'89 325i donor into my '85 318i (first trackday and dyno)

[Ocard]

Hey guys!

I have this 318i that I bought a couple of months ago for a really good deal. I quickly realized that m10 with that automatic transmission wasn't gonna do it for me in the long run.





The body in really good shape and has good tires as well as good interior. The only thing that was in great shape was the clear coat but besides that everything was really good. I was planning on doing at six cylinder swap in a manual swap sometime in the future but last week I found this great parts car then I'm going to use to swap into my car



the only reason I'm not keeping this as a track car is because I already have a car that day Rally Cross



I'm going to be attempting to swap sometime in the next 2-3 days. Was hoping somebody that has done this before could give me some info or feedback into problems on my run into. If not just comments are more than welcomed.

Can't wait to hear what you guys have to say!

[Ocard]

Yeah I know, "how cool! An m20 into an e30!! That's never been done..... Not" lol
Just looking for a bit more grunt and have a decent tranny.

Btw sorry for posting the gigantic pics. The other forum I post in automatically resizes them.

[Ocard]

I know this hasn't gotten much attention but I figured I would update this at least for myself.

I got what appears to be all the gremlins out of the car and is running better than ever.
Here is a list of all the things I've done:

Reverse light switch
Brakes (pads, rotors and valves)
Hand brake cable
AC system
Fuel tank seal
Strut mounts
Control arms and bushings
Tie rods
Battery relocation
Tires
PS reservoir leak
Readjust valves
Front sway bar links
E36 steering rack
Steering joint
Master Cylinder
Dot 4 fluid exchange
Exhaust leak
Gut muffler
Vacuum line for booster
Shift linkage
Flex guibo disk
Center carrier bearing
Bosch spark plugs

And this is what is next up:
Already have-
E36 injectors
Oem is oil cooler

Still need-
Diff lsd
Trailing arm bushings
Adjust throttle ps
Rear sway bar links
Axle boots



I did a track day last month and i had such a great time!!!
I plan to do it again as soon as possible.








Also, for shits and giggles, I went to a dyno to see what type of condition the engine was in. Plus I also wanted to get a base line map since the car is stock before I do any mods. I don't plan to do anything crazy.



I was pretty happy with the result for wheel horsepower!
Only thing I'm gonna try and fix quickly is how lean the car was running.
Gonna swap over to the e36 injectors pretty soon so that should help.



Thanks for looking, any tips or comments are appreciated!

P.s. if anyone can help me figure out how to make the pictures on my first postsmaller i would appreciate it.

[sam_]

resize them in any basic photo editing application or just resize them on the site you upload the pics to.

the car is awesome ! sorry if i missed this but is it your DD? and what do you plan on doing cosmetically?

[Ocard]

Thanks!

It is my DD. Cosmetically, maybe an oem color respray and some alpina wheel knockoffs but not a big concern at the moment. Im more concerned with getting the car to be more reliable for more continous racing.

Here are some videos:

The dyno pull
http://youtu.be/Z4metOFhN_c

The first autox
http://youtu.be/tGrDZ5uxg64

The first track day
http://youtu.be/QWAAgxN9vvg

Edit: I guess the links don't convert to video windows

[E30NJ]

Yes you kept the weaves! Keep us posted.

[Ocard]

I actually had bottle caps with decent tires. I bought the weaves from someone on the forum for a great deal. I also used to work at pepboys and got a screaming deal on clearance tires, $120 after tax for all four tires! So it worked out well to keep small wheels.

At this point, I don't see the benefit of spending a ton of money on big wheels and tires when I could be spending the money ongetting more racing time and improving my skills.

Also forgot to mention that I have Bilsteins HD and H&R sport springs as well. The stock spings and dampers were too boaty lol

[2mAn]

Not a bad little setup. decent #s too. How many miles on the engine?

[Ocard]

The donor car didn't have a cluster. The previous owner bought it as a project and didn't have time to put it back together. I think he got in over his head and he just needed to get rid of it. So to answer your question, I have no idea.

A couple months after I got it running, I did a compression test and cylinder number 5 was like 25 psi lower than the others. The others were between between low and high 170s. I have the numbers written down somewhere but I don't remember them off the top of my head. I used a Restore oil additive and did notice a difference. I feel silly for using additives but I have noticed a difference with some of my previous high milege cars before. The real test will be when I do a compression test again I guess.