m52b28 E30 Project

[Boost Junky 1]

She's alive!!!!

Thanks to another Luke blonde moment, seem to have one of these per project I work on. My M50 Turbo I forgot to put the engine earths on, this time I managed to hook the fuel supply/return hoses around the wrong way.. DUH. No wonder the injectors were dry.

We also mixed up the trigger wheels today so put the one on we think is from the M50TU, didn't work put the other one on and she fired up straight away! So really not sure which trigger wheel is on the vehicle now?

On another note, battery voltage while the motor is running = 11.54V and 11.55V at the alternator, not sure what the issue is here. I know that the main alternator +ve lead goes to the starter motor +ve and from there to the battery +ve. Brushes shot?

Another interesting issue we have ran into is the gearbox not holding 2nd or 4th gear, we found that the gbox/shifter sits slightly too far back and it touches on the rear of the hole in the tunnel where the shifter comes up into the cabin. I have a suspicious feeling this is due to the 'front on' where some young clowns were drunk and pulled out in front of Jamie one night. Maybe the chasis has buckled/shortened a few mm?

what gearbox and shifter parts are you using.

maybe they are the 4cyl ones (longer)

We are not sure Brent but shall find out thanks.

Mine was just touching the manifold using the same booster (E32), but I slotted the firewall holes diagonally to move it down and across to gain some clearance room. So it could be a combination of that and the mounts you are using. I used E34 mounts iirc (M20 ones)

Cool thanks Troy, did you have to use adapter plates when you sloted the holes in the firewall?

the agreed mounts to use by most conversion guys is E36 M5x arms and E28 M30/S38 rubber mounts.

PM user E30ftw and find out what linkage he used, he had a Getrag 220 box on the back of his M50 E30. user Sasha now has thins car, he may also know.

We have definitely got the E36 M5x arms and pretty sure they are E28 rubber mounts Andy, thanks we shall give them a PM.

Thanks for all the help

[Jamie W 0]

So finally here's a video of the machine going! Worth watching

Enjoy

[hybrid 1039]

On another note, battery voltage while the motor is running = 11.54V and 11.55V at the alternator, not sure what the issue is here. I know that the main alternator +ve lead goes to the starter motor +ve and from there to the battery +ve. Brushes shot?

Its usually just a problem with the regulator and can be replaced. The points could also just need servicing as well.

you should see 13.8-14v

Congrats ... you get that "engine swap first start" feeling

[Jamie W 0]

Congrats ... you get that "engine swap first start" feeling

ha when that engine first started up i think i felt a touch from heaven it was amazing to hear it going after a year and a bit of hard work. Definitely made the whole conversion worth doing

[Jamie W 0]

Time for an update.

After the car had been going for a little bit i ordered a K&N pod filter for it. Looks great and makes a nice difference to the sound of it. Great addition to the project.

We have recently ordered a new Diff with 2 extra clutches put into it by a clutch specialist and worked on getting it into the car with a couple of other things until 5 in the morning.

We have had to relocate the brake booster across 1.5mm to fit because it was being interrupted by the intake manifold which meant we had to create new location plates to fit. It is all in and all working Did come across the problem of the reservoir not fitting becaust of the air intake pipe so we have ordered a universal one to fit into the firewall and have pipes running down to the master cylinder.

We started making the stainless exhaust from the rear as we were missing a manifold that was getting welded at the time. Luke (BoostJunky) got some of the way when we realized the lady who said she had given us stainless tig rods had actually given us carbon steel rods which means were yet to cut off the already welds and start again with stainless Last big job until this car starts moving!

I was trying to think of a nice place to mount my gauges. I didn't really want to drill holes in my dash as there's no crackes or tears in it and the pillar mount i found was way to chunky and ugly looking so i decided from seeing a couple of photos to mount them in three holes drilled out in the front of the centre console as the photo shows. Glad i got it perfect on my first attempt.

Today i received my XYZ coilovers! They look awesome and cant wait to get them on the car. Definitely worth buying. (they came with a lanyard)

Getting the disks pressed onto them tomorrow.

Everything's been wired up and working sweet so not long to go now! Get these shocks on, exhaust made up and put on, brake booster reservoir relocated to firewall and bigger front brakes and rotors. Will try to be more onto it with my updates =)

Thanks for the interest everyone!

[hybrid 1039]

Nice!

Gonna do the brakes later ?

[Jamie W 0]

Nice!

Gonna do the brakes later ?

Yea ill probably get bigger discs and calipers if it doesn't feel like the original ones perform very well.

[Lucan 196]

She'll be mint once done!

Looks similar to my sedan, so I approve very much

[Jamie W 0]

She'll be mint once done!

Looks similar to my sedan, so I approve very much

Cheers, yea cant beat that staunch e30 look with tech 2 huh cant wait for its first drive!

[Jamie W 0]

Got the hubs pressed onto the front shocks today and a resurface also. looks so much better than previous.

[thorburn 120]

That mild steel wire would've made things tricky. All ways check what's stamped into the wire.

Are you back purging the whole system?

I'll be making some modifications to an lsd that i've picked up. Would love to hear how yours goes with more clutches. Are you changing the ramp angles as well?