E36 Track Tart

[Whiteley]

Some old timers on here may remember my Mk1 16v/172 Clio trackday special. After 3 years and 20+ trackdays that was broken for parts back in 2011. Since then I've managed to stay fairly sensible and just been through a few road cars. The current steed is an E39 M5 that I've had for getting on 18 months now which is pretty good going for me.

Fast forward a little bit and I was under astronomical amounts of peer pressure to buy an E36. So I did, blind. Fortunately with it being in Manchester a friend was able to view it for me beforehand and gave it the go ahead. A deal was agreed and that was that. I was scheduled to do a drift day at Oulton a week or two after so that would be the ideal time to collect it, and the seller agreed to meet me there.

Pleasantly suprised with my new purchase I headed home. It's in the fetching shade of ginger known as Sierrarot, pretty rare individual colour I'm led to believe. 120k miles with some serious lacquer peel on the bonnet. Standard with the exception of some ebay specal coilovers and a non-staggered set of RC041's rattle canned badly in black. Most importantly though it has no rust.

I present the tangerine dream:

Before i go much further, I'll keep this fairly brief. I've not taken pictures throughout, just a few when I've remembered. I'll no doubt skip the bits I haven't got photos for.

Few little jobs for starters. Replaced the disgusting melted standard wheel with my old Clio wheel that I hung onto. Bargain £10 boss off Gumtree of all places

Wired a horn button in

Replaced a deformed sunroof seal

Then started collecting a few parts. Next on the list was the ever popular M50 inlet.

Cleaned some nice looking stuff out the old breather setup

Made up some new ICV pipework

Made some fuel rail brackets (mounting holes are different M50>M52)

Removed ASC and got a new inlet elbow

Made up a new breather pipe to go back into above elbow

Fitted a low temp fan switch and binned the viscous fan/clutch

Made up a new line to replace the leaking Vanos oil feed line

Sold the black BBS wheels, bought some E38 16x8 BBS wheels and new tyres, fitted them and drove it like that for about 1000 miles. All good

Did a bit of recovery

.

It stayed like this for a few weeks whilst I set about getting some parts sorted.

Won a 3.0 M3 LSD on ebay, went to collect it and came home with a few extra bits. Turns out he was breaking the car. So got M3 diff, prop, shafts, trailing arms, hubs, brakes, calipers etc. Everything I'd planned on buying down the line anyway. Good result.

Made a start stripping some of these bits down, knowing it would all be powdercoated and polybushed.

Reinforced the rear ARB mounting tabs

Got the car on stands ready to strip the remaining parts off that were being reused

A few bits ready to be powdercoated

They reappeared

Painted some more bits

TBC...

 

[Cookson]

Looking gooooooooood. I do love a good E36

 

[Bluebeard]

LOL!

You're an epic man Christopher. Truely epic.

 

[Danith]

Bloody hell, ANOTHER ONE!?!?

Good work pal. Think I've just found myself a set of those 16s.

What's the deal with the ASC delete and Viscous fan delete? Heard of it a few times but no idea how/why?

 

[f0xy]

Tarty :clown:

 

[Slammed172]

Top work ! Preferred the old BBS tbh.

 

[Pauleds]

Wish I had the time to paint n powdercoat my car like that.

 

[George@RTR_Parts]

Great work so far mate :approve:

Was wondering when you were going to get a thread up

 

[JoeyD]

Awesome! Another decent E36 thread I'll be following closely to pinch ideas etc.

In regard to the 3.0 M3 diff, does the diff carrier/ subframe not need to be swapped like it does with the 3.2/Evo diff? That could be handy.

 

[Welsh.Dan]

Looks great. Fair play
Do like an E36 mind, especially purposeful track prepped ones (not the "stanced" b****cks ones).

 

[Whiteley]

Made a start reassembling a few bits, starting with the front subframe and steering rack etc

Then moved onto the front wishbones. Powerflex eccentric (M3) front bushes for extra castor.

Bought and mounted a 16 row oil cooler that I'll come back to later

New HSD Monopro suspension

Fronts fitted along with M3 hubs, new track rods/ends and bits

Note pressed in studs

Made a start rebuilding calipers with new seals/dust seals/slider boots etc

Assembled rear M3 trailing arms with new bearings and ball joints/bushes throughout

Diff losely put into polybushed rear subframe

Made some solid diff bushes out of 50mm bar

Broke the rear diff cover knocking the old bushes out, arse

Played about with the HSD top mounts which allow both camber and castor adjustment. I want as much castor as possible so set about slotting the turrets to allow me to still adjust camber with the castor set right back

Mounted an in-car proportional valve

Drilled a hole next to the handbrake cables to allow a new copper line to pass through

Flared some lines

Made room for and welded in some harness eyebolt reinforcement plates

Painted my parcel shelf that had magically turned purple in a very adult like way

Binned the armrest and made a little cover plate where it used to be, saves buying a non armrest console

Old radiator wasn't quite at the leaking stage but didn't look far off, so bought a new one. Also bought a slim electric fan to replace the standard one

I was going to mount the fan on some brackets bolted/welded to the car but the supplied push through fittings work rather well

Going back to the oil cooler that I touched on, i set about changing the filter housing for an M3 item that has a thermostatic cooler take off/return

PAS pump mounting is different on the M3 housing so I made a spacer out of 15mm square bar

-10 cooler adaptor

Made up some -10AN (or 7/8 JIC) to 1/2" BSP oil cooler lines

TBC...

 

[Whiteley]

Forgot to take a load of photos, so you'll have to excuse the skipped bits.

Finished flaring brake lines from the (M3) master cylinder to the in car valve, and out the valve to a Tee mounted under the boot floor. So put the interior back together. Added a little volt metre.

Got hold of some rivnuts so attached my front X brace

Ran the car up, had a mare bleeding the coolant system but got there in the end

Dropped the car back onto its wheels for the first time in a few months and pushed it out the garage (no diff fitted at this time as I'm waiting on brake lines to arrive)

Bought a pair of Cobra Evolution seats and 6pt Sabelt harnesses. Just the drivers side of both in for now

Reattached the front bumper having put the powder coated ARB on with new powerflex bushes

Had some brake pads turn up. Just gone for EBC yellows all round for now to get me mobile, will see how they go. I present my Noddy themed brake setup

So the car is now about as complete as it's going to get for now. I've had a week off this week between jobs which has allowed me to get it fairly complete. I've been a little wary of my 29th March Cadwell Trackday deadline which I think I'd have been struggling with had it not been for this week off.

Whilst I'm waiting for brake lines to turn up, hopefully next week, I'm unable to bolt the rear diff up as mentioned. Therefore it can't drive just yet which is frustrating.

Set about modifying the exhaust a little whilst I'm waiting

And there we have it, a very incomplete log of events up til now. I'll maybe try and remember to picture things a bit more from now on!

 

[Whiteley]

Bloody hell, ANOTHER ONE!?!?

Good work pal. Think I've just found myself a set of those 16s.

What's the deal with the ASC delete and Viscous fan delete? Heard of it a few times but no idea how/why?

ASC gets rid of the 2nd throttle body for your traction control (assuming you have it, earlier models dont). Viscous fan delete removes some load from the auxillary circuit, in theory freeing up a bit of power. All my A/C related bits are gone too. Just need to wire an electric fan in to compensate.

Awesome! Another decent E36 thread I'll be following closely to pinch ideas etc.

In regard to the 3.0 M3 diff, does the diff carrier/ subframe not need to be swapped like it does with the 3.2/Evo diff? That could be handy.

It's just the 3.2 large case diff that requires whole subframe. 3.0 is a medium case, same as every other 2.3/2.5/2.8. They sell for a bit of a premium over 3.2 diffs because of this so you have to keep your eyes peeled.

 

[Whiteley]

And just a few tarty instagram ones I missed

Some sticky dunlops for another set of the same 16x8 wheels

Flo-flex front ARB droplink bushes

http://instagram.com/chriswhiteley

 

[James28]

This is epic. Top work.

 

[JamieG]

I wish I was half as mechanical minded as you. Expect no less from you tbh. Superb, can't wait for some passenger laps at Cadwell

 

[Fletcher]

Looks great Chris.

 

[Matt_90]

This is only E36 I have seen that I would actually like to own. Top work!

 

[SBV116]

Top work! You have serious skills dude!

 

[Eddie.]

So much win.

 

[Martin.]

Absolutely epic.

I feel like I need to shake your hand.

Keep the picture updates coming

 

[Ph1 Tom]

Very nice, that makes two E36 on here I'll keep an eye on for when they get sold!

 

[_Tom]

Everyone needs to stop posting these lovely 36's. Makes me seriously want one

 

[Cub.]

Epic build, great updates.

I love threads like this, keep up the good work

 

[Whiteley]

I wish I was half as mechanical minded as you. Expect no less from you tbh. Superb, can't wait for some passenger laps at Cadwell

Hopefully it'll behave itself. I've been pretty thorough and replaced pretty much everything throughout so fingers crossed. Need to get it setup/aligned before then too when Ive put a few miles on it.

Top work! You have serious skills dude!

Long time no speak Steve, hope you're well. Thanks!

Absolutely epic.

I feel like I need to shake your hand.

Keep the picture updates coming

Ha, thanks.

 

[MarkCup]

Excellent work!

 

[Budgie]

One to Rival Jord's, this.

Although, your M5 is f**king perfection.

 

[f0xy]

One to Rival Jord's, this.

Although, your M5 is f**king perfection.

That's because I've told him what does and doesn't work on mine over the past 6 months

 

[Budgie]

I did notice there were a few very similar changes.

Either way, both awesome cars!

 

[Whiteley]

It's not even close to rivalling in terms of thread detail. On track though.... we'll see!

 

[Rob]

Fapping superb! I was going to say have you been taking lessons from Jord, lol!

Best thread I've read in months. Bravo.

 

[Paul.M]

Great progress thread, you and Jord must be the dream team between you both!

 

[JoeyD]

What size tyres have you used on the E38 wheels?

 

[Ade T]

Brilliant!

 

[Whiteley]

Although, your M5 is f**king perfection.

Cheers. You saw it in LM I assume? I'm a bit torn what to do with it when this is up and running.

Fapping superb! I was going to say have you been taking lessons from Jord, lol!

Best thread I've read in months. Bravo.

We might speak a little bit here and there, ha. Cheers.

Great progress thread, you and Jord must be the dream team between you both!

I dare say we'd conquer most things between us!

What size tyres have you used on the E38 wheels?

205/50/16 on that set. The dunlops are 225/45 which I'm HOPING will fit with the offset of the wheels being pretty low. May have to run a tad extra rear camber to allow for them.

 

[Waitey]

Why all the castor?

 

[Whiteley]

Why all the castor?

More straight line stability for one, allowing me to otherwise set the car for a fairly aggressive turn in whilst keeping that stability. Another benefit is greater camber change when cornering. A larger positive castor angle will allow the outside wheel to gain negative camber in a turn whilst the inner gains positive camber. This will be of benefit especially when a bit of body roll is taken into account.

Hopefully anyway. That's just theory for now. I'm going to have it aligned to what I THINK are suitable settings for starters and work from there. The benefit of renewing everything under the car means it's all free and infinitely adjustable for me to play with.

 

[Whiteley]

Did a bit more on the exhaust today. I'd previously cut the tips off and ordered some 2.5" Stainless to put in their place.

Cut 2 bits to length, including a bit of standard BMW offset

Welded them on

Painted the insides matt black

And decided to fit it back on the car. It will make putting the diff and driveshafts back in slightly harder work but gets another thing ticked off. I also had to drill out and weld in new bolts/studs for the rear exhaust clamps as they kindly sheared off.

 

[Whiteley]

So the last I posted, I was waiting on some brake lines to arrive from Earls. They took a bit longer than expected, partially due to them being custom made to my length, but mainly because they were out of stock of the male swivel convex fittings that I needed.

They finally arrived on Wednesday

A photo of the rear tee piece. Bolts through the boot floor directly above the diff, hence why I couldn't put the diff back in until these lines were sorted

Ran the rear pipes from the tee to either side caliper. Cable tied up allowing for suspension movement

Then fitted the fronts in a similar fashion which I forgot to take photos of.

With them in, I was able to fit the diff, propshaft, driveshafts and rear ARB + droplinks.

When attempting to bleed the brakes through I was struggling to get anything out the rear calipers. Turns out there wasn't even a drip coming out the rear port of the master cylinder. When I'd fitted the 3.2 M3 M/C I'd left the 2.8 servo in, expecting them to be the same. This was the fault so I changed it over to a 3.2 servo that I had and then had fluid all round.

The brake bleeding woes continued even having changed to the 3.2 servo. It was bleeding well, all the air out the system, but the pedal kept going spongy when left for a few seconds after pumping it. This was a bit of a head scratcher. No apparent leaks, so nowhere for it to draw air in. Luckily I was able to get hold of another 3.2 master cylinder to try as a last resort ( James998 you lifesaver!) and this cured it. Still a bit soft but it could probably do with a few miles to bed everything in before having another go at bleeding.

So with the brakes bled reasonably well at 11.30pm last night, I had a quick look online at the local MOT place to see if any slots were remaining for today. 3pm was there so I booked it. A bit rushed but I need it on the road.

To quote the tester 'It's all brand new, this seems a waste of time!' Resulted in:

Great success.

So I went to put a few miles on it. 100 or so later and all seems well. Obviously the alignment is nowhere near and I need to get it booked in ASAP, but everything else seems positive so far and no suprises just yet.

 

[Cookson]

Hero