1987 BMW E30 325i M52 engine

Looks mint! A friend of my dads had one in this very colour,same wheels...albeit it was a 320. Traded it in at a secondhand dealer for a Ka (the "ugly" old model!). That guy is probably still laughing...

So today's the day for the E30. It'll be my third E30. First was 320i above, second was 325i convertible, below.

So you bought it then?
It looks great, an E30 is on my list to own at some point, just need to hope the prices don’t keep going up...

What’s your plans for it? Keep as is? Or is there stuff you want to change?

Presses F5 - frequently.........

Lots of other things were done, like refreshing the plastic trims with wet and dry then spraying satin black. The rust spots were tackled as well:-

The sill repair:-










Another bit of welding on the rear…as we all know once you start poking with a screwdriver little scabs become gaping holes! First pic, just a little scab…



I can imagine the pain of the previous owner when he started poking at it!





Bit of paint… much better.


But then more rust around the boot rubber:-




He then focussed on the rear arch.



After all the welding the previous owner took the car home to work on with his friend.




He decided to get the whole car painted so stripped it down.




More rust was found, so on with welding in new metal… he’s a patient man!




There was more rust found on the previous rear repair so he swapped out the section with a rust free piece.

Over Autumn 2014 the previous owner didn’t do much but did manage to find a car with a donor engine… E36 M52 2.8… nice!

From November 2014:-



A one piece gear knob was also found:-



February 2015, all the welding was finally finished. The plan was to get the car ready for the summer. Here it is primed.




An E46 clubsport rack was acquired and cleaned up. New tie rods and boots were fitted.



Lightened M20 323i flywheel obtained:-



Removed engine from the E36 then stripped it down to clean up, replace gaskets, pipes, breather, water pump etc.

Excellent work

Wait until you see the engine bay pics!

M50 throttle body stripped to be bored out and larger butterfly valve machined.





Bored out from 64mm to 68.9mm, inlet manifold is 69mm.

Previous owner then had spacers machined to fit the E46 clubsport rack properly.



Progress was being made at this stage, the engine was cleaned up nicely:-



Rear arches filled and primed:-





Still February 2015 - Steering wheel and gear know re-trimmed by Royal Steering Wheel, (wheel £105, gear knob £45):-






March 2015 – modified the wiring loom to plug straight into E30, fitted extra temp sensor and added wiring for oil level sensor. Fitted M50 manifold and modified a few bits to keep breather/oil separator. New alloy rad bought:-




Engine was finally ready to fit back in March 2015. There were fiddly bits required like fabricating brackets for the fuel rail, dipstick and breather etc. I’m glad all this was done by the previous owner!




The gearbox all cleaned up:-



As a M20 flywheel was used a mod was required for the release bearing. The previous owner used 2 clutch forks and added 5mm to the height… I don’t know what all this about, I’m copying the notes that he made on another forum! See pics:-






Gearbox was fitted with new seals, slave cylinder, prop coupling, mounts, Z4M selector and new bushes.



Danthe manifolds fitted:-



Late March 2015, the car was painted!






Underside cleaned and protected:-








Car taken back to the BMW workshop, engine was dropped in on 24 March 2015:-

Fitting of the engine:-






Power steering pipes and a cooler made up by the previous owner. Tied in temporarily on this pic:-




E36 Direnza Alloy rad:-



Pipes secured properly now:-

He did a great job as they sit nicely behind the vent in the spoiler:-




Completely knackered petrol flap rubber boot replaced along with rear lamp gaskets:-






Wiring looms tidied up using OE tape:-