ttrousdell's Project Thread (E30 M3 & S38 swap content)

[ttrousdell]

The European Extravaganza

For the last 45 days I had been working aboard a ship traveling around northern Europe. During my time in Latvia, I was able to meet up with a few BMW enthusiasts and buy some euro parts. Purchased all these items for a steal.



Ive only been home for a few hours but i had to install the new gauges. So far so good.

[F34R]

When you replace the control arms buy Meyle and get treehouseracing eyeball bushings. They are amazing!

Loving the build bro, and I LOVE that plate and spark plug wiring.

[ttrousdell]

Exhaust

The exhaust was finished yesterday. I decided to go with two 2.5" magnaflow mufflers that give it a sound that I'm pretty pleased with.

50 bucks for the muffler on craigslist....score!


Putting the car on the lift told me a lot about the state of my suspension. Turns out one of my front shocks blew and left its oily goodness all over the strut and rim. I was also reminded of how shitty my bushings look, brake lines are pretty rusted and that the seal on my diff is leaking too. To top it all off my heater core started to leak by the accelerator pedal after leaving the shop so I definitely have some work ahead of me.
List of things to come:

• New seals for diff, change fluid
• New brake lines, ABS delete
• Redo suspension - New shocks and springs to go lower, poly bushings, control arms
• new boots for rack

Some big news in my life, I'm shipping out for 45 days to Europe on my schools ship. The old welder quit so im making a fairly decent amount to do shit that I love. Most of the money will go to the parents and the girl but hopefully the remaining cash can take care of the stuff above.

[ttrousdell]

There is a possibility I wont make Gfest so im definitely down for a meet this sunday.

[BMWerke]

hey tom, theres gonna be a little meet at the dave & buster on sunday. will you be around?

[SocalianSD]

Beast!!

love it

[ttrousdell]

She Runs

It took about four weeks but I was finally able to take the car out again for a spin. I hit some trouble with the wire harness, and wrong size CSB but I think most of the kinks have been hammered out. It still has no exhaust so no real driving fun till this weekend.



Things To Do

• Better solution to break booster breather
• Exhaust. Running 2 magnaflow mufflers
• Fit air box
• Machine PS delete piece
• Electric Fan (prob a good investment for summer when in traffic)

Random Build Picture

[ttrousdell]

Hello again for those who have been following the build. Progress has been slow since I've been busy finishing up the semester at school. I was able to put all the coolant lines, break booster vacuum line, intake and wire harness on yesterday. I also picked up a new euro plate. I think its very appropriate for the build, dont you think:)

[ttrousdell]

Ha I wasnt going for that look on purpose but thats pretty funny. After I totalled my first m20, I was forced to learn or give up the car. My buddy who works as a boat yard mechanic was with me during my m20 rebuild and helped me put it together and taught me a lot. All the rest I learned mostly from the internet. Word got out that there was an engine in one of the dorms last semester so the school came out with a huge updated list of what you can't have in the rooms.

[MaxBell]

I like the red and black engine and tranny. Very Nazi SS of you.

Where did you learn to do all your work? Are you a mechanic? GG with the dorm room work.

[ttrousdell]

Wiring

Continued to wire up the engine with my late model m20 harness. Surprisingly all the injector connections fit altough they had to be taken out of the plastic holder. The insulated wrapping on the harness had to be cut in places so I could get more lenght from some of the connectors. This was especially the case for the intake connectors (maf, throttle, icv) since they had to be stretched to reach the other side of the engine.

[ttrousdell]

335is

Made some good progress with the swap. I had the M30 in the car by yesterday afternoon. Today progress was slightly slower. My original plan was to use the wire harness that had come with the swap, but it turned out that the harness had the early model round c101. The next option was to use my m20 harness. By afternoon, all the essentials for start up were done. Finally turned the key and crossed my fingers and it started right up. It runs like crap since there is no exhaust, intake sensors connected but the hardest part is over.














Almost in



Things to do Still
*Lengthen/modify some of the wire sensors for intake
*Exhaust
*Put in coolant system, make a support for radiator
*put in driveshaft

[ttrousdell]

M20 Finally Out

I drove my M20 for the last time yesterday. My friends and I started to break it down and with in two hours we had the engine out. Enjoy the pics.
















M30 is in the car. More pics to come.

[ttrousdell]

winter fun

I visited my grandparents today who live on the north shore, LI. The roads there definitely have a lot more to offer then the south shore. This is especially true in Sea Cliff where the majority of the roads are narrow, twisty, and hilly. After the drive, I took some time to snap a few photos. I know it needs more low so I'm going to fix that important issue this summer along with the new motor. Enjoy the pics....

[ttrousdell]

tranny

Hello again for those who have been viewing my build. Not too much work has been going on due to the cold. Ive just been cleaning up the tranny.



New seals from partsgeek. Im goin to change out the shifter rod seal, and the input and output seals.



Oh wait what could this be!?!?!



Stage 1 e28 535i clutch from spec clutches. It took over two weeks to get here so good thing I wasnt in a hurry. M5 Flywheel not included obviously.