My 88' e30 325i Touring build thread, wiretucked, ITB'd M20, Bagged.

[bmwandhonda]

Got the radiator and fan in this afternoon. Bought a Davies Craig 16" fan and mounted it inside the bumper on the front side of the radiator. Should do the trick just fine i think. Only mod I had to do was make a little bracket on the passenger side, where the foot of the radiator sits on the frame and also will have to extend the top hose to reach the thermo housing. Have already ordered a pipe fitting for that so should be fine.

[bmwandhonda]

New cam gear and water pump installed. Haven't adjusted it at all and this was taken after I span the belt around a few times, hence why the TDC mark is a bit out in the pic.


Got the belt covers back on


New belts all round :)


One small problem was that the back of the cam gear was slightly rubbing on two of the bolts behind it :/ only just, but after a few turns the bolt heads on the head behind the cam gear wore away the little bit of aluminum of the cam gear that was hitting so I think it should be fine.

Hard to see but these photos just show the back of the cam gear and the head of the bolt that it was hitting, the two long bolts in the pic are the studs for the thermo housing if that helps in perspective.

[bmwandhonda]

I started on trying to mount the fuel rail properly today and decided that it wasn't sitting right, the injectors sat on a much harder angle than than when using the OEM rail. This was due to the rail sitting hard up against the original mounting holes on the intake manifold. cut a groove out with a hacksaw and file, this way the rail and injectors sit a lot better and should give a better seal.




Made up the small brackets to secure the rail onto the manifold. Had to drill new mounting points in the manifold as there was too much angle and not enough room to get a bolt into the original threaded holes. This photo was taken befor I cut them down a bit and sprayed them black:


Also decided to sand up and spray the hood mounting brackets white to try and get them to blend in with the body a bit more. A lot better than the surface rust covered half silver look they had previously...

[bmwandhonda]

Have been looking around for Aluminium radiators for the m20 e30 and could only find a few options (godspeed and CXracing) but from reading a few forums, turns out both those options weren't too highly regarded quality wise. Then read on a few forums that the e36 radiator was a direct fit into the e30 325i so decided to get the Mishimoto E36 radiator.

Turns out it is quite a bit bigger (as expected) but also found that the inlet holes were quite a bit further apart than the stock e30 325i radiator (about 70mm wider) which means the stock top hose won't reach.


The bottom hose will fit fine and all mounting points will all work fine, just the top hose.


I am thinking I will just get an inline temp gauge fitting which i can cut in and use to extend the top hose




I will be deleting the stock fan and replacing with an electric fan. Will be placing it in front of the radiator (which I know isn't the most efficient spot) but if it doesn't do the job on the street I will make the necessary changes and mount it properly, with shroud etc


Also here is how I have joined and extended the Crank sensor cable, two co-ax cables to extend the two cores. Shields have been joined so they are also continuous, hopefully it will work :/ I am a little concerned about this since it is probably the most important sensor for the engine.


How she currently sits:

[el bimmer]

I want!

[bmwandhonda]

Prepped and painted in wrinkle black. Timing belt covers, waterneck/thermo housing, engine hoist point, alternator case and alternator tensioner bracket.

[bmwandhonda]

Did a little test fit of the intake manifold and fuel rail. Just so that I could see what fuel fittings i would need to plumb it.




Cut a 50mm hole in the inside of the fender into the cabin to make way for the lighting loom. Just cut the whole for the indicator loom bigger and then bushed it. Will try and fill it with silicon or something to water seal it once the cables have all been run through properly. Painted the edges of the hole with some rust treatment stuff in the hope that it won't rust.


Removed the thermo housing to clean it up for paint


Ready for paint. cleaned up ok with some sandpaper and a wire brush, then a degrease


Also started on the engine loom. Waiting on some bits n pieces to come in from the states befor I can finish it though




And stripped the front covers for paint and will be installing the new timing belt and water pump

WOW how did i miss this!! keep up the good work man!!!!

haha cheers mate, plenty of updates still to come :) keen as to get it back on the road so want to work on it as much as possible.

[Luis325]

WOW how did i miss this!! keep up the good work man!!!!

[bmwandhonda]

Thought I might share this out. E30 page on facebook for all the Australian E30 fans out there.

http://www.facebook.com/E30Squad

[bmwandhonda]

New FPR arrived. Actually the same FPR I use in my Honda Race car. Monoblock design rather than the usual 2 piece FPR's.


New smaller windscreen washer reservoir + Pump arrived as well. 1ltr and small enough to mount somewhere out of view. A lot smaller than the OEM soap tank/water tank setup.




Finally got all the joins done and re-attached the fuse box back up to the main loom. Took forever but didn't want to rush it and make a mistake, triple checked labels and colours so hopefully should work just fine.


And also mounted the fuse box into it's new location. Only problem with the new spot is the glove box only opens about half as much as it used to... But i can get used to that. Still need to finish tidying the cables up and still need to join all the cables that go out into the engine bay (injectors, sensors etc)

[bmwandhonda]

Current status with the big Wiring mess. Actually close to finished re-attaching the fuse box to the main loom. About 20 or so cables to go :) Then just need to try and loom it and mount it so that it looks half decent :/

this is an awesome build. love it!

Cheers mate :)

[iXguido]

this is an awesome build. love it!

[bmwandhonda]

This arrived :)

[AussieTemplar]

I'm not entirely sure but a few people that I spoke to mentioned the bigger injectors seemed to help the engine. I think I have a bigger fuel pump in there too but that was the previous owner.

[bmwandhonda]

You will not be disappointed!!

Before I put in my M20B31, I had just a standard M20B25.. except it had larger injectors, 288 cam.. and the miller WAR chip ;)

Managed to pull close to 148kw atw..

It's such a good investment. And now, after I dropped in the M20B31, I don't even need a standalone ECU because the miller WAR chip is tunable to the larger bore, cam and stroke. :D

Good to hear mate :) hopefully I will have the car running again soon so I can get it tuned.

You say you upgraded injectors. I was planning on using stock injectors since the engine is just stock with bolt on's. Should I think about getting bigger injectors as well or should the stock injectors suffice?