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    The can of worms 318i

    Haven't started a thread on my car here in a while, you guys may remember my old car circa 2009/10







    I blew the engine in it on the way to SoWo 2010, and found some existing frame damage when I was rebuilding it so I stripped it down and sold it for parts. Moved to California with the money and started looking for a good rust free replacement. I wanted an early model for the higher rear arches and simplicity, and was looking at early 318i's because they are still kinda cheap compared to the rediculous prices normal e30's are going for these days. I planned on keeping it fairly stock, but you guys know how that works out.

    I've had a build thread going on stanceworks since I got the car, I'm just going to cut and paste from that thread from here on out. The build starts May of 2014.

    First things first, the car





    Its Safaribeige over tan cloth, there's receipts for everything in the glovebox, including a brand new engine from BMW 53k miles ago. I'm super happy with it.



    First things first, I did a bit of maintenance to it. It's been sitting for a while, so I wanted to change out all the fluids. There were a few gaskets and hoses that were leaking so while I was in there I addressed them. You begin to realize what the thread title is about.

    Oil first, it was pretty clean but the last receipt for it was 2 years ago and with the wrong weight.



    You can see the lower pan gasket leak, as well as the power steering leak. The power steering had leaked on the belly pan, so I took them off to clean. Who knew e30's were supposed to have these.



    Even with only 53k miles on the engine, some goon had still managed to get in there and screw with the oil pan gasket. It had what looked like hot glue all over it and had been over tightened.



    It's been holding well with the new gasket, so they didn't fuck it up too bad. Cleaned up the engine a bit too, it's not perfect but it'll do until I get the underside steam cleaned.



    Filled up with some good high zinc racing oil since it's an 318i.



    Next up was the power steering leak. The original hoses were so old they were seeping straight through the hose, and the filter was so backed up it was pouring out the reservoir.





    Got some BMW replacement hoses and a new bottle since the filter is internal and refilled the system with new fluid. I didn't do a complete flush since I have an e46 M3 rack from the old car that still needs to go in.







    Cleaned up belly pan, these suck to put back on, it's no wonder people always leave them off.



    While under the car, I found that the same goon that over tightened the oil pan put new brake hoses on incorrectly and they had been rubbing on the wheel. They look pretty old, so they must have been like that for a while. I'm surprised they hadn't worn through yet.





    The fluid was pretty nasty too.



    I picked up some Ireland Engineering Stainless hoses rather than factory replacements. They're quite nice. Also put in some racing brake fluid because its a 318i







    Spilt a little brake fluid while changing them, so I cleaned it off with some brake cleaner. This made me realize how filthy the inner wheel wells are, I'll have to have them addressed while the engine is getting steamed.



    Went to bleed the brakes and got nothing out of the right rear wheel cylinder. Ordered 2 new cylinders, took the drums off and found the original asbestos shoes and super worn drums. Drums suck anyways, so rather than replace them with new parts I'm going to convert it to the 325i rear disks. This involves swapping the trailing arms, so I'll need to get new bushings, and I should change the rear subframe bushings while I'm in there, and if I'm pulling the subframe I might as well make it adjustable.....



    Next was transmission fluid. The trans was shifting a bit hard but it's been loosening up with the new fluid. Hopefully it'll be fine, but it does have 200k miles on it so who knows.





    Biggest lie ever



    And the exhaust manifold gasket was leaking. The exhaust system is nearly new but it sounds like poop so I'll probably be changing it.





    Broke a stud like a noob





    Super clean exhaust ports, but then again it does only have 53k on it. idk if I've mentioned that yet.





    The control arm bushings weren't looking too hot



    A point proven by the way they came off



    The stock replacement bushings suck, so I found a dude (or dudette, sorry if you're reading this Carol) selling these Treehouse Racing bushings that s/he never used.



    They fit super tight, so I had to take the paint off the control arms to get them to slip over



    And on. Not that it matters now, but these also give a bit more ground clearance over the stock lollypops.



    They increase the caster to stock e30 M3 specs in addition to removing play, so it pushes the wheel forward in the wheel well slightly. This looks dumb now but helps center the wheel once it's lowered.





    There's still a bit of maintenance to do, but that's all I've gotten done so far. Next up is tune up parts, because it is unbelievably slow. Like, slowest car I've ever driven slow. I'm hoping it's due to needing a tuneup and it's not just because it's an m10, but it could very well be.
    Byron
    Leichtbau

    #2
    Next up was cleaning. It's been garaged it's whole life so the paint is in great shape, but it was covered in a layer of dust and had gotten a bit dirty from me working on it. The interior had sheepskin covers on the seats, and although they were comfy, I'm not 80 years old so I took them off. Underneath the seats are pretty beat, and they're cloth comfort seats, so I'll be changing them in the future. It's a bit weird that the interior is so trashed because the paint and dashboard are mint. Who knows.

    Right after I took the covers off, I sat in the drivers seat and heard a sproing. It didn't collapse so I forgot about it, but once I started cleaning I found the culprit.



    After that initial sproing, the seat had gotten worse and worse and there was a spring sticking up and poking me in the butthole, so I've since changed the seat with a non-matching tan leather sport seat for the time being. No pictures because it looks like crap.

    I took the rear seat out to take the sheepskin off, set it down on the ground and found this when I picked it back up.



    Pretty disgusting. The horsehair padding is completely falling apart. Interior is quickly moving up the ranking in my to-do mod list.

    Went to vacuum the parcel shelf and this happened



    So I just kept going and ended up with this. Looks greeaaaat



    Got fed up with the interior since everything I did was making it worse, so I moved on to the outside. The paint looked like it would clean up well, but I wasn't sure how well. This is the starting point. Apparent'y iphones can't capture Safaribeige very well so there's a good chance you won't be able to tell the difference between before and after















    And after. All the chalkiness and blemishes are gone, I'm wicked happy with how it turned out even with me doing it. All I did was wash and cleaner wax. I'd like to get a professional to buff it and do a real detail to get the last bit out, but for 30 year old paint I think it looks great.





    Took that stupid sunroof visor off too. That was actually the very first mod besides for cutting the wires to the alarm siren.



    Got dark out so I moved inside so the comparison won't be the best



    And the next day



    I'm happy. There are some small dents and dings I want to get PDR'd (psst Shane, give me a discount) and I want to get the underside steam cleaned, but this'll do for now.
    Byron
    Leichtbau

    Comment


      #3
      Still doing maintenance. Got all the parts for a tune up.



      The plugs and wires weren't too bad but the cap and rotor were shot.







      Only the best for this 318i



      Found that some douche had left my fuse box lid unlatched *cough Moose cough*



      Also found this beauty chillin under the intake waiting to fuck me over on a long drive far away from home





      Changed it up. Still want to address the rest of the cooling system as it's getting old



      The fuel hoses weren't looking too hot either





      And the fuel filter was 7 years old almost to the day



      New one has some fancy chrome trim too that I think really classes up the look of the car



      Changed all the hoses I could get to, but there are some that run up to the top of the tank that I'll have to change later. I'll probably drop the tank when I have the rear subframe out but I really don't want to.



      This stupid useless hanger kept smacking against my subframe making my car sound like a cow coming for dinner, so I cut it off. Strike 2 for the exhaust, steadily moving up the list.



      Someone explain to me what this exhaust guy was thinking





      My ICV hose was cracked so I changed it





      Started the car up and drove it down the street to see if it was any better and it ran way smoother but was still slow. Decided to check the timing to see if goon had messed with it. Spec is 30* BTDC, it was roughly at 5*, which explains why I was getting passed by cyclists on the road. Bumped it up a bunch and it made a huge difference, the car is still slow but reasonably slow now. Those damn bikers don't stand a chance. The idle got all screwy once I set the timing correctly, which I assume is why goon had it set so low. The ICV seems to be working correctly, and searches online show people still having problems even with new ICV's and ICV computers, so I clamped the hose shut to fix it for now. I say I'll fix it eventually but it's working great like this so I'll probably end up forgetting about it.




      And hopefully my new pet gorilla will be here in time for the next update.

      Byron
      Leichtbau

      Comment


        #4
        Been a while since updates, I've been busy. Starting where I left off, I had an unnecessarily hard time getting my crate shipped over here, so I flew back to RI and brought it back myself. I managed to fit 400 lbs of parts and stuff that took up a 4' square box into the back of a Hyundai somethingorothertheyalllookthesame.



        Made some tourist stops along the way













        Then I got the car PDR'd, I didn't take pictures of the after because I'm dumb but the car looks perfect. These are some of the before, the car was covered in door dings and the like







        These two were the worst



        (Big crease on the bottom half of the door)



        If anyone needs to get there car PDR'd in SoCal hit up Shane at AllDentsOut, the car came out amazing. I had him roll the fenders for me too to since the bottle caps were getting close.

        Then I threw a larger front sway and poly bushings in the front end. There's no rear sway but at least the front will be racecar.

        You probably can't tell but the larger one is on the right.



        Old was 18.7mm



        New is 21ish mm



        The bushing brackets were pretty ugly so I cleaned them up and painted them













        Cleaned up the nuts and bolts too



        Installed



        Decided to change my engine mounts while I was in there because they were looking a bit saggy



        The oil pan was sitting just below the subframe, which was giving it extremely little ground clearance on the stock suspension.



        Passengers side compared to new



        And how the drivers side came out. I'm sensing a pattern with rubber on this car.



        I didn't take a picture of the ground clearance now because I suck, but the pan is about half an inch above the subframe. Since I did the engine mounts, I decided to do the transmission mounts as well. Once again no pictures because idk. I did take some of the transmission brace before and after cleaning though, so there's that





        Riveting indeed



        Then I found a cat



        Next I got to work on my headlights. I thought I took pictures of this, but nope.
        I had bought some Depo euro smileys for the black car right before it blew up, but I never got to put them in. I brought them back and looked them over and decided they were crap, so I bought some cool 3d printed projector adapters for OEM Hellas that allowed me to put some Morimoto mini H1 bi-xenon projectors into the Depo housings. Then I got some Morimoto 5000k HID's and it's amazing. But anyways, here they are



        Compared to the stock sealed beams





        Threw some euro grills in at the same time since I didn't want to go through all the trouble of taking the grills out again later



        Cleaned the car up again





        Stock finish 32 year old bottle caps



        And threw some new wiper blades on to deal with all this rain we've been having

        Byron
        Leichtbau

        Comment


          #5
          I brought back the suspension from the black car, but the strut housings were rusty from living life in New England, and I couldn't have that, so I had to track down a set of good ones out here. I couldn't use the stock 318i ones because BMW in their infinite wisdom made the diameter a few mm smaller, probably to save weight since it's a racecar, and my strut inserts wouldn't fit. Once I found a good set, I started by cutting them into pieces.









          The eagle eyed nerds out there might notice the mounting tab for the sway bar links on the strut tubes. I somehow ended up with the top halves of some e30 M3 strut tubes earlier in the year and I wanted those tabs, so I combined the M3 top halves with the lower halves of the stock 325i housings.









          I shortened the housings 2" for good measure while I was in there.

          I've seen people and companies brace the hub to the strut tube before and it seemed like a good idea, so I made some gussets and welded them in







          Even though I shortened the housings 2" over stock, the strut inserts I had made are 3" shorter than factory, so I needed spacers for the bottom of the strut insert. Find some pipe



          And make spacers



          Simple


          Then since I cut the stock spring seats off, I needed some new ones. I found these decorative thingys at the metal store that would work perfect.



          Just open them up slightly



          Line them up



          And stick them on



          Then paint the housings all pretty with a spray can at night



          Assemble and compare to stock



          I had my camber plates rebuilt sometime during this as well, which was a story in itself, but here they are before. Open raceplate design used for 3 years in New England means they weren't pretty





          Of course I didn't take pictures afterwards.


          But back to the struts



          I just put the stock 318i front brakes on the new housings for now since the rear is still drum and my new housings didn't come with the vented rotor calipers.



          I got these new sway bar links from a friend to use in those swanky new tabs



          But they're from a mustang so they're nowhere close to working. I'm going to cut and sleeve them in order to extend and rotate them, but I still need to get material. I'm still using the stock control arm mounts for now.



          Laugh at how much lower it is before moving on to the rear suspension



          Then pull the rear apart and put the new stuff in.







          Then pull it outside and think about how you just ruined a nice car









          The suspension is very stiff since I originally built it for the black car that was 1/4" off the ground, so it rides quite a bit different. The suspension is basically all tire at the moment. It handles so much better than it did before, but now I'm gonna need some new wheels so I can get better tires. I have all new bushings for the rear end, but I'm waiting on some new trailing arms for the brake swap before I put them in.
          Byron
          Leichtbau

          Comment


            #6
            Bought some Brock B1's



            ***** them and took them off a week later





            I brought them to get refinished so I could sell them and told the shop I wasn't in a hurry. This was apparently the wrong thing to say because they still have them nearly 6 months later.

            Got some new window switches since mine were working intermittently



            Before



            After



            Beautiful shift boot, right?

            Found and fixed a squeaking from the engine





            Found a large vacuum leak



            What was left of the #4 intake gasket





            Fixed some more cooling system problems while I was in there









            Exhaust snapped off at the manifold



            A month after fixing the coolant leaks under the manifold the next weakest spot gave up



            This is the hose from the back of the waterpump to the heater pipe, which is a real pita to get to, so I finally bit the bullet and just replaced what was left of the cooling system at the same time. S/O to squishy for the parts, I'll pay you for them one of these days.



            Gross



            But of course, it wouldn't be a can of worms build if nothing went wrong. Someone had replaced the waterpump at some point and used shitty bolts that corroded themselves into the timing case and snapped off while I was taking everything apart.



            I tried vice grips, heat, welding, etc. nothing worked, so I had to drill them out. I was lazy and didn't want to take the radiator and condenser out, which made the job even worse. The drill kept walking it's way into the aluminum timing case, so I had our machinist make me a guide plate.









            Drilled and tapped



            Helicoiled





            And done. All bolts replaced and coated in anti-seize for the next muppet



            My girlfriend bought me new window trim for Christmas and I finally installed it 5 months later. It was the wonderful yellow before.







            And now it's nice luxurious chromed plastic. I figure it'll last to winter before it turns yellow again







            And we're back up to date. So to sum up what you've just read, I've been fixing the same things I've been fixing since day 1.

            I need (want) some wheels but I can't find what I want for what I want to pay. I also want some euro bumpers and a new interior, but, once again, I don't want to pay for them. Stuff usually ends up dropping into my lap if I wait long enough though, so I'm just waiting it out.
            Last edited by E30SPDFRK; 06-20-2017, 06:14 PM.
            Byron
            Leichtbau

            Comment


              #7
              Decided it was time to tackle the exhaust. It had been giving me trouble since the beginning of my ownership, it hung low and hit a lot, it was a big mismatch of parts and was poorly assembled, and one of the hangers had broke a while back and I was using a hose clamp to hold it up so it rattled. If it wasn't for the rattle I'd probably be leaving it alone.

              So I ordered some pieces from Summit. Got a 1 3/4" U bend, a 2 1/4" U bend, 2 4' sections of 2 1/4", and 2 glasspacks. I wanted to try to fit the 18" underneath the car and run just that, but I got the 14" too in case the 18" was too large.



              Took the old crap off. What was there was a combination of 1 3/4, 1 7/8, 2, and 2 1/4 tubing, not in that order.



              Started with this to make a Y for the downpipe



              Measure and cut



              Weld together



              Cut the end off





              And attach to the old flange. I put the Y at a slight angle to help with routing the rest of the system





              Used part of the 2 1/4 U bend and some straight to get it under the floor



              Couple more bends to attach it to my existing converter.



              This was the inside of my "constant radius mandrel bent" tubing.



              The 18" had zero possibility of fitting under the floor, so I attempted to fit the 14" under there



              But once I had it all welded up it was way too low and I wasn't happy with it. So I cut it off and progressed into plan C, which was run the 18" in the stock muffler location. I ran out of bends from the U bend at this point, so cut up a bunch of 20* pie cuts instead. The muffler I left hanging in the car because it's a pain to get off. I made a couple hangers too





              Mig pie cuts, max weldporn bro



              Painted it all black since I just used regular steel and black is more racecar



              Made a tip



              And back up in the car for the final time





              Nice and unobtrusive. I swear that's just dirt and not overspray



              It sits nice and high now: it's flush with the frame rails up front and only hangs down under the rear subframe, which is unavoidable unless I used [$]oval tubing[/$]





              But I'm not in love with the sound. It has the sound I wanted above like 4500rpm, but down low it's slightly diesel-like, and it's a bit louder than I would have liked. I might try a different muffler later on, but for now I'm going to see if it grows on me.
              Last edited by E30SPDFRK; 06-20-2017, 06:15 PM.
              Byron
              Leichtbau

              Comment


                #8
                So I got the exhaust done and decided to take the car to the e30 picnic in Tacoma Washington, 1150 miles each way. It was super hot on the way there, so we cut across from the 5 to the PCH in Redding CA and took it all the way into Washington.







                Only picture I took at the show haha



                Made it all the way back home with no issues except a rear end noise. I stopped to get gas a mile from my house, started filling up and saw a puddle of oil emerging from under the car. 2300 mile trip and I break down a mile from my house. I had hit a metal plate on the road up by LAX 40 miles away, but it didn't seem bad so I just kept on driving haha. Somehow the engine still had oil in it when I stopped.



                I had it towed over to the shop, pulled the pan and welded it back together, filled it with new oil, and made it home a few hours later than planned. 7 years of driving slammed cars and this is my first broken pan. It had to happen eventually, I guess I'm just a late bloomer.

                The carnage



                So that rear end noise I mentioned. It was a rotational noise, speed dependent, didn't change over bumps or around turns. Without getting under the car to check anything, I decided it was the diff, and that this would be a good time to upgrade to an LSD. I found a 4.10 large case out of an M3 on cl for $50 with a noise, so I grabbed it and bought everything needed for a rebuild.









                I also decided to upgrade it to 60% lockup at the same time, since this is a racecar and all. That means I'd be putting 4 clutches back in when only 2 came out. There's no room inside of the differential for 4 clutches however, so I had material shaved off the end cap to make room.

                Old worn out clutches



                New high friction ones from Bimmerworld, plus some complimentary gummy bears



                The piece to be machined



                And post-machining



                Noticed that my new OEM exhaust hanger was already torn, so I went back to the hose clamp I had built the exhaust to avoid using.



                Put the diff all back together and installed it in the car, and it still made the noise :/ it locked up nice though, it almost feels like a welded diff when you get on it.

                So when I was changing the diff, I noticed that the rear u-joint on the driveshaft had a little flat spot on it. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but since the car was still making the noise I decided that was the culprit. BMW u-joints are swaged in from the factory, so I took it to a driveshaft shop to get rebuilt rather than attempting it myself. I got a new csb and guibo while in there for good measure.





                Put it all in and... Still making the noise.

                My tires were getting pretty bad during all of this, so I stopped chasing the noise for a bit to replace them with some track tires to attempt to contain the 1.8l of power.



                Drove around for a bit as is to let my wallet recover, the noise kept getting worse and worse



                Decided to break the pan again on some more road construction. It was getting time for an oil change anyways. Once you pop, you just can't stop.



                Split the drain bung from the stamped metal of the pan



                How BMW ships cork gaskets



                I welded completely around the bung, but it still leaks a bit. I'll replace the pan with a new one on the next oil change.

                I replaced the axles in an attempt to fix the noise (Diagnoses cars for a living, throws parts at his own car), to no avail. Decided it had to be the wheel bearings by process of elimination. They had no play and the noise didn't change during turns, but they were literally the only thing left. The noise was to the point that you couldn't talk to the person next to you while driving, but Mike and I were super busy trying to get Rusty done for SEMA, so I left it for a few months and borrowed my girlfriends car. As soon as we got back from SEMA, I put the car on the lift and started the exorcism.

                The early 318i's came with drum brakes in the rear, and mine were getting low. I had been wanting to change them to the disks that came on every other e30, but that involves swapping the trailing arms to the later ones. Since the wheel bearings needed to be done anyways, I decided now was the time to do it, so I found a set on cl and started collecting the new parts. While I was in there, I figured why not make the subframe adjustable too, right?

                Old rear end down



                And apart



                Old bushings out




                Collection of new parts to go in. New wheel bearings, pads and rotors, stainless caliper hoses (racecar), e-brake cables, shoes, and hardware, nearly solid subframe and trailing arm bushings (racecar), and the IE eccentric adjusters.



                Since the car would be pulling so many G's in the corners, I decided the new trailing arms could use some bracing. I stuck my sidekick KK on making the easy gussets while I made the rest





                Welded in





                Eccentric guides welded onto the subframe



                I started to clean them up for paint, but it was miserable so I brought them down to get sandblasted and powdercoated. While that was getting done, Mike and I traveled with Rusty to Germany to attend the Essen Motor show. H&R invited us to tour their facility while we were over there, and showed us some of their personal collection













                Stayed in a castle







                Explored the castle, found some sketchy things





                Got back to CA to find my parts back from the powdercoaters





                Bought some more parts



                Started reassembling it all



                I bought some brass caliper guides to replace the rubber ones that came stock



                Cleaned up the new calipers and painted them. The 318 front came with solid rotors, so I upgraded them to the 325i vented ones, which required new front calipers as well



                New ebrake parts



                Race pads



                All back together







                Took it out for a drive and... Still making noise.



                Nah, jk, it was all good. The car drove amazing, but the alignment was all screwy since I just threw it together. I put it back in the air to do an eyeball alignment to get me by until I could get it on a rack, and found out that the trailing arms I got off cl and did a bunch of work to without checking were bent. In order to get the sides to match, the adjusters have to be maxed out in opposite directions. Hindsight is 20:20, right? I'm blaming it on KK.

                So I'm driving it around as is until I can come up with a solution to fix it that doesn't involve redoing all the work I just did.
                Last edited by E30SPDFRK; 06-21-2017, 12:19 AM.
                Byron
                Leichtbau

                Comment


                  #9
                  Got some wheel studs instead of the factory lug bolts.



                  Had to replace a ball joint that bitched out and gave up on life





                  The alternators on these things are mounted on bushings for some dumb reason, and mine were completely shot. I took the opportunity to upgrade to some racing polyurethane ones, of course





                  What was left of the original rubber bushings



                  My car always leaked a bit of oil, which didn't bother me (how you know it still has oil), but the maintenance guys at my apartment kept coating my parking spot in sawdust, and that was annoying so I decided to do something about it. The main leaks were from the upper oil pan gasket and my power steering pump. Since a new pump lists for $700, and I'd have to drop the subframe anyways to replace the pan gasket, I decided to try out a Z4 manual steering rack. Reviews online say it's way easier to turn than a normal rack without power steering, and it's one of the quickest racks you can fit in an e30. Bought 2 racks for $240, sold one for $250. Much better than $700.



                  Oil pan leak









                  I love cleaning parts. Jobs take me twice as long as they should because I spend so much time on it



                  My lower pan was still leaking a little around the drain plug from the last time I hit it. Welded it up again



                  Got a box in the mail that worried my girlfriend



                  Z4 steering coupler. The Z4 rack has different splines than the e30 rack, but the steering column is the same. My plan was to modify this one a bit shorter to keep the telescoping safety feature



                  Took it apart



                  Rack in, looks like that plan is out



                  Had to cut it down so much that the bearings just barely fit. So much for safety.



                  One of the boots was torn, so I changed them both out. Since I was in there, I got new tie rods as well.







                  All the old PS stuff out, pulled the AC compressor at the same time since it is dead and racecars don't need AC



                  All installed and cleaned





                  Yet another alignment.



                  Verdict? I **** it. People online that say it's easy to turn must look like The Mountain, pre zombie stage. Parking lots suck, and it's way heavier even at speed. It is much faster though, I'll eventually put a Z3 assisted rack in but that's a lot of work.

                  Got an exhaust leak. My fault for not using a flex pipe.



                  Tried a new version of welding using bird shit instead of metal. It works I guess



                  My new $50 axles started making noise. Shocking, I know. The passengers started throwing grease on my nicely powdercoated trailing arms, and I'll let the video speak for what happened to the drivers side



                  Store your photos and videos online with secure storage from Photobucket. Available on iOS, Android and desktop. Securely backup your memories and sign up today!


                  Sprung for new OEM axles, wallet still hurts





                  Had to buy 325i axles since they don't sell 318i axles anymore, and because I have a 325i rear end. The inner flanges are thicker, so I got new bolts too



                  Finally got around to putting on the correct front sway bar links. I got some e90 links and modified them, had my friend Eric tig them together shorter and with the correct rotation



                  Compared to stock





                  Stock ones were dead from all my curb hopping at the races



                  A whole lot of 2's right before a roadtrip







                  Was with a friend buying some e24 parts in San Diego, saw a bolster of a seat sticking out of a shelf and made a deal happen.



                  They're Recaro LS-B's, sold originally by D&W in the early 80's. I wished they matched, but I have plans for the interior anyways

                  Made some mounts. I wanted to get them as low as possible while keeping the factory sliders, made the passengers side first to see what I could do



                  It was way too high still. My head is less than an inch away from the ceiling with stock e30 seats, and these were exactly the same. Gave up on the slider idea for the drivers seat and just went for maximum slammed stance.

                  Pulled the old seat, found one of the studs had tore out, probably from the intense G's this thing pulls in the twisties.



                  This sucked to fix since I was too lazy to pull the carpet completely









                  Drivers side mount. The butt of the seat rests on the floor





                  Did a valve adjustment...



                  ...mostly as an excuse to clean





                  Dude backed into me in a lot. I saw him coming and started to drive away, he was backing up so fast and 318's are so slow he still hit me. He's being a dick now and is trying to not pay



                  Started smelling burning oil after the valve adjustment, thought I fucked up somehow but it turned out my shifter selector seal gave up completely and was dumping all my trans fluid out onto my exhaust. Decided to rebuild the shifter while I was in there







                  Seal put up a good fight, but Momma always told me I'm a winner



                  More cleaning



                  Last edited by E30SPDFRK; 06-20-2017, 06:17 PM.
                  Byron
                  Leichtbau

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                    #10
                    Broke my phone over the winter and lost some updates, forgot what they even were so they can't be that important. I'll just skip to the interesting stuff anyways. That's what you came to see, right?

                    I got some replacement coilovers. Talked with H&R about e30 coilover options when we were there, got back and ordered some for myself. Ended up going with their Tief line, which are Maximum drop coilovers. I don't plan on slamming this thing near as low as my last one, but I know it won't ever be high and the extra travel is appreciated. Had them send over some sway bars at the same time.





                    Since the H&R coilovers are complete strut replacements, I got new bearings and dust shields too.

                    The rear springs are pretty rediculous







                    Got some new Ground Control camber plates too since I had a guy interested in buying my complete old setup.







                    Put them all the way down to start to see how "Tief" they actually go, was impressed until I realized the tire was bottomed out in the fender and the spring was still loose. Suffice it to say they go as low as you would ever want...



                    I ended up setting it at exactly the same ride height I had before. The ride is so much better, I had designed my old setup just to go low, ride wasn't factored in to the equation. The sway bars helped more than I thought they would; early 318's didn't come with rear sway bars.

                    My window seal cracked and would flop around on the highway, decided to change both





                    Good guy BMW just wants to make sure you have enough





                    New seals. Actually did a lot for highway noise.



                    Been wanting to do fun track day stuff with my frans, but this is my only car and I wanted to make sure it didn't blow up on me. My boss is an old BMW club racer from long ago, and he tells me that m10's had problems in long left hand turns where the oil would run up the side of the block and starve the engine. So I pulled the pan down yet again and made a windage tray/baffle so that wouldn't happen.





                    No idea how much is too little or too much for the openings, erred on the side of caution and made them kinda big. No idea if it works, but it's yet to blow up so I guess I didn't make the openings too small at least.



                    Started looking for a set of wheels after I sold the Brocks. I was looking for 15" BBS RF's at first, since I loved the way they looked on my old car. I've always loved old 80's tuning house cars with the color matched wheels centers, so I was planning on painting the windows between the spokes safari beige. Couldn't find any good sets, but I did come across a set of my bucket list wheels. Sold off a bunch of stuff to get them, and made it happen. They showed up around the time I we got back from Germany.



                    Test fit them on the car







                    That was with the rear wheels on front and back. They would have fit super sick if I was doing stancy things, but I wanted a chunky tire so they would have to be redone. The front wheels were only 7" wide too, which just isn't enough to make the ladies swoon.

                    Got the hookup on the tires I wanted, thanks Mike! 225/45/15 Nitto NT01 R-comps. Threw a wheel together to see how they fit



                    Yeah, that doesn't work



                    Stretch was exactly what I wanted, but this confirmed that I needed to get them rebuilt.

                    Bonus shot with a paid model



                    Ronal used BBS back in the day for their 3 piece hardware, so I got in contact with BBS to see if they would make me some new barrels. They denied knowing about that fact, so I tried Ronal, and they directed me towards BBS. Do avoid getting trapped in a wormhole, i started looking for used parts. This turned out to be harder than you would think, so after way too long of searching, i had Jongbloed just make the stuff for me. I still wanted that 80's tuning house high on blow look, so I had Matt Alchemy of Alchemy Paint color match them. Finally got everything all together a few weeks ago



                    I didn't want the wheels to look like brand new show wheels, so I had Matt add some flattener to the clear to make them look like old lacquer paint. He got it perfect. Went with inch smaller lips all around and inch larger barrels to keep the width the same. They are now 15x9 et25 with 3" lips. After spacers to clear the front calipers, they ended up at et10.





                    Josh came by to try out his new photographer pose







                    Khalil tried out his pose too, don't think it's as good though...



                    I love how they look, and the car handles insane with these tires. Haven't had the chance yet to take it to the track or even any fun roads, but my favorite on ramp can be taken at 60 now instead of 50, so you can say things are pretty serious.
                    Last edited by E30SPDFRK; 06-20-2017, 06:18 PM.
                    Byron
                    Leichtbau

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                      #11
                      And now we're up to date as of 6/17. Sorry if your computer crashed trying to load that many photos at once.
                      Last edited by E30SPDFRK; 06-20-2017, 06:19 PM.
                      Byron
                      Leichtbau

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                        #12
                        Yes, Im excited for you to finish filling in the blanks

                        also, I think these are just 318 not 318i but what the hell do I know, my car has zero original parts on it
                        Simon
                        Current Cars:
                        -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

                        Make R3V Great Again -2020

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                          #13
                          It says 318i on the trunk and door pillar, and realOEM pulls up the VIN as a 318i. I know they made an early 325 that had no letter, but I think all 318's came with letters.
                          Byron
                          Leichtbau

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                            #14
                            That must be it. I gotta say, this thread alone makes me want to really do stupid things to keep the E30 and the roadster... who needs to retire anyways?

                            Someone get this guy some euro bumpers already!
                            Simon
                            Current Cars:
                            -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

                            Make R3V Great Again -2020

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                              #15
                              God damn good work. Not many people would put so much work into an M10 so I'm glad to see that. Love the paint color and the Ronals are glorious. Subd
                              ▲ 1991 318is ▲ | Feedback Thread

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