gold calipers. I was really unsure as you can likely tell....
P1011490 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- Now rear end time.... I painted my diff almost a year ago. It was a nice feeling to finally be putting it in the car. Its a 3:73 LSD medium case with fresh clutch packs. The rebuild was done by a reputable bmw race specialist, who specifically does transmissions and differentials. Needless to say, I am looking forward to seeing how well this diff feels when it breaks loose.
P1011492 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011491 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011493 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011494 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011495 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011496 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011497 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011498 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- My hope is that the polly bushings will be great. I assume they will be as I have recently driven a car withe 80A bushings and it felt like I want it to. Mixed with the Ground Control suspension, I cant see my wishing for more.
Here are some underside photos. I cant express how pleasant it is for me to look under this car and see these components looks as though they are new.
P1011499 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011500 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011501 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011504 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- Then came rebuilding of the brakes.
P1011506 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011507 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- Install of the rear end suspension. In this photo I dont show the application of never-cease, although I caked these threads afterwards. I will remove excess once I find the ideal height.
P1011508 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011509 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011510 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011511 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- Exciting times... Installing tires for the first time in a few months.
P1011512 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- And.... How the car roughly sits at the moment. I have many adjustments to make, but I do love how the car sits right now. Its the first time the car has been out of the garage since the end of December. It sure makes me feel good to see if outside. Inspiring even...
fullsizeoutput_2ef by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
fullsizeoutput_2ed by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011518 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
fullsizeoutput_2ec by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- Gold calibers in the light. I think they are subtle enough. I am happy with the decision.
P1011523 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- So yes, as things sit I have a rolling chassis. I get the impression I will not have the option to finish the car before the summer. I need to make a trip to see my parents on the east coast and I really should put more time into my relationship. This means more Mtn biking, climbing and weekend travel.
I will pick away at my little touring, but I am looking at early fall before I can convincingly say it will be completed.
I still need to buy 24lb injectors, Sachs clutch kit, new coolant hoses, Mega-Squirt PNP. I will make an adapter for a TPA from my M52, and I am also looking heavily into running coil packs.
I might be running into more then I want to at the moment, so there is a chance I will just run the engine with a cap and rotor to start, and then build my way up.
The intention is to run RHD ITB's by the new year. It will be my Christmas gift to myself, and my project for the winter. Hopefully I can pull through.
Thank you all for the kind words and assistance with my build. I could not have come to the decisions on what to do without it.
Jan -
fullsizeoutput_2ea by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
Last edited by E30-TourZing; 03-27-2019, 10:26 PM.Leave a comment:
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I am sorry for the large photos. I will change to sizes in my next upload. Let me know if you feel these images are still to large. I use a large monitor iMac, and my phone crops the photos, so I cant say I have the best understanding of how the photos look on other devices.
Thank you for your input!
Jan-Leave a comment:
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Pics are too big. They're going way off of my screen. The shiny new parts look nice though.Leave a comment:
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E30 Touring 3.0L M20 Stoker *update*
Well Hello again!
Thank you all so much for the input and interest in my build. It was been a lot of fun to connect with fellow E30'ers, as well as very informative.
It has been about a month and a half since I last posted here and a few things have happened on my end. I took a few nights and weekends off working on my project in February as we got some nice snow here, and ski touring was calling my name.
My soul focus for since January was to make a rolling chassis by the end of march. So far this seems to be coming forth.
After removing and painting the rear subframe I continued with the rear undercarriage. I replaced all the hardlines and E-brake lines, and then pulled the rear swap bar to apply some red paint. The sway bar bushings look good enough for me, so I didnt replace them, although I do have new lemforder end links.
I then removed the front subframe and steering rack for some paint and new Z3 rack install.
P1011460 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- Fresh coat of POR 15 chassis black spray paint. $40 a can.....:rippedoff:
- Cleaned up the front swaybar with some new paint too...
P1011468 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011481 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- Now that I have the steering rack installed on the subframe, I will measure up the old rack to it and try to get my steering wheel aligned + rough alignment for tie rods.
- Since my car came with the rare euro-spec manual steering, I have decided to modify the existing shaft. As you can see in the picture it is to long, but I will cut it to size and slip in a new collar. Then weld the aluminum up strong and hope for the best... haha anyone else have a better suggestion with what I have? Or should I just but a normal E30 steering connector and get the spacer kit from garagistic?
P1011453 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- While I was painting everything up I decided to go a little overboard and I painted my brake calipers... hahaha I usually would paint them OEM silver, but I decided to go gold. I might regret this, but I am such a bmw stickler about keeping things stock, and I have to keep things as original as can be with my day job, so I thought it would be fun. Any thoughts before I install?
P1011452 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011451 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
- And then here is my holly grail of recent additions to my car. I have to give soooo much credit towards my friend graham in Vancouver. He sold me his dual adjustable ground control set up that was brand new for a massively discounted price. I could not have bought this suspension without his help and I owe him many kombucha's. (He doesnt drink alcohol
)
He also threw me his strut's that were had the new collars welded in place. I got them bead-blasted and the painted them. Here is the before and after....
P1011439 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011441 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011442 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011443 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011444 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011446 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011448 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011449 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011463 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011465 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011466 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011467 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
P1011482 by Jan Willem Wilderom, on Flickr
My 80A polly bushings just arrived, and they were the last piece of the puzzle before I reinstall my under-carage. This weekend I plan to put it all together again. I will take lots of photos and update progress made. I will be sure to take some ride hight photos to. Pretty pumped!!!Leave a comment:
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Knew it looked familiar. But damn. Was he able to sell it?Sweet car. Reminds me of the touring I had. It’s the only BMW that I wish I had kept since they are so rare in the states. Mine was same color and year. It also had a m20 2.9l stroker. I built it using a 524 td crank, which was a forged crank. It’s been so long I don’t remember all the brands of my internals. It was never on a dyno. The compression was 11/1 when I got done. The rods were super light and forged also. A Schrick cam, upgraded valve springs, retainers, rockers full radius valve job. Good thing I use to work in nascar because the owner and me go back over 30 years. Thanks to him I can do all my machining my self. Only had a engine dyno when I built that motor he now has a chassis dyno. I don’t remember the grind but it sounded like a small block v8 at idle. No one believed it was a inline 6 when they heard it crank and idle, but after they heard me run it to it’s 8k redline it didn’t sound anything like a v8. My pistons were domed slightly. It was faster than a m50 swap car. But being a BMW mechanic for 25+ years I got an idea and it worked awesome. Really added to the performance of the car. It was a good bit quicker after I did this. And was all done with all BMW parts. I had a bad m50 which is the one without vanos. I installed the m50 fuel injection on the m20. I had all the parts laying around. That conversion got me a mass air flow setup instead of the barn door factory m20 one. Also individual coils for each cylinder and I mounted the 2 knock sensors on the side of the block. So I had a much more efficient and better overall fuel injection system. Compared to the stock injection. Also the dme was from a 325 with a custom tune on it. All you need is the harness, dme, fuel injectors, coils you will have to make your on wires. I just used my factory and cut and put ends on them that fit the coils. Just pull the boot off a m50 coil and u can plug a wire into it make a mounting plate for them also u will need the air flow meter. Even something as small as swapping the injectors a adjustable fpr can help a lot. The factory injectors have a poor spray pattern. M50 injectors are a direct replacement for factory and u will see a difference immediately.
Again sweet ride. I have a friend who lives in Texas has a BMW shop but he took a touring he had and put M3 fenders and quarters on it. The quarters started in the rear doors. It looked like it came factory that way. Also has a s54 and pretty much anything u would want to do to a e30. Here’s a picture of it.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my LG-H932 using TapatalkLeave a comment:
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Sweet car. Reminds me of the touring I had. It’s the only BMW that I wish I had kept since they are so rare in the states. Mine was same color and year. It also had a m20 2.9l stroker. I built it using a 524 td crank, which was a forged crank. It’s been so long I don’t remember all the brands of my internals. It was never on a dyno. The compression was 11/1 when I got done. The rods were super light and forged also. A Schrick cam, upgraded valve springs, retainers, rockers full radius valve job. Good thing I use to work in nascar because the owner and me go back over 30 years. Thanks to him I can do all my machining my self. Only had a engine dyno when I built that motor he now has a chassis dyno. I don’t remember the grind but it sounded like a small block v8 at idle. No one believed it was a inline 6 when they heard it crank and idle, but after they heard me run it to it’s 8k redline it didn’t sound anything like a v8. My pistons were domed slightly. It was faster than a m50 swap car. But being a BMW mechanic for 25+ years I got an idea and it worked awesome. Really added to the performance of the car. It was a good bit quicker after I did this. And was all done with all BMW parts. I had a bad m50 which is the one without vanos. I installed the m50 fuel injection on the m20. I had all the parts laying around. That conversion got me a mass air flow setup instead of the barn door factory m20 one. Also individual coils for each cylinder and I mounted the 2 knock sensors on the side of the block. So I had a much more efficient and better overall fuel injection system. Compared to the stock injection. Also the dme was from a 325 with a custom tune on it. All you need is the harness, dme, fuel injectors, coils you will have to make your on wires. I just used my factory and cut and put ends on them that fit the coils. Just pull the boot off a m50 coil and u can plug a wire into it make a mounting plate for them also u will need the air flow meter. Even something as small as swapping the injectors a adjustable fpr can help a lot. The factory injectors have a poor spray pattern. M50 injectors are a direct replacement for factory and u will see a difference immediately.
Again sweet ride. I have a friend who lives in Texas has a BMW shop but he took a touring he had and put M3 fenders and quarters on it. The quarters started in the rear doors. It looked like it came factory that way. Also has a s54 and pretty much anything u would want to do to a e30. Here’s a picture of it.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkLeave a comment:
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MM use Mark D in canada
this compares a custom tune chip with bigger M30 AFM vs a standalone. the standalone tune isnt very good either especially the bottom end as it was a rough first pass with timing curve from a different engine. ditching the crap upstream of the TB is worth power on a modded engine. the engine will be more responsive as you get a proper TPS not the throttle switch this way you can tune the transients better. it also easier to tune for future mods
i recommend starting and running the engine on motronic as you know its going to work well enough and little risk of a shitty tune screwing the engine where as with a standalone without a good base tune more chance for things to go wrong (overfueling, excessive cranking, timing way out)Leave a comment:
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Thank you so much for the reply digger! I have likely gone through 70% or more of your threads before deciding which engine build I was going to commit to.
If you lived closer, I would send you a case of beer.
My plans are still to run a standalone tune, but I have to admit, I am not that interested in playing with a computer next to me. Jim from M/M told me to get a chip made up. He recommends a programmer from Ontario who he has worked with steadily it seems.
Can anyone give me a first hand experience on the performance benefits of megasquirt vs a custom made chip? Will the difference really be that noticeable for the extra $600+ it may cost me?
I am open to both, but I do not have any experience with either really. Future purchase of these options is something I really want to be researched in.
Any advice in relation to a stroked out NA motor would be great!Leave a comment:
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