Chris' E30 M50 Track Build

[Chris916]

Well its time i post what i have been up to the last couple of months. For those who are interested, here is my story. For those who are'nt, your welcome to skip through the photos!

So last autoX season i was running my Subaru Impreza which was also my daily driver at the time. It had a couple of tasteful mods as well as some "go fast" mods and did pretty good finishing 3rd in C class.



Throughout the season i was constently bugging my brother (sb_600, currently building the m52) to let me drive his e36 for one of the events. He finally caved and let me co-drive it at the final event of the season. I instantly fell in love and knew i had to have a car like this. So it was time to get serious for next season and build a dedicated track car.

After the event i got right down to researching what was out there, and what my options were. I quickly decided i wanted to build an e30. It worked out well as Shawn so happened to purchase an m50 block before he found the m52 and had no use for it. Needless to say, the m50 block would go to good use in an e30.

So after a couple of months of searching, i found this:



A 1991 318is, which would make for a perfect starting platform.

Not too long after picking it up, i started tearing it down.


Removing Tar:


Wiring removed:

Rust!!



All Cleaned up. Got some rust repair to do.

[Chris916]

After I got the interior stripped, i moved on to remove the engine. I decided that the easiest way to do it would be to raise the car off the engine/tranny (since the car was already on the lift) instead of trying to manouver it out with the hoist.

Pulled the wiring harness through the firewall and disconnected the fuel lines, throttle cable, steering knuckle. Also pulled out the rad and a/c compressor and condensor.


Unbolted the tranny crossmember and hooked it up withe a strap to make it easier on myself when dropping it.



Set the engine on a skid and unbolted the struts



And proceeded to lift!





Shes out!

[Chris916]

After the engine was out, the bay was in need of some major clean up. Started by pulling out the brake booster, master cylinder, abs, and power steering pump. As well as all the heat shielding and sound deadning.







Some more rust that needs attention.




And so the body work begins! I decided to shave off all the tabs that are not needed with the m50

[Chris916]

After the shaving and cleaning was done, i moved on to the paint!

Primed








And painted!

[bmwconnect]

Nice Chris !

going to be a good season of Racing!

looked like you have good plans last time I was there

[ipop07]

looks good when are you hoping to finish?

[Chris916]

Thanks!
Got lots to do still, majority is bodywork, but hoping for end of April/Beginning of May. First lapping event is May 13th so the car has to be ready by then.

We also dont know the history of the m50 block i am putting in so i need a couple weeks to work out kinks if need be.

[Chris916]

After the bay was finished, i got down to removing the rear subframe to replace all the bushings. This meant a trip down to ogdensburg to pick up all my ordered parts!




AKG Rear Subframe Bushings, 75D
AKG Trailing Arm busings, 75D
AKG Tranny Mount Bushings, 75D
AKG Diff Bushing, 75D
AKG Aluminum Motor Mounts (made for the m50 swap)
AKG Motor mount subframe reinforcement kit
AKG m50 wiring Harness adapter
BimmerWorld Front Control Arms with solid Bushings
UUC 22mm Front and 19mm Rear Sway bars
UUC Stage 2 lightweight flywheel + m5 Clutch
UUC Stainless Steel Brake Lines
UUC Stainless Steel Clutch Line

Got down to business and dropped the rear frame


Removing Subframe Bushings


FIRE!


Old Bushings out


And Finally all the new bushing pressed in


Then it was time to clean up the front and rear subframes

The old engine was clearly loosing lots of oil

Cleaned up


Welded on the motor mount reinforcents. Not the nicest welds but they're strong!

[bmwconnect]

I guessssssssssssssss!!

[Chris916]

Then painted the Subframes

[Chris916]

Oh ya forgot about this picture.

Broken spring, thats always fun. and also found one of the rear dapers is blown

Oh and another lovely find:

Previous owner must have redone the brake lines taking an "easy way out". No soft line to the right rear caliper

[bmwconnect]

yikes!

[Chris916]

Ya no kidding lol. The line was just dangling down not attached to anything so it could flex up and down. Who needs a soft line right?

[Chris916]

I think im pretty much cought up now so here is what i spent yesterday doing.
I had been dreading this since i first took a look at the underside of the car but finally decided to tackle it.

A broken CAB bolt!


Dont know how the PO managed to snap it but of course, its an important one so it had to be delt with

Started by drilling through to try an extractor bit, but that would have been too easy if that worked, so i had to drill all the way through, increasing drill bit size after every pass




Then finally ran the tap through it (breaking the shaft of course)



And voila!
She threads through


and a test fit with the old CAB

[BigD]

Those lool like normal e30 reinforcement plates. The dohc swap mounts usually use the other hole (slit), are the AKGs different? If not, you may need to cut a hole to reach the nut.