Canadian 318is

[Powling]

Small update.

FINALLY got my exhaust figured out. Turns out I couldn't get the slip over connection fully seated which is why it was leaking. I simply spread the 'slots' with a flat head screwdriver and it slips right on. Re-clamped it with some vice grips and boom, all good.

Only issue I have now is that the tip hits the valence slightly, but once the brand new rubber hanger donuts wear in a bit it should droop enough to stop rubbing the valence.

Here is where I had to spread to make it fit.



Once that was figured out, I moved on the COMPLETELY BLOWN suspension. Lots of research lead me to getting Koni adjustable Yellow's, and H&R Super Sports. I wanted a bit lower than regular H&R Sports, and Race's were way too low for our Ontario roads.

Ordered everything up and once I had everything I set to work.



No pics of install process at all, but the final outcome I am happy with. I would like to do E90 hats in the front but we'll see how everything settles after a few hundred km's.







I finished the install late at night, and it was raining but I wanted to take it out for a drive to see how everything was.

Next morning I went out for a longer drive. Everything seemed great! Even went down a dirt road to test the ride height. With the M42, the pan sits so god damn low it makes me a bit nervous. I even bought a full spare top and lower M42 pan a while back just in case.



The local E30 club also had a swap meet this past weekend and I got to meet Lucy, which was even better in person than in the pics I've seen online.

[mike.bmw]

Looks great! I am jealous of the new suspension and exhaust!

[Powling]

Looks great! I am jealous of the new suspension and exhaust!

Thanks! I couldn't be more happy with both so far.

[Powling]

Well last night was a very long and tiring night, but myself and my friend Evan, Paul and Lindsay put in some serious work on the paint correction for the 318.

We started at 6:30pm and ended at 2:30am. It involved a full cut, polish and wax of almost the entire car and I must say, I am REALLY happy with the results. Its completely rejuvenated the paint and the car looks incredible.

There are still imperfections like deep scratches and rock chips, but we didn't have the time to put 26+ hours into the car like Paul did with his old 318is back in the day. At a later date I will deal with filling all the rock chips and wet sanding the deep scratches out, but for now I am just going to appreciate how good it looks!

Here are some before and after pics.

[wworm]

I actually said "holy shit" out loud when I saw the second pair of before and afters. Looks so good man!

[mike.bmw]

I actually said "holy shit" out loud when I saw the second pair of before and afters. Looks so good man!

I second that. I actually said the same thing. :)

[fresh_TD]

What products did you use?

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Powling]

I actually said "holy shit" out loud when I saw the second pair of before and afters. Looks so good man!

I second that. I actually said the same thing. :)

Haha thanks guys!

What products did you use?

I don't know the exact product from Chemical Guys, but we used them for both the cut and polish, and I am not sure what wax we used - it was some good stuff from my friend who is a detailer by trade.

Now that the rain has stopped, I was able to get it out into the sun finally. Looks so good in the light! Ignore the front valence and lip - we didn't have small enough pads to get in and do the cutting, polish and wax on these sections. The lip need a complete respray anyways too.

[Powling]

Posted this in the dedicated Supersprint thread I made, but adding it here to add to the build thread.

Just a quick iPhone sound clip of the Supersprint sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_KkYd6liUY

[Powling]

I noticed last week that I was losing oil, but couldn't find a leak / drips anywhere...and had zero smoke coming from the exhaust so I checked a bit deeper and found 3 of the 4 spark plugs had oil in the wells. So I ordered up a new valve cover gasket kit and set to work resealing the cover.

Last summer I purchased an extra cover and intake manifold with the plan of painting them black...also because my intake manifold had stripped studs where the throttle body attaches, causing an air leak. So I used these ones to replace the original ones off the car. After I disassembled everything, I realized this is probably the first time these gaskets had been replaced. The rubber was rock hard.

Before removing the valve cover and manifold. Still has baked on cosmoline and just grimy in general.



Cover removed. Everything looking good internally!





Also inspected to see if the gear teeth were rounded off. Still looking good from what I can see.



I used VHT black crinkle spray can paint and it worked really well. I made sure to mask off everything and removed the plastic interior piece from the valve cover before baking in the oven for the final cure.

I painted these in 3 medium thick coats, and let them sit in the garage for 24 hours before doing anything with them. After 24 hours I removed the tape, and put them in my oven at 215* for 1 hour. Out of the oven I let them sit for another 24 hours and everything cured up perfectly. Finally I used 150 grit sand paper to sand the paint off the ridges and finished up with 800 grit to smooth out the ridges a bit.







When I went to install everything again, I noticed the manifold wouldn't seat on the paper gasket correctly. I noticed these little metal collars from the original manifold stayed on the lower manifold studs, while the second manifold that I had painted still had them installed. I removed the older ones from the studs and everything mounted up perfectly.





All installed and done!









Now all I need to do is respray the plastic BMW insert black, and repaint the sliver of BMW. Easy job for another day when I'm bored though...

[downforce22]

That looks great, I just did the same thing on my m42 but my gears were pointy so I did timing guides and chain and gear replacement.

I noticed you intake and exhaust cam gears are all the way advanced. Any idea why you have your gears so advanced? I think I read that advancing the intake shifts the power band down lower for better torque.

[Powling]

That looks great, I just did the same thing on my m42 but my gears were pointy so I did timing guides and chain and gear replacement.

I noticed you intake and exhaust cam gears are all the way advanced. Any idea why you have your gears so advanced? I think I read that advancing the intake shifts the power band down lower for better torque.

I am not sure to be totally honest. From everything I can tell, the gears and timing chain / guides have never been tampered with on this engine. So it either came from the factory set like that, or someone changed it without removing the valve cover.

Its something I am not educated in at all, and wouldn't have noticed it without you pointing it out to be honest!

[cheffy30]

what a beauty! ... you gonna drive that whip to the picnic powling? let's go!

[Powling]

what a beauty! ... you gonna drive that whip to the picnic powling? let's go!

Unfortunately not - way too far of a drive for me, especially in busy season at work (event industry + summer = no days off).

Plus with the 4.10 diff, I'm at 3000rpm at 100km/h on the highway...I couldn't stand the for a drive, literally across the country haha

[Powling]

Picked up a set of never mounted, but a few years old, Falken Azenis 615k's in 195/60/14 sizing and got them mounted up today. Haven't been able to test them out on the twisty backroads yet but they are definitely A LOT stiffer than the basic all seasons that were on my car before.

Desperately need some spacers to push everything out as well - not sure what mm to go with on from and back though, without needing to roll the fenders.