E30 M3 - Unintended Rebuild
Discussion
Hi All,
I've not done a journal type thread for a long time, so hopefully it's vaguely interesting/tolerably formatted.
Anyway, I've had a deep seated interest in E30 M3's for a long time. A now very good mate of mine turned up to a car show may years ago in one (circa 2008, they were still £5K then!), whilst I was in an E36 M3 at that time, and I just thought it looked so damn cool and I'd have to have one. Have had a few of them over the subsequent years and have been on some adventures with them, some amazing and some with a crap ending.
Whenever one gets sold, I buy something else. Have been lucky enough to subsequently have had E36's, E46's, a CSL, E92's, E28 M5 - all really great in their own way. But time passes, and I find myself back here again with an E30 M3. I can't seem to shake it, I've promised myself I'll hang on to this one now which is just as well as it'll be damn near rebuilt front to back shortly. This wasn't the plan, as is often the way I'm sure.
Previous cars in chronological order.
Reasonably decent E reg 2.3, bought for £8K back in 2009 (ish, I think). Sold an E36 M3 for £7.5K, emptied my current account for the balance and bought it. Wasn't rotten, but did have a rattly, smoky engine. I still absolutely bloody loved it though. This car met it's demise ultimately when the oil consumption got completely out of hand, circa 1L for every 300 miles. Had the engine pulled out, and took it to a very posh engine builder, who basically wanted to charge the purchase price of the whole car for a standard rebuild. I panicked (was not earning well at the time) and ending up breaking the car for parts. In hindsight I should have calmed down and could have had it rebuilt for way less elsewhere, but I was much younger and naive. The then sold shell had an S50 fitted to it, and last I heard ended up in the Canary Islands. Financially this actually worked out great, as the parts values had just started to spike, so I came out well on top and went back to E36 M3's.
Fast forward a few years, and the itch returns. Cars are now much, much more expensive. A "decent" car is circa £50k. I found this one not advertised sat in the back of a shed, where it had been for 10 years or so for circa £30k. I'd got into circuit racing by this time, and decided I wanted to build a race E30 M3, so this base was justified.
Back home having been pulled out of a shed covered in dust.
In truth this car was an absolute rotten nail. But the motor was good, it had a proper ex works GrpA gearbox. 3 years of work ensued, tonnes of money and obsessing over tiny details, resulting in this below. Proper GrpA cage blah blah, I have millions of images of this build if anyone wants to see them.
I raced the car in the Isle of Man, and loved it.
Drove it to the Le Mans 24, had to wear Peltor ear defenders as it was so noisy over that distance it'd bring you to tears. The black E30 M3 in front of mine is the same one I saw at the car show back in 2008 that started the obsession. He still owns it today.
TBC
I've not done a journal type thread for a long time, so hopefully it's vaguely interesting/tolerably formatted.
Anyway, I've had a deep seated interest in E30 M3's for a long time. A now very good mate of mine turned up to a car show may years ago in one (circa 2008, they were still £5K then!), whilst I was in an E36 M3 at that time, and I just thought it looked so damn cool and I'd have to have one. Have had a few of them over the subsequent years and have been on some adventures with them, some amazing and some with a crap ending.
Whenever one gets sold, I buy something else. Have been lucky enough to subsequently have had E36's, E46's, a CSL, E92's, E28 M5 - all really great in their own way. But time passes, and I find myself back here again with an E30 M3. I can't seem to shake it, I've promised myself I'll hang on to this one now which is just as well as it'll be damn near rebuilt front to back shortly. This wasn't the plan, as is often the way I'm sure.
Previous cars in chronological order.
Reasonably decent E reg 2.3, bought for £8K back in 2009 (ish, I think). Sold an E36 M3 for £7.5K, emptied my current account for the balance and bought it. Wasn't rotten, but did have a rattly, smoky engine. I still absolutely bloody loved it though. This car met it's demise ultimately when the oil consumption got completely out of hand, circa 1L for every 300 miles. Had the engine pulled out, and took it to a very posh engine builder, who basically wanted to charge the purchase price of the whole car for a standard rebuild. I panicked (was not earning well at the time) and ending up breaking the car for parts. In hindsight I should have calmed down and could have had it rebuilt for way less elsewhere, but I was much younger and naive. The then sold shell had an S50 fitted to it, and last I heard ended up in the Canary Islands. Financially this actually worked out great, as the parts values had just started to spike, so I came out well on top and went back to E36 M3's.
Fast forward a few years, and the itch returns. Cars are now much, much more expensive. A "decent" car is circa £50k. I found this one not advertised sat in the back of a shed, where it had been for 10 years or so for circa £30k. I'd got into circuit racing by this time, and decided I wanted to build a race E30 M3, so this base was justified.
Back home having been pulled out of a shed covered in dust.
In truth this car was an absolute rotten nail. But the motor was good, it had a proper ex works GrpA gearbox. 3 years of work ensued, tonnes of money and obsessing over tiny details, resulting in this below. Proper GrpA cage blah blah, I have millions of images of this build if anyone wants to see them.
I raced the car in the Isle of Man, and loved it.
Drove it to the Le Mans 24, had to wear Peltor ear defenders as it was so noisy over that distance it'd bring you to tears. The black E30 M3 in front of mine is the same one I saw at the car show back in 2008 that started the obsession. He still owns it today.
TBC
that is beautiful! So the white race car was complete and pretty much everything I'd hoped it'd be. But the reality was that I had so much money into it and had been involved in every minute element of it I couldn't be circuit racing it and risking damaging it. It sounds stupid, but I'd have been so upset if it was damaged. it was also not powerful enough to go racing with other similar cars (mine had circa 245hp VS the "proper" cars 300+hp), nor was the suspension sophisticated enough.
I'd began to become obsessed with Porsche GT3's. Years of trackdays at Spa and the 'Ring in E30's & E36's led to me getting passed like I was parked by 997 GT3's. A deal was done and the white E30 was sold and a 997 GT3 CS took its place. This ended up being quite a serious car, Moton's, Cup diff, E88's etc.
That got raced in the Isle of Man too, which was ace.
Lot of track days ensued, and circa 20k miles covered by me to & from track days in the 997. It was an ambition realised for me (every small boy wants a 911 right?). 185mph down the Dottinger straight at the Ring was utterly eye opening. Incredible vehicle, very glad I owned it. But it wasn't an E30 M3.
I'd began to become obsessed with Porsche GT3's. Years of trackdays at Spa and the 'Ring in E30's & E36's led to me getting passed like I was parked by 997 GT3's. A deal was done and the white E30 was sold and a 997 GT3 CS took its place. This ended up being quite a serious car, Moton's, Cup diff, E88's etc.
That got raced in the Isle of Man too, which was ace.
Lot of track days ensued, and circa 20k miles covered by me to & from track days in the 997. It was an ambition realised for me (every small boy wants a 911 right?). 185mph down the Dottinger straight at the Ring was utterly eye opening. Incredible vehicle, very glad I owned it. But it wasn't an E30 M3.
The GT3 was approaching 50K miles, and I was getting nervous about its value halving. I had stretched myself to buy it and run it properly whilst circuit racing an E36 M3 at the same time. Racing was getting more intense and costly, and I decided to sell the GT3 to deleverage and get a better house with a bi shed. A lovely deal was done with a chap who I am sure is on PH, and off the GT3 went to its new home after a few years of fun. In hindsight it would have been good to keep the 997, but I couldn't have moved house, and wouldn't have a big shed.
Now in the new house with a big shed and starting to get the itch again, a "cheap" E30 M3 at circa £35K was mentioned to me, hiding on a small driveway under a tarpaulin on the south coast. It sounded too good to be true, already stripped out, carbon airbox etc, bit tatty but all present & correct. I thought I could buy it, tidy it up and either go full hog and do another racer (I don't learn) or have a GT3 inspired Clubsport type build. A friend and I travelled down to the coast, and picked it up.
This was an aborted take off in reality, I had the car for 18mths or so but experience reminded me that nothing is simple or cheap and it needed properly sorting out. It had been hacked about plenty whilst they were cheap track toys many years ago, and the scale of impending project put me off starting it. It sat in the shed, but then was sold.
More rumours of cheap M3's started coming my way again. A "racy" E30 M3 and a road going 320is was supposedly for sale in Cambridgeshire as part of a complicated estate sale. They would only be for sale as a pair, bugger. The M3 had a seriously fit 2.5L with slide throttles in it, a nice cage, and the 320is had a 2.3L S14 in it. I stretched myself massively and bought both not really sure what the plan was. Ultimately it all got sold and worked out well financially. The 2.5L which was apparently over 300hp was crated and sold to the US, and the M3 rolling shell sold to a local friend. The 320is was painted, sorted mechanically and then sold to a nice chap from Leicester. No photos of the M3 sadly, but this is the 320is once ready for sale.
Still circuit racing an E36 M3 and feeling I should try something a bit more, a "cheap" 996 GT3 Cup car became available.
This I do wish I had kept, but it handled so differently to what I was used to. I know from racing that I need to be able to have an off to understand the car dynamically, and I couldn't face the repair bills for when the Cup got inevitably damaged in some way. A very very different car to the 997 GT3, which was infinitely more forgiving in every respect. It was seriously cool though, and I do wish I was much better off and could afford a few front bumpers, a repair to a rear quarter perhaps, an engine rebuild or a new gearbox. Getting slightly more sensible though, I had some fun in it over a few track days and test days and after 18mths or so it was sold. Better to experience it first hand, enjoy it and get out before it buggers you up financially.
Now in the new house with a big shed and starting to get the itch again, a "cheap" E30 M3 at circa £35K was mentioned to me, hiding on a small driveway under a tarpaulin on the south coast. It sounded too good to be true, already stripped out, carbon airbox etc, bit tatty but all present & correct. I thought I could buy it, tidy it up and either go full hog and do another racer (I don't learn) or have a GT3 inspired Clubsport type build. A friend and I travelled down to the coast, and picked it up.
This was an aborted take off in reality, I had the car for 18mths or so but experience reminded me that nothing is simple or cheap and it needed properly sorting out. It had been hacked about plenty whilst they were cheap track toys many years ago, and the scale of impending project put me off starting it. It sat in the shed, but then was sold.
More rumours of cheap M3's started coming my way again. A "racy" E30 M3 and a road going 320is was supposedly for sale in Cambridgeshire as part of a complicated estate sale. They would only be for sale as a pair, bugger. The M3 had a seriously fit 2.5L with slide throttles in it, a nice cage, and the 320is had a 2.3L S14 in it. I stretched myself massively and bought both not really sure what the plan was. Ultimately it all got sold and worked out well financially. The 2.5L which was apparently over 300hp was crated and sold to the US, and the M3 rolling shell sold to a local friend. The 320is was painted, sorted mechanically and then sold to a nice chap from Leicester. No photos of the M3 sadly, but this is the 320is once ready for sale.
Still circuit racing an E36 M3 and feeling I should try something a bit more, a "cheap" 996 GT3 Cup car became available.
This I do wish I had kept, but it handled so differently to what I was used to. I know from racing that I need to be able to have an off to understand the car dynamically, and I couldn't face the repair bills for when the Cup got inevitably damaged in some way. A very very different car to the 997 GT3, which was infinitely more forgiving in every respect. It was seriously cool though, and I do wish I was much better off and could afford a few front bumpers, a repair to a rear quarter perhaps, an engine rebuild or a new gearbox. Getting slightly more sensible though, I had some fun in it over a few track days and test days and after 18mths or so it was sold. Better to experience it first hand, enjoy it and get out before it buggers you up financially.
Sticking with older BMW's is the sweet spot for me, an E46 CSL came and went (fantastic car) after some trackdays and a 'Ring trip. The alternator packed up at the 'Ring so cue frantically fitting a replacement myself at a local garage so it would make the tunnel home. The CSL was one of the derestricted from factory versions, it was still pulling very hard on the Autobahn on a balmy summers evening en route to the 'Ring at well over 170mph indicated. Fantastic stuff, a car to remember for sure.
A really nice E92 M3 Clubsport came and went, great car but ultimately a bit heavy and too heavy on tyre & brake wear relative to its pace on circuit. For a brief time the shed looked like this, CSL on the left, long term E36 racer centre and E92 on the right.
Somewhere in the middle of all of this I did a 3hr RCN race at the Nurburgring in a rented E90. Great experience, but ultimately a puncture ended my race and I ended up other side of the Armco awaiting recovery.
A really nice E92 M3 Clubsport came and went, great car but ultimately a bit heavy and too heavy on tyre & brake wear relative to its pace on circuit. For a brief time the shed looked like this, CSL on the left, long term E36 racer centre and E92 on the right.
Somewhere in the middle of all of this I did a 3hr RCN race at the Nurburgring in a rented E90. Great experience, but ultimately a puncture ended my race and I ended up other side of the Armco awaiting recovery.
That brings us to Spring 2023 ish, with me idly browsing mobile.de. Pricing for E30 M3's in Europe at the time seemed a fair chunk less than in the UK, with the range of cars for sale being much broader & apparent quality appearing higher. I've genuinely tried to leave E30's alone, they are a right pain in the back side in truth, can be very rotten, and aren't vaguely fast by today's standards. But there is something about them that gets me weak in the knees despite all of this, and I keep coming back.
I spotted a well priced Diamondschwarz 1987 car, with some nice parts fitted to it. Tidy interior, silly bling BBS' and what was purported to be a freshly rebuilt motor. The car was in Stuttgart, and a mate and I jumped on a redeye Easyjet flight on a Saturday morning, arriving in Stuttgart around 8am. The seller collected us from the airport in a nice M4 CS and we drove to where the car was stored. All looked good, everything present & correct. Plenty not to my taste, but nothing that couldn't be sorted easily. Most importantly it drove OK, and ran really nicely.
It was a bank holiday weekend, and the plan was if the car was good to send the seller the money and drive home immediately. All was deemed good, and I did an electronic transfer to the seller only to then realise it wouldn't clear until the Tuesday due to the Bank holiday - bugger. What ensued was bizarre and brilliant in equal measure.
Obligatory photo of the car with its new owner. I'm the awkward looking bloke on the right.
Knowing we're now stuck in Stuttgart for three unintended days whilst waiting for the bank to clear the funds to buy the car, the seller told us we could have use of his wife's Skoda Yeti and explore Stuttgart and the Swabian Hills. His friend then came over in his beautiful red E30 and we all went for a nice drive out into the hills. Very surreal, incredibly welcoming and trusting people.
My friend and I killed time for a couple of days in Stuttgart whilst waiting for money to clear. Many Schnitzels eaten, much beer drunk, also visited the Porsche museum.
Tuesday came, the money cleared and I drove the little E30 all the way home from Stuttgart to Wales non stop. 700 miles and didn't miss a beat. Very, very happy indeed.
Then the PITA type stuff started annoyngly.
I spotted a well priced Diamondschwarz 1987 car, with some nice parts fitted to it. Tidy interior, silly bling BBS' and what was purported to be a freshly rebuilt motor. The car was in Stuttgart, and a mate and I jumped on a redeye Easyjet flight on a Saturday morning, arriving in Stuttgart around 8am. The seller collected us from the airport in a nice M4 CS and we drove to where the car was stored. All looked good, everything present & correct. Plenty not to my taste, but nothing that couldn't be sorted easily. Most importantly it drove OK, and ran really nicely.
It was a bank holiday weekend, and the plan was if the car was good to send the seller the money and drive home immediately. All was deemed good, and I did an electronic transfer to the seller only to then realise it wouldn't clear until the Tuesday due to the Bank holiday - bugger. What ensued was bizarre and brilliant in equal measure.
Obligatory photo of the car with its new owner. I'm the awkward looking bloke on the right.
Knowing we're now stuck in Stuttgart for three unintended days whilst waiting for the bank to clear the funds to buy the car, the seller told us we could have use of his wife's Skoda Yeti and explore Stuttgart and the Swabian Hills. His friend then came over in his beautiful red E30 and we all went for a nice drive out into the hills. Very surreal, incredibly welcoming and trusting people.
My friend and I killed time for a couple of days in Stuttgart whilst waiting for money to clear. Many Schnitzels eaten, much beer drunk, also visited the Porsche museum.
Tuesday came, the money cleared and I drove the little E30 all the way home from Stuttgart to Wales non stop. 700 miles and didn't miss a beat. Very, very happy indeed.
Then the PITA type stuff started annoyngly.
Back in Wales with the car, and keen to put my own stamp on the car. After an on ramp inspection, this is the best one I've had yet. The body is excellent, really very good. This is all looking very promising indeed. Don't go mad, just put your stamp on it and relax/enjoy.
A lovely photo of my E36 long termer racer and the E30 relaxing together in the Welsh sun.
The RS' were sold as there's no way I'm willing to keep them polished and I can't watch them deteriorate. A set of Sport Evo 16" wheels are purchased from the dealer (cheaper to buy them brand new than second hand, bonkers!) and some proper tyres fitted.
Carbon airbox fitted, decent exhaust manifold and system, Maxx alpha N conversion and off to be mapped. It made 243hp, very happy with that, sounded and pulled great. A nice Alpina homage gauge was fitted to one of the central heater vents, to at least give an indication of oil pressure, temp etc.
I'm not a fan of the Evo 2 lip, so a Sport Evo front and rear end is fitted. I'm not trying to make a Sport Evo replica, I just happen to prefer that look.
Lots of little jobs tidying the car up inside & out, underneath follow. It's in really good shape and driving/running brilliantly. I'm chuffed to bits.
The chance to go on a Eurotrip with my best mate comes up, plan is to do Spa, then Zolder, and then Meppen, Drive out, drive home. Car is prepped and readied, centre caps for the 16's left at home so they don't fly off on circuit. Boot full of jacks, fluids and a few spares. GB sticker applied and off we go. Heaven.
Eurotunnel outbound, all is well in the world.
My mate has a heavily modified Vantage, both cars attract a lot of interest whilst parked up at Spa.
I'm totally over the moon with how the E30 is looking and driving. It's on R888's, some hot pads, braided lines and SRF racing fluid with Sport Evo brake ducts. Suspension is Koni adjustables on Eibach springs, camber adjustable front top mounts, castor adjustable rear wishbone bushes and polybushes here and there - just about perfect for a road/track compromise. Steering rack is a Z3 "quick rack", seats are Recaro's. Absolutely brilliant. I'm so pleased with the brakes, they're still standard OEM sliding calipers, but with good fluid, some racy pads and decent ducting I can stand on them and they work fantastically. Obviously it's all relative to power & overall speed (both quite low), but just brilliant.
The morning at Spa is a torrential rainstorm, and the E30 is magical. It's relatively light and so well balanced it can be driven flat out around Spa even in heavy rain very easily on R888's. Afternoon at Spa is hot and dry, and still brilliant fun although another 30 or 40hp wouldn't go amiss.
EDIT - Updated with Spa photos.
A lovely photo of my E36 long termer racer and the E30 relaxing together in the Welsh sun.
The RS' were sold as there's no way I'm willing to keep them polished and I can't watch them deteriorate. A set of Sport Evo 16" wheels are purchased from the dealer (cheaper to buy them brand new than second hand, bonkers!) and some proper tyres fitted.
Carbon airbox fitted, decent exhaust manifold and system, Maxx alpha N conversion and off to be mapped. It made 243hp, very happy with that, sounded and pulled great. A nice Alpina homage gauge was fitted to one of the central heater vents, to at least give an indication of oil pressure, temp etc.
I'm not a fan of the Evo 2 lip, so a Sport Evo front and rear end is fitted. I'm not trying to make a Sport Evo replica, I just happen to prefer that look.
Lots of little jobs tidying the car up inside & out, underneath follow. It's in really good shape and driving/running brilliantly. I'm chuffed to bits.
The chance to go on a Eurotrip with my best mate comes up, plan is to do Spa, then Zolder, and then Meppen, Drive out, drive home. Car is prepped and readied, centre caps for the 16's left at home so they don't fly off on circuit. Boot full of jacks, fluids and a few spares. GB sticker applied and off we go. Heaven.
Eurotunnel outbound, all is well in the world.
My mate has a heavily modified Vantage, both cars attract a lot of interest whilst parked up at Spa.
I'm totally over the moon with how the E30 is looking and driving. It's on R888's, some hot pads, braided lines and SRF racing fluid with Sport Evo brake ducts. Suspension is Koni adjustables on Eibach springs, camber adjustable front top mounts, castor adjustable rear wishbone bushes and polybushes here and there - just about perfect for a road/track compromise. Steering rack is a Z3 "quick rack", seats are Recaro's. Absolutely brilliant. I'm so pleased with the brakes, they're still standard OEM sliding calipers, but with good fluid, some racy pads and decent ducting I can stand on them and they work fantastically. Obviously it's all relative to power & overall speed (both quite low), but just brilliant.
The morning at Spa is a torrential rainstorm, and the E30 is magical. It's relatively light and so well balanced it can be driven flat out around Spa even in heavy rain very easily on R888's. Afternoon at Spa is hot and dry, and still brilliant fun although another 30 or 40hp wouldn't go amiss.
EDIT - Updated with Spa photos.
Edited by Matter88 on Tuesday 14th May 14:51
So the day at Spa was over & done with, fantastic time had and all without issue bar a brand new rotor arm deciding it wanted to come to bits. I'd replaced this with a new Bosch item before the trip to try and pre-empt any failures, and ended up refitting the 25yr old one. Bizarre, a lot of new parts today are pretty crap quality compared to the originals.
We headed over to Zolder that evening happy and ready for a decent meal at the always brilliant "Hotel De Pits" restaurant located at the circuit. Rested and fed, we got an early start and headed over to the circuit for day 2. Zolder is a fantastic circuit, well worth a visit if you've not been before. Slightly crazy "Belgian Rules" for a track day, which makes it feel more like a circuit race than a track day. The weather was hot & dry - perfect.
All was going great guns, and in the dry the E30 around Zolder felt much more suited with its power than a dry Spa. Zolder is much smaller, and whilst still fast enough to be scary, a well driven E30 with modest power doesn't create the rolling road block it might at Spa with Mclaren's & GT3's everywhere.
I was doing some laps in the 3rd or 4th session of the day and it all went wrong. Full throttle in 4th gear down the back straight the engine faltered for a moment and then plumes of white smoke starting pouring out of the exhaust, completely covering the circuit behind me. I've blown up a few cars whilst racing sadly, so I'm well used to immediate clutch in, switch it off and pull to one side in case it's dropping fluids onto the tarmac. I roll to a marshall's post and jump out fearing the worse. Bonnet up, there's nothing visibly wrong and I'm relieved it's not thrown a rod. It won't crank however, so is fairly obviously hydrolocked and the cylinders are all full of water. Headgasket failure - bugger.
I was and still am a bit confused, either my auxiliary gauges are wildly inaccurate or I was just lazy and not looking frequently enough. My mate with the Aston is adamant that both are true. We pull the plugs and crank it over, sending coolant 30 feet into the air in the paddock. Double bugger.
I work in the transport industry, so was able to try and call in a favour to get the E30 quickly recovered back to the UK. I was really worried about the prospect of leaving it unattended somewhere, and the risk that it might get stolen or have parts taken from it. Happily a transport firm had a low loader near Brussels, which had been supposed to be collected some very fancy Scania's, only to find out they wouldn't fit on the trailer. I basically ended up at their "back load" back to the UK to cover their costs. Within a couple of hours the truck is at Zolder, and the E30 is on the trailer. I told the driver in no uncertain terms this is not just "a car" and I really need him to take care of it and get it home safe. He promises he will.
Off the E30 went, and I spent the rest of the day and the journey home in my friends Aston. The E30 was actually back home on my drive, before we made it back amazingly. Unmarked, but still with a very knackered engine. Could be worse, I could have crashed it!
I'm nothing short of gutted, it was all going so well (perhaps too well in hindsight). 2023 was a crap year for me generally, my father died in July, my E36 race car blew up in June and now the E30 was an ornament in August. I am fed up. I'm a huge enthusiast, doing trips like this with cars like this are the reason I work hard and got a career going properly, this was & is the motivation. It's a kick in the teeth when it all goes wrong.
We headed over to Zolder that evening happy and ready for a decent meal at the always brilliant "Hotel De Pits" restaurant located at the circuit. Rested and fed, we got an early start and headed over to the circuit for day 2. Zolder is a fantastic circuit, well worth a visit if you've not been before. Slightly crazy "Belgian Rules" for a track day, which makes it feel more like a circuit race than a track day. The weather was hot & dry - perfect.
All was going great guns, and in the dry the E30 around Zolder felt much more suited with its power than a dry Spa. Zolder is much smaller, and whilst still fast enough to be scary, a well driven E30 with modest power doesn't create the rolling road block it might at Spa with Mclaren's & GT3's everywhere.
I was doing some laps in the 3rd or 4th session of the day and it all went wrong. Full throttle in 4th gear down the back straight the engine faltered for a moment and then plumes of white smoke starting pouring out of the exhaust, completely covering the circuit behind me. I've blown up a few cars whilst racing sadly, so I'm well used to immediate clutch in, switch it off and pull to one side in case it's dropping fluids onto the tarmac. I roll to a marshall's post and jump out fearing the worse. Bonnet up, there's nothing visibly wrong and I'm relieved it's not thrown a rod. It won't crank however, so is fairly obviously hydrolocked and the cylinders are all full of water. Headgasket failure - bugger.
I was and still am a bit confused, either my auxiliary gauges are wildly inaccurate or I was just lazy and not looking frequently enough. My mate with the Aston is adamant that both are true. We pull the plugs and crank it over, sending coolant 30 feet into the air in the paddock. Double bugger.
I work in the transport industry, so was able to try and call in a favour to get the E30 quickly recovered back to the UK. I was really worried about the prospect of leaving it unattended somewhere, and the risk that it might get stolen or have parts taken from it. Happily a transport firm had a low loader near Brussels, which had been supposed to be collected some very fancy Scania's, only to find out they wouldn't fit on the trailer. I basically ended up at their "back load" back to the UK to cover their costs. Within a couple of hours the truck is at Zolder, and the E30 is on the trailer. I told the driver in no uncertain terms this is not just "a car" and I really need him to take care of it and get it home safe. He promises he will.
Off the E30 went, and I spent the rest of the day and the journey home in my friends Aston. The E30 was actually back home on my drive, before we made it back amazingly. Unmarked, but still with a very knackered engine. Could be worse, I could have crashed it!
I'm nothing short of gutted, it was all going so well (perhaps too well in hindsight). 2023 was a crap year for me generally, my father died in July, my E36 race car blew up in June and now the E30 was an ornament in August. I am fed up. I'm a huge enthusiast, doing trips like this with cars like this are the reason I work hard and got a career going properly, this was & is the motivation. It's a kick in the teeth when it all goes wrong.
With the car back home and in the shed, I want to get cracking with a plan as quickly as possible. I hate broken cars, and the faff associated with sorting them out. Modifying/improving them is one thing, but the downtime & cost associated with just getting back to where you were before a failure always really irks me.
This was one of the reasons I bought the GT3, theory being it just needed fuel, tyres and brakes, more fuel, tyres & brakes. This transpired to be completely accurate, but oddly there's something missing from that kind of experience for me. Maybe the PITA and the inconvenience and stress associated with older stuff brings a higher high wen the goings good or a greater semblance of achievement? Not sure, there might be something to that.
The working theory is that the headgasket has failed (odd on a fresh engine), and went fast in a big way. Not actually a massive deal, no Vanos to worry about so whip the head off, inspect everything, get the head checked/skimmed, chuck a new gasket at it and off we go again.
So, head off.
Head was checked and pronounced good, and whilst we were there took the opportunity to tidy up the inlet porting a bit (someone has been in there previously) and to fit a better manifold. I was able to get a decent deal on "50/50" manifold which is considered to be the better of the road going variants, and a Supersprint manifold back to top it all off.
Engine all back together, and seems to be running as well as it ever did. Coolant circulating as it should, no overheating, nothing in the oil or coolant that shouldn't be there. Winner! Maybe I was lucky and got away with it after all, although it still doesn't really explain why it failed in the first place.
Given the porting had been altered a bit, and it has a different manifold fitted it seemed wise to get the map checked again to ensure it's optimized and all is well with the S14. Off to mapping we went, and very quickly discovered that all was definitely not well, and within an hour of being on the dyno the cylinders filled with coolant once again and the engine hydrolocked. Triple bugger.
Hugely deflated the E30 went back in the trailer, and dragged back home.
This was one of the reasons I bought the GT3, theory being it just needed fuel, tyres and brakes, more fuel, tyres & brakes. This transpired to be completely accurate, but oddly there's something missing from that kind of experience for me. Maybe the PITA and the inconvenience and stress associated with older stuff brings a higher high wen the goings good or a greater semblance of achievement? Not sure, there might be something to that.
The working theory is that the headgasket has failed (odd on a fresh engine), and went fast in a big way. Not actually a massive deal, no Vanos to worry about so whip the head off, inspect everything, get the head checked/skimmed, chuck a new gasket at it and off we go again.
So, head off.
Head was checked and pronounced good, and whilst we were there took the opportunity to tidy up the inlet porting a bit (someone has been in there previously) and to fit a better manifold. I was able to get a decent deal on "50/50" manifold which is considered to be the better of the road going variants, and a Supersprint manifold back to top it all off.
Engine all back together, and seems to be running as well as it ever did. Coolant circulating as it should, no overheating, nothing in the oil or coolant that shouldn't be there. Winner! Maybe I was lucky and got away with it after all, although it still doesn't really explain why it failed in the first place.
Given the porting had been altered a bit, and it has a different manifold fitted it seemed wise to get the map checked again to ensure it's optimized and all is well with the S14. Off to mapping we went, and very quickly discovered that all was definitely not well, and within an hour of being on the dyno the cylinders filled with coolant once again and the engine hydrolocked. Triple bugger.
Hugely deflated the E30 went back in the trailer, and dragged back home.
Clearly something more significant was amiss within the S14, or perhaps we missed something on reassembly. Again my cheerful friend with the Aston is adamant that both apply.
I decided to not mess about, and to pull the motor completely and drop it off to an engine builders, with a failure history and tell them to go through it completely. Repair what needs repairing - just get it right and don't cut corners.
Starting the strip down
Out and on the floor. E30's are great to work on, loads of room for activities being only a little compact 4 pot.
Out and loaded the same day into my (recently very much not) trusted L322 TDV8. It's moments like this when I'm convinced I'm a masochist, running old cars and working them really hard, loading expensive old engines into the back of cheap but very expensive to run unreliable old cars.
I'll save you the boring back story with this engine builder, but long story short they had it for a few weeks, pronounced it knackered in various ways and asked me to bring in a spare S14 I've got (which is old but virginal, I.E known good & never opened) so they could cannibalize it.
They wanted to take the virgin spare engine block, and bore it (WTF!) so they could re-use the Wossener pistons out of the original engine. This was after I told them to just spec a high comp piston of their choosing, and to not re-use the Wossener's. I certainly didn't want to bore a lovely old original block unnecessarily. This was the last straw in a sorry saga, I was going to end up with a pile of bits that had been bastardised, and an engine mash up of old parts. I told them to down tools, send me a bill and I'd be there at 8am with some boxes to collect it all. Collected it all and dragged it back home to the shed.
Fast forward to December 2023, and the engine is now with someone proper in Ridgeway Racing Engines in Swindon. They specialise in twin cam stuff, such as M12's & M10's, and BDG's etc.
https://www.ridgewayraceengines.co.uk
They have specified a CP high comp piston, balanced all the internals, ported the head (again), reground the Schrick cams for greater duration and just given everything a proper going over. The hope is that once it's back with me in the next few weeks and dropped in the hole it should do a bit more power than it did previously, and hopefully hold together. They've done very nice work visually so far.
I decided to not mess about, and to pull the motor completely and drop it off to an engine builders, with a failure history and tell them to go through it completely. Repair what needs repairing - just get it right and don't cut corners.
Starting the strip down
Out and on the floor. E30's are great to work on, loads of room for activities being only a little compact 4 pot.
Out and loaded the same day into my (recently very much not) trusted L322 TDV8. It's moments like this when I'm convinced I'm a masochist, running old cars and working them really hard, loading expensive old engines into the back of cheap but very expensive to run unreliable old cars.
I'll save you the boring back story with this engine builder, but long story short they had it for a few weeks, pronounced it knackered in various ways and asked me to bring in a spare S14 I've got (which is old but virginal, I.E known good & never opened) so they could cannibalize it.
They wanted to take the virgin spare engine block, and bore it (WTF!) so they could re-use the Wossener pistons out of the original engine. This was after I told them to just spec a high comp piston of their choosing, and to not re-use the Wossener's. I certainly didn't want to bore a lovely old original block unnecessarily. This was the last straw in a sorry saga, I was going to end up with a pile of bits that had been bastardised, and an engine mash up of old parts. I told them to down tools, send me a bill and I'd be there at 8am with some boxes to collect it all. Collected it all and dragged it back home to the shed.
Fast forward to December 2023, and the engine is now with someone proper in Ridgeway Racing Engines in Swindon. They specialise in twin cam stuff, such as M12's & M10's, and BDG's etc.
https://www.ridgewayraceengines.co.uk
They have specified a CP high comp piston, balanced all the internals, ported the head (again), reground the Schrick cams for greater duration and just given everything a proper going over. The hope is that once it's back with me in the next few weeks and dropped in the hole it should do a bit more power than it did previously, and hopefully hold together. They've done very nice work visually so far.
Whilst the engine has been out with the car stuck in the shed, I took the opportunity to try and pre-empt some future failures. In many ways I'm pleased that the engine let go, hopefully it'll come back better than before and I'd rather a blown up engine than a rusty shell.
Gearbox has been away for a rebuild and is back with me now. Needed a couple of bearings, nothing major. Clutch is an OEM item with a TTV single piece flywheel. Prop has been dropped, new UJ, centre bearing and doughnut.
|https://forums-images.pistonheads.com/519952/202405145199563[/url]
Pulled the diff, changed the back plate to a Z3M one for no other reason than they look cool and gave it a tart up.
Spotted a cheap set of BBS "Style 5's" needing a refurb over Christmas, split them down and had the barrels painted in Porsche 997 silver (no polished lips for me, I'm committed but not that committed) and the centres done in Nogaro silver. New bolts from SRR hardware and Michelin Pilot sport 5's. Not really sure why I did this as E30's ride far better on 16's or 15's, but there is limited tyre choice in OEM 16" size which is 225/45/17. In 17's these PS5's are readily available. Style 5s also weigh a ton, so it's a real mixed bag of pro's & con's. They do look nice though.
I have started making a pile of parts to go away for vapour blasting & electro plating (trying to stay sane/busy whilst awaiting engine completion).
Here is how the car sits as of now in May 2024, still on the Style 5's and awaiting the engine. Paint has been polished to death and engine bay cleaned a million times. Hopefully won't need to wait too much longer! I've only owned this car a year but its already been a complete b
d. My desire to own another E30 is being tested quite hard, but I should hopefully be on the home stretch now. If I can get back out to Zolder and exercise some demons before year end, that would be ace.
Gearbox has been away for a rebuild and is back with me now. Needed a couple of bearings, nothing major. Clutch is an OEM item with a TTV single piece flywheel. Prop has been dropped, new UJ, centre bearing and doughnut.
Pulled the diff, changed the back plate to a Z3M one for no other reason than they look cool and gave it a tart up.
Spotted a cheap set of BBS "Style 5's" needing a refurb over Christmas, split them down and had the barrels painted in Porsche 997 silver (no polished lips for me, I'm committed but not that committed) and the centres done in Nogaro silver. New bolts from SRR hardware and Michelin Pilot sport 5's. Not really sure why I did this as E30's ride far better on 16's or 15's, but there is limited tyre choice in OEM 16" size which is 225/45/17. In 17's these PS5's are readily available. Style 5s also weigh a ton, so it's a real mixed bag of pro's & con's. They do look nice though.
I have started making a pile of parts to go away for vapour blasting & electro plating (trying to stay sane/busy whilst awaiting engine completion).
Here is how the car sits as of now in May 2024, still on the Style 5's and awaiting the engine. Paint has been polished to death and engine bay cleaned a million times. Hopefully won't need to wait too much longer! I've only owned this car a year but its already been a complete b
d. My desire to own another E30 is being tested quite hard, but I should hopefully be on the home stretch now. If I can get back out to Zolder and exercise some demons before year end, that would be ace.Thank you for all the comments gents! Glad it's of interest 
RE the garage, when I sold the 997 it was to help us move house basically. We bought a house with a big shed which I then turned into a car storage business I can run from home on top of the normal job, helps pay the mortgage! We lived in a modern house before that with a double garage, that wasn't really a double, you could fit a single car in there and work on it but that's it. The dream was to get a two post lift so I could carry out basic maintenance and inspection work on my own cars, and the bigger shed turned into a little business of its own which is great.
RE the garage, when I sold the 997 it was to help us move house basically. We bought a house with a big shed which I then turned into a car storage business I can run from home on top of the normal job, helps pay the mortgage! We lived in a modern house before that with a double garage, that wasn't really a double, you could fit a single car in there and work on it but that's it. The dream was to get a two post lift so I could carry out basic maintenance and inspection work on my own cars, and the bigger shed turned into a little business of its own which is great.
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