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Thread: 1995 M3 turbo - Redoing a sketchy build

  1. #1
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    1995 M3 turbo - Redoing a sketchy build

    This is the first time I’ve posted anything about this car and I’ve never made a thread on the build progress of any car I’ve had. Since I’m redoing a lot on this car I figured I’d have questions a long the way and having a place to track progress will be nice.

    So, our house just went on the market and a buddy of mine offered space in his garage to store it until our new house is done being built. The only stipulation is we have to work on it so he can get some content for his YouTube channel. I have no problems with this since I do really need to start working on it, he has a lift and an extra set of hands will be of great help after having had to work on my back with the car on jackstands all this time by myself. Unfortunately the progress will likely be on the slow side due to our schedules and obligations but at least I’m finally going to be able to actually start installing parts. I dropped off most of the stuff at his house over the weekend and I should have the rest over there this coming weekend.

    A little about the car - It’s a ‘95 AW coupe that I picked up locally with the current turbo kit and a few mods. I’m the third owner, it has 120K on the odometer and it has been a Houston car all it’s life. The motor and head were freshened up around 4K ago and I put maybe put 1K on it myself before I hung it up. It makes decent power and the car itself is in really good condition but the PO cut so many corners when he did the install and tried to fix other little problems. Some of the things I’ve come across are just ridiculous.. I initially took the car off the road due to bad rear axle and and that’s when I started noticing all of the shortcuts taken on it. I started buying the right parts and worked on making things legit but the more I dug in the more BS I found. So it was then that decided to just start buying all of the parts I needed to build it to what I want it to be and it has been down ever since. I think it’s been close to 3 years now, being busy and unmotivated has not helped the cause.

    Anyway, here’s what was on the car when I bought it.

    - TCD cast mani with GT3582R
    - Ebay intercooler
    - TRM 60lb blow through tune

    -.140" cometic head gasket and ARP 2000 head studs
    - M50 intake mani
    - Janky 3” exhaust with a cut out and a magnaflow muffler
    - Tial 44mm WG
    - Tial 50mm BOV
    - F1 stage 4 w/ LTW flywheel
    - Bilstein shocks and H&R springs

    - PowerFlex subframe and RTAB bushings with limiters
    - Turner solid diff bushings
    - Adjustable rear control arms
    - New alcantara headliner and pillars
    - AEM trueboost
    - AEM Wideband
    - BBS LM reps

    I’ve since accumulated a slew of OEM and aftermarket parts to get the car close to what I want it to be even though it will never be *done*, weekend fun cars never are. Since I don’t know the history of a lot of the sensors and some other vital parts I’ll be replacing most of those for peace of mind.

    Here’s a couple of pics from when I first brought it home.




    and one of the Datsun I had previous being picked up, I miss that car..




    Here’s like the one pic I have of how and where it’s been sitting all this time. Unfortunately I didn't take many pics of what I've installed up until this point so there's not much content to add regarding that.



    I went to drop off most of my parts over the weekend so I wanted to share some pics of my buddy’s garage. Having the AC in there should keep being unmotivated at bay during the brutal summer heat and humidity here.







    - - - Updated - - -

    The first thing I need to do right now is get it streetable so I can drive it over to his place across town. I haven’t started the car in a long time so I need to change the oil, drain the tank, change the fuel filter and squirt a little oil down into the cylinders. I’ve already changed the plugs, crank and cam sensors, O2 sensor, coil packs and the water temp sensor for the ECU. The last time it ran it would go lean once it warmed up and would die with a MAF code. I figure it’s a vacuum leak so I’ll be testing that once I get my intercooler pipes back on. I’m hoping it’s that easy of a fix… When that gets sorted I have to install the new rotor rings up front, new pads all around and bed them in. After that I think it’ll be good to make the journey.


    Is there anything else I should consider doing before starting it since it has sat so long?
    Last edited by SyCK; 03-12-2018 at 03:39 PM.
    Turbo E36 M3 with all the things..

  2. #2
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    Car looks clean I look forward to the updates. What is your friends youtube channel the car will be on?

  3. #3
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    Wow

    photogasm.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by E36 328is View Post
    What is your friends youtube channel the car will be on?


    I'll find out. It's mostly just vids of him modding his mustang, the garage build and reviews on a couple of things.


    I came across some pics that I happened to take and emailed to myself at some point.

    Here is some janky ass 2.5" hotside pipe that was on the car. I have since installed a 3" pipe with no 90 degree crush bend BS.



    TR1245 core thickness vs the Ebay IC that was on there.



    Mounted



    Bumper on. Installed a Reiger GT lip and Motion Motorsports underpanel with radiator baffle.



    Picked up a AP Racing kit for the front and rebuilt/painted the calipers. I also had Coleman Racing make me a new set of rotor rings.





    Porsche Brembo calipers and E46 M3 rotors for the rear.






    When I picked up my 666 mani from getting coated.



    Cleaned the underside of the whole car but only took a pic of this section






    That's about all I can find right now but I guess I can include a list of what all I have installed on the car up until this point.

    - New seals; All glass, sunroof and trunk
    - Reiger front lip

    - MM Underpanel w/ radiator baffle
    - Smoked corners
    - Stance SS coilovers
    - Treehouse Racing front control arm bushings
    - UUC Swaybarian front sway bar with poly bushings both front and rear (stock rear bar)
    - Status Gruppe adjustable front sway bar links
    - BMW X-brace
    - AP Racing CP5200 4 POT front kit w/ new 330x28mm rotors
    - Porsche 4 POT rears w/ new 328x20mm E46 M3 rotors
    - Porterfield R4S pads all around
    - SS braided brake lines F/R
    - Setrab oil cooler
    - Bear SSK with AGK DSSR with a full rebuild kit
    - E21 tranny mounts with UUC enforcer plates
    - MEurosport billet throttle cable bushing
    - CES 3” intake elbow
    - Genuine BMW crank, cam and water temp sensors
    - NGK copper plugs and Bosch coil packs
    Turbo E36 M3 with all the things..

  5. #5
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    Have plans to ditch the 35r ?

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  6. #6
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    With the porsche rears you can use the 750il discs and keep the stock ebrake working. Also did you jist elbow grease clean the undercarriage or some special method?

  7. #7
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    I can't see the pics and may have missed it but did you replace the bad axle which caused you to take the car off the road in the first place? If not, I would recommend replacing both and the wheel bearings at the same time. I found that removing the axle halves was the biggest task in replacing the bearings and is a no brainer to do them at the same time.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by gdavid View Post
    I can't see the pics and may have missed it but did you replace the bad axle which caused you to take the car off the road in the first place? If not, I would recommend replacing both and the wheel bearings at the same time. I found that removing the axle halves was the biggest task in replacing the bearings and is a no brainer to do them at the same time.
    My axles popped out pretty easily but i had to rip on that Damn hub with a 10 lb slide hammer for at least 30 minutes

    Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

  9. #9
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    What did you coat the manifold with?


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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Butters Stoch View Post
    Have plans to ditch the 35r?
    Yep, I have a S363 SXE that I'll be installing.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mklock View Post
    With the porsche rears you can use the 750il discs and keep the stock ebrake working. Also did you jist elbow grease clean the undercarriage or some special method?
    I wish I would have read up more on compatible rotors since I still have to adjust the ebrake on these. I damn near ripped the handle through the tunnel when I first yanked it up after I installed them.

    I tried the elbow grease thing but it just wasn't working out and started to piss me off. I went and bought a container of Tub O' Towels heavy duty cleaning wipes and that took care of it relatively easy. Those wipes are amazing and I use them for everything now.

    Quote Originally Posted by gdavid View Post
    I can't see the pics and may have missed it but did you replace the bad axle which caused you to take the car off the road in the first place? If not, I would recommend replacing both and the wheel bearings at the same time. I found that removing the axle halves was the biggest task in replacing the bearings and is a no brainer to do them at the same time.
    I already replaced the axle and the wheel bearings looked and felt fine. It being a TX car all it's life the axle came out with just a push of my thumbs so if I need to replace the bearings later it's NBD.

    Quote Originally Posted by SilburE36 View Post
    What did you coat the manifold with?
    I had a local company ceramic coat it. http://www.polydyn.com/performance-coatings


    So I was dicking around with the car last night and decided to redo the ground that is running from the coil harness to a front vanos bolt but once I pulled the harness cover off I noticed the cable had a resistor on it. Is this a thing? I tried searching around but could not find anything regarding it but it seems odd that it is on a ground wire. It runs to a bundle of grounds for the coils.

    Turbo E36 M3 with all the things..

  11. #11
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    Why replace the Bilsteins with Stance coilovers?
    Don't mean to be douchey, but that seems like a major downgrade.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by SyCK View Post
    I already replaced the axle and the wheel bearings looked and felt fine. It being a TX car all it's life the axle came out with just a push of my thumbs so if I need to replace the bearings later it's NBD.
    That is really nice, good luck with the project.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1000hp View Post
    Why replace the Bilsteins with Stance coilovers?
    Don't mean to be douchey, but that seems like a major downgrade.
    I wanted to go lower and I got a good deal on them. If I don't end up liking them I'll just get something else but they seem to have decent reviews. The car will never see a track so I'm not too overly concerned about it and TBH I wasn't all that impressed with the Bilsteins. That's probably due to having always ran coilovers on my cars but they just weren't doing it for me.
    Turbo E36 M3 with all the things..

  14. #14
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    I dug deeper and apparently that ground wire with the resistor IS a thing, mine is just all busted up to hell. I've never seen this before so I was kind of taken aback when I saw it and thought it was some more BS the PO did. I ordered a new wire and if anyone is curious or needs a new one the part number is 13901738183.
    Turbo E36 M3 with all the things..

  15. #15
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    Nice work! Looking forward to the progress.

    Ken


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    Ken

    95' Dakar M3
    (GT35) 500whp+ and no clue what I'm doing....
    Steedspeed Twin-scroll Manifold, Wiseco 8.8:1 CR, K1 Rods, Supertech Valvetrain, ARP Main Studs, o-ring block, GTR 12mm head studs, GT35R with 86mm HTA billet compressor wheel (GT3586RHTA) Twin-Scroll 1.06 AR, Schrick Cams, TRM Tuning, 6 Speed Transmission, UUC Twin Disc Clutch, HFS-6 W/M injection, Zeitronix, Coilovers, Chassis Stuffs.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Quicker10u View Post
    Nice work! Looking forward to the progress.

    Ken


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Thanks, Ken. I'm looking forward to just finally being able to drive this damn thing around the neighborhood.

    -

    I got my e-brake adjusted, drained the tank, changed the fuel filter and changed the oil. I also tested it for vacuum leaks @ 20psi and the only place I found a leak was around the blow through MAF where it mates to the flange. I'm not sure why it doesn't seal worth a damn but it was a decent sized leak. I fixed that with some permatex sensor safe gasket maker so I am hoping this is the cause of my MAF error code, going lean and stalling once in closed loop. If not... ugh.

    I ended up having to pressure test it with the tester I got from Butters attached to the IC since when I tried it on the turbo inlet it just blew by the seals and bubbled the oil and the pan. When I first heard it my stomach sank thinking it was air getting into the coolant from a blown HG, so glad that was not the case.




    The Battery Tender is taking forever to get the battery charged back up so once the LED goes green I'll fire it up and hope for the best...
    Turbo E36 M3 with all the things..

  17. #17
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    Oh dude awesome a fellow turbo 95! +1 for your buddy's YouTube channel, let us know.

    And that garage is fackin awesome. Looking forward to your progress man.

  18. #18
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    So after a few hurdles I was finally able to get the car started last night after sitting so long, \o/

    I took a vid and it's hard to hear, it's a lot louder in person, but does the volume of the tickin sound about right? I remember the motor being noisy but I can't remember if it was as loud as it is right now. It's been a while so I could just be tripping.

    One thing though is I am still getting the P1215 code (MAF) but the car runs fine now with it plugged in. Before I let it sit so long it had that error code but it would stumble and die once in closed loop. Now it runs perfect but the code is still present. Would having the battery unplugged for a year not clear the code? I guess I'll clear it tonight and try again but I was just curious if anyone had any other ideas before I start throwing some parts at it. I did a vacuum leak test and fixed the only leak I could find but maybe there is another somewhere I couldn't get to with the spray bottle. The car idles steady with vacuum at -19.

    Anyway, here is the vid and let me know if it sounds normal to you guys.

    Turbo E36 M3 with all the things..

  19. #19
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    Figured it’s time for an update as the car is now at our new place. Work and life tend to make progress slow but it’s been progress nonetheless.

    So, I had always told myself I’d never own a German car due to the horror stories, and here I am owning one and indeed living the horrors. Whether or not it was an actual car issue or a parts issue, I’ve never had anything fight back so much. It’s like it doesn’t want to be a better car and is content with being a pieced together with zip-ties and wrong/missing parts. I wanted to burn the car down on more than one occasion just dealing with the brakes and cooling system upgrades. I didn’t take many pics, either out of habit or being so pissed at it that I just didn’t care, but I’ll post what little I did take a long the way.

    Anyway, I'll touch on most of what happened so far. The first issue encountered was when I was separating the two halves of the AP calipers apart, the last hex head socket bolt on the last caliper holding the two sides together wouldn’t budge, for anything, and ended up rounded itself out. We decided to tack weld a hex socket on there to try and get it out, but alas the bit on the socket sheared off and now I was left with a stuck AF bolt with the broken off allen portion of a socket welded to it.. FML.

    My only feasible option was to take it to a machine shop to see if they could get it out, and they succeeded! In the hole that the bolt was stuck in, the front half of the caliper has a smooth bore and the rear half being threaded. I’m not sure wtf happened but in that particular hole the side that is supposed to be smooth had threads grooved on one side of the bore, maybe someone torqued that one bolt all to hell at some point, dunno.. Pretty sure this is why I was able to buy them so cheap. At this point I didn’t have many options, a friend suggested sleeving the hole but that’s just absurd, I thought maybe having someone weld some aluminum filler in there then smooth it out, but the hole is too narrow and threads went too deep for any welding to happen. With pretty much no other options I decided to take a shot at fixing it with JB Marine Weld. I put some on a small wooden dowel, filled in and smoothed it as best I could over the threads and let it dry for a couple of days (I also put some on a random bolt and threw it in a cup of brake fluid to make sure it wouldn’t break down the product, which it never did). After those couple of days I drilled the hole out just enough to where the replacement bolt wouldn’t fit and then slowly filed it out with a round file until the bolt slid in like it should with no play. I then dropped off all four calipers and my spare VC off at the powder coating shop. All said and done, the color looks amazing! Way better than the blue I had used when I initially painted them. All that was next was replace all the seals, make new crossover tubes and assemble the fronts. Done.

    Pics of the jacked up smooth bore





    Pics of calipers and VC back from powder








    So, while waiting for the caliper to get fixed then powder coated, we started tearing the cooling system out. Drained the radiator and block, installed a Mishimoto Z3 X-Line radiator, new thermostat and housing, Stewart pump, new upper and lower hoses, new clamps, RE expansion tank, diesel fan, BMW blue, etc.

    The first issue we encountered was the SPAL fan I had intended on using would not fit, not even close. I was told it would work but there was just no way. I had the diesel fan that I bought just before the SPAL so I ended up tossing that on instead. I got pretty pissed when trying to slide the SPAL in since it started jacking some of the radiator fins up. It just bent them in a little bit but I worked them back straight as I could. It’s not perfect so it’s a little annoying but whatever, it is what it is. Everything else went in without a hassle.

    Next was the oil cooler, the short lines and the way the PO routed them was dumb AF and would not work so I had to order new line and fittings. I decided to mount it behind the kidneys, instead of sandwiched between the rad and IC, at an angle so the fitting and hose would fit due to the IC and radiator, I’m pretty happy with how it came out. After that I made a simple bracket to mount the expansion tank, mounted and plumbed it up, then flush and filled the system. I used one of those vacuum/refill coolant tools, and I’m not sure why I never bought one of these before because it made the job super simple and is pretty foolproof.






    Got the calipers back and installed, bled the system with a Schwaben bleed kit and then took it out for some pad bedding. After that, I washed the car and drove it home where it’s sitting in the garage for the first time. FINALLY \o/





    Now that the car is home I’ve got the interior stripped so I can give everything a refresh and color change. Decided to go with a darker grey on the panels and dash and install a new headunit, speakers and a amp. New front seats are on the way and I have some custom wrapped rear seats and door/rear panel cards waiting to go in. I’ll post pics of this once it’s all finished, hopefully in a couple of weeks.

    The next step is to do a paint correction so I’ve pulled all the body trim, rear bumper diffuser, badges, ect. And maaan, this a-hole PO glued the trim on the car! I mean FFS, clips are cheap and readily available, why the fck would you just glue them on while using just a couple of clips. Again, FML. That’s where I am with the car right now.

    Pics of the glue BS, both sides were like this..





    Oh, I also just dropped my wheels off at the powder coater for a color change. Stepped a little out of my comfort zone with the color but I think they’ll come out awesome. I’ll post pics once I get them back.
    Turbo E36 M3 with all the things..

  20. #20
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    Wow...glue....scares me to think where else he applied some ingenuity
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  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by BMWManiac View Post
    Wow...glue....scares me to think where else he applied some ingenuity
    Yeah, this guy's shortcuts have been pretty awesome.. At this point though, there isn't a whole lot I haven't had my eyes or hands on. Luckily it's just been dumb stuff like this, not using correct hardware or just not using anything. Nothing that would have caused serious issues one way or another, just sloppy, lazy work.

    Over the time the car had been at my buddy's house I've had a lot of fuel/turbo parts land so I'll bore you all with some pics, since I'm bored at work. I have some more parts packed away that I haven't felt like digging to take pics of but if anyone cares enough to see what's there I'll snap pics.

    ID1050X injectors and a Chase Bays PS kit (cooler not pictured)



    Achilles baffle and pick-up tube



    Radium and RR fuel stuff









    Extended oil drain fitting and venturi jet pump



    Weldon scavenge pump



    Radium catch can


    Last edited by SyCK; 04-11-2019 at 09:31 PM.
    Turbo E36 M3 with all the things..

  22. #22
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    NICE build man Im loving it. Looks like its gonna be awesome.

  23. #23
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    Some nice parts going on that m3...How could anyone let a car like this sit for years?!

  24. #24
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    Looking great...subscribed for reference as I have said car.

  25. #25
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    Love it so far, nice progress and quality parts well done!
    Mod list - M50 manifold; TechniqueTuning Stg2, Apex Arc-8, ZKW euro, clear corners Mike R diffbrace, Koni Yell with HR race
    X-brace UCC tranny mounts -BLK/with enforcers, powerflex rtabs,lcabs, AAfanclutch, mishimoto rad, UCC Ultra-cerametallic Clutch.
    You will go through days of joy and days of sadness as the pursuit for power leads to madness...

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