Das Race: My '97 M3/4/5

[Jake]

Got a lot done this weekend.

Rear wheel stud conversion
Easy, easy, easy. Anyone who swaps wheels around a lot should do this. I got the Bimmerworld "race" studs that are, what, 72mm long?

Front control arms + tie rods
I got the new lollipop bushings in the mail on Friday, so I was excited to put these on the car and button it back up Saturday morning. I grab Joey so I can get a ride back from the tire shop (needed alignment) and we make it oh, 500 feet down our street and I hear this "ka-swish" sound from the front left wheel well. And the car doesn't want to roll much. I initially thought I hadn't torqued the lug nuts down - although I had, maybe something slipped - so I limped it back to the driveway and checked. Lugs were fine.

The control arms came from Jim's racecar - he wrecked it three events after installing the LCAs. So, presumably they were good. Well, the one is trashed. If you grab the caliper and rotor and shake the hub left-right, you can watch the center LCA balljoint (that goes into the subframe) move up and down, even with the nut fully tight.

Le sigh.

Thankfully (and unsurprisingly), DJ had two spare driver's-side LCAs. So, I have both and will be installing another one tonight. Fingers crossed that it works.

[Jake]

Update on the control arm situation. After (a lot of) discussion this morning with Jim, Rob, Paul and others, we've determined that it's not really the best idea for me to be tracking the car on steering parts that came from a car that was in a very serious wreck. DJ has offered up his spare control arms and tie rods so I can make it to VIR, so we will be putting those on this Friday evening, and (hopefully) installing new rear control arm bushings as well.

I'm going to replace the oil filter housing gasket, as RRT said it's leaking. Joey had the same issue and it went from a leak to a gush on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner. I really don't want/need that to happen at-speed on the back straight of VIR. It's a $4.50 gasket from the dealership, so I think I'll tackle that this weekend.

Gonna do all of that, take it for an alignment next Thursday morning, and then pack up Mike's Jeep and tow it down to VIR that afternoon.

I need many fingers crossed that this all works out. Please.

[Jake]

This rust was a non-issue two weeks ago. Now, is issue.

Front driver's side shock tower:



Waiting to hear back from RRT about cost to fix. There's a chance I can get this all wrapped up and make VIR, but if not... does anyone know what TT class a 128i fits into?

[Beej]

Woo cars suck!

Not to ask the question, but that's two spots now. I forget if you yanked the carpet out when you put the seats in, but any chance there's more stuff hidden?

[Jake]

Woo cars suck!

Not to ask the question, but that's two spots now. I forget if you yanked the carpet out when you put the seats in, but any chance there's more stuff hidden?

I did yank (most of) the carpet. The floor is actually 100% solid. The shock towers are a common failure point (they're pretty thin) and being a Jersey car just amplified the matter.

[Jake]

Post-VIR "March Madness" Update: 147,750 miles

So, after spending three days playing around at VIR, in mostly dry, grippy conditions, I can say that every penny I've spent on fixing the rust and all the time I've invested in installing/tweaking/re-installing suspension and safety gear has been very well spent.

Both Jeff Curtis and DJ drove the car over the weekend, and the three of us came to the consensus that between the safety gear (remember, my prior track time in this M3 has been with stock safety/full interior) and the suspension fixes/rust repair, the car is very balanced and a total riot to drive. I ran it over the scales on Sunday morning and with a full tank of gas and me in the car, it's down to 3275 lbs. So, I shed a lot of weight when I removed the carpet and seats, but added some back with the roll bar and two track seats. There is more weight to lose (headliner, door panels, A/C, sound system, lighter wheels, etc) but for now, I think I'm keeping it at 3275 with some creature comforts.

I'm on this Ground Control setup which actually rides pretty well on the street and is very composed on track. The car is pretty quick, and speeds on the "new VIR" are higher. I spent the weekend re-learning both the car and the track, so I was not as fast overall as I could be, and I know there is a ton of time I'm leaving on the table -- primarily, I need to compress my braking zones a LOT.

Dan got to take the car out for a Hyperdrive on Saturday and had a lot of fun with it there, too.

Things to do next:

• Fix the fuel starve. All E36's have this issue when tracked hard. There's only one fuel pump for a saddle-style gas tank, so on hard turns, the motor starves. There is apparently a kit to fix this. My car starves at a tick above half a tank, which means you need to refuel often. It's annoying.
  
• Order new camber bolts for the rear of the car, since mine are seized.
  
• Install the four rear balljoints that I already have.
  
• Keep tweaking the length of sub-belt on the driver's side. It was too short, now it's a hair too long.
  
• Check health of brake pads and take inventory of the spares I have from Jim Khoury's old car. Thinking I may want to step up to a slightly more aggressive compound, but I don't know what I have to "step up" with.

Next events are Summit Point in April and VIR again in May... and I might run up to NJMP in May as well. We shall see. I'm loving this TT + E36 thing, though.

[D_Eclipse9916]

• Fix the fuel starve. All E36's have this issue when tracked hard. There's only one fuel pump for a saddle-style gas tank, so on hard turns, the motor starves. There is apparently a kit to fix this. My car starves at a tick above half a tank, which means you need to refuel often. It's annoying.
  .

Car is awesome, reminds me of my car a couple years back :thumbup:

Looks like we need to hit the junkyard. 2x OBD1 fuel pump assemblies with fuel pumps are about $28 a piece with some hoses and you are good to go. No point in buying the kit.

[Jake]

Car is awesome, reminds me of my car a couple years back :thumbup:

Looks like we need to hit the junkyard. 2x OBD1 fuel pump assemblies with fuel pumps are about $28 a piece with some hoses and you are good to go. No point in buying the kit.

Let's do it. I'm a fan of saving money and those fuel pumps + X-brace (if we can find one) would be piiiimp.

(Edit: looked up the "kit" pricing from various retailers... $350 minimum. Junkyard it is.)

[premiershine9]

And so the infection spreads after this past weekend- car was a party to drive Jake. The difference between the past auto x weekend (stock components) to VIR 3 days ago was unbelievably noticeable. Loved going up the uphill esses with my foot firm to the floor and just having to slightly touch the steering wheel from 12 to 1 etc.

[Jake]

Did some more stuff to the car this weekend.

Sway bar end links
The car was making some random pops and clunks from the front end at low speeds. The end links were original, so I put two new ones on. $30 per side is not bad. I also need new sway bar bushings at some point (also cheap) but since my Pelican Parts order was overall pretty spendy, I elected to pass for now.

Crankcase Ventilation
Joey's told me that he occasionally sees some smoke at startup and, if behind me on the road, as I approach the upper end of the rev range. It also stumbled hard at idle when cold, occasionally stalling if I didn't add throttle myself. The ICV had been cleaned by the P.O.'s shop right before I got the car, so I did some Googling and found that a common culprit is a failed crankcase ventilation system.

In theory, it should recirculate any oil that makes its way up to the top of the motor returns to the sump. If the CCV fails, the oil never makes it back down and instead, burns out of the exhaust. A quick IM to Mike at RRT confirmed that my suspicions were not out of line, and he said they have seen a lot of 140k+ E36's come in for the issue.

So, $99 for the new CCV and $30 for a new plastic hose that runs from the CCV to the valve cover (these frequently get gummed up once the CCV fails). My hose looked okay but did have some gunk built up. The install of new parts was pretty simple - requires removing the air intake and throttle body (both easy) and then there's three little bolts staring at you. Remove those, pull the hoses off, and replace.

Link to DIY

Haven't put the car back on the ground yet, I need to finish nut 'n' bolting it while the wheels are off, and change brake pads. I went through my records (this is why you keep 'em) and discovered that I'm only running Hawk HPS's on the front axle. No wonder the brakes felt less-than-good after a bunch of hot laps.

[Kaan]

$30 hose you could have cleaned with brake clean? or sat it in a tub of soapy water for a little while?

[Jake]

$30 hose you could have cleaned with brake clean? or sat it in a tub of soapy water for a little while?

Probably. I just like watching my money burn to ashes.

[V1GiLaNtE]

$30 hose you could have cleaned with brake clean? or sat it in a tub of soapy water for a little while?

Probably. I just like watching my money burn to ashes.

$30? That's child's play... When the crankcase breather hose cracked on my Passat that was a $65 order only part from the Stealership.

[Jake]

Post-Summit Point Update: 148,200 miles

I've had a few weekends of "arrive, drive, and go home." Naturally, that meant it was time for a frustrating day or two. :roll:

The car threw a CEL about three miles in to the drive to Summit Point after work on Friday. It was running fine so I pressed on and made it to the track with no issues.

We plugged Dan's scanner in to the car on Saturday morning and I actually had thrown six codes... misfire on Cylinder 2, cam position sensor fault, and some fuel trim codes. Well, I had put some crap AutoZone plugs in the car and we figured they could be causing the misfire as it was stumbling a bit at idle. A quick change with some of DJ's spare plugs (always carry spares, thanks DJ!) and the stumble went away. I cleared the codes and went out for the TT warmup session and later, my first timed session.

The brakes felt like shit during all of this. Pedal would sink to near-the-floor and ABS would immediately come on... you'd stop but it sure didn't feel confidence-inspiring from 125 mph. I looked at the pads and eep, they were thinner than I thought they were. I had been running $Free Hawk HPS up front and $Free Carbotech in the rear from Jim Khoury, so I figured it was time to pay up and buy some pads. Naturally, I ignored it until Sunday morning because...

I came in from the first timed TT session and Jim's friend Max walks by and goes "your tire looks a little flat, bud." So we checked pressure and it was down to 9 psi hock: after starting the session at 32. You could hear the air coming out. OK, shit, what now? My parents had arrived and Dad was supposed to take the car out for a Hyperdrive in 30 minutes.

DJ was kind enough to let me throw his set of TRM wheels with BFG R-compounds on my car. We rushed to swap wheels, got them torqued down, and Dad did a Hyperdrive on some very, very sticky tires. Lucky guy. I also did a TT session on them just for the sake of turning laps - my times there did not count as the tires would put me over my points for TTD.



So now I'm sitting there, faced with a dilemma - DJ needs his TRM wheels back, one of mine has a bum tire (diagnosed as a nail - or something similar in size - through the inside sidewall...) and I didn't bring a spare wheel because I'm a dumbdumb. Thankfully, Felton had brought two spare K1 wheels with two Star Specs on them. We put my fronts and his K1's on the car for the remainder of my Saturday, and I turned some times yet again.

Oh, somewhere in this mess, the CEL came back and the codes were yet again for fuel trim stuff. I ignored it until Sunday at 5 PM :thumbup:



Sunday morning, I took my wheel and Felton's wheel to Phil's Tire (good people, they are) and they put Felton's spare Star Spec on my wheel. Paul Newby had an extra tire that we put on Felton's wheel, so he could at least have a roller. A quick front brake change over the lunch hour (thanks, Jeff and Mike for the help) with my ballersauce PFC 06 pads (now I'm poor, oops) and I was back in business.

Mid-day Sunday saw me finally turning some laps in a car that felt good again. "Good" being relative, as my rear pads are still shot - I plan on replacing those at home with more spares. I got some GoPro video that shows me driving well enough but with less throttle than is ideal. I need more speed in a lot of places...

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I'm going to leave the M3 at home for VIR this coming weekend, as I'm taking it to NJMP on the 17th of May and I want to have it in top shape for that event. So, I need to swap rear brakes, clean my ICV (it idles SO rough when it's cold) and do a quick nut-and-bolt before May 15 or so and call it good.

We cleared the CEL right before I left the track, and surprise surprise, it didn't come back in my hour-long drive home. Stupid old cars :dunno:

[Kaan]

when did you start driving a VW?

[Maengelito]

I'm going to leave the M3 at home for VIR this coming weekend, as I'm taking it to NJMP on the 17th of May and I want to have it in top shape for that event. So, I need to swap rear brakes, clean my ICV (it idles SO rough when it's cold) and do a quick nut-and-bolt before May 15 or so and call it good.

We cleared the CEL right before I left the track, and surprise surprise, it didn't come back in my hour-long drive home. Stupid old cars :dunno:

Booo, it sounds like all you need is a set of rear pads and you're good to go. Just order a set or make a call to Wonger and bring the TTD car this weekend.

[Jake]

Booo, it sounds like all you need is a set of rear pads and you're good to go. Just order a set or make a call to Wonger and bring the TTD car this weekend.

I have rear pads at home. I also need to clean the ICV (idle control valve) which is an hour-ish job.

We'll see if I have time to do that stuff and nut/bolt the car again while packing to move...

[JustinG]

How did I not hear about this? Sorry for all the shenanigans Jake.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I think it is safer to run an E36 than almost any other car at Summit cause you KNOW someone will have spares lol. I felt bad after some people asked for grease and I couldn't find it. When I packed everything in the garage last night I found the grease in the trailer

[*insertusernamehere*]

I think it is safer to run an E36 than almost any other car at Summit cause you KNOW someone will have spares lol. I felt bad after some people asked for grease and I couldn't find it. When I packed everything in the garage last night I found the grease in the trailer

:lol: :lol: :lol: Its all good, we found some grease of our own later on.