BMW E90 Drift build | On its own wheels

[Borjesson.F]

I am trying this with a project thread for the first time.
Will probably be updated very sporadically, as I don't spend any time photographing when you're in the garage.
It could be fun to be able to go back and have a look when the lack of motivation kicks in.

I used to have a 525 E34 that started as a street car and got more and more time on the track.
The idea was to continue building on it when I converted the steering to E36 front subframe and geometry to get more options for steering angle kits.
However, the plan was cancelled when the engine blew at Mantorp 2016 and also due to that I had bought my E90 316i the previous month.

So it felt more right to build a more modern car from scratch.

The components that will be used are:
-M50B25 Vanos, unopened to begin with.
-GS6-53DZ rewelded for 0-angle as well as exchanged carrier to go bolt-on propshaft
-335i propshaft and welded rear differential 3.46 & 3.08 ratios.
-335i carriers & drive shafts, 335d carriers and shafts will be bought as they have bigger joints.
-Wisefab front and back
-335i brakes, drilled and slotted original discs with refurbished original calipers and double calipers on the rear.
-Aluminium and delrin bushes in the subframe.
-BC RACING ZR, 3-way coilovers
-BBS RK 18 "
-Grupp H cage
-Tilton pedal box
-Samsonas shortshifter
-Polycarbonate windows
-Custom widebody kit
This was what the old e34 used to look like and the e90 was retrieved approximately 2 years ago.


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[Borjesson.F]

After I sold the E34 as a rolling chassi in February -17 I starded to disassemble the e90 part by part to be a bare shell before I sent it to waterblasting.
Started to remove all of the engine, drivetrain and interior.

Got my hands on a used Samsonas gear shifter.

Most of the unnecessary parts removed.

One advantage of a quite new chassi is that it hasn't been started to rust that much

Bought some dry ice to remove all of the sound dampening material.
This was really effective and doesn't took me more that a few hours to remove all the sheets.

Rolled out what was left of the car into the spring sun and gave it a decent wash.

 

[Bolf]

Good luck , i've got an e90 myself ,

Strip as much weight out as possible , they are a heavy thing

 

[Borjesson.F]

Good luck , i've got an e90 myself ,

Strip as much weight out as possible , they are a heavy thing

Thanks!
Yes i've stripped out as much as I could for now.
The plan in the future is to replace the front and read fenders with fibreglass instead and maybe the doors and hood as well.

Only the absolute necessary will take place in the car again.

 

[Borjesson.F]

Updating with some more pictures
Bought a pedal box from a friend that only had been test mounted.

Removed the rear subframe and got rid of all the bushings and original control arms.

The car is stripped on everything and ready for water blasting.

Bought a 6-speed gearbox from a 530d.

Got the car back from the water blasting and hung it up in my home made chassi turner.
Don't know the correct word for it in english but that's the direct translation from swedish
Even the rear subframe got some time with the water blasting but it didn't remove the paint or rust unfortunately.

When I had the chance I took the time to seam weld the most parts of the chassi.
Quite a boring process but felt good to have done it when the chassi was completely empty.

Eventually I got the rear subframe sand blasted instead.

 

[Bolf]

Thanks!
Yes i've stripped out as much as I could for now.
The plan in the future is to replace the front and read fenders with fibreglass instead and maybe the doors and hood as well.

Only the absolute necessary will take place in the car again.

You can get everything , even the doors , bonnet and bootlid in FRP , as they were used in motorsport the moulds are knocking about ...

 

[Borjesson.F]

You can get everything , even the doors , bonnet and bootlid in FRP , as they were used in motorsport the moulds are knocking about ...

Yeah I know everything is avaible in FRP but it's too expensive for me at the moment.
There is plastic windows, FRP fender flares and I have been using the angle grinder quite heavily

 

[Borjesson.F]

A picture from when only the dry-ice made its work. No grinding of the glue rests yet.

The original harness in the car. Even though it was a 316i with not much options it was still a big junk of wires.

KW V3 coilovers was bought, but I eventually sent them back to change for another brand.

The rear subframe was reinforced a little bit and got powder coated.
Also made some alu bushings for the frame.
It should never flex.

 

[Borjesson.F]

Got some stuff from Estonia home

Started to remove some unecessary material from the doors.

I did order another copy of the Wastegate I had laying around, so I will use 2pcs with some twinscroll turbo.

 

[ワゴン]

Great build! I hope you continue posting.

Do you plan to turbo the M50 too? There's a guy in Czech republic drifting a e92 M3 with over 1000hp M50B30 turbo engine.

 

[Borjesson.F]

Great build! I hope you continue posting.

Do you plan to turbo the M50 too? There's a guy in Czech republic drifting a e92 M3 with over 1000hp M50B30 turbo engine.

Thanks!

I will upload some more pictures in a bit.
Haven't had access to my computer during the holidays.

Yes, the m50 will be turbocharged.
Stock bottom but with ARP studs and Cooperring gasket to begin with.
I used to run 660whp on my old E34.

Do you mean Michael Reichert?

I think that we easily have about 200 cars in Sweden with over 600whp running M50s.

 

[Borjesson.F]

I started to fabricate some mounts for the seats.

2 pics of the original parcel shelf which was removed to create an own one.

I started to fit the roll cage.
This was very time consuming because it was the first time I ever done this.

Enough for this time

 

[ワゴン]

Yes, Michal Reichert is who I meant, although I've just found out his M50 actually "only" makes around 900hp but 1200nm. Sweden is crazy country tuning wise, no doubt you have more powerful M50s. I mentioned him because of the e90 chassis - M50 engine combo tho. It's not very common, especially with genuine M3 shell.

Cage looks nicely tucked in and safe!

 

[Borjesson.F]

Yes, Michal Reichert is who I meant, although I've just found out his M50 actually "only" makes around 900hp but 1200nm. Sweden is crazy country tuning wise, no doubt you have more powerful M50s. I mentioned him because of the e90 chassis - M50 engine combo tho. It's not very common, especially with genuine M3 shell.

Cage looks nicely tucked in and safe!

I saw him live at Drift Masters Riga last year and spoke to his team mate Daniel with the 1-series.
900hp is still beyond what I will start with, probably will start with around 500 bhp.
There is some e8x and e8x chassis in Sweden with m50 as well but the most common swap seems to be 2jz.
I will have another challenge with mine as the plan is to tilt the m50 engine to fully vertical.

Yeah, I guess it turned out good in the end.

 

[Borjesson.F]

Got away and bought a donor car, just to get a cheap M50B25.
A really old rustbucket with auto transmission which would have needed way to much love to get back in to traffic again.

I did bend some steel sheet on the top of the tunnel and welded it.
Started to fabricate the frame of the new firewall, the idea was to make it in 2 pieces devided in the middle but we decided to have the joint on another place. That's why there is a pair of tubes in the middle.

Continued with the roll cage.
I misunderstood the regulations at first so the door bar was way to low, but it was easy to fix by just removing some material on the tubes.

 

[Borjesson.F]

Continued on the same theme, to fit all the tubes in the cage

Made a hole in the floor to be able to weld the cage all the way around

The hole cage was TIG-welded by me and a friend of mine.
I'm still a little bit bummed out that I bought the dimple die tools after I fitted the first gusset.

Cage is done, exept for the tubes for the harnesses in the main hop.

 

[Borjesson.F]

I fabricated some mounts for the brake fluid reservoirs and fitted them.
Also fitted the pedal box assembly in the car.
I bought some custom braided brakelines to run from the reservoirs through the wall and in to the pedal box.

 

[jon07043278]

That is some lovely fabrication. Like the little touches, like being able to move the pedal box forward and back.

 

[Borjesson.F]

That is some lovely fabrication. Like the little touches, like being able to move the pedal box forward and back.

Thanks man!

It will probably be fixed on the holes furthest away but if I want to sell it in the future it might be easier for the next owner to adjust them.

 

[Borjesson.F]

In the beginning of the summer I rolled it out on the original dampers without springs just to get a picture of how it might look and how much the lock kit turns.
It is unfortunately not full lock on the picture so the wheel rubs a little bit everywhere

Got the gearbox back from beeing rewelded.

Started to fit in where the engine would end up.
This came to be a long process when I chose to have the engine in a straight vertical line.
When I had in mind that the oil pan was needed to be customized in the front, I did not mount the engine with the pan on so unfortunately this meant that the engine had to be raised at the front.
Then it struck me that it might be appropriate to check the angle of the rest of the driveline backwards which was not in the horizontal line.
Then I ordered the correct companion flange for the gearbox (105mm) in order to be able to ride the original prop shaft.
BMW took 2500: - for this little flange so found a used in the US. Unfortunately the swedish mail company fucked up the delivery so I got it 2.5 months after ordering.
So in the end, the engine, gearbox and prop shaft are now in place with an angle of about 3 degrees throughout the whole drive train.