E30 Touring M52 Swap

[nick496 268]

On 1/13/2020 at 10:51 PM, Olaf said:

given your work rate, the e36'll be ready in time for Waitangi day!

Well sadly the wallet wasn't able to make that happen, but hopefully not too far away.

 

Prior to my WoF, saw my front swaybar bushings were a little bulging out the side of their mounts.
Pulled them out to find them like this:

I'm not 100% on this, but could not pretensioning the sway bar correctly cause this level of wear in under a year? (Including a few track days)

Passed the WoF, but she didn't take well to being touched by other men, and formed a nice puddle of coolant while she was there.
Cause of that was a split in the hoses just under the clamp, which probably explains the weeping I was seeing around the thermostat housing. 

Shout out to Hillcrest Auto Services, who chucked on a spare hose they had so I could get home.
They also pointed out the my heater core was leaking (Which is under 2 years old), so the dash will have to come out yet again.

So just put on new radiator hoses top and bottom, which should hopefully mean my cooling system is going to hold up for a while to come.

[nick496 268]

Put some Hawk HT10 pads on the car, along with some R888R's all round.
The pads made the pedal feel very vague with no heat in the brakes, but after warming them up, performed very well, and had no issues with locking up. They are of course, not great on the street, so had to keep my distance driving there and back. After the track day, they also squeal when cold.

No action shots this time, as it was just me, though I guess I should figure out filming along with recording lap times.

Managed a PB for me of 1:55.74.
PB of the car (In it's prior state with shot HPS pads and street tyres is 1:55:44)
All in all, a very consistent 1:57

Managed to pass an E46 330ci, and kept up with a few slightly higher power cars too (V8 powered AE86)

So very happy with the pads, they seemed to lock up even after several laps.
Now that I have pads I can trust, need some time to get consistent, so I stop locking up and wearing flat spots on tyres >.>

Only real issue was at the end of the last session, when I came into the pits, turned the car off, and coolant started coming out of the overflow, leaving a massive puddle for me to clean up.

Electric fan wasn't running like it was after other sessions, and temperature gauge was showing below average. Coolant pipes were solid.

Ended up driving her home without incident, so we shall see.
Potentially an airlock that finally got freed after almost 200km's of track duty?

[nick496 268]

Gosh, it's been a while since I've updated this.

Not that much has really happened in a while to the E30 anyway

I sold the Blue Ti
I sold the E36 328i

I installed some coilovers briefly thinking they'd give me better performance on the track.
Drove around town. Hated them. Pulled them out the following day.
They did sit nicely though.

Lost a few door trim pieces (but have ordered some replacements)

Did another track day, different wheels this time

I can't recall why, but my times were great, but within the ballpark.
No coolant puddles though, which was a bonus

Then did a Motorkhana up in Pukekohe, which was great fun. 

And then got another set of wheels

And then got my ACS wheels straightened and repainted.

Stripped:

After:

There is quite a bit of dips in the paint, but that mostly seems to be due to them being powder coated previously

Edited October 14, 2021 by nick496

[nick496 268]

Did another track day. 
This time mates came with me.

As you can see, it was a bit wet on Saturday, so times weren't great.
I drove around on my ACS wheels with lots of trend, and surprisingly didn't have many traction issues, which gave me some good confidence in the car.

Came back on Sunday, and for the first time saw another E30 there at the same time as me.

The weather fined up in the afternoon, and managed a 1:59 by the end of it, which wasn't too bad. 
Managed to burn some of the paint off the rims due to the heat.

And then managed to get some H&R springs and install those.
The car actually sits higher than with the Eibachs though, as I also replaced the front strut mounts at the same time.

I clearly didn't bother to clean the car after the track day and before installing the new springs.
I must say, I can see why everyone likes the H&R springs. They're firm enough to keep the car fairly level around corners, but not too harsh driving around town.
I might swap to Koni's later on to get the damper adjustability, but until then happy with the Bilsteins.

 

 

Edited October 14, 2021 by nick496

[adro 1083]

looks fantastic! +1 for Koni & H&R. I have the E90 tophats in my sedan that are suppose to give a few more mm drop, but looking at your photo it looks pretty similar

Edited October 14, 2021 by adro

[nick496 268]

Yeah, I didn't have any E90 drop hats on the floor when I went to install them. 
Something I might do later on, but I mostly just wanted to get them in there and go for a drive.

[E28E30 335]

Hi @nick496 do you know if your car was first based in Christchurch when imported back in the 1990s? I think it might have been my friend’s Dad’s one, he loved it!

[nick496 268]

@E28E30I believe it was. Here's a very old thread of it for sale back in 2011: 

Note the panels are all the same shade of red, all the factory options are still there. Classic wee car.

Edited October 14, 2021 by nick496

[E28E30 335]

1 hour ago, nick496 said:

@E28E30I believe it was. Here's a very old thread of it for sale back in 2011: 

Note the panels are all the same shade of red, all the factory options are still there. Classic wee car.

Thanks man!  It is Peter’s old car

[E28E30 335]

1 hour ago, nick496 said:

@E28E30I believe it was. Here's a very old thread of it for sale back in 2011: 

Note the panels are all the same shade of red, all the factory options are still there. Classic wee car.

It is a great Touring!