the Aluminum Monster. a 318 with a special 24v

[TeXJ]

Yea I was quite active watching it and answering questions. I’ve actually been texting with the new owner and I’m going to try and meet with him. He’s flying into Vegas this weekend , driving to Newport Beach and then taking the long way home all the way back to Jersey!

I'm pretty sure he will continue this thread too. That makes me happy...

That's awesome!

[dhruva]

Hey guys! Sorry it has taken some time for me to get on here. I have been real busy lately and the car needed some unexpected work but its all going smoothly despite the worldwide COVID-19 madness. I will have a basic write-up on everything that's happened with some pictures in the next few hours and then will update accordingly throughout the build process. Big thanks to Arthur and 2man for all the help and for the car! I can't wait to start ripping around in it.

[2mAn]

This car can be a pain, but once its dialed in you will love it. Excited for your journey and looking forward to the pics!

[dhruva]

Wow, didn't mean for a few hours to turn into a month and a half but I have a lot to update! Covid-19 has really slowed things down. This post/update will be brief-ish. I have been trying to decide if I should start a new thread for the build or continue this one. I decided to continue this thread with brief updates but go more in depth in a new thread and include all the pictures which I will link here:

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/for...cny-rns-84-e30

As you know, I purchased this car from Arthur who had bought it from Simon via Bring A Trailer. It was a wonderful experience and I really regret not getting a chance to meet Simon in SoCal after picking up the car from Arthur in Vegas. I had planned to drive the car back from Vegas to NJ LOL. I flew in from NJ and my friend who would help me with the first leg of the drive flew in from Chicago. We were crunched for time, I had to get back to the East Coast for work and my friend CJ had to get back to school at Purdue for an exam. Prior to flying in Arthur was kind enough to get all season tires on the extra set of wheels he had for the car that I was purchasing also, because the weather in February on the way back was going to be lethal on the slicks that were on the car.

Our plan was to break up the journey into three 12 hour legs. The Saturday (February 8th, 2020) we got to Vegas we planned to drive the first leg to Denver, the following day to Purdue (West Lafayette, Indiana) where CJ needed to be, and then I would finish the last leg of the journey to NJ on my own, something I had done many times back and forth back when I was a student at Purdue. We completed the first leg of the journey successfully, getting to Denver at around midnight. We had noticed that the coolant temp gauge was not working a few miles into the drive but could hear the fan kicking in occasionally.




The following morning, we made it about 100 miles east of Denver before everything began to fall apart. The car first began to smoke, we immediately pulled over, shut the car off and saw coolant had sprayed all over the engine bay. Checked everything, all the lines, oil, hoses, etc and let the car cool off. We could not see anything wrong with the car while on the side of the road. At this point, we wanted to get to the next exit so we could safely examine the car and fix anything if we needed to. We started the car back up, the car ran but was making some weird noises while under throttle, but not even a mile later of gingerly driving even more smoke began to come out from under the hood, into the cabin, and out of the exhaust. We immediately thought, blown head gasket. We were aware from the BaT listing that the valve cover had a slight leak but this was something more than that. We had made it just about 1000 miles.


After quickly pulling over the second time, almost at the next exit, we got a tow, got the car towed to two garages in the area ( it was pretty much the middle of nowhere). Both couldn't help, so we decided to see if we could get a uhaul and tow the car back. Unfortunately, the only uhaul available without backtracking 200+ miles was a medium box truck, and the only available car transport trailer was 50 miles south. By the time we were able to get everything together and had the car on the trailer it was almost 9 pm. We drove 24 hours straight, taking 6 hour shifts to drive and sleep. We reached Purdue sometime Monday evening. I started early tuesday morning and made it to New Jersey that night. Getting there without any issues would’ve been too easy, 500 miles into the 750 mile final leg, one of the two straps holding the e30 to the trailer had completely torn through, and by the time I reached the shop that was going to be doing the work (German Car Shop in Edison, NJ), who I had called ahead of time to arrange for them to look at the car, the second strap was holding on by no fewer than 4 threads.



One thing I would like to make clear is that at this point, I don’t have the dedicated garage space, tools, nor time to do work I had anticipated the car needed at this point. It is something I was working towards but Corona kind of screwed that up. Having said this, I am well aware I could have found a cheaper alternative to the route I decided to take if I would have done all the work on my own. I had no choice but to take it to this shop, who I have been a customer of for years. Although I have become good friends with the owner, I would obviously be paying for any labor, which becomes a big part of the equation and reasoning behind the route I decided to take.

The car had not even been turning over since before we loaded it onto the trailer. At this point a week or two after getting home, in the beginning of March, the shop had looked over the motor, started to disassemble it and without really tearing into it, determined that, as we had thought, the head gasket had failed and the entire motor was flooded with coolant. We determined the motor had maybe overheated, and with all of the little things we had noticed during the moments when the motor failed, that this potentially had resulted in damage that was going to take many, many hours to diagnose and many more hours to fix.

Unfortunately, the cost of the labor to do this was going to be enough where swapping the M52 for another motor was starting to seem like the better value. Obviously it would cost more to do this but to me, swapping in another motor like a v8 or S motor, although a little more expensive compared to fixing the blown M52, would add value to the car if I ever intended on selling it in the future. I feel I would not have seen a penny of what I’d spend repairing the motor if I sold the car. The price I was quoted for the swap labor and small parts to refresh the motor was more than reasonable and so with this in mind, I started the hunt for an S52 or S54.

I quickly learned that an S54 swap would be far more difficult and the reliability/cost of finding and maintaining an S54 at this point was more than I was willing to stomach. I also learned that everyone and their mom at this point has an S52 swapped e30, but this means that there is this vast wealth of knowledge and hundreds if not thousands of videos on these topics not to mention the already huge amount of aftermarket support for M50/M52/S50/S52 swapped e30’s. I took a few weeks to decide what I wanted to do, and then a few more to find a motor. I found a low mileage S52 that had been perfectly running with the matching ECU/DME, ignition, locks, keys that had been taken from a totaled z3 m coupe. These all arrived at the end of March, and as if I didn’t already have enough bad luck, the Corona virus lockdowns started to hit. Obviously shops are essential, and we had determined that the car should be running by mid to late April, but the shop needed to close out of an abundance of caution after one of the techs had caught it and there was just a decline in work. The shop closed April 3rd, and reopened a month later, last week on Monday May 4th.

Since last week the M52 has been removed from the car, and the S52 has been refreshed. The shop has been working extremely quickly, within a few days of opening and knowing how long I have been waiting to drive this car, have already done all this work: motor received new seals, gaskets, water pump, upper chain tensioner, etc. Just the wear and tear items and things to ensure reliability of the motor. Now, we are just waiting on a few parts including a Z3 steering rack to do a conversion, different motor mounts, the harness adapter, and an upgraded radiator from Zionsville Motorsports. Hopefully everything will be in by the end of this week or early next week, so we can get the car running within the next 10 days, fingers crossed.

Thank you Simon and Arthur for being so helpful with everything along the way and for sending me all the bit for the car that I couldn't take along with me.

I have a lot to learn and I would greatly appreciate any advice and knowledge anyone has on doing an S52 swap. I don't want to act for a minute like I know what I am doing, apart from what I have read and watched online on youtube and the forums. I promise i'll be more active on here now that the ball is rolling again.

[mike.bmw]

Wow. That is quite a journey! I'm glad to see you're continuing the build. Good luck getting it running in the next couple weeks, hopefully it all goes smoothly.

[dhruva]

Thank you Mike! Does anyone here have experience with the Z3 rack swap? I am selling the Cobra Monaco Pro seat from the car. I would prefer local since shipping will be a bitch, but if anyone wants it pm me and we can work something out.