My daily '84 318i m30 swap

[glnr13]

Thanks! There's a good amount of clearance at the water pump. My first set of oem rubber mounts allowed the motor to move quite a bit and the distributor left an impression in the find of the radiator. There won't be any progress on the motor, ITB, standalone for a bit though. Need to tend to some rust and get it into the spray booth. Painter is saying not to paint the CF hood, too much flex for paint... Might have to find someone to swap with.Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[glnr13]

Car's been in paint for the last 3 months. Got it back a few weeks ago.
They didn't paint my rockers in black but I forgot to tell them too. I think i'll just plastidip so i can touch it up easily over time.Swapped the rack for an e46 purple tag.
1) if you have the early steering linkage you don't need to shorten it but you have to position it into the forward subframe mounting holes. Harder to eyeball and measure the tie rod lengths, you'll need to do a string alignment before you can move the car. If you would rather keep it in the original aft mounting position you can disassemble the linkage and remove the giubo. No drilling necessary since it's bolted up with 4 13mm nuts and bolts.
2) I didn't have power steering set up so I needed to reinstall the pump, belts, reservoir, lines.

Had everything except the belt was the wrong length so no driving impressions yet and I need an alignment.


ITBs assembled. Planning on using M20 injector harness but still not sure yet.


Interior cleaned up with a ram ball mount for my phone. Have a tablet mount ready to go down the road when I start fiddling with MS.

[lukeADE335i]

Your car is looking great with the new paint glnr! The ITBs should wake it up some more :)

Did you end up doing your tucked radiator, or is it still in the pipeline?

[glnr13]

thanks luke! tucked radiator didn't get ordered yet, just took measurements. Still waiting for US stimulus checks haha

[glnr13]

First spirited drive with the e46 purple tag rack. An amazing upgrade, no more shuffling the steering wheel, hands planted at 9 and 3 the whole ride.

[QuiqueUy]

love this car ! can't wait to see a video with the itb's !

[glnr13]

Thanks!

i haven't made any progress with installing MS and want to get that dialed in before the ITBs. In either case (ITB or OE intake) there's going to be a battle with Idle but i just want to make sure the MS is setup properly before making the big dive in the manifold change.

[glnr13]

• 5.25" to 6.5" all around + tweeters

Gutted some tweeter pods:


no heat necessary. just needle nose pliers to crack the glue that holds the tweeter in and then repeat same steps for the core/housing.

black silicone'd the new tweeters in place:

it's not pretty but it's in there solid and will be fairly easy to remove and clean up if i ever need to replace them.

all glued in:

[glnr13]

pods installed:


5.25 to 6.5 comparison:

for the fronts I trimmed the ears off the 6.5

fronts 6.5 installed with a 5.25 grill I had from a previous project:


that shadow at the top right corner screw is an imprint in the carpet from the OE speaker grill which will not cover the 6.5" speaker. you will need to get a round 5.25 grill to cover, try to find a low profile one because if too tall it will interfere with the driver's side hood latch. you can also use the 6.5 grill but I like the smaller grills.

rear 6.5 installed in deck:


used the optional mounting holes to fit into the 5.25 e30 deck, used the supplied clip nuts on the 6.5 ears to mount the grills with short screws.


grills mounted, tweeter mounted:


tweeter mounted temporarily with a pair of short wood screws, still contemplating recessing them into the rear deck cover.

I have them powered by a 400w kenwood bluetooth speaker, no head unit.
8" sub with a 350w amp. bumps loud and and hard enough for me.

no cutting necessary for the whole install aside from the ears off the 6.5" speaker in the front locations.

[QuiqueUy]

sounds like a very good upgrade i bet , do you have photos of how they look on place?

[glnr13]

sounds like a very good upgrade i bet , do you have photos of how they look on place?

updated with photos. i must not have saved previous post properly

[lukeADE335i]

Hi Glnr

Just looking back through your thread - any tips for wiring up the M30 into the early chassis? I'm going to pick up an early 318i 2-door soon as a long term project, and will likely throw all the good bits from my sedan into it.

Cheers
Luke

[glnr13]

Hi Glnr

Just looking back through your thread - any tips for wiring up the M30 into the early chassis? I'm going to pick up an early 318i 2-door soon as a long term project, and will likely throw all the good bits from my sedan into it.

Cheers
Luke

I cut a pigtail off a car at the junks...

here's the info i gathered to splice into that pigtail:




close up of what i spliced... left side was from the car's harness, right side was the pigtail:

[lukeADE335i]

Thanks Glnr - some great information there.

I'd been thinking of grabbing the body harness side of the C101 so that my existing engine harness from the sedan will plug straight in, so will do that (providing I stick with the M30).

[glnr13]

no worries Luke