BMW E30 M10B18

BMW M10 rebuild When I went looking for a BMW E30, I wanted the M10 powered variant due to the iconic status of the engine. I knew it wasn't going to be cheap trying to extract more power as most of the performance parts for these cars are in the States and all for LHD cars and usually for the 2002Tii/E21 cars.The standard 316 comes with a 1766cc M10B18 motor and a rubbish Pierburb 2BA carb and manages a whole 90bhp with a fair amount of torque. But the block is capable of far greater things depending on the depth of your wallet.This is the base motor for the Brabham BT52 F1 motor and also was the basis for the S14 M3 block too, so bullet-proof is a good description.I started by making up a template of the inlet and sending this off to Bogg Bros who laser-cut a manifold and fitted a set of Mikuni BST36 carbs from a suzuki GSX1100. This required a bit of fettling to get to run as I was too far away to take advantage of their dyno facility. But with a few weeks of messing about with circlip positioning and jet sizes, I managed to get a good increase in power but mainly in reponse.I fitted a set of Magnacor 8.5mm leads, Iridium plugs, Sytec adjustable fuel pressure regulator, and a set of modified velocity stacks from another bank of Mikuni 34mm carbs with Pipercross socks.A new E30 325i anti-roll bar went on the back, as well as a set of Jamex 40mm drop springs, with a set of Alpina Rep 17" alloys. The bumpers and mirrors I colour coded along with the newly fitted SE spec sill finishers. I also modified a Mtech rear bumper valance, shortened and narrowed to fit over the existing rear valance.The interior I replaced with a leather one from a donor car, sanded down with 600 grit, and cleaned it up but managed to get the more matt finish I wanted.Brakes are standard at the moment, but I'm busy modifying a set of BMW Mini Cooper 's' Works brakes with much larger discs to fit. The rear will remain drums at this stage.So with the motor running well enough, I was still unhappy with the performance and decided to go for a 2002Tii motor. I found one with a 121 head, and sent the head off to Bob Walker Performance engineering to work his magic and fit my D'Bilas 292 degree 10mm lift cam.The block is overbored to get 2010cc with high compression pistons and I just need the Racetep 4-into-1 header from the states so I can modify the steering column by fitting another U-Joint to bypass the exhaust which is designed for LHD applications.This motor is still in the rebuild phase due to lack of funds. I though that with the motor out it would be unwise not to do the job properly so have bought just about everything to rebuild the motor completely. Just the big-end shells and rings and a gasket set are needed to complete the engine. I will remove the existing engine, undress it and swap over all the parts like the bike carbs and stuff, and refit the new motor once all sorted.I'm hoping for about 160/170 BHP which wil be adequate for the 980kg car (the base model 316 was the lightest of the E30 series and has just about no options.) and should be a bit of fun and warrant the silly fuel consumption of 20MPG that I get at the moment.I still want to see if I can run a small hatchback behind my car on the exhaust fumes!One of the other things I would still like to do is remove the 'B' post and by using E30 Cabrio doors and a larger rear window, recreate the look of the E9 pillarless cars, but that's still a way off.So that's it for the moment......more as it progresses!