1983 316- RESURRECTION

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rob0r
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Location: Colchester/Sudbury

Re: 1983 316- Project M50, chopped struts

Post by rob0r »

COMING SOON!

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rob0r
E21 Pro
Posts: 771
Joined: Sat May 20, 2006 6:03 pm
Location: Colchester/Sudbury

Re: 1983 316- RESURRECTION

Post by rob0r »

Where to start...

2006 - I bought the car, put it on the road, lowered it on -60mm spax, fitted 15" BBS Mahles and had a great time driving it all over the country

2007 - In August I pulled the car off the road, I had notions of doing an awesome engine swap. I pulled the engine out (my first time) and started to fit an M42. I refurbed all the timing component spending around £400 and proceeded to drop the engine off the crane at full height when pulling the engine back out to fab up some engine mounts. The engine cracked it's head on impact, I was furious, I put the engine in the back of my workshop and there it remains over 5 year later...

2007-2008 - Peeved with all the money I spent on the smashed M42, I wasn't willing to pay out for another M42 just for 140bhp. I bought a E34 525i donor and ripped it apart for it's non vanos M50B25, combining this with a dogleg gearbox. I created a custom subframe to fit the M50 at the "M50 angle" with the sump flat. I then realised I had no chance in hell that I could fit the exhaust manifolds because of the steering linkage location. I gave up on the conversion and let it sit for a few months. When I had a spare afternoon, I did a "what the hell" experiment fitted the M50 with E21 M20 metal engine mounts, to my surprise the engine fitted like a glove and also caused the E21 gearbox and prop to fit perfectly, it turned out the M20 and M50 share identical engine block dimensions.

2009 - With this discovery I turned the project into full force again. With the car in so many bits I decided to bite the bullet and buy another E21 and just swap the engine into. This new car turned out to be a lot more work than expected as it was RUSTY.

323i
http://bmwe21.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f ... 6&start=15

2009-2010 - The 316 is raped for its goodies (suspension, engine, etc) and these are fitted to the 323i.

2012 - I will hopefully building this back up before this summer.
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e21-Mark
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My E21(s): 316 m52/2.8 Cat Cams & Jenvey ITB
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Location: Cornwall - UK

Re: 1983 316- RESURRECTION

Post by e21-Mark »

Excellent. I don't know what it is that I like so much about this car but am glad to know it's going to live to fight again.
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Jeroen
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My E21(s): '81 323i Baur
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Re: 1983 316- RESURRECTION

Post by Jeroen »

I see all the parts laying about so just throw them back in and you're set :lol:

Seriously, good luck with the project!
Regards/groeten, Jeroen
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joe14
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Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 12:17 pm
My E21(s): 1983 black 316
Location: Manchester

Re:

Post by joe14 »

rob0r wrote:I got my struts back today from the engineers. They have had a section removed underneath where the coilover thread now sits and the struts were rewelded to keep the shock collar threads in place. I'm extremely pleased with how they've turned out and the quality of the guys work is great. I've tried to compare them to standard struts to get a better idea of what's gone on. The shocks are E30 bilstein b6s.

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Good penetration, has stuck out into where the strut sits but this is irrelevant to me because of the shocks I'm using are designed to be thinner than the strut housing.
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Height difference, 4 cylinder strut in comparison.
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Built up and compared to another 4 cyl strut, spring heights are a complete guess right now. Top mounts are standard items for the time being, until I can afford some adjustable stuff.
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Painted
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Hey, I realise this is an old post to ask a question about but here goes.
I'm in the process of buying the required parts for coilovers and I want to shorten the struts to maintain suspension travel.
Bilstein don't have short e21 shocks available (not B6's anyway) so my question is, which E30 shocks are those and are they a straight fit? (does the E30 retaining nut work?)

I've written to Bilstein to ask this but nothing back yet.

Cheers.
rob0r
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Posts: 771
Joined: Sat May 20, 2006 6:03 pm
Location: Colchester/Sudbury

Re: 1983 316- RESURRECTION

Post by rob0r »

Ha ha! I saw your question in the technical section and was looking for this thread to link some information... You've already found it :P

They are E30 Bilstein B6, mine were 2nd hand when bought and I believe they were removed from an E30 325i sport as one of the generations of sports had B6s as OEM fitment. They are direct fitment as long as the strut is shortened the correct amount inbetween the bottom of the strut and before the threads for the big shock nut that holds the shock in place. The diameter of the shock shaft going into the top mount is also direct fit and I just used the top mount nut which came with the shocks.

The shock body is much thinner than the original E21 323i shocks but this is how the B6s were also designed for the E30 large strut casings, the E30 shock nuts are designed to take up the slack and seat the shocks correctly. This has a bonus as you can be less careful of how much welds protude through the strut casing once the strut is welded back together after shortening.

To recap: perfect fit if shortened correctly, use the E30 nuts that come with the shocks.

The ride is flawless by the way, this was probably the best modification I've ever did for an E21. They ended up on my 323i M50 project as I never got this one off the ground and I gave them loads of abuse. I also got a pair of struts converted for a mate, this time using E30 B8 shocks and using the above processes and it all fitted up perfectly too, as far as I know the B6 and B8 casings are either the same or similar.

Back to the 316.... I'm still planning to do this car, it's a year away in the queue :P I have 95% of the bits and should be something special once complete :)
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joe14
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My E21(s): 1983 black 316
Location: Manchester

Re: 1983 316- RESURRECTION

Post by joe14 »

Ha yes, I've been making good use of the search function lately, its given me some good info!

A brilliant answer, thank you just the info I was looking for.
I think I'll go ahead and get these then, they sound like they'll tick all the boxes, plus that little bit narrower giving room to ensure good weld penetration is a bonus.

I'll be keeping an eye out for this 316 then, it is in the best colour after all!! :)
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