My m30 swap - TONS of pics...

With only 90k miles on my ***8220;new***8221; M30 ***8211; there was no way I was going to rebuild it. Those of you who know m30***8217;s, you know they are just getting broken in at 90k. It***8217;s a 400k motor EASY***8230;so time to strip it to a long-block to make sure everything else is ship shape, and some cosmetic touches***8230;


Yes the block says 3.5 on it - (later on)careful use of a die grinder got that pesky bugger right off...



No a smurf did not jizz all over my block ***8211; that***8217;s ***8220;navel rust jelly***8221; Awesome for removing surface rust. Well not "awesome" ***8211; it took about 4 coats and 3 or 4 hours of waiting. And a wire brush, and....but in the end the surface was rust free.




Here is the dolly I made to cart the engine around in the cramped garage. I would soon be know for ***8220;walking the dog***8221; every time I drug it by it strap to work on it outside***8230;


Wow - lots of varnish - I know the motor sat for a while - but everything seems good.


I stripped the block down to a long block - and inspected, repaired or replace anythign worn. Everything got a inspection and a fresh coat of protective paint.



Did I mention Paint? Oh yea, I may have gone overboard - but I really wanted a shiny motor - and I got it! This all really was a lot of work - and we had'nt even started the swap yet!




U.L.G.Y - this need some fixin'!!!!




Ahh - the dreaded wiring harness - it turns out we had a bad crank position sensor that came with the motor - and caused up hours of pain. We ended up using the harness that was on my m20 - all we had to do was extend some injector wires and thermastat wires...Plug that into the m30 ecu - and it fired right up.


Getting better....

(grinding off the 3.5L embossed intake mani)
M30? 3.5L? Hun? this is a m20!!! (and yes, I do take it to get it smogged - and no one ever knows)



"BLING BLING"


Time to pull the old m20...





This is where the lift comes in handy...




Hey who wants a free m20? The head ended ended up going to a super eta project - that then found it's way into a 2002! I love it when car parts find a good home.


Castrol Super clean is your friend - oh and a old tooth brush. Just be warned that super clean pulls all the oils out of your paint - wax soon, and wax offten afterwards...here is the result...




DRUM ROLL PLEASE - I PRESENT THE M30! (applause) - also note the 3400 CFPM electric fan(we ended up switching it on with the AC switch - and is only needed in stop and go traffic or long stop lights)


radiator compairson - e28 foreground, e30 background. The e28 tank is easier to use cause of the place ment of the bottem hose.

Time to test fit - we put the motor in and out of the car maybe 7 or 8 times - mostly because we were building the mounts from scratch - and that took some finess.(and no that guy in the barney-purple shirt is not me)






At the time - no one knew you could mix and match drive shaft parts from different bmw's to get the right length for the m30. I did it the hard expensive way, I bought a e30m3 DS then had it shorten, rebuilt and rebalanced for $400...OUCH! Oh in the pic is not the DS - a peice of PVC pipe to make sure we were lined up right.



Yep - that my car - and that's a hammer. Actually that was fun. Beeting the hell out of the fire wall to make some more room for the motor. Not for the weak - but once the motor is in you can't even see it - it's hidden behind the head. Oh, and a spray of 3m under coating helps seal any bare metal.


I forget the measurement we took - but this is one LOOOONNNNGGGG motor/tranny package. Notice that I used a getrag 265 with a removable bell housing? It really make the swap easier. This tranny came out of a e30m3. Also the tranny mount is a e30 m3 mount - it bolts right up to the e30.


using abs plastic to mock up the custom mounts


We used lots of jacks and stand under the motor to get it just in the right place before building the mounts - this step is critical, and time consumming tring to position a huge motor EXACTLY where is need to be.


Hey! It fits!





It took two tries on building the mounts till we were happy. Notice the bad angle of this first version?

Oh that's tight!!! this is not the final position. We ended getting it back another inch or 2.





Because we ended up using the stock m20 harness - wiring was a snap! It all just pluged in - no need to rebuild the c101 conector!!! THIS IS THE WAY TO DO IT!


Notching the old radiator supports - they get in the way of the e28 radiator


We ended up using the e30 shift linkage - but need the end of a 265 to work on the tranny - you can see it's a different part



Note oil pan clearence - that a e34 m30 oil pan. Again - can you see how long that puppy is?



Almost all wrapped up...






Hope you enjoyed - if you have any questions - let me know!

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JESUS christ. Beautiful job. i bet it hauls ass! and you had a picture..with your friends M3..there were soo many e30s in that pic lol. good job!

Out of control...great job!!

Beautiful

very nice, and clean :thumbup: props

awesome! did you do a dyno yet? how much heavier is the m30? does the car handle differently?

The motor is stock - no need to dyno it. But it is very strong even for a M30.

The car handles same as stock - but I did remove the AC. If you kept the AC you could get a CF hood to make up the difference.

It's a huge misconception on how much the m30 weighs...

Thanks for sharing, George :thumbup: Excellent pics and commentary, and kick arse work on the swap :thumbup: :thumbup:

Woohoo, looking good. Gets some vids.. thanks for sharing.