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Cooling was a big concern as I'd be removing the viscous fan from the front of the engine. I trial fitted a few radiators but ended up settling (if i recall correctly) on a ti Radiator. It fit nicely ion the front and kept the bay looking clean without the need for a remote expansion bottle. Its also slightly taller than stock so should provide a tad more cooling. This setup has been working well on the open road and in traffic, however it is something I'd like to do more research on before this car sees a track. Probably E36 M3 evo radiator. I bought a generic SPAL fan and wired that to a 80/88 degree temp switch on the radiator and also to a manual bypass switch so I could have the option of having it run full time (wiring carried out by another AV mate, Cheers Howie). The plumbing was a bit of whatever I had lying around. It was a mix of the E36 hose from the donor car and a 90 degree tube from super cheap to go from the upper radiator point to the thermostat housing. This also something I'm not the most happy with and will get looked at in the future. After that I added the OEM blue coolant and bled it through, following the procedure multiple times. I was extra cautious at this stage as I really couldn't be bothered pulling the motor back out . One of the biggest and most expected headaches was getting it to start. Overall I think I was hung up at this point for probably over a month. I was adamant It had to be a stray wire that I cut or a bad connection somewhere. I spent many a night with a multimeter following the wires from the pins on the DME to its destination. Everything seemed fine but still no luck. The fuel pump would prime but that was about it. At the time I was in the Air Force which is a mint place to be if you happen to have a project car. I had already had the metal shop weld the shifter linkages, the crud bay media blast the BBS RS, the paint shop painted the BBS RS and now, an Avionics mate give the DME a look over to see if I had fried anything. It all came back OK. It had to be the dodgy EWS rigged up with the key zip tied to the transponder etc. I asked on here and luckily @Kobra came to the rescue. I shipped the DME down to Christchurch to have the EWS removed via his bench rig. When I received the DME back in the mail, I was absolutely fizzing. Slapped in the ECU and we had lift off... (AUG 2017) First Start Second Start First Drive I found a reputable place in Takapuna to do the exhaust work so it would be a little less obnoxious. Probably my biggest regret with the swap as it was easily the most expensive part at around $1200 and not what I want. At the time I was just keen to get the car home but in hind sight I should have got a quote which would've have stopped the price hiking up and also should have refused to pay until I got what I had said. That being said, the car sounds and performs well, it's just not the best. I'm fussy (which is why I do all my own maintenance I guess). The car then basically was ignored For awhile. I left the Air Force for greener pastures, which also meant relocating to a house with a single garage. Which would have been fine, but with all the other car stuff I had hoarded, there wasn't enough space for fiddlin'. But there was a silver lining to it all. My new landlord just happened to be a panel beater before he was a teacher and also a lover of E30s. I mentioned to him in passing that I'd love to paint the bumpers to imitate the IS/SE look. He was dead set he was going to paint them. They came out so mint and had completely changed the look of the car. We also painted the rear lower apron too. It looked so much cleaner. This definitely wasn't the car I had started with. A quick polish and wax to try make the most of the ageing paint helped. The above pic is a bit of a spoiler alert into the next purchase. The RS's weren't quite built up yet and the bottle caps were, well.. meh. I found some tired 15" x 7" et20 Euroweaves and refurbed them. Still haven't found centre caps One of the biggest motivators for getting the car looking spic was the fact that our wedding day was coming up (might be confusing if I've mentioned a "wife" in previous posts. Same girl just retrospectively writing ). We decided to go with E30s from the E30 Car Club. Admittedly we wanted something else ( even emailed RWB NZ ) but we had left it too late sussing other parts out. We had a mad rush to finish the RSs and try sort the ride height out. Shameless scenic wheel pic. The current suspension made the wide but short RSs look very weird but I hadn't settled on what suspension I want to go with long term. So out came some OEM springs, guard roller, heat gun, beers and the makita one-ways (thanks Hammy). Not my proudest moment but somehow the big day was only two days away and it needed more low. After all it was only temporary. Finally the car was ready. ish. I still wasn't stoked with how it looked. Mostly due the tyres only being 15" and the offset I was trying to achieve. Also the front couldn't go any lower with the sump sitting 2" off the ground. Then the big day. Mandah and Daniel brought their Mtech 2s whilst we used AutoStances E28 as the bridal car (just happens to be for sale here). Perhaps I should have said pic heavy at the start of this thread? Couldn't have been happier with how the cars turned out in the end. Was a mint day! Post wedding, we had a new goal... A bigger garage.

Up for sale is my E30 Sedan that I’ve owned for the last 10 years. Paintwork is in immaculate condition, Genuine Sedan Tech 2 kit has been fitted to this car and repainted a few years ago- this body is rust free. It sits on E38 16x8 wheels (all wheels have been repainted recently). Black leather sports and dash is in very good condition. The engine was rebuilt in my ownership (have receipts) using a B27 block, Rebuilt 731 Head using a Genuine 272 Shrick Cam Shaft, 325i intake/injectors throttle body, Stainless Steel Headers & Remus Exhaust. Gearbox has been converted to manual (Getrag 260) with a Z3 Short Shifter. Suspension has been converted to 5stud using the best E36 M3 Evo front hubs and lower control arms, 318ti rear end, Bilstein Shocks all around, AKG bushes & Whiteline Sway bar - this setup making the car a very nice and tight road car. I have meticulously maintained this car in my ownership with countless receipts to be provided to the owner. The car is currently in storage so please give me some notice if you would like to view. Asking Price $12,000 Exterior Genuine Mtech 2 Bodykit 16x8 BBS Wheels Euro plate filler Interior Recaro Sport Leather - Excellent condition Alpina rev counter Alpine Headunit Alpine Front & Rear speakers Hyper Tinted Windows AVS 5 Star Alarm Engine M20B27 Stroker 731 Cylinder Head M20B27 ETA Block Shrick 272 Camshaft S/S headers 2” Twin Exhaust System Remus Muffler Driveline Getrag 260 Gearbox Z3 Short Shifter Suspension AKG 75D Bushes Bilstein Shocks Lowering Springs Whiteline Sway Bar E36 Evo M3 Front Hub E36 Evo M3 LCA E36 Ti Trailing Arms Slotted Front Rotors EBC Brake Pads UUC Braided Brake Lines WOF expires 27/11/19 Rego expires 26/7/19

So after languishing for 6 months my 335i burst into life with the first push of the starter button. My DME had blown 2 of Mosfets that control the injectors. At first I thought it was the coils as I had one die last year so I replaced them all but the problem persisted. The error code 30BB sugested the Mosfets so I ordered some ex the USA and finally found a guy who could replace them. Its not a job for amateurs but GP electronics in Lower Hutt did it and no issues. After reading all about it I decided to replace all six Mosfets just in case. Now all I have to do is use a full tanks worth of 6 month old 98 octane. I also replaced the battery as the BMW original was 12 years old and wouldn't hold a charge any more. Welcome back baby I've missed you.

More like 'What did Jon at Auto38 do to your BMW today?' (great service and communication btw) -> new (to me) OEM towbar installed!

The day finally came where I pulled the trigger on ruining a stock 316i coupe. Things went fairly smoothly with the engine and gearbox pulled as one unit, this seems to be the best method. Without a leveller i was forced to dodgily use a chain and screwdriver to slide links through the engine crane to change angle. Would definitely recommend using a load leveller. And then the reverse but alot more hands and shoe horns in the mix. Overall its a pretty easy fit but I was concerned with scratching the car or the freshly painted sump. Again, tried and true method is the engine and gearbox together. I used the aluminium E36 arms paired with the rubber green mounts form an E34, can be had pretty cheap from Ebay (part number 11 81 1 132 793). MAKE SURE YOU PUT THE ENG MOUNT STUD THROUGH THE OUT CROSSMEMBER HOLE. I didnt and it caused alot of hassle. I originally thought the mounts I had bought were the wrong ones, but it turns out the studs on either side of the mount are offset. Duh. All the gearbox rubber mounts and crosssbrace were the pre-existing ones. Luckily the E30 has a sliding rail type setup on the body for the gearbox mounts allowing a longer eng/gb to be mounted easily. (MARCH 2017) Once it was in and all mounted up I could see there would be a few issues. My stock shifter arms(#1 & #11) were too long. I couldn't for the love of money find any G260/6 cyl shifter linkages (apparently these work) so i went with plan B and had my ones shortened by 65mm. Keeping in mind #1 is cast aluminium, this might not be the easiest option for people. Alternatively you can buy hard mount kits for the upper part of the gearshift and do away with #1. Next on the hit list was the lack of clearance between the exhaust manifold, steering column and subframe. I cut and welded the rear bank exhaust manifold when the exhaust was made. But the manifold still hit the column (especially under load as i found out later on the first drive). I thought I could massage the manifold with a hammer and remove the rubber vibe dampener from the column. Nope. The easiest solution that i had seen was joining parts of a Holden Barina column to make a hybrid one with the E30. Pretty painful and fiddly process. Basically you use the E30's upper UJ portion as it fits the shaft coming from your steering wheel. And you use the shaft and lower UJ from the Barina. The stakes need to removed from around the bearing caps, then you just twist/hammer/throw the shaft (mindful you don't drop out any of the needle bearings) until you get the end result... Note that this only works with a power steering rack as the have longer input shafts. Which is a nice segway onto the next bit of fiddling. I opted to go for the power steering option for a) to fit the modded shaft b) wife hated how hard it was to turn with wide wheels The rack I decided to go with was the Z3. It had good reviews online and also had the smallest ratio lock to lock at 2.7 turns. This requires a spacer to be fitted as the mounts on the Z3 rack a shorter in dimension than the E30 oem rack. The spacer needs to be OD 25mm, ID 10mm with a thickness of 14mm. Thanks Matt. It all mounts up pretty smoothly. I used E36 P/S reservoir (bolts to LH eng mount arm), E36 P/S lines (slight bending required), M52 P/S pump (theres two different kinds with a flat pulley or a dished pulley) and the recommended ATF fluid. Id also get new crush washers for the banjo bolts too. That sucked. Once it was in i used E36 inner and outer rod ends as they're ever so slightly beefier than the e30 ones and easier to adjust. One thing that I DIDN'T have interference problems with, was the brake booster due it being the Clio one

Sold pending payment.

that's 'unique'. what on earth is going on with the infotainment / gearlever though?

Coupe, sports, light-weight ? More like they deliberately didn’t want to use CSL because there’s nothing light weight about a 2 tonne missile.

thanks, Cam! I was about to break it down for the recycling, suddenly thought 'oh, that'll be good for the brake dust shields!'. May even get the strut housings in. We'll see.

Fish bin spray booth is genius!

Welcome back, John!

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-2179924845.htm?rsqid=0eab22af9968455a818e0c2bef49fd7d-005 I Confess, I do find it attractive. Edit: Moved from for Sale. heh,.

Lovely car in a desirable colour, definitely looking for a very keen collector at that price. Makes the rare S54 Couple that sold in December look like a steal. Good luck with the sale

I don't find it confusing at all. No enthusiast wants to buy a Mx which is effectively obsolete in 2 years. But upgrading every 2 years does appeal to some, it's just an entirely different market. M cars of olde will be remembered forever for their class defining characteristics. New ones, they're easily forgotten and are all merely depreciating lumps of metal and silicon (edit: albeit fun for a time).

Yeah it makes perfect sense. The M8 Competition Convertible, for when you and ya M8s wanna go set a lap record at the ring.. with the top down and looking fabulous! Imagine how fast they would be without all the sequins and BS

Can someone one here buy one, ill pick it up from you in 3 years.

Another part of trying to sort the idle is to replace the idle control valve, which has been a bit suspect from the beginning. I don't particularly enjoy taking the intake off, but its the only way to get to the idle valve. I cleaned the idle valve a while back, but obviously it was still suspect. Even after cleaning I was still getting a reading of zero in DIS for idle air flow (I haven't had a chance to test since replacement). After some research it turned out that the S50B30 idle valve is shared with the M60/M62 BMW V8 engines, so although its bigger and not shared with the other I6 engines, it's not too hard to source one from an E34/E39/E38. I got a good used replacement, and got to work pulling the intake out again. Thankfully last time I had it all off I chose to fit a pod filter instead of the standard airbox, as that was one part that pissed me off a lot when reassembling; refitting the airbox. Taking the plenum off doesn't take too long, it's just a bit fiddly. Here we go again Out came the old valve. The only difference between the M6x ones and S50 is that there is a rubber grommet on the M6x ones. Once you pull that off, they are the same, even down to Bosch part number. It became obvious that despite me cleaning it, the original valve was still sticking, and it moved nowhere near as freely as the used replacement. An easy test of how freely they operate is to twist/shake the unit side to side and see how easily the shutter inside it moves. The old one needs quite a firm shake to move the shutter, whilst the replacement moves very freely. I suspect this is how the original one moved in DIS but may not be working correctly. With a full whack of voltage to fully open or close it (as the DIS test does), it works OK, but you can't finesse the movement and tweak it just a little. With one of my previous orders, I had ordered a replacement mount for the valve, as the old one was brittle and broke last time I removed it (hence the zip tie in the above photos). On went the new mount. I fit the replacement valve, reassembled, and tested. It seems the idle acts a bit better than it did, with noticeable changes when load is applied at idle, but it's still rough and misfiring at idle, so obviously the idle valve was an issue, but not related to my original fault.

I like yellow! But I'd prefer a white Z4 coupe...

Just front and rear strut mounts. Don't want the adjustables poking their way through my towers.

Ah yes, that time again. It's not my M3 if it doesn't involve rebuilding the Vanos at some point. If anyone has forgotten, I have previously rebuilt the Vanos unit on my old M3, and what a nightmare that was. Lesson learned, don't use cheap tools. Being that this car has 300,000KM on the clock, and the previous owner has no history of the Vanos ever being rebuilt, I felt it was prudent to do it. This made even more sense, since when I first got the car I ordered a full Beisan rebuild kit, as the Vanos was completely dead (turned out it was just a sensor issue), so had a kit sitting around. The previous owner had the Vanos off the head back when they had the head work done, but when I asked, he confirmed that it was not rebuilt at the same time (argh, the hardest part is taking it on and off, why not do it then?!). This gave me some hope that maybe it wouldn't fight me like the last one did.... or on the flip side, there was a chance the previous owner had been kind enough to round off the bolts or something on reassembly. Anyway, with a nice clear day off work, I got stuck in. I won't do much step by step work in this post, as it's covered in my previous rebuild, and also on Beisans website. One reason I had been putting the job off a little bit longer was that the valve cover wasn't leaking, and I really didn't want to pull it off again in case it starts to leak. Oh well, Here goes. Argh, bugger, so much for not leaking. This little bastard never seems to want to seal. It's a new gasket, with a new rubber washer... and it's still leaking. The inside of this engine is bloody amazing for 300,000KM. Its obviously been looked after and well serviced. The previous M3, with 100,000KM less, was almost black on the inside. This is lovely and golden brown. Before you can do anything else you must get the engine up at TDC. This involves having the No.1 cam lobes for intake and exhaust pointing up and towards each other and making sure the crank pulley mark is lined up. I had a hell of a time last time, as the Beisan instructions are incorrect, and the timing mark is hard to find, tucked down behind the crank pulley. Strangely, on this engine there seems to be a critical change. Not only does it have the marks behind the pulley, but it finally also has it stamped into the front of the pulley! Not sure if this was a South African Market difference or just a difference between 1994 and 1995 engines. I still had to use my old iPhone to see it, but it's better than having to try and see it behind the pulley. As expected this little piston nut gave me some anxiety. To undo it, you use a 7mm spanner on the nut and a 4mm 6 sided socket on a ratchet to hold the shaft still. The 4mm hex is well known for just shearing off, and then you're having a bad day. Thankfully although it was tight, mine came off just fine. One part I have been asked about was to give more details on the removal of the oil pump driver when removing the Vanos unit. This is a little disk that sits on the back of the unit. It's circled here My previous unit was so sludged up that the driver disk was stuck to the unit, but in this case it was nice and free. The risk here is that if dropped, it takes a swift one way trip to the bottom of the sump. Turns out, it's easy to keep it in place. Use one hand to hold and pull the Vanos forward, and the other to hold the disk. There is plenty of space around it. The Vanos has been leaking externally leaving a mess down the front of the engine And on the underside of the unit Of course the unit got scrubbed clean, and the engine was given a quick scrub and clean. Removing the cylinder cover on the back of the Vanos unit gave me my first surprise. This is meant to have a seal pressed into it. The seal was sitting on the cylinder, having fallen out of the cover. It was well perished and crumbled when you so much as looked at it Organised chaos Part of the rebuild was to clean and test the solenoids again. I had previously done this when I redid the seals on the solenoids, but I wanted to be more thorough this time around. I got sick of having to try and jam the wires from the battery connector into the solenoid connectors, so quickly rigged up a tester using bits from the garage. Now all I have to do is plug the solenoid into the connector, plug in the 9v battery, and hit the button. Easy. I can use the same tester on injectors too, as long as they use the JPT connector. With the more thorough cleaning and testing the solenoids when from a nice click, to a firm crack every time they were actuated. I don't think it'll make a difference, but at least now I know they are working as good as they can. I also resoldered the solder points on the solenoids, as they were looking a bit old. I also chose to bridge the solder points. I don't know why BMW chose to run it through that little circuit board instead of direct (it literally goes into the outer solder point, across a track on the circuit board, and out to the solenoid via the inner solder points), but this is a common mod to ensure reliability. With the Vanos unit rebuilt, It was time to do the rattle fix on the splined shaft This one wasn't anywhere near as bad as the old M3s one, but good to take any play out of it. Reassembly was the reverse of disassembly. So, what's the story now? Well, the seals take a few hundred KM to bed in properly, but already the car has perked up down low and has noticeably more punch off the line. Up top is about the same, but it's quicker to get there. It's proper rapid. The idle issue has not changed. This is really disappointing; I was hoping it would be the solution to everyone that is having the same idle issue, but sadly not. Back to the drawing board on that issue. Since the WOF runs out at the start of next month I have decided to pull the car off the road shortly. I have a set of BC Gold coilovers and a purple tag steering rack to go in, along with some other bits coming from the States (thermostat, reinforcement plates etc). Once I get back from holiday, I'll book it in for a Cert, and see what happens there.

SMG / CSL parts bin are a plus for me. The red interior seems to be a common UK thing . It’s going to be more collectable than standard models. Biggest expense on these is worthy tyres in my experience.. People worry about bearings / smg pumps , subframes , vanos , biff bolts , cam bolts , steering hoses , coil packs , gear position servos , head gasket , alternator replacements etc. With mine it’s done 160,000 and I’ve driven 115,000 of them.over past 7 years. biggest expenses... $9k on rubber. Or $25k on gas. , $21k on parking , and $1200 per year in dealer serving and parts. I think some times we focus on the maintenance costs on e46 M3s where as the costs are elsewhere. $30k for the cs seems like good value for a car that is a joy to drive.

A step in the right direction yesterday, at least. Workshop prep to assist with motivation: Surplus home theatre receiver, and a classic Philips CD502 (one of the best (budget) CDP’s ever for fun and pace. Made the interconnects with my son, teaching him to solder. And now to clear workbench space and get to it. Struts and calipers first. # days till Castlepoint: 25.

Solid cars