E30 Zone

So my cars got an M40 its slow and frankly a bit gay. But it doesn't break the bank when it comes to fuel consumption.

I use my car for drifting and a daily but right now I'm pretty much limited to skidding in the rain because of the wankyness of the M40, think I mentioned that earlier..

I know your all thinking "why oh why don't you put a manly M20 in it?!" Well my friends as pre-mentioned I use my car as my daily and I don't wanna be spending money I could use buying cool stuff on petrol.

So how can I squeeze some extra horses out of the M40 and keep the half acceptable fuel consumption?

Any help appreciated

dont think theres any easy options mate, your best bet is give it a good service. you could always take the head off and see if any internals need changing, but that aint gonna be cheap. apparently getting the injecters profesionaly cleaned helps alot. if you can get it close to the BHP it had when it left the factory (110bhp) it wont be half bad speed wise. you could always fit a 318is engine, but fuel economy will go down. and if you use it daily i really wouldnt get a m20 becuase oh my god you will regret it, useto get 150 miles to a tank with my old 325, it was down country roads and the car was totally standard and in tip top condition

Its a tricky one, I've heard M50's aren't too bad on petrol but that's quite an involved swap. 318is would be ok but its getting hold of the stuff you need for the swap.

Stick an M20 in it You'll skid further.


The German Show in 6 weeks too... Are you attending again?

Also, the cost of an M50 conversion, be it better on fuel, you'll need to drive lots of miles before its actually worth the cost

Haha erm maybe depends on money really. Just bought new wheels and I still need tires for them Quite a few things happening to Betsy lately so I'm not sure she'll even be in one piece

I'll stick my neck out here, a fresh m40b18 is a nicely put together engine..

a fresh top end and a general service and it'll surprise most haterz.

having said that, it's not really cut out for as a drift lump when all said and done - fit an m42 with some tasty mods and it'll bounce off the limiter all day.

a full cold air induction workout & a TB heater bypass will see real world improvements in throttle response

Awesome Might take it down to santa pod and see how it does with the M40. If it blows up or is shite then I'll put something more manly in it

M40 is not great. Mine did 19 seconds down the strip at Santa pod.

The m42 is much quicker. I'd imagine an m52 is a further great deal quicker too.

I've got a 318i e30 which I also bought to use as a drift daily. On the road it's quick Enough but at drift days it was lacking a bit. I stripped everything out to make it lighter at the back and that made a huge difference. 60psi in the rear tyres aswell. been to a few drift days and sat on the limiter the whole time and drove it over a mile without a sump and it still runs as before so no complaints from me! Drilled my airbox and replaced backbox with straight Pipe but I can't say That made a difference lol. Definitely strip it and fit a welded diff tho...

Finally somebody who's been there and done it! I've stripped the boot and gonna do the back seats and sound deadening. So it was ok at a drift day? I just don't wanna be kicking the shit out the clutch and not going anywhere

Yeah i removed the entire carpet aswell becuase that weighed loads! all i left was headlining, front door cards (for electric windows ) dashboard, centre console, one sun visor and the front seats.

Rear seats, rear door cards, rear seatbelts, rear speakers and parcel shelf should all go imo! lol
My boot had a ridiculous amount of carpet in it and without the spare wheel or tools etc the back is very light on its feet. Its genuinely dangerous to drive it on the road when its raining!

At my first drift day i was a bit of a mess and just clutch kicking and spinning out or understeering. Only thing i could do was first gear figures of 8's. That was before i stripped it. Since then ive been to santa pod and could do figures of 8 all day without a single clutch kick and the kidney shaped track wasnt a problem either. People say the handbrakes on e30s are shite but i duct taped the button in and it worked well for initiating drifts, u just gotta pull on it hard. I think the key to drifting a low power car is to learn how to unbalance it and use the weight of it to swing the back out. If ur carrying the speed its definitely powerful enough to keep the back out in the dry. What i would say is if its not working for you dont start clutch kicking loads as thats what i did and my clutch started slipping because i wasnt going fast enough to drift in the gear i was using

In the end your car is definitely capable, its all about seat time! haha

Barx325i wrote:I'll stick my neck out here, a fresh m40b18 is a nicely put together engine..

a fresh top end and a general service and it'll surprise most haterz.

having said that, it's not really cut out for as a drift lump when all said and done - fit an m42 with some tasty mods and it'll bounce off the limiter all day.

a full cold air induction workout & a TB heater bypass will see real world improvements in throttle response

Worth having a read up on doing an iS (M42) swap before hunting out a donk to drop in. Have a look at a cheap forced induction set up. A second-hand snail and manifold from the parts section and your M40 will more than surprise many 6 pots. Plenty of good help and advice on both options here but SORT out the front brakes first and not just a new set of pagid pads and discs either. BigRed does an overhaul kit for 30 odd notes.

Thing is a 'cheap' forced induction setup probably wont work out cheap at all because of the cost of getting the fueling right. Almost definitely need more powerful fuel pump, bigger injectors, and a programmable ecu. Then the cost of mapping, but then i guess it depends what you want from the car long term and how much your prepared to pay for it! Ive gone for the 1.8 becuase it came up cheap and being young i cant afford insurance on much more. Forced induction for me was definitely out of the question insurance wise

Just remembered I put together some gopro footage from when i went to Pod. Its noisy as hell because my downpipe fell off on the way to the track and the red car is a 325 someone let me drive

https://vimeo.com/42799166

Awesome thanks man, I'm thinking strip it out, welded diff, give her a good service and then go play

You've been a big help thanks man! Gopro footage is cool aswell

maybe a nice K&N panel filter will help (have one for sale if you want!)