iainw
Part of things
Posts: 103
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Oct 20, 2015 12:59:11 GMT
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I'd somehow managed to miss this thread up till now, really cool read and I like what you're doing with the M3 As someone who is potentially considering an E36 in the future I'll be bookmarking and following your build Thanks mate, e36 is a great car, there is actually very little different between the e36 in terms of susension and drive live Vs the much newer models, the e46 is a virtual clone and even the e90 is very similar. Not that you have asked but i would put them in this order of want: 3.0 m3, M3 evo, 325i, 328i (sport) 328i 318is the others are best avoided really, unless you want something a bit on the slow side.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
Member is Online
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Oct 20, 2015 13:14:36 GMT
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I'd somehow managed to miss this thread up till now, really cool read and I like what you're doing with the M3 As someone who is potentially considering an E36 in the future I'll be bookmarking and following your build Thanks mate, e36 is a great car, there is actually very little different between the e36 in terms of susension and drive live Vs the much newer models, the e46 is a virtual clone and even the e90 is very similar. Not that you have asked but i would put them in this order of want: 3.0 m3, M3 evo, 325i, 328i (sport) 328i 318is the others are best avoided really, unless you want something a bit on the slow side. Thats interesting you put the 3.0 M3 above the 3.2, is it revvier or something like that? If I got one, it would be one of the mid sort of range ones as it would be a daily, probably a 325i or 328i. As long as it makes a nice sound and is fairly quick, I'd be happy haha
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iainw
Part of things
Posts: 103
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Oct 20, 2015 13:26:45 GMT
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Thats interesting you put the 3.0 M3 above the 3.2, is it revvier or something like that? If I got one, it would be one of the mid sort of range ones as it would be a daily, probably a 325i or 328i. As long as it makes a nice sound and is fairly quick, I'd be happy haha Broadly, yes the 3.0 is more oversquare than the evo, its also simpler in terms of vanos and uses a slightly bigger crank journal, with the shorter ram pipes it just has a naughtier character than the evo, which is a bit more polished. the 3.0 is cheaper to run in general. The flip side is that the 3.0's will all be older. 325 Vs 328 is an old argument, there is virtually nothing in in in terms of go, ut the 325 will again be older however its a iron block and unless you get a really early one will have the m50tu engine with single vanos so config wise is pretty much the same as the 328i. Nikasil alu 328i engines had issues with bore wear though its probably debatable if thats still an issue, the later ones were revised with liners. that said, if the head ever comes off the alu block is probably toast, where as the m50 iron block will run and run.
They are all pretty good in real terms, worth spending the time to find a nice one pref with a LSD.
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Oct 20, 2015 17:09:56 GMT
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I like what you're doing with this. I've done a lot of this kind of work on e36 M3s in the past and take my hat off to you for tackling it, some of those jobs are just a pain, only getting easier after about the tenth time, fitting vanos to an evo springs to mind! You're right about those plenum chambers, we always found it very difficult to improve on the original without spending a LOT of money. What cams are you going to use, we tried a pair of Schrick fast road grinds and they were just hard work to set up.
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iainw
Part of things
Posts: 103
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Oct 20, 2015 18:57:08 GMT
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I like what you're doing with this. I've done a lot of this kind of work on e36 M3s in the past and take my hat off to you for tackling it, some of those jobs are just a pain, only getting easier after about the tenth time, fitting vanos to an evo springs to mind! You're right about those plenum chambers, we always found it very difficult to improve on the original without spending a LOT of money. What cams are you going to use, we tried a pair of Schrick fast road grinds and they were just hard work to set up. Thanks dude! yea some of the jobs have been a bit tedious, most annoying one was probably getting that sodding curse word clip off the top on the gearbox, such a small thing, but such a pain in the . Cam wise, not sure, nothing right now, but ultimately will be schrick or possibly catcams, though i am concerned that there have been some quality issues from catcams. That is a little way away though as firstly i just want to get it built and run it at the sprints etc (being that i will be against a 7 litre tvr 350 as an example i suspect the outcome may be predictable). Once i have actually got some seat time the head will be coming off and an evo head with a moderately heavy skim will go on with a possible conversion to 5 bar fueling for better atomisation so that will give me a 1mm improvement in valve stem width and a bit more compression, lighter lifter buckets and i expect thinner shims. who knows where it may lead, e85? charger? the world is my bearded clam
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iainw
Part of things
Posts: 103
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urgh, where am i with this? Well i have foolishly committed to entering the manx 3 day hillclimb and sprint, which is at the end of April, as such i have a car with no wheels, entirely unknown abilities, up until very recently no certificate of export, a wonky clutch, and has not been put in for its manx test and about a billion jobs that remain unfinished. I have from now about 4 weeks to get this done (sensibly to allow for some semblance of testing and setup, yes its going to be very tough, and likely, read very likely to fail. So, take some very expensive suspension that you got a good deal on knowing it needed some work Send it off for what ended up being a very expensive rebuild (as i said the expensive words, "make it absolutely right" I also had the fronts completely re valved with one way valves as the existing setup meant that the rebound adjuster was essentially overriding the compression adjustment on the low and high sepped adjustment. It came back, and, Leaked about £100 worth of shock oil over the topmounts, so they have been well lubricated. Cant fault Ian at IG Racing, who had them couriered at his expense back to him and turned then round sharpish, and had them couriered straight back in perfect order. However, the shock stroke is all wrong for the springs. So even with a load of nylon packers the stroke was about 107mm before the bumpstop was even engaged, and to get sensible right height meant running the tender spring pretty much compressed which resulted in about 70mm of travel before coil bind. Typically with intrax being a dutch the springs were metric, which ae not so easy to come by with most coilovers using either 2, 2.25 or 2.5 inch ID springs (no idea why, I barely even understand what an inch is, why do we still use this curse word?) so its either Eibach or Ohlins springs (cir £80 per spring) or a custom wind from Faulkners, ARRRR! fortunately BC use 62mm id (no idea why) and thats close enough in my book (though i may fit a reducer collar at some point) so I now have some 62-20-180's on there (62mm is, 20kg/mm, 180mm free length (for those still in the dark ages thats a 7 inch 1100 lb/in spring), which is the absolute limit i can get on the strut without pre loading the tender spring. I figure this will give me about 130mm total travel so should be able to use the full motion of the shock without going coil bound. curse word suspension. The back box was as rotten as curse word, so i cut it off and used a hand pipe expander to make it into sleeve joints, Word of advice, unless you are willing to blow your o-ring out trying to expand 2mm wall stainless by hand, is a fools game. Doing this damn near killed me. Anyway i ordered slightly the wrong bend angle, because i am an idiot and didn't actually measure it, just looked at it, squinted a bit, made some car noises and ordered 40 degree bends, they should have been 30's, so my original plan of putting the blitz super dragger on didn't work, as such i have temporarily used the Nuvolari mid silencer from the exhaust system i have for the e30 m3 (robbing peter much!) to create this carve up. Loud does not cover it. Anyway, gas now comes out of the back, rather than the middle, so i am chalking this up as a win. Then i used some cheap ass Renault brembo calipers from a clio 197, rebuilt them, and fitted them using some poncy washers and a porsche caliper adapter bracket. What was done is detailed here: www.bmwowner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=222429Twin fuel pumps have been fitted, but not in the standard way, so essentially i have two outlets and a single return line with the primary pump now being on the passenger side, which is where the return sits, logic saying that this side will be fuller for longer. It also means that by switching on the pump to transfer fuel from one side of the tank to the other. Next up, stupid induction. I raided the e30 spares box, as i now have 2.5 carbon airboxes for that car i didn't need one of the air rams, so i bought some universal ramair filter foam and bonded it in and fitted the whole thing into the front air dam just about the front splitter Needless to say it didnt fit because it hit my relocated oil cooler, so i have butchered the mesh to sit it further forward This is a 120mm (5 inch) pipe, i.e fapping massive. so to make it all work i wanted a 5 inch pipe, fortune smiled upon me when i found an old tumble dryer hose, boom. Like a big grey elephants knob As a side not you cant actually fit a 120mm pipe in this location, so the horns and headlamp adjusters dies to make this happen. Either way this will mate up the the diy shonky plenum. Then i flicked some paint over some perfectly nice wheels and ruined them.
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Paul Y
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,948
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Nice work Sir. Please continue. P.
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iainw
Part of things
Posts: 103
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Nice work Sir. Please continue. P. Thanks mate! No alternative but to carry on, needs to have tyres of tarmac pronto or i am in a spot of bother!
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Just read all of this and what a beautiful motor and great build.
My dads friend had one of these in the early 00's it was a turbo diesel sport (from what he said it was quite rare) with m sport wheels and raised wing. Beautiful motor and hella scary.
Always wanted one of these until i saw the ncap test...gulp!
Continue to read with interest!
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1100 lb
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Last Edit: Mar 7, 2016 12:04:40 GMT by welshpug
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iainw
Part of things
Posts: 103
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Just read all of this and what a beautiful motor and great build. My dads friend had one of these in the early 00's it was a turbo diesel sport (from what he said it was quite rare) with m sport wheels and raised wing. Beautiful motor and hella scary. Always wanted one of these until i saw the ncap test...gulp! Continue to read with interest! Meh, ncap tests, just get one and don't crash it. to be fair i seem to recall that its less of a death issue and more of an injury one,its going to be better than any of the 70's / 80's stuff and well, i just don't think about it and its got a cage, look it will be fine, probably. 1100 lb go hard or go home to be fair the dampers will control that rate no problem and the engine is about 260kgs wet with ancillaries so lots of weight to control. That said it may well be overdoing it, but only one way to find out. Schirmers ring cars run something like 21kgmm on a pretty bumpy track.
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Great read thanks. Excited to see it progress!
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iainw
Part of things
Posts: 103
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so, New exhaust made, power steering fixed (pump taken to bits, all the grit removed, spool cleaned up, housing polished and the vanes polished and flipped round) air chased out of all the hydraulics (mission). The saga continues, and the car is once again, in bits, yes, again. The diff was just way way to retarded and was just acting like a welder as the preload was so high, so thats come apart again, and we are going to try and get the planet gear housings on the lathe to cut the original acceleration angles to 30 degrees while leaving the overrun angles at 45, and take 6mm off the cover plate to drop the preload down, with four plates this should create a 50% 1.5 way, however its currently looking like this: oh dear.... so to distract myself, i did some other bits busted out the cthulhu manometers (carbtune pro) and balanced up the throttles, this seems to have improved the miss quite a bit and idle is smoother. while there were being balanced i monitored the vanos pressures cold and hot (this was amusing as it pretty much cleared the workshop as the cold pressure past 1400 psi, climbed to 1500,,,1600 and was just starting to creep past 1600 PSI curious observers suddenly started to take cover, fortunately is settled at 1600 psi (110 bar) cold and quickly fell beck to 100 bar as the engine heated up Its rock solid at 100 bar now and only dips momentarily as the cams advance to 90 bar then rapidly recovers, so, pleased that that works as it should, was a little concerned as i have pulled the pressure regulator to bits a few times down side of course that once again, it cant move under its own steam, again! shitballs!
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Love seeing work done on a real race car...your set up and workshop is really top notch and very clean...thanks for sharing...I like the Jackson Pollock effect on the wheels....
JP
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I know its spelled Norman Luxury Yacht, but its pronounced Throat Wobbler Mangrove!
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westycapri
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 263
Club RR Member Number: 105
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Love this. Its very cool. I've not got a clue about the engineering going into it but is threads like these which go into some detail which really help. I may of missed it but apart from the diff what else have you got to do?
Cheers
Josh
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@fantasticmrford 1984 Ford Capri 2.0s 1978 Ford Transit Autosleeper 1975 Landrover Series 111 Dormobile
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iainw
Part of things
Posts: 103
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Love seeing work done on a real race car...your set up and workshop is really top notch and very clean...thanks for sharing...I like the Jackson Pollock effect on the wheels.... JP Its not my shop, its my friend Dave, who is doing the bodywork on the e30 and has done all the welding on the e36, he's a good lad, so allows me to keep out of the rain and gales, and leave my leaky curse word all over the place! Love this. Its very cool. I've not got a clue about the engineering going into it but is threads like these which go into some detail which really help. I may of missed it but apart from the diff what else have you got to do? Cheers Josh Well there are a few faults that need chasing out, the fuel gauge still doesn't work, so need the chase the wiring through, one of the rear brakes has a weird wear pattern which i think is due to a slige kink in one of the hard lines, the traction is still having a poo, the suspension is not set up etc etc etc Its booked in for its Manx test on Tuesday so i am hoping that when it fails, which it will, (they will always find something to complain about on any car over 5 years old) that its something simple!
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iainw
Part of things
Posts: 103
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Apr 13, 2016 12:33:32 GMT
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Failed its test yesterday, grr.
Headlamp aim, rear indicators too white, bias adjuster accessible to the driver, brake pipes not secured to strut.
blollocknuts!
Fixed it all last night, and going to try and re-present it today.
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heathrobinson
Part of things
Broken everything
Posts: 848
Club RR Member Number: 111
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Apr 13, 2016 20:55:27 GMT
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Gutted, but at least it's nothing major. What did they say about the bias adjuster? Is it supposed to be unreachable from your normal driving position, or completely out of reach? Just thinking of where to put mine.
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Apr 13, 2016 21:00:43 GMT
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Nice work Sir. Please continue. P. Love the wheels right up my street
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iainw
Part of things
Posts: 103
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Apr 13, 2016 21:58:02 GMT
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Gutted, but at least it's nothing major. What did they say about the bias adjuster? Is it supposed to be unreachable from your normal driving position, or completely out of reach? Just thinking of where to put mine. It was a bit annoying, but at one point there were four guys all over it, so given that they only came up with four things of which three were minor and the bias valve I was, in a way pleased, or at least not as curse word off as i would have been otherwise. Re the bias valve, there was much hand wringing and consulting of documentation, apparently you can have one in the engine bay or on the underbody but not in the cabin, in reality i think if it was fitted in a location that the driver could obviously not reach you would probably be ok providing they didn't set out to be a pain Love the wheels right up my street Thanks mate, it was an enjoyable exercise to do it, dancing round the paint booth flicking paint like two year old on pro-plus Anyway, it passed today, all Kosher, not a single sniff of an advisory. Chuffed! Still missing a bit though....... bloody nail
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