My Alpina B2 powered 3.0CS

JamesE30

Well-Known Member
Messages
345
Reaction score
413
Location
Germany
Hey guys, it's about time I started a proper documentation of the work on my e9. The project is certainly turning out to be a lot bigger than I had planned so I thought Id share my adventure here and hopefully absorb some of the forums' fountain ofd knowledge along the way!

Last year I purchased this 1975 3.0CS, #4300382.
The car was painted blue about 35 years ago and has had plenty of repairs since then so needed a lot of work to make it sweet again, but I was very excited to start work on it and get it running again.

I posted an intro thread here, and have already had some help from a few of you.

IMG_0601.JPG

IMG_0618.JPG


IMG_0609.JPG


The most exciting thing about my particular e9, is it's heart. An original Alpina B2 Engine.
This was in fact a surprise to me as I was not expecting the car to have the complete engine, rather just "Alpina carbs and airbox", So I was thrilled to receive confirmation from Alpina in Buchloe that my engine number is in fact a genuine 230hp B2 M30 produced in 1978.

43599527_10215268831386711_277909062933282816_n.jpg

43745388_10215268831466713_4970398525893378048_n.jpg


As you can see the car is rough. The engine bay/bulkhead is scary to look at, there are missing trim pieces, a crappy aftermarket sunroof, and the paint job was... well.. not so good..
But the interior was mostly in pretty great condition, and the exterior scrubbed up to look .. ok.

IMG_0708.JPG


My plan was never to do a full restoration, in fact I had a vision of making a perfect mechanical car with kind of a rough body.. A car I could really drive and not be too precious about.
Buuttt.. after digging further into the car and finding more and more rust and shitty past repairs, and after starting to invest so much time and money into the mechanics, I decided it just wasn't worth it to go on without going all the way and addressing all the rust and body problems.

...and thats how ended up here:

43551172_10215268968750145_4061128690627510272_n.jpg


Ill update this thread with a bunch of photos and info to bring you up to date with the project now and keep it updated as i progress! It's come a long way already ;)
 
Last edited:

autokunst

Well-Known Member
Site Donor $$
Messages
3,606
Reaction score
2,618
Location
Milwaukee, WI
I look forward to watching as you peel back the layers of former restoration. And what a nice find regarding the engine! :) This will be good.
 

JamesE30

Well-Known Member
Messages
345
Reaction score
413
Location
Germany
"I look forward to watching as you peel back the layers of former restoration. And what a nice find regarding the engine! :) This will be good."

Thanks, It's certainly an adventure...


do you know what are the "changes" Alpina did on the engine ?

Alpina were not very helpful in providing any exact details on the engine other than the build year, but besides the obvious carbs and airbox, if you search the internet you can find information such as the following:

"The 230 PS and 270 Nm of torque were achieved through an Alpina gas flowed hemispherical cylinder head, larger inlet and exhaust valves, 300 degree Alpina camshaft, Alpina crankshaft, conrods and pistons giving an increased compression ratio of 10.0:1. This increase in power gave impressive performance figures. 0 – 100 km/h in just 7.3 seconds and a top speed of 146 mph. Alpina believe that only 192 of these B2 engine were ever built."

My engine is currently completely disassembled with various bits at the workshop and a load more parts in my garage, here you can see here the nice polished conrods:

43703365_10215269054392286_5668089763828072448_n.jpg


and then the triple solex DDHT carbs, here are mine removed from the engine and in the process of being rebuilt.

IMG_0828.JPG

43586914_10215269054752295_1674000964320755712_n.jpg


You can see the porting on the intake side of the cylinder head here, there is also no provision for the mechanical fuel pump as the original 3.0CS had.

IMG_0823.JPG


If anyone notices anything interesting or different in my pictures or info please let me know, Im still learning a lot about this car!
 

2275xxx

Well-Known Member
Messages
186
Reaction score
79
Location
Lake Geneva
If your engine is a 230ps B2 it should not have hemispherical combustion chambers and the pistons should be stock Si/CSi pistons.

These engines "only" have the Alpina 300 degree camshaft, Alpina triple carb setup -normally Solex - and Alpina special exhaust.
Not sure if they were blueprinted, but they were certainly assembled with great care.

I wonder if Alpina painted the B2 engines with this red color on the cylinder heads cover, like yours had before.
Interessingly I own a B2 built in 1975 which has this same color.
Is it a pure coincidence ?



IMG_0819-2.JPG
 

JamesE30

Well-Known Member
Messages
345
Reaction score
413
Location
Germany
If your engine is a 230ps B2 it should not have hemispherical combustion chambers and the pistons should be stock Si/CSi pistons.

These engines "only" have the Alpina 300 degree camshaft, Alpina triple carb setup -normally Solex - and Alpina special exhaust.
Not sure if they were blueprinted, but they were certainly assembled with great care.

I wonder if Alpina painted the B2 engines with this red color on the cylinder heads cover, like yours had before.
Interessingly I own a B2 built in 1975 which has this same color.
Is it a pure coincidence ?



View attachment 53056

Interesting, thanks for the info. I guess not everything you read on the internet is true!
The pistons in my engine are the “piano top” style. I didn’t thoroughly look at the inside of the cylinder head, it’s currently at the workshop being rebuilt. Is there anything else I should look out for?

Well that certainly would be quite a coincidenc if the valve convers were both painted red by the owners..
On my car the alpina airbox and the csi air filter box showed signs of their original (black and grey/green) paint underneath the red, but I don’t recall seeing any other colour on the valve cover.

I’ve never seen another one in red though?

Go back to the original Taiga

I’m thinking about it, it’s not my favourite colour..
 
Last edited:

Keshav

Well-Known Member
Site Donor $$
Messages
2,761
Reaction score
2,773
Location
Germany
I wonder if Alpina painted the B2 engines with this red color on the cylinder heads cover, like yours had before.
Interessingly I own a B2 built in 1975 which has this same color.
Is it a pure coincidence ?

Here’s one in black........
90642B78-6BE7-44EF-A6CC-E8F288DB1ABA.jpeg
 

JamesE30

Well-Known Member
Messages
345
Reaction score
413
Location
Germany
So as I said, I first planned to just get the car running and driving. I ordered a stack of parts to give the engine and running gear a refresh, hoping I would have the car on the road that summer.. lol no chance..

B21921DC-9651-4323-935E-509DBA862416.jpeg

0CF08BAF-B1FA-4000-9FAB-612BA33C658B.jpeg
C5E3131C-ADF0-4EBB-B606-1B166018BA7C.jpeg
2641581C-2000-4395-BDD8-26DB4D52E15E.jpeg
09B43C35-97C4-4772-AF6B-F4773FAFE0F5.jpeg


I started diagnosing to running problems, I looked over the carbs and ignition systems, There was oil and fuel leaking all over the place, the cooling system was leaking and rusty, I started replacing the suspension and brakes as well, and the more I took apart, the more problems I found.

There were a few bad rust spots that were really bothering and about 4mm of mystery rubber shit smeared all over the strut houses and bulkhead, so I decided to dig into that, repair a few points and repaint the engine bay. There were some pretty poorly done patches all over the place, but i didnt weant to redo everything, just the spots that were rusty. This was not meant to be a forever fix, i didn’t want to remove the engine or strip the whole car, I just wanted to tidy up the engine bay and get the car looking ok and on the road. I’m new to this kind of work so it was a great learning curve. I managed to do some decent repairs but not perfect, and my god it took ages!

27155A17-9C84-40ED-A0B6-74C9C27847AA.jpeg
8B594DEF-CBDE-49E2-88EF-9FB6C3D760E0.jpeg
F3E4D555-A4EB-44A8-86BF-C1E9240ADDE6.jpeg
95E00FDD-FD30-4624-BD7D-E7BC62AC012C.jpeg
238FB3D2-4AFC-4EE5-964F-17EEE124A8FE.jpeg
0B39B076-0822-4E96-82D8-9F965B81DF53.jpeg
 
Last edited:

JamesE30

Well-Known Member
Messages
345
Reaction score
413
Location
Germany
Sorry for the incredibly shit photos they are from my old phone which has since been replaced for obvious reasons.
 

JamesE30

Well-Known Member
Messages
345
Reaction score
413
Location
Germany
6C7923DF-6BC1-45D0-AAF3-6762B04C3147.jpeg 448BE6C8-7338-4EAD-88EA-7292745A7772.jpeg9300D271-1DDD-4A24-8E30-789E57EDAC98.jpeg088759BD-E0E0-4179-83FB-613CBAC9C5A0.jpeg
67DF0BF1-EF96-4B6A-A397-FB321B4C2BF2.jpeg
217C1693-CE9A-4F69-A460-09B0996E25C7.jpeg

A3544DC1-9F16-4A81-AAE0-0E63A889978F.jpeg




I was getting ready to paint the engine bay as winter rolled around, but it had it just became too cold, so I tinkered a bit more with the engine, and decided it was worth it to remove the engine and rebuild it properly. Then I could paint the bay at the same time.
 

autokunst

Well-Known Member
Site Donor $$
Messages
3,606
Reaction score
2,618
Location
Milwaukee, WI
Beautiful work James! I was so worried that the story was going to turn much darker when you removed the black rubbery crap. But the damage seemed localized, and it looks like you cut it out and repaired it nicely. Congrats! Cant' wait to see pics of it all together so you can enjoy the refreshed engine and new suspension.

The scope creep is consistent with so many of our projects. "I think I'll change the oil. While there..." Again, nice work!
 

Markos

Well-Known Member
Site Donor
Messages
13,369
Reaction score
7,502
Location
Seattle, WA
I really want to know more about your bunker garage (seriously!). Concrete walls and ceiling with folding steel doors. May I hang with you during the next zombie apocalypse?!!! :D
 

JamesE30

Well-Known Member
Messages
345
Reaction score
413
Location
Germany
Fantastic job!

Is your car originally Taiga?!!!

View attachment 54091 Not your favorite color? What???? Original Taiga and thinking of a change? With an Alpina engine? I’m trying to comprehend.....

Haha, yes! The car was originally Taiga. I do actually really like the colour taiga, but I’m having a hard time convincing myself to do all of this work, completely rebuilding a car and then painting it a colour that somebody else chose. I am 99% sure I’ll paint it back to Taiga.. there is just 1% in me daydreaming about other colours..

Out of curiosity, how do you guys think it would affect the value of the car? (Original colour vs another e9 colour)
If the car’s been restored/rebuilt, how much does it matter if the colour is original in your opinion?

Anyway, here is a quick little photoshop I did of my plans for the car:

B797148A-DCFC-490C-93D5-7F3A467423F3.jpeg


Beautiful work James! I was so worried that the story was going to turn much darker when you removed the black rubbery crap. But the damage seemed localized, and it looks like you cut it out and repaired it nicely. Congrats! Cant' wait to see pics of it all together so you can enjoy the refreshed engine and new suspension.

The scope creep is consistent with so many of our projects. "I think I'll change the oil. While there..." Again, nice work!

Haha, thanks. Yeah it was lucky on one hand that there wasn’t too much rust underneath, but on the other hand we found some nasty metal work that doesn’t look too pretty either.. now pretty much everything will get redone. Ohh yeah the scope creep is real!

I would be interested in photos of the exhaust manifold...

John

Don’t think I have any here, but it doesn’t look like anything special. Most of the exhaust looks to have been replaced fairly recently.

Sorry! I just realized I hijacked this thread! Keep it coming, we all want to see more of your special car. Back on topic.

Thankyou!
 
Last edited:
Top