My 1989 BMW E30 325i Turbo Project
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Scooby Regular
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 188
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From: N.Ireland
My 1989 BMW E30 325i Turbo Project
copied and pasted from another site so theres a few updates since the original post that ive pasted in also to get it up to date.
ok ill try and bring this up to date as quickly as possible here.. got the car in 09 as a 325i auto, converted it to manual, daily drove it and fixed little things here and there, got started tuning the standard ECU in the car which since spiralled into a little business venture tuning and chipping E30's.
few years ago had to patch the rear part of both front arches and since i didnt like the brown interior the carpet came out which ended up turning into a bit of a weight saving quest with me removing alot of sound deadening tar from the interior.
fast forward to late last year after having driven the car daily since 09 i decided to take the car off the road as i now have the majority of the parts i need to turbo the car plus some areas on the car need a bit of rust repair though its 99.9% superficial rust.
now on to the pics, back in 09 shortly after i got it and added a 318is front splitter:
2010-ish, 325i sport wheels and lowering along with some other bits and peices, most notably ECU tuning by myself, Z3 M Coupe gearstick, poly trans mounts and more servicing, oh and some drag racing:
some random pics from 2011, had sussed tuning for M30 AFM and MAF by this point, also deleted viscous fan and fit an electric fan on an adjustable temp switch, 325i sport wheels were sold and bottlecaps bought (again), mtech 1 boot spoiler bought/fitted and started to buy/collect turbo bits from september 2011:
not much happened between the end of 2011 and the start of 2013 bar collecting turbo related goodies, i changed wheels from the bottlecaps to some old 15 inch mille miglia something or others at some point between end of 2011 and middle of 2012 and destroyed a few pairs of rear tyres, also did a head to head race day and a drift day (which sucked with no LSD):
vids from 2012:
(2nd gear cul-de-sac fun)
(head to head race vs MR2 turbo)
that brings us up to 2013, moved into new (rented) house with new GF and kitted out the shed with scraps from work and whatnot, made myself a little workshop and started to get busy on the E30 again, most importantly started working on turbo stuff, the downpipe was a B*TCH and its still needing one or two little tweaks and welding up as its only tacked up at the minute:
got these zender skirts (which incidentally must have been done using the same mould the AC Schnitzer and Hartge used so will match perfectly with the AC Schnitzer kit i managed to get since getting the skirts). after quickly fitting one and spraying it with a rattle can to get an idea of how they will look:
random video of when i was running a homebrew MAF setup built/mapped by me, it shows a quick-ish 1-2 shift for an idea of the Z3 M Coupe stick (approx 70% shorter throw if memory serves):
started attacking rust recently also. mmm.. bird sh*t looking welds, few passes with the grinder will soon sort that out tho.
more progress.. test fitted the ACS spoiler, more rust killing and fitted sports shocks in the rear.
also stripped the original ugly faded brown material off the parcel shelf and going to have a go at retrimming it in a black leather like material. something cheap and cheerful in case i **** it up the first go lol
few teaser pics.. she will be worthy of wearing the ACS badges once the front and rear valences arrive and i get them, the spoiler and the skirts painted. also fitted my OMP stainless steel bonnet pins, the wire keepers (dunno what you would call them?) i made up from some steel (i think stainless) cable from an ancient garage door that was dumped in work some time ago. shes starting to take shape looks wise anyway.. f-all else done engine wise tho.
and to add to the schnitzer gheyness i managed to bag myself a full set of schnitzer springs and a pair of shcnitzer front shocks (made by bilstein for ACS back in the day). the car will probably end up sitting a litthe higher than it was before as im guessing the ACS springs are most likely going to be 35-45mm drop whereas the springs i have in her already are 60mm front and 50mm rear. the increase in height will be good for not dragging her underside over things quite so much and should also give some more clearance once the 3 inch exhaust system is built up and fitted.
couple pics i snagged from the ebay listing for the springs/shocks:
have got my eye on a set of 16 inch 4 stud genuine schintzer alloys in need of some paint so ill have to see how that pans out.. also keeping my eyes peeled for a schnitzer steering wheel and whatever other genuine wee bits and peices i can find for the E30 so could be some more goodies coming in due time.
cracked her open after work today. all looking good enough in the head/bores. can still see the hone marks on the bores and all, not bad for 140k odd miles.
time to start stripping stuff off the head and tidying up all the misc bits and peices that have come off her so far.
ok ill try and bring this up to date as quickly as possible here.. got the car in 09 as a 325i auto, converted it to manual, daily drove it and fixed little things here and there, got started tuning the standard ECU in the car which since spiralled into a little business venture tuning and chipping E30's.
few years ago had to patch the rear part of both front arches and since i didnt like the brown interior the carpet came out which ended up turning into a bit of a weight saving quest with me removing alot of sound deadening tar from the interior.
fast forward to late last year after having driven the car daily since 09 i decided to take the car off the road as i now have the majority of the parts i need to turbo the car plus some areas on the car need a bit of rust repair though its 99.9% superficial rust.
now on to the pics, back in 09 shortly after i got it and added a 318is front splitter:
2010-ish, 325i sport wheels and lowering along with some other bits and peices, most notably ECU tuning by myself, Z3 M Coupe gearstick, poly trans mounts and more servicing, oh and some drag racing:
some random pics from 2011, had sussed tuning for M30 AFM and MAF by this point, also deleted viscous fan and fit an electric fan on an adjustable temp switch, 325i sport wheels were sold and bottlecaps bought (again), mtech 1 boot spoiler bought/fitted and started to buy/collect turbo bits from september 2011:
not much happened between the end of 2011 and the start of 2013 bar collecting turbo related goodies, i changed wheels from the bottlecaps to some old 15 inch mille miglia something or others at some point between end of 2011 and middle of 2012 and destroyed a few pairs of rear tyres, also did a head to head race day and a drift day (which sucked with no LSD):
vids from 2012:
that brings us up to 2013, moved into new (rented) house with new GF and kitted out the shed with scraps from work and whatnot, made myself a little workshop and started to get busy on the E30 again, most importantly started working on turbo stuff, the downpipe was a B*TCH and its still needing one or two little tweaks and welding up as its only tacked up at the minute:
got these zender skirts (which incidentally must have been done using the same mould the AC Schnitzer and Hartge used so will match perfectly with the AC Schnitzer kit i managed to get since getting the skirts). after quickly fitting one and spraying it with a rattle can to get an idea of how they will look:
random video of when i was running a homebrew MAF setup built/mapped by me, it shows a quick-ish 1-2 shift for an idea of the Z3 M Coupe stick (approx 70% shorter throw if memory serves):
started attacking rust recently also. mmm.. bird sh*t looking welds, few passes with the grinder will soon sort that out tho.
more progress.. test fitted the ACS spoiler, more rust killing and fitted sports shocks in the rear.
also stripped the original ugly faded brown material off the parcel shelf and going to have a go at retrimming it in a black leather like material. something cheap and cheerful in case i **** it up the first go lol
few teaser pics.. she will be worthy of wearing the ACS badges once the front and rear valences arrive and i get them, the spoiler and the skirts painted. also fitted my OMP stainless steel bonnet pins, the wire keepers (dunno what you would call them?) i made up from some steel (i think stainless) cable from an ancient garage door that was dumped in work some time ago. shes starting to take shape looks wise anyway.. f-all else done engine wise tho.
and to add to the schnitzer gheyness i managed to bag myself a full set of schnitzer springs and a pair of shcnitzer front shocks (made by bilstein for ACS back in the day). the car will probably end up sitting a litthe higher than it was before as im guessing the ACS springs are most likely going to be 35-45mm drop whereas the springs i have in her already are 60mm front and 50mm rear. the increase in height will be good for not dragging her underside over things quite so much and should also give some more clearance once the 3 inch exhaust system is built up and fitted.
couple pics i snagged from the ebay listing for the springs/shocks:
have got my eye on a set of 16 inch 4 stud genuine schintzer alloys in need of some paint so ill have to see how that pans out.. also keeping my eyes peeled for a schnitzer steering wheel and whatever other genuine wee bits and peices i can find for the E30 so could be some more goodies coming in due time.
cracked her open after work today. all looking good enough in the head/bores. can still see the hone marks on the bores and all, not bad for 140k odd miles.
time to start stripping stuff off the head and tidying up all the misc bits and peices that have come off her so far.
Thread Starter
Scooby Regular
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 188
Likes: 0
From: N.Ireland
3-500whp is do-able fairly easy on the standard 2.5 lump in these. bottom end is solid, only real fail points are flex in waterjackets on the head and standard gasket blowing out because of that. with waterjackets welded to bridge the part that can flex and O ringing the head with welding wire people have pushed the 2.5 to 500whp or more, and on OEM headgaskets lol
not really decided how far im going to go with mine but at a minimum id like to see 300bhp. im overbuilding it a bit so i can push it further if i want to once its up and running hence the big-ish turbo and 3 inch downpipe, plans to weld/o ring the head, etc.
not really decided how far im going to go with mine but at a minimum id like to see 300bhp. im overbuilding it a bit so i can push it further if i want to once its up and running hence the big-ish turbo and 3 inch downpipe, plans to weld/o ring the head, etc.
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