school me on the 318is

[xaaronx]

here's my deal: found a super clean one for daily duties. it has ~250k miles (broken odometer) but has been taken care of very well. easily one of the cleanest bays i have seen in one. are these pretty reliable mechanical wise?

now for my immature interest: how peppy is the m42 engine that comes in these? i'd like to possibly have fun with it at a track at some point or have fun with it sideways (legally, of course).

[Vivek]

Yes, do the mess under the intake, check your cam gears, and replace the tensioner. Yes they are fun preppy engines but don't make the mistake of assuming it's gonna be fast. I can get sideways with a full car and my hardtop on.

[chondamx]

I love the M42, but I now have two of them sitting in my garage with two M50tus and turbos also in the garage to replace them. As vivek said, fix the intake crap and check cam gears. Also, make sure your chain guides aren't sitting in the bottom oil pan and for the love of God, don't ever let her overheat. Sideways is fun when its wet, otherwise it is completely anemic.

[xaaronx]

right on! what mess under the intake? what happens with the cam gears?

[MattTHEe30GURU]

Ya what mess? i should probably clean it to!?

[Vivek]

for the love of God, don't ever let her overheat.

Mine's gotten to red once or twice when the radiator was shot. Could I have damaged anything? I noticed my car seems to burn a bit more oil than it should, but otherwise the engine's literally perfect in every way.

And the mess is:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=253698

Simon also has a (better) thread on it.

[e30jake]

This: http://www.m42club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2742

and if you still are confused this: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/show...ht=mess+intake

[kwill22]

o yes. much fun can be had with an m42. its a pretty simple engine really. easy to work on too. as lone as you dont have any vacuum leaks ur good but that shoudl all be taken care of when cleaning up all the vacuum and coolant lines (mess under intake).

i overheated mine once when i first got it because the temp gauge went out on the way home and the PO had some bootleg radiator patch that blew while i was driving. i only ended up with a blown head gasket though. once you take care of the timing components and make sure there are no leaks this engine is exciting. puts a smile on my face every time i rev it out

[///M42 sport]

if you live in cold climate dont delete any of the hoses

[xaaronx]

if you live in cold climate dont delete any of the hoses

definitely gets a bit chilly in the winter and this will be my winter vehicle. the current owner told me he had some vacuum lines fixed/replaced so maybe he replaced any cracked ones? like i said, this guy has taken awesome care of it in the time he's had it.

[///M42 sport]

that said my 318is was a texas car when I bought it, I didnt have any issues. When it came time I just replaced all the hoses w/o deleting any. Other than the majority thinking its a PITA to do, which in reality its not, I see no reason to start modifying things.

[chance]

it will light the tires up in first, and if you grab second and give it a handful of throttle it will bark the tires.

its a fun, buzzy engine but mine is going to be replaced with an m30.

[M44schnell]

I enjoyed my M42 and M44, peppy revvy engines. MAKE SURE the timing guides are replaced and replace all gaskets especially the intake man, mine really suffered when i had any for of leaking.

I think for the MPG they are peppy enough to have fun with and i had mine super sideways in the wet many a time.

P.S they sound really good with a stromung

[fronton]

they give you the sensation of great speed without the great speed.

[iamsam]

first of all, I am willing to bet there are 5 "school me on the 318is" threads on R3v...

But I hear that w/ a COP conversion, lightweight flywheel, chip, intake, exhaust, it approaches 325i/is performance. That said, it lives above 4k rpms, otherwise you have no power. Great for DD, not slow enough to be an annoyance, it can get out of its own way, but not fast by any stretch of the imagination.

If you are looking for fun but not raw power, then you will enjoy a 318is.