E36 318i Saloon Project

[Sammo123]

Afternoon,

I picked this up yesterday in Cambridge. It's a 1998 318i SE Saloon. I sold my 318i SE Auto Touring yesterday too so I was all clear to pick this one up.





It's in reasonable condition with absolutely no rust anywhere, which makes it an ideal starting point. It has been lowered with a cheap and nasty set of lowering springs. The ride is absolutely appalling and I am tempted to chuck a set of standard springs back on it for now! The plan is to use my 328i Coupe that's sitting on my driveway as a donor car for this. I have absolutely no love for the Coupe shape hence picking this up instead.

Here is the donor coupe. It's an auto so I have already bought a manual gearbox and prop and I'm picking up an M20 flywheel next weekend so I don't have to bother with a DMF.





The Saloon is my daily driver for now, however I am starting a new job next month and I can walk to work then so I might accidentally start making this a bit more track focussed

[Sammo123]

I managed to sell another car of mine today so it has left me with £500 to spend on this. I am picking up the manual gearbox to go with the 328 engine and the M20 flywheel is in the post at this very moment. Now I don't know where my £500 is best spent. I could pick up a half decent set of coilovers or a full polybush set or I could save it to have a decent exhaust made for the car once the engine is in? Help

[Sammo123]

Ruskie said:

Why not just buy a manual saloon to start with? A 328i as well!!

If you saw how much I was picking up these cars you would understand why I'm doing it this way. Both of these cars are absolutely rock solid, with no rust! Every single 328i I have looked at has been rusty so this seemed like the best option.

[Sammo123]

AM7 said:

This saddens me as that coupe is all I want! It's turning out rather difficult to find a clean 328i coupe in a decent colour

However your plan does sound interesting, especially the flyhweel, which is something I also plan to do on my future E36. Will you be using a standard M20 clutch or an uprated one, given the M52B28 produces quite a bit more power than the old M20s? In relation to the £500, I really don't know as it appears to be a bit of an "in the middle" budget, not quite enough for top spec wheels/tyres or coilovers but definitely above your bargain stuff..

Will follow with interest!


ETA: As above, it would've been far easier to buy a manual 328i saloon to start with

I have had the coupe advertised for sale (not on here I hasten to add) for a couple of months at a very low price and not had any interest at all! So now it's being broken for parts.

I will use a standard M20 clutch for now as this engine won't have anything done to it. I will build a 3.0 lump up later this year and then I will definitely need a heavier duty clutch.

[Sammo123]

Ok, a quick update for those that are interested. I collected the manual gearbox last week and while I was there I managed to pick up some M3 saloon door trims too.

Now the original plan was to just put the 2.8 from the coupe straight into this, however I managed to get myself an M54B30 from the later E46 330i yesterday which can be used as a donor to my M52B28 to create a 3.0 stroker that will bolt straight in

I am starting a new job at the start of March and it's close enough that I can walk to work so I'm thinking I will just pull the saloon off the road and build up the 3.0 to go straight in

[Sammo123]

The Nur said:

What sort of condition is the coupe shell in?

I may be interested.

Pretty solid. Couple of small stone chips above the windscreen that have started to rust and the battery compartment has a bit of a hole that I poked.

The shell will be pretty bare when I've finished with it so will need to be dragged or lifted onto a trailer.

[Sammo123]

I have a week off starting the 23rd Feb and aim to have everything off that I need by the 27th. I am happy for the shell to sit there for a couple more days and then it will be getting taken away.

[Sammo123]

Having recently started a new job I've had no time to do anything! I decided today I just had to do something to the car, no matter how small or insignificant!

About 5 years ago I bought an OMP dished wheel for my Mk1 Golf. I never got round to fitting it and it's been sitting in the loft since then. I bought a boss kit for the BMW a while ago too so decided I was going to fit that today. It took about 45 mins in total and I'm very happy with how the new wheel feels! So much nicer than the BMW wheel!

Have a pic

[Sammo123]

justanother5tar said:

That tartan A pillar looks ace.

Hehe the previous owner used picnic blankets to recover the headlining. The A pillars are the only recently bits. The rest of it looks st!

[Sammo123]

Ok, another quick update. I have picked up a complete M50b25 engine this morning for pennies so that is going to be used to build the stroker lump and I will fit the m52b28 into the Saloon for now. The poor little 318 lump has all but given up the ghost recently and is just a nightmare to drive now. The sooner I can get another engine in there the better.

Oh I also whacked the front bumper into the curb at work yesterday when parking and cracked it so need to keep an eye out for another front bumper now too!