Project Super-budget 1998 BMW 318Ti

Thanks! It has actually been fun keeping the build thread going. Hopefully getting this thing running doesn't end up with the fire department paying a visit and I can keep the build thread going for a long while.

Well, not much progress in the last couple of days. My old man asked me to build him a shelf in his laundry room, so that took away a day of work. Not all was lost though. I used the scraps to build a nice work bench.

And this is where my money went this week. Apparently it is uncooth to pack for our honeymoon using the hefty bags I already had...

Well, Took a few minutes before work today to get a (really) tiny bit of work done.

I'm not really sure why I did it, the exhaust is pretty hidden, but whatever.

reminds me of

^ Lol, yes. I thought the same thing. Bubbles.

Thanks for getting me interested in a 318 you guys. Shopping now...

VWguyBruce wrote: Thanks for getting me interested in a 318 you guys. Shopping now...

One word of advice. Find one with a good body and good interior. Everything mechanical is shared with some BMW or another. The interior and body are specific to the 318ti. Read $$$. New door panels are 400-600 each and used ones are either hard to find or crap. I got really lucky and got two from someone here pretty cheap.

That being said I really like the car. If it drives as good as it should it will be fantastic.

That was most definitely a car owned by a tweaker. The "creative solutions" the PO employed are a dead giveaway, lol

Good work bringing her back to life. I concur that the dry ice method is the easiest way to get sound deadening off, I didn't know about that method when I did it the first time as a teenager and spent HOURS with a hammer and scraper to get one side done then read about dry ice and the other side took a half hour. lol Hardest part is actually finding dry ice around here, I usually have to visit 3-4 baskin robbins before I find one that has enough laying around to sell me.

Love the 318ti, always wanted the California Edition with the sliding rag top!

CLNSC3 wrote: Love the 318ti, always wanted the California Edition with the sliding rag top!

And you can have all of them.....I want one without a sunroof.

Cuda, do you still need a door panel then? If not required soon, I can bring interior stuff to the challenge for you to pick through.

I don't think I will need the door panel. I will take anything else though. And bringing it to the challenge would be great!

Apparently the rag top is a PITA. Supposedly they all leak and finding parts is costly and difficult. And In the few months I was looking for a ti, I only saw one without a sunroof, and it had been totaled. The slick tops are nice though. No stupid sunroof motor cover to fall on you.

Hello new no-named conference rival!

In reply to Cuda:

The solution is to break the entire sunroof package out of the car, pop the exterior panel off(if not glass), then laugh as you use the black remains as a backstop for arrows. Seriously the only thing I hate about mine is that it has a hole in the roof.

Ok, So I am back from my honeymoon, and ready to get back to work. One problem though. My back is KILLING ME. Hopefully I will have some updates by the end of the week.I am dying to get this bad boy running.

In reply to Cuda:

I thought the honeymoon exercise was supposed to be good for your back.

congratulations and get back to work.

Chris

Not sure I want to know why your back hurts...

Well ladies and gentlemen, I have returned. Turns out I had a stress fracture in my a vertibret and herniated disks above and below it. I was out of work for two months, and working on the car had to be put on hold. I haven't really had a chance to see what sitting that long has done to the project, but I am sure it won't be good. I''ll get more pics and info soon.

Man, that sucks. Glad you're back though and hopefully healing well. Good luck getting back into the project!

Well, I am finally back at it. I put the head back together, and managed to hoist that heavy bastard back into place. Working outside in central Florida means that was about enough for the day. I am hoping to get the timing chain and covers on Friday afternoon. We will see.

This is how we got the sound deadening stuff out of Charlie. I wouldn't recommend it for anything but a bare shell, though.

Well I got a lot done today. The timing cover and valve cover are now on. Managed to get the intake manifold bolted up and the wiring that for some reason snakes its way through/under the manifold. That was a royal pain in the arse. Who ever designed that bit should be shot. new spark plugs are in. I also put on a new air intake boot. This one deletes the ASC throttle body, I don't plan on needing that too much in a 4 banger

Well today was a historic day. I buttoned up all the last bits, did a quick once over on everything I could think of. I'm sure I forgot something that will cause a major accident/fire somewhere down the line, but whatever.

I hooked up a nice/working optama from my DD to eliminate that as a problem. I also did an oil change. It was a nasty,gloppy mess. I will do another complete oil change after a few miles.

After that was done it was time to give it a try.

Test fire

It LIVES!!!

noddaz wrote: It LIVES!!!

Barely. It only runs on three cylinders and dies if you try to let it idle. I will try to work on it after work tomorrow. The weather outside is nasty.

Well, after a really, really long hiatus I have gotten back to work on the BMW. I tried to do too much too soon with my back and it just wouldn't let me do what I wanted to do so I had to rest for about a year or so. Now it is so much better. I have made a little progress in the last week or so on the ti. It had pretty much just sat exposed for the last year and apparently there was a small water leak in the sunroof, the carpet was a musty mess. So it is now gone.

That has really opened a new can of worms. With the carpet gone there is NO WAY I will ever make the interior "nice" so I am going to go the opposite direction. I am going to strip this beast down as much as possible and SLOWLY work towards an fun auto-x car.

I was removing some "excess" electrical goodies and came across this

Any of you guys have an idea of what this is? It was located in the driver side luggage compartment by the amp.

I have no clue what those are, but they are everywhere. There is one by the driver's seat and another by the driver's side front turn signal.

I will check the bentley tonight and see if I can find anything.