January 2011 - Nissan Engine in!

Poor old Nissan 200SX donor car's engine bay - 11th January 2011.

The Thai engine mounts I had custom made finally arrived on Christmas Eve 2010. Andrew, Peter and Gerallt at A&P Services have since been very busy. They have now fitted the Nissan SR20DET engine into the BMW E30 shell. Thanks boys!

The next stage of the project will be to plumb the intercooler/radiator/fuel lines/etc in and sort the wiring.

Christmas 2010 Update - A package from Thailand!

Nothing much has happened in the last couple of months. We're waiting for the custom engine/gearbox mounts to arrive from Thailand. As I type this, the Thai Post Office parcel tracker tells me that my mounts are sitting in the Suvarnabhumi Mailing Centre awaiting dispatch! It takes 5 days for mail to arrive from Thailand normally, but many British airports are shut due to the poor weather at the moment! It's anyone's guess when they might arrive:(

The 2011 Trident Welsh Sprint and Hillclimb Championship starts in April 2011, so it'll be a tight schedule to get everything done in time, but not impossible. As soon as there's any more progress, I'll do a proper update. Merry Christmas/Nadolig Llawen.

October 2010 Update

We plan to put this motor into this shell...

The car is now at A&P Services and work on the engine transplant has started. Out with the 140bhp BMW M42 engine and in with the Nissan SR20DET motor. This engine conversion is quite common in Australia and should double the car's power output. Notice the rear arches are now M3 Evo items.Here is the old BMW motor/box. The Nissan 200SX donor car is in the background.

Photos of project - July 2010

Rear arches cut off and inner arches tubbed and welded to the outer arch - now we're ready to bound the fibreglass M3 style rear arches over the top. There will be lots of room for some very wide rear wheels.

Seat rails welded into the floor ready to accept the seat mounts - after I've painted them.

Electronic ignition cut out device - thanks Wyn!

Two gallon fuel tank - which will probably give the car a tank range of about ten miles!

Restarting the project...

Since my daughter was born 4 months ago, very little has gone on in the garage and the E30 hasn't progressed at all. All I've really done is buy more parts ready to fit when I've got a little more time. Over the past few months, I've bought...

• 2 gallon alloy fuel tank
• Electronic ignition cut out device
• A set of 17X7 alloy wheels (that I don't like on the car and will go back on eBay)
• A tuned Nissan SR20DET 2 litre turbo charged engine and gearbox (as fitted to the 200SX/Nissan Sunny GTiR) for transplant into my E30 shell
• Intercooler/ECU/loom to match the above
• Complete set of 4mm Polycarbonate windows from Plastics for Performance

As I type this, the car is at http://www.oldskwlfords.com having the rear arches cut off and tubbed and rails welded into the floor to accept the racing bucket seat mounts. The car is due back from there at the beginning of July and will then be ready for the fitting of the new M3 style rear arches, external respray in BMW Alpine White and polycarbonate window fitting. Pictures to follow soon...

March 2010 - Engine plan hatched

http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42079&highlight=sr20det

Project comes to temporary halt!

No tools or long nights in the garage for a little while... project E30 on hold. Can you guess why?