ctnewman

I'll just keep updating this with pics (well, apparently, for now, i need to just link to the images... doh). I know you purists are going to hate on this... go ahead.

At the moment i still don't have the car, but i am going to need it very soon. I am just awaiting delivery... It's an 86 325e coupe.

I don't know much about BMW's. In fact I hate most euro cars. Especially VWs. No matter, it was a clean, available, RWD chassis. Plus, E30s are like the new civics. They are cheap, light, and have the added benefit of RWD.

I pulled it out of a skyline GTR that was recieving another RB26 that i sold the owner of the GTR. It has a few mods like splitfire coilpacks and a 3 puck clutch. It may have cams. We are not sure (note classic shocker pose, THIS IS A JOKE):






Now, the first step was to remove the oil pan. I could buy the RB25 pan, but i don't want to for the following reasons:

* it's 280 bucks
* the rb26 pan is cast aluminum, it's stronger and has better heat transfer.
* rb26 pan has sick baffling, as well as kickouts
* rb26 pan bolts to transmission. Rb25 does not
* rb25 pan needs to be modified to work with the rb26 oil pickup. A substantial amount of the rb25 windage tray needs to be removed to facilitate fitment.


This is what a stock unit looks like:


Step one was to remove the differential and all the bearing races. A good portion of the remaining casting was removed with a sawzall.


Then we took it to the mill. The remaining material was hogged out with a 2" 8 carbice face tool. This is a fringe benefit of my job...



The result:


Then i used a sander and dynafile to smooth the sharp edges and blend some of the steps from machining:


The result:



The final step will be to plug weld the two holes where the transaxle pierced the pan.