I have this build on another forum , but i thought some of you may enjoy it.
It doesnt go into a lot of depth, but shows the progress of the build
•••••March 2012•••••
It has begun...
I've decided to take my 91 318IS and build it to run in the South Florida Region SE30.
I picked up this complete m20 drivetrain about a month ago, I plan on refreshing all the gaskets and seals and dropping it in.
So far i've acquired a spare subframe and installed camber and caster adjustment plates.
Installed these, of course :)
Most importantly it will run my Condor plate :)
•••••
I pulled the subframe out if the 318 over the weekend. It's a pita if you don't remove the driveshaft from the rest of the car...
I took it all apart, installed my new subframe with the traded 3.73 LSD, H&R Race springs, and buttoned it all together.
•••••April 2012 PLANS CHANGE!•••••
It's looking like I may be trading my 91 318IS for 2 90 325i's, one being a stock 4 door automatic, and the other a wrecked coupe with a salvage title, and lots of SE30 legal parts.
I'm planning on taking the Salvage car and building from there...
•••••May 2012•••••
The salvage car is here!!!
let the wrenching begin!
•••••
Started turning wrenches on the car last night. I pulled a few parts off.
So far it looks like i will be replacing the entire core support.
•••••
Take a look at the passenger side radiator support... its pretty bent up. I ended up removing it all last night:
I reinstalled the strut bar to help keep things straight.
I need to finish drilling out the spot welds, and then i'll start prepping the new piece.
•••••
So I spent a few more nights, and this past weekend fixing the front end of the new car. After cutting out the bent core support, and prepping the new core, i was able to give it it's first test fitment.
While it was easy to access, I Iinstalled a set of Condor Speed Shop Motor & Transmission Mounts and a Power-steering Delete block.
Before welding I made sure all of my panels lined up.
A few hours later it was all in.
...and after some adjustment, all the panels lined up perfectly.
••••••
Well, I finished the frontend repairs last week:
They turned out much better than expected, considering i used a bunch of junkyard parts. I pieced the headlights together from 3 different broken sets!
I then focused my attention on starting the repairs to the rear of the car:
Both bumper supports had been pushed in, and crushed a bit of the mounting points on the unibody as well. I used a chain to pull most of it out as well as the usual assortment of "standard" bodywork tools:
... I also had to usesome not so standard tools like a modified Harbor Freight pipe bender to push the rear sheetmetal back into place...
Turned out pretty good:
•••••JULY 2012•••••
I spent the last few nights tearing down & putting new gaskets and seals on that old tired m20 i had sitting in the garage... i plan on swapping it in this weekend.
•••••
Few updates:
installed an IJ crank scraper
•••••
Picked a Saturday, and attempted to swap motors in a day.
Around lunch time we pulled the old lump out with the help of a few friends.
This one had a cam in it. The replacement M20 is completely stock.
Found out that my trans casing was toast... and that i had been driving it like this since i bought the car.
Threw in an untested thansmission and the refreshed m20. I then realized that it was a G240 when the mounts didn't line up... I grabbed the wrong transmission off the shelf, so we pulled the trans off again and reinstalled the correct one.
Towards the end of the night I was able to weld in the spec exhaust.
Finished it in time to go home and watch the MMA fights!
•••••AUGUST 2012•••••
2 Weekends later, i was able to convince my father to come help me strip the interior
We ended up removing all the tar off the floor boards and trans tunnel. It still remains on the rear seat.
•••••
Lastnight, I decided to pull the sunroof tray after work... I drilled out all the spotwelds and cut the underside of the tray out on 4 corners of the casette.
It tool longer than i planned, but i got it out without damaging the sheetmetal.
I then welded in some small tabs to keep the sunroof panel in place, and used some silicone caulk to seal it up. looks OEM :)
It doesnt go into a lot of depth, but shows the progress of the build
•••••March 2012•••••
It has begun...
I've decided to take my 91 318IS and build it to run in the South Florida Region SE30.
I picked up this complete m20 drivetrain about a month ago, I plan on refreshing all the gaskets and seals and dropping it in.
So far i've acquired a spare subframe and installed camber and caster adjustment plates.
Installed these, of course :)
Most importantly it will run my Condor plate :)
•••••
I pulled the subframe out if the 318 over the weekend. It's a pita if you don't remove the driveshaft from the rest of the car...
I took it all apart, installed my new subframe with the traded 3.73 LSD, H&R Race springs, and buttoned it all together.
•••••April 2012 PLANS CHANGE!•••••
It's looking like I may be trading my 91 318IS for 2 90 325i's, one being a stock 4 door automatic, and the other a wrecked coupe with a salvage title, and lots of SE30 legal parts.
I'm planning on taking the Salvage car and building from there...
•••••May 2012•••••
The salvage car is here!!!
let the wrenching begin!
•••••
Started turning wrenches on the car last night. I pulled a few parts off.
So far it looks like i will be replacing the entire core support.
•••••
Take a look at the passenger side radiator support... its pretty bent up. I ended up removing it all last night:
I reinstalled the strut bar to help keep things straight.
I need to finish drilling out the spot welds, and then i'll start prepping the new piece.
•••••
So I spent a few more nights, and this past weekend fixing the front end of the new car. After cutting out the bent core support, and prepping the new core, i was able to give it it's first test fitment.
While it was easy to access, I Iinstalled a set of Condor Speed Shop Motor & Transmission Mounts and a Power-steering Delete block.
Before welding I made sure all of my panels lined up.
A few hours later it was all in.
...and after some adjustment, all the panels lined up perfectly.
••••••
Well, I finished the frontend repairs last week:
They turned out much better than expected, considering i used a bunch of junkyard parts. I pieced the headlights together from 3 different broken sets!
I then focused my attention on starting the repairs to the rear of the car:
Both bumper supports had been pushed in, and crushed a bit of the mounting points on the unibody as well. I used a chain to pull most of it out as well as the usual assortment of "standard" bodywork tools:
... I also had to usesome not so standard tools like a modified Harbor Freight pipe bender to push the rear sheetmetal back into place...
Turned out pretty good:
•••••JULY 2012•••••
I spent the last few nights tearing down & putting new gaskets and seals on that old tired m20 i had sitting in the garage... i plan on swapping it in this weekend.
•••••
Few updates:
installed an IJ crank scraper
•••••
Picked a Saturday, and attempted to swap motors in a day.
Around lunch time we pulled the old lump out with the help of a few friends.
This one had a cam in it. The replacement M20 is completely stock.
Found out that my trans casing was toast... and that i had been driving it like this since i bought the car.
Threw in an untested thansmission and the refreshed m20. I then realized that it was a G240 when the mounts didn't line up... I grabbed the wrong transmission off the shelf, so we pulled the trans off again and reinstalled the correct one.
Towards the end of the night I was able to weld in the spec exhaust.
Finished it in time to go home and watch the MMA fights!
•••••AUGUST 2012•••••
2 Weekends later, i was able to convince my father to come help me strip the interior
We ended up removing all the tar off the floor boards and trans tunnel. It still remains on the rear seat.
•••••
Lastnight, I decided to pull the sunroof tray after work... I drilled out all the spotwelds and cut the underside of the tray out on 4 corners of the casette.
It tool longer than i planned, but i got it out without damaging the sheetmetal.
I then welded in some small tabs to keep the sunroof panel in place, and used some silicone caulk to seal it up. looks OEM :)
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