e36 323i Project complete!

Finally finished my (first) project car! Got a full years MOT on Friday after some work on the brakes.

List of Mods;

Painted wheels black
Painted calipers red (MightyMods style +25kW)
325/8i exhaust upgrade
RamAir filter
e36 Cabrio X Brace
Vented Discs
An abundance of stickers

Got insurance lined up for it aswell (not easy for a 20 y/o guy!)



Thanks for looking

 

[T9 man]

Well done my friend, if your happy then I'm happy

 

[obi_waynne]

Very nice, thanks for the update.

It's not often we get completed projects on here so well done!

 

[old-git]

Very clean, apart from the stickers but I guess that is a 20 y/o guy thing What do all the stickers represent?

No plans to do anything else to it or lining up another project?

You forgot to mention the extensive mody mods, though.

 

[Racer75]

Thanks for the comments guys.
For old-git, stickers don't really mean anything just represent different aspects of car culture which inspired me. But what extensive body mods are you on about?

No plans to modify this but my attention will soon be drawn to the rusty e30 which is in need of some love.

Again, thanks for looking.

 

[old-git]

Your avitar says it's a Corsa

If you need inspiration, here's an article on my friend Andy's E21.
http://damianodaniel.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/turn-unassuming-bmw-e21-into-v8-powered.html

 

[obi_waynne]

@old-git that's funny.

 

[Racer75]

@old-git

Haha it sure does XD

This is the replacement for the Corsa (the reward for a 2 years clean license!)

(BTW, we don't talk about the Corsa )

 

[obi_waynne]

What Corsa? I think we mentioned the Corsa but we got away with it.

 

[Racer75]

@old-git

Thanks for the link mate. Your freinds car is an absolute cracker!

 

[tonytoni]

Nice mods! Your car's looking great!

 

[Racer75]

Nice mods! Your car's looking great!

Thanks a lot mate

 

[obi_waynne]

There are quite a few people reading this thread looking at the stats but we've not had any updates from you in a while any updates on this project - or have you moved on to another one?

What are your plans for the future?

 

[Racer75]

There are quite a few people reading this thread looking at the stats but we've not had any updates from you in a while any updates on this project - or have you moved on to another one?

What are your plans for the future?

Hello everyone. Thanks for reading my post.

Lately the car has been off the road as it developed a few costly issues over the months I was using it. I still have but I stopped using it after recieving a Mini as a 21st birthday present (which I hae since swapped for a C180 Kompressor coupe).

I have every intention of fixing the BMW and driving it again, and most of the problems have been rectified so I am just waiting to finalise the remaining hiccups and sent it off for an MOT.

Thanks again.

 

[Racer75]

First Update in a While

Hello All!

I don't know if anyone is still reading this after all this time, but I thought I would give an update on where we are with the car. There won't be any photos at the moment as it has been a project for the last 3/4 years, but as soon as I am able, I will be getting proper photos taken.

Since the last time you seen it, a few things have changed;

It failed an MOT in December '18 due to a couple of worn bushes and some welding that had to be completed. This was an issue as the welding work I was quoted was for £800, which I was never going to pay for a car which is worth <£500. This led me to learning to weld and repairing the sills myself. I have completed this task after a lot of learning and work, but the car has not been back to the MOT garage.

Also, I took the opportunity to completely redesign the car as I wanted without the stress of having a live MOT, so below for the list of changes and modifications which I have made;

Previous Mods (for reference):

Black Stock 16'' wheels
Red calipers
325/8i Exhaust Setup
Ramair Filter
e36 cabrio X-Brace
Vented Discs
STICKERS!!!

New Mods:

Cosmetic:
17'' E39 M-Sport Alloys, Staggered Setup, 10mm Front wheel spacer (to clear suspension)
Fibre Glass Overfenders, Painted black (Original arches needed to be cut to fit new wheels)
BMW E36 GT style rear spoiler, painted black
Plastic Side skirt delete
Blue Painted Calipers
Stickers (!!!)
Carbon fibre wrapped bonnet (to hide damage repair, cheaper than respray, looks a bit better/different)

Interior:
OMP Drift Style Steering Wheel
Radio Delete
AC Delete
Blue Bucket Seats (planned modification)

Basic Performance:
M50 Manifold
ACS Delete
CCV Delete
Throttle Body Heater Delete
Catch Can Installed
Charcoal Cannister Delete (It was found to be broken, so was removed)
Viscous Fan Delete
New Radius Arms (Part of MOT Fail)

Major Performance:
Eaton Superchager from SLK230/CLK320, Mounted on AC side using custom fabricated Fitment Plates, 55mm (approx) pulley, 1.5" Inlet/outlet Pipes (due to lack of space between the engine and chassis rail, this was the only size I could mock up to fit), 690mm Belt
Toyo Sport Black Intercooler
Custom Intercooler Piping Mostly 2" due to lack of space
25mm Adjustable BOV
540i V8 3.5" MAF
Direnza 45mm Aluminium Radiator
14" Electric Fan
328i Pink Injectors
ECU Retune (Completed before supercharger installed)
Tubular Headers
M50 Mid Sections
'Straight Through' Back Box, to suit e36 M3 (needed some modification to fit)
'Amazon' Boost Gauge

Suspension:
Stance+ Coilovers with Standard E36 Top Mounts, Front and Back, Car lowered (enough to be low but usable)
E36 M3 Strengthening Top Mount Plates (Front)
Camber (approx 1 - 1.5 degrees)
Skid pan, Strengthening Brace
Front and Rear Strut Braces

Brakes:
Braided Brake Lines
M-Sport Discs and Pads

And to the best of my memory, that is every modification that has been completed. Will there be more? Probably.

On the supercharger, I wanted to do something differerent that would challenge me in a larger capacity than I have had before. I found a cheapish supercharger on the internet at around Christmas time and decided to go for it. The listing was for a SC from a SLK230/CLK320, which I thought would be a good size for my engine. When I got it, I did some research and I discovered that the SC was an Eaton M45, which is probably a size smaller that the best match for the M52B25 engine. I paid around £80 for my unit and the cheapest M62 Eaton SC was £300, so I decided to plug on and use the Charger that I had already. I understand this will in no way give me big power capable of beating a Ferrari down a beach road, but that wasn't really the point of the build. The car hasn't moved very far since I have completed the install, but it starts well and is sounds great. Makes 'Whoosh' noises and everything.

I hope to be able to get the car MOT shortly, but I still have a couple of things to tidy up and some other things to complete. Hopefully after that, I can get it away and see if there is anything they pick up on that I might have missed (I'm sure it won't take 3 years this time to fix it )

Anyway, thank you to those of you who have shown interest in my little project and I hope you enjoyed this update.

Peace

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

I know you must be a young chap as almost everybody on TC's are much younger than me BUT I would advise to delete all the externally visible stickers as they will only cause your car to stand out and easily identified should you get up to shenanigans on the streets and it is easier to fly under the radar when in a plain car.

I see you had a "retune' BEFORE the SC was installed and IMO you need to understand that remapping is a must AFTER any potential power upgrade mods are done as regardless of possible engine damage to get the best result the fuel and ignition parameters will need tweaking to prevent fuel starvation at WOT.

 

[Racer75]

I know you must be a young chap as almost everybody on TC's are much younger than me BUT I would advise to delete all the externally visible stickers as they will only cause your car to stand out and easily identified should you get up to shenanigans on the streets and it is easier to fly under the radar when in a plain car.

Truthfully, that had crossed my mind over the last few days. Sometimes something seems like a good idea at the time and then you look at it later and it doesn’t I will probably keep a couple of the nicer one, but yeah, definitely getting shot of a couple of the worse ones

Thanks for the like and the support appreciated

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

Sorry I forgot to say in my 1st post that a "BEFORE " dyno test or power run should be followed by an "AFTER " power readout so the exact increases in power and torque are when overlaid over the BEFORE result.

WARNING When adding power increasing mods be they a different turbo,higher wastegate springs, different injectors etc you will or can damage the motor IF you are tempted test drive it hard to feel what difference the mods have made my advise is DON'T as the fuel and ignition maps will need tweaking / adjusting not only for the best power BUT engine safety as well.

 

[Racer75]

Sorry I forgot to say in my 1st post that a "BEFORE " dyno test or power run should be followed by an "AFTER " power readout so the exact increases in power and torque are when overlaid over the BEFORE result.

WARNING When adding power increasing mods be they a different turbo,higher wastegate springs, different injectors etc you will or can damage the motor IF you are tempted test drive it hard to feel what difference the mods have made my advise is DON'T as the fuel and ignition maps will need tweaking / adjusting not only for the best power BUT engine safety as well.

Thanks for the advise. My biggest issue with any remapping work, is that the only company near me when I asked them, categorically said that wouldn’t undertake any work relating to tune of my car’s stock or aftermarket ECU. Why? Who knows. My recollection is that it would be their liability if engine damaged occurred either during or after the tuning of the ecu, to which I even said that didn’t bother me and I’d sign a document admitting all accountability.

They reported even phone another company in Glasgow, which is about 20/30 minutes from me and asked them if it was something they would do, to which they replied ‘no’.

Due to this disappointing experience, I scoured the internet to find the best solution. I settled on a reflash and deliberately mentioned that the car had bigger Injectiors, which it was tuned for. This was the second time the stock computer was reflashed, the first time was to suit the bigger manifold.

Please don’t think I’m ignoring your advise and going ‘F*** it, it’ll be alright”, I am aware of the risk and as I mentioned, I tried to mitigate it as much as possible. The car probably won’t be a daily nor will it be tracked at Knockhill (something like £300 for 2 hours running), it will only be used occasionally for runs around town and perhaps the odd meet up. Currently the car runs well, idles well etc.

This is probably info I should have added to the post I made a couple of days ago, so apologies for that. I’ll keep you all updated on this journey as it progresses. (hopefully don’t need to learn how to rebuild engines!!! (Just yet ))

EDIT: TCJ, just re-read my latest response to your comment, and I think I rushed my answer a bit to fast, which has disappointed me.

I was thinking about what you said, and you are totally right. I am currently looking at a service which can tune my ecu again, and I’m waiting to see if they can help me. I’ll be contacting a few other companies if they decide they don’t want it

Thanks again mate