5mall5nail5 E30 Recession Swap

[Butler]

Clean as a whistle buddy.

[5mall5nail5]

Thanks man


E30 front brakes installed by Jon Kensy, on Flickr


E30 front brakes installed by Jon Kensy, on Flickr


E30 red caliper peaking out by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

[jeremy5000]

Did you do the red brakes yourself? I've been thinking of getting mine PC'd...

[5mall5nail5]

Yessir - I do most of my own coating. The only things I don't do are wheels and valve covers - too time consuming.

[jeremy5000]

How much for you to do mine, and what would downtime be?

[5mall5nail5]

How much for you to do mine, and what would downtime be?

Hm - I usually just go by what Bonehead in warminster charges. He does a 2 pc caliper for like $40 and brackets for $10. Comes to about $200 for a set. I do them for $175.

Down time is about a week. Few days to a week. What color?

[jeremy5000]

Hm - I usually just go by what Bonehead in warminster charges. He does a 2 pc caliper for like $40 and brackets for $10. Comes to about $200 for a set. I do them for $175.

Down time is about a week. Few days to a week. What color?

Never really thought about what color would be best, but I will pm you tomorrow after I figure out what's wrong with my car because if it's nothing major I'd have you do it.

[5mall5nail5]

Never really thought about what color would be best, but I will pm you tomorrow after I figure out what's wrong with my car because if it's nothing major I'd have you do it.

Sure man hit me up

[5mall5nail5]

Today is my mothers birthday so I decided to make her something in addition to gifts etc

No prob - I am not pro, but I have learned that the grey is the oxides/carbon forming. It stinks because it essentially "un-stainless"es the stainless steel.

Made this intake support for the E30 M50 car all 304L so it shouldn't have rust issues - I plan to leave it raw, I think. I kind of like the crude/industrial look:


Intake Support by Jon Kensy, on Flickr


Intake Support by Jon Kensy, on Flickr


Intake Support by Jon Kensy, on Flickr


Intake Support by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

The result:


Intake Support by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

[GG///M3]

Today is my mothers birthday so I decided to make her something in addition to gifts etc

No prob - I am not pro, but I have learned that the grey is the oxides/carbon forming. It stinks because it essentially "un-stainless"es the stainless steel.

Made this intake support for the E30 M50 car all 304L so it shouldn't have rust issues - I plan to leave it raw, I think. I kind of like the crude/industrial look:




The result:

The training you have received is paying off. Good work young Jedi.

[AJD5]

That looks like some nice 1/2" 304L stainless rod?!?!?

[Compactive]

Powder coat it breh, srs

[Cyrix2k]

Powder coat? I say do the stainless steel version of anodizing.

http://www.smacna.org/newsletters/in...rticle&id=2760

[5mall5nail5]

Woo! Monumental day lol. No more staying within a couple miles of home for testing things out. She's legal baby.


Running errands in E30! by Jon Kensy, on Flickr


E30 inspected! by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

[douglee25]

Woot!

[e24mpwr]

Sweet!

[Butler]

First, that intake bracket is really awesome! Super simple but super clean.


Second, red early models look great.

[5mall5nail5]

Thanks ya'lls

[M3Alpine99]

Little intake support is a nice touch.

[5mall5nail5]

Thanks halston

[5mall5nail5]

Drove the car to work today - its a great little commuter.

My only complaint is that its geared too low. The G260 has these ratios:

1. 3.83
2. 2.20
3. 1.40
4. 1.00
5. 0.81

Whereas my '92 525i with ZF310Z shipped with:

1. 4.20
2. 2.49
3. 1.66
4. 1.24
5. 1.00

So, paired to a 2.93:1 rear end (stock) you can see that the E30 is gear way, way low. I guess that's why the 325E was so economical - they tuned the M20B27 for torque and geared her low. Now that she can breathe with the 24v, I think a diff change may be in order. The MPG is fantastic and I rarely have to shift lol, but it would be much zippier with a 3.73:1 and leaving the G260 in there.

[5mall5nail5]

Oh look! Another recession!

[bubela]

If you start now, you should have it ready for him by his 16th birthday!

[5mall5nail5]

If you start now, you should have it ready for him by his 16th birthday!

Considering the parts for the ASA rebuild are coming from Budapest you may be right.


Hook a brother up with an E30 LSD, cmon.

[5mall5nail5]

Little more progress getting this puppy back on the road. Though, one step forward, two steps back.



The cluster in this thing received an Programa SI board some 15 years ago at this point. It died, again. I mistakenly ordered replacement lithium batteries which won't work for my SI board. Was going to go and hunt some Nimh units and decided to hell with it and ordered a whole new SI board w/ lithium batteries. At the same time, the tachometer on this cluster is from the original ETA engine so it red lines at like 4,500 RPM but it's got an M50 or S50 in it at this point and can obviously turn to 7,000 so that has to go. I am working with E30 Base to replace the factory dial with an OEM 7k and he is providing a coding plug.

I also made contact with the guy behind https://thecrazydiyengineer.com/ named Laszlo and one thing lead to the next and he assisted me by providing TONS of info about the ASA/Alpina supercharger I have but also provided me seals, bearings, and even had an ASA TM-12 bracket for an M5x engine which I bought. It was shipped on 8/16 from Budapest, HU and some how arrived to my door on 8/17 in the US. He is extremely helpful and wastes no time getting things out!



He also convinced me to replace the bearings on the compressor wheel/shaft with the silicon ceramic high performance units so that the supercharger can turn up to 106k RPM. If this unit ends up not being enough, I may even send it over to him to have the housing machined and the wheel replaced to make it a TM-15 but for now the billet wheel is larger with more flow along with the higher rated bearings I hope it is good enough for a bit.

Of course I received the bracket in unfinished aluminum and had to put my touch on it:

]]]



and finally:



5mall5nail5's still got it!

I even sent some pics to Multiplex to pay tribute to the old days of doing this stuff all the time.

Awaiting some more parts - replacing all brake lines with factory parts. We've got to install the Chase Bays power steering stuff, the supercharger bracket, rebuild the supercharger, and then get working on plumbing and such.