Just starting out with an E46 330ci budget track car build

[Ruskins]

Andrew-b90y3 said:

My sunroof delete panel has also arrived so hopefully Saturday afternoon I’ll be able to get the sunroof assembly out and get that fitted.

Where did you purchase such a thing? Id like to take mine out but keep the option to put it back.

[bolide]

IIRC if you ever want to race the car you'll need a steel or ally panel in the sunroof aperture. Best to check before you do the mod

I would avoid spacers as they're just something else to create problems

A second set of wheels with cheap tyres is always super-useful. It's easy to destroy a set of nice, new soft tyres if the car is rolling too much or has a soft shock absorber at one corner. Ask me how I know...

Fixed tow hooks front & rear painted yellow will make you popular with TDOs and recovery drivers

If you're doing track days on your own, take a big groundsheet to the track, empty your spares & etc onto it and fold it over to cover them up for when it rains. Which, in Anglesey, will be often

Nick Froome

[B17NNS]

Still such handsome cars. Smoked around in E36 328i Touring for a few years myself. Loved it.

[Evo]

Your doing a sterling job and i'd much rather read about peoples budget builds than someone with an open cheque book and don't be apologetic for it only being a 320i, that's more than enough poke to have fun on a trackday, and it's still a BMW straight six so will still make the right noises.

I've been building a 924S into a trackday car and have had to do that in stages, its taken me 2 years to get to its current state.

[Maldini35]

Evo said:

Your doing a sterling job and i'd much rather read about peoples budget builds than someone with an open cheque book and don't be apologetic for it only being a 320i, that's more than enough poke to have fun on a trackday, and it's still a BMW straight six so will still make the right noises.

I've been building a 924S into a trackday car and have had to do that in stages, its taken me 2 years to get to its current state.

Couldn't agree more. Enjoying this thread. Keep going!

[J.R.Slider]

A 2.0 M52 is a rare beast indeed. Whether in M20, M50 or M52 form, I adore the sound of the 2 litre engines. Especially if you fit a less restrictive exhaust system. The sound borders on exotic.

[Nik Gnashers]

Maldini35 said:

Evo said:

Your doing a sterling job and i'd much rather read about peoples budget builds than someone with an open cheque book and don't be apologetic for it only being a 320i, that's more than enough poke to have fun on a trackday, and it's still a BMW straight six so will still make the right noises.

I've been building a 924S into a trackday car and have had to do that in stages, its taken me 2 years to get to its current state.

Couldn't agree more. Enjoying this thread. Keep going!

Me too !
Great thread, and keeping well within the true 'budget' ethos.
Big fan

[Andrew-b90y3]

Thanks for the positive comments everyone, its good to hear other peoples views on the project (good or bad) but its always nice to hear positive comments. I haven't updated this for a little while as I have a 10 week old so time is quite limited at the minute, however my Mrs is very understanding which has resulted in me doing early mornings and late nights in the workshop to get things done on the car ready for Oulton Park which was on the 10th November .... more on that later but first some updates leading up to Oulton.

So i've had the E46 330i front brake set up sat in my toolbox for quite some time now so i thought that it was about time I got them fitted up.

Before:

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

As you can see from the pictures the front discs and calipers are extremely rusty, a lot of surface corrosion on the disc which would never come off with any amount of braking.

To this:

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

The new setup looks so much bigger than the old brakes that were fitted plus I think the yellow calipers really work against the black wheels and the green car. I have some dot 5.1 brake fluid but I haven't put this in yet as the brake line (flexis) are seized onto the solid line so I need to make up a work around to fit my braided hoses but due to time i'm fitting the new calipers onto the existing lines. While I was at it I also stripped and rebuilt the rear brakes including greasing up the slider pins etc.

I took the car for a bit of a drive once i'd fitted them and first opinions are the added bite that the brakes now have is great, pedal feel is a little different to how it was with the old calipers on as in there is slightly more pedal travel until you can feel the bite of the brakes but this was to be expected with the larger size of the calipers but for now is manageable. Hopefully this may be taken away/improved when I have the chance to fit the braided hoses.

The back brakes aren't great but the aim of Oulton Park on the 10th is to enjoy myself and to see what areas of the car needs improvement, plus there would be no fun if I did everything at once so they'll do for now.

More updates and Oulton Park report to follow .............

[Andrew-b90y3]

One of the things that I'd been keeping my eye on purchasing was a dished steering wheel, not really as a necessity because as long as the steering wheel is black and round then it would do the trick but more as an item to make the car feel more like a track car. Sticking with the budget idea of the car I managed to secure this little package for £15 plus postage ..........

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Which revealed the following ...

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

A dished suede steering wheel and boss, as you can see from the pictures it was filthy but at the bargain price which I paid for it then who cares, luckily we've just started using Autoglym at work so a little bit of elbow grease later saw it looking like this,

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

And then onto fitting which took all of 5 seconds,

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

First impressions of driving with the wheel are that its a lot 'deeper' than the standard wheel which I wasn't sure whether I would like or not but driving the car and having the wheel closer actually feels a lot better.

I also ordered these bits and pieces to be fitted in time for Oulton,

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Servicing parts I would imagine are often overlooked or forgotten about sometimes but are probably some of the most important things to remember so i ordered up 6 spark plugs, 10 litres of engine oil and an oil filter. Also received these in the post,

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Two rear strut top mounts, I ordered these up because when i brought the car out of storage one faile when I drove it for the first time and this happened,

IMG_0582 by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Thanks for having a read, further updates and Oulton report to follow.

[Andrew-b90y3]

So its Thursday the 8th November at 16:50, my boss let me finish a few minutes early so I could throw the service bits that I had ordered onto the car and get the top mounts changed in time for Oulton on Saturday. I bring the car into the workshop to start doing a bit of work on it and notice the following,

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

This is the rubber intake pipe from the MAF to the throttle body and its split in about a thousand places!!! I enthusiastically visit the parts dept and I'm reliably informed that said part is still available and can be at work at 7am the following morning at a cost of £50!!!!!! Now budget with this part has completely gone out of the window but if i hadn't noticed then this little piece of pipe could have ruined the day at Oulton as the car would have not at all been performing properly. 7am the following morning and we have this,

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

To this:

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

The intake pipe had split because when I fitted the air filter I didn't support the intake pipe so it must have been flopping around over time and stressing the intake pipe to the point of breaking. To make sure it didn't happen again I had to manufacture a bracket to support the air filter. So I got an old metal number plate and did this,

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Untitled by andrew conroy, on Flickr

Its a little bit rough and ready but it'll do the job and with Oulton in the morning it was needed in a hurry.

I did a nut and bolt check on the car after work to make sure that everything was tight and as it should be and then it was up bright and early for Oulton in the morning.

[helix402]

Those rear top mounts are a bit rubbish. Best gen BMW ones are E46 M3, even they are a bit rubbish. I recommend Bimmertune ones.

[irvine1]

Fun project you got going on, love the theam of finding the cheap jems. Great inspiration on doing thing with a budget.

Neil.

[Jimmy Recard]

Looking good OP. I did see this car at Oulton Park on Saturday but I didn’t see you to talk to, otherwise I would’ve come over

This is pretty much where we are aiming with our budget Omega estate

[Andrew-b90y3]

Jimmy Recard said:

Looking good OP. I did see this car at Oulton Park on Saturday but I didn’t see you to talk to, otherwise I would’ve come over

This is pretty much where we are aiming with our budget Omega estate

Cheers pal, yep I was there in the estate.

I thought that I’d caught up with you on Saturday but I think I only caught up with your co-owner and your racing driver mate!!

[Jimmy Recard]

Andrew-b90y3 said:

Cheers pal, yep I was there in the estate.

I thought that I’d caught up with you on Saturday but I think I only caught up with your co-owner and your racing driver mate!!

Looks like it!

I didn't realise they had spoken to you. The car is looking great so hopefully we'll see you around!

[broken biscuit]

As an e35 compact 2.5 converted drift car owner, I've leanrt the hard way on what works and what doesn't on track. Here are a few bits I have learnt in 4 years of e36 ownership:


1. Cooling system - replace the rad, water pump, thermostat and thermostat housing asap. Buy a metal impellor water pump, metal thermostat housing and 328 aircon rad (much bigger than your 320 rad.


2. Suspension - replace the lollipop bushes, potentially even the lower arms. E46 lower arms will give you a camber increase if you desire. Buy some rear suspension top mount reinforcements - around £10 on ebay - they will stop your new rear shocks punching through the turret tops.


3. Lose the cone filter - go back to airbox and panel setup - you aren't gaining power, just heatsoak on that cone.


4. Stick with Dot 4 fluid.


5. Go get seat time. Lots of it. Before you spend any more (other than the above). The M50B20 is 150bhp. Next steps are a 325/328 conversion - 200bhp, £800 job, or a M3 conversion - 300bhp + £5000

enjoy!

Edited by broken biscuit on Tuesday 13th November 21:56

[Andrew-b90y3]

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,

Edited by Andrew-b90y3 on Wednesday 14th November 10:09

[Andrew-b90y3]

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.

[Humour]

oxam said:

either go 330 brakes in the back as well but then you have to change the master cylinder to a 330. Or get e46 325 or 328 rear discs and calipers - they match the 330 front ones perfectly and the brake bias is spot on (also zero issues with the abs).

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.

[Andrew-b90y3]

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!

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