E30 Zone

anyone know what the 316 e30 is like at drifting and tuning?

Weld ya diff and it's gonna be sick innit

The M10's a bullet proof engine and has room for a little improvement, and plenty of boosting potential. Otherwise its not incredibly powerful.

You'd need an LSD or weld up a diff.

I take it you mean the 316 (carb'd) motor and not the 316i (injection) engine...

cheers mate.
when you put an lsd in does it still grind?? do you know how well they respond to mapped ecu/induction kits etc..

what do you mean still grind?

not particulary well as in you won't see any real gains in power still you spend big money

some diffs when you weld them up grind when turning slow like when you do a 3point turn or something. take it you've never had this problem?

They skip.

Ok cheers

LSD's dont skip at all. thats the point. lock up when needed, open when not

An lsd with a lot of lock up on it will click and skip round tight corners as one wheel will turn slightly more than the other. A standard 25% lock lsd wontskip at all though.

Just had a look its a 316i are the carbs engines better for dritf or just the tuning side of it?

Standard the 316and 316i's aren't really powerful enough to drift "properly". It's easy enough to get them sideways though. As far as tuning goes, don't bother with the 316i. Most would say don't bother with the 316 either, but if you're so inclined these can be made to produce fairly good power for a little 8v 4 potter. Out of curiosity, how old are you?

weld your diff, stick 45psi in your back tyres, 30 in the fronts, and try it mate. Personally i'd get at least a 318i. I wouldn't have thought the 316/316i would have enough power to maintain a steady drift altho i dont doubt you can get the back end out in the wet easy enough but i reckon holding it will be the problem. Saying that i know a very experienced drifter who can do bloody well in his 1600 mk2 escort but the suspension setup and chassis has been done very well

17 that's why looking at the 316 as insurance and damage lol, jus want a small ltr rwd car to practice in then look into the bigger ones jus dnt wanna waste money on stuff that isn't going to work what about the 318s is the power much different?

Dont weld the diff if its for road use. 316i can easily drift in the wet, but I would get some experience in a safe environment. Your very young and old BMW's need to be treated with caution as you can easily loose it and have a serious accident.

318is is a nice revvy little motor.

A nice little 316 is still a good E30 for a young lad.

Thanks people

I got a 316i and it does get the bum out but not as easy as in a 325i etc you can get them out but like they say its holding it thats the problem..Ive got a spare welded diff that came with the car when i bought it but dont really want to put it on because id rather not put that sort of strain on a 20 year old car...only advice i can say to you is either wait until your older and can afford a bigger engine RWD car to drift or keep giving the little 1600cc engine some stick....but be prepared to repare it if things do go wrong.

I've seen a 316i drifting, so it is possible, but you have to thrash the living daylights out of the engine.

Do this too much in a typical tappety 316i and you will end up with a snapped cambelt, a lunched top end, or both.

318iS would be a much better bet. They're quite insurable too.

There was a blue one in the for sale ads for a while that had a lot of the kind of prepping you'd be looking for done already - strut bars and induction stuff and so on. Think it was going for £900. Wasn't getting a huge amount of interest on here because, well, we're a bunch of OEM freaks and didn't like the non-BMW colour, I think! But it was probably a pretty decent starting point for what you're talking about....

I got a 316i lined up to buy in half decent condition for cheap so I'll give that a go as people are sayings it is possible, I'll post how it gets on!

I have seen a fellow zoner pull some very impressive drifting in a stock 318i touring on bottletops

crap tyres is the key.

that and commitment.

a 316 will be shit at drifting - there is no power in that engine at all.

R4N_S_S wrote:a 316 will be shit at drifting - there is no power in that engine at all.

Its down to the driver.

Ye, drifting might be nigh on impossible to say go right round a roundabout, but to go sideways and hold properly for a second or maybe two wouldn't be unachievable.

And if you cant do that then you need practice!

I used to be able to 'drift' my old 1300cc Viva on wet roundabouts, so anything is possible!

Get thin rear tyres...

sihooker wrote:I used to be able to 'drift' my old 1300cc Viva on wet roundabouts, so anything is possible!

1256cc of raw power! Then again, if you stuck 155mm Viva tyres on an E30 I'm sure you could drift like that too.

But yes, take all the weight out of the back and stick 175mm Stomils on (hard as concrete, them) and the back will step out far more often than you'll want it to.

would hardly call a 2 second waggle a drift though!

I am taking it isyour first car and you are attracted by it being RWD and want to drift? my sugguestion would be to buy a nice 316 as your first car, and buy a second car with power as a drift wagon. then say get one of your parents to drive it to drift track days for you then you can drift to your hearts content

Ive never had any problems getting my 316 sideways. Stuck a 4.10 small case LSD on it and its brilliant! You may not be able to just stick the power on to get it going sideways like a 325 but there are ways!

Its even better now the M10's running twin 40's, 2.0L and cam'd!!!!