M52 Swapped E30 Build - SPANNER RASH

[SPANNER RASH]

I was about to write a post on here about suspension stuff and then I saw your video... Just watched it, but looks like you are not having the same issues as me...
As a reminder, I have basically copied you... on the suspension, wheel and brake setup.


First one is that the rear inside edge of my front wheels is rubbing on the chassis rails at full lock. Did you find anything similar?
Second is that the suspension is crazy stiff. It feels like I’ve got the cheapest nastiest coilovers on it. It hops and skips down the road… How did you find the ride?

One thing I would say (that I am sure you know already) is that a decent alignment will sort out your handling issues. When I put it all together it was so sketchy that I thought something was seriously wrong. But a trip to my friendly independent BMW shop sorted that immediately and it steers beautifully...

Keep up the videos, all good stuff.

P.S. fortunately (i think) there is absolutley no imspection of vehicles older than 1995 here in New Jersey. Absoltely crazy as you get some complete death traps driving around. But it makes my life a bit easier... But i feel for your MOT woes.

Cheers mate, and yes based on a brief drive, I need an alignment ASAP, it was so darty it was ridiculous. To be expected really..

About the front wheels rubbing, yeah I have noticed a small tyre mark on my chassis rail when I was investigating the steering noise. I really wasn't expecting that to be honest.
I guess it's a combination of the Z3 rack, SRS Concept FCABs and the fact I've opted for 215 section tyres rather than stretching 205s (which I didn't like the look of). I've got a bit of a plan to solve that, in the form of a simple steering rack limiter. Looks like it barely touches to be fair, but shame.

I will make sure to cover that in the next vid as I think the tyre touching the chassis would be an MOT fail too. :D

In terms of the ride, it did seem stiff, which I anticipated with sporty coilovers, but not sure it was crazy stiff. Have you slackened off the adjusters on them to see if that makes a difference? Also if you are running them super low you might be hitting bump stops if there's very little travel. Let me know if you figure that one out.

[SPANNER RASH]

Probably one of the things I hate most about the e30 body part attachment is that stupid front valence bumper clip.

The screws that go from the inside of the car, thru valence, fender, and eventually valence clip is such a pain in the ass every time.
I ended up attaching 4 "camloc" receptacles to the valence, and use quarter-turn camlock studs to install from the other side.

awful news about the clutch, hopefully it is just some TOB/slave issue that is easy to resolve

Agreed, what a bloody messy design they came up with for that. It's like they were trying to make it as awkward as possible!

Thanks, I'm still hoping its something minor like that.

[zoona]

I was about to write a post on here about suspension stuff and then I saw your video... Just watched it, but looks like you are not having the same issues as me...
As a reminder, I have basically copied you... on the suspension, wheel and brake setup.


First one is that the rear inside edge of my front wheels is rubbing on the chassis rails at full lock. Did you find anything similar?
Second is that the suspension is crazy stiff. It feels like I’ve got the cheapest nastiest coilovers on it. It hops and skips down the road… How did you find the ride?

One thing I would say (that I am sure you know already) is that a decent alignment will sort out your handling issues. When I put it all together it was so sketchy that I thought something was seriously wrong. But a trip to my friendly independent BMW shop sorted that immediately and it steers beautifully...

Keep up the videos, all good stuff.

P.S. fortunately (i think) there is absolutley no imspection of vehicles older than 1995 here in New Jersey. Absoltely crazy as you get some complete death traps driving around. But it makes my life a bit easier... But i feel for your MOT woes.

[Northern]

Probably one of the things I hate most about the e30 body part attachment is that stupid front valence bumper clip.

The screws that go from the inside of the car, thru valence, fender, and eventually valence clip is such a pain in the ass every time.
I ended up attaching 4 "camloc" receptacles to the valence, and use quarter-turn camlock studs to install from the other side.

awful news about the clutch, hopefully it is just some TOB/slave issue that is easy to resolve

[SPANNER RASH]

I went all-in and booked an MOT inspection for the M52 swap E30! In the UK, a car needs an annual MOT inspection to be road legal, and knowing I want to be shaking this car down ahead of summer, I decided to book her in.

Diving into a long shift in the workshop, I got stuck in refitting all of the old front-end parts to the E30 as in theory, now we know the car can move under its own power, all it should need is the old parts slapping back on for it to pass MOT inspection, right??

It was all going so well until we came to the first drive. Looks like I've got a lot of work to do before I can even think about taking it for a test... Gutted is an understatement! :(

If anyone has any ideas about why my clutch is slipping so bad, please let me know!

[SPANNER RASH]

Dig your in-depth vids. Keep up the great content.

Cheers man, really glad you enjoy the vids!

[amcp]

Dig your in-depth vids. Keep up the great content.

[SPANNER RASH]

I made two ramps and two of these wheel platforms to get the clearance needed to build an exhaust when I swapped my e30 almost 10 years ago and I have used them a lot more than I thought I would. Great for any larger under-car work if you don't have a lift - you'll never have the car this sturdy on jackstands.

You're 100% right, jack stands feel far more sketchy than the car does on these. The wood is impressively strong, there's no flex which surprised me.

I'll be putting them through their paces a bit more when I put my E46 on, but I have no doubt in my mind that they will be more than strong enough.

The only downside is not being able to do suspension work so easily when using wheel stands. But there's always my previous method for accessing that.

[Northern]

All in all, they came out amazingly well, and if you're considering making some of your own, I can highly recommend them. These are literally a game changer for the DIY mechanic, no more struggling in a confined space beneath the car.

I made two ramps and two of these wheel platforms to get the clearance needed to build an exhaust when I swapped my e30 almost 10 years ago and I have used them a lot more than I thought I would. Great for any larger under-car work if you don't have a lift - you'll never have the car this sturdy on jackstands.

[SPANNER RASH]

I've got another update to share, but this time it's a bit more of a DIY garage update. I knocked up a set of sturdy DIY wheel cribs, AKA wooden wheel stands so I can work on the E30 more easily.

I had seen these types of wheel cribs a few times, and having considered many solutions to the height problem I set about making my own, using some of the best bits I'd seen from other people's designs.
I also consciously designed them to use the best value and most readily available materials, so all in these cost me around £70-80 to make, plus a days time and some help from the old man.

All in all, they came out amazingly well, and if you're considering making some of your own, I can highly recommend them. These are literally a game changer for the DIY mechanic, no more struggling in a confined space beneath the car. Hopefully the vid comes in useful!

[SPANNER RASH]

As promised, I got the cooling system done - I'm really happy with this one!

It really took some figuring out but I got there in the end. I used a radiator from an AC equipped E36 which conveniently already has the hole for the thermostat switch, plus the neat arrangement with the coolant reservoir in an end tank. It fits really great with the E30's mounts too.

With some relatively minor modifications to coolant hoses I got it all fitted up, added a new SPAL 16" electric fan in the pusher position on a sturdy aluminum mount, then proceeded to wire it all in using a custom loom from Dan at BMConversions.

The loom is genius as it wires into the E30's fuse box utilising a relay and a fuse, plus it has an override switch so you can flick the fan on and off at your leisure. It was a bit of a puzzle to fit at first but once understood it went together well and I couldn't be happier with the result. I even got the system flushed and bled up nicely.

Make sure you check out the links in the video description on YT if you want to build the same setup.

[SPANNER RASH]

I watched the video on start up. I know the frustration was to start the engine on first try. Great work with your dad and you.

I had some issues starting my s38 turbo e30 on project. I really was happy to solve it.

Thank you mate, it was very testing for me, luckily the old man is a calming influence so I avoided throwing any spanners. A big relief to have got there in the end though.

Cooling system next!

[e30m3s54turbo]

I watched the video on start up. I know the frustration was to start the engine on first try. Great work with your dad and you.

I had some issues starting my s38 turbo e30 on project. I really was happy to solve it.

[SPANNER RASH]

Exciting news on our M52 swap E30 project, folks!

After the disappointment of the M52B28 not firing up in the last vid with the M50 manifold, the old man and I took on the challenge of figuring out why.

The initial hiccup causing the fuel pump to stay silent was pretty obvious – foolishly, I’d failed to connect a fuel pump relay. After the eureka moment of that I was expecting the car to burst into life, but it turned out we were just scratching the surface on the job.

You'll want to watch through the video for the full rollercoaster, but here's a quick rundown. Beware of spoilers though!

• Forgot the Fuel Pump Relay, resulting in no pumping, naturally…
• Still no pressure at the rail, so we double-checked the Fuel Pump and confirmed it was doing its job
• Then, we played around with the Fuel Pressure Regulator. Turns out, I misunderstood how it works and hooked up the lines back to front – oops!
• Once we fixed that, we noticed issues with the Unloader Relay and DME Relay
• Sorting those out gave us hope as the engine fired up on the key, but it still wouldn't actually run for more than a moment. We then cracked out the wiring diagrams and combed through all the wires and sensors to confirm.

Guess what? We made an absolute blunder with the Starter Solenoid Wiring. Somehow, we connected one of the 12v battery power wires to the top terminal on the solenoid. No idea why, it must’ve just seemed right at the time.
That totally explains why engine roared to life when I turned the key, but would not continue after I stopped cranking.

What a relief as by that point we were really pulling our hair out. The cherry on top is that my M52 engine seems to run very smooth despite all those years of hibernation. I was expecting a lot more clacking from the hydraulic lifters to be honest. Instead it sounds buttery smooth.

[SPANNER RASH]

When it was N/A, I tuned my M52B28 first with the original intake, and then swapped an M50B25 intake on there.
Here is my calculated Volumetric Efficiency (VE) table difference after the first logging run.

Oh wow that's really interesting to see it compared like that. Seems to match up nicely with the general consensus. The slight losses in the mid range seem bearable for such good gains at peak to me.

At some point I'll have to dive into playing with the tune, would be really interesting to learn more about it. Thanks for sharing that info, its certainly sparked my curiosity.