E36 328i Touring. When it breaks, upgrade it...

[328wagon]

I've literally just read this thread from start to finish, I also have a 328i touring and she's a minter. Techno Violet, factory sport, grey leather, manual and completely, totally standard. I was just looking for a photo to stick up and I found this:




Seems we may have a mutual acquaintance...

[carpetsoiler]

Are you Matt's brother, per chance? I believe we've spoken before, your Touring is lovely- seem to remember it had Schnitzer mirrors and Z4 wheels? Looked gorgeous.

So we had our first track day the other day! Bedford... we came, we saw, we conquered... and then we hit a barrier doing about 5mph.

First things first, the KWs went on.





Out with the old B10s, in with the even older KWs- they're from 2003, and still work impeccably!



It sat a tad low at the back without spring height adjusters... nipped them in not long after this shot..!

Then I had to fashion something using cunning and genius so I could adjust the rear rebound with ease, and make future suspension changes massively quicker. Taking apart the rear trim in a Touring is genuinely the longest stage in changing the rear suspension.





Cut it.



Find a hinge or two.



Raid the 'drawer of st' which happens to have 2 identical knobs, presumably from an Ikea flat pack desk.



Et voila!





Also got some tyre changes done- Federal RSRs on my track wheels, and stripped down my new BBS RS740/741s. I can't recommend Liam at Fast Tortoise highly enough- great prices, great service.



Cleaned her before the journey up to Bedford. No rubbing at all. Suspension set to fully soft all round- it is SO comfortable! Love it!



Three little monsters waiting for their Bedford fix...



Dat tuck doe.



New helmet and new seats.



Track wheels on. Note the little brown patch on the driver's side wing- that's where the tyre had burnt the paint and lacquer. Time to stiffen up some suspension settings, clearly...



Official photographer stuff from the car park.



Pounding through one of many wet laps.



The Clio, once overtaken, stayed behind...



What's that behind me, on the track? Another silver E36 328i Touring. Common as muck! He lost his rad about halfway through the day, but got it back up and running.





Then... ouch. Came out of the back hairpin before the straight with the chicane on it, doing about 20mph in torrential rain. Back end stepped out, caught it and held it. Then it snapped back the other way ridiculously hard, with no warning whatsoever. Cue sliding backwards, sideways, towards the only fking barrier at Bedford. Only doing about 5mph when I hit it, and already have all the replacement parts sorted out. Didn't bend anything important, so I drove her home from Bedford. Headlight still worked! Only thing that didn't work as it should was the indicator!

[328wagon]

I am indeed the brother of the floppy-haired journo! I've read your thread with a growing sense of impending financial doom. My plan has always been to keep her as standard as possible, but the inevitable M50 swap will have to happen. I'm torn between 'standard' and 'sensibly modified'! Still, yours looks a treat, shame about the bump!

Here's a shot of my old girl:

Edited by 328wagon on Thursday 19th February 11:21

[carpetsoiler]

328wagon said:

I am indeed the brother of the floppy-haired journo! I've read your thread with a growing sense of impending financial doom. My plan has always been to keep her as standard as possible, but the inevitable M50 swap will have to happen. I'm torn between 'standard' and 'sensibly modified'! Still, yours looks a treat, shame about the bump!

Here's a shot of my old girl:

Edited by 328wagon on Thursday 19th February 11:21

That looks superb. Never seen those wheels on an E36 before, let alone a Touring, and they really suit it.

For what it's worth, I've gone a bit balls-out, but some mods haven't been entirely necessary. I've tried to go for the 'sensibly modified' route- it still has a full interior, and is mostly fairly OEM+. If I was doing it all again, I would not roll the arches and fit silly offset wheels- that was the biggest mistake I made with this car, by a country mile. Everything else I'd gladly do again- maybe with the exception of M3 Evo exhaust manifolds, as they were a friggin' pain in the backside.

M50 is definitely worth doing. If you need a hand, then let me know- fitted my fair share of them now.

[328wagon]

I may well take you up on that... I've seen a place down south who'll change the manifold for £250 including the parts. Not sure of I fancy doing it myself! Those wheels do look good, I keep swapping the originals (style 30s) back and forth but I think the 17s just fill the arches a bit better.

My wipers went bonkers the other day, they wouldn't switch off. That turned out to be the switch on the stalk. Then I replaced my front discs and pads - the discs were shocking, they were basically made of rust on the inside. Managed to break my ratchet doing the passenger side too! Then I fixed the passenger side footwell light - turns out the plug was swapped with the glovebox light. Never noticed the glovebox light came on when you open a door!

I was feeling really chuffed until I noticed the OBC insisting I'd run out of screen wash for the second time in two days. Seems the carpet in the boot is wet. I suspect the hose has come adrift or is leaking inside the tailgate, but I'm not sure how it can empty the washer bottle! There's always something!

[Sammo123]

328wagon said:

I am indeed the brother of the floppy-haired journo! I've read your thread with a growing sense of impending financial doom. My plan has always been to keep her as standard as possible, but the inevitable M50 swap will have to happen. I'm torn between 'standard' and 'sensibly modified'! Still, yours looks a treat, shame about the bump!

Here's a shot of my old girl:

Edited by 328wagon on Thursday 19th February 11:21

Are they Passat CC wheels? Can't quite place them.

[328wagon]

Sammo123 said:

Are they Passat CC wheels? Can't quite place them.

They're off a Z4 I believe. Don't know which model, but they're 17" with 225/45 tyres on. Just managed to google this:

Edited by 328wagon on Friday 20th February 13:34

[ManOpener]

Z4 turbines I think

-E

Ninja'd.

[Sammo123]

Thanks guys.

[carpetsoiler]

Now unbroken.





















You wouldn't even know it had been bent.

2 new front wings, rolled properly this time. New nosecone. Old bumper back on until I get an MTech one. Smoked amber indicators in, but have clear ones I picked up from the scrappy today. A bit of unbending. Crash totally missed the chassis, suspension components and bonnet- very lucky indeed.

Onwards and upwards. Time to just enjoy driving her for a bit.

[JakeT]

I noticed in a previous post you said you regretted rolling the arches, and now new front wings are on they're now standard again so is there anything you can do to bring the rear arches back to factory? Or is it time and £££ in the body shop needed for it?

[carpetsoiler]

JakeT said:

I noticed in a previous post you said you regretted rolling the arches, and now new front wings are on they're now standard again so is there anything you can do to bring the rear arches back to factory? Or is it time and £££ in the body shop needed for it?

I've rolled the fronts again, but taken my time this time around. Ergo, they don't look rubbish. I'm going to get custom arches made up for the back.

[mudy]

Love this thread - I'm being offered a 328i e34 touring N reg for free! I presume I should say yes?

[Hamster69]

An e34 328?
I'm guessing you mean e36 and yes you should say yes.

[mudy]

Sorry, yes - 110,000 miles but second engine went in at 60k - used daily as station hack with rust showing on the wings, cloth interior but free is still free!

[Hamster69]

I paid 300 quid for my 318. It didn't start and had rust to. Free is very good!

[carpetsoiler]

Yeah do it Mudy. They're brilliant even if you pay money for them, let alone free.

There have been a fair few updates, but I just haven't had time to get them all done. She completed Cadwell on Monday, and a sterling job she did too.

[mudy]

Sorry to thread hijack Carpersoiler!
Here are some pictures - will the rust be difficult/expensive to fix do you think? Can you recommend someone?
Do you have any bits you want to sell me? (leather interior, better alloys?
Thanks!!

Edited by mudy on Wednesday 3rd June 17:26

[carpetsoiler]

Mate, I have tonnes of spares. Currently selling two sets of wheels. Drop me an email.

[carpetsoiler]

Well... it's been a while!

So. Things. Stuff. Yes.

After the 'off' at Bedford, I got her looking very well indeed. Schnitzer mirrors, M3 bumper with the lip, polished up the Pininfarinas a bit.







Then I got bored of the Pininfarinas being a nightmare to look after, so I put some home-refurbed Style 81s on, in sparkly grey!



My mate Martyn's track E36- brilliant bit of kit.



Then I got bored of the breaker being sat on the drive, so I pulled the engine out.









A different M3 bumper that sat right, sparkly wheels...





Also put standard clear rears on it all round.



Lovely interior...





Another road trip to Kent, sitting pretty after a clean with James's convertible.



Time to start playing with heads... this is the difference between S50 gaskets and the M52 ports. Considering just how much I should remove.



Clean.



Out playing with Sean's now it's fully working again- his has a lovely spec. Cat Cams, Supersprint M3 mid section, 3.15 M3 LSD...



Pulling apart some 3-litre engines for some bits.







They were all slightly broken in some way, but I have two fully serviceable sets of cranks/rods/pistons and a spare M54B30 intake cam.

Shiny brakes...



Shiny Dymag wheels with new Bridgestone S02s...



Brakes fitted, KW strut hanging merrily in the background, fitted M3 Evo hubs.



Om nom nom.



Rear brakes- fitted the 294mm rears off an E46 320d. The rear brakes from the 320d/325i/328i are a perfect fit for the E36 and a useful upgrade over the 276mm standard. You can't go 313mm E36 M3 discs or 320mm E46 330 rear discs without changing the entire handbrake/trailing arm assembly, so this is a great compromise.



Shiny and fitted.





I decided to take it to Cadwell, seeing as I'd got the brakes done literally the day before we were due to go...













So yeah, a lot of work done.

The brakes were actually relatively easy, BUT- big caveat emptor to those who consider it- changing to M3 hubs causes some issues. Namely, mad-tyte negative camber and it fks with your castor. This results in a car that slices through corners, but on anything other than a photocopier-smooth road, the wheel constantly jinks and twists in your hands. This makes for a slightly nervy drive. The 460 mile trip to Cadwell was interesting to say the least. I'm hoping that some eccentric wishbone poly bushes will cure this a touch, as M3 Evos had castor built into the hubs and lower arms... and I'll be buggered if I'm stumping up for M3 Evo lower arms.

Other things to note- the engine bits are all in place now. Just need to buy new shells for the big end and rods, and new piston rings, and a gasket set. The 2 M54s I pulled apart- one was hydrolocked (you can probably spot which one), but I have pulled some rods from a spare M52 engine I have laying around and they'll do the job just fine (same rods). The second M54- that was a result of being run low on oil and no oil change for ages. One of the oil channels for the intake cam had got blocked, and it had superheated- thus shearing the camshaft and making for some interesting running characteristics.

I'm hoping to have the new engine built and installed before I go back to the 'Ring. Apart from that, the only real pressing issue is the headlining is sagging- going to measure up and trim it myself in Alcantara.

Cadwell was an epic track- loved it. Car felt really at home there, and also demolished some pretty fast metal while she was there. I will definitely be going back- a very interesting, challenging track.

Happy reading folks.