E36 cheap track day toy

E36 cheap track day toy

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Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Sunday 1st February 2015
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Went back to have another look on tyre leader today at leisure, (not squinting at my phone at work). Amazingly the tyres have gone down in price again to 140 quid. Only dilemma now is, I didn't intend to buy them until next month.

andyiley

9,106 posts

151 months

Sunday 1st February 2015
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You won't miss anything, they go up & down by the odd few quid now & again as market forces dictate, I see it regularly.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Tuesday 17th February 2015
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Two more semi slicks ordered tonight. Tyre leader coming up trumps. Ordered four tyres for the day to day as well. Need to get that sorted at the weekend, tyres and a few little jobs. Then it will be time for the BMW to come back out.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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Finally the time has come for the BMW to come out of hibernation.



Up on the ramp this afternoon next to our current restoration project. Which is the other reason I'm not home much at the moment.
Four nice and sticky semi slicks going on.



With the tyres stripped I gave the wheels a light dusting of paint to tidy them up.



Those done I moved on to the brakes. The rear pads haven't really worm out yet, but I'm so fed up of the noise those Ferrodo's make I'm changing them out for some performance friction pads.



You can just see in the photo that replaced the bleed nipples to. The old ones were getting really hard to undo. I have bought some new, with an 8mm hex instead of the 7mm on the originals. Not a huge difference I know but makes them easier to undo.



All bled and back together. Then time for a little fine tuning on our new geo machine.



I'm looking forward to getting back on track, see what these tyres can do.
One last little thing, new bonnet badge. As the old one had gone pale.



As far as I'm concerned she is ready to go.


Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Forgot I had taken this.



It is quite amazing with figures like that, that she handles so well. Unfortunately the rack was seized solid. I couldn't even adjust the front toe. I will have to leave it like this for now, then may be some adjustable rear arms and front top mounts could be in order. Would be nice to see how the track experience changes just through small adjustments.

I defiantly want to sort out the rear toe. It can't be helping that one side is toe out and the other toe in.
I'm so used to doing alignments on Porsches, where everything except the front Caster is adjustable. You feel kind of helpless looking at these figures and not being able to do anything about it.

helix402

7,832 posts

181 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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You can buy camber bolts from BMW for the front. The rear camber and toe are adjustable.

Just saw you've got coil overs, I've only used camber bolts on standard struts.

Edited by helix402 on Sunday 1st March 09:08

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Hi Helix.

I have already put camber on the front, by mounting washers up between the hub and the coilover. It would just be nice to be able to fine tune it.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Tuesday 3rd March 2015
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Back in the workshop tonight. Nothing major, straightened up the steering wheel by moving it one spline on the column. Checked all the levels, replaced a taillight build.

All ready to go out and play at the weekend.


Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Saturday 7th March 2015
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Up bright and early. Oulton park today. Can't wait to see how these tyres do.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Sunday 8th March 2015
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A proper report to follow when we get home. But I can say we all had a great time, I have never driven that hard before. The new tyres are awsome!





Only a couple of small issues, the half speed switch for the fan seems to have stopped working. I suspect the relay but I will investigate when home.
Leaving the track I was surprised to see the fuel light on, as I had half a tank not long before. I stopped and fuelled up but she only took 32 quid. Then the gauge said half a tank. Probably one of the level sensors has failed. This is a pain but you can't do this kind of thing without constant maintenance I suppose.
Hopefully lots more pics and possibly vids to follow as well as the post inspection report.

helix402

7,832 posts

181 months

Sunday 8th March 2015
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You can tell which sender is faulty by using the test mode on the cluster. It will give readings from both senders direct to the cluster.

http://www.bmwmotorsports.org/BMW_docs/part1driver...

BullyB

2,344 posts

246 months

Sunday 8th March 2015
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looks like a nice day! it's a great track.

Am I being stupid but I can't see what the tyres are?
I'm running Federal FZ201's on my E36 now and they are great.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Friday 13th March 2015
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Thank you for the interesting PDF Helix. The test you suggested is only listed for the E38 so I guess I will have to do it the old fashioned way. At least the sensors are not exactly hard to get to with no interior.

Bully the tyres are Nankang NS2R. They really are excellent. Not something I would usually say about Nankangs.

So it has been a few days. The photos are starting to come in.



The day was nice and bright, cold but bright. Ideal conditions really.



As I usually do I started not knowing the track and really fumbling a few of the corners for a while.



But as the day went on I managed to get some more confidence and heat into the tyres.
They really do grip hard.



The brakes were not as good as last time out. I'm going to make a point of doing some work on them before Snetterton.



Apart from that and the already mentioned level sensor, everything went great.
The car really does handle and stop so well now. The only thing it could really do with is a bit more power. Possibly next winters project.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Saturday 14th March 2015
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A full 11 hours of work on the car today. But I still didn't get round to the brakes.
As I said the tyres were great at Oulton. But I can't help feel they could be even better if the wheel alignment was spot on.
I started with new rear camber adjustment arms.



These have come down in price a lot recently and although these were the cheapest I could find, I was still impressed with the nicely powder coated finish.
Fitting them wasn't as much fun as I had hoped. The original arm bolts were extremely rusty.



Eventually I managed to undo both, to find that you can't remove them past the Diff. So I unbolted the diff and jacked it right up in the chassis, giving me just enough room to free the bolts and remove the arms.



New arms in. I took the opportunity to undo the trailing arm mounting bolts so I can adjust the rear toe later.



Next came some front camber adjustment plates. With the strut removed I could see this wouldn't be easy either.



The old top mount is considerably deeper than the new ones. Also the cup for the spring top has the wrong size center. If fitted like this it would allow the spring to move, which is not good. In the end I made up some spacers so I could mount the old top cup underneath the new adjustment plate.



This will stop the spring moving and also give me back some of the height lost from the old top mount. I know the coilovers are hight adjustable, but if I move it to far it will affect the spring rate. I don't want to do all this then find it handle worse.
After many hours of fetling and adjusting they were back on the car.



The major work now complete. I replaced the inner and outer track rod joints.



I have wanted to replace these since the first day I had the car, they were just so rotten. But this was the first time it was necessary as they would not undo to adjust the toe any more.
With everything done and back on the floor, the front ride hight is a bit lower. I may have to do something about this. But I will try it for now.
On the geo ramp again. This time everything adjusts nicely. I have removed all of the spacers between the front shocks and hubs, that were giving me camber before. Although I only seem to be able to get three degrees of neg camber on the front with the plates. I might put one spacer back in at a later date. At least now I can fine tune.
The rear set up is lovely. With 2.5 deg of neg camber and 0.2 of toe.
The front with 3.0 camber and 0.0 toe. I may run like this at Snetterton then do more fine adjustment after. If the ride hight doesn't become an issue.

Finally, I know no one but me cares about the stickers. But I am very proud. I bought a 300 pound car and challenged myself to take it to as many different tracks as I could. Until the rear bumper was full of track stickers.



That's it, full!
Challenge compleat. I can now start to repeat tracks I have been to before. Which is handy as I have Snetterton booked for next month. That is the last sticker she will be getting. Well, I'm sure there could always be room for Spa.

tjs79

875 posts

173 months

Saturday 14th March 2015
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This is a great thread and thanks for keeping it going. I've just picked up a dirt cheap compact so I've decided to do a simple strip and handling overhaul and see how I get on. Very tempted with a bigger engine but seeing this thread makes me think of the possibilities. Great stuff, if I ever end up baking it with a full cage install I'll blame you!

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Saturday 14th March 2015
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Thanks. It is still nice to get feedback.
Why don't you start a thread for the compact. It's good to see what others are up to. But also can help when others make suggestions about your build.

Oh and here is a tip. If you don't want to throw money away on a bigger engine. Don't go to trackdays with your brother in law, with his silly 1000hp car. It does make you crave a few more beans.



But do take a good group of mates, especially to the further away tracks. Lads weekend away goes much better with a trackday in the middle.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Sunday 19th April 2015
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Track prep day today. The brakes were defiantly not good enough at Oulton so I took all of them out and deglazed them.
Should have done this before really, it makes a huge difference.



I know I have shown a pic of deglazing before, I do try not to repeat pics and bore you all. But people have been asking how quickly the Performance Friction pads wear. These have done four track days now. Pretty good I would say.
Oh and when I say the brakes were not good enough at Oulton, they were still much better than road brakes, just not as good as I know these can be. Flushed another brake fluid through for good measure.
Returned to the front end suspension work this afternoon. As you will remember (or read above) I fitted the front camber adjustment plates last time. But didn't get quite the measurement I wanted when on the geo ramp. So I will put a washer back between the hub and the coilover.



This gives a random and quite uneven side to side amount of negative camber. But I can fine tune it with the adjusters now.
I opened out the holes in the hubs to fit as long as possible bolts while I was at it.



Unfortunately during this work I could feel the N/S lower arm moving. When checked I found the center ball joint had play. I don't want a repeat of Donnington so ordered one on the spot. This is the opposite arm to the one that failed before so I guess I should have expected it to go sooner rather than later.



Waiting for the arm to be delivered gave me some unexpected time. So I pulled out the twin cone, which needed a good clean.



You can sort of see in the pic, but it really was filthy. Anyway scrubbed in the sink with K and N cleaner. Left to dry and oiled. Doesn't look to bad.



Still had some time on my hands so decided to work out why the fuel gauge was messing around. Pulled the two covers up, so much easier with no rear seats. Measured the resistance of both. The O/S had a nice 12ish Ohms while the N/S was open circuit. So I'll be looking for a N/S sensor at some point.



Finally with the arm delivered and bolted on I just had time for another geo. I'm setting the front Camber around 2.3 negative.
I have read a lot that 0 toe works well on e36 but I find it follows the road a lot. It had a lot of pos toe before I replaced the track rod ends (+30 mins on each side) it did seem to turn in well then so I'm compromising with about 7 mins on each side. The nice thing now it's all adjustable is I can play with it between each track day.



Ignore the red, it's just saying it not in manufacturers spec. All ready for some more track fun.

nickboazracing

130 posts

236 months

Monday 20th April 2015
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great up date! cheers.

longintheleg

551 posts

142 months

Monday 20th April 2015
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Well done on completing all the circuits and keep the updates coming.

Paul S4

1,181 posts

209 months

Monday 20th April 2015
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Followed this thread since the start with great interest....as I have a mint E36 318iS in which I have done a couple of track days at Croft. Although my car is fairly standard compared to yours ! Just has a Milltek exhaust/AMD remap, Schnitzer lowered springs and Eibach ARB kit front & rear.

I have recently had the front discs/pads replaced for standard Delphi parts ( I can get them at Trade price from a pal) and the car is used most days for commuting, so it has to be comfortable. Could I ask if the Performance Friction pads that you use are suitable for daily road use, or are they track specific? I can easily get them as I live in the North East.

Really like what you have done with your car by the way.