1984 318i Build
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Finally decided it got to the point where it was time to make a build thread for what started as a 1984 318i E30. After ice racing an E30 325i for a couple years and spending a afternoon at a Club Fr drift day up in Shawano I decided it was time to build another for drifting and driving around every once an awhile. Went down to Chicago and pickup up what was supposed to be a 1984 318i m10 turbo car with a bad mega-squirt ecu. After seeing the wiring nightmare, i ordered a brand new mega-squirt ecu and wiring harness. Not up and running by the next drift day i was once again a spectator, but found a fellow who claimed to have ton of experience wiring mega-squirt and agreed to wire the car up and give it a base tune. Three months after dropping the car off at his shop and not being able to get it running correctly he was paid and car was picked up. After hours of trouble shooting and taking to a couple different places i became impatient and a deal on a m50 swap came up and i pulled the trigger and that is were the journey began.
The day the car got back to the shop
Being that 1984 E30s came with drum brakes the first step was cleaning up the backup E30 disk brake set-up from the ice racing E30. Decided to put the Revshift bushing kit in while it was already out. Also ordered K-Sport drift spec/ true rear coilovers
Between the spring rates the coil overs were build to and being form 1984 i decided it wouldn't be a horrible idea to support the rear strut towers.(support was fulled stitched together, sealed and painted after the picture) I also build and welded support plate onto the control arm that sit on the outside of the coil over but don't have a picture as of right now. Also having a pair of front struts from a 1990 325i the struts were cut up and front coilovers weld on along with new wheel bearings.
With the suspension done the car was sent out to be wired and that's where the m10 turbo dreams took a turn (the setup is still sitting on a pallet at my shop). Decided to finish cleaning up the bay before starting the m50 swap.
Then i turned my attention to the m50 swap. Again being a 1984 I had to build an adapter to from square fuse box plug to the circle that came on later year E30's. Decided to upgrade to the z3 steering rack while the sub-frame was out. Bolted the motor and trans to the sub frame and dropped the car down onto it. After some Ecu troubles the swap started right up and was good to go.
Bought some second hand Corbeau fx1 seats that my buddy had in his Mk2 Gti, modified the brackets to work in an E30, built a harness bar, and mounted and plumbed the ASD handbrake, and fitted some wheels.
Spent the next week buttoning everything up for the car and finished just in time to take one test drive before taking the car to it's first Club Fr event. Besides a vacuum leak towards the end of the day the car ran and drove flawlessly for the rest of the season.
As summer ended i went to school and didn't want to drive this or my beat up truck and wondered across a Felony form e36 m3 for a steal so that became my new college commuter.
As winter came and it was time to start driving the truck again, i decided it would be a great idea to replace the S50 from the M3 with the M50 from the E30. Once i had both motor out i found people asking to buy the car as a roller and was given an offer i could not refuse. I ended up making $500 more than i paid for the car and kept the motor, trans, ecu, wiring harness, drive shaft and couple other bit and pieces from the car. I decided the money i got from selling the car was going straight back into the E30. Decided to boost the S50. Ill let the pictures take over from here. The M50 was used for mock up while the bottom end of the S50 was at the machine shop. The machine shop ran the motor through a couple heat cycles to break everything in. Have a lot of little parts that i will include pictures of later when everything starts going together.
The whole interior was stripped out including the sun roof frame, wiring the slimmed down to everything but the necessities and the roll cage build started. I have everything finished besides making the gussets for the A-pillar bars. Also the trunk was prepped and primed
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That brings us to the present, as of right now i am just taking my time prepping the inside to be painted and prepped. Hoping to finish it up this weekend and having it primed and painted all one color. Stay tuned!
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Pretty awesome!!!
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This is so cool! Great job man!
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Finished the prep work, primed everything, and paint laid down really well but i didn't have enough to paint the trunk. Oh well that's another days project.
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Updates from this weekend.
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This is awesome
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Everything in the motor is built to withstand 700+ HP but i'm not sure when the clutch and fuel system will give in. Plan on starting with low boost to get a feeling for it and then upping it little by little till i'm happy with it.
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9:1 compression JE pistons and eagle rods
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Starting to look like a car again!
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is that what the dashboard looks like with the vinyl/foam removed? its awesome!
Dan
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is that what the dashboard looks like with the vinyl/foam removed? its awesome!
Yes it is. He just plated over the radio and hvac panel
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Interior paint is 100% complete and the motor was fired up this weekend. Things are looking promising. 5 days till the car and i leave on the maiden voyage to automotion, I really need to get more high quality pictures instead of all these one off my cellphone.
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Rk tuned
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