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

[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]

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.

[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?


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[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.

[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:

[Northern]

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

[varg]

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:

I haven't seen them leak like this very often. they really got beat on. Take old, worn out, leaky struts to an autocross with super-grippy tires, and you're really beating the crap out of them though.

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

I'm hoping so. I selected something that could handle the spring rates I wanted without re-valving, and the bilsteins couldn't, from what I read. I'm also a sucker for adjustability. Hopefully I can be dialed in with these. I'm looking forward to a nice, firm, controlled ride, especially since my car has gone from driving nicely to riding like a crummy old cadillac since the front struts blew out.

[Nick_S]

Damn you do some great work. Good stuff man!

[varg]

Time for some good stuff.

Stock or not?


Not. This is the first time I've ever seen an E30 on adjustable suspension with stock ride height, how about you?

The parts. Koni single adjustables, 650lb, 5" springs for the rear, 450lb, 6" springs for the front, ebay spring adjuster kit for a honda, which came with some springs which I didn't use.


Marking the adjusters to cut them down (too long!) I cut the rears down to 2.5" and the fronts down to 3.25". A perfect fit, as you can see below.


Assembling after painting them


Complete front coilovers with plenty of brake rust courtesy of a rainy, crappy day


Rear suspension ready to go, maxed out on the adjusters for stock ride height, exactly as I had planned.



I wanted this to be a one day job on my only day off (Friday). Fat chance! In typical SNAFU fashion, it rained heavily for about two and a half hours on Friday after I had finished disassembling the front end, so I only finished the front before it was time for me to call it a night. On top of that, I had to wait for a couple of coats paint to dry because I didn't want to cut up the spring perches and leave bare metal exposed. The rear went a little better, other than the fact that I had to do it after I got home from work, and it took 4 hours because I had to take rain breaks. Oh, and my 17mm thin walled socket buggered out on me while I was tightening the wheel bolts, so I had to use a 3/8" drive ratchet with a cheater bar because I broke my 1/2" to 3/8" drive adapter. So really, just another typical DIY job in vargland. I only got a short test drive in tonight, but I really liked what I felt, and I'll be taking it to work tomorrow. I think I'll take the long way :up:

Sorry about the crap pictures. Despite having so many megapickles, phones are still crap for taking photos. Slow lenses, poor dynamic range, horrible SNR. You know the drill. Better photos coming soon. And hopefully more autocross?

[ccsdo5]

That coil over setup is looking good. It probably handles better than my current ground control stuff since I have wayyyyy to stiff springs and I cut my from strut housings wayyyy too low. I would say save up and eventually buy yourself some GC camber plates and you're golden!

Car is looking really good man! I'm mad jealous of the A/C too, but I guess I can live without mine since I'm up in NY.

[efficient]

I like this thread. Keep up the good work

[Northern]

Which konis did you end up going with? the fronts look like 1210's but are those 2641 SPORTs compress to adjust or top adjust? They should be compress, but it's hard to tell from the pic.



Do you have anything centering the top of the rear spring on the perch?

[varg]

That coil over setup is looking good. It probably handles better than my current ground control stuff since I have wayyyyy to stiff springs and I cut my from strut housings wayyyy too low. I would say save up and eventually buy yourself some GC camber plates and you're golden!

Car is looking really good man! I'm mad jealous of the A/C too, but I guess I can live without mine since I'm up in NY.

Bummer about your suspension. I'm not a fan of low so I wasn't going to do a setup that required cutting of the strut housings. The lowest I might go is 1-1.5" lower than stock, but not with my exhaust hanging down like it does (needs re-fitting, to do this right I'm going to have to put it on a lift) and not with an M42 oil pan.

AC isn't hard to fix, just requires patience and a couple of special tools. Do it! Just make a vacuum pump from a windowshaker or a refrigerator like I did.

I like this thread. Keep up the good work

Thanks :up:

Which konis did you end up going with? the fronts look like 1210's but are those 2641 SPORTs compress to adjust or top adjust? They should be compress, but it's hard to tell from the pic.

Do you have anything centering the top of the rear spring on the perch?

Fronts are 1210 and rears are 2641. Couldn't afford top adjust for the rear, if I had that kind of money I would've gone with the full GC setup. As for the rear springs I was going to drill the poly spring hats that came with the Honda kit to squeeze over the rear spring retaining cone but I didn't have a bit large enough. I'll get to it.

[varg]

Went to some meets.






Repaired and installed a smaller (.48AR) turbine housing, which doesn't have a funny Volvo flange, for better spool and less leaks.




Unfortunately this only temporarily fixed the leak at the turbo flange, I'm going to have to take the manifold off and run the flange on the belt sander to flatten it out.

I also undid the PO's de-badging. It took forever to find a 318is badge.



Still enjoying the hell out of my new suspension, and really looking forward to another autocross.

[vandy]

Thanks for the updates! Great work and a great project.