My Official: Mtech-1, 323i Build thread! [56K NOO WAI]

[JamesE30]

..ihy

haha Don't hate, appreciate! :pimp:

[JasonC]

Can't wait to see the outcome of all of this work :)

[Iain]

[insert joke here about asking for more pics of the wheels from multiple angles]

Get them on the car and get that kit painted FFS! This thing will look unfuckingreal when done

[JamesE30]

Get down

Old suspension:







New Suspension:

[JamesE30]

and out..

Oh right! and the wheels hehe!



195s; 205s; and 225s:



New polished valves and valve caps:



Notice any difference? haha







Front:



Rear:




Rolled down to the local carpark to take some shots:









I'm so happy right now.

The rears rub under hard accerleration and most corners. So the rears will be rolled this w.e. So glad I went with 225s though. they look sooo wide! They really fit the 8"s well. The fronts are perfect though! no issues :D

[Wishno87]

The 225s look pretty mean. I may have missed it but what was your previous suspension setup? Looks like HR but its really high in the front for an M20 car.

[JamesE30]

The 225s look pretty mean. I may have missed it but what was your previous suspension setup? Looks like HR but its really high in the front for an M20 car.

Yeah they really dwarf the 195s lol

Previous set up was OE(Mtechnic optioned) Bilstien's, and I believe the springs are pedders (an Australian Company). Not very low, but they were pretty good in the corners and a nice ride too. Markings are long gone though...

[Hick]

went back to the oe tail lights??!?!?!?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

[N2MYE30]

Your sig is great. Nice buildup!

[JamesE30]

Few more updates:

Had the fenders rolled (Gavin is the man!) :


He came to my house and did it all in the driveway and was all done within a few hours of me calling him. Top bloke

Now I can do this:


They still rub just a touch if powering out of a corner with a passenger, but atleast my tires will last more than a week now haha

Pulled out my spare front bumper and gathered all the spare trim I had:





Spare parts department:




So lets see what we have (not including the perfect trim already on the car).

Full set of GC front trim that came with my spare bumper.
And the trim that came with the mtechnic kit;
-Modified turnsignals
-Modified End cap (LHS missing), and...
-OEM MTechnic Number plate trim. (pleasant suprise when I checked the part#!)



Test fitted some of the trim and the bumper on the mtech1 kit:





The bumper was really hard to get on, I dont have the exact right bolts yet (I'm ordering them this week), but it seemed like the holes didn't even line up perfectly?.. It seemed way off

[JamesE30]

Bought some new chrome wheel bolts and lock nuts. The old ones were fucked. Unfortunatley the new bolts turned out to be a couple mm too long.. so out came the angle grinder:

[JamesE30]

[JamesE30]

Couple of little updates..

Finally bought myself a German overhead check panel. Thanks again to Yan, good price and great seller to deal with.



Sorry for the large pics


One thing I'm a little disappointed with though. My Bosche OHCP lights up when you press the "check" button, but then the actual words (ie; brakelights-motor oil-coolant etc..) stayed lit up for a few seconds.. The German VDO OHCP does not have this feature :(

I'm not sure wether it's the difference between VDO and BOSCHE, or Germany and the rest of the world.. But anyway I'm still happy with it.


Just the other day I crawled over a metal capped speed bump in a parking lot and bottomed out big time. Pulled the exhaust clean apart. Had a very noisy 30min drive home.





You can see the brackets are bent to shit. And the weld on the rear hanger also snapped. But thank god the actual exhaust (esp the headers) weren't damaged.



Cleaned up a new bracket I got from the wreckers and welded the hanger back together. I also put a slightly larger dent in one of the manifold pipes that has been just kissing the steering column reeealy hard corners.


^You can see above, the mark where the exhaust hit the metal cap.



The exhaust still hangs too low, I need to shorten a couple of pipes in the center so it will fit back up in the exhaust tunnel where it's supposed to be.


Over the weekend I also installed a wiring harnes cover I had left over from my old m50turbo 318i. Had to modify it slightly to fit around the m20 with the 323i harness. Overall much cleaner then before though. Shaving the engine bay is on the one day to-do list..

[evilnickwong]

The Simmons are 15x7 and 15x8 right? Would I be right in guessing your 225s are 225/50/15? I like the beefy look!

[JamesE30]

And one more photo: