1991 Dinan S3

[theBMWbeast]

Going to be starting a build thread for my Dinan Stage III car. Wanted somewhere to easily document the progress I'm making on the car. Hope y'all enjoy. Heres some pics

Car had a crazy amount of options/accessories:
Full Mtech bodykit, with front intensive washing system.
6 CD changer, with giant CD holder in glovebox.
All the little coin trays, door pockets one would need.
Child mirror, which mounts to the main rear view mirror.
Integrated blindspot mirror, which I believe was an option.
Rear trunk liner, and spare bellino gas can hidden in the spare wheel well.
Accessory catalog 17' style 18s.
Phone system, of course.
M5 dead pedal.
OEM fire extinguisher and first aid kit.


And the pièce de résistance, a rear fridge!

On top of all this, it has Dinan adjustable swaybars, front and rear. Dinan springs front and rear paired with adjustable koni shocks. Racing dynamics strut bar. Dinan chip for ECU and TCU.

All this with the mighty m30 powering it all. Hoping to get the car back to peak shape, on all fronts. First and foremost is suspension and a tuneup.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[theBMWbeast]

I'll bring you guys up to speed on where the car is at currently. Excuse the crappy pics.

Been ordering parts since day 1 of getting this car. In the werks is a 5 speed manual swap, complete suspension refresh/upgrade, and interior update. Some other things are also in planning, but more on that later.

Got most of the parts I needed from FCPeuro, but waiting on moosehead uppers from angry ass, and moosehead rear strut mounts as well. So suspension work has been put on hold until delivery of that.

Took the time to pull the intake manifold, to replace everything I can while it gets painted. Easy job if you have small hands, and a small 12mm wrench.

The mission scope expanded a bit, when I read into what Dinan used to do with m30 intake manifolds. A $1200? option from Dinan was their "performance" manifold, which in practice was them sending the manifold ro extrude honing, to remove the internal casting marks/defects, and smooth the intake tract. They also ported the manifold, or so I've read, along with painting it black.

I wasn't too convinced on the cost value of sending my manifold to be exturde honed, but lined up one of the gaskets to see what we were working with as far as porting. There is basically a wall that the air hit, directly before it enters the valve area on the head. No good. Many hours and dremel bits later, I had things close enough to my liking, and smoothed out for the transition. The head side lines up almost perfectly with the gasket already, so didn't touch that. You can see the disparity in the pic of the finished port, vs an untouched port. Should be a good response upgrade, not really expecting anymore ponies from my work.

Then, went on to paint the manifold wrinkle black, love the way it came out. Valve cover will be next. Took the time to also do a valve adjustment, among other tuneup items. Wasn't too out of spec, and valve train looked clean. All things I'm happy to see. New plugs are in, and plug wires enroute.

Also fitted a Dinan intake from an e46 onto my daily driver 535, to check fitment. It's as if it was designed to be there, fitment is that good. Will need to design a box for it, and route air from the stock grill area. But will look fantastic in the dinan car.

I forgot how much fun/rewarding it is to work on an m30. Everything is easy to get to, and simple to remove. My daily has been rock solid for a while, so truly don't work on it too often (which is good!). Going to spend the next couple of days cleaning whatever part of the block I can get to, and painting more components. Already removed the oil filter housing and thermostat housing to repaint in silver. Stay tuned

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[a777fan]

Awesome beast. Looking forward to more.

[Cactuar]

What a great find! It looks to be in great shape, it will clean up very well. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[circuit.heart]

The step-up from intake manifold to head port (manifold smaller than head) can be by design, it introduces some tumble if the engineers wanted to use that mechanic to mix the air and fuel. That's "just saying" though, you already did it so hopefully you find some tangible benefit once it's all back together.

I think I've seen this car in person before too. NorCal?

[theBMWbeast]

Some late night assembly, got everything back in and bolted up. Still need to repaint the valve cover, as the wrinkle finish wasn't playing nice. So don't mind the one I've got in there for the moment.

And to your point circuit, I considered this. However even the natural curves and overall shape of the gasket (which matches head side perfectly) are almost completely absent on the manifold side. So I figured just cheap casting rather than engineering design. That's just a theory though, and sadly I didn't dyno the car before to get a good comparison; if such a change would even be indicated on the dyno

The car was bought new in San Diego, and then moved to Texas. I am the second owner, must have been a different car (but great specs if it's similar!)

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[circuit.heart]

And to your point circuit, I considered this. However even the natural curves and overall shape of the gasket (which matches head side perfectly) are almost completely absent on the manifold side. So I figured just cheap casting rather than engineering design. That's just a theory though, and sadly I didn't dyno the car before to get a good comparison; if such a change would even be indicated on the dyno

You'd probably be surprised what seemingly-stupid crap shows up on the dyno - on a Miata BP or Honda K you can actually pick up power just from replacing curved intake piping with straight. I don't mess much with this stuff because cost:benefit, but little things added up is how race engines make so much more power than road engines.

[theBMWbeast]

Couple quick updates:

Engine bay wrapped up as far as painting goes. Waiting on new cooling system components, will be trying to refresh the yellowed fluid containers. More gunk and 30 yrs of grime to be cleaned off.
DSC_0025.jpg

Got a rear strut bar mocked into place for fitment. Will have to figure out welding sooner or later. Did the rear trunk struts at the same time; correct part# for cars with Mtech rear spoilers.
DSC_0018.jpg

DSC_0020.jpg

And also got my pedal cover installed, and threw in one of the repro Dinan carpets. Really love the quality of it, well worth the money. And a little teaser of whats to come!

DSC_0016.jpg
DSC_0017.jpg

Working on sourcing a new interior, and in the meantime I've already ordered the supplies to do a new black headliner. So should be a fun little project to document.

[a777fan]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Johal E32]

Very nice! I look forward to seeing more progress. This is a very cool car and it is in great hands

[theBMWbeast]

Thanks guys

Bigger update for today, problems tackled, and some problems found that I wasn't expecting.

Got an ebay heckblende, which I am impressed with. Fits perfectly, and fits especially perfectly around the trunk lock cylinder, which is an issue with genuine heckblendes. M5 fitment dictates that the grommet doesn't work on nonM cars. Here is no problem!



Did the last part of the tuneup, and got the parts for the cooling hose refresh.
NOS looking plug wires with an alternative part number than usual. Still has the pickup wire and everything else correct, but only $100! Heres the part number for our m30 friends







And more BMW parts for that shaped fuel hose



And now for the meat and potatoes of whats been taking so long; the suspension rebuild.
New lemforder parts, of course. Idler arm ordered directly from BMW, and had to wait for this and didn't get to the idler arm/ steering links yet.





Special thanks to Angry Ass Solutions for the Mooseheads (and the spare harness tape, already being put to use.

First things first, cleaned out as much of the 30yrs of road grime that I easily could. Didn't go too crazy/ indepth, but I'm happy.









Cleaned all the Dinan parts so the world could see that blue paint again. Poly bushings generously greased.
Konis are still good, so simply cleaned the housings, threw on a coat of paint, and replaced the bump stops along with the top mounts. New blue UUC stainless steel brake lines all around.





Rears got some powerflex rear subframe bushings, along with pitman arms and those beautiful moosehead shock top mounts.







Did the exhaust hangers while I was down there, which is always fun to see what new shape rubber hangers take after 30 years. Seems like nobody replaces these until the exhaust falls off.

And just today, a big piece of the puzzle came in the mail:



Way too sexy. Brand new from BMW. Can't beat brembo, I suppose. Rotors/pads hiding in the trunk, waiting for e36 m3 rear calipers to arrive.



Also found my master cylinder to be only functioning properly on 1 output, so 750il brake master on order at the same time. All in all should be a very noticeable improvement from, well, 0 brakes. The car has had no brakes since I have owned it

More exciting updates on the way in the form of an interior. Going to begin work on the headliner hopefully in the next week, and get prepped for the parts that will be shipping to me soon. Can't wait to get everything sorted and get this car actually driving properly.



Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[Cactuar]

Excellent update, love the pictures. You literally threw parts at the car.

I can't believe the price of those Genuine ignition wires. They're less expensive than the Karlyn/Bremi wires I bought off Rockauto for my M30B35!? Part # for those who didn't note it: 12120407868 (in case the pictures vanish somehow).

Are you keeping the stock free form headlights or will you upgrade to projectors or Euro smileys?

[Mama Tried]

Cant believe the sweet fridge option! Amazing for the era - A/C cooling it down as opposed to any compressor, etc.? What a great example and quality resto work there. Nice! Those brake calipers have got me going, now - the wife sends her dismay!

[theBMWbeast]

Excellent update, love the pictures. You literally threw parts at the car.

I can't believe the price of those Genuine ignition wires. They're less expensive than the Karlyn/Bremi wires I bought off Rockauto for my M30B35!? Part # for those who didn't note it: 12120407868 (in case the pictures vanish somehow).

Are you keeping the stock free form headlights or will you upgrade to projectors or Euro smileys?

Don’t remember where I got the part #, but yeah, best option I have found so far. Wish I knew this earlier. More parts enroute while I let my throwing arm recover lol.

Looking for euro smileys currently. Was debating going Hella smoked. Still making up my mind there, kinda liking the clean look with no smoked headlights.

Cant believe the sweet fridge option! Amazing for the era - A/C cooling it down as opposed to any compressor, etc.? What a great example and quality resto work there. Nice! Those brake calipers have got me going, now - the wife sends her dismay!

Thanks man, I couldn’t believe the options either. The fridge has a small compressor system, all self contained. Only uses a power wire and a ground wire. I believe it has built in voltage sensing as well, to turn it all off it voltage on the battery dips. Impressive stuff, and still gets ice cold.

34111161177 34111161178

Left and right parts numbers. Wife can thank me later

[theBMWbeast]

Long time no update:
My interior arrived from Russia. Also got a 5 speed swap on standby for this car. Here's some pics, but not much content elsewise.
Enjoy the hurricane and alcantara. Also went custom alcantara for the steering wheel and boots.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[a777fan]

Lookin good beast!


Taking things at your own pace? Or to you have a timeline you are trying to stick to?

[Costa Mellios]

This is awesome

[theBMWbeast]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

To your question a7, deadline is March. A lot of the major stuff is actually done, sans the transmission swap. Might go forced induction, I have a kit, but unsure if that lines up with my deadline. We will see what happens I guess!

[a777fan]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

To your question a7, deadline is March. A lot of the major stuff is actually done, sans the transmission swap. Might go forced induction, I have a kit, but unsure if that lines up with my deadline. We will see what happens I guess!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ZEKTI]

That interior is gorgeous. Nice build!

[circuit.heart]

That's a very fancy interior, and you made the carpet swap look easy.

To your question a7, deadline is March.

Oh? Is there something going on in March?

[theBMWbeast]

That's a very fancy interior, and you made the carpet swap look easy.


Oh? Is there something going on in March?

Danke, I'm kinda in love with the manual seats. To note, the carpet swap is actually fairly easy, if you cut it out that is. I cannot imagine the nightmare getting the front section out from behind the HVAC box. Magic of photos I guess

Nothing of note related to March, just have to pick a time when I want to be done/ meet my goals. Have been really delayed up until this point on getting stuff done.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[theBMWbeast]

Minor updates:

Getting close to getting the braking system refreshed. I did all new UUC stainless steel lines and fluid a while back. But have had these brembos and the matching pads/rotors sitting in the trunk for quite some time. Took months for these stickers to arrive from Hong Kong!





I also have rear e36 m3 calipers painted the same "Dinan" blue. Was waiting on high heat white paint to do the M logo, so pics of those will probably be when I install them. Wanted the rears to pop a bit more than your standard rinky dinky looking rear brake setup

With my old parchment comfort seats waiting for trash day, I decided to not let those highly optioned seats go to waste. They were speced with everything but memory.







Stole the lumbar setup from them, and cut and spliced the original wiring harness so that it became a custom plug and play harness just for the lumbar. Works great, and doubt many manual sport seats are equipped as such. Wish the seat heating was as easy a swap, would have done it at the same time.



Another little update that went slightly off course, was a parts car I picked up to snag some new wheels. Bought sight unseen, shipped from Florida, with unforseen delays. Finally arrived, and the coilover system I was told installed, wasn't. Live and learn. (Also came with an m50 turbo kit, if anyone is interested)





I'll deal with that headache later, trying to break even on the car and get some free wheels here:





BBS RC090 square spec. Not sure if I am in love, although an upgrade over the accessory catalog wheels that were on there. Need to get some real tires on to make up my mind, the bicycle tires (195!!!) aren't helping me visualize anything, that's for sure.

That's about it for now, next on the list is braking system installed, and getting the 5 speed swap done. Little teaser for that:



Stay tuned!

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[ZEKTI]

Those calipers

[a777fan]

Holy crap those are rubber bands. As you state, wont really be able to judge them until they are shod in properly sized rubber.