Project: Budget Beater

[Budget Beater]

Hey guys,

I finally got my E30 today. Its a 1989 black/tan 325i 5-speed. The car is in decent shape and it has roughly 225k on the clock. The back story of the car was it literally was a garage queen b/c it sat in a garage for the last 3 years, however thats not really a great thing b/c it will require some cash to get it up and running b/c its been sitting for so long. However the car is in perfect mechanical and electrical shape which was key for me. it still has original paint but could desperately use a good buff. I bought the car for only $1400 cash and thats not bad considering it has wheels/tires that are BRAND new worth about $800 total so i really only paid like $600 for the car really.

My main goal for this project is not necessarily to make max HP, but max HP PER DOLLAR (hence the name "budget beater"). The main rule is NO part must exceed $50 (yes $50, however shipping is not included in that). i have alot of good ideas on what i plan to do so it should be interesting to see. I have already bought majority of the parts i'm going to use off ebay and I will keep a database of all the parts i bought and at what cost (before and after shipping). I'm trying to prove that spending more does not always mean more power. I will do baseline dyno next week and then start from there and mod the car in stages and do dyno after each stage.

The one exception to the $50 rule will be the custom intake manifold I am designing for mass production purposes (and maybe headers) but everything else is under $50.

anyways here are the pics.

[ryan_george]

Needs a good cleaning :pimp:

$50 is a pretty useless budget. Unless you wanna cheat your self by "breaking up" costs into $50 bundles, you probably won't get very far. Unless of course you are a master fabricator/programmer.

Good luck.

[nando]

I think the best thing you could do for performance is get rid of those heavy wheels... they are bad enough when painted, I can't even imagine what they weigh chromed!

also, headers will be a complete waste of money with a stock head.

[bimmer8604]

youd be surprised what you can find for 50 bucks.......have fun 8)

Kyle

[blunttech]

if you are going to do 50 dollar mods and dyno it after each one you better stop while youre ahead. youd be better off saving the dyno money and spending it on proven mods. like others said, lightweight wheels, get rid of everything that doesnt make you stop or go fast. maybe you have free access to a dyno or something but where i live dyno runs arent real cheap if youre on a budget

[Budget Beater]

again, my whole idea behind the project is to prove that you CAN make power with just $50 mods... and NO I am not breaking it up into $50 part segments... thats cheating :) lol.

believe it or not you can do almost every single mod pretty much for under $50 if you are a resourceful guy. it should be interesting to see what happens.

[Budget Beater]

I think the best thing you could do for performance is get rid of those heavy wheels... they are bad enough when painted, I can't even imagine what they weigh chromed!

also, headers will be a complete waste of money with a stock head.

I do not believe headers are a waste of money on the stock head. I do not think its the head that is the limiting factor. I believe it is the intake manifold, thats why i am trying to make a new intake manifold.

[Budget Beater]

if you are going to do 50 dollar mods and dyno it after each one you better stop while youre ahead. youd be better off saving the dyno money and spending it on proven mods. like others said, lightweight wheels, get rid of everything that doesnt make you stop or go fast. maybe you have free access to a dyno or something but where i live dyno runs arent real cheap if youre on a budget

no i did not say i would dyno after each one..... I said i would dyno in STAGES (3 stages total). first one would be chip/intake/exhaust, stage 2 would be M50 injectors plus my new intake manifold, Stage 3 would be Apexi+328 HFM + headers.

i want to prove that just b/c you spend alot more does not mean you make alot more.


This is after all just a fun project. I already have a E36 M3 and selling it to get an exotic so this is just something fun to goof off in. I do not want to put any serious amount of $ into the car b/c honesty i just don't think its worth it. i'm doing it more for hte fun modding aspect of it more than anything else. If i want to buy a super fast car, i learned my lesson the hard way.... just buy a fast car to begin with.

[blunttech]

can i ask what exotic you are buying? good luck with your budget project

[Budget Beater]

sure, Getting 2002-2004 Lotus Espirit V8 TT

[Budget Beater]

Update

Well I already bought 90% of the parts I will need on ebay last night :) . as you can see i don't waste any time. I will take pictures of all the parts once they are in. I am trying to get the ball rolling on this project, so after the dyno at the end of this week (hopefully) the modding frenzy begins.

I may get new wheels too b/c i hear the chrome BBS style wheels i have are pretty damn heavy. Anyways I'll keep yall updated. Can't wait to start the project, should be interesting.

[mjc85]

Get this

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BMW-E30-323-325-Complete-300kw-T04-Turbo-Kit_W0QQitemZ4576200527QQcategoryZ72478QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

$50 plus like $1800 shipping =) but in australia

[Digitalwave]

Can't wait to see you dyno those $50 mods and see how dismal the gains were.

[rwh11385]

sure, Getting 2002-2004 Lotus Espirit V8 TT

nice, one of my friend's dads has one. car is pimptacular.


shaddup TJ. he's having fun and is paying to have the car dyno'ed. and we reap the benefits of the R&D. duh.

[Digitalwave]

I know. I am glad he is willing to spend the money to do it to prove to everyone how lame "bolt-ons" are for M20s.