Yet another rescued E36 328i M Sport project...
Discussion
exgtt said:
Love it, brilliant thread op you make it look easy..... On a scale of 1-10 how much of a fight has the old E36 put up with rusty fixings and stuck bolts etc?
On a scale of 1 to 10 you'd have to ask my mate in Southampton as he's doing all the work... I'm just funding the work and recording everything on my pistonheads thread. 
Jellyfish said:
Just read from start to finish and bookmarked. Great looking car and good to see it being kept on the road when it could see easily have disappeared by now (I haven't seen an E36 of any kind for a while now). Those wheels are (in my opinion) some of the nicest BMW ever put on a car.
In my opinion they're not the original BBS RC041's that the car originally came with. If you look back in my thread, you will see that I have managed to procure a set, which are being refurbished and are going back on the car at some point before it is finished. Then take a look at it and let me know what you think about the best wheels on a BMW...Now the old engine is out, it was time to sort the engine bay out properly before the rebuilt engine gets inserted into the car.
The main areas that needed attention were beneath the windscreen washer reservoir and one of the suspension top mount points.
Got someone in to get the rust cut out and plates welded in. He turned up on a Sunday morning, and only charged £70 for the work. Bargain!
He ground out the rust.
The result...
Tack welded new metal to the area.
Behind.
And in the engine bay.
The result.
Next the surface rust was rubbed down, ready for treating and repainting.
These areas were then treated and primed.
Finally, it all got painted.
I'm impressed with the work and the outcome. After all the time, effort and money spent, it was important to me to get everything sorted as the project progressed. Now when the bonnet is opened, it won't be let down and will do justice to the rest of the car! Well done Sam!!!...
The main areas that needed attention were beneath the windscreen washer reservoir and one of the suspension top mount points.
Got someone in to get the rust cut out and plates welded in. He turned up on a Sunday morning, and only charged £70 for the work. Bargain!
He ground out the rust.
The result...
Tack welded new metal to the area.
Behind.
And in the engine bay.
The result.
Next the surface rust was rubbed down, ready for treating and repainting.
These areas were then treated and primed.
Finally, it all got painted.
I'm impressed with the work and the outcome. After all the time, effort and money spent, it was important to me to get everything sorted as the project progressed. Now when the bonnet is opened, it won't be let down and will do justice to the rest of the car! Well done Sam!!!...
jas xjr said:
you say that the car has been a financial disaster . when you finish it , say it owes you £10k for the sake of argument. what can you buy for that? nothing that you know has been prepared to your taste .
i would love to this on an old 6 series or something. a forever car if you like
I didn't say that the car was a financial disaster! That was one of the other thread posters... an old 6 series would cost you lots to buy, and would cost way more to sort than this one...i would love to this on an old 6 series or something. a forever car if you like
Another week or so has gone by and it's time for another update. After sorting the rust and getting welding done on the driver's side of the engine bay, it is now time to turn attention to the passenger side, so that the engine bay restoration will be complete, ahead of installing the rebuilt engine.
The first task was to sort out the surface rust on the suspension housing.
This side was also in need of a good de-gunking before any new paintwork could be applied.
The surface rust was removed using a drill and wire brush.
Once this had been completed, any any residual grease removed, the area was them primed.
Now for a number of random pictures of the result of the finished paint work...
And another bunch of random pictures after the identification plates have had the masking tape removed...
And the result of this next session, as the engine bay paint work is now complete...
Starting to feel that the end is in sight as we are now in a position to put it all back together and get it running...
The first task was to sort out the surface rust on the suspension housing.
This side was also in need of a good de-gunking before any new paintwork could be applied.
The surface rust was removed using a drill and wire brush.
Once this had been completed, any any residual grease removed, the area was them primed.
Now for a number of random pictures of the result of the finished paint work...
And another bunch of random pictures after the identification plates have had the masking tape removed...
And the result of this next session, as the engine bay paint work is now complete...
Starting to feel that the end is in sight as we are now in a position to put it all back together and get it running...
Part two of the days's work... We can now get back to some of the more interesting mechanical stuff. One more job to do, before installing the new engine, was to sort out the steering rack and associated parts.
Here are a couple of pictures of the old steering rack before it was removed.
Managed to procure a new set of inner and outer track rod ends, 'Meyle' as well, for £60 on Ebay - bargain!
Also managed to get a second hand 'purple tag' steering rack off of a low mileage car for £77 including delivery - double bargain!
And here they are...
Am also going to replace these knackered bushes with Powerflex lollipop bushes too.
Starting to strip-out the old parts...
Eventually, the old rack is out of the car.
A picture of the PAS lines, before being cleaned with the drill mounted wire brush and being sprayed with cold zinc - a rust preventative.
Sorry peeps... Didn't realise how late it is getting, and my other half isn't feeling too good, so will finish this update in a couple of days or so. Night!
Here are a couple of pictures of the old steering rack before it was removed.
Managed to procure a new set of inner and outer track rod ends, 'Meyle' as well, for £60 on Ebay - bargain!
Also managed to get a second hand 'purple tag' steering rack off of a low mileage car for £77 including delivery - double bargain!
And here they are...
Am also going to replace these knackered bushes with Powerflex lollipop bushes too.
Starting to strip-out the old parts...
Eventually, the old rack is out of the car.
A picture of the PAS lines, before being cleaned with the drill mounted wire brush and being sprayed with cold zinc - a rust preventative.
Sorry peeps... Didn't realise how late it is getting, and my other half isn't feeling too good, so will finish this update in a couple of days or so. Night!
Now to finish the last update. The new rack has now been bolted to the sub frame.
The rack has been connected to the steering in the car.
The new track rod ends have been installed and the gaiters have also been fitted.
And the final result.
This is one of the last jobs to be done before installing the rebuilt engine. Have just bought a pair of M3 engine mounting brackets for £70, as the originals snapped when the old engine was removed.
The next installment should include fitting the new gearbox linkage/short shifter parts along with the new engine mounts, lollipop bushes, then the engine and gearbox in with the new sports clutch, lightened flywheel, 850CSI aluminium pivot pin, new clutch fork retaining spring and new gearbox oil...
Shifter parts bought...
The shifter itself.
And a lovely new genuine BMW gear knob to get me fingers around...
The rack has been connected to the steering in the car.
The new track rod ends have been installed and the gaiters have also been fitted.
And the final result.
This is one of the last jobs to be done before installing the rebuilt engine. Have just bought a pair of M3 engine mounting brackets for £70, as the originals snapped when the old engine was removed.
The next installment should include fitting the new gearbox linkage/short shifter parts along with the new engine mounts, lollipop bushes, then the engine and gearbox in with the new sports clutch, lightened flywheel, 850CSI aluminium pivot pin, new clutch fork retaining spring and new gearbox oil...
Shifter parts bought...
The shifter itself.
And a lovely new genuine BMW gear knob to get me fingers around...
Edited by RickBristol on Wednesday 26th October 20:25
Well... Since the last installment the plan for installing the engine using the existing front suspension and sub frame had to change somewhat...
Basically, when the old knackered engine mounts were removed from the sub frame, we discovered this.
The old sub frame was rotted-out around the engine mount points and part of it was still attached to the mount when it was removed.
Luckily, we had a guy that produces reinforced sub frames, to get over the problem that many of them suffer from and managed to get one for £135 instead of the standard BMW part. All painted-up nicely too!
The next issue that raised its ugly head was not only the rotten lollipop bushes, shown in the previous post, but that the wishbone bushes were completely shot. So, you know what's coming, it was necessary to buy new ones. So it was decided to purchase new Lemforder wishbones - the make that BMW use.
It was decided to go the extra mile, and spend the extra cash to purchase E30 wishbones instead of the E36 wishbones as they have metal outer ball joint mounts instead of rubber. They are much stronger and will last a lot longer as well.
If you look at these pictures, you can see how knackered the old wishbone ball joint rubbers are, when compared to the new E30 replacements.
This picture shows the new M3 E36 solid rubber engine mounts and the old, completely knackered, mounts.
So let's get going...
The car was towed out onto the road.
The empty engine bay, before the work begins.
Getting the front end up in the air, before surgery begins.
First job was to use a ball joint splitter to start separating the old wishbones from the suspension.
Once the old wishbones were removed, the new reinforced sub frame was fitted and the lovely purple tag steering rack was attached to that.
How lovely does this look?...
Here is a shot of the old sub frame and one of the wishbones. Glad they have now been replaced.
While the anti roll bar was out of the car, it was given a thorough clean with a drill and wire brush and then repainted with black Hammerite paint.
Some pics of fitting the new wishbones.
Fitted!
Next it was time to turn our attention to changing the gear selector to the new short-shifter setup that is going into the car. The old shifter parts were removed.
Comparison between the old shifter and the new.
The old gear knob and the lovely new E46 Sport version...
The old one looking very tiered. I think the new one looks a lot prettier too!
Once the original shifter parts were stripped out, the plastic shifter ball retaining ring was removed, here for comparison with the replacement.
The The original was stripped out of the shifter location arm, which was given a thoroughly good cleen before the replacement part was installed.
If you were to zoom in on the following pic, you can now even read its part number data... Don't do that though, or you'll be really 'sad' to want to see that! Little spod joke there...
Next came the fitting of the new E36 M3 solid rubber engine mounts.
A little modification the the left wishbone was required in order to access the nut to tighten the left hand side engine mount from under the car... This was because the reinforcing that had been done to the new sub frame slightly skewed the alignment hole.
Next we have a shot of the rebuilt lump before it gets installed. Bet you wish this was going into your car!?!?!!!
Anyway, just for reference, a shot of the all important blanking plate that shows that it is a genuine Alussil engine - found out that this block came out of a 30k miles car to... How amazing is that?! I had it skimmed, bores honed and the block professionally cleaned in the process too. Gonna be like a new engine, whichever way you look at it.
The correct NGK plugs were fitted to the head, partly to prevent any crap getting into the engine when it was fitted.
The new thrust bearing that was to be fitted to the engine before the clutch and gearbox were bolted on.
Checking that the new thrust bearing was installed to the exact depth in its new home.
Now as you may have noticed, in the last shot, it was starting to get dark...
It was now, or another day time, but we decided to press on.
This is the new release pivot pin for the clutch - 850CI spec in metal, to replace the standard E36 plastic version.
The original put up a very stubborn fight and had to be brutally removed with the use of some very strong mole grips as it was 'welded' into the gearbox housing by aluminium corrosion.
Once removed, we could set about installing the lovely new non-dual mass sports clutch and lightened M50 fly wheel.
The new clutch pressure plate.
Removing the clutch alignment tool after centering the clutch before tightening the clutch.
The new clutch release bearing, compared with the original.
Gearbox now fitted to the engine. What a b
h of a job! Should have been straight forward, but this car has fought us all the way!...
Next, a picture of the starter motor before it was stripped from the loom, so that we could verify how it was to be reconnected.
Now fitted to the engine.
The new lump going in.
And finally installed.
10.15 in the evening by now! What a day, and I still had to get cleaned up, have dinner and drive back to Bristol! Good hard day, but well worth it.
Basically, when the old knackered engine mounts were removed from the sub frame, we discovered this.
The old sub frame was rotted-out around the engine mount points and part of it was still attached to the mount when it was removed.
Luckily, we had a guy that produces reinforced sub frames, to get over the problem that many of them suffer from and managed to get one for £135 instead of the standard BMW part. All painted-up nicely too!
The next issue that raised its ugly head was not only the rotten lollipop bushes, shown in the previous post, but that the wishbone bushes were completely shot. So, you know what's coming, it was necessary to buy new ones. So it was decided to purchase new Lemforder wishbones - the make that BMW use.
It was decided to go the extra mile, and spend the extra cash to purchase E30 wishbones instead of the E36 wishbones as they have metal outer ball joint mounts instead of rubber. They are much stronger and will last a lot longer as well.
If you look at these pictures, you can see how knackered the old wishbone ball joint rubbers are, when compared to the new E30 replacements.
This picture shows the new M3 E36 solid rubber engine mounts and the old, completely knackered, mounts.
So let's get going...
The car was towed out onto the road.
The empty engine bay, before the work begins.
Getting the front end up in the air, before surgery begins.
First job was to use a ball joint splitter to start separating the old wishbones from the suspension.
Once the old wishbones were removed, the new reinforced sub frame was fitted and the lovely purple tag steering rack was attached to that.
How lovely does this look?...
Here is a shot of the old sub frame and one of the wishbones. Glad they have now been replaced.
While the anti roll bar was out of the car, it was given a thorough clean with a drill and wire brush and then repainted with black Hammerite paint.
Some pics of fitting the new wishbones.
Fitted!
Next it was time to turn our attention to changing the gear selector to the new short-shifter setup that is going into the car. The old shifter parts were removed.
Comparison between the old shifter and the new.
The old gear knob and the lovely new E46 Sport version...
The old one looking very tiered. I think the new one looks a lot prettier too!
Once the original shifter parts were stripped out, the plastic shifter ball retaining ring was removed, here for comparison with the replacement.
The The original was stripped out of the shifter location arm, which was given a thoroughly good cleen before the replacement part was installed.
If you were to zoom in on the following pic, you can now even read its part number data... Don't do that though, or you'll be really 'sad' to want to see that! Little spod joke there...
Next came the fitting of the new E36 M3 solid rubber engine mounts.
A little modification the the left wishbone was required in order to access the nut to tighten the left hand side engine mount from under the car... This was because the reinforcing that had been done to the new sub frame slightly skewed the alignment hole.
Next we have a shot of the rebuilt lump before it gets installed. Bet you wish this was going into your car!?!?!!!
Anyway, just for reference, a shot of the all important blanking plate that shows that it is a genuine Alussil engine - found out that this block came out of a 30k miles car to... How amazing is that?! I had it skimmed, bores honed and the block professionally cleaned in the process too. Gonna be like a new engine, whichever way you look at it.
The correct NGK plugs were fitted to the head, partly to prevent any crap getting into the engine when it was fitted.
The new thrust bearing that was to be fitted to the engine before the clutch and gearbox were bolted on.
Checking that the new thrust bearing was installed to the exact depth in its new home.
Now as you may have noticed, in the last shot, it was starting to get dark...
It was now, or another day time, but we decided to press on.
This is the new release pivot pin for the clutch - 850CI spec in metal, to replace the standard E36 plastic version.
The original put up a very stubborn fight and had to be brutally removed with the use of some very strong mole grips as it was 'welded' into the gearbox housing by aluminium corrosion.
Once removed, we could set about installing the lovely new non-dual mass sports clutch and lightened M50 fly wheel.
The new clutch pressure plate.
Removing the clutch alignment tool after centering the clutch before tightening the clutch.
The new clutch release bearing, compared with the original.
Gearbox now fitted to the engine. What a b
h of a job! Should have been straight forward, but this car has fought us all the way!...Next, a picture of the starter motor before it was stripped from the loom, so that we could verify how it was to be reconnected.
Now fitted to the engine.
The new lump going in.
And finally installed.
10.15 in the evening by now! What a day, and I still had to get cleaned up, have dinner and drive back to Bristol! Good hard day, but well worth it.
Edited by RickBristol on Wednesday 16th November 22:28
RickBristol said:
exgtt said:
Love it, brilliant thread op you make it look easy..... On a scale of 1-10 how much of a fight has the old E36 put up with rusty fixings and stuck bolts etc?
On a scale of 1 to 10 you'd have to ask my mate in Southampton as he's doing all the work... I'm just funding the work and recording everything on my pistonheads thread. The b
d thing has occupied my driveway for quite a while, for a variety of reasons!As you can see, a vast majority of work has been completed, a lot of it very detailed.
This was initially meant to be just an engine rebuild, but it has spiralled somewhat- mostly due to the fact that the car has thrown quite a few hidden nasties my way, along with my zest for upgraded parts following a large amount of experience with aforementioned parts, and Rick's happiness to complete the project as it should be completed.
With regards to the engine being built in a somewhat unusual environment- this isn't the first time, and it won't be the last. Foreign bodies aren't really a major issue around my way. When things are taken apart, there isn't much care for what surfaces they're laid on. This is due to a fastidious cleaning process that follows the disassembly- initially the parts are sent to a parts washer, and then given the final clean by hand in a variety of ways. When building the head, for example, all valves were decoked by hand. This was not fun.
I am acutely aware of keeping the engine in good order, and as such, the first batch of oil in the engine will only be 'allowed' in there for about 50-100 miles. It'll be run in on 10w40 mineral initially- this helps create a strong seal for the piston rings, yet still allows the engine to operate safely. The second flush will be with mineral once more, and it will be in there for the next 450 miles. Following that, the engine gets its first dose of 5w40 fully synthetic- having now worked with BMWs almost exclusively since 2012, I have found this to be the most amicable agreement for M50/M52/M54 engines.
It's been a long uphill struggle. I've had a lot of other projects to attend to, including a 3.1 stroker I built for my track car, and a 3.3 that I'm replacing the previously mentioned 3.1 with. On top of this, this is simply a hobby that has got somewhat out of hand. I work full time, but have dedicated a lot of time to developing my own camshafts, and creating something of a small business out of those cams. They live in this engine, I'm proud to say, and I am greatly looking forward to the results. Our projections are somewhere in the region of 250bhp and 240lb/ft. I will be satisfied if we can hit 240bhp. Our development car that we used as the guinea pig showed great potential, and threw up 250bhp/230lb.ft after a small remapping session.
The strangest thing I've had with this car is the sheer amount of snags it has thrown my way. You fix one problem, and two/three more rear their heads in the place of the original issue. A case in point:- the welding on the chassis leg. This ended up being quite lengthy, and went from a simple bit of welding to a full-blown stripback on both sides and a respray. It clearly had a knock at some point on the driver's side- the metal has now all been straightened out, sanded back, coated with etch primer and then sprayed in Arctic Silver (not a factory feature- if you bought a silver car from BMW, it came with an engine bay finished in a fetching shade of hearing aid beige).
The front end was a particular delight. Leafing through previous MOT history highlighted to me that the wishbones were in need of attention, and visual inspection also confirmed this. Following that, the steering rack was unusually well worn for a 170k car (don't laugh, these were ridiculously well engineered from the factory). And the track rod ends had play in them (again, MOT advisories confirmed by copious wiggling). Removal of the engine mounts also revealed a fairly typical torn front subframe (this is horrendously common on E36s, and manifests itself in an infernal clicking that almost comes across as drop link noise until you realise the car you're assessing has nearly new drop links... eesh).
So from that, we've ended up with an entirely new front end- I installed the Bilstein B10 Power Kit on this car, and then following that it's had new wishbones, new lollipop bushes, new steering rack, new track rod ends (both inner and outer), a new subframe, and new engine mounts. It physically isn't possible to replace anything else apart from the hubs. All of these parts have been upgraded too. The E30 wishbones are installed because they have a metal outer balljoint- something lacking in E36 ones, substituted with rubber for comfort/cost implications. The lollipop bushes are the factory-spec ecccentric ones, but Powerflex purples- these provide a much more positive steering feel, and they wear very, very slowly. The steering rack is a purple tag item from an E46 (they came on facelift 320d cars, 330Ci Clubsports, and a few others), and it reduces the amount of turns lock-to-lock from 3.4 turns to 3. The actual gearing of the rack is also much more positive. The track rods are Meyle HD items, which I've run on my track car since 2013 and they're spot on. The subframe has been reinforced at the typical tear points, and now is effectively 6mm thick, as opposed to 3mm thick. The engine mounts are solid rubber items from the E36 M3- the standard ones are oil filled and are prone to going bang, especially once you start running more torque (it's the twist that gets you- not the bhp).
As far as E36s go, it's probably been one of the most intensive projects I've done. However, it's also been one of the most enjoyable, as it's very rare that I'm allowed a proper crack at the whip, and a chance to do this as I think BMW should have done it. I really enjoy the aspect of adding in OEM BMW parts from other models to create what's affectionately known in my world as a '328i+'. It's as a 328i should be... just a little bit better. More power, better engine characteristics, better handling, a nicer feeling gear shift, a more feelsome and direct rack... I've tried to sympathetically update the car to take it away from its era.
The work is far from over. The engine is in the car, but this is just the beginning. From here, we've got a full interior swap to negotiate, a set of BBS RC041s (square set, personally I feel the handling characteristics are far nicer with a square setup), finishing up the aesthetics (front lip spoiler, reattach the M side strips with a little more conviction), running it in, getting it tracked, remapping it... etc.
A small list of things left to replace/upgrade/do full stop:
- E46 328i front brakes. 300mm, up from 286mm. A useful upgrade, they're on my E36 328i Sport that I use as a daily, and they're a very useful upgrade. 330 brakes could be on the cards.
- The rather unappealing grey leather interior (seriously? A silver car with grey leather? Who does that?) is being ripped out, and being replaced with black carpets, black dash, black centre console, and red leather seats with red leather doorcard inserts and a red leather armrest. Crushed black velvet parcel shelf. Mmmmmmmmm. Yes, I can see you nodding quietly in approval.
- BBS RC041s, polished barrels, Sterling Grey centres, and gold bolts. New tyres as well- possibly Kumho KU31s, or Bridgestone RE003s.
- got to hook all the engine up, get it MOT'd, send it to my mapper, and see what she's running on the power table.
- run her in!
By the time it's done, it'll effectively be a low mileage example. Rick has had the bodywork taken care of very well- all visitors complement it on how pretty it is. The engine will basically be new- new piston rings, new bearings, a 30,000 mile block, a 50,000 mile crank that's got no signs of wear (all journals were perfect), a freshly rebuilt head with reconditioned cams. The interior I will be ensuring looks like new, with the help of various dye kits, wet vacs, etc. The wheels will be freshly refurbished. The brakes will be new items. It's safe to say that very little on the car will actually show its original age/mileage, which is obviously the whole point.
Stay tuned.
Fair play for all the work put in.
But...
If you wanted to maximise profits at the end and ask for top money - IMO you should have used all original parts and spent that extra bit of money doing everything 100%
I personally, would rather have a E36 that used original brakes/suspension/parts than E46 brakes if I was paying TOP money and wanted an original in order to put to one side to collect/store for investment.
But...
If you wanted to maximise profits at the end and ask for top money - IMO you should have used all original parts and spent that extra bit of money doing everything 100%
I personally, would rather have a E36 that used original brakes/suspension/parts than E46 brakes if I was paying TOP money and wanted an original in order to put to one side to collect/store for investment.
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