South African e30 325i

[c.robertson00 11]

How much were the powerflex bushes and who sells them?

[bravo 34]

Got home late last night, but couldn't wait to throw these in anyway. Ripped into the job and discovered that my front spring seats were different sizes - wtf? Must not have noticed when I first put the H&R's in as I did them one side at a time and this time I pulled everything off at once so I could de-grease and paint everything before it went back on. So that meant a mad mission in fading daylight out to my parents place to nab a strut off my wrecked 320i to get matching spring pad. I've never worked so fast - 30 mins to jack up the car, remove the strut, and get out of there.

Anyway, long story short I was test driving the car around midnight - didn't get a chance to go for a long drive (too tired, was still up for work at 6.30 this morning) but I live on the worst sealed road in NZ - potholed, lumpy, off-camber, broken-up chip, slumps, humps, manhole covers sticking up, weird changes of grade, narrow bridges, etc. Normally its a 80km/h run and I'd lose half of my fillings. Last night was a different story. The car soaked up all of this, and handled like a different vehicle. 100km/h felt like I was crawling.

Will definitely be taking it for a proper spin after work today.

Chris - Fronts were $500ea including the revalve. I have no idea if that is a sharp price or not. I didn't shop around as I already had Suspension Tech doing all the rest, and it wasn't worth mucking around chasing prices for the sake of a few $, and a lot of wasted time (not to mention the possibility of getting ones that couldn't accept the valving I wanted).

Revalving is about $50 a shock, so that would make them $450 ea.

Rebuilding and revalving the rears was $180 ea.

I got my powerflex bushes from Dynamic Race Parts.

e30 part numbers and prices for all bushes are as follows:

Control arm - PFF5-301 ( 2 per car ) $48.00 + GST each x 2 = $96.00 + GST = $108.00

Front 19mm sway bar - PFF5-302-19 ( 2 per car ) $39.00 + GST each x 2 = $78.00 + GST = $87.75

Subframe - PFR5-305 (2 per car ) $81.00 + GST each x 2 = $162.00 + GST = $182.25

Trailing arm - PFR5-306 ( 4 per car- 2 x inner 2 x outer) $57.00 + GST each x 4 = $228.00 + GST = $256.50

Rear 12mm sway bar - PFR5-308-12 ( 2 per car ) $39.00 + GST each x 2 = $78.00 + GST = $87.50

Diff mount - PFR5-300 ( 1 per car ) $60.00 + GST = $67.50

I didn't get the subframe, trailing arm or diff bushes this time around. $300 of bushes was enough for one go.

So all up I spent:

Shocks: $1392.87 incl. freight both ways

Tophat mounts: $243.84 incl freight

Bushes: $288.50 incl. freight

New fasteners (self locking nuts): $4.70

So Grand Total= $1929.91.

And worth every penny.

[deane30 30]

looks very very cool

[DRTDVL 0]

Edited May 19, 2009 by DRTDVL

[ED1RTY 2]

Awesome.

Got hi-res? I need a new desktop

[SIR E30 68]

Its dirty! looks so so good though!

[bravo 34]

Thanks for those Heath. Thank Ian for me when you next see him, although I'm going to try and logon to eurosport and thank him myself. I'm gonna make an effort to pop over tomorrow night if you have the rest yet???

Chris - there will be hi res laying around somewhere, the camera was some serious bit of kit. If it were mine I wouldn't be hanging half out the window of a moving vehicle at motorway speeds with it.

Yes it was very dirty - had done 400kms since the last wash. See Heath, I told you people would notice!

[DRTDVL 0]

Thanks for those Heath. Thank Ian for me when you next see him, although I'm going to try and logon to eurosport and thank him myself. I'm gonna make an effort to pop over tomorrow night if you have the rest yet???

Chris - there will be hi res laying around somewhere, the camera was some serious bit of kit. If it were mine I wouldn't be hanging half out the window of a moving vehicle at motorway speeds with it.

Yes it was very dirty - had done 400kms since the last wash. See Heath, I told you people would notice!

It's all good I'll let him know, he's not on the eurosport site as he's a misty fan. But he sits about 5m from me at work, so I'll let him know.

He's got over 200 photos in raw format that he's converting a few a night, so I'm getting drip feed them. I'll send you DVD/cd of them up to you once I've got them all - It will be his stock photo and the ones I've photoshopped.

I love the dirty water streaks on it, it's looks like it's driven hard... plus All The Best Things In Life Are Dirty!

I'll be out tonight from 7:40 to 9:30ish. What time you taking off on thrusday?

[bravo 34]

Not sure yet. Will PM/call ya.

[SIR E30 68]

See Heath, I told you people would notice!

First thing I noticed.. But im a clean freak! At least it looks like its actually used how it should be, instead of sitting in a shed for 11 months a year.

[DRTDVL 0]

[westy 614]

They're some nice shots.

Awaiting news.

[Guest Ari Gold]

Yea, you're being coy, MOF.

[drifty325i 0]

Love it Graham, looking very sweet. Needs Vids now

[Apex 693]

Might I say it sounds sweeter! All I could hear threw the tunnel was the infectious wine of a supercharger and the feral straight six exhaust note, I would like the exact spec of your exhaust system as IMO it is perfect.

Pics look good.

[bravo 34]

Yea, you're being coy, MOF.

Every time I go to post up the numbers, I've left the sheet in the car which right now is parked a few minutes walk away on heaths front lawn.

We didn't get any more power out of it (final run made same hp as initial run), but Gavin did sort the idle, and unknown to me it was detonating fairly badly = gay which is now fixed. It is so much easier to drive now.

I'm probably going to pay for that possible detonation damage somewhere down the track, so already thinking about rebuilding my other m20b25 in anticipation.

It goes really well. I've talked with Gavin and I've decided to try and rig up some sort of second tps hooked up to a voltage sensor and relay that also has an rpm input so we can switch off the SC at closed throttle, and cruise. Apparently they aren't designed to be on all the time as I have it and I'm losing boost when it gets hot.

I also have some valvetrain noise and an oil leak to attend to.

On the Waikato Uni dyno it was making 179rwhp. On Gavins it was more like 160rwhp at the top end. (so your e30 will pwn it Andrew). He tells me that a stock 325i makes around 90rwhp on his dyno so that's about 30% over stock which is exactly what I thought it was. Based on the torque and hp curve I'm maybe making up to 50% over stock in the low and midrange where it counts which is why it feels so quick without making stupendous numbers.

Torque figures are very impressive and curve is very flat and smooth.

Big ups to Gavin who gave me (IMO) a sharp price on what equated in the end to over 10hours on the dyno, 17-20 runs, and around 80km travelled on the dyno. A good result, not a great result in terms of final outcome as I had hoped to squeeze a bit more out of it, and didn't really want to find out it had been detonating, but it's good to have fixed it now before something broke, and it is now an absolute pleasure to drive when warm, and easily manageable when cold.

[bravo 34]

Vids - I have got almost enough footage now, including some dyno runs (man does it scream - need to have a decent home theatre on full bore to really appreciate it though).

I'm still trying to get hold of some decent editing software as my attempts with Windows Movie Maker have been fraught with codec issues. Can't get it to open the avi's from the digicam.

[DRTDVL 0]

Vids - I have got almost enough footage now, including some dyno runs (man does it scream - need to have a decent home theatre on full bore to really appreciate it though).

I'm still trying to get hold of some decent editing software as my attempts with Windows Movie Maker have been fraught with codec issues. Can't get it to open the avi's from the digicam.

we can work that out on thrusday night if you want after work... If your not shooting off straight away... 

[Guest Simon*]

Only just seen this now G-MOF. Impressive stuff

Pics look great