'87 325is and '89 325is performance differences? (kill story too!)

[O 16581 72452 5]

Just went out of town with a friend and picked up an '89 project car for $1,100. Mainly needs paint and body work, seems mechanically sound and runs great. On the way home we got a nice stretch of open interstate, did 3 honks and went at it, he got a huge jump on me, but when i hit my powerband, i realed him in, then i see him shift when i'm at around 5.5k still. I get to my redline, shift, keep realing him in and we shut down about 120 when i pull a bumper on him. We went again, same deal, but i floored it closer to the same time he did, still got a good jump on me, realed him in and put about a car on him by 120.

I talked to him afterwards and he's like "My gears are way different, you were shifting into 4th about the time i was going into 5th". I figured it'd be the opposite, i have about 1" diameter smaller tires than stock.

Pretty glad with the results though, my only "mods" are headers and full cat-less exhaust with glasspacks.

[imsotyerred]

87 is didn't have a top speed limiter i believe, 89 did. other than that they're teh same. unless he swapped his diff or had some other sort of mod (chip?) they's the same

[silversleeper]

does the MarkD chip remove the top speed limiter? Do we even have those? Because I took my chipped 89 325i to 133mph and it still had more go in her.

[tomgt325]

ive taken my '89 to ~130-35 with no problems, stock motor.

[Rennsport]

speed limiter on the 90 is set to 125mph.

[euroshark]

They should be the same all things considered... is the motor in the '89 a little fresher than yours?

My stock 2.5 liter Alfa Milano was supposed to have a 128mph speed limiter, but I saw 135mph a few times, and as high as 146mph on my way to highway 313 (see signature :up: )

[Axxe]

4.10 diff? Used to be an automatic potentially? Check the rad for the cooler hookups for the autobox.

[O 16581 72452 5]

I'll check that out.

His motor has 190k, mine is 225k.

The ratio had me and him confused though, i expected to pull him and i did by quite a bit considering it's just a basic mod. He loves his purchase though, he won't shut up about it. :P

[imsotyerred]

taking away the top speed limiter is a snip away...
taken from a thread on e30tech

88-91 cars have a top speed limiter at 125mph. The speed signal wire is pin 14 of the C101 fusebox connector. If you want to bypass it for some reason then you can pull pin 14 out of the engine side of the C101 connector, should be a white and black wire, fold it back over itself and tape it up. Enjoy the extra 2 miles an hour you'll get on top.

The c101 connector is the big round twist type connector between the engine wiring harness and fusebox. It should be up around the firewall on the dirves side of the engine compartment.

87 cars and earlier did not have the top speed limiter... one more reason why the 87 325i/s cars are unique.

[imsotyerred]

and chips often do take away the top speed governor

[golde30]

he pulled on you off the line b/c u lost your low end power with that straight open exhaust...

[Julien]

maintenance? i couldn't believe the difference after just seafoaming the car... not to mention new electricals that had been done a week before.

[O 16581 72452 5]

he pulled on you off the line b/c u lost your low end power with that straight open exhaust...

His RPMs were up higher too.

[TurboMeTroy]

taking away the top speed limiter is a snip away...
taken from a thread on e30tech

Interesting...what else is 'unique' to the '87 "is" only??

I'm considering parting my car out...'87 325is.

[2002maniac]

he was shifting at 5k?