Progress is a Slow Process e36 Track/Autocross Build

[Jfriday11]

Tonight I finally got around to taking out the rest of the interior in the rear and installing the trunk back off plate.

I painted the back off plate black and got some 80mil thick sound deadening material off amazon for pretty cheap compared to what dynamat costs and it actually works very well and adds a bit more rigidity to the plate. Very easy to apply it as well.



I also cut two strips of aluminum and crossed them to make the thin aluminum plate a bit stronger before I put the sound deadening material on.




Gotta love that primer color


Next I'll be using this with some mineral spirits to get that abundant sound deadening out of the rear and trunk


Also I have a custom roll bar that will be going in next week before I head down to VIR

--Update--
The roll bar is all welded together and waiting to go to the powder coater. It's a one piece roll bar made of .120 DOM tubing and weighs roughly 70lbs. Can't wait to get this thing in!

[Mr Estoril]

Those AKG tow hooks are great. Despite how light they are, they will hold up perfectly if you say... have to be pulled out of a small ravine surrounded by bushes

[GGray]

Get a re -tune with the M50 manifold they make the car run lean up top and can cause a HG failure...

Time for nicer suspension!

Looks nice!

[Jfriday11]

Those AKG tow hooks are great. Despite how light they are, they will hold up perfectly if you say... have to be pulled out of a small ravine surrounded by bushes

Lol sounds like you speak from experience. Hopefully I won't have to... for a while anyway

Get a re -tune with the M50 manifold they make the car run lean up top and can cause a HG failure...

Time for nicer suspension!

Looks nice!

I'll have to look into that. Definitely don't want to blow a hg.

I'm planning on getting new suspension next spring before the season starts so long as no unexpected costs come up. Still not sure what setup I want to go with though...

[DurtyMD]

What's the deal with the sound deadening material on the trunk blockoff? Sounds like extra weight for comfort? Last I checked comfort ≠ racecar

You're car's looking great, I am still planning to do this once I get my motor running

[stealthbeam]

Nice man! I like the idea of the backing plate, maybe one day when I fully dedicate my car to the track I can make one as well, until then, I like to scare the passengers on a ride along every now and then

[Jfriday11]

What's the deal with the sound deadening material on the trunk blockoff? Sounds like extra weight for comfort? Last I checked comfort ≠ racecar

You're car's looking great, I am still planning to do this once I get my motor running

lol I put the sound deadening material on for a couple of reasons, the first being that I still drive the car on the street and I didn't want the aluminum amplifying the sounds and rattling from the trunk and also the .018 gauge aluminum is VERY thin and I wanted the plate to be a bit more solid.
The extra 1.5 pounds is nothing if it saves me a headache

Nice man! I like the idea of the backing plate, maybe one day when I fully dedicate my car to the track I can make one as well, until then, I like to scare the passengers on a ride along every now and then

haha ah yes, scaring passengers is most excellent, especially when you're autocrossing and they don't know how to read the cones

[Jfriday11]

Got the roll bar installed last Thursday night just before I headed down to VIR. I'm quite pleased with the outcome






Had a great weekend down at VIR even with the constant rain. The car handled beautifully, but I was fighting a mushy brake pedal all weekend. I tried bleeding the brakes to no avail, so I'll have to troubleshoot when I have some spare time. Hopefully it just needs a proper bleed and not a new master cylinder.

[RingMeister01]

What an excellent source of info for anyone wanting to build an e36 racer. Well done.

[Brake_L8]

Glad you had fun at VIR. We chatted a bit on grid (Mike, one of the grid guys, and I both complimented your blingy tow hooks) and I didn't put two and two together until just now. The rain was nasty... made everything just slick enough to cause a lot of carnage.

See you in a few weeks for the November event at Summit Point?

[Jfriday11]

What an excellent source of info for anyone wanting to build an e36 racer. Well done.

Thanks!

Glad you had fun at VIR. We chatted a bit on grid (Mike, one of the grid guys, and I both complimented your blingy tow hooks) and I didn't put two and two together until just now. The rain was nasty... made everything just slick enough to cause a lot of carnage.

See you in a few weeks for the November event at Summit Point?

Ah yes, I remember you. I was really hoping the extra hp from the tow hooks would help me win the HPDE, but they didn't even make that much of a difference and yeah, no kidding. I'm glad I didn't become part of all that carnage, it definitely got a bit sketchy out there.

I'll probably be out there in November, although I'm not sure if I'll be driving. I gotta see if my coworkers can do without me for another full weekend lol

[Jfriday11]

Just a quick update. Haven't really been doing much to the car except yesterday I got my Aluminum pedals in from Turner and put them on today. These things are sweet. I adjusted them fairly close together so I can heal toe like a pro.





Before:


After:


Also I'm in the market for another car so as soon as I get one, this car will be going on a radical new diet plan and be getting all sorts of new goodies

[Jfriday11]

- UPDATE -

Got some more work done to the car over the weekend. I took out most of the AC system, washer fluid system, Aux Fan, radio, and installed an s52 oil filter housing, Rally Road oil cooler cap, Mishimoto oil cooler, Hard Motorsports brake cooling ducts, bimmerworld backing plates, gauges and some other small items here and there.

For the gauges I bought a radio block off plate from ECS tuning for like $3 and made holes to accommodate the gauges. I think it turned out rather nicely.








Here's the s52 oil filter housing all put together with the Rally Road cap, Rally Road adaptor block, and the oil temp and oil pressure sensors.


Because the m52 oil filter housing is stupid and big, I made some spacers for the s52 housing so that the power steering pump pulley would align with all the other pulleys.


I also replaced my old leaky vanos line with a new one


Next I hooked up the Mishimoto oil cooler and 3ft Mishimoto lines.


I also made some brackets to mount it behind the grill.




All put together




I then hooked up the Hard Motorsports brake ducts and the Bimmerworld backing plates, but left the ducting hoses off until I need them at the track. I wont be putting them on for autocrosses either.





That's it for now. I'll be removing some more interior weight in the coming weeks.

[Spec3HOR]

Making some great progress! Hope to see you out at NASA-MA March VIR! Come by the black trailer with the #186 race car for some frosty beverages if you get a chance, always looking forward to meeting new NASA guys.

[Frank@AchillesMotorsports]

Awesome build! Looks like its becoming an awesome little track toy!

[pMak26]

-

I also made some brackets to mount it behind the grill.




All put together

Nice build!
Small advise on the oil cooler, mount it with the feeds on the top (so flip yours over) for better efficiency and mount it through the top and the bottom brackets, with rubber grommets inbetween all mounting point. Vibrations will kill the cooler if not mounted properly. :thumbs

[VALSBM3]

Nice build. Hope to see this in person this year.

[Jfriday11]

Making some great progress! Hope to see you out at NASA-MA March VIR! Come by the black trailer with the #186 race car for some frosty beverages if you get a chance, always looking forward to meeting new NASA guys.

I fully plan on being down there so I'll definitely stop by! I've never really spoken with anyone who races in the gts class and I'm thinking I may eventually want to go that route, so I may have to pick your brain a bit if you don't mind!

Awesome build! Looks like its becoming an awesome little track toy!

Thanks! I've been loving it so far! I can't wait until I can get this thing back on the track.

Nice build!
Small advise on the oil cooler, mount it with the feeds on the top (so flip yours over) for better efficiency and mount it through the top and the bottom brackets, with rubber grommets inbetween all mounting point. Vibrations will kill the cooler if not mounted properly. :thumbs

I appreciate the good advice! I'll definitely be adding brackets at the top and some rubber grommets, but I'm gonna leave the feeds at the bottom for now since there isn't enough clearance for them at the top. If it turns out that I'm running a bit hot at the track, I'll adjust the mounts so that I can flip it over.

Nice build. Hope to see this in person this year.

Thanks! I'm planning on getting out to most of the NASA MA events so come say hello if you see me hangin around my car in the paddock!

[OLD MAN]

Very nice car - you're off to a great start.

Up in an early post about mentioned running the rear bar full stiff, with our E21's we have found they handle better with the rear bars off for auto cross. We just pull one of the links off one side when auto crossing.

The rear bar will add to the front steering as will as tighten up the rear, we had much better results fixing under steer by going to heavier springs up front. We currently run 550lb springs up front and 450 in the back. I under stand that E36s run stiffer spring in the rear - E21s have coil overs in the rear so a 460 spring on it is like a 650 or 700 lb on an E36 because of the spring location. Also a fully stock E21 with air and sun roof weigh less then 2600lbs - small cars without a lot of DOT safety stuff and comfort built into them.

Looking forward to updates.

[Brake_L8]

I fully plan on being down there so I'll definitely stop by! I've never really spoken with anyone who races in the gts class and I'm thinking I may eventually want to go that route, so I may have to pick your brain a bit if you don't mind!

I will be parked next to this whole truck/trailer setup and probably drinking frosty beverages with DJ and the rest of our little crew. Definitely come pick some brains, good group of people with a lot of TT/Spec3/GTS experience collectively.

[memert]

Awesome Build and great looking car.

[Jfriday11]

Very nice car - you're off to a great start.

Up in an early post about mentioned running the rear bar full stiff, with our E21's we have found they handle better with the rear bars off for auto cross. We just pull one of the links off one side when auto crossing.

The rear bar will add to the front steering as will as tighten up the rear, we had much better results fixing under steer by going to heavier springs up front.

I actually was talking about putting the front bar to full stiff, but I've read in a bunch of different places about people disconnecting the rear bar at least for autox. I might try it during one of these test and tune days coming up, but I'm still not fully understanding the logic of it. Seems counterintuitive to me since I've always thought that as a general rule more rear bar promotes oversteer while less leads to understeer.

I will be parked next to this whole truck/trailer setup and probably drinking frosty beverages with DJ and the rest of our little crew. Definitely come pick some brains, good group of people with a lot of TT/Spec3/GTS experience collectively.

Good to know! I'll keep an eye out for you guys..

Awesome Build and great looking car.

Thanks!

[OLD MAN]

I actually was talking about putting the front bar to full stiff, but I've read in a bunch of different places about people disconnecting the rear bar at least for autox. I might try it during one of these test and tune days coming up, but I'm still not fully understanding the logic of it. Seems counterintuitive to me since I've always thought that as a general rule more rear bar promotes oversteer while less leads to understeer.

You have it right as more rear bar does add steering or over steer in an E21 - with the E21 they tend to get tail happy so disconnecting the rear bar for auto-x in an E21 helps. With your E36 rear bar may help, best thing we did to balance the our car was stiffer front springs. Need to add that stiffening the front bar on and E21 is not real easy/possible.

[jakermac]

Having no rear bar on an autocross E36 allows you to put more power down coming off the corners, but you need to up the spring rate to compensate for some of the lost roll resistance. You also sacrifice a bit of longitudinal acceleration, but the ability to come off the corners (aren't we always cornering in autocross?) harder more than makes up for it.

[Jfriday11]

With the season is quickly approaching, I'm scrambling to get all the parts put on my car that have been patiently awaiting their final resting spot. I still have a TON to do before the first event on the 21st, but here's a little of what I've been up too...

The biggest thing that I got done was putting on new suspension.


I decided to go with KW Clubsports because I've never heard a bad thing about KW in terms of durability and I feel like it will be a great track suspension that will be drivable on the street. I also like the idea of having 2-way adjustability along with camber plates and height adjustability, which is something I can mess around with more and more as my skills continue to develop.




I also got the Turner rear shock mount reinforcement plates as well as oem front strut reinforcement plates which I cut so I can have more camber adjustability.

Before I sanded the cut smooth


I also fabbed up a radiator baffle out of some spare aluminum that was laying around to hopefully help out with cooling.



And finally to get clearance away from the coilovers, I turned to Motorsport Hardware for 15mm spacers, 75mm studs, and their silver conical nuts. The 15mm spacer just barely clears the spring by maybe a millimeter.




I also took out the rest of the AC system including the compressor, bracketing, and assorted lines. I love how much room it freed up to work under there on the right side of the car. Moving forward I still have a bunch to do. I'm just hoping I can get it all done in time for the first event.