What have YOU done to your 318 for more power?

[Danny318]

Please, no hate in this thread.

Now, for everyone who has a 318, what sort of power mods have you done, or had done to your car and what do you think of that mod? Like did it make a difference, howso, etc?

Air intakes, chips, exhuasts, FI, track pipe, headers, cams heads etc.

Please just talk about whatever mod you have done and if it actually made any difference.


For me, I put a chip in a long time ago shortly after I got the car and that did make a noticable difference. Mostly a lot more response on the throttle, and a bit faster up top and down low. Definatly worth it.

I also had a K&N filter in the stock fogged box for a while, and that did nothing but make it louder. I liked it, of course, but it did not really give me more power.

Now I have a good cold air intake that I built with a cold air wall. This sounds much better, and I pretend that the car is faster and more responsive on the highway because I have a sort of scoop set up pushing lots of fresh air into the filter area. Might not really be much faster but its definatly worth it since I built the whole thing for less than 50 dollarsb.

I keep thinking about doing something cheap with the exhuast, maybe just cutting out the resonator and changing the muffler, and possibly getting a track pipe made to put in place of the cat. I've heard mixed things about exhuasts on 318s as far as power goes, so I'm interested to hear what yalls experience has been.

[328 Power 04]

replaced it!


jk, never bought one.. but bump for you

[Danny318]

replaced it!


jk, never bought one.. but bump for you

Just couldnt resist now could you

[AlaskaBimmer]

Well I had a motor go out so I replaced it with a preformance rebuilt M42 don't have dyno numbers on it, but the one time I did the 1/4 mile before and the 1 time after I went from a 16.9 to a 16.2 so I say it was faster....

although I have replaced the 318i with a 98 M3....yes I've been driving an E-21 with a 6 cylidar as a summer car and I'm digging the hp of the six which led me to get an M3, so now the 318 must go...

[Jeffrie]

FI + exhaust is the way to go, huge difference in power.
Suspension would be a close second for making the car "fast".
3rd would be the higher ratio diff.

[Danny318]

yeah so how bout anyone else

[ERICKBOTIC]

i have the same thing as u plus the exhaust...

[reds6960639]

It's expensive, but my cylindars were bored out and enlarged. I had to have custom pistons made and shipped from germany. But it is technically no longer a 318is. Now it's like a 320is.

[Danny318]

ERICKBOTIC - Is that a custom exhuast? No resonator I see.. How much did it cost you, and how do you like it? Any comments about it?

[Danny318]

It's expensive, but my cylindars were bored out and enlarged. I had to have custom pistons made and shipped from germany. But it is technically no longer a 318is. Now it's like a 320is.

nice! how is that? Is there much more power, or low end torque or anything? You done anything else to the car?

[reds6960639]

Well to be honest, the car was on its way out when I got it. It would turn off randomly, black smoke coming out of the exhaust, transmission grinding as you put it into second, ect. Bad stuff. So, Im not really sure how to compare the difference to a normal running 94 318is. Although when I do hear people trash talking the 318, I do not quite understand if people are exaggerating, or if they really mean what they say about the 318. When I had just that madification done alone(and other stock improvments, like new trasmission, differential), no other supplimental mods, It pulled pretty well (too well for it to take blame forall the trashtalking it was getting), and almost everyone flipped out when they realized I was driving a 4banger. They could have sworn on their grandmother's graves that it was 6. That much should tell you that the extra volume can do. I think it's a combination of the larger volume, and the not having the excess weight. I have a bunch of other stuff I've added since then like the eibach pro street s coilover system, (works great btw) cold air intake, too many things i'd rather not list. pretty much anything you can think of but forced induction.

[Bluebimma]

I subtracted 4 cyls. then added 6 cyls.

[Danny318]

Well to be honest, the car was on its way out when I got it. It would turn off randomly, black smoke coming out of the exhaust, transmission grinding as you put it into second, ect. Bad stuff. So, Im not really sure how to compare the difference to a normal running 94 318is. Although when I do hear people trash talking the 318, I do not quite understand if people are exaggerating, or if they really mean what they say about the 318. When I had just that madification done alone(and other stock improvments, like new trasmission, differential), no other supplimental mods, It pulled pretty well (too well for it to take blame forall the trashtalking it was getting), and almost everyone flipped out when they realized I was driving a 4banger. They could have sworn on their grandmother's graves that it was 6. That much should tell you that the extra volume can do. I think it's a combination of the larger volume, and the not having the excess weight. I have a bunch of other stuff I've added since then like the eibach pro street s coilover system, (works great btw) cold air intake, too many things i'd rather not list. pretty much anything you can think of but forced induction.

Hm, yeah that sounds pretty cool. People just trash talk the 318 because I dont know why, because its a way to make themselves feel better about thier cars perhaps. There is nothing wrong with the 318 at all. I love mine. Drive it hard and its fun. blah blah a million reasons why I like it.


Anyways though, thanks for the info.

[f33linit187]

made my own cai and got a new exhaust. its an improvement but im thinking since i only have 95,xxx miles might as well supercharge it.

[ERICKBOTIC]

ERICKBOTIC - Is that a custom exhuast? No resonator I see.. How much did it cost you, and how do you like it? Any comments about it?

yeah custom, i like it a lot feel more power but im tired of having a loud car... start thursday im making it quiet and fixing all suspension, i just want a nice car to drive around

[Danny318]

yeah custom, i like it a lot feel more power but im tired of having a loud car... start thursday im making it quiet and fixing all suspension, i just want a nice car to drive around

Yeah I want to change my exhuast but I really dont want it to be loud.

[szed]

Hm, yeah that sounds pretty cool. People just trash talk the 318 because I dont know why, because its a way to make themselves feel better about thier cars perhaps. There is nothing wrong with the 318 at all. I love mine. Drive it hard and its fun. blah blah a million reasons why I like it.

They don't know how to downshift. "Gears? Huh? I thought it only goes up"...Or if they do they don't know how to do it smoothly.

Just kidding you bastard 6-ers! Don't get all sensitive now...

[kalimot]

i've decided not to chase for more ponies after doing a lot of research. i'll keep my car as it is, keep it clean and nice then move on to something better in the future.

[reds6960639]

It looks like it's too late for that. You've already changed your indicators.

[jdc430]

sold it and bought a M best mod EVAR11!

[glwillia]

Trunk delete mod.

[jorbon]

FI + exhaust is the way to go, huge difference in power.
Suspension would be a close second for making the car "fast".
3rd would be the higher ratio diff.

Did all that- DASC, Software, Exhaust (but I'm still fighting with making it sound better than the stock-little bird chirping, without busting eardrums and setting off alarms all around me.)
Lightweight flywheel makes some difference, and the 3.91 lsd is great for both launches and getting out of corners.
Overall I might be 175-180 to the wheels on 94-100 octane now (dynoed 170 before the flywheel and exhaust on 91 octane...)
The suspension work is budget (no coilovers or adjustable camber plates) but it's pretty dialed in-
Handles much better than my stock 328 and pretty sure it'll outrun a 328 from a stop-- and with the top down it's great to outrun folks who see the 318 badge and can't figure out what just happened-

[Danny318]

Did all that- DASC, Software, Exhaust (but I'm still fighting with making it sound better than the stock-little bird chirping, without busting eardrums and setting off alarms all around me.)
Lightweight flywheel makes some difference, and the 3.91 lsd is great for both launches and getting out of corners.
Overall I might be 175-180 to the wheels on 94-100 octane now (dynoed 170 before the flywheel and exhaust on 91 octane...)
The suspension work is budget (no coilovers or adjustable camber plates) but it's pretty dialed in-
Handles much better than my stock 328 and pretty sure it'll outrun a 328 from a stop-- and with the top down it's great to outrun folks who see the 318 badge and can't figure out what just happened-

Yeah I wanted to do a lightweight flywheel but I didnt have the money for that, figured the gains would be semi marginal once the engine is up to speed.

[kingfish]

I subtracted 4 cyls. then added 6 cyls.

this is the best bang for the buck reply..

FYI, it only costs an additional $10-15 per visit to the gas station if you were to drive a 328i (city mpg). the difference becomes really little if both were driven highway miles, which is in my estimate ~ $150-200per year

i drive an 318 because for me the M44 is enough for my purpose.

[JohnnyWash1]

this is the best bang for the buck reply..

FYI, it only costs an additional $10-15 per visit to the gas station if you were to drive a 328i (city mpg). the difference becomes really little if both were driven highway miles, which is in my estimate ~ $150-200per year

i drive an 318 because for me the M44 is enough for my purpose.

I think you may have worded this wrong. Unless the gas tank in the 318 is 11 gallons, the price to fill either car would be virtually identical (given same grade fuel).