Potential Project Ideas Options

[senick]

I recently bought an e46 328i, which is now my daily, and decided to store my 95 ST. I did maintenance and suspension work to the 328, and was struck by how much more expensive (needlessly I believe) BMW parts are than Toyota. And I have to say, for as much love as the e46 chassis gets, I honestly feel like the AT200 is the better car to drive.

Anyway, since storing the Celi, I've been constantly thinking about a project for it (and missing its excellent fuel economy), and I was looking for some input. I should say, though, that I wouldn't likely get started on any such project for at least a year from now, likely longer.

So the philosophy of the build would be to maintain the reliability and fuel economy of the 7a, while increasing long distance driving comfort and maximizing engine power delivery through driveline and suspension improvements. Basically, in the same vein that the BRZ/FRS was designed to make the most out of a relatively low powered engine through intelligent overall car design. The emphasis is on a comfortable, fuel efficient and reliable car for driving long distances, while always having the potential to be a 'driver's' car.

I have a few ideas currently, such as:

-Lightweight driveline components, wherever possible. Are these available for the 7a? I see flywheels for the GT, but so far nothing for ST.
-Underdrive pulleys
-Lightweight wheels/ sticky tires.
-Weight reduction where possible, but not in compromising comfort or increasing road noise. Feasible?
-Lightweight exhaust
-4 wheel disc brake conversion
-Suspension upgrades. Would certainly welcome suggestions on this.
-Cooling system upgrades (better efficiency)

And more, but I'll leave it at that for now. Other than additional comments, I'd also like to know if anyone has suggestions on where to look for parts? I've done a fair bit of searching and referenced a few sticky's, but it's still hard to find parts for an ST. For 7a specific parts, I suppose I can look at Corolla sources, but for suspension and other parts I'm at a loss.

Finally, I've been wondering if it would be possible to swap a 7a into a GT body? I assume yes. I feel like the GT is more amenable to performance suspension and braking mods.

Any input is very welcome, thank you for reading!

This post has been edited by senick: Feb 23, 2017 - 9:25 AM

[Box]

I found the 7A really good for around the city style driving and meandering down the highway, even was able to get up to interstate speed in time for merging if you bounced it off redline. I consistently got 36-40 mpg on 87 out of it doing mostly highway driving. The only legitimate complaint I had was you knew when the A/C was on or not, and I'm not just talking about the cool breeze on your face either, that and passing power was mostly nonexistent. Outside of that and the stuck oil ring issue that seems to plague them it's a great motor. Truly and honestly if I bought another ST and I had no reason to go into the motor I'd just do header back exhaust and timing advance as far as engine performance goes, that and a true cold air but that's more for noise than anything else since the factory intake draws air from the fender and flows more than enough CFM for a naturally aspirated 1.8L engine.