3i_gaz

Got a decent 2 door facelift E30 shell sat in my garage, been there for a good 2-3 years now, mint shell jsut unsure what to do with it.

jsut wondering whats involved in sticking a YB in an E30, wiring wise? what diff to use? box? etc.....

any help of info is much appreciated

cheers Gaz

Charlie Chalk

iTrader: (1)

Friends one uses 325i sport rear end, Was on ebay a while back. Custom engine mounts made by himself, and he used a T5 cossie box with a modded prop.

Went like shit off a shovel running stage 3 power.

Gracelands built one in the past, I'm sure he'll be more helpful if he see's this.

3i_gaz

yeah i would want it stage 3 mate, no more really.

do the 325's come with an lsd? unsure on how strong beemer diffs are you see, its something i've never looked into before.

jsut want to know what bits i need so i can start collecting and strip it over winter ready.

Charlie Chalk

iTrader: (1)

His was a standard rear end and took the abuse all day, Yes it has an LSD.

3i_gaz

sounds good to me, have to start christmas sahopping for myself soon lol


rollo n some more info

XRT_si

iTrader: (2)

Speak to Fuzzy, he has a cossie engine with right sump and engine loom for an E30 I believe.

fuzzy

i have a complete conversion ready to drop into an e30 that i removed from my touring for Ł1800. pretty much plug and play with the cosworth wiring loom connecting to the large socket on the original e30 loom.
22000 miles since new piston rings and stem seals, ported and polished head, 10000 mile since new stage 2 t34.48, 1000 miles on new grpA headgasket fitted after the head was removed to helicoil a couple of broken manifold studs . the custom mounts, custom prop, custom sump to fit around the standard front crossmember, t5 with modified bellhousing to make use of the original bmw hydraulic clutch system, stainless 2.5" straight through exhaust, recored standard rad and 2wd cooler, l6 ecu with stage1 chip ,lots of samco hoses and a 4 pipe breather kit all included.. as you can see from the pics the drive belts have been removed and the oil has been drained for a service whilst its out .

fuzzy

i had problems with my rear diff mount cracking, it needed strengthened which was no big deal really. i had a 3.91 lsd and it was quite fierce acceleration.
only the sport comes with an lsd as standard . it was an option on 325's when new. the 325 will have heavier suspension than other e30's in the range as standard . especially if you get an mtec equipped like my touring.

Charlie Chalk

iTrader: (1)

How come your selling your conversion Fuzz?

fuzzy

got bored of it. i stripped it down and broke it up about 2 months ago. i wasnt using it.all the car parts are gone . ive not really advertised the conversion parts much just in case i changed my mind.

3i_gaz

is the price above for the whole conversion bits? motor, turbo, mounts, prop etc.... ?

fuzzy

yes, take it all away for Ł1800...
theres 2 small oil leaks, 1 from the front cam half moon seal and 1 from the output shaft on the rear of the t5. both easy enough fixes.
thats the only faults known to me. ive spent a few grand maintaining it over the 4 years ive had it.
its not a shiny show conversion but its a good honest functional engine that can be buftied up if thats your interest.

vroooom ptssssh

fook me that's a bargain off fuzzy if its all ready to drop in!

3i_gaz

wish i had that sort of cash at the minute matey, was jsut going to do a project over winter through to mid next year.

would you sell the mounts and bell housing adaptor and sump seperate?

alanfordtw-15

theres fierce talk about these recently!
it makes sense, combine a big power light(compared to the beemer 6's) engine with a good chassis is gonna make a fast car

3i_gaz

and you dont get much better looking than a retro cool E30 on the right wheels!!

got some nice old school 7.5 or 8 inch cant remember..... 6 inch TSW hocks with the big metal centre caps will look rather goooood

Mike1

You'd want to stick the E30 M3 front end suspension set-up on at least though surely? And with a Z3 or at least an E36 rack as well to make the most of it?

alanfordtw-15

i'd find it hard to fault the 325 setup really, nothing wrong with it. z3 racks are often said to be too quick a rack and make the front end twitchy. e36 rack is a good improvement alright.

Mike1

I s'pose it depends what you're used to Alan.
I've got a Z3 rack on my e36 as I found even the steering on that too 'slow' after the Cosworth and a few other cars I've had. The ratio on a std E36 is roughly the same as an E30 M3 ( about 3 and a half turns ). I find it pretty good now.....but it's still a slower ratio than the Sierra. The E30 M3 weights up a lot more as you turn in as well as it runs a lot more caster than a normal E30 so it gives it more 'feel' in my opinion as well.

When my friend owned his 325 Sport ages ago he put one of the Griffin Motorsport manual quick racks on and it seemed a lot more responsive. In those days there wasn't the option of a powered z3 rack
It seems like with the std E30 steering you have to put an armful of lock on to nip through a mini roundabout or quick left-right-left transition whereas it's just a flick of the wrists with a quicker ratio like in a Cosworth.
Just my two-pennorth though and I appreciate everyone likes different things on their car...but if I was going to do a YB conversion on an E30 I'd try and use the 'best' bits from the range

alanfordtw-15

very good info and experience. standard racks which although have great lock and give the wheel nice castor on lock, do fall short on the amount of turning you have to do lock to lock.
maybe the only slight disadvantage with putting the m3 setup in a standard car will be the wider track which would put the wheels out past standard arches. other than that it is an undoubtly better setup again

3i_gaz

are E36 racks easily swopped onto an E30? any particular rack?> or do they all have the same turns lock to lock etc...

m3cosworth

Fuzzy can u pm me your tel number, mite have a buyer for you

Mike1

I believe it's a fairly straight forward swap fella and I bet if you search on E30 Zone it will detail what is involved. I've not swapped a rack onto an E30 so can't tell you what was involved. My friend put his manual quick rack onto his E30 Sport himself but he didn't ask for my help as he's an ex-WRC mechanic. In any event that was a quick rack designed esp for an E30 but I don't know if Griffin Motorsport even exist now ( based somewhere near Swindon ). I do know a lad who had an E30 318is and he put a Z3 rack on himself so don't think it can be too hard.

As for E36 racks there are three basic types that i think you could try depending on what you want.
The standard E36 rack as used on all the cars and also the E36 M3 EVO. These are around 3.4 turns lock to lock ( slightly less turns lock to lock on some cars like the M3 EVO and Sport if they have lock limiter tabs - may be around 3.2 turns...but the actual ratio is still the same )

The Z3 rack ( except for the Z3M ) which is basically the same but has a much faster ratio giving about 2.7ish turns lock to lock ( a lot of these have lock limiter tabs as many Z3s have big wheel/tyre options ). I think the Z3M has a ratio very similar to a normal E36.

There is also the non-EVO E36 M3 rack which is a variable ratio. This is very slow around the straight ahead position but much faster on extremes of lock - I think it gives about 3 turns lock to lock. It works OK with the E36 M3 front-end geometry which is peculiar to that car but it might give funny results on an E30. BMW changed the front-end geometry from the non-EVO to the EVO model when they used the linear rate rack.

IIRC the std E30 rack is a smidge over 4 turns lock to lock (4.1 ish). The E30 M3 rack is about 3.5/3.6 turns lock to lock but is obviously only LHD. When Birds converted E30 M3s to right hand drive they used the standard E30 rack which obviously diluted the steering response. I think they also had to modify the exhaust manifold quite a bit.

ZF who make the E36 steering racks usually express the rack ratios/speed in mm/rev. ( Milllimeters of movement per input revolution ) which is more useful perhaps to you as it tells you the speed of the rack without worrying about lock limiter tabs etc

A standard E36 rack is about 45mm/rev, a Z3 one is about 53mm/rev and the E36 M3 non-EVO one is about 39mm/rev until you have a lot of lock on when the ratio changes.

If you can get hold of a Z3 ( non-M model ) rack I'd try that but they are quite hard to get hold of as everyone has cottoned on to doing the mod now. If not, try a normal E36 one as will be an improvement in speed over a standard E30 one.

Alternatively the E46 Compact rack is about 2.9/3.0 turns lock to lock ( 50mm/rev ) and I think that should fit as well but probably best to look at it alongside an E36 one just to check the fittings. All E46 post 2001 racks shoud be the same as a Compact ( there were steering suspension mods to the E46 range midway 2001 to give better response - these mods were trialled on the Compact first ) but I stated the Compact as i know they are all that ratio.

Hope that is useful.
I went to a Z3 rack on my e36 328 and even though it is only about a half-turn quicker it feels much more than that and was a worthwhile mod for my use

3i_gaz

jesus wasnt expecting that lol

brilliant response mate, thanks for that!!

3i_gaz

any decent BMW breakers people know of? can't find a 325 rear beam

fuzzy

a rear beam of any touring (316-325 )will also be the same as a 325 with rear discs.

3i_gaz

smashing, mine is a 316 coupe, sure it hasnt got discs though

fuzzy

if your wanting discs you can use the rear axle from any touring or a 325 saloon. all tourings have the good bits as standard and can often be overlooked because its an estate.

3i_gaz

sounds good to me will find a tourer being broken.

any other bits worth having? is there 2 different bore shocker sizes too beetween models?

fuzzy

45mm and 51mm. only the 325 saloons have 51mm struts but again all tourings from 316's upto 325's use the bigger 51mm. the springs are 4 pot and 6 pot dependent though and rear springs on a touring are different rates to saloons

3i_gaz

some thing to bare in mind, will more than likely be going on coilies anyway tbh but incase the funds get low am sure a decent shock and spring set up will be fine.

what did you do about the hydraulic clutch on yours? did you use a reyland kit or similar?

Charlie Chalk

iTrader: (1)

http://www.quarrybmwspares.co.uk/

fuzzy

no need to spend hundreds on stuff like that. for a few pounds a bracket can be welded to the bellhousing and the standard system used unmodified.
your not on e30zone? everything you need is on there.

3i_gaz

i will register now mate thanks for that.

rad nice one for the link bud!

BON_300

would a cosworth engine fit better in an E21 than in an E30 ? It sits perfectly though in an E36 but what about an E21 BMW ?

R4N SS

iTrader: (6)

i have a nice 2.7 engine for the E30 mate if you want it

Mister G

Thread from the dead!

flood118

hi ther i no its a long shot but have u got eny of the bits left for the cosworth in to e30 convetion thanks

Fil

Old thread but still


The one i want to build these days, is find an M5 lump, either e34 S38 straight 6 lump, or an E39 S62 V8

and fit trhat to a M3