318iS - Fasts failing to load

[e30guy]

Back in December '08 I traded a bent front half of an E30 (to be used in and M3 to RHD conversion) for this:



A 325i with no drivetrain and most of the interior. I then preceded to completely gut the car. No sound insulation, no interior, no heater box, no nothing. Just the door trims and crash pad as per 3J specs. The sunroof and associated crap was removed. And a mate of mine paid a small sum of beer money to bend me up a hoop and front legs. He threw in the roof bars as well. We made the rest of the bars, the gussets and body tags. Before gluing the whole lot together and transforming the E30 into something that resembled a rigid structure rather than the flexible German budget box that it was.





After a coat of paint:





Sunroof Delete consisted of some E30 roof metal out of another parts car. Shaped and welded in. Then we put a bunch of liquid metal around the seam:



And some filler:



The suspension was next on the hitlist. Various things got reinforced:

Rear Shock Mounts:


Rear Sway Bar mounts:


Front Cross Member:


Struts got shortened, threaded sleeves. Some commodore inserts and Camber plates have been gonna happen since the initial build.


I wanted the roof black and as the bonnet, boot had to be swapped (rusty) and the replacements were diamond schwarz, So was the roof:



The pedals were moved backwards and a floor plate thrown in:



The second set of wheels. Advanti Racing wheels from NZ. 15x7 et15, 6kg each! All for about $140 a wheel.



By now I was tracking the car as often as the bank allowed:



So we had a mechanically stock 318iS track car. Stripped out, with some stiffer budget suspension and 100hp at the wheels. All for about $6k on track. I have been competing the car all of 2009 and managing some fairly respectable results, beating quite alot of more expensive machinery at the BMW DC supersprint days.

Some results:
My first event. First time ever driving a car on a race track competivily and first time ever on semi slicks (picked up second hand after having done a Targa Tasmania). Car 16, 28th position.

http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/re...2009.ORGP.S2.Y

A couple of months later at Eastern Creek. Same Targa Tasmania tyres. Car 18, 27th position (nice and consistent).

http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/re...009.EAST.XXX.Y

Then the last event for me of 2009. Eastern Creek again, Still on the Targa Tas R888 proxies I had in the beginning. 2nd Fastest E30, along way behind Adam Laura.

http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/re...2009.EAST.S4.Y

Reportedly the 1:58.9 is nothing to be sneezed at considering the money into the car? It probably weighs around 1050kg, has 100whp and the GPS shows me entering turn 1 at just shy of 170km/h (flat out).

That was essentially the conclusion of Stage 1. Get on track and have some fun! Stage 2 prologue has taken placed and will be detailed.

[e30guy]

This is the bit about all the things I've been doing in between Stage 1 and whilst getting ready to initiate Stage 2.

So turns out you can't thrash the shit out of a 240,000km rattly motor without it getting worse. Factor in that it had ~120psi compression across the board (The bentley recommends a minimum of 152 and health is 185-190, so well off the mark!) before we started this whole track car business the initial motor was well and truly past it's use by date. I picked up anothe M42 off a eurocca member (who will be putting an LS1 in his 318iS for supersprint duties). This one came with a few goodies like individual Bosch Motorsport Coils, an M3 240mm Clutch / Lightweight Flywheel setup (standard is 215mm) and was a hell of alot healthier than the current engine. Also building on my arsenal of spares ready for stage 2. These bits have been stashed away so I can build up Stage 2 without pulling the track car out of service for too long.

The engine was thrown in with a "MarkD" ecu chip. Which netted me the 100hp I have been mentioning. Here is a dyno (Blue is previous setup, Red the Newer engine with Chip):



So quite a difference! Especially the mid range. The car has noticably changed, but of course it still needs more power!

After this I was keen to drive the thing! So off I went to Marulan for a practice day with Circiutclub.com.au. These are a great bunch of guys and run a really nice event, really laid back and alot of fun. By now I had temporarily installed the AIM Sports Dash and Logger setup I purchased a while ago, giving me standalone Laptiming ability along with logging of everything I was inputting. Currently only RPM and the GPS, accelerometers built into the setup.

A picture of the rough dash install, oh and I'm now rocking a Racetech bucket as Dad wanted to be able to fit in the seat and have a drive



Netted a best time of about 46.1 secs, but this was after the front swaybar links parted company, so the car was an understeering pig. Still quite a respectible time I am told. Also still on the Tyres I bought back in the beginning of 2009 and now well and truly bald .

So now I had two things to deal with. The tyres were bald and I wanted a cheaper alternative. And the sway bar links kept breaking. Admitly I knew they would eventually.

I tackled the sway bar link first. Developing a rosejoint setup like I have in the rear.

Standard Setup and the horrible angles of everything:

[IMG][/IMG]

My solution incorporating finer adjustability of the links position. I moved the pickup point on the bar, to allow the use of a longer link, decreasing the angles involved. And also positioning the swaybar closer to horizontal at ride height. M3 style links (attached to the strut tube rather than the control arm) wouldn't have been possible with the increased steering angle and use of rose joints.

Full Droop:



Ride Height:



So now I had the front suspension working again. I was looking at the tyre dilema. I have herd great reports about these Khumo KU36's and they can be had damn cheap! A 225/50/r16 (yes oversized diameter) is about $135 on ebay. I picked up a second hand set for $130....YEP the SET!. This meant to a set of new wheels, but who can say no to buying more wheels. Enter the XXR 522, 16x8 et 0. They didn't quite fit. But I have a trusty guard roller and later on a hammer









Money aside. I think they look fucking awesome. And so will be staying.

That pretty much concludes where I am at as far as procrastinating getting on with Stage 2 anyway. As this is where I am currently. I'm just having fun in the car driving when possible. Uni has been a major pain in the ass this Semester and hence productive work had ceased.

[e30guy]

So You get a turbo and throw it on? Job Done? If only I ambitiously started about November 2009 and was going to have this car boosted ready for the start of the 2010 season. It was about half way through Feburary I cracked the shits. Anywho.

We came across an E30 for cheap, and the daily needed a replacement rear end. So it was purchased. The car was parted and the purchase price recovered. We then cut it in half and pissed off the bits I didn't need.

We now had the ultimate Mock-Up, place to store all the spare parts bitch.



The Spare engine was positioned in the engine bay via the crankline:



The engine has been rotated clockwise about 10-15 degrees (to make more clearence for all the extra shit going on the exhaust side now). The engine moved back about 95mm, restoring weight distribution or improving it, given we are adding a bunch of weight on the front and the back end was already very light! This should allow the 6 cylinder tailshaft to slot straight in, it's about 100mm shorter and the BMW tailshafts are a 2 piece telescopic unit, so I have some leeway.

Firewall didn't need much work. Light massaging, all within 3J regs just incase. The final install Will Probably have a little more clearence.



Standard Gearbox Cross member still works! (N.B. Using a 6 Cylinder Gearbox and cross member, the Gearbox was clocked ~15 Degrees less on the 6 hence the whole rotating of the engine not fucking everything up)



Problems on the intake side. Seems the intake manifold and the brake booster are having a punch up. Intake manifold won!



Brake Boosters are overrated:



Engine sitting on some mounts:



Strong Enough?



Good thing about a 4 cylinder shoved right back in the engine bay?



Short Intercooler piping is always a winner. All the coolers up front all tucked away behind the grill's nobody will be any the wiser:



Oil Cooler setup was pinched off an M30 6 Cylinder engine, freebies are good. I also swiped the oil filter / thermostat arrangement whilst I was there. And Made this setup:





We had a Brand New 55 amp alternator under the house....the standard 90 amper was a bit heavy. Weight is overrated. So here is the start of a new alternator mount:





Temp Intercooler Pipe (the straight bit), Made a mount up for the thermo fan (picked up from the wreckers along with the Radiator and a bunch of other shit for a carton of beer, my sorta money )

We folded up a shroud out of some scrap alloy plate, to keep everything a lil bit stealth. Dad just wanted to try out his new Stretcher/Shrinker and English Wheel setups, but all good. The standard top Radiator hose still fits too! The lower one is on the wrong side of the radiator, so when I move the outlet over to the correct side I will make it in such a fashion that the Lower Radiator Hose will work. K.I.S.S., it's the way to go



I have constructed my own turbo manifold out of steam pipe. To this date I have managed to not take pictures of it for some bizzare reason. They will be forth coming when I can be arsed, but its a simple short and sweet 4->1 then turbo. This was quite an undertaking and never to be under estimated by someone attempting it for their first go.

We used 1/2" flanges and also milled the flanges flat after welding, should be no issues sealing it all up . I did manage to fit a 3" dump pipe in there somehow. It was a mission, but I got there.







A general shot of the whole dealio that was taken at some stage:



The only real big other undertaking out of the whole deal has been to construct a sump from scratch! Because the engine was moved back the front sump was no longer going to work. We have elected to relocate the swaybar to the front of the crossmember, also within 3J regs And build a rear sump. Our alloy welding skills are not quite up to scratch so currently we have gone with a steel pan. Will have to wait and see if this proves to be an issue.



I'm a fan of using recycled steel if you haven't noticed. That back peice used to be an electrical cabinent.



And right about here is where I lost motivation in Feburary. I made the wing on the sump too big (didn't have a control arm in there initially) and it hits the suspension:



I'm now keen as all mustard to get her done, as I just want some fucking woosh and flames and shit.

Other things worthy of making mention:

Quick and Dirty Air intake:



DTA S60, will be running the show. Full Sequential, Antilag, Boost Control, 9hrs of Logging, pretty much all the fruit, should be able to make the ID1000's idle:



Threw the battery in a more Weight Distribution friendly place (used to be about as far to the drivers side and as rear as possible), also considerably smaller than standard spec, saved about 10kg once taking into account all the mounting and shit:



This is what the dash will eventually look like:

[Potsy]

Noice car and build. Got an E30 325e i'm toying with at the moment.
Keep the updates going, PF is the home of e30 worship.

[bigmuz]

Welcome- looks to be very well thought out.

Hopefully the second post is the turbo 13b stage and the third post covers the ls7 and six speed era of the car

[Cal]

Having so recently tasted the joys of how little power these things have, 1.58 at Eastern Creek is staggering. Nice.

[Marv]

third post covers the ls7 and six speed era of the car

I suggested that to Chris but he just started crying and mumbling, "something, something, budget, something, poor, something turbo BMW motor..."

This thing definitely needs an LSx

[Euroboost]

Having so recently tasted the joys of how little power these things have, 1.58 at Eastern Creek is staggering. Nice.

Bah, have you drivne a normal 318i? You iS guys have no idea.

[e30guy]

Thanks Cunts. I've busted a left nut getting this thing out there and it really is good to come home at the end of the day infront of the fabled M3 every now and then. It's pretty funny when a bunch of old weiners are asking me what I have done to my 318iS under the bonnet, thus giving me the right to be lining up infront of their E46. I couldn't quite tell them that I just drive the wheels off it

Unfortunately bigmuz I think you will be very disappointed. Being as far as I am along the path of boosting a wheeze bag 4 cylinder is the only thing that has stopped me from doing something along the lines of your first suggestion. But Marv hit it, something called budget/minimal outlay has stopped me a) going all out on an engine build b) being able to afford the tyres and drivetrain components an LSx would chew through as an appetiser.

And Hence. I have made the move to the cheaper tyres and am praying that E85 is as good as everyone says it is.

I'm going to hold the head on tight, keep the headgasket positioned with some o-rings and let the E85 do the whole cooling effect, detonation threshold thing and feed a reasonable amount of boost into the baby 4 banger. I'm really only after somewhere just above 200whp as this should keep infront of the considerably faster cars, come time to do the main staright at Eastern Creek.

The car is about having fun screwing around and driving, I'll leave the proper fasts to people with the dodgy business dealings and lucky bastards that just make considerably more money than my families gross income.

I been doing it since I could through CAMS thanks to Dad. And now I'm just carrying on outta my own pocket.

Hey Euroboost. My first car was a 318i. I feel your pain.

p.s. bonus picture of my motorsport background. The khanacross special my Dad put together:

[da9jeff]

pretty sure you are on the ipra forum, still going in that direction?

[e30guy]

d9jeff, yeh thats me. I'm normally e30guydownunder, but PF won't let me have a username that long?

Sort of. I'm won't be going W2W anytime soon, but I'm also keeping the shell within the rules for Early Improved Production. For the most part anyway. I'm not intending to run the restrictor and the wheels are too big.

So at the end of the day it won't take much for it to be 3J compliant, but I'm not going to be aiming for 3J at the moment. Thats big bucks. But for now, I'll be doing the supersprint scene having fun

[Cal]

Now I see it with the XXR wheels on it I realise I've been looking at the car on a heap of other BM sites. In your opinion, would the 225/50/16's have fit without rolling the guards had the offset been 20 rather than 0?

[e30guy]

Hi Cal, yep. Look up guys who are running the Rota Slip's. They are et20 and most guys run a 225/45 - 50 tyre on them. You might need to just fold the lips of the guards up just to be doubly sure they don't get caught and proceed to messup your paint.

Is a very easy process with a bit of careful guard roller and heat gun use. Some have even used a hammer with a rag on the end!

[e30guy]

Well PF I have been a bit busy this week knocking up something resembling a bucket that bolts to the lower part of my engine. Its pretty sketchy looking and has so far cost me about 0 dollars (woot free steel), but I'm getting the more critical stages of sump design and would like some input. This will be a rear sump setup.

Some pictures:









Now question time. I had just planned to put some baffles around the pickup with some trap doors and call it done, but making something that works reasonably well and won't break may prove trickier than I first imagined.

Perhaps using these OEM trapdoors from the M3? Part #8

BMW Parts Page

My dad has previously used a baffle box with 1/2" holes in the lower corners, allowing oil to enter the box somewhat easily but making it a bit tricky for the oil to get out in a hurry.

I was also intending to run some kind of a top over the baffle.

What does PF think?

I am also throwing around the idea of a Canton/Morso Oil Accumulator purely for the extra insurance and the pre-oilling on startup would be a nice feature. The extra oil capacity would be good too. Currently my sump will hold about 4L and I'm figuring the oil lines, filter and cooler setup will hold another Litre or so.

With my take off plate setup I would just need to put a tee piece in the pressure line OUT of the oil pump with a one-way check valve in the line coming OUT of the accumulator?

Anyone have any suggestions on the whole oil system setup of this thing? Am I going in the right direction?

[e30guy]

Hey Guys, just thought I would cross post a bit

Everyone loves videos anyway! Went to EC with the New Wheel and Tyre package, expected to be slower with less grip of course. BUT, with the larger wheels, 2" extra track I have found 0.9 second. I can't explain it so if you guys can that would be great. My front swaybar is also now actually working but wouldn't have thought it made that big a difference?





By all means tell me what I'm doing wrong. The car is uber slippery and the more I've been thinking about it the more I realise I can't recall what is going through my brain when driving. I know I'm concerntrating but for me to sit here and say I was trying to do such and such I'm a complete blank. PB now a 1:58.007. Thats decent with 100whp and estimated 1050kg right? Was an E90 M3 there doing the same time...LOL

175km/h into Turn 1 is GPS indicated not OEM speedo

[Cal]

I've not been for a long time in a normally aspirated MX5, but my PB in my car is 1.52.33 and I've probably got 150-160rwhp with the same weight. Yes my car is that heavy. Therefore I reckon your time is bloody quick.

[evil_weevil]

Great car - great build
Well done, thats a great time for little power!
Ive got about the same, 100rwhp and my best so far is a 1.59 at the creek

[e30guy]

Cheers evil. What car have you got? See you round the track sometime.

Regarding the pussbucket this thread is about, it's feeling quite neglected whilst I'm spending copious funds getting a GT Legacy going to replace the 318iS Daily.

I have however purchased a Davies Electric Water Pump. Heat soak management will be a good thing. And I often get excited about getting it turbocharged. Aiming for boost by the end of the year.

[evil_weevil]

I have a 1994 MX5 with just the normal mods + cage!

[e30guy]

Was at Wakefield on Tuesday flogging this thing around at a private day my mates organised. Once the track dried out and warmed a lil bit I managed ~1:14.2 Was on some fairly old V70A Semi Slicks but they seemed to come up nicely.

Videos and pictures to come.

[e30guy]

And we have another burst of Progress.

I went to a track day on Tuesday. and naturally the car got a bit dirty.





Days worth of brake Dust. The Pads officially bit the dust. HAHA



So on the way home Dad and I conversed as you do on a 4 hour journey. And we were left a little bit confused. Coming from a dirt background, the running costs used to be much cheaper (grassroots dirt costs much less than grassroots tar motorsport).

So I have been thinking about this alot, even went and looked at a caged KE70 corolla rolling shell (too rusty). But in any case. What I have decided to do, is go do a khanacross this coming weekend and have some fun in the E30. So without putting too much time in it I have been preparing it. First swapped in some softer rear springs, put some packers in under them (as they are the first tar springs I got, low, but too soft for tar. Should be good for the dirt with the extra packing). Swapped out the rear shocks as they were too short. Fitted my longer front springs and raised the spring seats a lil. Softened the front sway bar and disconnected the rear sway bar.

The Beginning of the weekend looked like this (my just registered Legacy Wagon):



Swapped in STi suspension and some Superlow King Springs on the Wagon, Raised the race car about 70mm.



The ride height is laughable, but the sump loves me for it:





So I has the sump quite high, but was not satisfied with the amount of protection it had...IE none! This is how we do sump protection in Australia!







All buttoned up. Just about ready for a bit of massive Alloy Plate:





All the load goes straight into the chassis rails, saving the sump and meaning these bolts are just here to hold the support off the ground.



I have a bash plate off an old celica GT4 that got well, bashed up. We have been trying to straighten it oout a bit by driving our 2.3 tonne Land Rover Discovery on it!!! The plate supports the weight of the disco (thru one wheel anyway) and only deflects about an inch! It will be great material for the E30 once we get it to the shape I require

So yer, I'm gonna go have some fun on the dirt and evaluate where I'm going with the project. Stay tuned for some videos from Wakefield

[Marv]

I have stock 318 front struts you could have fitted. Only remembered I still had them yesterday morning while stumble-fucking my garage hungover like a motherfucker.

[e30guy]

whats wrong with the struts I have in it now? Standard? pfffft

p.s. FU SUBARU

[e30guy]

Went out and had a play in the dirt

[e30guy]

Committing to E85. 10:1 JE Pistons ordered. These will be coated locally.

Plan is to get stuck in and having the turbo setup in the car and running by Feb, then a spare engine will be built up and swapped once everything is finalized

[Sketchy]

Noice

Subscribed and approved as sketchypiMp™ brand awesome.

Keep it up!

[AlexinPerth]

I've only just read this thread. Fantastic stuff. It's a great idea to have a car that you can use for tarmac and dirt.

[e30guy]

Cheers guys.

Happy New Year cunts!

New Year? New Motivation, New Updates.

I've been cracking on the brake master cylinder / inlet manifold clashing problems straight up. Once I get that done, focus can turn to making the other shit work. Whats the point finishing the engine install if I don't have any brakes???

Here is what we started with, nice tidy and business like. Let the shit FLY!



First Problem, cunts don't design their shit to fit in an E30:



So I'm back at the beginning but with a handful of master cylinders and a balance bar. So lets make our own shit.

I have finalised on a pedal ratio of 5.85:1. This is slightly less agressive than the pedal box I bought (5.3:1) and much better than the factory pedal setup would have been (4.8:1), but that is on a booster system. I have done this because the pedal box I bought came with mammoth cylinders. 2 x 7/8's and a 1". I am going to give the 2 x 7/8 a go and hopefully it works out half decent with the standard calipers.

Having said all that I am working towards a brake upgrade that will include fixed calipers atleast on the front of some unknown origin. Lots of stuff to do before then!

Some more Pictures.

It's a bit hard to get a decent picture without the masters mounted:



birds eye view of the setup:





custom hand finished bell crank (non of this laser profiled shit), not finished yet:



As far as I got with the master cylinder mount plate before breaking the drill press while trying to drill 35mm holes, cunt of a thing. Handle started to spin on the shaft?!?! New Locktite in there and drying overngiht before we go at it again tomorrow.

[e30guy]

Now to put shit in and plumb it up!

Just finished fabbing the pedal box up! Now to paint it, install it and hose it all up.







In this picture you can see the weld off to the side where I have plug welded a 6mm High Tensile Bolt in as a sort of drive pin. Just so there is something mechanical connecting the two pieces, not just weld. Also I will be buying new bearings, of course

[e30guy]

Brakes are mounted in the car, I have plumbed them up, but haven't filled with fluid and bleed them yet as I have been mucho busy focusing on other shit, like tidying up the yard

But anyway I have been doing other stuff since the brakes.

Spent a good 4-5 hours stuffing around getting the pieces for the sump finallised. Then we got it all tacked up for the final time!





Brother has some new found TIG skills and with our recently acquired bottle of Argon the TIG has been working overtime. Welding of the sump is about 50% complete.

I'm hoping to get stuck into the intake modifications potentially look at mounting the sway bar out front but I have a 21st to attend so we shall see. And that will probably be where progress stops before I go back to work next week Shit will still be happening. We are in full swing now!