Slow and Proud - My 85' 318i

[2mAn]

Oh man, please share the premade pocket punchout, I used a little miata battery and factory E30 battery cable when I dropped it into the pocket

[BadDays]

Oh man, please share the premade pocket punchout, I used a little miata battery and factory E30 battery cable when I dropped it into the pocket

As requested, Here's two photos of it.


See where the cable is coming from? This is what it looked like lreviously.
That small oval is the pocket and the screwdriver in this photo was used along with a mallet to punch it out. Please excuse the mess currently in the tray lol. This cable was a pain in the ass to run through but this kit came with a rubber grommet that kinda fits as well. I will show where to mount the positive cable to the firewall since my car doesn't have premade bolt holes for it (strange...)

[2mAn]

ohhhh THAT!... I thought there was a pocket in the trunk. Please look closely at the trunk area, the standard battery doesnt fit back there. Heres a few 10+ year old pics of how I got the Battery to fit.

This was the before from when I first got the car.



I was able to get my hands on the factory ground point and weld it in (poorly).

[BadDays]

Ah that's a good way to do it! The only thing i would have to do is drill a hole and then secure a bolt so I can jam a nut and have that be the ground for the chassis, otherwise everything nearly fits minus the cover for the wires.

[BadDays]

Welcome to a new update, Where shall I begin? Oh yes the battery!

After drilling a hole into the rear trunk to fit the old negtitive terminal from the engine bay due to the new one not fitting onto the body well, I ran out of funds to properly drill a hole so I used a 17/64 drill bit and then began sanding the hole until the M8 1.25m bolt made it's way into the trunk and then I was able to bolt down the negtitive terminal, Once I cleaned it up and painted the other side for preventing rust, I got everything buttoned up including the addition of a vent box for the battery.
It came with a beauty cover which I have decided to pop on and not screw down since I know it'll need to be taken out often, Perhaps I will shove a bolt and deal with it later but the next thing?

The driveshaft was reinstalled with the longer bolts and reused self locking nuts but knowing that some jackass installed it backwards (you can see the photo on page three) I will have to get a shop to redo that fiasco or deal with it myself, Either way it gives me a bit of an ick knowing that she needs to drive soon!

Also for the intake portion, I got this mocked up!
The M10 Airbox does let the tube fit but It will need a bracket to be installed correctly in the airbox portion, Also I will need to patch up the air intake boot with some expoxy, Otherwise this is what it'll look like with the IAT Sensor sticking out.

AS for the rust? Gentlemen, It will need repairs in the lower firewall where the floor meets the firewall plus I will have to clean up the frame rails and reinforce them, It's not a problem but it will be a PITA to do so, 40 years of Vermont with documented history, I'm not giving her up even if it's insane to do all of the patch work she'll need.

Anyways one last thing! I'll have to move my car and my belongings to a new place. The rust repair will have to be pinned for down the road along with anything else, In a way this is a blessing because my neighbors suck heh heh. Ok, See Ya!

[Panici]

AS for the rust? Gentlemen, It will need repairs in the lower firewall where the floor meets the firewall plus I will have to clean up the frame rails and reinforce them, It's not a problem but it will be a PITA to do so, 40 years of Vermont with documented history, I'm not giving her up even if it's insane to do all of the patch work she'll need

Pretty well everything can be saved if you want it bad enough!

[2mAn]

Interesting that yours has the space for the full size battery!.. that makes things much easier.

Progress is progress

[BadDays]

Pretty well everything can be saved if you want it bad enough!

True! I'm insane for not parting out this car because it's the worst powertrain in the earliest e30 but she has documentation including the original title and notes/dealer service in the owner's manual dating back to the first 6 months of ownership, It's a charmer so I'm going to fix the rust issues when I can. (YES I'm ruining the car but let's face it, L Jetronic stuff is impossible to find)

As for the Wiring! 2M, The 325e and 318i are identical with the battery tray being the same, Only the 325e came with proper brackets for the battery stuff but speaking of the battery.

This is the first mockup of my ignition system, 4 LS style coils will be used along with the C101 plug outputting power from the ignition switch, This needs a tach signal for the tachometer to function properly but I think I understand this enough to share it.

I'm going to take this by section like the ETM, Coil Ignition is first and then I will do fuel, Crank Sensor, Throttle Sensor ETC. This update is that I'm starting from scratch.

Oh and if anyone has a large rock that I can avoid and crash into a brick wall, That's how I feel with wiring.

[BadDays]

Thank god I found it, The 1989 325i ETM can be reused for my car due to the ease of relay control and how everything can be wired up (not to mention the battery junction block)

From going over both diagrams of my car and the 325i, I was able to make this diagram. This is literally half 1985 318i and half 1989 325i coupled with the aem for controlling it all.

The 7 Pin Relay found in early model E30's are not needed for standalones, A standard 4 pin fuel pump relay or 5 pin will be able to suffice for this setup along with a 5 pin or 4 pin main relay, I'll have to update this again with more diagrams as I go along in my build thread.

(I want you! The reader and potential poster here! To give me suggestions and questions on how you can improve this.)

[BadDays]

Great news:

I officially have the fuel system hooked up and now it just needs the wiring done so I can get this puppy running again, This does officially answer someone's question on Reddit on if they can use mustang injectors on their M10. While it physically fits and I had to jam the third injector into the rail, I'm going to test it out before i hook up the ecu and let the car run on it's own. I'm debating on if I should install a flex fuel sensor into my fuel system due to new regulations for E15 Gasoline or stick to 91/93 Octane.

As for wiring: The coils, Injectors and start procedure are done which means this car has three official relays, One Main Relay, One Fuel Pump Relay and one ignition relay, I had to go dig for the M42 318is specific diagrams to ensure that my wiring was going to be correct and simple to make. Luckily having a late model diagram for all 325i and 318i makes Wiring more simple since it's obvious I'm doing a late model harness swap.

Shout out to AWDBOB for the injector cleanup and rebuild, Using Official BMW Injector O rings means that you can swap any EV1 injector onto the M10 fuel rail or M20 as long the O rings are swapped and the injector clip can be reused!

For now, I still need to figure out the tach signal and then it's onto the other sensors, Obviously this car needs a better radiator and the M42 radiator can work but this car is slowly coming together.

As for the crank pulley, it's really up to time since I will use the provided ford wheel for my stock 02 pulley but that may take more time than just installing the IE Kit and running that temporary.

In hindsight, That is what i will do once I turbo it. (Stock pulley for turbo and underdrive for N/A)

Aight I have to install my power steering delete kit! See yall in the next one.

[BadDays]

The Wiring Diagrams are almost done:


From these three, The ETM Is copied here because I will need to use the original one and this one to troubleshoot my work, It'll also help others if you wish to make your own harness from scratch. I'll only need to do the following to finish this up:

Radiator/Cooling
Oil Monitoring
Ground/Splices
Gauge Cluster

Those four are only needed to get the diagram finished up and then I can purchase a 318is wiring harness for reference when I need to make it for my car. Thankfully we're almost done and I can release this guide on a google document!

As for the turbocharged sections? You'll have to wait awhile for those pages because I'll be more focused on fixing rust and upgrading my brakes/suspension before I throw more power into the engine. (Better be safe than stupid)

In non related news! I'm officially looking at apartments this week so I can move out of this building, Karens and a unexpected eviction will do that to ya, Hopefully I can find a decent space to work on my car without much trouble. This means that no progress can be made from late april to early june unfortunately but I'd rather have a space for the car than have nothing you know? Anyways, That'll do it for this one.

[BadDays]

Small Update:

Life has been kicking me and my car in the ass considering I found out that I'm going to have to patch up my quarter panel since I did the worst bodywork known to man, Thankfully I've learnt my lesson and I will be fixing the rust after this summer ends, I'd rather drive this car first and get some miles put on the odometer and my new upgrades than continue to paralyze the car currently. However It's been dreadfully slow to get new parts installed so that's why there hasn't been much to post about, I was able to finish up the Diagrams and I'll go ahead and post pictures onto a google document for the M10 Standalone Guide but in good news!

One of my good friend's from the Pole Barn Garage Facebook Group/Discord Server come over and we were able to do cars and coffee in his Porsche 944, Driving this car felt so damn good that I will absolutely need to upgrade my tiny 45mm suspension and brakes, Luckily I have already came to the conclusion that buying a 325es or 325i Parts car will greatly help me in building this 318i, As for parts! I'm awaiting for that Coil Bracket from E28goodies to arrive here, I'll keep an eye out since I'm going to make my final purchases this Thursday for tools and then modify the crank pulley to have the escort wheel attached, I keep flipflopping but I did find a good machine shop who did my ram air intake so I'll bring something harder for them to do. Alright. When I update this again, You'll see the car at the new place along with more parts installed.


I can't wait to show you all when this car is running. More folks need to buy M10 E30's because essentially it's a god damn 2002.

[BadDays]

We're getting close to firing up the Standalone M10 and I am going to pick up a old camera and make a crappy youtube video to educate the people on how this is possible including the details and parts required. My Youtube channel is going to be for documenting this build and POV Drives when I can't show it here. Anyways I'll share progress photos but let's talk about the next step in this car's journey.

She needs a lot of Bodywork and paint repair considering if this car is going to be my OEM+ build, I need it to look decent from 5 feet away realistically. It's never going to be a show car but it can't look like hot garbage and pretend to be the flintstones automobile as well, There is some fun in owning a ratty muscle car but this E30 has already been waiting for me to get rid of her Vermont Cancer so I have already found all of the necessary patch panels and sheet metal required to properly fix the car back up. It's a long list with details but so far it needs:

Floorpans -> (Vermont Car)
Driver's outer arch -> (I screwed this one up myself and it will be replaced.)
Passenger Tail Light Corner -> (Terrible Bondo Work performed by someone in the past, there is no metal execpt for a wavy and pitted corner)
Engine Bay - Front Core Support/Fusebox Area and hidden surprises -> (These areas don't need major attention but it will be done alongside with the next one underneath.)
Passenger Chassis Rail under the battery tray -> (This one is a PITA, Requires the engine to be removed and a donor rail due to the lip of the sheet metal curling away like a pringles chip.)
Rear Tail Panel Area -> (Common E30 Rust Area, I will be installing the Euro Tail Panel for the Euro Bumpers)
Hole in the Rear Driver's Frame Rail -> (The left bumper shock bolts here, It was fine but the shocks and the bumper were original and the mechanic who replaced my front suspension stupidly yanked on the rear bumper, causing the shock to be ripped out with the bumper. A new frame rail is still avaliable so I can cut it out and replace it.)
Underbody Frame Rails under the floor pans -> (It's salvageable but it requires a lot of sanding and prepwork including patching up, I have to make sure this area is strong enough for the weight of jackstands.)
Minor Passenger Wheel Well Patchups -> (Yeah we got some holes presumably from rocks kicking up in the wheel well, Easy Fix)


Okay... You got all of it? Good I'll give you a cookie. Anyways These repairs will be done over time as I continue to drive and enjoy the car. We got a lot of work to do including repairing the paint and polishing this turd but as for what I actually did the past few days:



THAT'S RIGHT I GOT A E90 BRAKE BOOSTER, This will pair nicely with the rear disc brakes for this car including 330i E46 Calipers for the rear trailing arms as well. I also got:


All of the finest Junkyard Relays and Fuses for the wiring, I will have to make sure these are the right wattage for the fuel, Spark and ECU but I also have 9 Ignition Coils for the M10. Plug wires don't fit so I will make my own but there is now two spare horns for the car just in case. The Map sensor is also installed.



That's it for this Update, Also one last thing: Should I put Basketweaves when I lower her eventually? These Sparco Wheels are great for handling and the autocross event but they do look out of place on the street. Anyways Hope to see you in the next one!

[Panici]

Are you opposed to bottlecaps? Would fit well with the M10 and early model chassis.

14" in 4x100 and they made 15" in 5x120 for the E36 I believe.
Aftermarket has them in 16" as well https://www.rmlwheels.com/products/b...g-fall-of-2024

[2mAn]

15" is the best size today for E30s. I personally think 16 is the best size, but the tire selection sucks...

I went with SpecE30 wheels for their weight/ size/ strength ... Looks like the Jongbloed wheels are still $100/ each, brand new! haha

https://philstireservice.com/product/spec-e30-wheels/