316 e30 track build. 7 years and counting.

[jonknee1234]

So finally after spending thousands of hours looking around the e30zone site I thought it only fair to contribute and post some pictures and text of my project. I bought the car about 7 years ago and have worked on it on and off during that time when I am able to. Life, wife, work and kid all slowed me down

Starting point was an 1988 E reg 316 m10 auto carb beast. One lady owner from new, covered 53'000 miles. Full history. Car was in such great original condition I could not help myself from buying it

Main highlites so far

Body work
Replacement of off side inner sil
Replacement of off side outer sil
Replacement of off side inner wheel arch
Repair to rusty lower front wind screen panel
Removal of rear antenna ( radio and crap 1980's mobile phone retrofit kit )
Repair on all dents and scratches
Full de chrome
Fit front fog lights
Re furb of both front wings
Finished off with full respray...

Other work
Weld in cage. Tagged to a and b posts
Strip interior
Racing steering wheel
Be-spoke Central control panel
Push button start
Stack oil pressure gauge
Bucket seat
Full harness
Green wheels (BBS)
Front brake up grade with vented and slot discs. Running red stuff pads
Lowered suspension
Rear axle strengthen
Rear trailing arms strengthen
New rear wheel bearings
Rear brake disc conversion from drum
Rear poly bushes
Full adjustment rear axle kit fitted
Auto to manual gearbox conversation

I could go on and on but will stop their as pictures are more interesting

Before. This I think was the day I purchased it









During body work














After ( nearly finished ) after painting







Needs probably another 10 ish hours to get it ready for the road

Jobs left to do

Expel film cover the front valence to stop stone chips
Get the side door trims and new is front spoiler painted and fitted
Service as sat for 7 years and has not moved (apart front in and out of garage)
Finish off rear axle work and rebuild
MOT

The plan now is to finally drive it over the remaining part of the summer and then in winter rip the drive line out and install something a little more potent.... Will keep the post upto date with progress

[Mikey_Boy]

Good man!

Welcome to the 'Ah knackers I'm broke club'...

Keep the updates coming....

[rix313]

That looks cracking that looks like you still have all the sound proofing still inside the car. Might be worth your while attacking it with a heat gun and scraper you'd be amazed how heavy it is!

I've had my car neigh on 9 years and it is still on going haha. Look forward to seeing more

[jonknee1234]

So much for 10 hours left .... Spent Friday afternoon and all day sat finishing off the axle and still have loads to do. Below are the finished trailing arms, all reinforced and ready for powder coat, the rear axle beam is all done with reinforcement and ploy bushes fitted, fully adjustable ( camber and toe) powder coated plus back in the car.

Trailing arms have the following reinforcements done, main body to damper bolt, anti roll bar and arm webbing. Should be able to get them powder coated this week

[jonknee1234]

Have now got the blasted and powder coated reinforced rear trailing arms back so can start the rebuild

[Motorhole]

Lovely work

[jonknee1234]

So today made some good progress with the rear trailing arms. Got the new wheel bearings fitted via my home made special tool ( 23 pounds of 74mm washers and a bloody big bolt with nut ) Removed the old hubs from the drum brake trailing arms. Warning note 325 hubs are larger than 316 hubs as nearly had a heart attact when going to push the hub into the bearing as it was a loose fit, on closer inspection the 316 hub is about 3mm smaller. Luckily still had 325 hubs as had not disposed of them. Cleaned them up and using new special tool pulled them in. Next, pulled the drive shaft back in fitted handbrake shoes and new discs. Job done but took around 6 hours to complete.

In the next few days I will fit the poly bushes and put the whole lot back together.

[jonknee1234]

So now almost fully back together and looking mega. Just finished bolting the new fully adjustable axle back in, new wheel bearings, new handbrake shoes and discs and handbrake cables.

Today have fitted the front and rear screen (using a new special tool - which was great and saved me about 2 hours) all new side trim clips and grommets before fitting the trims.

Service bits/. Oil and filter change, new plugs, new fuel filter.

Need to get the front spoiler painted and new brake ducts

Also replace the rear springs with h&r rear coils, rear still a bit high but coil overs will sort that. If any one can suggest which to go for I would be greatful. I am thinking gaz or kW but have not done any research yet.

Some pics below following only the 2nd wash in 7 years.. Looking crisp

[milescook]

Nice Just curious what made you want to strengthen the rear arms?

[jonknee1234]

Good question as the M10 currently fitted would struggle to pull the skin off a rice pudding and therefore this does seem overkill at the moment. To be honest the rear arms had to be replaced as changing from drums at the rear to discs, this also meant that the rear arms were going to get blasted and powder coated so the re-enforcement part seemed like a sensible step whilst all stripped out. This will also be important ( as well as diff carrier work ) as the next step of the build is to pull out the M10 and replace with s50 or s54 for some proper power.

[rix313]

Looking good. Where is your local circuit?

[jonknee1234]

Thanks for the comment, live just outside Bracknell so silverstone, goodwood and even brands not to far away. Need a decent engine before I use it in anger, that's a job for this winter.

[rix313]

Oh cool, I was working down that way at Longcros studios for a bit earlier this year, was quite a compute from up here though ha. Got quite a few to choose from in that region, Thruxton and Castle Combe as well as those you mentioned. Got a busy winter ahead then?

[jonknee1234]

Got home Friday from work and the men from bigg had delivered my rear calipers back all nice shiny and new. Oh and now red







So this meant today I could rebuild the rear brakes, inc new pads, discs, braded hoses





Also discovered that the pad retaining spring from a 2015 420d grand coupe fits my rear rear e30 calipers. Looks mega with the bmw logo, much better than the borring pain standard one. Needs a little bit of adjustment of the pre-load on the spring tension and also a little bit of metal removing from the big flat bit that says bmw. But fits perfectly.




Have bleed the brakes with 5.1 fluid and will hit the road tomorrow ( if it stops raining )

[jonknee1234]

Been a while since my last post as moving house and general life got in the way.

Few pictures of the car below since fitting the new 318is front spoiler and painted brake ducts





Also yesterday I tackled a job that I hd been putting off for ages. Moving the battery.

Parts

Red top 30 battery
Battery cage from rally design
Bmw e36 m3. Charge post connector
Bmw e39 battery cable
Fia battery cut off switch

Found a nice place for the location of the connector box ( bolted upside down to the from bulk head ). This keeps it looking neat and no major modification work is needed. Pics of progress below. Not quite finish but will post more pics when complete

[jonknee1234]

Quick photo as moved it out of the garage today

[jonknee1234]

Today finished off the rest of moving the battery. Drilled the battery box with 6 holes. 3 each side to hold it down to the floor plan. Then fitted (crimp and solder) new 8mm terminals to the earth lead and new positive cable. pulled it all together and it worked a treat and looks great. I was a bit worried about the cranking speed as the battery looks quite small but it cranked well and fast + fired up easily.

[rix313]

Buy your self a heat gun and a scraper and get that sound proofing out of there. You'll be surprised how much it all weighs.

[Motorhole]

Buy your self a heat gun and a scraper and get that sound proofing out of there. You'll be surprised how much it all weighs.

About 4kg in my estimation...deffo worth it.

[jonknee1234]

Hi all, update on the build progress

Been quite busy over the past few month, thought I would update the build log. Following jobs complete

Install Weber Twin 45`s on webcon stubby manifold (sounds mega)
New 4-1, 2”a exhaust manifold
Custom steering shaft ”“ made from BMW x3 upper and flaming river bottom UJ to give the clearance needed
Purple tag steering rack ”“ with complete be-spoke piping set up
Rear Gaz shock set up
Ploy bush rear diff mount
Installed Facet fuel pump
Installed fuel regulator + Stack pressure gauge
New stainless steel back box

Just in the middle of installing M3 offset lolly pop bushes, modified rocker cover.

Next up on the job list is Mega jolt and a dyno run

Please find photos below...

[rix313]

Good progress. How does it go and sound with the webber fitted?

[jonknee1234]

Thanks, sounds insane on full thottle, thottle response is lighting quick as well which is really nice. I will post a link to a video that I took in the summer, it's at a stand sill but gives you an idea - as for how it goes the answer is not very well as timing is all wrong as I lost the vac advance due to fitting the new Webers, also its over fuelling as the main jets are currently to large. Am in the middle of fitting a lambda gauge to measure the air fuel ratio, also next on the list is to install mega jolt Then its ready for a proper tune up. New manifold went on today so can't wait to hear what sounds like at full beans...

I recon it would still give a 318is a run for its money as it currently is. When fully done if it can beat a 325i I will be happy and goal reached..

[jonknee1234]

Video link below

https://Youtu.be/jJK-iPzwX2k

[jonknee1234]

Sexy new billet anti roll bar supports, Ireland engineering. Really nice quality parts. Am looking forward to installing them tomorrow.

[jonknee1234]

New Eibach roll bars just turned up. Have fitted the front bar with Ireland engineering adaptor plates. Tomorrow I will get struck into the rears and post a pic when done

[jonknee1234]

Home brew rear anti roll bar drop links. Installed and looks mega, much better than the BMW drop links and adjustable..

[Motorhole]

Nice! Pretty cheap solution too compared to the various off the shelf options, I'd imagine

[jonknee1234]

Cost about £45 compared to about £100 for the Ireland engineering version...

[jonknee1234]

Been busy with work so not as much progress as I would like but have managed to nail the following

Megajolt fitted. So now have full digital ignition

New black rocker cover (very important)

Rolling road tune up for ign and carbs. Made 120 bhp ( up from factory standard of 90 bhp

Fitted new stack stack wide band oxygen sensor with gauge

Below are some general pictures

[steve_k]

Sexy new billet anti roll bar supports, Ireland engineering. Really nice quality parts. Am looking forward to installing them tomorrow.

love the thread nice to see the M10 getting some love/attention for once.

but just wanted to say there is a cheaper alternative to the IE front arb mounts.

mk5 golf rear arb mount brackets & bushes (poly &/or rubber) but you do have to open up one hole on the bracket. cost about £30 all in,

[jonknee1234]

Sunny sat morning update after a long time with no updates. Project has taken a bit of a different direction with the whole engine thing. Pic of new engine installed

[rix313]

Jesus christ

[DanThe]

Wow! I expect this new lump has had quite a bit of money thrown at it!
Any running video yet?

[jonknee1234]

Hey. Yep it runs but needs tuning as fuel and ignition map all over the place but idles ok. Will upload a vid shortly. Cost a few quid to get to this stage. Engine block was new from BMW about £1600 + god knows how much in bits and bobs as the project ran. Will do a proper update soon with more info.

[Cloggy Saint]

What engine is it?