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Thread: 1996 328i - MN Garage Queen to HPDE transformation

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
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    1996 328i

    1996 328i - MN Garage Queen to HPDE transformation

    Last spring I picked up a 1996 328i to have some fun with at the track. I used to have one of these way back when, and I really missed the car (see this dyno post I started for what that one could do). This one I'm taking a much different approach, learned the hard way of course. Some of those same crazy engine mods may happen, but not right away. My goal: to have it track ready by October for a lapping day on the long track at Brainerd International Raceway. So here we go again, hopefully being a little wiser this time -

    26985118983_d64ba680e9_c.jpg26985194473_5784fb1115_c.jpg27494798052_8ab8308614_z.jpg

    Sapphire Black Metallic is the color of the car, which isn't an e36 color, but I really liked it. My old 328i was the Schwartz 1 color, not nearly so pretty. This one came on 16" wheels, painted calipers (not sure why), ~35% window tint, a suede headliner (albeit saggy), and an M3 front bumper courtesy of a small front end accident way back in 1998. No codes aside from the airbag light, at least to start with. I was impressed with the condition and probably paid far too much for the shiny object. Also, he had a CX Racing coilover kit and some staggered M3 wheels that were part of the deal, which interested me since I was planning on tracking it. And even though the coilovers are cheapies, it still beats having to shell out for new ones, even if it is only temporarily.

    27316816290_5b5bf7eacd_z.jpg26983554554_e91ec60c14_c.jpg

    Downsides were some iffy assembly work after the new paint (which wasn't apparent at the time of purchase), a couple small oil leaks, front ball joint issues, and some small electrical problems (a bad low coolant sensor/warning, no temp sensor, terrible stereo sound, and passenger seat wouldn't move forward or backward - which was later fixed after its first lapping day when a quarter popped loose). And the hood had also been replaced, but for some reason he never found the replacement pieces to attach the hood shocks, so a wooden 2x2 was the answer, at least for a bit.
    Last edited by Gary328i; 12-14-2016 at 06:12 PM.

  2. #2
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    1996 328i
    Here's a nice picture of the oil leak from the underside near the front swaybar. Mainly comes from the oil filter housing and seeps down the side. It's a very slow leak overall.

    27316611090_0b9c49f08f_c.jpg

    I also took a photo of the engine bay as I was digging through it (airbox is out and the engine covers are removed in this one).

    26983380244_4e73975be5_c.jpg

    True to my engineering background, I picked up the necessary help to fix this thing into the track toy it'll become in time. I like the e36 in that you can actually do a lot of work on it yourself without having to pay the shop rate labor. That said, it is also kind of fun to wrench on stuff, so I have that going for me.

    27520838421_c6ec82e347_c.jpg

    - - - Updated - - -

    Upcoming:
    November: Frozen Rotors, Back seat removal, trunk stripped
    December: Roll Cage delivery, tail-lights and side lights replaced, more interior removal
    January-April: Fan delete, cooling system update (time to replace 20 year old hoses)
    Perhaps: Diff replacement, exhaust replacement, intake replacement
    Last edited by Gary328i; 02-08-2017 at 09:27 AM.

  3. #3
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    1996 328i

    May 2016: Front Control Arms and Solid Bushings

    With the ball joints being in really bad shape, I tackled that first. Long story short, I replaced the control arms completely tossed the old ones into the bin. I also took this opportunity to install Solid Control Arm Mounts I found at Bimmerworld. You can see the difference in the photo from the stock to the new here:
    27593385295_9c86a589a0_c.jpg
    I had used the Treehouse Racing ones on my previous 328i, and they were fabulous for getting some turn-in response from the car. These newer ones are great as well, giving a very nice upgrade to how the car feels. Easy to install too.
    Here you can see the two arms/mounts side by side with the bucket of ice I used to cool the control arm end so I could, in theory, hand press the new ones onto the new control arms. I ended up using a little help from a rubber mallet to get them on there.
    27495736532_b070fef08f_c.jpg
    and the mounting holes on the car here with the old control arm/mount off:
    27316407100_1d7ccb41ce_b.jpg
    Last edited by Gary328i; 12-14-2016 at 06:04 PM.

  4. #4
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    '88 BMW 325, S52-swapped
    I look forward to seeing more of the build on your car!
    ‘Tis by the grace of God that my cars run!


  5. #5
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    F30, E36 M3
    Nice looking car...interested to see where you go with it.

  6. #6
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    1996 328i

    June 2016: Suspension Swap

    Thanks guys!

    After replacing the control arms it was time to get the stock suspension out and install the (unknown performance and reliability) coilovers from CX Racing that came with the car. Looks like the cost of this set was about $600 from my brief research, and just a couple things to point out on coilovers in general:

    1-If you're ever buying them new, make sure you don't need to take the car apart to adjust them (I made this mistake on my previous Audi S4 with the KW V3's (I never did adjust them and they were awesome, but it would have been nice to play around without major disassembly work).

    2- If they're used, assume they're frozen/locked/rusted in place and pre-soak them with PB Blaster (that stuff is wicked good). Work them loose if you can prior to getting them on the car, or at least soak them, and them soak the thread/body interface and soak them again. Again, I learned this after they were on the car. The little adjustment wrench that comes with coilovers is next to worthless if they're rusted/frozen in place. You could insert a 1/2" ratchet up into the one I had for leverage, but it's near impossible to keep it on the collar when applying that kind of force. Actually kind of a great way to punch yourself in the face if you pull towards yourself.

    3-Don't count on the manufacturer to tell you how to adjust them. I asked CX Racing help desk what the proper method was to lower the car and they said to ask my installer, and really refused to budge from that stance. Given that I am the installer, this didn't satisfy my needs. Fortunately, being a mechanical engineer, it wasn't that hard to figure out by reading our lovely Bimmerforums. It takes a bit to sift through all the info out there on similar coilovers, but these ones needed to have the externally threaded body move into the lower internally threaded body to drop the car. The collars for adjusting springs may have some minor impact, but I left them alone for the most part as I didn't want to mess with spring preload yet. My goal was to achieve whatever maximum drop I could get.

    Here's a shot of the car with the new control arms in, back corner all boosted up in my garage and ready for suspension work:
    27494496282_0a5b8b3f15_c.jpg

    Bonus points to whoever can guess what the photo on the far wall (partially obscured by the weed trimmer) is from.

    Once you remove the stock stuff and find what's awaiting your attention:

    A: Rust
    27494515962_5e6f8fd674_z.jpg

    Fortunately that's just surface rust and dirt for the most part, and you can clean it up pretty fast with sandpaper, scotchbrite, etc...and then hit it with rust combining paint. There's more rust to deal with once I get into the differential and its bracket, but that's a little ways off yet. Need to change this thing from a 2.93 open to a limited slip 3.15, 3.23 or 3.38 to get a bit more jump out of the corners.
    26984790903_92219084d0_z.jpg

    B: Real Trailing arm stripped threads:
    27518811601_1ab2c3f63e_c.jpg
    To be honest, this really sucked. I was simply trying to put the bolt back in and it cross threaded immediately. I suspect that the PO had had some issues there and didn't tell me, as I have had those bolts out on my other 328i a few times and never had any issues. Either way this interface was screwed, so it was either fork out the $700 for a new trailing arm from Pelican or go the Helicoil route. Not surprising I chose the Helicoil route - which actually went just fine with the M12 kit/insert. It's a little intimidating drilling out and then re-threading, but once you make the commitment, the kit works really well. This comes into play later on when I try to adjust the ride height of the car, but am unwilling to remove the suspension to do so since there's a risk I could upset the Helicoil kit. So I let it sit higher than I would normally would have (for a while at least). In this photo you can see the Helicoil tab you need to break off and the red Loctite anchoring it in.
    27557430046_c1498e20de_c.jpg

    Things went back together really well at that point and I was pretty happy...so it was time to move onto the X-Brace, and then I could drop the car back down and give it a drive.
    Last edited by Gary328i; 12-14-2016 at 06:00 PM.

  7. #7
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    1996 328i

    June 2016: X-Brace

    I paid to have an X-brace installed on my last 328i, and that was really a waste of my money. It is silly easy, takes about a half hour, or maybe an hour if you include the trip to the hardware store. Below there's a few photos of the X-brace, CX Racing suspension, new control arms and solid bushings, and of course my favorite rust combining paint to clean things up.

    26981500314_e822565416_b.jpg27557367426_97dfc95fa5_c.jpg27492332152_308b9ca8ff_c.jpg

    One more image of it all up in the air (again, a bonus point to those that can identify the photo on the far wall), this time including the awesome 2x2 hood post (that thing was choice while it lasted).
    27518777121_e4cfe6b631_c.jpg

    Finally, back on the ground:
    27485883012_7428edcdea_b.jpg

    Good: totally transformed the handling of the car, way more responsive and fun, far better turn in already.
    Bad: steering wheel was turned to the right just a bit. I blame this on 20 year old control arms that probably got bent at some point. I had a local BMW independent shop set it straight, and check the alignment, which turned out to pretty reasonable good. So not much of a downside actually.
    Last edited by Gary328i; 12-14-2016 at 04:01 PM.

  8. #8
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    June 2016: Hood stays up, acquisition of Recaro SRD and track rims

    Another photo of the car on the ground after the suspension upgrade (this time with proper BMW centercaps on the DS2's):
    27826146185_3c52e1e98d_c.jpg

    And look Ma, the hood stays up thanks to my friends at Recycle BMW's. Turns out finding that specific little hood mount piece is a PITA. Nice way to add a little Hellrot red to my car!
    27907764745_2ddd11aa47_c.jpg

    As anyone with a non-sport seat knows, the standard seats have about zero support for fun driving. My buddy Mike had his old Recaro SRD sitting around, so I picked that up (later installed in August):27294817693_810ecc8693_z.jpg
    I'm looking for another one to match (or close) if anyone local sees this and by some miracle has one.

    And he also had an old set of rims that he had used on his M3 for track events. Picked those up too (later painted and installed in July):
    29149758792_128df548cb_c.jpg

    The Kuhmo Ecsta V700s were shot, but the rims are true, so that's all that mattered there. That and they're easy to clean.

  9. #9
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    1996 328i

    July 2016: Rims & fog light covers painted to match, Track Tires installed

    Next on the list was to get some decent rubber on the car. I found a set from another super awesome local Northstar BMW club guy, Dan, who was swapping out of his e36 track car to something far more fun (heresy I know). I picked up the Dunlop Direzza ZII Star Spec in a 245/40R17 from him and wow, what another huge difference. I was really impressed with the grip/wear balance later in October, and Dan was great about teaching me about the tire and how to keep at grabbing the whole time from his racing experiences.
    28636674153_15df3fd9ab_z.jpg

    Here is the rim's transition from stock silver to flat black to paint matched Sapphire Black Metallic from TouchUpDirect. The paint color is perfect. It really shows on the fog light covers - you can't tell the difference at all.
    29149474242_a339e3882e_z.jpg

    Patience is the key with light coats to avoid runs. That and sanding the years of gunk off the rims. I only did the beautiful glossy paint on the visible part of the rim. As you may have guessed it, my rust combining black paint was used for everything else. Good stuff.
    28634628974_f95a4cc207_z.jpg

    For the fog light covers and jack stand covers (yeah, I lost one somewhere in the whole suspension update debacle), I used a filler primer to make sure they were smooth. I think I stepped on those pieces about 8 times, glad they didn't break.
    29178973831_d9ce52f4fb_z.jpg

    Lastly, here's what the new tire/rims combo looks like:
    28969380390_0ab82cf886_b.jpg
    Last edited by Gary328i; 12-14-2016 at 06:03 PM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
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    1996 328i

    August 2016: Recaro SRD seat install with sliders and plate from HMS Motorsport

    For the Recaro SRD seat install, it took some time but wasn't that bad overall. There's one nut that's just horrendous to tighten, but otherwise pretty straightforward. Pulling the seat is a piece of cake, but you need the special T-50 torx to get the seat belt detached from the seat. And for this build, I'm sticking with the stock 3 point restraint and airbags for safety, so I'm reusing the belt and the clip with the explosive charge on it. The charge does have a disarm switch on it that I moved/rotated from green to red, just to be sure it didn't mistakenly go off. You can see that I've attached the clip/charge to the SRD in this photo, and also have installed the sliders & mounting plate under it.
    28969230880_9530b64aa9_z.jpg

    Here's a link to the Recaro Sliders that mount to the bottom of the seat: Recaro Seat Sliders

    And an out of focus picture to match (you can see the mounting plate and slider attached):
    29149151612_7a999618eb_z.jpg

    Here's a link to the bracket attached to the slider (I got mine by talking to one of the HMS Motorsport reps, and we arrived at this choice because I was planning to use the stock restraints): Planted E36

    and the matching image from my car:
    29223252326_e8ebe6e095_z.jpg

    Make sure you take the time to shampoo the area and gather the loose change (I think I'm up to like $4):
    29149289232_d778121b01_c.jpg

    And that's how I installed my aftermarket sport seat for track events and generally fun driving:
    30202797770_81ea2b2b9d_c.jpg
    Last edited by Gary328i; 01-04-2017 at 10:33 AM.

  11. #11
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    1996 328i

    September 2016: Pipe wrench does the trick

    I installed the CXRacing coilovers into the 328i early on, but initial attempts to change ride height from 4x4 mode to something reasonable were met with frustration. Enter in a pipe wrench and probably 4 PB Blaster applications, with a half hour to hour between applications. The center portion of the threads on body of the dampers got damaged, and may not thread properly again, but it was damaged less than I thought it would be. And since that's a threaded area that never gets used, I really don't care if it's messed up.

    Before:
    27485883012_e8e9c62e11_h.jpg


    After:
    31493596896_9fdb01c22e_b.jpg

    I was unhappy with the rake of the car, and how the back of the car will not lower any more. That seems to be a function of the rear dampers which just don't have any more adjustment left. I suppose I could mess with the springs and such, but for this setup I don't think it's in the cards. Too much work/risk/unpredictability for what I consider a temporary suspension setup. Better to let it go for now and get on to bigger more important things.

  12. #12
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    1996 328i

    October 2016: The first event - Brainerd International Raceway Long Track Lapping Day

    One week to go before I was to test this car out on the track for real, and it had just passed a tech inspection pending a brake fluid change. So it was time to bleed the brakes. I'll just laugh a bit here and say that one should never expect things to go well on a 20 year old car, when clearly it wasn't owned by a track or car junkie. The bleeder valves were locked in place, and god knows when the last time the fluid was changed. Long story short, a front pair of calipers later (an insanely cheap $130), the car was rolling again with Hawk HT-10's on all four corners.

    Ready to go!
    31940109204_393b8ef233_h.jpg

    You can see the car on the Dunlap Direzza Star Spec III's here pretty well. Got some great advice from my friend Dan, who has a ton of racing time and specific experience with this particular tire, to aim for 38 psi until they stabilize, and boy was that spot on. Man do these tires stick. No fade, no overheating...they just go. Negligible wear even after 175 miles on the track, just amazing. My old B6 S4 would have killed a couples sets in that same time frame.

    29869887514_3ab73186d1_b.jpg30202100800_8b4116aa89_h.jpg

    I wanted to post a few fun things similar to what wake74 did in his 328 build thread, just to show what kind of fun you can have in a old e36 328i. For the money, this is pretty fantastic.

    One of many fun laps in traffic (timer is Harry's Lap timer on an iPhone) - a bit of a chase scene with a Mazda Miata, a Cooper Works Mini, and a guest spot by a Mustang GT350.


    Car totally handled the lapping day with ease actually. No hiccups, weird stuff or scary moments. Driver was rusty, but had a blast. Also had the opportunity to do some side by side training, where I ran the 328i next to a beautiful blue B6 S4 at 50-90mph first on the inside for a lap, and then on the outside for a lap to see how that felt, and that was awesome. If you ever have a chance to do that exercise at a lapping day, my recommendation is to experience it, it's really fun.

    Next up: back to the track car build process
    Last edited by Gary328i; 02-08-2017 at 12:55 PM.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
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    Raleigh, NC
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    E36 Track Rat, E46 M3 DD
    Glad you had a good time. I have been practicing my "yeah, but yours cost $130k" wave by look for the GT3s the run in the same BMWCCA group here :-) My low budget build took a hit this winter with the roll bar and seats, but still pretty cheap fun.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  14. #14
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    1996 328i
    I use that wave a lot too.

    My roll bar is sitting in the garage, just need some warmer weather so I can get at it. Looking forward to that time when it's warmer and I can actually drive the car as well.

    And the video is finally up -
    Last edited by Gary328i; 02-08-2017 at 12:56 PM.

  15. #15
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    Twin Cities, Minnesota
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    1996 328i

    February 2017: Near record temps allow Kirk 4 pt bolt-in roll bar work!

    With multiple 60+ degree days in Minnesota in February, I was actually able to get the car out a fair amount. Such fun in February is unheard of. so I have 3 things currently going on now/soon:

    1- Kirk 4 pt bolt-in roll bar
    2- 3.38 Limited Slip Differential (LSD)
    3- Bimmerworld Exhaust

    The roll bar is a bit of work (pictures coming), but the steps I'm taking are:
    1- put bar in car through the back doors, pretty easy actually. It hangs up on the center console a little bit, but a little shove does the trick
    2- mark the carpet floor for where it will be
    3- remove bar
    4- cut carpet
    5- cut plastic wire guide to allow bar to contact the floor
    5.5 After cutting carpet, plastic guides and removing 110 lbs of dead weight (plastic, trim, spare tire, more plastic, padding, etc...):
    Stripped rear seat e36 328 bmw
    6- test fit the bar again to see where it sits (hopefully engaging the thicker edge of the floor is my hope)
    7- Definitely hammer the mounting plates to form to the area a little better
    Hammer setup
    8- drill holes once I'm happy with the fit
    Passenger Side Floor 4-holes
    Drivers Side Wheel well 4-holes
    9- use longer bolts to pull bar members into position as I've read many others have had success doing. This is so true and works so well! I bought a couple bolts that were maybe 3/8" longer and then used those to pull the pieces into place/bent sheet metal. The sheet metal of the car will start to move just a little as the compliance in the bar ends. So my floor is now press fit between two plates as are my wheel wells.
    Longer Bolts
    Last edited by Gary328i; 03-06-2017 at 09:34 AM.

  16. #16
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    Brief pause here in the roll bar install to completely remove the radio and replace the 5.25s and 6x9s and re-wire the damn thing so it sounds at least tolerable (even with only 4 speakers vs. the previous 8). Bluetooth audio is nice too.

  17. #17
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    1996 328i

    March 2017: Kirk 4-point Roll Bar install complete!

    Finished up the Roll bar install today, I was really happy with how it went. Took a little extra drilling to oblong a couple holes just a little to get the bolts through, but not too bad overall. Here's a couple shots of the finished product, one with the helmet hook installed so I have a handy place to put my helmet between sessions.

    Finished Kirk roll bar install
    Helmet Hook

    Here's some shots of the final bolt-in locations:
    Passenger Wheel well
    Passenger Side Floor
    View from the Wheel Well
    I opted to put the bolt heads into the wheel well because they obviously will protrude less, so there's less opportunity to hit the tire.

  18. #18
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    1996 328i

    March 2017: Surgery

    Now for some more excitement: installing the 3.38 LSD and seeing what other fun stuff is hiding on the hrear end of the car and replacing the exhaust while I'm at it with a BimmerWorld cat-back setup. I had a lot of help from my good friends: most notably Paul, who's lift my car is occupying for an extended period; Ioannis, who's enthusiasm for wrenching on cars is infectious; and Brian, an e36 expert who showed up out of nowhere and did most the heavy lifting. I believe the agreement we have is it can sit on his lift for 6 days, and on the 7th it is his to sell. :P We'll see if I can get it off of there in time...

    Rolling the car on to the lift:

    2017-03-22_09-45-38

    Paul of Paul's Garage at the controls:

    Paul of Paul's garage

    Rusty diff, and the rear swaybar has certainly seen better days. Lots of rust on the inverse torx bolts holding the drive arms to the diff...to the point some of them look like globs. But amazingly, no major disassembly issues. There were some broken bolts, but they were on the exhaust and we have replacements for all those. Surprisingly, Ioannis was able to back off the inverse
    Rust!

    After the diff came out I was able to take a peek around to see the surface/edge rust, but really, nothing all that bad was waiting for us. That was a big relief.
    Diff carrier is rusty too

    Then came time to open all the doors and spray a little rust combining paint while I had access:

    2017-03-22_09-50-17

    Ioannis and Brian filling the new 3.38 LSD with some Redline (at this point I had considered just grabbing a lawn chair and relaxing, since clearly these guys had this covered):
    Ioannis and Brian filling the new lsd

    And then the lsd went up and in without a hitch: many thanks to Brian for the supplying the strength and height to get that thing up there!
    Last edited by Gary328i; 03-22-2017 at 11:08 AM.

  19. #19
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    March 2017: Exhaust issues

    More pictures to follow as we did run into a reassembly issue with the exhaust - the passenger side tube is supposed to be a slip fit, and this one was close, but there was no way it was going to make it:

    Pipe doesn't fit!

    I had a local shop heat up and then try to expand the curved flared side, but the pipe immediately split along the weld:

    Split on weld

    At this point the car is still sitting on Paul's lift, waiting to see if we can get the exhaust shored up (BimmerWorld is doing their best to fix something up it seems) or if we'll hit the 7 day deadline so he can sell it.

  20. #20
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    1996 328i

    Exhaust and Diff finished!

    BimmerWorld was great and expanded a pipe at their shop for me, and then overnighted it to me so I could get the car off the lift this weekend. It was the wrong side pipe, but I have a hard time getting mad about that since they did try pretty hard to get it to fit.
    2017-03-27_10-22-43

    I decided to give it a try anyways since the bends on the two middle pipes were fairly. I brought the pipe over to Midas and they were awesome and cut about 3 inches off for no charge, which I think is a nice way to build customer loyalty. I had to do some filing to smooth out the cut, but that was easy. I think the trouble with the pipe substituion showed up when it came to final fitment. The exhaust wanted to skew itself to the driver's side because of the slight difference in pipe curvature, and it took 5 or 6 tries to get it to hang centered correctly. The main adjustment we made was how we twisted or angled that cut pipe as it would twist the main body of the exhaust and, of course, that showed up at the rear valence.

    Here's a shot of it prior to the final fitment under the car:
    2017-03-27_10-23-082017-03-27_10-23-35

    Final look at the rear valence:
    2017-03-27_11-31-09
    And the YouTube video of the first start:


    I'll try to get a couple better videos of it so you can hear how it really sounds. In a car with no insulation like mine, it's near earplug levels. But it does sounds awesome as the car takes off, both in the car and from the sidewalk.
    Last edited by Gary328i; 03-27-2017 at 12:33 PM.

  21. #21
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    Aurora, Ont., Cdn
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    2001 330Cic,1998 323is
    Following, great progress so far. I have a track 98 323is, and am on the look out for a LSD. Notice we have similar corrosion here in Southern Ontario, and curious if you are going to do bushing in the rear subframe sometime in the future. I have avoided doing the rear reinforcements, or bushing out back for fear of breaking the carrier bolts. Looking at your picture yours look very similar to ours, in that you can't even see the threads.

    rear carrier.jpg
    Mark
    2001 330Cic Daily Driver
    1998 323is Track Car
    2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited (Wife's)

  22. #22
    Join Date
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    Eden Prairie, MN
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    Gary - you buy another 328 and don't e-mail me....

    Looks like a fun project. I'm glad to see you're back at it. Hopefully see you back at BIR this summer!

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by rcs328 View Post
    Gary - you buy another 328 and don't e-mail me....

    Looks like a fun project. I'm glad to see you're back at it. Hopefully see you back at BIR this summer!
    Project, lol. Some days this thing seems more like a life decision.

    I might do the Porsche club First Fling - looking at that event very hard. If you know which events you're doing this summer/fall, drop me a PM and I can see which ones match up!

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Twin Cities, Minnesota
    Posts
    560
    My Cars
    1996 328i
    Quote Originally Posted by addbhp View Post
    Following, great progress so far. I have a track 98 323is, and am on the look out for a LSD. Notice we have similar corrosion here in Southern Ontario, and curious if you are going to do bushing in the rear subframe sometime in the future. I have avoided doing the rear reinforcements, or bushing out back for fear of breaking the carrier bolts. Looking at your picture yours look very similar to ours, in that you can't even see the threads.

    rear carrier.jpg
    I will be doing all the bushings at some point, but since they're not screaming for help at the moment, they are a ways down the list. Probably a 2018 project when I do a real suspension upgrade and start looking at other pieces that are a 22 year old wear item. Like you said, I'm a little nervous every time I back a bolt out on this thing as the rust can be an issue. PB Blaster does have its limitations, but worked great on some similar bolts (inverse torx) on the half shafts. The heads on them were unrecognizable blobs, but backed out nicely with only pb blaster on them. Much credit to my buddy Ioannis for being very patient on those bolts and easing them out.

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Twin Cities, Minnesota
    Posts
    560
    My Cars
    1996 328i

    I'm going deaf

    So with no insulation and the trunk open to the cabin, that exhaust is insanely loud. Way more so than I thought it'd be at least. Here's the dimensions of the opening in hopes that a panel I'm looking at fits it correctly.

    Rear Seat Trunk Opening

    Update: the panel fits fine, but doesn't have as much impact on noise reduction as I'd have hoped. It's still a resonator of a car.

    Back Seat Sheet Metal

    Right now I don't even have it installed since I need the space to transport tires.
    Last edited by Gary328i; 06-12-2018 at 11:54 AM.

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