Division 47's 4cyl turbo E36

Alex Rogers

Alex Rogers

New Member
The start of 2019 began the rebuild, so thought I'd document the progress here.

I've done a fair amount beforehand so hoping to keep updates fairly regular.
Also hoping to keep things pretty pic heavy because we all love pictures!

Quick backstory; Bought the coupe mid '17 and threw it together in 3 or so days. Used, skidded, all that jazz.
Then got a little fed up/bored of it having numerous engines and problems so ended up building a Touring in late '18. Sold the coupe shell to a friend who was going to build a V8 comp car. Turns out he didn't and I ended up buying it back a few months later.
Thus began what's about to come...
 
Seeing as we've just bought a shell, we'll start there.

First thing's first;
Remove the rust, fix the missing rear subframe mount and coat the underside.

Luckily, I had a pretty good shell.
Passenger side trailing arm pocket was rusty, a few scabs on the bulkead and that's about it!
Rust isn't pretty to look at, so we'll skip the pics of that one...

However, front drivers side rear subframe mount has been ripped out the car.
Attention required!

Not to worry, after using some cardboard to make a template I came up with this;

Luckily I still had the mount that ripped out previously so that got welded on like this;

And with some careful measuring and a squeaky bum moment, we ended up with this;

All sorted, subframe test fit went OK and now all undersealed.
(Excuse the fact the mount isn't here in this pic, got excited with the underseal and seemed pointless taking 2 pics!)
 
To the front!
Luckily up here everything is where it should be, a little too much so. Time to remove some unneeded brackets and some generic things from the bay that we no longer need.

Starting like this;

Ending up like this;

Makes the front end look like this;

I know it doesn't look like much, but hopefully things will look a lot cleaner once painted.
Plus, more space for choo choo!
 
richie_k83 said:
Looking good so far, is there much involved with Turbo'ing the 4cyl engine on these?
Click to expand...

Thanks dude!
Not really, no. Everything you need for oil feeds is pretty much there. Manifold clearance was good.
Hard part would be down pipe but I'm just sending mine out the bonnet! #lazy

I'll do another update tonight, it won't be long before we're covering the turbo build.
 
With the shell now ''technically'' sorted, it's time to add some pretty bits.

Front subframe and a home made lock kit begins looking like this;
Ignore the balljoints here, they haven't been replaced yet!

All bolted together and a quick lock test gives us this;
Not sure how the bump steer is going to be... We may be back with modifications!
70mm extended E36 arms with Meyle HD ball joints, modded hubs, E90 inner track rods, standard E36 outers and adjustable camber topmounts on max positive.

Quick wheel test to get an idea of how wide we'll be;

Rear subframe with dual adjustable arms;
Fun fact - standard lower camber arms work as upper arms as long as you use a 10mm spacer to take up the extra gap in the subframe.

Again, all bolted together with a home made true rear coilover;
Using Mini Cooper S dampers and MK3 Golf rear coilover springs, helpers and upper spring perch along with an E36 topmount gives a direct bolt on solution.
Also, ignore the brake and spring - they weren't ready!

Now the car rolls it's much easier to get work done, and less hassle!
 
Next we're going to tackle fuel and brakes.

Scene points are always good, so opted for the shiney fuel cell in the boot;

Tried to stay braided where I can so all fuel lines are now braided and I've managed to find a little ''hack'' for braided brake lines.
I'm actually using motorbike lines, they're the same M10x1.00 that cars are. They're available in whatever length you want and use banjos on either end.
Best part? Price. £20 to remove all flexies off the car and replace with braided.

Fitted the diff and shafts;
Not 100% sold on my routing of the lines at the moment so probably will revisit.

Completed rear end gives us something like this;
 
Suppose it's time to start to start putting the engine and choo choo in...

M42 block and head with M52B28 manifolds chopped, welded and bolted on wrong.
A bit of E430 exhaust to make up the gap and a TD04 flange.
M50 solid mass flywheel with matching pressure plate and a CG Motorsport Stage 3 friction plate.

Using E34 engine mounts gives us a nice steady platform
Clearance of the manifold is minimal but acceptable.
Oil feed is taken from a T piece added to where the oil pressure sensor is on the filter housing.
Oil drain is taken from a large bolt on the front of the sump - I removed the bolt and weirdly enough, a standard BSP pipe thread fits in! Welded on a little bung and we're away.

Apologies for the lack of pictures at this point but;
Rad and intercooler are now mounted up. Cooler is just bolted to a piece of angle that's welded to the nose cone.

Turbo and screamer pipe are also mounted.

Clearance here is tight! Will almost definitely need a slightly different pipe route;
 
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