E30 335i - The new track (drift) project

[Erick]

So I have started a new project as many of you have seen. Since I officially got the motor/transmission, it's time to start my project thread.

Basics: 12 days, 3 cars, 2 guys and a lot of beer

As some of the ALMS fans might know... the race at St.Petersburg (the season opener I think?) is coming up on April 3rd-5th. My car is set to make an appearance there and do a drift demo along with 9 other lucky guys. This is by far the best event of the year.... ever. I had a chance to participate last year, and even though everything went wrong, I still LOVED the 5 minutes of track time that I got. With 3 weeks to event time, my car takes a crap. With a complete loss in faith in M20s, and how rigged my car is to run properly, we decided to start a whole new project with only 3 weeks to go.

Now I have been bothering everyone that I know that has an M30 E30, and I appreciate all of the forum support of the guys who have been on my original thread as well as the guys who have been helping through PMs. Also big ups to Pat P., e34biturbo, who is probably annoyed that I'm calling every other hour. :p

Anywho, onto the days. I'll try to keep this updated daily as I'm going every day to the shop to work on these days.

Here's the old:


Here's the new:


It should be a fun project. With the technical help of the entire M30 E30 community, and a little luck, we might just pull this off!! :)

- Erick

[Erick]

D-DAY MINUS 12

Since I left the camera on the new e30... no pics were taken today really. Pics will be taken tomorrow though!

So today had small obstacles so not a lot of work got done. We brought the 535iS donor car (what a sh*tbox) in and fired it up one last time before pulling it out. Did a compression test on the motor:

#1 - 120
#2 - 120
#3 - 130
#4 - 130
#5 - 125
#6 - 125

This was on a dead cold motor with a weak battery, so the cranking started losing strength on cylinders 4-6.

The spark plugs that came out had zero oil on them, which was more than I could say for my M20s. Looks like the car had been running a little rich, but with the exhaust broken right at the downpipe on BOTH pipes (well before the O2 sensor), that makes sense.

We took the old e28 harness out, drained all the fluids, pulled the radiator, undid the motor mounts. Tomorrow we have a bit of work left to finish, but with a sawzall to save time, the motor should be out with no more than another hour's worth of work.

The somewhat bad news came last night from Pat P, who is doing the motor mount brackets for me. Due to certain circumstances, the motor mount brackets will only be done by NEXT weekend, which really puts us on a time deadline.

So this week I will be mainly focused on taking everything out from the 535iS (anyone wants a 3.25lsd?), junking it hopefully tomorrow, then bringing in the new shell to start putting the cage, swapping the subframes from the old e30 to the new one, and start swapping everything I can from the old car to the new one. Start hooking everything up, etc etc

Also will place an order for maintenance stuff for the M30. My goal is to have that motor ready to drop in by the time the motor mount brackets come in!!

Anywho, off to take a shower and pass out.

- Erick

[Dave]

Umm . . . Erick . . . .

ALMS is just NOW wrapping up the 12 hour at Sebring. Literally, as I post this.

And as for the new car - turbo M30?

You know there is a stupid turbo e30 M30 near you, right????

[e30polak]

The end of an era. :-(

The 4 door deserves that motor!!!!! :hitler:

[Erick]

Umm . . . Erick . . . .

ALMS is just NOW wrapping up the 12 hour at Sebring. Literally, as I post this.

And as for the new car - turbo M30?

You know there is a stupid turbo e30 M30 near you, right????

Eh... I've been out of touch with life for the past week Dave :p But thanks for sharing that.

The M30 will definately be N/A for now. Given that a chip gives you 43hp at peak (but solid gain throughout), I am pretty sure I can handle ~260hp to start off. The turbo M20 had no more than 320hp, so it's not THAT much of a loss. 2nd gear should still be more than usable... maybe 3rd would struggle, but I'm betting my chips on the M30 torque to help.

It will be boosted at some point. Pat P had a 620whp M30 E30 M3 (Warsteiner look-a-like), and I believe the SICK turbo e30 m30 you mention is Otis (Good & Tight). We've exchanged a few PMs already and I'm hoping to both their expertise in this swap.

- Erick

[Erick]

D-DAY MINUS 11

So today started off pretty sh*tty. I went to the warehouse where the e30 shell is sitting at to pick up my camera and a few other things. Only to find that the car was broken into and a crap load of things were stolen from it.

So once again, no pictures.

I'm at the shop now.... to hit more bumps on the road, the sawzall went AWOL, so I'm dealing with rusted nuts and bolts. Just got the D/S out and everything unbolted from the motor. It should be coming out in the next hour or so after this here lunch break.

Still massively annoyed by my digi cam, tools, etc. >.<

At least they left the hydraulic ebrake.

- Erick

[E30 Wagen]

wow, that sucks your car got broken into.

you have two e30s now? what happened to your four door? I hope it didn't die.

I wish you luck, i've always enjoyed your e30 dorifting skillz

[RickSloan]

sorry to hear that man!

if it helps any my roomate and i started friday, pulled a motor out of my e30, then an e28 the swapped everything from the m30 that was in my e30 to the m30 from the e28 and we drove the e30 today

[Erick]

Cool, I definately have a lot more to do than just that, but hopefully it works out as simple as it seems.

Final update for today is that we pulled the M30 out and I started cleaning it up some. We will get rid of the shell tomorrow to make space for the new e30 shell to be brought in. Then hopefully by Tuesday I can get the M20 out of the shell and swap subframes with the old track car.

Then Wednesday will be e36 rack swap + work on interior (remove heater, etc) + whatever else we can get to work on.

My main concern is that the exhaust off the M30 was literally broken off at the flange to the header on cylinders 4-5-6. Making an exhaust for this sucker will probably suck. I am thinking of using my old exhaust (the turbo can) and just make an adapter from the 2 pipes to a single 3" to hold me off.

- Erick

[RickSloan]

e32 downpipes will meet right up with stock e30 exhuast

[e30love]

updates?.

[ethirtydavid]

Looks like you had a rocky start, I can see that turning around though - have fun with the swap. GL in April.

[etxxz]

GTFO!!! ever since you saw that m30 vid -.-
that car will literally be my fat twin.. or eventually harry's little brother :pimp:

good luck man hurry it up any updatess?!!

[Erick]

Everything went from bad to worse guys.... As if little progress was bad enough now we're going backwards. I had to pull my car out of the shop I was at.... My motor mount brackets that were ordered are not going to be made on time.

I'm on my last legs here but there still is a reeeeeaaaaaally small chance of making it. So we'll see what's up.

Better update if I ever get to a computer.

[RickSloan]

m30's will fight you tooth and nail it seems from start to finish, but the end result is so worth it. it really just all comes together in the final hours!

dont give up man!