E30 M50 tear down kinda thing
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Edit: Page 17 has a step by step removable core support project guide with lots of pictures. I figured this is good info for anyone wanting to try it
Over the years I've worked on a lot of different cars, done a bunch of different swaps, ect. But never a complete tear down of a motor to freshen things up. I figured my pride and joy, beat to shit e30 drift car would be a good place to start. Also seeing it here is a good way to keep me motivated to finish it. So lets get into it!
Skipped pics for the first couple of steps taking off the fenders/bumper/valence.
On the lift, ready for operation.
Without breaking a sweat, the m50 is out!
As some of you may notice, my front core support is cut out here. I will be drilling out the remaining factory tach welds, buying a new radiator core support, and making it fully detachable. Because Im sure this wont be the last time this motor comes out lol.
The clutch seems to be in okay shape still. Nothing out of the ordinary.
A couple small hot spots on the flywheel, but still, nothing too crazy. Theres also no cracks in the pressure plate "fingers" so thats good.
Im not sure how a throwout bearing should look when coming out, so I dont know about this. Still spins very very well?
Back to the motor! Valve cover off.
Some gross shit in one of the spark plug tubes.
Fuel rail, injectors, and harness removed.
Intake manifold off, along with the rest of the engine harness/plugged in stuff.
Vanos removed.
Le sprockets.
Kind of off topic, but this has been by far the best investment I've made so far lol.
Anyway! The head is off.
The goods!
Gotta keep yo shit organized! Every single bolt that has come off of the car, from the fenders, to the throttle body, to vanos, has been bagged and labeled.
Thats a far as I am right now. I guess now would be a good time to say I have no idea what Im doing when it comes to timing related stuff, so thats my main concern about getting it all back together. But yeah, hopefully I will be updating this pretty frequently as this project goes on! All comments are welcome. Especially any input about m50 timing
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Are you just refreshing the head and resealing everything? or are you doing bottom-end work also? Any performance upgrades while its apart? I'd love to do the removable radiator support on my car too. I heard Dan shoved 8 fun-size bags worth of Cheetos (crunchy, not puffs) down the oil passages in the head before selling that motor to you.
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Rowleym said:
You know when you take your bumper off on an e30 and there is like 2 huge bolts to take off? What if the head breaks off on one of them? Could I just cut the damn front end off and build custom brackets or something?
Are you talking about diving boards or plastic bumpers? Diving boards you could just put new shocks in if you broke something.
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The heads of those bolts do break out. Very difficult to drill out. Im actually not too sure why they (BMW) decided to do it this way.
Also, cool tear down photo series.
E91 328xi - F15 X5 40e - Hopes and dreams of eventually having a cool car
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wasnt m3 said:
I have the full set of vanos/timing related tools if you need them, which you will if you haven't bought them yet.
I will probably have to take you up on that offer when the time comes, I dont have anything for vanos/timing. Ive looked them up on pelicanparts but thats about as far as I got haha.
Snap Understeer said:
No, no, no he didn't. But you could imagine what it'd be like if he did, right...?
Idunno man, vanos was rattling a little bit before I pulled it. Now that I think about it, it kind of resembled crunchy cheetos... 0.o I wonder if all 8 bags-worth worked their way into the vanos oil line.
But yeah you got it, just refreshing the head with a new gasket and ARP studs. Whats everyones take on a MLS head gasket? I eventually plan on boosting it. New oil pan gasket along with resealing the front case. Other than that just cleaning I guess, with new gaskets all around. Ive also been making a list of the new things I need while taking the motor apart. As far as performance I may want to get the head bored a little bit but who knows. S50 cams are always an option but Ive read bad things about people taking their cams out and having them snap, so Im not sure if I want to go through with that.
Rowleym said:
You know when you take your bumper off on an e30 and there is like 2 huge bolts to take off? What if the head breaks off on one of them? Could I just cut the damn front end off and build custom brackets or something?
Ive never had one of these bolts snap on me, but yeah I dont see why you cant make custom brackets? You'd be able to make them easier to get at as well.
rampelsauce said:
Also, cool tear down photo series.
Thanks! Im trying to stay as organized as possible during all of this. It will be nice to reference the order I took things apart while they're going back together too.
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Chadley said:
I can only dream of organization like that...
Also, there is no such thing as "off topic" round here
Hahah, all it takes is a camera (in my case, an iphone), a $2 box of ziploc bags, a sharpie, and youre good to go! But thank you.
And I will keep that in mind hahahah.
Small update: ordered my radiator core support about 5 minutes ago. I cant wait until it gets here. I think this will be one of the coolest things on the car when its done
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rampelsauce said:
The heads of those bolts do break out. Very difficult to drill out. Im actually not too sure why they (BMW) decided to do it this way.
Also, cool tear down photo series.
I love how simple it is to remove the E30 bumpers. I know I always mention that my car is a rust free Cali car blah-blah-blah, but I do remember that those bumper bolts were the only fasteners on the car that gave me any sort of flack. They were squealing the first time I removed them but some anti-seize took care of that.
Bassboy3313 is getting an MLS gasket for his E21 so you might be able to talk to him about it. Sounds like people suggest getting the head and the block machined flat before using one.
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You can just sand down the block with some fine grit stuff supposedly, and copper spray gasket sometimes, but I would definitely get the head resurfaced. Personally, I'm going to run the stock compression with arp's on my m50, with e85. I think it would do wonderfully. Also, if you plan on putting a turbo on, are you interested in some basically new 42lb injectors
sk8 or die
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Rowleym said:
You can just sand down the block with some fine grit stuff supposedly, and copper spray gasket sometimes, but I would definitely get the head resurfaced. Personally, I'm going to run the stock compression with arp's on my m50, with e85. I think it would do wonderfully. Also, if you plan on putting a turbo on, are you interested in some basically new 42lb injectors
Yeah I was thinking about the copper spray. A buddy of mine with a mildly built galant vr4 went that route and it holds up perfectly fine. Then again, 4g63s are much less picky Im sure than bmw motors so I figured I throw the mls idea out there.
And about those injectors.... How much?
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Heres my update for the night. I had nothin better to do so I went and worked on the motor again.
Oil pan off.
Note this chain in the next picture. How much play should be in it? I checked the tension and there was quite a bit, maybe almost enough to move it a tooth on the sprocket. Is it just this loose because I loosened the tensioners or is this a problem?
Also took a couple better pictures of the head after taking the exhaust manifolds off.
And thats all. Next, Im going to spend a good amount of time cleaning the block and oil pan over the few days. I still need to take off the front timing case to reseal it, but havent really looked at how to do that yet.
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Rowleym said:
Quick question. You said this was your drift e30. Does a m50 have enough power to drift an e30 somewhat effectively? About the injectors-just throw out a price man!
Yep! But there's a lot of other factors that go into getting it to slide effectively. The motor is stock with a sport tune tms chip. That doesn't seem like much, but you have to remember how light a base model 2dr e30 is too lol. So that, along with running a welded 3.73 diff, hydro ebrake, and full bc coilovers is more than enough to get it sideways. The car is light and stiff, so you can pretty much feel every move its going to make.
And I have no idea how much 42lb injectors go for man lol. I've seen 30lb go for like $120 almost new. It's your call. Pm me if you'd like!
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Rowleym said:
Quick question. What motor mounts are you using for the swap? And thanks for the info. Hopefully I will have a similar setup by spring.
I just used whatever mounts were on the motor when I picked it up from Dan. E36 mount arms and the green mounts (e34 I believe?). But the driver side mount cracked. When it goes back in Ill be using AKG "m50 into e30 chasis" mounts. I havent decided on urethane or solid aluminum. I think for the solid ones you need to reinforce your subframe a bit.
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