The can of worms 318i

[Irvin_e30]

My Tarmacs for sale would look so good on this!

[Byron]

Dang it's been a while since I updated this. Looks like this is gonna be a big one, don't say I didn't warn you.

So I got the exhaust done and decided to take the car to the e30 picnic in Tacoma Washington, 1150 miles each way. It was super hot on the way there, so we cut across from the 5 to the PCH in Redding CA and took it all the way into Washington.







Only picture I took at the show haha



Made it all the way back home with no issues except a rear end noise. I stopped to get gas a mile from my house, started filling up and saw a puddle of oil emerging from under the car. 2300 mile trip and I break down a mile from my house. I had hit a metal plate on the road up by LAX 40 miles away, but it didn't seem bad so I just kept on driving haha. Somehow the engine still had oil in it when I stopped.



I had it towed over to the shop, pulled the pan and welded it back together, filled it with new oil, and made it home a few hours later than planned. 7 years of driving slammed cars and this is my first broken pan. It had to happen eventually, I guess I'm just a late bloomer.

The carnage



So that rear end noise I mentioned. It was a rotational noise, speed dependent, didn't change over bumps or around turns. Without getting under the car to check anything, I decided it was the diff, and that this would be a good time to upgrade to an LSD. I found a 4.10 large case out of an M3 on cl for $50 with a noise, so I grabbed it and bought everything needed for a rebuild.









I also decided to upgrade it to 60% lockup at the same time, since this is a racecar and all. That means I'd be putting 4 clutches back in when only 2 came out. There's no room inside of the differential for 4 clutches however, so I had material shaved off the end cap to make room.

Old worn out clutches



New high friction ones from Bimmerworld, plus some complimentary gummy bears



The piece to be machined



And post-machining



Noticed that my new OEM exhaust hanger was already torn, so I went back to the hose clamp I had built the exhaust to avoid using.



Put the diff all back together and installed it in the car, and it still made the noise :/ it locked up nice though, it almost feels like a welded diff when you get on it.

So when I was changing the diff, I noticed that the rear u-joint on the driveshaft had a little flat spot on it. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but since the car was still making the noise I decided that was the culprit. BMW u-joints are swaged in from the factory, so I took it to a driveshaft shop to get rebuilt rather than attempting it myself. I got a new csb and guibo while in there for good measure.





Put it all in and... Still making the noise.

My tires were getting pretty bad during all of this, so I stopped chasing the noise for a bit to replace them with some track tires to attempt to contain the 1.8l of power.



Drove around for a bit as is to let my wallet recover, the noise kept getting worse and worse



Decided to break the pan again on some more road construction. It was getting time for an oil change anyways. Once you pop, you just can't stop.



Split the drain bung from the stamped metal of the pan



How BMW ships cork gaskets



I welded completely around the bung, but it still leaks a bit. I'll replace the pan with a new one on the next oil change.

I replaced the axles in an attempt to fix the noise (Diagnoses cars for a living, throws parts at his own car), to no avail. Decided it had to be the wheel bearings by process of elimination. They had no play and the noise didn't change during turns, but they were literally the only thing left. The noise was to the point that you couldn't talk to the person next to you while driving, but Mike and I were super busy trying to get Rusty done for SEMA, so I left it for a few months and borrowed my girlfriends car. As soon as we got back from SEMA, I put the car on the lift and started the exorcism.

The early 318i's came with drum brakes in the rear, and mine were getting low. I had been wanting to change them to the disks that came on every other e30, but that involves swapping the trailing arms to the later ones. Since the wheel bearings needed to be done anyways, I decided now was the time to do it, so I found a set on cl and started collecting the new parts. While I was in there, I figured why not make the subframe adjustable too, right?

Old rear end down



And apart



Old bushings out




Collection of new parts to go in. New wheel bearings, pads and rotors, stainless caliper hoses (racecar), e-brake cables, shoes, and hardware, nearly solid subframe and trailing arm bushings (racecar), and the IE eccentric adjusters.



Since the car would be pulling so many G's in the corners, I decided the new trailing arms could use some bracing. I stuck my sidekick KK on making the easy gussets while I made the rest





Welded in





Eccentric guides welded onto the subframe



I started to clean them up for paint, but it was miserable so I brought them down to get sandblasted and powdercoated. While that was getting done, Mike and I traveled with Rusty to Germany to attend the Essen Motor show. H&R invited us to tour their facility while we were over there, and showed us some of their personal collection













Stayed in a castle







Explored the castle, found some sketchy things





Got back to CA to find my parts back from the powdercoaters





Bought some more parts



Started reassembling it all



I bought some brass caliper guides to replace the rubber ones that came stock



Cleaned up the new calipers and painted them. The 318 front came with solid rotors, so I upgraded them to the 325i vented ones, which required new front calipers as well



New ebrake parts



Race pads



All back together







Took it out for a drive and... Still making noise.



Nah, jk, it was all good. The car drove amazing, but the alignment was all screwy since I just threw it together. I put it back in the air to do an eyeball alignment to get me by until I could get it on a rack, and found out that the trailing arms I got off cl and did a bunch of work to without checking were bent. In order to get the sides to match, the adjusters have to be maxed out in opposite directions. Hindsight is 20:20, right? I'm blaming it on KK.

So I'm driving it around as is until I can come up with a solution to fix it that doesn't involve redoing all the work I just did. And now you're caught up! That wasn't so bad, right?

[fackinsteve]

Im loving this build! The attention to detail is awesome!

[Khalil]

Hahahah way to use the most unflattering photo of me

Those gussets are dope though *high fives himself*

[ExpelI]

Throwing parts at your own car is what mechanics do best. new parts are always good.. right? I'm the same way with my cars.
LOVE. the color and how well you do everything.

[CubbyChowder]

Awesome build, really like your approach on everything. That blows about the trailing arms, what a pain in the ass. Your welds look nice, what MIG setup are you using? I've been needing an upgrade badly for like two years but haven't bit the bullet yet. I'm pretty set on the Millermatic 211 but open to other options in a similar price range. I just bought an early model recently but it's gonna be a few weeks until I can dive in, so this is getting me excited to replace way more things than I'm anticipating right now.

Nice work on Rusty as well, you guys did a really good job on that. Maybe we'll cross paths one day, I live a few hours north but make it down to LA occasionally. Would love to see your e30, Rusty, Andrew's mini and the S/W headquarters in person.

[Byron]

The 211 is what we use, and it's been great. My only complaints would be it is a bit erratic at low voltages/wire speeds (20 gauge or less), and it can get hot after a lot of welding, but it's not industrial spec so I can't fault it. Overall it's a great welder. I have a 140 as well but the 211 is better.

I've been checking up on your e30 thread, sad to see the 02 gone before completion but things happen. Hope the e30 treats you well, and I'm sure we'll meet up at some point.

[CubbyChowder]

The 211 is what we use, and it's been great. My only complaints would be it is a bit erratic at low voltages/wire speeds (20 gauge or less), and it can get hot after a lot of welding, but it's not industrial spec so I can't fault it. Overall it's a great welder. I have a 140 as well but the 211 is better.

I've been checking up on your e30 thread, sad to see the 02 gone before completion but things happen. Hope the e30 treats you well, and I'm sure we'll meet up at some point.

Yeah from what I've read it seems like a great little machine. I don't need industrial/mass production capability so it'd probably be perfect for my needs.

And yeah it's a sad situation, but I feel it kinda needed to happen. I'm really excited to start the E30 build and take it step by step.

Keep up the good work

[Byron]

Time for another bi-yearly update, I'm sure you guys are tired of hanging on the edge of your seats for this long.

Got some wheel studs instead of the factory lug bolts.



Had to replace a ball joint that bitched out and gave up on life





The alternators on these things are mounted on bushings for some dumb reason, and mine were completely shot. I took the opportunity to upgrade to some racing polyurethane ones, of course





What was left of the original rubber bushings



My car always leaked a bit of oil, which didn't bother me (how you know it still has oil), but the maintenance guys at my apartment kept coating my parking spot in sawdust, and that was annoying so I decided to do something about it. The main leaks were from the upper oil pan gasket and my power steering pump. Since a new pump lists for $700, and I'd have to drop the subframe anyways to replace the pan gasket, I decided to try out a Z4 manual steering rack. Reviews online say it's way easier to turn than a normal rack without power steering, and it's one of the quickest racks you can fit in an e30. Bought 2 racks for $240, sold one for $250. Much better than $700.



Oil pan leak









I love cleaning parts. Jobs take me twice as long as they should because I spend so much time on it



My lower pan was still leaking a little around the drain plug from the last time I hit it. Welded it up again



Got a box in the mail that worried my girlfriend



Z4 steering coupler. The Z4 rack has different splines than the e30 rack, but the steering column is the same. My plan was to modify this one a bit shorter to keep the telescoping safety feature



Took it apart



Rack in, looks like that plan is out



Had to cut it down so much that the bearings just barely fit. So much for safety.



One of the boots was torn, so I changed them both out. Since I was in there, I got new tie rods as well.







All the old PS stuff out, pulled the AC compressor at the same time since it is dead and racecars don't need AC



All installed and cleaned





Yet another alignment.



Verdict? I **** it. People online that say it's easy to turn must look like The Mountain, pre zombie stage. Parking lots suck, and it's way heavier even at speed. It is much faster though, I'll eventually put a Z3 assisted rack in but that's a lot of work.

Got an exhaust leak. My fault for not using a flex pipe.



Tried a new version of welding using bird shit instead of metal. It works I guess



My new $50 axles started making noise. Shocking, I know. The passengers started throwing grease on my nicely powdercoated trailing arms, and I'll let the video speak for what happened to the drivers side

http://s182.photobucket.com/user/e30spdfrk/media/dildo%20car/DB071614-C72E-412F-90B7-6AAFDBC609B2_zpsyyr2a9u8.mp4.html

Sprung for new OEM axles, wallet still hurts





Had to buy 325i axles since they don't sell 318i axles anymore, and because I have a 325i rear end. The inner flanges are thicker, so I got new bolts too



Finally got around to putting on the correct front sway bar links. I got some e90 links and modified them, had my friend Eric tig them together shorter and with the correct rotation



Compared to stock





Stock ones were dead from all my curb hopping at the races



A whole lot of 2's right before a roadtrip







Was with a friend buying some e24 parts in San Diego, saw a bolster of a seat sticking out of a shelf and made a deal happen.



They're Recaro LS-B's, sold originally by D&W in the early 80's. I wished they matched, but I have plans for the interior anyways

Made some mounts. I wanted to get them as low as possible while keeping the factory sliders, made the passengers side first to see what I could do



It was way too high still. My head is less than an inch away from the ceiling with stock e30 seats, and these were exactly the same. Gave up on the slider idea for the drivers seat and just went for maximum slammed stance.

Pulled the old seat, found one of the studs had tore out, probably from the intense G's this thing pulls in the twisties.



This sucked to fix since I was too lazy to pull the carpet completely









Drivers side mount. The butt of the seat rests on the floor





Did a valve adjustment...



...mostly as an excuse to clean





Dude backed into me in a lot. I saw him coming and started to drive away, he was backing up so fast and 318's are so slow he still hit me. He's being a dick now and is trying to not pay



Started smelling burning oil after the valve adjustment, thought I fucked up somehow but it turned out my shifter selector seal gave up completely and was dumping all my trans fluid out onto my exhaust. Decided to rebuild the shifter while I was in there







Seal put up a good fight, but Momma always told me I'm a winner



More cleaning





And now we're caught up again. I'll have a fun new update in the next few weeks, so you shouldn't have to wait till January for the next update.

[rice4life]

Good read. Can't wait for the next update.

[stanhayward]

Very nice update. Was the Z4 rack harder to turn than a PS rack that has been converted to manual? And do you still use the factory tie rods? I have an 84 316 with factory manual steering and was thinking of doing the Z4 rack conversion. Both of my previous dailies were factory PS cars that I converted to manual so I'm not shy of a little elbow grease, but if it's really brutal I won't go to all the trouble. TIA!

[Steven_318ti]

Loved this thread, laughed a good few times during it too, great humour dude and a real nice E30!

[Byron]

Very nice update. Was the Z4 rack harder to turn than a PS rack that has been converted to manual? And do you still use the factory tie rods? I have an 84 316 with factory manual steering and was thinking of doing the Z4 rack conversion. Both of my previous dailies were factory PS cars that I converted to manual so I'm not shy of a little elbow grease, but if it's really brutal I won't go to all the trouble. TIA!

I had an e46 M3 rack with deleted power steering in my last e30, this feels exactly the same. I had high hopes for the theory, but I don't think it makes any difference wether the rack was assisted or not originally. I used e36 M3 tie rods because I like how they adjust better than the e30 ones, but you could use either.

[fackinsteve]

Nice update, I'll be back in half a year for the next one

[Byron]

I'll be back in half a year for the next one

I figure yearly is easier than bi-yearly. Wouldn't want you guys to get overloaded.

Broke my phone over the winter and lost some updates, forgot what they even were so they can't be that important. I'll just skip to the interesting stuff anyways. That's what you came to see, right?

I got some replacement coilovers. Talked with H&R about e30 coilover options when we were there, got back and ordered some for myself. Ended up going with their Tief line, which are Maximum drop coilovers. I don't plan on slamming this thing near as low as my last one, but I know it won't ever be high and the extra travel is appreciated. Had them send over some sway bars at the same time.





Since the H&R coilovers are complete strut replacements, I got new bearings and dust shields too.

The rear springs are pretty rediculous







Got some new Ground Control camber plates too since I had a guy interested in buying my complete old setup.







Put them all the way down to start to see how "Tief" they actually go, was impressed until I realized the tire was bottomed out in the fender and the spring was still loose. Suffice it to say they go as low as you would ever want...



I ended up setting it at exactly the same ride height I had before. The ride is so much better, I had designed my old setup just to go low, ride wasn't factored in to the equation. The sway bars helped more than I thought they would; early 318's didn't come with rear sway bars.

My window seal cracked and would flop around on the highway, decided to change both





Good guy BMW just wants to make sure you have enough





New seals. Actually did a lot for highway noise.



Been wanting to do fun track day stuff with my frans, but this is my only car and I wanted to make sure it didn't blow up on me. My boss is an old BMW club racer from long ago, and he tells me that m10's had problems in long left hand turns where the oil would run up the side of the block and starve the engine. So I pulled the pan down yet again and made a windage tray/baffle so that wouldn't happen.





No idea how much is too little or too much for the openings, erred on the side of caution and made them kinda big. No idea if it works, but it's yet to blow up so I guess I didn't make the openings too small at least.



Started looking for a set of wheels after I sold the Brocks. I was looking for 15" BBS RF's at first, since I loved the way they looked on my old car. I've always loved old 80's tuning house cars with the color matched wheels centers, so I was planning on painting the windows between the spokes safari beige. Couldn't find any good sets, but I did come across a set of my bucket list wheels. Sold off a bunch of stuff to get them, and made it happen. They showed up around the time I we got back from Germany.



Test fit them on the car







That was with the rear wheels on front and back. They would have fit super sick if I was doing stancy things, but I wanted a chunky tire so they would have to be redone. The front wheels were only 7" wide too, which just isn't enough to make the ladies swoon.

Got the hookup on the tires I wanted, thanks Mike! 225/45/15 Nitto NT01 R-comps. Threw a wheel together to see how they fit



Yeah, that doesn't work



Stretch was exactly what I wanted, but this confirmed that I needed to get them rebuilt.

Bonus shot with a paid model



Ronal used BBS back in the day for their 3 piece hardware, so I got in contact with BBS to see if they would make me some new barrels. They denied knowing about that fact, so I tried Ronal, and they directed me towards BBS. Do avoid getting trapped in a wormhole, i started looking for used parts. This turned out to be harder than you would think, so after way too long of searching, i had Jongbloed just make the stuff for me. I still wanted that 80's tuning house high on blow look, so I had Matt Alchemy of Alchemy Paint color match them. Finally got everything all together a few weeks ago



I didn't want the wheels to look like brand new show wheels, so I had Matt add some flattener to the clear to make them look like old lacquer paint. He got it perfect. Went with inch smaller lips all around and inch larger barrels to keep the width the same. They are now 15x9 et25 with 3" lips. After spacers to clear the front calipers, they ended up at et10.





Josh came by to try out his new photographer pose







Khalil tried out his pose too, don't think it's as good though...



I love how they look, and the car handles insane with these tires. Haven't had the chance yet to take it to the track or even any fun roads, but my favorite on ramp can be taken at 60 now instead of 50, so you can say things are pretty serious.