What do you love about your 318?

[Erick]

Yeah I know it was a random rant. Work's been slow today so I've been slacking. But can you argue it? :p

[slow e30]

If I had to sell my e30 or my e36 I would sell the e36. The 318 is just a blast to drive. It gets better gas millage and is cheaper to fix.

psh. no bmw is cheap! but compaired to a supercharged engine it is.

My 318is beat the brand new civic.
gas milage is GREAT
a 318is IS the look every US e30 wants to be like (lip, spoiler, skirts, 5speed)
handles like a champ.

a 318is m42 is a hard core corner fucking machine.

[wolfgangstbd]

i have to say a agree with Erick. But i choose my 318 over alot of 325's. I dont regret it but when my m42 dies ill prob go m20 so i can try both the motors out then 24v..

[xwill112x]

i love my m42.
its addicting to drive, you can thrash the shit out of it, and it never quits.

it may be a bit down on power, but who can argue with a 30mpg car thats fun as hell to drive?

[dude8383]

awarded the 318is by doing a complete timing overhaul (new chain, gaskets, water pump, m20 clutch / 8lb flywheel single-mass

took some persuasion but was the best thing for the car, in my opinion all the 318is needs is the COP, a lighter flywheel/clutch and a chip.

i loved my m42 but wanted a little bit more power.

[Holland]

M10 ftw!

[üblemaschine]

I like my 318is because for some reason it is just a blast to drive. I like the way it looks better than an E36 too. I bought my E30 for a DD, and have an E36 for auto-x use. The E36 IMO makes a better all out driving car, but I like the E30 better to cruise around in. I find the 4 cyl E30s a little more fun than the 6 cyl ones. Obviously it's slower but it just feels more fun since it's lighter and balanced better. That's my 2 cents.

[3bvert]

thers lots to love about my e30. Ill hae this vert for a long time, its pure pleasure to drive, sporty, economical, and it gets lots of stares
but my wife says what it really is , is that it takes me back to my "youth" when I used to drive bug-eye sprites, morgans and TR-3's
when I had a GT-6 my girlfriend had a 2002, my first real experience with BMW cars

some of yo might not have any idea what kind of cars IM taling about, its all pretty old school

[stevofthahill]

took some persuasion but was the best thing for the car, in my opinion all the 318is needs is the COP, a lighter flywheel/clutch and a chip.

i loved my m42 but wanted a little bit more power.

I've pretty much reached the end of the cheap fun power mods you can do to the m42 and I've got to say I couldn't be happier. I really wish when I had my throw out bearing go bad and the clutch replaced that I would have known about the ltw flywheel swap.

I previously had a conforti chip but switched to a better tuned chip as a good friend is a software tuner for a little company from Norway called ESS(european supercharging systems.) He actually was able to show me the difference in the values between the two tunes and the one I got from him was drastically different. The new redline was set at 7300rpm and I couldn't be happier.

Before with stock software when I'd shift near redline it didn't seem like I'd drop into the next gear with the entirety of the powerband available. But now when I'm doing spirited driving it seems like I'm constantly in the powerband and it loves to pull and pull.

But enough blabbering, current mods are:

Intake w/proper heatshield
Custom exhaust(better than a broken stocker)
Software(noticed the most performance from this)
COP kit(notice a little increase in performance from the butt dyno, but may just be placebo effect)

All in all, I love my high strung, high revving m42 and wouldn't have it any other way.

[Cobra Jet]

blah blah .....
Also worth noting that the M42 has to run on at least 91 octane. ... blah blah blah....
And um.. yeah. /rant

- Erick

I'll call bullshit on the "M42 HAS to run on at least 91 octane" - and some others on M42club.com will as well... The M42 CAN run fine on 87 or 89 octane and still get excellent gas mileage with no detrimental effects occuring at all.

As for gas mileage - I've been getting 30-31mpg respectfully out of my 1991 318i convertible. My highway to city ratio is 95% highway w/ no traffic control devices w/ roughly 5% city.... average speed of about 60-65mph, traveling 114 miles PER DAY 5 days a week and another 100+ or so on the weekends and yes I'm able to get that kind of gas mileage - on .... 89 octane...

OoOoOoOoOoooooo... AAAAACK.... not 89 octane in a M42..... someone call the Feds or the BMW Police....

I've been running 89 octane for well over 34,000 miles now (bought the car w/ 99k on it) - along w/ 10w40 Mobil and I don't have an ounce of any drivability issues - nor are there any issues at WOT or from accelerated launches from a dead stop... No pinging, no detonation, no problems - ever.

Here's my gas gauge accumulated miles EVERY single trip:

R\400\300|200/100/F

100 = 100 to 112 miles
200 = 200 to 215 miles
300 = 300 to 310 miles
400 = 400 to the line before R, if pushing it to empty - 424 +/-....

The most I have ever pushed it once the "R" was lit up was to 424 miles....

You can call BS all you want, but I can GUARANTEE ANYONE who fills my 318 w/ 89 octane and drives it, that there will be no drivability issues and they will get that exact milage per section of the fuel gauge... providing they are driving the same route I do on a daily basis. It's a given, I can tell exactly how many miles I will go within each section and it never varies...

Oh yea, trust me, the car is not granny shifted or driven like a granny either - some sections of my daily drive, I'm well into the 70mph-75mph range... this car is just really efficient... and it's running off the stock DME too, no chips, no magic.

:pimp:

[nando]

Oh yea, trust me, the car is not granny shifted or driven like a granny either - some sections of my daily drive, I'm well into the 70mph-75mph range... this car is just really efficient... and it's running off the stock DME too, no chips, no magic.

:pimp:

lol! that's the speed limit here.. I see grannies doing that all the time.

BMW did reccomend premium for the M42 (10.5:1 CR pretty much requires that) but they also have to give some margin in the tune for shitty gas, so I don't doubt that you can get away with 89.

also the E36 motors have knock sensors so you can safely run 87, but at the expense of performance. lots of those M42club guys have E36s so keep that in mind with your anecdotal evidence. ;)

[FredK]

I put in 89 octane all the time in my 318. I noticed no pinging, but I also drove it economically. It got around 32-33 mpg on a solely highway trip, which is more than an M20 can do by a pretty reasonable amount.

I agree with Erick in that a timing belt job is not a huge deal to do every 60k miles. I'd rather change a timing belt in a few hours than to change the timing stuff on the front of an M42.

[dude8383]

I put in 89 octane all the time in my 318. I noticed no pinging, but I also drove it economically. It got around 32-33 mpg on a solely highway trip, which is more than an M20 can do by a pretty reasonable amount.

I agree with Erick in that a timing belt job is not a huge deal to do every 60k miles. I'd rather change a timing belt in a few hours than to change the timing stuff on the front of an M42.

I would have to disagree, there is way more room to work on the m42 than an m20. I'm sure you already know how much of a BITCH it is to work on the m50...

I think I miss that most about my M42 :(

[FredK]

Sure, there's plenty of room in front of the engine. A well-maintained M42 is a durable powerplant. However, if you have to replace the timing system due to wear, the ease of access is a small consolation for the complexities of servicing the M42 timing case.

I guess it's not THAT complicated, but it's a rather Pyrrhic victory when you've just spent $350 on an engine that's worth $350. Of course, what am I talking about. I spent $350 on an engine worth $800 (an M52). :mrgreen:

[MikeK]

Momentum car yada yada whatev... the motor makes way too much noise for no good reason.