Chapter 3 - 84 318i m-tech - M60 powered.

[flyboyx]

good on you for tackling this yourself. there is a lot of hard work involved. this is the first time i've seen anyone use the split manifolds on an e30. would it have been easier to use the type garagistic modifies?

is that all stainless? you might have mentioned it already, but what muffler is that?

[Jean]

Made some progress this week, old gas drained, wasn't even bad!
Battery is in the trunk now, just need to bolt the battery tray down and strap the battery down.
Got the fluids for the engine/trans/power steering, need to drain the engine and install engine coolant temp and instrument cluster sensors.

Exhaust has been very stressful, there is about 1/4" of room around the driver side exhaust and the flaming river u-joints....I wish there were slim versions of these, I need to see if Flaming River has something else perhaps.

Driver and passenger side manifolds done, y-pipes done and I wanted the front pieces to be removable just like they are on the donor vehicle for serviceability.







The floor of the e30 isn't the same level on the driver side vs. passenger so it made it really difficult to get the driver side and passenger side exhaust to be on the same level yet not hang low to the ground. Still need to remove everything one more time, grind/clean up the welds and perhaps spray the whole thing down with exhaust manifold paint.

Walker ca legal cats, summit 2.25" kit. More than enough for the job.







Rear section is next, took some time to figure out where to install exhaust hangers where it made sense while keeping things neat.

[Jean]

Thanks! Manifolds and y-pipes almost done, these 4into2 manifolds are a lot of work!

Ordered a bunch of exhaust crap from Summit - basically their 2.25 exhaust kit, dual 2.25 in / out magnaflow muffler and x-pipe.

Need to drain old gas, this week and will see if she fires up this weekend :)

[JGood]

I don't know what Frank has in his guide, but if you look in the ETM it's pretty easy.

The purge valve pin 1 gets 12v from the engine main relay (12v constant, with ignition on). In the case of an e34 540i, power from the engine main relay goes to pin 3 of the x20, to the chassis harness, through a few connectors, to the purge valve. You could just source your 12v from pin 3 of the x20 on the engine side of the harness, and keep it on the engine side - run a new wire to the purge valve.

The purge valve pin 2 gets it's switched ground from the DME pin 36. This goes to the white 18 pin connector near the DME (pin 12). You could again just splice this prior to the white connector and run a new wire to the purge valve, keeping it all in the engine harness.

[dasmanschaft012]

Theres no connector on the engine harness for the charcoal canister. See Frank's swap guide page 110.

[Jean]

Exhaust work still being done slowly but surely....it's a lot of work trying to get the 4-2-1 ob1 manifolds to work in the e30 chassis, especially on the driver side. Placed an order with summit for their dual 2.25 exhaust tubing kit, some hangers, x-pipe and magna flow 2in 2out dual 2.25 muffler.

Started on wiring, and ran into a couple of snags. Looks like my manual harness must be from an e34 530i manual car, as it's got a starter wire coming out the back side of the passenger side where there are ground and positive ring terminals.

Also, passenger front side has some extra connectors. I have the usual ICV , Air Intake Temp, TPS, MAF, and 2 additional connectors still! I looked at a 530i parts car today, and looks like one of these is for some smog pump thingy that the 540 cars don't have....so I am hoping I can just ignore it . The second connector, I am not 100% sure what it's for, perhaps its for some secondary throttle body for traction control ?

I may need to look through my other harness and see how it compares and if it's got these extra connections.

Started wiring my c101 round 20pin to m6x x25 connector wiring, not 100% sure on the pins 15 and 18...some charts like Garagistic don't show where these go on the X25 side.... and RTSAuto chart shows 15 on c101 side goes to 15 on x25 side, and same with pin 18 on c101 going to pin 18 on x25 side.

Now, with the 30h wire coming out the back side of the passenger side harness near the ground terminal and the positive terminals (I think the positive one is for the 530i secondary pump thing), I am not sure if the starter wire on the 530i harness even exists on the X25 side of the harness?

Another thing I need to track down is where the e30 charcoal canister is supposed to get the signal from, as it appears that the e34 harness does not have any connectors for it... There is the oil pressure switch end along with starter wire, but nothing for the charcoal canister . So, I'll need to dig into ETM and see where that is...I am thinking on the e34 chassis it must be run separate from the X25 connector ...perhaps the charcoal canister check valve wiring is coming out of the DME and then runs to some other connector on the chassis side and then it finds its way to the check valve? Would be curious to know what others have done with this?

[flyboyx]

At some point I had purchased stock e30 brackets that allowed me to mount a/c e30 fan w/o having the AC condenser core in-front of the radiator, it worked fine but the fan was pretty loud on full speed ..

I am thinking about selling my big Spal fan and going with a pair of 10" fans instead...this way I think I'll be able to cover more surface area of the rad and run them as pullers. I'll need to make some measurements, but the 10" fans are 2" in height .

https://webstore.spalusa.com/en-us/p...fans+-+10.aspx

of those, the most efficient looking one is the model with curved blades. it was the 3rd one down. honestly, i don't think it matters as long as you make a shroud. i could possibly see how the low profile 2" standoff would benefit you though.

I edited this to make my thoughts come across more clearly

[mbonanni]

Just read this and bought Franks v8 swap write up. Looks awesome, I like the early model expansion tank.

[dasmanschaft012]

[Jean]

At some point I had purchased stock e30 brackets that allowed me to mount a/c e30 fan w/o having the AC condenser core in-front of the radiator, it worked fine but the fan was pretty loud on full speed ..

I am thinking about selling my big Spal fan and going with a pair of 10" fans instead...this way I think I'll be able to cover more surface area of the rad and run them as pullers. I'll need to make some measurements, but the 10" fans are 2" in height .

https://webstore.spalusa.com/en-us/productlist/0691/products/fans/10-fans/fans+-+10.aspx

[flyboyx]

TO DO list



Not sure what I am going to do with the SPAL fan, it appears that I can fit it in the engine bay as a puller vs as a pusher. I'd much rather run a puller than a pusher as this way I can make a more effective fan shroud VS. running a pusher infront of the rad. The SPAL fan that I have will fit in the engine bay if I offset it to a side on the passenger side, this way it won't interfere with the crank pulley or anything else from a quick test fit.

Still need think about this, and I have another idea in mind as well but need to sleep on it.

since you don't have an air conditioning condenser, it probably doesn't matter too much which side you run the fan on. i do think that whichever you choose, the fan shroud is important. i would try to build it so your spal fan mounts directly to this part. it will be a cleaner installation and you won't have to use those cheesy brackets that come with aftermarket fans.

my solution was get the condenser fan from an early 90's 740/750i 840/850i. it is a LOT bigger than the original e30 fan. i would bet its easily 3x the cfm rating or more. it will fit in front of the radiator with a little bit of modification of the top core support, it has 2 factory speeds just like the e30, you can make a wiring harness to plug and play, uses the same fuse sizes for high and low, and it blows a LOT of air. they are pretty easily found in the pick a part for around 50 bucks. if you decide to go this route, just cut as much of the wiring from the donor car's harness as you can. between the pig tail from the e30's fan and the 7 series body harness, you are good to go.

[JGood]

Nice work Jean!

[Jean]

More progress made today, interior is starting to look like a car again and not a mess of parts.

I had an issue with the modified throttle bracket, I modified it per instructions (shortened to clear the wilwood pedal box) and then I noticed I couldn't get the throttle body to fully open at WOT ... my theory was that the shortened throttle bracket changed the ratio and accelerator cable was not able to have as much movement for throttle body to fully open from a closed position. I've confirmed my theory was correct, and it had nothing to do with the throttle cable adjuster position on the bracket. I ended up getting another pedal bracket and shortened it just enough to clear the wilwood pedal assembly but trying to keep the lever end as long as possible. This fixed the issue for good, new bushings installed and also went ahead added a factory spring to the gas pedal.

I didn't like how the pedal felt without the spring on the bracket and only relying on the throttle body spring, it felt "lazy" and just didn't feel right. There was a stud on the firewall that I attached a small bracket to and a stock spring to that.

First modified pedal bracket (too short, not enough reach for the accelerator cable to have enough reach to open the TB to WOT from fully closed position) vs. current.





Need to remove the bracket for stock brake switch, as I am using a remote bracket switch in the engine bay. Ran the wires to that, picked up some nice loom for it so it would look nice and clean. Fished some extra 4pin wire near fusebox for check engine light and speed sensor wiring. And also ran an extra 4pin wire in the loom for future, I may want to add oil temp/pressure gauges,.



Started working on moving the battery to the trunk, of course my car does not even have a cutout for the positive wire so I had to cut one. Need to pull carpet on the passenger side and run the factory positive terminal wire to the trunk.

TO DO list



Not sure what I am going to do with the SPAL fan, it appears that I can fit it in the engine bay as a puller vs as a pusher. I'd much rather run a puller than a pusher as this way I can make a more effective fan shroud VS. running a pusher infront of the rad. The SPAL fan that I have will fit in the engine bay if I offset it to a side on the passenger side, this way it won't interfere with the crank pulley or anything else from a quick test fit.

Still need think about this, and I have another idea in mind as well but need to sleep on it.

[Jean]

Hahaha! They are so damn nice !

[dasmanschaft012]

Do i see... ACTUAL CRIMP HOSE CLAMPS FOR FUEL LINES?!?!

I wish i could be as proper as you