Father-son E36 M3 track car

[Team Neverlift]

I appreciate you documenting and sharing the build progress of the silver car. Happy to see that it held up well with the many miles of track driving, and the incident in the rear.

If you don't mind sharing, and I apologize if I missed it, what is name/brand of the vent that you are using on the hood? I deal with some pretty intense weather most of the year here in the West and like the sound of noticeable drops in coolant temps.

[hoki06]

I appreciate you documenting and sharing the build progress of the silver car. Happy to see that it held up well with the many miles of track driving, and the incident in the rear.

If you don't mind sharing, and I apologize if I missed it, what is name/brand of the vent that you are using on the hood? I deal with some pretty intense weather most of the year here in the West and like the sound of noticeable drops in coolant temps.

Thanks! Here's a link to my install. The link for the vent is a couple posts down from there.

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...4#post28669004

[xViola]

me and my dad are considering doing one of these

[Inflame]

Sorry to hear about the crash! Looks like you're at a great start on the new chassis. It's like getting a new GF after 5 years with the old one :P

[hoki06]

A couple weeks ago we finished stripping down the silver chassis. It's done and sitting on roller suspension waiting to be picked up by a new owner.






The engine is on a stand so I can do some refreshing before being installed into the new chassis.




It's now the black cars turn to go under the knife. Drivetrain removal starts tonight and then we can fully start going the other direction and building the new car.

[sjcp]

After some frustrating road blocks, the rear subframe assembly is finally out of the car. Now I can bolt up the roller suspension and get to work on the front of the car.



And this is why you should reinforce the RTABs on an E36. We inspected these mounts in January 2015 when we did the full suspension overhaul and they were fine. I chose not to install the reinforcement plates to save points for TT classing. The drivers side is probably worse because the rear fender was pushed into the tire during the wreck but the passenger side was obviously failing too. I was already planning to do full reinforcements during the rebuild so finding this is just solidfying my thoughts and plans.

Drivers side



Passenger side

Hey! The reinforcements for the rear suspension are a must on any E36 or justo the M ones? I have a 318is which usually sees some autocross. Thanks


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[hoki06]

Hey! The reinforcements for the rear suspension are a must on any E36 or justo the M ones? I have a 318is which usually sees some autocross. Thanks


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All non-M cars should install RTAB and subframe reinforcements if seeing track/autox use. 1996+ M3s come with factory subframe reinforcements so they would only need RTABs. I'd also suggest sway bar tab reinforcements on the rear subframe and front subframe reinforcements to completely protect yourself.

[sjcp]

All non-M cars should install RTAB and subframe reinforcements if seeing track/autox use. 1996+ M3s come with factory subframe reinforcements so they would only need RTABs. I'd also suggest sway bar tab reinforcements on the rear subframe and front subframe reinforcements to completely protect yourself.

Oh nice tip. I was checking in Turner Motorsport and they sell a subframe reinforcement kit (https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-3...forcement-kit/), definitely going to get it now. Is it not better to just swap the RTAB instead of using reinforcements ?
Thanks !!


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[hoki06]

I've been lazy updating this thread but work has been steady on the rebuild. In mid-November, we said our goodbyes to the silver chassis as it was picked up by a fellow racer in the area. He plans to rebuild it with his young son which is the best outcome I could have hoped for.




With the original car gone, we could finally turn the page and focus all efforts on the new chassis. We completely stripped the chassis except for suspension and rear subframe. Engine, trans, and driveshaft were sold. All glass removed and set aside. All sound deadening material was removed and the interior is clean down to the bare, painted surface. During removal of the interior I labeled almost every electrical connection as they were unplugged in anticipation of thinning the wiring harness. The final part of the chassis teardown was removing the full chassis wiring harness.





Glass out, interior gutted, doors gutted





The cage was completed in December by the same person who did the cage in the silver car. I would give him and his business a shoutout but this was one of the last cages he'll do unless it's for personal use. The cage features lower x-brace, pyramid door bars with single jack point bar that protrudes through the floor, and A and B pillar gussetts.








While the cage was being done, I took the chassis harness and spread it out in the garage to thin it out. All I can say is this is a long, slow process. I probably have at least 40 hours in the chassis harness at this point. I removed door locks, power windows, interior lights, OBC, HVAC, body control module, EWS, and more. I spent a lot of time chassing wires and reading the full ETM to make sure nothing critical was removed. I left ABS, headlights, tail lights, brake lights, wipers, and anything essential to the the car running/driving. After the wires were removed, I went through and depinned as much as I could. The entire process has been long, tedious, and somewhat painful but I now have a much greater knowledge of the harness and electrical diagrams (that's an accomplishment for this mechanical engineer). Its already relieving to see how much complexity and clutter has been removed. Final steps are to wrap the harness in split loom so it looks clean and professional.

If you have a desire to do this... LABEL EVERYTHING. If it would not have labeled connectors, this process easily would have taken 3x as long if not longer.

The first picture right after removing it from the car. This was the "oh shit what have I gotten myself into" moment


This was after the initial 8-10 hours which was mostly removing interior lights, power windows, door locks, etc. It's amazing how many wires are in there for those creature comforts.



For anyone curious how to depin the fuse box, note that there is a locking bar that much be removed before you can fully release the terminal. Here's a brief DIY in pictures.

Remove the fuse block from the fuse box housing. My finger is on the release tab. You can see the white lock bar also.



Use a small flathead to push the locking bar out.


Locking bar removed


With the locking bar out, now use the fork-style depin tool to release the terminal.


Terminals after being removed. You can see the small locking tabs that have to be pressed to release the terminal.



That's all I've got for now. The chassis goes to have full interior paint next weekend and I'll finish the harness during that time. Then I need to finish the engine refresh, S54 oil pan/pump swap, and some other small pieces prior to installing the drivetrain into the car. Then I need to dive into the suspension and build out the interior. I've got some other tricks up my sleeve that I'll show later on once they're done. A lot of work left but we're closer than last fall!

[herrubermensch]

Sorry to hear about the silver car, but great progress on the new one!

--Peter

[NotoriousJJE]

Nice!!!

[hoki06]

The entire interior was painted last week. We had it done in the same silver as the exterior of the old car to make a subtle link between the two cars. Its hard to see the color in pictures but it looks amazing in person!

[19Spec3]

Silver interior looks awesome. You know you fancy when even the trunk gets painted.


Also, I guess your guy does auto paint ... and granite counters?

[hoki06]

Silver interior looks awesome. You know you fancy when even the trunk gets painted.


Also, I guess your guy does auto paint ... and granite counters?

Thanks! His next door neighbors are granite guys lol

[Brake_L8]

Thanks! His next door neighbors are granite guys lol

That could be the fanciest ballast in all the paddock!

[hoki06]

The weather was perfect this past weekend so I rolled the car outside, removed the stock firewall and trans tunnel insulation, and washed the engine bay




With the old insulation out and a clean engine bay, I installed DEI Reflect-A-GOLD on the firewall and trans tunnel back to the center bearing support. Hopefully this will help keep interior temps down. If you choose to install this stuff, make sure you do so in small pieces rather than large chunks. Its essentially like installing a sticker on a complex curved surface. The bigger the piece is, the hard it is to keep it contoured to the surface without wrinkles.

[hoki06]

I got the engine torn down the rest of the way in prep for rod bearings, S54 oil pump and pan, new timing chains and guides, front and rear main seals, and new gaskets where needed. This stuff along with the refreshed head should make for continued good reliability that we've had over the past 5 years. I'm hoping to do the rod bearings tomorrow night and then starting putting things back together. My goal is to have the engine ready to put back in the car by next weekend (March 4-5).

[hoki06]

I got the cleaned up head back. A coworker has a family business that builds race engines so I had him check the head and I'm glad I did because he found that it needed valve guides and had several valves with minor bends. So I had him install new guides, valves, and do a 3 angle valve job.




I cleaned up the timing chain cover and installed a new front crank seal




Got the front back together with new seals, timing chain, and guides. I got the head back on and torqued and noticed some issues with the exhaust cam when I was about to set it in place. Two of the journals have grooves that can be felt with a fingernail so I'm on the search for new cams.








This past Saturday I finally tackled the rod bearings while Dad worked on the front suspension. It wasn't too hard but it was tedious and a little nerve-racking considering it was my first time doing it. All clearances checked out to be between .0015-.002".








We also went ahead and disassembled the rear suspension. I need to clean up the body and weld RTAB reinforcements, change the subframe and RTAB and diff bushings, replace wheel bearings, and then I can put it all back together. I took some extra time last night to tear down the new wheel bearings and replace the grease with Red Line CV-2 like I did with the front bearings last spring.




I'm waiting on a pile of parts to arrive this week and then I can finish up the oil pan swap and start putting things back on the car.

[TXBDan]

You cam journal grooves might be *slightly* worse than mine, but might not be ok. The shop who did the work on my head said most cams look like that after 100k+ miles and its not a big deal. He just polished them a bit to make sure there are no high spots and said they're good to go.

Here's my thread on the topic:
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-of-these-cams

[hoki06]

You cam journal grooves might be *slightly* worse than mine, but might not be ok. The shop who did the work on my head said most cams look like that after 100k+ miles and its not a big deal. He just polished them a bit to make sure there are no high spots and said they're good to go.

Here's my thread on the topic:
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-of-these-cams

The guy who did my head work told me exactly the same thing (polish to knock off high spots and run them) when I sent him a picture of the journals. I brought them in the next day and he said "ehh those are kinda bad, if you can source better used ones you should". Considering all the work I've done to this point, I'd rather find better condition cams instead of cause a failure later down the road. If I struggle to find a set soon then I'll have to polish and run them.

[hoki06]

With the rear suspension out I tackled the RTAB reinforcements this week. It wasn't too hard but overhead MIG welding sucks. I used AKG reinforcement plates and cut off the very front of them because I couldn't reach those areas to weld. There's plenty of other welds throughout so it shouldn't make a difference.










The rear sway bar tabs were already reinforced on this subframe which was a nice surprise. Since I was doing reinforcements and had the welder out, I cut a small piece of scrap metal and welded it to the diff bushing carrier to add some extra strength. I'm not sure its necessary but it made me feel better.




Last night I took advantage of having access to a press at work and replaced the stock rubber subframe bushings with Bimmerworld solid aluminum. I also installed the aluminum front diff bushing we previously had installed on the silver car. I'm glad I welded in that diff bushing reinforcement! Without that I would have been very nervous pressing in the aluminum like I was on the old car.




We also ordered a pile of parts last weekend and some are starting to come in. One of them is a Z3 rack from Rack Doctor. I can't wait to use this thing!

[jakermac]

I think you'll love the Z3 rack. It'll make catching an oversteer SO much easier. I absolutely love my Z3 rack with the SLR roll center/bumpsteer correction which also speeds up the steering. I think I'm slightly less than 2 turns "rub to rub".

[GG Emerican]

Looks good! I've heard positive things about the z3 rack and want to get one as well since mine is leaking.

Let me know what you think!

And any thoughts on the Bimmerworld AN power steering kit?

[hoki06]

I can't wait to try it out. I'll be sure to post thoughts once I finally drive the car.

As for the BW kit, I'm not a fan of placing the PS reservoir right next to the headers. I've also heard from a race car mechanic friend that the kit still can leak. IMO I would just run fresh OEM stuff and replace it every 4-5 years or whenever it leaks again.

[jhott66]

What MIG welder are you using for the RTAB pocket reinforcements?


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