jibbajabbas E30 M3 S38

[IronmanE30]

Just checked out your thread. Fabulous work and the perfect swap.

Cheers,

Jim

[markseven]

Best. Swap. Ever.

[markseven]

Best. Swap. Ever.

[jibbajabba]

Definitely a lot of patience. Then the upkeep of keeping it nice and shiny afterwards, I
rather not think about all that work...

So it's been almost 9 years and I'm just cruising through this old post. I haven't touched the polished bits since they were done and they still look the same. I put "wheel wax" on them when I first installed them. I guess that stuff worked.

[mlytle]

too bad you haven't paid pbucket......all the pictures are dead links or blurred out.

[Ausm3]

What does the car look like now?

[Konig]

Circa our meet in June of '17:

[HANDBLT]

ever put it on scales? would be interested to see what the F/R % is now.

T

[Ausm3]

really nice. Love the headers and how clean everything is

[jibbajabba]

ever put it on scales? would be interested to see what the F/R % is now.

T

Not yet. Will be getting some scales in the near future though.

[jibbajabba]

What does the car look like now?

Still looks just like it does in konigs pictures.

[jibbajabba]

Well it's 01/21, I supposed it's time to update this thread.

Not much of an update though. The only changes made to this car is that I removed the Ground Control "e36 on e30" front suspension and switched back to e30 M3 front struts. Now running J-Stock springs with J-Stock Bilstein shocks in the front and a set of Koni rear shocks, custom valved for the J Stock rear springs, in the rear. What an improvement! The car drives so much better. Even with the added weight of the S38 over the front axle, the J Stock setup is so much better. I'm very happy with it. I built this car to be an awesome street car and it delivers.

It is such a different driving experience when compared to an S14 powered M3. With gobs of torque, I find myself constantly cruising around at 1500 - 2000 rpms with plenty of torque on tap to get you moving. You just never find any spot in the power band that you need more power. Punch it at 2500 rpms, and it just pulls hard all the way to 7400 rpms. Keep it in the 4-7k rpm range, and it moves with a fury that makes you grin ear to ear. Surprising a lot of cars you come across.

So to sum it up...I still love this car.

[mwagner10702]

Josh, Glad to hear those Konis you bought from me worked out. PSI does a great job with their re-valving. Car looks great! I can only imagine how it performs.

[Dave @nz]

It really is a credit good credit to your mechanical skill just awesome, I bet loads of fun to drive any day of the week.

[Bad E30]

Well months and months later...not much to update on this but this is what I was able to putz with over the last few months.

Some headway on the coil on plug conversion.

Suzuki GSXR1000 Denso pencil coils with stainless extenders



Removed the original spark plug wire hole inserts and pressed in a set of machined aluminum ones to bring the height down. These will allow me to use the factory seals that come on the Suzuki coils.

First of all, I understand this is an old thread, so apologies for bringing it back up!

Great work, really like the way you work. I am too rebuilding an s38b36 for my e30, I've been wanting to use coil-over-plugs for a while now but never found solid info.

The denso pencil coils have to be the best solution I have found so far! I am wanting to do the same instead of using the VAG coils.

If possible, do you have the dimensions of the extenders used. I have my own lathe to make up the valve cover inserts and extenders, but it would be great to get some dimensions as I know yours are correct.

Thanks