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88K views 356 replies 43 participants last post by  ForcedFirebird 
#1 ·
New to the site and BMW's although I am an avid car enthusiast. Just picked up this 1986 325es with just over 75k miles as an anneversary gift to my wife for $3500 (a little over book, bit worth it IMHO). The only rust found throughout the car is on the corners of the differential case and the inside corners of the exhaust bends. The only mechanical problem seen so far is the fan clutch which I picked up yesterday and will be installed soon.
The bimmer was added to the collection (my friends call my driveway a "used car lot,lol) which contains a mint 1990 Firebird w/88k mi (in the process of being turbo'd), 1998 F150 (work truck), 2000 Excursion w/80k miles (for the four kids), and the 2002 Lincoln Navigator (the only one for sale).
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I'm just curious if there are any inherent problems to look for in these cars (aside from the timing belt). I am very mechanically inclined, have lots of tools/equipment, and have no problem doing the work myself (jeeze the parts are expensive enough).
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So enjoy the pics, hopefully I will be an asset to your site and look forward to corresponding with other enthusiasts.
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Bmw 3 series (e30) Personal luxury car
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#75 · (Edited)
Did it have the 885 top end swap and Motronic 1.3?

Did you watch the video? I have to shift into 3rd at 70mph now (yes, 2nd goes to 70mph before it hits the NEW 6800 rev limter)...



I was at the top of third, I had no tach at all when the belt snapped, but at least I can read to 5k now lol.
 
#80 ·
I'm a little late to this party, but have you ever checked underneath the plastic trim of the front and rear bumpers to inspect the mount bolts? It's naked German aluminum held on by uncoated steel bolts.

Mine rotted straight through from galvanic corrosion causing the rear bumper to depart from the vehicle while leaving work one day. :tsk: If that in of itself wasn't embarrasing enough, one of my coworkers leaving work right behind me almost ran over the damn thing. As we both pulled over he got out of his car screaming, "WTF was that?! Is that your F*^$% bumper? Dude, WTF?!!:throw:"
 
#83 · (Edited)
The note is fine, it's how loud it is that sucks. The drone in the car is horrid. I think I may change it to 2 1.75" pipes to the muffler and see how that sounds, but first am going to try a resonator.

Yeah, the welds aren't pretty, but who's sticking their head under my car? They are TIG welded so they won't leak, and it was done on my lunch break. Here's a couple welds I did...

Re-used 1/2" Cast flange to 16ga steel...



Fabricated a sump and welded it to a worn 1974 gas tank, parts were the condition I got them, just cleaned the welded area...



and flux-core MIG welding...



M50 swap y-pipe...



I like to try different things, and something I might not like isn't going to have the time put into it. I am currently working on a design for the BMW motors for 6-3-1 headers. I fabricate headers at my shop for the GM v6 engines and would like to do something for my car, those welds will look just fine...

What are you using to bend header tubes? You can't use that for 2.5" tubing?
I used 180* u-bend scraps I had left over from headers for the bends after the axle, and instead of using the ball joint on the ends of the cat, I just welded the pipe to them at the angle I needed.
 
#85 · (Edited)
Yeah the e30 used to be our "beater" car until I started daily driving it. Then of course, it's at the shop with me and whatever I'm driving at the time starts getting tinkered with lol. We have 4 kids, so the Excursion or Pt Cruiser is what we move around town in. She stopped driving the e30 some time ago even though I bought it for her as a gift to commute to work (we have only put about 15k miles on it since the thread started). She bought me the Firebird a couple years prior, but that's been sitting in neglect :( and even just sold the twin turbo manifolds/motor to fund some other stuff. I plan on getting it over to my shop after I finish up two major clients cars that were shipped to us for a major overhaul. Couple weeks ago, I had a widow of a close friend approach me and took possession of a 1984 El Camino for just a few pennies, and have no idea when that will ever get worked on, too many cars, anyways, enough of the life story, back OT...

I meant to say dual 1.75". Right now I have the ETA y-pipe going to 2.375"OD 14ga tubing (aprox 2.125" ID). The bends are 2.5" mandrels. I did that so the welds could be slip-fit for easy/fast welding. The duals would help with ground clearance since the car being so low, the cat hits on the top of steep inclines and speed bumps.

If the resonator doesn't do it for me, then I will switch to the dual 1.75", but then I will be splitting 1 into 2 then back to one since the header design I am working on is a 6 to 3 to 1. It will have specifically paired cylinders each going to a 2 to 1 merge, then the three pipes going to a 3 to 1 merge. The collectors will be true merge collectors, not stamped to eliminate any dead spots in the trailing edge of them. I have heard a Triumph TR6 2.1l inline six with this configuration in a race car, and they are like music compared to the 3-2-1 systems typically found on an inline motor. Not sure if you are familiar with flat-plane cranks, but that's how it sounds. I have a sound clip of the TR6, but since it's a race car, he doesn't want to go public with the information other than the basic design (which is common in the UK, he is in the US).
 
#86 ·
Well I ordered the emulator, chips, chip extender and a few other tuning thing needed for the GM cars I am currently working on. Also got the materials to build the headers :D Can't wait! Gonna be a while for the headers to get done since I have to work on them on my breaks/lunch etc, but nonetheless, the stuff will be here. I am using 304 16ga stainless 180 degree mandrel bends and am going to have my water-jet guy cut me some mild steel flanges that will get a black-oxide finish. With the tubing being stainless and the flange mild steel, the expansion rates will help prevent cracking at the joints of the flange/tubing (common on high-end headers).
 
#87 ·
Are you planning on making a continuous flange or a segmented flange? The reason I ask is because inline engines (6's and 8's) fluctuate in dimension quite a bit along the crank axis during operation. The aluminum head makes the situation even worse. A split or segmented manifold (like the stock one for example) prevents the head from stressing the flange. :thumbup:
 
#88 · (Edited)
Not sure. I have done both and favor the individual flanges, even on small v6's. I have also made a solid flange, welded them while bolted to a head, then cut them apart, and those seem to be the ones that are holding up best. One of my first sets of headers (turbo v6 Corsica, ran 12's FWD, and trans spilled it's guts on the dyno at 350hp@4k rpm lol), I didn;t think at the time to bolt the head to the flange during welding, but then cut the flange apart after and sealed up (all crooked before bolting them haha), and surprisingly with quality metal gaskets, they never leaked.

More than likely, and since they will be water-jetted, they will be individual flanges to maximize material. I even have a 200-casting (eta) head to use as a jig when welding the flanges haha...
 
#90 ·
The Ostrich 2.0 (emulator) chips, chip extender and a few other goodies I needed for the GM stuff I do came in the mail today!

Also a 57lb box from my mandrel bend supplier (not all for my car obviously lol). The headers will take some time, but will definitely get the Ostrich hooked up tomorrow, and give some updates :D
 
#91 ·
The box all this came in didn't fit in the e30, lol



Since I added my stuff to the order for the shop, had to separate the stainless from the mild steel with a magnet.



and what's going to be used on the m20, well not the large 18 degree bends, I was supposed to order 2.13" so the 2" merges would fit inside for a true step on the merge collectors, these are 2.25", so they will go on the shelf and have to order 3 more the correct size :(

 
#93 · (Edited)
Don't want to be smug, but I could make something far better than that.

Here's some pics of my production headers (ceramic coated in house), the collectors are expensive, but they are the best swaged collectors money can buy, next step would be merge (what I am building for my m20). The collectors in that pic appear to be from Stahl, some of the cheapest collectors...







EGR setups I fabricate on them...

 
#94 ·
Well I took apart a spare 153 DME ECU and attached the emulator to it, took about 20 mins. There is currently a 173 in the car and wanted to start with the spare just in case any mistakes were made o.0

Started by taking the cover off and carefully pulling the top circuit board off...



pulled the stock chip out and replaced it with a chip extender so the ECU doesn't have to come apart if I want to pull the emulator out...



put the circuit board back in...



then connected the Ostrich 2.0 with the USB cable,installed the USB driver, plugged it in to the laptop and recognized the emulator immediatly. then loaded the stock .bin file from the 153 DME chip...



Now it's time to hook it all up to the car and enjoy the realm of eeprom tuning! This emulator will work for any BMW DME (or other manufaturer) that is prom driven :D

Once I am happy with the tune, I will burn a chip with the file created, pop it in the Motronic and it will act just like stock except have my custom tune on it...

More later ;)
 
#97 ·
This stuff is so cool! I can't believe I was ever trying to burn chips for the Motronic ECU's.

I am using a definition from TunerPRO on the 153 DME, does anyone have another that may break the maps into dual axis? Maybe like inj vs TPS vs CTS etc? This is all 2d maps from this definition :(

Cple more pics. Seriously took no time to have the emulator up and running, data tracing is a click away. So awesome. Until I reach the limits of the Motronic, it's staying lol...



 
#100 ·
Not really related to the build, but a cool video my friend made one night when we had a BMW meet here at the shop. Our friend discovered his MtechII converted early model had really rusted floor boards, too bad cause the car was done so nicely :( So we stripped the interior, MKII etc so he could transfer to a new shell.

This was during my top end swap, you can see us pulling my car out at the beginning of the vid.

 
#103 · (Edited)
I generally use the same username on all the forums. TGO it's firstfirebird, but the rest are either ForcedFirebird or Forced_Firebird. Check out the v6 forum over there, I've had three turbo kits on my v6 'bird (sold the TT kit before I got it running, though :()

I also have a 10.8:1 327/TPI El Camino with old school DFI injection that I can't even control anymore unless I can find a 386 laptop ROFL. That's going to turn into a TT 327 with either a mini-ram or home-made intake, 1227730 ECM, budget style, hoping to take it to Grassroots $201x Challenge. Bought it as it sits for $100.

Also have done some interesting stuff with 4th gens, look on TGO (again in the v6 section) for a thread title "Not trolling..."

Is your 454 the "Motown" style SBC, or a true BBC? I have found it rare to stuff a big block in, specially when the larger small blocks are much lighter and nearly the same output while much easier to get in the narrow engine bay.
 
#104 ·
Oh ya, its a 1974 mark iv 454. Just got it on the scale at 3300 lbs without me. Th400, 3.5" straight exhaust, 049 heads, 9bolt rear, and about 300 whp with a 650 holly and a truck cam. Not too shabby but the weight distribution is way off and still a little chubby. Weighed the 325e too and it was 2635 lbs.
 
#105 ·
Wow, 300whp with all that added weight? The current Camaro project should be well into the 200's whp and the engine itself weighs just over 300lbs (aluminum head 3.4/3500 hybrid engine).

Well, a friend was visiting from Indiana who happens to be an awesome GM 6cyl tuner and we have been messing around with the timing and fueling tables in the Motronic 1.3, and all I can say is what my kids say when they see something crazy... "Holy-Cow-Molie" lol. BMW held back a lot on the fuel and timing management! Car is really strong now, and the 4000-4500RPM lag is gone completely. Have to finish up part throttle and low RPM full throttle, but it feels like a whole new car now :D
 
#106 ·
Well, 300 HP is all I'm going to get with that small cam and carb. 400Hp is easily and reliably achievable. Not to mention its over 400 ft.lbs. Back when it was a v6 car it was only 2850 but that little v6 just doesn't do it. How did you get the ignition handled on an fwd head/intake setup?

Have any performance numbers for your tune? How much fuel and timing did you add?
 
#107 · (Edited)
The early iron head v6 blocks don't have provisions for the reluctor, but the later 3.4's do, but have a huge compression ratio when combined with the FWD heads. I have several customers running 11.3-11.5:1 on pump gas with no knock retard. The heart-shaped fast-burnn chambers are extremely well designed in the latter models. A friend of mine has a 3500 (215ci) v6 in a Cavalier running high 12's and making over 270whp - he just swapped it into a Camaro and added ITB's lol, he will be running some time this winter.


As far as the tune on the e30, so far had add some fuel. Before touching the tune, the fuel pressure had to be raised to 65psi just to get idle in the 14's and WOT in the 12's, but they were all over the place. Left the FP up at 65psi and changed the tables in the Motronic by feel for the spark and wideband for fuel. BMW really held back on the timing tables, started at 8 and went up to 30 something at 4k RPM, then back down to the low 20's until 4500, then back up 30's again (high 30's in some places). Smoothed out that curve and added timing, maxing now in the low 40's.

Don't have low part throttle tuned right just yet, but it feels like a whole new car. Will get more dyno results after the tune feels best, then will tweak the timing between pulls. Was talking to a couple locals and the most anyone had was 158whp with a Schrick 288 untuned, another has a chip/headers and made 138whp, both have intake/exhaust etc, so I feel that the 134whp made wasn't too bad in lean conditions (and spark for a 2.7i is much different than a 2.5), but we will see how much power increased soon enough. Then the plan is to make headers, tune for them, and go back to see how the design I have planned works out.
 
#108 ·
cant remnember if i told you this before .. but you know the m20 will never go far NA. no matter how much money you throw at it or how well you tune it. they are not made to be high HP NA engines. you can throw your life savings at it and you'll end up with a motor barely making 250 at the crank .. if your lucky.
 
#110 ·
And?

Doing this for fun/experience. The VW air cooled are not powerful motors, either, yet there are still guys modifying them. I have the resources to turbo the car in a weekend on the spot in my shop, but want to have fun testing and tuning the m20 before the turbo gets put on. I was on the GRM team and our Holset m20 went 12.3@117mph and came in 2nd in the auto x (3rd in the car show), so the m20 has potential with boost, yet it isn't cool/fun to increase the power output of an N/A engine? The car started life as an eta that was 120bhp and made 134whp un-tuned, just gives on a sense of accomplishment each goal obtained. I feel we may be able to see a nice gain with low expense on the m20. So far have spent about $350 on JY parts, next is the headers (~$120 in materials) and a reground cam (in the biz, can get them done for $130).

Where did you find info on doing a gm ECM swap? I have a 730 ECM not doing much.
No info, it's just something I feel could be accomplished. The early MegaSqurit guys were using GM sensors to run MS, so all the modifications to the sensors are documented. I have tons of ECM's laying around, 7730, 7727 and 9396's as well as pigtails for the harnesses that I use to make adapters for the OBD1.5-OBD1 swap kits for 93-95 Camaro/Firebird.
 
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