Josh's '81 320i Turbo

This website details the restoration and modification of my first car, a BMW 320i. I bought the car my senior year of high school in the fall of '98 for $650 and it has been a labor of love since. When I started all I knew was how to change oil and spark plugs, and I had nothing more than basic tools and a Haynes manual. But 10 years of hard work has resulted in an empty shell restoration and then some. I learned almost everything I know about cars by wrenching on my e21.

The motor was stroked to 2.0L with 8:1 compression, I-J crank scraper, mild 280 cam, ported and polished head, AC delete, electric fan, aluminum flywheel and 6 puc clutch. Chassis upgrades include Volvo/girling 4 piston front calipers & 323i vented rotors, 323i rear disc conversion, 3.91 LSD, Bilstien sport shocks, Eibach springs, ST 25/19mm swaybars, Hartge front strut brace, rear strut brace, 15x7 wheels, and poly bushings throughout.

After several years of driving the car NA I designed and fabricated a budget turbo system using a mix and match of ebay parts from other vehicles. The system consisted of a Dinan turbo manifold, T25 from an S13 Nissan Silvia, 12” FMIC, 1G DSMBOV, BMW e12 528i 65mm throttle body, Hallman Pro MBC, custom fabbed charge pipes and 2.5” exhaust. I chose to stay with the old school CIS mechanical fuel injection but with some upgrades including a Porsche 931 fuel distributor and air flow meter, Porsche 911 turbo fuel pump, and a Volvo 240 turbo boost sensing control pressure regulator.

In it's final form, the 2.0L motor put out about 240 hp at 14 lbs of boost which was enough to propel the car to a quarter mile of 13.92 @ 100 mph. The car was my daily driver in the summer season and saw occasional auto-x events and so far 1 track day at Nelson Ledges. In 2011, it suffered a boost spike resulting in enough detonation to blow through the fire ring on cyl. 3.

Now, the Bavarian boat anchor is on the stand pending a 2.2L rebuild using an offset welded and ground 84mm knife edged crank, GM quad 4 eagle rods, Ford 4.6L 91mm Wiseco pistons, and MS3x EFI conversion. The rebuild has slowed to a glacial pace with life's many responsibilities, but it will run again someday.