Mike

these are back on again: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/C...n-160650620.htm

rear part of the kit wont fit without some major surgery, doors panels and skirts will fit, and i think the front fits with a little bit of work.

^ as glenn said. various model all use same struts, only difference is if its motorsport or standard

^ see edited post above: I highly doubt that stock will do 250hp, especially on a motor thats only 170hp standard. 180hp is pushing it if they are only 150cc/min. can someone confirm the stock size on a M20B25? no need for a 324d crank either? 525e does just fine. thinking about it you could always just put your 325i head on that 2.7 block with the 2.7 pistons and rods. Couple of different thoughts on the exact c/r going round, would be interesting to see what the full storey is and how well it goes even with the lower c/r.

From memory the late 84 to 85 323's had the big port heads. after that they stopped 323i and went to 325's. bigger injectors wont get you any more power unless your leaning out the stock ones, but looks like stock is around 150cc/min, not giving much more than 180hp. so depending how your build go's they probably will need replacing. EDIT - injectors smaller than I thought

cheapest/easiest way is to use a late model 323i head and chuck that on the 2.7 crank/rods/pistons as that way the pistons will match the combustion chamber. Most other combos involve mucking round deck heights and adjustable sprockets, or custom pistons. otherwise your left with low compression, which is only really good for turbo. If it were me I'd do the 2.7 block with B23 head but use the later 325i motronic management with a 2.7 chip. have a search on here, or e30tech and r3v, soooooo much info out there.

you'd either do the o-rings or MLS, most MLS makers wont recommend you do both. 2 schools of thought on cams, some say stock is best as it has limited overlap, however this means you have to make a lot of boost to make power as it isn't exactly great for flow. will give you better response down low depending on your turbo but can run out off puff at higher rpm Other idea is that you make the whole lot flow as good as you can ie hotter cam, head work, quality tubular manifold, and a large turbo, particularly the exhaust housing. Whole idea is to reduce exhaust backpressure as much as possible. will be a bit of a slug until the cam comes on and then its away. Given that your after that much hp i'd reckon you have much better results going with a larger cam, turbo etc. the more power you can make off boost the easier it is to make it when you are boosting. ie if you made 200hp N/A then put 15psi through it you'll be at roughly 400hp, if you can increase N/A outout to 250hp then at 15psi you'd be at roughly 500hp. there is a huge difference in the power band though, thats why you need to suss out what you want to use the car for and what sort of power delivery you need. I might have gotten a few points wrong there as i'm no expert but thats the general idea. lastly, got a manifold lined up yet? given the money your spending i'd be dissapointed with anything less than a full Stainless tubular item

I agree with camB on the aftermarket conrods, that is alot of money and I dont think they're really needed unless you're doing a mental build. I wouldn't go any lower than 8.5:1 c/r either. M10/M30 dont seem to have problems with detonation that bad, and my thicker HG reduced off-boost performance quite noticabley. Have you considered o-ringing the block instead of an MLS? mines been fine but there have been problems with them leaking reported. what cam are you going to be running? 600hp is alot and will require upwards of 25psi or more to get there on the stock cam. any ideas for a turbo yet?

depends what you get done, clean and test is around $25 and injector, new seals, caps and filters adds around another $20 per injector. gets pretty pricey if you get 6 completely serviced. Just have a look in the yellow pages for placed that specialise in fuel injection servicing, if they dont do it in house they point you to someone who does or outsource the work.

unless you go after market ecu any injectors that you put in suitable for 8psi will run too rich normally, it will probably run but you'll foul plugs all the time and get terrible fuel economy.

i think its just the picture, thats a 2.5" pipe and its pretty much halfway between the block and the steering shaft where its comes through. I doubt theres enough room to go around the other side of the shaft. only clearance issue is that i need to remove the steering shaft to get the waste pipe past it if I'm pulling it apart for whatever reason. it just hits that flange you can see in the picture.

nah they're audi items, the corrado items are 280x22, the extra thickness is the main advantage of the audi ones. the caliper is designed for a 282mm rotor so the rotor is slightly larger but it probably just that the 535i rotors had a larger hub diameter. the rotor sits just past the top of the pads with that bracket.

Little update, latest project almost done: 288x25 rotors (260x22 stock) with 535i calipers, which run the same pads as an M3. I would like to have used some wilwood 4 pots but they wont fit behind the wheels. also have bilsteins and urethane shock mounts to go in.

How old are the ball joints in the control arms? You could do the arms (or replace just the ball joints) as preventive maintenance but unless there is play in the ball joints I wouldn't bother.

I doubt the oil cooliing system would be causing those dramas by itself. If it were my car I'd check the coolant temp sender and then the gauge. If both of those checked out I'd then check the viscous fan was up to it before spending anymore money. just curious who that head semi-rebuild was through? I got mine checked, cleaned, valve guides and stem seals done for $300 for a 4cyl through Cylinder Head Specialists. Came back looking like new.

is that for if pair or each (each car needing two) if its a pair thats pretty reasonable

318 5spd, only because i despise autos

water lines are cake, just run them off your throttle body. for oil lines go into your nearest hydraulic shop and get them to sort you out. expect to pay around $100 or more for the feed line depending on how many fittings or adapters you need. For the drain I used the skyline flange and pipe from the turbo and welded a fitting onto the timing cover just above the sump.

when i first joined BS a few years ago pretty much everyone had an e30, much more e36's on the boards now, I'm assuming thats due to their price drop a couple of years ago. But as everyone else has said, just fun, cheap cars that look sweet with a few mods and are easy to look after.

that would probably be because M20's don't have hydraulic lifters. The valve clearances are set manually.

half the places you wont get a torque wrench anywhere near so just use common sense when tightening them. replace any nylock nuts with new ones, everything else should be right.

manual does have more turns lock to lock, 4.1 compared to 4.0 or something minor like that. I dont like using lock to lock to describe a rack because this varies with the amount of travel a rack has, an whether a rack is variable or linear also makes a difference. I also know that theres 2 models of manual racks available, one has a steering damper, the other doesn't. I also think that the 2 models have different ratios but not sure how valid that is. Edit - Just checked my manual rack (damper) and its roughly 4.2 turns, but obviously can't compare wheel angle against anything.

might want to give us some more info next time dude, what M3 motor is it? S14, S50, or S54? they all use different boxes, so if its a later model S5x type then what we've told you is a waste of time. and none of those M3 motors make 400hp, or will get there with the standard bolt on mods. what have you got planned for it?

be cheaper to run an M30 box. I haven't done it but apparently only needs a BFH for clearance in the tunnel. how you planning on getting 400hp? is it from the M10?

cheers dude