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**82eye** · 08-24-2024, 08:02 AM

great pics and nice cars. look forward to where you take this.

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 08:09 AM

Hi all. I continue...

I had clear what I was looking for: BMW E30 2 doors as cheap as possible without serious rust problems (in Spain, fortunately, most of the cars do not suffer from rust). I didn't have the chance to look for many, because thanks to a friend I found the protagonist of the thread, a BMW E30 318i coupe in Zinnober Rot from a guy from Madrid, Spain.

I couldn't go down to Spain (at this moment I was living in Germany), since it was a busy time and the only thing I had “free” was already booked to celebrate a friend's birthday in Marbella, Spain for a weekend. So I asked this same friend and another friend from Bonn (Germany), who was also in Madrid, to pick up the car for me.

On the Saturday of the birthday I got on the plane to Malaga, Spain. After two and a bit hours we landed and I was ready to call the above mentioned friends to pick me up.

And there it was... when I saw it parked there, I had a feeling of euphoria, it's not a perfect car, it was in pretty bad shape, in short it hadn't been taken care of properly. But I really wanted to work on it!

After the weekend I had to return by plane, as I didn't have enough time to organize the trip and go up from Marbella to the Nürburgring (at that time I lived 10 minutes away from the circuit). Four weeks later I was able to get organized and go down to Valencia, Spain to get it (a friend had done me the favor of bringing it up to Valencia).

The same friend of the birthday also went down to Valencia from Switzerland to go up with me. The trip was simple: Valencia, Spain > Basel, Switzerland > Nürburgring, Germany. The trip went perfectly until Basel, and continued in the same way until just before I had 70 km to go to get home. I started to hear a very strong rattling in the lower part of the engine, even feeling it on the soles of my feet. I was already fearing the worst, I just wondered if it would last until home or not... but it did not. 53km from home my engine made a weight reduction of the connecting rod and piston number 2.

At that point I got completely discouraged. I did not want to go against the clock, it was a car to do it little by little in my spare time and now I had a paperweight far from home (Spain) where I have all the tools, elevator, etc...

A colleague at work was able to tow me home to Germany.

To be continued...

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 08:46 AM

Hi all. I continue...

Due to the engine failure I had to speed up the process. I was inexperienced for an M52 swap on an E30, I had seen many swaps in Spain done in a lamentable way, things not very well done, and the way I stay calm is to do them as best as possible.

First: engine mounts, I did not like the idea of using eccentrics, because in my opinion the engine does not end up centered in place. I found the website 300mm.de in Germany. They make a motor mount and sell universal motor and gearbox mounts with the spacer in the middle (so you can use almost any mount in the future).

Second, a spacer to keep the brake servo from touching the intake. Solved with a Chase Bays by USA kit (from your country), eliminating the brake servo.

Then I started to buy everything: engine, gearbox, gaskets, seals, hoses, elbows, clutch kit, bearings, etc.

Once everything was ordered at home, the friend from Bonn and the Swiss friend organized to go to a "semi-public" parking lot to change the engine. We also took the opportunity to install a M20B25 in my friend's E30.

We all took a week off to finish the cars. The plan was: joint help for the big stuff (getting the engine in and out) and then, as we needed help from each other, the third friend would give us a hand.

Here we go!

I hired a trailer to pull my car to the parking lot, and once there, we parked in our respective spots and got to work.

Engine out! You have marked with red circles where the connecting rod wanted to take his vacations.

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 08:47 AM

This was the process of restoring the engine:

Thermostat and water pump:

Connecting rod bushings:

Me search torque nuts:

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 08:50 AM

Crankshaft seal and bearing:

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 08:52 AM

Gearbox:

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 08:53 AM

Originally posted by 82eye View Post

great pics and nice cars. look forward to where you take this.

Thanks man. I hope you enjoy the story.

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 08:54 AM

Let's ride it!

M52B28:

To be continued...

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 09:03 AM

Hi all. I continued...

Kit mounts 300mm.de:

Take the opportunity to buy Meyle HD wishbones, together with IRP eyeball control arms.

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 09:06 AM

Once the engine mount was finished in the engine bay. I got down to work with the instrument panel. I had to weld several broken welds and I took the opportunity to mount a display of temp and press oil information. We ended up leaving the km (miles) to 0.

To be continued...

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 09:11 AM

Hi all. I continued...

After mounting the engine blocks and the dashboard, I started with the cooling system, mounted the driveshaft and the IRP shifter (I don't have pictures of all this). The shifter allowed me to avoid cutting and welding the transmission mount and bolt it directly to the chassis with four bolts.

I had a small mishap with a heavy rain that flooded part of the floor of the car and forced me to throw out the carpet completely (because I noticed when it was already growing mold from the moisture).

The only thing that was missing for me to be able to move “legally” in Germany was the exhaust, I had to find someone who could weld it for me. That didn't limit me to do the first tests on the autobahn and roads without exhaust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYU5XPwUSB8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSXAkGdrW2I

To be continued...

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 09:18 AM

Hi all. I continued...

After getting the engine and car up and running, I spent a month enjoying the summer time at the Nürburgring.

I bought a complete new 325i E30 line and installed it.

I also bought an LSD E36 3.23 ratio, adjusted to my taste.

And mount tyres Nankang AR1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hcH8CkP6hE

To be continued...

**MauR_95** · 08-24-2024, 09:25 AM

Hi all. I continued...

Some time later I started the installation of the car. I had to leave the interior well; I bought: black universal carpet, an aluminum plate to cancel the heating box, acetone to clean the glue of the wires and a lot of insulating tape.

The process was simple:

- Strip all the wires.
- Clean all the glue off the wires.
- Override the systems I was no longer going to use.
- Make sure all the wiring was okay.
- Tape all the wires.
- Plug the holes in the heater box.
- Clean all sheet metal from the floor.
- Install the carpet.