E30 325is ignition improvements?

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Ok, now tha i have my A/C fully operational, (tech article coming soon) I've been thinking of other areas on the car i want to address. i was wondering if there would be any benefit to running something liek a blue coil or an 6AL on my 325is. I dont know if anyone has tried this or if i should just stick with the Motronic. Just looking to see if anybody had any ideas?

Next under consideration is converting to the larger AFM and injectors from the 3.5L I have heard that doing this along witha adjustable fuel pressure regulator and a cam can net you up to 30 HP. Any ideas?

[black325i]

A 6AL or something like it would be a great idea. Any time you can improve the spark to the engine the better.

[carolinus]

There is a freeware fuel injection and ignition system out there called MegaSquirt and MegaJolt. They are programmed by a laptop, and believe me, you have FULL control over the system. It only costs about $250 for both of them, and if anything breaks, you can fix it easily. Not so w/ anyone else's system.

It is a loong project, though.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Im just wondering mainly of how the 6AL will work witht he engine management. Will there be any problems?

[carolinus]

Usually,no. I have seen a 951 Turbo running off of one, and it is my understanding they are motronic as well.
The ignition system is not really monitored by motronic, except for the crankshaft position sensor and the impulse sender. These two effect injection events, which motronic will usually still handle. As well, hooking them straight up to the 6al will cause the check engine light to come on, and the car probably wouldn't start. You would need to splice into the signal instead.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Ok, so i would have to splice into the feed for the impulse sender, then route that to the feed for the 6AL?

[carolinus]

Probably not the impulse sensor, as that is usually used to determine which injectors to fire. The Crankshaft position sensor you would probably need input from. Unless the 6AL runs off of the coil output from Motronic, bu I doubt it.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Ideally, all I would need is just a signal right? So it really wouldnt matter where it was coming form as long as it was ynchronized with the ignition timing. Maybe i could splice off the coil leads?

[carolinus]

That is a possibility. I think the controller has really good instructions w/ it. Have you had an opportunity to look?

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Not as yet. Im wonering what the benfits would be mostly. Would there be a noticable change in the way the car ran?

[carolinus]

The reason for using aftermarket ignition is usually if you are looking at an older american car, or if you are going to be doing forced induction. The american cars can really use some more oomph on the ignition, and the turbo and supercharger setups require control over your ignition timing.

On a BMW of that year, I would suspect you wouldn't get too much. And not nearly as much as you would off of other upgrades.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Thanks for the info!

[carolinus]

Esp. after all the help you have given me w/ my idle problems.
I did finally get it after pulling the intake manifold, and replacing all of the seals. I also did a new cap and rotor. Things are better, but not perfect now.

BTW, what upgrades have you done so far?

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

too many to list...

Chip, intake, exhaust, suspension, stereo, A/C etc..

[phaques]

Jared - What did you wind up doing on the ignition front? Any tips/suggestions? I've done a drop in K&N replacement filter, cat=back billy boat exhaust, and a JC chip. Now wondering about ignition improvements, though I should probably look at adding some safety equip at this point.......

thx.
fax

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Left it stock... After doing more research, I found that nothing was really going to make much of a difference, and the stock system works very well... Dont bother with the K+N drop in. If you are going to do it, build a cold air intake. (you'll have to build one, as none are available for the E30, $2 worth of roof flashing worked for me) and use at least a 7 inch cone filter) However you wont have any difference with the Cold air intake unless you also upgrade te chip and exhaust. Exhaust and chip will make a difference, but you really should add our MSDS header system too... That will make a REAL difference. roughly 35 peak HP all together...

[jase007]

and use at least a 7 inch cone filter

Jared: Why do you think the normal 5" long x 4" wide K&N is to restrictive? This was what many vendors sold as part of a CAI kit for E30s back in the day. It is what I have and I was thinking of replacing. Also, my K&N filter has NOT stood up to many washings over the years. Thankfully, they aren't that expensive.

Did you do any testing on the flow characteristics (CFM) of different size cones? There is site out "there" where a guy with an E30 or 944 ran a series of tests on various materials (documented) using air guns, etc... on a DIY bench tester. He had OEM paper, Air-raid, foam ITG, K&N, and a few others. Have to serch for it again.

Jason

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

I dont think it's restrictive... In fact I dont think it flows any better than the stock filter.

I spoke at length with Marty Schnieder of MSDS at length about what intake size to use. He's got it pretty much all figured out. With his headers, he suggested the 7 inch size.