Five- oh swap into an e30.

[blowntwofive]

nice little build.... me personally i would have made it more of a daily driver kinda situation.. i know you like the racecar kinda thing but i will admit its def gonna get old one day and you will want the best of both worlds nice build but i cant wait too see when you make it more complete like a driver friendly car

[M.Doban]

Thanks! That was my main concern about doing it...

Yeah, just think of it as a straw in a bottle of pop. Only it's your oil pump and your pan. The pickup really is just a straw after all.

[FunfGang]

nice little build.... me personally i would have made it more of a daily driver kinda situation.. i know you like the racecar kinda thing but i will admit its def gonna get old one day and you will want the best of both worlds nice build but i cant wait too see when you make it more complete like a driver friendly car

Thanks man, oh, and it's just going to get less and less dd-able as it goes on. I daily drove it exactly how it is(minus the power) for a year before this, never got tired of it The GF on the other hand...

Yeah, just think of it as a straw in a bottle of pop. Only it's your oil pump and your pan. The pickup really is just a straw after all.

Awesome, I'll give that a shot next time the engine is out!

[IGOR989]

And I'm totally copying your exhaust setup for his car btw haha

I think we all will.

[Byron]

Horrible picture but you can see it. You should get that pan I linked to, it's only like $50

[FunfGang]

Here's the first part of my suggestion/ help guide for the swap. I have a lot of other things to add, just short on time at the moment. I'll update when I can!


Engine/ Driveline:

1. Buy engine/ bellhousing/ trans together, this cuts down on the chance you may accidently(or be lied to) buy the wrong trans or bell housing.

2. Don’t be scared of the wiring, it’s really not as difficult as it seems.

3. Trim down or cut off the CSB mounts, that will provide much more room for the driveshaft, even if it’s just piece of mind for an emergency.

4. 3.73 is a perfect street/ track gear. However, if you’re looking at a lot of highway miles, it may be a bit too low of gearing, so look into alternatives.

5. If at all possible, use Explorer accessories. If you’ve read my thread, you realize the issues I’ve run into with clearance from the rad to the water pump pulley.

6. If you’re running a skidplate, it must be meant for an M42 and you must remember to notch a hole so you can change your oil. Also know that the top power steering bolts will be inaccessible once the engine is in, so install it before hand.

7. An early model, m20 rad is you best (stock) bet. I then used an inline filler cap from Morroso. I ran a random, universal overflow from Summit Racing.

8. Make the core support removable BEFORE you start putting the engine in. There are a number of ways to do this, just search google. This allows you to much more easily install the engine/ trans combo(albeit, we were able to do it multiple times, but it takes about an hour and involves lots of anger and swearing).

9. Ideal driveshaft diameter is 3”.

-Wiring:

1. Again, it’s not as difficult as it seems. Just go over the diagram a few times, and go for it!

2. Don’t be surprised if you need to buy 2 or 3 engine side c101 connectors. Not all cars had the correct pins that I needed to do FI wiring. Alternatively, you can simply order new pins from BMW.

3. Cheapest way to wire the tach is to cut the control wire straight off the connecter, then run it back in the loom to the distributor and tap into the ground wire.

4. As with any swap, wiring can be a bit messy, even after clean up. Tuck all the light/ horn wires before you start to keep clutter down.

- Brakes:

1. I recommend keeping away from Remote Mount Booster setups for a number of reasons(go boosterless if you can find the kit), but if you must go the remote mount route, junkyards will have the full setup for much cheaper. Also make sure to grab the ENTIRE assembly.

- Pedal assembly:

1. The ideal setup is to skip the entire Wilwood kit, and simply order a full pedal box, and separately order the Wilwood slave cylinder. If you go that route, ignore the rest of this section’s suggestions.

2. Instead of ordering the whole Wilwood kit, you can get away with ordering just the slave cylinder and modding the attachment point on the stock clutch pedal to have enough throw to fully actuate the slave cylinder.

3. If you do use the whole Wilwood kit, make sure to reinforce the mounting points and the sheet metal surrounding it.

Shifter/ Clutch:

1. While the shifter lines up fairly well in the stock shifter cut out, it’s not perfect and will most likely not allow full access of all the gears. To fix this, I cut a square chunk out of the trans tunnel in front of it, and then riveted and sealed a new piece with circular notch in front of it. Follow this up with a spare grommet to keep water/ noise/ exhaust out.

2. Make sure to cut down the corner of the clutch fork to prevent binding on the trans tunnel. This may even void the need to hammer that section of the tunnel out, providing much more room for the new gas pedal.

3. The stock t5 shifter is 2 piece. The top piece sits at an angle towards the driver. Because of how high the shifter sits, this can become annoying and also get a little too close to the steering wheel. To solve this, simply cut and weld to your desire!

[ryanjblajda]

that first startup video scared the shit out of me and my cat (he was sitting on the bed behind me.) that sound is insane.

[FunfGang]

that first startup video scared the shit out of me and my cat (he was sitting on the bed behind me.) that sound is insane.

[FunfGang]

Inline filler setup:




Added some stickers





Had this digital voltmeter installed





Overflow setup.

[rsingh3g]

Lol at the Jeremy Clarkson

[benz88]

haha So awesome

[Minuki]

The "Don't Suck" sticker is awesome

[Justin.]

This build is AWESOME. Love e30's. Wish i could fabricate some like this myself!

[FunfGang]

Lol at the Jeremy Clarkson

haha So awesome

Thanks, Luke

The "Don't Suck" sticker is awesome

The battery died right after I put that on

This build is AWESOME. Love e30's. Wish i could fabricate some like this myself!

Thanks man! And hell, go for it! We were just 2 17 year olds with just engine rebuild, some suspension/ mechanical experience, so it's worth a shot

[Rob&co]

i love that Top Gear pic! lol