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Car: 1993 318is
Mods: M52b28 swap, zf 5 speed transmission, 3.15 diff, trm high performance clutch disk, Rokkor Coilovers, 17" Style 5 wheels, Eibach sway bars, short ram air intake, muffler delete.
I got the car junior year of high school, so 6 years ago, everything stock with a recent respray that was said to be Ferrari red, not sure if it really is but its not the oem brilliantrot red. Here is what it looked like for a while.
Then i left to college and left the car at home and ordered Rokkor coilovers, e46 wheels, spacers, fog lights and dj auto headlights.
I had some luck at the local junkyard and found a m3 bumper and managed to track down some m3 twisties down on craigslist for cheap and had them painted, also bought m3 side mouldings and had since gotten some style 96 wheels from an e46.
One of my favorite pictures of my car was on the way to SOWO last year.
I had been planning on doing a swap into the car since forever, i wanted to have a car that was a little quicker than the 4 banger. I was looking into doing the ford 5.0 swap, but didnt really want to pull the trigger on that swap, i wanted something that would drop right in no issue and not have to do much fab/custom work to get the car running. I then ran across a m52b28 for an awesome deal including the engine/trans/ dme and wiring harness and jumped on it. I was taking a summer class and working but started getting everything ready for the swap, and bought some upgrades/maitenance parts that i wanted to do before putting the motor in the car. I did a ews delete on the dme from trm tuning and also bought there high performance clutch. I bought the clutch cause i was intending on turboing the car but was just too much money to do everything at once. Some stuff i bought included m50 manifold swap, short shifter, condor speed shop solid motor and trans mounts, and various gaskets.
So the day finally came to pull the m42 out. Was an awesome motor that never left my stranded and had awesome miles per gallon, i just wanted to get something faster.
Then after cleaning the engine bay and installing the clutch, short shifter, shifter rebuild parts, motor mounts and various gaskets it was time to drop the m52 in.
Got the motor in no problem, but getting it to run was a different story. Went to crank it up for the first time and nothing, acted like a dead battery so charged the battery on trickle charge over night and tried again the next day. Still nothing, so guess it was time to change the starter, changed the starter out. Since the car was an obd1 car the fuel pressure regulator was on the fuel rail, and on obd2 cars the fuel pressure regulator is on the frame rail. So to fix this problem i ended up doing some searching online and had read that some e39 528 had fuel pressure regulators on the fuel rails, so off to the junkyard i went, luckily first one i went to had the fuel rail i was looking for. Also found a short ram air intake cubby that i snagged.
Fuel rail from the e39 m52 on the left and e36 m52 on the right.
After finding the fuel rail and putting it on it was a go. I was thrilled, it started and ran with no check engine lights. This was a surprise to me because i was using the obd2 motor harness and plugging into the obd1 chassis harness. Took her for a spin and what an improvement from the m42. I had read that another precaution to take was to change the rear diff out for a medium case, as opposed to the small case from the 318 that would eventually give out. Went to the junkyard and looked around hoping to find one that had an lsd in it but no luck, so i grabbed a 3.15 from a 325 that would get me by.
So the day before heading back to school i put the new rear end in so that there would be no issues, and a better ratio for the new motor on the 3.5 hour trip back to school. Made it back to school the next day and i was happy to see that i made it no problem. Fuel mpg wasn't as great as the m42, which i knew would happen, but the power gain was awesome.
A few months later fixxfest, a car show/ drag strip day came up and i decided to race the car on the drrag strip for the first time. Ran slower than i had hoped for, i did have shitty tires that i figured was the problem.
I then found a trade offer for some style 5s and figured why not.
Some time went on and i had brought some 255/45s that a friend had given to me and a pair of e46 wheels that i had and threw them on and called them my drag wheels. They aren't anything special, i.e. slicks or drag radials, but i figured a 255 would have some better ground contact then a 205/ 40 would.
I put the tires to use and found a locacl test and tune day that i tried them out at, ran a little faster, but thinking an lsd would help me on the launch
I frequent the junkyards and sometimes find good stuff. What ive found lately but havent put on the car is a x brace, and an oem m3 rear bumper. I have been wanting a rear m3 bumper for some time now, just couldn't spend the money that people wanted for them locally. I guess waiting pays off sometimes since i got awesome deals on both things.
Testfitting the new bumper, its red but not the right red, hoping to get it painted over spring break coming up in a few weeks.
The latest thing that ive been doing is refinishing the style 5s. I have found 2 others in junkyards and snagged them, so working on polishing the lips, modifying the caps to accept bbs logos and I have rs hardware to rebuild them with.
Mods: M52b28 swap, zf 5 speed transmission, 3.15 diff, trm high performance clutch disk, Rokkor Coilovers, 17" Style 5 wheels, Eibach sway bars, short ram air intake, muffler delete.
I got the car junior year of high school, so 6 years ago, everything stock with a recent respray that was said to be Ferrari red, not sure if it really is but its not the oem brilliantrot red. Here is what it looked like for a while.
Then i left to college and left the car at home and ordered Rokkor coilovers, e46 wheels, spacers, fog lights and dj auto headlights.
I had some luck at the local junkyard and found a m3 bumper and managed to track down some m3 twisties down on craigslist for cheap and had them painted, also bought m3 side mouldings and had since gotten some style 96 wheels from an e46.
One of my favorite pictures of my car was on the way to SOWO last year.
I had been planning on doing a swap into the car since forever, i wanted to have a car that was a little quicker than the 4 banger. I was looking into doing the ford 5.0 swap, but didnt really want to pull the trigger on that swap, i wanted something that would drop right in no issue and not have to do much fab/custom work to get the car running. I then ran across a m52b28 for an awesome deal including the engine/trans/ dme and wiring harness and jumped on it. I was taking a summer class and working but started getting everything ready for the swap, and bought some upgrades/maitenance parts that i wanted to do before putting the motor in the car. I did a ews delete on the dme from trm tuning and also bought there high performance clutch. I bought the clutch cause i was intending on turboing the car but was just too much money to do everything at once. Some stuff i bought included m50 manifold swap, short shifter, condor speed shop solid motor and trans mounts, and various gaskets.
So the day finally came to pull the m42 out. Was an awesome motor that never left my stranded and had awesome miles per gallon, i just wanted to get something faster.
Then after cleaning the engine bay and installing the clutch, short shifter, shifter rebuild parts, motor mounts and various gaskets it was time to drop the m52 in.
Got the motor in no problem, but getting it to run was a different story. Went to crank it up for the first time and nothing, acted like a dead battery so charged the battery on trickle charge over night and tried again the next day. Still nothing, so guess it was time to change the starter, changed the starter out. Since the car was an obd1 car the fuel pressure regulator was on the fuel rail, and on obd2 cars the fuel pressure regulator is on the frame rail. So to fix this problem i ended up doing some searching online and had read that some e39 528 had fuel pressure regulators on the fuel rails, so off to the junkyard i went, luckily first one i went to had the fuel rail i was looking for. Also found a short ram air intake cubby that i snagged.
Fuel rail from the e39 m52 on the left and e36 m52 on the right.
After finding the fuel rail and putting it on it was a go. I was thrilled, it started and ran with no check engine lights. This was a surprise to me because i was using the obd2 motor harness and plugging into the obd1 chassis harness. Took her for a spin and what an improvement from the m42. I had read that another precaution to take was to change the rear diff out for a medium case, as opposed to the small case from the 318 that would eventually give out. Went to the junkyard and looked around hoping to find one that had an lsd in it but no luck, so i grabbed a 3.15 from a 325 that would get me by.
So the day before heading back to school i put the new rear end in so that there would be no issues, and a better ratio for the new motor on the 3.5 hour trip back to school. Made it back to school the next day and i was happy to see that i made it no problem. Fuel mpg wasn't as great as the m42, which i knew would happen, but the power gain was awesome.
A few months later fixxfest, a car show/ drag strip day came up and i decided to race the car on the drrag strip for the first time. Ran slower than i had hoped for, i did have shitty tires that i figured was the problem.
I then found a trade offer for some style 5s and figured why not.
Some time went on and i had brought some 255/45s that a friend had given to me and a pair of e46 wheels that i had and threw them on and called them my drag wheels. They aren't anything special, i.e. slicks or drag radials, but i figured a 255 would have some better ground contact then a 205/ 40 would.
I put the tires to use and found a locacl test and tune day that i tried them out at, ran a little faster, but thinking an lsd would help me on the launch
I frequent the junkyards and sometimes find good stuff. What ive found lately but havent put on the car is a x brace, and an oem m3 rear bumper. I have been wanting a rear m3 bumper for some time now, just couldn't spend the money that people wanted for them locally. I guess waiting pays off sometimes since i got awesome deals on both things.
Testfitting the new bumper, its red but not the right red, hoping to get it painted over spring break coming up in a few weeks.
The latest thing that ive been doing is refinishing the style 5s. I have found 2 others in junkyards and snagged them, so working on polishing the lips, modifying the caps to accept bbs logos and I have rs hardware to rebuild them with.
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