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Better late than never, but here's a foray into the next major step in my E30 I began last week - the drivetrain! This has been on the cards for a few years, but I finally settled on what I want to do with my 300,000km M20B25 and work has begun, have slowly been sourcing parts for it over the last year or so. The juicy bits are basically a 2.8 M52 crank to build a stroker from the original b25, coupled with custom pistons further pushing to a 2.9L displacement, with RHD ITBs, hotter cam and Link Fury to be the brains of the thing. Loads of other bits along the way naturally! Last week I managed to hire a couple of bros to pull the engine, win win because I got free labour and they got to learn cars without the pain and expense of projects themselves. During the week I tore down the engine to get it ready to take it down to the engine shop for boring. Good to see that the weld on the head from the infamous M20 crack two years ago held strong with all looking in order. Remarkable how little wear in the bottom end bearings on a 300km motor! Local engineering shop completed my crank spacer too so the b28 crank should drop straight in now. Todays agenda was removing the rear subframe, as to clean it up/blast/paint and re-bush as I sourced new Powerflex bushes to go in. Tomorrow I'll take stock of exactly what I need to prep and take for sand/vapour blasting and paint prep and tidy the engine bay up and remove the brake master/booster in lieu of the replacements currently in freight.

Another trick to get the M3 tacho to read correctly is to use a 6 cylinder coding plug from another M engine, in my case I used an M635csi coding plug which slots straight in. Edit: this was using the genuine 4 cylinder 8k tacho and making it read correctly for the 6 cylinder engine, so if yours is just an 8k face then you might need to use your method.

Small progress, subframe completely stripped and just awaiting being sent for stripping/powdercoating. Fitted first of the rear braided brake lines, and continued cleaning - need to find a good degreaser/cleaner for the wheel wells/bay! My springs are purple again at least though. More interestingly, pulled my cluster and changed the econometer face to a oil temperature gauge, and my tacho to a 8k redline face from a M3. From what I can read, the econometer is a result from the SI board processor calculating fuel usage by an equation of fuel injector duty and Vehicle speed input. By removing the input pin for Vehicle speed, and soldering the two pins together so they receive the same input, I should be able to program the ECU to run the gauge accordingly Fuel rail adapter turned up so I can remote mount a regulator, and Corrado rotors ordered through EBC so hopefully over the next week my RX7 calipers and new master arrive so I can get started on the front brakes.

Checked the location and a small amount of oil at bottom of the oval looking thing ..not a great amount looks like old oil _ black in color ...is that a leaky oil gasket thing?

Subframe now part of car again, engine sitting on new mounts, everything torqued and happy. Steering rack all hooked back up with new crush washers and the power steering lines supported by a new technology I'm going to call nuts and bolts, rather than the OEM cable ties and butchery.

The suspension seems to be broken.😉😆🤣

So not like this then? Great condition, great first car... its neither of those thing https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/130i/listing/5466999213

Ive done that myself for friends of the family. Check maintainence, new tyres, battery what it needs. Groom, good photos. I also list myself and deal with the kickers. Get them $1000-$2000 more than they would have gotten. Make some myself. I did 3 cars at the start of 2024 then had to turn people down, word got out quickly.

I made a clean spot, then the rest of it looked terrible, so made another one... then had to stop myself... that'll do Donkey Despite the stupidity, call it period correctness, of the 4 tips its a actually really well made exhaust.

Big progress today, got the engine and gearbox in. Fresh oem LUK clutch. Put the engine in from underneath, that way I could install it in one go with the gearbox without risking scratching the painted engine bay. easy enough to lift the car up with the crane, slide the engine and gearbox underneath, then lower the car back down, lift the engine and box up through the bay with the crane again. Subframe and steering rack bolted on from underneath, some fresh control arms and m3 offset bushings to finish it off.