E30 Zone

First post here! Once I've got some piccies I'll post in the 'new members' section but I've got some pressing questions. I bought a very cheap '89 316i baur which has a very solid body but looks a total shed, which bothers me a lot less than the utterly absurd ride height (priorites eh ) so I need to get that sorted as coming from using an Eunos/mx5 as my daily this feels a little bit bus like (especially with that mahoosive steering wheel too )

I guess that as it's a 316 it will have the smaller diameter struts as baur only attacked it with an angle grinder and didn't uprate any components did they? What bit am I actually measuring to check this?

Assuming they are the smaller ones I guess it's just a matter of getting some appropriately low springs and dampers however...

Eventually, if the car proves to be as solid as my first checks, I'm going to have to put a bigger engine in. So would it be worth just upgrading to the larger struts now and getting some matching springs/dampers? Or due to the lower weight/ higher spring rate differences am I going to end up with a rather odd handling and looking car and not really have achieved much?

I guess springs and dampers are not interchangable between the different diameter struts? As then I could just get some cheap kit to lower it now, then a little way in the future get bigger struts, then a bit further in the future get some decent springs/dampers/coilovers/whatever. (I've seen some 2nd hand spring/damper kits for 6 cylinder cars on eBay that were pretty reasonable would they fit?)

Obviously I don't really want to spend money on the same thing twice especially if I could get it all done properly the first time, although (of course) I don't have a massive amount of money to spend right now what with christmas and other stuff coming up.

Suggestions please to appease my short term desires for lowness but to have not wasted a decent amount of money long term that could've been spent on paint or wheels etc.

p.s. would getting the angle grinder out and lopping off a couple of coils be frowned upon here

springs between 45 and 51mm stuts are interchangeble, 6 cyl springs are designed to take weight of the engine, touring/cab springs are different again to take the extra weight.

yes it would be worth upgrading but only after you change the engine.

cutting springs is frowned upon by some, not others...its you car but consider what will happen around MOT time as the springs should not be able to be moved with the car fully jacked up - in particular the rears suffer from this with cut springs. finally it will knacker the handeling but with a 1.6 lump i doubt this wil matter in the short term.

and welcome to the zone!!

Cheers fella, so the springs are interchangable...

But wouldn't just buying lowering springs leave me in the same situation as chopping the originals (albeit with a better ride) come mot time, unless I get new dampers?

I guess the baur is a similar weight to the standard 2door as they wouldn't have had to add so much (any?) extra strenghtening as part of the roof structure is (sort of) intact?

if any thing baur is probably lighter than 2 door.

the spring difference is really only for the engine, the dampers are not affected by the spring, but some dampers are designed to work best in a certain range, lowering a car without matching the dampers will take them out of their optimum range, but they will still work.

cutting springs will lower the car but it will not make it any stiffer, so you will encounter all sorts of bottoming out problems and find you cannot carry passengers. even cheapo springs are normally slighlty stiffer than stock so they tend not to be as bad. Springs can be bought for almost nothing so it seems silly to cut your own up.

Baurs are a bit specialist I am afraid,we do not know much about them so bear with us.
Attack a rear spring for me with a cleaning agent and locate/report the colour/number of paint marks on the spring.This will enable us to decide if Baur used saloon or cabbie springs.
The fronts should be stock 45mm struts,it's the shiny part that you measure,put the wife's/mum's/girlfriends sewing tape measure around the strut and divide the measurement by 3.14(remember pye from maths at school? )do not forget to remove oily marks from the measure before you return it....
As Mr Lee says,front springs will fit either size strut,the strut diameter varies between E30 models.So a s/h set of your choice of drop for the front is in order for the short term,when the larger engine goes in you can think again.
What year/engine do you have?
316 would be M10 1800cc,316i M40 1600cc...

It's an '89 316i so M40? It's a facelift model.

I shall get out and have a look under the car tomorrow but I'm not promising that the rear springs are going to show anything other than a nice patina of rust and other crap But where should I be looking for paint marks?

I'm thinking a cheapo set of lowering springs is in order then and just hope the original dampers hold out until I have established that the car is worth more expense and I have a decent amount of cash to throw at it... hmm next stop, wanted section

This is what you are looking for,new spring is a cabbie M-Tec,old the original fit.M-Tec drop and stiffen,drop is 15mm...just right for an oldie like me!

See the red marker on the r/h spring,I have cash on yours being white.....

just uprated a baur from 1800 to 2300,i found the cheapest way overall is to buy a donor car with the upgrade motor you want, that way you get everything for the conversion plus the uprated front struts and springs. other things to consider is the diff ratio also,when swapping my motor i thought about leaving the 318 ratio in there but that lasted about 10 minutes as it was shit quick off the mark but run out of puff/revved its ring out around70-80mph,swapping the diff dropped the revs by about 750rpm.
cutting the coils and leaving the standard dampers in bottoms out the dampers putting undue pressure on your top mounts ,it also makes it ride like a bitch,top rear mounts are upgrades as they are different to two door ones.