e30guydownunder

Nice! I spose we all want to know the change in weight on the front end though

Just replaced the Wideband and getting the thermo fans working properly. Then I might change the oil and look at doing a wheel alignment.

The Hillclimb was run through King Edward Park, Bar Beach is in the background. Newcastle, NSW. It was a hell of a nice day. Cheers.

Cheers, been along time coming! SR proved to be nothing but another setback. I have long considered a 6 cylinder, but all the work you are going through now has steered me down the 4 cylinder path. I had my car on some dodgy corners weights recently and it was pointing towards 50:50 with the driver, yours should easily get that.

Awesome Project! Are you still running the XYZ coilovers? I have my own compact build in the works and gravel is the plan so I am interested to hear how you found them on the loose stuff Keep the updates coming!

I have fixed the SR for good. Back to old faithful M42......but now with proper boost. Better pics and such when I have time, busy preparing it for the Mattara Hillclimb this October long weekend. I am running in the club day event on the Monday because all my mates are but anyway. So Basic Specs: BMW M42 (1.8L 4 Cylinder) CP Pistons ARP Rod Bolts, Main Studs, Oversize Headstuds O-ringed Head and Block, Copper Headgasket Cat Cams, VAC Motorsport Springs and Retainers Custom Rear Sump Garret GT3076R, 0.63 Rear Housing, Tial MVR 44 on custom Manifold DTA S60 still running the show Fuel Cell, 2 x 044's, 1600 Bosch Injectors and a bunch of other supporting mods. I have changed to a Getrag G260 (325i trans) overdrive transmission and a 3.46 rear end, this is good for a touch over 200 in 4th and should mean I don't have to change to 5th at Wakefield. There has been a whole pile of background developments but they are for later. Right now I am going to drive the wheels off this thing and put the development program on hold, I am well sick of wrenching. __________________________________________________ _______________ Made it through the first event not without drama but I made it! -coming home from scrut Thursday night got a flat tyre on the trailer (not so fun) - Friday morning same wheel feel off trailer, broken stub axle! - Monday morning rip exhaust off car trying to get off borrowed trailer. Got it patched up just in time for first run. - Second run intercooler pipe comes off, hmmm did that on dyno, reassemble should be sweet. - Third run, nope off it goes again. - Fourth run all apples, rigged up some dodgy tie straps to the inlet. Obviously this turbo setup was never going to be super awesome for a Hillclimb, add in that I had installed a 3.46 diff to suit Wakefield and Eastern Creek and it wasn't super pleasant. But I am pleased to have had a day out, simple easy to fix dramas and it came home straight and ready to go again, more than can be said for a number of cars that were competing also. http://youtu.be/_js2ubNPhkc Got some sweet pics too

Another couple of month bump. It's good to see progress on this car, for years I have wondered where it was up to!

Needs more video's mate! Good to see your project making great head way.

Looking good! Are they off the shelf Koni's or something you have made up out of modified stock stuff and put koni stickers on?

Spent all day reading it up...head gaskets look nothing alike, so you are correct. I guess I will have to wait and see when I pull the two engines apart, something might be possible, but worst case use the M54 rotating assembly in the M50.

Nice Build Steve! I am having thoughts of doing something very similar over here in Oz, but mine will be destined for gravel. I had thought initially that you purchased a Harry Hockley cage kit as well as the bodykit but seems you just made one yourself? Is the M52 an alloy block version? I have an M54B30 I am planning on fitting an M50 head and OBD-I electronics. Would you mind sharing how much HH charged you to ship the body kit? PM maybe. Anyway hope to see some more updates! Is looking great thus far.

Thanks Mate. It was a struggle towards the end there, but now that I have got it there and driven the thing I'm much happier! I have some uni work I am trying to sort out, but hopefully will get stuck into fixing up the few problems I have and make some progress towards getting some back to back laps! The car is showing so much potential, I want to up the anty on the aero but I love the understated look currently. I'm definitely fitting a front splitter, but a Rear wing would get me some serious time at Eastern Creek with all the high speed corners. Here are a few pics from the event I found on the net:

Alright So I'm back from the track and we have had a sit and a think about it all. Very happy with how the car is and how it performed first event out. I'm aiming for a trackday October long weekend (first weekend). The job list is fair but modest. Things that will happen: Turbo setup removed. Wastegate Flapper Fixed, Manifold ported to match head - Test, if boost is controllable - TUNE - if boost uncontrolled still, add my external gate. Diff will come out and my 4 Diff Plate centre with more preload will be going in, new bearings seals etc. CV's will be stripped, reassembled with new grease and boots (assuming nothing looks particularly wrong) Brake Ducts made and fitted Front Splitter made and fitted to front bar - incorporating substancial radiator ducting Maybe List Throw the HKS cams back in tidy the interior more - wiring is still a bit of a mess CAN communication between Dash and ECU

SOOO BRING ON ROUND 2 So the new engine has been in and going for a lil while now. The setup has been changed further though. The turbo was f**ked. So I bought a standard manifold and TD06SL2 (the turbine is a bit smaller than TD06H) with a nissan turbine housing setup. this means internal gate. I modified my dump pipe to suit, hooked up water cooling lines also and was happy with progress: Nearly ready to go off to the dyno: Some heatshields and sh*t: That was last Thursday night. Found out we have some overboosting problems. So we set it up with buggerall ignition where necessary and pretty rich and came home with 243whp @ 6300rpm. An a calculated 450Nm from a touch over 3000rpm to 6000. But f**k it I'm going to this trackday! Dad had Friday off to try and finish the car and I cam home from work and we ended up staying home the night (normally head down the day before an event at Wakefield). We were all loaded up by 1030 and ready to go. Overheating, Boostcut issues aside I still knocked out a 1:10.8 and was happy with that. I wanted to go home with a 10 in the bag. More importantly I came home with the car in one piece and know we are only going forwards. There is probably an easy 2 seconds left in the car once I have the overheating and overboosting issues sorted. I've already ordered some piping to make brake ducting so that should see an improvement in that department. There are a few contributing factors to the overheating so we are going to tackle these before returning to the dyno, controlling the boost and dialling in some ignition for some more power. NOT THAT it needs it. The car is still incredibly easy and nice to drive. It's very well balanced and doesn't sit around spinning the wheels or anything silly. It just gets down and goes. I'm very happy with the throttle response and way the turbo comes on. Basically it goes hard! Get these issues sorted, drive it and watch the times tumble Here is a picture of the new front bumper we fitted as part of the conversion. All important Side pipe!

Alright guys. I have a confession. 1) updates are long over due, for that I appologise 2) I gave up! The M42 was getting too expensive and taking too long. But before we get to the meat of the story. Some background work that was happening regardless! A Brake Upgrade, front and rear are now ventilated. F: 280x24mm, 2 piston WRX Caliper, R: 270x19mm, Single Piston WRX Caliper. These calipers were free. Painted some Stuff: Welded some stuff more painting of stuff Oh what a large drivetrain you have there in your E30: The Gearbox is out of a 300ZX, but don't be fooled it ain't got a VG in there. Nope this now has an SR20, tractor engine I know, but you can't beat the price of these things. Dollar for Power I don't know what beats it. Apparently the Mitsubishi stuff is cheap too, but a RWD box is much harder to come across for those! ANYWAY, So I've gone and stuck an SR in the thing. Since then I have basically ahd to rework the whole setup! I believe the first engine suffered some oil starvation at the hands of theprevious owner. Use was promtply stopped, the car sat around for a while, then he got the bright idea to sell it all! I came across a "350whp SR20, gearbox and everything package" sweet I though, I was currently going through a bit of depression with the whole E30 project and life in general so this seemed like the answer. I had a track day in 4 weeks time and purchased an SR20. I then proceeded to bust my balls and also enlisted the help of my father, brother and a few mates. It was an all hands on deck effort to get this thing there. Then to go to the Dyno the day before the track day and have the engine drop shits its pants about an hour into tuning and not even one proper power run on the board was a bit heart breaking. BUT, thats racing right! No pain no gain. Some pics: Intercooler mounted Cold pipe Dump pipe New shifter location Heater and turbo water cooling delete We modified the position of the wastegate and then made up a screamer pipe Heading off for the disappointment unknowning! On the Dyno: Alright so I picked myself up, bought an S13 and stripped it of its SR then sold it. The New engine is pretty stout: Arias forged pistons Eagle rods w/ ARP2000 Bolts Balanced New oil pump Ported and Polished head (only minor work) HKS stage 2 272 exhaust cam , and 264 intake cam HKS Valve Springs HKS Rocker Arm Stoppers new timing chain all new gasket incl Metal head gasket with Cap screws holding it down The cams were removed as it was suspected they were the source of a noise. I'm now no longer convinced this is the case and may reinstalled them yet. SOME MORE BASTARDRY: One thing that struck us as odd was how the Z32 conversion had been carried out. There were only 4 bolts holding the gearbox on! And non were across the bottom! Have since worked out this has stuffed the twin plate clutch that it was fitted with. But in any case. We have taken the time and made provisions in the Sump for some extra bolts to come through the gearbox!