the modding bug bites... time to turn up the 320i

[luke]

Hi all

just thought I'd update where the 320i is at.

After replacing my clutch with a HD 318i unit, the car has been absolutely fine & has been really reliable now for almost a year, and I've racked up 10,000km as it's my daily drive.

No overheating in traffic, even with our occasional 40C days, and I'm still loving the 3.5L torque.

Anyway - I hit the dyno yesterday for a baseline before I modify the engine at all, and it made 124kW at the rear wheels. Taking into account 20% driveline losses, it's pretty well in line with the factory e34 as you'd expect as everything is stock - not bad for an engine with over 300,000km on it.

More importantly AFRs were pretty well spot on, and driving tests on the dyno showed that everything is working great.

My 2.5 inch exhaust is quieter than I thought - the dyno rollers are louder than the exhaust as the revs rise! I'm sitting last in the cue in the photo (was a BMW Drivers Club South Australia dyno day - so we lined up all the e30s and put them on the dyno at the end of the day). In front are 2 318is's and a 323i.

Unfortunately there were no e21s present - at the drivers club annual meet late last year, there was only one e21 - an M10 320i. Even with our good weather down here, the e21 has still become incredibly rare. e30s seem to be heading to the crushers in large numbers now too.

[Jeroen]

Good dyno result then! Sad to hear there were no E21's and that E30 numbers are dropping as well. We saw that as well, good thing we see here is that the average condition of the survivors is increasing rapidly though!

[luke]

Thanks Jeroen.

Yes - the e30s that are left seem to be being snapped up by enthusiasts as the price has really bottomed out now on them down here. The white 323i in front of me in the photo was absolutely immaculate.

One of the interesting things on the day was we put another M30 swapped e30 on the dyno, basically identical to mine but with an EAT chip (Mark D), and he made 12kW more than me with 136kW at the wheels with all else being pretty much equal. EAT chips advertise a 15kW improvement, which would appear quite accurate.

It's a pitty about the lack of e21s though.

[Jeroen]

Nice to have some material to compare then, unexpected pleasure I guess? Good to know what you can achieve, 12kW is a whole lot for a naturally aspirated engine of this type already so: nice!

[TopCat]

great stuff going on here

my folks used to live in Molong near Orange NSW (where I was made!)

I got an M30 tubular manifold for c £225 from Scheidmann- don't know whether they send them down-under.

[luke]

Thanks TopCat.

yes - I buy a lot of parts from Schmiedmann, so they do ship down under.

How did you find the fitment of the Schmiedmann headers? Did they fit your e21 ok?

I'd love a set, but have heard really mixed reports about how well they fit.

[luke]

Last week I crashed the car in the wet Unfortunate side effect of there being no rain for a while, then a nice mix of lots of oil and water on the road. Fortunately no one was hurt.

After thinking it might be time to pick up an e46 or e90, I stripped the front end and found the chassis to still be ok, and the radiator support to be salvagable, so enter a 318is donor and a few spare M30 parts I had in my shed. Thankfully she's back on the road - just waiting for paint! I'll do a few extra things to the car when its painted thanks to bonus parts from the iS like the front lip, fog lights & the m-tech 1 boot spoiler. The car also has blue tartan seats in good condition, so these will go in too. Always been a bit partial to the tartan seats.

Anyway - glad to be back on the road (all be it in two tone guise for now).



front end stripped - 318iS donor next to the car



now I have a spare M42 driveline - probably will sell off to help pay for the car getting painted.



Back on the road.

[Jeroen]

Sorry to hear mate, but glad the car could be repaired! That 318iS engine, these are quite sought after and nice upgrades on E21's, same situation there? No M3 engines but not much slower than a 2.3, and lighter!

[luke]

Thanks Jeroen. Yes - the M42 driveline should be easy enough to sell off. They're quite highly sought after by the '02 guys & e30 owners with M40 engines down here.

The car is at the body shop being painted at the moment. I pick it up next Tuesday

[luke]

The car took a little longer than anticipated due to the panel shop finding some bodgy repairs by a P/O, and subsequently the car needing to have the chassis straightened. Picked it up last night, and pretty happy with the result. I've got a few parts coming from Schmeidmann just to finish it off - new plastic front lip, boot badge & other misc. plastic bits. I had a new iS front lip for it, but found I can't get in and out of my driveway with the iS lip on the car at the ride height of my Eibachs! Driving better than ever, although I think I'm going to fit up an e46 rear muffler I have in the shed shortly to tame down the drone of my current 2.5 inch single.

[Jeroen]

Looks good sir! Wish you loads of driving fun again!

[uwbuurman]

Nice, glad to see the 320i back on the road again! Looks great!

[luke]

Thanks guys. Have been taking any excuse to go for a drive since picking it up!

[luke]

Headed out to our annual Eurofest at Birdwood Mill motor museum on the weekend - was a joint venture between our local BMW Driver's club & Porsche & Mercedes clubs. There was a good turnout of BMWs, Mercedes, Porsches, VWs and a few exotics - even a McLarean 12C!

Anyway - lovely weather & good to meet a few other enthusiasts. The event was in the hills behind the city where I live, so it was a nice drive up. The e30 is driving really well at the moment, and punts along nicely on windy roads. Funnily enough it has so much torque, if you're feeling lazy you can just leave it in 4th gear, there's no real need for unshifting or downshifting at all, even in 25km/h hairpins!

There were 10 e30s there (I only managed to fit 6 into my photo as there were a couple of e36s and then another 4 lined up) - the silver one on the end is M52 powered with a really neat conversion done, and we had two M30 powered e30s there. Mine's second from the end with the bonnet up. There was also an Alpina C2 2.7, although the details of the car were a fair bit off, so although it was claimed to be genuine, I suspect it was a mock up. Unfortunately there were no e21s this year, only 1 e9, and 1 e10!



The two M30 powered cars - mine's a bit more of a sleeper than my mate's white one. Both cars were converted last year

[Jeroen]

Thanks for your write up! Funny that you have a whole bunch of conversions among the 10 E30's attending. 10 E30's isn't a real good score so I guess that also explains why there weren't any E21. Still love the understated looks of your car!