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Author: Subject: BMW E30 donor
ed_crouch

posted on 26/2/04 at 08:56 AM Reply With Quote
BMW E30 donor

OK, im fast losing my patience with the whole donor bits thing.

I want:

A locost with a fairly light engine (no heavier than a pinto), with potential to over 150BHP (with / without turbo). I am a bit fed up with the ball-ache of getting hold of Cortina front uprights, and I want the option of DeDion and LSD later.
I notice that BMW E30s are piling up in scrappies, and rusty 318Is can be had for a couple of hundred quid.

as anyone used E30 front uprights on a Locost? I envisage the struts needing chooping off about 4 inches above the bottom, and a sturdy bracket welding on to accept a ball joint tapered spigot with access to tweak the nut up on t'other side.

I want to use an E30, and would appreciate any experience people have of using these parts.

Any thoughts??
Thanks,

Ed.





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stephen_gusterson

posted on 26/2/04 at 04:29 PM Reply With Quote
bmw 318 of that time produce wank power

my 2000 318 has 118 hp.

you can get that from an efi pinto (115)

only the last 2 years have they made 143 hp from the 318.

even the new 2000cc 3 series diesel makes 150hp!

Due to company car policy changes, my next car in 12 weeks time will be a 320d touring. Lots of room to get the tent in for stoneleigh!

atb

steve






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ned

posted on 26/2/04 at 04:42 PM Reply With Quote
Stephen,

the 318's that makes 140bhp is not a 1.8 engine, but a 1.9 16v! it is known i believe as the m44 engine. it is used in the 318ti (copmact) and the 318is, possbily other newer models. the m42 is the older 1.8 engine iirc.

Ned.





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suparuss

posted on 26/2/04 at 06:42 PM Reply With Quote
if the front uprights are mcpherson, it cant be much harder to modify than using sierra hubs, which are also mcpherson.
i think the engines are quite heavy compared to most, but the range is quite goo, from the 1.8 (103bhp) to the 2.5i with a s-6 170bhp, 222.0 Nm which isnt too bad. would be very smooth as well being in line 6 cylinder. i believe someone else on here is using a bmw too s oshould be able to give you some advice.

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stutz

posted on 26/2/04 at 07:09 PM Reply With Quote
I was also toying with the idea of an E30 donor(see my post regarding diff), if you check the Feb edition of Retro Cars, it's not that difficult to squeeze 200hp out of the 8 valve M10 engines found in earlier E30's. Problem I found was the 30 degree tilt of the engine when installed in the car whuch makes it too wide for a locost.
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stephen_gusterson

posted on 26/2/04 at 08:02 PM Reply With Quote
Ned

I never said it was an 1800

I know the car i have driven for the last 4 years is a 1900cc.

The new ones are 2 litre NOT 1900

none of the E46 have an 1800.

the 316 pre the 140hp engine has the same engine as the 318 - its just downtuned. (105 instead of 118hp)


atb

steve



quote:
Originally posted by ned
Stephen,

the 318's that makes 140bhp is not a 1.8 engine, but a 1.9 16v! it is known i believe as the m44 engine. it is used in the 318ti (copmact) and the 318is, possbily other newer models. the m42 is the older 1.8 engine iirc.

Ned.


[Edited on 26/2/04 by stephen_gusterson]






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ed_crouch

posted on 27/2/04 at 08:11 AM Reply With Quote
yeh the M10B18 lump is a bit over 100 BHP, but my family have a lot of experience of working with BMW engines (brother looks after a lot of M Power cars aswell as some Alpina BiTurbos), and we.ve owned a 2002Tii that developed 200BHP without a turbo. Wicked fun!

I didnt think that the slant on the engine would be a problem, but happy to heed advice here, as I havent actually mocked the engine up in 3DS MAX and sat it in the bay (yet).

Yeh, modifying the front uprights seems to be a case of cutting the strut about 4 inches up from the casting (front shocks are an insert: strut is welded/bolted to the hub), and welding a nice thick bracket (20mm??) on top, and having it bored out by a machine shop to accept the top balljoint.

Also, the M10 engine is lighter than the pinto IIRC, partly due to having an alloy head, as opposed to the cast iron lump.
Lets face it, Sierras were a pants car built to a small price, and err, BMW E30s weren't!!

Damn spelling!![edited]

[Edited on 27/2/04 by ed_crouch]





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ed_crouch

posted on 27/2/04 at 08:15 AM Reply With Quote
Nearly got hold of an E46 323i engine, complete, for VERY little money. 170BHP stock, all alloy engine, smooth as a kashmir codpiece and VERY tunable.

PHWWWWWOOOOAARRR!!

Shame it was absolutely knackered!

Ed.

[Edited on 27/2/04 by ed_crouch]





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stutz

posted on 27/2/04 at 09:01 AM Reply With Quote
Ed,

I'd be very interested in your results. I am currently drawing up the chassis in CAD, and already have the donor, which I need to spend many hours on with the vernier. I have already put some thought into the diff with regards to a deDion setup, and your post on the front uprights has got me thinking again. I see on your website that the gearbox has a remote linkage, so was wondering about the possibility of changing the tilt on the gearbox. That, with a dry sump, should help things greatly. If you want a scan of the M10 tuning pages from Retro Cars let me know.

Stephen

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Simon

posted on 27/2/04 at 11:23 AM Reply With Quote
Ed,

I'm using Rover V8 (there's your engine at similar (lighter?) than Pinto), with your 150 bhp (and easily much more.

Uprights are Sierra, with mushroom inserts.

Diff is Sierra. Lots of ratios and cheap.

HTH

ATB

Simon






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stephen_gusterson

posted on 27/2/04 at 07:56 PM Reply With Quote
my current car is a 318i and my next will be a 320d touring.

on the point of quality - my car failed its mot today at 4 years old - one of the failure points was a suspension bush.

its needed two other suspension joints, a heater / aircon contoller, an electronic coolant stat, two changes of disks, and last month a new header tank cos it split and dumped all the water.

beemers are not necessarily the vehicle of quality you might expect.

ps - it failed its mot last year too.


atb

steve






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Simon

posted on 27/2/04 at 10:03 PM Reply With Quote
Steve,

In my previous post I put a long spiel(?) about the the misconceptions of german quality - in fact you'll probably find any reference to the same effect from me in other postings.

Out of courtesy (sympathy) to those that do spend their money abroad I deleted the paragraph as it was based entirely on the fact that my father had a coupe 328 a couple of years ago.

Considering it's price (and granted it's not a bad looking car (said reluctantly!) I thought the interior was wee poor. When he had a flat, the wheel had seized to the hub and had to go the shop to have it removed.

Anyway - you said what I wanted to

I was in the scrappy yesterday and they had a 3 series up on some posts. Thought I have a quick look underneath - and thought - looks a bit like a Sierra!

ATB

Simon






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thommy2

posted on 4/3/04 at 10:02 AM Reply With Quote
You should look at the photo's tigers. He is building a locost based on a E30, with m20 engine. Only he uses a 6-cilinder.
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Baalzamon

posted on 4/3/04 at 01:14 PM Reply With Quote
And I am building a locost based on E28, with a M20 engine. The E28 parts is not far from the E30. I got some picutures to, you will find them in the gallery.
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stutz

posted on 4/3/04 at 01:36 PM Reply With Quote
Baalzamon, how are you mounting the BMW diff, are you intending to use the BMW subframe?
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Baalzamon

posted on 5/3/04 at 07:08 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by stutz
Baalzamon, how are you mounting the BMW diff, are you intending to use the BMW subframe?


I will mount the diff in the two top mounts, and two at the bottom. I will propably not use the two mounts on the front, at least not the left.
I will use the spindels and drive shafts as well, but I will build new A-arms. I have to rebuild the spindels a little, but I am not sure how yet.

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sacem1

posted on 14/3/04 at 02:07 AM Reply With Quote
Thanks for the idea about cutting the McPhersons for fitting them to my project car, I'm ussing all possible parts from my donor car (1981 Celica 2000) in all Paru there maybe only one or two Cortinas so getting those front suspension parts was completly out of the question.
By the way the Celica engine fits nicely, the 5 speed gear box its in perfectly except for the left H tube having to reposition it one inch more to the left.
SACEM1

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tadltd

posted on 17/3/04 at 12:47 AM Reply With Quote
anyone considered the E36 model?

we managed to get a full back end (inc. diff, d/shafts), all brakes, front struts, uprights, bearings, etc. for £200 from a scrapyard

the front uprights are very light and lend themselves to a double wishbone set-up rather well - very similar to the Sierra

the rear uprights are more of a problem as they're cast into the subframe! if you use the whole subframe, fine - but it's unnecessarily heavy for a kit car

I can offer alloy uprights that will accept these driveshafts, standard BMW hubs and bearings. Have a look in my photo archive for a picture of 'em

e-mail or U2U me for costs if interested

Steve

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