98 323is Track/Street Build

**george jung** · 01-25-2017, 12:33 AM

All started with searching for a new E36 after losing my 92 325i sedan that was sideswiped by an ignorant moron. I was following him down a road by my house for a good 2 miles and he went to signal left and made his turn to my knowledge. Then just like that I have glass in my face and he pushed me up a curb while I was doing 50mph when he cut it back right after realizing he was making wrong turn. For anyone who ever said lowering a car is pointless has not been in this situation, there was a guy sleeping in the room I stopped no more then 6ft from. Thankfully the tires blew out and car sunk into the lawn.

Before the accident

And After the accident

Subframe was pushed back a couple inches and the steering rack snapped on impact

Bought these Style 42 Reps from an older gentleman who tracked his e36 m3 racecar in PA, was expecting to see them in pieces when I got out of car at the accident. Still in 1 piece..

After months of waiting for insurance to settle everything, and months of searching for a decent e36 to replace my 325i I stumbled on this very clean 98 323is with only 93k Miles. Drove out to Pennsylvania for the car and immediately wanted it. So I purchased it and the journey began.. Starting with my first time filling the tank and driving it home.

First thing I officially did to the car was tint it myself when I worked at the tint shop. Every window including the windshield all have Suntek Carbon CXP 70% to block UV rays, basically crystal clear.

Then all Red tails was next

Then my buddy Dom who is the owner of Dominant Engineering got me hooked up with some BC racing BR series coilovers from Ryan Tuerck. Got them at a killer price and couldn't be more pleased with them.

Then bought 17x8.5 kosei k1's and picked up some 235/40 Yokohama S drive's.

Threw the wheels on and went and shot some photos around town.

Was tired of no lip on the stock bumper so ordered cheap lip.. Yes i regret it and am buying a new bumper so hold the comments hah

Time to go solid everything and what better to go with then Delrin mounts from Condor Speed Shop. These guys make some seriously awesome products !

Refreshing the suspension with new control arms and more Delrin in the control arm bushing.

My girl bought me a M3 rearend for christmas for a killer price. So i got a 3.23 lsd rear, brakes, axles, subframe,etc for $350

More Condor Speed Shop goodies arriving, this time Delrin Diff/Subframe bushings.

Also since I got the rear end out of car and can refresh everything im doing so. So picked up new Rear Trailing Arm Ball joints too, also picked up Delrin Rear Trailing Arm bushings.

So now to make the car kinda safe.. Picked up some Kirkey seats, Vac Motorsports Floor Mounts, Schroth 6pt Camlock Harness's, and Tckline Rollbar

So after seat showed up I decided to rip the interior out and commit to tracking the car. So the torch and wire wheel were taken out, and lots of hours were spent

Schroth harness showed up with the Eyebolts and plates from Stable Energies in Garfield, NJ. For any racing safety needs contact these guys, they have literally anything you need.

Cage went in, and I immediately got to work prepping it to paint it. Chose white so it doesn't get hot in the car on hot track days when i'm in full gear.

**Team Neverlift** · 01-25-2017, 12:25 PM

Nice work. Painting the roll bar looks like a pain, I will be doing that in the next week or 2 with mine. Looking forward to the progress on this.

**n3985** · 01-25-2017, 12:54 PM

Well hello NJ neighbor! How are the delrin FCABs? Are they really harsh over large bumps?

**zabazu** · 01-25-2017, 04:51 PM

Nice work. Love the white half cage. What brand half cage is that?

**george jung** · 01-25-2017, 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by Team Neverlift

Nice work. Painting the roll bar looks like a pain, I will be doing that in the next week or 2 with mine. Looking forward to the progress on this.

It was a pain crawling around in it, but overall came out better then painting it then throwing it in. It took alot of effort to get it to sit in the right place after an hour of fighting it.

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Originally Posted by n3985

Well hello NJ neighbor! How are the delrin FCABs? Are they really harsh over large bumps?

The delrin FCAB's arent harsh at all, they improve the steering response by alot. You'd feel the harshness more if you did the Delrin motor/trans mounts.

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Originally Posted by zabazu

Nice work. Love the white half cage. What brand half cage is that?

Thanks, and its a TCkline Rollbar with the harness bar welded in instead of having it be a bolt in. Previous guy I bought it from did that.

**george jung** · 01-26-2017, 05:31 PM

Also picked up this brand new Turner Motorsport Carbon Strut bar from a buddy who s54 swapped his hellrot e36 m3. Wouldn't fit on his car.

Forgot to upload finished shots of the interior painted.. First shot is before, yes interior was immaculate besides the headliner.

Photos coming soon with second seat mounted and harness mounted up. Rear End goes in this week too, so bunch of updates coming.

- - - Updated - - -

Exhaust done couple months back, dual straight pipes off headers back to m3 midpipe/muffler. Also check out some of the other video's I done on my Youtube channel of a couple buddies cars, including a turbo e36 m3, gintani supercharged e92 m3, LS 240, etc..

**george jung** · 01-27-2017, 12:41 AM

My car and my buddies serious track prepped e46 m3 out cruising around

**n3985** · 01-27-2017, 09:59 AM

Did you keep the old carpet? I can't stand the uneven floor anymore and thinking of buying old carpet for just the foot areas on driver and passenger side. If you want to sell yours let me know thx

**george jung** · 01-29-2017, 05:16 PM

yes I still have the carpet, but i was keeping it for now. I was going to weld in a plate to even out the floor for the clutch side because with no carpet on the gas pedal side it feels perfect. Also those new Hard Motorsport Pedals are looking pretty tempting

Originally Posted by n3985

Did you keep the old carpet? I can't stand the uneven floor anymore and thinking of buying old carpet for just the foot areas on driver and passenger side. If you want to sell yours let me know thx

**george jung** · 01-29-2017, 06:26 PM

**george jung** · 02-05-2017, 04:09 PM

Threw some new plugs in, went for a cruise and broke out the camera at a local abandoned spot.

**george jung** · 03-05-2017, 07:34 PM

My girl surprised me with an m3 bumper for my birthday last week. Dropped it off to my buddy to paint it. To say i love it would be an understatement, front bumper changes the whole flow of the car and I should've done this while ago. Also sold the kirkeys and also got seats for my birthday, yes I know they're not certified but they are actually comfortable. I drive this car alot and hated that after 20 minutes of driving my ass and my back would fall asleep from no support. I will be installing back brace connected to the rollbar for little additional safety. Also got my new d/s door handle on today with help from my brother since I put this off for months.. Fells good to not have to open it from the inside handle now.

**george jung** · 03-05-2017, 07:44 PM

Went to install the 3.23 rear finally, that I got around christmas time. Turned it over to and noticed three bolts fell out, and after close inspection I noticed the housing cover on the LSD was broken and the bolts had been sheared off. I rotated it when I bought it and heard no noise or anything wrong. Guy I picked it up from said it was in perfect working order, so I messaged him and he responded. He's picking up another e36 m3 and said we can switch it out, just hoping he stays true to his word cause he is on bimmerforums and he buys/builds bmw's. I contacted Thayer Motorsports about repairing the diff and he told me to disassemble it and send pictures as I do so to see any damage this may have caused. Holding off on that since I might get another differential from guy. Will update with info when I know whats going on with it..

It's #3 on the parts diagram which has been long discontinued from what I was told by my Local Bmw Dealer here in New Jersey.

The frustration level grew as I realized the pile of parts I had been planning on finally getting on was cut short by the diff being faulty.. So staying with stock rear end for hopefully not much longer.

**ShaunB** · 03-08-2017, 01:17 PM

Nice build, super clean!

**stealthbeam** · 03-09-2017, 11:13 AM

Awesome! Can't wait to see this put together

**george jung** · 04-02-2017, 08:29 PM

After dealing with the broken diff I went and picked up a 3.15 LSD with 60k miles from Diogo at AMS Autowerks in Northern NJ. Go to start disassembling the rear and start by taking spring out and notice its broken.

Sent some emails and i'm getting taken care of even though I purchased them almost 2 years ago and they only have 12 month warranty. So kept going with the rear end removal, and went and picked up a used set of springs till they send me the new ones.

Got an Alignment and went to the track to see difference since last time I had been with full interior and 2.93 open diff when I ran 15.9 at 89mph i believe. Cant find the timeslip. But heres the three runs from today (i'm 732)

Heres video of the runs in order