Matt's 1999 M3

[Goodspeed]

How would you do a zerk fitting, the setups I've seen for M's pretty much just replace the bushings with the same hardware and what-not...would that mean custom drilling and mounting of said fittings?

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Yes - the bushings/housings are drilled and the fittings installed. Fairly simple and I don't believe its that much more work added on anyways.

[Sully]

The only problem I see with that was I was going to order all my bushings pre pressed and just mount em up, would mounting the fittings be something I could do and if so, can they be drilled and mounted with the bushings pressed in (its starting to sound like a lot of work)

Poly motor mounts for e36 =$350 so they will be rubber and the plan will probably be to do everything else poly starting with trans mounts either from uuc(uuc's might be rubber but don't remember) or the bimmerworld version. Have heard some scary things from uuc about their mounts but I'm not informed enough yet to rule out their products.

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[D_Eclipse9916]

How would you do a zerk fitting, the setups I've seen for M's pretty much just replace the bushings with the same hardware and what-not...would that mean custom drilling and mounting of said fittings?

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No Maintnenance? Go Rubber, seriously *no offense* but at your level youll see 10x the performance by putting rubber there and optimizing every other part such as good shocks/springs.

Dont mind checking your polys every 6 months (literally tearing apart your whole suspension every 6 months and remember that inovles an alignment), then go with polys. Poly tends to oval out, especially in the FCAB and RTAB locations. I run delrin up front and a soft poly in the rear for proper articulation. But I dont dialy drive mine, and I still take apart the suspension every 6 months.

Id say some good koni shocks, H+R OE Sports springs, new rubber bushings all the way around, and new ball joints. Thatll make your car handle exceptionally well.

ABSOOLUTELY DO NOT BUY UUC garbage. They are complete and utter fucking garbage. This is I, and many other racer's and enthusiast's experience.

As for motor mounts/tranny mounts. My setup right now is the stock rubber stuff, just brand new. You can ask Kyle, he hated his Nylon motor mounts. If my car uses rubber mounts no problem, I assure you, your daily doesnt "need" polys.

[Sully]

Well if that if that is the case^

What about http://store.bimmerworld.com/bimmerworld...-p879.aspx with rubber and new tie rods as well

and then some rogue engineering trans mounts

[Sully]

Shit is about to start getting crazy as I have over $700 in parts either in my living room or on the way. I will be updating what is getting replaced/refreshed once I have all the parts and try and get some pics of the process but I tend to forget. As I replaced the microfilter today, I managed to break my glove box latch so that stays open now and then I also fixed the lighter surround with an LED like I did above but of course forgot to take pictures. Anyways heres the microfilter:
What came out of the vent pocket, not including what shot out when I turned the fan on to clean the system out


Old and New microfilter


Also fixed my center vent which apparently the flow adjuster had come out behind the vent so it was stuck at half meaning the main vent in the sytem barely blew at all. I can actually feel cold air hit me now with the new microfilter and vent fixed.

[Sully]

Oh yea, and thanks to DJ cage going in, my sunvisor clips arn't so sad and pathetic now...



One disintergrated upon removal and I had to be extra careful removing them becasue they were so bad they were falling apart and getting debris all over my interior
Thanks DJ :beer:

[V1GiLaNtE]

wow... that microfilter is DISGUSTING.. Can you believe you were breathing that??

[Sully]

It can't be worse than working in the paint shop haha, the air actually smells wierder now than it did with that other filter. Hopefully its just like a new part smell and will go away soon

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[Sully]

Ok, so many weeks ago I promised a write-up from all the parts I bought, and I am finally ready to do said write-up.

Well first thing is first, jacked the car up and put in the garage becasue what I was about to undertake was going to take me a while to do so.

Well here are some or most of the parts layed out ready to go in...

So the first thing to do was drop the exhaust which is easier said than done. I elected to drop it as a single unit as most would which means disconnecting it from the exhasut manifolds. Apparently you need to use a lot more heat than I did as I broke 3 of 6 exhaust studs. So guess what that means...take the manifolds out or attempt what Dj told me which involves heat, a socket, and a c-clamp. Well the method Dj described did not work and I ended up with a scalding hot socket rolling across my face. Got a nice little scar for a couple days and ended up dropping the manifolds anyways. Well if you have ever taken manifolds off a BMW, then you know that the studs usally come with the nuts requiring new replacements. So I ordered all the gaskets I had forgotten plus the new nuts and bolts for the manifold. Also grabbed some exahsut wrap and spray while my manifolds out since I don't plan to take them out again anytime soon. If you go to remove you manifolds on your e36, you must remove the secondary air check tubes as well. Oh and by the way, the replacement bolts for the exhaust studs to collector pipes are $27.87 a piece so I took a trip to my local exhaust shop and got some for free (old body shop employee hook up) but they are not as nice as the BMW counter-part so may experience problems down the road. So I was stuck waiting for these parts so I moved on to the next thing on my list.Pics of exhaust stuff.






So heat shield out (no pics) I went about removing the drive shaft. Now the nuts holding the flex disc on are 18mm. Well guess what the one size wrench that is not my collection. So I had this (the mini open-end, the big is a 19mm for size comparison)

It wasn't until I went to reinstall that I realized I had a drawer full of adjustable wrenches that would do this job just as well.
So the center driveshaft was removed, not that hard and the transmission crossmember and trans mounts also dropped out without much problem.





Now the center support bearing was another story. After bashing on it for awhile with no movement, I sprayed PB blaster at it, well this ruined the bearing that until then looked brand new, but I alread had another new one and figured I'd replace it. So then I heated it up destroying the bearing more but still no movement. So I ran up to the shop I used to work at and grabbed a cut-off wheel and introduced the bearing to my new friend.

Lets just say that I am still here to write this and the bearing is well ^that^
So some time before the bearing, I dropped the shifter assembly out. Now I must say I don't no how people get the bitch clip without the driveshaft out becasue even with it out, it took me 20 minutes to remove that clip and get the shifter to drop out. The write-up I was working off of said to replace the selctor rod seal as well. Once again the car wanted to pick a fight, and I struggled with that for about 30 min and lost a tiny screwdriver to it. Poor little guy never saw it coming. So once that was out, I was still disappointed with nothing working out and went to put the new seal in and bent it all to hell. Well great so I ordered a new one of those while ordering the exhaust stuff. But guess what, I can't do anything else to the shifter or car until that piece came in so I was completely stuck at this point.
Old vs New Selctor rod seal, both bent at this point

Old Shifter


Old shift selector rod vs DSSR

ERK so I can has DSSR


So I got my exhaust wrap on a Wednesday, now I havn't mentioned before this but the project was started on a Saturday I think, so wednesday night I got my exhasut wrap and went to it becasue I needed the car to transport myself to VIR on Firday. Now remember I do not have anything else done becasue I am missing the selector rod seal and everything else for the exhaust. Manifolds took awhile but finished them that same night. Well check the tracking number and the package isn't coming until Friday. I tihnk alright, the big shippers (UPS and Fedex) have two delivery times and all the previous orders from pelican came in the morning delivery around 11am. I figured it would give me plenty of time. I was completley wrong. I waited all day and finally had to throw in the towel and wash the truck so I could spend all my monies on gas in the truck to get down to VIR. The package arrived about an hour after I left so like 6PM but either way, it took my along time Monday after VIR to get everything back together and part of Tuesday so I am somewhat glad I didn't try and rush it.

[Sully]

Alright, so back from VIR I looked into putting everything back in. Monday came and I used a socket this time on the selector rod seal so no problems there. I had ordered two anyways to be on the safe side. Pictures will be light becasue I forgot to take them. I assembled my new shifter and went to put it in. New pre-bent MZ3 shifter in case you were wondering. The derlin shift bushings would fit in the holder to save my life so I ground them down and forced her in. Shifter was done so. I had previously battled with the new center support bearing and that was already done although it was a hell of a fight getting the new one in. Flex disc/drive shaft went in easier than anytihng else on this car. I had a problem with the trans tunnel insulation falling down onto the drivesahft so in my downtime, I sprayed some high temp/strength adhesive but no hold, so I sprayed it again and this time ran some self-taping screws with big washers into it in stratigcally determined postions. So all of that was buttoned up and good to go. Spent most of monday on the exhaust manifold. first putting the new studs in with Red loctite which is just time consuming becasue of the double nut technique and plus my nuts were getting worn out! I sonly had 5 and has they got worn, they didn't want to hold as well and both would start threading down rather than one holding the other. So i had to keep witching back and forth on the last few studs. With that done, I mounted the first manifold which isnt hard but very time consuming becasue of the tightness. I was enjoying not running into major problems here and took my sweet ass time here. I had new manifold gasket but they differed from my stock ones but a quick text to Dj had me assured that the new ones would work. I eventaull realized if I pushed the secondary air check tube up completely out of the way, I could get an air ratchet in there from the top of the engine bay to get the nuts snug and then go back under the car and torque them down. My torque wrech is 1/2" drive and huge so I used my internal torque wrench and uh guessed :dunno: but don't here any leaks as of yet. Next I reinstalled the secondary air check tube(not sure if I am getting name correct as I have no idea wtf this thing is or does).

With that done, I went to start the car. Why? Becasue race car...lack of exhaust. But alas no fire. So i thought of pulling a scene from Armageddon and beating on it like the Russian but didn't tihnk that was the best since the car is German. So the car was in the garage ass first and i do not have a jump box. So I backed the jeep down due to smaller size=easier to fit beside house and ran two sets of jumper cables hooked to each other in from the side door to my trunk. Even with the Jeep running, The battery was so far gone, it took 30 minutes hooked to the jeep before it would crank. I should mention I replaced the fuel filter also so the car had no fuel in the front of the line so the car really needed a couple good cranks. Check out the pics of the fuel filter cover, it was fubared. I bought some hardware to help with remounting it but was able to salvage all but one of the OE mount points. I tihnk I went about reinstalling heat shield while waiting for a charge. So I finally got her to start and she sounded glorious. I was so impressed, I decided to drop her however scetchy it is with my POS jack and take her for a spin. I needed to get my oil and trans fluid up to temp anyways and need fuel. So I took her out and up to the bank to deposit a check and to get gas. Well I rolled in the bank and stop and smoke is just rolling out of the bay. My exhaust header wrap/spray combo breaking in. I was never more in love with my car becasue race car. It was awesome knowing the smoke wasn't major and it looked and sounded badass.

Got home and pulled the drain plug and trans plug, and then my crisis started. Reset the lights with a $15 ebay reset tool, Worked perfectly. My trans fluid looked good too but looked more like ATF fluid but was clean but I had my super duper blue Swepco stuff on deck waiting to go in anyways. I noticed when I pulled my drain plug for the oil pan that it was one quick turn thread and looked nothing like the one from Turner MS. Well that concered me becasue while looking in the hole, it looked only deep enough for the short one and a the hole taperd to fit only the old plug plus the first few thread of the pan were shreaded. I figured I use the old plug but the new copper crush washer was too thick, so I went to my old work (Nissan Dealership) to get a thin aluminum crush washer like the piece of aluminum foil that looked like what came off. they had nothing remotley similar, so I went to advanced and once again nothing. :dunno: So I went to the BMW dealership and asked for a new drain plug and washer with the old one on the counter. He brought out what looked like the turner MS plus but it lacked the giant magnetic tip the Turner one had. So I said no thank you and went home worried I would need a new pan. I put the oil behind me for the time being figuring a new pan was the only solution. I went about wrestling the exhaust by myself and finally got it in after probably about an hour. It sucked and I had to use the stubby wrenches again to fit up on the now bolt rather than stud for my exhaust manifold bolts. The new hangers plus new hardware from lowes for the rear hangers made life easier and my rattle is now gone.

Before I went to search for my oil pan washer, I put the new trans fluid in and becasue of its new thickness, the pump I had took forever to fill the trans. It took a half gallon or so of fluid although the write-up said maybe a quart. Well I decided to take another look at the pan becasue I was done with everything else. I decided to say fuggit since I figured a new pan anyways and started threading the new by comparison giant bolt in. It stopped and I threw a ratchet on it and gave it turn. To my suprise it threaded and kept going. So got it almost all the way in, then back it out and gave a wuick look. the tapered tihng was a rubber gasket for whatever reason, proabably a great feature in actuality.

So if this was a rage comic, a "everything went better than expected face" is called for now. Filled up the oil plus a new filter.My crush washer for the filter bolt was like welded on to the bolt so i left it since its at the top and doesn't appear to be likely to leak. Sombitch took 8 quarts of oil :dunno: seems high but dip stick checks out. So she finally completley done.
New Exhaust Studs

New Shifter installed


Fuel Filter Cover before


Fuel Filter Cover after he met mister hammer

Strategically placed screws

New Rogue Trans mounts

New trans fluid going in

Jermey Clarkson style jump start

Fulid of the Gods

Noticed this while under the car, James May would be super disappoint

Trash Pile 1

Trash Pile 2

Oil drain bolt comparison (anyone ever see something like the one on right?)


Oh and almost forgot, I removed this little she-devil while I was in there too. Clutch feels so much better now and I am so glad to have it gone. CDV if you havn't guessed already



Well I am sure I forgot some things or pics but thats all for now. Next will be cooling system as soon as I regather some funds.


Link to Photobucket album containing all pictures taken during this process
http://s1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd403/Sully3667/

[Jake]

Wow, great writeup. Props for doing all the work yourself (and uhh... ignore my project thread for a while ) -- I managed to get the "bitch clip" off of the shifter assembly with a small flathead screwdriver and a little patience. Took me ~5 minutes and I left the exhaust/driveshaft on the car. Maybe I got lucky?

[Sully]

Well I think I had it off sooner but didn't realize that I had the trans jacked up so high, it wouldn't flip open with the insulation hanging down and the tran high. Plus I think the bitch clip was a 1am type thing and I was coming of a day of defeat everywhere else on the car

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[D_Eclipse9916]

Christ, sounds like a freaking ordeal. Glad it all worked out though!

[D_Eclipse9916]

Christ, sounds like a freaking ordeal. Glad it all worked out though!

[ScottyB]

ha, sounds like my kind of wrench turning. i can relate with the "why can't anything just come out nicely" feeling, it never works that way for me. congrats on getting it all done and running. nothing feels like a car that's just been refreshed with your own hands.

[Sully]

Yea, some of the ordeal was my fault and some the car's but it was a learning experience definatley and I do appreciate all you help Dj every time I ran into a problem :thumbup:

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[Sully]

Unfortunatley, I have a vibration coming from the driveshaft area now. I might try and loosen the Trans mounts and torque them a little less as my torque wrench would not fit on the top nuts while tightening. I am just really dreading getting back under there and having to tear the exhaust out again, so I am really hoping its just the trans mounts. Worst case would probably mean that all my bashing to get the new center driveshaft support bearing on destroyed my driveshaft U-joints or they just finally went.

[xvxax]

If you have urethane transmission mounts, they're pretty sensitive to over-torquing. I think they're supposed to be 15lb/ft or something.

[Sully]

Yea I have rubber ones but same torque specs. I guess we will see as soon as I find time to re torque them.

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[kcook]

bah... seeing all this work being done, I'm dreading getting another M3 lol... but I love them oh so much <3!