318iS E36 Supercharger - Page 4 - United Bimmer Community

DEATH2000 · 01-22-2012, 03:08 PM

You should go pick up a copy of Performance BMW if you can. I just crabbed a copy and it has an excellent article about a guy in Norway who supercharged his 323i. However he had to drop and S50B30 into it. Has an Eaton supercharger on it. Makes 366hp and 339ft lbs of torque.

**DaleKP** · 01-22-2012, 10:03 PM

The steering wheel cover may not appeal BUT..... it does protect the wheel and is also GREAT when the weather is stinking hot. It is a full leather wheel cover and gives a great feel to the wheel.

As for the cloth - I think I may have misled you.... what you are seeing is my real sheepskin seat covers. The cloth seats look much much better. The sheepskin is again great for stinking hot days (like today - 38 degrees C) because it doesn't burn you when you sit on it and it wicks sweat away from the body.

Well the Nology Hotwires arrived today, so I am going to head on over to the right forum and post a bit about fitting them. Do they make a difference? Well, without a Dyno that is really difficult to say .... it FEELS a little more responsive (the "Butt Dyno" as I have heard it referred to) but that is not the most reliable of methods. They look the business though

Hey - ALSO managed to pick up a set of genuine 17"BMW rims and tyres for AUD $595 so expecting delivery Thursday or Friday - this is what I got: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....ht_1630wt_1163

**DaleKP** · 01-23-2012, 06:41 PM

And the thread for the Nology leads fitment is HERE

DEATH2000 · 01-24-2012, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleKP

The steering wheel cover may not appeal BUT..... it does protect the wheel and is also GREAT when the weather is stinking hot. It is a full leather wheel cover and gives a great feel to the wheel.

As for the cloth - I think I may have misled you.... what you are seeing is my real sheepskin seat covers. The cloth seats look much much better. The sheepskin is again great for stinking hot days (like today - 38 degrees C) because it doesn't burn you when you sit on it and it wicks sweat away from the body.

Hey - ALSO managed to pick up a set of genuine 17"BMW rims and tyres for AUD $595 so expecting delivery Thursday or Friday - this is what I got: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....ht_1630wt_1163

I dont like the look of steering wheel covers but to each their own. My wheel has a little bit of wear and i would rather replace it with another BMW steering wheel then use a wheel cover, but thats my opinion. I do dislike how hot the wheel gets in the summer but its liveable. Thank god those arnt the real seats. I was a little worried for a moment.

Those 17"s are nice. Should fit with no issues. I have 18"s and they fit with no rubbing on the stock suspension and minor rubbing with it lowered. I gotta go get the fenders rolled for better clearance.

Here is one of the most updated pictures of the 18's on my car. This is when it was still the stock suspension:

http://www.armedcats.net/image/view/XsSrtZnezEUIefvi

http://www.armedcats.net/image/view/Lfw9S6uUwSMiYgOW

**DaleKP** · 01-24-2012, 04:41 PM

Hey those 18's look REALLY good - and its nice to see how well the M3 bumper works as well. Having just bought the wheels, I will have to hang off getting the bumper for a couple of months I think.

I prefer the standard suspension - mine had been lowered when I bought it, so I had it returned to standard.... it handles better with standard. I had the BMW centre tell me that you can never get the wheel alignment spot on with lowered suspension as one of the three things they adjust is set by suspension height on a BMW.

Not only that, but you drive a car with lowered suspension here (and wheels more than 2" over stock) The cops will defect it and take it off the road until suspension is corrected and wheels are no more than 2" over stock. Can be a very expensive exercise.... I should know, beings I am a cop, I have taken HUNDREDS of lowered Commodores off the road. We are shown how to measure eyebrow height from centre of wheel to top of wheel arch and we have a huge book of heights and wheel sizes for every make and model of car that wears an Australian Design Regs compliance plate.

Don't even bother driving a car that doesn't have an ADR Compliance plate......

Did you check out the thread on the Nology Hotwires?

DEATH2000 · 01-24-2012, 04:51 PM

That's crazy. Lowered 2" or more and they can impound it? Wow. We have cars here that can't even go over speed bumps their so low! Realistically you could argue 18" rims are fine as 17" rims are "Stock".

I've been contemplating going back to the sock ride height. I emailed Koni and they said the shocks work fine with the stock springs so I may throw them back in for a while.

The writeup looked good. I have a different engine so I don't think those would work with my car. Did you replace the spark plugs as well or just the wires?

**DaleKP** · 01-24-2012, 04:58 PM

I take your argument about 18" rims being fine.... and yes, using that argument I could probably get away with it - if I could convince my colleagues they came with both 15" AND 17" as standard

When I got the car, it had been lowered quite drastically AND the previous owner had put 21" CHROME rims on *shakes head* really some people. Poor car !!

Pelican do Nology Hotwires for the 328 as well - they do the whole 3 series range for E36. Car has just been serviced, so I only replaced the leads to start with - I will look at new plugs in a few months. I want to run with these for a while and make sure there's no adverse effects, like poor cold starting or anything.

DEATH2000 · 01-24-2012, 06:55 PM

Well you just got 17" OEM rims didn't you? BMW rims are still BMW rims

. A lot of cars have 17" wheel upgrade packages. Why not an E36? The lowering thing is stupid IMO. I'm not sure what reason they would have for implementing that.

How can you lower the car AND fit 21"s? I have a 1" lowering kit Olin and I rub in the turns with 18"s. I hate chrome. That's why I went with black rims. I think the lip helps it stand out but I love the black.

I'll look into the Nology wires for my car, but in worried about the fitment. I have a cover that hides all that stuff and I wanna make sure it will fit back on.

**DaleKP** · 01-24-2012, 11:38 PM

Regards the lowering law, I am sure somewhere there is some rationale... but at the moment all I can say is that it means the vehicle doesn't comply with Australian Design Regs and the law is adamant that a car driven on Australian roads MUST comply with ADR's - Turbo timers are outlawed as well FYI (that's a safety point though..... don't like to stop someone and have them switch off the engine, but the engine carries on running.....)

Yes... lowered AND 21" wheels. When I went to buy the car, the vendor told me I could knock $1000 if I took the standard wheels..... needless to say I happily took the standard mags and left the seller with the chrome monstrosities. Like you, I detest chrome.

With regards the Hotwires, your rocker cover will be similar to mine I think, with a plastic (ABS?) insert running through that the plastic cover screws onto. The Nology leads will not in any way fit with that insert in place, because the channels at the rear for the ignition leads are way too narrow. I want to get a second insert and modify it so that the leads will fit with the insert in and I can put the cover back on. It would mean cutting a very large chunk of the rear portion away and cutting around where the earth straps go to the rocker cover, but it could certainly be made to work. I just don't want to mess up my original insert, so I need to get a second hand one. Doesn't help that I don't know the correct name for it..... time to go across to RealOEM and Pelican Parts I think

Have I mentioned just how highly I rate Pelican Parts??

NOTE: Added some 30 mins after original post. Just been to Pelican Parts and got myself a brand new OEM cover for the princely sum of USD $12.95, so I can "modify" the existing one and post pictures of how it looks with cover back in place.

DEATH2000 · 01-25-2012, 12:58 PM

Australia must not be a big tuner fan. Same with California. Some ricer kids do stuff that is dumb and dangerous. Cutting springs is a big one.

I'm not a huge fan of cutting the back of the cover to do it but it's something I may look into in the future. $12 is not a bad price though. I find theirs to be really good. TheBMWpartsstore.com had a fuel filter for $150 and Pelican had it for $15....

**DaleKP** · 01-25-2012, 04:34 PM

Same thing here - I thing the restrictive laws are aimed at what we call "P" platers - after passing their driving test, up to age 18, people have to drive on a restricted or "P" licence. restrictions on power to weight ratio of vehicle driven, maximum speed, no driving between midnight and 5:30, no use of mobile phone even with a bluetooth or car kit whatsoever and - big one - ZERO alcohol in blood. For other classes of drivers (except taxi drivers and drivers of other prescribed classes) it's 0.05% BAC is the limit. Taxi drivers are zero BAC as well. And yes, P platers do some stupid bloody things to their cars as well ..... like ramping up the engine but not paying attention to the brakes or suspension - or dropping the suspension right down "because it looks cool".

Australia is pretty big into tuning - but unless you have a V8 .... forget it, there is not much for you. If I had a V8 Ford or Holden I could get Supercharger kits and turbo kits a-plenty - but one Aussie company I spoke to was excited to announce their intention to consider the possibility of doing Super and turbo kits for V8 BMW's...... Having said that, KPM Motor sports here in Adelaide is good for European cars, but apart from a modified chip, not much in the way of tuning for a small M44 engine.

This country is obsessed with V8's !! I live in Adelaide and we host the Clipsal 500 in March.... which is becoming the worlds premier V8 supercar event.... Roads are shut off and cars race around the streets of Adelaide a la Monte Carlo. When I say cars.... as long as those cars are V8 Holden's or Fords..... that's it, no other marques or makes. Ford and Holden V8 and THAT is what Australian tuning is aimed at.

For the rest of us who drive real cars, well.... we are left to scrimp and buy from overseas. That's OK - it usually works out cheaper

Once I have the new cover, I will keep that as my "original" (because it is new) and will have no compunction about modifying the old existing cover. I will post pics of what I have done so you can see what I had to do to get it to work and what the end result is. Beings I have ordered and paid for the cover, I may even do that today !!

I am a BIG fan of Pelican Parts. I like being able to go to RealOEM.com, find the part I need for my exact model, then take that part number, plug it into Pelican Parts and BANG.... there it is. I had no idea what that part was called.... but it took me all of 30 mins yesterday to go to RealOEM.com, look it up, put the part number into Pelican, find it , order it (and order some high power dual electrode Bosch spark plugs as well.... pretty cheap at USD $6.00 each !!) and pay for the whole lot. The cover is a special order from BMW, they have given me a predicted shipping date of 3/2/12 and I know I will receive it here in Aus about a week after that.

DEATH2000 · 01-25-2012, 11:07 PM

Our driving regs are like that too. We have what's called a GDL program. It's known as Graduated Drivers License. After you have your learners permit you upgrade to your Class 5 GDL license. Class 5 being passenger cars. Your on it for 2 years and their are a bunch of restrictions like 0 BAC, no driving between midnight to 5am, certain number of passengers. Less demerit points before a suspension. 8 instead of 15. Only problem? Anyone who has a license in anther country automatically gets on here. I've seen people who coulda speak or read a single word of English with a full class 5 license. Their was a really bad problem a couple years back with people being able to "buy" a Class 1 license (semi's and big rig trucks). Thankfully that has been stopped. Kinda scary to think someone is operating a vehicle that large with absolutely no formal training

Theirs no replacement for displacement. Which is true. It's nice to see a company getting into supercharging V8 BMWs but I only know of one V8 in a BMW and that's in the E39 M5. They would be better off building them for the inline 6 engines.

That's not bad for the spark plugs. I hear bosch is pretty good. I have a big shipping list for Pelican Parts. They also take PayPal so for schmuks with out credit cards they can still order. I love reviewing packages. It's like Christmas again! Haha.

**DaleKP** · 02-01-2012, 07:13 PM

Hi there - back to work so I have been a bit slow in replying. Well, I got the 17" rims and put them on, and I am going to put some decent rubber on at the weekend. I have also received and managed to fit the front strut brace. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but will rectify that this weekend. I also intend to fit the plastic cover over the spark plugs back on and will take a step-by-step photo shoot and post it of what I had to do to get it to fit with the Nology wires. The car certainly feels a hell of a lot livelier with the wires, but that really could just be my imagination. The test will almost certainloy be fuel consumption - if I continue driving as I always do, then the fuel consumption should drop if the wires do what they are advertised to do.

Have also found a couple of mobile panel shops in my area that come out to my home and do alloy wheel repairs (curb rash etc) and also colour code bumpers and mirrors as well as dealing with other scuffs, scrapes and chips so I might well get that M3 bumper and get someone to come out and colour code it.

I have also found a relatively inexpensive rear strut brace which whilst providing a bit of rigidty should mainly serve to spread the load on the top shock mounts and prevent any tearing of the sheet metal if they let go again (as they are eventually almost bound to do) Next time I will spend the extra and fit nolothane shock mounts and be done with it.

DEATH2000 · 02-05-2012, 07:31 AM

A DIY of the Hotwires/cover retrofit would definitley be good for anyone else considering it. How does the car handle now with the strut brace? Any noticeable improvement?

Thats an interesting concept that they come to you. I know some places that do tinting and 3M have mobile applications but never heard of paint ones. I hear the DDM M3 replica is really good for a decent price. I got my M3 replica through a local store here so i dont know what the brand was.

The rear strut brace is a great concept, but if you plan on using your trunk much its more of a hinderance IMO. It kills at least a quarter of your trunk space and requires cutting the trunk liner to fit it. A really good set of RSMs would be a better investment first IMO. Reinforcment plates are also avilable.

**DaleKP** · 02-12-2012, 01:20 AM

Please excuse the tardy response - has been busy at work. Not much of an excuse but today is the first chance I have had to get sat down at my computer. OK, I am going to hop on across to the Hotwires thread and post pictures and explanation of the mod which has been very very successful. My replacement cover is in the country and should be with me by early next week.

The photos aren't particularly good quality as I took them with my iPhone as I did the job, but they are clear enough to see what I have done and how.

Couple of things I want to post here though - first one is a link to the M3 bumper I got from eBay - Aussie company doing it, AUD $199 including delivery - Oh Yeah

M3 Bumper for E36

And here is a picture of the car with the new 17" Wheels and Front strut fitted :