The 3.6L e30 project

[M.Burroughs]

Glad to see you around Jonathan. Can't wait to see this car.

[jcbe34]

This should be sweet. Hopefull ythe long tubes will fit in there. Motor sounded good. God I love Lopey Bimmers :

That was with the stock manifolds, the long tubes haven't been on this motor yet ... I've pretty much decided that I'm going to make the long tubes fit, whatever it takes.. They look sooooo good on it and I'm sure they would sound great too

[WhiteStripes]

This should be sweet. Hopefull ythe long tubes will fit in there. Motor sounded good. God I love Lopey Bimmers :

[slimadi]

Looking good keep it up or down rather look forward to the updates.

[micke_]

Are those 225/45's on your KT1's?

Thats just a photoshop I made, my car is not quite ready yet. But I do have a set of 16x9 KT1's with 205/40's

[jcbe34]

Thanks!

Nice project, what size tires are running on those azevs?

215/40's right now, a little too short for my taste but its what came on the wheels when I got them. I'm probably going to go with 225/40's next or may possibly trade for some 7.5's to run a staggered setup. Are those 225/45's on your KT1's?

I will try to keep updating regularly. Motor should be in this weekend but the next project, Megasquirt, will be starting soon after.

[kramerbuccs24]

Good luck and keep us updated, I love fast e30s

[theindustrialist]

Cool man. Gluck w/the build.

[micke_]

Nice project, what size tires are running on those azevs?

[jcbe34]

Good luck with finishing the project.
I really like the 5 spoke wheels for the E30.

Why not a M/S52 swap though?

Same amount if not more power than an s5x with this motor, more torque and it weighs right around the same thing. That and it didn't cost me anything

[Steinke]

Good luck with finishing the project.
I really like the 5 spoke wheels for the E30.

Why not a M/S52 swap though?

[jcbe34]

The evolution of my e30:

Acquired it from my dad, it had been that extra family car that just sits in the garage for 6 years without being used. If the odo hadn't broken in that time I would know exact mileage but it traveled between 3500-5000 miles since 2003. Not good. We started autocrossing it a couple years ago so at that time it got the token e30 suspension upgrades- H&R's with bilsteins, poly bushes all around, RD sways, TD pro race 1.2's with R comps. It did alright like this, but I mean, look at it:


So, I really enjoyed driving the e30 and really wanted to dive further into it but my problem was I had another project that I was heavily involved in $$ wise, my e34:


It was a pretty well put together car, pretty straight body, cheap coilovers and a 10.5:1 CR 3.6l m30 that sounds like this:


The e34 was great, it really was, but it was just too heavy to have that much $$$ tied up in the motor and the e30 is just much nicer overall (no rust, very few dings, all original with no accidents). I pulled the engine/trans, sold all of my wheels along with everything else that was worth anything on the car (if you need any e34 parts let me know!!) and started working on the e30. We all know the H&R's weren't going to cut it so I went ahead and got Ground Controls full setup, then shortened the struts an inch and a half (in retrospect I would have gone with 2+ but maybe later)


Getting there, this is after coilovers but still with fatty R-comps:


Couldn't really spin it down much because of the 225/50 RE-01R's so I went shopping for wheels and ended up with these:




Rode around like that for a little while but the m30 sitting on a stand in my garage was really testing my patience and I couldn't resist:




And this is where I'm at right now, test fit went well and everything goes where it's supposed to:


Pulling the motor back out tomorrow to spruce up the engine bay a little more, replace some power steering hoses and attach the tranny. I need to do some BFH work on the firwall so I can get the motor back as far as possible (this car is still going to be used hard) and possibly make enough room for my Stahl long tubes but I don't know if they're going to fit either way. Hopefully more updates by the weekend!