The “e,” The 325 That Went From Zero to Hero
This was the first car I ever bought, a $1250 1986 325. From day one it was getting looked down on, within the first hour of my good friend saw the car he said, “you know you bought the slow one right.” What he was referring to was that because it was a 325 (which has the same motor as a 325e) that meant it was down about 50 horsepower compared to the faster model of a standard e30, a 325i. When the e was new it had a whopping 123 horsepower. I ended up buying a plastic bumper 1989 325i and that became the “cool” project car that got all of the attention and ended up with an s52 swap in it.
One of the earliest photos I have the e back in 2009
The “e” as this car became referred to was the trusty workhorse while the other e30 was getting all the upgrades. All my friends and I learned how to drive stick in the car along with all sort of other shenanigans in those early years of owning the car. It was my daily drive through high school and never let me down, just required the standard e30 love and maintenance.
Fast forward five years, Joey (the same friend that made the slow one comment) and I were doing the standard bullshitting and talking about potential projects. He mentioned that a company was making a new engine swap kit that allowed the e30 to have a 540i V8. That got the gears turning in our heads but what to put it in because by that point the other e30 had an M3 motor in it. The light bulb turned on, “the e!”
Down the rabbit hole.
This is the biggest project we have taken on. Everything on the e got an overhaul within a year of starting the project. I bought a 4.0 liter BMW M60. The motor was paired with a 5-speed transmission out of an e34 530. There was only one large modification to the motor: the oil pan had to be shaved to clear the subframe.
The chassis on the other hand got extensive changes to first just fit the big boi V8 in, a m60 is about 10 inches wider than a Chevy v8 for reference. The main thing that had to be changed to make the motor work in the chassis was the vacuum brake booster had to go. It was replaced by a Willwood pedal box that allowed three independent master cylinders to be mounted under the dashboard. One of them was for the clutch and the other was for the front and rear brakes respectively.
There were a hilariously sketchy few months where the e had the M60 up and running while the rest of the car was completely stock even down to the 14-inch bottle cap wheels with all-season tires - one wheel peals for days. But something had to be done to help the car deal with the more than double amount of power it now had from stock. The suspension was upgraded to the full Ground Control Coilover kIt, which included shorted Koni shocks and racing camber plates.
For the bigger brakes and let’s face it better wheel options, the e was converted to a 5 lug bolt pattern. This was accomplished by using e30 m3 5 lug brakes and Hubs in the rear. While the front end got e36 brakes using a conversion kit to adapt them to the e30 suspension.
What makes this car special is that it is California smog legal, one of a handful I know of. The process was not fun, to say the least. It was made even harder by the fact that the v8 that was in it was not the healthiest. It turned out that one of the cylinder rings was going bad. But somehow the car passed the super smog test and got the music California legal swap sticker. Too bad it had to be all ripped apart again to fix the v8.
After a few months of driving the new and improved e. It was a blast even though one cylinder was on its way out. It was time to remedy the engine situation. The e got another m60, this motor was different in two very important ways. First, was that the engine was rebuilt. Second, the engine is what is nicknamed a Frankenstein m60, this is the bottom end of a 4.4 liter m62 and the heads from an m60. This makes the motor have a little higher compression plus added .4 of a liter over the 4.0 of a stock m60, what’s not to love. The new Frankenstein v8 got paired with a 6 speed out of an e39 5 series which allowed for a little more aggressive rear diff ratio while maintaining highway cruising.
This is the e30 that started me in the crazy world of old BMWs. For years it was in the car that was always there and the car I could count on. The v8 has made the car into the hotrod it always deserves to be. It has been driven over 20 thousand miles since the swap and it’s not stopping any time soon. I should probably repaint it though.
