ducatiss

Will be very interested in how you get on - keep us informed. I have a Motronic engine to fit to an LJet at some stage.

a photo (with flash lol) might help

Yes, Koni's are expensive - think $$$$ There seem to be a hell of a lot of ppl on here looking for great suspension for the cheapest price - great and cheap simply dont work well together!

Go for Bilstein Sports as from memory they are suitable for lowered suspension and will control your spring rebound and compression much better. get em from Turner Motorsport (US) and you will spend around 550 - 600 NZD landed. I wouldnt bother buying Jamex springs or any other decent springs for that matter as they will probably be ruined by shortening.

Water Wetter apparently makes your coolant more efficient at removing heat - or perhaps in transferring heat - something like that - I have no experience with it but Im sure you could do a google and find all the info on it.

Yes, it's worth putting in. You dont want to go too stiff in the rear in terms of roll bar. A lot of the 320i's from South Africa had them as standard. Mind you, they also came with a lot of other stuff standard as well. But yeah, install it and go for a drive and see what you think.

After I did some mods to my car and put M badges on it. Mu opinion is that M badges look far better on a modified BMW, and by modified I mean modified within keeping of the original M type modifications avaliable from the factory. A standard 318 or whatever with m badges on it just doesnt look right. There are quite a few on this forum who for one reason or another dont like M badges - but dont forget that in so much as it is their right to debate such on this forum, it is your right to do with your car as you please. When I posted my car in the rides section, there were very few if any comments about the M badging, probably because the car is modified to fit the whole m badge them if you get what I mean.

Dumb thing no ... (not on me beemer tho) In a hurry, put the new rotor in, then the new distributor cap on, but not on properly. Cranked the starter, smashed the distributor cap into a heap of pieces. Another really great one was on my old Audi. Driving along and could hear it pinking a little so pull into a little county garage (mistake no 1) Ask the mechanic if he could retard the ignition just a tad as the engine was pinking. The mechanic decides it would be best to pull the whole distributor out to see if there was something wrong with it. I agreed (mistake no 2) Strips it apart and it looks ok so puts it back together (wrongly) mistake no 3 Puts the distributor back into the engine and it doesnt seat properly into the block. Clamps it up anyway while I stand meekly by and watch, thinking 'he's a mechanic...he will know what he's doing' (mistake no 4) Righto he says see if it starts. I turn the key and try and start it (Biggest mistake) The helical gear that drives the distributor that the idiot put on upside down shatters, sending pieces of gear down into the engine necessitaing the car having to be towed 200kms to the nearest dealer for the motor to be lifted, the sump removed and all the bits fished out, and me having to stand around in a little hic town in Southland while I waited for someone to come and pick me up. That person later became my wife so something good came out it after all lol.

re posting of pic...Thats one of the nicest E30's I have seen in a long time. I know you have posted some pics of it before but would be keen to see some more. - perhaps in the rides section this time would be great

yeah, sounds to me like the system may not have been bled properly. As long as everything else is in shape ie waterpump, and clean radiator, then thats where I would look. Its not a hard job to bled em, but you would be better advised I think by an E36 owner as the procedure may be different than the E30. In anycase, change your coolant to a 50:50 mix and get that fan sorted quick smart as well. It isnt good for the engine to be re run as hot as you have had it and I wouldnt let it get that hot again.

The most important and best thing you can do that will make the most difference is to install some decent shocks. I suggest Bilstein Sports which you can order from Turner Motorsport in the States. Dont ask me please to work out the freight and exchange rate etc etc for you - do what I did and get all that info yourself. Plan though for a 10% tax in NZ on the converted purchase price ie excluding freight. After you have decent shocks in you will notice the suspension much stiffer with much less bodyroll. From there you can then look at the condition of your roll bar and maybe go for something a little larger in diameter. Dont bother with a strut brace until you have done all that. There really is no cheap option that will give you everything you are looking for so do it properly and you will be very happy.

I have noticed that my temperature gauge reads a tad low - usually at the first mark, rising up to the half way mark when really pushing it up a long hill. My issue is that when coming down a long hill the gauge drops down almost to the blue mark. Its like the thermostat is stuck open, but I have removed it and checked it and it seems fine. Also tried another one, and while it moved the termperature up to almost the halfway point as normal, it too dropped way back toward the blue when driving down a long hill with no load on the engine. Every other car I have driven seems to hold its temp gauge steady when the load decreases - is this something that E30's do? or should I be looking into this further. Comments appreciated.

But they can be real tight when you come to undo them. See how you go with an allen key, but you may well need an allen key socket on the end of an impact driver to get it undone like mine.

Yeah a brilliant read eh!!

Each to their own - but seriously, there has to be a limit !! Perhaps someone could develop an ugly meter so that at WOF time they could pass it over the vehicle to see if it passes.

Dont just assume its ignition - test it first. It may be something as simple as a broken wire, or a bad connection from your ignition switch to your coil ( I have the same issue on my old 325i) In which case it wont be too hard to fix. But you need to spend the time to go thru the diagnostics first. By absolutly ruling out one thing, you can then go onto the next.

Check whether you are getting power to the coil. There should be 12 volts plus at the primary connection (the smaller wire) when the ignition is on. Check that first. Then start checking your fuses.

Yeah I noticed the same on mine as well and it wouldnt come out. Basically the paint is faded every else on the car except there so I dont think there is much you will be able to do about it cheaply. I just stuck my badge back on lol.

Cost of shipping around 120 - 150 US for 2nd day air I think

Thanks guys, sounds good. Might investigate the sticky stuff from repco. Does anyone have a pic of their e30 with the BMW ones on?

Im looking for some healdight guards for my e30 after replacing the lowbeam the other day. Do the dealers sell them or is their a better place to go. I have had a look on the usual places on the net and have only found one pair that I didnt like the look of much. As always, all help appreciated.

Buy your coilovers from overseas it will probably be cheaper. Do your homework and buy wisely. Suggest Turner Motorsport would be a good place to start. You could try stocks in NZ if you must buy them here - but you will pay!!!!

They are called Torx head and you should buy yourself a set.. Not sure what size they are but get a set of half inch drive to fit your torque wrench. Try repco or supercheap auto. Suggest stongly you buy yourself a manual as it will have all the head bolt torques, tightning sequence etc. If these engines are anything like the E30 you should get another set of head bolts from BMW as the bolts do stretch once tight and are designed to be used once.

I'd spend it on the handling - agree with the previous posters, you will end up munting your engine by trying to up the performance on the cheap. That said, you could look at a cold airbox, K&N filter, then with the rest of the money, put in some decent shockies, and maybe look toward a front strut brace. Buy your parts in from the States, and you should scrape in there for 2G. By focussing on the handling you will ultimately make it faster around corners.

Yes, probably. I stand to be corrected here, but I would think that you should be putting in springs designed for the heavier front end on the 6Cyl. I have said this before but when you do get your springs, make sure you also put in some decent shocks like Bilstein HD or sports, or Konis or it will handle like an absolute pig on the lowered springs.