1997 328IS Progress Thread - Montreal Blau

[GregBBall123]

Thanks! I have an empty center console spot where I believe the convertible top switch would have been. It looks like that should fit there. Where did you place yours? Side note, I just wired the angel eyes in my E90 to a button that I put in the cigarette lighter tube, it looks pretty sweet. So I'm cool with doing my own wiring.

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Just placed mine in my one last empty spot in the center console (see the picture above), very happy with it!

[LuvMy328is]

Sweet! Thanks! I also have the ASC spot, I removed the button when I took out my traction control years ago lol

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[GregBBall123]

So got my new seat gear installed (successfully this time), so were back up and running. Pretty easy job for sure.

Also got my new plates in, have had these in the family for a very long time and they've finally been passed down to me. Have quite a few interesting and low digit plates in the family.

[LuvMy328is]

So got my new seat gear installed (successfully this time), so were back up and running. Pretty easy job for sure.

Also got my new plates in, have had these in the family for a very long time and they've finally been passed down to me. Have quite a few interesting and low digit plates in the family.

Looking good!

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[GregBBall123]

Steering

So in my quest to repair my worn out steering joint and gain back some tighter steering feel I've opted to change out my steering guibo. The new steering shaft I bought is clean and the joint is tight but the rubber guibo is super soft and flexible, so I picked up a poly one from Garagistic. In the past I've definitely hurt the drivability of cars I've owned with too many poly components causing unwanted NVH, so this will most likely be the only place I opt for poly. Also not a huge fan of Garagistic but here we are...

Drilled out the original rivets and tried putting this new guibo in, immediately theres an issue, the heads of the bolts dont clear the radius of the corners on the aluminum lugs, you also have to drill the holes out larger to fit the supplied hardware. Easy enough fixes because I have a Bridgeport at work but for others not so lucky this would be a pain. Of course Garagistic offers no direction on any of this, just not a big fan of how they work. Will machine the lugs on lunch and should be good to go.

[GregBBall123]

Steering

Tossed the lugs in the Bridgeport on lunch and got them all squared away, just used an endmill to remove the radius where the bolt head sits, removed almost no material overall so shouldn't have lost any strength in such a crucial piece.

Just going to locktite it all when I get home and it'll be all done.

[LuvMy328is]

Steering

Tossed the lugs in the Bridgeport on lunch and got them all squared away, just used an endmill to remove the radius where the bolt head sits, removed almost no material overall so shouldn't have lost any strength in such a crucial piece.

Just going to locktite it all when I get home and it'll be all done.

Nice!

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[Robcast]

Nice build! Can you please ID the wires?
Thanks
For the charger that is.

[GregBBall123]

Nice build! Can you please ID the wires?
Thanks
For the charger that is.

Ignore the colors of the wires that I used, see the pic below and go by the pinout on the connector.

Pin 1:+12v
Pin 2: Ground
Pin 3: +12v for backlight (turns on with light switch, uses pin 2 for ground as well.)

[Robcast]

Ignore the colors of the wires that I used, see the pic below and go by the pinout on the connector.

Pin 1:+12v
Pin 2: Ground
Pin 3: +12v for backlight (turns on with light switch, uses pin 2 for ground as well.)

Much appreciated!

[GregBBall123]

Suspension

Has been quiet on the car lately, have been driving and enjoying it, and have been working on my long term project FJ60 Land Cruiser. That being said I did find some new adjustable rear lower control arms locally today and picked them up super cheap. Built pretty solid, such a simple part so hard not to be.

[GregBBall123]

The day came to replace my steering shaft, have been holding off on it cause I knew it would be a pain and I was dreading it... went as expected but got it done pretty quick. The old shaft was SHOT, binding like crazy in one direction and sloppy in the other, the result is a much improved steering feel!

[GregBBall123]

6 Speed Swap

One of the last few items for the 6 speed swap has been the foam insulation under the shift boot, no way in hell I was paying $50 for one new so found a clean used one for almost nothing. Such a small thing but I want this swap to look and feel OEM.

[GregBBall123]

What is up y'all!

So have been driving the car all summer and enjoying it, all while slowly collecting parts to get this thing swapped over to a manual. So sometime this week or next I'll be getting it in the shop to start, just waiting on some final items to arrive.

To do is:

• 6 speed swap
• Rear end refresh
  
  • All stock rubber bushings, RTABs are getting limiters
  • Diff refresh will wait until I find a proper ratio LSD
  • Wheel bearings
  • Brakes (fronts already done recently)
  
  
• Cooling system overhaul
  
  • All rubber lines
  • Metal thermostat housing w/ Elring gasket
  • New heater core connection flange w/ o-rings
  • Rebuild the heater valve
  • New expansion tank
  • Full coolant flush, core and block
  
  
• Engine
  
  • Rebuild the VANOS
  • Valve cover gasket (currently leaking)
  • Oil filter housing gasket

Have essentially all of the parts ready for above, just waiting on wheel bearings, VANOS rebuild kit, and a thermostat. Plenty of updates to come!

[ZEKTI]

Looking good! I hope to put more miles on my E36 next year.

Enjoy the new rubber on back end, I heard you can go poly on just subframe and it is minimal NVH, but I too went all rubber w/limiters. As for rear brakes I wish I went for a larger setup like E46 rear vented. Supposedly pnp, Ireland Engineering has "kit" but it's nothing proprietary.

I've been overhauling an e46 cooling system, check out German Auto Solutions cap if you're "worried" about older plastic connectors. What VANOS kit you go with?

[GregBBall123]

Looking good! I hope to put more miles on my E36 next year.

Enjoy the new rubber on back end, I heard you can go poly on just subframe and it is minimal NVH, but I too went all rubber w/limiters. As for rear brakes I wish I went for a larger setup like E46 rear vented. Supposedly pnp, Ireland Engineering has "kit" but it's nothing proprietary.

I've been overhauling an e46 cooling system, check out German Auto Solutions cap if you're "worried" about older plastic connectors. What VANOS kit you go with?

I didnt go poly on the RTABs cause it doesnt seem like the right material for that type of bushing/bearing, almost went spherical but didnt want to drop the cash right now. Went all rubber though, and opted for the M3 spherical OEM arm bushings vs the non-M.

For a VANOS kit i went with the RaceGerman kit cause it was available on Turner and I needed to grab a thermostat as well.

[82eye]

nice wheels. are they rds ?

[GregBBall123]

nice wheels. are they rds ?

Racing Dynamics RGR

[GregBBall123]

Car is in the shop and ready to go under the knife! Hoping to start on this tonight, will get the majority of it done next week though. We cleaned the shop up recently, nice getting to work in a nice clean area, plenty of other things to do in here on the other cars too; our '02 is getting the engine bay resprayed, the M3 (E30) is getting converted back into a street car after years of track use, and then the S2 just recently sold on PCARMARKET and is awaiting its pickup. Not seen is my long term project FJ60 that's getting an LS.

[GregBBall123]

Back from a birthday/work getaway and time to work on the car, went down to florida to see a clients show at EDC Orlando, did my rounds at IAAPA, and took a day trip out to Kennedy Space Center (I'm a massive aerospace nerd). Rented a '16 MX-5 on Turo for the day to run out to KSC, super fun little car, reminded my a lot of my old M Coupe, too small on the inside.



Work has begun on the 328, has been pretty smooth so far minus the typical exhaust hardware. In taking off the mid pipe from the headers I managed to snap 5 out of 6 of the studs (all while using heat and penetrating fluid), so I need to get those studs out. Going to try heat and an air hammer first in hope that I can just push them out, if not I'll drill them out, will replace the studs with through bolts from there.

Transmission is coming out smoothly, one final bolt holding it on and it'll be out, need my father to help me yank it out which will probably happen tomorrow morning.

I don't think there is any way to not make a mess while pulling the trans cooler lines, looks like a blood bath in here. And I cannot stand a mess in the shop when working, I'm a bit of an organization/clean freak when working.

Before I get to the rear subframe and cooling system I'm going to get the transmission in and bolted up so I can see if anything needs to be modified on the shifter setup, super stoked to see how it all feels once installed.

[GregBBall123]

Made some progress this weekend, not as much as I had hoped but its still progress.

Got the auto box out in all its blue, GM glory. I still find it so funny these things had GM trans in them, definition of a slush box....



Kind of hard to see but the RMS was definitely leaking, was obviously going to be replacing this either way. Also can see the typical sagging insulation, if I was going 5 speed I would've bought the brackets that Braymond offers but the 6 speed is significantly longer so I don't this they will be needed.



Got it all cleaned up and the new RMS installed, I have a nice setup on our drill press for installing seals like this, there is enough leverage on one to press these in with ease.



Then finally got the clutch and flywheel installed, had ordered the wrong flywheel bolts but luckily in our stash of parts I had a set of the correct ones that were unused.



Didn't have the correct install tool for the disc so I used some sockets and some electrical tape to get a nice snug fit on everything to center it, good trick that works in a pinch.



Also started pulling the interior apart, first time taking apart an E36 interior so taking my time and watching a lot of video for reference, haven't broken anything yet.

[GregBBall123]

In the interest of not cutting any wiring during this swap I'm utilizing the stock auto shifter to make a plug for the NSS and reverse light wiring. The annoying part of BMW electronics (as many of you know) is that you can't purchase all connectors from the manufacturer, this female plug is one of them. So I've disassembled the stock shifter to removed the connector needed, below you can see the shifter with the plug in question removed, and then below that the plug after removal.





From there I trimmed off the slider area and brought it to the belt sander to clean it up and expose the back side of the pins that were hiding in the molded plastic.



From here I will solder the leads I've already made on and then encapsulate it in epoxy to seal it in, pics of that to come. This should give me a plug and play solution, the reverse light plug I will run through the original shifter cable hole with a grommet to seal it in.

[amancuso]

FYI, that plug looks an awful lot like a Z3 tail light connector. Should be able to get these with the pig tail relatively easy/cheap in salvage yards. Great thread, thanks for updating.

[GregBBall123]

FYI, that plug looks an awful lot like a Z3 tail light connector. Should be able to get these with the pig tail relatively easy/cheap in salvage yards. Great thread, thanks for updating.

It is the same connector as all E36 tail lights, the only thing I wasn't sure of is if it had all of the pins and in the correct locations. The pins in these connectors are not removable.

[GregBBall123]

Wiring harness is essentially done, all assembled and the plug has been set with epoxy. The only thing left to do would be placing my heat shrink once I have it in the car to hold the grommet in place that goes in the tunnel, this should seal it up nicely.

There is also a wire you can see that will feed 12v to my PDC module once thats in (I have a factory installed version, not a retrofit, harness goes to the front of the car).