ducatiss

geez, you're concerned about ride quality and its down to the bump stops! Why dont you just get some factory springs and struts cheap off trademe or off a wrecker and start again.

Enjoy your 318 Chris, will be looking forward to seeing how you customise it. In my opinion, its best not to go over the top with large wheels and wings. Shadowlining is basically when you get rid of the chrome surronding your windows. Usually with satin black paint. It was a factory option at one point. Just remember if you are going to do it, take your time and do it well. The basic points are: 1. Remove the trim that you can carefully without bending it. If you cant or dont want to remove it, mask everything well with a good quality masking tape. 2. Make sure you take off the chrome finish with a fine metal sandpaper so none of the shine remains. 3. Use an etching primer for the first coat or two, and let that dry for a good few hours. If you mask anything, be careful that the paint doesnt stick to the masking tape - better to remove it after painting and remask again when dry. 4. Opinion is divided on what looks best. I used satin black (dulux) as it tends to weather better than matt 5. Spray 2 -3 good top coats of a high quality paint. Dont be tempted to buy the cheaper stuff from the warehouse. The difference in price between rubbish and great is only about 6- 8 bucks a can. 6. Let the top coats dry for a day or so before touching it - the paint needs time to harden. - Dont wash your car for a week after painting. 7. I found the best way to get trim back on and into place if you removed it is with a small plastic ended hammer and it doesnt leave marks on the paint. Hope that helps.

Water injection was also used in some of the old WWII aircraft - I think the supermarine spitfire with its supercharged engine had some variant of water injection. A good system will be tied to the inlet temp and say only spray at a given temp when detonation becomes more likely. I would have to agree with previous posters that for normal street/track use, it is best avoided.

The Backs upside down??? What do you mean? I agree too with Gus. The 195/60's were the tyres that were on the rims when I got them, and as the tyres still had plenty of tread on them I thought I would wear them out first. I hate the dunlop lemans tryes and very nearly came to grief on a set on my old VR4 so look forward to replacing them.

Hmmm Gus - you may have a point though side by side the difference is bugger all in height.

yeah, 40mm (B&G Springs). Currently tyres are 195/60 R15. Its still only got the 320 engine in it (2.5 to come) so I also dont want to "over tyre" it if you know what I mean.

40mm drop all round. The handling is now much better. I still think I have a little too much understeer - not a lot, but enough to annoy me. Some of that is due to the crappy dunlop A5 LeMans's. I dont really want to drop the profile down to 55 if I can avoid it, as the sump guard is currently sitting at around the 100mm ground clearance limit, though I may be able to raise the sump guard up a little to compensate. A good wheel alignment will also help although the guys at the tyre shop tend to stare at me blankly when I have asked them previously to dial in a little more oversteer in to a car!! If anyone else has some ideas, let me know - Cheers

I bought them from the U.S (Turner Motor Sport) and even though I had to pay freight and GST they were still cheaper than getting them in NZ. Plus there seemed to be a lot of mucking round and endless questions from the NZ shock suppliers I asked. I ended up putting in the 51mm units and simply replaced the 46mm struts with the bigger ones from my "doner" 325i parts car.

Just driven my car after having Bilstein Sports fitted all round. I had B+G springs in previously but the addition of the Bilsteins has really completed the handling. The lesson I guess for me is that springs and uprated shocks should be installed together. The springs alone while lowering the car, left it soggy in the handling and prone to bottoming out.

Looks good from the pictures on the website - can you get in it NZ or do you have to order it online?

Nice job on the car but man does that leather need some help. I used the Pelle leather conditioning system on mine. You can get it from the likes of Smith City or shops that sell Leather lounge suites etc. It comes as a kit and has leather dye in it with full instructions. The black dye looks dark green, but drys out to a very good match for the black leather. You wont get them pristine but they will look a whole heap better. The leather conditioners also make it look good and protect from further damage.

yep I was waiting for it - no, I like the M badge. I did think of putting the M badge on the other side though. Had all the badges off for a while too but, imo looks better with the badges. I have a set of Bilstein Sports coming from the U.S . I am going to take out the front struts and replace them with the 51mm housing ones from my dead 325i as it seems you cant get 46mm ones from the U.S due to the fact thaey didnd import any E30 320i's.

yep I was waiting for it - no, I like the M badge. I did think of putting the M badge on the other side though. Had all the badges off for a while too but, imo looks better with the badges. I have a set of Bilstein Sports coming from the U.S . I am going to take out the front struts and replace them with the 51mm housing ones from my dead 325i as it seems you cant get 46mm ones from the U.S due to the fact thaey didnd import any E30 320i's.

A mis-diagnosis for sure!!!

Yeah dude, actually while Im no chrome fan, I really do like the chromes on your Beemer - must be the colour of the paint that makes them suit the car or something. Anyway, as long as YOU like them, it really doesnt matter what others think. Boy that must be some heavy carpet to way in at 200kg - either you meant 20kg or it was full of water But yeah, that sound deadening material is real heavy and I was considering doing the same thing to reduce weight. One more thing - the blue and red lights on the rear parcel shelp - whats with that???

Yeah thanks for that - one of my main reasons for wanting to but the RB motor in is to preserve (enhance?) the BMW's smoothness as an engine. It was one of the main things that initially attracted me to these 6 Cyl beemers in the first place. Having just been oput in my daughters skyline, the RB engine's character would fit nicely with the Beemer for me - if that makes sense - I guess its pretty subjective. Are there any other common 6Cyl conversions around that ppl have experience with?

nice car - and you have done wonders with the paint. I have found that with very dark coloured cars, they always seem to photograph nicely.

lol just did a search on Google and the first reference brought me straight back to bimmersport.co.nz - I think there's a lesson in there somewhere!! Let me rephrase my original post - has anyone actually done an RB20/RB30 Repower, and if so was it worth it/problems encounted etc.

Has anyone heard of anyone repowering the E30 with the 3 litre Nissan engine from the VL Commadore (RB30?) Seems to me that if possible it would be a good engine to put in given that it makes fairly decent power without a Turbo. Would appreciate comments re this idea.

Thanks for all your comments - confirms for me that I'm on the right track. yes I agree about the head unit - have considered replacing it already and probably will one day but it makes great sound and would rather put my money into the cars performance and handling.

Re my last post, perhaps the drive shaft has been replaced incorrectly, or perhaps it has become unbalanced - get it taken off and balanced. I have a slight shudder in mine when taking off in 1st - been like that for ages.

I'd look at the driveshaft first and its associated parts (non of which are too expensive) Unlikely to be the differential as these tend to last unless of course they have been abused

Found a link that some of you may be interested in at http://www.totalbmwmag.com/ Check out the downloads section for some PDF files on BMW issues/fixes.

One theory is that because its a cheap old car, you shouldnt be too fussy about its condition. However, the E30, like most BMW's run on money and its best to be circumspect about any purchase of an older model. That said, I can only endorse what the previous posters have said. A 320 runing on a 318 Diff shouldnt pose any issues. Body panels can be had for peanuts on trade me. See if you could lift the carpet a little and look under the rubber lining. Because they are rubber, any water that gets in there can stay around for ages without drying out, and cause rust problems in the floor pan. Get the guy to put it through a WOF as well if its got less than 5 months to run. Engine wise, check the condition of the oil and also have a look around the inside of the filler cap. If its white and sludgy anywhere, walk away. Expect that the motor may puff a little blue smoke on startup. I have seen the M20 engine do this at quite small millages - as long as it doesnt blow blue smoke after the first min or so of running. PPl generally buy the E30 because they love em and expect to have to maintain them more than they would say a Jap box. So as long as your mate appreciates this - Have fun!

Did the refit myself from another doner 325 or which a lot of parts came from.