A journey to restore/build my 328i

[Thrifty S50]

Hey Guys! Ive lurked these forums for a loooong time. Have posted very little, but that is changing.

So I've been the proud owner of a 1998 328i sedan/5 Speed for about 5 almost 6 years now. Purchased from an older lady (original owner) for 4200$ with 132,000 at the time of purchase.
It really was a great example of an e36. Pristine interior/exterior most maintenance kept up to date.
However shortly after purchasing it, I joined the military and off I went. It sat in a garage for 4 years as I was overseas, which at that point, I was trying to sell it as I couldn't drive it.
Fast forward, I'm out now, and after a couple of months of trying to sell it again to hop in an e30, to no avail, I figured what the hell. Lets build this thing! I apologize in advance, as i do not have a photo bucket or anything so i will have todo multiple post's as i can only attach 5 files per post.

So when i bought the car it looked like this:





It was a clear upgrade when parked next to my old 325e (or so I hought at the time, God I miss that thing.)

Gave her a good shine :





Then, shortly after, I picked up some wheels for it, tinted the windows, and this is how it sat for 4 years in that garage :

[Thrifty S50]

And when I came home it stayed this way, yet with subtle mods, Clears all around and black kidneys. This is how it sat while trying to sell for the last year
:

[Thrifty S50]

Now for the last couple months, I really have been falling in love with this thing. Ive slowly but surely been putting things on her, kind of buying parts and than being like "well, now I HAVE to start working on her"

So before today, what I had done to the car has been fairly simple, and EVERYTHING I've DIY'd, I can't Justify paying someone for something I can do myself.

So awhile back I changed my ICV + hose :





Than shortly after I did some cooling system maintenance, My res Tank cracked on me after chaining hoses/water pump/ belts/ gaskets etc.
I guess it couldn't hold the pressure like it once was able to :







The nickel is a funny story, I was using it to open my bleeder valve while flushing the coolant (with bmw blue of course)
and while closing the valve shut, it slipped out of my hand and fell right into the res tank. you could imagine the heart attack i had. I ran to auto zone and bought "The Clawwwwww" and fished that bitch out.
Called some shop to see how much they would charge , gave me some outrageous price (200+) versus the 2$ for the claw.
well the flush went well in the end, but it was such bitch procedure to bleed correctly, getting all air out of the heater core and etc.

[Thrifty S50]

For my next step, I wanted to lean more towards a performance mod, because other than the wheels, and euro clears, the car is STOCK. or was.
Don't get me wrong, its a great car stock it really was. But i started to notice how much of a monster truck it was (regarding height) and the struts were going out, and the engine was so tame, even past 4k, it was "mild"
I think i started to realize this right around the time my wife and i bought an e92 (2012) 335i M-Sport. Mineral white(searched high and low for an Alpine but god damn i do not know where they all are, and the cart was for my wife and she's into that Pearl-esque look. It actually lookes really bitchin when cleaned up.) It has all the bells and whistles, NAV, sport exhaust, H/K system, Sun roof etc :







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Now getting back to my car, The next thing on the list was intake/exhaust.
Like i said in my first post, I've lurked these forums for a LONG.TIME.
And after reading post after post after post after post, that a CAI, or Exhaust do really little in regards to performace (power gains) other than noise, and to spend hundreds sometimes thousands of dollars
to get such little gain does not make sense to me. First what I did was the good ol' golf tee mod!
bought about 100, 2 inch golf tees from big 5 for 4 bucks. (for four dollars? too many numbers in that last sentence hah) and the car sounded sweet in comparison to stock! I could ACTUALLY HEAR the exhaust is what I mean. Like from INSIDE the car.
it was such great feeling. If it weren't for these boards i would swear it made the car faster
and next was the intake. I thought about a cosmos, or K&N, but price point was too much for little gain. Than I stumbled upon a thread about a DIY CAI and i thought great! this is what I need!
than however a lot of them ran into problems with fitting them between DEPO headlights and brake duct or some other minor thing and I didn't really want to cut up the car. luckily someone mentioned the stock air box could be De-Baffled! with that and a simple Drop in K&N I could achieve close to what the other DIYs would, with the exception of well, a heat shield, or cold air. But I for 25 bucks you really can't go wrong with this mod. I am really a big advocate for OEM as well so win win!

Here is a video of the results after both of these mods (shot on galaxy s5) :

https://youtu.be/OBvyBUZVzBg

the exhaust had such great low end grunt, and it really growled passed 3.5 k!
I loved it! sadly, after doing the gold tee mod to my 335i, and hearing how much better it sounded (than my poor e36) something had to change.
Luckily I found a near perfect E36 m3 exhaust for 50 bucks near by! those SS tips were worth the 50 bucks alone it looks so clean!

Here is a video of the car before I mounted the m3 exhaust on, so its basically a muffler delete. The video really does not do it justice, it was LOUD! just listen to that rasp!

https://youtu.be/YZsnz--A05M

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So after finding that deal on the exhaust, my next choice was suspension.
I won't lie, my car needed a suspension refresh... BAD.
If you looked in the videos, my tire wear was horrendous, due to my ever shifting toe. Luckily I swooped up these bad boys from MRJHall, another forums member.

Blue Poly RTABS, we believed to be Rouge, for 45 bucks!



Although the blues are stiffer than the blacks, and meant for the track, they will quickly take care of my toe problem, and for 45 bucks i couldn't pass these up. If they are too stiff maybe someone with blacks will want to trade or i will sell these bad boys..
Then, I found some Bistein B8s on craigslist here in hollywood for 250! front and rear, with front H&R sport springs. Unfortunately i didn't get a mileage on these bad boys, and I still need to seek out the rear springs to match;
but they were extremely clean and only 250$! look!



The person I got these from didn't really have a clue what she had, she had received them as payment in lou of cash for some work on a car she had done.
I called up bilstein and we ran the serial numbers. They are legit!

[Thrifty S50]

So now all of this brings us to today, today I have installed the bilstein B8s : here are some pictures of the process :



Hood was up so snapped an engine bay pic!



Look at the difference holy shit!

Front :



Rear :







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The process to install the Bilsteins wasn't really too hard, I didn't look at any DIY's, just kinda propped it up and looked at it for awhile. Its REALLY straight forward.
All you need is jack stands, a 13mm socket/wrench (for the top were the shocks mount to the tower) , a 17mm socket/wrench (for the lugs on the wheels) an 18mm socket/wrench/2ft breaker bar (for the bolts where the shock/strut mount onto the control arm/ disc brake assembly)
you really do NEED the breaker bar, or I did because the 18mm bolts behind the disc brake were fucking STUCK ON THERE. it was bad. I think they had loc-tite on the, actually I'm sure they did.
my only advice is that you take the brake lines out 1st, then unscrew the mounting point on the disc brake assembly first, than use your floor jack to hold up the control arm. It WILL fall other wise. Also you will need something to hold up the disc brake its self or it will kinda flop over putting strain on the brake lines. not cool. Than simply unmount the top 3 screws from the shock tower and it will drop out. Be ready, because it DROPS! To put the new ones in I would remount the bottom first, than fasten it to the shock tower at the top. took me a lot of *exploitave deletives* and a lot of elbow grease to figure this out. The rear is the exact same with the exception of only having one mount point for the rear strut on the bottom near the brake vs. 3 on the front. Other than that and having to rip up your carpet in the trunk to reach your RSM point it is the same.
Just make sure you go to the bank and withdraw a lot of F@cks, G@d Damn!!ts, and WTF's. because if your suspension was as bad as mine you will spend all of these. quickly. those things were caked in grease and dirt and were STUCK.

As I did not have the H&R spring set for the rear , I Left the stock Rear springs. I read a lot and as far as I've learned as long as the spring is not TOO SHORT for the spring it should be fine. A lot of people run the OEM m3 springs because the H&R's I guess are too harsh in the rear for street driving, none the less the M3 springs can't be shorter than the H&R sports. That knowledge coupled with the fact that my rear springs probably have some play in them, I figured it would be okay until I pick M3 springs or another set of H&R Rears.

I will be right back with DSLR Pictures of the before and after, I forgot to shoot them in JPEG and have to convert them from CR2.

[Moron95M3]

Nice!! Love the work you're putting into it and love the E92!!

Make sure you put a large washer on those rear shocks at the bottom mount - or else they'll pull out over the bolt. (happens to us all )

[Thrifty S50]

Before and after pics of the suspension install!

Before:


Pictures are very large so they will be one at a time

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After!


All of my other pictures were wayyyy to large to upload and i don't want to go back and resize them all after spending 2 hours writing all this all up and converting them from raw to jpeg, but the first picture compared to the space in the front wheel well shows it all! the rear stayed the same size more or less because of the stock springs i believe but look at the difference! so much sexier, and stiff!
The car kinda is fluctuating ride height an inch or so after driving and sitting for a little bit. I will see if this persists but i think its just from the new suspension sitting for awhile than being mounted. we will see because all of the struts/shock are VERY FIRM. I do not think they are blown at all, trust me i know what a blown strut feels like go look at my old ones ^^^^ lol!
it may be the stock springs in the rear getting use to the ride height now but again, we will see.

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Next mods will be to Gut the M3 exhaust and weld in Perforated core tubing, and install my Poly RTABS and FTABS as soon as i decide wether or not to cut them out or save and buy the proper tool :p + seeking an LSD, preferable 3.38 so i can get rid of my ASC!
Will keep you all updated with many pictures and videos as they come!

Nice!! Love the work you're putting into it and love the E92!!

Make sure you put a large washer on those rear shocks at the bottom mount - or else they'll pull out over the bolt. (happens to us all )

Thanks man! I've actually read a lot of the DIY stuff on here you've posted, and i wouldn't have come this far without your help or the forums!
and oh crap i will be sure to grab some washers than, that would suck especially after all the suspension work! haha
and the e92 is a beautiful machine, but your 95 //M is GORGEOUS!

[rajicase]

Nice

Should put some m3 bumpers on

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And just cut the old RTABS out man. Doesn't take long..

[Thrifty S50]

Nice

Should put some m3 bumpers on

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And just cut the old RTABS out man. Doesn't take long..

M3 Bumpers are happening, just waiting to see if I can find a part out special! To get front and rear and to paint them is redicoulously expensive, st least what I've been quoted. And yeah I might just have to cut those suckers!!

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Car rides kind of "bouncy" at lower speeds, I know this is a common complaint with the bilstein and H&R setup how ever I will check to see if I'm riding on the bump stops, which I think is possible since the drop. Would this be be a somrwhat smart assumption ?

[ponchiz318]

I highly doubt you're on bump stops with just sport springs. Even race wouldn't get you down to bump stops.
Maybe the struts are going bad? The valving on them could be off as well.
On my old e36 318, I had koni single adjustable inserts with h&r oe sport. I had to soften up my inserts due to excess bounce. Mind you, I found the struts at a salvage yard. Picked up front suspension along with brakes off an M3 and swapped it over. I miss that car

[sparklee39]

Nice writing. Good luck with that car.

[amancuso]

Very nice!

[BMW1999m3]

Looks clean. I like black e36's.

[Thrifty S50]

20150628_062328.jpg

Hey guys! First, thanks for all the positive feedback and replies!!

So here's a picture of it today, officially the first full day on the new suspension. After driving it today, I realize that the bounce isn't to crazy, it's something I can live with. However, it is excessive. and what my ass is telling me is that it's coming from the rear right. Everything on the drivers side is nice and firm, but when it bounces, and when I hit a substantial bump, my butt diagnosis screams to me to check the right rear strut. a few times Iif I hit a bump hard enough, the right rear kind of tucks into the wheel well, and scrubs the bumper. However this will solve it's self out in maybe 25 seconds of rubbing. It does not feel like when I would bottom out on the high way on my old spongy stock set up. That was a quick, down up motion where you can tell the wheel rubs the top of the wheel well. This, this is more of a slow release of the initial impact, like a slow mo bottom out.
when this happens, it is impossible to run even one finger between the front or rear tire and fender, ONLY on the passenger side. Again, this sorts itself out after about 10, 20 seconds as it slowly decompresses. Meanwhile the drivers side is A-OK, firm tight, no sag, and passes the finger test.
Naturally I looked under at the rear passenger strut and there is no leaking. I looked at the top where the RSM bolts in and it's fine. Although my butt tells me its the rear passenger, I take a look at the front passenger and all is good there.

What I want to believe is that these haven't been mounted in a while, and the slow decompression on the right side is just the suspension getting use to taking impact again. But what my brain is telling me is that, A. The rear springs are no match for the bilsteins (this would be overlooking the fact that the drivers side is completely fine, perfect even) or B. That the right rear strut (and spring ) are slowly going :/
so, my next step is well, to buy new springs for the rear (always start with the simpler option) and if this persists, contact Bilstein for a rebuild or revalve.

My question for all of you is;
1.Based on what ive stated, and your past experiance, what would you deduce this too?
2. Is a revalve technically a "rebuild"?

I think I read something that a revalve just changes the way the shock/strut reacts to the impact, i.e how quickly it bounces back.

I will continue to look into this and post my own results, however if there is anyone in the Los Angeles area on here, that I could possibly meet up with and let them take her for spin and see what there "butt diagnosis" says, I would love to take advantage of that!

[travys]

Great looking e36. Subscribed. Lookin forward to more.

[Thrifty S50]

Great looking e36. Subscribed. Lookin forward to more.

Thank man! So no build updates right now, still sorting out suspension issues. Just weighing out whether I should sink the money to revalve the bullies or buy a new set of coils. HOWEVER, it's been nice these last two days and I snapped some pictures. Will be back within a week with more build related stuff! Until then here is the E36 As of last right now
20150711_132145.jpg

20150710_193533.jpg

And the wife and I washed the e92 and E36 the other day

20150630_195735.jpg
idk why this uploaded vertically sorry guys!

[Thrifty S50]

Part and picture heavy update!

so it's been a couple months since I've updated this, it's been really hard for me to find the time to properly update it. Working like 80+ hours right now but thInga are slowing down.

So first, completely changed out the suspension, ripped out the bilsteins, which were completely shot, and the on some coilovers! "Yay static, much low, such slow!!" Haha but
How it currently sits :



Well, it's actually a little higher in the front now, and a little lower in the rear. Threw on some new tires, so im Still fiddling with it.

Next, I gutted the stock m3 exhaust and welded in two custom perforated steel tubes, so it has a straight-pipe-esque sound, increased flow, and a tad more responsive. It is not too loud cruising around town, but it is noticeably louder. Under WOT it's pretty redicoulous. Has a little chatter from 2.5k-4.5k, but still not too bad In the cabin.

Please see thread for questions or DIY :

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...ttle-different








And than I started getting bored and my dad and I started testing out the difference capabilities



I was really stoked that the 2.93 could lay a burnout like that! Buuuuuut, I shortly started looking into m3 diffs, and well... I bought a 3.23!






And then while scowering Craigslist for some deals, I found a genuine m3 front bumper for 50$ !!
it will need a good wet sand + prime/paint but that's a good task for my next day off!


And finally today, some more goodies came in!
A M50 manifold and ECS z3m RSM reinforcement plates!


Hopefully I can grab the M50 conversion kit soon so I can throw it on and rip out my asc, install a BBTB, put on my strut bars and really take advantage of my new LSD.

I would just like to thank everyone on the forums, without you guys I wouldn't have been able to aquire these parts nor the know how on how to install them. So thanks guys!

Ps. I'm on the look out for s52 cams so if anyone has any leads please let me know!
hope to back soon once all these parts are slapped on, cheers!

[Thrifty S50]

So today I've tackled the task of refinishing the m3 bumper I purchased, that was cosmos black at one point, but was spray painted matte black.



Yuk!

Apon closer inspection you could actually see the OG cosmos, gasping for air, dying to be seen.






Well, after a few hours of wet/sanding and plenty of elbow grease (and beer)
I was able to get off all that nasty spray paint!










However there were a few spots I had to sand down past the original paint, and well, the clear coat was sanded off also, the paint would shine only if I wet it.
Although it looked good (when wet) it would dry and look like this.



And when wet it looked like this.





Nice huh?! I'm surprised!
Well the hard part is done, but unfortunately I ran out of sunlight* (damn you winter!) So although I am close, It still has a lot to go in order to be finished. I was able to squeeze a few coats of primer on before it got dark



Tomorrow I will be using bondo to fill in some scratches and cracks, then some more sanding, and the final coats of primer.
Still on the fence of doing the actual paint (cosmos) myself, or taking it to a paint shop. I feel like I can do a good job, however I'm not too sure about my blending skills, and I would hate for it to come out too dark or too light :P

Will update you guys soon!

[Smoky540i]

Looks great!

[Thrifty S50]

Looks great!

Thanks dude! Bumper should be painted in the next week or two, traveling atm for the holidays. Also, I'll have a few Xmas goodies for my build to show you all once I get back home next week

Cheers everyone, happy holidays!

- Thrifty

[CblockM3]

Nice, please continue!!

[Thrifty S50]

Part heavy update!!
Santa has been listening this year and luckily he (my wife) got me this for Xmas!

*

I musta been good this year!

Zimmerman Euro Drilled rotors (F/R)
+ Akebono Ceramic euro brake pads!

And coincidentally, I have been my own 'Secret Santa' this year! The parts have been rolling in! I wanted to wait ,to post it all at once, but* ughhhhhhh.. I can't help myself.



S52 cams + Rk Tunes (tune) !

Honestly... I saved a buttload of money switching to gieco in, wait.. what..? No seriously, I saved alot on these parts.. I pretty much live on the classifieds section here + Rk tunes was having a holiday sale! I want to Thank everyone from BF, without this community I never thought I'd be able to acquire such parts at such a low cost! (You can pat yourself on the back) (You can also save a buttload of money on car insurance by switching to deez nuts).

But In all seriousness, everyone I've dealt with has been super professional and a special shout out to you guys. You the real MVP. Oh, and Ryan. If your reading this I owe you a towel! lol

Well unfortunately the weather here in LA has not been nice,* that coupled with my work schedule and lack of overhead coverage in my driveway has thus far prevented me from putting on any of these bad booiiisssss. Or I'm just lazy.
*sigh*
But as soon as I can squeeze sometime in I will, and I will continue to update as parts come in, still a few in route!

Merry Christmas, and Happy new Years everyone!
Cheers!

*

[CblockM3]

Nice! I want to do the intake, cams and tune so bad on mine but have had too many other projects that have taken priority...hopefully this year. Good luck on the install and report back what you think!

[Thrifty S50]

Nice! I want to do the intake, cams and tune so bad on mine but have had too many other projects that have taken priority...hopefully this year. Good luck on the install and report back what you think!

Of course I will! And thanks! Luckily this is the only project on my plate (that damn 2016 tacoma is so effing tantalizing doe).

But Having all the parts come in at once kind of just happened, like at first I wanted to just put on the m50 mani, and while I was saving for the TRM swap kit, I stumbled upon the cams. I knew I had to jump on them asap. So then, again, while saving for the TRM swap kit, I had been in contact with Chris here at Castro Motor sports discussing tunes for the car after the m50 + Cams and he notified me of the Sale RK-Tunes was having. I was pretty set on the miller war chip. I liked the idea of the CEL reader, but a sale is a sale & my butt does an OK job at telling me what my car needs

I was honestly looking forward to seeing the cars improvement, incrementally; that way I could accurately report, and understand, the gains from each mod. But it was easier at the time to grab everything at once. All in all it will go from stock (relatively) to the equivalent of a TRM stage III pack; and then some, so unfortunately it will be too big of a leap to cipher out the gains of each individually :P but I will be sure to post the dyno of it stock, and after!

Now just to source a good m54 crank. And get the damn TRM m50 swap kit already lol.

[MINIz guy]

That's some awesome progress man! Like CblockM3, I also want to get an intake, tune and exhaust done to my car. Hearing these cars uncorked is amazing, and I'm sure once you get some more power you'll never stay off the loud pedal. I've already got suspension, wheels and an LSD on my car so I'm just engine mods away from having a very similar build as yours.

Post up an update on how the car feels once you do all your engine mods. I'm curious how it feels after 5k+ RPMs since that's when the M52 motor runs out of breath.