Jacko

Just measured up my sway bars, hard to get accurate sizes with the verniers while jamming self under car Front is ~21mm, rear is ~14.5mm which makes them Mtech package sway bars anyway?

Dont insure stuff under your parents name, ever. I had my GTSt, co-owned between me and my mother on paper, insured under her name with me as a driver when I was 18. Still cost a fortune in premiums, and the excess was like 2.5k. Had a prang, rear ended a mitzy galant that decided to randomly throw the anchors on, broke the skylines headlight, bent the chassis on the galant! Written off.. I put in a claim for the galant, didnt bother with my car as the headlight was less than the excess. State insurance investigated the claim, and then sent me a bill for 8k!. Some time, and lots of nasty letters, in court later and state paid up, but I was blacklisted from using state insurance again (Big loss, after that nightmare I wouldnt insure my toilet paper with state. )

Shweet as, Ill give u a buzz tommorrow Jon, got a list going together at the moment (including floor mats and spots - cheers) . Need to go measure my sway bars up and make sure theyre havent been replaced with 325 ones, the more I dig into the my e30 the more bits I find that arent original Gonna go hire a steam cleaner for a few days during the swap, 25 years of crud too remove The end goal, long way off!, is something like this -

Any chance of a pic of the seats? Am interested.

Im on the look out for some bits for my P/facelift e30, Im after - - Some good condition floor mats (to suit a coupe) - Front sports recaro style seats in decent condition - Fog lights (pre facelift), even just the lenses will do Chur

In no order - 1986 AE86 (first car), I owned one before everyone thought they were cool 1982 Ford Laser Sport (twin carb woop!) 1987 Subaru Vortex XT 1992 AE92 Levin GTZ 1982 Porsche 944 1993 Skyline GTSt coupe 1985 E30 323 coupe I just realised ive never owned a 4 door, or an automatic

The before pics. M50B25 swap from an E34 All new bushes, likely some new springs, shocks, and sway bars from a 325 and new sloted rotors, And then she'll go in to get some minor rust removed, and panel and paint. And if I can find a new dash, wheels, and some sports seats in the process theyll be thrown in So far all ive got is a clutch, an engine stand, and workshop space organised The badge on the bonnet pic kinda sums up the states of the old girl

Well I ran the vin, (both the tag and the stamp match), and its my rego. So I pulled up the rear seat and found a build tag! woohoo. Vin number doesnt match, doh. I have the Rear seat from WBAAA32090-9496327, 320i manual coupe, 1 month newer than my e30, option list shows it having an additional fuel tank! (0850)

Nope only ran my plate last night, ive had the car for 2.5years. Ill have a further look into it 2mo. I guess the other option is my car is actually an MX-5, which means im in the wrong forum and and am actually a middle aged lady, which concerns me greatly...

Its etched into the glass in small letters, as a security thing. Not much use for advertising, its only maybe 10mm high in the corner of the windows

Dont look any different to any other e30's ive seen.

Possible that the guy I bought it off had two e30 coupes, one was a wrecked with SKISHD plates, and then something happened to mine that caused all the windows to blow out? Weird. Maybe SKISHD is actually my car, but the plates etc are off another e30 of the same basic spec? Mysterious, I wonder what happened.

I ran my E30's plates through carjam.co.nz, it came up all kosha as far as i can tell, in terms of registered details matching realoem's VIN description of my car. It also came up with two personalised plates on my car in its past - MSPORT and BEMAR in 94 and 96.. Thats cool.. but It didnt list the personalised plate that is etched into the windows SKISHD. I bought the car in ohakune, from a guy who owned the ski shed, so the etching kinda made sense, but why is this plate not listed by carjam? IS the glass in my car swapped from another that had SKISHD plates? I ran the SKISHD plates and they look to have belonged to an MX5 since new??? Weird, anyone got any ideas?

Nah dont think its a tech1 spoiler either, well its different too mine anyway, but its tech 1ish! I want those wheels and whatever he has attaching them to the car

Skrillz - Where did you find this one? Its the shizzle, my left nut to get my tech 1 coupe sitting like that. Are they 16 or 17's?

Read through ya thread man, all of em Be sure to keep us updated, all your troubles are making me start to dread swapping an M52 into mine! Hoping for a "I connected X to Z and it started first pop" post!

Shweeet as, thankyou muchly. Makes it much easier.

Wondering if a clutch kit for a m20b25 will fit in my m20b23's flywheel, or if they are a different diameter? Im swapping out the engine for a M52B28, and am using the b23's flywheel and gearbox (Getrag 260) and there is a lot of HD clutch kits ive found for 325's.

Thanks Man, Good photos. Exhaust looks easy enough to tweak, Ive got a sneaking suspision we might make the headers from scratch, I had a looksee this morning, think I can use the exhaust thats on it the moment (looks like its been replaced in the past) and makes the right noises. Hopefully its not gonna choke the M52. Thinking I might as well do the sway bars at the same time as doing all the bushes, seems a bit halfassed to do it well.. half assed Ill start a thread in the projects page when she gets wheeled into the shop.

Thanks man, ill go hit em up. I think "stage 2" will be some M325 sway bars and do the bushes on those, not much point replacing the bushes on the girly sway bars on mine at the moment, then find an LSD and 325 rear end. Then the respray... should be a fun car at the end and save it from the wreckers yard. The Missus says WTF, buy a fecken Toyota

Thanks for all the advice hybrid, much appreciated. Can you recommend a place to go for the clutch? Im gonna use the M20 flywheel, skimmed to address the clearance problem. Mate is a pretty shed hot at fabricating, and has all the gear, so the exhaust should be a non issue, it'll be tight around the steering linkage but nothing ridiculous. Found some good resources on pre f/lift E30 wiring too so with a bit of headscratching and a multimeter pretty sure we can get it running, as long as we can keep the smoke in the wires. Gathering Ill need an E34 dipstick too, sounds like the M20 oil pump is the go. Whats with the driveshaft hoops for the cert? Sounds ugly! aft of the bellhousing is is all staying stock. That realoem.com is the business!

Sweet Cheers hybrid, handy to know hellbm has the gear. All these acronyms are confusing. Does anyone sell a suspension bush kit for an E30? The whole lot in one box

Pm'd

Cheers

Heya, Been procrastinating about doing this swap for too long, been spening all the time and money on the other addiction (Rc planes). But its time to do the swap and give the old girl a birthday, before the factory 145000mile m20b23 goes bang. Ive gone through and read what must be every guide/blog/thread online about the swap. But still have a few questions, maybe the aint been asked before, maybe im being dense Its an 1985 Mtech 1 coupe, manual 2.3. Guessing it has the Getrag 260 box. While its getting the swap im gonna do all the suspension bushes (got new shock and springs last year), change the gearbox output shaft seal, give the brakes some love with new rotors and good pads (green stuff the way to go?) Got a favourite fluid? Im taking two weeks off work too live in my mates shop, so ideally I wanna get all the parts I can ready to rock and not be going "oh fudge Im missing a bit" half way through! Mates a decent fabricator and has done umpteen engine swaps, but no bmw ones, so Ill just swing spanners and drink beer while he does the serious work. Anyway, prepare for some questions! - What M52B28 do I want? Any year? is EWS an issue, is there some trick to getting around it? Does it have to be manual or can an Auto ECU work? - So far the shopping list is -M52B28 -E28 M5 mounts. Are the M5 mounts different to standard E28 mounts? -Custom gearbox crossmemember, looks easy enough to make. -Clutch kit. Any recommendations? Its a daily driver so I dont want anything stupid, but still "spirited" daily driver! -Brake booster - Mk1 Golf GTI? Are there others that fit? I can imagine getting a Mk1 booster will be a PITA! -E34 sump ( oil pickup from the M20? ) -Any OEM radiators that'll fit? or is a getting a chinese Ali core and custom the end tanks the go? Obviously wanna ditch the viscous fan and go electric. What thermostat doofas do I need? -Any recommendations for the exhaust? Diameter and mufflers? Dont want it loud. Apart from belts/idlers on the M52, is there anything else I should change before bolting it in to the bay? Any part numbers for the above bits would be awesome, Itll make me sound cleverer when I go hunting for em Cheers for the help.