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Well, after a few decades on this forum I thought it fitting to finally contribute my own version of a build thread. Really do appreciate everyone that still hangs around here after all of these years so after building and unbuilding my first e36 m3 track car, I wanted to document the tear down/construction/mayhem of my current continuous project. Had a cherry stock e36 m3 I was having a blast with and enjoying reliable (finally) track time after having pulled off my 3rd supercharger setup and stripping a bit of weight down. All of a sudden, my best buddy calls and has me meet up with a transporter out front of my house. This is sitting there in all of its glory:
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Buddy couldn't pass up a steal of a deal on a rolling shell, and was "nice" enough to pass the deal along to me without my knowledge. I guess its time to learn how to do an LS swap since my reliable car has been way too reliable. E36 M3 sold on this form and time for a rush of parts ordering followed by a tow to my buddies shop in KC to perform a majority of the manual labor with the one that got me into this mess.
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Upsized ferrea valves and custom headwork thanks to another buddy Brad Noland (Noland's Cylinder Head) and a bare 5.7L LS1 block from Thompson Motorsports, WAY oversized cam and a T56 was now sitting where the old partial M50 once sat. Not too shabby on the race weight either:
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At the same time, dual fuel pumps, rear solid bushings and control arm ball joints helps to stabilize the resealed 3.91 Kaaz differential:
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Weekend was over with a HUGE amount accomplished but track event was just a few short months away so time to get to wiring. Plan was to keep a GM PCM in place and build my own fuse/relay panels per LT1swap guidance (fantastic and amazing resource):
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Next came oil cooler, radiator, euro expansion tank, and intake install now that the harness was in place:
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Wow, engine bay is coming together and dash actually powers up. How in the hell am I going to put this kind of power down with only 2350 lbs loading the tires? Guess I should start at the fenders and work my way down from there:
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After dealing with heat issues on all my previous high power builds, was not going to have a similar fate on this one:
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Sorry, dont know why these are starting to autorotate!
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With one weekend left before our first track event of the year, loaded it up on the trailer for a 3 hr trip and prayed it would crank over for the dyno geniuses at Speed Inc (Jim Moran).
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Rolled it back off the trailer out back of the shop and he tried to crank it up: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jnnnmxyqjv...13.56.mp4?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/5a0ugpmyio...Video.MOV?dl=0
Success!@!!!! Holy crap I must have done something right for it to not go up in a flame of melted wires. Onto the dyno she went for a good 5 - 6 hours of break in and tuning:
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First track weekend was a massive success. Not only did I get to beat on it without hickup all weekend, but my brother's car went down so it was dual-dutied back to back run groups! Stayed cool as a cucumber and Accusump/Mast baffled oil pan kept lubrication where it was most needed. Heartland Park garage pic since it is all I had:
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Last edited by olemiss540; 11-25-2022 at 12:25 PM.
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Now for some boring stuff. Race mirror went on because I could see nothing at my first event. Also time to "fabricate" a splitter solution:
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These better get me the 1.5 mpg improvement promised:
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Found a used AIM MXL dash so seriously upgraded my datalogging capabilities. My braking is woefully inadequate now that I am driving something sprung at 1000lb/in and with no ability to hear ANYTHING besides 8 cylinders of fury so time to try and wire in a standalone 3ch ABS system and make brake lines for the first time in my life:
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Small oil leak near the back of the pan, decided to try to replace the new rear main seal with another new one to fix.
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To go with the new front splitter, had to address rear downforce with a set of "custom" uprights:-)
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Now time to address the tired livery with a little plasti-dip treatment:
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New brake pads and calipers (dtc60) to try and address a touch of soft pedal and ceramic coating the headers to save my plug wires due to a short at Hallett:
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A little gopro action and some additional track pictures below. Next I will summarize the last event of this year at Road Atlanta/Barber last weekend! Setting a course for work to come this winter.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/02ha7mzeui...R0035.MP4?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/udx1een9ra...R0038.MP4?dl=0
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Last weekend at Road Atlanta (MVP) Sat/Sun and Barber (Jzilla) Mon:
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Hell Yes!!!! YES YES!!
Great to see you posting up your build!
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Oh that was your car at Barber! I was in the Avus blue E36M3 parked in pitlane all day.
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That was a beautiful car! I remember it because my 95m3 I owned and sold to make room for this monster was Avus so it caught my eye big time. Damn I miss that car, was dead reliable and a looker to boot.
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So. Issues arose. We were going to events and shutting down after the first lap. Thankfully my brother purchased a 2019 Grand Sport RIGHT before the pandemic at my urging, as he didnt have time to sort around with his own MCoupe LS Swap (still sitting in the garage), so I had a set of keys to grab just in case. Initial issues popped up at Hallet. Some crispy plug wires where the headers have a wrap around bend caused a plug swap. Fixed for a session and trouble would appear again. Then after coating the headers and rerouting my 3rd set of plug wires, trouble was still brewing and felt down on power. Suddenly became rumbles at idle speeds as well.
I have missed toooo many sessions now sorting, so time to drop it off at a local shop I thought could handle it as they were a dyno shop nearby that did a lot of LS swapped old school camaros/mustangs.
Left it sit there all winter, the tech would call every couple months with some items they were trying to diag. Pulling valve covers. Checking spring compressions on the valves. Redoing valve cover gaskets and new intake manifold replaced for a leak. Were you diagnosing anything or just swapping in parts?????
That employee ended up being terminated and I ended up 1400 dollars (parts cost ONLY) poorer with absolutely no progress on diagnosing the real trouble.
I knew ground troubles are public enemy numero uno with LS swaps and I am not widely known for my electrical termination prowess. Thats where I started. Nothing seemed out of line as I checked resistance readings between grounds and my negative battery cable while also splicing in new ground connections throughout.
So I bought HPTuners and decided to try my hand at diagnosing this thing myself as it was going to be the only way to climb out of this.
Some youtube videos later, I learned how to adjust the HPTuners options to turn back on as many misfire detection systems as possible. Big cam means the original tuner turned all of that off. Weird lean readings from the O2's, started swapping sensors side to side to try and get anything bank specific to shift some readings. Watching misfire codes (which there were plenty due to the cam lift/duration), seeing if I could eye anything new/out of place with a change in equipment.
Eventually led to fuel injectors and viola! Something changed! Started injector by injector and found the injector that seemed to make the shift and replaced with a new one. SOLVED. Beotches.
Last edited by olemiss540; 12-05-2022 at 06:30 PM.
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So, this fall arrived and I had one more chance to work/sort through any remaining issues to ensure this was the fix I was looking for. Road Atlanta for 2 days with MVP and a 3rd day at Barber with JZilla on my way home.
Car.
Drove.
Amazing.
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That's what we want to hear!!!!!Originally Posted by olemiss540
Long road getting there, but it sounds like it was worth it.
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Now, we have QUITE the shopping/winter checklist as a result from the most recent track activities:
- Hanging RPM's until vehicle is fully stopped: Research is telling me to check my TPS ground to put it somewhere isolated and reduce noise
- Brakes STILL suck: ABS non functional (DIY'ed a standalone 3 channel system), brake bias even when the bias valve is fully out (reduced rear bias) still locking up a rear wheel randomly. Feels like I have 50% of braking capacity and unable to get anywhere near 80% on brake pressure before lockup. Could be partially due to the V1 RC1 tires as they have sucked from day 1 under braking. Need to get ABS working, figure out whats going on with the bias valve, maybe spend money on going back to NT01's or changing to 18's and switching to V730's (275 square setup).
- Puller fan fuse getting fairly WARM.
- Groaning noise under cornering: CONFIRMED wheel bearing. Tearing out rear suspension, replacing all rose joints, ball joints, wheel bearings, and RTAB bearings. Rear shock mount clunk so also changing out all shock mount bearings with new. RTABs are confirmed COM-14 and shock mounts measure as COM-10 Aurora bearings.
- Want to upgrade fuel lines from tank to filter/regulator.
- New aluminum race seat if budget accomodates.
- New shocks, switching to TCKline SA's from these Advanced Design DA's. Simplify lift a bit, something more reliable to allow me to focus on DRIVING.
- Clutch pedal seemed to start hanging down and not smoothly springing back up, also shift gates started getting hard/notchy. Reading says maybe bleed (tried at track and didnt help), maybe something hydraulic, hopefully dont have to drop the tranny and replace the LS7 clutch/flywheel that's only 6 weekends old.
- Hit the trailer with my front splitter setup (I'm an idiot) so need to simplify a splitter setup that hopefully I dont have to remove my front bumper to load onto trailer.
- Car sputtered my last session so I immediately pitted in and then the car wouldnt crank over to load onto trailer. Had to jump box, car wasnt charging, causing my brain to short and me to run my front bumper into my trailer ramps. Need a new alternator.
Car is torn apart in the garage, will post some pics of the carnage this week.......
Member
Sounds like a typical winter to-do list.
Brake bias: you still have stock calipers? If yes, yea, (with no ABS) you can still get rear lock up even with a brake bias valve set to full front.
But, get the ABS fixed first.
I can turn the ABS on/off, and turn it off to set bias (flat, level, smooth, straight braking), then turn ABS on and let if fix all the trail braking etc lock ups.
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Since it is a 325, it has e46 330i front and e36 m3 rear brakes along with an e36m3 booster/pump setup.
When I say they lockup at 50% I mean it. I have to be gentle compared to my old e36 m3, no standing it up on its nose anymore.
I am seriously thinking that I think the RC1 tire compound is most of the issue.
And yes I need to get the diag port wired in for the ABS and then try and run the scanner on it.
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Also forgot I rebuilt the steering column with new bearings on each end (due to some wobble in the steering wheel), and put a fancy new door pull/handle/cable for easier egress.
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TCKline singles arrived in the mail! Bought some 550# front springs from this forum (60mm), anyone have any 600 - 700# 2.25" rear springs? I have some 550# (2.25"), 950# (2.25"), 900# (2.5") springs if anyone needs them.....
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All too sympathetic to this haha.
Brake bias: the mechanical bias on your setup isn't very far forward at all. Especially considering it's a race car, you could swap out the front brakes to any manner of larger rotor and correct the bias without involving the ABS pump. Without using exotic calipers, something like 350mm front and 300mm rear rotor worked for me in terms of getting the bias in the ballpark and making heat buildup consistent front-to-rear.
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