DasFrogger

[dasfrogger]

Hello! I've been around 2002's (have a 73 and a 67) for a long time and finally decided to pick up a e30 to DD. I've been thru a few 325's as parts cars/flips/one that i almost became a daily driver. If you're interested you can see my 1600-2 adventures here ->http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/136403-1967-1600-2-some-assembly-required/.

This thread's purpose will be to keep track of the work I do to the 318is and the adventures it gets me into. I plan to keep the car mostly stock - with 'tasteful' mods focused on making the car a great DD. My goal is to make the car as reliable and comfortable as possible.

I picked up my 318is from the famous Mike Self. A lot of e30's in my area are pretty rusted out, and when Mike says there is no rust - there is no rust! Mike had a stack of receipts from the previous owner and with the car being enthusiast owned it's entire life it seemed like the safest bet I could find at the time. For a 23 year old car it runs and drives great! There are a few small projects around the car, but otherwise I think it'll be a good DD.

The Good:
Completely stock
NO RUST
Recent Clutch Job
Recent tires
AC system converted to R-134a with all new components!
Recent Steering rack replacement

The Bad:
Some various dents in unfortunate places (hood, roof, fender)
Interior is starting to age (cracked dash, funky carpet in the front, drivers seat is beginning to crack)
Central locking is a bit wonky.
Even though the mess under the intake was replaced, the hoses are already cracking again.

The car made the 3 hour trip home with no incidents and returned over 30MPG. Not too shabby!

Here's some photos of when I picked it up:
Me with my new purchase on the right and Mike with it's twin on the left.

[DesktopDave]

Welcome to the club! Looks like you have a great start there. Rust isn't quite as bad to the E30 as to the '02, but it's still a killer.

[Nick_318is]

Welcome, nice looking 318is.  Get a front lip and it will look even better!

[dasfrogger]

Welcome, nice looking 318is.  Get a front lip and it will look even better!

I need to snap a photo but i have the thin lip on it now. Pulled one of the thick lips off a parts car too, but It's speckled with overspray. I need to go back thru and paint both to make them look really nice. Not sure which one i'll run yet, I like the look of the thin lip and I've heard the thick ones get busted on parking blocks all the time.

Welcome to the club! Looks like you have a great start there. Rust isn't quite as bad to the E30 as to the '02, but it's still a killer.

I've learned the hard way from my time with 02's to find the best example I can afford and start with that. Should be a solid base to work with. Thanks for the welcome!

[dasfrogger]

Based on the service records it seems that this car has typically had conventional oil and I didn't want to upset the balance with synthetic now. Changed the oil with castrol 10w30 -I wanted 15w40, but I could only find it in synthetic. If anyone out there has opinion on oil weight let me know.  I still need to do more research on the topic.

I seriously loved how easy it was to perform the oil/filter change compared to my 02 and jeep xj. lovely.

while I was waiting for the oil to drain I noticed a fresh film of oil covering the passenger side of the block all the way back to the transmission. I went ahead and wiped everything down to see if i can pinpoint the seepage point. The profile gasket has been replaced and I'm hoping it's not that. Seems like it could be the valve cover gasket. I'll order one with my next big order of parts and swap it out.

I had noticed a bit of a rough idle - kind of like a big cam'd V8. Idle speed wasn't searching a lot, but enough to cause concern. Mike McCarthy's shop had replaced almost all the rubber under the intake less than two years ago and I was hoping it was something simple like a dirty AFM. Cleaned the AFM, Throttle body and ICV, and in the process discovered that the hoses that hadn't been replaced really needed to be now. Then much to my chagrin I found that all the NEW rubber (that I could see, didn't remove the intake yet) that was installed is splitting at the junction points.

Mega. Bummer.

I'm going to go ahead and order everything brand new from BLUNT in the next few days and take the weekend to get everything patched up right. Considering deleting the TB heater plate and associated hoses per Simon's writeup (http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=225616). It does get below freezing in Kentucky and I will drive the car year round. Should I be concerned at all about condensation freezing my throttle open?  I don't think it would be much of a problem on trips long enough to get the motor up to full operating temp, but could be an issue on very short trips?

[Slowered318]

For conventional oil I've been happy with Castrol or Quaker State 10w40 for the past 12 years. It's thick enough to suppress engine noise and you get minimal vapor, yet thin enough for cold starts and to feed the hydraulics. I would go with something thicker for racing or somewhere often seeing above 90 degrees.

I drive my car into late November up in Canada, often frosty mornings and nights below freezing and I have not had an issue without the heater plate. You can always remove the air box snorkel and block the cold air passage in the winter months. This should raise the intake temp a few degrees and reduce excess moisture. You could also move the exterior sensor from the air duct to the intake so you can keep a better eye on things. Worst case you shut the motor down in the event of the throttle body freezing open. I've done this on diesel trucks before where the spring would fail causing WOT. In the case of a 318 it think the brakes could easily overcome the engine, even at WOT. LOL

Good luck.

[Nick_318is]

I use RotellaT 15w40 conventional oil and been quite happy with it.  Love buying heavy duty diesel oil.

I recommend the mess under the intake, really simplifies things.

[dasfrogger]

Took the 318is out for about an hour of spirited back road driving last night. Even though i've had the car for a couple of weeks now, I've really only had the opportunity to get it on the back roads a few times, and this was the first time I could take it out solo. Being alone last night allowed me to focus on the car a bit more and think about how it's doing. Some things I noticed, Good and bad:

(1) I love revving this thing all the way out. The feels are amazing.
(2) I need a Limited slip. Considering changing ratio to 3.73 to accommodate highway driving (this is a commuter after all).
(3) Some time at a drivers school would go a long way.
(4) Transmission grinds gears, especially in 1,2 if i don't have the clutch to the metal. Perhaps I need to adjust the clutch stop?
(5) The steering/handling from the front end are seriously lacking and I'm nervous thru the twisties at higher speeds.

The last item is the most concerning to me. I drive these roads a lot in my 73 2002, and even with it's WELL worn suspension it handles the road much better at speed. My 318is feels like it's got a lot of body roll / play in the steering / that it's not planted to the road.

I know the steering rack has been replaced and doubt there's any issues there. From what I can tell all the bushings are in good shape too. I have a new set of Billy sports that came with the car - perhaps the old inserts are just that tired and a new set would firm things up? Is this just how the car acts on stock swaybar and springs?

I need to carve out some time to install the front shocks and see how that improves things. I'm going to try to restrain myself and only add one thing at a time - to save my wallet and to see how each component changes the feel.

In other news i placed an order for all new rubber and gaskets to do the mess under the intake. Can't wait for stuff to start rolling in from BLUNT.

[Slowered318]

A few things that may help with shifting.

- Flush the transmission and top up with Red Line D4 ATF or your brand of choice. Also install a magnetic plug if you don't already have one.
- Check over the shift linkage for excess wear and tear, replace with autosolutions if you have the budget for it.
- E21 transmission mounts help improve shift accuracy during spirited driving
- Bleed the clutch
- Check the pivot pin on the clutch release arm, replace with brass pivot if needed.

[dasfrogger]

A few things that may help with shifting.

- Flush the transmission and top up with Red Line D4 ATF or your brand of choice. Also install a magnetic plug if you don't already have one.
- Check over the shift linkage for excess wear and tear, replace with autosolutions if you have the budget for it.
- E21 transmission mounts help improve shift accuracy during spirited driving
- Bleed the clutch
- Check the pivot pin on the clutch release arm, replace with brass pivot if needed.

I'll put all those on the list. Flushing the transmission fluid was already high up on the list, I'll try to do it sooner rather than later.

Parts are starting to flow in from Blunt. Got about 1/4 of what I ordered. woo hoo!

[dasfrogger]

So i've got this parts car....


Really, it's too nice to be a parts car though, and this is the dilemma. This 325is used to be the PO's daily driver until he smashed the oil pan on some train tracks and yanked the motor/transmission/driveshaft and let it sit until i came to get it. I came upon it quite on accident, went up to buy a transmission from the guy and he made me haul this car and another one not as nice back with me. It was quite the deal and I had a place to store it so no big deal...but I didn't know what i'd do with it. It would be a great candidate for a m50/m30/v8(!!!) swap, but it's pretty rough around the edges and I have no idea what works and what doesn't electrically. With the 1600-2 project eating all my spare cash I wasn't going to start anything with this car. I've got to find a buyer for it, but then there's the problem with all the goodies it's got on it...

Now that I've got the 318is I have a reason to want some of the nice parts on this car. It's got US Ellipsoids, 16'' Borbet wheels, Premium sound (that matches my interior!), Map light rear view mirror, fancy computers, Sport steering wheel, LSD (possibly 4.10) and the very best part - Ground control coil over suspension!

So I've got to figure out what I want to pull and what I'm ok with selling. The head lights are definitely coming out - i've got a spare sealed beam set that I can put back in. I pulled the borbets and replaced them with a set of 14's that I had laying around the shop. (not sure if i'll run them or not, i really like my weaves). I want the rear view mirror and steering wheel, but I don't have anything to replace them with. Not a big deal on the mirror, but more so with the steering wheel.

The biggie is the GC suspension. It's a $1700 option. I want to pull it because I don't believe It'll add any value to this car with the rough shape it's in. I don't want to pull it because it'll be a pain in the ass, I don't have anything to replace it with, and I don't know if I want to put it on my car. I don't even know if the spring rates would be good for a 318is.

It's time to do some thinkin. I hate to take all the good stuff off this car because I need to sell it sooner rather than later and it needs to be easy to sell/ get out of my basement shop. At the same time, I'm not going to ask very much for it so I aught to pull off some of the nice parts. hmmmm....

[dasfrogger]

Did the 'Mess under the intake' mod this past weekend. It took about 4 hours from start to finish and I didn't have any unexpected issues that would have held things up. This was the main circuit that got removed along with the throttle heater plate:

The multi junction hose on the left was the major culprit for vacuum leaks:



After everything got buttoned up it fired right up. Much to my dismay my idle is still rough. It's better than it was, but still not right. I'm thinking injectors, O2 sensor, AFM. A friend brought me an 02 sensor and AFM from a parts car. I got the chance to try the AFM today with no change. I'll try the O2 Sensor tomorrow and change plugs afterwards to see what happens.

I've got a set of 19# mustang injectors too. They've been sitting for over 2 years, so I need to have them sent off to be cleaned before swap. My injectors were pretty nasty when I pulled the intake, so hopefully the swap will really show a lot of benefit. The picture below was taken after i did a little cleaning.


Hopefully it'll be running well shortly. I've got some cosmetic mods to do after - maplight rearview mirror, epsilloid headlights, 2nd light in the trunk (need to find some LED's for those too.

[Slowered318]

Would like to see some after pictures of your solution to 'mess under the intake'.

Your old injectors don't look too bad but the 4-hole injectors are a nice upgrade.

Second trunk light is great... if you wire them in parallel and not series.

[dasfrogger]

Would like to see some after pictures of your solution to 'mess under the intake'.

Doesn't look like much honestly. Throttle body looks a little bit tidier. You can see the breather hose on the left goes to the intake boot and you can kind of see that the hose from the ICV valve goes to the intake itself. Those are the most obvious changes. I didn't take any other photos because I was in a hurry to get everything back together. The "simon's take on mess under the intake" has some great pictures of what things look like under the top intake manifold.



Had about half an hour to work on the car today. Went to autozone and bought some NGK plugs and borrowed the O2 sensor socket set. Unfortunately the O2 sensor from the parts car didn't want to budge, and the metal siding was cracked and flared near the end anyway. It actually prevented me from getting the socket in place- had to use a hammer. I still plan to change out the sensor, or at least test my current one. The car drives great, only problem is at idle. Since it's livable i'm going to put off dropping another 150 bucks into the car since I'm still mid restoration on my 1600-2.

I did install the plugs though. Love how easy it is on this car. Old plugs were showing some age, but had uniform wear and were probably fine.


Installed new NGK's. Idle seems a tiny bet better - doesn't search as much but is still pretty lumpy. Not sure if that's the truth or just placebo effect.

[Slowered318]

I was just curious to see what parts you used. I did this last year and also deleted the heater core bypass valve. I found some coolant residue on the carpet so I might look into installing a simple bypass using 1/4 inch hose and T fittings, that shouldn't effect heat too much.

Might be mistaken but I think you mixed up two of the hoses. To my knowledge the valve cover goes to the throttle body and ICV goes to the intake boot.

Aside from that it looks like a good job.