My E30: an LS3 Powered 1991 318iS

[OldDrunkenSailor]

I took it out last night, the upgraded rotors and pads help a lot, but the extra bite of a BBK would be nice. $3k nice? hard to say. New leather would be pretty nice too.

That said though, I'm pretty confident that the car can do a 0-60 in 4 secs or less. It seems like every 20MPH block is under a second, nearly instantaneous. It's still mind boggling that it's not burning rubber at every opportunity, somehow the 215s are sticking.

[blunttech]

If he's not reaching the limit of his pads or tires when braking then new (bigger) brakes aren't a necessity even with this much power or even twice this much power. This is applicable because he didn't increase the weight of the vehicle significantly with the swap.

The only thing a BBK would do for him right now is give him better pedal feel (bite). A good set of pads works wonders on stock brakes,... and tires are more important than big brakes.

so true. Stock brakes with great pads and good fluid go a long way. This is an awesome project. Props to you

[karzrtoyz]

Looking good!!

[Garageaholic]

Just stumbled on this thread. Oh my mother fucking God. No big deal.

[OldDrunkenSailor]

Pictures of the car at the picnic!

facebook link

[GaryE30]

If he's not reaching the limit of his pads or tires when braking then new (bigger) brakes aren't a necessity even with this much power or even twice this much power. This is applicable because he didn't increase the weight of the vehicle significantly with the swap.

The only thing a BBK would do for him right now is give him better pedal feel (bite). A good set of pads works wonders on stock brakes,... and tires are more important than big brakes.

[OldDrunkenSailor]

@e30polak: I appreciate the advice though, the forums have been great for new ideas. Doing things cheaply is a long-lost goal of the project unfortunately. It's kind of exploded in all directions since we started.

@Luis325: My GoProHD is on the way, worry not. At the picnic starting it on and reving up was like a homing beacon, it was pretty funny.

[Luis325]

Videos please!

Subscribed!

[e30polak]

Ya, the KDW2s are great tires when it comes to launching the car! :up:

As far as offsets are concerned, you should put atleast a 20mm spacer on there and you can run 235/40 no problem.

As far as brakes are concerned, I was just giving you a cheap option that's proven to work well. ;)

[OldDrunkenSailor]

@e30polak

I put about 200 miles on it in the past few days and surprisingly the 215/40/17s stick well. Powering through second and third you can kick it out if you really want to, but while having a pretty well-leaded foot the tires were holding on fine.

The wheels have a 40 offset and at wheel lock are actually rubbing unfortuantely.

As far as brakes go, after the new interior I'll be getting an Ireland Engineering big brake kit. There's no point in hodge-podging a bunch of mismatched parts together when we can just do it right the first time (no offense, just how I see it).

The only thing that I noticed over the weekend was that I'm getting a bit too much heat coming through the transmission tunnel, will have to check it out when I have some time next week.

I'll post some pictures from the picnic soon.

[87e30]

Two lsx cars in the same city?! Madness! I had a chance to hop into the white LS1 car once and it was insane.

Well done!

[e30polak]

Very sick build, with more power than that car will ever need! :twisted:

1. You're going to get ZERO traction with those 215/40s! I had the same tires with my s52 car, and they were barely enough for launching. However, I had about HALF the torque you will be making! :crazy:

What size and offset are your OZs? You can easily fit 235/40/17 under stock fenders if they're the right offset, width and you roll your fenders nicely.

Here's my old car with 235/40/17 on 17x8 OZ Superturismos, at et 23 all around:







Realistically you want to go with at least some sticky 255/40s out back, I would say 275s if I was you. If you choose the right wheels and offsets, then go with Eurostop's rivet on flares, it's very doable.

I was planning on going LSX in my last car before I bought my M3, and I went to test fit my 17x9.5 et15 Rota P45Rs, with 245/40/17 on Eurostop's red flaired 4 door for an idea. These were only at et10 with no camber added. They needed to be at et 5 to clear the front strut and needed about 2 degrees of negative camber:







Out back they just cleared without spacers, but I easily could've put a 15mm spacer, or a 7-8mm and run at least a 255/40/17.

2. You really will want to go with a proper coil-over suspension, or at least some adjustable KONI shocks in the back to dial in the weight transfer you're going to exerience. That car is going to squat WAY too hard with that soft of a suspension, and you're going to start testing the structural rigidity of the rear shock towers, sway bar mounts, and axles. You really want to reinforce the trailing arms, sway bar mounts, diff mount and shock towers for the instant butt loads of torque you're going to have.

Top adjustable KONIs for the rear would be great so you can soften/stiffen them up to your liking. The springs will allow for a good bit of weight transfer, which will help with launching, or WOT at low speeds. You should also change all the bushing in the rear with either fresh rubber or the softer compound polyurethane.

3. For brakes, you can go the cheaper route and run the RX-7 turbo calipers up front and VW G60 Corrado rotors. We've run this on our Lemons car for a wholes season, and a few personal cars for longer. As long as you bias the brakes properly, and choose the right pad compound, they grab hard!

PM me if you're interested, I have some spare calipers and caliper brackets.

[OldDrunkenSailor]

very nice man

I also had a Buell XB9

it's an amazing bike. For 2010 they made some changes (besides going out of business), and mine was one of the last black on black bikes in the country. I think it's still got under 2k miles, she's my museum piece now that Buell propper is dead.

[OldDrunkenSailor]

Please tell me you are kidding.

Nice dude! But you should have AT LEAST went with 235s, can easily make them fit with right wheel/offset :)

Also, this car NEEDS better suspension and brakes!!!

we put 10mm offsets on the front that look great, the rears need them too though. Next tires will be bigger, the forum world agreed that 215 would fit, the claims of bigger were all over the place, so i wanted to play it safe.

And a big brake kit will come, the upgraded rotors/pads actually work really nicely, did some 0-60-0 runs yesterday....quickly.

I have the car in the garage, will get pictures at the picnic today!

[bloodshot-e30]

niceeeeeeee btw those tires wont last ;)