Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 85

Thread: MidWest E36 Sedan Track Toy Build

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    St. Louis, MO.
    Posts
    1,018
    My Cars
    e36 332i

    MidWest E36 Sedan Track Toy Build

    First off I would like to thank the people that make this forum such a great resource for others. I have gotten alot of good info and ideas from BimmerForums not to mention a few good used parts to help the build budget stay down.

    A big thanks to the local businesses that have helped get me the parts at a reasonable price and supplied guidance when needed:


    European Performance Auto Center (314) 544-2800, address: 774 Mark Sharon Industrial Ct, St Louis, MO 63125
    Any time I get stuck or need help the first call goes out to European Performance. I have known Christian and Octavian for a very long time and these guys are top notch. Their shop deals with all European makes and models and I highly recomend them.
    Autohaus BMW (314) 727-7034, address: 3015 S. Hanley Rd Saint Louis, MO 63143-3613,
    Our local BMW dealership, They are a great help to all the local BMW CCA members and the Club itself. I have heard nothing but great things about the sales and service departments. Bill and all the guys down in the parts dept are always able to help me out in a pinch.



    My 1992 BMW 325i sedan as a street car:


    My goal here is to document the progression of my car from street to full track car, do it as cheap as possible but safely, and try to fix the areas of the car that are known to fail before they do so.
    List of stuff done so far:
    Engine:1998 M3 S52 converted to OBD1
    Rehoned block, installed new main and connecting rod bearings, piston rings, valve seals, hand lapped valves to seats, installed VAC oil pan baffle, safety wired oil pump nut, VAC race cams, double valve springs, rebuilt Vanos unit with limiting shim and new timing chain tensioners and rails. M50 intake manifold, 24 lbs fuel injectors, 540i 3.5" mass air sensor, 3.5" Jim Conforti air intake with ITG foam air filter. UUC lightweight flywheel w/ M5 clutch assembly. BimmerWorld Race solid mount shifter topped with the short Jaffster knob. OBD1 1994 325i engine wire harness, red label 413 ECU with VAC race chip.
    Cooling:
    3 row radiator from S54 M roadster, euro coolant resevoir and tubing for install, new stock hoses, factory t-stat and housing, Mechanical fan delet from engine, custom mounted air ducting and electric pusher fan wired for automatic opperation with manual override.
    Suspension / Steering /Chassi:
    TC Kline double adjustable dampers, spring rates 450 front /500 rear, UUC front sway bar with Bimmerworld adjustable links, stock rear sway bar, Powerflex Rear trailing arm bushings, Bimmerworld delrin front control arm bushings, Mason Engineering aluminium front strut tower and rear shock tower braces.
    Z3 1.8l rack and pinion, rubber steering shaft flex disc replaced with e34 u-joint, oem lower x-brace.
    Repair and reinforce rear sub frame mounts (m3 plates)
    Installed M3 front strut tower reinforcement plates
    Reinforced Front sub frame and rear trailing arm pockets, kits from Turner Motorsports
    Fixed rust hole in trunk
    Stripped interior and removed sunroof assembly, welded sunroof panel in
    Brakes:
    Front: Groovin parts brake rotor ducts modified to my liking, 1998 M3 front spindles and calipers, Bimmerworld stainless brake lines, Bimmerworld brass caliper guides. stock vented M3 rotors, PFC 06 race pads, Motul RPF600 brake fluid.
    Rear: stock non vented 325i rotor with PFC Z rated pads, Bimmerworld Stainless steel lines, 1995 M3 master cylinder
    Interior bits:
    Sparco Pro2000 seats on VAC floormounts, Drivers side is on a slider. Schroth profi2 six point harness, Custom floor pans, Roll bar installed by Scott Rhea at Izzy's Cages in Saint Louis, Bimmerworld solid mount Race shifter with Jaffster short delrin knob, AC Schnitzer pedals (bling!) Custom guage pod with Autometer guages: voltage, water temp, water pressure, oil temp and oil pressure. Sparco steering wheel with Rogue Engineering steering quick release.

    Current weight of car is 2750 lbs with 3/4 tank gas and no driver.


    I have been developing it for the past few years and will get us caught up to date with a few pics in just a moment. I have tried very hard to find parts used or on sale to keep my budget from getting blown out of the water. In doing this I estimate I have spent about 1/4 to 1/3 the cost of what it would normally cost to build the car. I also try to do all the labor myself. This saves alot of money but I also enjoy building stuff so its a win/win. When forced to buy new I have access to parts at a dicount from my friends european repair auto shop, this has also been a great help.
    The car was given to me many years ago as a gift from my old boss for being a great employee. Thanks Greg Stroud at Bimmers R Us! I recieved the car and it was in dire need of help, As the car was pulled into the shop the clutch slave blew out, car had no heat, suspension was worn out and the engine was not running on all 6 cylinders. I fixed every thing except the engine and drove it around for several years with the car losing compression between cyl 5 and 6. I suspect a blown head gasket and did not see any reason to open it up or spend money on the engine since I planned on later doing a engine swap.
    After driving for a few years on the street I developed a clunk / pop noise from the rear. Turns out it was the rear sub frame mounts tearing away from the body. A well known problem for the e36 chassi. What a pain in the ass that repair was, took two days to complete. I added the M3 reinforcement plates while I was in there.

    Really bad tear in the metal, decided to not band aid fix it with just the reinforcment plates.

    Stripping off all the seam sealer to get to the spot welds,

    After drilling all the spot welds out this is what you get. You can clearly see the damage that was on the top part of were the sub frame bolts attachs to the body.

    New peice about to get welded in, used weldable primer to try to keep the rust spots down

    finished with seam sealer and under coating applied


    In 2009 I heard about a road coarse track event that was going on near by and figured I would go check it out since it was free to spectate. I got to the track and walked around the paddock getting to get up close to all the race cars and talking with the drivers. I was hooked!
    It was then that I tried to formulate a plan to get my car on track. First order of business was to ditch the old engine for one that ran on all of its cylinders and didn't puke oil everywhere. I found me a junkyard s52 engine from a rollover 1998 M3. Converted it to obd1 and took advantage of the m50 intake that the original engine had. I also decided to rebuild the engine since the milage was not known. Then I got bit by the "while your in there" bug.
    Rehoned engine cylinders and replaced piston rings.
    Replaced main bearings and conecting rod bearings.
    Installed VAC oil pan baffle and added an extra baffle to copy Turner's design.
    Secured oil pump nut with safety wire and loc-tite.
    Installed (used) VAC race cams 286/272 with dual valve springs, bigger fuel injecters and race tuned ecm.
    Engine pics:



    Secured oil pump nut, these engines are notorius for the nut backing off the shaft when driven hard. This leads to catastrophic failure of the engine due to loss of oil pressure.

    VAC cam (left) next to oem M3 cam.


    Ever wonder whats in the vanos unit? Just a big ole piston with a seal around it that gets replaced when being rebuilt. Installed a shim to be on the safe side with the big cams to keep the valves from smacking the pistons.



    Oil pan baffles, VAC on the left, oem one cut out of pan on the right

    I added the extra baffle in the middle to copy Turner Motorsports design. Used part of the old baffle and oem e30 M3 oil baffle flaps.



    table full of parts
    UUC red polly engine and trans mounts. I welded reinforcement plates into to the front sub frame motor mount pick up points to keep them from tearing out with the addition of stiffer mounts.


    Pro Tip: Shopping karts are not just for shopping

    rollin the engine into its new home


    ebay headers, they fit pretty good and were super cheap. I custom built exhaust with Dr. Gas y-pipe into 3" tube with mandrel bends,Borla center resonater and Flow Master Hush Power muffler. I wanted something that flows decent but doesnt make my ears bleed. I couldnt be happier with the sound and performance of my exhaust. People at the track always compliment me on the sound.







    The 325i drive shaft doesnt quite work witrh the M3 transmission. After a trip to my buddys shop I came home with a beat up old dirty 6 bolt M3 driveshaft.

    dirt and rocks in the joint.... that cant be good.

    everything taken apart to clean and regrease with new boot and gasket.


    the difference between the 4 bolt and 6 bolt design

    m3 shaft on the right is much beefier than the 325i shaft, yes I did replace the center carrier bearing to
    Last edited by eye145; 04-20-2016 at 12:58 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    St. Louis, MO.
    Posts
    1,018
    My Cars
    e36 332i
    I also installed the "euro" radiator reservoir and installed the radiator from the M coup. It is a three row radiator that fits perfect in the oem spot. Removed the mechanical cooling fan for fear it would cause damage on track.
    Installing the euro set up requires a few cooling tubes and clips to make it all work. Here you can see I cut some metal and moved the pos. battery jumper posts.


    the cooling tube that runs behind the head was a huge pain in the butt. I couldnt imagine installing it while the engine was in the car, I also wrapped the headers to try to keep under hood temps down.


    This is the clutch set up I went with, found a good deal on the UUC light weight flywheel, matched up to the e34 M5 clutch pressure and friction plate.

    Intake is a Conforti piece (on the left) with the ITG filter. Air then travels threw the larger 3.5" 540i mass air sensor down a 3.5" silicone intake elbow into the M50 intake manifold. The old 325 intake that came with the car is on the right.... its tiny looking


    Dyno chart on engine after a few thousand miles:


    I also got ahold of a TC Kline double adjustable suspension with 450 lbs front springs and 500 lbs rear spring rates aswell as a set of Kosie K1 wheels from the same local racer. Thanks Jansoon!!!

    I installed the front steering knuckles / spindles off of a 98 M3 to be able to run the M3 front brakes. I figured the stock 325i brakes might be a little overwhelmed with the power from the new engine.

    Now that I got a chassi and engine that will be safe to run on the track its time to go sign up for a High Performance Driving Event. I spent all of 2010 going to every event I could. Didnt matter who was holding it I signed up and ran with them: SCCA, BMWCCA, Porsche Club, Audi Club and who ever I could find that was putting on a driving clinic.
    As I progressed learning the track I naturally picked up speed and then started warping brake rotors and over heating the engine from staying at wide open throttle longer.




    That leads me to the next two upgrades:
    Cooling the engine, get air to the radiator. My under tray that sits in front of the radiator has been long gone. While driving on the street this doesnt seem to matter but while pushing it on the track the temps would get to high.
    After a trip to the Home Depot hvac isle I built a scoop to force the air into the radiator thus not giving it a easy escape route underneath.

    Guage pod I made to keep an eye on temps and pressures



    Bezels point the guages towards the driver

    I bought some brake backing plates to run ducting to send cool air to the brake rotors to try to curb my problem with over heating the brakes. Group buy on them from Groovin Parts? ( cant remember there name). I felt that they could be improved so I busted out the welder and added some metal to them.
    The peice on the left is how it came, right side (silver) is my improved version

    lots of space for air to escape

    all sealed up



    The past two upgrades made a huge difference. Engine stays at the same temp the whole time, even at Memphis in July with triple digit ambient temps. The brakes dont fade and warp out rotors anymore. In addition to the ducting and backing plates I installed performance friction "z" rated brake pads and Motul RBF 600 brake fluid.
    I also feel that when first learning to drive on the track I was enguaging the brakes to early causing them to over heat. Now I wait longer to apply the brakes and then apply them firmly and then get back on the throttle. This gives them more time to cool back down.

    Now I am at the point to where I am moving pretty quickly around the track. I try to get in the front of the line when in the hot pits so I have some free room to run. Instructers are busy trying to pin themself into the passenger seat to keep from sliding around on the stock leather. My legs are starting to get sore from pressing into the door and center console while in turns to stay upright and in front of the steering wheel.
    Next up is Safety, I am getting a little nervous driving threw turns at 90 mph and hitting upwards of 125 mph on the straight at Gateway International Raceway. Also it is becoming to much work to stay put behind the wheel.
    I contacted Scott Rhea of Izzys Cages to install a roll / harness bar and started my search for some harness's and fixed back seats. Gutting the car and putting in race seats will be my winter project for 2010.
    I found a set of used Sparco Pro2000 seats that cost less than the price of 1 new one. Located in Tennessee..... Road trip!!!




    Test fitting new seats, race shifter from BimmerWorld and steering wheel with quick release.
    You can also see that I have removed the interior and stripped the sound insulation from the floor pans. The gray spots had the sheets of tar material stuck to it. I found it pretty easy to remove the tar stuff by heating with a heat gun and scraping with a thick putty knife. I then used a chemical stripper to remove the residue.

    Back from getting the roll bar installed

    The roll bar was not installed where we had talked about putting it. He moved it closer to the seat for better roll over protection. It ended up being to close to the seat so I had to take it back. He fixed it by bending the harness bar back and adding a couple gussets to reinforce. Only bad part was I had to wait two months for him to get some free time to take care of it. The build quality and fitment of the roll bar is off the chart, couldn't ask for anything more. The bars are snug to the body all around and the welds look great.
    original location:

    updated version with a few coats of Rustoleum

    I found the easiest way to paint the interior is with a small foam roller and a brush to get into the corners

    had rear bars go to the rear spring pick up points. This seems like a much stronger pick up point than the rear bulk head on the 4 door model. If you notice the later models have more metal in the vertical parts where the back seat sets.


    Installing home made floor pan, getting ready to mount up dead pedal

    Welded sunroof panel in. The first attempt was to skin the sunroof panel. I messed that up and had a few dimples in the metal so I just went to the junk yard and pulled another. That explains the white sun roof panel in my blue car. I used several pieces of 1/4 rod inbetween the sunroof and the body runnin a mig weld bead along both. Then used a body seam sealer to seal up the gaps. I then added the six 1 inch metal tabs to conform to other race body rules, just incase.
    I used flat black paint on the pillars, rear shelf and roof to cut down on any sun glare. The interior sides are white with gray for the foot wells so the dirt doesn't show as bad.


    I managed to run only a couple of DE's this year due to our local race track closing (GIR) and having my first baby.
    I was able to drive down to Memphis Motorspots Park for the Hunka-Hunka Burnin Rubber NASA Mid-South event and up to Joliet for the Autobahn event. Autobahn was a fun track despite the off and on rain.
    Last edited by eye145; 02-29-2012 at 12:27 AM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    St. Louis, MO.
    Posts
    1,018
    My Cars
    e36 332i
    Autobahn has some really nice garages around the north course, I would love to get a peak inside some of them.

    The Fall-Line wide body e46 drove down to the track from one of those garages...... I am drooling just looking at the pic.



    Time for some preventive maintance, I am not sure of the age / milage on my ball joints so its time to replace them. I elected to go ahead and buy the e30 ball joints and press them into my arms instead of buying the whole control arm.



    a fresh coat of paint and some blue Bimmerworld lolli's with delrin inserts

    Dust boot on the caliper came loose. These were "new" rebuilt M3 calipers that I had bought 1 year ago. After removing the pistons for inspection I noticed that they had prior repairs done to them. You can see the blue material was used to fill in grooves and pits in the piston. Since the boot was loose it allowed the metal to develope more pits and rust. To correct this I am installing stainless steel pistons from Bimmerworld. I figure even if the boot pops loose again the stainless steel will be more resistant to corrosion.

    easiest way to remove the piston it with compessed air. A piece of wood will catch the piston when it pops out, be certain not to have your fingure in there!


    You can use brake fluid to lube the piston going back together, I used some grease from Toyota that is compatible with brake fluid. You must be certain that the grease is compatible with brake fluid or you will ruin / contaminate the entire system. This will cause all the rubber pieces to swell and the brakes to lock up. To fix it you have to replace everything that has rubber in it and flush the steel brake lines.
    PS. dont tell the wife I did this on the coffee table while watching the baby

    and the finished product ready for track duty!


    Here are the Rtab pocket reinforcements:
    First off remove the wheel and unbolt the brake line from the control arm so it can hang down out of the way. Then hit it with a wire wheel to prep for welding.

    Safety first! I am on the ground doing this and the under coating along with loose wire bristles are getting flung into my face. I found that an old paintball mask is perfect for the job!


    Here are the turner Motorsports pieces that get welded up in there. I would go with the one peice ones next time

    welded up

    primer and ready for under coating


    Now to fix the rust hole. First strip the area then cut the metal until you get all good solid metal around the hole. Picked up some weldable metal from Home Depot and cut to fit over hole then weld her up.

    I taped up the trunk area with plastic to keep the grit and dirt from getting in the cabin of the car. The electric wire wheel got a hold of a corner the plastic. With in a fraction of a second it was tangled up. Funny at first but that is how people loose digits and get hurt.


    I am not much of a body guy, just trying to fill the hole so the exhaust sound and fumes dont find there way back into the car.




    So I managed to break my motor mounts. The poly mount (pass side) and the metal mount (drivers side) . The metal mount had no bolts holding it to the block, only the corner that was snapped off had a bolt in it. The other three bolt holes are wallowed out from the bracket shifting back and forth as the bolts backed there way out. I plan to remedy this with solid aluminium motor and trans mounts from VAC. I like that they offer an adjustable trans mount so that you dont preload the trans when installing the mounts. All bolts will get a healthy dose of red loc-tite to make sure nothing vibrates loose again

    Front subframe all ready has the Turner reinforcements welded in so no worries about the solid VAC mounts

    I also will be changing out the rubber steering shaft coupler for this AKG aluminium piece. I cant wait to feel the feedback from the steering wheel. I think I should be able to feel exactly what the tires are doing with this in there.

    drilling out rivets to remove rubber

    Just got the new engine mounts in from VAC. They are just a little shorter then the poly mounts. I dont have an oem mount to compare it to. I Will need to shim mounts if in a race class that requires stock height engine placement.
    Last edited by eye145; 03-16-2012 at 09:00 PM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    St. Louis, MO.
    Posts
    1,018
    My Cars
    e36 332i
    Quote Originally Posted by Irish M5 View Post
    Very impressive. Where did you get the dead pedal? AC Schnitzer?

    I bought them around 2003 i think, ebay. I had just installed a set of real Schnitzer pedals in a customers car $$$$ I didn't want to pay what he paid so I found some knock off ones. Quality of them looks the same as the real ones to me. rubber and hardware were all the same as the real ones to. The dead pedal was bought from the same vendor.

    I still need to box in the side of the dead pedal. It is mounted very solidy to some square tubing thats weld to the car.


    Bought me a DriftHD "action cam" to record what I am doing while driving. It can be mounted all over the car with magnetic mounts, suction mounts, window mounts ect. It also has an external mic so I should be able to get some good sound to.
    Last edited by eye145; 01-22-2012 at 11:40 PM.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Northern KY / Cincinnati
    Posts
    2,662
    My Cars
    e36 Track Car
    Great job man, keep it up!
    Regards, Nate.
    www.DriveFasterNow.com

  6. #6
    JulianK8Z's Avatar
    JulianK8Z is offline Custom User Title BMW CCA Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Morrisville, NC
    Posts
    679
    My Cars
    1989 SpecE30
    Jon, the car is looking GOOD! Nice work! Also, I think I recognize your passenger in the GIR shots. Hope to see you and the car in action at the NASA GIR... err... GMP event this year.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    St. Louis, MO.
    Posts
    1,018
    My Cars
    e36 332i
    Quote Originally Posted by JulianK8Z View Post
    Jon, the car is looking GOOD! Nice work! Also, I think I recognize your passenger in the GIR shots. Hope to see you and the car in action at the NASA GIR... err... GMP event this year.
    Quote Originally Posted by TOOLEAN View Post
    Great job man, keep it up!
    Thanks Julian and Nate! I have some propper seats and belts in it now, no more fighting to stay up right
    Julian, I will absolutely be at GMP this year for the NASA events and any other events that I can squeeze in. Let me know if you are instructing, I would love to have you ride shotgun again.

    I made it in the NASA Mid-South promo vid, check me out at 30 second mark, at the top of the screen swinging out wide for the pass on the vette going on to the straight. Dont blink or you will miss it hehe. blue e36 with racer tape numbers on the door.
    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz2xjle49y8[/ame]
    Last edited by eye145; 01-22-2012 at 10:16 PM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    2,758
    My Cars
    E36 M3
    looking good sir! I'm envious of your car and all it's goodies.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    St. Louis, MO.
    Posts
    1,018
    My Cars
    e36 332i
    Quote Originally Posted by timsev View Post
    looking good sir! I'm envious of your car and all it's goodies.
    Thanks Tim! Its taken me a few years to amass all the goodies
    Did you get the camera for Christmas? If so you will be able to start using it really soon. Hallelujah we got ourselves a race track!

    Speaking of... I got a list of crap to finish on the car before April 14-15th
    Major things are:
    1. Install new motor and tranny mounts. VAC sent motor mounts, trans mounts wont ship for another 2 weeks do to new production run.
    2. Reroute main power cable from battery. Run cable closer to the middle of the car and eliminate any pinch areas incase of crash / accident.
    3. Safety wire harness latchs in the closed position to the eye bolts.
    4. Install pass side floor pan.
    5. Install rebuilt front control arms
    6. Install rebuilt front brake calipers / new pads & rotors
    7. Remove valve cover and inspect around cyl #6 hole, oil seepage in that area. May have a crack in cover?
    8. Run a second ground strap to engine, redundant just to be on the safe side. Had some corrosion issues at Autobahn last year.
    9. Rear diff seeping at rear cover seal. If time allows I may pull the diff and reseal the cover.
    10. Hard wire camera and external mic to the car.
    Last edited by eye145; 02-01-2012 at 08:33 PM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Winona, MN
    Posts
    275
    My Cars
    X5 4.8is, S54 GTS4 95M3
    Nice work on that car! I will just say really quick that I have that same clutch and flywheel in my GTS car and it is not the most robust setup if you don't already know. It is a nice piece and it will last if you are good to it, take your time and make nice smooth deliberate gear changes and always rev match when downshifting. I learned the hard way but became a much better driver at the same time. Just a heads up. Rick

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    2,758
    My Cars
    E36 M3
    Ha, no my wife didn't get me the camera for Xmas. She got me tools instead! Can't argue with that.

    I'm dying to get out on the track too.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    St. Louis
    Posts
    644
    My Cars
    96 Estoril M3, 98 1jz M3
    Great work! Love seeing proper local builds

    ----------------------------- 98 M3 1JZ Track Build ----------------------------------- 97 M3 Coupe ----------------------------------- 96 M3 Coupe - Estoril --------------------------


  13. #13
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    St. Louis, MO.
    Posts
    1,018
    My Cars
    e36 332i
    Iverson, Thanks for the heads up. So far its hanging in there. Cerametallic clutch material may be helping? I have put about 10 DE's and a dozen dyno pulls on it along with several thousand street miles. Only once did it slip really bad, 4th gear going from the road coarse onto the nascar oval at GIR. Odd it only happend one time, coulda been driver error to.

    Quote Originally Posted by timsev View Post
    Ha, no my wife didn't get me the camera for Xmas. She got me tools instead! Can't argue with that.

    I'm dying to get out on the track too.
    Tools are good! I got alot of tools but always seem to be needing something.

    DriftFC, Thanks! If you see me at the track or around be sure to stop by and say hi and check out the car.
    Last edited by eye145; 02-02-2012 at 06:45 PM. Reason: because a third grader can spell better than me

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Los Angeles, Ca
    Posts
    846
    My Cars
    1995 332i
    very nice build!

    just curious, I can see that your sedan did not have rear folding seats, so did you just cut off that rear panel to open up the trunk area (since you have a roll bar and rear shock bar I assume you are not losing any rigidity)

    I wish I had the space and skills to do all that on my own :[

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    St. Louis, MO.
    Posts
    1,018
    My Cars
    e36 332i
    Quote Originally Posted by la36bmw View Post
    very nice build!

    just curious, I can see that your sedan did not have rear folding seats, so did you just cut off that rear panel to open up the trunk area (since you have a roll bar and rear shock bar I assume you are not losing any rigidity)

    I wish I had the space and skills to do all that on my own :[
    Thanks!
    I am sure that I lost some rigidity from removing the rear panel. I still have it and plan on welding it back in after I do a full cage. I noticed on the cars with folding seats there is substantially more metal use in that area. They boxed it off with sheet metal to give it strength.
    You will notice alot of the pro race teams that built e36's in the 90's used a lot of bars in the back. From what I understand is that the rear of the chassi is pretty flimsy. I plan on tying into the rear sub frame and rtab pockets with the roll cage at some point.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    CT
    Posts
    6,242
    My Cars
    e28, e30, e36
    what a project. diggin the home depot special radiator duct. keep the pics coming. how much is the steering shaft aluminum knuckle?

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Atlanta GA
    Posts
    6,519
    My Cars
    97 S54,94 M-Technic,SE36
    This is a great build!!!

    Thanks for sharing!!!!

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Nashville, TN
    Posts
    1,460
    My Cars
    '95 M3,'04 ZHP, 01 330Ci
    Quote Originally Posted by eye145 View Post
    9. Rear diff seeping at rear cover seal. If time allows I may pull the diff and reseal the cover.

    This is a great build thread. You really have transformed this car.

    FWIW, my diff leaks at the track too, but it's out of the vent hole at the top right side(passanger) of the cover. You may find that yours is doing the same thing, especially if you are running on Rovals.

    I have seen a few guys overside the hole and run a little catch can to fix this. They run similar setups on the cap for the power steering fluid. A 6" - 10" hose to a slightly elevated catch can.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    St. Louis, MO.
    Posts
    1,018
    My Cars
    e36 332i
    Quote Originally Posted by BMWMPow3r View Post
    how much is the steering shaft aluminum knuckle?
    I won a 50 dollar AKG gift certificate at our BMW car club holiday party so it ended up costing me 5 bucks

    Glad you like the build Rob, I had a handful of build pics that got cleared off the camera and didnt make it onto the build thread...... replaced with baby pics


    284shoooter, Thanks for the info. I will double check before I pull that heavy mofo out. I ran a little elbow off the p/s res. cap to vent and will look into doing that for the diff to. I just might wait until I get a new diff..... I am really wanting to have Metric Mechanics build me a 3.73 diff.
    One off my projects I may take on is replacing the power steering hoses and reservoir with stainless and aluminium bits to get rid of the fluid seepage issue that seems to plague most BMWs
    Last edited by eye145; 02-04-2012 at 11:47 AM.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    STL
    Posts
    180
    My Cars
    93 325i Sedan, and more
    Can't wait to meet you at a GMP event!
    2001 F-350 CCLB DRW (The Money Maker)
    1994 Stealth TT (Under Construction)
    1995 Stealth (SOLD)
    1993 Stealth TT (blown engine)

    1992 3000GT VR4 (backup)
    1991 Stealth TT (blown engine)
    1993 325i (Sold)
    1998 528iA
    2000 F-250 6-speed
    2000 F-250 Utility

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    St. Louis, MO.
    Posts
    1,018
    My Cars
    e36 332i
    Ran into a little issue installing the AKG solid aluminium steering coupler. The angle between the steering rack and the column shaft look to be off on two different planes.

    options:
    1. Install new oem rubber rag joint
    2. Cut mounting tabs for steering rack off of sub frame and move towards the passanger side and rotate slightly to align the two shafts
    3. Buy the Vorshlag steering shaft ( $$$ baller status) that has a second u-joint were it connects to the rack.
    EDIT: Fixed problem, see post 35
    Last edited by eye145; 02-11-2012 at 06:29 PM.

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    45,770
    My Cars
    BMWs
    Get the u-joint.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Paradise
    Posts
    1,539
    My Cars
    2003 M5, 1995 M3 GTR
    Wow, i almost just bought this part. I thought it was ready to go fitment wise.....

    Love the car/build by the way.

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    St. Louis, MO.
    Posts
    1,018
    My Cars
    e36 332i
    Quote Originally Posted by elliott95 View Post
    Wow, i almost just bought this part. I thought it was ready to go fitment wise.....

    Love the car/build by the way.
    Thanks!
    I have the z3 1.9L steering rack installed. Dont know if that makes any difference?
    I was hoping it would be a plug and play kinda thing, as usual with aftermarket stuff....

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    531
    My Cars
    '98 EK4, '96 CP9A
    Not sure if they are the same length as the LHD.. but the RHD version of the lower steering shaft has two U-joints on each end

    I machined a aluminum guibo for my RHD steering shaft and it worked very well

    The RHD shaft looks like this, it has a thin a heatshield over the guibo, it is 2-piece and detaches with a torx bolt

    Last edited by joon; 02-06-2012 at 02:21 AM.
    - Peter Shen -

Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •