318is First Mods

[Rodm21]

I have a friend who recently got a 1993 318is with the sport pack.. If possible he wants to add a little more "punch " to it, torque and hp.. what would you suggest he trys? he doesnt want to get anythign like superchargers. Any ideas to add some noticeable diffrence ? :P

[onrails318]

Well sir, his best bet would be to locate some used Dinan parts. Illegal, but very worth it. Dinan has a larger throttle body, intake, and Stage 3 chip sold as a package. Go to www.dinanbmw.com

Also tell him to get sticky Max Performance rubber. I recommend S-03's. Best street tire ever! IMO

[El Presidente]

CAI, conforti chip, exhaust, pulleys, cams, port polish, bigger throttle are a few ways he could do it. Some are more extreme than others, and some need to be done in conjuction or power loss could result. All depends on what he wants to spend.

[BMWg84]

Originally posted by onrails318@May 23 2003, 09:57 AM
Well sir, his best bet would be to locate some used Dinan parts. Illegal, but very worth it. Dinan has a larger throttle body, intake, and Stage 3 chip sold as a package. Go to www.dinanbmw.com

Also tell him to get sticky Max Performance rubber. I recommend S-03's. Best street tire ever! IMO

Buying used Dinan parts is NOT illegal.

for a 318 you can do very few mods to help the engine's output without going to the extreme. Tell your friend that his best bet is to just get a cold air intake, engine software and full catback exhaust system. Hopefully he purchased a manual transmission or else he will really dislike his BMW if he's looking for decent power. An aggressive Camshaft would relly do the trick in conjunction with the mods i already mentioned and maybe a high flow throttle body! You can get his throttle body machined at a local machining shop for a decent price.. just make sure you have the larger butterfly and access to another throttle body in case something goes wrong.

Bimmers are not known for power, first of all.. We are known for having a world-renown suspension with a pinch of luxury and ride comfort. So if he really wants to max our his 318's performance i would start with lowering springs, bigger sway bars (M3 sway bars are cheap and effective), X brace, Bilstein shocks and struts and bigger wheels and performance tires (ZR rated). Strut and shock tower braces can be purchased on ebay for like $30-40 for both. But the god ones are around $100's

chris

[MrM3]

i'm pretty sure that the earlier M42's have adjustable cam shafts, so if u want more low end power u can adjust the cams down 6 degrees, or 6 degrees higher for more top-end. all u need are some conventional tools, nothing special, but i assume u gotta know what ur doing first :P

also like chris said, concentrate on the suspension. get some Bilsteins, lowering springs, and a strut brace to start. then look for sway bars and a X-brace