SNAFU; high performance 318is build that lives up to the name, Turbo M42 ➞ Turbo M20

[Northern]

Those Konis are a good life decision. I switched from bilstein sports and I'll never go back (with coilovers, at least)

[CorvallisBMW]

Now that's what I call BLOWN shocks, wow. Never seen them douche all over the wheels/tires like that. Looks like the coilover setup will be much better :up:

[varg]

I've been neglecting this thread. I've done a lot with this car in the past months.
I fixed the odometer, the old gears had the consistency of a hard cheese.




Also broke this mounting tab pulling the cluster out. Fixed it with JB-weld


I fixed the AC. Here's my kludged vacuum pump humming away. It worked great, pulled a vacuum fast.




I was experiencing awfully high pressures on the discharge side after adding recommended refrigerant amount by weight, which I found odd. So I recovered some refrigerant and was not impressed by what I saw in my sight glass. Even after flushing the system as well as I could, some brown soup, visible here, remained. This is stop leak contamination. After it stopped appearing in my sight glass, I put some refrigerant in to replace what was lost, and discharge side pressures were lower, though still not as low as I'd like. Vent temperatures were also a couple of degrees lower. This is typically what I see driving around town on a typical humid, 90+ degree florida summer day. Temps get down in the 40s on the highway where the condenser is more efficient :up:

It feels good to have cold air conditioning again.

I also did an autocross, the first I've done in the E30. Unfortunately I had a bad alignment which I couldn't fix because the old tie rods were seized up. I replaced my leaking rack and the tie rods with it the week after the autocross. I still haven't got the alignment just right.


One of my struts started leaking the week before the autocross.

So between the alignment and the struts at least I have an excuse for being slow :nice:

The body roll and the water in the headlight all sloshed over to one side






After the autocross both struts were leaking badly, now they're completely blown.



I need to repair this and can't afford to do the upgrade that I wanted (ground control coilovers) so I decided to build my own to fit my budget. Unfortunately I got these parts right at the end of my summer and am now too busy with schoolwork to do the upgrade. Maybe in one of the coming weeks I will be able to do it.

Amazing work, this thread never fails to deliver. Kudos to you!
If I could pick your brain for a minute. I am interested in getting the AC on my 318is up and running again as well. What refrigerant are you planning on using? In Australia where I am the original refrigerant gas has been banned, so I will have to convert the system to a newer refrigerant. Catch is that all of the O rings and hoses for the original system with don't hold the gas in, as the molecules or whatever are too small so they just pass through the rubber. Is this something that you would be tackling as well?

Thank you, I'm flattered.

I'm using R134a, and the typical off the shelf green HNBR o-rings. You should replace all of the o-rings when doing the retrofit. It's not the difference in the molecules that makes this necessary, but the fact that the HNBR o-rings are generally more durable, and are resistant to degradation from the PAG oil, while the old style Chloroprene o-rings are not. For what it's worth, R134a is actually a larger molecule than R12, but it has a lower molecular weight.

[thriftshopclassics]

Turbo 318is sleeper project, AKA SNAFU. Now with traction!

Amazing work, this thread never fails to deliver. Kudos to you!
If I could pick your brain for a minute. I am interested in getting the AC on my 318is up and running again as well. What refrigerant are you planning on using? In Australia where I am the original refrigerant gas has been banned, so I will have to convert the system to a newer refrigerant. Catch is that all of the O rings and hoses for the original system with don't hold the gas in, as the molecules or whatever are too small so they just pass through the rubber. Is this something that you would be tackling as well?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[stang65]

yeah Im looking at doing alot of the fab stuff myself Im worried about the tune and the exhaust manifold seeing how all i have is a flux core welder right now.

[varg]

Somehow this happened over the past week. I was annoyed.


So I did a little shadetree body work with a hammer, a rag, and a heat gun. It's mostly fixed. I guess when it comes time to paint the car I'll work on the body a little more and try and make it look nicer.


I also am sick of having no AC so I started working on it this week, replacing o-rings, test-fitting my custom line, ordering parts (like the tensioner pulley that fell off on the highway ). I also had a discarded, rusty windowshaker and needed a vacuum pump so I invoked the power of the kludge and turned this:


Into this; a nearly-free vacuum pump.


If all goes well, by the end of this coming week, I'll have cold air conditioning again

Is this your only car?

Sure is.

nice build Im hoping that money will allow me to do this at some point

Money doesn't really allow me to do it but I did it anyway.

[stang65]

nice build Im hoping that money will allow me to do this at some point

[efficient]

Is this your only car?

[varg]

A couple of weeks ago I recruited a fellow E30 owner to help install this LSD. Between the LSD and my new tires I have been reaping the benefits of superior traction, especially in the wet, where I couldn't even get into boost before without the car squirming around. Unfortunately I sold my bottlecaps and econo-tires before the LSD install so I have nothing to burn up for fun, but I will be taking the car to the drag strip soon. Now that I can launch hard I am looking forward to seeing what kind of ETs this car can give me.



And, this week I installed this, with more nasty looking fluxcore welds




To make my loud exhaust


Quite a bit quieter


I fixed a couple of spots where the exhaust leaked as well. I am very happy with the result; no more loud resonance on overrun and much less droning on the highway. It's much quieter at WOT as well, which is my personal preference, and helps make the car a little more sleeper-ish, though the big wheels and beefy tires probably give it away.

I also installed this chinese ebay blowoff valve, which is louder than my old chinese ebay blowoff valve on account of the flared fitting, but it doesn't leak, and is better made. I kind of like the extra pshhhh, even if it is a little ricey.


Video coming soon.

[Shredwick]

Schwiiiing

[varg]

I finally did an upgrade that my car has needed since it was stock. I got rid of the craptastic econodonuts and the stupid white bottlecaps (seriously, those wheels are such a pain to clean, why paint them white?! cripes).

I got some sticky rubber:


And some 16x8 XXR 520s:








Wow, what a difference. More traction than I care to test right now, and sharper handling all around. Now I need to roll my rear fenders, because 225/45/16 tires on ET20 wheels rub even at stock height when the suspension compresses

[AbsorbantNut]

Interesting upgrade!

[varg]

I finally said goodbye to the maxed out 45 trim T3 and upgraded to a 60 trim unit off of an XR4TI. I had to grind the flange off of the compressor discharge, which was a pain, but it was a steal, so I couldn't resist. I picked up a noticeable amount power, since I'm operating within the peak efficiency range of the compressor for once. The 45 trim was a giant heat gun at 16psi and I only kept it there because I have a stupidly large intercooler which helped to make up for it. More boost coming soon, I think ;D










More to come.

[varg]

SNAFU:


Earning the name as usual. Now I have to replace the window glass tomorrow, and it isn't cheap. Nobody has any spares laying around locally so I'm stuck taking the hit on a new piece.

I'm going out of town next week but have some stuff coming soon in the mail. Stay tuned for some big updates!

Nice! I'm still puttering along at 7 psi, but the EBC parts and solenoid just showed up in the mail... always good to see another turbo M42 on the road. I'm surprised your small case diff has lasted as long as it has. Mine went about 1000 miles with boost before it got bad enough for me to be afraid of driving it hard.

With the PO's sophisticated tastes for the worst econo-tires available, and no LSD, I doubt it's possible to break this diff or anything in the driveline. I have poor traction on a dry road and none on a wet road.

Turn up that boost!

[Schnitzer318is]

I'm surprised your small case diff has lasted as long as it has. Mine went about 1000 miles with boost before it got bad enough for me to be afraid of driving it hard.

Mine lasted 60,000 miles on 9psi... guess I got lucky.