Ongoing Project... V10 E30 M3

[petrolhead]

Purchase & tear down
Welcome to the build of the 1988 Franken BMW M3. The car is a current project of Piper Motorsport, which started September of 2007. The idea behind this project is to improve all characteristics of the car in a very different, never done before "sorta way". How is that possible by adding a bulky V10? To make a long story short, this is completed by using all new OEM E90 front/rear sub frames and suspension pieces. These items will be assembled on a chassis jig to fit within the stock body of an 88 M3. After many modifications to the front sub frame and fire wall we will place a new OEM M5 aluminum V10 power plant. Have a look for yourself! Enjoy the rest of the build.

Day M3 was purchased




Tear down begins. All front and rear suspension and subframes removed to make way for the E90 components.




Body was acid dipped to remove all paint and glue leaving us with a bare metal tub to work with. Unfortunately a poor job was done and will later be cleaned up.



E90 parts arrival and chassis build
All new parts arrived from BMW including all E90 (2007 3 series) subframes, suspension, rear end, Moton shocks and Brembo Gran Turismo big brake kit with 15" rotors. Last but not least the new M5 V10 engine power plant with transmission/differential and components.





Chassis build starts on the chassis jig. Many specific measurements are taken to position the new E90 subframes/suspension in the proper location for balance and fitment under the E30 body. The front aluminum sub frame is completely slaughtered and reconstructed to fit the V10 engine in the ideal location.

[petrolhead]

Chassis build contd. Engine fitment
Rear frame rails fabricated with spring perches. Rear suspension arrives and is installed.





Chassis is test fitted to the E30 body with custom frame rails. More measurements and adjustments take place.



Chassis is removed from body. Engine installed temporarly onto chassis to make measurements for fire wall and transmission tunnel modifications.





Engine fitment contd. Chassis build contd
After making the modifications needed to the fire wall and trans tunnel the body is fitted on the chassis with the motor and trans.




Once the motor was fitted and MORE measurements where taken the body was removed once again to remove the motor. The body was then placed back onto the chassis to weld in the permanent frame rails fabricated to fit the E90 sub-frames.

[petrolhead]

Chassis build contd. Front shock tower relocation
The factory shock towers were raised to allow proper shock travel with the new suspension. The hood was slightly clearanced as well.








Exhaust system. Trans tunnel and fire wall fabrication
A stainless steel custom dual exhaust system was fabricated. Once the rear end is completed we can run the pipes further back to exit.




After many measurements and test fitting, the new fire wall and transmission tunnel are fabricated and in place. The wiper motors are re-installed and cover fabricated with new fire wall. A Vintage Air heater system has also been mounted.






Custom intake manifold. Steering column assembly
One of the goals for this car was to maintain a simple OEM M3 look. The Factory V10 intake manifold was too big to fit the OEM hood so we fabricated one from aluminum. We maintained all the OEM bungs and fittings and most importantly it clears the hood. Once the intake manifold was installed the motor
shipped out to DINAN in CA for engine tuning.





The steering shaft was fabricated using Woodwards quality universals to adapt the E30 column to the E90 power steering rack.

[petrolhead]

Rolling chassis
6 months later and we finally have a rolling chassis. FIKSE provided us with a custom set of wheels wrapped with Advans. That chassis is resting on Moton Club Sports using Eibach springs. The factory rear wide fenders were cut and removed for wheel fitment modifications. New OEM wide fenders where modified and re-installed with a slight "buldge" to allow more wheel clearance.










Rear bulk head and tub job
After the rear fenders were welded into place the tub job began. We had a lot of space to close in and a fuel cell to install. ATL provided us with a fuel cell bladder which we placed inside of the custom aluminum tin we built to fit within the trunk space to help with weight distribution. The cell could not be dropped further between the rails without pushing the mufflers visibly low at the rear valance.

[petrolhead]

Roll cage. Seam sealed and primer
When designing the roll cage we decided since the car will have full interior, maybe it would be best if the roll cage was integrated into the body itself. So... we did. The A and B pillars were carefully cut and modified to allow the main hoop and A pillar bars to be inserted making them virtually invisible. Since the car will be primarily for street use, door bars would be too intrusive. So for this application we notched the inner rocker panels and inserted heavy steel box tubing to tie the front and rear of the cage together for rigidity and some additional side impact protection. Once the interior is installed the rear back stays and harness bar will be all that`s visible! Once the in-cab cage was complete, additional bars were added going through the fire wall to tie in the front strut towers.





Once the cage was complete the car was disassembled and the body was sent to ASCO to remove the residue from the poor acid dipping experience. The car was then sent to our neighbors here at Dew Motorcars to be professionally seam sealed and primered. This really brought the car to life and gave it a complete look. The car will now be re-assembled over the next couple of weeks, then tested and driven. Once the test`s are passed and the OK is given, the car will be torn down once more for paint and the final assembly will begin.









Update
Currently on the M3 V10 project 6/13/08:

We received the engine back from BBI, unfortunately the were not able to dyno the motor. However, we designed and fabricated a very unique roll cage and then had the car seam sealed and primered.

Stay tuned, more to follow!

[Ayham]

Somebody shoot me....

Rami you're a star :) Thanks a mil for the great feature!

[SSense]

Co-incidentally i wanted to post the same thing this morning but then i thought it'd be too lengthy for people to read, thanks Rami for posting it.
After going through the whole im left speechless this is simply EXTRA-ORDINARY. Great engine swap engineering !

[Nabil]

Im dead!

See you in Hell/heaven

/End

[SewerSideUp]

I was a regular visitor on this, but somehow I lost or just forgot about it !

Thanks for the updates Rami !

[Bruno]

they dipped the car in acid... then cut and modified every single part, not to mention the welds used. i wonder how rigid the body will be after testing it with the V10 in :rofl:

Nonetheless great project... :clap:

[Wazif]

Thats engineering at its best!!! hats off to these guys!!!

Cheers Rami! GREAT POST!!!
________
Zoloft Settlement Update

[sleepy740]

price tag?

[Ayham]

As an end user, I'd pay AED250K for this one provided it's all intact and rigid in the end, which am sure it would be..

[sleepy740]

no, how much did this project cost?

[Ayham]

Well, an S85 engine would cost AED70K, give or take, MOTON suspension is anywhere between $6K to $11K, Brembo BBK would be around $4K, rims at $3k(?), car itself maybe around $5K, misc. accessories (cooling system and what not) another $5K (??) and then man hours in design and manufacturing is A LOT...

There :)