Well I'm a long time lurker that doesn't post much but I am not new to building bmw's. I've built and tuned a turbo e30 and m54b30 swapped e30 through my side tuning business. Its actually how I acquired this 94 325is coupe and a lot of other parts, my friend traded it to me for doing some work on his turbo e30 around 3 years ago. Its been a slow build but its starting pick up some steam so I figure id start a build thread for her. When I got her she had no interior, ran like crap, no ac, slammed on ebay coilovers, sunroof deleted. My goal is a daily drivable weekend track car that looks the part....But makes 600whp on mostly oem bmw parts
Car:
94 325is coupe
Shaved/tucked engine bay
Full repaint in Estoril Blue
Sunroof deleted, all sound deadening removed, all cruise control/airbag components removed, unused brackets/wiring removed
Motor:
M50b25nv
Vanos added
s50 cams with trays/lifters
m54b30 crank
m54b30 pistons
Non vanos rods(yes block will be notched)
ARP rod bolts
ARP head studs
JE cut-ring headgasket
Copper spacer
Stewart Water pump
Turner Motorsport oil pan baffle
New bearings, rings(gapped for turbo), all gaskets.
Tack welded oil pump nut
Transmission/diff:
GS6-37BZ 6 speed
OEM 335is/550i Clutch
E36 M3 auto driveshaft
Custom shift carrier/shift rod
3.15 lsd diff
Turbo setup:
Holset HE351cw with 67mm turbine wheel/machined turbine housing
T3 Top mount built by me
3.5" downpipe
3.5" exhaust
Tial 38mm
Ebay tial knock off bov
Large CXRacing intercooler w/3" fmic pipes
80lb Seimens Deka injectors
Walbro 400lph fuel pump
EMS:
MS3Pro pnp
MS3Pro controlled boost solenoid
All wheel traction control via both front abs sensors/rear diff speed sensor
Innovate wideband
Kindle Fire HD tablet running MSDroid
Brakes:
Wilwood front bbk 325x25mm rotors
ATE Type 200 dot 4 fluid
SS lines
E46 325/8i rear brakes
Porterfield R4 pads
3" brake ducts
Suspension:
KW Variant 3 coilovers
Vorshlag camber plates
Eibach sway bars
Full Duraflex 95A polly bushing kit
Front/Rear subframe reinforcements
LCAB reinforcements
Rear sway bar reinforcements
Front/Rear shock tower reinforcements
Wheels/Tires:
Hardmotorsports v2 flares
18x10 et25 rims
Federal 595rsr 285/30r18 tires
Most current pic when she not in a million pieces lol
When I first got her
Lets recap what I have already done in the last few years and start with the interior! I went ahead and removed what was left of the interior, dash and seats lol.
Removed all sound deadening, airbag equipment(Installing Momo steering wheel), cruise control stuff, yes it all added up both garbage bags were almost 40lbs each lol. Removed any rust I found and I painted everything in rustoleum gloss black
Since there was no headliner I painted the roof textured black.
I then painted the tan dash and door panels with SEM Landau Black interior paint. I picked up some more tan interior pieces and carpet then painted those also. Scored a sweet Momo steering wheel off ebay for dirt cheap then got some pedals to match.
Redid my gauge cluster with carbon vinyl wrap I had laying around, gauge rings and painted the needles red.
End result..
Now on to suspension! Picked up a full poly bushing set from Duraflex and all weld in reinforcements I could find.
Found a good deal on some KW Variant 3 coilovers and some Vorshlag camber plates(yes i know wrong top hat nuts lol).
Rear subframe dropped.
Subframe reinforcements welded in.
Subframe stripped, sway bar reinforcements welded in, painted, poly bushings installed.
Found a mint e30 lsd for $150 on craigslist, so I took apart my diff painted it, installed the poly bushings in the cover, then the lsd with some Redline fluid.
Rear subframe all back together and ready to install...Looking so sexy lol.
Free Holset turbo what what!
I got bored one day and decided to start shaving the engine bay, I'll finish it up when the engine is out.
Yup and I had MS3Pro pnp on pre order...
Tablet mounted for monitoring my engine and tweaking my tune on the fly.
Now how she sits today, getting prepped for paint and new motor/trans....
6 speed trans, m54b30 internals/motor parts, Wilwood brakes, and some of the other parts I've collected in the last few years.
Last edited by BFresh; 10-02-2018 at 07:31 PM.
That doesn’t look like Estoril lol. Nice post!
1997 BMW ///M3 - Estoril Sedan 5MT - M-Rain Interior (1 of 1)
2001 BMW ///M3 - Laguna Seca Blue 6MT
YouTube: (///Motorsport Throttle) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUM...pYSmibzy5YmUvQ
Picked up a $200 m50 non vanos engine over this last weekend and a m20b27 for another build.
Took her apart and I got lucky everything inside looks very clean. Cylinder bores have absolutely no top ridge that i can feel. And thats actually one of the reasons I sourced a Non vanos m50 for my build, 7mm valves/dual valve springs/beefy rods and because they used non chrome plated piston rings unlike all the newer vanos motors which really wears the shit out of the cylinder walls. My vanos m50 cylinder walls were completely trashed.
Today I also took apart and cleaned my s50 lifters that are going in. Picked up s50 trays/lifters/cams for $150 last year, proof that crazy deals are out there if you keep your eyes out! Thats a 35mm lifter on the left and 33mm on the right for a little comparison.
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Not yet lol, still stripping the body down and doing body work before I paint it. And thanks!
Last edited by BFresh; 10-02-2018 at 03:12 PM.
Nice work but I do hope you have a plan for getting all that aluminum out of there. It’s going to be in all the oil gallery’s going into the rocker trays. Best thing to do would be to get it hot tanked at a machine shop. The alluminum shavings will all stick to the varnish coating the inside of the head and it will be a bear to get out till the varnish is removed.
Yeah I tried to cover it up but it still got everywhere lol. I was planning on dropping it off at the machine shop to get fully disabled, tanked, checked and resurfaced anyways though 👍
Last edited by BFresh; 10-13-2018 at 09:10 PM.
And btw I love your e30 man, you’re the main influence in me using a nv head and rods haha.
Good deal, sounds like a plan. A couple bath towels works good to catch the chips.
Im pretty proud of that recipe. I know somebody that made 998 whp with that
Jesus that’s crazy! Forged pistons I assume?
Dang lol. Speaking of that what ring gap would you recommend running on these stock m54b30 pistons, I was thinking .020 top ring?
I think mine are .018 top and .021 2nd or something close to that. The stock rings gaps are all over the place. They gap them at the factory with a machine before they go to the assembly line, they don't check every one, so the stock ones have a bit of variation.
Ok cool I think I’ll shoot for .019 for the top ring then, I plan on doing some road racing with this setup so I’m a little nervous about the heat they’re going to see on the track.
I do have both, that did cross my mind too I just didn’t have the right chuck. But you’re right I need to go pick one up for it, would definitely work a million times better.
When I realized I needed to notch my s52 block for the NV rods I took them back out and sold them then bought k1's. Call me lazy but I did not want to go through what you are haha
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With the right tools it’s a pretty easy job, but yeah when you factor in the arp rod bolts it’s not really much more to go h beams...But then I’d wanna go forged pistons too lol, it’s a damn slippery slope haha.
Finally got around to getting some more work done on my engine. Honed the cylinder walls with a 240 grit Flex-Hone.
Gapped my piston rings to .019 top and .024 2nd. Excuse the glossy paint I ended up stripping it off lol.
I clean the deck, hosed the entire block out with degreaser and water to get anything left over from honing and notching, then I painted it again in a different more satin/textured black.
Layed in new standard size King main bearings, installed the m54b30/s52 crank, plastigauged them, they looked to be around .0022 which is still within spec.
Moved on to installing the m54b30 pistons/nv rods and ended up breaking one damn ring 🙄
Went ahead and installed the other 5 pistons/rods with arp bolts and plastigauged the bearings. They looked to be around .0018, which is within spec.
Now I have to wait for a replacement piston ring before I finish building the rest of it 🙄
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