318 reborn into e30 335

[chance]

Here is the UUC EVO3 short shifter, and the black poly isolated trans mounts.

The shifter is pictured next to the very tired stock e28, presumably original from 1985.

The trans mounts are pictured next to the UUC race bolt through mounts that I picked up a while back. There was a hilarious increase in NVH with the red ones with the naturally buzzy m42. I am hoping that the UUC isolated trans mounts matched with the blue isolated revshift motor mounts, will help keep the NVH down.

Pic time.




The trans mounts seem to be made well, but good god that EVO3 exudes quality. I cant wait to start banging gears with it.

I am getting stoked, this car is going to be a completely different animal than the last time I drove it. The whole rear end and braking system will be nice and tight, and the m30, well, its going to be gods engine in gods chariot according to the general opinion on r3v haha

[chance]

Looks like a Subaru color with that gold flake, looking good! Nice progress.

Thanks!
I bought the car a year ago, so its been a while in the making. I have barely even driven it for various reasons :( I cant wait till I get this swap done and have a solid car.

[Cronopoulos]

Looks like a Subaru color with that gold flake, looking good! Nice progress.

[chance]

Finally, as of a few weeks ago, I ordered the final parts that I needed to get the swap underway: Otis's m30 swap mounts. This was timed perfectly with spring break to give me a week off school to try to get the motor in.

The first weekend of the break, I was able to pull off the hood, fenders, bumper, etc and pull the m42 out. I then spent a day cleaning up the bay, removing unnecessary brackets, and repainting it. I was about to drop in the motor when I found out that my friends e30 had a tree fall on it, and he was looking to get rid of some parts. He had just gone through all the bushings in the rear, camber/toe correction, new brakes, wheel bearings, stainless lines, axles, the works. So I bought it all off him, including a 3.25 lsd, and spent two days swapping all the parts between our cars. While I wasnt going to do the bushings till after the car was driving, I couldnt pass on this deal.

Here is his car now

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1965344-E30-Ca-ruck

So finally I got everything in the rear end installed, and could focus on the motor again. The m30 is a damn tight fit in the bay! It took quite a bit of encouragement to get it in the bay, and a lot more to get it in the rearmost position on the mounts. Liberal application of a hammer was applied to the firewall, and I was able to move the motor rearward.

Now I am in the process of making the trans brace. I swung by UUC today and met Rob. Hes an awesome guy, gut me hooked up with an EVO3 SSK and their isolated trans mounts.

I also dropped my driveshaft off to be shortened. It was a deal at 40 bucks. I will be picking it up tomorrow.

Heres some pics from the spring break overhaul. Unfortunately, I didnt take any of the subframe swap.










This picture was taken in the forwardmost engine position. Wayyy to close for comfort.

[chance]

Never really done a build thread before on a project of this scope. I am a little late on getting this thread started, and it will be missing a lot of pictures of the progress that has already happened, but I would like to log the evolution of the car.

I have never had a project car before, and have several friends who love their e30's, so I started looking for one.I found this "gem" on craigslist. A 1991 diamondschwartz sedan. The exterior was pretty rough, but the tan cloth interior was in decent shape, minus the dash. M42 mated to a 5 speed, started up fine, and went through the gears. I figured why not, and handed the guy $900 bucks.






He said the car would over heat after a while, and thought it might need a new head gasket. At the time, I didn't realize that these things crack like glass when they get hot.

I drove it about halfway home (~30min) before I noticed it was pretty hot. Pulled over in downtown Atlanta and let it cool down. After it was cooled off, drove it all the way home. On this trip, I realized that EVERYTHING in the front end needed replacing. Shocks were non-existant, and every bump in the road sent the front end wandering all over the road. It was a little unsettling at 70mph to have 20 degrees of steering play in a front end that was barely attached.

When I got it home, I pretty much immediately tore into the motor. I was a little confused by the god awful coolant lines and vacuum lines. I was then even more confused by the head gasket. Head gasket looked new, a thorough look over the head revealed a heathy crack in it. Damn.

Here is the 318 in the garage with my roommates. I was pulling out all of the interior because it smelled like ass. The carpet was filthy, but a few hours with a steam cleaner fixed that.


I searched for a head and a motor and was coming up empty, so I decided to take care of the shitbox front end. The little 318i received new control arms, m3 offset CAB's, bilstein sport front shocks, h&r race springs, and an e36 steering rack. It took me a little while to get it all in, but it wasn't difficult, nor really that expensive.

After I got all that in, I picked up an m42 for 200 bucks, dropped it in, and started playing with the car a bit. I couldnt really get into the 4cyl. It is kinda buzzy, sounds weird, and is terribly under powered. I did find out though, that someone had dropped in a 410 LSD. So that make the car fun to slide.

Annoyingly, a pretty serious oil leak, and a shot CSB kept me from driving the car for a while, and I still hated the way the car looked.

My dad has been in the auto refinish industry my whole life. My parents had a date set to move across the country, so I bit the bullet and put two weeks of ass busting into painting the car with his help before he moved. So at this stage, I have a better looking car that sits in the garage.









I toyed with the idea of turbocharging the m42, and fixing all of its other problems. I tallied up all I would need and even started collecting parts.

Thats when I discovered the m30, and scrapped that idea completely. I spent the next 8 months turning any and all spare cash into parts to get the m30b35 I had bought, ready for my 318. It was a painfully long process, but I lucked out on some awesome parts along the way.

not done yet...