E30 M3 touring with S62 power

[iXguido]

Do you plan to cut the panels for the rear doors to open?

[F34R]

So amazing! one day I will have the space for a full body spit strip. For now I live through you!

[e30edward]

This is going to be awesome!

[phenryiv1]

Full of win.

[DaveG]

Do you plan to cut the panels for the rear doors to open?

Yes I will be keeping the rear doors functional and keeping the door handles.

[nl328i]

well this makes my s50 swap touring that is under way look pretty damn lame! Haha.

I'm very excited to see the end result.

Good luck!

[Turk]

Looking excellent Dave. Let me know when you're ready to send the ecu over for superDuper'ification ;))

[iXguido]

Yes I will be keeping the rear doors functional and keeping the door handles.

Then you have my attention! Definitely keeping an eye on this!

[DaveG]

Not a great lot of progress to be seen this week. Removed the back panel which was a bigger job than I had thought. A load of spot welds and lots of layers where it meets the wings near the top. Took me about 8 hours in total but its out now.


On a side note of something that might be of interest to people.
I always new that the sport evo wings had a bigger wheel arch than the standard M3 wing to allow them to fit 18" wheels for competition but never knew how much so measured them up.
First standard wing

Sport evo wing


Top measurement is probably not 100 % accurate but you can see the difference.

[iXguido]

Nice work! Removing that tail panel looked really tedious. You have a brand new replacement? That's interesting about the fenders, are you going with the Sport evo, or the standard wing?

[DaveG]

Nice work! Removing that tail panel looked really tedious. You have a brand new replacement? That's interesting about the fenders, are you going with the Sport evo, or the standard wing?

Yes turned out a bigger job than expected.
Putting in a new rear panel


Yes im am using the sport evo wings, they are cheaper than standard wings also.

[DaveG]

This weeks update

Ground down and cleaned up all the joints in preperation for the new back panel


New back panel from bmw, 140 euro which supposed me. You never can tell with bmw.


Lots of weld through primer and tack weld in the panel

Weld up fully and plug weld to the floor and pockets.

Really happy with how it turned out. Really nice to have a lovely straight back panel and valance. Will make a Hugh difference when I put the bumper on and it all lines up

I'm waiting on getting 2 new rear quarters so can't do any more bodywork for the moment.


I pulled out an old S62 that I had for parts and bolted up a gearbox to it


Then made up a pair of engine mounts for it



Bolted them onto the block



The reason why this is a parts engine. Ouch

Yes that is the crank


Next up I want to reinforce the front subframe and modify the steering rack mountings for more clearance.

[F34R]

That rear panel is awesome, great job!

[DaveG]

Weekly update time again

Got a few bits collected for me in the US during the week

Interface for converting the tach signal from the V8 to the correct signal for the 4cyl tach in the cluster

https://Www.dakotadigital.com

Next is a vent gauge from Podi. It is based on the Alpina designed vent gauge, it can be configured with 4 different read outs , I went with oil temp and pressure,voltage and AFR which will be great to have with Alpha-N to keep an eye on the air to fuel ratio.
Can't wait to see this in action. It looks to be a very well made product.
Available from www.podi.ca


And what it should look like installed


Also got a new M3 outer wheel well, this should make things come together nicely


The difference can clearly be seen here where it meets the arch,compleatly different profile where it meets the arch.


Then modified the subframe steering rack mounts to gain some clearance to the sump

Cut off the old mounts

Made up some new mounts

And welded them on


Then made up some subframe reinforcements
This is what can happen to e30 subframe engine mount points


To avoid this some reinforcement plates can be made up
Templates

Weld them in underneath

Then some plates to stiffen the mounting points

And weld them in


Used a couple of e39 engine mount to attach the to the subframe to get an idea of what height I needed

They're about 60 mm high and are giving me this much clearance to the steering rack

Should be able to drop it another 6 to 8 mm if I use good solid engine mounts

Mounted the whole lot up on a trolley


Cut a lump out of a scrap shell I had for mocking up purposed


Snug fit




Bulkhead clearance to the water pipes for the heater is tight


Lots of fun ahead

[ZM Blue Devil]

You sure you aren't from Norway?
This is in the makings of top 5 build. Great work and documentation.