My E30 335i resto-mod

[Bimmer_man]

Getting my engine stand tomorrow then I can start on disassembling the block having it machined and have the pistons and rods inspected to see if I can reuse them.

So i got the engine at my house now not a friends house and wile we where moving it my moms husband was helping and he slipped and racked his head on the corner of the engine block. so it has tasted blood ..........fuck.

[Bimmer_man]

hmm well okay then. I will be looking around at the yard or online for a g260 or a g265 what ever i run across at the best price ill grab. But that is a bit down the line. I still have to rebuild the engine.

[kronus]

they are geared identically; you may have heard that about the 265/5 dogleg box which is close-ratio and has a 1:1 5th.

[Bimmer_man]

I hear the gearing is better in it. But if I find a g260 that's at the right price I may pick it up just to get the engine in the car.

[kronus]

why? It's not much stronger than a late-production M30-compatible 260, but you need a custom driveshaft.

[Bimmer_man]

yeah and im going to save and get a getrag 265 to mount to this engine.

[kronus]

It will, but not an M20 getrag 260. Most e28, e34-era M30s came bolted to getrag 260 with M10/M30-specific bellhousings.

[Poeman446]

I'm curious. Will an m30 engine mount up to a Getrag 260? I should do a quick search, but while I'm here, I figured I'd ask.

Upon searching: No. It will not.

[Bimmer_man]

Thanks for all the positive feedback this is my first engine rebuild and swap so I'll be taking it kinda slow but so far it's looking good I'm going to remove the wire harness and the injectors from the manifold have the injectors cleaned so I can clean up the manifold and paint it haven't decided on the color yet.

[Nick_S]

$90 is a steal for that engine. Good luck.

[e30m3s54turbo]

I'm a m30 fan. Very interested to see this project.

[Bimmer_man]

So i started the tear down on the engine last night i took a few pics. I was more curious what the damage was to the engine and i got to say i am one lucky SOB with this. My suspicion was right. All that was wrong was a head gasket. I am still going to rebuild the engine for obvious reasons but as far as best case scenarios this is a pretty good one for an engine that only cost me $90.00.

Comparing the two wow what a differance


Valve train looks healthy


Well im going to get new valves anyway haha


can you guess where the head gasket blew


well thats surprising


looks cool haha


Not so cool yuck


it looks cracked but its not its a rust stain. Im going to have them cleaned and inspected at my local machine shop and see if i can reuse the current pistons i doubt it though.


Close up shot the cam dosnt have any scars at all.


And im going to be throwing the head in a cover and throw it on a shelf till i can send it in to bimmerheads for them to do what they do best. So in my down time i will be doing the body work to the car ripping the paint off using body filler on a few small dings on the car. There is one dent on the driver side door thats just too deep to even think about trying to get at with body filler so i will do one of three things, Pay a shop to pull the dent out, do it myself with some guidance from my friends dad, or just say fuck it and replace the door. Replacing the door may be cheaper but more work than paying a shop.

[dougie30]

I love m30 swaps. Very excite

[Bimmer_man]

So i decided that i have the engine im waiting on an engine stand ......lets start on the body work. So i got some good quality body filler and went to work. Here is what i ended at for the day.



to explain why there is such a large cover area is cause there where a series of small dents and they where dang near side by side.

[Bimmer_man]

A junk yard called pick n pull was having a labor day sale 50% off so i saw they hd a 3.5L engine and i grabbed it. Shes not too pretty right now but she will be when im done.