My new daily drive - BMW E36 328i Sport

[DanielJames]

rossi1 said:

they are only 5mm so you have enough of the hub flange for the wheel to sit on, anything over you need hub-centric as the spacers takes all of the hub flange.

I drive through central london and track it, the lows seem to be spot on as i clear nearly everything apart from dodgy ramps into car parks

Hmm, I've already had a splitter scrape so don't want to go much lower! looks lovely on the spacers though

Did the golf tee mod today to see what the crack is, video en route!

[e28525e]

Lovely mate, it's so nice to see an unmolested e36 for once. Perfect.

[BriC175]

rossi1 said:

Hi mate.
Its a supersprint exhaust, cat back.used to love my black tips of the original exhaust.
Iv got 5 mm spacers all round and its on coilovers.
The spacers make all the difference along with the difference in tyre sizes, It now on 235,40 up front and the original 245,40 on rear.
The 225,45`s up front always seems a little to much tyre, the 235`s perform a lot better on track too.

This pics shows a better view of how it sit with the spacers and tyres.

That really is a thing of beauty!

[VinceFox]

DanielJames said:

rossi1 said:

they are only 5mm so you have enough of the hub flange for the wheel to sit on, anything over you need hub-centric as the spacers takes all of the hub flange.

I drive through central london and track it, the lows seem to be spot on as i clear nearly everything apart from dodgy ramps into car parks

Hmm, I've already had a splitter scrape so don't want to go much lower! looks lovely on the spacers though

Did the golf tee mod today to see what the crack is, video en route!

just gives you bit more feedback from the exhaust as to what's going on. don't forget to ditch the restrictor inside the airbox too.

[DanielJames]

VinceFox said:

just gives you bit more feedback from the exhaust as to what's going on. don't forget to ditch the restrictor inside the airbox too.

Care to give more info on this bud? I'm sure it's nothing I'll not be able to find on Google mind.

Regarding what it does and how to do it...

My Golf Tee mod vid, can hardly tell a difference when it's stationary tbh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxNS_S2IzmU

[VinceFox]

DanielJames said:

Care to give more info on this bud? I'm sure it's nothing I'll not be able to find on Google mind.

Regarding what it does and how to do it...

My Golf Tee mod vid, can hardly tell a difference when it's stationary tbh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxNS_S2IzmU

take the entire airbox out. there's what i can best describe as an intake pipe inside the front of the airbox. it unslots and comes out, leaving the intake area bigger inside the box. it's NOT the snorkel on the front outside, it's a seperate bit that can be removed. they only put it in there to restrict the car for foreign markets.

[TameRacingDriver]

VinceFox said:

DanielJames said:

Care to give more info on this bud? I'm sure it's nothing I'll not be able to find on Google mind.

Regarding what it does and how to do it...

My Golf Tee mod vid, can hardly tell a difference when it's stationary tbh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxNS_S2IzmU

take the entire airbox out. there's what i can best describe as an intake pipe inside the front of the airbox. it unslots and comes out, leaving the intake area bigger inside the box. it's NOT the snorkel on the front outside, it's a seperate bit that can be removed. they only put it in there to restrict the car for foreign markets.

I did this on mine. Didn't make a blind bit of difference to performance or noise.

[VinceFox]

TameRacingDriver said:

VinceFox said:

DanielJames said:

Care to give more info on this bud? I'm sure it's nothing I'll not be able to find on Google mind.

Regarding what it does and how to do it...

My Golf Tee mod vid, can hardly tell a difference when it's stationary tbh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxNS_S2IzmU

take the entire airbox out. there's what i can best describe as an intake pipe inside the front of the airbox. it unslots and comes out, leaving the intake area bigger inside the box. it's NOT the snorkel on the front outside, it's a seperate bit that can be removed. they only put it in there to restrict the car for foreign markets.

I did this on mine. Didn't make a blind bit of difference to performance or noise.

weird, it was noticeable when i did mine.

[DanielJames]

TameRacingDriver said:

VinceFox said:

DanielJames said:

Care to give more info on this bud? I'm sure it's nothing I'll not be able to find on Google mind.

Regarding what it does and how to do it...

My Golf Tee mod vid, can hardly tell a difference when it's stationary tbh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxNS_S2IzmU

take the entire airbox out. there's what i can best describe as an intake pipe inside the front of the airbox. it unslots and comes out, leaving the intake area bigger inside the box. it's NOT the snorkel on the front outside, it's a seperate bit that can be removed. they only put it in there to restrict the car for foreign markets.

I did this on mine. Didn't make a blind bit of difference to performance or noise.

Hmmm. I do wonder why manufacturers do this kind of thing

I think maybe I'll leave that one.

[VinceFox]

it's a piece of piss to do. take it out, test it then put it back if you like. i found it breathed better personally.

[TameRacingDriver]

Could be placebo? I.e. you've done something, so are expecting an improvement? I seriously couldn't tell any difference at all.

[rossi1]

Does improve the sound no end removing the baffle, also just by looking at the design its pretty obvious that this chunk of plastic in the way restricts air flow so i would say it does make a difference in air intake.
I got bored quickly and fitted a simota induction kit, the sound is unreal.

[BorkFactor]

I did this on my car, and I think it only makes a difference under load at low revs. Possibly a tad louder on tickover too.

[TameRacingDriver]

I'm confused, why could I not hear a difference when I did it?

Then again, I tried drilling the airbox of an MX5 once, being told that made a big difference, and I didn't hear much difference there either, although more so than I heard with the BMW, but the way some went on, you'd think it changed the engine into a wannabe V8

Personally, if I had another, I'd just get an induction kit if I wanted it to sound better, why go for half (or in my case no) measures?

[BorkFactor]

Maybe the flap in your exhaust was already rusted open? Happens quite a lot.

Also, induction kits make a BIG difference to the noise on these engines. Highly recommended.

No difference to performance or mpg though I found!

[DanielJames]

BorkFactor said:

Maybe the flap in your exhaust was already rusted open? Happens quite a lot.

Also, induction kits make a BIG difference to the noise on these engines. Highly recommended.

No difference to performance or mpg though I found!

I'm not after noise tbh, I like the sound it currently makes so I'll keep it OEM.

This is my daily driver after all, not after going OTT with it.

And no, the butterfly valve was operational before as I checked when buying the car

[rossi1]

Video i post didnt work.

Edit

[sc4589]

Welcome to the E36 Club- great entry ticket.

Make the most of it, great all-rounders. You're right on the brakes- I've got a set of Brembos waiting to go on mine to counteract how under-servoed they are.

Ferodo DS2500s, Pagid RS29s or EBC Yellowstuffs (they seem to have got over their QC problems these days) all come fairly well recommended, and are worth doing.

Which M3 LSD has it got, the 3.23 Evo one or 3.15 regular? How does it cruise?

[DanielJames]

sc4589 said:

Welcome to the E36 Club- great entry ticket.

Make the most of it, great all-rounders. You're right on the brakes- I've got a set of Brembos waiting to go on mine to counteract how under-servoed they are.

Ferodo DS2500s, Pagid RS29s or EBC Yellowstuffs (they seem to have got over their QC problems these days) all come fairly well recommended, and are worth doing.

Which M3 LSD has it got, the 3.23 Evo one or 3.15 regular? How does it cruise?

Thanks, its the 3.15 3.0 one, cruises lovely. It has obviously geared the whole car up a bit but you don't notice it, still makes good progress and isn't too high RPM on the motorway (I'll check but it's under 3k on a steady run)

One thing I did notice was the diff itself's shell was a bit grubby. Wire brush and hammerite job I think.

A mate of mine has one and he has M3 Evo brakes so might look into that eventually.

I cannot believe how easy they are to get "a dab of oppo" moments with it!

[DanielJames]

Old vs new?

How do you define progression?


029.jpg by DanielJames., on Flickr

Quick Pic by DanielJames., on Flickr