V8 Swapped E30

johnprusinski

Hello everyone, if anyone knew my POS E30 it was put together with tape and zipties. for those of you who don't know, I bought an E30 from some kid that was rear ended back in high school. I was in rough shape and I planned to run it into the ground as a drift car. I eventually swapped an M50 into the car and drove that four times. once I graduated college and got my job i decided to build the car one last time. At first i wanted to just upgrade the suspension, mounts, basically make it into a race car for weekend track days. i was going to keep the M50 and just have the car under the knife for just winter, then i started making decisions when i was drinking... you'll see that a lot in this build thread.

lets start with the pictures shall we.

here is the day after i got the car. its a 1986 325e.

i started taking things out and made a bunch of trash.

i eventually M50 swapped it and had a good time with it.

i started tearing into the car one last time to take the rest of the sound deadening out. after all of that was out i started taking things apart.

i started refreshing the subframe that i had laying around. i used tractor implement paint and i laid it on pretty thick with multiple coats. i also upgraded the bushings to condor mounts.

johnprusinski

the next step was to fix the rear end. I started out by cutting out the rust and straightening the back end with a huge steel bar and a scissor jack. I also used a huge hammer.

I cut away as much as I could. the next problem was to try and make the frame strong again. I ended up using a piece of angle iron.

I also built a new battery box for the car.

i was tossing around how cool it would be to put in a V8 inside the car, but i never really pulled the trigger. i ended up putting the M50 swap for sale and i told myself that if i sell the motor in a month then, i would do a V8 swap.

a couple weeks later i ended up selling the swap.

two weeks after that i bought a mock up block for the car. shit was starting to get real.

i bought the swap kit from sikky racing and once i got the parts in i was more than impressed. i got the oil pan, oil pick up tube, oil filter relocation kit, dip stick, driveshaft, motor mounts, trans mounts and the hardware for $2,000.

the mock up block fit perfectly. i also removed the front core support.

the plan was to just paint over the rear quarter with OEM paint to keep costs down, but i was drinking in the garage and i ended up sanding down the whole passenger side of the car.

i decided i wanted to learn how to do body work so this was a fun learning experience. i first sanded down the rear quarter and then i moved to a fender to see how i would do from start to finish paint.

johnprusinski

the fender was the piece that i learned on.

i sanded, sanded then sanded some more. eventually i got the fender straight and free of dents. time to put some primer on this and see if i can paint this fender.

after a couple of beers, my confidence was at an all time high. it was time to lay some paint on this fender and see how it turns out. i used that paint from autozone that is premixed and same with the clear coat. this was an experiment to see how i did with painting and to see if i could atleast paint. once i painted the fender and laid the clear on i wet sanded and buffed it out.

it turned out pretty decent, but i learned a lot when painting the fender. i also got a few tips from a couple painters on how to make everything tunr out better. on to the rear quarter again. i had to hammer out the rear quarter to make it as straight as possible before i put bondo on it. i wish i had pictures of the damage before i straightened the rear quarter, but i never took them. if to ook at how the frame rail was, then you can get a good idea on how messed up the rear quarter was.

i got it as straight as i could and then i laid the bondo on it.

the rear quarter is finally fixed and the last part of the car is the back end, but that will be later on.

i sprayed primer on the rear quarter and i started on the other side.

i also decided to shave the antenna hole, so i broke out the razor and shaving cream and got to work.

johnprusinski

and the body work continues...

the other night i bought a 6.0 L96 V8 for 1200 bucks. not bad for a V8 with 360 horse and 380 torque from the factory. fully complete from oil pan to intake. i stripped off the AC condencer, power steering, accessories. i need to take off the intake manifold and then ill eventually have it gone through. im now looking for a T56 trans to complete my swap. once i find that i will buy the Cage for it and then finish the mock up before i paint the car.

jc43089

Uhhh, sweet! I need a house with a garage to get back to work on my e36, you are motivating me.

Sent from my potato phone.

johnprusinski

I try to keep my build threads current, but I fail too hard at it. The only way I keep up is with Instagram. My next post with pictures will probably be in 3 months hahaha.

YoungCR

Thanks for the summary! Paint looks great. This is why I wanna tear down on of the cars to its bones so I can learn how to do all this myself.

It will be fun having two racecars when this is done

johnprusinski

I've done most of the body work with at least two to three beers in me to stay focused otherwise I wouldn't of a been able to do the body work. a lot of this stuff is tedious work, but its a great learning experience.

DrLeadFoot

This is awesome!

CMart

At this rate it will be running before mine. Nice work.

johnprusinski

its going to be a while before I get this thing running and driving. I still have to find a trans and buy the cage for the car. after that I need to figure out a dash, plus a whole interior. I want to hopefully start it and figure out the bay before I paint it. I also have to reinforce the rear end so I don't rip out my diff. I still have a lot, but hopefully I can get it close to finished next year.

CMart

Nice. I'm doing a BMW V8 swap so not entirely the same, but if you have any questions or need a hand with anything shoot me a message. I'm over in Milwaukee.

Edit - I just sold a 102MM Fast intake/ported TB, but still have some ls6 injections/fuel rail if you are interested.

johnprusinski

Im going to go with an ls3 intake with rails and injectors. Surprisingly the swap is very straight forward, its just affording a trans and wiring that's the only thing that's presenting a problem, but its not too big of a problem.

I took off the intake and wiring harness tonight. I want to take it out to get some work done soon to make it quick and reliable.

johnprusinski

I took the time to try and fit the 6.0 in the car the other day. I day to pound out the trans tunnel with a hammer. the combination of beers and a hammer caused my trans tunnel to split and create a hole. I will fix that once I get more gas for the welder. right now it works as of right now, the motor fits in the car.

johnprusinski

well after a few months of dumping all my money into my VW and other E30, I didn't get anything done on the V8 swap. I tore it down and decided what im going to do for power. I cleaned it up, painted and installed the oil pan. I also ordered a couple gaskets and sensors that I broke along the way.im also starting to buy the accessories for the front.

im switching to LS1 accessories so i started by buying a LS1 crank pulley.

here is a basic idea of what the motor looks like now. i have the motor mounts back on it now.

i ordered a pedal assembly for the car so when that gets here i can start running lines.

B C

Is that oil pan made for e30 purposes or just generic ls swap into anything purposes

Boris3

Kind of reminds me of a Paul Poore SE30 pan

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=368336

CMart

Nice progress. I picked up an Cheby V8 E30 recently. I'd love to check this out some time

johnprusinski

The oil pan is specifically built for LS bassed e30 swaps. I am currently prepping the cab for the cage by getting all of the tar out, which is not fun.

Jdesign

johnprusinski said:

The oil pan is specifically built for LS bassed e30 swaps. I am currently prepping the cab for the cage by getting all of the tar out, which is not fun.

Dry ice is your friend.

WIBIMMERS

V8 Swapped E30