Page 4 of 7 FirstFirst 1234567 LastLast
Results 76 to 100 of 169

Thread: The uphill battle... aka e36 M3 STR build

  1. #76
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Des Moines, IA
    Posts
    1,051
    My Cars
    '97 M3/4/5.0
    That looks really close to lifting the front wheel!

  2. #77
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Herndon, VA
    Posts
    625
    My Cars
    98 M3/4/5, RIP 528e
    Props for doing the engine work yourself, I was not that brave! Sounds like you're going all in, full speed ahead and good luck! You've got a good game plan, and when it's all said and done the car will be super reliable.

  3. #78
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Huntsville AL
    Posts
    356
    My Cars
    1997 M3
    Quote Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
    That looks really close to lifting the front wheel!
    Wouldn't surprise me if it did. Super fun car to drive. We actually got some setup info from some people running M2s nationally and he has already started making some changes to make the nose work better. When he gets it sorted out and gets enough tire under it its gonna be even more of a beast.



    Quote Originally Posted by 95maxrider View Post
    Props for doing the engine work yourself, I was not that brave! Sounds like you're going all in, full speed ahead and good luck! You've got a good game plan, and when it's all said and done the car will be super reliable.
    This is more out of necessity than desire. I do not like doing engine stuff. It's just not as fun to tinker with as brakes and suspension in my eyes but I figure do it once and never have to do it again hopefully. The only problem with doing it right is its pricey which means I can only afford it if I take my time and do it myself. Time will tell if its the right decision or not but forum write ups and youtube videos give me just enough confidence to attempt it myself. Now if only I could find a good write up for rebuilding the steering column that still had pictures haha.

  4. #79
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Huntsville AL
    Posts
    356
    My Cars
    1997 M3
    Few updates on the project. I have installed the upgraded oil pump with the reinforced oil pickup tube from Achilles Motorsports. They seemed like well put together pieces So I’m pretty excited to have the extra piece of mind that comes with a hopefully bullet proof oil system for at least my uses. Got the nut secured with loctite and safety wire so I’m not expecting a repeat of my last failure.

    4yJin5e.jpg

    Lovely Safety Wire Job

    Pa5hQT3.jpg

    Pump and reinforced Pickup tube.

    I also got all the seals in the transmission replaced since I had easy access and my transmission always seemed to be wet. These were not necessarily the easiest things to do but I feel like we took our time and hopefully will not have any further issues with them. This is also the perfect opportunity to do the detents while the transmission is out. This combined with the new AKG DSSR I got for the shifter will hopefully tighten up the shifter feel. I won’t be doing the Fancy tower style shifter at this time since it’s not really in my budget with everything else I have been doing. Hopefully the things I have done will make that unnecessary but only time will tell.

    4nHHJuH.jpg

    JroSYua.jpg

    My Co-driver Joel getting the Output shaft seal lined up and flush.

    iZVTKi6.jpg

    Top detents caps pulled off.

    Work Still continues In earnest. As always thanks for following along.

  5. #80
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Herndon, VA
    Posts
    625
    My Cars
    98 M3/4/5, RIP 528e
    I was too scared to do the detents when I had my transmission out, and since mine wasn't leaking, I also didn't replace any of the seals. I hope I don't regret it later on! As always, props for taking on a challenging project! My used motor came with the oil pump nut welded, but I did install the Z3 oil pickup tube and picked up an oil pan with a baffle already welded in. Last time I looked, I had found a thread about rebuilding the steering column that still had pics, but it's been a year or so since I checked. I'll see if I can find the link and put it up here.

  6. #81
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Huntsville AL
    Posts
    356
    My Cars
    1997 M3
    Quote Originally Posted by 95maxrider View Post
    I was too scared to do the detents when I had my transmission out, and since mine wasn't leaking, I also didn't replace any of the seals. I hope I don't regret it later on! As always, props for taking on a challenging project! My used motor came with the oil pump nut welded, but I did install the Z3 oil pickup tube and picked up an oil pan with a baffle already welded in. Last time I looked, I had found a thread about rebuilding the steering column that still had pics, but it's been a year or so since I checked. I'll see if I can find the link and put it up here.
    Yeah these have been interesting jobs for sure. Never really expected I would dig this deep into a build to try and make it bullet proof. I really have my questions about how this car was previously taken care of based on a few things I have found so I may be going overboard just to have some piece of mind haha. The “while I’m there” bug has bit me quite hard and I’m doing lots of extra projects outside the immediate scope of replace engine.

    As you mentioned above the other big item that I got to recently was getting the steering column pulled. The steering was always pretty grindy and noisy, so I figured It needed to be freshened up. The upper spindle shaft was extremely rusty when It was finally reached and one of the bearing was completely seized and falling apart. Probably a good thing that its being serviced. I have been leaning on my co-driver for this job quite a bit since he has better access to the car and can chip away at it. He seems ok with it and the few extra bottles of scotch I got him in compensation. I also really examined the lower spindle shaft that We discussed earlier and it feels really nice. No play at all. I'm temped to put a fresh part in but its 300 dollars and this one seems to have no issue so I'll be leaving it. Hopefully I don't regret that haha.

    5JdHHFP.jpg

    z7fSvY6.jpg

    rurODKJ.jpg

    3NM8bur.jpg

    QUEd9OT.jpg

    Hopefully with this rebuilt plus new brake pedal bushings and a new clutch pedal with fresh bushings with help make my driver interface stuff much crisper and direct. All of these involve having the lower dash apart so now is the time to address everything.

  7. #82
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Herndon, VA
    Posts
    625
    My Cars
    98 M3/4/5, RIP 528e

  8. #83
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Huntsville AL
    Posts
    356
    My Cars
    1997 M3

    Christmas Break update!

    Whole lot to cover here. Since I had to cancel my trip to nationals this year, I suddenly had more vacation time in reserve than I originally planned. It seemed like a logical idea to use that time to get the car back together. I knew it would be a pretty epic push but luckily I talked a buddy of mine that works at a BMW tuner to come in town from Seattle and make sure I didn’t screw this up. There is no way in hell I would have gotten as far as I did without his help so Thanks Kris if you are reading this. Also I big shoutout To My other friends Jay Joel and my dad. I'm in non of these pictures below since I'm taking them all but I did do work I swear. Now on to what needed to be done.

    49 - GcMhvs6 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    Cam swap-
    The engine I bought came with schrick street cams already installed. As much as I would have loved to keep them in there they are not class legal so out they came and in went some surprisingly good conditioned stock cams which I traded with a local buddy of mine. I say surprisingly because his M3 has 225k on it and they looked better than my stock cams on the last engine with 160k. This either means the other car lovingly named Turd Ferguson had some cams swapped around at some point in its life or my 160k motor had had some less than fastidious previous owners. Either way we went about the process of changing out the cams and inspecting the lifters. All of the lifters on my new engine looked much nicer than the lifters in my blown engine. Hopefully this means much less ticking at events.
    There are some great YouTube videos on changing cams and how to release them without breaking them. I particularly like mybimmerspace’s videos. We managed to get both sets swapped out and get the cam timing set with very little drama. Once set we turned the engine 2 full rotations and confirmed the locking blocks still went on properly at TDC so we knew we were good to go. With the cams and the Vanos reinstalled we installed the new valve cover gasket and put the valve cover back on. I may have been a bit liberal with the honda-bond on the back of the cover because I had a small chip in the out plastic so please don’t judge the pictures haha. Its actually not near as much as it appears. I typically try to use RTV very sparingly as the overuse is kind of a pet peeve of mine.

    28 - 2O8XsT5 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    26 - nc1TXt3 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    24 - ph6GJV9 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    30 - Xj5JlF8 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    Header reinstall-
    Any of you guys that have done an install on a set of equal length shorty headers will know how big of a huge pain in the ass they are. Especially while retaining the secondary air pump tubing. The initial install of these headers on my old engine was a whole day affair while they engine was still in the car. I will say on an engine stand when you can turn the engine on its side, life is much easier. Its still a finicky job but it is doable in under an hour and I was able to actually tighten down all of the bolts fully. I’m actually quite pumped about this because I believe always had a slight exhaust leak on the old engine from not being able to tighten them down fully. With these bad boys fully installed and the top and bottom ends both buttoned up and sealed it was time to dress all the accessories on the engine and pull it of the stand. Once off the stand we can throw on the new clutch and flywheel and remarry the engine and refreshed transmission.

    18 - z74IPdB by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    15 - 4zHyffi by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    Big oh crap moment-
    Now that all the engine work has been done its time to throw the engine back on the cherry picker so I can attach all of the items at the back of the engine. New main seal and gasket, then on to the pilot bearing new flywheel with fresh bolts since the last one was scorched. It seems pro-solo burn outs and launches on an old flywheel tends to be rough. New clutch and new pressure plate were cleaned and installed.
    My problem came from my choice or hanging point and the bolts and washers I chose to secure it. When we pulled the engine, I used a washer that was barely bigger than the hole I lifted the engine with. The washer deformed and almost pulled out which made me very nervous, so I was not going to repeat this. Found a nice big washer and felt the new setup, as a whole, was much more secure. The problem arose was that it interfered with the bell housing on the transmission. It was close but I just got in the way. My plan was to semi snug the transmission to fully mate it then reposition the rear hang point. Well… some lessons have to be learned the hard way, I guess. While we were pulling in the slack on some of the lower bolts, we heard a loud pop.

    12 - 2XzWU8c by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    11 - QQjmeSg by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    7 - TPE84cT by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    Yeah welp this was not ideal, what are we going to do now. The interesting thing was when we pulled the transmission this bolt was missing to begin with. It appears a previous owner decided it was not needed. Not ideal but if needed I guess we have proven we could just skip it in a worst-case scenario. Though we had this option in our pocket I really did not want to do this. I then got on the phone with this local welder I know that has really done great work for me in the past and he agreed to attempt the weld up on the crack early the next morning. This guy was a life saver, he told me it may not take since its cast aluminum, but he would give it a go. I feel like it came out great! He managed to run a good bead both inside and out with good penetration with no distortion. I was very pumped he knocked it out so quickly and well executed. We are now back on track to get it all bolted together. Quick run to ace to grab a replacement bolt for the missing one and we are all together with a new to me engine and fully refreshed transmission with all the wear items replaced.

    5 - Zrezzqu by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    4 - PPOMmd1 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    50 - bEMoqll by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    46 - CpzhgSg by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    Putting the whole package back into the car-
    Now it’s time to bolt the engine in on top of the newly reinforced front subframe and the new Vorschlag motor and transmission mounts. Previous to the reinstall a new chase bays clutch line was mated to a brand-new slave cylinder (more on that later) as well as all new rubber hoses for EVERYTHING. No old vacuum or coolant hoses exist in the engine bay. Every singe one of them was replaced. The thought of doing all this work and having an old reused hose burst was unacceptable to me. A lot of the engine stuff live the oil separator and ICV and stuff like that was already new and still fresh from 2 years ago so Items like that were left alone.
    Front suspension needed to be reinstalled once the engine was mounted to the front subframe. Getting to the engine mounts while the control arms are in place is more challenging, so I wanted to have the engine bolted in before reinstalling all the suspension pieces. I sourced a set of rebuilt front control arms from a forum member for a very reasonable price and was very pleased with the quality of the work. I would definitely go through them again if this option is still available when its time for the next refresh. I still need to replace one of the tie rod end links since I tore the dust cover pulling it apart. That will be a small project for before the season really ramps up.
    Next was the steering rack, column, and the new chase Bays power steering lines. The column had already been pulled and rebuilt using all new components to get ride of the grind and heavy drag that has always been a part of this car. I have had the parts for this for quite a bit I just really didn’t want to have to go through it. But now its done and it will go through a brand-new rag joint into a cleaned-up stock steering rack. Attached to the steering rack is a new chase bays power steering line setup. These really are very quality pieces and hopefully this will be the ticket to avoid a wet steering rack. If all goes to plan, I should have a fully dry and sealed up engine bay. System was bled by hand turning the crank (thus priming the oil pump better as well) and rotating the front tires side to side. This was done until air bubbles no longer came out in the reservoir. They really are super snazzy pieces once you get them installed.

    33 - 9YMi9e4 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    41 - Kzg3JSR by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    40 - akuDSRl by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    28 - 8sG6U1L by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    29 - h9rh1OX by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    39 - yyKMdGM by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    35 - PKpoLhQ by Brett Hudson, on Flickr
    Final wiring and plumbing-
    This is probably the part I am second most nervous about behind the cam insn Did we label everything? Where does this small vacuum line go? Am I plumbing the coolant correctly? I was very nervous that this step would be our undoing. Luckily, I had a competent mechanic helping me and we worked our way through all the connections and got everything all buttoned up. It really is all downhill once you get the intake manifold installed. That is of course until you realize your starter is now toast and you have to pull the manifold off again so that you can change the starter out. Then you reinstall the manifold again trying to remember all the little lessons you just learned and put out of your mind already. Ah yes, the joys of mechanicing. (that’s a word I swear)
    Front end on and the front of the coolant system-
    Yeah this was also lots of fun considering it had been since Labor Day that it had been pulled apart and I wasn’t the one that pulled it apart. We had a few moments where we missed a piece and had to pull stuff back off to get other pieces on but overall it went pretty well. The coolant system install was super easy because like any multiple e36 owner I was quite experienced installing a cooling system. Once this was all put together there was really only one thing left to do.

    24 - 2bZaL7X by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    17 - E9rOYvo by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    19 - ZEMqSIo by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    15 - Bqn0GK4 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    11 - 7nIEyiH by Brett Hudson, on Flickr


    Start Up!

    She cranked right up after we realized we needed to put the chip key reader back on the steering shaft. Cranked fast and ran super smooth with no check engine lights! Now I just need to fill and bleed the coolant system and the engine bay is good to go.

    Now that the coolant system is bled, all that’s left is the final assembly of all the random parts and pieces. I also need to fully bleed the clutch and put the interior fully together. This includes the pedals and steering components as well as reinstalling the race seat. Once this is done back to Tennessee for emissions testing and the cars 2020 registration. Gotta keep her street legal so I’m not trailering her everywhere. Hopefully there will be very few things that come up while I run some break in miles for the clutch and flywheel before the season begins. If all goes well, I’ll be able to do a test and tune or 2 and she is ready for Dixie National Tour. Time will tell, and as always thanks for reading along.

  9. #84
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Herndon, VA
    Posts
    625
    My Cars
    98 M3/4/5, RIP 528e
    Great job! That final reassembly can sure be a stressful situation, but it feels so good to hear it run again. I'm glad it all worked out for you, you really took your time and did things right. Here's to a successful 2020!

  10. #85
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Huntsville AL
    Posts
    356
    My Cars
    1997 M3
    Quote Originally Posted by 95maxrider View Post
    Great job! That final reassembly can sure be a stressful situation, but it feels so good to hear it run again. I'm glad it all worked out for you, you really took your time and did things right. Here's to a successful 2020!
    Thanks Man! Its been a long road and I'm not done yet but It's come really far. Hopefully it's all simple maintenance for this car from here on out (knock on wood). May also have something new in store that's gonna drop a little weight. Just have to get all my extra parts together and get everything to the welder.

    23 - tudv3Zf by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    Got a 100 cell Magnaflow race cat to go in and a v banded turndown on the end. It never ends it seems.

  11. #86
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Des Moines, IA
    Posts
    1,051
    My Cars
    '97 M3/4/5.0
    Very nice, great work! I'm excited to see this thing back out on course.

  12. #87
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Location
    Owings, Md
    Posts
    1,105
    My Cars
    1998 328i
    Quote Originally Posted by snakebit8 View Post
    Also debating which PS pump to rebuild as well as which Vanos unit to use.
    Did you rebuild the PS pump yourself or send it out? I can't find a rebuild kit for it and will probably just send it out via rockauto but would be interested in hearing what worked for you. This is for the later style pump. Thanks.
    Last edited by gdavid; 01-22-2020 at 11:56 AM.

  13. #88
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Central, MD
    Posts
    3,844
    My Cars
    1995 M3
    Nice work! I'm getting ready to pull my engine and trans, so good to see a recent success story.

    Quote Originally Posted by gdavid View Post
    Did you rebuild the PS pump yourself or send it out? I can't find a rebuild kit for it and will probably just send it out via rockauto but would be interested in hearing what worked for you. This is for the later style pump. Thanks.
    I bought a PS pump rebuild kit from FCP . Pretty simple to DIY.

  14. #89
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Location
    Owings, Md
    Posts
    1,105
    My Cars
    1998 328i
    Quote Originally Posted by aeronaut View Post
    I bought a PS pump rebuild kit from FCP . Pretty simple to DIY.
    Sorry my mistake, I knew there were two different pumps used but I thought it changed for all e36 at the same time as OBDI vs OBDII but apparently the M3 continued to use the ZF pump in the same way S52, S50 and M50 motors all have the same oil filter housing. FCP has rebuild kits for the ZF but not the LUK, which my 328's have.

  15. #90
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Huntsville AL
    Posts
    356
    My Cars
    1997 M3
    As was mentioned above, There were several places that had rebuild Kits. FCP Euro and ECS are two I remember. There is also great DIY threads and I believe videos that take you through it step by step. I ended up misplacing my rebuild kit in my mountain of parts that has been constantly shifting. I ended up not rebuilding either of them because they both seemed fine, I had just planned on it as a, while I was there, kinda thing and It looked like it would be fun to do. Not sure about rebuilds on other pumps though sorry.

  16. #91
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Huntsville AL
    Posts
    356
    My Cars
    1997 M3
    Well, Shes up and running. I finally got her on the road and driving around. I was pleasantly surprised with how well it took to the road. After the maiden drive I have a slight coolant leak that I could not find. (later found the bleeder screw to be weeping fluid) and a noisy power steering pump. The PS just needed to be topped off and bled better.

    20200208_164627 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    After the check out ride seemed to go really well with only one code due to a loose plug which was quickly fixed. I threw the car up on the trailer to head back to TN to get emissions testing done so that I could register her and get her legal again.

    20200209_084307 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    After I reset the check engine light and then checked all the emissions monitors. They seemed to not want to reset even after long drives on back roads and several on off cycles. I got ahold of Zack at 22RPD to check my monitors and see if I had anything to worry about. He remoted and in and helped me get them reset and I was able to confirm no issues and get her tested to get her back on the road. Very painless and easy to work with and its a great piece of mind knowing everything is working well.

    20200214_150004 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    After The whole being legal on the road thing was taken care of I got her back to Alabama to get aligned and then washed in preparation for My regions local winter test and tune.

    20200221_160229 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    The test and tune went wonderfully. Between my co-driver and myself we got over 30 trouble free runs with only a few small issues to work out with the front suspension and a few random fluids overflowing. Overall it felt amazing to drive her in anger and she felt tighter and more responsive than ever. Overall a very positive update given how much work has been done since the last hard runs were made in her. Need to reset the alignment, remove the preload from the front sway bar again and figure out if my engine whine is a clutch fan or a loud power steering pump. All this before the next event in early March but the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. Not to mention installing the new exhaust now I have the high flow cat welded in. As always thanks for following along.

  17. #92
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Des Moines, IA
    Posts
    1,051
    My Cars
    '97 M3/4/5.0
    Quote Originally Posted by snakebit8 View Post
    Need to reset the alignment, remove the preload from the front sway bar again
    What are you shooting for on alignment numbers?

    Do you have adjustable swaybar links?

  18. #93
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Huntsville AL
    Posts
    356
    My Cars
    1997 M3
    Quote Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
    What are you shooting for on alignment numbers?

    Do you have adjustable swaybar links?
    Swaybar is the Ground control bar so it comes with adjustable end links.

    Alignment is pretty basic race e36 stuff.

    Front Full Castor -3.7 camber and 1/8 total toe out
    Rear -2.4 camber Factory toe in

    Gotta get the front reset since one of the camber plates moved since the alignment.

  19. #94
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Huntsville AL
    Posts
    356
    My Cars
    1997 M3
    First event of 2020 in the books. This is also the first points event since the engine went last year so a big milestone for the build as a whole. After the test and tune earlier this year I had a few small changes to make to the front end to try and get the nose more settled and predictable. Alignment was rest and rechecked and the front sway bar preload was removed. These were small little tweaks but the car felt pretty darn good on the course after the changes. Another thing I feel like i'm discovering is that this car seems to be sensitive to the fuel load in terms of its overall balance. Once the fuel starts getting low int the tank the balance just seems to fall right were I like it. It just seems to dance and transition well. I dunno maybe its just in my head but she seems to get better as the day goes on.

    FB_IMG_1583712678524 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    FB_IMG_1583712668448 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    Thanks to Ashley Wilhelm for the pictures

    Tennessee Valley Region SCCA had their first event Saturday with 109 registered drivers. We have a pretty quick group with a fair number of national champions for the size region we have. It also doesn't hurt that we have a pretty good site which tends to attract out of town talent as well. Gives you a fair idea where you stand in relation to national level competition. My Co-driver and I were in the early run group which meant a cold start to the day but we built heat pretty quickly and got some good runs in the morning. As usual we were pretty close and lunch came with my co-driver having the edge. Car felt really good and felt as good as she ever has so it was nice to be able to keep pushing and have a good idea on what to expect. Course was on the more technical side with some tough pinches but also some very quick sections. My fastest runs all had 3rd gear sections. I ended up putting together a few quick runs at the end of the day and having a 3 tenths gap on Joel which is wider then we usually are. Cones hurt his quickest run. Overall we were the 2nd fastest car behind a XSA Tesla Model 3 with some darn good drivers in it. I really cont complain after seeing the incar of that thing attacking the course. Those cars jump out of corners like nothing I have ever felt before... on street tires!

    Screenshot_20200309-120507_Chrome by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    Screenshot_20200309-120531_Chrome by Brett Hudson, on Flickr


    Overall not a bad day considering we were on last years tires and have yet to switch over to the Yoks, hopefully they wont require any huge setup or driving changes and we can be very ready to go by the time we travel for a nationals event. Also still need to install the new exhaust to lose some more weight in the car. Time will tell if those two changes make much of a difference. As always thanks for reading along

  20. #95
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Des Moines, IA
    Posts
    1,051
    My Cars
    '97 M3/4/5.0
    Well done! Always great to see someone tearing it up.

  21. #96
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Huntsville AL
    Posts
    356
    My Cars
    1997 M3
    Weight reduction part… 3 or 4 or something… hard to tell anymore.

    Even with the world situation being what it is, this project is still moving forward. Got to do something to keep your mind occupied right? I haven’t been able to travel to get to where my car is so some of the work has been delayed but I’ve still been gathering information and some parts to keep things moving forward. I alluded to having my exhaust pieces already in a past post but I had still not gotten around to getting it installed yet. I picked up an Active Autowerke race exhaust section 1 and a Bimmerworld race exhaust and welded in a Magnaflow 100 cell race cat. I did the mix of brands because I already had the shorty headers on the car which negated the need for the Bimmerworld section 1 which extends one of the primaries in an attempt to mimic equal length headers.

    20200425_133434 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    20200425_141624 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    Well I managed to remedy this past weekend. With proper personal distance I managed to go visit my family and get access to the lift and the car to get this all bolted up. Everything fit super well, and it was an easy and stress-free install using the lift. It didn’t hurt that all the hardware on the car was fresh and had been recently out of the car. I love it when everything is pretty clean and decently new. Pretty easy to do when just about everything on the car has been rebuilt in the last 2-3 years.

    20200425_165155 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    20200426_093612 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    20200425_165513 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    The new sound is quite a bit more aggressive than what was previously on the car but I’m worried the sound level might be a touch high for our local site. We have a very strict 96db limit since our site is adjacent to an apartment complex. My hope is that the exhaust mellows as it breaks in a bit and just falls below the needed sound limit. We will find out in the coming months…hopefully.

    The next area of weight reduction for this car is the brakes. The rules for Street touring classes specify the rotors and calipers are free as long as they are not smaller than the factory diameter. The difficult thing when trying to find the lightest setup possible is the lack of factory sized options. Lots of places make upsized options but theoretically that would not be the lightest possible. I don’t really need the increased thermal capacity of the larger kits, so my goal has been to find the lightest stock rotor sized option. There are very few Lightweight rotor options. Most of those that do exist are not a huge difference and all of them are pretty pricy for what you get. The factory 2-piece rotors only save about 1lb each and the PFC rotors are only a little bit more than that. Both options are expensive for the weight lost so I’ve been holding off on them.

    I happened to come across a set of rotors for sale on the forums that were over 3 lbs per side lighter and at a very reasonable cost. The company is Exzess and I was not able to find any support for them any longer. This kept me from inquiring about them for awhile but then I came to the realization that I could get replacement friction rings made from Coleman Racing, so I contacted the seller and we made a deal. They are a pretty cool piece and should fit my needs for autocross pretty effectively. I was planning on holding off on the installation until I sources my calipers but since I will be running the same pad compound with my setup going forward I decide to go ahead and install them since I had the rotors in hand.
    The next step for the brake system weight reduction is lightweight calipers. I have not been able to find one shop that makes a factory rotor kit for both the front and rear so I’m currently looking at two different kits that maintain the factory bias but drop that painful unsprung weight.

    20200426_111921 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    20200426_110211 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    20200426_132243 by Brett Hudson, on Flickr

    The front kit I’m looking at is from Off camber Autosport https://offcamberautosport.com/shop/...ance-brake-kit. I’ve talked with Mo about it already and it drops 7lb per side which is a very healthy drop. He’s already checked the availability of my desired pads and said he can get those ordered and sent with the kit if I do decide to go this route. Uses the Wilwood Superlite caliper which seems to be a know entity so It seems like it could be a good fit.

    The rear kit I’m looking at is the Massive brakes rear caliper mounting kit https://www.facebook.com/Massive-Bra...80840662024728. This kit is also designed for the Wilwood Superlite calipers with a different piston diameter which maintains the factory brake bias. After speaking with Lee it really seems like a nice solution that uses the factory rotors. I did enquire on if he made a comparable front kit and he let me know he has no front kits that utilize the factory sized rotors. Oh well, guess that keeps things interesting.

    Do any of you guys on here have an experience with either of these kits? Love them? Anything surprise you about them? Really just trying to expand my knowledge base on them before spending the money. As always thanks for reading along. Hope everyone is making it well through these challenging times.

  22. #97
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Des Moines, IA
    Posts
    1,051
    My Cars
    '97 M3/4/5.0
    What's the front piston diameter? Are they staggered diameter pistons?

    Those calipers are only about $160 each and a great budget option for putting together a lightweight brake kit.

  23. #98
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Huntsville AL
    Posts
    356
    My Cars
    1997 M3
    Quote Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
    What's the front piston diameter? Are they staggered diameter pistons?

    Those calipers are only about $160 each and a great budget option for putting together a lightweight brake kit.
    Off Camber does not specify the diameter in the kit but he says they maintain stock bias. Does anyone which piston diameter they are running in the front?. All of the Superlite Calipers I have looked up have the same piston diameter just spread across 4 smaller pistons. I've seen other kits were the rotational leading and trailing pistons are staggered to even out pressure across the pad but I don't believe this kit is like that. There really is just no other options that I have seen that run the stock rotors on this car. Most of the other "smaller" kits bump up to at least a 325mm rotor or larger in the front. I just have no need for the heat capacity and it actually makes it more challenging to get the pads in their happy place with that extra venting.

    I really just wish I could find a lightweight rear rotor that maintained the parking brake. I have yet to find anything in the stock size. Just not much new support for these ~25yr old cars in niche products like that.
    Last edited by snakebit8; 05-04-2020 at 02:25 PM. Reason: horrible speller

  24. #99
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Central, MD
    Posts
    3,844
    My Cars
    1995 M3
    Quote Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
    What's the front piston diameter? Are they staggered diameter pistons?

    Those calipers are only about $160 each and a great budget option for putting together a lightweight brake kit.
    Those Wilwood calipers (Superlite 4) are available in 1.12 and 1.25 piston diameter. They do not have staggered piston sizes.

    $160 ea? Where?

  25. #100
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Des Moines, IA
    Posts
    1,051
    My Cars
    '97 M3/4/5.0
    Quote Originally Posted by aeronaut View Post
    Those Wilwood calipers (Superlite 4) are available in 1.12 and 1.25 piston diameter. They do not have staggered piston sizes.
    From Wilwood's site, you can get them for rotor thicknesses of 0.81", 1.10", and 1.25". 1.10" is 28.0mm, so I assume that's what the M3 kit gets.

    It's available in 6 different "piston area" versions. Their datasheet is a bit confusing, but it seems to me like they're reporting the total piston area of only two pistons. "Piston 1 bore: 1.12", Piston 2 bore: 1.12", Total Piston Area: 1.98 in2" 1.98 in2 is the area of two 1.12" pistons, but these have four pistons, so we'd double that area.

    The stock M3 caliper has a 60mm piston in a floating arrangement, so you double its effective area to compare it to the area of a fixed caliper. 60mm = 2.36", area = pi * (2.36/2)^2 = 4.38 in2. Double it for being a floater and you get 8.77 in2.

    The Superlight is offered in (among other sizes) 8.24 in2 or 9.60 in2 areas, so I assume the M3 kit uses one of those and the brake bias gets shifted a little bit forward or backward depending on which one they go with.

    $160 ea? Where?
    https://behrents.com/parts/wilwood-b...-120-11136.asp

    Quote Originally Posted by snakebit8 View Post
    There really is just no other options that I have seen that run the stock rotors on this car. Most of the other "smaller" kits bump up to at least a 325mm rotor or larger in the front. I just have no need for the heat capacity and it actually makes it more challenging to get the pads in there happy place with that extra venting.
    I feel that. Last season I had a co-driver for the first time and suddenly the brakes worked a lot better since we were able to keep some heat in them. I blocked off the vents after that.

    I'm in the process of swapping in factory Mercedes Brembos, but to get everything to fit nicely I'm going with a 325mm rotor from the 330i. It's not as thick as the M3 rotor but it's still 3lbs heavier. The calipers are about a pound lighter, so still a net weight gain, but I'm able to get four piston Brembos and rotors for under $170 total so that feels like a win.

Page 4 of 7 FirstFirst 1234567 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. Would It Be Illegal To Remove The Sunroof From An E36 M3 For SM or BSP If......
    By jmciver in forum Track, Auto-X & Drag Racing sponsored by Bimmerparts.com
    Replies: 54
    Last Post: 12-27-2009, 02:57 AM
  2. What's the going price on e36 m3's in the area?
    By Preppy in forum Middle Atlantic - US
    Replies: 25
    Last Post: 12-29-2003, 01:00 PM
  3. Problems with running coilovers in the rear of a e36 m3
    By Mantic in forum Track, Auto-X & Drag Racing sponsored by Bimmerparts.com
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 07-13-2003, 04:16 PM
  4. Replies: 2
    Last Post: 06-23-2003, 06:20 PM
  5. Is there any rim out there that will allow 265's in the rear of an E36 M3?
    By ADVANT123 in forum Tire & Wheel Forum sponsored by The Tire Rack
    Replies: 16
    Last Post: 12-04-2002, 08:48 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •