Just starting out with an E46 330ci budget track car build
Discussion
Thanks for all the comments everyone.
So onto the Oulton Park report from Saturday the 10th of this month. I’ve never driven around Oulton Park before, I’ve been there and spectated many many times but have never driven on the circuit. This was only my second track day (but the first one in my own car) so to say I was a little bit apprehensive would be a massive understatement, I was quite nervous for some reason.
We’re only coming from Manchester so I met up with a friend in his Clio turbo and also met my pal who owns the R53 in his family wagon and we set off for Oulton at 6:30 AM. There was light rain all the way there, nothing major but the ground definitely wasn’t dry at all. As we arrived we got to our garage and got setup. I’m a mechanic so went completely overkill on tools that I needed to bring and brought a whole host of things, got those unloaded and went off for a brew and to attend the briefing.
Then came the time for sighting laps, I got held in the paddock as they did the sighting laps in two small sessions so my nerves where getting even worse by now. Then it came to going out on sighting laps, having never driven Oulton on thing I realised initially is just how wide the track actually is. Second thing I realised is just how steep it is going down into cascades and the third thing I realised is just how slippery it was on cold Nankang NS2R tyres, which resulted in a few losses of traction on the sighting laps but it was good to get out there and have a look at the circuit for myself.
Once the sighting laps where done I can back in, checked all the torques and temperatures and then it was time to be off out on my own. The track was very wet in the morning and after around 10 laps on my own and building confidence I managed to spin the car coming out of knickerbrook, it stepped out slightly one way, I overcorrected it and completely lost the back going the other way. I sheepishly made my way back to the pits with confidence very dented indeed. I struggled with grip coming out of kncikerbrook all morning so I don’t know whether something was down at this point in the circuit because there was a lot of tyre tracks heading off into the grass here.
So afternoon came and I had my tuition at 2PM with the same fella who gave me tuition at Anglesey, Dave I think he’s called, really nice guy and extremely helpful, he even commented on how well the car handles which was nice to hear. The track had dried out by this point so I was really gaining confidence in the car and managed to do a timed lap of 2:24, timed by a friend on the pit wall, I have no idea whether this is good or bad but I was happy with my efforts.
Anyway onto some pictures from the day,
So onto the Oulton Park report from Saturday the 10th of this month. I’ve never driven around Oulton Park before, I’ve been there and spectated many many times but have never driven on the circuit. This was only my second track day (but the first one in my own car) so to say I was a little bit apprehensive would be a massive understatement, I was quite nervous for some reason.
We’re only coming from Manchester so I met up with a friend in his Clio turbo and also met my pal who owns the R53 in his family wagon and we set off for Oulton at 6:30 AM. There was light rain all the way there, nothing major but the ground definitely wasn’t dry at all. As we arrived we got to our garage and got setup. I’m a mechanic so went completely overkill on tools that I needed to bring and brought a whole host of things, got those unloaded and went off for a brew and to attend the briefing.
Then came the time for sighting laps, I got held in the paddock as they did the sighting laps in two small sessions so my nerves where getting even worse by now. Then it came to going out on sighting laps, having never driven Oulton on thing I realised initially is just how wide the track actually is. Second thing I realised is just how steep it is going down into cascades and the third thing I realised is just how slippery it was on cold Nankang NS2R tyres, which resulted in a few losses of traction on the sighting laps but it was good to get out there and have a look at the circuit for myself.
Once the sighting laps where done I can back in, checked all the torques and temperatures and then it was time to be off out on my own. The track was very wet in the morning and after around 10 laps on my own and building confidence I managed to spin the car coming out of knickerbrook, it stepped out slightly one way, I overcorrected it and completely lost the back going the other way. I sheepishly made my way back to the pits with confidence very dented indeed. I struggled with grip coming out of kncikerbrook all morning so I don’t know whether something was down at this point in the circuit because there was a lot of tyre tracks heading off into the grass here.
So afternoon came and I had my tuition at 2PM with the same fella who gave me tuition at Anglesey, Dave I think he’s called, really nice guy and extremely helpful, he even commented on how well the car handles which was nice to hear. The track had dried out by this point so I was really gaining confidence in the car and managed to do a timed lap of 2:24, timed by a friend on the pit wall, I have no idea whether this is good or bad but I was happy with my efforts.
Anyway onto some pictures from the day,
Edited by Andrew-b90y3 on Wednesday 14th November 10:09
All in all it was an extremely good and day and so much fun. The £147 E36 held its own extremely well. Things to note with the car was that after 5 or 6 laps I was getting quite a bad pedal vibration which was shuddering through the car, I’m putting this down to the rear brakes overheating because they’re not great at all and desperately need renewing. The Nankangs are extremely slippery when it’s wet on track, they’re ok but always feel on the limit of available grip. The front brakes are awesome, they stop the car so quickly and can be stamped on extremely late into a corner and still get he car slowed down. The 2.0 M52 redlines at 7000RPM and it was happy to do this all day with the temperature gauge not even moving from halfway mark.
There’s still 100kilos, maybe more to come out of the car yet in weight, I think once this has been completed and the various handling mods done etc it should be quite a capable car and very good fun.
I know I bang on about this but tuition makes such a difference to lap times that I can’t revommend it enough to anybody. Anyway my benchmark is a 2:24 for the future.
Lastly the most important picture from the day,
Thanks for reading everyone.
There’s still 100kilos, maybe more to come out of the car yet in weight, I think once this has been completed and the various handling mods done etc it should be quite a capable car and very good fun.
I know I bang on about this but tuition makes such a difference to lap times that I can’t revommend it enough to anybody. Anyway my benchmark is a 2:24 for the future.
Lastly the most important picture from the day,
Thanks for reading everyone.
Humour said:
Some of this info isnt quite accurate.
Typically, when doing the e46 330 brake upgrade the master cylinder employed to reduce pedal travel is the e36 M3 3.2/M50B32 model. I happen to have one detached from the servo that is surplus now we have gone servoless setup, if interested OP.
The other correction is, e46 325/328 use the same Calipers as the e36, look it up on real oem. Where they differ is the e46 cars mount the caliper on a different carrier at the rear to accommodate a larger disc diameter. Hence why carriers are in demand.
With regards to your qestion to me OP, yes top speed will be reduced by increasing your final drive, these are the things to consider:
1. OEM diffs are geared for well beyond 160mph, great for autobahn, but is it great for track?
2. Track driving is the majority of the time utilising two states, either accellerating, or decellerating.
3. A higher ratio diff will give a gain on accelleration, at the expense of top speed, but at most uk tracks our e36 328 with a 3.23 diff cannot exceed 140mph, worse with the oem 2.93 which wouldnt even reach 125mph on the same straight, so little point in having a theoretical gear speed of 160+mph if you cant use it. Considering you are running a 2 litre it will be even worst in your case.
4. The effect of a high ratio diff is like increasing power and torque throughout all gears. A similar effect can be gained but less so, by reducing wheel and tyre size!
5. We are cruising at 3krpm at 70mph in 5th (ZF box) with the 3.23 diff running oem wheels and tyre sizes, but the car is track only use, so that is acceptable to get to and from track, the benefits on track far outweigh the reduced cruising speed.
Thank you for your informative reply Humour as always. I’m just trying to get my head around this diff question I’ve posed!Typically, when doing the e46 330 brake upgrade the master cylinder employed to reduce pedal travel is the e36 M3 3.2/M50B32 model. I happen to have one detached from the servo that is surplus now we have gone servoless setup, if interested OP.
The other correction is, e46 325/328 use the same Calipers as the e36, look it up on real oem. Where they differ is the e46 cars mount the caliper on a different carrier at the rear to accommodate a larger disc diameter. Hence why carriers are in demand.
With regards to your qestion to me OP, yes top speed will be reduced by increasing your final drive, these are the things to consider:
1. OEM diffs are geared for well beyond 160mph, great for autobahn, but is it great for track?
2. Track driving is the majority of the time utilising two states, either accellerating, or decellerating.
3. A higher ratio diff will give a gain on accelleration, at the expense of top speed, but at most uk tracks our e36 328 with a 3.23 diff cannot exceed 140mph, worse with the oem 2.93 which wouldnt even reach 125mph on the same straight, so little point in having a theoretical gear speed of 160+mph if you cant use it. Considering you are running a 2 litre it will be even worst in your case.
4. The effect of a high ratio diff is like increasing power and torque throughout all gears. A similar effect can be gained but less so, by reducing wheel and tyre size!
5. We are cruising at 3krpm at 70mph in 5th (ZF box) with the 3.23 diff running oem wheels and tyre sizes, but the car is track only use, so that is acceptable to get to and from track, the benefits on track far outweigh the reduced cruising speed.
I’ve done some research today and I can confirm that you’re correct and my car currently has a 3.45 ratio diff fitted (764) ending part number. So this diff is a long ratio diff and would give a top speed of 160mph + this prolonging the acceleration through all gears, which in a 2.0 car with 150bhp is quite pointless really.
So further research and reading and taking on board what you have said means that I need to acquire a 2.93 ratio diff from a non lsd 328i? (I won’t be able to afford an lsd unfortunately) Which will give me a much lower theoretical top speed but greater acceleration which will suit my car much more than the longer ratio diff currently fitted?
In your knowledge would the 328 diff be a straight swap into my 320?
Cheers
Andy
Ok so there’s been a rather big update with this..... I’m now the proud owner of an E46 330CI track car. I absolutely love the E36 but the chance to own the E46 came up and I couldn’t really say no, it cost just a touch over what I paid for the E36 and really is a lovely car.
The spec is as follows:
2004 E46 330CI Coupe
6 speed manual
234bhp
188,500 miles
Full electric leather
MV2’s
TV
Nav
Bluetooth
Computer
Grey
Phone cradle etc
This is still going to be a budget thread but the plans for the car have changed slightly. I’m going to be building it to a clubsport spec because of the extra power I can afford to leave the carpets and front door cards in etc as I don’t have to save anywhere near as much weight. I’m going to strip the back completely and may carpet it or may just leave it uncarpeted and have a go at painting it. Here’s some pictures of the old girl .....
The spec is as follows:
2004 E46 330CI Coupe
6 speed manual
234bhp
188,500 miles
Full electric leather
MV2’s
TV
Nav
Bluetooth
Computer
Grey
Phone cradle etc
This is still going to be a budget thread but the plans for the car have changed slightly. I’m going to be building it to a clubsport spec because of the extra power I can afford to leave the carpets and front door cards in etc as I don’t have to save anywhere near as much weight. I’m going to strip the back completely and may carpet it or may just leave it uncarpeted and have a go at painting it. Here’s some pictures of the old girl .....
As you can see it’s very very dirty. Some kind person has also walked on the roof and kicked off the shark fin aerial by the looks of things (I found this in the glovebox which was a result)!! I’ve spoken to the dent fella that we have at work and he reckons that he can make something of the roof so happy days, wheel arches are bubbling a bit but not bothered. The positives are that all the brakes are pretty much brand new, it runs like a dream and pulls extremely well, it feels so powerful compared to the E36 that when I get round to doing a track day in it it will definitely be an experience for me anyway.
I gave it a bit of a clean the other morning and it’s looking better already ....
Imminent things to do to her are both back tyres are on 2mm and the MOT is due this week so these arrived at work today,
People may laugh because these are Landsails but they have B ratings in both the wet and the dry and the MV2’s will be used to drive the car to and from track days and for the occasional use as wets so these will do just fine for me, only £62.50 each too. The rocker cover gasket is weeping slightly onto the exhaust manifold so that needs doing. Both number plate lights have failed and so I’ve ordered some led bulbs with holders from eBay. The crankcase breather valve is pretty much blocked solid so this needs to be changed along with new inlet manifold gasket etc.
Modifications will be:
Coilovers (JOM NJT extreme possibly)
Buckets (Corbeau clubsports I hope)
Braided hoses (already have the fronts)
Full polybush
Front camber plates
Rear camber arms
Geo (I can do this myself)
17” Team Dynamics Imolas (already have)
Nankang NS2R (already have)
Full service
Refurbished front calipers (already have)
Pagid RS29 Front pads (already have)
Potentially sort the rust in the future
Go and enjoy it!!
I’ll update as I go along! Thanks for reading folks!!
I gave it a bit of a clean the other morning and it’s looking better already ....
Imminent things to do to her are both back tyres are on 2mm and the MOT is due this week so these arrived at work today,
People may laugh because these are Landsails but they have B ratings in both the wet and the dry and the MV2’s will be used to drive the car to and from track days and for the occasional use as wets so these will do just fine for me, only £62.50 each too. The rocker cover gasket is weeping slightly onto the exhaust manifold so that needs doing. Both number plate lights have failed and so I’ve ordered some led bulbs with holders from eBay. The crankcase breather valve is pretty much blocked solid so this needs to be changed along with new inlet manifold gasket etc.
Modifications will be:
Coilovers (JOM NJT extreme possibly)
Buckets (Corbeau clubsports I hope)
Braided hoses (already have the fronts)
Full polybush
Front camber plates
Rear camber arms
Geo (I can do this myself)
17” Team Dynamics Imolas (already have)
Nankang NS2R (already have)
Full service
Refurbished front calipers (already have)
Pagid RS29 Front pads (already have)
Potentially sort the rust in the future
Go and enjoy it!!
I’ll update as I go along! Thanks for reading folks!!
JB! said:
Andrew-b90y3 said:
Modifications will be:
Coilovers (JOM NJT extreme possibly)
Buckets (Corbeau clubsports I hope)
Braided hoses (already have the fronts)
Full polybush
Front camber plates
Rear camber arms
Geo (I can do this myself)
17” Team Dynamics Imolas (already have)
Nankang NS2R (already have)
Full service
Refurbished front calipers (already have)
Pagid RS29 Front pads (already have)
Potentially sort the rust in the future
Go and enjoy it!!
I’ll update as I go along! Thanks for reading folks!!
Suspension - BUY BETTER COILOVERS. JOM is utter cheap crud, do yourself a favour and get some basic BCs or HSDs. These are entry level at £700 ish.Coilovers (JOM NJT extreme possibly)
Buckets (Corbeau clubsports I hope)
Braided hoses (already have the fronts)
Full polybush
Front camber plates
Rear camber arms
Geo (I can do this myself)
17” Team Dynamics Imolas (already have)
Nankang NS2R (already have)
Full service
Refurbished front calipers (already have)
Pagid RS29 Front pads (already have)
Potentially sort the rust in the future
Go and enjoy it!!
I’ll update as I go along! Thanks for reading folks!!
Seats - Book at fitting session at GSM seating. Find a seat that fits you well.
Camber plates - fronts will come on good coilovers as above, rear camber, use lower arms and toe arms.
The rest makes sense, but again COOLING.
In regards to keeping oil temps in check, specifically retrofitting an oil cooler what are my options? Is everything that’s available aftermarket setups then? Would running a low temp thermostat and having the cooling fan on a switch be adequate to keep coolant temps in check?
I managed to get a little bit of work done on the car yesterday morning ready for its MOT today. The main things was sorting the rear tyres as these weren’t in great shape at all ......
To the new ones fitted!!
I always like how wide the 255/35/18’s look on the back of these!! Another job that I needed to sort was both light covers were lost for the number plate lights on the boot grab strip. I priced up some OEM covers and they were £16 each plus vat plus bulbs so I had a look on eBay and you can now get LED number plate lights including the covers for £9 so ordered them up and fitted.
They look miles better and freshen up the rear of the car, a bit of a pain to fit as I had to separate the led units from the covers and fit them separately but they work ok now!!! MOT time today.
To the new ones fitted!!
I always like how wide the 255/35/18’s look on the back of these!! Another job that I needed to sort was both light covers were lost for the number plate lights on the boot grab strip. I priced up some OEM covers and they were £16 each plus vat plus bulbs so I had a look on eBay and you can now get LED number plate lights including the covers for £9 so ordered them up and fitted.
They look miles better and freshen up the rear of the car, a bit of a pain to fit as I had to separate the led units from the covers and fit them separately but they work ok now!!! MOT time today.
JB! said:
S54 oil filter housing has take-off ports for an oil cooler, contact Hack Engineering for what you'll specifically want.
Your fan is viscous, so first step is a fresh thermostat and an alloy rad, then upgrade to slimline fan, but don't get a chinese fan as the viscous is better for airflow, you'll need a good quality one.
I had a little nosey on eBay for an S54 oil filter housing and I think there was only the one for sale on there so I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for one of those. Also because my cars a 330ci manual it already has an electric cooling fan fitted as opposed to a viscous fan so if I upgraded to an alloy radiator and changed the thermostat I think the the cooling fan would be up to the job. Your fan is viscous, so first step is a fresh thermostat and an alloy rad, then upgrade to slimline fan, but don't get a chinese fan as the viscous is better for airflow, you'll need a good quality one.
Thank you for the comments everybody!
The Team Dynamics Imolas that I have are 17 x 8 (square setup) with Nankang NS2R (215/45/17) which are what I'm going to use as a dry setup for the car and I know they fit over 330 brakes to so happy days.
Unfortunately mine and my partners 118D had a high pressure pump failure on the M6 a few weeks ago meaning that the 330 has become the family car for a little while until the 1 series is fixed. Hannah phone dies me the other day after driving the car for half an hour saying that she could smell hot, after a conversation which was rather amusing it was clear I had to look at the car so I had a quick nosey and quickly found what could be the cause of the smell of "hot"!!
It's not massively obvious but looking at the bottom of the radiator it's every so slightly curved ha, common E46 problem I think.
Better picture of the damaged radiator.
If this is the condition of the bit you can see I can only imagine what the bits I can't see look like, I reckon that when the cars upto temp and the thermostat open she its pressurising the radiator and its springing a leak. I acquired a radiator and expansion bottle from euro for £95 all in which I thought was an absolute bargain so set about changing them.
This has most definitely been leaking,
Little bit of a side by side about what the radiator should look like!
While I was in there I removed the air conditioning condenser for a few reasons. One is that I'm going to do a full air con delete anyway and two the condenser sits right in front of the radiator and this had also seen better days and could block a lot of airflow to the radiator on track so I just got rid.
Topped her up with some BMW gen coolant and bled the system, ran the car up ad all was well, happy days!
Future plans are to replace the thermostat and water pump but I can only afford to do the rad and bottle at the minute so the other upgrades can come in the future, also noted that a sumo gasket will be needed as there's a bit of a leak at the front of the engine.
Also with reading other threads about 330 track cars a lot of people are saying oil temps run exceedingly high on these cars, with this in mind I've seen these popping up as a solution to run an oil cooler,
Anybody any experience with these?
The Team Dynamics Imolas that I have are 17 x 8 (square setup) with Nankang NS2R (215/45/17) which are what I'm going to use as a dry setup for the car and I know they fit over 330 brakes to so happy days.
Unfortunately mine and my partners 118D had a high pressure pump failure on the M6 a few weeks ago meaning that the 330 has become the family car for a little while until the 1 series is fixed. Hannah phone dies me the other day after driving the car for half an hour saying that she could smell hot, after a conversation which was rather amusing it was clear I had to look at the car so I had a quick nosey and quickly found what could be the cause of the smell of "hot"!!
It's not massively obvious but looking at the bottom of the radiator it's every so slightly curved ha, common E46 problem I think.
Better picture of the damaged radiator.
If this is the condition of the bit you can see I can only imagine what the bits I can't see look like, I reckon that when the cars upto temp and the thermostat open she its pressurising the radiator and its springing a leak. I acquired a radiator and expansion bottle from euro for £95 all in which I thought was an absolute bargain so set about changing them.
This has most definitely been leaking,
Little bit of a side by side about what the radiator should look like!
While I was in there I removed the air conditioning condenser for a few reasons. One is that I'm going to do a full air con delete anyway and two the condenser sits right in front of the radiator and this had also seen better days and could block a lot of airflow to the radiator on track so I just got rid.
Topped her up with some BMW gen coolant and bled the system, ran the car up ad all was well, happy days!
Future plans are to replace the thermostat and water pump but I can only afford to do the rad and bottle at the minute so the other upgrades can come in the future, also noted that a sumo gasket will be needed as there's a bit of a leak at the front of the engine.
Also with reading other threads about 330 track cars a lot of people are saying oil temps run exceedingly high on these cars, with this in mind I've seen these popping up as a solution to run an oil cooler,
Anybody any experience with these?
The team dynamics I've got are actually 17 x 8.5 (sorry typo on my part)
I got those wheels as they were £150 off eBay, absolute bargain and the tyres weren't much either so I got a set of semi slicks on lightweight wheels for quite a small outlay. They suit my needs because I don't have a huge expendable income to spend on the car and I'm keeping it on a budget so a lot of the bits will be make do from the E36 etc!!
To reply to a couple of the other posts I think that I'm going to be putting the e36 up for sale eventually, the idea behind the 330 is that its future proof, I was more than happy with the e36 but I could see it not being fast enough for me in the long run and I think I would eventually out grow it whereas I'm never going to need or be able to afford (on my budget) anything quicker than the 330 for the same money, it'll be plenty quick enough for what I want it for and I can upgrade it as and when I can!!
Plus it gives me a good excuse to hide in the garage every now and then!!
I got those wheels as they were £150 off eBay, absolute bargain and the tyres weren't much either so I got a set of semi slicks on lightweight wheels for quite a small outlay. They suit my needs because I don't have a huge expendable income to spend on the car and I'm keeping it on a budget so a lot of the bits will be make do from the E36 etc!!
To reply to a couple of the other posts I think that I'm going to be putting the e36 up for sale eventually, the idea behind the 330 is that its future proof, I was more than happy with the e36 but I could see it not being fast enough for me in the long run and I think I would eventually out grow it whereas I'm never going to need or be able to afford (on my budget) anything quicker than the 330 for the same money, it'll be plenty quick enough for what I want it for and I can upgrade it as and when I can!!
Plus it gives me a good excuse to hide in the garage every now and then!!
tombate911 said:
Looks good so far. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread to see what you do with it. I've got my own 330 build thread on here two. I've found out the hard way that the oil temps can hit 120 degrees easily in 3/4 laps of a circuit even in ambient temps of around 10 degrees. I've just fitted a 19 row cooler with a S54 oil filter housing with a thermostat delete. Hopefully keep those oil temps are something a little more sensible for longer stints on track now. At least I had the oil temp and pressure gauge so I could see how quickly the temps started to increase on track.
Cheers Tom!I’ve read your build thread and subscribed to it, absolutely brilliant car and top notch workmanship gone into yours, it gives me plenty of inspiration to get cracking with mine!
There’s no real update on this at the moment I’m afraid, a mini me has kept pretty much all my time occupied at the moment, so much so that I’m considering all options in relation to which car to keep and track and could do with some advice!!
The pros of the e36 are that it’s lightweight, it handles great and it’s pretty much ready to go and do another track day, the only things I could do on it really are more weight saving, there’s still the sunroof to come out and the carbon fibre delete to go in (which I already have) All the sound deadening to come out and material from both back doors, boot lid etc! Another advantage of the e36 maybe that it’s better to learn my trade on track in a car that isn’t as powerful as the 330 and then upgrade to the 330 in the future as I have room to keep both cars and will be dailying the 330 anyway!!
Onto the 330 and it needs building from the ground up really, so I would need to spend a fair bit of money doing this and then I wouldn’t want to feel like I’d be in over my head with the power available to me in the 330 having only done one track day prior!
When I was 21 a few years ago I did my bike licence with some friends and the first bike I bought was a G reg VFR400 NC30. It was old, pretty tatty and all my pals bought R6’s and GSXR’s etc! 12 months later they’d all sold the bikes and given up as bikes weren’t for them apparently, I’d had 12 months of having the mick taken due to the bike I was reading etc but starting from a point like this made me a rather competent rider, could be a lesson learned?
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated
The pros of the e36 are that it’s lightweight, it handles great and it’s pretty much ready to go and do another track day, the only things I could do on it really are more weight saving, there’s still the sunroof to come out and the carbon fibre delete to go in (which I already have) All the sound deadening to come out and material from both back doors, boot lid etc! Another advantage of the e36 maybe that it’s better to learn my trade on track in a car that isn’t as powerful as the 330 and then upgrade to the 330 in the future as I have room to keep both cars and will be dailying the 330 anyway!!
Onto the 330 and it needs building from the ground up really, so I would need to spend a fair bit of money doing this and then I wouldn’t want to feel like I’d be in over my head with the power available to me in the 330 having only done one track day prior!
When I was 21 a few years ago I did my bike licence with some friends and the first bike I bought was a G reg VFR400 NC30. It was old, pretty tatty and all my pals bought R6’s and GSXR’s etc! 12 months later they’d all sold the bikes and given up as bikes weren’t for them apparently, I’d had 12 months of having the mick taken due to the bike I was reading etc but starting from a point like this made me a rather competent rider, could be a lesson learned?
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated
Well after much deliberation and taking various people’s council on what to do etc I’ve decided to keep the 330 and sell the e36 on so that will be going up for sale very soon. I do love the e36 but I think ultimately I will grow a little tired of it and being an estate it’s not the ideal shape for track work etc, the 330 is tatty enough for me not to be overly bothered about turning it into a track car so work the conversion to track car work is going to start shortly!
I’ve done a few little bits and pieces on it at work today while I had a few minutes, when whatever happened to the rod happened it pulled the shark fin off but left the base attached to the roof, I always assumed that it would be bolted through the roof so I left it in place but today I pulled it and etc voila it was just stuck on, result!!
|https://thumbsnap.com/aHetHzjj[/url]
I did consider sticking the shark fin back onto the roof but it’s just a tatty track car and I don’t think it really ads much to how the car looks anyway so I just left it.
When I bought the team dynamics the centre bore was stepped and made it a little strange for the wheel fitting onto the hub with the hub only locating by a couple of mm, so I got the verniers out and measured the internal diameter of the bore and the external diameter of the hub!!
This is the step in the wheel bore:
With the spigots fitted the wheel now locates on the hub by at least 10mm, much better!
Once that was all done I test fitted a wheel onto the front of the car to see if I would need to run wheel spacers with the coilovers I’m going to buy etc,
Looking at how the wheel sits I think a 10mm hubcentric spacer with studs and nuts should do the trick, I’m planning on running -3 degrees camber on the front so it’s hard to gauge how the wheels will be with that sort of camber but we’ll see.
While I was poking around I noticed this on the o/s/f:
That will explain the vague feeling of wondering that I’m getting from the steering when going over white lines or small bumps in the road etc.
The plan now is to order my coilovers from Richard over at Venom who I must also say has been really helpful with help and advice, order some camber adjustable top mounts and some poly bushes for those front control arms. Fit all that little lot on a Saturday that I’m off work and hopefully get a geo done in the afternoon, the car should then be ready for her first track day!
Thanks for reading everybody, more updates to come soon!
I’ve done a few little bits and pieces on it at work today while I had a few minutes, when whatever happened to the rod happened it pulled the shark fin off but left the base attached to the roof, I always assumed that it would be bolted through the roof so I left it in place but today I pulled it and etc voila it was just stuck on, result!!
|https://thumbsnap.com/aHetHzjj[/url]I did consider sticking the shark fin back onto the roof but it’s just a tatty track car and I don’t think it really ads much to how the car looks anyway so I just left it.
When I bought the team dynamics the centre bore was stepped and made it a little strange for the wheel fitting onto the hub with the hub only locating by a couple of mm, so I got the verniers out and measured the internal diameter of the bore and the external diameter of the hub!!
This is the step in the wheel bore:
With the spigots fitted the wheel now locates on the hub by at least 10mm, much better!
Once that was all done I test fitted a wheel onto the front of the car to see if I would need to run wheel spacers with the coilovers I’m going to buy etc,
Looking at how the wheel sits I think a 10mm hubcentric spacer with studs and nuts should do the trick, I’m planning on running -3 degrees camber on the front so it’s hard to gauge how the wheels will be with that sort of camber but we’ll see.
While I was poking around I noticed this on the o/s/f:
That will explain the vague feeling of wondering that I’m getting from the steering when going over white lines or small bumps in the road etc.
The plan now is to order my coilovers from Richard over at Venom who I must also say has been really helpful with help and advice, order some camber adjustable top mounts and some poly bushes for those front control arms. Fit all that little lot on a Saturday that I’m off work and hopefully get a geo done in the afternoon, the car should then be ready for her first track day!
Thanks for reading everybody, more updates to come soon!
helix402 said:
I’ve not tried it, here’s a link to someone who had:
http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/archive/index.php/t...
Cheers Helix, they seem to get very positive reviews and are considerably less than poly items so I’ve ordered a set today from work, I’ll post how I get on with them after fitment!!http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/archive/index.php/t...
This is only a small update but it’s an update all the same. Having discovered that the front control arm bushes on the car were shot I needed to look at replacing these as the handling on these cars when the bushes have failed is woeful. I was initially going to go down the poly bush route but a very helpful member on here pointed out that a lot of folks fit Z4M control arm bushes and after some research they’re cheaper.
So we start with a couple of worn out old control arm bushes with brackets...
These aren’t the actual ones off the car, I had a couple of genuine BMW brackets with bushes in my toolbox, I thought I’d use these as if I made a mess of fitting etc it wouldn’t leave the car off the road. I’ve got access to a press at work which makes this job miles easier!!
While I had the bushes out I thought I might as well just clean up the brackets, it was a lot dearer to order the bushes with the brackets so I just ordered the bushes themselves.
After a clean up and a lick of paint,
All fitted, note that the bushes aren’t handed but the brackets are, the arrows on the bushes need to correspond with the arrows on the brackets and there needs to be an equal distance of protrusion on either side of the bracket from the metal bush casing!
As you can see from the last picture they’re pretty much a solid bush and the castor offset is pretty substantial so I’m hoping to get good results from these. Fingers crossed I’ll have some time this weekend to get them fitted.
One last little purchase that I get for every BMW that I have .....
The all important key ring!!
So we start with a couple of worn out old control arm bushes with brackets...
These aren’t the actual ones off the car, I had a couple of genuine BMW brackets with bushes in my toolbox, I thought I’d use these as if I made a mess of fitting etc it wouldn’t leave the car off the road. I’ve got access to a press at work which makes this job miles easier!!
While I had the bushes out I thought I might as well just clean up the brackets, it was a lot dearer to order the bushes with the brackets so I just ordered the bushes themselves.
After a clean up and a lick of paint,
All fitted, note that the bushes aren’t handed but the brackets are, the arrows on the bushes need to correspond with the arrows on the brackets and there needs to be an equal distance of protrusion on either side of the bracket from the metal bush casing!
As you can see from the last picture they’re pretty much a solid bush and the castor offset is pretty substantial so I’m hoping to get good results from these. Fingers crossed I’ll have some time this weekend to get them fitted.
One last little purchase that I get for every BMW that I have .....
The all important key ring!!
gchristofi said:
Found your thread....... an enjoyable read and you've inspired me to get on with mine... and maybe get a key ring too!
Definitely get a key ring, most important part of any build ha!Good to see you on here pal, now you can get a project thread for yours started on here too!!
Well it was a sad day last week but the E36 has gone on to pastures new, a nice chap cane to pick it up from Milton Keynes and said he was planning on drifting it and ‘giving it death’ his words not mine!
I’ve got a little bit of an update on things with the 330 and I’m pleased to say that things are moving along (even at the slow pace they are going) a good friend of mine who has an R53 track car located a couple of standard sized Corbeau clubsports for me at a great price so they were snapped up ....
They are in great condition and for the money were a bargain and one thing that really surprised me about them is that they are really really light! I’ve bought a set of Sabelt 4 point 3 inch harnesses (out of date) but I won’t be competing in the car so this is no matter and they were a good find! Also ordered a set of Atech motorsport offset seat mounts which put the seat as close to the tunnel as they need to be (spoke to Andrew at Atech) about these in length and he’s a really helpful guy so hopefully that little lot will turn up next week at some point.
One really exciting purchase for the car that I’m really really looking forward to is a set of Gaz coilovers. I’ve been in touch with Mike over at Gaz directly and he’s been really helpful and given me some really good advice on what kit to purchase. I’ve decided to go for a 330 challenge spec monotube setup with Gaz front and rear top mounts. Now I know this is a budget build and for me these coilovers are certainly not ‘budget’ but in all my hours of research everybody always says invest well in suspension and brakes so I’ve saved up and saved up and these will be the result. I did look at a few sets of KW V2, V3 etc but the kits turned out to be coming on for ten years old some of them and were very strong money so in the end I’ve settled on Gaz. I spoke to KW directly and they were mega helpful but advised that for serious track use KW clubsport are the o my really way to go in their range and they’re way out of my price bracket!! Watch this space for the next update!!
I’ve got a little bit of an update on things with the 330 and I’m pleased to say that things are moving along (even at the slow pace they are going) a good friend of mine who has an R53 track car located a couple of standard sized Corbeau clubsports for me at a great price so they were snapped up ....
They are in great condition and for the money were a bargain and one thing that really surprised me about them is that they are really really light! I’ve bought a set of Sabelt 4 point 3 inch harnesses (out of date) but I won’t be competing in the car so this is no matter and they were a good find! Also ordered a set of Atech motorsport offset seat mounts which put the seat as close to the tunnel as they need to be (spoke to Andrew at Atech) about these in length and he’s a really helpful guy so hopefully that little lot will turn up next week at some point.
One really exciting purchase for the car that I’m really really looking forward to is a set of Gaz coilovers. I’ve been in touch with Mike over at Gaz directly and he’s been really helpful and given me some really good advice on what kit to purchase. I’ve decided to go for a 330 challenge spec monotube setup with Gaz front and rear top mounts. Now I know this is a budget build and for me these coilovers are certainly not ‘budget’ but in all my hours of research everybody always says invest well in suspension and brakes so I’ve saved up and saved up and these will be the result. I did look at a few sets of KW V2, V3 etc but the kits turned out to be coming on for ten years old some of them and were very strong money so in the end I’ve settled on Gaz. I spoke to KW directly and they were mega helpful but advised that for serious track use KW clubsport are the o my really way to go in their range and they’re way out of my price bracket!! Watch this space for the next update!!
Only a little update but nothing major, still awaiting the dampers from Gaz, they said 4 weeks so hopefully they’ll arrive sometime soon!!
Other bits have been arriving while I’m waiting for the dampers to arrive,
These arrived from A-tech motorsport, extremely good quality and great service from the fella who supplied them (answering all my questions) I’ve ordered some high tensile bolts too which have a nice finish and will look good as you’ll see them when the doors are open on the car. All I need to consider now is where to mount my 4 point harnesses to and how many eyelets I’m going to need but that can all be done when the buckets are put into the car.
Also as a little bit of a side project I picked this up to tidy up my garage, I’m planning to paint the floor and the walls and this will be nice to have all my tools in order and can be wheeled onto the drive etc.
I didn’t give much money for it but it came with keys and as you can see it’s a bit messy, I took all the drawer liners out, tar and glued the whole thing because the drawers had been taped shut and gave it a quick clean with autoglym rapid detailer and cleaned the top with screenwash, think it came out ok.
Other bits have been arriving while I’m waiting for the dampers to arrive,
These arrived from A-tech motorsport, extremely good quality and great service from the fella who supplied them (answering all my questions) I’ve ordered some high tensile bolts too which have a nice finish and will look good as you’ll see them when the doors are open on the car. All I need to consider now is where to mount my 4 point harnesses to and how many eyelets I’m going to need but that can all be done when the buckets are put into the car.
Also as a little bit of a side project I picked this up to tidy up my garage, I’m planning to paint the floor and the walls and this will be nice to have all my tools in order and can be wheeled onto the drive etc.
I didn’t give much money for it but it came with keys and as you can see it’s a bit messy, I took all the drawer liners out, tar and glued the whole thing because the drawers had been taped shut and gave it a quick clean with autoglym rapid detailer and cleaned the top with screenwash, think it came out ok.
Exciting update on the way......the coilovers have arrived!!!!! Waited 5 weeks for these to arrive from Gaz and now they are here I can only say I’m not disappointed, build quality of these and finish is superb, if they perform as well as they look I’ll be more than happy!!
I know this is a budget track car and these aren’t budget but the common theme through all track cars is don’t skimp on suspension so I’ve treated myself!
They are Gaz Gold Monotube coilovers built to 330 challenge spec so basically these are the same units that the 330 challenge cars run.
Anyway pictures,
Initial observations of them are that the adjustment on the fronts is done on the bottom of the strut as opposed to on the side and the rears are adjusted by turning a collar on the bottom of the strut. Another thing I’ve noticed is that the pistons fitted to the front struts look huge!
Can’t wait to get these fitted and really get going with the project now, I’ve stockpiled enough parts to hit the car over a few weekends now so more updates to follow,
Thanks for having a read!!
I know this is a budget track car and these aren’t budget but the common theme through all track cars is don’t skimp on suspension so I’ve treated myself!
They are Gaz Gold Monotube coilovers built to 330 challenge spec so basically these are the same units that the 330 challenge cars run.
Anyway pictures,
Initial observations of them are that the adjustment on the fronts is done on the bottom of the strut as opposed to on the side and the rears are adjusted by turning a collar on the bottom of the strut. Another thing I’ve noticed is that the pistons fitted to the front struts look huge!
Can’t wait to get these fitted and really get going with the project now, I’ve stockpiled enough parts to hit the car over a few weekends now so more updates to follow,
Thanks for having a read!!
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