Hello
 

Hello all.

I am a long time Bimmer owner for 20+ years. Today I picked up a 318ti auto with a bad engine. I have a M50 donor car for the engine and trans. As soon as I get my post count up I will post pictures.

Post away and welcome.

Thank you for the warm welcome. Day one, Arriving home. This is going to be a father son M50 and 5 speed swap project and I have a few questions about this model. The car is a automatic with a dead engine, the donor car is my old track car 325i with Bilstein and H&R suspension. What rear springs does a ti use? I was hoping to use my rear suspension but it looks like the ti's use a E30 setup

Looks like fun! From experience, Father/Son rebuilds are the best! My son (teen ti, even though hes not a teen anymore), built our 99 ti into an awesome autoX and track car. Unfortunately, as time passes, kids grow up & move on so now I do most of the work and racing by myself (he is now on the opposite coast). So enjoy it while you can!

You are correct about not being able to use the E36 rear suspension in the 318ti. I know there are some components that can be interchangeable with minor modification from an E30 rear end. I believe the rear springs are ti specific, maybe someone else can confirm.

I also found some info here:

http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34703

And welcome to the forum!

Welcome! You'll find a lot of good info here. That car will be a nice runner when you're done with it!

Day 2 well kind of. PO had the head off the car when I bought it so just prepping for engine and trans removal. Found some rust, but it the only part on the car that is bad. Any one have a driver side Boston green fender?

Welcome.

Rear springs:

Ti, Roadster, E30 and some E36 though the last is trial and error. Spring rates on E36 normal rear springs will not be the same rate when used on the ti. I THINK you need to go with a lower rate than what the springs say-

If it’s a 400# spring, it will act as a stiffer than 400# spring, in the lighter and simpler ti.

I am running M Coupe rear springs and really like them; have EF I have a set of M3 LTW springs I want to try out sometime.