1991 318i sedan project - Saving a sedan!

[kuuki]

Nice work with your car.

Do you have any pictures with those installed ^^ ?

[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]

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]

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.

[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.

[TooTall90]

awesome paint job.

[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...

[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]

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...

[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]

Will definitely take you up on the fp gauge offer, thanks! Could I pick it up tomorrow and use it this weekend? Shoot me a text if that works. Gonna shoot you a pm re: AFM in a sec...

I have a buddy up in Vancouver that's a welder (and doing my exhaust for free), so I'll run the idea by him. Otherwise I'll give you a shout re: welding. Have been wanting to try out composite work for a while so I may use this as an excuse to do it.

[SiGmA_X]

Composite work is great. I've never done any besides some basic fiberglass, never any vacuum molded work. A couple of the guys @ FD3S do it, and well. Splitters, etc. Pretty sick.

The FP gauge is at my storage unit in SE. Let me see if I can borrow my parents truck, I need to haul some stuff to FD3S this weekend. If so, I'll grab the gauge tonight, if not, I'll grab it Saturday morning.

[s_ribs]

Probably the most rewarding unproductive weekend to date. FINALLY got the trim back on the car! Amazing how much different it looks now.






A wash seemed justified even though I knew it would rain again today.



Tossed the 3000k bulbs in the low beams Friday for fun. I dig it.



I failed at sealing the passenger side low beam and there's a bit of water inside causing it to fog up. Will address it soon.

[s_ribs]

Car goes in for exhaust work tomorrow! Pretty excited. A little nervous too... I love a good exhaust and the last few cars I've built have turned out well. But I hate droning with a passion. Opting for a 18" long muffler rather than the 14" length that most do, hopefully that will keep it mellow.

Hoping the shop will let me take pictures. If they do I'll post them up this week.

[s_ribs]

Exhaust in. Needs a bit more break in before I can decide what I think. So far it's plenty quiet, almost too quiet. On the other hand, I think it may be louder outside than I realize. Seems that all the sound deadening I did really keeps resonance out.

Has some drone, small but enough that I'll be addressing it, at 2500-3000 rpm's. I've calculated the frequency and wave length to find the quarter wave length for a side branch resonator. Should kill the drone! It's really not bad but I find it annoying that it's louder during that 500 rpm range than anywhere else.

Pictures-