M30 swap for my Olive Drab Vert! by RagtopE30

6 minute(s) of a 219 minute read

The mounts are from QBang so I assume they are the same as what he always produces. The turbo is pretty freakin big though. I have a couple of ideas on how to make it work so I have no plans at the moment to step down in the size of the turbo.

Otis, I am having solid aluminum mounts made to replace the oem rubber mounts. I have to go this evening and remove the oem mounts and position the motor where I want it and take measurements. Hopefully by the beginning of next week I will have the custom mounts in place.

2-12-2014

I dared Mother Nature and braved the almighty SNOPOCOLYPSE!!! Why did I do this you ask. Do I not care about my well being and the future of my young family? Have I lost my mind? 

Probably

But actually I did it because I finally got my spray booth in a box and I just had to get it set up! 

Ok ok it didn't come from the same box unless you consider the big box store a "box". 

I have all the remaining parts for the engine bay prepped and primed and I want to get them sprayed but I have a few cars in the shop and a fresh from paint CJ-7 that I can not afford to get overspray on. 

So I drew up a simple, low cost, and small but expandable spray booth and headed out to acquire the essentials.

I then followed my own directions very carefully, because I can be a dick to work for sometimes, and pieced together the frame. I didn't get to wrap it in the 4 mil plastic today or seal it or install the box fan with filters or the two fluorescent light fixtures but that is all going to happen if we survive SNOPOCOLYPSE 2014!!!

And pics of the horrific scene that unfolded before me on my way home from the shop! For those of you who are not familiar with North Carolina I live in the mountains so even though this really doesn't look bad the pucker factor is multiplied as you are going through a negative camber curve down hill on ice. 

^ Thanks Jesse.

I got more work done today.

Spray booth wrapped and completed.

Then I loaded it up with a cheap 6' tall saw horse. From that I hung all the remaining parts that I needed to paint including the radiator support, hood hinge assembly, etc..

There is a fan on the left side of the booth and I pointed the shop heater at the front two filters and let the booth and parts warm up. 

Then I painted!!! Check out the results. And yes if you look closely you will see some mistakes but I am happy regardless.

Now to wait for them to cure. I should be able to start final assembly on Wednesday. And now that I have my SPAL fan I can officially install the radiator support for the last time during this build.

And since I had to wait around for the paint to somewhat cure today I made some progress on the actual car. 

I put on the Bavauto sparkplug wires from my M20, I just had to put them into the M30 wire cover.

I also reinstalled the freshly painted blower motor cover.

And I put the wiring harness back in the engine bay. 

I relocated the coil to avoid the coil wire being draped over or under the down pipe. And I plan on mounting the wasted spark coils in the same location when MS happens.

Oh and in the last couple of days I did some shop improvements. Notice the wall behind the convertible, NO more exposed studs and a coat of paint made a huge difference.

2-19-2014

Baby steps are still steps. I got in a few minutes of work today.