BMW e30 325i

[Ben J]

I'm probably the messiest person to walk this earth haha (as can be seen on the bench and small patch of space on top of the tool cabinet haha) but had to do it, was taking me like 30 minutes to find everything socket I needed to undo any bolt, as they were spread across the garage/house/neighborhood

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[Ben J]

So been ages since I actually updated this, but there have been quite a few things going on, and a lot of money spent on this thing Out of nowhere I was lucky enough to be given a second car which I'm now using as a daily driver, allowing me to spend more time doing some serious work on the 30.

Half of my shed is literally full of new bits and pieces ready to be put into the car, but I won't give it all away just yet, you can watch as it comes.

So for a fair while I've been having random intermittent complete loss of power, from the original pump cutting out. 700hp+ capable Bosch 044 seemed to fix that up for a while Ran new wiring, fuel hoses and made a custom bracket to fit it, didn't take any photos of it mounted though


Even after replacing the fuel pump though, the car still has some intermittent problems, which are definintely electrical. I've spent way too much time trying to figure it out with no luck, and have been wanting to tune the car anyway as it's definintely not making nearly as much power as it should, so **** it, I'm replacing everything engine related that's electrical and am finally putting it on Megasquirt 2 standalone.

First step was to assemble the JimStim (which basically simulates your engine, for testing the ms2) to get a bit of practice soldering circuit boards with my new soldering station.



Then it was onto the MS2 itself..



Ignition mod kits mounted on heatsink (this has been tidied up since, and more jumpers added for other things, but only underside photo I have)




Initial testing, plugged into the laptop... and it works! No smoke or anything, success.


Finished up and put into the case, internal serial to USB converter mounted and wired up

[Ben J]

I'm not just building an ECU and new wiring harness though...

Once I got the ECU built, I put the car back in the shed, jack it up, put it on stands and removed the front end and bonnet, to make some more room.

Mechanical fan is being scrapped, low profile 16" electrical SPAL will be taking it's place


Distributor also went straight in the bin.


Pulled the radiator, fan and pretty much all the pulleys on the front


As my car is an early mode 325i, it uses 2 sensors on the flywheel instead of a single crank position sensor. Unfortunately you can't set ms2 up to work off that signal, so the crank pulled with teeth, crank position sensor and crank position sensor bracket from a late model have to be fitted. While I was at it, I also replaced the power steering pulley with a spare one I luckily had, as the one on the was bent as **** and was wobbling something hectic.


Pulled the timing covers off and noticed the upper one was broken... find more dodgy **** on it every time I pull it apart.


Posted up in an e30 parts ground on facebook, and picked another one up within an hour of realizing the original was broken... the internet is such a great place.

Since I'm not running a distributor anymore, I decided to blank the original distrubitor hole off and try to keep it looking oem. Got a piece of thin plate and cut it out with my plasma cutter (was my first time using the plasma cutter, so it came out rough as hell, but did the job). Then I just jbwelded it to the timing cover, and ground it down to fit with a die grinder. Turned out pretty nice I think, not perfect, but not something most people will be looking at anyway, and certainly cleaner than most ways of doing it







Not back at work for another week or so, so can expect much more to be done in the next few days

[Ben J]

Today I put the timing covers and pulleys on, with new belts


Mounted the 16" SPAL electric fan


Mounted the coilpack



And made some custom spark plug leads, as the old ones weren't the right length, and had the wrong style connectors on them. Used a 8.5mm MSD Streetfire kit, was much easier than I expected... Thought about running flashy MSD coils and red wires, but decided to try and keep it more oem looking. This coilpack is nearly as powerful, and looks like it could be stock to the untrained eye.


Cut to length, ends crimped on with included crimper


Modified the stock wire cover to put the wires in the other way, put some labels on the wires and put the ends on



Only thing I would have done differently, and might change if I can be bothered, is white on black labels instead of black on yellow, they stand out a little too much for my liking. All in all, pretty happy with how it turned out though. When I clean up the rest of the engine bay it should look pretty neat

[Jarred]

naice.

I'm liking all this work.

[dylan8]

nice work Ben!

[Ben J]

cheers boys. have done much more today, but way to intoxicated to update right now ahaha. Happy new years all!

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[Ben J]

Seems I got a bit carried away and skipped photos of a lot, theres a very large chunk of work missing (probably the most time consuming part of the standalone converision) but I made a complete new wiring harness, all covered in Raychem dr-25 and tucked away neatly.

Then wired up some relays and mounted the ecu and some fuses.



Bonnet back on, going for a few quick laps around the block to see if everything works. Fired up first try and even on the base tune for a different motor I got from a mate, pulled so nice


Put more of the front on and some interior and took it for its first proper drive last night to the euro meet. Didn't miss a beat. Had it plugged into the laptop, datalogging, and played with the tune a bit on the way there and back. Is driving very nicely! Still a few things to tweak, like cold idle and such, and no doubt can get more power out of it, but I'm still a very happy boy.

So after taking it out for the first time in months, I put it straight back in the shed and decided to get stuck into the suspension. Really hoping to make halfway hangs, which is quickly approaching, so am getting stuck in.

Now, I have a lot more stuff to do in the rear, you'll see in time, but I don't have time to get it done before halfway hangs, so I'm just throwing the coilovers in for now.

Out with the old (already had koni adjustable sport shocks which was a surprise, would be happy to sell them if anyone wants them )


In with the new. This ground control stuff is great stuff. They basically put a kit togethor with eibach springs in whatever spring rate you like, with koni adjustable shocks valved to match the springs. Then some nice adjusters and such, and some beautiful billet shock mounts.




Also got this out to start work on the front suspension

[team_v]

Awesome work Ben.
Good to see the ECU worked first time and the mods are being done in house.

[Ben J]

Cheers Clay. Yeah it is so much more rewarding to do things yourself, hard to describe the feeling of seeing it all come togethor and work.

So, hungover as **** I got stuck back into it today.

The car was leaking oil pretty bad (or had a lot of horsepower sweat), so while the subframe was off I decided to drop the sump and replace the gasket. Was quite a **** to get off, a few very hard to reach bolts happened to have nicely rounded heads and had to be carefully cut off with the dremel... Once it did finally come off though it was all good news, was pretty clean in there which is a good sign that the engine is healthy, and the old gasket was ****ed (and most bolts were literally only finger tight) so hopefully the oil leak was just from this gasket, and not the rear main seal, which would not be as much fun to change.

Cleaned the sump up


Stuck it back on with some sealant, put in a new magnetic drain plug, BMW oil filter and fresh oil (which was well and truly overdue)


Then got back to the suspension. Stripped the subframe and everything attached to it down and pulled off the front hubs/wheel bearings. The old bearings were fubar.


Then I pulled the springs/shocks out, and cut off the old spring perches (plus while I was at it gave myself a nice cut through the thumbnail, deep into the thumb. Fun stuff.)


Old engine mounts are pretty shagged


Brakes were pretty filthy. Cleaned them up and gave them some paint.



Couldn't do much more as far as putting things back togethor yet, as I still need to reinforce the subframe, and am waiting on more welding gas and want to sandblast the subframe before I weld it up anyway


Also cut out the old rubber steering guibo, and cut out the rivets for it. Need some bolts before I can finish this.


Gave the steering rack a quick clean, but still wasn't happy with it, so gave it a quick lick of paint aswell


New full tie rods, locking plates, boots and clamps fitted

[Jarred]

good work Ben.

this will be well sorted by the time you're done with it!

[Ben J]

More suspension work

Cut/ground off the brackets for brake related wiring (removed the wires long ago)


Replaced the rubber steering guibo with aluminium


Removed 1.5" from the strut housings


Tack welded up with magnets and old shock in to ensure its perfectly straight


Tig welding


Welds ground down


New spring perches welded on


Etch primered and painted red (let the lady friend pick the colour)


Subframe reinforced around the engine mount area, as they are known to break with hard driving, especially with stiffer engine mounts. Sand blasted and painted.


Steering rack and linkage fitted, along with new turner motorsports engine mounts/buckets


Ground control stickers stuck


Brake dust shield things painted and put back on, new wheelbearing/hub assemblys fitted, and the shock, coilover adjuster sleeve, spring, camber/caster plates fitted.


Brakes back on


New control arms, with UUC swaybar hardware


Offset solid M3 control arm bushings in new lollipops

[Jarred]

Do ALL the work!

Well done.

(makes me look like a slackass!)

[Ben J]

Haha cheers Jarred. Got it all back in the car yesterday, more photos when I get time. Going to have to put some late nights in this week to get this ready for the road trip to halfway hangs on Thursday!

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[Ben J]

Well been a while since an update, have been insanely busy, havent had a spare second in ages (too much hanging halfway, whitsundays holidays and a few days of work inbetween )

Got a bit slack with photos, as was in a mad rush to get everything ready for halfway hangs. Basically put all the suspension back in. Everything in the front bar the subframe and steering rack (which still got cleaned up, reinforced and painted), down to the bolts and washers, is brand new.

The camber/caster plates from the top


UUC Swaybarvarian front sway bar and hardware. Overall this was a very nice kit, the sway bar, endlinks, bushings, and reinforcements are all top notch. The only complaint I have is probably a pretty petty one, but it uses imperial hardware and the instructions give unrealistic torque figures, which is a real pain when you snap a bolt trying to tourqe it to "spec" and only have metric spares...



Everything back in


Didn't go overly low (4wd height compared to my past cars even), but certainly sits a lot nicer than it did before


Got it aligned (with some pretty aggressive specs, considering I don't have to daily this anymore I got it set up for more serious driving ) and it feels great to drive. Can't wait until I give the rear the same treatment.

Gave the car a quick wash and tidy up, tidied up some wiring, put the front end back on properly etc, all the little things to get the car somewhat driveable/presentable and drove it down to halfway hangs (which was quite possibly the greatest long weekend ever)


Played with the tune a bit on the highway on the way down, made it worse haha. Stu gave me a hand down there though and it's now on a beast tune. Feels great to drive, pulls so nice now!