1989 331is

[reggid]

I've been on the forums a while and realized I hadn't done a write up of my E30.

Car: 1989 E30 325is

In Oz a 325is is a 325i 2Door with the following options:

- M-tec2 body kit,
- Close Ratio Transmission,
- 3.91LSD,
- Leather Recaro sport seats,
- Black headliner,
- M-tech 1 steering wheel.
- M-tech Suspension
- Electric Sunroof
- UUC Evo3 Short Shifter Kit















Since I have owned the car April 2006 I have done the following mods:

Suspension:

- Bilstein shocks
- Eibach Springs
- Whiteline 16mm adjustable rear sway bar
- IE 25mm adjustable front sway bar with reinforcing mounts
- M3 offset CA bushes
- Sparco Front Strut Brace

Wheels:

- 15â€a BBS cross spokes. (Were 14â€a BBS cross spokes)
- 205/22/15 Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2

Engine:

Bottom End:

- S52b32/M54B30 89.6mm stroke Crank.
- 11:1 CR 86mm Forged Pistons.
- 240mm HD clutch assembly
- 12lb Flywheel
- Full balance of rotating assembly

Top End:

- Metric Mechanic Complete Cylinder Head.
- 885 cylinder head ported - additional exhaust porting to what MM does.
- Cam 286°/272°; 11.75mm/11.75mm lift. now CATCAM 1300526
- Eibach Double valve springs Factory Retainers

Intake:

- Standard Intake Manifold port matched
- Standard Air Box - modified slightly, square hole made round
- Now AFMless
- Big Bore Throttle Body
- Silicon Elbow

Exhaust:

- BTB extractors
- dual 2.25" SS to twin highflow cats
- twin hot dog resonators
- straight thru muffler


Fuel Injection:

- 25.4lb injectors (24lb/hr @ 39psi)
- Standard 3b fuel pressure regulator
- WOLF V500 standalone with MAP

Ignition

- Bavauto Plug Wires
- NGK BPR6ES plugs (1 heat range colder than stock)


I don't have many build photos

Some of the bottom end



Modifications to Intermediate shaft to provide clearance


Longer Crank Bolt


Spacer for front oil seal


RESULTS

power is at wheels 217rwhp (LH axis in kW) but torque shown is at the flywheel (RH axis in Nm)

torque conversion 1 Nm = 0.738 lb-ft
power conversion 1 kW = 1.34 hp

works out to be 265bhp / 254lb-ft

actually made more power and torque than a stock S50B30 on the same dyno (before S50 was remapped using Autronic standalone management)



S50B30 for comparison (on same dyno)

[Jhonno]

Nice!!

Explains your posting times tho, didnt realise you were from Oz

[AlpineAde]

That is very, very nice!

I love the pics.



Pretty!

Great looking car, man.

[oakey]

About time Great power figures! Car looks good too.

What do you mean by "special" intake manifold?

[Alex]

sweet ride

[reggid]

About time Great power figures! Car looks good too.

What do you mean by "special" intake manifold?

What i'd like to improve is torque in the 2500-4000rpm range. My cam is an unusual grind and midrange/lowend suffers quite a bit and i put it down to the cam (not enough overlap and late closing of intake valve). Thats why i am considering a cam sawp something like a catcam 273, 283 or something from Schrick or dbilas in that sort of range (still doing some research). Along with the cam swap is a potentially a different intake manifold to help.

1) Standard one ported and modified to provide additional tuned pulse at ~3000-3500rpm to help off cam torque.

Another different direction is chase some more topend power with
2) a Dbilas ITB job

With a dbilas setup it might require a even hotter cam to make the most from it and piston to valve clearance is likely going be an issue and i don't want to do anyhitng to the bottom end. Another issue is that topend is sure to increase but what about the rest of the torque curve? i haven't seen enough results of the dbilas system.

I haven't decided which way if any i'll go but one things for sure i've got to refine my current tune still.

[AlpineAde]

About time Great power figures! Car looks good too.

What do you mean by "special" intake manifold?

1) Standard one ported and modified to provide additional tuned pulse at ~3000-3500rpm to help off cam torque.

Wouldn't match porting get you what you want, or do you need more?

Be nice to see a Dbilas setup, though. Awesome stuff.

[reggid]

About time Great power figures! Car looks good too.

What do you mean by "special" intake manifold?

1) Standard one ported and modified to provide additional tuned pulse at ~3000-3500rpm to help off cam torque.

Wouldn't match porting get you what you want, or do you need more?

Be nice to see a Dbilas setup, though. Awesome stuff.

that would reduce some of the restriction and hence might make a couple of hp extra but it won't change the fundamental shape of the torque curve.

[AlpineAde]

True enough...and good for a few horsepower from what I understand.

I bought some parts off a guy who is running a heavily modified 2.8 litre stroker and he ended up ditching the stock intake entirely and went with the Dbilas. He too has a cam like yours (284/272 Schrick). Apparently he is very happy indeed with the Dbilas. Might be good to go that route. Pricey, but you get what you pay for.

Could the BTB 6 branch be contributing to the lack of torque down low? Or is it all definitely cam related? I seem to recall reading somewhere that the BTB setup makes good horsepower up high but you lose torque low down. Could be mistaken on this though.

EDIT: Bah! it's just clicked! Should have recognized you earlier, man. Still interested in the UUC short shifter?

[bss325i]

Some serious work there, very

Does the block need modifying to accomodate the M54 crank?

[hubble]

Now I know what my car looks like in the rear view mirror....

[hubble]

Great looking sport reggid

[reggid]

True enough...and good for a few horsepower from what I understand.

I bought some parts off a guy who is running a heavily modified 2.8 litre stroker and he ended up ditching the stock intake entirely and went with the Dbilas. He too has a cam like yours (284/272 Schrick). Apparently he is very happy indeed with the Dbilas. Might be good to go that route. Pricey, but you get what you pay for.

Could the BTB 6 branch be contributing to the lack of torque down low? Or is it all definitely cam related? I seem to recall reading somewhere that the BTB setup makes good horsepower up high but you lose torque low down. Could be mistaken on this though.

EDIT: Bah! it's just clicked! Should have recognized you earlier, man. Still interested in the UUC short shifter?

Before the BTB manifold it was probably worse actually (in the range where the stock 325i lost low end the added cc must have been helpful because that's when the manifold started working to boost torque)......

The cam i'm using looks like a schrick 284/272 when you look at the advertised numbers on paper but the lobes are much larger and spread further apart meaning the characteristics are actually very very different.

I would use the said schrick and it definitely would be a monster for midrange but there is a chance it would lose some top end something i don't want to happen. I may end up trying it out though and i can always swap in another.

I am still interested in the UUC setup pending price of course.

[reggid]

Some serious work there, very

Does the block need modifying to accomodate the M54 crank?

Mine didn't but i have heard it does depend on what rods you use. The only difference between mounting a M20 crank was:
- intermediate shaft having been necked down a bit.
- the spacer for oil seal which is the same as required for M52 crank.
- crank bolt which was a bit longer.

[reggid]

Had a remap done after fitting the 283/273 catcam.

power is at wheels 217rwhp (LH axis in kW) but torque shown is at the flywheel (RH axis in Nm)

torque conversion 1 Nm = 0.738 lb-ft
power conversion 1 kW = 1.34 hp

works out to be 265bhp / 254lb-ft

actually made more power and torque than a stock S50B30 on the same dyno (before S50 was remapped)

[Ant]

VV Nice Doug

'bout time we saw your ride

[GrindCulture]

actually made more power and torque than a stock S50B30 on the same dyno (before S50 was remapped)

Now that's cool Awesome car!

[Jhonno]

Nice torque curve!! Bet that goes alreet like!

[march109]

I've been toying with a 3.0 or 3.1 build, just waiting for a m54/s52 crank.

[reggid]

Thanks guys.....i am content with the engine now as i can't go any bigger on the cam without a different set of pistons and dbilas manifold is too much of a compromise even if i did want to splurge and thats really all that can be done.

I will be concentrating on fixing the steering coupling which seems very sloppy making high speed driving a little scary at times, also needing work is the brakes (a good flush and bleed, plus replace anything thats needed) a short shift kit and a sparco strut brace to tighten up the gearchanges and front end.

[IS088]

Hi Digger

[Simon13]

thats some poke for the engine, nice

How does it rev?

[reggid]

thats some poke for the engine, nice

How does it rev?

its not as silky smooth or refined as a smaller stroke M20 but it doesn't have any problem hitting 7100 (rev limit).

[MR_SAZ]

id call that sexual!
awesome figures!
seems like there are alot more E30 24v now in sydney! i love it!

sash

[reggid]

this is 12V M20 stuff!

[march109]

M20s are awesome but big bucks to get big power.

[Simon13]

you don't need big power to have fun in an E30, 200bhp and similar torque is fine. Hone the driving skills for more fun!

But alas power and tinkering corupt far too easily for most of us

So this thing just bludgeons it's way up the road with a mass of grunt?! isn't Oz hot on speeding though?

[AlpineAde]

isn't Oz hot on speeding though?

Yes.

Speeders, guilty or not, are shot at the scene.

[reggid]

you don't need big power to have fun in an E30, 200bhp and similar torque is fine. Hone the driving skills for more fun!

But alas power and tinkering corupt far too easily for most of us

So this thing just bludgeons it's way up the road with a mass of grunt?! isn't Oz hot on speeding though?

its very easy to get carried away and you never get back what you put in from a $$$ POV but thats never the plan.

If i had my time again i'd go a low mileage S50B32 for the broader power band, better refinement and economy

Next step is getting it to drive nicely like it used to. The steering is a bit vague and pulls under braking given the rack was rebuilt less than 3 years ago we think its the coupling you can feel a bit of play in it.

[DieselMeister]

Awesome work I'd like an S50 but I think with a factory sport the M20 is the daddy.

[Pal318is]

Superb stuff dude...hats off

[reggid]

Awesome work I'd like an S50 but I think with a factory sport the M20 is the daddy.

Like i think i said earlier S50B32 would be better................if i had the time over it would be an option. I didn't go with the M20 because its a sport though.

[DieselMeister]

Well the S50 is fundamentally a better engine than the M20 but what you have there is more than nice enough!

[reggid]

Some of you may be interested in the following

Run 1: Red: M20B31 bottom end 11:1 CR, MM Rally piston, M54B30 89.6mm crank, 138mm ultralite I beam Rod, 13lb flywheel, Stock intake and Exhaust, BBTB (535i plate), motronic 173 with 3200 chip from MM by MarkD, MM Rally Head (i.e MM head with Rally cam 286*/272* 11.75mm/11.75mm 32*/84*//80*/28* 116LSA 0.96mm/0.94mm lift tdc).

Run 2: Blue: As for Run 1 plus BTB header and dual 2.25" exhaust + highflow cats and high flow muffler + quick retune.

Run 3: Green: As for Run 2 plus Wolf V500 pnp

Run 4: As for Run 3 plus catcam 1300526 + ported MM head (exhaust opened up alittle and inlet blended a little better.



note hp is at the wheels not bhp

Unfortunetely i don't have a stock baseline on this particular dyno..............but for comparison all runs on the same machine and all done in the summer months in the late afternoon/evening (runs are corrected anyway) using shootout 6 mode dyno dynamics.

There has been gains of close to 50whp from 95km/h to 140km/h and peak of 23whp without any change in CC's so there is a good chance there are plenty of hp hiding in most M20's out there

[Jhonno]

I would agree that there is hidden power in the M20, it is hardly a stressed engine, bit of headwork, livlier cam and some management would be a good start.. Then you are looking at a decent (BTB, RD etc) 6 branch. Pretty much as is shown by your findings