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Recently I had been planning an engine swap for my 530i and was almost ready to pull the trigger. However in the time it took me to convince my wife of the project the perfect m30b35 went off kijiji and left me back at the drawing board. I knew that suspension and brakes would have to come and now that I do not have an engine I figure now would be the time.

First thing is coilovers. For a goal I am looking to make my car the best sporty street car I can make it. I would shorten my original strut housings by 2 inches and either buy the kit from IE or Ground Controll. The one thing questioning me is shocks and springs. Should I go with konis or bilstein sports? Also I have no idea of what spring rates to use. I've heard the rear is pretty simple.

For brakes I am opting to go the more expensive route and do the IE big brake kit. If anyone has any advice to do a different set up that would be awesome! Here's the link.

http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/E12-brake-kits.html

I am also going to run a 22mm front and 19mm rear sway bar set up.

http://www.frsport.com/ST-52015-Front-- ... 35973.html

Besides the major stuff listed above I would want to replace all bushings and maybe wheel bearings in the front. Any advice would be very helpful.

Cheers

I've been trying to contact IE for a set of coilovers, but they are not responding to my emails so maybe someone will have to call them. They will be able to help with springs rates etc. I prefer Bilsteins over Koni, but many people have the opposite opinion so it'll be up tp personal preference. As long as the Billies are valved correctly they are awesome.

Upgraded sway bars are awesome, I havent bought any yet but I know someone with the ST sways and they are a quality product.

I would leave the original e12 brakes and just rebuild them. They are 4 pots up front and 2 pots in the rear. Quite beefy and you wouldn't need more braking power than that for a stock powered car. I rebuilt mine and had them powdercoated at the same time.

**Also a fellow Canadian I assume from the Kijiji remark

Thanks Jody,

Yeah I've heard good things about both Konis and Billies. I know the ground controll coil over kits used re-valved konis. What does re-valving mean?

Sorry I didn't include this but this is going to be a project car and in the end it will hopefully have a turbo m30b35. So brakes I think I am going to have to upgrade.

What bushings do you think need replacing??

Haha, nice eye. Yup I am up here in Calgary Alberta. You?

Thanks

Re-valving the shock just means you send it back to the manufacture with your vehicle specs and they set the strut up for your application and send them back to you.

I also am building a turbo e12, it is a b28 that I'm hoping to push 450rwhp on. If you havent bought a turbo manifold yet you might want to pop on over to mye28.com and grab one of Good&Tights m30 manifolds.

I'm replacing most all of my rear subframe bushings and just my engine/CSB/trans mounts up front. The PO replaced all other front subframe stuff with genuine BMW stuff before I bought it.

I'm on the east coast. Good ole' Nova Scotia.

I see, so would I have to re-valve a set of billstein sports for coil overs? I am trying to get IE to put a quote together for me so I will see what they have to say as far as spring rates.

I was also going to do the rear subframe bushings. I think they are available at IE.

For me turboing will come later down the road, probably with a TCD kit and a Miller/War chip. This year will be suspension, brakes and fixing some fuel issues. Then next year if I can locate a clean b35 I will do the swap and body work. Then turbo!

maxmadill76530i wrote:I see, so would I have to re-valve a set of billstein sports for coil overs? I am trying to get IE to put a quote together for me so I will see what they have to say as far as spring rates.

I was also going to do the rear subframe bushings. I think they are available at IE.

For me turboing will come later down the road, probably with a TCD kit and a Miller/War chip. This year will be suspension, brakes and fixing some fuel issues. Then next year if I can locate a clean b35 I will do the swap and body work. Then turbo!

Well you dont "have to" re-valve them, but see what IE and maybe Bilstein have to say about it. I think the Konis are adjustable but I'm not sure. I would talk to IE and find out for sure. PM me when you hear back from IE because I'd take a set at the same time as you. Maybe they'll put together some group buy pricing if we get a few people on board.

TCD kit isnt bad for an all in one shot and it certainly does what it advertises. I found the instrustions that came with it sort of require you to have some idea of what you're doing, which I did but I can see how someone not having installed a turbo or have an idea how it works would be confused.

Bilstein's # 858)386-5900. This is the factory in San Diego, Cal.
If you have the time & the loose change, it will be worth re-valving,
because you'll know they're fresh and will last years & years.
Re-valving will cost about 3/4 the price of new shocks. But, I believe they have to be Billys to start with.
Ask about the guarantee.

Just sent Jeff at IE a message to put together a quote. Hoping he can help with spring rates and lengths. I will see if he supplies re-valved bill stein sports in the kit. I also mentioned that we might be able to get a group together to do a buy. So we will see how that goes down

What do you guys think about the IE big brake kit? It seems to me that a compete kit like this would cover everything to produce very reliable, powerful brakes.

I will tell you that if you can't get someone to respond to you to purchase something, they're not going to be there when you have a problem, which I know from experience is the case with IE. I know its more money, but I'd give a serious look to Ground Control.

I don't mean to dismay your consideration here but I just heard back from IE.

Here is the message.

We are just finishing a more to a larger building so it would be several days before I could put together a list of parts.

The adjustable height coil overs for the E12 are basically the same as the E28/E24. You can see a short description of the fronts on our website. You would need the hardware plus a pair of springs. The rears are not listed but we have done quite a few. The threaded sleeve fits right onto the Bilstein and we have a special pad for the top perch. The cost is about the same as the fronts.

You don't need to cut you strut housings. Look at the relation of the tire to the strut. You can't have the spring below the tire top unless you move the tire/wheel out which would require flared fenders.
The race camber plates are about an inch shorter than the stock upper strut bearing.
The Bilstein sports will be fine.
I assume you would also use larger sway bars.

We really do not care for group buys. The discount would be small and the time (emails, phone calls etc) to sort out everyone is to time consuming and confusing.


I still am considering ground control as an option, mainly due to the fact that they supply revalved konis and might their quality seems to be higher. However if I can save and still get a nice kit with IE I might end up doing it. What do you guys think about shortening the strut housing? Isn't it necessary to maintain full travel while lowering?

Wondering if anyone has some good information on brakes. For a goal I am looking to greatly improve the brakes but I will not be track driving very often or at all.

I have looked at the Willwood kit at IE for our E12s but together it would be around $2000 for both front and rear. From what I've heard our callipers are actually pretty good (except for being steel and pretty heavy). Wondering if there are any cheaper, lighter callipers other than the Willwoods that would bolt up?

If I do just stick with stock calipers what would you reccomend for rotors and pads? I reckon if just do new drilled rotors, performance pads, stainless steel lines and racing fluid my brakes will be alot better than before.

Cheers