'88 325is M30 street car-->S54 -->S50 -->M54 Enduro Race car

[Jb325is]

After a crazy busy summer full of racing things of the non-e30 sort, ready to get back to it on this car. MCS converted our shocks to coilover rear and I'm currently working on finding/buying a bunch of different pairs of springs and some spring rubbers for tuning. Baseline setup is going to be 700/450 but we also have a set of 800/600. I'm hoping to experiment with big spring/soft bar and soft spring/big bar setup and also some fine tuning on spring splits, which is really easy with the spring rubbers. The upper end of our range is probably going to be way too stiff for the 200TW tires, but we'll see.

DSC_0322 by Jonathan braswell, on Flickr

DSC_0320 by Jonathan braswell, on Flickr

I'll update with more pics of the install, but still waiting on springs. If you can't tell from the pics, shocks are flipped with this setup, clevis mount goes to the stock shock mount location and the eyelet/spherical rod end mounts to the e30 trailing arm. Really nice stuff, can't wait to run it after the conversion

[Digitalwave]

Any pics of your rear cage bracing for the coilover rear?

[Jb325is]

6-10 e30-6 by Jonathan braswell, on Flickr

Only have an old, pre-paint picture. It's really only structurally reinforced with this setup, I don't have any plans for sheetmetal reinforcement because I don't think it's necessary but we'll see what happens. I am slightly worried about the weld seam for the 1/4" plate thats welded to the tower being pretty close to the edge of the clevis mount block that will be mounted on the other side, sheetmetal could be weakened a bit there. We'll keep a close eye on it for sure

[vitiokas95]

How much was the cost to convert to full coilover rear? I have doubles with canister and thinking doing full coilover rear this off season.

[Jb325is]

I can't really give an accurate quote, I get a good deal through the racing stuff. Its definitely cheaper than you'd think, though. They have been super helpful throughout, especially Alex. I'm just finishing up the conversion now, sizing the droop limiters and making sure I have the wheel offsets perfect. I will post some more details soon, but right now I have a 5" 450# spring and it's super tight at droop because the wheel now moves in relation to the shock body

[vitiokas95]

I can't really give an accurate quote, I get a good deal through the racing stuff. Its definitely cheaper than you'd think, though. They have been super helpful throughout, especially Alex. I'm just finishing up the conversion now, sizing the droop limiters and making sure I have the wheel offsets perfect. I will post some more details soon, but right now I have a 5" 450# spring and it's super tight at droop because the wheel now moves in relation to the shock body

I will get in touch with Alex

[djd834]

This build thread makes me want to put a supercharged m54 in my car

[Jb325is]

It's been a busy 6 months, life has gotten in the way, but finally getting the car back out for a shakedown with the coilover rears and new spring rates. We are planning to use the remainder of these ZII star specs and have a new set of RS4's to try out. Updates coming this weekend

2018-04-18_10-23-24 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/127478801@N07/]

[Digitalwave]

Let me know how you like the RS4's compared to the ZII's. My ZII's will be worn out after a couple more days.

[nando]

check your PMs :)

[Javier h]

You've driven most engine swaps enthusiasts would love to have on this chassis.

As a "daily".....are you still partial to the M30?

Or

does the M54 really suit the daily street driving experience better?

Daily = Well balanced, adequate power to accelerate quickly when needed, nothing to do with drag racing, reliability (at the end, you need to get to work without having issues to tinker with)!

Javier

[moatilliatta]

How did you bend your trailing arms?

I have an S50 E30 with M3Z trailing arms and I can't get enough toe IN!

[Jokester]

I just bought the Castro AirBox, and sadly it wasn’t up to par, especially for the price. The screws that hold down the top portion of the box are predrilled, and for some reason most the predrilled holes were stripped clean, so now the box doesn’t close 100% but whatever. I had to sand down some of the box too to fit the main lower hose that runs to the coolant expansion tank, after I fixed all those issues it fits great and looks good, but no way in hell was it worth the money. Just my 2¢. Hope you like the m54 as much as I like mine :devil:

[Staszek]

I just bought the Castro AirBox, and sadly it wasn’t up to par, especially for the price. The screws that hold down the top portion of the box are predrilled, and for some reason most the predrilled holes were stripped clean, so now the box doesn’t close 100% but whatever. I had to sand down some of the box too to fit the main lower hose that runs to the coolant expansion tank, after I fixed all those issues it fits great and looks good, but no way in hell was it worth the money. Just my 2¢. Hope you like the m54 as much as I like mine :devil:

Good to know on the Castro box, I was just about to buy one. May just figure out something different.

[moatilliatta]

I think the castro box needs some work. Self tapers in fiberglass was the first thing that caught my eye when I pulled it out of the packaging.... Probably needs some proper nutserts, then it would be "ok".