upgrade to a 318is

[Demlotcrew]

Tim Karan said he can meet you in Bristol with all the bits sometime?

Andrew

[tim_s]

that'd be great andrew. want to pm me so i can sort you out with the cash etc? paypal or cash? send us a pm with your details or something.
Thanks, you're a champ! and so's karan!
tim

[tim_s]

at your request redrobbie here's an update on my project.
pistons came the other day, got nailed for Ԛ£70 on customs cos the guy insured and valued them at $400 (i didn't pay that much!!!). water under the bridge now, am gonna try to get some cash back off customs.

after checking the dish volume, i can't quite get it accurate enough. i should be running somewhere in between 10.6:1 and 11:1 CR with my setup. either way its all good, this is the region i wanted to be in.
will try again to calculate the piston dishes, i guess knowing the exact CR is not paramount as i have a pretty good idea.

have also bought some new rods. i gave up on m20 rods.
paid well over the odds for the new rods, but i figure they're the single most important part.

on my travels i've also come across some throttle bodies at a bargain price, so couldn't say no. i'll work on these on the side and am hoping i can get hold of a spare knackered head to mate them to. my mate is really interested in playing with this for me, he likes that kinda stuff

oh, and on the e36 fuel injection conversion, it looks like its pretty easy to do, but i'm holding fire for the moment until i'm really on top of my understanding of the fuel injection system.

asked jayson (chippedUK) about mapping it and his ideas, but he drew a bit of a blank, so will try some other motronic guys to get some more solid ideas of what i can do. at worst, it will be a piggyback i guess. anyone know of anyone? think ant might get a pm at some point!

i'll put up pics once i have something exciting to show.

[redrobbie]

on my travels i've also come across some s50 throttle bodies at a bargain price, so couldn't say no.

It's like it was meant to be .

I think your bang on with the fuel injection conversion. economy AND performance makes sense.

[redrobbie]

forgot! Thanks for keeping us updated.

[TommyC]

Hello again people!!!

I'm house sitting for a mate for the next three months and have free reign on his broadband!!

Tim, you jammy sod getting those TB's (admittedly i haven't had the chance to start looking myself).

About Knock sensors.....

They just bolt straight on the the block (if they're mostly the same as the vauxhall red-top engine).

Have a closer look at your block tim. See if there's a casting mark for one??

The vauxhall one sits on the front of the block behind/under the exhaust manifold iro no1 cylinder (if that's any help whatsoever???)

[tim_s]

nice one tommy!
lol yeah feel well lucky with the throttle bodies. they're in pretty good condition, the mechs are smooth as they should be, and they've got the tps on them etc.
i need some trumpets and the idle rail so i can rig them up to the ICV unfortunately as they came with neither, but i reckon i can get hold of these pretty cheaply. i'm gonna see what i can find tomorrow. the prices for these parts off bmw is ridiculous.
i've had a quick look at the throttle bodies up against the m42 inlet manifold gasket and the fit looks ok. i need a spare head really to play on...
i'm going to get the throttle linkage bar modified hopefully when i put the block in to be machined.
no other news really, just waiting for the rods to come so i can get the block into the machine shop. i dont want to think about costs at the moment, its not pretty.

[Omi]

Hi Tim, I'm an old hand here, but a bit of a stranger! Pleased to make your acquaintance anyway.

I'm about to start on an M42 turbo project and need to get my compression down, probably to about 8:1... Any recommendations you can make? And did you get your pistons from RaceTEP? What they like?

Could really do with a proper chinwag as you seem to have covered a lot of what I'm looking to do. If you use MSN, feel free to add me: o_hemps at the usual hotblah .com...

Cheers!

[tim_s]

no worries omi, have added you to my msn. nice to meet you too!
recognise your login name, i've been on here on and off since the start of the orig zone, been on much more of late due to engine stuff.

i reckon 330i pistons might not be a bad idea to knock the CR down. its a cheap way of doing it, definitely better than running an extra thick h/g, as long as you're be happy running some deck clearance. how much boost you want to run? if you're gonna run big boost i guess you'll want custom forged pistons, but then you get expansion issues etc. horses for courses i guess.

only other bmw pistons you could use with a bigger dish than the m42 ones would have a bigger bore, which i guess is good and bad, good for more capacity, bad if you're going to run a lot of boost as you'd increase temps through the rebore and lose wall thickness. plus you wouldn't get down to 8:1 esp as you're increasing the bore (i.e increasing CR for same amount of piston dish!).

if you want to go for a bigger piston, i have some ideas. can;t be arsed to go into it now, if you think you might rebore let me know.

btw you can get well thick MLS head gaskets from vacmotorsports reasonably cheap. that'll help you along. they go up to like 3.5mm or so i think.

I'm afraid i've got BMW pistons, no idea about racetep ones. how much are they? you could just get JE forged ones from the states if you've got a deep wallet?

[TommyC]

Has anyone found out for definite if E30 iS's had a knock sensor yet or not.

I've had a quick glance around mine but not spotted any likely culprits.......

[E30Mark]

Has anyone found out for definite if E30 iS's had a knock sensor yet or not.

I've had a quick glance around mine but not spotted any likely culprits.......

The E30 M42 never had knock sensors...

[TommyC]

Damn damn, damn damn and damn!!!!!!!

[tim_s]

why such bad news? if you need them with a bit of messing around i'm sure you can hook up the e36 ecu and its knock sensors

[TommyC]

Yeah, i suppose so. Maybe i'm just being a bit lazy??

Had a propper drive round in mine the other day after getting the standard ride height back. Haven't got round to fitting the new diff so it's still pretty noisy in the cabin, but i forgot how quick it was!!

I still need to get rid of those horrible bike cans that've been fitted as a back box and get something decent sorted. I might order all the bits i want from rally design on monday and spend the rest of the week fitting them as i'm on nights.

I think the engine needs a top end rebuild though cos it doesn't sound good. Sort of whirrs when rev'd hard and on overrun.......

Could be the cam bearings that you mentioned earlier on in the thread tim??

Maybe the cam chain??

Dunno what to do about it.... could have the head off to do it all and do the throttle body thing at the same time..... but need to find some first.

And find all the necessary info about mega squirt (I think it needs knock a sensor hence the previous post).

Too much to do...... hurumph!!

[tim_s]

lol and i thought i had it bad. fitted an immobilser last wkend, then the stereo got a ground hum, fixed that then the indicators died (i accidentally shorted the glovebox light, thought i'd fix it later but the fuse for the glovebox light takes out the indicators!) then my total closure module stopped working cos the plug came undone! fixed that, but i've still got a knocking noise from the rear to fix and no idea what it is, tried a new shock and top mount, had it up on ramps at a local garage and they couldnt see anything....
get the quote for the machining on monday, the chap's been measuring and pricing bits for me the last few days....
it never ends.
as far as knock sensors are concerned, if you go to MS its no probs to fit the e36 ones! just get hold of the knock sensors and plug them on.

i've yet to fix my whirry noise from inlet cam area, its not really pressing, but when i do i'll let you know what the soln was, reckon its the cam against the carrier. with mine if you run it with the bonnet open you can hear where the noise comes from (inlet cam side of rocker cover), probably worth checking, yours sounds like a similar noise. that it does it on overrun sounds more like its the chain though, so i dunno!

what exhaust you after? if you want a v quiet but expensive one that'll last forever the sebring is very good. was pricey, but done nearly 50,000 miles on it so far and its still in pretty much as new condition.

[TommyC]

Don't care about how much noise it makes tbh. Although a nice sporty sound wouldn't go amiss!!

Been looking at cheap Ashley boxes from rally design between Ԛ£40 and Ԛ£70 depending on taip pipe design!!!!

Might do the chain first then if it's easy enough to do.....

[tim_s]

an ashley box sounds like a good laugh, a hell of a lot cheaper than my sebring! the chain is ok, more difficult than most timing belts though, the only real pita bit is getting the crank pulley bolt off, that's a sod. there's a tool to do it that you can apparently get from the states quite cheap ($50). you tried changing the tensioner yet? Ԛ£15 for a gsf one, Ԛ£40 from bmw, wouldn't go to all the bother of doing the chain before trying a new tensioner. a basic chain job will cost you Ԛ£200 ish for parts off bmw.

[TommyC]

Ԛ£200, Bloody hell!!!

Tensioner it is then!!!!

[tim_s]

i know, its stuff like that that makes changing the bottom end over so expensive... as it would be madness not to change the chain while there. its cos you should really change the guides and at least some of sprockets while there, the chain itself isn't that pricey.

[Dan318-is]

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=11&fg=25

[tim_s]

a bit off topic, or back to topic, depending on how you look at it, but guess what i've been playing with today


and totally irrelevant pic

[TommyC]

Excellent!!!!!!

They fit then!!

How about the bottom stud's?? Does that line the pairs up centrally?? I can just about see that you've had to modify the holes that would interfere with the top middle stud, as mentioned before.

Any more pics???

[redrobbie]

[tim_s]

today was just to have a bit of a play with the spare throttle body really. there are no show-stopping problems, but plenty for me to consider. Fitment is ok though really.
The bottom holes on the head are dowelled etc and so the throttle body did need some drilling and messing about to get it right.
once toyed with a little, the alignment is not too bad, whether i will be using a spacer plate is still a bit up in the air, I'm going to look at this again a bit.
it does seem pretty doable. I'm not too happy with the angle they're at, would have liked them angled up a bit, and didn't realise how low the inlet ports are on the m42 head/e30 engine bay, its all going to need a bit of work to get to how i want it, probably by playing with the trumpets (which i dont have yet).
the plenum i was looking at using may or may not still go, its all a bit tight, got servo, m/c tank and alternator/starter clearance all to consider. plus then getting it to hook up to the AFM ok ( it looks like for now i'm gonna hook this up to the 1.8 and try to get it to run with a few tweaks here and there)

Have looked at how i'm going to get vacuum to the fuel pressure regulator, how i'm going to do idle and ICV, fuel injectors/rail, and how to sort out the mess of pipework under the inlet manifold, and think its all pretty much sorted now and can for the most part be done quite nicely. i still need a fuel and idle rail from the s50, which will need modifying, as does pretty much everything really!
need to sort out all the hoses and work out physically where things like the ICV and AFM will go once done. the TPS also appears to be a different part no (although looks interchangeable), so i need to meter and check whats going on there.

[tim_s]

but all in all a good arvos work and played with the S2 a bit.... awesome car... porsche brakes going on tomorrow prob.

[TommyC]

I thought they came with Porche brakes as standard??

I'm hoping to get a 4pot brake kit for my E30 soon. It's just taking a while to develop at the moment. So i'm patiently waiting........

[tim_s]

nah the s2's got fairly mediocre brakes (by the rest of the car's standards) out of the box. about 280mm i think, so 320mm porsche 996 conversion is popular.

the RS2 had similar porsche brakes out of the factory though.
what're the brakes you're doing then?
have finally managed to get hold of some trumpets today, the idle rail still eludes me though - if anyone happens to come across one at a breakers or something please please please grab it, i'm looking at another Ԛ£100 off bmw otherwise and the total cost of this project is beginning to hike.... dont believe its Ԛ£100 for a bit of tube
i want to keep the ICV though, it saves hassle.
anyone know anywhere cheap to get new bmw bits if you're buying lots of them? have to buy all the gaskets, seals, timing chain stuff and mb this idle rail and any saving over stealer prices will be a bonus. will try GSF for what i can, but reckon most of thes parts won't be available and i like using BMW parts.

[tomstickland]

I recognise that incorrect 4wd car there.
He's still taking the piss out of me and my underpowered iS. However, I still think that the std iS is an excellent car. I went to Yorkshire this weekend and managed 400miles on a tank. That wasn't hanging around - a few hours at 80 on the mway and a few hours of mild attack on A & B roads. Drive back in the wet was even better.

[tim_s]

hi tom,
yup is andy's S2.... now with porsche brakes

oh and don't take it to heart, andy takes the piss out of everyone.
the IS is a lot of fun out of the box, i implore you to get an lsd and good suspension though. it does't need the engine work at all, i'm just a bit bored, had the car for a long time, wanted to rebuild the engine, so thought what the hell! i also have a bit of an axe to grind as so many people don't believe there's much you can do with the m42.

[tomstickland]

LSD is the only thing I would change.
The current shocks will need replacing soon, but I'm tempted to keep them standard. ie: MTech

[TommyC]

what're the brakes you're doing then?

They're coming from a mate. His brother has dibbs on the first set that are available, i'll hopefully be having the second.... Thats all i'm at liberty to say at the moment.......

Be patient though, time will out......

[Martin347]

Hi, I am about to start rebuilding a 318is engine and want to do some serious modifying to it while i'm there. I have read all your posts and everything makes sense to me. Apart from what pistons you are using for the 2.1 conversion? You said abot m5x or s5x pistons, I have never heard of these, are they engine numbers or model numbers? Then you say that the pistons have come from America, are these one-offs then or just modified? Hope you don't mind me asking these questions.

[tim_s]

tom, fair enough, but i would consider uprated shocks, you needn't get rock hard ones but you can get some which are a bit taughter than the mtec ones. feel free to have a go in mine sometime...

tommy, sounds cool! roughly how big? when i get around to it on mine, i think m3 sized stuff will be fine, does anyone know if the m3 carrier is the same spacing? how big are the m3 ones anyway? mind you i don't know of any 4 stud disks i could use....

martin, there are no really direct fitting pistons you can just put on. mind you, every component (block, rods, crank, pistons) on mine has needed some alteration. mine have the wrong height and wrong pin dia hence why i haven't mentioned them much. oh, and welcome! what are your plans for your engine?

[Jamesb318is]

Sounds like its all coming along nicely tim!
I hear what you are saying about the M42 and people saying much cant be done. In this months total bmw, there is an article on the M42 and after going on about the mundane crap that everyone already knows concerning maintennance etc, they get onto performance and basically say if you want it faster, buy an e36 328! They also mention the S42 and what BMW got out of it, so kinda contradicted themselves there.
Go ahead and prove them wrong mate!

Btw, my viper chip is feeling much better know, dunno whether it just had to 'run in' on something, but it feels alot smoother now, and pulls from lower revs. You're right about feeling it at the top end though!
(my ECU no. is 0261200175 btw)

[TommyC]

tommy, sounds cool! roughly how big? when i get around to it on mine, i think m3 sized stuff will be fine, does anyone know if the m3 carrier is the same spacing? how big are the m3 ones anyway? mind you i don't know of any 4 stud disks i could use....

Dunno what size M3 stuff is??

(I shouldn't really be telling you this but....)

He's trying to offer a few different kits starting with 280mm and going from there. He's got one developed now, it just needs testing, but i dunno when that will be happening though...... could be weeks or months yet!!

I swear by four pot calipers though. I have a set of wilwood Midilites on my calibra cos the standard brakes were 5h1te!!!! They've saved me a few times now, usually on motorways when the person in front decides they wanted to stop 30seconds ago!!!!