Project finished - 'MY22' 318is - bare metal, nut and bolt restoration

[OSAH racing]

stunning vehicle. Well done.

[burkey001]

Thanks for the comments, you're both right. Driving it is the whole point!


Well, I guess this becomes a maintenance thread now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯??

I did a 1500km road trip this weekend just past and everything went pretty OK except I had a rubber manifold split in the ‘mess under the intake’ at the end of a 850km leg. Really odd, as it was a new part. The molding split right around the mold line where the barbed joiner presses in… maybe it was a faulty part. Kind of hard to install it wrong, maybe I had some slight pressure on it somehow. Just a thing that happened.




This thing failed. So, luckily that’s pretty easy to bypass and quick visit to autoparts store to get 50cm of 5/16^th heater hose and vacuum leak was fixed.




Have a new bit ordered, maybe it doesn’t happen again.
i think temp my fix actually looks pretty tidy anyway


A solid 1500km without any radio gives you a pretty good opportunity to identify noises and rattles …
Another thing like the “oh those UUC cupped mounts don’t add any NVH” issue is the Vorshlag top mounts. Never thought they made noise. Quieter than the equivalent Ground Control.

However, when car is quiet and the road is JUST SO… coarse chip and slightly undulating you hear this bit of “strut noise” through the firewall… Some kind of combination of pillowball tolerance and spring/alloy cup retainers “jiggle”.
Easily drowned out by winding the window a crack. But once you hear it you cant unhear it..

So, I am trying out some 4mm of nitrile rubber sheet between the top mount and the body.
Did this when I got home. Have had it in for a day, does make an appreciable difference. Now just monitoring the crush of the rubber, making sure the bolts hold a torque etc… If it works, great, if not I might change out to some strut tops with a little bit of rubber in them…



Have also been trying out some HID retrofits from a local guy, Bavarian Tuning Solutions. Pretty tidy solution, needs no cutting of factory harness, which I appreciate.

I got s pair of new low beam buckets to do the retrofit with so I keep he halogens as they are.






Going to need to update the halogen parker light now…




That’s all for now :)

[Tzantushka]

+1 on enjoying it.
doing the work is a big part of it - but the part I really like is the fact you can jump in, turn the key and enjoy the heck out of it.

[2mAn]

Awesome... cant wait til the embargo is lifted and we can feature it

[wazzu70]

Love the fact its not a garage queen! Used and enjoyed as its meant to be!

[burkey001]

hello team

checking in with a random update. Car has now done 2500km and is doing really nicely.


Couple of things along the way.

I replaced the AFM with a new, genuine unit. I reused the original AFM because it worked OK on the old motor, looked OK. yada yada. It started workimg fine in this orange car too but I guess it is a 30+ year old part and I began to have some really unusual engine behaviour - ranging from hard to restart after a ~5min drive to the shops, to stumbling idle, to hanging onto RPM like an inadvertent cruise control. All really annoying stuff.
I troubleshot everything. All the sensors, vacuum system, ICV, TPS, etc... Was going nuts. I thought it HAD to be the AFM, but I didn't want to shell out the $1200 a new AFM was worth, so I check plugging away on troubleshooting... I eventually relented and bought a $130 new AFM off eBay China JUST TO TEST the theory... if it worked I was going to go get a genuine one and... it was hot garbage. The barn door bound from brand new. The car hardly even started with this high quality "OEM Equivalent" part. Emailed seller, the responded in literally 8 minutes and said "keep it, here's a refund'... very odd..

Anwyay I ordered a genuine part and it arrived and I installed it and the car runs magically. It's the kind of improvement my old 325is had when I did a MAF conversion. Better throttle response and tip in, better idle, smoother running under load... just fabulous.

Kudos to BMW for selling new parts for 30 year old cars







worth the money. engine runs like a champ!

Have been fiddling around with transmission mounts too. I ever so slightly did not create enough clearance round the purple tag rack. So under heavy braking and right hand turnin the steering couple would juuuuuust touch the header and make a noise. This was with the genuine 318is mounts, which are very very soft.
I recalled that in my old 325 I used to have the AKG cupped rubber mounts, and in the context of a stripped, dry sumped S54 swapped E30 I found that those mounts made NO CHANGE at all to NVH... In this car however, OMG, they do add to NVH! Wasn't actually that bad, it did transmit a lot of exhaust rumble into the cabin and actually made the car feel a little bit more sporty / fun. But I didn't like it because it was a bit to rumbly at low speed and I am old and dull. So i search for alterntives.
I landed upon E46 M3 transmission mounts and OMG they are perfect. in the hand, they are good 2-3x harder rubber than the 318is ones yet transmit basically zero NVH into cabin. Only a very, very small amount of exhaust rumble. Cabin has quietened down, engine doesnt move. perfect!

other than that I have just been driving it. The closest analogy is of a daily driver, because it's my only car in this state at the moment. I simply dont drive much

i learnt the color almost matches phone booths



and fox forks





has just been nice to get out and around in :)



take it mountain biking


take it trail running


went to a local cars and coffee. had a chat





i literally have zero workshop in this new state. So i had to go buy a floor jack and some jack stands... felt SO GOOD to take the wheels off and clean them and the bits behind :)

When i had the wheels off I did a once over all bolts. I had one slightly loose upper shock mount on the back, so buying the floorjack was a solid investment. Luckily that's been the only loose bolt so far.

and thats all I have.

[dsm2002]

Need to do something, it's actually from about 2500-2700rpm. In the scheme of things pretty minor but it's an NVH thing a modern car has tuned out.
Considering having some custom headers made, so they would be made with that dimpled aluminum heat / sound insulation stuff.

Hi Burkey, I've got a set of extractors for an E30 M42 getting ceramic coated. I had talked to a fabricator about getting them replicated in stainless steel but will probably just use them as they come coated. They are out of the car and the moment so there's a brief window if you want to use them to copy. BTW I'm is the same city as you.

[MasukBMW]

Just popped into the BAT Lambo for sale, is that your dads car? You guys have great eyes for color

[Staszek]

So amazing!!!

[AusScare]

Great build!

Where did you find the little screw on cap that sits above the spare wheel? Do you know the part number? Mine's long gone and it's almost poked a hole through the boot carpet!

[DEV0 E30]

So hot. I keep coming back to this thread in awe.

[burkey001]

some shots from the shoot
Weather was very nice

[econti]

Need to do something, it's actually from about 2500-2700rpm. In the scheme of things pretty minor but it's an NVH thing a modern car has tuned out.
Considering having some custom headers made, so they would be made with that dimpled aluminum heat / sound insulation stuff.

That's absolutely the perfect situation for a Helmholtz resonator, basically you get a frequency measuring device and see what's the dominant frequency at the problem RPM, then there's some mathematics and you weld on a separate chamber to the rear muffler which has a length determined by that mathematics. Bing bang bong the drone goes away

[burkey001]

Looks like great E30 trips and activity’s happening! How many miles now on the New E30?

Have you thought about sound deadening in the trunk?

Hey thanks, yes it's fulfilling life as a daily right now. Not that daily actually means much when you don't commute for work.
Got 1112km on it now.

I did think about the floor, but I didnt because of two reasons:
1) i spent about 3 solid days in the boot with a wire wheel, sandpaper and etc to smooth out every surface. Then painter spent the same attention on exterior in there... So i want to see it :). the boot floor is actually clear wrapped.... 😂
2) the seat back, wheel wells and rear deck are heavily deadened, done with the the idea that the boot floor would be clear. I think the NVH resulting is pretty well controlled. Can drive on a wet road and not hear anything. Can't hear rain on the roof either

Don't sell it after all this work.
RE the rasp, look into a Helmholtz resonator.

Need to do something, it's actually from about 2500-2700rpm. In the scheme of things pretty minor but it's an NVH thing a modern car has tuned out.
Considering having some custom headers made, so they would be made with that dimpled aluminum heat / sound insulation stuff.

Have you seen this months Car of the Month? Only this car is worthy of following it up... Will you be ready for May?

Quite possibly, the shoot planned for Friday is for Performance BMW. So, I will take my own pics alongside the photogs because obviously there's IP in his work and those pics have a purpose beyond a web forum :) Being shot on a Fujifilm GFX100s medium format too... Unlimited 'zoom and enhance' opps 🤣 Will get his opinion. Maybe he can shoot me a couple of pics just for me. I believe its the first standard engine BMW in "Performance" BMW, A word that is absolutely the furthest thing from a stock M42.

[2mAn]

2mAn - this is the spot for the shoot.

Have you seen this months Car of the Month? Only this car is worthy of following it up... Will you be ready for May?