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Hi all, as you all can tell i'm new to oldschool.co.nz but I hear you're a great crowed! This is my e30 that i've owned for a few years now. Was bought with a humble m20b20 engine that one day decided it did not like to live anymore. So I was more or less forced to do a m50b25 engine swap. These pictures will span over many years and life events. I feel that I have grown a lot with this car and can look back at the decisions i've made and learn from them. These were the 1st modifications I did, it took a lot longer than it should have and caused much anguish but it was all gone when I stood back and looked at her. The Patches if primer was the cancer (rust) forming - M20b20 (2 liter straight 6) - Manual conversion using 325i getrag 260, m20 lightweight flywheel, exedy clutch - Lowering springs with koni sport adjust shocks - Front and rear 325i sway bars I drove the car around as it was getting a feel for this new to me german vehicle. I did many minor modifications I pulled the trigger on attending my 1st track event. So I bought some things to make it feel more race car. But i had purchased this car for a reason, I wanted to build a rotary e30. A 20b NA powered e30. Ohh how this was gonna change... My girlfriend at the time was getting bored of me taking photos One cold winter's night, I was on my way back from a friends house when the humble m20 had enough. Twas the night before my day at hampton skid pan I have cool friends though and had started a following of e30 friends! Richard let me use his m50b25 powered e30 for the day So after I had a hoon I had to get back to reality. No rotary build for me. I needed a new engine and I needed something that I could do in a relatively short amount of time for a "budget" build... another thing I learnt, the term "budget" is not relative when it comes to cars. But after driving the m50 powered e30 and reading many (not enough) build threads/DIYs I started my search for a M50. Marcus (you'll hear his name a lot) had received a crashed e34 525i and offered me the engine and auxiliaries for a great price, so after checking the engine over, I gave him the thumbs up. I was now the proud owner of a M50b25 (cellphone pic FTL) And after a little more reading on feedback and noticing a trend with M50b25 swapped cars, I looked into selling this engine and find a m52b28. The reason being, most that did the swap found the m50b25 to have little reward for the effort. Until one day a friend asked why i'm not going to stroker it? So I started researching high and low for options and things I should do. I decided on the 2.8 stroker mainly because I had the conrods needed. I got a phone call from my wife (oh yea i got married) that she had bought me a birthday present. F*ck Yup my wife, bless her, pretty much upped my game for me and bought me the rotating assembly from an m54b30 (with help from ray@hellbm). So I guess I was going 3 liter. At this point I said screw it and sent the e30 in for panel and paint, my thoughts were by the time the e30 was finished the engine would be finished. This ended badly for me. I was naive and had put money down before they had finished the job. That is all I am going to say about the body. On a brighter note, PARTS! The apartment we were living in was not going to do, So we moved to a place with a double garage and just bigger in general. The apartment was super cramped, this town house we moved into was bigger, had a double garage and was the exact same price in rent. Auckland FTL Progress was going smooth for the rebuild Factory hone marks FTW while that was getting sorted I started unplugging the loom and disconnecting all the water and fuel lines as well as disconnecting the driveshaft and shifter linkage, work had shut down for the end of year break. I had 3 weeks to do the swap. Later that evening we got started on pulling the boat anchor out After much twisting and turning, prying and swearing it was out. and a me in the engine bay pic while Marcus makes it clear he is tired I prepped the engine bay, gave it a clean and changed the things that needed changing for the swap. I dont have pics, but the night before we dropped the m50 in, we installed the machined lightweight m20 flywheel and a brand new 6puk solid clutch between the engine and getrag 260 gearbox. The next morning we got on to fitting the engine IN after wiring up the engine and spending a few days diagnosing a non start, SUCCESS! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vT7jQQLmbw&feature=youtu.be Between that day and present mistakes were made. I had issues left right and center. Not doing enough diagnosing and trying for the quick fix I bought a "tune" from a company in the united states that claimed to have the right chip for my car. This just made things worse. The tune was so rich averaging 10:1 all over the rev range. This chip was pretty expensive, and the car would still misfire, jerk and barely idle. It sat here for a long time. I was in the gutter, it had been 1.5 years and I couldn't for the life of me figure this car out. I had checked every sensor with a multimeter, bought some new ones just to double check, checked the coils resistances, changed ecus, checked codes. I had checked everything. Makeshift smoke tester Checking tps Double checking sensors It went up for sale, people were coming to view. I had given up on it. Marcus the beautiful yellow man came around one evening and forced me to check everything again, even though we both had gone through everything twice. So we fired her up, to get her warm and I pulled off the plastic ignitor cover... It was like a light from the car gods telling me that my pain and arguments with my wife had satisfied them and this is the cure to my cars' defiance to idle and drive... Only in the darkness we saw the light. The insulation on one of the coils had cracked, so spark was jumping out of the side of the ignitor pack to the rocker cover. I had a spare SET of coils sitting in my garage and the only reason I didn't change them over was that they measured fine. We VISUALLY inspected all the coils I had before installing my spare set. Took her out for a drive, I couldn't believe it. I had a idling, running non misfiring e30. skipping ahead to the present, the mods haven't stopped. 5 stud conversion with bigger brakes from an e46 328i installed with e46 coilovers, whiteline swaybars, an assortment of wheels, wof, regd and certified for everything. I can finally enjoy this car. I've been trying to attend every meet, every event, anywhere I can enjoy this car. Talk to people who have their own projects, their own stories. Here's to the good times Discussion Thread