1991 318i sedan project - Saving a sedan!

[SiGmA_X]

Sweeeet. Those subs are so cute! If you need any TIG welding help for the shroud, I know a guy who would do it cheap/free.

I have a FP tester you're more than welcome to sir. Its a Harbor Freight unit, but it works very well, as well as my MUCH more expensive SnapOn at work (Verified by running both at the same time, lol).

[s_ribs]

Brief update before more studying for statistics class...

Got a few goodies in the mail last week.

Ordered 2 eD e3.6 6.5" subs. I knew they were small... but dang, they are small! I had to laugh when I saw the boxes sitting outside my apartment.






2 comparison pictures:
Car keys-


Set next to my Exile 12" bad boy these 'lil guys are replacing-



Specs are dual voice coil, 2-Ohm.

Thinking:
-PG rsd300.1 amp. Plenty of power for them, should get 'em movin nicely.
-Ported box running both, 1cF tuned to 30hz (per eD's specs).
-Will be fired directly through ski pass.


Electric fan also showed up:


Will either build a new fan shroud from metal or try building one from fiberglass (perhaps with a layer of CF for cool factor). Outside chance I'll just cut up the factory shroud and adapt it to work. But it's a brand new shroud so I feel bad cutting it up.


A few other notes-

Car has been running only ok the last week or two. Thinking my fuel pump, and possibly fpr, is the culprit. Idle issues (not vacuum, that's dialed), but also occasionally sluggish (once and a while feels like turbo lag). Need to find a fuel pressure gauge to test things before tossing money at it. Potentially bad AFM too since my mpg gauge acts flakey once and a while.

Exhaust leak is getting much worse and beginning to rattle. Next weekend will be exhaust work time! Going custom and need to convince myself what is likely to be the least obnoxious set up while cruising yet sound good.

I'll take pictures eventually, but I rewired the entire front accessory harness and put the engine harness covers on last weekend. Some shoddy work had been done up there and I needed to eliminate electrical shorts as a possible idle issue. Soldered in a number of new pieces of wire and re-wrapped everything. Found a dead relay that was poorly added in under the fuse box - definitely removed that. If nothing else I feel much better knowing it's all clean and good to go! Also got the high beams wired in while doing that.


Plan of attack:
1) Test fuel pressure and sort out idle/lack of power.
2) Plan out and order exhaust components. Install next weekend.
3) Finalize box design, order parts needed, install. Hoping to fit a little work once and a while over the next few weeks. Eager to hear it but low priority.
4) Finalize plans for fan and city light wiring. Hoping to wire both through the fuse box (including fan relay) or adding a secondary fuse panel for extra accessories. Having fuses/relay's randomly added throughout the car seems silly, having them in one place sounds right.
5) Keyless. This one may be a while...

[s_ribs]

Quick update here:

-Got the new water pump installed and did a full flush of the system. Doing a flush made a bigger impact than I would have guessed! Engine temps are much steadier than before now. Rattling is better, but not eliminated as hoped.

-Car took it's first long road trip and did great! 300+ miles in 2 days issue free.

-Euro headlights in! Only the lowbeams though. Stuck with the U.S. high beams so I can keep trying to get the high beams apart to smoke them. Still need to wire in city lights (will be wired to ignition power).
*DDM kits installed- 55w 5000k in low beams | 35w 3000k in fogs.

Will post picture of the headlights soon and especially of the wiring for HID's. The fog lights took a little thinking/work but really pretty easy. I plan on playing with spacers to color tune the cut-off on the projectors. Right now they are displaying quite a bit of red in the color band.


* Stereo plans have begun going from theoretical into reality as of today. Been toying around with 1 or 2 Elemental Design e3.6 subs, with their sale ending soon I decided to pull the trigger. Ordered up a pair but undecided what style box/mount and if I will use one or both. Rather excited to see what they can do!

-Flex-a-lite 2500 cfm puller fan arrived late last week. I need to figure out how I want to mount it and what shroud to use, but should be in soonish.

Gonna be another busy (read non-car) weekend coming up so the next update and set of pictures might be a while.

[s_ribs]

Another weekend of work on the car...

Replaced:
CSB
Flex disc
Intake vacuum hoses (to fully eliminate the stock mess)
Z3 1.9 lever w/UUC delrin carrier bushings
IE urethane trans bushing out, stock rubber bushings in


I didn't take many pictures this time, most is boring under-car work and just stock replacements. While out I did clean up the exhaust heat shield a bit:



Wish I had taken pictures before because it was nasty! 192k miles of built up dirt and oil will do that. I put some sound deadening on the back of the heat shield as well. It deadened the sound significantly. Figure it makes noticable pinging sounds when rocks hit it and heat shields can vibrate - hopefully it makes some sort of difference. Probably worthless, but I had extra sound deadening.


Driveline-
I had what many on here experience, vibration under load and sometimes while cruising. Somehow my csb bearing got tweaked and wasn't on straight. While out I replaced the flex disc since it was showing very very early signs of wear.

End result: perfectly smooth!


Transmission/shifter-
I'm not a big short shifter guy... but Curt convinced me. Ordered up the smallest reduction lever (Z3 1.9) and UUC delrin carrier bushings. WOW! Throw reduction was perfect, not too much but not too little. Ridiculous improvement in precision/slop though. Absolutely crisp and not notchy feeling. Height was marginally reduced thankfully. UUC bushings are well worth the extra $25.

Urethane trans bushings were replaced with stock. Car is 90% quieter inside now and much smoother as well. This makes me very happy! Urethane engine mounts seem to contribute very little to noise/vibration - it's all in the trans mounts for these cars.


Vacuum hoses-
Not much to say here. Thought they were good, turns out I had some leaks. Combination of stock reducers/connecting joints, and 5/8" heater hose = everything fits nicely and no more hot idle issues.

Pictures will be taken in the coming weeks when the manifold comes off. Changing color scheme under hood... (think sub frame). 8)


Next weekend:
-Water pump bearings are shot and the culprit of the noise up front (thought it was timing parts). Will be replaced this week and a puller fan will replace the engine fan.

-Fuel pump is getting a bit loud so a Walbro 255 pump will be ordered.

-Install window gutter trim, etc.

-Hoping to tackle keyless entry very soon...

[TooTall90]

awesome paint job.

[s_ribs]

4/16/10 update-

Front sub frame replaced!

Bit of a late start... but got everything off and ready to pull the next morning.




Spare unit was sent off for reinforcement so this would be the last time one breaks (hopefully).





Trying out a different idea on reinforcing the sway bar tabs. Most kits use a second layer and that may be sufficient, but anytime you box or add perpendicular structure you gain tons of strength. Mine weren't bent at all (stock bar it's whole life) so I doubt I will notice any issues regardless.




Factory welds don't cover 1-2" on each side so they were finished.




Boxing in the bottom. Man this makes it a PITA to put the bottom nut on. Pretty much no way of centering it perfectly without reducing the amount of metal to make it really strong.




Prepped:



Primed:



Painted:





Out with the old:


In with the new:









Car obviously feels better now. I was glad to be in there since most of the bolts I removed didn't feel nearly as tight as they should have been. Wish I had the time to wait and powder coat it, maybe later on I'll pull it and get it done.

Overall the job is much easier than I thought it would be. Without the engine brace it would suck and make me nervous. If you have to do this, rent one if a buddy doesn't have one!


Next up:
- Timing chain tensioner. I need to replace the timing cover gaskets soon, if the tensioner doesn't fix the rattle the guides will be done later as well.
- Front speakers to the doors and applying sound deading while they are apart.
- Finish installing trim!
- Keyless entry (still undecided which one to get...)

Still undecided:
- exhaust
- further stereo work. Right now I'm strongly considering putting the Exile sub back in but then my alternator won't be happy once again.

[s_ribs]

kuuki - as expected I forgot to snap pictures of them yesterday... I'll be doing some interior work soon and there will be pictures taken then.

[kuuki]

Yes there are:
part no. 7

But I was curious what does your triangles look. Gonna build my own because those original tweeters aren't good enough for me. :)

[s_ribs]

I'll have to check my computer at home. Most likely not. I have my camera with me so I'll try and remember to snap a few pics later.

They look pretty good but if I had known that there were factory tweeter pods these wouldn't have been built. It's just impossible to match the look of factory plastic! They will probably come out and get repainted with a more flat finish paint.

[kuuki]

Nice work with your car.

Do you have any pictures with those installed ^^ ?

[s_ribs]

That was supposed to be a secret dude. :p

[SiGmA_X]

4" tip on a NA car, let along a 4 banger! Did you forget to say you traded your beautiful 318 for a Honda? ;)

[s_ribs]

Suspension:
Undecided. I replaced the rear shocks with some cheap KYB's since I wasn't sure if I was keeping the car. In every aspect they are just fine - no complaints. But I wouldn't mind a stiffer ride and the rebound on cheap shocks always annoy me to no end.

Since I will likely be in WI this summer I don't know if I dare go any lower. These cars don't have a lot of clearance and going lower may be a bad idea come winter snow.

I am considering adding some IE fixed front camber plates and possibly some E90 front spring hats. A bigger front sway bar is a strong candidate regardless of anything else.

Will certainly be refreshing the rear bushings with new stock rubber!


Lighting/Electonics:
I need to finish up the Euro lights! I have new adjusters on order for them.

-DDM 55w digital ballasts with 3000k and 5000k are on the way for low beams. I wanted the option of different color so the 3000k will sit in the glove box.

-Already have DDM's standard 35w kit on my US ellips and those ballasts will be moved to the fog lights. 3000k bulbs are on the way for them. Will be replacing the cracked factory fogs with some cheap ebay fogs.

-The city lights will be wired to light up anytime the car is on. I love city lights and I want them to function the way they were intended to.

-I need keyless entry!! Luke is trying to convince me to go all out and get his remote start. Not sure if it's worth the extra money though.


Some ideas floating around:
-Add a second trunk light

-Wire in rear fog lights as additional lighting (not interested in actual rear fog lights)

-Build a front under panel. Probably out of aluminum or whatever that stuff is called that race guys use.

-Fab a trunk lid cover (like the euro part)

-Trunk tool kit box. Curt and I were chatting about this and agree that a bigger tool kit would be a nice addition! Need to see if I am adding a sub box before I move forward on thinking this through.

-Window rain gutter trim needs to be painted. Definitely not going black but thinking silver might look good. Thoughts??


Exhaust:
Part of pulling the sub was realizing how much I missed the other aspects of driving. All of my previous cars had exhausts built and that sound always makes me happy! I am super picky though so I have been tentative on tackling this.

At this point I am leaning towards the Magnaflow street series 14814. Comes with a nice tip so it will look more finished than adding one myself. This series of muffler is quite popular with the E39 guys so I found a lot of positive reviews on it. Everyone said the volume pretty quiet and no drone. Drone is obnoxious.

Only hesitation is the 4" tip on it. That's pretty big...



That's more or less it for now. I will keep ya'll update on the development of things! And hopefully it won't be 4 months between updates this time. :yawn:

[s_ribs]

I have a decent list of remaining things to do on the car. Some of these items were noted in my post yesterday, but I'm adding them anyway to list everything all together.


Stereo:

First, sub was pulled. It was primarily removed because my 110A alternator just doesn't like that much power. Secondary reason was that I just wasn't happy with the stereo performance. Most of the sub deficiency is likely because of the box (standard rear firing) and a POS deck not controlling things well. I remain undecided on if this sub or something smaller will go back in.

Now I am starting over and working through things one piece at a time and will make a decision on a sub once I feel everything else is sorted to my liking. To keep things simpler, lighter, and less overwhelming I am strongly considering a small eD e3.6 6.5" sub in a ported box firing through the ski pass.

New deck Kenwood KDC-X794:
It may not fit period correct styling but I like the look. Clean and simple with few buttons and a big dial. Really like that the remote controls all the functions, and especially that when I burn a mix cd it pulls up all info including the title I gave it in iTunes.




The tuning adjustments are strange feeling to me so I need to spend some time learning it. Right now the sound is not as full compared to the old deck.

As mentioned, the front PG RSD components will be moved up to the door soon. I never put sound deadening in the doors so I will do that at the same time. I have a bit of RAAMmat left and plan to put one layer inside and also on the outside to seal it off. Since doors are the primary culprit for road noise I ordered 20 sq ft of eDead V4 teklyte (closed cell foam) and will put that inside.

I like rear fill - rear speakers are staying. But they need to be upgraded and I'm very undecided on what to put back there. Decent chance I'll just pick up a second set of RSD components, possibly some RSD coaxial speakers.

[s_ribs]

Ok, time to finish posting up the other pictures....

Looking back I realize that I stopped being as camera happy. Not too surprised by that.

I love this picture of everything laid our and ready to go on:



Carpet out for stereo work. Final trim removal in progress:



Sound deadening and wiring:






Engine bay being prepped for paint:



I didn't take any pictures of the prep, but the car is sealed:




Unfortunately that's really it for old pictures waiting to be posted. From hear on out it will only be new additions.