Project: Budget Beater

[assoutE12]

how about some pics?

[Digitalwave]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that with all you the money you are spending just to bring this car up to livable specs (i.e. in good stock condition) you could have just bought a nice, clean E30 in good shape.

[Budget Beater]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that with all you the money you are spending just to bring this car up to livable specs (i.e. in good stock condition) you could have just bought a nice, clean E30 in good shape.

i supposed thats a valid statement but whats in the past is in the past, no point in deliberating over it now. Now its on to modding the car.

[erik325i]

There's no point in flaming this guy every time he updates his thread. At least he is going to dyno all of his ebay mods, so everyone can finally see how much each mod will help/hinder his performance, unlike everybody else that just slaps on mods and says their car is "way faster".
You all should be glad he is doing this because if he gains little to nothing from all of his mods, you can at least use this thread as a reference to anybody else in the future asking about throwing on a bunch of bolt ons.

If you accually gain a bunch of power, good for you. If not, at least we all will know for sure how much these mods will do.

just my $0.02

-Erik

[Budget Beater]

hehe, its funny how childish some people can be on the forums. I don't let it get to my head anymore though. I will start putting hte performance stuff on the car soon and back up claims with dyno evidense (the way it should be done).

As far as the financial stuff goes, when u have money to spend what does it matter. I alloted a certain amount for this project and I will spend however much i want on it (not that its alot at only $50 max per mod). I don't put a pricetag on having fun with my cars, i just did this budget beater project to prove a point that all those people spending thousands on their car didn't have to spend that much to do it.

I'll let the dynos do all the talking to the haters :)

[asubimmer]

I'll let the dynos do all the talking to the haters :)

I think what your doing is cool...some people on the forum are just sticklers to theirs ways and think they are only way

major props beater

[h0lmes]

I hate to be a dick but I kind of agree with everybody else. You chose not to spend more than 50 bux on any one mod but really it all adds up anyways and it's going to cost you in the long run. In the end you're going to have a bunch of shitty bolt ons that cost you a bunch of money but actually they all just hinder performance. You could have a decent e30 but instead its an ebay30.

[erik325i]

I'll let the dynos do all the talking to the haters :)

Hey, i just got a thought. Since a "cold air intake" is one of the most contoversial mods with some people saying it is a good mod, and others say it accually reduces power by sucking in hot air, you should maybe dyno the intake separatly from the rest of the mods. That way, we can end the intake debate once and for all.
Personally, I am one of the people that say that an aftermarket intake will not help at all, but I am interested in seeing a dyno to prove me right or wrong...

[Digitalwave]

Another thing to consider is the paradox that putting 20 mods at $50 each probably won't make gains as big as a single $1,000 mod or 2 $500 mods, etc.

[shiftbmw]

So what's the current total dollar amount in your project thusfar?

[Budget Beater]

on performance stuff the total is not very high at all, for stricly engine related stuff its under $300 for everything, i did however get other stuff like seats and etc which aren't really related to engine power and etc. i will have full price breakdown of everything soon.

I'm not gonna participate in the nonsense complaining and bashing and fighting, its really not worth my time. I will just post the updates as they come and the dyno results. I would appreciate it however if people kept this thread clean and stop the side fights and use PM or Email for that. Lets try and keep this tread clean. thanks to those of you who have followed the project thus far. it should be fun to see what happens in the coming weeks.

[shiftbmw]

Awesome, I didn't realize you had a website. That made it easier to follow. Looks like a fun challenge.

[MR 325]

I have had enough of the shitting on this thread. Respectful opinions are understandable but blatant rude replies and comments will not be tolerated. Keep it clean from here on out. Understand guys?

end rant

[Budget Beater]

EBAY chip review for #173 ECU

hey guys well the first mod is finally in. I installed the chip today and the install was actually easier than my last ECU, i had an old 87 last time and this 89 ECU was slightly different, it had only 1 board instead of the two stacked boards (dunno if that was normal) but it sure as hell made install easier than the last time. Anyways after i installed the chip i put it back in and went out for a drive.

First thing i noticed was idle was pretty smooth. As i was cruising around i noticed a bit smoother acceleration, not as rough. The throttle responce, though better, its still bad as most E30's are (doing MAF upgrade soon), but was improved a bit. There was some low end torque increase but i think there is something wrong with my low end, it just feels super sluggish, dunno if my AFM is not in the best shape or whatever, but it just feels like theres no power down low (below 3krpm).

After i got it up to temps i started to push her hard. The acceleration was smoother and felt torqueir. It did increase the rev limiter and seemed to pull harder for longer (before top end wasn't as strong past 6k). Do i think it was 9 wheel HP like other chips? Probably not, i doubt it. Was it probably around 5wheelHP, sure that sounds like a rough estimate. I cannot quantify the number exactly. Was it worth the $35 price tag... definitely. I would recommend it to anyone who is on a tight budget and is looking for some decent performance for cheap. Again thats the whole purpose of doin this project is to help u guys out.

Granted i know it takes a little while for a chip to fully kick in (supposedly like 3 days), but my car is still running sub par and i have not done the intake yet so maybe that will amplify the gains more but as of now... its a nice little add-on and i saw price per HP compared to other chips its definitely better, but i doubt it makes the most HP compared to all other chips. If i had to guess based on the forum reviews i'd have to say markD is probably the best. Nonetheless, im happy for $35.

More updates coming soon... Enjoy! :)

[Digitalwave]

The chip will get better after an hour or two of driving.

How are you going to do a MAF conversion for $50?