Long Time Dream Fulfillment: E30 Street and Track Car Combo

[CubbyChowder]

Thanks guys! This car currently has me grinning every time I walk up to it.

moatilliatta - The front camber is right around -2 degrees at my "street setting" (which is what it's at in the pics above) but on my last track day I max'd out the camber plates and I'm pretty sure it landed me right around -3 to -3.2 degrees.

[moatilliatta]

Ronals look great! What alignment are you running?

[mjweimer]

Yep - good move. That is a great look.

[Reichart12]

Wow taking them to the powder coater was the right move. That looks fantastic.

[lambo]

that's hot

[CubbyChowder]

I've been dreaming about satin charcoal Ronal Turbo's for years now, finally took the plunge and made it happen. Ordered a set:



While it might seem silly to take brand new wheels straight to the powder coater, I'm just not a fan of the polished aluminum look and had a vision of what I wanted. Beyond happy with how they turned out, it's exactly what I was going for:






Tires are new as well. Hankook Ventus V2 Concept2 205/50r15 for anyone curious.

[econti]

Just use the sump, dipstick and engine arms off that donor and put in a whole M54. B30 stroker is mostly a waste of time when a M54 has a far better head and you don't have to rebuild it.

[CubbyChowder]

So my 24v swap journey has begun!

The M20B25 that I put in this E30 is actually destined for my 1973 2002 project, so my plan all along has been to run the M20 while I just enjoy the car and get some track days and daily duties in for a while, and prep a 24v swap on the side until it's all ready to install in one go. So this is the start of that process. I had a chance to drive my buddy Jimmy's S50 swapped E30 recently and that totally sealed the deal for me.

I spotted a local E34 525i on FB Marketplace and got it for $400. It had a blown head gasket so the guy took the head off and gave up, but it has a plethora of parts that I'll need like all the oil pan stuff (which goes for $400-500 alone now), harness, ecu, accessories, and possibly the block/head (details below). Then I will sell some parts off it to recoup some funds and sell/scrap it. Is there anything else that I might be missing that would be useful for my swap?



I separated the auto trans and pulled the block out:




Check out these bitchin welds on the cat:



Ok, so what now? Well, I have a couple options and could use some opinions. I've always wanted to rebuild an engine. I've been reading up on the M50B30 stroker route using M54 internals in an M50 block/head and that is really appealing to me for a few reasons. As of right now this is my top choice.

My second option is to buy an S50 short block (off my friend Jimmy), however that motor had been hydrolocked and bent rod #1, plus the cams have a bit of scoring on them, so it would definitely be a project. I'm leaning towards passing on the S50 but open minded.

Anyone have any experience with the M50B30 strokers? They seem to work well from what I can gather.

[CubbyChowder]

Splurged and bought a photo from the track day. I really liked this one. Everything I love about E30's in one photo: they are so aesthetically pleasing to me and so much fun to drive. I love these cars.



Also I had NO idea how severely worn my tires were by the end of the day! Totally thought I had another track day left in them until I pulled them off and saw the cording. Gotta figure something out for this Sunday. This is after 4 track days.

[CubbyChowder]

Happy to report another successful track day! The car held up great and gave me no issues at all, however I did have a problem with my new chassis mounted shifter setup, it would not let me downshift from 3rd to 2nd on track. There is only one turn at Buttonwillow where I need to downshift into 2nd and it is during some heavy braking before a sharp right turn (Off Ramp for those familiar). There are a few culprits which could be causing this issue, but for now I am going to switch back to a carrier mounted shifter setup and save this chassis mount for when I go 24v. Otherwise the shifter felt awesome out on track.

Managed to run my fastest lap yet at 2:11.92, almost a 2 second improvement over my previous fastest lap of 2:13.71 - Here is a video of that lap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQBVksZpgpw

Maiden voyage with the new trailer was a success.




After watching the video a few times, I'm kind of surprised that that was my best lap as I'm realizing my line was pretty sloppy in some areas like Cotton Corners, Sweeper and Sunset. I felt I was hitting those turns better in other laps. Here's a track map for reference:



I'll be back out there this Sunday (Oct 9th) chasing 2:10 - Loving all this seat time

[CubbyChowder]

Nice repair on the glovebox, when I did my dash swap i found a few of my tabs broken as well but there was still enough meat on the bones to hold in place. If it ever lets go over a big bump or something I'll have to remember this thread, came out looking great

Thanks! Yeah this felt like a pretty strong repair since the metal tabs go down the back and fold around the bottom of the glovebox, so it supports it more and gives more meat to adhere to. I went pretty heavy on the JB weld too.

[Albie325]

Nice repair on the glovebox, when I did my dash swap i found a few of my tabs broken as well but there was still enough meat on the bones to hold in place. If it ever lets go over a big bump or something I'll have to remember this thread, came out looking great

[CubbyChowder]

econti - yeah that's where I was at with it too. I kinda hate borrowing anything in general, I like to just have what I need. Pricing on these trailers was interesting, 20 year old beat up car haulers were fetching $3000 easy, and brand new off the lot were $3700-4500 out the door, so there wasn't really a huge savings by buying used, so I was about to pull the trigger on a new one but there was a 9-week turnaround. This one popped up and I paid $3200, which isn't a screamin deal but I'm happy with it.

2mAn - duuuuude I know haha blowing it on that front. I'm always like this with projects, my motivation comes in waves. I am HIGHLY productive when the juices are flowing and then it tapers off. Honestly in my decade of BMW ownership, majority of that time has been spent working on projects that are far from being done (2002 restorations, multiple E30's) and feel like they'll never end. With this one, I actually got it to a point where I can finally enjoy it for a while and use it for it's intended purpose, so I'm really soaking that up, regardless of how shitty it looks right now haha.

[2mAn]

Im not seeing any rear bumper updates

JK, go get your track time in, its a weird thing where once you're in the groove you can hit a lot and once you stop it takes forever to get back into the groove again... ask me how I know

[econti]

Trailer looks sweet. Been thinking about getting one when I've got money. Sick of hiring clapped out pieces of shit