'88 Cirrus M30B35 sedan

[c0rbin9]

Cute mailbox. Er - I mean - badass box setup, bro!

[lukeADE335i]

lol... you like my mailbox :D We've been intending to replace it.

My transmission setup certainly isn't badass, but I guess that's my point really. I love reading project threads on here as much as anyone, but sometimes people build things that are a bit overkill (perhaps with the intention of maybe one day tracking their car, but then never actually doing it) and there's often no real indication of how the projects last.

There's a normally a number of reasons for this:

1) the owner gets to the end of the project and then sells the car because they want to move on to the next project, so you never see how long the swapped car lasted;
2) the swapped car grenades itself inside the first year and is never spoken of again; or
3) it's only ever used as a weekender, so doesn't really rack up many miles

Anyway - my car is quite humble really as far as projects go (especially vs many of the more radical projects on here!). The G240 was only ever installed as a stop gap measure until I sourced and fitted a G260 - but I paid a fair bit of attention to detail when I did the swap and as such it has lasted & been factory reliable. Really, after 5 years swapped (and almost 9 years total ownership now) the car owes me nothing & even though I've since sourced a G260, and all the bits to fit it, they're just gathering dust in my shed.

Since the the M30 G260 worth fairly big $$ down here, I may even sell it off since the G240 seems as though it may never break providing I keep oil in it (and I have a spare low mileage G240 in the shed too?!)

Don't believe the naysayers. You proved them wrong.

Thanks Marshall. Can't believe everything you read on the net :D It was actually the local clutch joint, and my Dad who's a retired mechanic that convinced me that the G240 would last. It would seem they were right.

[CorvallisBMW]

If the G240 is working well, why bother swapping in the G260? It'll just be a huge PITA.

[lukeADE335i]

I'm thinking the same. Selling the G260 will probably net enough to buy an Alpina front for the car, or more likely refit my AC :)

[lukeADE335i]

Karma is a funny thing... you talk up the reliability of the car, and it decides to give you trouble! Wasn't too bad really though.

After 29 years, my indicator switch decided to break on Friday on the way to work, which was super annoying as it caused the stalk to flop around all over the place - I had to drive home attempting to hold the indicator stalk in the middle to keep the indicators off, which was pretty unsuccessful.

Fortunately I had a spare steering column in the shed from a low mileage car, so today I stripped the switch from there & fitted it up in under an hour.

I priced up a new switch (thinking maybe I'd get another 29 years out of a new one), but that came to almost $500AUD! All fixed, and the low mileage one feels like new anyway - the old one was obviously not 100% for a while as the low mileage one feels completely different. Was a pretty pleasant day today for working out under the car port anyway :D

[lukeADE335i]

Great spring day out under the carport today - time for a quick service.

Amazing what 5L of fresh oil (Penrite 15W50 10Tenths Racing Synthetic) & new plugs (NGK) can do to the smoothness of the car. Ran out of time, but going to change the fuel filter and flush out the diff tomorrow.

[wworm]

I love this car. Huge inspiration for my slow build. recently decided to go with an m30 instead of an m52. Wanted that lower torque curve

[2mAn]

What happened to the lip? I love these boring build threads... 5 years and relatively no issues with a swapped motor. I put 40k+ on my M52 in about 3 years andpletny of track and autox time. It was pretty damn reliable. This time around I plan to keep the M20 though. Someday I will get mine repainted to the original cirrusblau though. It looks great

[lukeADE335i]

Thanks guys! It has been a bit of a boring thread... just reliable daily driving. I could start posting a few action shots at the shops :D

I lost the lip when I hit something going through some road works at night. Not sure exactly what I hit, but the plastic tray in the front of the car and the wheel arch liners got damaged too, and there's a fairly nasty gouge on the side of the sump. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be cracked.

Might be a bit of action here over the summer though as I'm thinking of refitting my air conditioning. Looking for the unicorn - maintain my reliability record but have working AC that can cope with traffic in 100F+.

[2mAn]

Thanks guys! It has been a bit of a boring thread... just reliable daily driving. I could start posting a few action shots at the shops :D

I lost the lip when I hit something going through some road works at night. Not sure exactly what I hit, but the plastic tray in the front of the car and the wheel arch liners got damaged too, and there's a fairly nasty gouge on the side of the sump. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be cracked.

Might be a bit of action here over the summer though as I'm thinking of refitting my air conditioning. Looking for the unicorn - maintain my reliability record but have working AC that can cope with traffic in 100F+.

Nothing wrong with a boring thread! The car itself is great and if you arent building something wild, its bound to be a bit boring. And there is definitely nothing boring with a daily E30 powered by a M30!

Good luck with the A/C, its quite a tight space if I remember right to add that in with everything else

[lukeADE335i]

When I fixed my indicator stalk earlier in the year, I noticed how tired (and cracked) my under dash panel was, so I decided to order a new one through Schmiedmann. Arrived today - worked out well and interesting to see how the new trim parts compare to the old ones.

As reported previously with new dashes etc. ordered from BMW, the new trim parts seem to use e46 era vinyl. Probably lasts better than the old stuff. The sound deadening is thinner, but higher density vs. original too.

The box Schmiedmann shipped my parts half way around the world in was enormous - probably why the shipping was pretty expensive! My kids had fun with the packing (it ended up everywhere!) :)

[lukeADE335i]

Having been on annual leave from work, I decided it was time for some car R&R.

I've had the occasional clunk from the front end, and my steering rack had developed a leak, so I ordered some parts from clickable here in Australia to sort that, and my engine mounts have compressed a bit as has been reported in some other forum members posts here + I've disliked the NVH of my poly gearbox mounts since I fitted those, so I ordered some new engine mounts and e21 rubber mounts with enforcer cups in Garagistic's Black Friday sale.

A hoard of parts:



Since I was doing the rack and engine mounts (and most of the font end) I thought it was best to pull the front subframe rather than trying to do it on the car - this was a good opportunity to inspect the subframe for cracks seeing as I don't have a reinforced subframe with the M30.

As can be seen - the subframe is showing no ill effects after nearly 6 years of the M30 twisting on it. Maybe the cracking e30s are renowned for has more to do with HD sway bars and solid engine mounts rather than engine weight / power? I've always run a stock sway bar and rubber mounts.



The compressed mounts had caused the sump to touch the top of the steering rack causing some wear - no matter, the rack is being replaced anyway:



Anyway - all back together, ready to fit with another steering rack, and new power steering reservoir, tie rods, control arms, sway bar links and engine mounts. After a wheel alignment the car felt good as new. I last refreshed the front end 9 years ago when I bought the car.

[lukeADE335i]

I also swapped in the e21 gearbox mounts - note the holes in the transmission crossmember and on the gearbox need to be enlarged from M8 to M10 for the e21 mounts to work.

Old Noltec poly bushes (showing no ill effects really, they're just a bit noisy for my liking):

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New rubber mounts with Garagistic enforcer cups:

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Happy with the NVH improvement!

[Simmie]

Control arms looking nice and shiny. Is an E36 rack going in while the subframe's out?

[lukeADE335i]

Hi Simmie

Not at this stage - the new rack was a reconditioned e30 rack. I was worried about the exhaust not fitting around the steering linkage with the e36 or e46 rack, so as I was a bit pressed for time I couldn't have the car off the road long enough to re-work the exhaust if the it didn't fit.

I may go for an e46 purple tag rack down the track.