E36 Compact Track Car (M52B28 content)
Discussion
NiallSlimDrew said:
Sf_Manta said:
Have to say, quite the pocket rocket of a car, must be quite lively with the lack of weight over the rear wheels.
Any plans for the engine besides M50 manifold conversion? Carpetsoiler on here does some decent work on E36s / M5X series engines. I'm about to send my E46 Touring back up to him for an engine rebuild once some parts arrive.
Look forwards to seeing more updates here
Thank you! It's not been too bad too be honest but it does have its moments, I'm hoping the LSD will sort any traction issues out.Any plans for the engine besides M50 manifold conversion? Carpetsoiler on here does some decent work on E36s / M5X series engines. I'm about to send my E46 Touring back up to him for an engine rebuild once some parts arrive.
Look forwards to seeing more updates here
I want the M3 exhaust manifolds and US spec cams. A friend of mine can do the manifolds for the same price as second hand M3 ones and they will bolt straight on no issues and BDS Performance also make the cams. I'd also like to do the M54 3.0 stroker but it's far down on the list.
Edited by Sf_Manta on Friday 4th December 10:26
Edited by Sf_Manta on Friday 4th December 10:28
Well, after a few years I thought it was about time I updated this!
Its been a rollercoaster but I still have the car. I have a track day booked for the 22nd of May so I plan on getting everything up to date before then.
I might as well start where I left off.
I now owned a LSD for the car, it came from an E30 as these things share the rear end with them.
When it arrived it had a broken part (Whch I've since forgotten the name of so if someone could remind me that would be great!) But its a fairly common part and a new reinforced part was ordered and fitted. I also ordered all new bearings for the diff and fresh oil. The ratio of the LSD was a lot shorter than my standard diff - the current ratios suited the car and my local track so didnt want to go any shorter so my ratios were swapped over.
Car jacked up...
Diff dropped...
Diff covers taken off...
All the new bits laid out...
The broken part...
And the new reinforced part...
All put back together...
I then bought another set of the wheels I already had, 16" BBS RX223 cheap on ebay. My tyres had seen better days and they were too cheap to turn down...
So this was March 2021, I made a career change in the following August which left me with very little free time and that annoyingly meant no track days or anything exciting but I kept the car road legal for a reason so when the time allowed I got out in her in every chance I could so here are some random pictures from them...
I then dropped the off to Ali - my mechanic who has featured a lot in this journey - You may recall I had a reconditioned "purple tag" steering rack fitted to the car, well it was all too much for the aged power steering pump after this and it was making some pretty grumbly noises. He was to replace the power steering pump and weld up a small bit of rust under the car.
This is when things take another sour turn, despite already under an unbearable amount of stress from work, I was disqualified from driving for 6 months for totting up my points. I sold my beloved E90 330d M Sport and the Copmpact just sat in Alis yard as there was "no rush". It was a forgetful time and done my mental health no favours but thats another story...
Fast forward 6 months and the compact still isn't fixed, lots of lots of nudges later, he finishes it off and its returned to me...
Here she is parked next to my "new" daily, an F10 520d (tiny engine and still a £4,000 insurance bill)...
I soon discovered that the F10 BMW is a hateful thing, not just because of the tiny engine mine had but they are built very badly, lots of issues, just not worth it. I recently drove my friends 535d F10 and found it just as boring. To add to all the fun I'd been having in life lately, the F10 rattled itself to death on the motorway one night and then blew a hole in the side of the engine. It was going to cost as much as the car was worth to fit a second hand engine, so it went on eBay and I lost thousands. It has since been replaced with another E90 but of course a 320d due to insurance reasons.
Before the E90 was purchased it meant the Compact was up for daily duties which it handled wonderfully, including a 500 mile round trip to watch the National Banger World Final @ Ipswich then down to Brands Hatch to watch the BTCC finale which is handled faultlessly...
I decided enough was enough and I booked a track day for October 2023, the car was given a once over, a fresh MOT, a service and brand spanking new AD08's were fitted. The day before the track day, it was cancelled due to weather, I was gutted.
And then, as if it couldn't get any bloody worse, this happens a few weeks later...
Soooo...
The car was fitted with a Mishimoto radiator which about 18 months ago had a slight crack in it, the RAC came out armed with some putty and told me it was a "temp" fix. Its only temporary until it breaks again in my head (sarcasm) but I did leave it for a while but it wasnt as issue, it was holding... until now. One of my best friends Jon saw me on the motorway and came to my rescue armed with water, rad weld and putty. We bodged, sorry temporarily fixed it to get me off the motorway and home but on the way home it kept getting hot.
I bumped into my friend Benny (a lot more about him in the next post) who offered assistance and also a lift home when we realised the car just wasn't well enough.
The car went to him and he diagnosed and absolutly shagged radiator, he sourced a replacement and fitted it.
He was more disapointed than me when he delivered the news that the new radiator hadn't solved the issue and without pulling the engine apart, it was safe to say it had got hot one too many times and likely the headgasket was gone.
With these engines having aluminium blocks, taking it apart to find the issue and fix would result in stripped head bolts, so the engine was officially dead.
I refused to show how broken I was mentally and emotionally but it was like a kick in the stomach to say the least.
I had recently left the very high stress job I was in, making myself unemployed, I no longer had the stress of the job but I had no job, no money and very little fight left in me. But I love this stupid little purple car, selling it just wasn't an option, not even on the cards despite selling it being the massively sensible option.
Theres one last peice of the puzzle to bring me up to date, but its a good one, a story of friendship, love and an old BMW.
Thanks for reading...
Its been a rollercoaster but I still have the car. I have a track day booked for the 22nd of May so I plan on getting everything up to date before then.
I might as well start where I left off.
I now owned a LSD for the car, it came from an E30 as these things share the rear end with them.
When it arrived it had a broken part (Whch I've since forgotten the name of so if someone could remind me that would be great!) But its a fairly common part and a new reinforced part was ordered and fitted. I also ordered all new bearings for the diff and fresh oil. The ratio of the LSD was a lot shorter than my standard diff - the current ratios suited the car and my local track so didnt want to go any shorter so my ratios were swapped over.
Car jacked up...
Diff dropped...
Diff covers taken off...
All the new bits laid out...
The broken part...
And the new reinforced part...
All put back together...
I then bought another set of the wheels I already had, 16" BBS RX223 cheap on ebay. My tyres had seen better days and they were too cheap to turn down...
So this was March 2021, I made a career change in the following August which left me with very little free time and that annoyingly meant no track days or anything exciting but I kept the car road legal for a reason so when the time allowed I got out in her in every chance I could so here are some random pictures from them...
I then dropped the off to Ali - my mechanic who has featured a lot in this journey - You may recall I had a reconditioned "purple tag" steering rack fitted to the car, well it was all too much for the aged power steering pump after this and it was making some pretty grumbly noises. He was to replace the power steering pump and weld up a small bit of rust under the car.
This is when things take another sour turn, despite already under an unbearable amount of stress from work, I was disqualified from driving for 6 months for totting up my points. I sold my beloved E90 330d M Sport and the Copmpact just sat in Alis yard as there was "no rush". It was a forgetful time and done my mental health no favours but thats another story...
Fast forward 6 months and the compact still isn't fixed, lots of lots of nudges later, he finishes it off and its returned to me...
Here she is parked next to my "new" daily, an F10 520d (tiny engine and still a £4,000 insurance bill)...
I soon discovered that the F10 BMW is a hateful thing, not just because of the tiny engine mine had but they are built very badly, lots of issues, just not worth it. I recently drove my friends 535d F10 and found it just as boring. To add to all the fun I'd been having in life lately, the F10 rattled itself to death on the motorway one night and then blew a hole in the side of the engine. It was going to cost as much as the car was worth to fit a second hand engine, so it went on eBay and I lost thousands. It has since been replaced with another E90 but of course a 320d due to insurance reasons.
Before the E90 was purchased it meant the Compact was up for daily duties which it handled wonderfully, including a 500 mile round trip to watch the National Banger World Final @ Ipswich then down to Brands Hatch to watch the BTCC finale which is handled faultlessly...
I decided enough was enough and I booked a track day for October 2023, the car was given a once over, a fresh MOT, a service and brand spanking new AD08's were fitted. The day before the track day, it was cancelled due to weather, I was gutted.
And then, as if it couldn't get any bloody worse, this happens a few weeks later...
Soooo...
The car was fitted with a Mishimoto radiator which about 18 months ago had a slight crack in it, the RAC came out armed with some putty and told me it was a "temp" fix. Its only temporary until it breaks again in my head (sarcasm) but I did leave it for a while but it wasnt as issue, it was holding... until now. One of my best friends Jon saw me on the motorway and came to my rescue armed with water, rad weld and putty. We bodged, sorry temporarily fixed it to get me off the motorway and home but on the way home it kept getting hot.
I bumped into my friend Benny (a lot more about him in the next post) who offered assistance and also a lift home when we realised the car just wasn't well enough.
The car went to him and he diagnosed and absolutly shagged radiator, he sourced a replacement and fitted it.
He was more disapointed than me when he delivered the news that the new radiator hadn't solved the issue and without pulling the engine apart, it was safe to say it had got hot one too many times and likely the headgasket was gone.
With these engines having aluminium blocks, taking it apart to find the issue and fix would result in stripped head bolts, so the engine was officially dead.
I refused to show how broken I was mentally and emotionally but it was like a kick in the stomach to say the least.
I had recently left the very high stress job I was in, making myself unemployed, I no longer had the stress of the job but I had no job, no money and very little fight left in me. But I love this stupid little purple car, selling it just wasn't an option, not even on the cards despite selling it being the massively sensible option.
Theres one last peice of the puzzle to bring me up to date, but its a good one, a story of friendship, love and an old BMW.
Thanks for reading...
Time for an update...
Okay, so this was back in October 2023.
This was the start of my personal life spiralling out of control, I won't bore and/or depress you with all the details but I will say this, it was by far the lowest and darkest point I've ever experienced in my 33 years. It wasn't pretty but I'm still here to tell the tale so it's all good.
So as I said above, the car overheated one evening in October while it covered daily duties after the daily blew up. Owning two cars and having them both catastrophically broken wasn't ideal.
My good friend Benny I mentioned above was passing on one of the many times I stopped to let the engine cool, he also picked me up and dropped me home when I decided to give up trying to nurse the car back home. The compact was parked up in a free public car park near to where it broke down last, due to the s
t show that was my life at the time, it stayed in that car park for around three months. Luckily, nothing was taken off it and the local council didn't scrap it for being "abandoned".
Fast forward and it's now January - Benny offers to lend me a radiator and fit it so I can have my car back. He collects it from its adandoned spot and gets to work. His radiator doesn't fit and it turns out the radiator in the car is way beyond repair. Arse. Benny offers to pay for a replacement Mishimoto radiator and fit it - I snap his hand off and thank him a thousand times. Unfortunately his amazings efforts aren't enough, the thing just won't stay presurised and keeps getting hot. He was almost as gutted as I was as he wanted to deliver me good news but it wasn't to be. We don't strip the engine but we safetly assume the headgasket has gone and with these having alloy blocks, pulling it apart will be pointless. Second hand engines aren't exactly mega money so we decide thats the best option.
I'm practically unemployed at this point and not even barely scraping by. I'm between odd jobs and my mental health is taking a battering. My priorities at this point consist of taking each day as it comes, between balancing bills and beg/borrow/stealing to stop the bailiffs taking my posessions. One step forward, two steps back. Of course I paid back Benny as soon as I could for the radiator and his work. A month or so later, he's hinting at paying for an engine and fitting it, and I repay him when times are better - what a guy. He tells me to look for engines and the hunt starts. Fortunately (for my own pride and Bennys wallet) I manage to scrape the money together myself to buy an engine!
I start messaging a guy about an engine, he's slow to reply and vague. Annoyed, I messaged a newly listed engine based a couple hours from me - it comes with the loom and ecu that I didn't need, advertised for £750 - after a little back and forthing, I message him saying "I don't need the loom or the ECU, would you take £600" to which he agrees. It's Thursday and I have already arranged a van and some help for the Saturday as that was the plan with the original engine, your man does an all nighter on the Friday night after a shift at work to get the engine out for me! What an absolute hero he was!
These are a few of the "during" pics he sent me (Please excuse the way he crudely cut the inlet manifold off
)
Engine out! The very next day, with my very good friends Pete and Adam, we set off to Wales to collect the engine. A huge thanks to these two, who without them getting the engine would not have been possible.
As you can see, taking the front subframe with us was part of the deal which suited me as it came with an X brace!
Pete then drops the engine off to Benny and things start to get exciting!... and stressful
Benny wastes absolutely no time in getting her stripped down...
Luckily I was able to be there when the engine came out...
The manifolds fitted are test manifolds for an upgrade that will be happening in the future, this was a perfect time to test fitement. Pete and Adam were also on hand to help.
We hit our first (and only) snag, despite turning the engine loom down because I already had one and it was the same engine... Yeah, turns out the looms were different. My original engine had the crank position sensor at the front and this engine has the sensor at the back (or the other way round, I can't remember! ) But Benny made a quick phone call to local old BMW legend Dave Astbury and a loom is soon purchased, we are back on track!
The engine is now in!!
The next update I get from Benny is a video of the car starting and running. I had to head over to his and just give him a big hug! I don't mind admitting that I teared up a little on the way to his. I bloody love this silly little purple car and it broke down around the same time as my life went to st but these updates and progress were keeping me going through everything. A little ray of sunshine between the clouds.
It's starting to look more like a car at this point!
Some more late nights from Benny...
The car was together and running apart from a slight misfire at very low RPM under light throttle, I went over to help Benny diagnose the fault, with the MAF getting no reading at all. We tried a new MAF, checked wiring, fuses, everything and still no joy.
I had to go to work and Benny had to see his patient girlfriend so we called it a day.
The next day I got a message from Benny telling me there was good news and bad news, which did I want first? Obviously I chose the bad first and he told me it was going to be expensive. He then replied saying....
"Insurance"
"You're gonna need insurance because its done" and sent me these pictures...
I couldn't possibly put into words just how I felt, so I'm not even going to try. But as I've said, I love this old thing, its brought me so much joy over the years and the only time it ever let me down was with the suspected head gasket failure. More than ever I needed this car to bring me that joy and it couldn't. I had toyed with selling it but I just couldn't - as much as I should've, I just physically couldn't do it. And just when I was on my ass, all my chips were down, Benny threw out that hand and pulled me up, he will never fully understand that he didn't just save the car, he saved me. I can not thank him enough and I will forever be in his debt.
While I'm here I do have to thank Pete for all his help with collecting the engine. We used his work van, stored the engine at his work until benny had space for it, he dropped it to him and took care of all the details. Thank you to Adam for his help on the day, lumping the engine and subframe into the van with Pete while I made small talk.
I talked a lot about how much I struggled mentally during this time and how much Benny helped me by helping with the car but it's only fair I thank my girlfriend Sophie too who was there to pick me up and kept me going when it wasn't all about a stupid car - thank you for helping me through the dark times and more importantly, for sharing my enthuiasm when the updates would come in from Benny.
Before I even had the chance to even pick the car, Benny managed to fit the X Brace which was a nice surpise...
It was now time to collect the car, I was like a kid at Christmas. 7 months since I last sat in her and even then it was through necessity, I could not wait. A quick chat with Benny, and we were off. Sophie by my side as I set off, Benny following on behind just in case.
It was the golden hour, the set was setting beautifully. I had my girlfriend beside me, I'm sat in the seat of my pride and joy again, Benny is behind me in his E30 touring, the light goes green and we roar off. That very moment was what it was all about. Its what all the heartache and stress was all about, its what Bennys last nights on the car after work was all about and in that moment, it all made perfect sense, all of it.
I had to take a picture on my little running in shakedown and of course a petrol station made the most sense...
It was now time for the daily to finally meet the weekend warrior...
Okay, so that is the bulk of the story brough up to date!! A matter of days after getting the car back we were all setting off for a driving holiday around Wales and then a couple days after that I had a track daty booked! The next update will be about that and then thats us up to date.
I hope you enjoyed reading, the story and I really hope I didn't drone on too much!
Okay, so this was back in October 2023.
This was the start of my personal life spiralling out of control, I won't bore and/or depress you with all the details but I will say this, it was by far the lowest and darkest point I've ever experienced in my 33 years. It wasn't pretty but I'm still here to tell the tale so it's all good.
So as I said above, the car overheated one evening in October while it covered daily duties after the daily blew up. Owning two cars and having them both catastrophically broken wasn't ideal.
My good friend Benny I mentioned above was passing on one of the many times I stopped to let the engine cool, he also picked me up and dropped me home when I decided to give up trying to nurse the car back home. The compact was parked up in a free public car park near to where it broke down last, due to the s
t show that was my life at the time, it stayed in that car park for around three months. Luckily, nothing was taken off it and the local council didn't scrap it for being "abandoned".Fast forward and it's now January - Benny offers to lend me a radiator and fit it so I can have my car back. He collects it from its adandoned spot and gets to work. His radiator doesn't fit and it turns out the radiator in the car is way beyond repair. Arse. Benny offers to pay for a replacement Mishimoto radiator and fit it - I snap his hand off and thank him a thousand times. Unfortunately his amazings efforts aren't enough, the thing just won't stay presurised and keeps getting hot. He was almost as gutted as I was as he wanted to deliver me good news but it wasn't to be. We don't strip the engine but we safetly assume the headgasket has gone and with these having alloy blocks, pulling it apart will be pointless. Second hand engines aren't exactly mega money so we decide thats the best option.
I'm practically unemployed at this point and not even barely scraping by. I'm between odd jobs and my mental health is taking a battering. My priorities at this point consist of taking each day as it comes, between balancing bills and beg/borrow/stealing to stop the bailiffs taking my posessions. One step forward, two steps back. Of course I paid back Benny as soon as I could for the radiator and his work. A month or so later, he's hinting at paying for an engine and fitting it, and I repay him when times are better - what a guy. He tells me to look for engines and the hunt starts. Fortunately (for my own pride and Bennys wallet) I manage to scrape the money together myself to buy an engine!
I start messaging a guy about an engine, he's slow to reply and vague. Annoyed, I messaged a newly listed engine based a couple hours from me - it comes with the loom and ecu that I didn't need, advertised for £750 - after a little back and forthing, I message him saying "I don't need the loom or the ECU, would you take £600" to which he agrees. It's Thursday and I have already arranged a van and some help for the Saturday as that was the plan with the original engine, your man does an all nighter on the Friday night after a shift at work to get the engine out for me! What an absolute hero he was!
These are a few of the "during" pics he sent me (Please excuse the way he crudely cut the inlet manifold off
)Engine out! The very next day, with my very good friends Pete and Adam, we set off to Wales to collect the engine. A huge thanks to these two, who without them getting the engine would not have been possible.
As you can see, taking the front subframe with us was part of the deal which suited me as it came with an X brace!
Pete then drops the engine off to Benny and things start to get exciting!... and stressful
Benny wastes absolutely no time in getting her stripped down...
Luckily I was able to be there when the engine came out...
The manifolds fitted are test manifolds for an upgrade that will be happening in the future, this was a perfect time to test fitement. Pete and Adam were also on hand to help.
We hit our first (and only) snag, despite turning the engine loom down because I already had one and it was the same engine... Yeah, turns out the looms were different. My original engine had the crank position sensor at the front and this engine has the sensor at the back (or the other way round, I can't remember!
) But Benny made a quick phone call to local old BMW legend Dave Astbury and a loom is soon purchased, we are back on track!The engine is now in!!
The next update I get from Benny is a video of the car starting and running. I had to head over to his and just give him a big hug! I don't mind admitting that I teared up a little on the way to his. I bloody love this silly little purple car and it broke down around the same time as my life went to s
t but these updates and progress were keeping me going through everything. A little ray of sunshine between the clouds.It's starting to look more like a car at this point!
Some more late nights from Benny...
The car was together and running apart from a slight misfire at very low RPM under light throttle, I went over to help Benny diagnose the fault, with the MAF getting no reading at all. We tried a new MAF, checked wiring, fuses, everything and still no joy.
I had to go to work and Benny had to see his patient girlfriend so we called it a day.
The next day I got a message from Benny telling me there was good news and bad news, which did I want first? Obviously I chose the bad first and he told me it was going to be expensive. He then replied saying....
"Insurance"
"You're gonna need insurance because its done" and sent me these pictures...
I couldn't possibly put into words just how I felt, so I'm not even going to try. But as I've said, I love this old thing, its brought me so much joy over the years and the only time it ever let me down was with the suspected head gasket failure. More than ever I needed this car to bring me that joy and it couldn't. I had toyed with selling it but I just couldn't - as much as I should've, I just physically couldn't do it. And just when I was on my ass, all my chips were down, Benny threw out that hand and pulled me up, he will never fully understand that he didn't just save the car, he saved me. I can not thank him enough and I will forever be in his debt.
While I'm here I do have to thank Pete for all his help with collecting the engine. We used his work van, stored the engine at his work until benny had space for it, he dropped it to him and took care of all the details. Thank you to Adam for his help on the day, lumping the engine and subframe into the van with Pete while I made small talk.
I talked a lot about how much I struggled mentally during this time and how much Benny helped me by helping with the car but it's only fair I thank my girlfriend Sophie too who was there to pick me up and kept me going when it wasn't all about a stupid car - thank you for helping me through the dark times and more importantly, for sharing my enthuiasm when the updates would come in from Benny.
Before I even had the chance to even pick the car, Benny managed to fit the X Brace which was a nice surpise...
It was now time to collect the car, I was like a kid at Christmas. 7 months since I last sat in her and even then it was through necessity, I could not wait. A quick chat with Benny, and we were off. Sophie by my side as I set off, Benny following on behind just in case.
It was the golden hour, the set was setting beautifully. I had my girlfriend beside me, I'm sat in the seat of my pride and joy again, Benny is behind me in his E30 touring, the light goes green and we roar off. That very moment was what it was all about. Its what all the heartache and stress was all about, its what Bennys last nights on the car after work was all about and in that moment, it all made perfect sense, all of it.
I had to take a picture on my little running in shakedown and of course a petrol station made the most sense...
It was now time for the daily to finally meet the weekend warrior...
Okay, so that is the bulk of the story brough up to date!! A matter of days after getting the car back we were all setting off for a driving holiday around Wales and then a couple days after that I had a track daty booked! The next update will be about that and then thats us up to date.
I hope you enjoyed reading, the story and I really hope I didn't drone on too much!
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff