E21 S50B30, 1980

VerDi · Post by **VerDi** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:40 am

Hello all, my car is almost finished so i'm placing some pictures here..

It start's with an 1980 320/6 that i've bought a few months ago.. I've driven a E30 cabrio for the last 8 years but due to some problems with the Belgian 'keuring' I had to put it to rest for a few years.. So i bought an E21 with the intention of using the E30 parts. The car was from the first owner with only 89.566 km on it, the car was in a very good shape apart from an drowning engine and some little rust spots...
The E30

The E21

VerDi · Post by **VerDi** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:44 am

While the engine in the E21 was blowing his last breath, the replacement of the engine was the first thing to do... My first time, so it was kind of a big challenge

engine bay cleand up

VerDi · Post by **VerDi** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:46 am

Then it was time to take my baby's hart out

And put it in the E21:

VerDi · Post by **VerDi** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:57 am

I used the complete E30 engine and 5 speed sport gearbox (with shortshift) (i knew i would have no speedo, but i don't give a f*ck), the E30 Scorpion exhaust i adjusted and weldet a little, so i now have an 323i look double exhaust.
The drive shaft is one of an E30 320i, that was the only one that would fit without any adjustments...

I struggled a few day's with the motronic connection but it worked! Time for a first testdrive

Nice! But the suspension is so far gone it's almost inpossible to drive it.. So time for the loweringsprings and Koni's

VerDi · Post by **VerDi** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:00 am

While i was doing that, i gave the brakes a litlle bit of new paint

Brakes have to do for now, but will be improved as soon as possible...

VerDi · Post by **VerDi** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:02 am

An extremely lowered E21 looks like this...

Her you can also see the exhaust

VerDi · Post by **VerDi** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:10 am

Now it's time to drive my new baby to the place were i will put my own signature on it... Time for the E30 wheels! Tramont staria 8.5*17"Et 18 (215/40/17) and 11*17" ET08 (265/35/17)... Need's some cutting here and there... For those who have a weak heart or only like completely original restored E21's, please close your eyes and move on to the next topic

VerDi · Post by **VerDi** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:17 am

Time to try and fit the 2002 turbo arches.... Eeeuh no fit, not in the back (we expected that

) and not in the front (bugger

, hoped that it would fit without ajustments, but due to the extreme lowering it had to be extremely reworked)

some poly....

VerDi · Post by **VerDi** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:25 am

Time for smoothing the surface...sanding, mastiek(dunno how you guys call it)

VerDi · Post by **VerDi** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:27 am

finishing before the first layer of paint....

That's all for now... Yesterday, i removed the little dent underneath the trunk and worked on the few rust spots, pictures will follow..

hadrian · Post by **hadrian** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:07 am

Whoa those wheels are f*cking huge!

Nice work

Danny043 · Post by **Danny043** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:13 pm

I like the looks of your E30, I don't think these wide wheels and lowering suit the E21, but we'll see the end result here

It's not my style, but your mods look well done, good luck with it and enjoy

And what was wrong with the E21's engine? It had only done ~90,000km
And can't you use the speedo from your E30?

Orjan · Post by **Orjan** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:22 pm

Great work! Can't wait to see the finished result

VerDi · Post by **VerDi** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:01 pm

The 320 carb engine had a 'kapotte koppakking' (can someone translate that for our English speaking friends please?) but apart from that it drove very well...

Danny043 · Post by **Danny043** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:09 pm

VerDi wrote:The 320 carb engine had a 'kapotte koppakking' (can someone translate that for our English speaking friends please?) but apart from that it drove very well...

A broken head gasket.
So that wasn't the reason you swapped engines? Because that's easily replaced. I assume you wanted more power