Third time is a charm: My addiction to E36 M3's.

[tsmith25]

Hi. My name is Taylor, and I am addicted to E36 M3's.

I think it is time to introduce myself, and start a build/journal thread.

I have been a forum member since 2012, when I bought my first E36 M3. That one was a mildly neglected cosmoschwartz 95 5 spd. I pretty much just lurked for the entire time that I owned that car. I had it for two years, and on 1/1/2014, I was driving straight at about 50mph on the highway in the rain, and it snapped sideways. I almost saved it, but ran out of road. instead of hitting a guard rail, I ended up rolling once because of the hill from the overpass that I was coming over. I only had a scratch on my thumb, but obviously, the car was totaled. I wanted to keep it as a parts car for the eventual replacement, but after a year of sitting on the driveway, I convinced myself to get rid of it, and sold it to a guy who is swapping much of it into a 318ti.

I proceeded to finish my Mechanical engineering degree, using a combination of sharing one car and a skateboard (I live about 1.5 miles from school) for transportation. Having an Engineering degree helped me get a "real" "adult" "job", and in August of 2016, I bought number 2. My second E36 M3 is/was a 98 cosmoschwartz 5 spd sedan. At the time, I thought that I had to get a sedan since I have a 2.75 year old son(just under 2 at the time). I made a major car purchasing mistake when I bought that car. I did not get a vehicle history report. I trusted the seller about the mileage because the condition of the car was consistent with the claimed mileage of 180k, and he seemed trustworthy. I just drove the car for about 6 months, and was about to start fixing some of its minor issues in March, when I was hit by a driver who understeered around the corner that I was approaching till we were nose to nose in my lane. I steered around into the oncoming traffic lane, which they had just departed, but they finally managed to grip back up in time to scrape the entire passenger side of the car, from the front turn signal, to right in front of the rear wheel.

You all probably saw a few of my posts related to my fight with Allstate about the value of the car. This is how I found out about the odometer roll backs that happened about 8 years before I got the car. I ended up getting about half of what the car should have been worth if the odometer had been consistent. I think that I got a pretty good result given the circumstances. When I sell the crashed car soon, as a parts car or a swap donor, I will have made back about what I spent on it.

I learned a lesson here. ALWAYS GET A VEHICLE HISTORY REPORT BEFORE BUYING A CAR!!!!!


I considered a few different options for replacing the car. Originally, I was considering finding a cheap E30 to eventually swap as much E36 M3 into it as possible. Then I was thinking about buying a non M E36 and slowly turning it into an M3 using the crashed car.

Instead, I found a 99% stock high mileage (215k) but pretty good condition 99 Estoril 5 spd.

IMG_4853.jpg

The paint is nearly perfect, the interior has leather that is fresh enough to be tricky to get into, plus redone headliner and pillar covers. It has a few mechanical needs, but nothing that is an immediate problem.

It will need:
oil pan gasket, power steering hoses, and differential input shaft seal: none are dripping, but they're definitely leaking

transmission detents/pins: the 5th gear lean is strong with this one

exhaust headers:

This one is the interesting one. The exhaust cracked, and was fixed by someone who shoved smaller diameter tubing into the broken pipes and welded around it. Unfortunately, one pipe broke on the manifold, so I have one flanged manifold, and one manifold that is welded directly to the mid pipe, so I can't remove the cat section without taking off one of the manifolds. I have decided that the easiest option, is to get some raceland long tubes. I work at a weld/fabrication shop, so I have good access to tools and expert help.

[TostitoBandito]

Should be pretty cheap/easy to find used stock M3 headers/exhaust someplace to replace the jank that's on there now. But I'd go your route and put some nicer headers of your choosing on there, since replacing them is a huge PITA unless you have the engine out for some reason.

[spaghettiM3]

Glad the Estoril ended up working out! I'm excited to see some progress.

[in4lee]

Congrats on your third E36 M3! I may have a similar addiction, I currently own three E36 M3's, oh the money pit but such a thrill to drive! Good luck getting it running well.

[CblockM3]

Congrats! Looks clean, especially for the mileage!

[tsmith25]

Thanks for the compliments guys. It is definitely clean for the mileage.

I have a few observations after a week with the current iteration.

First, electric vaders lowest height is 1-2" higher than manual vaders. I am about 6' and have a longer torso to leg proportion, so with the powered vaders, I am very close to the headliner.

Second, this is the first functioning stock suspension that I have driven. It does not like to rotate. I can see how BMW was trying to make it unskilled driver-proof. Sure when it is wet, it will throttle over-steer, but in the dry, the front wants to just wander out wide when you give too much throttle. It makes sense. Those driving dynamics will allow an unskilled driver to screw up then save it with incorrect driving inputs, or drive straight into a tree instead of spinning into it.

And now for a question.
It has some transmission noise. Here are the symptoms.

1. It is kind of a rattling noise.
2. It happens when stopped with the transmission in neutral, and foot off of the clutch, not when rolling in neutral.
3. If I push the clutch in, it stops.
4. If I push the shifter into the gate for any gear, not hard enough to grind or any thing, just light pressure, it stops.
5. If I rev it to about 1000 rpm, it stops.

Any ideas about the cause are welcome. I am thinking that it is gear rattle, but as far as I know, it has the stock flywheel. It needs shift pins and detents, so I think that the pins may be sticking higher than they should potentially causing some looseness. My first fix will be changing the transmission fluid.

In other news, I decided that I am going to use raceland headers to fix the jacked up exhaust repair that I inherited, and I am picking up a used plug and play bimmerworld SAP sim on sunday.

[Gene V]

And now for a question.
It has some transmission noise. Here are the symptoms.

1. It is kind of a rattling noise.
2. It happens when stopped with the transmission in neutral, and foot off of the clutch, not when rolling in neutral.
3. If I push the clutch in, it stops.
4. If I push the shifter into the gate for any gear, not hard enough to grind or any thing, just light pressure, it stops.
5. If I rev it to about 1000 rpm, it stops.

Sound like gear rattle associated with a lightweight flywheel...is your car so equipped?

[tsmith25]

Sound like gear rattle associated with a lightweight flywheel...is your car so equipped?

That is kind of what I was thinking, but to the best of my knowledge it has the stock flywheel. I am going to try to find the receipt from when the clutch was installed to find out if there was any flywheel change, and get fresh transmission fluid in a week or two to see if that helps at all.

[Doriftu]

Nice car.

Before you dig into the oil pan gasket, clean the engine thoroughly to confirm it's that gasket. Often, the valve cover will leak and drip down and collect on the oil pan seam, making it seem like your oil pan is leaking. The valve cover gasket is much easier to replace.

Also, here's a guy with a true BMW addiction:http://jalopnik.com/the-bmw-addictio...n-s-1794882542

[tsmith25]

Nice car. Before you dig into the oil pan gasket, clean the engine thoroughly to confirm it's that gasket. Often, the valve cover will leak and drip down and collect on the oil pan seam, making it seem like your oil pan is leaking. The valve cover gasket is much easier to replace.Also, here's a guy with a true BMW addiction:http://jalopnik.com/the-bmw-addictio...n-s-1794882542

I will double check the records, but I'm pretty sure that the valve cover gasket was done fairly recently. Thanks for the suggestion. I read that article a few days before you posted that. That guy definitely had a problem. My addiction is more about driving them, rather than owning them. My main mental and emotional recharging activities are driving the M3 and distance running in the woods.
UPDATES!

1.
Attachment 603311

I deleted the ASC, and installed the cold air intake that I inherited when I purchased #2. I had to bend the heat shield a little to get it to fit. I guess that It didn't fit well on #2, but I didn't realize while I was removing it. I did the ASC delete a few days before the CAI, and there is not an appreciable difference while it had the stock airbox. I did notice a slight difference when I did the ASC delete on #2, when it already had the CAI on it. It's nice to have that beautiful intake noise back.

2.
I drove a couple hours on Sunday to get a SAP simulator to go along with the header install, which should happen on saturday 7/8. I ordered some raceland longtubes, and the SAP sim is the bimmerworld plug and play version. Apparently the guy used it with some ebay headers for a bit then got an updated tune with a SAP delete. It is clean and doesn't appear to have been used for long.

[tsmith25]

HEADERS ARE OUT FOR DELIVERY!

If you couldn't tell, I'm excited for the header install on Saturday. I am going to attempt to quantify any power increase by doing some 2nd gear pulls for time before and after. Ill probably measure the time from 2000 rpm to 6500 rpm. That should show what ever the average increase is.

I have decided on an interim, cobbled together, suspension setup using what I have between the two cars, AKA free. I bought #2 with a mismatched setup consisting of eibach prokit front springs and koni yellow inserts, and the rear of a BC coilovers e36 m3 kit. Obviously, those spring rates are badly mismatched from front to rear. I have a ground control coilover conversion kit that I was going to install on #2 till the accident happened. Unfortunately, the right koni was broken off, and strut housing was bent in the accident. Ideally, I would replace the Koni and strut housing and just use the GC spring kit, but the whole post accident financial shuffle to pick up the smurf has cost me more than I wanted, and more importantly, had female approval for.

The smurf came with stock springs and bilstein sport struts up front, and nearly dead stock in the back. My plan is to use the BC rear shocks, and put the Eibach prokit front springs on while leaving the stock rear springs. I will be adding camber adjustability by finishing this experiment https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-adjustability, that I started before the accident. I think that this should help a little with the anti-oversteer stock setup, until I can gather a set of blown stock struts, and some new koni inserts to complete a shock setup that can handle the GC spring rates(525 front, 650 rear).

[zactastic]

I too have thought about replacing the oem sport springs with eibach ss or H&R ss and keeping the rear on the oem ss but curious to know why you want to do that? I figure the rear looks great and my reason would be to drop the front anothe 1 to 1.2 inches. Congrats on your Estoril purchase. I too made plunge this past week.

[tsmith25]

I too have thought about replacing the oem sport springs with eibach ss or H&R ss and keeping the rear on the oem ss but curious to know why you want to do that? I figure the rear looks great and my reason would be to drop the front anothe 1 to 1.2 inches. Congrats on your Estoril purchase. I too made plunge this past week.

Awesome! congrats on your's as well.

like I said, the stock rear spring and eibach prokit front isn't my preferred setup, but it is the best I can do currently, for free. It will lower the front a little which will improve the looks, and it is a little stiffer than the stock springs so it will help a little with body roll and brake dive. I will be swapping it out for the GroundControl springs whenever I can gather the supplies for koni insert front struts. That will likely be 6 months or a year.

Header Update:
I got the Raceland euro replica headers on Wednesday, and spent an hour after work yesterday "porting" the inlet of the primary tubes. I am extremely happy with the quality to price ratio. My only complaint about them was that the metal finishing on the first weld joint where the round tube meets the transition from oval to round had a step that was left where the round tube fit slightly inside the transition tube. That was cured by my hour with a few sanding bits and an air grinder. its nice and smooth now, and should add at least 5 internet-horsepower. I will post some pictures of the results at some point. I didn't take any before pics unfortunately.

[Nate047]

Nice pick up, looks clean for the mileage! I would not use mismatched shocks, especially if they are worn different amounts. BC is not very high quality so if I were in your shoes, I would replace the shocks all around or better yet, get a set KW coilovers. They are more expensive but the build and ride quality is excellent.

[tsmith25]

I agree about the BC's. They are ok but not great. I also don't like having compression and rebound adjustment linked. I would rather either double adjustable, or just rebound so it can be matched to the spring rate. I am only using them because I inherited them, and they are a decent temporary solution that allows me to take steps towards what I actually want.

Updates:

Header install was a bust yesterday. The welder that was supposed to help me bailed.

The good news is that while I was getting set up for the install that didn't happen, I measured the bilstein strut's tube diameter, and I can get away with using the coilovers conversion sleeves on them so I am going to use the GC coilover conversion that I have now instead of waiting. The front might be a little under damped, but I would rather live with mildly under damped with enough spring rate for a while than not enough spring rate.

[tsmith25]

I got them on yesterday. I decided to have the shop up the street from where I work make the connection from the flanges to the cats. By the time I bought tubing since we don't have any 2.25 scrap here, I would almost pay the same as what they are charging me. Unfortunately, I did not get the midpipe prepped last night, so I am doing that after work today, and getting it welded tomorrow.

Like everybody said, every single stud came out. By the time that you get the nuts off, then use two as a jam setup to reinstall the studs, you basically have to install and remove them 4 times. I had one that I had to use vice grips to get the nuts back off after it was bottomed out in the head, but the rest were able to thread in then just remove the nuts.

The one stock manifold removal tip I would give, is to remove the 6 nuts/studs to get the SAP pipe out of the way. There is a lot more room to work once its gone.

The install was pretty easy. The only small hurdle, was that I had to unbolt the motor mount arm to get the front header onto the studs. I was able to get all but 2 nuts with an air ratchet and primarily a short extension, with a few flex setups. Those 2 had to be done from underneath with a wrench about 1/8 turn at a time.If I had a decent midpipe, and was just cutting it then welding flanges to it, I probably could have done the whole job in about 7 hours.I took a drive up the street with open headers for the fun of it. It was really freakin loud. The second hand (Bimmerworld PnP) SAP sim that I got seems to be functioning properly. Strangely I didn't get a check engine light despite having the rear O2 sensors hanging out in full atmosphere. Yes the light bulb is in the cluster...
IMG_4948.JPGIMG_4947.jpg
I'll take a few pics of the janky repair that lead to an excuse for the headers in the near future.

[tsmith25]

I didn't get the janky repair pictures yet, but here are some showing the midpipe mods that I had to do to get rid of the rickety repair.

I had to cut the pipes off right in front of the cat to get rid of the 1.75 OD repair tubing
IMG_4954.jpg
I tried to get a good weld prep on the ends of the tubes for the exhaust shop.
IMG_4949.JPG
mounted. They need about 2" of tubing with some 45 degree bends to connect.
IMG_4957.JPG
If any of you are curious like I was here is the inside of the catalytic converter.
IMG_4952.JPG

It is at the exhaust shop now, and I am hoping to have it back for the drive home today.

[tsmith25]

Haven't updated this thread in a little while, primarily because there is not much of interest. the passenger door panel is off currently, because I put off lubing the window sliders since I didn't want to have to glue the panel back together. That lead to bending the regulator. It is currently functioning to open and close the door, but not as a reliable way to put the window down.

I took some preventative action to preserve the car during Hurricane Irma. It was very successful. The car didn't appear to even get wet.
IMG_5093 by Taylor Smith, on Flickr

Because I am an effin' dork, I park in specific spot at work so I can check out that good lookin' car whenever I refill my water during the day.
IMG_4983 by Taylor Smith, on Flickr

Here is a picture that I took on an afternoon downhill skateboarding adventure. Yep the downhill opportunities are really mediocre here.
IMG_4938 by Taylor Smith, on Flickr

[CblockM3]

I always enjoy people's build/maintenance threads, I know lots of others do too. Keep updating this.

[tsmith25]

I always enjoy people's build/maintenance threads, I know lots of others do too. Keep updating this.

I will. I am one of those others that you speak of. I enjoy reading them because I can't spend as much time or money on my car as I would like to, and reading the threads let me spend vicarious time and money.

I realized that I never posted pics of the amusingly lazy exhaust repairs that led to my excuse for the headers. Here they are. I hope PO didn't pay much for this...

IMG_5037 by Taylor Smith, on Flickr

IMG_5038 by Taylor Smith, on Flickr

IMG_5039 by Taylor Smith, on Flickr

[tsmith25]

It is nice to buy a car from someone who cared about that car. While he may not have been as mechanically interested as me, I can tell by the interior and exterior that the previous owner cared a lot about the car. That assessment was reinforced when he texted me the other day to see how the car is doing.

During our conversation, he confirmed that the car does have a lightweight flywheel. That was good news. I had become fairly sure that it had one between the gear rattle, and pulling harder than expected given the current mods, and a slight momentary drop in rpm when the AC compressor kicks on. It is nice to know for sure that the gear rattle is from the flywheel, not something wearing out in the transmission. I will probably change the trans fluid soon to see if I can reduce that a bit as well as put off doing the detent repair. It randomly pops back to normal alignment, and I will drive it as a 4 speed for a couple days to enjoy the much nicer shifting. For my commute, I don't really mind avoiding it, though I always end up going back to using 5th when I end up cruising over about 65 for more than a 20-30 seconds.

I had been planning to do the turn a stock muffler into a straight through absorption type muffler mod, but decided it would be easier to just buy a muffler and cut the stock off then weld the new one one. I decided to maintain the not quite name brand theme of my exhaust and went with a jones exhaust max flow muffler MF2468. It is a dual in dual out 2.5" muffler. There is an x-pipe in the middle, and the total length is the same as the stock muffler. Its basically a knock off magnaflow.

IMG_5218 by Taylor Smith, on Flickr

Mysterious shadowy interior...
IMG_5215 by Taylor Smith, on Flickr

I can see clearly now, the flash is on. I can see all perforations, in my muffler.
IMG_5213 by Taylor Smith, on Flickr

[M52 POWER!]

Very cool and awesome to see you are local to me too! We'll def meetup one day. I'm also addicted to E36's I had my first back in 04, went to a E46 but back in a E36 M3 now!

[tsmith25]

Half of an update time. Unfortunately no pictures today.

About two weeks ago, I got the rear springs and shocks installed. That consisted of removing the BC shocks from the black car, and reinstalling them in the blue car along with the ride height adjusters and 600lb springs from the coilover conversion kit. I set the height at 12" from the center of the wheel up to the fender, because the internet says to. I had my first one set at ride heights that I got from one of the threads here and it was pretty balanced handling, so for my uses its close enough. I still haven't done the front yet. It actually drives surprisingly well with the stock front springs, and much stiffer rear springs. It drive well enough that I have not been in a hurry to tackle the front half. The BC shocks are definitely maxed out and barely handling the springs though so I will be excited when I get to the point of getting some better shocks, hopefully in 6-8 months depending on life. Depending on how the bilstein b8's handle the 525 lb front springs, I might replace the shocks in stages.

I have determined that I have a 3.38 lsd(automatic e36 m3 ratio). I had a nagging feeling that the rpm's were a little high for my road speed, and finally got curious enough to use the diffsonline gearing calculator to check it. For day to day, I love the combo, but I am sure that it will be mildly annoying having 2nd gear only go up to 57-59mph when I get out to some autocrosses. I mean who wants so use 3rd rear right...

I am leaning towards doing the muffler this weekend rather than the front suspension since I don't feel like learning to do an alignment. I may just say screw it and pay somebody to do it in the end, but I would like to start doing my own alignments at some point. As I work on the muffler, I will make sure to take some pics of the process and results, and I will get some before and after sound clips.