John's 98 Estoril E36 M3 Project

[RND1]

This is a great thread - thanks for sharing your restoration journey with us. I too have a 98 M3 Estoril 5sp coupe. Only difference is mine was ordered with black interior and wing. I've gone through much of what you're going through restoring mine to like new condition (or something close), except I went with all OEM components for suspension, bushings, mounts, clutch, etc. I have a bunch of OE black interior parts if you need something, let me know. I've been storing these parts for years, but it's time to start selling this stuff as I will likely never need it.

[jaysonx]

Thanks for the info Jason. I will look around to see what I can find locally. Might not be worth waiting half a year to get one from over seas.

Make sure you follow the steps in this guide if you find one:

http://www.frankies-bmw.com/3series/...ring_wheel.php

You will need a new airbag slip ring. I suggest buying it new, I found a used one and it squeaks like crazy (even after some dielectric grease). Seems to be a common issue, so I will be replacing it at some point.

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This is a great thread - thanks for sharing your restoration journey with us. I too have a 98 M3 Estoril 5sp coupe. Only difference is mine was ordered with black interior and wing. I've gone through much of what you're going through restoring mine to like new condition (or something close), except I went with all OEM components for suspension, bushings, mounts, clutch, etc. I have a bunch of OE black interior parts if you need something, let me know. I've been storing these parts for years, but it's time to start selling this stuff as I will likely never need it.

What a great-looking car. I too would like to replace my suspension with OEM, but given inventory challenges I have opted for a Dinan Stage 1 suspension kit.

[DrftKingIII]

Great work thus far. Reminds me a lot of the journey I've had with my Estoril M3 Coupe over the last 6 years or so.

Keep up the momentum!

[E85STI]

This is a great thread - thanks for sharing your restoration journey with us. I too have a 98 M3 Estoril 5sp coupe. Only difference is mine was ordered with black interior and wing. I've gone through much of what you're going through restoring mine to like new condition (or something close), except I went with all OEM components for suspension, bushings, mounts, clutch, etc. I have a bunch of OE black interior parts if you need something, let me know. I've been storing these parts for years, but it's time to start selling this stuff as I will likely never need it.

Wow your car looks so nice and clean! Such beautiful paint and those perfect seats and all black interior. I am highly jealous I would love to get some of the black interior parts. Shoot me DM to let me know what you have.

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Great work thus far. Reminds me a lot of the journey I've had with my Estoril M3 Coupe over the last 6 years or so.

Keep up the momentum!

Thanks, I have done a lot so far but still have a lot more plans for the car. Eventually I plan to get it repainted and fully restoring the interior in all black. I just replied to your thread just before this post. I cannot get over how amazing your paint looks!

[E85STI]

I've been busy lately and haven't had a chance to post anything new in the thread. I wanted to at least post something, so here is a very quick update.


Around the same time as replacing all of the cooling system I also swapped out the barely leaking Vanos high pressure hose. I went with the ChaseBays no leak designed hose. It came with new washers.











- CB-BMW-S50VANOS Vanos Oil Line Chasebays no leak design

[importbanana]

why didn't you add the washer between engine and hose

[E85STI]

why didn't you add the washer between engine and hose

I definitely added the washers on the inside/engine side or it would be leaking like crazy

The Flickr pics are compressed a bit so you cannot see it very well. Here are a couple of pics I just took to show it better. I had two pairs of crush washers. One pair was thicker and a larger diameter and the other was thinner and smaller diameter. Both had the same internal diameter. In the pic you can see the thinner crush washer on the inside. The was the same at the oil housing side but I cannot get my camera close enough to show it very well.

[MParallel]

Cool project.

+1 on the ambers.

[E85STI]

Cool project.

+1 on the ambers.

Thanks!

I will eventually get to the headlights and will get the amber corners back on.

[The sage]

Reading through your thread i saw you mention needing a shift boot. I had https://euroversedesigns.com/ make me one using some M sourced fabric they had/ have. it was made for the bigger openning from the garagistic shifter.

[E85STI]

Reading through your thread i saw you mention needing a shift boot. I had https://euroversedesigns.com/ make me one using some M sourced fabric they had/ have. it was made for the bigger openning from the garagistic shifter.

Thank you for the recommendation. I will check them out.

[E85STI]

This is a bit out of chronological order but it is another quick update. I was doing all of the cooling system and towards the end, while I was trying to find an upper radiator hose that would work with the quick bleed housing I used, I ended up doing the power steering hoses swap.

The power steering fluid leak was crazy. My 95 barely leaked at all and had almost 80k miles more on it. Here is some of the mess that was created by the leak. When I get time I need to clean off the oil pan, sway bar an other things coated in the fluid.






Nice new components. Ended up ordering new crush washers as the parts didn't arrive with enough.





I ran into an issue mid way through on the Chasebays high pressure line (High Pressure Steering Line with AN Fittings Chasebays no leak design). One of the AN fittings is the 14mm to -6AN adapter and the other was larger, 15 or 16mm. I honestly cannot remember. My system had the same sized banjo bolts. I needed the 14mm for both the steering pump, and steering rack locations. I ended up contacting them and ordering the one I needed. After that it was smooth sailing.



Old hose and the new.


Old.


New.



A friend stopped by to hang out.


All nice and new and clean parts! Other than the surrounding area


And I realized after some comments in a prior post that I am using the wrong fluid. I plan on draining it soon and putting the correct fluid in there. What fluid do you all use?







- CB-E36-S50PS High Pressure Steering Line with AN Fittings Chasebays no leak design
- CB-M14CRUSH 14mm to -6AN Adapter for PW Steering hose Hight Pressure
- CB-E36-S50PS High Pressure Steering Line with AN Fittings Chasebays no leak design
- CB-BMW-S50VANOS Vanos Oil Line Chasebays no leak design
- 83290429576KT Hydraulic / Power Steering Fluid - 1 Liter
- LEM-1063103 Power Steering Reservoir
- CRP-PSH0188 Power Steering Suction Hose
- 32412228284 Power Steering Return Hose
- 32411093596 Radiator Fan Switch crush washers 4
- 32411093597 Power Steering crush washers 4

[sirhodjibob]

I use this for power steering: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/pow...saAvrhEALw_wcB

Check the cap on your new power steering reservoir and your old one. Your original one will specify ATF. The replacement ZF one I got specified CHF, so I swapped caps, putting the new gasket on the old cap, to prevent future mix ups.

[E85STI]

I use this for power steering: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/pow...saAvrhEALw_wcB

Check the cap on your new power steering reservoir and your old one. Your original one will specify ATF. The replacement ZF one I got specified CHF, so I swapped caps, putting the new gasket on the old cap, to prevent and future mix ups.

Thanks sirhodjibob, I will check this stuff out.

[E85STI]

On to the cooling system.

When doing the cooling system I decided I was going replace just about everything. New Stewart high flow water pump, 3 core radiator, pulleys, pully bolts, thermostat housing bolts, water pump nuts etc. Per the norm my parts list is at the end of the post. Hopefully I don't miss any part numbers but if I do let me know and I will update any of my posts.

Here are some pics of the parts I received.




When I went to drain the coolant I found a little surprise on the radiator drain plug. It appears that the plug was cranked down in the past and the tip of it snapped off. I noticed this when I tried to loosen it and it just kept spinning in place. I eventually put a flat head screw driver behind it as a lever then unscrewed it and it popped out. From inspection the plug was JB Welded back in place. The gray is most definitely JB Weld. So no way to get the plug out. I just did it the messy way and disconnected the bottom hose. Thankfully I was planning on replacing the radiator anyway.




After scraping away the gray JB Weld you could see the blue plug back behind it. Of course I didn't take a pic of that.



Got the radiator removed as well as the fan and clutch, thermostat and housing, waterpump and pully and fan shroud.



Crusty old thermostat housing.



Thermostat removed.



Waterpump pully removed.



Waterpump removed.



I bought this BMW 525i "easy bleed" aluminum thermostat housing from RaceGerman. I ended up purchasing a genuine BMW 525i hose to go with it which still didn't fit right. I eventually ended up cutting the end of the host in an attempt to get it to fit but it just kinked the hose as you will see later in the post. Just doesn't work in the E36 with the Z3M S54 radiator combo I guess. After going to multiple parts stores I finally found a hose that fit perfectly. I just had to cut the long strait end to get it to the correct length. Even though it was a pain to find the correct upper hose I have to admit bleeding the system via the thermostat housing was so much easier than via the expansion tank like I've don't in the past. To be clear I did not use the thicker gasket that came with the thermostat. I removed it and used a factory BMW gasket. I did this after the very informative thread that was created in recent months about housing cracks and the thicker gaskets.






New thermostat and Stewart high flow water pump. Compared to the cheap metal impeller that came out of my 95 and the plastic one that came out of the 98, this thing is a solid beast.



New and old belt tensioner pulleys and bolts.



New and old driver belt idler pulley and bolt.



All the nice nice new pulleys, bolts, and everything else. I swapped over the tensioners from my 95 as they were in much better shape.



Replaced the normally hard to reach HVAC hoses.




Replaced the fan blade just because I have heard horror stories of brittle ones exploding and everything plastic or rubber on this car has needed replaced.



Old fan blade and fan clutch next to the new blade.



Cleaned up the fan clutch.



The old radiator and the new Z3M S54 3 core radiator.



New radiator fan shroud clips and new temp sensor and crush washer.




Radiator with fan shroud, hoses and reservoir mounted.




New radiator installed, and the temp sensor and level sensor connected.



The hose that came with the kit was obviously way too long for the 525i thermostat housing, which I bought months after purchasing the host kit. Just for my documentations sake I took a pick of it.



As mentioned earlier the genuine BMW 525i kinked up. It was "supposed to fit if I just cut it shorter" It did not, and I hacked up a perfectly good hose.





Just for reference. Here is the standard E36 S52 hose vs 525i hoses.




Here is the hose that I found that was the correct diameter and shape along with the correct bend. Hopefully this will help anyone in the future that decides to use the 525i thermostat housing.





I did a lot of other things before putting the manifold on and bleeding the system so this part is out of order. But when I eventually did get to the point of putting in the coolant, I wanted to make sure I did a pressure test so that I didn't have to later remove the intake just in case I missed tightening something. I rented a cooling system pressure tester from Advanced AutoParts. It wasn't so much renting as I was required to purchase it and then return it. Which is fine as long as you have the money in your account to do so. It was $264.00.

Powerbuilt Tools Kit 70, Cooling System Pressure Kit (22 Piece)





Using the correct adapter, screw it nice and tight onto the reservoir. Pumped it up to 20psi in small increments. Started at 5psi and waited about ten min. Then 10psi and another ten minutes. Then 15psi and eventually 20psi. I waited for about 30 min and had no noticeable pressure drop so I knew I was good.


Using BMW coolant and distilled water I filled the system and went through the standard BMW bleeding process. It has been rock solid on the temperature and with no coolant loss whatsoever.


Can't forget the new BMW expansion tank Cap.







- 13541703693 BMW Expansion Tank Cap Genuine BMW
- CTA-4210 Oetiker Hose Clamp Pliers
- 11531740832 Genine BMW Radiator Hose Upper (E39)
- 11531740316 Genuine BMW Hex Bolt with Washer (Thermostat Housing) 1
- 11531740317 Genuine BMW Hex Bolt with Washer (Thermostat Housing) 3
- 7129904553 Genuine BMW Hex Nut With Plate 4
- 11511730554 Genuine BMW Plastic Water Pump Pulley
- 17112227281 Z3M S54 Radiator Behr
- 61318363677 Radiator Fan Switch
- 32411093596 Radiator Fan Switch crush washers 4
- 11531740478 EZ bleed aluminum thermostat housing with tstat
- 11537511580 Genuine BMW 88C Thermostat
- 11531265084 Genuine BMW Engine Coolant Thermostat Gasket
- 11531740437 Genuine BMW Thermostat Housing Gasket OEM
- 17111712963 Genuine BMW Fan Shroud Clip 4
- FEB-19256 Fan Blade
- EMS-STE30330 Stewart BMW High Performance Water Pump
- 82141467704 Genuine BMW Coolant/Antifreeze (1 Gallon) second gallon
- 5320418100 Drive Belt Idler Pulley
- 7119904677 Genuine BMW Idler Pulley Securing Bolt
- 5320001100 Drive Belt Tensioner Pulley
- 7129905534 Genuine BMW Fillister Head Screw for Drive Belt Idler Pulley
- KIT-M52HOSEKIT BMW Comprehensive Coolant Hose Kit
- 72112 Dayco Upper Radiator Hose $15.00 9/24/2021
- 11287636378 BMW Accessory Drive Belt
- 11281470024 A/C Belt
- Part # 940427 Powerbuilt Tools Kit 70, Cooling System Pressure Kit (22 Piece)






If you want to purchase things individually the cooling system kit includes the following hoses, clamps and parts.
- Radiator Coolant Hose CRP-CHR0016R Rein logo
- HVAC Heater Hose CRP-CHH0140R Rein logo
- Engine Coolant Pipe O-Ring OES-11531703848 Oe supplier
- Engine Coolant Hose CRP-CHE0176R Rein logo
- Engine Coolant Recovery Tank Hose CRP-CHR0113R Rein logo
- HVAC Heater Hose MEY-3196421120 Meyle logo
- Hose Clamp MH4 Crp logo
- Hose Clamp MH5 Crp logo
- Hose Clamp MH8 Crp logo
- Hose Clamp MH10 Crp logo
- Hose Clamp CRP-MH12 Crp logo
- Hose Clamp MH24 Crp logo
- Engine Coolant Hose CRP-CHE0175R Rein logo
- Radiator Coolant Hose CRP-CHR0014R Rein logo
- HVAC Heater Hose BMW-64211394292 Genuine bmw
- HVAC Heater Hose BMW-64211394291 Genuine bmw
- Engine Coolant Hose ELA-EL1620053 Elaplast Technik GmbH

[Johal E32]

CHF 11S is perfectly acceptable to use. No need to flush the system.

The E36 was originally intended for ATF in the PS system. However, many track guys use CHF 11S instead as it has less tendency to overheat/boil under track conditions.

[E85STI]

CHF 11S is perfectly acceptable to use. No need to flush the system.

The E36 was originally intended for ATF in the PS system. However, many track guys use CHF 11S instead as it has less tendency to overheat/boil under track conditions.

Thank you Johal. This is good to know. I do think I am going to need to rebuild the power steering pump as it was whining before I swapped the reservoir and hoses and fluid, yet still sounds the same afterwards. Hopefully it can be rebuilt and doesn't need replaced.

[RBNetEngr]

That new thermostat cover with the long fitting on it is odd. Why did you choose that one over an aluminum cover that’s shaped like the original?

My ‘95 still has the original cooling system components (other than a Stewart water pump and an aluminum thermostat cover), and with 67k miles on it, I’m considering proactive replacement of the radiator. So, I’m debating whether to get the 3-core BMW radiator that you got, or go with an all aluminum radiator like Mishimota or CSF.


-rb

[E85STI]

That new thermostat cover with the long fitting on it is odd. Why did you choose that one over an aluminum cover that’s shaped like the original?

My ‘95 still has the original cooling system components (other than a Stewart water pump and an aluminum thermostat cover), and with 67k miles on it, I’m considering proactive replacement of the radiator. So, I’m debating whether to get the 3-core BMW radiator that you got, or go with an all aluminum radiator like Mishimota or CSF.


-rb

It is an odd look compared to the stock E36 one. But I went with it to make it easier to bleed the system. Here is the site that sells it. I figured worst case if I didn't like it I would just toss it and put a stock one on with a new upper hose.

https://www.racegerman.com/product-p...mostat-housing

I went with the 3 core just because I have read a bunch of posts about the all aluminum Mishimoto being crappy. Of course I could totally be wrong, and it might just be conjecture. Either way the 3 core is an upgrade from what we have stock.

[E85STI]

Picked up a few new items today.

Got these from
https://www.msportparts.com/

Bought this combo recently. Decided to pick up another orange E36 as a gift for a friend.


E36 Trunk Reinforcement Bracket.


E36 Instrument Gauge Cluster M Logo Replacement - Backlight Compatible


Then I ended up purchasing one of these cool looking diecast models. Not sure why it is listed as a 90. But don't really care about that. They have a really cool Dakar yellow and white lightweight version.

[MParallel]

Cool.

[E85STI]

Went to go do some work on the car and noticed I left an interior light on. Battery was as dead as can be. I trickle charged it and check back it a few days later and it showed good on the charger. Put it in and it fired right up. Happy about that as this model looks like it cost 300 or more new. I will eventually need to replace it and will with an AGM but was hoping to not do that just yet.

Forgot to post the image....

[Gene V]

Would look better with modena interior.

[E85STI]

Finally got around to removing the front rotors and pads from my 95 to go swap with the 98. These are a bit dusty and dirty but they only had a few thousand miles on them at the most before I parked it when I got my truck. Nice to be able to finally use some parts from the other car. The pics aren't very clear because my cell phone camera stopped focusing when I took the pic. I'll get better up close pics when I go to install them.

Hawk HPS pads. Zimmermann Coat Z Rotors.





Also I have gathered a few x-braces over the years. I think I have one more somewhere in my garage. Going to clean up and paint the newer version and install it at some point.



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Would look better with modena interior.

Heck yeah it would. I love that just as much as I do the all black interior. I see in your signature that you have that combo. I will have to look at some of your posts just to get a bit envious

[jaysonx]

Went to go do some work on the car and noticed I left an interior light on. Battery was as dead as can be. I trickle charged it and check back it a few days later and it showed good on the charger. Put it in and it fired right up. Happy about that as this model looks like it cost 300 or more new. I will eventually need to replace it and will with an AGM but was hoping to not do that just yet.

I recently put a new interstate in mine, all batteries for this car seem to be equally expensive.