http://fnader.com/BMW
The mods (most within the last year or so):
Eibach Pro-Kit springs
Bilstein Sport struts
Borbet 15x7 rims (Conti Extreme Contact V-rated all season tires../50% worn)
Original rims with brand new Yoko AVS ES100 tires
Schrick 288 cam, rockers, and springs (have original cam and rockers)
Ported/polished head, completely rebuilt
M30 AFM (have original M20 AFM), cold air intake and shield (have most of the original), 19# Ford injectors (have original as well)
Dinan Chip (and original)
Ireland Engineering polished stainless catback exhaust
Modern stereo/12 disc changer in trunk (was running XM through a cassette adapter, but moved the XM receiver)
New cap, rotor, wires, plugs
The good:
low miles (about 135k)
About 2k on the new top end/timing belt/water pump, etc
AC blows cold
cruise works great
clean CARFAX (I bought it in 2003 with 54k on it... so the vast majority of the miles are ours and are highway; the wife's commute into DC is a more recent occurence)
original paint (one quarter may have had some minor paintwork) so nothing hidden
almost always inside
no rust or rust bubbles (minor surface rust at paint chips)
tan interior in decent shape (not perfect) and heated seats work (note: the car is pictured with the original black interior which we're swapping into the wife's new E30)
recent battery
passed emissions with "quick pass" before modifications ; no test since
runs, drives, and handles very well
The bad:
Original paint (so a 15 year collection of minor imperfections. Clear coat coming off the center mount brake light, few chips and minor dings here and there. Paint needs to be polished regularly; dulls out if ignored... )
Original top (top is decent with just a couple of minor wear holes, but the rear window is fairly opaque. I bought some Renovo to try and clean it, but I think you'd want to replace the top. I can have that done locally for $1100)
The Dinan chip is not well matched to the setup. There are "off the shelf" chips out there that are closer (taking into account the M30 AFM, injectors, and cam). A custom chip would be even better.
You can tell the car should be a lot faster than it is (the amount of torque over the stock E30 is great) but it feels like it never "gets up on the cam" well... I think the timing is not advancing enough. But it runs well as is (a couple of months ago I drove it to my family in NC and back.. no issues. The performance work only hit the mileage about 2mpg... still gets upper 20's on the highway)
The cam makes the idle very lopey and hurts low end torque. So in stop and go traffic, you have to rev it a bit more to get rolling. (But the stock ICV is able to control the idle pretty well.) With the DC beltway traffic my wife felt this wasn't worth the extra performance, so that's why the change to a stock E30.
The other strange thing is the oil usage. It's not oil usage in the normal sense... oil is being forced into the intake (apparently from the sump) then ingested and burned. Compression is pretty equal across the board and just below the spec (so it may be my tester). Oil useage on the highway was about a quart every 600 miles or so. Less around town. Occaisional smoke at startup; none running.
I'm thinking that the car will not pass emissions due to the cam (and possibly due to the oil usage... though I think that's fixable with a catch can).
$5000 (pretty firm). Basically you're buying the mods and getting the car for free. I just need time to swap the interiors over since the wife wants black in her new E30...
Bill Elliott
Frederick, MD
The mods (most within the last year or so):
Eibach Pro-Kit springs
Bilstein Sport struts
Borbet 15x7 rims (Conti Extreme Contact V-rated all season tires../50% worn)
Original rims with brand new Yoko AVS ES100 tires
Schrick 288 cam, rockers, and springs (have original cam and rockers)
Ported/polished head, completely rebuilt
M30 AFM (have original M20 AFM), cold air intake and shield (have most of the original), 19# Ford injectors (have original as well)
Dinan Chip (and original)
Ireland Engineering polished stainless catback exhaust
Modern stereo/12 disc changer in trunk (was running XM through a cassette adapter, but moved the XM receiver)
New cap, rotor, wires, plugs
The good:
low miles (about 135k)
About 2k on the new top end/timing belt/water pump, etc
AC blows cold
cruise works great
clean CARFAX (I bought it in 2003 with 54k on it... so the vast majority of the miles are ours and are highway; the wife's commute into DC is a more recent occurence)
original paint (one quarter may have had some minor paintwork) so nothing hidden
almost always inside
no rust or rust bubbles (minor surface rust at paint chips)
tan interior in decent shape (not perfect) and heated seats work (note: the car is pictured with the original black interior which we're swapping into the wife's new E30)
recent battery
passed emissions with "quick pass" before modifications ; no test since
runs, drives, and handles very well
The bad:
Original paint (so a 15 year collection of minor imperfections. Clear coat coming off the center mount brake light, few chips and minor dings here and there. Paint needs to be polished regularly; dulls out if ignored... )
Original top (top is decent with just a couple of minor wear holes, but the rear window is fairly opaque. I bought some Renovo to try and clean it, but I think you'd want to replace the top. I can have that done locally for $1100)
The Dinan chip is not well matched to the setup. There are "off the shelf" chips out there that are closer (taking into account the M30 AFM, injectors, and cam). A custom chip would be even better.
You can tell the car should be a lot faster than it is (the amount of torque over the stock E30 is great) but it feels like it never "gets up on the cam" well... I think the timing is not advancing enough. But it runs well as is (a couple of months ago I drove it to my family in NC and back.. no issues. The performance work only hit the mileage about 2mpg... still gets upper 20's on the highway)
The cam makes the idle very lopey and hurts low end torque. So in stop and go traffic, you have to rev it a bit more to get rolling. (But the stock ICV is able to control the idle pretty well.) With the DC beltway traffic my wife felt this wasn't worth the extra performance, so that's why the change to a stock E30.
The other strange thing is the oil usage. It's not oil usage in the normal sense... oil is being forced into the intake (apparently from the sump) then ingested and burned. Compression is pretty equal across the board and just below the spec (so it may be my tester). Oil useage on the highway was about a quart every 600 miles or so. Less around town. Occaisional smoke at startup; none running.
I'm thinking that the car will not pass emissions due to the cam (and possibly due to the oil usage... though I think that's fixable with a catch can).
$5000 (pretty firm). Basically you're buying the mods and getting the car for free. I just need time to swap the interiors over since the wife wants black in her new E30...
Bill Elliott
Frederick, MD
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