conrod

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and............

Was out at my friends' fathers place today, and happened to have digi cam handy, so took a couple of pics of his car. Has a Motec, front mounted intercooler (BEHIND THE GRILLE!) and all the other usual bits. Makes over 300hp and goes very quickly.

What he paid for it is irrelevant, it is what someone is willing to pay for it that is important. It was cheap buying at $13400, and if I had a use for it I would have paid a lot more than that.

Yep same car I was bidding on. Fair enough if someone wants to try and make a buck from it, I certainly don't have any problem with that!

I bought the Powerbuilt set through Repco, they had to order it, took a couple of days, about $60 from memory, quality looks good too.

Check out the luuuurvley interior! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-M3-Coupe-E46-Mod...1QQcmdZViewItem

If you are going to do a cam change, then schrick make the best cams in the world for these engines bar none! Mind you, they are a bit pricey, and you wil probably need a custom chip written to sort the extra fuelling out. A set of headers is a good mod too for these engines, biggest problem is trying to find a good set- they are quite rare for a RHD. Good luck and let us know how you get on!

Just out of curiosity, can anyone who has done one of these japa-into-a-bmw conversions tell me how much it has cost them? I keep hearing about cheap horsepower, but to me the conversion looks quite costly, when you factor in all of the hidden costs that normally wouldn't apply to a BMW engined conversion. Just curious!

Don't knock the Fords! I have owned one or two in the past (actually over 30!) and they are mostly allright! (still have an Escort Cosworth in the garage) I have made a few cages in my lifetime, but I also realise that there are people out there who can do a better job than I can, and am happy to farm this job out.Besides which, I don't have a tube bender or welding gear, and I am having it made out of lightweight T45 tubing and all TIG welded. I will be supplying the design, which will be based on the Gp.A M3 cage, with a few "tweaks" of my own thrown in. Like I said, vegemite sandwiches for a while!............

Yes many weeks, although consisting mostly of a few hours here and there,and 1 blown heatgun along the way, probably 30 or 40 hours in total I would guess. And I weighed it today, only 10kgs of underseal but it did need doing regardless. Spare wheel well is 4.5kgs, and miscellaneous brackets removed were 3 kgs, so 17.5 kgs out of the shell is a good start. That is the hard part when you are trying to lose weight out of a car, it rarely comes out in big chunks, it is always a little here and a little there.......... I don't know what it has cost so far, I will be keeping tabs on it, but mostly just the purchase of the wrecked M3 for $10K, which was offset by selling a lot of unwanted bits, and the E30 "donor car", plus the wheels and a few other bits. I don't think I have spent much over $10K in total so far, but some big ticket items are coming up soon, such as the rollcage/seats so I might be on the vegemite sandwiches for a few months!

Hello Glenn, I removed the spare wheel well because the wheels I am using are too large in diameter to fit, and as described above I intend to fit a diffuser under the rear, so this creates the space for that. Also there was a weight saving by removing it. Fuel tank wise, I am going to use a late F/L 325i tank, which will give me 65 litres, plus I have one of those long range (25L I think) tanks that goes behind the rear seat, this gives the advantage of keeping all of that dead weight as close to the centre of the car as possible, I never did like the setup they ran in the Gp.A cars with the big fuel tank in the boot of the car.I may cut the 25L tank and enlarge it to 35 or 45 litres, as I intend to race in the endurance series with the car. The only downside is that if I do a tarmac rally, I will have to make a spare wheel holder on the boot floor, but not a big problem really. Stripped underseal with heat gun and scraper (hard labour!) and pedal box hasn't been started yet, although I have bought some more of those master cylinders, so I now have nearly all the different sizes. BMW Power- yes those brakes are awesome, a pity the wheels will completely hide them, maybe I will have to put the car on stands and take the wheels off whenever I am sitting in the pits for a bit of pose value?!!!!!!

As an alternative, why not split the caliper, and mill 10mm off each half? That is of course if the caliper design allows this, I have seen it done on AP's for the same reason.

The brake calipers were obviously made for a much larger rotor, there is a serious mismatch in parts used here. Use larger rotors to suit, or smaller calipers that match the rotor size properly. Sorry Damo, I am not trying to rain on your party, I really like the projects you are working on at the moment, an M30 turbo is a serious bit of gear, and the 2002 Touring looks cool too, certainly a bit outside the square which I always like! But I think you could get yourself into trouble with this brake setup so thought I would express my concerns. Anyway, enough from me, time to wander back out in the garage and do some work on mine.......

To answer your questions briefly, he fitted JE 8.5:1 comp pistons, and the turbo was placed up high, around the area the washer bottle normally sits. There is not much option other than down low at the rear, but then things get really tight, and you have to run a scavenge pump for the turbo drain, and it starts getting messy. First manifold was fabricated by cutting up the stainless M42 headers, but this did not last so a modified Mosselmann turbo ex. manifold was used, this has proved to be more robust than the original setup.

Damo, things were looking okay until I saw the bit about the brake pad spacer- sorry pal but that is far less than 110% ideal! I very much doubt that the caliper was designed to run with the pad that deep in the body, and it must be close if not at the end of the pad guides, it certainly appears so from the pictures you posted. As well as that, the choice of material for the spacer would be interesting, as it would act as a bit of a heat sink and will make one side run hotter than the other, not to mention the risk of the spacer jamming in the caliper reducing braking efficiency. You may get away with it, but I sure wouldn't be recommending anyone else trying this at home! :thumbsdown:

Saw it twice tonight - I thought it was pretty cool too!

If it is a red fluid it is most likely auto trans fluid. Otherwise probably best to get it froma BMW dealer.

I am guessing that your car has the hydraulic brake booster. It gets its pressure from the power steering pump, which also sends pressure to the steering rack (obviously!) You did not say whether the fluid being lost was the powersteering/booster fluid, or the brake fluid- this you must determine! The brake fluid will be topped up on the master cylinder, in the clear reservoir on top of the master cylinder, the other has a reservoir somewhere else, I can't remember where on an E32. Brake fluid can be bought anywhere, the power steering fluid can be bought from a BMW dealer, I am not sure if it is the same as ordinary power steering fluid (which is just automatic trans fluid) so unless someone can confirm, it would be best to play it safe and buy the correct fluid from a BMW dealer.

Apparently a pretty nasty repair in the bum, check it out carefully if you are thinking of buying.

FYI anything will blow a rod through the block if you rev the crap out of it- rod bolts/conrods are generally the weak link in any production engine. The M42 is a fabulous engine, very underrated IMO, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. These were the basis of the S42 SuperTourer engine that replaced the legendary S14, so that tells you something! Okay they are only 1800cc, but a friend of mine turbo'd his ( I fitted the Motec and a few other bits) and it was very strong- over 300hp with loads of torque. And on standard rods and crank too! We built an "experimental" one for the NZ touring cars as an alternative to the six cylinder M52 engine, and it showed real promise, before the project was shelved. Definitely quicker than an M20 2.0, not as quick as an M20 2.5, but will be better balanced and lighter in stock trim. :thumb:

and another shot showing the large hole left in the boot floor!....

A bit of an update on the project. Progress seems a bit slow at the moment, but this prep stuff always takes a while. I have completely stripped the car down to a shell, and it is on a rotisserie. After spending MANY days with a a heat gun and putty knife, I have removed all of the rubberized underseal. It was on quite thick in places, the upside of all this is a perfectly preserved shell underneath, with not a trace of rust! I have swept up all the bits of underseal and put them in a rubbish bag, and will weigh them just out of curiosity, but I reckon it feels like 20 kilos! Next stage is some seam welding, as well as "tubbing" the rear wheelarches, and panelling over the hole in the boot where the spare wheel recess once was. I drilled out the spotwelds and removed it as my new wheels do not fit in there as they are too big, it weighed a bit, and also there will be a diffuser mounted under the boot floor extending from the rear axle all the way to the rear of the car.

I wasn't even going to pull any of those cards out! It is a silly argument though, and been through many times before. It is widely acknowledged that the BMW Formula One Turbo was the most powerful of all time. And BMW do build some very powerful road cars. And some private owners have built some very powerful BMW powered cars. As well as some very powerful non-BMW powered cars. I am not really sure I understand the reasoning behind many of these Japanese engine conversions. If it is for a cheap 350hp, then I get it.The SR20 DET (funny anagram for a turbo engine - DET! just what you don't want...) as well as the Toyota Supra are good examples of cheap readily available 300+ hp engines. But some of them have then gone and spent moonbeams turning it into a 600hp fire breathing dragon- and that costs money! (regardless of what engine you are running) Who has the biggest baddest fastest BMW? Who knows, and who cares? If you get your kicks out of fitting a rotar or Mitsuota quad turbo double intercooler into your E30, then good for you! My toy will be BMW powered, do what you want with yours- I don't care. Whatever spins your wheels!......... On a slight tangent, a little heads up for you all, there may be an up and coming race series for BMW's (running BMW power only!) and I am not referring to the new E30 series. Those who attended the AGM will know what I am referrring to. I will keep you posted as developments happen! :thumb:

I am happy to settle this argument once and for all. I'll bet I can come up with a BMW powered car ( local) that will eat any of your Japanese engined jobbies for breakfast! (hp, top speed, the whole lot) Anyone up for the challenge? :thumb: