Power gain on a 16 year old's budget

[Birdman16]

My 91 318is is my first car and I'm looking for some power for it. I'm not talking about a turbocharger or supercharger, but a 15 to 30 horsepower/ torque gain. I was thinking about a performance exhaust (not ANSA) or a Dinan or Alpina chip ( if I can find the later) but can't find 93 octane in Massachusetts. I have replace all the hoses and gaskets and have done suspension, wheel/tire and gasket work. What do youu reccomend. Remember, working at Marshall's does not pay that much.

[dude8383]

I would consider MarkD's chip...its one of the best out there.

As for any extra power gains, you should look into light weight flywheels.

[peerless]

Well at least your straight up about it all.

You can find a chip used if you keep looking or find a new one if you can swing the cash flow. Header back exhaust with a high flow cat and a easy breathing muffler will add a few ponies as well. Don't fall into the big name mufflers or cat back systems either.

A cold air intake will add a bit more as well.

Regarding octane ratings, I have a chip in a M20 E30 that requires 91. I run 89 and don't have any problems. 87 on the other hand will ping, but even then its only on a high load situation, 3rd gear pull up a hill, etc..

Have fun with it.

[doucy2]

Learning to drive properly will allow you to reap great benefits. Jim C chip and a s3.73 diff would be two great mods.

[tony92ic]

Low budget:

1. Modify the airbox to take more cold air. Instructions are on the forum someplace.

2. Get a muffler shop to put a magnaflow muffler and new tip on. Mine cost me about $175. Sounds great and should free up some flow over the old exhaust (making an assumption here). BMW cats usually flow pretty good, unless yours is bad I'm not sure there is going to be a big gain there. If somebody has tested this and found otherwise - chime in.

3. Mark D chip.

4. Remove weight. Cheapest HP you can get, because it doesn't cost much or anything. Pull out crap in the car you don't need. For me that includes the spare. If you buy wheels and tires don't get cheap heavy ones. Pay close attention to what they weigh. Rotating mass robs more power than you can gain on all these other tricks combined.

5. Tune up. New plugs, wires or COP, airfilter, etc will regain a lot of lost power. Buy a good quality air filter like Mahle. They seem to flow as well as expensive oiled cotton ones. At least according to some testing also posted on this site.

6. Junk yard upgrades. Swap the diff out to get LSD or more acceleration. Single mass flywheel upgrade. M50 coils. Mustang injectors. Search the forum for instructions and advantage/disadvantages of each.

All of these should be doable on a teenagers budget. The most expensive item is the Mark D chip (unless you go looking for new wheels and tires.)

Good luck and enjoy the BMW.

[Birdman16]

So far great responses, keep them coming. I have done the whole tune-up (plugsm gaskets, wires, light wheels) and have a K&N air filter with a cold air box I made in metal shop. Luckily, the car came with the LSD and runs on both wheels (found that out when my dad did a burnout in the driveway when we got it.....)

[Frankie]

No need for "cold air intake", use the orginal with good oem filter. KN's and other crap will do no difference in M42.

Buy cheap ebay chip, like X-xtreme, only 40 bucks. Everyone says that MarkD is the best, but I have ever seen any dyno results.

Then do the throttle body delete, costs around 40 bucks (at most) to fix new hoses. I allows cooler air to flow to intake manifold.

With these mods I got 153hp from dyno.

[Birdman16]

I went looking for this Mark D chip and still could not find it. Does anyone have a link? By the way frankie... 5 hp increase on the K&N not much but a start... dyno proof.

[318kid]

http://www3.sympatico.ca/mdsylva/products.htm

Thats Mark D's website. Also I have a glass pack as my muffler, It sounds like crap but it is quite a bit quicker. Throttle response also improved. Oh I'm 16 also http://www.m42club.com/forums/images/smilies/cool.gif

[xwill112x]

yea, i have a K&N..shrick cams, aluminum fly wheel, and i loosened up my exhaust behind the cats to make it louder and more free flowing..oh did i mention the 4:10 LSD?

its pretty fast when all i did wasput the K&n on!

[Birdman16]

Anything else. Car's in the shop for suspension work (control arms, can't fit wrench in there) and because of a frozen fan clutch (loud as hell squeeling). Any other upgrades in mind to throw on when the car comes back?

[EN318isPDX]

Anything else. Car's in the shop for suspension work (control arms, can't fit wrench in there) and because of a frozen fan clutch (loud as hell squeeling). Any other upgrades in mind to throw on when the car comes back?

There you go! get rid of that fan clutch its killing your HP.

[Birdman16]

CORRECTION! The alternator died when the car went to start (That's what the shop said.). It froze up causing the squeeling problem. Fan clutch was in good shape and the car has not lost any WHP.

[Birdman16]

Any other suggestions, took the spare out for weight, fuel pump will be replaced this weekend. Light chirp now possible between 1st and 2nd w/o the spare.

[E30nate]

i have a pro formance ebay chip. put down 128 whp on the dyno. worth the $50 imo.

and high flow cats dont really do much, if anything. if youre stock cat isnt clogged i wouldnt waste the money on a new one. just do a good mandrel bent catback with a good flowing muffler and you should be fine.

[DRtothE]

i bought my e30 318is with a performance racing clutch of some kind, and i have always been able to burn rubber in 1st and second. IMO, if you want to do anything to help you get started on making a really fast car, the stock clutch has to be the first to go.

i removed the left high beam light, and got my intake right up to the hole, an actual NOTICEABLE difference in power gain after i did that, plus the temp gauge stays in the lower quadrant more often.

good luck with your mods
peace

[Ivan Petrov]

Why don`t you try to increase the compression?

[DRtothE]

anyone got any ideas on custom fitting manifolds and exhaust systems, a lot of our cars are missing the driver side high beam for the cold air intake already, has anyone fitted fatter pipes on their exhaust system for the calculated maximum size, and and what about, this is just a thought, maybe selling them on M42club?

[GrindCulture]

Why don`t you try to increase the compression?

Is there a cheap way of doing this? I'm not sure how thick the M42 gaskets are or if much thinner ones are available? The S42 had a 12:1 compression ratio (I think) but I'm not sure if it'll be cheap to get the compression up.

http://http://www.r3vlimited.com/tech/318is/318is.htm

Some useful info on there.

[EN318isPDX]

CORRECTION! The alternator died when the car went to start (That's what the shop said.). It froze up causing the squeeling problem. Fan clutch was in good shape and the car has not lost any WHP.

CORRECTION: Fan clutch takes power directly off the crankshaft to spin. Thats alot of lost HP right there!

[Birdman16]

Thanks for the suggestions. I cant afford a new clutch though... Marshalls money does not pay that good. I do need some help though. My muffler is going and the filling is spraying out everywhere. Although the car sounds great, (throaty down low with a slight brang up top) I don't want to mess with the backpressure or let it turn into that crappy "tuner" sound (fart can). I checked bav auto, which was too expensive for the tri flow muffler, borla, supersprint and ansa, but couldn't find where to get an affordable cat back system. Where do you suggest I look. I can install it myself but don't want to spend more than 400. Suggestions. Besides, who wants to put a stock system back on....

[Ivan Petrov]

Is there a cheap way of doing this? I'm not sure how thick the M42 gaskets are or if much thinner ones are available? The S42 had a 12:1 compression ratio (I think) but I'm not sure if it'll be cheap to get the compression up.

http://http://www.r3vlimited.com/tech/318is/318is.htm

Some useful info on there.

Well, you have to cut about 1 mm of the head, where the gasket lays. Acctually every time you get the head off you have to do this but not that much. My english is not good so I`m posting a picture to see what I`m talking about:
http://www.foto.bg/data/500/medium/DSCN3110.JPG - but don`t remove that much! About 1 mm will be fine!

[Birdman16]

I take that back, got stock system, sounds great. Much different than what came from the factory 17 years ago.

[Birdman16]

Car has perfect amount of hp. What can be done besides ripping out the interior for weight?

[EN318isPDX]

Car has perfect amount of hp. What can be done besides ripping out the interior for weight?

Strip the trunk?

[Birdman16]

Ha ha I knew that was coming.:) I'm not sure how much that would help. Just have the trunk liner on the bottom. Everything got wet at one point so it has been out of the car for a good amount of time. Only 2 to 4 pounds saved there.

[EN318isPDX]

Ha ha I knew that was coming.:) I'm not sure how much that would help. Just have the trunk liner on the bottom. Everything got wet at one point so it has been out of the car for a good amount of time. Only 2 to 4 pounds saved there.

Spare tire? Electric antenna? Umm besides that tear out the rear seat.. pull out your carpet. Pull the glove box.. Hell rip everything out you dont need, you can sell the parts and fund your project.

[Boosted E30]

take off your clutch fan but watch the temp when in traffic. and i have a dinan chip for your car as long as the ecu numbers match i can sell it to you cuz i dont need it anymore and it just sits in my tool box. they said it was about a 10hp gain and it bumps redline up to 7000.

[ose30]

I'm not talking about a turbocharger or supercharger, but a 15 to 30 horsepower/ torque gain

Unfortunately for 15-30 additional hp you need to charge it! Some basic "tune-up" tricks like chip, exhaust etc. will give you max 10-12hp.
I have chipped a lot of cars (mainly Porsche's and BMW's) and from N/A engine it's just impossible to get that much HP you are looking for without major improvments. BTW i chipped my first E30 bodied car back in 1989 (a new 325I converetd to 2.7L), so i have a little bit experience of that.

[Birdman16]

Boosted e30: I am currently have problems where it has been running a bit hot. Problem seems to be a aux. cooling fan resistor that went. I would never take the clutch fan out though. I just don't trust a car of that age and with 137,500 miles to run without the primary fan.

Ose e30: I am just looking for a bout 10 hp now. I got about 10-15 back when I fixed this air leak problem. Th efourth cylinder was just sucking in air and now the engine is more responsive with more power in the mid range to high range.

[Boosted E30]

[QUOTE=Birdman16;56054]Boosted e30: I am currently have problems where it has been running a bit hot. Problem seems to be a aux. cooling fan resistor that went. I would never take the clutch fan out though. I just don't trust a car of that age and with 137,500 miles to run without the primary fan.

my car has 315000 km on it and the engine is like new i added boost up to 17psi and nothing went wrong but it over heated cuz i lost my block heater and the head cracked but there is no problem with taking the clutch fan off you just gotta watch the temp or get a colder thermostat. im putting in a 71 degree C thermostat when i put the new head on but thats cuz i got boost. and if you have a/c in your car the fan for a/c will come on befor the engine over heats so you dont really have to worrie or you can just crank your heater max defrost that works to !!