Just Another E36 Thread

[LiamTheBadger]

Thought I'd finally get round to doing a thread and being bored on a Sunday night has given me a good enough reason.

Coupe: 08/16
I started the E36 life with a 1.6 coupe, I had fun in that with an open diff and ebay coilovers (many one tyre fires happened) and realised if you went around roundabouts fast enough you could get the back end out and it would drift.

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Then an M50B20 was dropped in along with welding the diff, fitting a hydro and stripping it all out.
Next notable thing that happened with this car happened whilst I was away at training for work

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Luckily I was paid for the damage and ordered a new coilover to my hotel and went about fixing it in the hotel car park.
I then did my first DWYB day at Pod and learnt a lot more than I ever did all those nights in industrial estates.

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Following this I decided the car was getting a bit too beat up to keep on the road, the MOT was due and without access to a trailer I decided to sell it to a friend for him to fix it and put it back on the road (which it has been now) or use for Arena Essex.

Touring: 04/17
Next on the agenda was buy another E36...
I fancied a barge so a short journey over the river I returned with:

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It was drift-able when I bought it, 1.6 to M52B25 swapped however the 1.6 flywheel and clutch had been used so was slipping so I held off on the skids for awhile till I bought a new OE quality Sachs clutch and what I thought was a 2.5 flywheel which turned out to be a 2.8 flywheel which is thicker and the clutch dragged so the box came back out again and got the correct clutch for the flywheel and had a 2.8 flywheel and clutch on there. The interior was pretty stripped and whoever fitted the top mounts on the coilovers hadn't done a very good job as they were binding.

I then took the car to Lydden where I had loads of fun.

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Drifting on a proper race circuit was a new experience for me and I had my GoPro on so I got loads of video footage.


However the day was not without issue. I ended up having to call my friend to pick my car up as the front diff bolt snapped as I was trying to drift some odd balloon tyres to get rid of them .

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Not long after this I sold the touring as I got a bit bored of all the rattling from the stripped interior.

Saloon: 09/17
Now for the current 36. After selling the touring I didn't fancy a convertible or a compact so there was only one answer SALOON, because they do say, More Doors For More Whores She was a 1993 316i E which meant she was the base spec with the M40B16. That engine was known for oil pump issues where the nut winds off. I assume from the awful tapping that this engine had been saved in the nick of time as it was *just* still running. However there was no body damage or rust and it was completely standard (including a full interior ) The front windows are useless and don't work (still need to fix this 6 months later) the steering wheel was that awful non airbag BMW thing and it needed a good clean in and out.

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First thing's first is lows and wheels. I had a pair of E38 16x8 BBS from my touring which my friend had the other pair of so I bought the other two off him for a steal and decided the gunmetal grey wouldn't go with the blue so I decided to refurb them and spray them bright silver.

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I bought a set of cheap used coilovers from a friend for £50 to get me by and they've been spot on.
The end result being a poser.


Next up should have been change the engine and weld the diff however I had ordered a pair of Corbeau Clubsports and OMP Harnesses for the touring. Due to the popularity of the Clubsports they were on back order and I was waiting so long they turned up after I sold the car, so they were the next thing on the list to go in as they were sitting there in my room.

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However it turns out Corbeau side mounts aren't very universal, which means I couldn't fit them in so another couple of weeks of having a pair of bucket seats furnishing my room.

The agenda was back straight and the same friend who I bought my wheels from had a 2.8 convertible he was stripping so I ended up having the engine, front and rear subframes and brakes from.
I also decided to get on and get my car ready for this year by ordering an OMP Corsica to match my harnesses and DW sidemounts for the seats.

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I need to find someone to bend and weld in a harness bar to make sure all my harness angles are correct was thinking of a bend off each B pillar and coming round the back of the seats to keep it close to the seats keeping the rear seat space usable. Currently the OE seatbelt is still in use using a centre rear buckle in each side.

The following weekend was a busy and frustrating one.
During the week I replaced the spark plugs in the 2.8, fitted a new SACHS SMF conversion and clutch, aux belt, poly engine and box mounts, drained all the fluids and chucked a new oil filter at it.

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Then this happened on my way to work.

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I was tired and following a van (probably too close) and didn't notice the massive pothole till it was too late. So I straightened it out as best as I could and got it dropped down the welder to TIG it back together.

Saturday Morning:
Picked up my wheel from T&S Engineering in Staplehurst, absolute legends and did a brilliant job on the wheel. Will definitely be my go to for any similar issues.

Back at work and got my car in on the ramp and met up with the lads who agreed to give me a hand, we began stripping the front end down and before long the 4 pot was ready to come out.

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And within two hours we had the old engine out.

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Massive thanks to Jason (pictured above) who helped me all weekend even though he was flying out to Australia for 6 months only a few days later.

And within another couple of hours we had the 2.8 in and all plumbed in with new fuel lines and the moment of truth... It didn't start, I had been told my ECU was EWS deleted and it wasn't working so we tried it on another car and no dice so we deduced it was an EWS issue so I sourced another ECU overnight and me and Jason went back at it on the Sunday. With the new "EWS deleted" ECU it still did not start so we tried swapping a working crank sensor off another car and that still did not work.

I was a bit stumped and began messaging Dan Harborow from BM Conversions UK who said he'd take a look at the ECU see if he could see any reason why it wouldn't start and when he plugged it in he said there was no signs that the ECU had even been touched let alone EWS deleted. So he deleted the EWS and mapped it for me whilst he had it.

Got it back and in the car still no bloody start... used a bit of brake cleaner and found the car was sparking but getting no fuel so traced the fuel system back and had fuel to the rail but not coming back out the return (assumed the thin top rail was the return side ) someone at work said swap them round and tried again and she finally kicked into life and the sound of the six pot running finally made me very very happy.



Absolutely massive thank you to all who helped me with the swap as it would have taken a hell of a lot longer on my own.

Not long after I arranged a tunnel run through London which ended in the only way it could... People got lost.
But I got some nice pics of the saloon near some tourist traps.

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And I had booked up DWYB for the 7/3/18 as I forgot to try and get a Matsuri ticket... So I decided to finally weld the diff (on friday night) and finally get round to fitting poly front LCA (lollipop) eccentric bushes and the front and rear anti roll bars from the 2.8 subframes. Many slidey things happened on my way home...

Got 8 new Achilles Sport ATRs from a local fitter and stripped down my skid rims on Saturday. Monday's job is on the tyre machine fitting them up ready for Wednesday.

More to come.

 

[LiamTheBadger]

Well I had an interesting day at pod yesterday. It would and should have been an opportunity to get massive amounts of seat time however this was not the case.

I started the morning by having a quick slide in the kidney and then went straight onto top track and I have to say its a lot quicker with the new kerbs rather than waiting for cones to be replaced.

I got towards the end of session and the car was getting a little warm so I pulled in and as soon as I opened the bonnet coolant was pissing out the front of the engine... the water pump bearing had shit itself. Got down to the local ECP and got a new one with the metal impeller and got that back in decided it best to take the thermostat out and put some sealer round the housing as I had no new gasket and as soon as I refitted everything and got the car warm to bleed the system a hair line crack opened up in the thermostat housing.
At that point I decided it wasn't worth messing about for the rest of the day and made the long drive home stopping off at the services to check the expansion tank level.

I didn't even finish off a pair of tyres so I still have all 8 to use at the next drift day.

I went out early this morning and nearly at my destination there was a bang and a hell of a racket and I decided to have a look at the problem after work tonight and found the diff pinion bearing has absolutely annihilated itself.


So that had to come out and now I need to source another small case diff

 

[essexcapri25]

any updates?

 

[Tony Lane]

Any news on this build?

 

[LiamTheBadger]

There is an update to come. I am typing it out and waiting for the photos to upload.

 

[LiamTheBadger]

It's been over 4 months since the last update.

My car has been off the road for half of that, After the previous diff gave out just after Pod, rather than source a new diff I decided to fit the diff that I bought with my 2.8, which being from an early 2.8 auto is a 3.07 ratio, my theory for this I will be able to use second gear more and a bit of third.

Because I needed the car back on the road I just swapped the rear half of the prop shaft, the diff (unwelded) and the drive shafts which lucky enough are solid large case shafts which should be bomb proof.

I did this quick walkaround video and on the way home something occurred.

Fast forward six weeks and I hear a bang and a noise I knew all too well, the front diff bolt had snapped as it had on my E36 2.5 Touring at Lydden Hill... luckily I was only a few miles from home and limped it back. Being that the diff was out to be welded and have the bolt drilled I decided to use this as an opportunity to give the suspension and rear axle a refresh, this is the part which has never been finished.

Photos pre-strip down:

I deduced the bolt snapped due to worn bushes in the rear subframe and so I ordered a Duraflex rear subframe kit, which included the diff and rear trailing arm bushes, I decided to use this point as well to fit my 2.8 larger brakes, adjustable rear camber arms and rear trailing arms which have been sat at my workshop since the engine was swapped. I then remembered that I had a full lock kit which a friend (Jack Fuller Alwani) has been developing and remembered how I was running on the lock stops for the whole 8 or so laps I got in at pod I decided I'd put new ball joints in the arms and slap the 35mm extended arms and modified knuckles on.

I ripped the diff back out and my mate Jack came and picked it up to do the welding and deal with the remains of the bolt, I then dropped the rear subframe and began stripping that down, removing the camber arms and burning out the bushes. I then tapped in the new poly bushes and pressed in the ones which needed to be. I Fitted the new Ebay special camber arms and popped the subframe back up in place.

Next job was removing the rear trailing arms and swapping them for the disc equipped ones which had the bushes replaced. I cleaned up the trailing arm carrier and pocket just make sure there wasn't any rust up in there. Then popped them back in place and connected the upper and lower arms back up, popped the driveshaft in, however there was a vital item missing- the diff which was still away being repaired so I turned my attention to fitting the arms, hubs and brakes on the front. I stripped everything off and noticed play in the left shock absorber so I decided that they had to go.

Only one option really, HSDs from and whilst I ordered the HSDs I also ordered a DW hydro as the one I had aside for the 36 was another ebay special. I decided as it's an early car without ABS and one brake line to the rear I would take the hydro input line from the master cylinder and out through the factory brake line to the rear.

This is where I got a bit silly. I thought about the interior and began stripping that out knowing full well I need to drive the car to the workshop to make up a mounting plate for the handle and cylinder, now I have no centre console and a lot of interior work to do as well as putting the suspension back together.

As this is already a very long post which needs the pictures adding I will end it here and do another update in a few days.

 

[LiamTheBadger]

I did some more work on the car today, I also took some photos as needed. I thought I would use this opportunity to show you one of the issues I ran into and how I overcame that issue. As can be seen further up in the thread I have been having problems with my eccentric lower control arm bushes spinning which reduces the caster rather than increasing it. My fix was to press them back out and drill and the bush holder and refit the bush then drill that 1mm smaller. I then tapped the holder and bush and fitted a bolt in to not only hold the bush but also to make sure I have a constant caster angle.

I got the interior back up straight today refitted the centre console and the trims, which unfortunately will have to come back out to fit my hydro but for now it is ok.

Started like this:

And ended the morning like this:

I then popped the adjusters in for the rear springs and decided whilst I wait for the diff I might as well let the rear springs settle and put the rear wheels back on the floor. Being that the car hadn’t been started in 2 months I decided to make sure she still ran sweet so I connected my battery charger and disconnected the fuel pump relay and turned it over a few times to get some oil pressure; I then refitted the relay and after a bit of a chug she started up and idled high as I expected... I could smell petrol, not exactly uncommon on a car starting up for the first time in 2 months but I thought I’d have a look and noticed a fuel leak I then tightened the hose clamps before my car had a ‘thermal event’

I then chose got on with the front brakes and steering whilst I let the car warm up at the now lowered normal idle, however I realised I forgot my 7mm allen key socket so I couldn’t remove the brakes and I couldn’t get a grip on the tie rods to get them off so they’re next weekend’s jobs.

The three reasons I want new tie rods:

1. Fit 4mm rack spacers
   

1. They’re old and will be a pain to 4 wheel align
   

1. When I removed the nut to swap the hubs the thread came off with the nut...
   

This did though give me the opportunity to take a picture of the new coilovers, arm and hub:

These brake discs were brand new not long ago and they look so shabby because the car hasn’t been driven yet.

Oh well another update next weekend!

 

[LiamTheBadger]

Right well it’s been a month rather than just one weekend... I did do stuff to the car but forgot to update the thread.

I’ll start with what I had done previous to this week, I finally remembered to bring all the tools I needed home from work. I removed the front calipers and attached the flexi’s which was my previous job but had forgotten the tools. I also received in the post my new tie rods and ends, the following day my 4mm rack spacers arrived from The Ally Cat Fabrications.

The tie rods were fitted with high strength locktite and I roughly “eye-ligned” the toe, I had bought new discs for the rear, I had thought the rear pads were ok however I was mistaken so I need to get new rear pads. I then finished putting the interior back together and cleaned it out as I had loads of old bolts and rubbish in there from parts being delivered. I then not so smartly decided to see how low I can go with the fronts and it was too low, I then had to do something and ran out of daylight and left it low, it looks good but with my circumstances it wouldn’t even get off the driveway.

This Week

Back to this week, I then got my diff back from Mr J. Alwani and he had managed to get the remains of the bolt out and keep the threads relatively intact, however I had already decided on the assumption the threads would be knackered to nut and bolt it so that I can fix it without removing the diff. I had done the same on my 2.5 touring which to the best of my knowledge never had problems after I sold it. Regarding the touring I had contacted Ryan Harrison of South Slide for info as I knew he’d had similar issues with his car at drift cup, he advised me that I would need to grind the shoulder of the bolt down to fit the shape of the diff casing.

I measured up using my knackered small case diff and my polybush with the big washer that I would need an M12x100mm bolt. I work at a land rover dealer and found a part number (LR024747 for anyone interested) for a suspension bolt which is 10.9 grade high tensile, M12x150mm. I knew I would have to cut the bolt down however that wasn’t a problem.

I did myself 3 bolts all the same length and ground down shoulders, I kept as much strength as possible in the bolt by leaving the head itself and the shaft alone. This means I have spare bolts and locknuts in the car for emergencies.

I got the diff back in for the first time in 3 months and all bolted up my measurement of 100mm is spot on.

The plus of using a shaved down bolt is you don’t need to hold the bolt as you tighten as it holds against the diff casing meaning I only need an 18mm socket and breaker bar to fit a new bolt if necessary.

Now from the rear it looks like a car again, one missing the rear ARB though as I need to order new drop links because of one snapping.

I am still on the lookout for a 2.8 MAF as my bodged brake cleaner can is probably not ideal but if it works it’s not a bodge.

Going Forward

One thing I hadn’t previously mentioned was cooling and my plans regarding it. My current setup is a non-air con rad (shorter one) with the viscous pulling air and an electric 12” fan running on Davies Craig management pushing air when the temp gets high enough to kick in.

Currently the sensor is in the rad which isn’t ideal however I’m going to get the hose adaptor and get it in to the hose to give an accurate reading.

My plan going forward is to get hold of an SR20 alloy rad and make up mounts and fit an expansion tank (probably from a TDS), I’ve had a pair of Freelander 2 fans sitting around for months and I’m going to remove the viscous and run those on the back of the rad as primaries with the front 12” acting as a secondary/reserve fan for those limiter bashing summer days. The Davies Craig controller allows me to run a twin fan setup with little wiring mess.

I’m also going to make an aluminium under tray with cooling vents to send air around the sump and an aluminium fan cowling so air goes through the rad rather than over or around it.

I’ve found that you can relatively cheaply get the oil filter caps which allow you to run an oil cooler so I will probably get myself one of those and fit an oil cooler somewhere along the front end to keep those temps nice and low.

On a slightly closer note I just need to bleed the brakes and raise the front and 4-wheel laser align the car and it will be back on the road.

Hopefully I can upload a picture from somewhere other than my driveway in the next few days. I am excited to have a fun car back that’s been sat looking very sorry for itself.

I’ll keep you all updated.

Liam

 

[LiamTheBadger]

quick little update, raised the front and bled the brakes this evening, going to try and make it the 15 miles to work in the morning and align it.

 

[LiamTheBadger]

Well... it's been another couple of months and lots have happened once again.

I'll pick up where I left off; I tried to make it into work but the car over heated 3 miles down the road I genuinely thought I had popped the head-gasket and borrowed a compression tester which turned out to be faulty as I managed 0 psi on all 6 cylinders, however the car ran fine. I then decided to replace the water pump again (which was replaced at Santa Pod in March) which when I pulled it back out was fine so I put the front end back together and bled the rad which had a lot of air so I can only assume where the car has been sat arse up that any air has gone to the back of the cylinder jacket I also replaced the rear ARB drop links and fitted that as I find the car handles better with it fitted. So I got it all fixed and took it into work where I aligned it. Turns out my "eye-lignment" wasn't very close at all

after which I managed to sell my E38 wheels and came across a set of 15" Rondell 0058 (reps?).

I had done a few little skids here and there in the unmentioned place. Then one night driving home from a friend's house I lost the steering and found that the O/S track rod end nut had stripped off so I had to call the AA and get the car recovered home.

I replaced the track rod end and also found a new boot lid in the same colour code only 40 minutes away so I bought that and a spare rear bumper because of this incident.

So I finally had the car working properly for the first time since April, meaning the car had been off the road for 6 months...

I managed to get back out with a couple of lads and have finally restarted the youtube videos and managed to get this put together:

And since I have managed to tap a kerb and destroy one of the 15" rondells so if anyone knows where to find one I'll happily buy it

I have been out and about with the lads and we've as an inside joke started up team Silky Sliders.

I'm hell bent on trying to get a rockingham ticket for the 17th of November failing that I'll be heading to Norfolk arena to try and get back into the game.