E36 cheap track day toy
Discussion
The last couple of months have been pretty hectic. Trying to do my full time job, spend time with the family. Baby is still under one. Whilst rebuilding the car. Something had to give, which was basically me working on the BMW after the family went to bed.
Let me tell you in January and February it’s pretty cold out in that garage at midnight. Also helped by the fact I have no power out there. I borrowed a bonnet mounting lamp from a mate and got on with it.
It has been a while since I had a chance to post, with a couple of other mechanical projects getting in the way.
The wife wasn’t really coping with her small car and the baby. So old 1.9tdi A4 purchased. Which obviously meant I spent a weekend doing, cambelt, water pump, thermostat and service.
I also took a bit of a gamble. I have wanted to stop driving the BMW to track days for a long time. But I haven’t been in a position to do much about it. Then this turned up.
It is also a bit of a long story, which I may start another thread on. But basically I bought the cheapest T5 transporter on eBay. Yeah I know, foolish. Anyway three weeks later it was a runner with an MOT.
All of which resulted in the BMW getting sidelined. That being said, it is back together and has done a track day!
Now everyone is stuck at home, it gives me a chance to update this. Hopefully people will have time to read it with all the new free time. I will finish the build write up and report back on the first test of this year later.
Let me tell you in January and February it’s pretty cold out in that garage at midnight. Also helped by the fact I have no power out there. I borrowed a bonnet mounting lamp from a mate and got on with it.
It has been a while since I had a chance to post, with a couple of other mechanical projects getting in the way.
The wife wasn’t really coping with her small car and the baby. So old 1.9tdi A4 purchased. Which obviously meant I spent a weekend doing, cambelt, water pump, thermostat and service.
I also took a bit of a gamble. I have wanted to stop driving the BMW to track days for a long time. But I haven’t been in a position to do much about it. Then this turned up.
It is also a bit of a long story, which I may start another thread on. But basically I bought the cheapest T5 transporter on eBay. Yeah I know, foolish. Anyway three weeks later it was a runner with an MOT.
All of which resulted in the BMW getting sidelined. That being said, it is back together and has done a track day!
Now everyone is stuck at home, it gives me a chance to update this. Hopefully people will have time to read it with all the new free time. I will finish the build write up and report back on the first test of this year later.
Hey mate, first post here.
I have read the entire length of your thread over the last few weeks, please keep up the good work posting!
Throughly enjoyed every well thought out, in depth post you've made since the word go. Picked up some mega tips for my 36s.
Cheers for the pleasure
Jack.
I have read the entire length of your thread over the last few weeks, please keep up the good work posting!
Throughly enjoyed every well thought out, in depth post you've made since the word go. Picked up some mega tips for my 36s.
Cheers for the pleasure
Jack.
The final bit of the rebuild was the oil cooler, which needed mounting to the new rad. I had a look around for the original mounts. Which for some bizarre reason were hundreds of pounds. The more M car bits I bolt on the more I am glad it isn’t an M3. Just like if it says Porsche on the box the price suddenly zooms up.
Anyway some studying of photos told me the brackets were simply steel angle with some holes in.
There is one threaded hole on one end and a flat plate on the other. Some aluminium sheet and angle from eBay. An hour or so with the saw, file, drill, taps and spanners.
Now the rad with oil cooler could now go on. Thankfully everything fitted without much modification.
I don’t often pay to get things done, particularly on this car. But I felt I really needed to rebuild it as good as new. Having finished painting the under bonnet area myself, I gave the never painted bumper and much stone chipped slam panel to our body shop.
Not cheap! But as usual they did a fantastic job. We really are very lucky to have such an excellent body shop on site. Unfortunately in the plans to redevelop the site they are going to be moved away.
The front cross member also received paint, but I’m not made of money. Hammerite on everything not visible.
I had started booking Trackdays back at Christmas. I can never resist Opentrack’s sale. As I had the car in pieces at Christmas I made the optimistic assumption that it would of coarse all be back together by March.
February pressed on, this is when I started working late nights in the garage.
Thankfully this time everything went back together. I had a small problem with the fuel rail hoses. When first starting the car they kept blowing off. I think the speed release clips have just been on and off once too many times. I looked up some new, but they were silly money too. So I simply measured the pipe and made up new hoses without any fittings. Slid on the pipes with hose clamps they worked fine. A sod to fit from above, but fine.
With just over a week before the first outing of the year, the bumper went back on.
Anyway some studying of photos told me the brackets were simply steel angle with some holes in.
There is one threaded hole on one end and a flat plate on the other. Some aluminium sheet and angle from eBay. An hour or so with the saw, file, drill, taps and spanners.
Now the rad with oil cooler could now go on. Thankfully everything fitted without much modification.
I don’t often pay to get things done, particularly on this car. But I felt I really needed to rebuild it as good as new. Having finished painting the under bonnet area myself, I gave the never painted bumper and much stone chipped slam panel to our body shop.
Not cheap! But as usual they did a fantastic job. We really are very lucky to have such an excellent body shop on site. Unfortunately in the plans to redevelop the site they are going to be moved away.
The front cross member also received paint, but I’m not made of money. Hammerite on everything not visible.
I had started booking Trackdays back at Christmas. I can never resist Opentrack’s sale. As I had the car in pieces at Christmas I made the optimistic assumption that it would of coarse all be back together by March.
February pressed on, this is when I started working late nights in the garage.
Thankfully this time everything went back together. I had a small problem with the fuel rail hoses. When first starting the car they kept blowing off. I think the speed release clips have just been on and off once too many times. I looked up some new, but they were silly money too. So I simply measured the pipe and made up new hoses without any fittings. Slid on the pipes with hose clamps they worked fine. A sod to fit from above, but fine.
With just over a week before the first outing of the year, the bumper went back on.
dont worry about the air duct for the alternator you dont run enough accessories to warrant it, for example the E46 with the M54 engine have this in place to assist cooling the alt gubbins So I suppose I better do an update. Hasn’t this year been rubbish! I did do the trackday at Bedford in April. Unfortunately the missfire was still present although temperatures were much more under control.
Then we went into lockdown. I had several track days booked including ending the summer with a weekend away at Cadwell. These were all cancelled.
Don’t get me wrong in the big scheme I’m very lucky, people have died and lost their jobs, but I was really looking forward to going back to Cadwell for the first time in over five years.
Anyway not to waste an opportunity I had a few months at home and decided the thing that needed the most work was the van. Don’t worry I won’t go into details, this isn’t a Van thread. Just to say the long term goal is to have this as a tow vehicle for the 3.
It started lockdown like this.
Kind of how it came, and ended lock down like this.
No it’s not finished but that was a lot of work, a huge amount of electrics you can’t really see. It is now a usable race support vehicle.
Eventually lockdown came to an end. Things started to open up and I managed to book a day at Snetterton in the mad rush of people trying to get out of the house.
So missfire, I’m pretty sure is electrical and not coils, plugs or injectors. Basically leaves wiring and control unit. So I found a second hand ignition loom and put it on.
The brakes were the only other thing I came away from Bedford wanting to improve. The car stops great, but the pedal travel is just too far.
After a lot of research and a couple of non starts I had to just pay the M tax. I looked into a variety of later 3 series and 5 series master cylinders and servos. The only real plug and play upgrade though is an e36 3.2 M3 set up. Very annoying as it was six times the price of all the 5 series stuff. Which had a bigger cylinder but wouldn’t fit the bulkhead or pedal.
Anyway the result was probably worth the money.
That being said I didn’t really get to try it much. The day before Snetterton my wife came down with something. It turned out not to be Covid, but we were in isolation while the track day happened.
A few more months pass and there really isn’t anything on the horizon. Then Javelin posted on Facebook, some new dates. I jumped on the website and managed to find one I could do. Annoyingly back at Bedford but beggars can’t be choosers.
We returned to Bedford last Monday and I’m pleased to say had a great day. The brakes were phenomenal! The missfire still present but it takes twice as long to start as it did before the loom and goes with a turn of the key.
Obviously I didn’t do any timing, but I did have the track app on my phone open. I have shaved 17.1 seconds off my best lap time over the old engine. The car feels electric. It is so usable, I remember why I love it.
Very little caught me on the day. The picture above is of a later M3 moving over for me. I’m not blowing my own trumpet, the guy was quick and I did let him past when he caught me on the straight. I was carrying so much more speed in the corners though, I pulled him back in and he let me past.
I think I can get on top of the missfire now. I will make a heatsheild to go under the ignition loom and probably wrap it in some reflective stuff.
Now cleaned and tucked back under her sheet we will see the winter out. I might have started to research stand alone engine control units.
Next year I will have owned the old girl for a decade and I’m still enjoying the hell out of her.
Then we went into lockdown. I had several track days booked including ending the summer with a weekend away at Cadwell. These were all cancelled.
Don’t get me wrong in the big scheme I’m very lucky, people have died and lost their jobs, but I was really looking forward to going back to Cadwell for the first time in over five years.
Anyway not to waste an opportunity I had a few months at home and decided the thing that needed the most work was the van. Don’t worry I won’t go into details, this isn’t a Van thread. Just to say the long term goal is to have this as a tow vehicle for the 3.
It started lockdown like this.
Kind of how it came, and ended lock down like this.
No it’s not finished but that was a lot of work, a huge amount of electrics you can’t really see. It is now a usable race support vehicle.
Eventually lockdown came to an end. Things started to open up and I managed to book a day at Snetterton in the mad rush of people trying to get out of the house.
So missfire, I’m pretty sure is electrical and not coils, plugs or injectors. Basically leaves wiring and control unit. So I found a second hand ignition loom and put it on.
The brakes were the only other thing I came away from Bedford wanting to improve. The car stops great, but the pedal travel is just too far.
After a lot of research and a couple of non starts I had to just pay the M tax. I looked into a variety of later 3 series and 5 series master cylinders and servos. The only real plug and play upgrade though is an e36 3.2 M3 set up. Very annoying as it was six times the price of all the 5 series stuff. Which had a bigger cylinder but wouldn’t fit the bulkhead or pedal.
Anyway the result was probably worth the money.
That being said I didn’t really get to try it much. The day before Snetterton my wife came down with something. It turned out not to be Covid, but we were in isolation while the track day happened.
A few more months pass and there really isn’t anything on the horizon. Then Javelin posted on Facebook, some new dates. I jumped on the website and managed to find one I could do. Annoyingly back at Bedford but beggars can’t be choosers.
We returned to Bedford last Monday and I’m pleased to say had a great day. The brakes were phenomenal! The missfire still present but it takes twice as long to start as it did before the loom and goes with a turn of the key.
Obviously I didn’t do any timing, but I did have the track app on my phone open. I have shaved 17.1 seconds off my best lap time over the old engine. The car feels electric. It is so usable, I remember why I love it.
Very little caught me on the day. The picture above is of a later M3 moving over for me. I’m not blowing my own trumpet, the guy was quick and I did let him past when he caught me on the straight. I was carrying so much more speed in the corners though, I pulled him back in and he let me past.
I think I can get on top of the missfire now. I will make a heatsheild to go under the ignition loom and probably wrap it in some reflective stuff.
Now cleaned and tucked back under her sheet we will see the winter out. I might have started to research stand alone engine control units.
Next year I will have owned the old girl for a decade and I’m still enjoying the hell out of her.
Happy new year again everyone.
A very slow year for obvious reasons last year. I’m hoping this year will see some more action. I am trying to get back into racing since work pulled the plug on the Boxster program at the end of 2019. It has been really tempting to run the BMW in the track day championship or something similar.
I think I would very quickly destroy what I have spent ten years building though. The joy of track days for me, is you can do a few laps and stop. Let everything cool down and it all lasts a lot longer. So I may well build something else. I have started a dedicated Instagram page hoping to build up a following to approach sponsors with later this year. @TeamHamsterRacing if you are interested.
I have booked a day at Snetterton in the boxing day sale again. Hopefully this year we will be able to do it.
A very slow year for obvious reasons last year. I’m hoping this year will see some more action. I am trying to get back into racing since work pulled the plug on the Boxster program at the end of 2019. It has been really tempting to run the BMW in the track day championship or something similar.
I think I would very quickly destroy what I have spent ten years building though. The joy of track days for me, is you can do a few laps and stop. Let everything cool down and it all lasts a lot longer. So I may well build something else. I have started a dedicated Instagram page hoping to build up a following to approach sponsors with later this year. @TeamHamsterRacing if you are interested.
I have booked a day at Snetterton in the boxing day sale again. Hopefully this year we will be able to do it.
Edited by Hamster69 on Friday 22 January 20:04
Happy Easter!
I’ll keep posting even if it is only a couple of times a year.
In preparation for Snetterton I made and fitted a heatsheild.
As I may have mentioned the missfire was better last time out, but still happened occasionally. So to try and protect the coil loom from heat I made the shield.
Monday came and went. Again we had a blast, again the missfire occurred. But even less this time. With ignition off on fixing it. I’m starting to think now it’s just too rich. I really do need to get a stand alone ECU on there.
She really was fun though.
I have decided to enter Team Hamster Racing into the 116 Trophy. Which means building another BMW. We are growing at a pace. Please do check out our Instagram
I’ll keep posting even if it is only a couple of times a year.
In preparation for Snetterton I made and fitted a heatsheild.
As I may have mentioned the missfire was better last time out, but still happened occasionally. So to try and protect the coil loom from heat I made the shield.
Monday came and went. Again we had a blast, again the missfire occurred. But even less this time. With ignition off on fixing it. I’m starting to think now it’s just too rich. I really do need to get a stand alone ECU on there.
She really was fun though.
I have decided to enter Team Hamster Racing into the 116 Trophy. Which means building another BMW. We are growing at a pace. Please do check out our Instagram
Edited by Hamster69 on Monday 7th June 00:35
Well the car is back out again, time for one more local track day at Bedford. I do have Cadwell Park booked again this year. Hopefully this time it won’t get cancelled.
Quick polish and she is ready to go. Note the new stickers as I have got sponsors in place for the 116 race car (hiding in the garage). Rymax lubricants have started a supply sponsorship deal with me and you can get 15% off any of their products with the discount code Hamster15. Check them out, you may be pleasantly surprised. Rymax Lubricants UK
Thank you to those of you who have started to follow Team Hamster Racing on Social media. It all helps us approach sponsors. I have started a YouTube channel as well.
After considerable interest when I mentioned the e36 in the first video, I have now done a video on it. YouTube
Quick polish and she is ready to go. Note the new stickers as I have got sponsors in place for the 116 race car (hiding in the garage). Rymax lubricants have started a supply sponsorship deal with me and you can get 15% off any of their products with the discount code Hamster15. Check them out, you may be pleasantly surprised. Rymax Lubricants UK
Thank you to those of you who have started to follow Team Hamster Racing on Social media. It all helps us approach sponsors. I have started a YouTube channel as well.
After considerable interest when I mentioned the e36 in the first video, I have now done a video on it. YouTube
This last year has flown by. With setting up my own company and building the race car I’m afraid the e36 has been on the back burner.
As you can see we got there with the race car, so hopefully as things progress there may be time to get the old girl out.
Where did I leave off last time? Just about to head off to Cadwell Park.
What a great track! Only my second time at the “English Nurburgring” I remember now why I loved it so much.
The day was not without problems though. The intermittent misfire raised it head again. We could get about two laps in then lose a cylinder. It has to have something to do with high revs and or high engine temperature. You can drive the car for hours on the road with no issues at all. It still feels electrical, almost like cylinder shut down. Although the original ecu is to basic to have that.
To that point when we got home I decided the car wouldn’t come out again until it had a stand alone ecu. This engine is capable of so much more than what it’s doing.
As you can see we got there with the race car, so hopefully as things progress there may be time to get the old girl out.
Where did I leave off last time? Just about to head off to Cadwell Park.
What a great track! Only my second time at the “English Nurburgring” I remember now why I loved it so much.
The day was not without problems though. The intermittent misfire raised it head again. We could get about two laps in then lose a cylinder. It has to have something to do with high revs and or high engine temperature. You can drive the car for hours on the road with no issues at all. It still feels electrical, almost like cylinder shut down. Although the original ecu is to basic to have that.
To that point when we got home I decided the car wouldn’t come out again until it had a stand alone ecu. This engine is capable of so much more than what it’s doing.
Well that leads me on neatly to what I did next.
As you say it could have been the control unit causing the misfire, also I always wanted to get the engine properly mapped. So Stand alone ECU fitted with internal map sensor and wideband O2.
276hp was a good 16 more than I had ever expected. Annoyingly though in the middle of the mapping the misfire came back.
Very annoying as I wanted to use the 3 as well as the 1 the following week at Donington for our first corporate event.
We took both cars, but it was clear the 3 still wasn’t happy and it got sidelined for the car that was working faultlessly.
Time for another think.
As you say it could have been the control unit causing the misfire, also I always wanted to get the engine properly mapped. So Stand alone ECU fitted with internal map sensor and wideband O2.
276hp was a good 16 more than I had ever expected. Annoyingly though in the middle of the mapping the misfire came back.
Very annoying as I wanted to use the 3 as well as the 1 the following week at Donington for our first corporate event.
We took both cars, but it was clear the 3 still wasn’t happy and it got sidelined for the car that was working faultlessly.
Time for another think.
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