3rd Time Lucky; E36 M3 Evolution Saloon

3rd Time Lucky; E36 M3 Evolution Saloon

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TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Monday 8th June 2015
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Feels a bit like Groundhog Day in here eh? wobble

After two false starts now with a 328i and a 3.0 M3, I have picked up an E36 M3 Evo in Estoril Blue. It's great. But as always, there are issues. That's why it wasn't massively expensive. It does of course mean I'm only marginally better off than I was with the 3.0! I'm currently trying to sell that after being let down by the first winning bidder frown

I don't have any great photos yet, but this is the car:


I originally thought it was all sorted underneath as three of the jacking points look to have been welded up and there's underseal everywhere. Unfortunately it is a bodge up as I have now managed to find the first bit of rusty floor:


The exterior looks pretty good - it's obviously had a blow over in the past. The wheels look pretty good, despite a missing centre badge or two but the budget tyres won't be on long. I may do one track day on them to destroy them and then swap them out.


I've got straight to work as per, and have done a few jobs already. Added some front undertray/air deflector bits:






I swapped the old standard air box out for the Dave F induction kit from the 3.0:






I also managed to swap the standard Evo backbox out for the Scorpion from the 3.0. It started off in a bit of a state, but it shined up real nice wink:




Side by side with the standard Evo item. The Scorpion weighs around half as much!:


Looks nice:


I have a set of HSD MonoPro coilovers lurking in here. They were a bargain at £450 with 2.5k miles on them:


I'm very focused with this one. I've sounded out a few places with regards to a few jobs, namely the rust, fitting Powerflex subframe bushes and setting up the coilovers and I think I'll be paying Track Torque a visit at Tockwith. Not a million miles from me, which is great.

I also have a Z3 steering rack for this one and I plan to go Powerflex black all round. I have certainly had a few setbacks and my impulsive nature hasn't helped, but I feel like I know exactly what needs doing on this and how to achieve it. Finding proper rust was a real blow if I'm honest, but it's a bloody M3 Evo Saloon and I can't wait to start driving the bugger.

So, 3rd time lucky..... thumbup

TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Wednesday 10th June 2015
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Small update before I go away for the rest of the week.

These arrived:


Fitted a little filter onto the intake pipe for the secondary air pump. The Dave F heatshield has a hole already in the metal, and the previous owner had opened up the hole a bit anyway, so it made sense to me to rig this up like this and fill the hole rather than leave it open, letting hot air through:









Will hopefully fit the HSD's when I return and take it up to get the rust looked at.....

TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Thursday 18th June 2015
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Not much more to report in the way of progress yet, but I did manage to get the new dust seal on the back of the wheel bearing I replaced on the old car, ready for its collection this weekend. I do hope this buyer doesn't let me down as I really need the drive space.... Plus the cash will go to helping get any welding done on this one.

I must admit, after having realised that both rear jacking points have been done and the bit I thought was a hole covered up is actually where someone has tried to mitigate the rubber grommet coming out, I felt a bit sad that I'd given up on it and not continued.

But the chance to buy an Evo in saloon form was just too much to pass up. I ordered some more service items today, in addition to buying some spark plugs from an M3Cutters member yesterday for just £35 delivered.

Things I've got ordered but have yet to receive:
Plugs
Oil
Oil Filter
Fuel filter
OMP flat bottom 350mm steering wheel - I am excited about this and hope I haven't gone too big. Research says that the standard wheel is 370mm though so it should be just right hopefully.
Powerflex Black Front wishbone bushes
Powerflex Black rear trailing arm bushes

Things I have that need fitting:
Z3 steering rack
Goodyear Eagle F1 rear tyres
Goodridge braided hoses - possibly not the right ones as they list a separate model number for M3's but other manufacturers produce 6 hose kits for all E36's
HSD Monopro coilovers
Z3 rear strut reinforcement plates

So a fair bit to be getting on with. Hopefully I can update more soon. I do hope that I can get the rust looked at/welding done soon.

M3John

5,974 posts

218 months

Friday 19th June 2015
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When i changed my standard back box to a Scorpion system i couldn't get over how much the original unit weighed !!

TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Friday 19th June 2015
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Yeah it's a bloody nightmare to put one back on!

I think they must be filled with cement!

TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Sunday 21st June 2015
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Yay!






TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Monday 29th June 2015
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Bit of progress made this weekend, although not as much as I had hoped.

First up, I fitted the new bonnet struts - no more wooden bonnet prop!:




Annoyingly, the tops of these struts from ECP are a slightly different shape to the OEM units, so the cable tidy that clips to one of them doesn't fit perfectly at the top. Surprisingly the old ones came off with very little effort required. The last time I did this it was a real battle, so that was a nice surprise.

Unfortunately the rest of my weekend wasn't going to go that smoothly....

Got under the car and fitted the X-brace I have had in the garage seemingly forever. I used new bolts for this:




After that I moved onto the front coilovers. Having never fitted coilovers before, I took my time to understand how everything worked/adjusted then set about the task.

Removed a very crusty old shock first:


With a 5mm spacer up front, they cleared but only by a milimetre or so.:


I felt this was too close and tried the 15mm spacers I had in reserve. I am now wondering whether I should try to get some 12mm items due to how close this puts the wheel to the arch:


I got the wheel sitting like so:




This looks like it might be an OK ride height at the front although I would like it a touch higher. My main issue is that I have had to make the driver side coilover about 12mm higher than the passenger side one just to get the same ride height on both sides. I'm quite concerned about this. I can't see how or why that would be the case. It also means that the ARB is almost touching the wishbone because on the side that's 12mm lower there's not really any way of raising the drop link bracket any further.

I'm hoping that when I get it to the place that will do all the setup and geo they can assist with this, but I can't help worry that something is wrong somewhere.....

Edited by TroubledSoul on Sunday 31st January 23:03

Gooly

965 posts

147 months

Tuesday 30th June 2015
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All E36s have that. The engine is canted over to the right, plus you have the steering column and driver on RHD cars which means the right side is far heavier and sits lower on symetrically adjusted coilovers. I have my drivers side wound 20mm higher than the passengers and it sits just about level now.

Chunkychucky

5,942 posts

168 months

Tuesday 30th June 2015
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Nice one OP, look forward to seeing the progress! I live in York so will keep an eye out for it locally thumbup

TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Tuesday 30th June 2015
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Cheers guys! Thanks for that Gooly, that's really good to know. I am a bit worried that I don't have much leeway on that side for raising the car slightly, which I would like to do.

Hoping to get it up to Tockwith in a month for the welding and setup.

TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Tuesday 7th July 2015
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Slowww progress after yet another weekend away!

I haven't finished fettling and fitting the coilovers yet but I hope to do so tonight or tomorrow night. Failing that (I'm not hardcore enough for getting soaked every night these days!) I'll do it this weekend as I have a free one coming up finally.

But yesterday I managed to fit the new steering wheel. Unfortunately the slip ring from the OEM wheel didn't line up 100%, so I could only attach it with one screw.

I don't believe it will cause a problem, but it was quite annoying.

I tried to fit the wheel once already, but found the original boss I had bought was for the older, non airbag equipped cars, and didn't have the slip ring fitting or airbag resistor.

Original wheel sans airbag:


Momo boss with fitting for slip ring:




OMP wheel with airbag resistor fitted:


Bit of spade connector butchering for the horn push:


Wheel fitted!:


So yeah, only a small job but another job done nonetheless!



TheAngryDog

12,394 posts

208 months

Tuesday 7th July 2015
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Nice work OP, coming along nicely.

Can't say that I like the steering wheel I'm afraid, but its not my car smile

TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Tuesday 7th July 2015
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To be honest, it wasn't very expensive, and the flat bottomed bit is important because my Mrs is a little taller than me, thus has longer legs! Once we have fixed buckets in there, this should make it a touch more comfortable for her when sitting in the same place I do.

I may well buy a nicer wheel in the future, but this is a massive improvement on the huge stock wheel.

TheAngryDog

12,394 posts

208 months

Tuesday 7th July 2015
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TroubledSoul said:
To be honest, it wasn't very expensive, and the flat bottomed bit is important because my Mrs is a little taller than me, thus has longer legs! Once we have fixed buckets in there, this should make it a touch more comfortable for her when sitting in the same place I do.

I may well buy a nicer wheel in the future, but this is a massive improvement on the huge stock wheel.
I think its the centre part, it think being shiny makes it stand out too much?

TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Tuesday 7th July 2015
quotequote all
Maybe so.... I'm happy enough for the foreseeable though.

I am actually thinking about going back to the 5mm spacers on the front. Although it's close, the wheel does still clear the strut.

I'm a bit unhappy with how close to the arch the 15mm spacer puts the front wheels I think.

TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Thursday 9th July 2015
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I am still agonising over whether to change the spacers.....

My options appear to be; for the 5mm and live with a very tiny amount of clearance or get some 12mm items (I'm told anything less will not be hub centric) and spend more money to bring the wheels back in by 3mm....

Cant help but wonder if I'm being silly but they just seem too far out to me.

I really want to make some progress this weekend and that means as a minimum getting those coilovers adjusted to a reasonable level and the rears on, the two sets of bushes done and possibly the braided brake hoses on.

I'm determined to push this forward now because I'm going out of my mind not being able to get on track with it....

marky911

4,417 posts

218 months

Thursday 9th July 2015
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Do you not know a friendly engineer who can turn you 3mm of the 15mm ones? Job jobbed.

Looking good though. Apart from that bloody steering wheel. tongue out If it serves a purpose though for your other half then fair do's.

TroubledSoul

Original Poster:

4,589 posts

193 months

Thursday 9th July 2015
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No I don't but that would certainly be handy!

I'm surprised the bloody wheel is so contentious! laugh

marky911

4,417 posts

218 months

Thursday 9th July 2015
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I'd have had a look at them for you but I'm a miller and that's really a turning job (although I could probably get one of the lads to do them) but also I'm up north so by the time you pay to post them etc you'll be able to pay someone down there for less.
You just need to pop into a small company. A big one won't be interested. Ask around on forums. A lot of people have a small lathe in their garage. Kit car guys in particular.

I think most people stick with standard or motorsport steering wheels. That's a bit of in between and maybe a bit bling but it's only a steering wheel, so I wouldn't worry.
As many of us were told when we were young "As long as you like it son. Just ignore the mickey-takers". hehe
Damn you reversible, inside out jacket.

DanielJames

7,543 posts

167 months

Friday 10th July 2015
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Wow that wheel, I can't believe someone would actually buy that.

Anyway nice build other than that!