1983 Henna Red 323i

[evil-diesel]

wow... this is the perfect non-M...:)

[Mfever]

Sure - will get something sorted. My mid silencer is a bit bashed up at the moment, so think it's noisier than would otherwise be normal.

haha I know the feeling. I install my bav auto headers and mid pipes while retaining the factory exhaust... it rattles like a mother and is extremely raspy... been looking at the eisenmann for a while. thanks for the help. can't wait to hear it. mtech 1 makes me big in the pants btw.

[kdevitt]

Lots of progress today from my man with the skills!

Engine on its way out of the donor -



Its a big lump. The eagle eyed viewers amongst you may notice that this swap is a distraction from an altogether more exciting project!



Clutch has seen better days - will be replaced with a Sachs kit



The synchros were gone on two of the gars on the box from the donor car, so needed to source a new box or fork out for repairs. Decided to take a chance on a box which hadn't been used in a few years, but was guaranteed as having been removed from a 32k mile car. At the moment, it appears the gamble paid off! Oil needed a change though :D



Would be a shame to leave grotty exhaust manifold gaskets on it, so off came the manifolds -





Some degreaser and a quick scrub seem to do the trick on the head -



Only piece of bad luck was a stud snapping off the manifold -



Going to price up a stainless steel manifold, might just buy a used standard manifold off eBay if the price is over the top - could be easier than getting this out.

[kdevitt]

Lots more done with the donor engine, but its not all good news unfortunately. Looks like the budget is going to explode - but more of that in a bit.

Here is it as it currently stands!



As of this morning this is how it looked -

Before a clean up -



After -



Plenty of parts had come off at this stage though!



Hadn't intended taking the head off - but when looking at the exhaust valves, one appeared oily. Not much point sticking the engine back in and then having to lift it out again if there was an issue, so Dave did a leak down test - the results of which weren't positive. One cylinder had an 80% exhaust valve leak, so make the decision to whip the head off.

Unfortunately there was bad news - one of the valve seats was damaged.



Looks like something was floating around in there and doing some damage -



So its off to get a cylinder head rebuild priced up. To add to the woe, looks like the cylinders potentially need a re-bore.

[CorvallisBMW]

So, about that M3 Touring...

[kdevitt]

So, about that M3 Touring...

Yeah - its going to be pretty special when its finished.

[kdevitt]

As the song goes - if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all...

Pretty apt on this occasion. Machine shop had a look at the block and head - there was bad news on both fronts. Firstly, as expected, the head needed a full rebuild - two valve seats and at least two new valves. To make matters worse, cylinder 5 was oversized - so the block needed to be rebored.Apart from the cost of actually carrying out that work, or any other parts - the pistons alone would have worked out at EUR1800 or so. So that idea was knocked on the head and it was time for some head scratching and a few tears at the thought of my new engine now being only good for use as a paper weight.

Given the amount of parts sourced at this stage for the M30 swap, there was no chance I was going for anything different. Turns out that there was an M30B35 from an E32 sitting in the corner of the shed which hadn't seen action in a while.

Decided to go for a leak down test on this - which had healthy results. Head came off the check the block, all looks reasonably ok. Going for a re-hone on the cylinders, new piston rings and a refresh of the head.

Few pics of the new engine -

Sump was looking a bit dirty



Came up well -



As did the head - one stud snapped, another two are sitting tight though - so these will need to be persuaded to come out.

[kdevitt]

This is probably whats normally referred to at the point of no return!

Bonnet off and the engine being prepped for removal.





More or less everything unplugged at this stage



Out she comes -



It doesn't quite match the M30 for size -



Needs a bit of a clean -



Only a handful of parts left to source now. Need to get some of the various parts over for vapour blasting before the M30 gets put back together. Also turns out that I have a pretty rare small case limited slip diff - which is worth a bit, but pretty much useless for the M30 - wouldn't last very long by all accounts. So now need to source a decent medium cased diff.

[kdevitt]

Car is looking pretty sorry for itself at this stage -



Engine bay was given a bit of a scrub down - looks a lot better already -



The expansion tank needs to be shifted from the drivers side to the passenger side for the engine swap - didn't want to be putting a discoloured second hand piece in, so as you'll begin to see - almost everything going in is brand new.

Needed a new bracket put in place to support it -





Alarm siren needed to move as well -



My engine man also got the rad test fitted - and its a perfect fit, so one less thing to worry about.

[JCarp90]

This is going to be cool. I want to M30 swap my next E30.

[Javier h]

Nice

Are you ditching the power steering or the AC unit? Not enough room for both I am told. Congrats on the car.

[kdevitt]

Cheers. Theres no aircon so thats one less problem - power steering will be staying, although I'm not doing the work. Haven't read of anyone having to ditch it though.

[Javier h]

333i

From what I read, the 333s came with either air or power steering but not both because of the space.

You can definitely keep the power steering. I wasn't aware the car had no AC.

Javier

[henryki]

Just spent the last hour of my class time reading through all of this. Impressive. Beautiful car. Good luck with the swap!!

[CorvallisBMW]

You can definitely have both AC and PS if you want, it all bolts right up.