Shop Life 2.0

[GunMetalGrey]

Your fabrication skills never cease to impress! 
I like your thought process behind the exhaust, and I'm excited to hear it!

[m42b32]

I've always wanted to try this, looks awesome so far! I saw someone post about doing something similar on an e36 318is on BF.c a while back using a stock 328i exhaust and a Y-pipe after the o2 sensor. I managed to dig up the link, but unfortunately the video isn't available anymore. It sounded way better than stock with minimal rasp. Here's the thread, not much info now that the video is gone:

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1872648-328i-Exhaust-on-a-318is-(-video-with-sound)&highlight=318is+dual+exhaust

[HipMF]

Made some more progress. Not as confident about the rear section from a sound perspective. I think the long-ish straight sections aren't a good thing, but i chose the most direct route, rather than adding unnecessary bends.

Still have some tweaking, then hangers and weld the mufflers on. Fits nice and tight to the car, so I'll have to put some thought into the hangers to keep it from rattling. I think it will be fine though.

[Jdesign]

Doesn't it normally exit out the left side of the car?

[B C]

looks real good! which muffler are you using?

[m42b32]

I'm excited to hear how it sounds!

[Bassboy3313]

Jdesign said:

Doesn't it normally exit out the left side of the car?

It does since the fuel pump, filter, etc. are on the right side normally. Since he is running a fuel cell, it opens that area up for interpretation. 

[HipMF]

Jdesign said:

Doesn't it normally exit out the left side of the car?

I do what I want!

But yes, I moved the fuel pump to the drivers side since the fuel lines run down that side of the car. So I moved the exhaust to the other side.

The eE21s that I've seen corner-weighed are also a tad light on the rear right corner.

[Jdesign]

HipMF said:

I do what I want!

But yes, I moved the fuel pump to the drivers side since the fuel lines run down that side of the car. So I moved the exhaust to the other side.

The eE21s that I've seen corner-weighed are also a tad light on the rear right corner.

There is a meaning to your madness. I like it!

[straight6pwr]

cheap glasspacks do indeed work well. they definitely helped with the rasp on my car.

.

[Jdesign]

Im always hesitant with cheap glass-packs because they can fail. If they are welded in that means redoing exhaust, and Im not a fan of working on exhaust..

[GunMetalGrey]

Just wanted to drop by and say hello.

[HipMF]

#ShopLife

I guess I'm finally old enough to have some proper dad shades. I think I've had those since maybe 2003...?

[jc43089]

I bought some glass packs from http://www.heartthrobexhaust.com/glasspacksandflowpacks.htm The shell is much thicker than el cheapo ones, but they were very resonably priced, just call to order.  I think I paid under 60$ shipped for a pair of small ones.  I would never buy Cherry bomb or Thrush after using these.  Made in  Litchfield Minnesota too.

[HipMF]

Got the car back together enough (barely) to take a couple beat-runs down the road in front of the shop. Can confirm that the exhaust is not just loud, but also obnoxious. Still no floor in the trunk, and no back seat, so the exhaust might as well be plumbed right into the cabin. It's the kind of loud that you can feel, as opposed to just hearing it. Also still missing one of the side windows. That combined with the not-car-culture-friendly temperatures this weekend, stiffer suspension, manual steering and general fear of things falling apart or exploding made for quiet a visceral first-drive experience. I survived, nothing broke, but there are more things left to do than I have fingers to count them.

I thought I did a pretty good job bleeding the brakes, but they didn't work worth crap (try rev-matching your downshifts when the brake pedal goes straight to the floor. It doesn't work well, but it's worth a laugh...). Bled the front, which made little, if any, difference. Will have to try re-bleeding the rears next weekend. May have a leak somewhere? Who knows...

Body roll is still substantial, even though my spring rates are 2-3 times stiffer than stock.

Also can confirm that Hankook RS-4s are no match for the mighty torque of a tired M42 when the temps outside are near freezing...

All-in-all it was a good time. Much work left to do, but definitely excited to get this thing out to an autocross or ten this summer.

[B C]

The ride height and “stance” look great!! It takes a lot of lowering to make an e21 look like that. So to recap your suspension changes, you relocated the subframe mounting points, changed springs and dampers, and what else?

[HipMF]

The front is shortened strut tubes with Bilstein mk-I Golf inserts. This is a pretty well documented "mod" on the internets.

The rear is...... "custom". The subframe mounting points have been moved up about 2 inches so that the car can be lowered about the same amount without effing up the geometry. The rear on e21s is already a coil-over, but the stock dampers are too long, so for the time being I've replaced them with some cheap Bilstein coil-overs that are intended for circle-track midgets.

From what I've read, I think what I need is a "digressive" damper (ie a lot of low-speed damping, with less high-speed damping). This helps control body roll, but still allows the suspension to absorb bumps. I've converted the rear to 1/2" heim mounting top and bottom, so I can swap that out for any 'ol coilover damper that I feel like. The fronts I believe can be modified to be take-apart shocks. Bilstein shocks, internally, are all very similar. So, once you can take them apart, and have a way to recharge them with nitrogen after you put them back together, you can have them re-valved to whatever damping you want, provided you can find a competent shop to do the work. I feel like my spring rates are in the right ballpark, so I'm thinking it's the dampers that are failing to keep the roll in-check.

[B C]

Do you have a rear sway bar?

[HipMF]

snap said:

Do you have a rear sway bar?

Yes, it's a stock one I found at Gibsons.

[HipMF]

Question of the day: Is my car over-heating, or is my temp guage being an a-hole?

The temp guage in the car occasionally bounces around for no reason, but seeing it way above middle is still disconcerting.

Top radiator hose is plenty hot. Have spent much time bleeding with no change in results...