Learning to drift? My build/rebuild - Austin, TX

[jjjjjjj]

What's up everybody, I'm Jonathan. I've been lurking here for a while and finally decided to post about my adventures in rebuilding my suspension, etc. on my car for durability, drifting, moar power and general fun. It all started back up August 2012 when I was nearly finished with the car due to suspension and other problems of a car approaching 200k and while looking for options or possible upgrades I stumbled across MikeE36's build thread and was totally blown away by what he and others here have done with the e36 chassis to keep it awesome and relevant long past it's "day" and also just how cool and relatively "safe" drifting is compared to other forms of racing... not to mention the serious style points attained!

I don't drift officially now but it is something I would like to get into so for now i'll be the n00b who is rebuilding his car to be a (stop me if you've heard it) daily driver + drifter. I've owned this car for 10 years so not too much on the e36 is new to me as I've broken, rigged or fixed many things over the years. I am married to an awesome woman, have 2 young children and a full-time job so this hobby definitely takes a backseat to my life. So without further ado, here are some pics of my progress. Your comments and suggestions are welcome, just don't hate on my laziness or low(ish) budget! Oh, and around the time I started everything I had recently moved into a house in Austin, TX with a magnificent 1200 sq-ft garage/barn so the luxury of workspace has been another inspiration. But mostly it was Mike!



The car - 1995 325i, 5-Speed, Sport package. This was last fall before I started. Pretty much all bushings are shot, 195k

Second owner since 8/03, Meticulously maintained by PO. Purchased with these mods:

Dinan chip
Bav Auto Ultimate short shift kit
Sachs heavy duty clutch
Bilstien Heavy duty shocks
(5) style 44 17" OEM wheels

In 2005 I went on a shopping spree and bought this:

The "new" Bav Auto fully adjustable coilover kit, $699 at the time
(4) 18" x 8.5" Arceo Pro Lite rims et38 with 225/40 tires
Bav Auto "ultimate" brake rotors - slotted and drilled. Let it be known that this was the LAST time I bought anything from Bavarian Autosport.
Random eBay lights and things
Stainless headers, larger pipes and cats, stock 328is muffler - had a Magnaflow but sounded terrible so i traded with my wife's old car.
Homemade K&N air intake

Fast forward to late 2012 when I was inspired to sart "fresh." Since installing them back in 2005 the coilovers were more than shot - leaking shocks, nearly stripped adjusters and collapsed rear springs causing a LOT of floating in the rear, but now the front was starting to wander as well. Then I found this, ripped and sagging on both front sides:



So after much research and not wanting to put a THIRD set of OEM hats or any other swapped M3 or other OEM set on the car I took a gamble and bought these eBay special Cosmo Racing camber plates, just $149:



Then I decided to salvage what I could with my front suspension for now, clean everything and came up with this - Before:



After. Please don't hate on my glorious one-piece headlights. I assure you that they will be addressed soon!





And, of course, I found this:





So I ordered and installed the reinforcements and everything else and came up with this - Awesome, a ton of clearance for the tires! Rubbing has been an issue for a long, long time. 5mm spacers were called for with the coilovers originally but those rubbed with the 18x8.5" fronts so I ended up with 12mm spacers up front and ran the 5mm on the rears (for stance points, of course.) But now, -3 front camber!!



And then all was good for a while. Most bushings still shot but felt super-stiff up front, the rear end was quick to slide around with the front camber, spherical bearings and my bald, bald rear tires. Yeah, my back has probably a bit more than -3 which is less than ideal for drifting but that will be addressed eventually as well. Good fun and then this automotive life event occurred:



Next, after much eBay shopping and searching I simply could not find a set of rear springs to sit in the adjusters of my 2005 no-name (supersport) coilover kit so I decided to mix it up and go with some used race springs (eBay, $50) for now and repalced my rears with OEM style sport shocks while they off. Huge improvement but but now my car sat too high in the back for my taste so I went against all sane mechanical reasoning and did this:



Gave it about a 2" drop, still nice and stiff. And, of course, said hello to this problem once again:



This happened back in about 2006 but I improvised at the time, and with the help of my father we came up with the "OH CRAP I need RSM reinforments NOW! mod" Behold:



Cut the old and torn OEM mount up to create a temporary DIY rear shock mount reinforcement:



It ain't pretty but will get the job done until the budget can afford better things. One of the studs broke so we used a bolt that was laying around. Believe it or not, that setup had been on my car for 6 years until I finally bought this setup:



So after more saving up I finally ordered a full front-end overhaul kit from eBay, cheapest thing I could find, so for $143 shipped I received both control arms, complete tie rods, stock bushings and sway bar links. While I did not plan to use the OEM LCAB's, it still was a good price. I had toyed around with the idea of E46 arms, but I didn't want to have to go with flares, etc and decided that -5 or more front camber was just a bad idea for daily driving! I then decided on 1995 M3 offset LCAB's and found a seller that already had them pressed in and started tearing everying apart. While great, this is a sight that I hope I don't need to see for a while:






So then disaster struck and I was just unable to get the control arm bushings on. I used the WD-40 trick and was able to get one bushing halfway on. Then, after giving up and trying a number of things like gear pullers and other types of pullers, I gave up and had to melt the damn thing off, ruining the bushing. I know a press is ideal and there is also the DIY puller tool but for me, I only get time to work on my car late at night after my young ones are down and sometimes during naptime if i'm at home with them so with the car a lower priority it was back to the drawing board rather than spend time and money on more stuff that "might" work for me. After another 2 weeks of saving and researching I decided on Powerflex LCAB, standard offset, ordered then and waited for shipping. I was surprised to see how many people complain about them and try to sell them used and that I couldn't find any real information about installing them so naturally I was worried that the install would not go smoothly. Boy, was I wrong. ATTENTION GOOGLE SEARCHERS: e36 powerflex bushings are very easy to install and can be done by hand in a few minutes. All I needed was a rubber mallet and a socket just larger than the end of the control arm. Here are the three peices:



First, Put the metal washer on the arm. Tap the black piece in place using a socket big enough to clear the end of the arm and small enough to force the first part of the bushing on.



It should look like this:



You can easily do this by hand:



Now use the copper lube:



Push it back on the arm. Voila:



Zero regrets with the poly LCABs for any car even a daily. I learned about the benefits of extra steering angle and decided to do rack spacers on the cheap while I was at it. Looked around and my local Pep boys had the perfect $3 rack spacers, about 5.5mm:



For those of you doing this job - Don't forget to bend that gold locking washer thing that bends over the 32mm nut out of the way or it will not break loose. Then, as suggested by someone here on the forum, I went to a local bicycle shop and the guys there were totally awesome and let me borrow their slim 32mm wrench!! No way in hell was my regular wrench getting on that nut.





Don't forget the thread lock! While we are talking about the budget, Walgreens has the perfect $3 six-pack for those of you that don't already know about Big Flats:



Sorry for the blurries but here it is back in place:



Totally worth doing for anyone that is already replacing tie rods. I'm running 18"x8.5" et38 with a 12mm spacer and 225/40 tires with ZERO rubbing. Talk about tight U-turns!





And the car leaves the garage for the first time in about 2 months!! Time to limp along to the nearest shop that will do alignment...



Beautiful day...



...for a tow home. Clutch to floor. time for a new slave cylinder I guess.. did a new line too. Bled by hand, feels awesome.



Then, my water pump crapped out on me and started grinding.. so I bought my 3rd water pump for the car as well as all new belts and an oil filter housing gasket to try to hunt down a pesky oil leak. Well I think I found my leak, what do you think?



All was going well reinstalling everything until I broke a stud on my alternator, ruining it



So this led me to Texas Alternator Starter Service, who blew me away with their rebuild that also included new bearings for $65. Wow, just wow:



Mandatory bloody knuckle alternator install picture. I should be this for Halloween:



Drove for a while and was awesome except for how "loose" the rear suspension felt. I'm on all original rear bushings so started researching what to do about it. Then, one day I get a hesitation, decide to pull a spark plug and behold:



Valve cover gasket time! This makes #3. Decided to buy the guage to do a compression test on my 200k engine to find that it's pretty much 220-212 across the board and still looks pretty much brand new inside. Awesome, maybe boost could be a feasible option.





Now, I know what you may be thinking, what does this have to do with drifting? Well here comes tax return season and after debating about what type of FI system to get - secondhand supercharger kit or piece together a turbo system I decided to wait on power, learn to control the car better and spend the extra cash on rear subframe bushings, reinforcements, powerflex RTABs and a limited-slip rear end - all great drifty parts.

After much research on how terrible the Powerflex subframe bushings really are and how tricky the aluminum ones can be to install I read through bennyfizzle's thread and decided on the AKG 75D Red bushing for the subframe and diff. Then, after debating on which gearing to get I went with a 3.23 lsd to replaced my open 3.15 from a member on here. 3.38 was tempting but I decided that if I ever do go FI then I'd like to retain some top-end. For those in Texas needing a diff - pm Weaksauce, he's the diffmaster in DFW. He actually worked with me and another member to drop it off to me in Austin and then his friend picked up my old 3.15 core. Great guy and some good people over there in the Texas subforum. Here's the goods - Formerly rebuilt 3.23 LSD:



Had to swap over my cover, installed AKG 75D bushings



Dropped the subframe, cracked 18 year old rubber everywhere! I will get adjustable rear arms eventually, and I'm mad I didn't have them at this point



Drilled and sawzall-ed out each bushing while my dad prepared and welded in the reinforcements. I had the weekend off for my son's 3rd birthday, parents visiting and me and my father were able to do the subframe bushings, reinforcements and swap diffs at night and sunday morning.





This was getting a bit tedious.. One down, 8 to go.



Subframe ready, notice how the front bushing are shaped just right without the need for washers or any other drama. Awesome fit, AKG seems quality.



Powerflex RTABs, super easy install.



Also installed the OEM rear shock mount reinforcement plates and wile I probably rigged it up a little I know for sure that it is solid. Cleaned up the insides of the rear shock towers and welded in the plates from the bottom. Had to grind the opening a bit but it was already trashed so anything helps. End result not the prettiest but quite functional. I also need to get rid of all that old sound deadening stuff that was added years ago for my stereo system:









Then I installed my Depo Headlights complete with 8000K Xenons and UHP LED angel eyes. Hey, it's my daily so I need to see at night, right? these are getting to be cheaper and cheaper. Not pictured, but I ended up with OEM clear corners. Before and after shots:





Also installed Home Depot front lip and eBay M3 style rear diffuser for more style points:




Wow, simply wow with the new super-solid subframe and added traction of the LSD. Sideways on accident, sideways on purpose - same bald, bald tires... If ANYBODY is on the fence about a limited-slip - do it now!! Even swapping to the same ratio would be 100% worth it. Then, I finally finished my DIY 3.5" HFM with silicon elbow plus K&N filter. Includes an OBDI 540i maf (ebay $29) and I made the elbow from a $17 silicon 3.5" to 3" reducer and (2) 3" sections of 3/4" ID heater hose from AutoZone plus some common epoxy and a 3.5" coupler with an aluminum 12" 45 degree 3.5" pipe. I plan to go turbo next year or something so I'll be slowly collecting parts and I guess this counts.









Well this puts me up to date. Sorry to throw seven months at you all at once! more to come, I promise.

[MikeE36]

Now THAT, is how you start a build thread!

Sorry I did you and your wallet the disservice of getting you interested in drifting

Mike

[jjjjjjj]

lol, no harm, no foul! The money would have probably been spent on less fun stuff anyways.

I did, however just pay for my first drift-related traffic citation - Getting caught sideways on Burnet Rd = $115 plus defensive driving.. I was just trying to take off, go left and merge.

[beezwax]

this is inspiring to say the least. I have the same car but in auto which im fine with for now... but i plan to do the same.. in fact.. look at my build thread and see my wheels... lol, i'm running 235's tho. I dont live far from you, maybe sometime in the future we could meet up... i might just have a truck full of parts with me...

[kyillest]

doesnt it feel nice to have brand new bushing and a lsd? its like a whole different car.

[bennyfizzle]

I liked this thread, it chronicles almost all of the usual e36 issues in one little thread

[jjjjjjj]

Yah I've been meaning to do this for years but i guess it makes for a better read this way. The car is insane with the hard bushings and LSD compared to how it was. I can't wait to buy better tires but its quite fun the way it is!

I really want some different rims, one is cracked and others are rashed. I'm thinking about hoarding me some style 5's to repair and stuff. It's a lot harder to find used 18" vs 17" tires and used tires are pretty much all I buy

[sdipompo]

awesome dude. i like nice, clean builds

[protomor]

That intake book looks scary

[jjjjjjj]

That intake book looks scary

Scary good or scary bad? Everything fits nicely, that notch was for the throttle spring but really wasn't needed.

[protomor]

Looks like place for possible vac leaks. I wouldn't trust it for longevity

[Rustyfriend]

As long you put gasket maker around where you made those holes it will hold up just fine. I did the same thing and ran it for 2 years (only took it off because of going turbo)

[jjjjjjj]

I'll be keeping my eye on it, only been like a week. it's pretty secure, T-clamps on both sides, epoxy inside and out and it sat drying for like 2 days. I don't have big boost plans for my stock M50 so I will have amost a year to see how it holds up before I can even afford to turbo.

As long you put gasket maker around where you made those holes it will hold up just fine. I did the same thing and ran it for 2 years (only took it off because of going turbo)

Might I ask why you needed to take it off due to turbo? that's sort of why I did it, plus mine was cracked and brittle



Promotor -- Your e30 is sick, I was following your widebody build and stuff but I guess I need to go see what you've done with that 6.0!

[silas656]

great build thread, very inspiring. Where did you learn to do all this? college??

[jjjjjjj]

great build thread, very inspiring. Where did you learn to do all this? college??

lol, thanks! Definitely not college, just trial and error, extreme amounts of patience, research, ~10 years of ownership and a hardcore desire for doing things on the cheap. I could write SEVERAL other threads about things I've screwed up over the years.

[protomor]

I don't trust gasket maker on things that aren't gaskets. There's a 24v swap intake boot around the E30 world that is exactly what you made but one single woven coupler. It's worth a look at IMO.

Promotor -- Your e30 is sick, I was following your widebody build and stuff but I guess I need to go see what you've done with that 6.0!

Heh, thanks. It's... rough currently. The wide body has since been sold though. The car has most of the body panels missing at this point lol. Got a new wide body but it needs work...

Anywho, I like your build. Want some action vids sir.

[Rustyfriend]

Might I ask why you needed to take it off due to turbo? that's sort of why I did it, plus mine was cracked and brittle

I took it off because the boot had the factory 2 holes, and I was only going to run 1 hole on the turbo setup....plus I destroyed it in the furry of pulling my engine out in 13*F temperatures in the driveway

[motocaddy]

looks like its ready to slide. just need to pick up some cheap wheels/tires and make it out to an event.

[jjjjjjj]

Promotor - Thanks! Appreciate the info on the boot, I will have to look into it. All I could find were the samco/bimmerworld and the mishimoto boots for like $90 and $130 that everybody complained about anyway.

Rusty - Sorry to hear about the break but awesome on the engine and turbo! I guess I will have more research to do, I thought I would always need the 2 holes.

Vids will come, I promise. I'm thinking about picking up a GoPro with my recently completed motorcycle safety course discount because they wouldn't let me use it for my helmet and it is about to expire. Also great for dash cam and insurance purposes I hear...


Motocaddy- I LOVE the vert. I've owned 2 e30 verts, totalled one and drove the other back in high school (rockin' the '87 back in '97!!) and sold it when I bought this car. Really, really miss it but I went for "practical" for this car and it was great when we had kids but we've had Prius for family duty about 2 years now. I really want to do some interior stripping and a roll bar/cage but haven't gotten there quite yet. Plus I need the car ready for my kids in case of emergency so any roll bar will have to be either very low profile or removable.

We totally have a white e36 mafia-type thing going on if Mike agrees to be our leader.

[protomor]

well I thought someone was selling em... why can't I find them?!

[jjjjjjj]

So Ive had the limited-slip diff on the car for a little over a month and it's been locking up great and everything but its been whining louder and louder and making "click" and "clock" noises louder than it used to and now it leaks a little. Ignorant me didn't know that there is a such thing between regular gear oil and limited-slip gear oil so I got some additive and figure for now I'll add that and eventually have to drop it to redo the seal and put in some proper Redline oil.

So I get under it and realize that there is no possible way I'm getting my 1/2" ratchet and 1/2" 14mm socket on that top fill plug with the diff on the car and that it's very unlikely I'll be able to squeeze the tube of that thick additive in there either so I had to use a little ingenuity to fix it up for now. Maybe this can help someone else down the road:

This=no fit



This+this+a little bit of that=success



Easy does it and I was able to break the plug bolt loose. Fired up my air compressor to about 20 psi and took a 3 foot 3/4" clear tube I had laying around to feed the additive fluid into the diff - Stuck the hose in the open diff hole and emptied the contents of the tube into the hose while holding it as high as possible after running the hose out the fender well and up near the gas tank cap area. I then gave it a few blasts of air with the air sprayer nozzle to empty out the hose.

I guess with enough patience and maybe a funnel of some soft this technique could also be used to fill the diff while it is on the car. Drove the car for a while and quickly noticed that it was making a lot less noise!! I will still need to drop it to redo the back cover seal and add better fluid. Does anyone know where I can buy Redline or something as good at a parts store, and are there any pros or cons to adding a thicker gear oil for daily use vs track-only use?

[DjTyfighter]

love that idea for the diff drain plug, i wish i had thought of it. I just did mine a week ago and hammered the spare wheel metal to get it to fit

[sdipompo]

love that idea for the diff drain plug, i wish i had thought of it. I just did mine a week ago and hammered the spare wheel metal to get it to fit

hahaha! i was in my trunk today like wtf, why is my spare tire well hammered in.

[bennyfizzle]

My socket fits without hammering anything.

[jjjjjjj]

Benny isn't your ride a 325 sedan too? All I could find was a 1/2" drive socket for an allen that large so who knows.

So is redline gear oil really as magical as everyone makes it out to be? I'm expecting unicorns or at least fairy dust.