M50B25 Turbo E30 rocket build

[andeep]

After breaking my track S14a, I wanted to build an awesome street weapon.

I had originally planned on dropping a turbo m50 into my daily 323i E36, but always wanted an E30. So when a good one came up for the right price I snapped it up.

Gunni as GSTuning is sourcing the parts for me and also making the manifold. The future spec of the engine will be:

MLS headgasket
Bosch 60lb injectors
Split pulse twin scroll manifold
Borg warner S256 twin scroll turbo
60mm wastegate
Sachs pressure plate with 6-puk clutch
VEMS

I had previously sourced this 1991 E36 325i auto (non-vano M50 ftw!) for cheap so I could rob it of its engine:



Car had been stored in barn for ages and had all sort growing under the bonnet, but was only 91,000 miles and full BMW service history so was a steal for what I paid for it.

M50B25:







Nice and clean under the cam cover:



The paint has completely flaked off the cam cover as it is magnesium, so got to stripping the paint and sanding it:



Etch primered it and painted it with some 2 pack black:



Sourced this 316i E30 for a fairly decent price, needs some work done to it as has rust in usual places (jacking pads!).



Sourced an E36 325i gearbox:



Ended up with 2 E28 diffs as one of them was meant to be a 2.93, but the guy I got it off had got it wrong, so have ended up with 2 3.10 diffs:



The comedy 316i engine:





Got to removing it:





Will be selling bits off the 316i engine, PM me if you need parts:



Next threw in an E46 clubsport rack with DanThe spacers on the top:



Took apart an E34 steering UJ and combined it with the E30 UJ:



All bolted up with DanThe's splined steering shaft:



I have a E34 sump waiting to go onto my engine, so will sort that and am also waiting on poly engine mounts from rev-shift. Had to really go with poly as the downpipe is going to be running to close to the steering column and don't want it to foul on it!

So engine will be in within the next few days. Just waiting on Gunni at GSTuning to come down so he can mock up an E36 bottom mount turbo manifold so see if it fits, if not will probably go with a top mount. I would prefer a top mount anyway, but will see when Gunni comes down to check fitment.

[R32 GTR]

Cant wait for this to hit the road as i said on Saturday. Will be a beast with your skills

[andeep]

Cant wait for this to hit the road as i said on Saturday. Will be a beast with your skills

We will defo have to hit up a drift day with our M50 turbos when we're done!

[harryboy]

Nice one!

[Confusion!]

Cant wait to see this finished... Always love turbo bmw's. Good luck

[andeep]

Stuck the 5 series M50 front sump on:


Revshift 24v conversion poly mounts:

Needed these because I don't want the engine to move too much and foul on anything as I know clearances are going to be tight. Cabin noise should be fine still as its a smooth 6-cylinder and not a 4 pot bag of shite.

Getrag gearbox:


Mounts installed. The central stud goes into the slotted holes in the subframe closest to the chassis rails. Since the stud on the other end is eccentric, the mount can be rotated to centre the engine perfectly.


Nearly there:




And shes in:


I am using stock E36 gearbox rubbers (same as E30) for the moment until I get hold of some E21 ones. I rotated the engine mounts until the crank was perfectly centred between the chassis rails and each end of the mount was sitting flush with their mounting surfaces. Gearbox and engine mounts were then tightened fully and measurements checked again it its sitting perfect. The mounts left are right aren't aligned symmetrically with each other, but this is fine since the engine sits spot on.



Plenty of space for a turbo! And loads of room for downpipe.


Car is being trailered up to Gunni at GSTuning tonight and he will build the top mount manifold.

[Stavros]

Awesome! I've always wanted a big power E30! This is going to be the bollocks.

[Karan]

Looking good see u tonight.

[TeamCommit]

looks like a good build mate, I have a e30 325i how hard is it to get other engines to fit i.e... 3.5

[steve m50 turbo]

subscribed ;-)

[cefiro_drifta]

subscribing as i love e30's and m50's

[LM.]

Will be watching this one closely, looks set to be fucking awesome.

What sort of power figures are you aiming for?

[andeep]

looks like a good build mate, I have a e30 325i how hard is it to get other engines to fit i.e... 3.5

Sorry got no idea mate.

Will be watching this one closely, looks set to be fucking awesome.

What sort of power figures are you aiming for?

500+ bhp and similar torques. Will never put the power down anyway lol

[andeep]

Car is still at GSTuning, so thought would go about rebuilding and freshening up the brakes. The brakes will probably be fine, but thought I would rebuild them as they are really old, and also they look really grubby!

I sourced some vented E30 325i front calipers and complete E30 325i rear trailing arms. I will be using these with yellowstuff pads for the time being, if I need bigger brakes will invest in some in the future.

The rears weren't too bad:



Fronts were a different story. Looked like someone had attempted to paint them yellow at some point in their lives (wire brushed the one on the right):



So I stripped the calipers, wire brushed them as much as I could:



Mixed up some Deox-C and left it for a day:



Bits came out well:



They then got another wire brush, degrease and good cleaning before I started painting them:



Baked them in an oven for around an hour, then got to tapping the holes again and cleaning off any paint on any of the contact surfaces:





Started to rebuild everything. Rebuild the calipers, greased and assembled everything.



All done!

[Karan]

Nice did u get the seals and everything from BMW?

[andeep]

Nah got them from biggred.co.uk

[MercTurbo]

Quality project

[e21jason]

Top build be interesting to see what Gunni can ring from the M50 on stock internals, you changing to single mass flywheel to go with the uprated clutch.

[andeep]

Yep going for an M20 flywheel with a Sachs 618 pressure plate and pure performance sweden 6-puk friction disk.

[chingbp]

good luck with the build