New e36 project started .

[ANGST]

Picked this up from a neighbor . Still in the eval stage , but this may become my HPDE/Track car . So many more posts to come

Known issues .. so far
1) Coolant leak , front of engine (thermostat housing and/or water pump ? )
2) Front fender / bumper damage
3) Driver side door is totally messed up , basically needs to have the inside rebuilt .
4) Sunroof 97% closed and inop

Know positives
1) x-brace
2) bilstein / eibach
3) aftermarket diff of some sort (LSD) Found out its a Quaife, then I found out what a Quaife was
4) Non-vanos motor with 132K on it .
5) new clutch

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[Deus Ex Machina]

Congratulations, a 325is is a good bet. I would recommend the Stewart's water pump. The non Vanos motors are popular for turbo upgrades. 132k is pretty low mileage for any I have seen available lately.

[ANGST]

Day 1

Found broken motor mount , replaced .
Replaced thermostat housing with used one and new thermostat and gasket .
Found water pump leaking , replaced

While testing thermostat housing was leaking , proceed to torque it down a tad more .... and snap !!!, $#%& , broke a bolt .

Ordering new thermostat housing now . Hopefully enough meat is left on the bolt to grab it with vice grips . Optimistic .

Unfortunately my shop is an hour away , so probably won't get to it until next Sunday.



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[ANGST]

Day 2

1) There was enough meat to grab onto , removed broken tstat housing bolt from head
2) reinstalled thermostat and replaced with new housing ( correctly this time) letting the RTV set 24 hours before hooking hoses back up
3) Started on the corner bodywork

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[Eric93se]

With all those leaks you have to do a compression check, high probability of warped and or cracked head.

[ANGST]

With all those leaks you have to do a compression check, high probability of warped and or cracked head.

Water pump was the only leak . The t-stat housing was 100% my fault. We are thinking the broken motor mount cause the engine fan to contact somewhere . When we got it the fan was shattered . That possibly killed the water pump .

But you are correct , I will be doing a compression test anyways soon just to get a baseline if nothing else.

[Ajaxx1989]

Nice start. I would recommend a all alum radiator if you plan on racing with a stewart high flow pump.
you can get a brand new koyo rad for 240, and much better quality than mishimoto.

[ANGST]

Day 3 , put the fender on and tried to chase some possible oil leaks .

Got it to drive it about 5-8 miles or so. It was smoking a bit from the manifold area of the engine, and a bit out the exhaust It has been sitting at least 4 months without moving. It stopped smoking after a few miles .

[ANGST]

Replace the water pump with a new one . I had a used one that we had laying around at first .

Got the nose piece on , new radiator in , replace coolant lever sensor connector.

The fan shroud we had was broken and we used some zip ties to keep the tank on , this was probably not the best idea. I "think" one of the zip ties came undone during some 'spirited' test driving and something contacted the fan , at least I am hoping . A few blades came off and only did a tiny amount of denting to the new radiator (Z3) .

I am going to try and look at the motor mounts and see if they might also be an issue .

Next session replace the shroud with a non broke one , look at motor mounts. Maybe get the lights in and bumper on .



I have no idea why these images won't orient

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[Eric93se]

Treat yourself to a new set of hood supports on your next parts purchase. Rockauto has a good selection.

[ANGST]

Day 5


Replaced the cowl with a non broke one , coolant level sensor started to leak ... pull cowl back out , ugh

bleed the the cooling system still trying to get the air out , the heat kept getting cold as it hit the air pockets , fun.

The car car shakes a bit at idle, just said screw it and ordered motor mounts, they are not too hard to do with a lift.

Front end end is coming together , need to find a late model e36 passenger side grill. I have 3 sets of the early ones :/

added my FCPeuro stickers cause those guys have been awesome !

[ANGST]

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Day 6

Replaced motor mounts
Assembled front end and tested all lights , replaced tail light
got viscous fan back in and it didn't blow up (woo!)
Put anti-freeze in and drained the 100% distilled water almost at a 50:50 ratio now

Noticed only the drivers wiper works , need to sort that later.

Tried to fix door...

The drivers side door does not open from the outside , it has no window motor or regulator .

So instead of swapping parts in , we swapped a whole door from a 95 vert ... which sorta works . The locks work , the mirrors work , but the window will not

Doing some research the 92-93 motors are different then all other e36 motors , so now trying to solve that problem since new 92 motors seem to be about $500-$600

[ANGST]

Day 7

Starting to address this mess , replaced outside door handle that was very broken and found an inner door handle. Also got to drive the car 40 miles .
Learned a bunch about e36 doors and how to rebuild them .
Fixed wiper blade arm .

Another lesson was , how you know when your upper radiator hose is too loose . Luckily I had spare coolant and I am getting good at bleeding the system on e36s :/

[ANGST]

Tried to install window motor , will only go down . Have another motor on the way to see if it's the motor or something else.

Valve cover gasket next.

Meanwhile it's road legal now .


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[ANGST]

Figured out the window motor , it was a wiring issue . Need to run 2 wires from switch to motor.