E30 Zone

Been on the zone for a good while now, originally had a red 318iS but that got rear ended so I broke and sold the parts (still got parts lying around the garage tho).

After that I started looking for a new one as I didn't want/couldn't afford a new car and this alpine white II iS came up in the for sale section. A few people might recognise it (changed the plate as it was the old owners)









So after a year and a half of driving it as a daily and the M42 sitting to low in the engine bay i had a little accident on the way to an ace cafe meet.





Yep, smashed the lower sump and cracked the upper one. I still had the engine out of the red iS so whipped them off and changed them over. I had problems with the engine not pumping oil and after a quick research (hours and hours of searching forums!) I found that the little part in the sump which picks up oil lets air through. So back off with the sump and re seal the gasket. Job jobbed!

During this time i had bought myself the Audi as i had finished my apprentiship with LUL and needed a more suitable car for driving around london at night, didn't fancy the E30 getting stolen.

While I was only using the car at weekends and days off it threw up some more problems. The electric fan gave up and in traffic the temperature rose a tad to high, just enough to warp my cylinder head.

So august last year I whipped off the head, sent it off for pressure testing, no cracks but it was warped so a quick skim and back in my garage.

the engine had been bore and stroked to a 2.1 so looked through the old build threads and found it was 86.6mm bore size, ordered an new one up from cometic along with some new ARP head studs, new gaskets from BMW then they sat around doing nothing for a few months as I spent all my new money on holidays and beer!!





Anyway after asking few people if they could replace the gasket for some cash I decided that it can't be to hard so got some instruction a torque wrench and had a go myself. took about 12hrs but got it all back together and running with re-furbished injectors, new gaskets and seals and any pipes that were perished were replaced. happy with the result and only a minor coolant leak from the timing case cover which bolts to the cylinder head. Ill tackle that on friday.

couple more bits I need to attach to the car but all comments welcome, even the negative.









Cheers,
Jamie

Looks just like mine, looks well tidy!

Mmm, S50 itbs
Please get a thread up on fitting those I'm working on getting a set for mine

Car looks very clean

Ive had them ITB's for years now. need to get the engine problems sorted first but will defiantly do a write up as I plan on making the plenum myself.

Looks smart, it's hard to beat alpine white! Looking forward to seeing it with the new wheels, are they 16" or 15"?

Only 15'', had the money when these poped up so grabbed them. getting them re-furbished over the next few weeks so need to decide on what colour, might go for black chrome with polished lips? not to sure yet.

Nice.! Like the plans for the engine too, theres a thread on one of the yank forums. He made a stroked M42 race engine with ITBs too... I'll try and find it, good read.

Did that one ever get finished? I've seen it on a few forums, but never with the itbs attached.

Looks spot on mate.

Has anyone done that MAF sensor conversion? seems pretty simple. what are the advantages of it though?

I am glad to see that car has gone to a good home. If you are in London we should try and organise an 'is' meet up to compare tuning notes one day.

MAF sensor conversion I believe gives a more stable reading than the old AFMs do. Just more modern I think.

I understand that the AFM is a mechanical device that reads how much air is going past and tells the ECU how much juice to squirt. On the MAF do you have to adjust it like a AFM or just wire it in electrically and it knows the correct reading?

I think you need some kind of piggy back ECU (I've heard people talk about unichip or smt6 if its still available) as the M42 ECU won't be able to understand the values from the MAF.

Ill stick with the AFM then.

A decent AFM mapped properly is still good.

You will need custom management to run the ITB's when you get around to it.
Megasquirt is cheap and easy enough to do the job.

Try to PM Ant or Shep and ask them about it

Or find Tim_s 's old thread as he put M3 TBs on his M42 and also made his own plenum.

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 2&start=75

That's an amazing thread, I remember he was using squirt but recommended a unichip if he was to do it again.

appletree, its Tim_s old iS and i still have the MS with the maps on it, just not wired up. I lost contact with him a while ago but I'm slowly but surely finding my round the car and starting to understand it more and more. if any of you lot know how to wire up MS give me a shout as the help would be appreciated.

I have a bunch of old MS stuff. It's a steep learning curve. Try diyefi.co.uk and Google mega manual. I have been out of the loop on megasquirt for about 3 years but I am happy to lend some help where I can.

I also have an ms2 that is waiting to go into my m42

So a little update on the iS, not getting much time to work on her as I'm working flat out 7 days a week to save for a house but with a few hours spare here and there I'm got a few little jobs done. Firstly I split down the RS's, pretty simple just undo all the nuts and bolts, heat the silicone up with a heat gun and with a rubber mallet give the lips a whack and there apart!! sent the centres off for blasting and powder coating, I went with black chrome and hoping it will suit the car.

Wheels being split



Back from painter





While the wheels were being sorted I changed the brakes out for the new WMS 4pots, can't wait to try these out!





I know the callipers not sitting correctly, its just the bolt on the bracket not in and tight.

just waiting on the mops to polish up the lips and payday so i can send her off to get the last few jobs sorted! ill get back with another update when it comes!!

Cheers,
Jamie.

Just realised that the first pic of the wheels arnt mine?!?! its a pic a mate sent me of his RM,s ... sarrry bout that!

Looking good mate! So good to see it's looking well. I still miss this car.
Was chatting to Barry the other day and he was telling me about this! Do you know how much has come off the head now? That head's pretty awesome, has had a lot of work. Btw the bores are 87mm, not 86.6! Don't think it will make too much odds. I think you could have re-used the arp head bolts on there..
How did everything look with the head off? Any hot spots between the bores? If you need a hand with megasquirt you know where I am mate - well actually I'm closer to you now (Richmond).
The AFM made naff all difference, Paul and I ran it on megasquirt with and without the AFM and there was next to no difference in power. Megasquirt throttle response and part throttle/mid rpm pick up is better than on motronic, peak power not a lot in it. You need to do it if you want throttle bodies though. If you go for throttle bodies, you really need to change the cams for longer duration too.
Oh and the SMT 6 was shit for doing a MAF/MAP conversion. I tried one and although it just about worked it didn't drive well at all, their support was shit too. Shame as it was a good idea, I could get the voltage curve from MAP/MAF theoretically looking v similar to the AFM, sadly it just didn't drive properly and never figured out why.

Im interested in this, im trying to get a 2.1 m42 built. does this engine have custom pistons fitted as you say its 87mm? I was thinking of ordering some parts from metric mechanic in the states but don't know if its easier to get some made if somebody had a batch/ forging number. As a general what does the engine go like? What cams are used in this also.

Hahaha! Was chatting to Tim about this only days ago!

I remember meeting you just off the North Circ on the way to that Ace cafe meet when you smashed the sump, cant remember what part i sold you that night though...?

hello Tim!!! I was bit worried about having the head skimmed so I ordered a slightly thicker head gasket. got the new ARP bolts just to be safe. everything looked good in the bores aswell, could still see honing marks. Once I've finished all the little annoying bits ill drop you a message and bring it over to you, have a go in her again if you want.

Barry, yeah the sump was bad times! you sold me a 36 steering rack which when fitted locked up against the manifold on sharp left corners!! that quickly came off and has been lost in the garage.

Hey mate, I am about to fit a set of Dbilas ITB's on mine using the standard Dbilas Plenum and trumpets for now.

Let me know if you want to take a look and measure anything up for clearance etc..

Also happy to share AFR figures if you need them for your map.

Was it the EVO ITB's you have or the non-EVO ones?

I've got the evo ITBS. I've been given half day at work today so gonna get cracking with some little jobs. snapped a wheel stud in the hub the other day

yeah ill take you up on that offer, thats when get a chance to pop over!

You NUT!!

I snapped a top mount nut a couple of weeks ago so I know how you feel

Let me know when you are around, I am usually about doing car stuff most weekends.