E30 335i - The new track (drift) project

[Erick]

I'll send you a list of things I need. See if we can work something out. :)

- Erick

[Mako18]

I know my local yard has 6 m30 powered cars. I am close so shipping will be fast if you need I can make a trip over the weekend and pull what ever you need and ship it first thing Mon morning. If your interested in this pm me I will give you my cell to work out the details!!

[Erick]

Can you give me the address to the junkyard? I might just make the drive. Gas will cost just slightly more than it might cost to ship the big/heavy stuff.... and I'll have it by the weekend still.

I'm hoping to have this car running by Tuesday.

[Erick]

D1-DAY MINUS 7

Where nothing worked yesterday, today started off better. After a run to the junkyard, I found almost everything I needed. Acting on Otis' (Good&Tight) tip, I went to the local junkyard, rumored to be an M30 heaven.

I get there and it's raining everywhere.... but the junkyard. Literally black clouds all around the place and I got away dry. With two untouched M30B35s, I was able to pull almost everything I needed.

I took off:
M30B35 injector harness
Brake fluid reservoir (mine got a hole poked in it)
Crank position sensor + CPS Bracket off the B35
#6 Spark Plug wire with the signal wire
Intake boot + airbox
Accessory belts pulley (for P/S)

Didn't even pocket anything and walked away from the junkyard with all of that for $14.50... there's a million M30 AFMs (the 027s). If anyone wants one, I'll go back and pick them up and ship them to you for $80 shipped. I was going to bring one with me to sell, but they are kinda pricey and I can't spare the $$. Not for D1 at least.

Right now the only two things that I can think I'm missing are an O2 sensor and maybe a downpipe. My buddy at the shop is thinking he might be able to use the 3 bolt flanges I have and weld them to the 2 bolt flange downpipe that was sent over my way.

Then came the driveshaft fiasco. Yesterday, before I got a chance to send the driveshaft off to the powertrain shop to be balanced (E28 M30 5spd front piece mated to the e30 M20 rear piece), the shop noticed that the u-joint at the back was going bad. So they ordered the U-Joint. 3 u-joints later (2 from Meyle) and none of them work. Meyle's replacement is just 1mm too big after we crush the caps in.... therefore we cant put the lock rings in place.

Took the torn apart driveshaft today to the powertrain shop. After measuring everything, there's not a single u-joint that'll work. Great fun.

Call a few local guys (Again thanks Good&Tight, Victor, and Jonny Cash for helping out!) and I find a driveshaft sitting at the back of German Autos. Victor, if you ever make your way to this post, Peter is the f*cking man. Hooked it up with the driveshaft for free. Massive score!

Back to the powertrain shop. Handed him all the pieces... said it would take an hour. $55 to balance the driveshaft.

Since it's right next to the crib I stopped by to grab some lunch. I'm broke enough as it is. I need to start a "let's get Erick to D1" for sale thread and auction off all my junk in the storage.

Anywho... I managed to destroy a whole plate of pasta, mashed potatoes and steak in the 5 minutes it took to type up this post. Time to go pick up some things at the storage and back to the powertrain shop. Hopefully this afternoon and evening I'll get some serious wrenching done. My goal is to fire this M30 up this weekend.

- Erick

[1mz]

wooo!! nice man! can't wait to see it rollin :)

[bumblebeemer]

hey erick i just wanted to say thanks again for the stickers, i got them today and they will be apearing at the track tomarrow haha

[Erick]

Awsome! Glad to hear it!! :)

No pictures today but final update for tonight. Just got home, after 12 hours of running around stuff.

This afternoon was a lot of studying how we were going to do this, mainly the engine harness. Since all lengths are now different, we have to see how we're going to run the wires. To my fault, I didn't label the M20 harness plugs, and that's really what consumed most of our time was trying to figure out what was what.

That said and done, we adapted a M30B35 injector harness and wired it to the late model M20 injector plug. So undoing the injector harness (if ever necessary) is a twist off plug.

Most of the wires are now deciphered, but breaking the harness cover apart and reworking it all is going to be fun. Seems like we'll be able to keep a lot of the wires where the cabrio battery tray sits, which will be nice and keep the engine bay cleaner.

The new rear suspension is now also done. 950lb springs with custom valved Koni shocks thanks to Ground Control are now installed.

Also started putting the M30 together. Belts are in, crank position sensor bracket + CPS + crank pulley also installed, ignition stuff is all in.

We test fitted the radiator with the dizzy, pulleys and all front engine components installed. It's not as bad as I had with the M20 + alum radiator + ultra slim fans, but it's pretty close. One of the spark plug wires at the distributor comes in contact with the radiator. Next spot is the accessory belt pulley, which is about 1/8" away from the radiator. Thank goodness for solid mounts, just gotta make sure that radiator does not move. Ever.

As for brakes, the only thing left is figuring out where I'm going to put the hydraulic ebrake line fitting. I'm trying to figure out the line that pumps fluid to the rear brakes from the master cylinder, but still have not figured it out. Worst case I'll do it at the valve right before the hardline that runs the fluid back.

Front suspension should be done tomorrow, and I should hopefully fix the little things I messed up on my crazy all nighter from earlier on this thread.

Driveshaft will go on tomorrow as well.

Hopefully by tomorrow night we'll be ready to start figuring out why the motor won't start :p If we can get it to at least fire up and idle tomorrow, I'll be more than happy!!

- Erick

[bumblebeemer]

Do work meng!!

[Erick]

D1-DAY MINUS 6

Woke up stupid late today. Got to the shop and we did a bit of work to it. Mainly putting stuff back together as usual. Started positioning the engine harness and checking lengths to connectors.

The shop guys had to leave for a bit so I decided to take some pictures before I left.

Here's the engine bay as it sits:


Injector harness wired up to the late model M20 harness plug for easy removal:


Car as it sits with rear suspension installed. Gotta adjust the height a bit more to my favor :)


Radiator clearance. We gotta see how we're going to mount it, but it most definately will have no room to move about:


That's all for now. As long as we got all the wiring correct, we are still seeing no reason why this should fire up tonight :)

[E30SPDFRK]

Good luck!

[Erick]

CONCLUSION OF D1-DAY MINUS 6

So just got back from the shop. So my to-do list for today has been mainly done. Few items not fully completed but we got a lot done.

Front suspension is all done. We fixed what needed fixin', tightened what needed impact hammerin', replaced front springs for the 650lb'ers. All that sweet stuff.

Harness is mostly plugged in. I believe all that's left is the starter + extending AFM wires.

Driveshaft is in....ish. More details found here: http://r3vlimited.com/board/showthre...76#post1526876

All M30 swappers welcome to drop opinions and suggestions in there.

Cooling. Radiator is in and mounted, 16" pusher fan also in and mounted, most hoses already in place, but I need to figure one final hose out.

Headers also in, but trying to figure out our issue with the downpipes. O2 Sensor has been acquired!

On the list for tomorrow: Solve things that today couldn't be solved, finish wiring, fill up the car (water, brake fluid, oil, etc), and make the car go vroom vroom. :)

- Erick

[gearheadE30]

Sweet action man, should be a great drifter. Always wanted to build up an M30 car...

[Erick]

D1-DAY MINUS 5

Slow progress today, but progress there was. Since the shop is closed today, my buddy went there to open it up to keep working on my car. His truck broke down on the highway so he had to get it towed to the shop.

By the time we got to the shop it was 3pm. Then he had to take that whole thing apart while I did small things here and there on the e30.

We did finish the entire brake system today though, including hooking up the hydro ebrake. We're having issues bleeding the clutch. The pedal is super stiff... but only at the last 1/4 of the pedal travel.

The awsome surprise is the ebrake though. I am using the CNC ebrake, and I got scared after seeing a local guy with his (look at 0:31-0:35):



That was way too much lever travel, and I was scared I would have to deal with the same. Once we bled the system, the ebrake locks BALLER on no more than 4" of travel from the top knob. Super super tight. Love it! :D

Also finished hooking up the entire cooling system. Car is now filled with oil, water, brake fluid.

Just need minor things to keep going on. Tomorrow the shop is closed for Memorial Day so we'll still have the whole shop for ourselves. Without too many delays, we should be ready to rock and roll tomorrow.

With how baller the ebrake is, I'm even more excited to get this car going.

Right now suspension is 100% done, brakes are 100% done, cooling is 100% done.

Not a lot of pictures because it's still basically looks the same.

But I shall take video when we get some vroom vroom going on.

[asuj158]

cant wait to see

[RedHoodRidah]

Make sure to post tons of pics tomorrow as well. Very nice build thread.