E30 Zone

is there anything i can do to my 320 touring the increase performance/make it sound better for cheap/no money?

taking of the exhaust will make it sound good!

free stuff is not existent really- a good service (check zone wiki) checking or changing plugs oil filters etc

changing bushes helps the handling and fairly cheap if a pain to do

if its a facelift model they can be chipped which helps economy and power - also you can add a 325i throttle body for some more go

Drill a few holes in the airbox?

320i's aren't very tunable full stop. People can spend a lot on them with very little gains.

As above, a Mild Chip for £30-40 quid. Replace worn bushes in the suspension (for revitalising the handling a bit) and a good service. Money well spent

if i cut my back box off and weld a straight through pipe will i lose loads of power?

well for a free mod you could allway's drill 5 1 inch holes in the airbox (providing you still have the original airbox fitted) as that will let it get a bit more air in,

mainly give it a good service to start with.

performace wise why not get in touch with speedtouch about his ecu chip's? @£25 you can't go far wrong (& yes i have got one (a "wild" one) but my m20b25 has got a fair bit done to it) so search for him & give him a pm & i'm sure he'll help you.

good luck either way.

+1 for getting it chipped, it does liven up the B20

Strip it! That's if you can put up with driving a skeleton around!

Phil

phil540uk wrote:Strip it! That's if you can put up with driving a skeleton around!

Phil

+1

Get some HIDs from ebay, at least you'll be able to see where you are going this winter

ImysE30 wrote:+1 for getting it chipped, it does liven up the B20

lol... yeah it livens it up alright... for all the power you gain from the chip lol.
your best bet is to drop the anchor and put a b25 donk in it.

thats what im gonna do eventually but no money at the minute might just cut my backbox off for now and weld straight through pipes and then put 2.5 in when my friend puts his 3.5 in his

If the engine's at all rattly from the top end (which I'll wager it is) then adjust the valve clearances (tappets). There's a wiki on here showing how to do it. I did mine last weekend and am now enjoying the benefits of a more responsive engine. I'd recommend you buy a new rocker cover gasket (£10) but it's not 100% necessary if you have no oil leaks. Half an hour to an hour's work depending on how handy you are with the spanners.

Remove all the carpets, rear seats, door cards, roof lining and sound deadening etc, it will be noticeably quicker and feel even quicker than it is due to the rawness!

Better than free, you will actually make money back on the interior, especially if its leather!

Won't do much for comfort or re-sale value though!

i would think again about losing the backbox. the backbox seems to do most of the silencing, without it you car will probably be absurdly loud, but in a crap way. You'll get a better result by cutting out the centre box and replacing that with straight through pipes leaving the backbox it has on there at the moment.

i doubt you'll lose power, but doubt you'll gain any either, but it should sound a bit more meaty without annoying everyone within half a mile.

making the bottom half of the airbox look like swiss cheese will add a lot of induction noise, might pep up the response a tad, but again, i doubt you'll actually gain any power (and probably lose some if you spend a lot of time in traffic)

there's not really a lot you can do for free, the only sure fire way to make the car quicker, stop better and handle better, for free, is to dump any excess weight but it depends how you use your car, how you want it to look, and whether you could cope with it!

Cleaning it makes it go faster.. True story

Two toilet rolls taped together and sprayed silver make an excellent twin pipe 'look'

Smash all the windows and replace with cling film

greentouring wrote:Two toilet rolls taped together and sprayed silver make an excellent twin pipe 'look'

now this is just getting silly but I think some dice hanging from the mirror (if you haven't stripped it) is good for 5 hp

Take the water pipes off the throttle body and join them together. Cheap free mod for any m20

Earth out the a/c plug, and yes all e30's have one.

Strip the thing.

zaust wrote:Take the water pipes off the throttle body and join them together. Cheap free mod for any m20

Earth out the a/c plug, and yes all e30's have one.

hmm what does this do?

zaust wrote:
Earth out the a/c plug, and yes all e30's have one.

What does this do,and how do you do it?

Tell's the ecu to compenstate for the extra strain on the engine. (more fuel and air)


And the water pipe removal, keep's the air in the tb cooler as aposed to hot. (this will not cause a problem in winter as our cold is not cold enough)



Enjoy

Cheers Zaust.

One more thing...where can i find the A/C plug on a 318i/'89?

Near the ecu. Is either the black plug or the white one. Not sure which from memory.

zaust wrote:Tell's the ecu to compenstate for the extra strain on the engine. (more fuel and air)

No it doesn't!! Well, I suppose it does in a way, as it opens the ICV slightly to increase idle speed, but as soon as you touch the throttle, it does absolutely NOTHING!
TB heater mod will also not produce anything measurable either, but does remove a common potential water leak, and simplify things a little.

zaust wrote:Near the ecu. Is either the black plug or the white one. Not sure which from memory.

Thanks,i'll look into that

Cold air v's warm air into the engine !!! Cold every time will win.

zaust wrote:Cold air v's warm air into the engine !!! Cold every time will win.

Which is why you shouldn't drill holes in the airbox!
The amount of heat added to the airflow by the TB heater is negligible.

I agree with you Brian, But every little help's..


I never said drill hole's in the air box. that surley can't do any good.

calpol wrote:is there anything i can do to my 320 touring the increase performance/make it sound better for cheap/no money?

I would fit a 325 inlet manifold and a good chip.

I've already removed the TB heater plate,blocked off the water pipes and now vent the rocker cover through a filter(must get a catch tank for that!)

Where the heater plate left a hole i've used chemical metal to fill it,which has been sanded down nice and smooth.The idea behind that was faster,colder air through the TB.

I've also used a larger diameter pipe between the air box and the headlight backing plate,and the air goes through a K&N panel filter.

I have no idea whether it's made any improvement or not.It probably does more for me than the car!

ed325i wrote:

calpol wrote:is there anything i can do to my 320 touring the increase performance/make it sound better for cheap/no money?

I would fit a 325 inlet manifold and a good chip.

Hi Ed. Long time..


As brian once said, "If your gona fit a 325 tb and manifold, Leave it attached to the rest of the engine...."