E30 325i Rag-Top

Yeah, the sky is pretty much the limit when it comes to brake conversions, even on an E30. My suggestion would be to start with some very aggressive pads and slotted and drilled rotors front and rear, with some quality dot 5.1 fluid and a good bleed check of the whole system. This would give you a good improvement in bite and feel, without costing an arm and a leg, plus if you still want more then you can upgrade further when they have worn out. Bear in mind the E30 Series race cars still run standard callipers and rotor size, and they get pushed pretty hard for 8 laps or so without issues.

How serious do you want to get, and how much do you want to spend? Street or track use? Lots of options out there.

What brakes are you running at the moment? Vented fronts? Disc rears?

Not sure about the side skirts - especially when you realise they are E36 skirts modded to fit, the rear skirt works well though. I love those rims, I think this car can handle 18"s with all the other mods, whereas most E30s would struggle with a rim that big. That engine bay and under-body are to die for though, amazing level of work and detail in there.

1.8 bar isn't very high boost pressure for a diesel either, especially on an N57, those figures are well short of where the boost should be. They do tie up with the fuel injection pressures though at 1800 bar and 2000 bar.

Depends if it's referring to the air (boost) pressure, or the fuel injection pressures...

Were a good outfit many moons ago when they were a small(er) specialist outfit that was run by enthusiasts, now it's grown into a general automotive internet seller run by a bunch of monkeys!

From what I understand (please bear in mind this is what I have taken from others) is that it is also the heat cycling created within the wrap, the rate of heating and cooling of the manifold is greatly affected, not just the overall temperature it gets to in between times. This then acts as a form of "heat treating" of the manifold changing the physical properties of the stainless steel. Yes, it is a very good idea on a turbo application, especially where there is limited space under the bonnet, to keep the engine bay temps down and possibly improve the performance of the turbo-charging. My main reason for thinking of wrapping was to keep the exhaust heat away from the steering column, as it passes right through the middle of the headers.

Pretty sure Oli has got rid of this car now as he is over on the GC. Milan, what Chrome bumper parts do you need, and what brakes as I have lots of bits of both?

I bought a heap of wrap to do the stainless headers on my race car, and was warned away from using it as it can make the headers very brittle due to the heat build up under the wrap. Still in the courier envelope sitting under the bench, doh.

Putting a good oil in it and changing it regularly is probably more important than the brand of filter you are using. If you are changing the oil regularly then the RYCO filter will be fine. I would suggest you check when the timing belt and tensioner were last changed, you say the top was rebuilt, check these were replaced at the same time. Personally I would also pull all the brakes apart and check the condition of the pads, rotors, hoses and fluid.

New airbags are quite expensive, so could be worth a few $$$s as they are often needed for a warrant, etc. They do have an expiry date though IIRC, like 10 years or something? Could be worth keeping, just to use to wake Zac up at race meetings every now and again..

Terminology is a wonderful thing, have corrected my initial post in this thread. The visual programming tool in the video Hans posted is a great way of understanding the concepts, shame the bloke talking is not though. I wish stuff like that was available when I was coding and mapping ECUs for the early electronic controlled diesel FIE, had to do it old school in hex with assembler/disassembler and EPROM blowers. Still a lot easier than working out the mechanical hysteresis of a spring and lever governor assembly though, so it was progress. Would love to know why you feel a diesel is not as responsive as a petrol though Ron, a lot may depend on your definition of "throttle response"?

Is this in the '85 323i? It's not a wire I recognize. The flashing light on the check panel, if it's the "Coolant" then possibly the level sensor in the top of the expansion tank? Looking at your photos the wires from the sensor (I think as it's just out of shot) go past the washer fluid bottle in the general area of that random connector - so could possibly be related??

I have a complete built up M20B23 head, but it's not facelift (323i only came out in pre/fl). How do I tell if it's a 731, I can't remember..? Pretty sure I have a few of the other bits as well, ECU, AFM, etc.

Brute force and ignorance... ..your two main weapons!

Special Edition of Performance BMW, some monsters in here by the looks..

Does that make the web site faster??

WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE E30 BMW M3 2.5 SPORT EVOLUTION, THE M3 CONVERTIBLE IS THE NEXT SORT AFTER OF ALL THE E30 M3 MODELS PRODUCED (ONLY 786 WERE PRODUCED). GIVEN ITs LOW PRODUCTION VOLUME and UNIQUE BODY REQUIREMENTS THESE CARS WERE HAND BUILD BY BMW FACTORY STAFF, AND AS SUCH ARE HIGHLY PRIZED BY CLASSIC CAR COLLECTORS and BMW AFICIONADOS ALIKE. There is sooo much wrong with that sentence, and not just the spelling and caps lock. A very nice car, yes. Just such a shame that it's a convertible and not a tin-top and that it has been converted to RHD.

I would disagree as a "re-map" does exactly that, changing the fuelling, VANOS and ignition maps in the cars ECU which can give increases in torque and power over the factory maps, so there is an actual performance increase. All this module is doing is taking the signal from the fly-by-wire throttle pedal and amplifiying the signal, basically fooling the car into thinking you have got your foot flat to the floor when it is only 1/4 down for example. Not actually doing anything in terms of performance, just saving your ankle a bit of work. Which is what I am trying to get the seller to admit by trolling his auction, just in case there are people dumb enough to buy this crap. Again, I would say that is very different to the Sport button in an M3, which does switch to a different set of maps for the engine, gear shift, etc. suspension settings as well as the throttle response (similar to a re-map but on-demand as it were).

I'm not 100% on the scrappage scheme as it started after my time in the UK, but I doubt many, if any of those cars would have been in good condition. I have part exchanged a rusty shell that was just about rolling to get a discount before, I wonder how many of those were of a similar condition?

Ok, cool, thanks. Good luck. I would offer to help, but as you know I am no IT person.

So $500 to boost the throttle sensor signal - bargain. A great "performance upgrade" right there, for all those people that can't push the throttle peddle harder..

Hey Jamez, is the Race Series web-site one of the "few others" that you are moving ? No probs if it is, just for info.

Thanks for the mention Jason. We should always be showing our appreciation for all the officials at the meeting, and especially all the volunteers - if it weren't for you guys we wouldn't be able to race. So it is good that our appreciation of you guys was spotted, keep up the good work!