Short Race Hub- https://getnrg.com/products/srk-rle36h
2.5 Quick Release- https://getnrg.com/products/srk-250
Wheel- https://getnrg.com/products/rst-023
VANOs complete. I love how much support there is for this car. The job was relatively straightforward. The guy who did the VCG used SO much gasket sealer but it came off easily.
I bought the Race German kit and followed ECS Tuning’s guid primary with the FCP Blog as support.
I removed the bearing spacer a couple times. To make sure I wasn’t brinneling the bearings or races. ECS seems to indicate you want a little preload so I did take the smallest amount of material off the spacer with ATF and 800 grit sandpaper.
Ok that is all of the under hood maintenance I had planned for now. Now I am moving on to mounting the cage.
Anyways, pics for fun…
That really is a rewarding job the first time you start her up. I love how simple e36's are to wrench on compared to the cramped plastic confines of modern day engine bays!
Lots of work to get to this point…
After mounting the harness I’ve decided the whole carpet has to go.
I also realized no one has stock of the sunroof deletes so I am going to have to make some custom brackets and weld it to the sunroof cover. Which will bolt to the roof.
Well my first track day is coming up quick. While the car is ready to go, the sunroof is still open. I was looking at the panel insert options and didn’t see any that would be here in time. So I figured I would try and get the old sunroof panel to fit with some custom brackets. I might add one more but with some sealer I think it will withstand the pressure fluctuations within the cabin, even with the surface area.
I know folks have made that work, so you should be good to go.
FYI Bigduck advertises their sunroof delete panel as in stock. You just never know what that means anymore.
Well life has been super busy since the track day, so here is my debrief from the track night shakedown.
It works!
Not happy with pedal feel, despite the caliper bushings. I think this is because I only put the stainless brake lines on the front, hoping I can get the other ones on before the next event on the 1st. I didn’t want to open that can of worms before this event because I’ve had brake lines go really bad.
I’m suspecting I had some bad gas. I had a stutter around 5-6k rpm. Initially I thought it was a cam position sensor, but when I filled up with the gas at the track, the stutter was gone. Need to keep an eye on this.
No issues with temperature that I could see, everything worked beautifully. No oil consumption that could be noticed on the dipstick. Power steering and water/coolant stayed where it needed to be as well.
I have plenty of things to learn behind the wheel, but this car was an absolute blast even in a mostly stock form. Car loves to rotate under trail brake.
Things for next time:
Really need a better solution for video/telemetry/laptiming. I tried a few things out with my gopro and track addict. I purchased a GPS and roll cage mount to use with the app. I had it mounted to the passenger seat headrest since I’m lacking GoPro attachments.
I need a battery box. It’s contained by the oem holder but that’s it.
Im hoping to get the alignment completed before the next track day.
Need to find a better mounting solution for fire extinguisher
Need to drive better
Many other things but those are the highlights
Fun stuff!!!
I instructed in a bone stock E36 M3 earlier this year, and yes, it reminded me, what a great car.
Let us know how the battery box solution goes. Great to hear the car performed as expected and that shakedown went as good as one could hope!
Well I owe some updates, back to back track weekends is exhausting! Not that I’m complaining!
Participated in my second Lemons race this weekend and two weekends ago was the first real test of the e36. Both events were at gingerman raceway. I have some video and track addict data that I’m still processing and plan to release soon.
The e36 did awesome! No issues and made every session. With the car running so well I was free to play with damper and tire pressure settings. Ended up dropping 4 seconds over the weekend and certainly think I could do a 1:49 in good conditions.
Battery was temporarily boxed in with plastic covers, don’t like it and will be redoing.
Only item(s) from the weekend that needs replacing is my serpentine belt, and maybe a starter. For some reason the starter gear would disengage intermittently during hot starts. Anyone experience this?
My stock FCABs are also quite tired. I have Delrin bushings ready to replace but I didn’t think I’d have time for a bushing swap and alignment.
Winter build time is on its way, chassis stiffening is up first. Likely going with the Garagistic kit, even though they were not able to give me material specs aside from calling it “steel”.
I didn't know this build is in GR! Come out to a RevMatch Track Day HPDE next season, we run at Gingerman quite often. I was at Gingerman last Friday and managed to knock out 48's in my 328i
Funny you say that. I think I’m done ordering from them, I have noticed a lack of engineering in their products.
It also didn’t help when I emailed customer service for details on the material specification and they replied “steel”…..
….what steel?!! High/low carbon? Tensile strength? Hardness? Alloy content? Do you buy certified material? How do I know what filler rod to use?
I was further disappointed when I emailed back asking for specifics and the reply was “we don’t know, but tons of people run this with no issues.”
That’s not how I’m trying to do this build. I know there’s probably a lot of tried and true setups for the e36, but if I’m going to uncover any advantage, It’s not by following along. I’m also fully aware there are people much smarter than me who have already figured out a lot of things for this chassis, but I’ll still want to understand the how and why.
For example, I have been calculating spring rates for my car, and most kits seem to overspring the car. I will follow up on this once I finish my calculations. I’m hoping to setup the sheet for everyone to be able to calculate optimal rates for themselves.
That’s awesome! I’ve seen ads for RevMatch, I’ll certainly check them out.
I eventually got down to 1:50s after I started to trust that the car was holding together. So much fun.
In other news, I realized that small hesitation around 5k could have something to do with ignition. Since I realized I forgot to refresh any of that 😅. I have no data to back this up, merely the fact that my odometer is a big number.
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The worst part about old vehicles in my opinion is the fuel/brake lines. Case in point, my rear brake fittings are corroded to the lines. I managed to free up 2/6 rear fittings is rust remover, but it looks like I’ll be doing some bending and flaring.
Anyone have a flaring tool that’s not complete crap?
For flaring lines in tight spaces (on-car), I've got this one and am happy. It works pretty well in small spaces. Do a few test runs on the bench on some spare brake line. (I'd use a different one if all the flares were done on the bench).
https://www.amazon.com/Cal-Van-Tools-165-Master-Flaring/dp/B00AOTBVJQ/ref=sr_1_2?crid=22EOLE5BX05QI
Thank you! It’s been ordered.
Yes this is on car. Going to try and cut the line as close as I can to the fitting.
In order to save myself from swimming in brake fluid. I’m thinking of disconnecting the line from the master cylinder. Does anyone know what port feed the rear? I’d assume the one closest to the brake booster as that’s common, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s different.
I usually just saran wrap the res and use the vacuum created to prevent the line from leaking everywhere (keeping some plugs handy just in case.
Managed to drive the car one last time before it snowed this weekend. I'm honestly surprised that wave had warm weather this long in Grand Rapids, MI. Anyways since its officially off season for real. I decided to start working on the chassis calculations. Ive beggun with the front axle. I think the angles and lengths are getting close. All the below measurements are in mm. If anyting looks off. Please let me know.
Still trying to get the knuckle distance to hub correct. My camber is certainly not that high.
Once I complete this, Ill be able to correlate wheel to spring rate as well as roll center.
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Last edited by TechnicalViolet; 11-13-2022 at 12:23 PM.
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